Labour: "We Don't Like Democracy After All".

Certain parts of the Labour party are in turmoil today as they begin to realise that democracy doesn't always give you the result you might want. But, as events in Palestine, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan have amply demonstrated, that is the trouble with democracy. Many are now crying "foul" and suggesting that diabolical Tories are infiltrating the party in order to foist a completely unwanted Jeremy Corbyn as the new Labour leader. So convinced are they of this that they even banning real Labour supporters "just in case". What they fear is that the socialist party founded by Kier Hardie might be "taken over" by - horror upon horror - socialists! Calls have been heard to halt the election because it's all "going the wrong way." There are dark mutterings that, if Corbyn wins, the revolutionary and Tory wing of the party will stage an uprising or, perhaps more likely, throw their toys out of the pram. This is the unhealthy place that British politics now finds itself in - a place where neoliberal economic mumbo-jumbo has become the new orthodoxy, where socilaism has become a dirty word and democracy is now a dangerous idea. Well, as Franklin D Roosevelt once observed, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." What, after all, is the worst that can happen? A Labour government will borrow some money, something that the Tories have been doing for the last five years with absolute abandon, but, instead of giving it to bankers and the already far too wealthy, they will invest it in those things that the country needs - mainly housing. The NHS will be saved from the clutches of various giant American health corporations who are slavering to get their hands on assets for nothing that belong to you and me. Education will become less expensive for our hard pressed children. The railways and utilities, plundered by the rich and greedy for decades, will be returned to public ownership where service, rather than profit, will be the aim. And, after five years, if Corbyn should win a general election but fails to improve the country, we can all vote him out of office. That's what democracy is supposed to be about isn't it?

The Past Is A Foreign Country.

There are many people in Britain today who will fail to recognise the above photograph. It is a ruined factory - a place where people used to go, make things and earn money. Young people who didn't have the aptitude to be a banker, a property speculator or diversity coordinator would get apprenticeships at such places, learn a trade and get a proper job at the end of it all. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher and her Tory henchmen decided that we didn't need manufacturing industry any more and that we could base our entire economy on banking and shopping. Apprenticeships in factories were replaced with training for a life of crime in banking and finance. The working class was essentially exported abroad to India and China where their votes don't count over here in Britain and the Tories looked forward to a new generation who would have no idea that an alternative to neoliberal economics was possible. And it worked. Even the Labour party, the traditional party of the working class, went along with this idea. The economic insanity of "trickle down" became orthodoxy and , in times of famine, it became normal to present the rich and greedy with ever-increasingly bigger meals. Those who didn't fit into this new world, the ill-educated, the sick, the disabled and the unemployed became "scroungers". Those who argued against it became "dinosaurs" or, as Liz Kendall recently put it, "a throwback to the past." That, apparently, would be a terrible thing. Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour party, or heaven forefend, as Prime Minister would reverse all the "progress" of the last 30 years. Just imagine it. Ordinary people with full time well paid jobs. Hospitals well funded by the taxes paid by these people in full time well paid jobs. Entire industries such as gas, electricity, water and railways dedicated to creating public services instead of ripping off their customers. A society more equal in which the rich pay taxes as well. A society in which the sick and disabled are treated with a measure of dignity and the unemployed are helped back into real jobs that pay real money. Awful isn't it? "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

Britain's Coalition Of Evil.

The Tory track record on the economy has always been dire. From the 1920's when their ideological commitment to keeping the pound chained to the Gold Standard wrecked British exports, through the 1930's when they refused to do anything remotely useful to ease the Depression, to the 1970's and 80's when their hatred of the Unions led them to utterly destroy British industry, they have always put their insane prejudices ahead of reality. They have been able to do this because they are experts at lying to the electorate and have no conscience whatsoever about inflicting untold damage on ordinary people in order to feather their own nests. Britain is now in the midst of an unprecedented assault on those things that once made this country a truly civilized nation including a hate campaign against the disabled and disadvantaged in order to destroy the welfare state, the destruction of worker's rights (they are now less effective than they were during the Victorian period) and the dismantling of the NHS in preparation for its privatisation. They have been aided in this by the LibDems whose ideological about-face has been the most extraordinary in British political history and has left those who voted for them feeling horrified and utterly betrayed. Both of these parties have based these completely uncalled-for policies on the economic myth that it was Labour fiscal irresponsibility before 2008 that makes their insane agenda unavoidable. In this self-serving legend the banks and their greedy criminality have no role and it is the Labour party's tax and borrowing when in government that takes centre stage. Yet, as the Guardian points out today, borrowing in 2007 was at its lowest since 1997 when Labour first came to power and was a great deal lower than it was under the Tories. There is no fiscal crisis as the Tories describe and, what's more, there never was. The Coalition's economic policies are based purely on ideology and have absolutely nothing to do with reality. Deflationary policies during a recession are pure idiocy but are pursued by this government simply because it provides the necessary alibi to turn back the clock and return wealth and power to where they believe it belongs - to themselves.

Britain Now Officially A News Free Zone.

Simon McCoy, reporting for the BBC, summed it all up quite neatly when reporting on the Royal birth - Britain has become a news free zone. With nothing to report and thoroughly fed up with standing in front of a London hospital for no good reason, his grumpy coverage was the only authentic voice to be heard on the BBC all day. As other reporters gushed uncontrollably and wittered on about utter nonsense he was the only one asking the question we should all be pondering - why are we all watching this pap? Is it because we need a diversion from the awful reality of Cameron's Britain? If so we've been diverted from it quite a bit lately what with the Olympics, the Jubilee, the Ashes and now the Royal birth. Is the BBC really so inane and irrelevant that it simply couldn't help itself? If so then every other news gathering service seem blighted by the same shortcomings. No, the real reason for the sickening national outpouring of sheer mindless adulation seems to point to a much deeper malaise in the British people. Nosey by nature and educated to be deferent, news about the Royal family seems to provide the nation with all the information it needs or can handle. Why worry about poverty and inequality when we can all become gooey-eyed over the birth of yet one more over-privileged and ornamental individual destined for a life of unlimited luxury at taxpayers expense? Of course the politicians love this sort of rubbish. For the Tories it allows them to do something really despicable while no one is looking. For Labour it means getting one day closer to the General Election without having to say too much about their non-existent policies. For the LibDems it means very little - which suits them because they too mean very little. The rest of us, however, have no excuse.

British Politicians Agree Mutual Sucide Pact For The Rest Of Us.

George Osborne stood up in Parliament today and cheerfully admitted that, since his economic policy wasn't working, there was no choice but to give us more of it. His original idea, if you can call it that, was that if he flattened the economy and pauperised the entire population except for himself and his rich mates then the economy would bounce back. All that was needed for his plan to work was people to spend money they no longer had and for a non-existant industrial sector to sell things it couldn't make to foreign markets who didn't want them. Mystified as to why this plan hasn't worked he has concluded that we, the ordinary people of this country, just haven't been trying hard enough. There were jeers from the Opposition benches before they made for the exits, sought out the nearest TV studio and then told us that they would do the same if elected. The truth is that this Comprehensive Spending Review - a budget in all but name - was more about politics than it was about the economy. The economy, it turns out, is beyond all help as long as the political elite insist that ordinary people must pay for their mistakes and rich people must not, under any circumstances, pay higher taxes. Terrified that they might miss out on the blue-rinse, suicidally insane, "it's all the fault of the EU, immigrants and scroungers" vote, the LibDems and Labour swallowed what is left of their principles and went along with it. All parties are now committed to making inroads into the grinning idiot vote and are happy to continue living in a political "there is no alternative" desert bereft of any landmarks such as principles or even good ideas. With any idea of a functioning economy safely consigned to history, the politicians can now get down to the serious business of slagging off the people, you and I, whose only function appears to consist of paying their wages and providing them with unlimited expense accounts.

UKIP Shouts "Boo!"

UKIP pushed its way onto the national political stage today, relegating the LibDems to third place, threatening to elbow the Tories to one side and leaving the Labour party staring like a rabbit into the headlights. The Coalition immediately went into panic mode with Nick Clegg insisting that his party's disastrous showing was a springboard to future success and David Cameron suddenly discovering phrases such as "respect for the electorate's verdict" and "lessons must be learned." While the LibDems have had time to contemplate their imminent extinction as a political force in Britain for some time now, for the Tories this is a new and frightening experience. Cameron, in particular, seems to have been taken by complete surprise that lying to the electorate and ignoring how they feel may no longer be enough. All three former major parties might even wake up to the fact that manifestos should include some element of truth and that the electorate expects their pledges to mean something. The signs, however, are not encouraging. The LibDems continue to emulate an ostritch, the Tories are still telling us that complete economic policy failure and growing discontent is no reason to change course, while Labour remains confident that saying nothing at all is the best course. UKIP is not much better in reality. Apart from putting a stop to all immigration and withdrawing from the EU they don't have much else to say. The tragedy is that this has proven to be enough. Immigration is not popular in Britain and the electorate are increasingly disenchanted with the EU while ignoring these realities is now becoming politically impossible. Right-wing politics has been in the ascendency over the last 30 years with disastrous consequencies for us all but it looks as if the country is about to lurch even further to the right as the three "main" parties chase after UKIP. Whatever the eventual results of this are one thing is for sure - Britain is no longer a country at ease with itself.

Ed Looks Backwards To The Future.

Yesterday, on his keynote address, Ed Miliband rather cheekily invoked the name of Benjamin Disraeli. Today the name of Robert Peel is to be given an airing. What Ed is trying to get at is obvious - one nation with a government governing for all and not simply those it regards as "important." All very laudible but it suffers from more than a few weaknesses. Not least is the problem of "one nation." What was true in the 19th century is no longer true in the 21st. We are not "one nation". The divide between rich and poor has widened since the end of the 19th century and the culture that sustained a national identity is no longer there. Ed is suggesting that the wealth divide can be repaired and he might be right, but what about the divide in culture? That is fractured beyond retrieval and, short of imposing a standard of "Britishness", can never be reserected. That is the weakness of multiculturism - the clue is in the name. So why is Ed looking back to the 19th century for his inspiration? The answer to that is that the Labour party, indeed all the political parties, are the creation of the 19th century and, in many ways, are about as relevant to modern Britain as the 19th century itself. Shoehorning the present day into a distorted image of the past is not the answer. Modern Britain needs new answers not retreads of the old, otherwise we are heading towards the fate of all fractured societies - conflict and, ultimately, civil war.

Ed Balls Promises The Austerity Undelivered By The Tories.

The Tory MP for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, tells us that there is no austerity and, of course he's right inasmuch as there is no austerity for him and his rich Tory pals. He's also right to point out that David Cameron and George Osborne, who have managed to increase the deficit by 20%, are depressingly stupid and incompetent. He proposes, therefore, to replace a stupid policy with the insane one favoured by wealthy parasites such as Francis Maude and Lord Ashcroft. Pauperise the plebs and insulate the useless rich and everything will automatically and miraculously get better. Ed Balls, who recognises the Tory policy for the self-defeating lifeboat mentality that it is, will have none of that. Rather, he tells us, what we need is real austerity not the ersatz variety that the Tories love so much. So, when Labour wins the next election, he will conduct a root and branch review of public spending and make sure that every penny is spent wisely. Oh goody! So does that means that Trident won't be replaced by an even more deadly and expensive weapon system, that rich will people will pay taxes, that bankers will pay for their own mistakes, that MP's will have to buy their own crisps, chocolate bars and £2 million mansions, that the Royal Family will have to rely on their own money and that India won't be receiving millions in aid to support their space programme? I don't know about you, but I'm not holding my breath.

Reality Closes In On Cameron.

Two seperate tidal waves are about to engulf David Cameron, one from the Left and one from the Right, as reality finally catches up with this hapless dreamer of what is a nightmare for the rest of us. The first tidal wave on the horizon has been set in moton by the TUC which has finally come to the conclusion that they have to do something if the country is not to be forever changed into a parody of Dickensian Britain. In his speech to the TUC today Ed Balls came very, very close to giving his blessing to a general strike as he, unlike Ed Milliband, realises that the moment of decision is fast approaching. It must be said, however, that he allowed himself a huge amount of "wriggle room" when it came to economic policy under any future Labour government. Meanwhile those behind the "stalking horse" plan to dislodge Cameron from within the Tory party itself have been revealed as David Davis and Liam Fox - both right-wing madmen with a personal grudge against their leader. David Davis is the man defeated by Cameron during the last leadership contest. Liam Fox was the man sacked from his cabinet post when it became obvious that he couldn't tell the difference between his ministry and a personal fiefdom where his best friend, Adam Werrity, could solicit bribes from various shady right-wing organisations. In other words they are a team made up of a loser and a crook. These two men are not attacking Cameron because they think he's gone too far, but because they think he's not gone far enough. Not content with Cameron's Tory wet dream, they are calling for a full-on violent rape of the country.

Labour To Go Cap In Hand To Big Business.

Labour have been explaining more fully how they intend to throw in the towel as far as the present disastrous world economic situation is concerned. Milliband's new idea - "predistribution" - is, essentially, a tacit recognition that politicians can't ask big business to pay their fair share of taxes because they will simply refuse. Rather than facing up to this, predistribution is an attempt to avoid the issue and politely ask big business to pay proper wages instead. Of course that is doomed to utter failure since British management are, by and large, a bone-idle bunch of second-raters without the wit or imagination to do what is in the interests of us all. As a case in point what is happening to the NHS in the south-west of England demonstrates why predistribution in Britain simply won't work. There 20 NHS Trusts have banded together to form the South-West Pay, Terms and Conditions Consortium that seeks to bring in "local pay rates" to redress the financial imbalance cause by the Tories starving them of funds. The management of the south-west NHS Trusts, lacking the ability, immagination or the energy to find a better solution, have instinctively reached for the easiest method of lowering costs - cutting wages. The BMA have warned that the south-west of England will become a microcosm of a more general trend in Britain, with good, well trained staff leaving in droves to seek better wages and conditions elsewhere leaving behind only those whose lack of ability prevents them from moving on. Essentially helthcare in the south-west will be de-skilled. And that is how predistribution will fare in a Britain dominated by tax-dodging international big business - it will be strangled at birth leaving the country to continue its steady economic and social decline. The issue of the wealthy and of big business simply refusing to pay their fair share of taxes, aided by their pals in the Tory party, will not be so easily brushed to one side and Ed Milliband needs to face up to that.

Baroness Warsi In State Of Panic.

Baroness Warsi, the soon to be ex-CoChairman of the Tory party, had an attack of the vapours today. This was prompted by Ed Milliband's decision to appoint the free thinking Jon Crudas as his policy chief. "Labour has lurched to the left," she commented, as if this was enough to damn the Labour party out of hand. Curious, we asked the mentally challenged Tory peer to expand on her outburst; "When the Labour party starts to think in radical terms in order to tackle what is merely an economic disaster of unrivaled proportions it simply goes to show that they think too much about these things. We in the Tory party try not to think too much because it confuses us and we prefer knee-jerk reaction based on ideology. Its a well-known fact that talking to anyone who is not a banker makes you a Communist. Voters have to realise that our fiendishly clever plan to destroy the country's economy, flog off the NHS to our corporate mates, throw all disabled and useless people onto the street and reward the rich with even more privileges is the only way forward. At a time of mass starvation it is vitally important to serve the rich with ever larger meals - that's only common sense. Ed Milliband has abandoned the centre ground making it absolutely certain that we'll win the next election and, as CoChairman and chief ethnic token woman in the Tory party, that frighten's me to death. I mean, what are we supposed to do in a second term? It's not as if we'll have another economy to destroy or another population to bring to the edge of despair is it?"