Comments on: When will we get some fairness?

By: Bazman

Bazman — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:48:42 +0000

Rather depends who’s history and reality we are talking about Lola. The majority or minority of the population? Britain is a very rich country with huge numbers of poor people. That fact cannot be rewritten. Many middle classes think they are clever and that is why they have money, but really its just circumstances.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:36:25 +0000

What class do you consider you are? I have often wondered. Were you down the mine, perhaps? Or perhaps a manufacturer in birmingham? Or a merchant seaman like Mr Prescott?

By: Lola

Lola — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:25:27 +0000

Oh dear. Y’see, there you go again.

By: Bazman

Bazman — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:44:11 +0000

Well. I suppose Thatcher did save a lot of miners and steel workers from an early grave. Many of their children however got one instead. Discus and Re-write that kids.

By: Bazman

Bazman — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:40:47 +0000

Bleating middle classes that can only afford two holidays this year, have to drive a Ford and send their kids to the local school. Gets you right there.

By: APL

APL — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:02:54 +0000

DBC REED: “He hardly needs special treatment.”

Who is asking for special treatment? What we want from a state broadcaster is *impartial treatment*.

DBC REED: “What he is saying is flying in the face of the conventional wisdom and the interviewer ..”

It may be ‘conventional wisdom’ for a leftie, but in is not conventional wisdom.

At one point ‘conventional wisdom’ had it the world was flat. Or the Earth was the centre of the universe, or the solution to every serious illness was to bleed the patient.

By: DBC Reed

DBC Reed — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:02:56 +0000

Strikes me that Cameron gives a pretty good account of himself.He hardly
needs special treatment.What he is saying is flying in the face of the conventional wisdom and the interviewer (E.D?) would be pretty remiss not to point this out .They both say what the other is saying is wrong (which is fair enough:one of them must be).BTW Why is Cameron fronting up this economic strategy? Why no George Osborne? Or John Redwood for that matter,since this approach has his dabs all over it?

By: JABITheW

JABITheW — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:31:41 +0000

If you really think the BBC is non-partisan, I suggest you listen to this atrocious interview with Cameron where the interviewer interrupts him to tell him that he’s wrong.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7772000/7772723.stm

Can you see them doing that to Brown or Darling?

By: Pam

Pam — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:38:12 +0000

This Week is one of the very few programmes that gives an objective view of what is going on. The “news” programmes are full of government spin and rarely give airtime to opposing points of view. I normally check what ITV and the other news channels say, because I don’t trust the BBC any more, and I resent being unable to stop paying the licence fee. Why does the government have such a stranglehold on the BBC’s output?

By: James Morrison

James Morrison — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:55:56 +0000

I couldn’t agree more Susan.

Sadly I just don’t think anything much will change. Cameron is, for me, a Blair clone.

By: Stuart Fairney

Stuart Fairney — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:17:34 +0000

In all fairness that is a really well made point. I have to “take my hat off” to you. I had not fully considered this aspect of the issue.

I agree entirely with your final point.

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:08:06 +0000

Then the Conservatives should recognise that people’s disenchantment with Labour started well before the economic problems took hold and, unless they roll back the authoritarian state, misgivings will rumble on. There must be an end to this socialist nonsense in Britain; the English, Irish, Scots and Welsh are not known, when push comes to shove, for submission to injustice.

By: adam

adam — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:44:13 +0000

Police state Britain. Well done Labour.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RKl2sEN4yNM

By: adam

adam — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:30:02 +0000

It is Labour who are like the BNP

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:00:43 +0000

@Bazman

As opposed to how it is under Labour:

Don’t have a job, be middle classed, well educated or sensible with your earnings.

By: Lola

Lola — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:56:53 +0000

Oh dear. I see you are on the standard lefty ‘let’s re-write history to fit our argument’ tactic again.

By: Blank Xavier

Blank Xavier — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:49:01 +0000

I’m not sure it’s quite so straightforward.

Any industry is naturally regulated by the risk involved and the reward gained thereby.

In Iran, where a few percent of the population exist in extreme poverty (not enough money to buy food), the reward gained for prostitution may well be continued life.

It accordingly therefore requires the most extreme risk to prevent prostitution, and perhaps not even then, for if you threaten to kill someone for it, but they will die if they don’t, they may well still consider the reward from prostitution worth the risk.

In the UK, where social security provides a bare existence, the reward for prostitution is not so great. However, the risks are so far less, I would still expect prostitution to be rewarding.

Of course, all of this has no discussion of the fact that the State has *ABSOLULUTELY NO BUSINESS* banning a voluntary and well-informed contract between two adults.

By: Bill, Middle England

Bill, Middle England — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:26:16 +0000

Spot on but we can do little about these matters whilst being dominated by Brussels.

Yes, let’s be at the heart of co-operating with our European partners, where possible, but let’s stop being run by them!

Only then can we shake off the shackles of a Singular failure.

There is a huge well of electoral goodwill out there waiting to be tapped. Citizens do want to be in Europe – it IS the future – but! We are bursting for a different vision, one which lets all nation states breathe their own air.

Let each EU nation forge its own way and let all nations come together in EU co-operation to benefit from a pool of diveristy, creativity, flexibility and, above all, democracy.

Until then, John’s fine words are mere wishful thinking

By: James Morrison

James Morrison — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:19:31 +0000

I wouldn’t hold your breath Susan, incoming governments don’t make a habit of overturning laws set by previous incumbents, and that includes the conservatives. Hence why we find ourselves living in an increasingly socialist country, nay world.

Mr Redwood is a rare voice of common sense in the wilderness that is the political elite.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:18:20 +0000

Often and often people who write things on this site talk about Mr Brown being Socialist to the core. Well, today Charles Moore, once an editor of the Daily Telegraph, actually did make out the case, in his old paper, for this being true .
In lots of ways he is so right:
Big state politics paid for with huge taxes and run by a huge “apparatus”.
Economy run from the central bureau with targets fixed by the central apparatus and not by independent entrepreneurs.
Police directly under the control of the political bureau at the centre.
But, most important, must be the idea that the Party comes above the Parliament. This is deeply Socialist. The Speaker was (against precedent) another Labour apparatchik. He appointed (without consulting the Queen) the Serjeant at arms. The MPs are given instructions from the Central Office on exactly what to say and how to vote. The thinnest Queen’s Speech, too, shows that the real source of legislation now is Brussels where an international central committee decides what is to be agreed in the national or international parliaments.
Mr Duncan Smith goes on (rightly) about the disappearance of marriage and the family. In the Communist Manifesto, of course, Marx said that marriage would disappear under Communism. Well, it has!
The most annoying thing is that Socialism has been tried and it is an utter disaster. It was a disaster in Russia and also in its post war Union of Socialist Republics. It was a disaster when it allied with Nationalism to form the National Socialist Party in Germany. It has been a disaster every single time it has been tried in this country.
I do not believe that people can be forced to be free, rich or educated by central experts (cadres). I do not believe that nearly everyone is (even potentially) either a good person or a wrecker. I do not believe that this is year zero and we can rebuild “our democracy” from Number 10 Downing Street.
I do not believe that the people in the central political bureau are the kind of people, anyway, who I would have as my mentors and friends. I do not trust them and they do not trust me.
The Conservatives are bubbling with new ideas. But why I trust them is this: they are not Socialist. They appreciate how very delicate the economy and the constitution are. Like a precious orchid, both of these need nurture, understanding and, yes, love from people actually involved who have the vast legacy of history behind them. The same goes for the Armed Services.
As a Christian (and proud of it too) I want to say that poor people, sick people, and children are especially important. The Conservatives are very often from a strong Christian background too and, because they appreciate history, they carry on this excellent concern, whatever their present beliefs. I really believe that they mean it when they say they have plans to free it all up so that these three groups of people will actually benefit.
The excellent blog today goes a long way to explaining why Neil Kinnock’s words have come true.
“Have you not heard? Socialism is Dead?”(Sorry, Nietzsche!)