What right minded person would vote this lot, the con-dems aka Tory Lite, back into power?
And as is becoming clearer by the day the real Tories are actually a pretty scary lot and completely without the humour we associate with the UKIP of bonkers, bonkers land fame.
There seems to be little about them of kindness or graciousness or any recognition that the majority of the population really want very little from their Government apart from a secure and quiet, family or single or partnered, life, good neighbours and at the end of each week a little money left over from their budget to enjoy a pleasurable weekend.
Not a lot to ask?
But fewer and fewer seem to have these modest hopes met.
At every turn society appears to be worse off than when Cameron and Clegg sealed their marriage of convenience in the Rose Garden.
The latest news from the frontline is that wages have actually declined since the coalition implemented its austerity programme.
In most European countries wages have increased but not in the UK, here if you are not a banker, a CEO or a politician your take home pay is now worth less than it was, and to add insult to injury the newly installed head of the Bank of England has made it clear that inflation will be allowed to continue to depress income and of course the less you have to spend the greater the inflation-tax will impact on your scarce resources.
And if you have the effrontery to complain you will be advised by Mr Cameron to do, 'the right thing' or you will simply be inviting yet another sneer from Mr Osborne who will simply blame your 'lifestyle' choice.
In a blog circulating on facebook Aiden Semmans tells an interesting story about Charles Moore with whom he was at University. See: http://aidansemmens.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/if-they-cant-afford-treatment-they-dont.html?spref=fb
As far as I know I wasn't at University with any Tories, probably because I didn't go to University at all, instead, having been invited to leave school by the Headmaster and clutching my one 'O' Level in Woodwork, I got a job as a Tyre Fitter in Stoke on Trent.
Working as a very junior member of the Tyre Fitting team at Normeir Tyres I was radicalised pretty quickly receiving a wealth of advice on subjects as diverse as how to approach a difficult task, don't stand if you can sit, don't sit if you can lie down, although lying down under a muddy sub-frame trying to loosen the bolts on a rusted exhaust wasn't the hugest amount of fun, neither was putting wet muddy overalls back on in the morning.
So I set about improving my life chances, first by landing a job as a Civil Servant, no muddy sub-frames or wet overalls there thankfully. In this job I spent eight hours a day writing benefit cheques (aka Giro's) by hand, after this I was promoted to the contributions section so saw the link between the benefits received in difficult times and the contributions which paid for them in good times (now is that too difficult a link for a Tory to understand?).
Then off I went to Theological College in Salisbury, a bona fide, working class hero in the Tory Shires, I lived in The Close to which Edward Heath retired when he was dumped by his party in favour of a certain Margaret Thatcher whose first action as Education Minister was to take away the free milk and whose subsequent actions are, for some poor bloggers, still too painful to recall.
At some point in my political education I became an Anarchist, Politics Out! was the chant, and later I adopted another slogan wearing my Trappist Punk badge on my denim jacket.
Later still I was called an irresponsible socialist, which whilst that amused some, did rather make me wonder what exactly was irresponsible about being a socialist.
After all putting the common interest or good, before personal gain and profit seems to me to be a perfectly responsible thing to do.
But that is exactly the opposite of what the Tory coalition has sought to achieve and what its narrative has promoted.
Mr Duncan Smith frequently calls the Labour Party the party of welfare, as though somehow that is a bad thing, clearly he thinks its a bad thing, but what is so wrong with ensuring that when a neighbour is in difficulty you can come to their aid?
And if you cannot do that personally what is so wrong in organising society in such a way that it is done structurally and effectively.
Food Banks are a visceral response to need but how much better and fairer would society be if everyone could buy their food from the store, and therefore had sufficient to eat.
Apparently, according to this distorted Tory narrative, the reason wages have fallen in value in the UK is not because of the flat lining economy (OK .03% growth or whatever) but because of Labour's financial mis-management leading to the financial meltdown.
I can only hope that Mr Ed comes back from his holidays with his loins girded, waving a bright red banner, and declaring that the time has come to sweep away irresponsible capitalism once and for all.
People want to be given a vision and a plan and reason to vote for a better answer or if that's not possible at least be asked a better question.
And as is becoming clearer by the day the real Tories are actually a pretty scary lot and completely without the humour we associate with the UKIP of bonkers, bonkers land fame.
There seems to be little about them of kindness or graciousness or any recognition that the majority of the population really want very little from their Government apart from a secure and quiet, family or single or partnered, life, good neighbours and at the end of each week a little money left over from their budget to enjoy a pleasurable weekend.
Not a lot to ask?
But fewer and fewer seem to have these modest hopes met.
At every turn society appears to be worse off than when Cameron and Clegg sealed their marriage of convenience in the Rose Garden.
The latest news from the frontline is that wages have actually declined since the coalition implemented its austerity programme.
In most European countries wages have increased but not in the UK, here if you are not a banker, a CEO or a politician your take home pay is now worth less than it was, and to add insult to injury the newly installed head of the Bank of England has made it clear that inflation will be allowed to continue to depress income and of course the less you have to spend the greater the inflation-tax will impact on your scarce resources.
And if you have the effrontery to complain you will be advised by Mr Cameron to do, 'the right thing' or you will simply be inviting yet another sneer from Mr Osborne who will simply blame your 'lifestyle' choice.
In a blog circulating on facebook Aiden Semmans tells an interesting story about Charles Moore with whom he was at University. See: http://aidansemmens.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/if-they-cant-afford-treatment-they-dont.html?spref=fb
As far as I know I wasn't at University with any Tories, probably because I didn't go to University at all, instead, having been invited to leave school by the Headmaster and clutching my one 'O' Level in Woodwork, I got a job as a Tyre Fitter in Stoke on Trent.
Working as a very junior member of the Tyre Fitting team at Normeir Tyres I was radicalised pretty quickly receiving a wealth of advice on subjects as diverse as how to approach a difficult task, don't stand if you can sit, don't sit if you can lie down, although lying down under a muddy sub-frame trying to loosen the bolts on a rusted exhaust wasn't the hugest amount of fun, neither was putting wet muddy overalls back on in the morning.
So I set about improving my life chances, first by landing a job as a Civil Servant, no muddy sub-frames or wet overalls there thankfully. In this job I spent eight hours a day writing benefit cheques (aka Giro's) by hand, after this I was promoted to the contributions section so saw the link between the benefits received in difficult times and the contributions which paid for them in good times (now is that too difficult a link for a Tory to understand?).
Then off I went to Theological College in Salisbury, a bona fide, working class hero in the Tory Shires, I lived in The Close to which Edward Heath retired when he was dumped by his party in favour of a certain Margaret Thatcher whose first action as Education Minister was to take away the free milk and whose subsequent actions are, for some poor bloggers, still too painful to recall.
At some point in my political education I became an Anarchist, Politics Out! was the chant, and later I adopted another slogan wearing my Trappist Punk badge on my denim jacket.
Later still I was called an irresponsible socialist, which whilst that amused some, did rather make me wonder what exactly was irresponsible about being a socialist.
After all putting the common interest or good, before personal gain and profit seems to me to be a perfectly responsible thing to do.
But that is exactly the opposite of what the Tory coalition has sought to achieve and what its narrative has promoted.
Mr Duncan Smith frequently calls the Labour Party the party of welfare, as though somehow that is a bad thing, clearly he thinks its a bad thing, but what is so wrong with ensuring that when a neighbour is in difficulty you can come to their aid?
And if you cannot do that personally what is so wrong in organising society in such a way that it is done structurally and effectively.
Food Banks are a visceral response to need but how much better and fairer would society be if everyone could buy their food from the store, and therefore had sufficient to eat.
Apparently, according to this distorted Tory narrative, the reason wages have fallen in value in the UK is not because of the flat lining economy (OK .03% growth or whatever) but because of Labour's financial mis-management leading to the financial meltdown.
I can only hope that Mr Ed comes back from his holidays with his loins girded, waving a bright red banner, and declaring that the time has come to sweep away irresponsible capitalism once and for all.
People want to be given a vision and a plan and reason to vote for a better answer or if that's not possible at least be asked a better question.
No comments:
Post a Comment