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I was not overely impressed with Peter Mandelson’s speech to the TUC Conference yesterday, it is all far too late now, Labour is like a stale Pork Pie, well past both its sell by date and shelf life. But still, hope clearly springs eternal in the human breast…

In today’s Independent, Steve Richards wrote a piece the main thrust of which was to put the case for Labour being re-elected. It is a wonderful piece of self delusion that ranks up there with Hitler in his Bunker ordering non-existent military formations into battle.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-tory-policy-is-a-recipe-for-disaster-1787347.html

In Reply

I used to write in to the Telegraph a lot but quite apart from their rather feeble “re-organisation”, the people who post there are pretty much always the same and as you would expect from a Right Wing newspaper so in the end, it got rather boring, the blog pages you can sign up to, far too cosy. The Independent though is different with a political spread of Left, Right and Centre. Whilst it has its share of nutters, by and large there is a better educated debate on most things even if people are coming at the topic from different directions.

As a consequence, apart from one entry from someone who hadn’t woken up before they posted, the reaction to Steve Richards was quite universal and I am sure several were from people who are normally pro-Labour. Basically it was bugger off and wake up which might put my own contribution below, in some context.

Dear Mr Richards…

Hilarious, in varying degrees, most (all), of the people who have commented thus far seem to think that you Mr Richards are a few shillings short of a Pound, in fact let us be frank, you are either loony or smoking strange substances.

The public at large are very bright not, as you seem to think a bunch of dimwits, writing this Labour propaganda is childish and anyway, not even the Party Line as in:

“…there would have been spending cuts at the height of the recession, no fiscal stimulus and no takeover of banks on the verge of collapse. Their policies would have left Britain isolated from the rest of the world…”

Tut, tut, tut… Where does Gordon Saving the World come in ? Because without the Great Gordon, all the other Countries would have failed to take the required action so they would have done the same as a Cameron Government. You must attend Branch Meetings more regularly !

Forget all the detailed arguments and policies, there are two key reasons that Cameron will get elected and it has little to do with whether people like him, his party or because they are the only viable choice right now. They are free of guilt for the past decisions that have put us here, they are therefore free to take whatever remedial actions are required to correct the situation and put the Public Finances back on track.

To talk about Government debt in the billions is pretty meaningless but express it as £50-70-100,000 (whatever the actual figures), for each man and woman in this Country and it becomes all too real for ordinary voters and no amount of honeyed words from Mandlebum or the suddenly reasonable on TV Mr Balls, will change that.

When they come to write the story of the New Labour years in power, it will be an odd one which will read more like a series of episodes from East Enders than anything serious. For all his plotting and sulking for the top job, for all his supposed intellectual prowess, Brown made no preparations for taking the PM’s job. He never realised that having been in Office for 10 years as Chancellor, he couldn’t change any major policies without looking foolish. Labour’s biggest problem is Brown and as they didn’t even challenge him for the Leadership, as Brown was tied to the Blair years with no wriggle room, so too are they tied to 12 years of past policies.

It would actually be inhuman to demand Brown “fess up” to the cods up, we need a General Election and for Labour to be gone, their time at the wheel is over we need a fresh start, the people who buy our Government debt need reassurance that there is a Government with an open outlook. Cameron is not a bad bet considering how he has largely neutralised the “die-hards” within his own Party, he will make mistakes but they will not be caused by adhering to some political dogma or another.

Very poor journalism here Mr Richards which insults just about most people and regardless of their political affiliations including, being a Labour supporter.

The Dim One…

Now to be fair, I have no idea whether the contributor I mentioned earlier is dumb, I’m sure that is harsh but in his short contribution he included a statement that is fundamentally wrong as I quote. However, it is not the statement about Thatcher I care about, it is the mindless acceptance without question of something this person has heard and never bothered to investigate or think about.

My Response

Regardless of political affiliations the statement:”…Thatcher’s destruction of our manufacturing base…” is fundamentally wrong.

In reality all she did was to refuse to subsidise inefficient industries with taxpayer’s money. Those British based manufacturing jobs were lost by UK consumers wanting better quality and cheaper products. If Joe Public wanted to earn say 100 pw but if that meant for someone making Fridges in Luton was also paid 100 pw but the product cost twice as much as an import in Currys, they would buy the import so eventually, that job in Luton was exported to Turkey.

Dyson would have preferred to keep manufacturing of his cleaners in the UK but as a commercial business having to compete in the retail stores for consumer sales, he had to opt for lower unit costs so the manufacturing jobs were exported.

In this context you will note that Labour in 2005 didn’t bail MG Rover out either.

Sure in such situations, there will be people who make money but it was the British public who did that through their choices not, the Government and that will remain the case into the future. The Government couldn’t close down News Corp in the UK but consumers could virtually overnight by stopping buying the Sun and cancelling their Sky subscriptions because that is where the economic power actually is as both consumers and taxpayers.

I couldn’t care personally whether you or others want to “attack Thatcher”, fine fill your boots but the whole thinking is not just wrong, it is also dangerous because it seeks to project the blame on others and not realise exactly what the problem is. The current problems: “It Was the Fat Cat Bankers”, yes but in the UK we had both the consumers and the Government go on a mad spending spree and in the immediate future, that is the real problem.