Politics is meant to be the art of bringing people together, promoting harmony, and enabling people to work together to achieve what none individually could attain. But in the name of ‘politics’, some people practise the devious craft of sowing seeds of divisiveness, breaking up joint endeavours, and weakening the many so as to gratify the powerful few. This ‘politics of chaos’ presents itself as a governing option for the people, but in truth, it is little more than a series of tactical moves to disrupt society so an irresponsible elite can do as they please.
How does it work? Perhaps we can learn more about it by raising a few questions in connection with Chris Grayling, a long serving member of the Conservative Government in the UK, who seems to have an abiding interest in advancing chaos as an ideological goal.
The National Audit Office has found that changes pushed forward by Chris Grayling when he was Justice Secretary in 2014, which led to part-privatisation of the probation service in England and Wales, involved serious failings and had cost taxpayers almost £500 million. The Chief Probation Inspector, Dame Glenys Stacey, said what Grayling insisted on bringing about despite having been warned against it, was "irredeemably flawed" and people would be safer under a system delivered by the public sector.
Having created chaos in the supervision of offenders, Grayling moved on to become Transport Secretary, and continued with the mantra that private companies were better at meeting public needs, irrespective of the evidence. As the previous privatisation of the railway service was fuelling a growing chaos, and the railway regulator issued a report to highlight the need for the government to deal with the crisis, Grayling declared that it was not his responsibility – as the Secretary of State for Transport – to sort out the underlying system problem, which only the government could tackle.
The one area Grayling seemed to accept was his responsibility was to help the UK prepare for a no deal Brexit, since that could lead to critical imports not reaching the country, and vital medicine and key manufacturing components being held up indefinitely. So Grayling took immediate action by awarding a £13.8m contract to a ‘start-up’ company to provide extra ferries to help with shipping goods into the UK, even though that company had no experience in running ferry service – in fact, it had no ships at all. For the record, Grayling gave contracts to other companies too, and his handling of those arrangements led to costly compensation having to be paid out – estimated by the National Audit Office to be over £50 million.
Was Grayling just overwhelmed by the fear of Brexit chaos that he ended up rashly taking some rather ill-considered decisions? Actually, on all matters relating to Brexit chaos, he was all for turning the country upside down for the sake of combating the cause of all ills – immigration. Back when he was Leader of the Commons, he warned that mass immigration “will change the face of our country forever”. He actively campaigned for Brexit to keep ‘foreigners’ out and claimed that otherwise “additional demand for housing will gobble up vast tracts of green belt land and mean we will have to dramatically expand our transport system to avoid gridlock.” And he did go on to demonstrate, irrespective of levels of immigration, he could ensure chaos across our transport system all by himself.
Wasting public money, undermining public services, stirring up animosity towards immigrants – have we here a litany of utter incompetence, or an ideological obsession with the politics of chaos, or both? Ask Grayling.
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For a report on the failings of Grayling’s part-privatisation of the probation service, see: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48288433
Other reports on his role as Transport Secretary and advocate for Brexit can be found in most newspapers published in the UK.
1 comment:
The opening sentence is so profound. I am developing a therapeutic approach along the same lines - i.e. where we can achieve more therapeutic benefit together, than we could individually...so there's an interesting connection here between the two?
Chris Grayling IS correct in his concern about the mass influx of foreigners coming in without integration. Controlled immigration - which can be such an amazing blessing...can easily become its opposite, when not carefully managed.
This seems to be a disastrous failing of the Left, for all sorts of reasons...leading one to the conclusion that many of those involved there are seriously in need of therapeutic help.
On the other hand, individuals like Chris Grayling seem to be disturbed in the sense that they have an equally inadequate view - this time involving magical thinking about the power of "free markets", rather than "people from outside" - as with the Left.
However, both seem to be equally determined that their "magical thinking" - needs a massive "helping hand" to get going.
From a centrist perspective - it's clear that BOTH sides are creating chaos and division - not just the one.
BOTH philosophies are equally naive - and so destructive.
Only a communitarian approach which recognises the perceptions and concerns of both sides - can bring healing and harmony.
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