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Who could have imagined? Well, I must say I am shocked, SHOCKED to discover that the gazillions of pounds of taxpayers money that has been thrown at the state health and education sectors have not made a blind bit of difference. Who says? Why, none other than our Glorious Leader, Tony Blair:
Higher taxes will be needed to fund health and education improvements, Tony Blair indicated yesterday after admitting that his first six years in power had failed to deliver a promised “transformation” in public services.
‘Higher taxes’! Of course, that’s the answer! Damn, why didn’t he think of that sooner? Er, except he did think of it sooner. He thought of it back in 1997 and we have been paying increasingly higher taxes ever since. Oh never mind, just hike them up again, that’s bound to work.
Keep digging, Tony.
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And so convenient for “convergence” too. As is Gordon’s adoption of a different inflation measure (not just another, subtler, raid on pension-funds, then).
Might they be by any chance be related?
He’s finished, David, Big Time. He’s run out of useful idiots (Milburn, Byers, etc), he’s run out of ideas (I know, let’s throw more tax at it :), and he’s run out of credulous voters (Trust me, I’m Tony.)
Let’s just sit back and enjoy the ride. I’ve no idea what the consequences will be (probably a dreadful and dour Brown premiership, followed by the UK’s collapse, and then IDS’s triumphal entry to Downing St*), but those Tory red-eye posters of 1997 are coming truer by the day. This country will be far safer once this dangerous lunatic is removed, whatever happens afterward. The sooner the better.
* Ever the optimist! 🙂
“Just keep digging” is the motto that should be hung outside every parliament in the Western world.
Increase taxes = no improved services.
Ban more guns = increased gun crime (armed robberies, shootings, etc.)
Ban drugs = more drug use.
The former, having failed to bring about the negation of the latter, remain standing more for appearance’s sake than anything else.
Spin indeed.
Andy Duncan writes:
“…and then IDS’s triumphal entry to Downing St*)…”
You know, that’s the bit that worries me. I wish I could believe that IDS was the right man for the job, but I don’t.
If only the Conservatives could find someone with Maggie’s instincts, I would look forward to Blair’s richly deserved (and, I trust, thoroughly humiliating) demise with even greater satisfaction.
IDS probably has the right “instincts”, but appears to lack the confidence to argue them.
G Cooper writes:
If only the Conservatives could find someone with Maggie’s instincts,…
Hi G,
It’s a tough one, I agree, though A Massey, I think, is right in saying that IDS has the right instincts.
After grinning and bearing it through IDS’s famous giggle-speech, with John Humphrys (Oh no! Is IDS Giggles in disguise? :), I too wished A.N.Other-Maggie would step forward. But there’s no one obvious on the horizon.
With Boris J. voting for Ken Clarke, and Oliver L. mumbling about ID cards, I’m afraid that leaves moi et vous. And I’m too thin-skinned, and can’t think quickly enough on my feet in tense verbal situations, on soapboxes, and I possess the disciplined mind of an amoeba, so I’m afraid Mr G Cooper. It’s YOU! 🙂
I promise to supply the long blonde wigs. I’ll nick that one off Charlie Falconer 😉
Though, saying that. Call him useless if you will, given where he started from, and given the self-destructive hatred of the Heseltinistas, IDS is creeping up nicely on the outside, and may just nudge ahead. He’s within spitting distance of Labour now, and as Blair thrashes around trying to save himself, if this dangerous Euro-lunatic attempts to cover the gaps in his policies once again with YET ANOTHER tax rise, that will be Blair’s inglorious end. I don’t think he quite realises just quite how close he is to the snapping of Middle England’s rubber band.
Like you, I too fervently hope for an inglorious, and tragic exit. Cherie, if you’re reading this luv, plenty of tears and mascara please. And then sod off.
IDS will never “win” the next election. But this rotten government is staggering inexorably towards losing it. All IDS has to do is keep smiling, keep pumping out sensible policies, avoid doing anything REALLY stupid, and he’s in.
I have booked myself a lamp-post in Smith Square, in 2005. And on the night, I reckon I’ll be up it with a bottle of Tesco’s Cava celebrating. No hell, I think I’ll go for Mr Tesco’s very finest Aste-Spomante.
I’ll meet you there 🙂
Rgds,
AndyD
Andy Duncan writes:
“IDS will never “win” the next election. But this rotten government is staggering inexorably towards losing it”
Indeed – that great truism of British politics, that opposition parties don’t win elections, governments lose them. And, like you, I sense that we’re witnessing the start of that phenomenon right now.
But you disappointed me. When I read the word ‘lamp-post’ I had this fleeting idea that ‘piano wire’ would follow…
And as David Carr knows, I have invested heavily in piano wire futures…
Mmmmmmm. Piano wire.
Andy D – From her many appearances in saris whose sizes were based more on futile hopes of future dieting success than reality, we have seen quite enough of Cherie to bear an absence of farewell performances with fortitude.