tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post8668507496332023252..comments2024-03-17T00:10:44.022+00:00Comments on From Arse To Elbow: The Uses and Abuses of HistoryDavid Timoneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568348438980023320noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-49620808418762010412015-05-23T13:10:47.481+01:002015-05-23T13:10:47.481+01:00I agree, and I think politicians haven't helpe...I agree, and I think politicians haven't helped themselves by reinforcing the idea of politics as consumer choice. Spain seems interesting to me in that, despite forty years of dictatorship, the political map of the country is strikingly similar to 1936, minus the influence of anarchism of course. The similarity of Spain and the UK seems to be in the resilience of the political representation of their middle-classes, outside of the nationalist areas. The PP is more thoroughly corrupt than the Tories, but both appeal well to the narrow-minded and snobbish aspects of their constituencies, while manipulating the varying fortunes of their economies to their advantage. Igor Belanovnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-84355877692414162002015-05-23T12:08:30.165+01:002015-05-23T12:08:30.165+01:00I think there are three aspects to this.
The grea...I think there are three aspects to this.<br /><br />The greater prominence of democratic political theatre in Spain probably owes something to its relative novelty. While the transition from dictatorship in the late 70s is now ancient history for many youngers electors, the memory is institutionally encoded.<br /><br />In the UK, the ideology of democracy has long emphasised the dangers of populism, hence the suspicion of strong emotion (Cameron's "pumped up" and Miliband's "hell yes" were both strikingly weird), the belief that politics is a private matter (the "shy Tory" trope), and the insistence on the mechanics of democracy being quaintly ramshackle.<br /><br />There is also an increasing sense of voters as consumers (with the media obviously influenced by public choice theory), weighing up the parties' "retail offers" like good little ultility-maximisers, and the election count as an X-Factor-style personal drama (Portillo, Balls et al). Scotland appeared to be the only part of the country where collective values - what is best for us rather than me - were to the fore.David Timoneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03568348438980023320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-14614219019169636232015-05-22T21:42:52.350+01:002015-05-22T21:42:52.350+01:00One tactic might be to stop seeing politics as a s...One tactic might be to stop seeing politics as a series of World Cups every five years, with the interim period as one of tepid, uninteresting 'friendly' confrontations, and broadening the political process a bit more. The depoliticisation of the UK is amazing. I went on holiday to Northern Spain after the election over here to find that they were in a campaign themselves. Despite the fact that it is only the Spanish regional and local elections, the amount of propaganda in the form of posters, banners and flags for at least 10 different parties swamped that for our General Election, we heard numerous loudspeaker cars touring cities, towns and villages, and the media coverage was practically wall-to-wall. I doubt the Spanish public is quite as motivated as this, but over in the UK I got the impression among many people that the election was something of an inconvenience to be got over with, whatever the result.Igor Belanovnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-34111409595288278642015-05-15T19:35:24.669+01:002015-05-15T19:35:24.669+01:00Interestingly some of your themes are echoed in th...Interestingly some of your themes are echoed in this article about the problems of Podemos in Spain.<br /><br />https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/podemos-iglesias-spain-elections-populist/<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com