The Social Acceptability List 2015

As the New Year approaches, we reflect on a bumper year in the world of social discourse. Here’s a little run down of the movers and shakers in this year’s Social Acceptability List, which is compiled by the Fallen in Public and its patchy memory and is about what politicians, newspapers and netizens went on about and how. What’s in? What’s out? What’s OK? What’s not? Read on to find out...

In today's edition - IT'S IN! Ties With China!

Since China went red, the West has wanted to shun it. But money is the loudest voice in politics, so gradually we’ve had to accept that China is here to stay. The first step was recognising, in 1971, that the communist People’s Republic of China was the China that got the seat at the UN, at the expense of the Republic of China, which is now in the (mostly) unrecognised state of Taiwan. Since then, money has spoken more and more until, finally, the Chinese are building power plants in the UK.

It’s an irony that the Tories have been far more gung-ho about China, while Labour (who traditionally would be seen to be closer bed-fellows) have been more hesitant. First we had George Osborne talking about how his daughter is learning Mandarin, hailing it as the language of the future (not without reason). Then, for a good while, we had an admiring commentary on Chinese (and generally eastern) education. I live in China, and I know about Chinese education, and it’s a rough, relentless, dispiriting slog. It stifles creativity; it promotes mindless conformity. It’s also completely inseparable from their overall culture, and works seamlessly to keep an abundance of people from getting too rebellious. Chinese students memorise much, but learn little. But their exam results are fantastic.

But their fantastic exam results aren’t the cause of their economic success. That, rather, is due to the cheap labour, long hours (many unpaid), few regulations, fear of asserting any rights, and the sheer numbers they have. It’s an economic rise led by the cruel whims of the markets and backed by investment of the state, and (for its sins) it’s taken many millions out of absolute poverty. The British governments’ similar willingness to leave everything to the market, and to sell out their own labour force for cheaper labour in China, is one of the reasons for the UK’s economic troubles.

This year, the Tories finally filled the bathtub of hypocrisy and slipped in to the bubbly warmth of a Chinese money spa. It materialised as a full-blown, Chinese state-owned enterprise in the UK for energy. Another high profile partner in the UK energy game is EDF, the state-owned French company. All this while taking the axe to public funding of services, and maintaining the narrative that publicly run organisations are costly, bureaucratic and wasteful, and should be avoided at all costs.

John McDonnell, in another attempt to ruin his career, attempted to highlight this irony with his Little Red Book prop, his dig at Osborne’s new friendship with the Communists. It turned into a playground argument about who liked Mao more.

Around the same time, China's leader Xi Jinping came to meet our duel leaders, Cameron and the Queen. The red carpet was laid and a propaganda coup was shown for all 1.3 billion Chinese back home. I saw the news reports on the subway TVs. The Chinese have a great fondness for the UK (despite being on the receiving end of British colonialism), and though they may be overworked and denied many rights, they are proud of the strength of their country. The British as allies was seen as vindication.

China still gets mocked. Its rich shoppers get mocked at Christmas; its taste for gambling and luxury is mocked as a great communist irony. Its policies get roundly criticised in the media, but not from politicians. They’ve taken the Saudi approach: let’s not let morality get in the way of a good heist. I dare say China will become more socially acceptable in the political sphere as time goes on, to the extent that - if I may make a little prediction - the efficiency of single-party power will challenge the merits of troublesome democracy that we currently cling to, and eventually usurp it.