I see that
Mrs May is determined to double down on the fascist inclinations she displayed so shamelessly in the Home Office...
The Conservatives will use the power of government to "restore fairness" in Britain and spread prosperity more widely, Theresa May has said.
Well, that doesn't sound like a recipe for disaster at all, eh? Higher taxes and more interference in business all round then. And note the use of the word "power" here.
The prime minister told the party's conference the UK must change after the "quiet revolution" of the Brexit vote, urging people to "seize the day".
Labour were now seen as the "nasty party" and only the Tories would "stand up for the weak... up to the powerful".
It seems to me, Mrs May, that the entity that is most "powerful" is the state—it certainly has the monopoly on violence.
So, Mrs May, who is going to stand up to you and your ilk, I wonder...?
The state should be a "force for good" to help working people, she argued.
Fucking hellski.
The Glorious Leader goes on...
"If you're one of those people who lost their job, who stayed in work but on reduced hours, took a pay cut as household bills rocketed, or—and I know a lot of people don't like to admit this—someone who finds themselves out of work or on lower wages because of low-skilled immigration, life simply doesn't seem fair."
Hmmmm. What about if you are—and I know a lot of people don't like to admit this—someone who finds themselves out of work because of the National Minimum Wage (or National Living Wage, or whatever the hell it's called these days), Mrs May?
You know, the kind of person whose human capital is so low, that they will never get a job? Like, I don't know, a young person with few qualifications?
How will you use the
"power of the state" to
"restore fairness" in the face of this particular piece of government stupidity? Will your government stand against the power of your government...?
What's next—compulsory National Service for all citizens?
She stressed the importance of the role of the state, the need for government to be a force for good. She promised a new industrial strategy and enhanced workers rights. It was a very different message from that of previous Tory leaders who have sought to reduce state intervention and roll back the size of government.
So, if I think that reducing state intervention and rolling back the size of government is a good idea, who the fuck do I vote for?
Political choice in this country just became even narrower.
UPDATE: the ASI peeps have responded rather more coherently...
"If only Theresa May was serious about ditching ideology in favour of pragmatism and evidence – she’d have to abandon most of her main policy planks.
"Take energy price caps. We have evidence that these will lead to lower investment [PDF], lower production and more brownouts or even blackouts. Eventually, these policies may lead to electricity rationing [PDF] and nationalisation. High energy prices are mostly caused by high wholesale prices, and energy firms are not generally more profitable than other large firms.
"Or look at the employee representation on company boards – which is better described as union representation. Here, the evidence is that giving unions this sort of power can turn boards toxic, as happened to Volkswagen, and these rules have reduced the value of German firms by 26%. Other academic evidence suggests that board representation is just about the only bad way of giving workers more say in how their firms are run. So why on earth is this the policy that supposedly-pragmatic May is proposing?"
[...]
Ah yes—I had forgotten about May's lunatic idea for energy price caps. Once again, a government wants to intervene and disrupt the market—in order to fix a problem that the government has created. For fuck's sake...
I can only assume that Mrs May is planning to
"restore fairness" in the Venezuelan way—by making everyone equally poor and deprived.
The motto of Mrs May's government must surely be
Forwards to Fascism!