The coalition should be celebrated and not criticised. If anything, it's the best government this country has had for a long time, Jackart explains.[This is a guest post].
Has my outlook changed since the Election? In a word, No. I’ve always described myself as a Libertarian Conservative. I happen to be a member of the Conservative party, but am two policies away from being a Liberal Democrat*.
I am impressed at the attitude of the Government, who have been cutting wasteful programmes, lancing fake charities, abolishing quangos and repealing law with some gusto. Even the response to the Cumbrian shootings was statesmanlike without the rush to DO something to appease a baying media. Government ministers do not pop up on the Today program announcing a new policy every single day. As far as I am aware, the rate at which things are being banned has dropped from one a day for the last 13 years, to …um… none since the election. Indeed we may yet get back the rights to tell a policeman to say “Cheese” or chase wildlife on horseback.
Then, of course there’s last week's budget. The plan, and this is considered ambitious, is to end the deficit within the parliament. That means, for the benefit of economically illiterates, that in 5 years, the British Government will no longer be adding to the national debt every day. Labourites who speak of “Paying down the deficit” are deliberately lying about the real effect of Labour’s profligacy. We will only start “paying down” anything when the deficit is cut to zero and beyond. Only a surplus will ‘pay down’ the debt, but we will not be “paying down” anything at all until 2016 even with the “Tory Cuts”.
Whilst I am not happy with everything; I think AV is a stupid idea and prefer an appointed House of Lords, for example, at least Labour are not in power, and that is almost priceless.
Would I vote the same way was the election to be repeated now? Yes. I would. I am persuaded that the actual outcome is better even than the Conservative Landslide I desired at the time as Liberal Democrat participation provides some protection from the left. It provides credibility, which may one day see Labour supplanted by the Liberals as the main party of the left. The Euro & Grammar school obsessed Tory right are sidelined. The death of the Labour movement is my most profound political wish, and the election result may see this come true.
What pissed me off the most about the outcome of May 6? The low turnout was the most disappointing feature (along with Ed Balls keeping his seat) of the election result. It flattered Labour, and showed the British people, 40% of them anyway, to be uninterested in how their country is governed. It is the Labour party’s skill at Get-Out-The-Vote and political trench warfare which kept them alive in this election. Their entire manifesto was based on a transparent economic lie (that cutting spending is “taking money out of the economy”) and they were led by the worst PM in history. Yet they did better than they deserved because of residual loyalty, a low turnout, an ineffective Tory campaign, and above all savage fear-mongering amongst Labour’s pets in the Public sector. Fear worked, and that too is disappointing.
As for the future, if there is any justice, Labour will be out of power for a Generation and probably for ever. The Labour leadership election is a matter of the profoundest indifference. None of the runners will ever be prime minister. The next non-Tory to be PM will be a liberal, the next Labour PM if there is to be one, isn’t even in parliament.
The most positive thing to come from the election is the Coalition, which is now even taking in grown-up Labour figures to help sort out the most severe financial crisis since the second world war which has once again been bequeathed to us by a despicable and incompetent Labour government. Good of the country is prevailing over good of the Party in power for the first time in 13 years. That is why the Coalition’s approval ratings are sky-high.
Long may it continue….
*PR and Europe, if you’re wondering.
Jackart is a libertarian blogger and a Conservative Party member. He blogs at A Very British Dude.
11 comments:
I like Jackart. He's just as much a right-wing nutjob as the likes of Dale, without being such a pompous prat... and this posting is full of his usual risible, rascally nonsense.
I love that funny bit about... Government ministers do not pop up on the Today program announcing a new policy every single day... whereas, in fact, they do exactly that. Whether it is some garbage about how you can sell eggs, how many prisons we should have, how they are going to write to six million civil servants to ask them to commit suicide, setting up a "child and families task force", pulling out of Afghanistan, not pulling out of Afghanistan... and on, and on, and on.
But it's OK, cos they haven't banned anything (obviously no-one told fatty Pickles whose morning announcement (remember those) on the Today programme featured him banning Council newspaper publications, just after banning fortnightly bin collections in his previous spot.
I also like his honesty over the fact that the Lib Dems are just dupes to provide credibility to a right-wing reactionary mob, but like the best comedians, he saves his funniest bit for near the end. His suggestion that the next non-Tory MP will be a Liberal... just before telling us how popular the coalition is in the opinion polls. Priceless. The same opinion polls which tell us the Liberals have hemorrhaged support since joining forces with the Tories... losing 25% of their support in six weeks must be a new record.
Of course, Jackart is right, the coalition itself is proving popular in the opinion polls. Six weeks in... well knock me down with a feather! Obama's ratings were massively higher after six weeks... and even "the worst PM in history" was basking in the glow of popularity after six weeks.
Interesting to see what happened to both of those ratings once reality took hold.
I've got a £100, Jackart, which says the next non-Tory Prime Minister ain't a Liberal... if you've got a ton that says it will be.
The way Jackart speaks about the Lib Dems is like they are so kind of human-shield, kind of captures the relationship well i think.
I like Cllr Piper. He may be a left wing loon, but he's got a sense of humour and he likes cricket.
No-one's gone for the deliberate fishing expedition (fox-hunting) that I put in the piece, which is disappointing. I was hoping to have some fun with that.
I'd like to address a point Bob raises. It's a tiny point, but banning councils from printing free pravdas is not the same as banning, say, smoking in pubs. One affects councils who want to stuff worthless bumwad through letterboxes, and one concerns the rights of millions of smokers. The "right" of councilors to free taxpayer-fundend propaganda is not even on my list of freedoms.
The fact that it's on Bob's says a lot about his view of freedom.
As for the Lib-dems as human shields. Yeah... isn't it great!
Oh... and Cllr Bob - you're on. Donations to charity of the other's choice?
Writing things merely to draw a response is pretty weak and very easy.
All Tories should be raped, for example, comes under that category.
Just a thought.
Jackart's got to have a sense of humour. Only that can explain why he wrote that: (Labour's) entire manifesto was based on a transparent economic lie (that cutting spending is “taking money out of the economy”) .
Surely he doesn't mind electoral porkies too much if he's more than happy to share a bed with the Liberals ("Tory VAT bombshell", you do remember that dont you, Jackart?)
I was beginning to get quite annoyed with this blog (which as you may know I was a regular reader of) after the constant lashing out at the Lib Dems.
You redeemed yourselves slightly with this piece. I've never been a Tory but let it be said that at this specific moment in time the Coalition are the only possible way this country can get out of the crap it was left in by Gordon Brown & labour.
I guess that in certain quarters there's a knee-jerk tribal reaction to anything Tory. It may be heard to swallow but the Tories are no longer the party of Lord Tebbit, Nigel Lawson and Norman Fowler.
The budget may not have been perfect, but in this economic climate it was hardly going to consist of tons of money been lavished on every department.
Also in Vince Cable we have a guarantee that a professional and progressive politician will preside over the most delicate economic matters.
Drop the doom n gloom, I say, otherwise Labour is poised for a couple of decades in the wilderness.
Jackart... Done!
Sorry for misinterpreting your words by taking them to mean what they say. So, if banning councils doing something doesn't count as real banning, then surely, banning the hunt from doing things is ok?
Hey, just missed some Tory nobhead blathering on about Jamie Oliver... good job he's not on the Today programme.
Anita... isn't she sweet? Let's all hold hands and be nice to each other and all our woes inflicted on us by the Labour government (although usually criticised by the Lib Dems for not going far enough) will just go away. You're not a hippy are you?
Well Anita,
we didn't "redeem" ourselves, as you so patronizingly put it, because this is -brace yourself- a guest post.
A well written and persuasive one, making a few important points as well as excellent for debate.
But still, "this blog" disagrees with what Jackart wrote big time.
So I'm afraid you'll have to still "get quite annoyed with this blog" for a little longer.
Last time I checked, the right to criticise the government has not yet been abolished, eh?
You can call it "doom n gloom" but you weren't saying that when all guns were blazing against Gordon Brown, were you? What sort of flimsy argument is that?
This "doom n gloom" bollocks that Anita is going on about: did the LibDem say the same when they were opposing Labour?
True colours, Anita, true colours. The Yellow Tories.
It's good news that the coalition is indeed working for the good of the people and not just for the good of a certain party. It's refreshing to hear that the Government is finally doing better than it did before. Jackart, it is also my wish that these positive events will continue.
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