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Over the past decade, as British culture has become steeped in pop psychology, one expression has come to be bandied about with increasing abandon: "She's in denial." Much as I deplore such psychobabble, sometimes "in denial" is the mot juste. Since the British economy began to hit the buffers, while interest rates have been slashed and consumer demand plummeted, so people's denial has increased. Of course, ours being an unequal society, this denial has not been spread about evenly; on the contrary, the highest concentration is among the richest and most powerful.
Take the bankers: they had to go crawling to the taxpayer to be bailed out, but now look at them squirm. Barclays executives, fearful that their colossal bonuses will be capped, would rather eschew this recapitalisation in favour of funds from the Gulf.
I wonder, do these fat cats really stop to think how dubious the money Dubai and the other emirates have really is? Dubai is a financial market that sucks in the proceeds of international organised crime the way a whale sucks in krill; its shiny shopping malls and priapic skyscrapers are built by thousands of low-paid workers from the developing world, likened by critics to indentured slaves, its brothels stocked with trafficked women. But oh no, the Barclays boys want to go on scoffing - while denying what's on the end of their forks.
It's the same with their colleagues at HBOS and Lloyds TSB - will they merge or won't they? You might think this has to do with preserving jobs or what dividends they'll be able to offer shareholders. But these execs' consideration is only what's in it for them and how soon they'll be able to get back to trading the kind of derivatives that got us into this mess.
Yes, they're in denial, and so are the politicians who are desperate to get the interbank lending rate down. The say it's because they want the banks to start lending to businesses again, but the truth is that the whole financial system is hooked on the profits from short-term gambling.
And they're also in denial about the economy as a whole. They still think they can drag us out of recession by stimulating demand - that's what all the interest rate cuts and mooted tax cuts are meant to do. They want us punters, who already have a trillion quid's worth of unsecured credit card debt, to get back in those shops and spend, spend, spend!
There's only one problem with this plan: we consumers aren't in quite as much denial as our alleged betters. We've woken up and smelt the coffee - and it's been burnt, just like us.
I'm certain there isn't a quick fix to this recession, and I know you know it too. Our only problem lies in confronting the bankers and the politicians with their denial.
If only there was a psychotherapist who could put all our elites on the couch at once - and if only we had the money to pay for the treatment.
Sure-fire way to a sell-out
To the Donmar Warehouse for Strindberg's Creditors with Anna Chancellor in the role of Tekla, the twice-married temptress. Chancellor was superb in this piece — a love triangle warped by time and twisted by resentment. Given that she's my own ex-sister-in-law — a relationship the playwright would, no doubt, have approved of — I couldn't tell if I was suspending my disbelief more or less than usual.
I fear the success of David Greig's production — and the tininess of the venue — means that tickets are mighty scarce. But this is one production worth getting scalped for.
Even I've caught the PC bug
Edward Stourton of Radio 4's Today programme has made headlines by revealing that the Queen Mother once told him our EU allies were a bunch of “huns, wops and dagos”. “Queen Mother a bigot” is up there with other great tautologous scoops such as the Pope's Roman faith. More interesting is Stourton's assertion in his book, It's a PC World, that almost everyone his age — 50 — or older, has changed the way they speak in response to political correctness.
I think he's being too restrictive: I've changed the way I write in response to PC, and I'm a stripling of 47. I have used the pronoun “she” to refer to the third person in general; and my youngest (aged seven) queried the use of “mankind” to refer to the generality of people when I was reading aloud to him the other day: “Why shouldn't it be “womankind?” he pointed out. Why not, indeed?
Reader views (8)
Most poor people I meet are greedy too, they just aren't successful and don't know what to do about it except support "socialistic" and anything else that may shoot some money their way. Greed and envy are unfortunate human traits, so grow up and stop your misplaced self righteousness.
- Kr, Cap Ferrat France, 12/11/2008 15:51
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Your son has this drummed into him on a daily basis in his Lambeth state school. Why do you want to send him to school with a load of Toffs?
- Ted, London, 12/11/2008 15:16
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Perceptiveness like that, and I'd say Boris for PM and Will Self for C.o.Ex. No, really - the jobsworth 'Civil Service' can sort out the details.
- Steve, SW18, 12/11/2008 13:50
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rich people are greedy?
well i never
- Ross, london, 12/11/2008 12:06
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Dear boy, even you seem to have grown up and got off the drugs.
As an old friend of mine used to say: The Young shouldn't take drugs - they should be saved for Old Age when one really needs them.
- Muriel Sebag-Montefiore, Palm Beach, Florida, United States of America, 12/11/2008 02:21
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You're too wonderful for for us Will. If only more people had your ethical insight and understanding. And what a paragon your seven year old is going to be! You are indeed blessed.
- Steve, London, 11/11/2008 15:53
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No, dear boy. We're not in denial. We're just looking out for ourselves. We don't deny we are the Masters of the Universe. We do however expect our proper due from the public - and pay more they will, believe me. There is nobody to protect them - no government is strong enough to make rules for us, as you can see.
- John Problem, Hackney Wick, London, UK, 11/11/2008 15:39
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Well done Will. It's time that we started to treat selfish and greedy bankers as pariahs. Surely the best way would be to limit tax allowances to the first 40K of salary and tax any payment over 100K at 60 percent. Bonuses could be taxed at 80 percent. They'd still have plenty to spend but they'd have the satisfaction of putting something back into Society. As a further step the Government should close down the Tax havens that is has jurisdiction over. I don't think many people would be leaping to the defence of the Bankers.
- Arthur Atkins, Acton England, 11/11/2008 15:38
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