George Lee, The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Looking at frontline on feb 8th, while the show was initially supposed to have been about social welfare - it was rescheduled in line with the resignation of George lee. I was struck by the significance given to this mans affairs, media frenzy - and for what ?. I suppose its indicative of celebrity culture, next thing hel be staring in his own reality TV show.

One of things I noticed pretty quickly was that despite the sympathy this man seemed to generate amongst the audience, he wasn't presenting his political views. Whenever Lee was asked about his economic/political trajectory he would respond with a flurry of rhetoric about how Ireland had lost its way and required (strong leadership). Lee would talk about ''the need to get people back to work'' and lack of vision on the part of the political establishment ect. Later that night Lee appeared on Vincent Brown where he received a scalding inquisition at the behest of the great cynic. Brown was Intent on exposing Lees political ideology but to no avail. Lee like all good neo-liberal economists asserted (as he had been trained to do as an undergraduate) that he was ''value free'' - didn't believe in ideology, and considered himself a pragamtist. Along the way Lee made comments expressing his wish to see the poorest in society protected ect. Needless to say, all die hard right wing liberals want to protect the poor, so long as its not at the expense of the rich.

So who is George Lee ? Well, he graduated from UCD, after having studied economics under the late Brendan Walsh - the man who called for a statutory limit on irish borrowing during the 1980s, he was a staunch proponent of low income tax and deregulated labour markets. Lee was most likely entrenched in neo-classical liberal orthodoxy from the moment he stepped foot inside UCDs gates. He studied in a time defined by the monetarist ascendancy and collapse of the berlin wall. Later Lee would go on to work in the financial markets, acting as a Senior Economist with Riada Stockbrokers - an organization that among things, deals in debt exchange. After this he worked with the Central Bank of Ireland - before joining RTE in 1992. His productions included two interesting features, George Lee in China - and - The Fall of the Berlin Wall. Both documentaries provided revisionist interpretations of history and bias conceptions of contemporary events. The primary undertone was however, unmistakable ie. (liberal capitalism has triumphed, everything else has failed - history has ended). It was a telling contrast, that in a time marked by capitalist crisis Lee was making productions built around themes considered central to the ''fall of communism''. Self re-assurance ? who knows.

Unfortunately for Lee, his depiction of Germany as having overcome the evil socialist scourge and walking happily into a reaganite utopia was crushed, when in September 2009, the year after he had finished his production - Die Linke (an anti capitalist socialist party) took 11.9% in the federal election. Virtually every constituency in Eastern Berlin was taken by Die Linke, the area Lee had been filming the year prior, with his smug remarks about the popular embrace of capitalist values among modern residents.




Back in Ireland, Lee upon being accepted into Fianna Gael had outlined some of his economic proposals - they included the privatization of state companies like Bord Gais and the ESB. He also remarked that he''would overhaul the massive public sector quangos like the HSE, CIE and FAS and expose them to more competition in order to deliver vital health, transport and training services more effectively and at less cost to the taxpayer'', In other words - Lee's prescription to the current crisis was to sell off public assets to private holders. Two birds with one stone from Lee's perspective considering 1. it would alleviate the wealthy (his supporters) of a substantial tax burden and 2. further ensure public dependence on private services. His claim that increased private control would result in a lower cost to the taxpayer was nonsensical - privatization invariably results in higher costs. It would be true to say those on high incomes would be spared a deal of taxation under Lee's imagined regime - however the vast majority of working people would need to pay more in terms of higher prices.

So thats it, George Lee was a neo-liberal who joined a neo-liberal party, he left - who cares why. The idea that Lee was bringing something new to the political establishment was nonsense. Neo-classical psudeo scientists (economists) exist in abundance within Fianna Gael, Lee must have thought he was special. Not to worry though - he will most likely be given a position in RTE on around five times the average industrial wage, Im sure hel be feeling better in no time.