The election looms large over everything relating to the news and politics at the moment and today we have suffered the embarrassing sight of Gordon Brown telling us his pledges for the future. Yawn.
Excuse my lapse of memory, but isn’t GB leader of the party that has been in power for the last 13 years? Maybe it is a thousand years as it feels like they have been there forever. They talk like they have been waiting to get into power for years . Have they forgotten they are the ones who have made the country what it is today? They are offering change but they are the ones we want to change.
In thirteen years it appears that the Labour party have been sitting on their hands for a great deal of that time. It can be no accident that in recent weeks we have had a plethora of announcements, intentions and proposals. Now we have some pledges to add to that.
When Labour came to power wasn’t there something about a commitment to changing the electoral system? Wasn’t there the impression, if not the promise, that this new Labour government would be clean, open and honest?
Thirteen years is surely enough to have done something if the committment meant anything at all. Clearly it was a lie just to get elected. What change have we seen? Well, we have Lord Mandleson in the house of Lords and, apparently, running the country. Did we elect him? No. Do we get the chance to vote for or against him in the general election? No. Is this democracy? No.
There have been some changes. Some of those changes would probably be reversed if they could have their time again. Freedom of Information has been a very positive step forward and it showed us how little the new Labour government were doing to clean up the system of government we have.
What action did GB or his predecessor take to clean up the parliamentary expenses system before the expenses scandal broke? Where was the leadership there? It seems that everything GB is proud to say he did has been in a response to a crisis that should have been forseen, planned for and avoided.
GB was applauding the city financiers and the bankers only months before the crash. Anybody could see that there was a crisis looming but the man who had been chancellor was apparently unaware that you cannot go on borrowing more and more forever. It was obvious to any household in the land so how come someone who is supposed to have a very good grasp of money and finance missed it?
I think we saw this governments attitude to the people of this country yesterday when there was a court judgment which said that the government had not properly considered all factors when it decided there should be a third runway at Heathrow.
There has been a lot of opposition to this plan from many different groups. Both the main opposition parties are opposed to this development and a significant proportion of the public seem to be either against it or have strong reservations against it. The case in favour of it has certainly not been made with the public and frankly it seems unlikely it can be.
Air travel has to reduce rather than increase if we are to reduce environmental pollution and an airport in the middle of a large population is clearly the wrong place for any airport, let alone a main European air travel hub.
One of the many recent proposals has been for a major new fast rail service from London to the Midlands and beyond. This makes far more sense than a new runway and the fact that the rail service is not intended to connect to Heathrow seems crazy.
But what really sums up the governments attitude to the electorate and the rule of law is Gordon Brown responding to the announcement of the court case result. Convinced that only he knows what is good for us he said, “But we took a tough decision, the right decision necessary for the future of Britain and the economy, and a new runway will help secure Britain’s economic future.”
Lord Adonis, the Transport Minister said, “Today’s judgment marks no change whatsoever in the policy on Heathrow.”
So what we see is what we have seen before. This government doesn’t care what people think. It ignores court judgments to suit it’s own ends, as we saw in the case of the retention of DNA samples from innocent men, women and children. The Mother Always Knows Best attitude is so reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher so perhaps it was no surprise that GB invited her to visit at No 10 soon after he was not elected to be Prime Minister but still took the position.
This will, no doubt, sound like a bash at Labour, which it is, but frankly the possibility of a Conservative government seems likely to be almost as bad. The problem seems to be as much about politics as it does about who is elected. This is the one time that any of the parties really care what we the electorate think and they only care long enough to get elected.
The Labour party became the masters of spin. We know they lie to us but there biggest crime is being deceitful and Gordon Brown has proved to be a master of the slight of hand. When he was chancellor he loved to be the magician making it appear as if he found a coin behind you ear which he proceeded to give you as a gift. The reality was always that he actually took that coin from your pocket before producing it and he took a few more along with it.
He likes to promote himself as tough. He likes to let us think that he solved the financial problems of the world. If he is so good with money how come he sold off Britains gold reserves for a quarter of what they would be worth now? How much insight and financial knowledge does that suggest? Billions of pounds thrown away because of his lack of knowledge in financial matters. The gold is gone now. We have no gold and we have lost billions. Gordon is responsible and he should be asked to make up the difference from his own pocket from the very generous pension he will receive as our ex-PM regardless of how good or bad a job he made of it.
Surely GB is opposed to undeserved and unjustified bonus and pension payoffs? Oh, no, I forgot. He was telling the bankers how wonderful they were only months before the financial crisis destroyed the future for millions of British citizens. He loves the fat cats and wants to be just like them. Meanwhile the rest of us have to pay the bills.
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