It amazes me that despite the progress made by Dave and his team, made invariably in spite of Mr Clegg's unprincipled fuckwittery and blocking, he's still well behind in the polls and that the most likely outcome of the 2015 General Election is a Labour majority. Ben Brogan's piece today is good on this here.
It just defies all logic, to me, that people would vote to bring Labour back; a more left wing Labour party than we have seen since 1978, with the unions pulling Ed's strings.
What is wrong with the people of this country that they'd choose vote for a party that left us in such a shambolic mess in 2010 instead of the people who are clearing up the mess for the good of the country now?
What don't they get about the drive to improve educational attainment? To fix the £multi billion black hole in defense spending and to address the out-of-control welfare client state that is simply unsustainable?
What don't they understand about our failing NHS and the need for transparency and improvement that was simply covered up by the last Labour government?
Yes the economy (stupid) is picking up but that is perhaps more about where we are in the economic cycle than can be directly attributed to government policies, but even that seems to have no resonance with the voting public.
It's almost as if people will vote on tribal lines even in the face of incontrovertible evidence that the people they're voting for are idiots. And that makes them, erm, idiots too.
It begs the question as to what level of incompetence and shambolic failure would induce people to change the way they vote? My terror is that we are going to be finding out come 2015 and beyond.
And that will mean no EU referendum - probably our last chance to secure our own sovereignity, our last chance to have democratic control of our lives via direct control (such as it is) of the people who make the laws by which we live.
It will almost certainly be too late, if we don't have a referendum in 2017, for us to be able to claw back our democratic powers of self governance. The freedoms that were so hard won on two occasions in the last century. We won't be British or English, we'll be Europeans, governed by an undemocratic left-leaning super-state whose MPs will never have heard of the village, town or even county in which you live. How is that going to be good for you on a local basis?
We are sleepwalking into democratic oblivion and we're being led down this path by idiots who will vote Labour despite the abject fucking mess they have made every time they have had their hands on the levers of power in this country.
I'm an optimist by nature and I'm looking for some good news. I'm struggling. I want to scream 'WAKE THE FUCK UP' but sadly I'm not sure you could tell the difference as far as many (perhaps most) of my fellow citizens are concerned as to whether they are awake or not.
Government is being done 'to' us instead of 'for' us at the moment. And Dave is not without guilt in that assessment, but if apathy, tribalism and utter blindness to reality continues to win the day, we are, quite simply, fucked. As a proud nation and as a self governing, enterprising and 'free' people.
So the lunatics haven't taken over the asylum; they've just been watching x-factor and Big Brother (oh the irony), whilst we are all being sold down the river.
My views on Dave's opportunity here.
And lack of vision here.
And opportunity, here.
Sadly he seems to be blowing it.
Thanks for reading.
While I genuinely have no idea how I will vote in the next election, a couple of ideas from me on some of the points.
ReplyDeleteI think Dave and Gideon are actually now so far removed from the "majority" that even fairly die-hard Tories are struggling to agree with a lot of what they are doing.
Dave giving speeches in gold thrones is not a good look!
While Labour are moving left, and oddly this is what many from the "majority" want, New Labour let their members down, it is more than likely through rose tinted glasses but people want "Old Labour" back.
People see through employment figures, there are less "real" jobs and more part time / non contract at the blue collar level, and despite what the figures may say, almost everyone has far less spending power than they had 5 years ago.
The banks and utilities, and railways, acting with total impunity and openly laughing at regulators, however we got here it is always the current government that will have to take the blame and the flack.
I can see a Labour majority happening, not through any real desire from the population, but as a reaction, spurred on by Brand there is a real undercurrent of feeling that the current model just doesn't work, so without a violent revolution, voting out the incumbent is the easiest option?
Great response, thanks Simon. I understand and agree with much of your rationale - as you know I am not a blind supporter of Dave et al by any means and I do think that the state - voter; economy - real people situation is indeed broken. I also fear that violence might be the only solution in the end, although I hope not.
ReplyDeleteI even grudgingly agree that at least Labour might regain some principles (and thereby be unique in the country) but I do fear a return to some of their old, union-driven ways.
Funnily enough this blog started out to address the bafflement expressed by Ben Brogan in the linked piece and was initially about vision.
I think that the 'nasty party' tag is so strong as to be almost unbreakable and without a clear, consistent vision (all this flip-flopping around localism, big society, aspiration nation, in it together etc just creates confusion and shows a lack of vision/belief) they're not even making a dent in it.
They need much stronger communications and clarity of vision if they're to address that massive issue for the Tories.
Might come back to that, but again, thanks for your thoughtful and compelling comments.