The Overton window

The Overton window, no not the Oval window, nor the square window, nor the round window - from Rainbow (may it r.i.p), nor is it any other type of window constrained by those pesky general laws of physical dimensionality. The Overton window is the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse at any moment in time. “But,” you say. “What the fuck,” or for those out there with a more gentler constitution, “WTF, does that mean?” Here’s a contemporary example from British politics. Jeremy Corbyn is described as being on the extreme left by many commentators, and especially those with many column inches to fill in today's billionaire-owning newspaper class. But when you look at him in context, he is an ordinary lefty from the 1970s. It's not that he is so extreme, it's more that the Overton window has shifted to the right since the 1970s.

With each passing decade the ideology in the UK, indeed of the Tory party and successive governments have been in chasing the right so hard, they have become fascistic. We don't hear that discussed much amongst the everyday news fare of celebrity toenails and trump's latest tweets, as we’re rummaging through our mornings breakfast offerings do we?

You might find yourself muttering that you really don’t care that the window has light-speeded to the right of politics. After all, it’s served you well. You’re sitting pretty. Retirement and pensions are all planned out. Income from rental or at the very least money from AirBNB and equity dividends are doing great guns. You could retire now, if you wanted to, and let all that money flow in. But then what? What about the future? What about a society where people don’t have to work 50 hour weeks, or three (predominantly in the USA this one) jobs just to sleep in a car at night? What about the future of the species and where it's potentially headed? Do you really want to leave behind a narrow focused, work until we drop, dystopian society - along the lines of Elysium? Sucks to be you, you non-quintillionaire.

But surely, things really aren’t that bad? Apart from a few retail casualties, job losses, and mutterings of boardroom coups, not only can you still buy your wonderloaf for 57p, but you can marvel at the artisanal Bakeries latest offerings and plump for a freshly baked loaf for only £15. How many artisanals can you, or anyone else for that matter, purchase from, that would redress the issue of work and pay? The reason an increasing number of jobs are paying less isn’t down to immigration, that’s just a useful sop used by capitalism to trip up the unwary, If pay had kept pace, even just with inflation, people would be earning much more whilst also being able to work far less hours, and enjoy a decent work to leisure balance. Subsequently many more people could be employed. More money would be distributed amongst communities, potentially allowing communities to resist the empty houses yet homeless syndromes too.

How bad? Doctors believe that if there’s no change in which window the country keeps popping through, then the NHS will, to all intents, be private within a decade. And for those who believe that an American style healthcare system can’t be all that bad. Of course it isn’t. If you never have to use it. If you don’t have pre-existing medical conditions. And having your employer, part paying for your insurance, checking up on you to make sure you haven’t broken any of their purity test conditions along the way. The introduction of university tuition fees where, just like the USA, students are facing large debts before they’ve even started on a career, let alone thinking of buying a house - which that money grabbing generation has also fucked for them. Universal Credit, almost the antithesis of the very idea of the welfare state; instead of caring for you from cradle to grave, the emphasis now appears to be quickly bury you from the cradle so saving on all those unnecessary middle bits. Any and every company is up for sale for the right price, actually any price will do. Just sponsor/buy UK Blue. National security? Pffft, who cares about such sacrosanct nonsense - which makes the wibble over Huawei even more brown-nosing than normal.

So that's it in a nutshell. Politics has shifted so far to the right that Corbyn, within the context of the Overton window, is now an extreme evil Marxist waiting to steal all your money and give it to the next terrorist organisation desperately mewling in the wings. Whilst the Tories, are just jolly public schoolboys and gals, who want nothing more exciting in life than to run through fields of wheat gently squealing as they’re poked by the beards, so don't mind them. All the while the BBC, the majority of the newspapers and commentators have been dragged along on this trip. All without any hint of a meaningful discussion amongst their ranks. This has been described by Noam Chomsky as “Manufacturing consent”. I have mentioned this before? Good lad! Or Lass, choose your own pronouns. It’s nice that you're paying attention.


If we were truly living in a democracy Noam would receive as much mainstream air time and analysis on the major broadcasting channels as the latest snowball in congress, or at least the same as the week’s breaking headline on the latest celebrity to dabble with a toenail disaster. His insights could be seriously discussed and compared to the current paradigm. Instead of mainly being confined to YouTube channels, or Russia Today.

The magic money tree - update.

Will there ever be a use for magic money trees: M.M.T.

The Magic Money tree

We are told that there is no such thing as a “magic money tree” to pay for public services. But over periodic bumps we find out that there is most definitely something there, in the misty uplands of our green and pleasant land. Need support from one of the most backwards looking parties in the union? Money to bribe the DUP to support the Tories in Parliament? Here you go, one billion pounds! Money to bomb Libya? Maybe £1.25bn plus. Money to support the economy, in the form of quantitative easing? This snugly nudged upwards of £435bn as of 2016.  

So the maybot was right, there wasn’t a solitary magic money tree. There's a huge forest of the bloody things. Which can only be harvested for things that the Tories like. For a country with a sovereign currency, i.e. one that the country alone controls there is an infinite amount of money that can be printed. The limits are simply how much can you get away with before investors and markets get skittish and the value of the currency plummets.

Before we go further, let me introduce another phrase that will help set up the argument. Fiat currency. Fiat from Latin meaning made up, or manufactured. This applies to currencies that are not tied to a base, which was formerly the gold standard. This means anyone who has the keys to this magic process can create money. And in Western economies this means banks. Every time they approve a loan the money is created by magic. Yes, if you get a loan or mortgage the bank does not descend into the basement to gather dollar bills or pound notes. They enter a number into a spreadsheet and bingo! The money now exists. Transferred straight into your account to buy the house of your dreams, or the car that your worst narcissistic self wishes for. The Bank of England found that the process was so misunderstood by MPs that they had to produce a guide.

But as Upton Sinclair once remarked “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" MPs will persist in wilfully mis understanding this concept and return to the magic money tree concept. It suits the purpose of the Tory MP to publicly state that the magic money tree will not allow spending on housing, health, education or any socially useful purposes. The press gleefully follow in this misunderstanding as their career progress depends on the patronage of politicians. A living demonstration of Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent”. Basically a consensus is formed between politicians and the press to accept a common world concept. No secret cabals are needed. People learn that they need to express belief in the current view, in this case “there is no magic money tree” allied to “we need austerity so we don't become a broke country, like Greece”, or “we don’t want to be like socialist Venezuela!” It suits Tories and their sycophants to stick to this story, even though it is patently false. Corbyn and Labour are terrifying because they don't subscribe to this myth.

Let's hope we can reach a state of modernity where the UK can be part of a modern EU and hopefully aspire to the quality of life of the Nordic states.