Have Labour Destroyed Britain's Democracy?

We often see democracy as a sturdy political machine; leaders and parties come and go, but the system of democracy remains.  This is not reality however, merely wishful thinking.  The history of man is one of tyranny after tyranny, with democratic freedom being unusual in both history, and even in our world today where most people live not in a free society, but under the iron fist of tyranny.

The quote often attributed to James Alexander Tytler states, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”
Who actually said these words and where does not change their truthfulness, and the last Labour government has given our democracy an uncertain future.  For Labour exploited one of the “flaws” with democracy; namely that you can get elected time and time again on the back of promises to spend other people’s money, whilst leaving the economics and the bill to future politicians to deal with.

The consequences of this were on display last week, with public sector workers striking about renegotiations of what are laughably unsustainable pensions.  It gets worse when one realises that not only did Labour make these outlandish pension promises, but they made no effort to provide any sort of money to pay for it.  The tiny contributions that workers are paying into the system are only being used to dole out money for current pensions, and even that is making a loss.  There is absolutely nothing in place to pay for the public sector pensions in the future, where there will be more pensioners living for longer, and with bigger pensions.  There is no money – Britain is in denial.

Yet none of this mattered to Labour – they promised big money and contracts to the unions, and the unions responded by giving money back to the Labour Party and making it clear which way their members should vote.  Labour bought votes with taxpayer money and have left future generations to worry about how to pay up on those promises – it’s that simple. We have seen this time and time again.  The Private Finance Initiative was nothing more than a way to get schools, hospitals and other buildings built so the Labour could take the credit and the votes, while booting the bill down the road for future politicians (preferably the Tories) to worry about.

Additionally, the culture of welfarism exploded under Labour, with them even allowing the shipping in of more people from abroad to live off the back of our glorious welfare system.  This has encouraged vast segments of our population to believe that they have a right to live off the back of the state without ever working; and who will therefore vote for any party who allows this to continue.  Even those who are not relatively poor have fallen into this trap.  Recent proposals to cut housing benefit so that taxpayers are no longer paying for other people to live in expensive houses that they themselves cannot afford have been met with outright hysteria.  Polly Toynbee declared the plans to limit housing benefits to £400 a week as the Tories’ “final solution” for the poor.

Although it is laughable that £400 a week in housing benefit is remotely close to austere, Toynbee has a point in the sense that even a reduction of benefit to remotely sensible levels will cause major disruption for some families.  They have been taught that they are entitled to extravagant amounts of benefits, and have adapted their plans as a consequence.  All sorts of people, (working or not) rely on massive handouts from the state, having been promised them by Labour with the assurance that “someone else” will pay for them.  French economist Frederic Bastiat’s description of government as “that fiction whereby everybody believes that he can live at the expense of everyone else” seems apt in this situation.

Labour has therefore inculcated the myth that it is legitimate for more and more people to vote themselves more money from the public purse, and the way to do this is to vote for Labour.  Should anyone (such as the Tories) try and cut this gravy train even slightly, then they face the wrath of those people riding on that gravy train, who now make up such a large percentage of the population that it scares off any politician from making any significant cuts in fear of losing their job.

It is for this reason that the minor cuts the Coalition has made (that will not even start reducing the deficit for another three years – who knows when we will ever start working on our £1 trillion debt) have been met with such hostility.  The responsible option is the tough one, and Labour have been choosing the irresponsible easy option for years – promise to spend more on anyone who promises to vote for you, and boot the bill forward a few decades for someone else to worry about.

If Labour keep doing this, failing to acknowledge both their blame in this crisis, and not accepting that it is morally reprehensible to make unsustainable promises for future generations to deal with, then it will make it very difficult for democracy to survive.  For the road to economic meltdown is clear, and if our nation lacks the political will to get off that road due to the mass entitlement mentality created by Labour, then destruction and tyranny can only follow.

The Fall of Nick Clegg and Cleggmania.

As regular readers of this blog might be able to tell, I am not much of a fan of Nick Clegg.  For me he has represented everything that is wrong with British politics.  Pragmatic without principle, a leftist presenting himself as a centrist, and with a whole bunch of screaming lefty cronies supporting him with mindless slogans and useless superlatives.

I was therefore horrified when Cameron's Conservatives united with Clegg's Liberal Democrats in order to form the present coalition government back in 2010.  As I have seen Clegg's popularity fall after that coalition, it has buoyed me somewhat that I was right after all, and that people have seen through the media image to view the festering pragmatist that lurks underneath.  It is this subject that I cover in my latest article for the Grapevine.

"It seems like such a long time since Cleggmania. Just think, it was less than a year ago that vast swarms of students and other trendy political types were jumping around, shouting about how they “agree with Nick”, that he was the future of politics, and how he represented a bold new middle ground between those satanic Tories, and outdated Labour.

Yet less than a year later and Cleggmania has not only faded away, it has plummeted like a lead balloon. The Liberal Democrats, once a party with over 30% support, now has its popularity in single digits according to some polls, and last week’s by-election in Barnsley was an unmitigated disaster that indicates that things are only set to get worse, not better for the once innocuous third party.

Things are not going much better for their “charismatic” leader either. Polling in Clegg’s constituency shows that there is a very real chance that he could be ousted at the next election. Should such a thrashing occur, it would be a Portillo moment of the kind that those of us on the right would relish in the same way we relished the ousting of Jacqui Smith in 2010.

Yet it is possible that the rejection of Cleggles is not just the public getting bored with a public figure, it is also the rejection of the “pragmatic” approach to politics that Clegg and many other politicians represent.

For Cleggmania did not fade out with the public getting bored of him; instead it died when he turned his back on the principles that he claimed to hold. His agenda in the election was firmly left wing, and by uniting with the Conservative Party, he showed that he would happily chuck that agenda if it suited his quest for power, and would drop key manifesto promises if it got him closer to Downing Street.

However, those of us on the right should not get too smug about the fall of Cleggmania. David Cameron is the same sort of politician, who has also sacrificed a great deal in order to gain power and push through an agenda that has tried to please everyone but has satisfied no-one. In the name of “pragmatism” and with vague superlatives about “common ground” and “the good of the nation”, we now have a coalition government based on few principles if any.

The fall of Clegg should not be seen just as the destruction of the Liberal Democrats – a party that has for too long tried to avoid solid principle in favour of jumping on whatever bandwagon comes along. Instead, it should be seen as the public’s rejection of the politician who abandons his principled convictions for some misguided pragmatism...."

The rest of the article can be read here.

Britain - Tax, Tax, Tax, Tax....

So far, the Coalition government in Britain has been an enormous failure when it has come to issues of taxation.  After a promising start where the income tax threshold was raised from £7,500 to £10,000, it was then announced that in order to "make up" for the loss in taxes, the middle class and the rich would predictably get soaked some more in order to compensate for it.  They then raised the already high VAT (or sales tax) from 17.5% to 20%.

While this wouldn't be a disaster in a normal country, in socialist Britain where everywhere one turns there is another large tax waiting for you, it is yet more theft from those who work hard to provide for themselves and for their families, and who have dared to have the audacity to be successful.  Iain Martin has written an incredible article on this, and I fully recommend that anyone interested in this subject takes the time to read this article, as it sums up brilliantly the current state of taxation in Britain and the Coalition's decision to make it worse.

In addition to a now 20% sales tax in Britain, from this year those earning over £35,000 (approximately $50,000) will be hit with a 40% income tax.  Even when one considers the raising of the threshold, this is still an unbearable tax burden.  Add into this things such as the high corporation tax that affects those working in business, inheritance taxes, National Insurance taxes and enormously high fuel prices, and the result is a Britain that is not an easy place in which to work or do business.

We have known this for a while, but for the predominantly conservative Coalition to be making this worse and not better, is a real scandal.  It needs Brits to begin putting pressure on their government to ease the tax burden, just like Americans have been doing through organisations such as the Tea Party, as it seems like all of our political parties have one thing in common - they want to tax us more!

Left-Wing Policies Have Destroyed Britain's Youth

Take a glance through the British media in a given week, and you will see the usual anti-business, pro-tax rhetoric permeating throughout most of it.  Want some money for a "scheme" or "initiative"?  Tax "the rich" - after all, they have heaps of money that they don't need, right?  Want to blame someone for an economic crisis?  How about those bankers we just love to hate?  Want to campaign against something?  How about those evil corporations who are only out to crush the little guy?

Well, such actions have consequences, and this has been shown in Britain's enormous, devastating youth unemployment.  The figures can be seen in the attached link here. (H/T The Sun)

What surprised me about the figures is just how unsurprised I was.  My nearest city of Salford has a 30.8% youth unemployment, and it is very easy to believe.  The concept of a welfare culture is very much alive in these places, leading to entire welfare towns where initiative, independence etc. are all very much dead.  The welfare culture has been fostered in families for a few generations now, and many of these young people who are unemployed have been born into families where none of the other members have ever worked - having a job is simply foreign to these people.

The tragic thing about all this is that in most cases it is not their fault.  Policies designed to "help" the poor and the unemployed have been the policies that have destroyed their lives the most.  Before these young unemployed people were even born there was already a welfare system in place that does not encourage marriage, that encourages families to live apart and that rewards parents who are on benefits, and punishes parents who do not receive benefits.  Then, we give the child lousy schooling at state run, union controlled, ideologically driven schools that focus on making kids "feel good" as opposed to giving them a proper education.

When they finally do enter the jobs market they find that there are no jobs available, as Britain's high tax, anti-business policies have either scared business abroad, or has discouraged it from even growing in the first place.  Then, if there are any jobs available, the young person will find themselves priced out of a job by high minimum wage laws that by their nature discriminate against the less qualified, meaning they cannot get a job, meaning that they eventually stagnate on welfare.

Yet no major political figure in Britain is challenging this.  Labour wants to push this hard left agenda further, and the present Coalition that is in power seems to be rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic - and even that causes ideologue leftists to scream that the deckchair rearranging will leave the "poor and vulnerable" without a place to sit.

Brits reading this should be depressed - this is our reality.  Americans reading this should be terrified - this is your future under Obama if he is not stopped.

The Conservative Party's Current Strategy is a Disgrace

Cameron dropping the Manifesto in the skip - maybe.

If you are going to sacrifice your political principles and form an alliance that makes a lot of your own party turn against you and label you a traitor, then you had better make damn sure that the party you are forming an alliance with is worth it.  If it is worth it, then you can declare yourself to be a political genius, and your opponents to be backward numptys who do not know the meaning of the word 'compromise'.

However, if the party you form an alliance with turns out to be a waste of space, then all you have done is destroy both the opportunity of getting your agenda through Parliament, and your chances of getting re-elected in the future.  This is exactly what has happened with the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition that we currently have in power in Great Britain - and I use the term "power" very loosely, because surely there has never been a Prime Minister in recent history with less power than David Cameron?

Last night was the first by-election since the formation of the dreaded Coalition, and it was hoped by both Lib Dems and sell out Tories that the Lib Dems could pinch the election and gain another seat, of which they already have precious few.  This required the Conservative Party to refuse to fight, and essentially throw the election by putting out only a symbolic campaign for the Tory candidate, allowing the Lib Dem to pick up the Tory votes and beat the Labour candidate.

But it failed.  In fact, looking at that sentence doesn't do it justice so let me try again - IT FAILED!!!  That's better.  Labour won by an enormous margin, and the Tory strategy is in tatters.  For this strategy to work, the Conservative Party had to leave its dignity and its principles behind in order to throw this election to the Lib Dems, and yet the useless Lib Dems still lost.  As much as Tory cronies such as Baroness Warsi are laughably scolding us that they fought a great campaign and that the "Tory Right" should stop complaining, I am yet to meet one independent voice who actually believes her.

I wouldn't be a fan a Coalition with the Liberal Democrats even if the Dems had 20% support, because I believe that politics should be fought on principles and ideas, not slogans and opportunism.  But, the fact that the support of the Lib Dems is as low as 7% in some polls, and their leader Nick Clegg - once the Obama of Britain - is now hated by many of his own party, turns this whole Coalition into a complete and utter farce.

So, we have thrown our principles and dignity into the trash, and do the voters respect us for it?  Do they admire our sense of "compromise" and our ability to "work together for the common good"?  Of course not.  The polls put Labour - who less than a year ago were suffering from catastrophic levels of unpopularity - ahead by 8%, we lost the by-election last night, and there seems no sign of this turning around any time soon. The effects of this strategy in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election last night will have far reaching consequences with the electorate nationally as well.  The message was clear, "Don't vote for us", and this means that next time the Tories do want people do vote for them, many will just see a party that doesn't value their vote, and will choose to vote for someone else.

Unless we abandon the Coalition
 this man may be your next Prime Minister

The standard call from Tory HQ is that cuts are always unpopular, and this explains the dip in popularity.  This is nonsense.  Yes, cuts are unpopular, but you can prevent it being as bad if you come out and passionately argue for why we need them, and what the conservative vision is for the future - a vision that most people actually agree with when you flesh it out.  However, our big spending Lib Dem partners don't like any of this,  and don't believe in the conservative vision, which puts a muzzle on the Coalition.  Cuts are made without explanation, which allows Labour to come in and say anything they want, and create their own narrative about "evil, rich Tories vs poor, voiceless people" with no Conservative voice coming out and fighting for the cause in fear of offending our wishy washy Liberal Democrat friends.

This whole Coalition is a disaster, and the only way out is not a new strategy, but to abandon this pathetic Coalition at once, drop the dead weights that are the Liberal Democrats, and fight the next election on principle.  Yes, an election next May might be one we lose, but it might also be one we win off our own backs, and the longer we carry out this charade, the harder it will be to lose the image of a party that is happy to sacrifice its own beliefs for power.  If we don't shake that image soon, we might find ourselves under another 13 year Labour government, led by Prime Minister Ed Miliband - a Prime Minister who would make Blair look like Thatcher.

The Only Word We Should Hear From Labour is "Sorry".

Jeff Randall leads The Daily Telegraph today with a scathing criticism of the Labour Party - a party that is currently trying to hurl blame onto the Coalition for the current spending cuts, despite Labour being responsible for putting us into ridiculous levels of debt in the first place.  Randall points to the incredible hypocrisy of Labour who, having spent and spent and spent the country into near oblivion, now turn around and criticise the spending cuts as "harsh" and moan about how it is going to affect the poor, and limit services etc.

Now apart from the fact that the cuts cannot significantly hurt the poor and drag us down into a Dickensian nightmare, because we will still be spending hundreds and hundreds and billions of pounds (well over a trillion dollars for my American friends) on services and welfare etc, it is also a bit rich for Labour to moan about it, even if that was the case.  Why? 

Well, as Randall's article shows, public spending grew by a stunning 50% in real terms under the Labout government!  This rise in spending is Obama-like in both its scale and its destructiveness.  It left us wide open to get nailed by a recession, and sure enough that is exactly what happened in 2008.  They can try and blame "the bankers" all they want, but the fact still remains that Britain was ridiculously unhealthy economically when the recession hit, which then only made things much worse.

As I have said in my previous post, I do not fully agree with the distribution of the spending cuts, but there is no argument that spending cuts were absolutely 100% necessary.  Britain could still double-dip, it could still go bankrupt.  Britain is not out of this crisis yet, and yet Labour still argue that the Coalition is doing too much!!  It really is quite incredible.  They have destroyed business, wrecked the economy, seen our unemployment rate soar and made Britain the sick man of Europe once again - and yet they still don't seem to acknowledge that there is a problem, or that they are the primary figures responsible.

If there was any justification in the world, the only thing we would have heard yesterday from the Labour benches would have been "Sorry about the mess we have caused."  Of course, that didn't happen - all we heard was a mix of mockery of the Tories, and hand-wringing about the "poor and the vulnerable." 

Well, Mr Miliband and Mr Johnson, if government spending is so damn good, and your government was such a great bloody success, would you care to inform me why, after a 50% rise in public spending in real terms, that we even have any poor people?  With all that spending on "poverty" and welfare, shouldn't we have abolished poverty?  Shouldn't we all be living in some sort of healthcare/housing/public services paradise?  Wasn't that the whole reason for all these stupid programmes and schemes that drove us into economic suicide in the first place?!

Of course, we are not living in a welfare paradise, because government spending wrecks economies and lives, it does not fix them.  That is exactly what Britain has discovered in the last 13 years of a Labour government, and it is now time to make it right.  However, it needs the current Coalition to put forward the case for low tax, low spending, small government, or the chance will be wasted, and Labour will capitalise on this ridiculous situation.