Both politics and the media keep undermining democracy

This morning's media is a good indicator of why people's trust in the governing classes is so low, yet the governing classes do not seem willing to respond. This drip-drip of contempt continues unchecked and while politicians bemoan the outcomes they do nothing to challenge the causes.

This briefing only has capacity to consider two instances. The first is about public sector pay. Glasgow City Council has advertised for a Director of Education on a salary of just shy of £180,000.

That is more than the Lord Advocate for Scotland, more or less equals the pay of the First Minister and is five times the salary of the median full time employee in Scotland. It occurs at a time when Glasgow City Council is cutting teaching numbers by 450.

Director of Education is a job which could be carried out by a large number of people in Scotland. Knowledge of the administration of education is not in short supply, the complex decisions on education are made at a national level and it is very hard to make an argument that there is a major difference that could be made by some 'exceptional candidate'.

Administering education is mainly a resource allocation and HR management job. These are routine. This is not an area of government which is ripe for radical innovation or an entrepreneurial mindset. Disrupting education is a dangerous step to take and there is a good reason why it isn't done.

There is absolutely no credible reason for paying this salary other than that it is the outcome of a group of senior officials who know that they can do whatever they want, pick a number from the air. This is a local authority which was reprimanded (but not punished) for creating unjustifiable and lucrative payoffs for a small number of elite staff which were never approved by anyone other than those who benefited. They then issued legal warnings (using public money) to the democratically elected councillors to try and prevent them talking about it.

The key aspect of this is 'not punished'. The Scottish public sector is becoming entrenched in moral hazard. You can enrich yourself illegitimately and face few or no consequences and then do it again and again face no consequences.

And yet this is reported in the media so the public knows. That is where the erosion of trust comes from. The message being sent is that the system is rigged against ordinary people who pay tax and that there is nothing they can do about it.

A second example is the media's reliance on commercial interests for 'neutral' commentary. This creates a media environment in which the interests of the wealthy are highlighted at the expense of everyone else.

Here it is reported that the cost of an average Scottish house has risen by 21.5 per cent or £34,000 since 2020. At worst, houses in East Dumbartonshire are up £62,450 in the same period. An average house in Edinburgh now costs 7.5 times median salary. If that was any other commodity it would be reported as a catastrophe, a cost of living crisis destroying lives.

Indeed Scotland is currently officially in a housing crisis and the media is awash with stories about how entire generations are being priced out of ever owning a house. Earlier this week we analysed startling rises in rents. And Scotland is worse than the rest of Britain. Out house prices are rising faster than the UK average.

And yet this is reported as a good news story and there is only one cursory mention at the very bottom of the article that this is dreadful news for an entire generation of people. Realistically, the only people this is good news for is those who own two properties. For everyone else this is just neutral or extremely bad.

Everything in public life is filtered through the interests of the most wealthy in society, be they unaccountable public sector insiders or exploitative property developers. This is the one per cent taking to the one percent and it is relentless, every day of the week.

To the average voter this looks like contempt. Politicians are very vocal at their unhappiness over a public who is angry at them. Yet they are the only people who can prevent this happening and they continually do the opposite.

Unless the ruling classes can make a better first of pretending that they are working for us and not them through steps like enforced pay restraint and policy management directed at the interests of those not in the top one per cent of the wealthiest, the descent into disillusionment with democracy will not only continue, it will be justified.