Mea culpa. To anyone with a passing interest in or knowledge of political thought, what's been happening in a big way over the last seven or eight years, and for decades in a less mainstream way, is obvious. Antonio Gramsci's interpretation of Marxism, best encapsulated by Rudi Dutschke's phrase "the long march through the institutions", has really been happening. But I didn't particularly worry about it. That was partly because in the UK at least, every national ballot since 2010, whether election or referendum, has gone the 'right' way. I might not have directly supported every cause, but the results seemed the least worst outcome. But it was also because I thought the influence of the institutions was marginal. How wrong I was. The Right may be winning the electoral war, but the Left are winning the culture war by a much bigger margin.
The question is: what to do about it? The hackneyed Burkean quote around "evil triumphs when good men do nothing" is true. Don't misunderstand - I'm not literally saying the BBC, Black Lives Matter, The Guardian, trans-activists and so on are 'evil' - but they are motivated, consistent and determined to be disproportionately influential on our thinking and way of life, and a shrug of the shoulders and an air of amused detachment are no longer enough to hold back the tide. So I repeat - what to do about it?
More qualifiers so that you don't think I'm a crackpot conspiracy theorist...
- is everyone who works at the BBC a closet Gramscian? No. But is there a clear agenda underpinning the vast majority of its current affairs and news coverage? Yes, and this is true also of other broadcasters.
- do black lives matter? Of course they do. Is it true that in the US all the funds raised for Black Lives Matter seem to be secretly channelled to ActBlue, an organisation dedicated to funding the loonier, leftier end of the Democrats? It looks that way.
- do trans people have the right to be treated with dignity and respect, just like - and in exactly the same way as - any other member of society? Of course. But does that mean we have to conflate that right with the automatic acceptance of post-modern gender theory, which asserts that anyone can be any gender they like merely by the act of self-identification? No. It's madness, and massively trivialises the challenges of those affected by genuine dysphoria.
These are just three examples. Given time, I could equally opine on dozens of other institutions, ranging from the National Trust, through to the police (seriously, don't get me started on the Common Purpose-schooled idiots who now seem to be in charge of most police forces), and even the private sector. I doff my hat - the Left have been seriously skilled in taking just and righteous causes, and commandeering them for wider political purposes. In terms of the influence on people's lives, I reckon them to be at least as successful, if not more so, than the elected governments we've had in the last ten years.
Why do I mind? I think it comes down to two things:
First, I'm a rationalist and an empiricist. I distrust ideologies, as they all, left through right, disregard or gloss over the impact of human psychology. (Even the subject in which I'm most qualified - economics - is, excuse my language, largely bollocks as it's largely based the notion of the rational consumer. It's why behavioural economics is a much more interesting and insightful field). Anyway, the post-modern underpinnings of the influences on the institutions I now distrust explicitly reject rationalism and empiricism - narrative is all, and narrative becomes the reality, even if it is clearly contrary to the majority's observed truth. This explains why the BBC would run the now-notorious headline last weekend "27 police officers hurt in largely peaceful BLM demo."
Second, because the execution of these ideologies seeks to subvert, or at least sidestep, democratic processes. The Left realised long ago that, to use the words of Alan Johnson to Jon Lansmann on the last election night in December, the working class "have always been a big disappointment", what with their tiresome attachment to notions of family, community and country, and so unlikely to provide electoral success to truly left wing politics. So they've sought other methods to dominate 'discourse', and as I say they've done it very well. Though it's helped that the Right has sought to appease, rather than challenge head-on.
It feels like the scales have tipped this week however. Maybe it's just the perfect storm of the events in America, the consequences of lockdown on people's psyche, and some good weather, and it'll all blow over. But this time feels different, and to use an ucky phrase, we need a more assertive counter-narrative. It'll be hard to pitch it right without appearing to be against fairness and justice. The bigger question though is who's going to do it?
Which brings me back to the central question - what do WE do? I have no influence. What's true, however, is that there are people who 'get' this, across the political spectrum. There are sane, articulate and balanced voices on the left (Paul Embery, Maurice Glasman and other Blue Labour types) that I like and trust far more than most Tory MPs. Economic left vs. right is irrelevant at this stage, especially post-Covid. It's the cultural left vs. the cultural right that matters. I believe those of us on the cultural right need to identify and swing behind the people who don't hold political power at the moment (they appear to be the appeasers of the cultural left anyway), but can speak for us. They may be academics, trade unionists, authors, comedians, I don't care. But in the short term we need to give them a bigger voice.
I've other ideas too, but they can wait for another day...
Saturday 13 June 2020
Thursday 4 June 2020
Calling small business owners....
There was a choice of potential topics for this post. Top of the list initially was an examination of what 'deprived' or 'discrimination' really mean, but then I decided that even with my limited audience that was probably too incendiary. So I switched back to safer, work-based topics, and thought about taking apart the phrase 'customer journey', which isn't a new one, but still irritates me now as much as when I first heard it, mainly because of its innate inaccuracy, as well as its general corporate-bull***t-ness.
However, I'm going to talk about banking, and business banking in particular. UK clearing banks, in common with many others round the world, have had a rough time in public perception in recent years, mainly through their own actions it has to be acknowledged. And yet banking, done well, is a critical component of healthy, functioning and growing economy. While God may hate the sin but the love the sinner, it's the other way round in banking - we may and do hate the sinners (bankers), but we need to love the sin (banking), because recycling capital to lend it out multiple times over is to an economy what lungs are to a body.
So we should want banks to succeed, albeit not too much, and certainly not if we suspect there's an uncompetitive market (and for the record, I think the UK market is uncompetitive, but mainly because the barriers to entry are so high, rather than there being any player collusion). However, with recent events it's going to be increasingly difficult for them to succeed. Until now, as long as there weren't any own goals like PPI, and credit policies were reasonably prudent, it was fairly easy to make a profit through what's called NII (net interest income, i.e. the difference between what's paid in deposits and received on lending). But with interest rates now at their super-low levels because of the response to Covid-19, that just got a lot harder.
That comes at a time too when other circumstances, again because of Covid, also changed for the worse. Expectations will be higher because of the role they'll need to play in rejuvenating the economy, and at the same time the effects of the government's business loan schemes will be feeding through - and while any losses will be covered by the UK Treasury, it'll be up to the banks, as things stand, to undertake the administration and management of any loans that aren't repaid - which will be a huge logistical, and therefore costly, challenge. You can see how all this will become a recipe for making large and sustained losses (and I haven't even mentioned the loans that will go bad in the 'regular' lending portfolio as a result of Covid).
And this is where it begins to get a bit personal, as it's looking strongly like my next assignment will be to spend a couple of months working out how to avert the kind of poor performance that currently seems to be on the cards for the business banking part of a large UK bank. I won't be doing that alone of course; it's likely there'll be a team of three of us, but still, it's quite a big topic for a small team to get to grips with in a relatively short period.
We've already got our terms of reference for the work, so we know very roughly the questions the client will expect us to be able to answer. And yes, some of it will undoubtedly involve cost cutting - but not all of it. For the first time in a while, it looks like we'll be given the scope to think about where business banking might find more income. That's been a verboten question in recent times as a result of the mis-selling scandals, but these crazy times seem to have put it back on the agenda. We'll have our ideas, but comments and responses to this would be most welcome from any small business owners, or people with experience in the sector, particularly to questions that include:
- With what types of organisation do you spend money on financial services other than clearing banks? Why? What circumstances would persuade you to switch that spend to your bank?
- Would you trust your clearing bank to provide accountancy-type services as part of your response to HMRC's Making Tax Digital project?
- Have you wanted to buy any product or service online from a clearing bank, but found that wasn't possible? What was it? How did you eventually source that product or service?
- Are there any non-traditional financial products or services (e.g. payroll) that you would consider buying through your bank?
Any comments on the quality of your internet banking app would also be gratefully received.
To conclude, and reflecting on all that, it's a funny old job, being a consultant. I know we have the image of being smooth-talking, jargon-wielding, smart suit-wearing, too-clever-by-half idiots hired only to tell clients what time it says on their wristwatch, but I don't feel like I tick any of those boxes. (Well, maybe one - sometimes the client has only just learned to tell the time, and he/she's grateful for confirmation that it's definitely five to midnight). More of the time, at least in my case, it feels like I'm there to clear up other people's messes. In the forthcoming work, it's not the bank's fault - it's down to whoever you choose to blame Covid on. Previously, it has been bank staff, software suppliers, organisational culture, and a whole load of other things. Being external gives you a liberating freedom to speak truth, sensitively, and recommend tough things. Do we provide insights and choices that the client couldn't have worked out for themselves? Rarely. Do we generate discussions and decisions that just wouldn't have happened had we not been around? Frequently.
However, I'm going to talk about banking, and business banking in particular. UK clearing banks, in common with many others round the world, have had a rough time in public perception in recent years, mainly through their own actions it has to be acknowledged. And yet banking, done well, is a critical component of healthy, functioning and growing economy. While God may hate the sin but the love the sinner, it's the other way round in banking - we may and do hate the sinners (bankers), but we need to love the sin (banking), because recycling capital to lend it out multiple times over is to an economy what lungs are to a body.
So we should want banks to succeed, albeit not too much, and certainly not if we suspect there's an uncompetitive market (and for the record, I think the UK market is uncompetitive, but mainly because the barriers to entry are so high, rather than there being any player collusion). However, with recent events it's going to be increasingly difficult for them to succeed. Until now, as long as there weren't any own goals like PPI, and credit policies were reasonably prudent, it was fairly easy to make a profit through what's called NII (net interest income, i.e. the difference between what's paid in deposits and received on lending). But with interest rates now at their super-low levels because of the response to Covid-19, that just got a lot harder.
That comes at a time too when other circumstances, again because of Covid, also changed for the worse. Expectations will be higher because of the role they'll need to play in rejuvenating the economy, and at the same time the effects of the government's business loan schemes will be feeding through - and while any losses will be covered by the UK Treasury, it'll be up to the banks, as things stand, to undertake the administration and management of any loans that aren't repaid - which will be a huge logistical, and therefore costly, challenge. You can see how all this will become a recipe for making large and sustained losses (and I haven't even mentioned the loans that will go bad in the 'regular' lending portfolio as a result of Covid).
And this is where it begins to get a bit personal, as it's looking strongly like my next assignment will be to spend a couple of months working out how to avert the kind of poor performance that currently seems to be on the cards for the business banking part of a large UK bank. I won't be doing that alone of course; it's likely there'll be a team of three of us, but still, it's quite a big topic for a small team to get to grips with in a relatively short period.
We've already got our terms of reference for the work, so we know very roughly the questions the client will expect us to be able to answer. And yes, some of it will undoubtedly involve cost cutting - but not all of it. For the first time in a while, it looks like we'll be given the scope to think about where business banking might find more income. That's been a verboten question in recent times as a result of the mis-selling scandals, but these crazy times seem to have put it back on the agenda. We'll have our ideas, but comments and responses to this would be most welcome from any small business owners, or people with experience in the sector, particularly to questions that include:
- With what types of organisation do you spend money on financial services other than clearing banks? Why? What circumstances would persuade you to switch that spend to your bank?
- Would you trust your clearing bank to provide accountancy-type services as part of your response to HMRC's Making Tax Digital project?
- Have you wanted to buy any product or service online from a clearing bank, but found that wasn't possible? What was it? How did you eventually source that product or service?
- Are there any non-traditional financial products or services (e.g. payroll) that you would consider buying through your bank?
Any comments on the quality of your internet banking app would also be gratefully received.
To conclude, and reflecting on all that, it's a funny old job, being a consultant. I know we have the image of being smooth-talking, jargon-wielding, smart suit-wearing, too-clever-by-half idiots hired only to tell clients what time it says on their wristwatch, but I don't feel like I tick any of those boxes. (Well, maybe one - sometimes the client has only just learned to tell the time, and he/she's grateful for confirmation that it's definitely five to midnight). More of the time, at least in my case, it feels like I'm there to clear up other people's messes. In the forthcoming work, it's not the bank's fault - it's down to whoever you choose to blame Covid on. Previously, it has been bank staff, software suppliers, organisational culture, and a whole load of other things. Being external gives you a liberating freedom to speak truth, sensitively, and recommend tough things. Do we provide insights and choices that the client couldn't have worked out for themselves? Rarely. Do we generate discussions and decisions that just wouldn't have happened had we not been around? Frequently.
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