Okay, times up. I decided to give Cameron and the "Coalition" a chance. I think it's churlish to want the government of your country to be a failure - much as the nation treats it's footie team. So I sat back and decided to watch and see what was happening.
But my patience has run out. Cameron sold himself as a social liberal, but I guess he has to keep every wing of the coalition happy. The Libdems are just happy to be in government - a bit like those X factor winners who are happy to sing whatever dross Cowell has prepared for them because they never thought they'd ever even see the inside of a studio. I worry about them. I think ultimately they could well suffer a backlash against their participation that wipes them out.
And Cameron's way of keeping the right wing happy is to look, as PM, just like a Tory. I really wanted him to be a devoted centrist, but that's me. I'm always too trusting and end up broken hearted. Realistically, it was never going to happen. She was always going to choose the next tall neanderthal that came along.
So on Monday we'll discover that the Tories are just the same. Still stuck in a decades old ideological trap. Whatever rhetoric they use about the need for budget cuts they will simply enact the age-old right wing slash and burn. After all, if you care nothing for the public, then why should you care about public services?
After trying to create a Clause 4 moment by decrying Grammar Schools, their schools policy is just a stealthy way to undermine the comprehensive system and create and elitist education for those who can afford it. They might increase Capital Gains Tax, but the bulk of the rises will be stuff like VAT (-probably at 20%, possibly on food) which people cannot choose, and hit the poor as well as the rich. Their attack on Health and Safety culture is just another way to deregulate and allow rich businesses to cut corners on employee welfare.
Just watch: the spin will be classic New Labour, but the underlying ideology will be classic old Tory.
But my patience has run out. Cameron sold himself as a social liberal, but I guess he has to keep every wing of the coalition happy. The Libdems are just happy to be in government - a bit like those X factor winners who are happy to sing whatever dross Cowell has prepared for them because they never thought they'd ever even see the inside of a studio. I worry about them. I think ultimately they could well suffer a backlash against their participation that wipes them out.
And Cameron's way of keeping the right wing happy is to look, as PM, just like a Tory. I really wanted him to be a devoted centrist, but that's me. I'm always too trusting and end up broken hearted. Realistically, it was never going to happen. She was always going to choose the next tall neanderthal that came along.
So on Monday we'll discover that the Tories are just the same. Still stuck in a decades old ideological trap. Whatever rhetoric they use about the need for budget cuts they will simply enact the age-old right wing slash and burn. After all, if you care nothing for the public, then why should you care about public services?
After trying to create a Clause 4 moment by decrying Grammar Schools, their schools policy is just a stealthy way to undermine the comprehensive system and create and elitist education for those who can afford it. They might increase Capital Gains Tax, but the bulk of the rises will be stuff like VAT (-probably at 20%, possibly on food) which people cannot choose, and hit the poor as well as the rich. Their attack on Health and Safety culture is just another way to deregulate and allow rich businesses to cut corners on employee welfare.
Just watch: the spin will be classic New Labour, but the underlying ideology will be classic old Tory.
Let's see how well they do with the debt. Let's refer to Byron (in Don Juan) for some guidance:
"This makes your actors, artists, and romancers,
Heroes sometimes, though seldom--sages never:
But speakers, bards, diplomatists, and dancers,
Little that's great, but much of what is clever;
Most orators, but very few financiers,
Though all Exchequer Chancellors endeavour,
Of late years, to dispense with Cocker's rigours,
And grow quite figurative with their figures.
"This makes your actors, artists, and romancers,Heroes sometimes, though seldom--sages never:
But speakers, bards, diplomatists, and dancers,
Little that's great, but much of what is clever;
Most orators, but very few financiers,
Though all Exchequer Chancellors endeavour,
Of late years, to dispense with Cocker's rigours,
And grow quite figurative with their figures.
The poets of Arithmetic are they
Who, though they prove not two and two to be
Five, as they might do in a modest way,
Have plainly made it out that four are three,
Judging by what they take, and what they pay:
The Sinking Fund's unfathomable sea,
The debt unsunk, yet sinks all it receives."
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