1st August 2012

Mitt Romney is that very dangerous thing,  a loose canon.

And he was here.

Now he is in Israel.

So far he has not done justice either to his Mormon forbears or his country’s foreign policy.

Strange really because his form of neo-liberalism should sit very well with David Cameron’s and George Osborne’s neo liberalism, in as much as they should be natural allies.

So much pain and humour on facebook and in the blogosphere makes it clear that the public is aware of what is going on and remarkably unable to challenge or change it.

The con-dems are not pursuing an economic policy they are pursuing a political strategy.

As Margaret Thatcher claimed in the 80’s they want to see an end to socialism.

Austerity is not an economic response to either the Euro Crisis or the indebted British economy if it was they would focus their attentions on the rich, the carpet baggers, the bankers and the ex- patriots who live their sun downer lives in the tax exiles of the world.

No, it is welfare that attracts all the con-demnation the con-dems can muster.

As if an individual receiving £50’s a week in benefits or tax credits can result in the nation running up huge debts?

And Mr Cameron is committed to giving business what it wants.

Buying a double espresso in Pitlochry today I commented to the Barrista how quiet the town was compared with our previous visits, she agreed, she added and there are more foreign tourists this year than ever.

It takes some thinking through.

Maybe the stay-cation is a myth?

Perhaps the British tourists are relaxing in the euro zone Sunshine?

Perhaps they simply cannot afford to holiday at all?

It could be the price of fuel, it cost me over a £100 to fill my tank with diesel before I left home, but neither I nor the barrista or I could easily identify what has changed over the past two years.

And it is this that makes the Lib-Dems position so unsatisfactory, does Mr Clegg understand, what some of his party seem to understand, that this Neo-Liberal agenda is being actively promoted by his con-dem allies.

Ed Milliband and Ed Balls do understand this, which is why they seek to pursue a policy that constantly holds in front of the population at large just what damage is being done to our economy by the austerity which is being pursued by the con-dems and which is self defeating

So on we go, as Bob Dylan sang in another context, ninety miles an hour down a dead end street.

The end game is waiting to be played out.

It is hard to imagine whether it will all result in political change, the restoration of common sense in the body politic, a government of national interest and the end of the neo liberal agenda, banks being run for the public interest, profits rather than losses socialised and a focus on public welfare in the best and widest sense of a word the neo liberals constantly seek to discredit, when it is above all a sign of a civilised society at its best.

We have no influence over whether Mitt Romney will win the Presidency and the legislature will in its remarkably organic way, seek to minimise the worst effects of his policies, with the possible exception of health care.

We do however have an influence over the out turn of our own political future.

Britain is not and never has been a neo-liberal country, from one nation Tories to the post war Labour Party, various governments have sought a middle way in social planning and politics.

Once the Jubilee and Olympic hoo haa has died down perhaps we can concentrate on unpacking the legerdemain implicit in the con-dem narrative.