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Well it is Sunday and to brighten my day, yet another highly intelligent article written by my erudite Left Wing ‘friend’, John Rentoul. I like this chap just as back in the 1980s, I loved reading Brian Waldren a former Labour MP who published in the London Evening Standard every Tuesday during ‘Maggie’s Years’.

In both cases, none of the ‘histrionics’ based upon their personal political beliefs, just straight forward and clear eyed analysis and comment based upon “what is today”. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-cameron-is-cheeky-but-right-1941241.html

Temper of the Times…

There was nothing much to add to another excellent article, please do read because agree or not with the content, there is so much good stuff there to make you think.

I have often said before that it was replying to news stories in the Telegraph that got me blogging although when they changed their site, along with a number of other regular contributors, I seem to have got ‘banned’ for some reason (no I don’t know why), so I gave up on the DT which was a shame because at its best in its original form, it was total fun with some great regular contributors who were and I suspect deliberately, ‘very often, Off Message’ but great fun with it too.

I like to be ‘challenged’ and eventually after forsaking the DT, found the ‘Independent’ as a rather natural ‘Home’ and far better than the DT which tends to attract “Colonel Blimps” and “Other Party Trolls” in equal measure. The Indy is a far richer ‘diet’ of Labour, Conservative, LibDems and Celtic Nationalists but it has provided the same ‘provocation’ as the DT did originally, to feed my own blog.

The odd thing though has been how since this election campaign has started, the ‘real regular thinkers, of any particular political hue, have kind of ‘withdrawn’ from commenting. Yes, they pop up now and again but nowhere as often… curious or, some kind of ‘collective comment’ upon this election ?

My Reply to Dreamland

There are two things I disagree with in what you have written the first of which is the total difference between the American political system and our own. Leaving aside the very many practical and cultural differences, because of its Federal structure, physical size and the fact that a President may well have to live with Capitol Hill being dominated by “the other side” rather than his own party. “Consensus” is an essential element of the American scene and you don’t get that by throwing turds at the competition during an election period.

So you don’t like Cameron, your choice but the reality as all three parties have acknowledged and is very much on display in their approach to this election, the public despite any protestations to the opposite, are just not ready to hear the truth. In fact John Rentoul the other week wrote a very fine piece equating the drop in the opinion polls for the Tories with the reality of an imminent election and the public being “not concerned” with the Deficit because it was meaningless to them personally but being totally convinced that Cameron would deal with it which means cuts and increased taxes which do matter to them.

PR & Spin – Of Course

You complain about the “PR Spin” but included in that “Budget Deficit” is bundled a 70bn “structural deficit” which means the differences between the taxes the Government receives and the cost of the services it provides even in the best of times. Bear in mind that this sum is about twice the Defence Budget and ignored in a decade would equal an accumulated 700bn in capital and if current interest rates for this type of debt held, around 4 percent pa in interest on top (28bn pa ?).

The problem is that whoever gets into power, this will have to be tackled pretty much immediately and all of them know it from every party but equally they also know that being blunt about it will only see a total collapse of their vote so from whichever party bullshit is the order of the day. You say that Cameron doesn’t grasp our problems let alone how to tackle them – wrong !

Cameron, Brown and Clegg all know the solutions and they are both simple and obvious: Raise taxes, cut the public payroll, cut delivered services and no, neither the NHS nor Education can be ring fenced, raise the retirement age and so on. Now just who is going to stand up and say that ? When the public are as frightened of the future as they appear to be today, forget detailed policies, in the end it will just come down to a straight “Beauty Contest” between the contenders.

The x20 Formula

Apparently David Cameron writing in the Guardian proposed that there should be a x20 formula on wages in the public sector, that from the very top job to the lowest should only be a 20 times differential. John Rentoul appreciated the concept: “But it is ingenious in two dimensions. Politically, it drives a tank not just on to Labour’s lawn but right through the wall into the kitchen. Guardian readers will like it. And so will readers of the Telegraph and the Daily Mail.”

One person wrote in to complain that the public sector was bearing the brunt and what about “Fat Cat” bosses in the private sector ? It deserved a reply if only because it was totally stupid.

Reply

Obvious answer, a Government can control its own wage costs, it cannot control those of private companies. However, the point John Rentoul has made is that it creates a “social, cultural norm” that would stretch to businesses rather rapidly.

In fact and once established, it would be easy to see businesses rapidly adopting it as a highly useful check on wage inflation which will make a return if the current problems are not solved. John Lewis, Marks & Spencer may lead the charge but I’m sure Rail companies and airlines wouldn’t be far behind, in fact it may be far more effective than a “Minimum Wage”. A further outcome might well follow in that “performance related” bonuses might have to be paid in company shares…the idea has legs.

Also it is high time we dropped this “The Government should do something…” approach to national life. Governments are non productive, they do not create wealth just consume it. The future purpose of Government in the UK should be to do far less in terms of legislation and concentrate on creating an “environment” where positive things can happen, this would be one area as an example.

Brown is Guilty

One of the reasons to vote Cameron in and Brown out is simply that left with power, Brown’s response to the current crisis would be too slow as he tries to ‘defend’ his past mistakes and profligacy which have put us where we are today.

Although I detest the wretch, I will be fair to Brown over salvaging the Banks even though in the process he crippled a successful Bank in LLoyds. That part of the ‘debt’ is less important in one sense, part will be redeemed through ‘floating off the Banks’ in due course, part by improving tax revenues as the economy revives, though God help any politician in the future who claims to have abolished “Boom and Bust” ! A lamp post in Whitehall will surely bekon to “swing from”.

The structural element though is crucial because in a sense, we have been ‘paying ourselves benefits’ on Health, Education and so forth that our economy just hasn’t earned and this is wholly down to politicians like Brown and Blair being dishonest with themselves and the Country.

This issue that John Rentoul touches on in this article, the gap between rich and poor, is very real and will inevitably worsen in various ways as the economy is sorted out. We need to have an honest and mature discussion about just What it is reasonable for us to expect the State to provide by default and what is just a “nice to have” it is this part of reforming tax and spend that will be as, if not more important than the actual “cuts” themselves.

To me the proof that the electorate don’t want to listen and instead runaway, is simple and regardless of personal political persuasion: Labour who are to blame, would have virtually disappeared in the Polls and be on par with the Nationalist parties, the LibDems would be the second party and challenging the Conservatives neck and neck to form a Government in their own right but it is not where we are at right now, is it ?