The Bizarre World Of Right-Wing Politics.

There are some days when you'd be forgiven for thinking that the world has suddenly turned upside down. The reason for this feeling, unfortunately, is that it is often true in the bizarre reality that is Toryworld. We are constantly being bombarded by opposing and mutually exclusive "facts". While there are two million unemployed in the country, half of whom are under 24, and controlling immigration is a right-wing fetish, we are now being told by the "Telegraph" that retirement age should be increased to 70 because we have a shortage of workers. In a country in which homelessness is on the rise and is about to get worse and where young people are completely shut out of the housing market because of house prices and a shortage of supply, the Tories are moving heaven and earth to increase those same house prices. In an economy all but destroyed by privatisation, low wages and deregulation the Tories want more privatisation, pass laws to create "a more flexible workforce" and look to deregulate ever more industries while rewarding those who break existing if weak laws with ever-growing bonuses. This is the strange world where less money in consumers pockets has no effect on demand, taxing rich people at higher levels returns less money to the Exchequer, houses stand empty and abandoned while homelessness is on the rise, criminal bankers are rewarded with bigger bonuses and better tax breaks and a £10 million state-funded funeral for a widely loathed ex-Prime Minister whose own children are worth millions is better value for money than funding a hospital. This is "having your cake and eat it" politics, a "heads I win, tail you lose" political philosophy in which the Tories provide themselves with a plaster for every sore. This is what naked greed and selfishness looks like when elevated to the level of policy.