I don’t think Cameron is a malicious charlatan like Tony Blair, nor as avaricious – he doesn’t need the money. But there is something of the Blair about him – good looking young politician delivers touchy feely lines of dubious sincerity. One of his concluding lines summed it up for me:
“I see a country where the poorest children go to the best schools.”
Now don’t just admire how fine that sounds, read it again:
“I see a country where the poorest children go to the best schools”.
Do you think David Cameron does see that, really? Do you see that? And if the poorest children go to the best schools, who will go to the worst schools? What does it actually mean in practice? ” I think we should give a few token plebs scholarships to Eton”? “I wish we had someone from a council estate in the Bullingdon Club”? Or that the state schools in deprived inner city areas really will become the very best schools in the country? Does anybody in their right mind consider that to be possible? Or is this just rhetoric designed to neutralise Cameron’s cossetted origins?
There was a rather nastier point of using pretended concern for the poor earlier in Cameron’s speech, when he banged on about the poor single mother who works to better herself, and who because of benefit withdrawal effectively is taxed at 96% on every pound she earns over £150 per week. A crafted standing ovation greeted a ringing declaration that the Conservatives would end the scandal of marginal 96% tax rates for the poorest in our society. But of course the Conservatives would do that, not by lowering the single mother’s tax rate, and not by keeping giving her benefit when she works. They would do it by reducing the benefit she can get if she does not work, thus “incentivising” her to search for a non-existent job supported by non-existent cheap childcare for her children. The Conservatives’ attack on “Welfare Dependency” is motivated by their perpetual nastiness, which Cameron merely disguises a bit better. It is an attack on the poor disguised as social concern.
We are in for a Khaki election, with the parties competing to be the most committed to the ruinous war in Afghanistan. I have to say I do not object to Richard Dannatt joining the Tories. I always argue that we need politicians who have experience outside politics. There have been distinguished military men who have been good in Parliament – like Denis Healey and Paddy Ashdown. But they had the decency to get themselves elected first.
Yes, the true hypocrisy of the Dannatt affair has been missed by pretty well all commentators. The Tories opposed New Labour’s self-serving House of Lords reform, on the apparently principled point that the House of Lords should be reformed to a democratically elected Upper Chamber. Now they announce that Dannatt will be working with the prospective Tory government – from the Lords.
Plainly the Tories have no more interest in democracy than New Labour, and their true intention is just to turn the Lords from Tony’s Cronies to Dave’s Cronies.
Makes you sick, doesn’t it.
He had an interview yesterday and is hoping tofind out today, so this description of my cousin’s situation is hopefully out of date as I write, but…
he is fit and able bodied in his mid-thirties, he gets his rent paid, his council tax paid and several hundred quid in his pocket a month courtesy of the taxpayer.
because he has no job he doesn’t need a car to get to work, he doesn’t need to buy decent clothes or even worry about getting his haircut too often.
in order to actually be any better off financially he’d need to exchange the freedom to do whatever he pleases all day every day for for a salary of 20k.
as I say he had an interview yesterday and is making an effort to find work, unfortunately the level of benefits available means not everyone can be bothered to make the effort.
Yes it does, very sick indeed.
They might be at the best schools, but they will still be poor.
I cannot understand why it is an accepted norm to aspire to a system which makes people poor. The whole policy of driving down wages as low as they can go is a very strange reflection on an animal which thinks it aspires to betterment.
It is globalisation that drives wages down to the lowest possible level. Free trade may be a noble ideal, but works lousily in practice. This country only began to climb out of the 1930s depression when free trade was abandoned and a sensible measure of protection was introduced for our basic industries. That policy wouldn’t work today, because we haven’t got any basic industries left – thanks first to the Thatcherite Tories and then to New Labour.
Quite so anticant,
Also the complete destruction of our education system, guarantees our future despair.
We can’t compete with the tiger economy, because we’re too privileged; and we have no science base to compete in blue sky industries.
We’re dooooomed !
Well, I’ll no longer be voting in national elections as I don’t believe for one minute important decisions were made, have been made and will be made by Blair, Brown or Cameron. They are basically front men for the corrupt ‘deep’ government that runs the country. Cameron is a complete t… who would be incapable of making proper decisions.
To me, to vote would mean upholding a system in which democracy is just a veneer. If I voted, then I would be complicit in maintaining a system which controls and manipulates our lives and minds.
Well said, Ruth.
I’m not so sure that voting is irrelevant. The office of deputy Prime Minister has been pretty busy re-generating the non-entrepreneurial Union-minded interfering Old Labour practices in the field of employment, housing, planning etc.
I expect to be enabled by a Tory government to start a business without being harrassed from all sides by government agencies, as before. But when Walt Disney’s Tom and Jerry both drink from the same growth potion at the same time, I am wondering what will happen to the Global companies. Are they going to become Inter-Galactic ogres as well?
@Ruth
To not vote it wrong. It is voting for a POLITICAL party that I believe is wrong. We should be voting for more independents and candidates that we honestly believe will serve us, the constituents best. There are, I believe, a few honest ‘party’ politicians left, but let them know that you are not voting for a ‘party’, but them!.
I’ve changed my mind about voting, after I lost an argument with both my children, who I was trying to get to vote.
The idea that we live in a Democracy is a complete illusion. Politicians are nothing more than performing puppets, and the general population has absolutely no influence on pulling their strings by voting.
If you are serious about wanting to change society, you should join a well funded pressure group and become heavily involved and socially active.
The most powerful pressure groups have strong connections to all the political parties, and the media. They really do, not only shape public opinion, but actually define policy by use of the most powerful psychological techniques.
The hardest thing, unless you are already brainwashed as most people are, is to find a well funded pressure group, that actually represents your own views.
Tony
Well said Craig (& Ruth)
Loath it or not, the tories will be in next. All this Cameron playacting is just gilding the ugly(est) flower (_Rafflesia tuan-mudae_) of the swamp that is Britain today.
Yeah, we used to be ‘good’ at stuff (I watched BBC4 – britain & Iran last night & we sure were good at doing the Persians over, then)… but what is good about Britain today?
Your blog, Craig, is, ….the other stuff I need to take a while to think about (& there’s loads)…..
& the Posties writings were salutary too….
Thanks for your writing Craig, it is very appreciated…
“Cameron Bullshit – A Viewer’s Guide”
Cameron Bullshit – A Visual Guide…
http://tinyurl.com/qpdou2
Look what happened to Craig in Norwich. His whole campaign was totally manipulated; there would be no way that the ‘deep’/real government would want an MP like Craig who can’t be corrupted to suit their agenda.
So if we can’t even have an independent MP to our liking what is the point of voting. None. Better we have a revolution and rule ourselves.
But has any real campaign been done to alert the masses to the clever ‘mind persuasion’ that has been going on over the last couple of decades. We are conditioned to vote for many of these corrupt entities and it is this mass hypnosis that needs to be eaten at.
Why would a ‘revolution’ be better supported? Education is the only solution IMHO and it will take time but when are we going to start?
“A crafted standing ovation greeted a ringing declaration that the Conservatives would end the scandal of marginal 96% tax rates for the poorest in our society. But of course the Conservatives would do that, not by lowering the single mother’s tax rate, and not by keeping giving her benefit when she works. They would do it by reducing the benefit she can get if she does not work, thus “incentivising” her to search for a non-existent job supported by non-existent cheap childcare for her children.”
Just seen that section on “Today at Conference”, and that’s a very good point.
There’s just a total disconnect between the edifice Cameron claims he aspires to build and the absolutely bog standard Thatcherite policy toolkit he intends to use. There is absolutely no chance of him delivering on any of his promises on poverty or social mobility.
And you’d better believe that, as long as you buy the snake oil, Cameron doesn’t give the remotest toss about that.
Craig,
My apologies for putting this here, but I am at a loss to know what else I can do. I ordered a copy of Catholic Orangemen from you in July, the money went promptly from Paypal (as did my donation to your election campaign), but nothing arrived. I have emailed you at both the Tiscali address from Paypal and the mail.ru address on this site with no response. I’m sure there is a good explanation, but my patience is beginning to be tested. Please would you contact me by email to tell me what’s going on.
Thanks
Paul
There’s some good unintentional comedy on it too from young conservative Fraser Nelson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/08/cameron-speech-conservative-conference-revolutionary?commentpage=1
He rails against the unfairness of 1% of the population paying 24% of the tax, without any thought about how 1% of the population could have at least 48% of the country’s income.
In a country, no longer of shopkeepers, but of middle managers from that mythical but real locus known as ‘Middle England’ (and ‘Middle Scotland, Wales, etc’!) who enjoy engaging LOUDLY in endless and superfluous verbiage puffed-out with slogans and short on substance or reasoning, it has become very clear that the mainstream politcial parties are simply managers for the rich. Also, it is a complete myth that Conservative Governments aid entrepreneurialism and don’t increase mindless bureaucracy; most of the corporate garbage, bum social engineering experiments and other such pathologies which now form both backdrop and foreground to our lives were introduced by the Thatcherism which continued to be followed, and intensified, by New Labour. Both consistently raised taxes on middle and lower income groups, with the occasional sop to curry favour whehn it seemed necessary, all the while while serving the rich. Both seem happily ensconced in a class system which serves their purposes – and those of their masters, the financial elites’ of Wall Street – and which they have absolutely no interest in dismantling. The rest is persiflage and mendacity.
I must agree with Paul that Craig isn’t very good at responding to requests for contact otherwise than on this blog. I too sent a donation to his election campaign, and asked for a copy of his excellent video, but got no response. Last month I wrote to his W14 address, sending him a copy of one of my own books and asking him to send me his ‘Catholic Orangemen’. I gave him all my contact details. I’m still waiting…..
Hi Paul,
Yes, got your email. Sorry, book orders seem to have gone astray in the election period. I’ll ask Agniezka to get one off straight away.
Anticant, sorry I don’t live at W14 any more. I have paid for forwarding servcie, but haven’t got your book – London postal strike, perhaps? Email me your address and I’ll get a DVD to you.
Thanks, Craig. Which email address will reach you?
I cannot agree with those who argue against voting and justify it with blanket generalisations like –
“The idea that we live in a Democracy is a complete illusion. Politicians are nothing more than performing puppets, and the general population has absolutely no influence on pulling their strings by voting.”
Every time I heard someone repeat this notion, or something like it, I know that the lobbyists and the megacorporate greedmerchants rub their hands with glee. “Voting never changes anything” is another one. Oh yeah? Then how pray tell does one explain the 80’s? After all, there was a change of government (er, brought about by VOTING) which radically changed this country for the worse.
We have to vote. The vote is our only weapon against the rich and the powerful, even in as debased a system as ours. What’s more, those parliamentary seats do not belong to the MPs or to any party – they belong to us. OUR votes and OUR parliamentary seats are OURS to assign to the candidate of our choice. The Tories, in their incorrigible way, speak of removing entitlement when what they really mean is eroding the public propriety, that is, stealing what is rightfully ours, like a public education service or the NHS.
The only way the Tories will ever change their spots is if they’re surgically removed.
Ruth, I do hope you will vote. Of course you are quite correct in concluding that it doesn’t matter which Party you vote for since, whichever Party wins (despite the apparently different policies they campaign on and all the PR spin), once elected they all march to the same establishment drummer. So vote for whatever candidate you think has integrity (whether an established party or an independent) and send your message that way.
The main problem is the lack of a free press (and I hope my earlier comment on The Guardian demonstrates that) since open reporting is essential to continued democracy and we don’t have it. It is hardly surprising that parliamentarians are so neutered by the establishment when their only voice to you (The Press) is self-censored in the establishment’s interest. It doesn’t matter whether the press is apparently left or right wing ?” they all march to the same establishment’s drummer on issues that are important to the establishment. Campaign for a free press, and ultimately you will also get a free parliament. Roderick Russell
Havent seen this posted anywhere else on the site
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/09/091008_the_westminster_conspiracy.php
Roderick,
I disagree with you. How can it help the process of democracy to take part in a corrupt system?
It is much better that the system implodes in on itself and that will happen if fewer and fewer people vote.
“I see a country where the poorest children go to the best schools”. ”
An appropriate figure of speech. To say that a nation’s education cannot be improved is to give in to despair.
Re not voting: my understanding is that if only three people in the UK voted, the party they voted for would get in. Last time I checked there was no minimum turnout?
@Ruth
When fewer people vote, ultimately you must end up with a dictatorship with no citizen rights or any vote. Is that really the answer?
nevergiveup,
But surely we’re already in a dictatorship, albeit a disguised dictatorship. According to Claire Short there was no Cabinet debate in run-up to the Iraqi war. If Blair himself didn’t make the decision, who did? And going back a few years, who made the decision for the intelligence services to spy on Harold Wilson?
@Ruth: Surely Blair made the decision, after being told to by Bush in that now infamous pre-war meeting.
And I suppose the intelligence services don’t leave you alone because you’re the Prime Minister, quite the opposite.