The Political Thread

[Old Tankie]

Hi Jim - You described yourself as coming from the Left in politics but think the country's gone to the Right.  I would describe myself as coming from the Right of politics and think the country's gone to the Left!!!  As a counter balance to what you mentioned in your post, I would list large defence cuts, high immigration, massive widening of the social security safety net (tax credits, pension credits, for example), high taxes, civil partnerships, gay marriage, help with child care for people earning up to 150K each.

Now, I'm not saying the things above are wrong, I agree with some of them, but they're hardly the actions of rabid right-wing governments.

[M.I.K.]

Hi Jim - You described yourself as coming from the Left in politics

I don't think he did, you know. I think you must've read this bit wrong...

Back in 1987, I'd have characterised myself as the wet end of Tory to the dry end of Liberal. Three years of university probably shifted me a few degrees to the left but I remain pretty much where I was all those years ago...

[Old Tankie]

Okay, okay!!  But Jim did say that the country's moved to the Right.  Or have I got that wrong too?  In any case, I'm pretty sure Jim's to the Left of me.  I shall be following your posts very closely from now on, and be very quick to point out any errors.  You've been warned!!   

[M.I.K.]

You'll be wasting your time. I never maek misteaks.

[Prodigal2]

I agree that some of the austerity measures have been too severe but given what they started with, the govt had to be cautious with their borrowing.

Except that I don't accept the basic premise that this government's concern is prudent borrowing or well-managed public finances. If those were their concerns, they wouldn't be throwing money down the black hole that is Ian Duncan Smith's Universal Credit disaster; they wouldn't be giving away hundreds of millions of pounds' worth of publicly-owned property to privately-owned consortia and companies in the form of academy schools; they wouldn't have changed the university tuition system to the point where it's so expensive that the increased defaults will mean it costs the state more than the system it replaced. And, as previously mentioned, they wouldn't be paying a private company hundreds of millions of pounds to expend ten times the resources chasing £1.7bn of benefit fraud than HMRC is allowed to expend chasing £70bn of tax. They wouldn't have pushed through NHS reforms that suck money out of the state healthcare system without delivering a single pound in extra care or services.

It's abundantly clear that this government is philosophically opposed to a vast raft of public services and that 'austerity' is merely a smokescreen to enable the most comprehensive dismantling of our social infrastructure in sixty years, and the attendant transfer of that government spending to private institutions.

Cheers

Jim

This.

[Theblazeuk]

Sharky, the world you live in is not the one I do. It is only the threat of penalisation that keeps the roads running smoothly. Otherwise every one would chance that red light to get through a little quicker and the pedestrians would be out of luck permanently.

And I do not know this common law that you speak of. Mob justice exists where legislation and authority does not but these are not anything more than the rule of the strong and the many against the weak and the few.

Legislation does prevent transgressive acts - if only by making them into crimes with according punishments. I grew up with a fair few people who have only stopped breaking into people's homes, mugging people in the street and so forth because they ended up in jail and don't want to go back.

[Professor Bear]

I was reading a really funny Onion article about a confirmed fraudster with no legal background who conned his way into an official position in some hick government's justice ministry and then banned families of prisoners from sending books into prisons as they had to send money instead so prisoners could buy books from the prison, but only from a list approved by the government.  It was a really funny satire on open corruption and something you could only make up.

I would describe myself as coming from the Right of politics and think the country's gone to the Left!!!

We never could have guessed from the liberal slant of your posts.

[Theblazeuk]

Right wing used to mean being a bit of a **** for the simple joy of prejudice. Now it means being a bit of a **** for money.

[Professor Bear]

I imagine there have been plenty of Conservative politicians in the past who stood against prejudice.  I don't think we'd have made it this far otherwise.

Also, from Twitter and vaguely on-topic:

[Old Tankie]

Right wing used to mean being a bit of a **** for the simple joy of prejudice. Now it means being a bit of a **** for money.
[Up yours /quote]

[Old Tankie]

Umm!  Sorry about that - the "up yours" and the Smiley were supposed to be under the quote, one day I'll get the hang of this interweb thingamajig!!

[TordelBack]

I would describe myself as coming from the Right of politics and think the country's gone to the Left!!!

We never could have guessed from the liberal slant of your posts.

At least he's not to the right of Hitler, like Campbell has been shown to be...

[Old Tankie]

You leave Jim alone!!

[Professor Bear]

I'm glad to see the government taking a tough stance on immigration by deporting a straight-A teenage student back to the abuse her mother took her to the UK to escape - no excuses, Jenny Foreigner!  When over a hundred thousand wet-behind-the-ears liberals treacherously signed a petition asking for her to remain in the UK where she could eventually aid our economy, the government achieved a compromise by taking these pinko Bolsheviks at their word about not deporting the girl "all alone" and separating her from her family by deporting her entire family as well - oh how I laughed!  That'll teach those liberal scum to try and put one over on Dangerous Dave Cameron and the top toffs of the Tory thinkbox currently rebuilding Blighty!  The British people can hold their heads high today.

[Old Tankie]

Try as hard as you like, Prof, but I'm not biting!!  Just finished my wheel-chair T'ai Chi and all's right with the world.