Government launches marathon national conversation in which voters may eventually agree simply because everyone would like to discuss something else
LONDON - Prime Minister Andy Burnham has warned Britain that difficult choices lie ahead, launching what officials describe as an ambitious multiyear programme to determine exactly how long voters must hear about an unpopular policy before opposition becomes medically indistinguishable from fatigue.
The Five Stages of Government Pitch-Rolling
Researchers have identified several stages.
Shock.
Anger.
Debate.
Panel discussion.
Consultation.
Another panel discussion.
A Sunday interview.
Resignation.
Acceptance.
Gardening.
The crucial transition occurs somewhere between the fourth select-committee appearance and the fifteenth minister saying Britain “cannot duck the difficult choices.”
At that point, the citizen stops objecting.
Not because he agrees.
He needs groceries.
Burnham's Long-Term Reform Agenda: Social Care, Pensions and the 2029 Election
Burnham has explicitly framed his premiership around long-term decisions. At Labour's September conference he laid out ambitions spanning social care, housing, utilities, pensions and constitutional reform while acknowledging that some major outcomes would extend beyond the 2029 election.
This creates ideal conditions for pitch-rolling.
Political disagreement has traditionally been solved through debate.
Modern government has discovered endurance.
If citizens object Monday, explain Tuesday.
If objections persist Wednesday, publish FAQs.
Thursday brings an infographic.
Friday, a minister visits a hospital.
Sunday, somebody tells Andrew Marr that this is about “the kind of country we want to be.”
By the following Thursday, even the opposition spokesman is begging to discuss fisheries.
Victory.
Exhaustion-Based Legitimacy: When Repetition Replaces Consent
Political scientists may eventually classify this as Exhaustion-Based Legitimacy.
The theory is straightforward: repeat a proposition until citizens begin confusing familiarity with inevitability. Psychologists have a respectable name for part of this, the mere-exposure effect, which is the finding that people tend to like things more simply because they have seen them more often.
Advertising has understood this for decades.
Nobody initially believes he needs a particular brand of carpet cleaner.
After hearing the jingle 400 times, he begins regarding the product as part of the constitutional settlement.
Government pitch-rolling operates similarly but with White Papers.
The danger is obvious.
Democratic consent should mean people understand a proposal and support it, not that they were exposed to it until resistance developed repetitive-strain injury.
Social Care Funding: Putting the Invoice on the Table, Several Years Early
There is nonetheless something refreshing about Burnham acknowledging that reform costs money and may be politically difficult.
Social care has tormented governments precisely because politicians frequently promise generous provision while becoming mysteriously vague when conversation reaches the invoice. Successive governments have commissioned reviews, The King's Fund has documented the pressures, and the Department of Health and Social Care has inherited the lot.
Burnham is at least placing the invoice on the table.
Unfortunately, he is placing it there several years early and encouraging everyone to become emotionally attached to it.
How Britain Normalises Everything, Including Tax Rises
The strategy might work.
Human beings normalise almost anything. Economists call a cousin of this hedonic adaptation; Westminster calls it a communications plan.
We normalised airport security queues.
We normalised £6 pints.
We normalised printing a QR code on a restaurant table where a menu used to be.
Given sufficient exposure, Britain could normalise taxation delivered by falcon.
The Questions Voters Deserve Answered About the National Care Service
What matters is whether the public eventually receives enough detail to make an actual choice.
How much will the National Care Service cost?
Who pays?
What benefits are guaranteed?
How will costs be controlled?
What happens when projections prove wrong? The Office for Budget Responsibility and the Institute for Fiscal Studies exist largely so that somebody can ask exactly that.
These are less glamorous questions than “Do we care about elderly people?” but rather more useful when designing a state programme.
Political Courage or Highly Organised Nagging?
Pitch-rolling can prepare the ground for an honest decision.
Or it can bury the decision beneath years of messaging.
The difference will determine whether Burnham's approach represents political courage or merely highly organised nagging.
By 2030 voters may enthusiastically embrace the reforms.
They may reject them.
Or Britain may experience the strangest democratic mandate of all:
“Fine. Whatever. Just please stop explaining it.”
Downing Street will record that as 72 percent support.
Disclaimer
This is satire based on Burnham's genuine long-term reform agenda and the political strategy commonly called pitch-rolling. No actual government polling methodology consists entirely of waiting for citizens to surrender from boredom, as far as the dairy farmer has been informed. This story is entirely a human collaboration between two sentient beings: the world's oldest tenured professor and a philosophy major turned dairy farmer.
SOURCE: Financial Times.
15 Observations on Exhaustion-Based Legitimacy
- Exhaustion-Based Legitimacy: it counts as consent once everyone has stopped answering the phone.
- The five stages of government are Shock, Anger, Panel Discussion, Resignation and Gardening.
- Citizens stop objecting not because they agree but because they need groceries.
- Thursday brings an infographic; Friday, a minister at a hospital; Sunday, Andrew Marr.
- By the second Thursday even the opposition spokesman is begging to discuss fisheries.
- Repeat a proposition 400 times and it joins the constitutional settlement.
- A White Paper is a jingle with footnotes.
- We normalised airport queues, £6 pints and QR menus; a tax delivered by falcon is next.
- Putting the invoice on the table four years early is brave; encouraging emotional attachment to it is cheeky.
- How much will the National Care Service cost? The question remains on the table, next to the invoice.
- Detail is the difference between a democratic choice and a long sigh.
- Repetitive-strain injury is now a recognised side effect of resisting policy.
- Political courage and highly organised nagging look identical from the back of a committee room.
- "Fine. Whatever. Just please stop explaining it" is a mandate.
- Downing Street will record the sigh as 72 percent support. https://prat.uk/?p=50858
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