For a
political blogger I have been strangely quiet of late, all through
the local elections and in the face of a general election too. Well,
I have been busy on other projects which I hope will do some good for
society and maybe earn me a crust as well. I haven't stopped caring
about politics, but I may give up being the voice in the wilderness.
Mrs May
isn't right about much in my view, but she is right that this is an
especially crucial time. It needn't have been so perilous if it
weren't for that stupid referendum, but it is. Even the Tories have
put back balancing the books by years, whilst the loony left wants to
borrow more, ending austerity at a stroke and passing a Greek style
economy on to the kids.
Extremism
is a problem in so many areas and ways, political and religious, just
look around at the world. From Trump, to Syria, to North Korea and
Libya and that's without the extremism which causes people to blow up
themselves and their fellow human beings.
The
antidote is to move more towards the centre; to a liberal, common
sense, middle of the road position. The current Tories are about as
right wing as they've ever been, wedded to big business, despite the
rhetoric and the Labour Party as currently led is about as far left
as it's ever been. After all those years of Thatcher, followed by all
the Blair, Brown years the pendulum is out of control and only a big
vote for the centre parties can impede it.
The Tories
once spoke of wealth cascading down the generations, but now they
want to make old age a lottery and get all the growth people have
seen from property price rises for themselves. They also want to
raise tax and National Insurance and they're not doing anything to
hide their intentions believing Corbyn cannot win.
And now
we're getting to the crux. It works for the Tories and the Labour
Party and the right wing press to pretend it's a straight choice
between Corbyn and May, it isn't. It's looking like a choice between
Thatcher and Foot if you're old enough to remember, but it isn't.
As then,
so it is now, there's the party that dare not speak its name the Lib
Dems, Liberals as was. Whether it's the media which keeps them in the
fridge or whether they don't have the financial clout to heat things
up I don't know, but this ought to be their time.
Only one
major party is pro Europe and only one major party is truly united.
The Lib Dems should own the 48 percenters and all those who voted
leave but now regret the chaos, and all the protest voters who just
wanted to kick Cameron and Osborne and who now wonder what they've
unleashed. Not to mention those Brits abroad who have a vote and
those Europeans living, working and paying tax here who have a vote.
As well as
talking about wealth cascading down the generations, the Tories also
used to talk about small business people, helping people who try to
help themselves and so on, but no one talks about a meritocracy now.
The Labour Party wants to take from the rich and give to the poor,
which would have some merit if we were dealing with King John and not
21st Century Britain.
Doesn't
matter how hard you work or whether you develop your talents, whether
you spend or save, invest or fritter, no we're going to help you,
keep everyone the same because we're all equal under our near
communist control. You know, like in Russia where everyone is equally
poor unless they're part of the system, which isn't so different from
North Korea at the other end of the spectrum.
Equality
of opportunity I'll go for every time, Governments deciding who gets
what can go lose themselves. The Dutch didn't lose the plot in their
recent elections, nor the French, why have we all gone mad?
John
McDonnell wants to borrow to invest. The OBR, Office For Budget
Responsibilty, has, he says, told him he'll get one pound back for
every pound he invests, so it'll cost nothing. When something sounds
too good to be true it usually is. However, just as Gordon Brown
blamed international calamities outside his control so John McDonnell
can blame the OBR, so that's alright.
The thing
is that both the Tories and the Labour Party are making their plans
on the basis of some kind of growth, at a time when we've just stuck
two fingers up at our biggest trading partner. Mrs May and David
Davis talk about 'what we want, what we want, what we want'. No one
dares talk about what we might get. One region of one country held up
the Canadian trade deal and all this jingoistic 'they need us more
than we need them' is just pathetic.
Plenty of
the twenty seven have little to lose by denying a trade deal to the
UK, they all have a veto. As for Northern Ireland and the border it's
beyond a joke, if you can see how to make a hard border between the
UK and a foreign entity whilst ensuring there is no border at all to
re invigorate the killing then please tell me how.
It is time
for a centre party, the Lib Dems aren't perfect and they will be
faced with a crisis in health, in education, in prisons and the
likelihood not of growth but of recession, why does no one dare say
it? Mrs May talks about bringing people together but people are more
polarised than ever, a centre party can actually reach out in both
directions, they'll never satisfy all the people but they'll take
some of the heat out of things.
Mrs May
was nominally for Remain, she's not strong and stable she's an
opportunist, she's clawed her way to the top job and wants to go down
in history, trouble is we'll all go down with her. Go on give the Lib
Dems a go. If only to show you have liberal values, not extremist
ideology.
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