Iain Dale has posted an e-mail sent to a former labour supporter, inviting him to rejoin. Dale’s comment is
“Note that people are being asked to rejoin three times. If the BNP line doesn’t get them, then maybe the threat of cuts will. And note that there’s not a single positive reason to rejoin – it’s all attacking the Tories.But it’s the BNP line that will enrage right minded people.”
Again, the line being taken by Labour is that “we must prepare for opposition”
Posted by Kevin VS Marshall (Manicbeancounter) on 15/06/2009
https://manicbeancounter.com/2009/06/15/a-labour-government-planning-for-opposition-4-harriet-harmens-turn/
Ed Balls has continued the preparations for post-election opposition with an attack on the Tories education policies in today’s Guardian.
This oppposition mentality is shown by the Labour Government’s policies merely form an unquestioned measuring-rod from which to evaluate the Tories. Like any opposition with no hope of forming a government, consistency is not required. In the current circumstances, when spending needs to be squeezed, if something is raised up the list of priorities, we need to know what has fallen down the league table. In particular, those areas which are no longer required, so can be dropped. Or there might be areas can be reduced.
Unfortunately the Ballsian approach tends towards an extremist party that knows that they will never form a government when he says
“David Cameron is playing the public for fools and, frankly, the centre-left have let him get away with it too long.”
In other words, the Tories have a conspiracy to make things worse. Labour needs to expose the “truth”.
Hat tip Dan Hannan
FOLLOW UP – John Redwood stated yesterday that
“It is pathetic that we are still stuck in this idiotic sound bite culture, where Mr Brown seriously believes he can frighten people from voting Conservative by continuing to fib that Tories want to sack teachers and nurses.His main reason for wanting Balls in place of Darling apparently was to have someone as Chancellor who would spend his time rubbishing the Opposition instead of tackling the serious productivity and deficit problems in the public sector.”
Well perhaps Ed Balls is trying to do the attacking role from his current position?
Posted by Kevin VS Marshall (Manicbeancounter) on 15/06/2009
https://manicbeancounter.com/2009/06/15/a-labour-government-planning-for-opposition-3-the-ballsian-view/
The Labour government is now trying to tie the hand of a future Consrvative government. In launching a The Child Poverty Bill puts a legal obligation on local authorities and other public bodies to work towars the irradication of child poverty. In the words of Yvette Cooper (new Work & Pensions Sectretary) “The reason for having this legal framework is to say that this is not something that you can just walk away from. Future governments, future agencies shouldn’t just be able to turn round and say OK it’s got a bit too difficult…..”
So a new Labour government in 1997 sets an impossible standard. Twelve year later, having not gotting close to fulfilling it, they then tie future Governments into their targets. The reason that it is impossible, is that the measure of child poverty involved is a relative concept. So even if we get Chinese rates of growth for the next generation, if income distribution remains unchanged, we will get policy failure.
The Bill is aiming to tie a future government into a socialist concept. It is putting in place laws which cannot be met, for which to breate a future Conservative government.
See Today Programme on Fri 12th June at 7.52. At 3 mins to 3.15 Yvette Cooper explains that it is a relative measure, and gives a backhanded dig at the previous governements. At 3.15 mins is the above quote.
Posted by Kevin VS Marshall (Manicbeancounter) on 14/06/2009
https://manicbeancounter.com/2009/06/14/labour-a-government-planning-for-opposition-2/
Have you noticed that the Labour Spin Machine has kicked into life again? Problem is that instead of promoting government policies, they concentrate on attacking the Tories.
This excellent interview on the Radio 4 Today Programme (at 8.10 on 11th June) has Liam Byrne attacking the prospective Conservative cuts, whilst failing to admit that Labour need to do similar cuts. John Humphreys asks a number of times for a clear answer to whether Labour in Government will cut expenditure. He does not give a straight answer. The reason that Liam Byrne does not give a straight answer is that the Labour Party no longer expect to win the next election, so have no plans on how to sort out the current Brownian mess. They election campaign is already underway.
Listen in particular after 1.45 mins and 2.30
Posted by Kevin VS Marshall (Manicbeancounter) on 14/06/2009
https://manicbeancounter.com/2009/06/14/labour-a-government-planning-for-opposition-1/
John Redwood blogged today on “Killing the High Street”. I started to write a post, but went off topic onto wider issues. I therefore publish my post here.
Mr Redwood you point to a much wider problem when you say
“We will not linger long, deterred by the rip off car parking charges and by the need to comply with an ever more terrifying array of traffic and personal conduct rules and laws. We know the yobs will flaunt all this with no consequence for them,….”
We are moving from a society under the rule of law to one where we are constrained by laws. Under the rule of law, the laws are irrelevant for most people. Breaking the law is not something that people would consider, even if the most severe punishment were a public ticking-off and a fine of 50p. This is because as this vast majority don’t just aim to live on the boundaries of the law, but living peaceably with one another. A good number of these peaceable citizens working to positively enhance the society around them. Furthermore, serving the community whether an elected official or a local government employee is something to be admired.
Ever-increasing laws and rules mean that we are all law breakers, and equally guilty. Politics becomes the arena for the grasping (MPs expenses) and the manipulators (As this weekend showed). Employment in the public sector becomes a matter of secure jobs, gold-plated pensions whilst failing to serve the public.
Posted by Kevin VS Marshall (Manicbeancounter) on 14/04/2009
https://manicbeancounter.com/2009/04/14/from-the-rule-of-law-to-new-labour/
The Prime Minister spoke today in St. Pauls Catherdral of the need for common values to underpin the world economy. I thought at first that Gordon Brown was coming round to my approach – of having a principles-based approach. However, I was disappointed. The following is the relevant text, from the Number10 website
And today he and I want to discuss with you not the details of specific or technical financial programmes or policies, but instead enduring values – indeed the enduring virtues – that we have inherited from the past which must infuse our ideals and hopes for the future.
And I want to suggest to you today that this most modern of crises, the first financial crisis of the global age, has confirmed the enduring importance of the most timeless of truths – that our financial system must be founded on the very same values that are at the heart of our family lives, neighbourhoods and communities.
Instead of a globalisation that threatens to become values-free and rules-free, we need a world of shared global rules founded on shared global values. I know it’s hard to talk about the future when you’re having a tough time in the present. You don’t redesign a boat in the midst of a storm.
I am disappointed. The disappointment is due to this being ambiguous (to appeal to a large audience), whilst at the same time going against the very things that we need for future stability and prosperity. The ambiguity comes in exactly what are the family values? The laissez-faire attitudes of same-sex parents or the authoritarian attitudes of the militant Islam?
I wrote a posting on John Redwood’s blog that is relevant to approach we should be taking, especially when speaking a house of God.
1. In Matthew 22, after Jesus says that the Greatest commandment is love of God and the second is love of neighbour as oneself, he then says “In these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”. For the financial system, what is most important is the general objectives of regulation, with the detail following from that.
2. In Jesus’s conflict with authority was because he put love of neighbour before upholding the laws and cultures of the time (such as healing. In other words, where the detailed rules conflict with the major objectives, it is the regulations that must be amended. When it is a choice between maintaining a boom with low interest rates, or suffering a mild recession to avoid a bubble, then it is the mild recession that must be endured.
3. Jesus had strong words for the Scribes and the Pharisees (Matthew 23), the religious leaders of the time, who dogmatically upheld the complex laws and customs. Like the modern day financial regulators, they made sure that everyone ticked all the boxes, but lost sight of the purpose of the exercise. The spin doctors ensured that in was only others perceptions that were important and not substance.
4. In the Old Testament, the importance is stressed of avoiding risk and stewardship of ones property. The authorities lost sight of this – whether Government’s going on a spending spree or Central Banks in keeping interest rates too low.
That is what is needed is a principles-based approach to the world economic order. To have clear, and unambiguous, general rules globally, to allow markets to develop in unexpected ways, whilst being able to change the general direction when required. It is a value-based approach based on love of one’s neighbour and good stewardship of our resources. Our reliance in detailed rules has failed, as the general direction (particularly in Britain) has been determined by political expediency and spin.
Posted by Kevin VS Marshall (Manicbeancounter) on 31/03/2009
https://manicbeancounter.com/2009/03/31/gordon-brown-a-manicbeancounter/
LabourList, a blog run by Derek Draper, has failed to live up to the expectations of being an alternative to Conservative Home or Iain Dale’s Diary. The reason, ably put by Lib-Dem blogger Mark Reckons, is due to
The Labour party is tired and, broke for ideas and increasingly sleazy, just like the Conservatives in the 1990s. They are in need of a forum for ideas, to generate a fresh impetus for the 2018/9 general election. What they need to ditch is Spin, or to give it’s more traditional name propaganda. Like the Soviet Bloc countries, the government tends to believe its own spin. Derek Draper is the propagandist without the veneer of self-control. My evidence is from the transcript of a Radio 5 Live “debate” with John Redwood and with Paul Staines (Guido Fawkes) on The Daily Politics Show.
Posted by Kevin VS Marshall (Manicbeancounter) on 31/03/2009
https://manicbeancounter.com/2009/03/31/labourlist-fails-to-live-up-to-expectations/
ManicBeancounter 