SPARTACUS PLAYS FANTASY FOOTBALL

By Gerry McCartney
Contact the editor by e-mail at christopher.johnstone@ntlworld.com

A game well worth playing is fantasy politics. Start with a blank sheet of paper (gone are the days when you can find a spare sheet of clinical notes paper for these purposes), and write at the top of the page the country of interest. I tried it with Scotland, but the beauty of this game is that you can play with anywhere from Greenland to Fiji in mind. Then, underneath the country name write down what the main purpose of the country is going to be. It might be to promote world peace, develop the best tasting wine in the world, have double digit economic growth, liberty, equality and fraternity or to maximise well-being for the population.

Of course none of this is really fantasy. On May 3rd Scotland will go to the polls to elect the third Scottish parliament since its reconvention. One might be forgiven, however, for thinking that these big questions are not really up for discussion. We can talk of a penny on income tax here, an extra recycling bin there or the introduction of a new community development worker. Well that will sort it then, won't it?

The current mantra of the Scottish government is economic growth. Jack McConnell said on 7th September 2004, "This Scottish government has put growing the economy as our first priority". He is not alone. Explicitly or implicitly every government in the Western world has this as its first priority.

I have a problem with this. Economic growth is a means to an end, and a destructive means at that. Economic growth as normally measured counts the good with the bad (breaking a window increases growth as somebody has to be paid to fix it), and generates negative side-effects such as increasing inequality, climate change, overconsumption (read obesity) and generalised dissatisfaction (read depression). To keep this economic growth train on the rails we collectively need to work harder, longer and smarter. This prioritisation has also resulted in a shift of the population's values away from valuing relationships and happiness to a new obsession with consumerism, individualism and economism. Is this really the best we can do?

I believe that Scotland, along with the rest of the Western world, is suffering from a form of groupthink which dictates that any questioning of the status quo is seen as blasphemy.

But change is possible, and might occur through any one of four routes: a visionary leader who champions a new idea in a favourable environment; a groundswell of opinion and activity by large groups; change prompted by external events; and the gradual adoption of an idea by a population starting with the 'early adopters'.

There are now a few people beginning to stand up and shout that there are indeed alternatives to the current economic growth obsession.

I too, am Spartacus.

Gerry McCartney is standing as an SSP candidate in the May elections

Patients Not Profits:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/pdfs/mb-consultations/PatientsNotProfitConsultation.pdf

Other hoolet online articles by Chris Johnstone can be found at:
hoolet edition 51 - Enough And No More
hoolet edition 50 - Now We Are 50
hoolet edition 49 - The Policy Palsy
hoolet edition 48 - The Last Waltz
hoolet edition 47 - The Old New Contract
hoolet edition 46 - Teaching to the Converted
hoolet edition 45 - Turkeys Voting For Christmas
hoolet edition 44 - That's a nasty QOF
hoolet edition 43 - Calm Down, Calm Down, It's only the NHS
hoolet edition 42 - Perpetually Fooled Initiative
hoolet edition 41 - Crisis? What Crisis?
hoolet edition 40 - Doing What You Are Told
hoolet edition 39 - A History of hoolets
hoolet edition 38 - Where did it all go wrong?
hoolet edition 37 - Commodificationalising the NHS
hoolet edition 36 - The Cost of Everything and the Value of Nothing
hoolet edition 35 - Much Too Much, Much Too Soon
hoolet edition 34 - What Shall It Profit a Government?
hoolet edition 33 - A Long Career in Applied Cynicism
hoolet edition 32 - My Greatest Pleasure
hoolet edition 31 - Goodbye to the NHS
hoolet edition 30 - The National Health Service is Sorry
hoolet edition 29 - MMR More Media Rubbish
hoolet edition 28 - A Life of Pleasure
hoolet edition 27 - Barricade medicine

Other hoolet reviews by Chris Johnstone:
Bad Medicine
Armed Madhouse
The Bullet Trick
The Medical Detective
Plundering the Public Sector

hoolet is the magazine of RCGP Scotland. It is supported intellectually, financially and emotionally by RCGP Scotland.

This issue maintained by Robert Hallam.