Iain Dale on the think-tank boys, especially Policy Exchange.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Isaby points out that George Osborne is to deliver an agenda-setting speech at Demos, once New Labour’s favourite think-tank. The Tory Treasury team and Demos. The two sides have been holding joint seminars on "the post-bureaucratic age", when all Tony Blair's dreams come true and all public services are abolished.
They are also doing work on defining "social value" with the Social Market Foundation, whose director recently left to go and work for John Denham.
So welcome (just in case you hadn't already noticed) to the One-Party State of Britain. Or, rather, of England. The Scots, the Welsh and the Northern Irish still get to live somewhere recognisably British, whereas we are subjected to the whims and fancies of the nutters on the London think-tank circuit.
An English Parliament, alternating between New Labour and the New Tories, would not improve this one iota, no matter where it was located.
The whole United Kingdom, as such wants, needs and deserves publicly funded public services, proper local government, free university tuition, free long-term care for the elderly, and even the free prescriptions of the early Attlee years now enjoyed beyond England, but not in England.
What we need are new parties, ways of voting in favour of sanity or decency instead of whatever is currently fashionable among high-born undergraduates (and I work with undergraduates, some of them quite high-born).
Let's get on with it.
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The Scots, the Welsh and (about half of) the Northern Irish do not think of themselves as British in any way, shape or form. Why do you think they all voted for "devolution", like lemmings?
ReplyDeleteOr do you believe the Blair bollocks about devolution "strengthening" the Union?
Three quarters of the Welsh did not vote for devolution.
ReplyDeleteIn Scotland, it took only 1.7 million votes out of an electorate of four million, a minority of the total. The Tories were much more popular there when they were against it.
And the scale of support for the Union in Northern Ireland is obscured by the sectarian basis of the parties. If the mainland parties all ran there, then neither Gerry Adams nor Ian Paisley would be an MP.
Probably half of the Catholics would vote to retain the Union in a referendum, as would practically all of the Protestants, giving about three quarters in total.
No, devolution has not strengthened the Union. But who ever really wanted devolution, anyway?
It doesn't matter how many voted in Wales for the assembly. We are where we are and the English are being given a vote on nothing.
ReplyDeleteIn fact any discussion on English home rule is suppressed.
Even the BBC, noted for its anti-English stance ran apoll which showed that 61% of people in England want an English Parliament. Surely in a democracy you find out how they want to be governed then try to implement it as best as possible.
Instead we are having unitary authorities and regional ministers imposed on us.
England is no better than the former East Germany in terms of freedom and democracy.
Stuff the UK.
"Surely in a democracy you find out how they want to be governed then try to implement it as best as possible."
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily at all, no.