Let them eat turnips

Sometimes you can successfully ask voters to be patient and suffer under your policies, and expect them to vote again for you. No gain without pain. But it is a dangerous game.

The Uk conservatives under Cameron and May (2010-2015) had been playing this game. They shrank and shrank the state, stripping it of essential services. Children's centers, youth centers, libraries, post offices were closed. The NHS struggled. Disabled people were forced into work though it killed them.

Conservatives kept on winning in spite of this, though their margins got smaller and they had to go in coalition with Libdems. They kept on cutting with no clear target in sight, unlike other European countries post 2008. Meanwhile Cameron gave tax breaks to the highest earning families (“hardworking families”) and companies.

The anger though, kept on simmering. The conservatives found a perfect target for people to direct their anger to: immigrants. Theresa May had “go vans” drive around in certain neighborhoods that told people to self deport or be deported.

A lot of ire was reserved for EU citizens who didn't need to jump through hoops but could, thanks to the freedom of movement principles, simply decide to move to London or any other UK places. Just as Brits could move. Newspapers and the BBC regularly commented on their alarming numbers: “half a million” Poles in just eight years, the Daily Mail let us know.

And of course so many of them were allegedly criminals. EU killers and rapists we've failed to deport: “UK's inability to expel thousands of foreign criminals undermines case for the EU, say MPs” the Daily Mail warned in a climate of sinking engineered EU sentiment. Daily Mail picture below.

The BBC blew hot and cold. It published quarterly how many EU citizens came into the country, but then also hastened to say these people net contributed to the country in filling essential occupations such as nurses and hospitality staff. Oh and they engaged less in criminality than native born Brits.

When a radical wing in the conservative party managed to maneuver Cameron, who was not a proponent of leaving the EU to call a referendum, the result was close but it went “Leave”. Behind this vote was the simmering anger at the austerity politics. The most Brexit voting constituencies were those that suffered most under austerity. Shake things up a bit, maybe it would get better?

But there was also the anti immigrant sentiment. Vote Leave made flyers scaring people about Turkey perhaps joining the EU. 76 million people! You thought half a million Poles was bad... The islamophobia is palpable. Iraq and Syria are not joining the EU. Turkey is not joining either given talks have stranded.

Brexit promised prosperity and a better funded, less strained NHS. However, with the decline of EU citizens tax contributions it became more strained than ever, leading to a heavy death toll of covid in 2020.

But not to worry. The pivot from sunny uplands to no gain without pain was smooth. Voters were encouraged to grow and eat their own turnips. Theresa Coffey UK minister said “the UK should “cherish the specialisms” it has and a “lot of people would be eating turnips right now” under a seasonal food model – rather than thinking about lettuce, tomatoes and similar produce.”

I am all for frugal and seasonal living, but this is not what was promised! The food shortages are due to leaving the customs union and single market not some natural external cause.

I am sure you can see many parallels with the US. The runup to Trump's election/Brexit: anger about slipping living standards. But also: targeting immigrants and scapegoating them. An engineered anger.

The vote for Brexit/Trump: motivated by hope for improved standards. But then, sunny uplands quickly make space for discourse about no gain without pain. Labour keeps on worsening the UKs prospects by carrying out the Brexit agenda: hamper its ability to trade with its closest and biggest market, the EU, while not addressing the anger that led to vote leave in the first place.

In the US, Dems didn't even want to acknowledge people lived from paycheck to ever more precarious paycheck. Even a car, so essential in the US, is becoming unaffordable. Oh you feel you can't make ends meet? Look at this chart you must be mistaken!

Coupled with this is the success of right wing discourse that you, individually, are solely responsible for success in your life: go to the gym, realize yourself. Then success in dating, jobs etc lies around the corner. You see this bootstrap discourse everywhere and it explains among others the Trump vote in young men.

And suddenly we're at turnips. They fit in this can do, individual solutions for collective problems attitude.

Don't let yourself be manipulated. Especially about immigrants. It's ok to vote in your own interests. But you must then follow through and demand accountability. Don't be soothed into eating turnips.