David Cameron and George Osborne say they have a long term plan for the economy. Superficially it is very hard to detect what that plan might be beyond their desire not to move house next year. Dig below the surface though and something more sinister appears.
First, if they have a plan for employment then it is to provide low paid, insecure, part time work without prospects for advancement or any chance of redress for employer wrong-doing where dependence upon expensive debt and food banks will ensure that any chance of labour disquiet can be quelled with instant dismissal.
If they have a plan for growth it is based purely on speculative bubbles in housing, commodities and the stock market, all of which suit their friends in the City, and all of which are fuelled by government policy, whether QE or subsidised mortgages.
If they have a plan for business, it is sink or swim on your own.
If they have a plan for the regions it is to devolve budgets to them, and then cut them.
Their tax policy is to collect of little as it as possible by sacking the staff who might otherwise prove we don't need austerity.
On housing, the policy is to support landlords and to increase interest rates so that more houses can be made available at low cost to the buy-to-let market as people are evicted from their homes.
Environmental policy is all about sticking heads in the sand, some of which will then be fracked.
Transport policy is dedicated to increasing carbon footprints.
And democracy? That's about seeing how to alienate as many voters as possible.
And the net effect of all that? It's called the creation of a Cowardly State where those in power seek to use as little as possible whilst using the power of the state to divert as much tax revenue as possible into the hands of the private sector.
If that's a plan Dave and George do, indeed, have one.
It's your choice to not share it with them.
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Hmm…more like the ‘Complicit State’.
There’s nothing cowardly about this IMHO Richard – in fact its brazen and is in full support of their friends, funders and business acquaintences who will be no doubt egging them on. It’s been a continuous coup since 1979………….
I agree
I defined the term Cowardly State in my book the Courageous State
I agree with you Richard but I don’t have much faith in the other lot to come up with a better plan. Of course if we end up with a hung parliament then it could be Ukip or the Scottish Nats who call the tune.
What if Greens were to hold the balance of power though?
Is anyone else saying no to austerity, rather than more, less or slower austerity?
Is anyone else serious about closing the tax gap, cutting emissions, investing in the well paid, secure jobs that would bring the first 2 things about?
It may be down to you Lesley
Spot on, Richard, and very well said as this is indeed the plan, and too many commentators in the media are taken in by the fact that on the surface it doesn’t much look like they have one. Or to put it another way, these are the core components of the overarching project taking us ever closer to a neo-feudal state and society – and this has been a deliberate and well mapped out strategy since coming to power in 2010. We ignore this at our peril, as increasing numbers of people are realising.
My only point would be I’d qualify your comment on democracy. I don’t think the aim is to alienate as many voters as possible, because that way may lie electoral defeat – or at the least, uncertainty. So there has to be an element of selectivity here. My view would be that once Scots MP are debarred from voting on “English” policy matters then the Tories will no longer have any need or interest in appealing to voters in any part of the country and/or any sector of the population that isn’t “naturally” Tory. Their interest here has always been highly instrumental anyway. But electorally they will soon be able to dispense with those citizens as potential voters, and thus they have no further democratic significance. In which case they are for all intent and purpose no longer citizens.
If you combine this with your point about the real intent and purpose of Tory devolution (which is actually about giving away decision making powers whilst retaining the sources of the power to control – eg. money) the outcome is obvious. An all powerful city state (greater London), surrounded by a largely idealogically supportive and economically and socially complicit region, and then, as you move north and west increasingly oppressed, “slave” counties, regions and countries.
This is truly neo-feudal, of course, and coming our way faster than most people – including many who like to consider themselves intelligent and informed – want to believe.
Ivan
All points takn!
Richard
Yes – your book is on is on my Xmas pressie list so I will acquaint myself with this!
I quite like the idea of George and Dave’s heads being fracked.