I dont usually spend too much time commentating on UK politics, as I don't live there anymore.However I have been reading an article in the blog Libdemvision,which talks about Nick Clegg continuing his 'March to classical Liberalism'.In other words a move towards economic rather than Social Liberalism or Social Democracy.
Coupled with this I am reading that the latest 'model' Tory Council the London Borough of Barnet is to be 'run on a budget airline model'.
I over-use the phrase 'you couldn't invent it' quite alot but I am absolutely taken aback.At a time when unregulated capitalism has brought us to the edge of catastrophy we are being told that more laissez-faire is good for us and that local government should be run like a cut price airline.
The Labour Government has responded boldly to the economic crisis, but the rest of it's performance, with some noble exceptions, has been more reminiscent of a party afraid of its own shadow, afraid to upset the middle classes and the Murdoch press.It's been ok to attack soft targets such as fox hunting and reform of the Lords, but the last 12 years of New Labour have seen the gap between rich and poor actually increase, coupled with a depressingly predictable authoritarianism leading us, among other things, to ID cards.
So there we have it, two rightwing parties, in the Tories and the Liberals, plus a Labour Party that has completely lost the plot and veered to the right, and now we have the extremist BNP.
What the country actually needs is a Social Market economy that recognises the state as a major economic player and that redistributive taxation is a central plank of social policy.
Otherwise, in Monty Pythons words, its 'Spam,Spam,Spam and Spam'
No comments:
Post a Comment