Jonathan Dodd: You’re gonna need a bigger social conscience

Jonathan Dodd’s latest column. Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed

I’m not sure whether Helena Handcart is actually taking over the world, because I suspect that my view of things is intensely coloured by the mood I’m in (isn’t everybody’s?). On the radio this morning going to work – sadly not a half morning of radio, just fifteen minutes of news – I was struck by the items I listened to.

First, there was a report on the thousands of refugees, economic migrants, whatever you call them, being pushed off from Libya in increasingly bad-quality rubber dinghies by the worst examples of mankind imaginable. Apparently more of them have died on the crossing so far this year than the whole of last year. And they keep coming. There was an interview with a courageous young skipper of a Médecins Sans Frontières ship which broke my heart.

Countries that could work perfectly well
Then there was a report about the closing of the football transfer window. Apparently a billion pounds has already been spent and they expect another billion to change hands before the stroke of midnight. And after that there was an earnest discussion about Queen Victoria because of the new series on TV. She was, apparently, feisty in her determination to rule despite a lot of differing opinion, mainly because she was a woman.

john charles football card

I became outraged by the plight of the refugees and our helplessness in the face of countries that could work perfectly well being destroyed in the name of corruption and greed by their so-called rulers, and I was equally angry at the thought of how much of the suffering of these migrating hordes could be lessened with the application of that two billion pounds. I don’t believe it would make a noticeable difference to the football clubs.

A crumb from the pie is better than nothing at all
And then I thought about the current controversy between the EU and Apple, who enjoyed a comfortable relationship with the Irish government to pay negligible tax rates for 25 years. They’re whining at the unfairness, and, weirdly, Ireland is fighting to retain their current position. presumably a crumb from the pie is better than nothing at all.

sculpture of hand

In the same programme someone mentioned the nineteenth-century robber barons in the USA, people like Vanderbilt and Jay Gould, who came to dominate whole countries rather like Apple does now, and I wondered how much we have changed. They say that the poor will always be with us. I suspect that the super-rich are just as inevitable.

There’s no recipe for perfection
I can’t help feeling, however, that there are times when we work hard to redress the balance, and other times when we drop the ball and let the inequalities grow. The problem is that there’s no recipe for perfection, and there are major drawbacks to leaving things as they are. Life’s a muddle, let’s face it, and we would rather shut the door and watch a drama about Queen Victoria than seriously consider the plight of the people down the road who aren’t doing very well.

Alexander D'Arcy and Marilyn Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire trailer -

Apparently there are several sub-genres among Mills and Boon books. I’m going to resist saying anything about that apart from a conversation I heard quite recently about the ‘marrying a millionaire’ genre. Apparently this has had to be updated to ‘marrying a billionaire’, because nowadays there’s hardly any romance attached to being just a millionaire.

Measured in 7 digits, probably starting with a 2 or 3
The happy football agent who was interviewed on the radio talked about £100,000,000 for a striker being not very much when the price of a two-bedroom flat in London is now measured in seven digits, probably starting with a two or three. It wasn’t so long ago when we had our first £1,000,000 football striker, paid by Brian Clough. In those days there were very high tax rates, but a much more effective welfare state.

for sale signs

But then again, perhaps I’m looking through those rose-tinted glasses. Sometimes I don’t even realise I’ve got them on. I remember back in the day, Sweden being held up as the great example of a society where everyone was valued and protected by the state, where the rich paid high taxes which went towards providing housing and benefits for the more vulnerable members of society.

They did seem like a race apart
The Swedes were hailed as the most advanced society anywhere, with freedoms and equality. They had artistic reputations and design brilliance, they were at the forefront of cinema, and they made great cars. I knew several Swedes myself then, and they did seem like a race apart, almost like minor gods. But I do remember they generally did a lot of drinking when they could, which I was told came from the midnight sun and the endless darkness at different ends of the year.

Midsummer dancing

I recently heard an opinion that suggested it was all papering over the cracks, and there were certainly dark influences and unexplained events that were always under the surface. But it’s difficult to avoid comparing the normal lives of people there and then with other countries that manage things far less well. Brazil is a more recent example of a government that isn’t managing to house and feed its people properly, where unemployment is high and civil unrest not far from the surface.

Allowing everything to get into such a state that it needed rescuing
While listening to the conversation about Queen Victoria I was struck by the thought that here was another society where some were amassing obscene amounts of money while the majority led miserable lives in danger of illness and early death. We celebrate the efforts of civil campaigners who brought clean water and drains and education to the masses, but we don’t think about those who were responsible for allowing everything to get into such a state that it needed rescuing.

Typical Courtroom

There are now international courts with jurisdiction to try almost anyone for war crimes. Occasionally they catch someone and convict them, but it’s early days. There is evidence that the prospect of losing that idyllic retirement with the Swiss bank account, and the sheer amount of time spent being banged up while the interminable trial drags on, is moderating the behaviour of some tyrants.

There should be Governance trials
I think this is a healthy idea, and we should consider more of the same. There should be Governance trials, where tyrants can be brought to account for how they spent their time and resources while in office. We could begin to create models for good governance, suggesting a balance between the conflicting demands for the revenue gathered by taxation, which could then be compared in a league table.

bhs closing down

Of course, nobody is perfect, and we may talk about building a great society (less than we used to, though), but we might be able to see how we’re doing compared with other countries. After all, if it’s good enough for schools and hospitals, it should be good enough for governments, or even businessmen.

You’ll know quite quickly if you’re on the right track
I know there will be those who oppose this kind of thing (inevitably those who benefit from the current blurred picture), but if you listen to the arguments against, you’ll know quite quickly if you’re on the right track. It’s simple. Listen to the volume and tone of the objections. That’s how they give themselves away.

Martin Luther King