Offering false hope is just not sensible

HAVING seemingly insolvable crises on our hands, my new year’s resolution is for ‘reasoned pessimism’, rather than Johnsonled government’s unreasoned magnificent, fantastic, world-beating optimism.

This putting all our troubles 100% behind us by some promised date, which hasn’t a hope in hell’s chance of being achieved – in other words, false hopes – is not a sensible way for any Prime Minister to proceed in tackling something as deathly serious as Covid-19.

Although, often proved by PM Johnson’s waffling refusal to give straight answers to questions at weekly PMQs, it surely must be time for pessimistic realism to take over and I’m glad there were signs of this in his latest national lockdown statement.

However, where there’s bad there has to be good, so this further big stay-at-home command gives us a big chance to think out policies for the best 2021 way forward, especially to answer the four big crises confronting everyone: Covid-19’s public health and economic crash; national debt over 100% of GDP, with business and employment collapses; consequences of the post-1200 page ‘hard deal’ Brexit; and last, and biggest, the fast looming climate, sea-level rise, pollution, population and biodiversity calamities.

Always, problems shared can lead to problems solved, or at least reduced: so what are people’s lockdown ideas about how best to meet these challenges?

Could we have a local newspaper or broadcasters’ competition to find the best solutions?

Here’s a brainstorming starter on national debt and economic collapse ... Answers surely must involve big monetary reform to meet the questions of how the £400 million Covid-19 annual deficit and £2.2trillion overall debt can be repaid: another era of severe austerity, increased and prolonged borrowing, or big increased taxes?

I reckon our ‘build back better’ model should consider state takeover of our money from the banks and their back-up cabal of super-rich global ‘investors’ and currency controllers.

Hasn’t the time come again for us – as in the 2008-9 crash – to use government and Bank of England power to implement a big ‘people’s bailout,’ via quantitative easing, to print money and write-off debt, rather than borrow to further enrich global usurers at our expense?

Maybe UN action via the coming COP26 is required, whereby all states take over control of their currencies based on a new UN named currency deal ?

Yours in pessimistic realism,

Alan Debenham Taunton