The BBC couldn’t resist for long. There was their ex-economics editor, Paul Mason, announcing the wake for Capitalism in the Guardian ad nauseum and they’d missed out.
No matter, one phone call to their old mate and it’s all fixed and up he pops with Dutton and Sarah (1 hour 16 mins) being put on the rack, his feet to the fire and his most cherished illlusions and delusions being challenged and dashed….well, not really.
Mason had a lovely benign time on the programme in an ‘interview’ that lasted a good 40 minutes or so, the bit about capitalism anyway. The problem with interviews like these where the guest is treated as a ‘friend’ and there is a reluctance to upset them with tough questions, is that the guest is allowed to get away with murder, and indeed Mason was allowed to ramble on in fantasy land about the brave new world he proposed.
Sure the interviewer will ask a relevant question but then lets the guest ramble on and evade giving an answer if the question puts him on the spot. Humphrys would continue digging, usually, but in interviews like this the presenter lets it slide, its almost like they feed the guest a question about something controversial or problematic but only in order to allow them the chance to explain it away…the presenter then doesn’t challenge the answer and moves onto the next ‘feeder’ question.
That’s essentially what the Mason interview sounded like….the presenters just wanted him to keep talking and to ‘get along’, can’t upset a guest who is supposed to be there for an hour or more.
For instance no challenge came when they asked if he was a Marxist and he said no, but then said he did believe in what Marx said. Or when he said because he was a public sector broadcaster he had to be neutral, before giving Corbyn a good talk up…or when he started backtracking on his thesis….apparently Capitalism is broken and needs replacing….or is it?….. now it’s just ‘parts’ need refurbishing, or when he laid out that grand thesis on on his alternative economy…..with time banks, alternative currencies and co-operatives….don’t all those exist already in one shape or another and aren’t they just different forms of the same thing, it’s still trading, manufacturing, buying and selling, capitalism?
Sarah Brett was quite happy quoting a commentator saying that the EU had ‘smashed Greece’ and she raised no objection to Mason adding that ‘the democratic will had been overturned and the EU is unaccountable’.
Is that true? Didn’t Greece smash Greece with massive overspending and borrowing? Was the ‘democratic will’ overturned in Greece? Hardly. The Greeks wanted to have their cake and eat it, get rid of economic stabilisation and still reman in the EU….in the end the Greek Parliament ‘voted’ to stay in the EU and continue austerity. And now the Greek people will have a chance to vote on that decision….hardly democracy overturned. If you’re in the EU club you have to obey the club rules and the Greeks really, really want to be in that club.
And something for Mason and the BBC to consider….Just what did Capitalism do for China?…
China has almost wiped out urban poverty. Now it must tackle inequality
Yet-to-be-released data shows that China has all but eradicated urban poverty. For a country with huge numbers of poor people streaming into its cities, many of whom living initially in conditions of abject misery, this is an extraordinary success. It has been achieved, in large part, because of a government subsidy paid to urban dwellers to bring incomes up to a minimum level of 4,476 yuan ($700 or £446).
I have yet to hear Mason come up with the real problem with Capitalism…cheap and easily available credit. We know full well that was the reason we had the last crash, made worse because our own government borrowed huge sums on the basis that the good times would keep on rolling, bankrolling their largesse….and in order to keep things going the government turned a blind eye to what the banks were up to and failed to regulate them…running a risked based economy as Gordon Brown boasted.
Mason has no solutions just naive, simplistic utopian fantasies, childlike in their optimism and failure to recognise the pitfalls and insurmountable problems that make such dreams unworkable.
Still good of the BBC to let him back to ramble on amiably. Trouble is he probably left the studio thinking ‘that all went well, they seemed really receptive, maybe I’m on to something….better give Russell Brand a call’.. We’ll hear no end of this now….though he doesn’t seem to have the social media draw of Brand…his recent video winning a mere 10,175 views…which is amusing as Mason is pretty obsessed with the power of t’Web….didn’t it spawn the Arab Spring after all? Looks like the Revolution is a long way off yet…….
The black man radio presenter’s name is Doton – not “Dutton”, and he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2009. He’s been with BBC radio for many years and is most commonly known amongst my colleagues and friends as the bloke who does the World Football Phone-in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Football_Phone-In
However, I digress.
Paul Mason is right that Capitalism is almost kaput. However, his vision of a solution is as kaput as Capitalism. The idea that technology can give us all a better work/life balance is offset by the fact that technology gives employers the tools to give their employees more tasks to do rather than employ more people.
Alan wrote: “I have yet to hear Mason come up with the real problem with Capitalism…cheap and easily available credit.”
Easily available yes – cheap? No!
I’ve never known a loan or credit card to be “cheap”. If you have a tracker mortgage then you’re getting a cheap loan, but apart from that credit is not cheap. For people who cannot get a loan or face a £25 daily penalty for going overdrawn, Wonga is the answer! Is that cheap credit? No, but it is easily available and cheaper than the bank charges.
Getting back to Capitalism – why are we not still talking about the UK’s net migration of 318,000? It is a disastrous figure!!!
So why are our politicians not showing any genuine signs of concern?
It’s the (capitalist) economy, stupid!
” our own government ”
I do not think so.
This was a Labour Government, who imported three million Muslims, or was it seven million Muslims?
So these loveable members of the ROP could enrich us.
They should all be executed.
What? You claim to detect an ambiguity.
All.
.
The real problem with these interviews is that the BBC don’t put the guest up with someone they have of equal standing.
So someone like Sarah Brett or this Doton fellow (neither of whom I know or have heard of) will always be in some kind thrall to someone who a) was a former BBC-er, and b) someone who had been awarded an “Editor” accolade by the BBC.
The result is invariably an interview where the interviewer(s) faun over their guest, with searching questions not being asked.
Its either that, or the interviewer(s) simply don’t know what questions to ask.
Is the Guardian’s ‘Comment Is Free’ sponsored by Mastercard? It certainly looks like their logo on the video.
I can’t listen to Doton for more than 30 seconds, he is so thick I’m surprised he can find the way into the studio.
Paul Mason is one of the biggest pricks ever . I thought idiots like him had died out with TRex. Anyway, he is making a good screw out of capitalism. Dirty hypocrite !