20th August 2013

It's hard to know what to be more concerned about.

With Tony Blair as the Middle East Envoy it seems that everything is not getting better in either Syria or Egypt.

And here each day brings more conflicting news.

From arresting innocent travellers at Heathrow to zero hours contracts the con-dems continue to consolidate their reputation.

Vote Blue and Turn Green.

Green of course implies environmental integrity and all that.

But it seems that what has happened is that we voted blue and turned green with envy.

Having voted Blue as a consequence of a financial crisis in the hope that we can legislate our way to more settled times, we have moved, inevitably it seems, toward a more divided society, a society which the current Prime Minister insists on calling 'broken', but as the late author, Ian Banks, quoted in The Guardian Newspaper commented:

 'Your societies broken, so who should we blame? Should we blame the rich, powerful people who caused it? No, let's blame the people with no power and no money and these immigrants who don't even have the vote - yeah it must be their f***ing fault'.

And blame them we have, they have been benefit capped, medically examined, rehoused to houses with less rooms, offered zero hour contracts and had to stand and watch as posters have been driven round their neighbourhoods advertising the threats against them.

It seems to me and as it say's on the tin, I am thinking aloud, that the public debate really needs to begin in earnest.

Every statement issued by the con-dems over the two years leading up to proomised elections in 2015 needs to be studied closely and subject to a hermenutic, a cost benefit analysis, a lie detector test and anything else that lies to hand.

It seems that the net result of current policies is to create a house price bubble which will make anyone owning a house feel better off as their equity position improves, feeling better off means that they might spend more, spending more will boost output, boosting output will increase taxation income, increased tax income will make the deficit appear to have been reduced.

But it will be another boom and will inevitably lead to another bust, either on their (the con-dem's) watch or on Labour's should they be elected.

The current narrative is being framed in terms of the 'mess we inherited from an irresponsible Labour Government', today in Australia, the Mayor of London, whilst kissing a, very small crocodile,  described falling out with your brother as a 'socialist' thing to do.

Pity the crocodile wasn't bigger, as it said in the Crocodile Dundee movie apropos a knife: 'that's not a crocodile, this is a crocodile'.

The Chancellor describes Mothers who stay at home to care for their children as making a 'lifestyle' choice and therefore not requiring child care support, the man known as IDS dismisses Labour as the party of welfare, which is ironic, given that reports suggest that his attempts to cap welfare have actually increased the welfare bill through increased administrative costs.

So how should the election debate be conducted by the opposition.

Good advice came today from another author who has recently died.

Elmore Leonard has this advice for Ed Milliband and the Shadow Cabinet:

Never use a verb other than 'said' to carry dialogue and never use an adverb to modify the verb 'said'. Avoid lengthy descriptions, the word 'suddenly' and leave out the part that people skip. 

Keep at it and keep it simple'.