In for a penny...
You crawl through the traffic chaos approaching a set of roadworks. As you pass them you give a sigh of relief, which lasts a couple of miles until you reach the next lot. You fight off the anger and rising sense of desperation and take the chance to think for a few minutes.
Across the region there are areas where there is an almost endless stream of road construction projects going on. Some of these are works brought forward by the government’s infrastructure spending intended to help stabilise - and hopefully even boost - the economy.
And now we have a national debate about government spending that is being conducted in simplistic, populist terms – “we need big cuts now”, “we need no cuts now” . . . . and on, and on, rolling over the shallow, delusional and self-serving territory over which national politics always seems to be conducted in the run up to the election.
Roadworks are one example of helpful spending on infrastructure that will pay dividends in terms of economic growth and public convenience long after the election and the quieting of the current puerile debate about spending. Some types of social expenditure really do result in long-term investment, providing rewards well into the future that more than justify the initial cost.
There are other forms of spending that we know are more debateable – although not necessarily wrong. We can understand these issues. We can debate them. The worry is that we end up with an election campaign that excludes us from these debates, almost lulling us into disengagement with an issue of long term importance. Then once the election is over the region and our local communities will have no chance of participating in these important decisions.
Perhaps before polling day we should encourage our national politicians to spend a little more time in these traffic jams, where they will be able to reflect on the road building programme and other government infrastructure initiatives. Maybe this period of reflection will help them think of ways in which they could start to have a serious debate with us about it rather than indulging in the same old childish slanging match.
