In his speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham today, David Cameron invoked a chestnut much beloved of governments and political leaders. "The national interest." Meant to rally the people in the spirit of nationalism, it becomes the totem behin which injustices lie.
The injustice in the present, of course, being the cuts agenda and the ramping up of the class war. But as so many face increased hardship, we need to bear it with "broad shoulders."
Or as the slogan-ridden rhetoric would have it;
So come on – let's pull together. Let's come together.
Let's work, together, in the national interest.
Which is rich, coming from a smug bastard whose wife can afford to ponce around in a £750 Paul Smith dress. If "those with broader shoulders should bear a greater load," why are people on benefits affected at all? And where is Cameron's pay cut?
This is yet more inane, infuriating drivel from the man who coated concessions to private tyranny in the language of the libertarian left with his "Big Society."
On which subject, Cameron patronises us with "the spirit that will take us through" to that Society;
It's the spirit of activism, dynamism, people taking the initiative, working together to get things done.
Sometimes that spirit gets taken a little too far. I got a letter from a six-year-old girl called Niamh with a pound coin stuck to it. And there was a note from her mum, which said: "Dear Mr Cameron ... after hearing about the budget, Niamh wanted to send you her tooth fairy money to help."
There we are, George – nearly there. Niamh: thank you.
Niamh Riley is, alas, very real. And she - or rather, her parents on her behalf - really did send David Cameron £1 in a card to "make the country better and pay for jobs."
Aside from being cringeworthy to the nth degree, this demonstrates exactly the kind of misinformation the public are receiving about what's going on. Cameron had to send back the pound because of strict rules on accepting donations to Number 10. But if he hadn't, it wouldn't have been spent to save jobs.
Indeed, part of the problem we face is that - after spending billions to prop up institutions to prop up institutions which created the present crisis by gambling with a bubble non-existent money - the government are unwilling to spend any money to keep the real economy afloat. The consequences of which can be seen in the utter fiasco now faced by HM Revenue & Customs.
Our pay will freeze, our jobs will go, our benefits will be cut, and our services will crumble. Meanwhile, the amount we pay in tax will increase with the VAT rise. And the profits and bonuses for those at the top will continue to grow.
The problem isn't that there isn't enough money to invest in jobs and "make the country better." It's that, with socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor, those in power don't want that.
When David Cameron tells us that "your country needs you," the next three words (unspoken) are "to bend over." The "national interest" is nothing but short-hand for the interests of the ruling class, which are served at the expense of everyone else. It's time we came together against that.
3 comments:
To use the VAT example as a way of justifying what you're trying to portray as "class war" is just as shameful as the sometimes shallow rhetoric used by politicians. VAT isn't charged on essentials such as food and children's clothing while others are charged at a lesser rate.
Cameron needs to create the right taxation conditions to be able to allow the private sector to fill the jobs hole of the public sector that will be left as a result of the cuts. The Big Society is a good idea, and those who just blindly reject it seem unjustifiably obstructive to a concept which ultimately says, "let's work together to help each other" rather than relying on the state to fulfil your every whim and becoming over dependant on it.
That's my view anyway
The point about VAT is that it is something which affects those on lower incomes more than those on higher, making the idea of the burden being borne by "broader shoulders" a nonsense. The class war materialises in the job cuts, pay freezes, benefit cuts, etc, that the working class have to endure to maintain the profit and privilege of the ruling class.
And the problem with the Big Society is that it is not "let's work together to help each other" but the use of that rhetoric to justify replacing state power with private and corporate power. Genuine community mutual aid is rooted in the anarcho-socialist tradition, not in the Conservative, "small" state-big oligarchy ideology of the Cameroons of this world.
Heard of his Big Society Bank bags coming from stagnant accounts. First thought that came to mind was how a family who allowed an account to collect, as it sat for years untouched, would think of this modern day control over their money? And let's not forget, whether in U.K. or U.S., the government should work for you and it should not ask you to work for it. Dig the post. :)
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