Taking Power Back: Simon Parker

We are pleased to launch our book debates series with this blog by Simon Parker. Simon sets out the argument of his recent book ‘Taking Power Back’, where he makes the case for ‘commonism’ – a radical form of democratic decentralisation. Following this post, CURA members Professor Jonathan Davies and Dr Adrian Bua will share their thoughts on Simon’s work, after which Simon will publish a reply to our team’s commentary.

The British state stands poised at a moment of profound change. Caught between the demands of an ageing population and a limited public willingness to pay more tax, public services are under pressure as never before. Institutions from local government to the NHS are finding that their existing models of provision cannot cope with the strain. Something has to give.

Despite our self-image as swashbuckling Anglo-Saxon capitalists, the British are actually fairly statist. Until recently we had a large, highly centralised government machine which we expected to deliver the same outcomes to everyone across the country. We tend to see the world in terms of the market and state, without very much in between. The fact that both of these leviathans have let us down very badly in the recent past explains our national distrust of institutions.

And yet there is something in between state and market – a space for social activity that many people call ‘the commons’. Over the past decade or so we have seen this space being steadily filled by a remarkable flourishing of cooperatives and social enterprises. In my book, Taking Power Back, I argue that this vibrant realm of do-it-yourself social justice is vital to the way we should understand the future of government. We can already see examples of it in action. In my book I describe how initiatives in the UK and beyond such as Occupy Sandy, the extraordinary people-powered disaster relief operation in post-hurricane New York, are building on, and organising, people power to meet their needs and improve lives – without relying on the market or state action

The trends which the World Economic Forum bundles together in its concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will turbo-charge the commons over the next decade or two. This is partly because new technology is making it easier than ever to start to up small social organisations. The overhead costs of creating a company are falling, while the potential to create innovative networked business models is rising. The increasing automation of our jobs may create a world in which we spend less time working creating increased opportunities to transfer effort out of the realm of paid work and into the creative sphere of the commons.

It seems entirely credible that the space vacated by a retreating state could be filled at least partially by a surge in the creative commons. I the book I make the case for two very big changes that can facilitate this transition. First, we will need to support the commons by introducing a universal basic income, compensating people for the automation of work and giving them the time to contribute. Second, we need to radically devolve political power so it is closer citizens, giving individuals the opportunities and capacity they need to help build the civic commons in the places where they live.

It is a huge challenge, but the prize is a radical renewal of government and democracy, in Britain and beyond.

Simon Parker is director of the New Local Government Network and a leading expert in public policy, public services and government.

The austerity-security symbiosis

There are different ways in which austerity and security come hand in hand in contemporary political affairs. Three examples include Greece’s financial crisis and the socio-economic and political insecurity generated from the ideological disputes on whether to carry on with neoliberal driven polices promoted by the Troika; the British austerity narrative promoted by the Conservatives alongside policies and bills preventing terrorism (i.e. Government’s Draft Investigatory Power Bill) and narratives of human rights which, while aiming to provide an environment of welfare and wellbeing for all, tend to be driven by mechanisms that authorise state actors to use force and repression (i.e. housing eviction officers) on the one hand, and to facilitate (or control) citizen participation initiatives (i.e. neighbourhood renewal partnerships in the UK and the US or citizen security programmes across Latin America where police are a key partner on the other.

I argue that security and austerity are two different narratives whose convergence has consolidated in the 21st century.  Their symbiosis cuts across different dimensions of analysis: from the macro to the micro level and from the remote sphere of the global financial system to the concrete sphere of people’s daily lives. We cannot assert that one depends on the other in a unidirectional way. Instead, they feed into one another and they reinforce and benefit from one another. Three premises help me to explain this symbiosis.

I will borrow the phrase by Owen Worth to explain the first premise: austerity as a defence of neoliberalism. This premise sets the foundation of power differences between the powerful (protector) and vulnerable (in need of protection), which are implicit in the relationships developed behind any understanding of security.  This premise has been helpful to insert fear of the social instability that a fiscal/financial crisis may bring about, especially if irresponsible public or private debt is not restrained. The 2015 elections in Greece to stay in or out of the European Union or the Cameron-Osborne decision to incur in policies of fiscal austerity (low taxation and budget cuts, followed by an accentuated retreat of state services) are good examples that portray that if austerity is not pursued chaos, collapse and disorder will rule society instead. Therefore, austerity becomes a weapon to defend the middle and lower-income groups of the population from the undesired consequences of a fiscal/financial crisis that if untackled, in a later stage, contributes to political and social anxiety -as people begin to fear losing their jobs, savings, and welfare support (which they lose anyway)- while encountering protests and social revolts that increase perceptions of insecurity.

The second premise states that ‘austerity needs of security’; it derives from debates on the legacies of authoritarianism co-existing alongside neoliberalisation. The Latin American case is a good example to develop this point. In the 1980s, after neoliberal economic reforms were introduced in the region (characterised initially by a long-term fiscal austerity period), several governments began losing legitimacy as the safety nets that the state provided to specific sections of the population (i.e. trade unions or peasant confederations) began to withdraw. As a result, protests, dissident groups and social mobilisations emerged throughout the region. The governments, who introduced neoliberal economic reforms, responded through violence and repression by using tactics of the authoritarian past to maintain social control and national security. Thirty years afterwards, the term ‘neoliberal authoritarianism’ has cropped up to describe the political state of affairs of two of the region’s economic powers – Brazil and Mexico: nepotism and impunity, collusion with transnational corporations and violation of human rights by state armed forces and police (in many cases these abuses are carried out in the name of security over the fight against drug-trafficking).  To this scenario, a new wave of fiscal austerity hitting the region since autumn 2015 has to be factored in. It is too early to tell the extent to which security tactics will fare, but it is indeed an arena that deserves attention. Its contrast with Europe is of equal interest given that governments have tended to enhance repressive and invasive strategies as austerity becomes normalised.

Finally, the third premise contends that the ‘development of security narratives need their austerity counterpart’. It derives from the academic work by Bourdieusian scholars who argue that neoliberal policies do not only repress, but also recreate repression through mundane, daily living practices carried out by both governmental and non-governmental actors. Applied to contexts in western Europe and the Americas, narratives of security are formed by a continuous investment (or co-investment with businesses) in penalisation (i.e. respect of the rule of law, development of penitentiary-probation systems and of armed forces and police), while traditional welfare policies retreat and new ones contribute to deepening flexibility and individual responsibility across the population, in particular addressing the poor. Through the promotion of different forms of work (in the formal or informal economy; as an employee or self-employed) citizens have to learn to provide for themselves (housing, education, leisure). This gradual self-provision requires security measures to ensure that social order is maintained. Security takes a multi-varied form that may range from omnipresent surveillance systems to the management of unintended effects of individualisation and privatisation, such as vigilante groups (which state actors either aim to supress or reintegrate into the system to regain social control).

Dr Valeria Guarneros-Meza is a core member of the CURA team as well as Lecturer in Public Policy at the Department of Politics and Public Policy at DMU.

Participatory Budgeting: Shining light on the well manicured hands on the public purse.

Jez Hall from the Participatory Budgeting Network argues that the costs are spiralling of a public service culture that is focussed on acute interventions, increasingly relies on private delivery and is driven by the interests of professionals. He argues that participatory budgeting is a tool that can deliver fiscal responsibility and make services more focussed around the needs of citizens.

Advocates for more citizen participation usually discuss Participatory Budgeting, (and similar ideas for direct democracy) as a democratic enhancement – something about fixing democracy, trusting in politics or getting involved. It is as though involvement is the aim.

But a too often undervalued dimension is the cost benefit of participation. We live in expensive bureaucratic systems, where the recurring costs of services make no sense to ordinary people. I believe we need to raise the debate when looking at the different public service choices. Because, from observing Participatory Budgeting  (PB) in action, when given a choice, and good information, and a chance to deliberate ordinary citizens back prevention over an often ridiculous status quo that wastes money and blights lives by focussing on the wrong end of the system. When there is pressure on public budgets it matters who has a say, and who sets the agenda.

Here’s an interesting set of statistics:

It costs £65,000 to imprison a person in this country once police, court costs and all the other steps are taken into account. After that it costs a further £40,000 for each year they spend incarcerated.” £100,000 for a one year prison sentence. Once you have been into prison you are pretty likely to return. Or suffer limited employment opportunities for your whole life, and you and your family more likely to become dependent on welfare.

Private sector outsourced care for at risk young people can be much expensive and the outcomes often little better. “There are differing views amongst commissioners about the relative costs of their own children’s homes provision to those of the external providers. The DfE Children’s Homes data pack (December 2014) concluded that average unit costs are … around £2,900 per week”. A 2013 survey indicated the most common cost of high intensity outsourced care was £3,000 per week, rising in rare cases to £6,000 per week. That equates to between £150,000 to £300,000 per year.

Then, at the other end of the spectrum, it costs about £5,000 per year to provide a school place in a city like Manchester. So one year of a young person attending school costs about the same as spending 2 weeks in prison, or maybe just a week in intensive residential care.

In health the story is much the same. The unit cost of attending an A&E department is far higher than seeing a GP or community based health worker. This statistic is out of date but still relevant. In 2010 to walk through the door of an A+E department for a brief consultation cost over £125. That’s before receiving any treatment. Yet I, and probably most citizens of the UK, used to free at the point of delivery healthcare, are horrified by the prospect of paying £25 to see a GP, as proposed by the Kings Fund in a report in 2014. An influential think-tank has recommended the Government considers charging patients up to £25 for a GP appointment, becoming the latest in a series of recent reports mooting the controversial move.”

Best keep people out of prison, hospital and children’s homes then. That requires prevention, something that can only be effectively delivered outside these expensive institutions and within communities. Neighbourliness, good employment, education, and stable families matter a lot, but sometimes it takes professional support to prevent the most at risk going off the rails.

Now, I wonder how much employing a trained youth worker costs? The answer is around £21,000 a year – rising to about £35k max – there will be some on-costs on that basic figure, but it gives us a perspective.

And a prison governor earns upward of £180,000 for a difficult high security prison, but more normally “salaries for qualified operational managers start at £32,000 a year, while more senior managers (including governors) can earn around £60,000 pa. It’s a professional salary, but hardly ‘riches beyond the dreams of avarice’… Of course, there are other benefits, including a civil service pension.” A judge earns £130,000 or so. And judges are most unhappy about it. Almost a third of judges, 31%, said they would consider leaving early in the next five years. The proportion was even higher for high court and appeal court judges. Declines in pay and pensions were the main complaints. Nearly four-fifths said incomes now and after retirement do not adequately reflect the work they do and that they had suffered a loss of net earnings over the past five years.”

It’s tough looking down on society from the top. If the people involved in commissioning services are the people already managing, running or benefiting, there is an obvious bias to backing their own professional approach. That isn’t corruption. It’s human nature. Yet, however well intentioned and informed they may be, it is a capturing of the system by those already benefiting most from it. As a leading public health manager for a big city once said to me “prisons exist to pay for prison staff pensions, and hospitals to pay for consultants golf club memberships”.

This might be a little unfair. But if you care, and professionals in the public sector do care, without a robust process of challenge there is no strong incentive to reduce one’s own role. We have become wedded to expensive sticking plasters that may contain but don’t prevent problems. This was clearly identified in a 2011 report on the future of Scottish public services that raised the problem of ‘producer dominance’. Basically public sector commissioners, left to their own devices, prioritise existing approaches, and de-prioritise prevention. Government remains the dominant architect and provider of public services. This often results in ‘top-down’, producer- and institution-focussed approaches where the interests of organisations and professional groups come before those of the public.”

Maybe PB can shine a light on that problem – and save taxpayers a bit of money. Putting one less person in prison for a year could pay for at least 3 youth work posts – and who knows how many hundreds of hours of volunteer time at a community based youth club. Each youth worker, properly supported, could prevent a young person being abused, or going to jail. If they stopped just one conviction or referral per year each, then prevention is still a great investment.

Of course there may be lots of solutions, like funding voluntary and community sector providers. Though we need to be careful. The lesson of the Kids Company is that these decisions can’t just be left to politicians either. Despite lacking robust evidence about the quality of the charity’s outcomes, value for money or governance, Kids Company attracted high profile support from senior Ministers throughout successive Governments, and tens of millions of pounds of public money have been handed to the charity over the course of its existence.[1]

Whilst I believe in high quality, preventative public spending, that doesn’t mean the money can’t go outside the public sector. But when it does, either to ‘not for profits’, or private sector provision citizens need to be aware of the cost and benefit of that choice. If they were, I doubt that private financing would be as widespread as it is, given its costly nature.

Participation is not just about validating pre-determined choices of so called experts. It is about deliberating between options, suggesting new approaches and making more informed choices. So let’s have a better approach than tick box consultations. Let’s shine a light on some of these costs. Open up how we make these decisions and let the people decide?

Jez Hall is a founding member of Shared Futures. Jez helped found the PB Unit in 2006 and has since then remained a committed advocate of Participatory Budgeting.

PhD Opportunity at CURA: Securitisation in Urban Policy Making

CURA are delighted to offer a PhD scholarship on Securitisation in Urban Policy Making. The scholarship is available for up to three years full-time study starting October 2016 and provides a bursary of £14,296 PA in addition to University tuition fees. It is available to UK or EU students who are suitably qualified and have outstanding potential as a researcher. Deadline for applications is 29th March 2016.

In offering this scholarship the University aims to further develop its proven research strengths in urban governance, austerity and crises. It is an excellent opportunity for a candidate of exceptional promise to contribute to a stimulating, world-class research environment. The post holder will be contributing to CURA’s interest in crisis and securitisaton in urban policy-making. Interested candidates need to submit a 1500-word proposal addressing one or more of the following issues:

• Are subnational levels of government impacted by national security policy and what are the implications for urban governance?

• How do different ‘modes of governance’ incorporate coercive strategies in urban policy-making process?

• What power relations are developed between state and non-state actors in the securitisation of urban public policy?

• To what extent do community cultural practices infuse meaning to government practices in contexts of violence and insecurity?

Proposals with a focus on countries in Europe and/or the Americas will be preferred, but proposals conducting research in other world regions will be considered.

For a more detailed description of the scholarship, the subject area at DMU and an application pack follow this link. Completed applications should be returned by 29th March 2016 with two supporting references and an academic transcript. Applications are invited from UK or EU students with a Master’s degree or a good first degree (First, 2:1 or equivalent) in a relevant subject. Please quote ref: DMU Research Scholarships 2016: BAL FB1.

Please direct academic queries to Dr Valeria Guarneros-Meza on +44 (0)116 2577038 or by email on valeria.guarneros@dmu.ac.uk. For administrative queries contact Morgan Erdlenbruch at Morgan.Erdlenbruch@dmu.ac.uk

Application deadlinePlease quote ref: DMU Research Scholarships 2016: BAL FB1.

Workshop on Resistance and Alternatives to Austerity

The new Centre for Urban Research on Austerity (CURA) at De Montfort University (Leicester) is holding a workshop on Wednesday 18th May 2016 (9.30am-4.30pm) to discuss strategies for resistance and alternatives to austerity in urban settings across the globe. See registration details at the end of the post, for a copy of the programme see here.

“…our rage will be relentless…” Petros Constantinou (Guardian 12/11/15)

Across the globe the deepening of austerity has exposed urban populations across Europe, North America, Latin America, and beyond to worsening living and working conditions, reduced access to public services, and persistent insecurity. As these deleterious effects have become more apparent, so too has the functioning of austerity as a set of policies and practices aimed at deepening and consolidating the discipline of neoliberal capitalism.

This growing clarity – in academia and the public sphere – has led to the tentative emergence of various forms of resistance and alternatives. Mainstream political parties – and even some governments – have gained growing public support from Greece to the UK to Portugal through the adoption of anti-austerity platforms. Traditional trade unions, new social movements, and activists across countries most deeply affected by these new measures have begun to mobilise in new and increasingly combative ways. From mass strikes to everyday acts of refusal, the trend of urban resistance to austerity is growing. To offset the worst of its impact or as a means to overcome the entrenched power and privilege austerity supports, some involved in these resistance(s) have begun to discuss the possibilities of alternatives to austerity – and even to capitalism. How these are manifested and how effectively they can provide tools for thinking about and acting on post-austerity and “post-capitalism”.

It is the aim of our workshop to bring together cross-national comparisons on these themes focused on local urban settings, to explore the similarities and differences in acts of resistance by urban actors, to understand the power and innovativeness of these resistance(s), and to ask how these can offer potential alternative forms of urban governance challenging austerity.

Speakers: Lisa McKenzie (LSE), Phoebe Moore (Middlesex), David Bailey (Birmingham), Saori Shibata (Leiden), Nick Kiersey (Ohio), Lefteris Krestos (Greenwich), Desiree Fields (Sheffield), Lucia Pradella (Kings), Stuart Price, Heather Connolly, Adam Fishwick (DMU)

If you are interested in attending please send an email to Suzanne Walker (swalker@dmu.ac.uk) to register your place.

Workshop on Austerity and Local Economic Development in England: Mapping a Research Agenda

The Centre for Urban Research on Austerity (CURA) at De Montfort University (Leicester)  is holding a two day workshop on May 16th and 17th 2016 that will bring together leading academics to discuss the future research agenda around local economic development and skills in England.

One of the main pledges of the Coalition Government and its Conservative successor has been to ‘empower’ local communities to develop bespoke initiatives that can drive local economic growth, expand employment opportunities and help address sector and regional imbalances within the UK economy. As part of this ‘new localism’, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) have been established which bring together local authorities and business leaders to take forward this agenda. Government policy has also placed ‘cities’ and ‘city-regions’ at the core of its approach, brokering a number of ‘City-Deals’. These policy initiatives come at a time of austerity, with substantial cuts to public spending and local authority budgets.

From the outset, LEPs courted controversy, with many commentators highlighting problems of ‘inadequate resources’, ‘uncertain accountability’ and ‘varying capacity’. Since then resources have been stepped up and the dust has now settled sufficiently to permit a fuller assessment. One issue concerns how LEPs might link skills with economic development. For many years, government policy in England has emphasised skills as being central to economic competitiveness, productivity growth and social inclusion. Some commentators, however, argue that narrowly formulated policy interventions aimed at boosting skills supply often fail to address problems of weak employer demand for, and usage of, skills. Indeed, evidence indicates that the UK has serious problems with ‘over-qualification’ and the under-utilisation of skills, which often have a spatial dimension. Skills policies are likely to work better where they are joined up, and integrated within, a wider suite of policies around economic development, business improvement and innovation that impact on employer demand for skill.

If an integrated approach to skills is to emerge locally, then LEPs are a key mechanism. Much is likely to depend on their ability to engage local businesses and mobilise employer action around skills, an area that has proven to be challenging in the past, as well as build constructive partnerships with education and training providers. The hope might be that this approach would not only allow skills provision to be better tailored to local economic needs but would also be able to raise employer ambition around skills by effecting change in competitive strategies and approaches to work organisation, job design and people management. With all actors – LEPs, councils, employers, education and training providers and individuals – facing austerity, there are many challenges as well as questions. Will local actors be given the resources, freedoms and flexibility to deliver on this agenda? Will employers buy into this? Will policy commitments to ‘localism’ and ‘decentralisation’ be hamstrung by cultures of centralisation within Whitehall departments? Is power really being devolved or just responsibility for cuts? Will local actors find spaces for new, innovative and creative approaches that can be extended and built upon? How all of this will play out remains unclear. What is certain, however, is that there is an exciting and important research agenda here for workshop participants to engage with.

Speakers: David Bailey (Aston University), David Beale (Sheffield University), Gill Bentley (University of Birmingham), Crispian Fuller (Cardiff University), John Harrison, (Loughborough University), Martin Jones (Sheffield University), Ewart Keep (Oxford University), Andy Pike (Newcastle University), John Shutt (Leeds Beckett University), John Tomaney (University College London), Chris Warhurst (Warwick University)

If you are interested in attending please send an email to Suzanne Walker (swalker@dmu.ac.uk) to register your place.

The Justin Trudeau Brand of Photogenic Austerity

This week’s guest contributor John Clarke argues that the Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau’s recent electoral victory in Canada is not one to be celebrated by the anti-austerity left. Rather than pursue alternative policies, we can expect the new Canadian Government to ‘stealthily’ pursue the Austerity agenda and continue a raft of reactionary policies implemented by the Conservative Harper administration.

Having replaced the crudely reactionary and rather charmless Stephen Harper as Canadian Prime Minister, the photogenic Justin Trudeau is being presented in the media as a breath of fresh air.  However, millions of working class and poor people, impacted by an intensifying austerity agenda, have grievances that will not be solved with sound bites and selfies.

Unlike the UK, where the Liberal Party went into decline in the first part of the 20th Century, its counterpart in Canada has remained a front rank political formation up to the present day.  With social democracy here playing very much less of a role, the Liberal Party has taken turns in governing with the Conservatives over generations.  It is often said of the Liberals that they ‘campaign from the left and govern from the right’.   In these times of mounting austerity, this becomes truer than ever.  Trudeau won the election by beating back an upsurge of support for the New Democratic Party (NDP).  He did this by outflanking the decidedly Blairite NDP leadership on the left. While there leader, Thomas Mulcair, vowed to be tougher than the Tories on the deficit, Trudeau adopted a Keynesian mantle and proposed limited deficit financing to stimulate the economy.

This electoral ruse was not without irony, given that it was employed by the Liberal Party.  In 1993, austerity at the federal level in Canada, took an unprecedented leap forward at the hands of the Liberal Chretien Government.  Social housing was downloaded onto the provincial governments, transfer payments to the provinces were cut massively and the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) was eliminated.  This had provided federal money for provincial income support systems for the unemployed and disabled, while setting national standards for these programmes.  The impact of the destruction of CAP has been enormously regressive.

There is no serious possibility that the present Trudeau Government will implement serious reforms such as a national housing programme, improvements in income support systems or reverse the decline in health care standards unless they are faced with a very serious social movement that fights for such things.  In fact, the crisis that sparked post 2008 international hyper austerity, seems to be deepening in Canada to a deeply troubling degree.  The significantly resource based economy has been hard hit by the fall in oil prices. The downtown is centred in but by no means confined to the western province of Alberta, where unemployment has skyrocketed and food banks are being overwhelmed.  Moreover, as the economy slumps, Canada has a dangerous household debt level that is the highest among G7 countries.  None of this suggests any great prospects for the Liberals rediscovering their former and very dubious progressive credentials.

Since taking power, the Trudeau regime has taken care to overturn some particularly egregious measures the Harper Tories had undertaken.  Harper, for example, had tried to prevent Muslim women from taking the oath of Canadian citizenship if they wore a niqab.  When the courts struck down this hideous requirement, the Tories launched an appeal.  Trudeau was only too happy to ostentatiously kill that appeal and ‘celebrate diversity’ at no cost.  On the more decisive question of the austerity agenda’s close relative, endless war, the Liberals have been somewhat less progressive.  Harper’s shameful $15 billion arms deal with the Saudi Arabian torture state will not be cancelled and armoured vehicles, perfectly suited to murdering protesters on the streets, will be delivered as planned.  The election pledge to end Canadian airstrikes in Syria and Iraq has not only been broken but the killing and devastation has actually been intensified.  When it comes to the implementation of austerity measures, we may expect the Trudeau Government to act more stealthily that the former Tory regime but to maintain and even intensify its regressive course.

The federal system of government in Canada makes the implementation of austerity a more collaborative effort.  Some direct federal social programmes do exist, such as unemployment insurance and the Canada Pension Plan, but for the most part, social provision is in the hands of the provinces. The federal government can cut funding but not directly implement regressive policies.  If Iain Duncan Smith lived in Canada, he’d have to impose his Work Capability Assessments on the sick and disabled in one of the ten provinces.  However, the Liberal Party is at work on the austerity project in a number of Canadian jurisdictions.  In Quebec, the government of Philippe Couillard is forging ahead with unprecedented austerity measures in the face of a huge social mobilisation.  Public services and the workers that deliver them are under enormous attack.  Despite being a Liberal, Couillard has proudly acknowledged that his greatest political role model is none other than Margaret Thatcher.

In Ontario, the Liberals have been in power since 2003. They took over from a hard right wing Tory regime and have craftily consolidated and deepened the austerity measures they inherited.  They are an object lesson in the role of the Liberal Party as a kind of political chameleon.  The present leader, Kathleen Wynne, took over the job claiming she would be the ‘Social Justice Premier’.  Since 1994, social assistance payments to unemployed and disabled people in Ontario have lost at least 55% of their spending power.  This decline continued after the Liberals came to power and despite the fact that they passed a Poverty Reduction Act that they have violated by making people poorer.

The austerity agenda in Canada will be ‘kinder and gentler’ under Trudeau and his Liberal provincial counterparts only in form but not in substance.  We are really dealing with austerity in sheep’s clothing.  The contradiction in dealing with such duplicitous regimes is that they are less hard-nosed and can be forced to retreat somewhat more easily than overtly right wing governments but, at the same time, they are far more skillful in the art of political demobilisation. Dialogue and consultation are their stock in trade. It may, however, be Justin Trudeau’s misfortune to have taken on the role of Prime Minister at a time when the intensity of the austerity agenda and the social resistance it engenders will more than his charm and photogenic qualities can deflect.  Unlike David Cameron, the present Canadian Prime Minister would never stand up in the House of Commons and refer to people in a squalid refugee camp as ‘a bunch of migrants’.  His brand of austerity, however, is every bit a vicious and harmful as Cameron’s and those impacted by have just as much reason to mobilise and fight back as do people in the UK.

John Clarke is a political activist based in Canada, and founding member of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. He writes regularly on political and economic issues.