I referred to David Cameron's joke about The Joy of Tax at the Conservative Party Conference yesterday here.
The Guardian invited me to reply. That response is available on their web site, and I haven't got much to add to it barring the thought that several commentators on the blog have put forward, quoting Ghandi:
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
I think I can safely say the arguments are well beyond stage one and are now somewhere in stages two and three. That does not mean stage four is inevitable. But it helps. As does continuing with the approach to policy creation that I have long been engaged with which I describe in the Guardian:
We are optimists. We think things could be better. We think that by serious thought, careful policy design and targeted intervention we can improve society, especially for those who have been sidelined since 2010.
In contrast, it's clear Cameron does not want to engage in these processes. That's because he is what I described in a previous book (The Courageous State) as a cowardly politician: one who, when he sees a problem, declares his impotence to deal with it and hopes the market will resolve it for him, knowing there is no chance of it doing so.
Cameron might have thought he made a joke. But what he revealed is the real choice now developing in UK politics: between those who believe in the power of the state to intervene for the good of the people of this country and those who, already well off, want to be voyeurs on the sidelines as wealth floods steadily upwards within the shrinking state they wish for.
The joke is not then at my expense, but most particularly at the expense of all those for whom life could be better but for his government reneging on the possibility of real change.
We have to win that real change. The alternative is too grim to contemplate for too many people in this country.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Then the Labour Party must win an election.
It will once a truly democratic , grass-roots movement build up. John-at some point this country will wake up from it’s narcolepsy and realise it has been cathertered endlessly by a bunch of spivs, cheap crooks and expensively diseducated and culturless thugs.
How can your analysis be correct when that grassroots movement has already been built? It will not get much bigger; in the fringes of politics, those who agree with you will do so quickly and vocally. Don’t expect the movement to grow much. Political elections are won by appeal to those for whom politics is not a big deal. He will not have the support of this group ever. That’s why he’s the worst performing new political leader in history by ratings. The SNP have increased their lead in the polls and by elections and bar one, Labour have seen their vote share in these Scottish seats fall – in one case with even a swing to the Tories.
Out of interest, by the way, what’s wrong with someone having an expensive education? Criticising people for decisions made for them not by them is particularly unfair. Both Corbyn and Cameron had educations far more expensive than most people’s, and though one of them did more than the other with that privilege and progressed to achieve highly academically, none can be criticised for their background.
Ah! A reasonable man.
good reads.com/quotes/536961/the-reasonable-man-adapts-himself-to-the-world-the-unreasonable
It is just as well that everyone from the 13th century peasants through to the civil war anti royalists, the chartists, the trade unionists, Irish home ruler’s, suffragettes, et al took a more unreasonable view otherwise we would all still be touching our forelock, swearing fealty and spending our wedding nights waiting for our Lord to conclude his feudal rights to the bride.
I have lost count of thew times I have been told that if only I was more reasonable I could achieve so much more
And always by those who would rather I achieved nothing at all
“spending our wedding nights waiting for our Lord to conclude his feudal rights to the bride”
Now you’re back on the tory party theme again!
Let me get this right. You called your book “The Joy of Tax”. It is fairly obviously a pun on “The Joy of Sex”. In your Guardian article you admit the title is meant to be tongue in cheek. So it is a very slightly risqué joke.
Cameron then does the same and makes a very slightly risqué joke based around your book and somehow he has
a) made a joke out of a serious subject and
b) embarrassed his wife.
You really do need to get over yourself.
I have, I can assure you, got over myself
If what Cameron said is being classed as a “joke” two observations ensue:
1. Cameron, even though he is useless at his day job, should not give it up in the hope of appearing Live at the Apollo.
2. When it comes to humour some people, and not just Cameron and his flunkies, clearly set the bar on standards and quaility considerably lower than others. (No names or pack drill).
Hang about Robin, you are not comparing like with like. Richard wasn’t making a Party Conference Speech and using the title for a cheap laugh Cameron was and it was an utter disgrace that he came out with infantile humour, antintellectual, contentless garbage which offered no argument other than the mockery of a public school refectory – and he’s Prime-Minister FFS! Are you happy with this level of utterance from our politicians?
Richard’s aim in using the title was to arouse (sic!) interest in the subject-Cameron’s ghastly jibe was the opposite.
@ Robin Hutton
I’d put money on it that Cameron embarrassed his wife and probably his older children too. As if his family haven’t had enough humiliation to deal with, on top of the Ashcroft revelations. The man is totally crass.
Yes but the real problem is a significant part of the British electorate can’t tell “crass” from ‘better!” Perhaps this will only change after an economic “meltdown!”
That presupposes that the Ashcroft revelations are true.
In my opinion, the volume and majority tone of BTL reactions to your Guardian piece is hostile and generally ignorant in my opinion. My intitial reaction was one of great disappointment that so many people seem to swallow the lies they are told. My subsequent reaction was that someone, somewhere had called out the attack dogs in great force, surely a sign that someone, somewhere is very, very concerned about your analysis.
Very, very well done, Richard.
I never read below the line
But I suspect the attack dogs are indeed out
It’s something I can live with
Don’t be too sure about the “number” of “people” posting disparaging comments on CiF.
I would bet that a lot of the trolling posters are generated by astroturfing software, which allows multiple identities to be run by a single operative.
The one line quips, easy ad hominem ridiculing cliches, off-topic smears and whataboutery, together with an absence of follow-up replies to challenges are a dead giveaway.
Richard-the apogee of your career has been reached!! You get a mention on the Artist Taxi Driver’s daily cathartic, apoplectic rage attack on neo-liberal culture.
Chunky Mark (as he is known) also appeared on the Andrew Neil show so it looks like your paths are crossing! here it is (you have to wait to near the end) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox0aIMbXaPM
You wait until the pigs get their revenge on Cameroon.
Steady now. The unacceptable comments commissar’s might be watching.
The superfluous apostrophe commissar is watching.
There are not many people who get referenced by both party leaders. So I’d take it all as complimentary! You’ve changed the agenda and that’s a great achievement. And I suspect your hide is thick enough to take the brickbats. Especially given the blatant ignorance of some of the sources.
We all have to keep educating people at every opportunity, to counter the brainwashing in mainstream media
I was born with a thick hide
I could not run a blog if not
“He gave an interview a few weeks ago. He was very frank. He admitted that Labour’s plan would cause a “sterling crisis”, but to be fair……he did add, and I quote, that it “would pass very quickly”.Well, that’s alright then.”
Erm…did you actually say this, Richard? If you did, I strongly suspect important context is missing from Cameron.
I dissed it in discussion – and as I have made clear I think it is a non-risk if any such attempt at creating a crisis occurred because the fundamentals of Corbynomics actually seriously suit the market
By treating Prof. Murphy’s work in such a light hearted fashion, Mr Cameron could hardly have given it a stronger endorsement.
He has effectively admitted there is a Joy of Tax. The difference is that for him, the joy of tax is that it enables him to do his job of running the government, on Tory principles of course, because he believes in them.
Sorry Mr Cameron, those beliefs are mistaken.