The front page of the Telegraph today has news of Michael Howard facing a shadow cabinet revolt last night over his plan to impose a public spending freeze, with senior members of his front-bench team protesting bitterly about proposed cuts in services.
So far, so good. Cuts in budget, good news for the likes of Samizdatistas. Thumbs up for Howard? Bad front-bench team who reveal themselves for the incorrigible statists they are? Not quite.
The Conservative leader has been told by several senior colleagues that they are particularly angry at proposed defence cuts of £1.5 billion that, they fear, could badly damage the party’s standing in the Tory heartlands.
The Tory party is trying desperately make themselves credible by pre-emptying Labour’s smearing them with spending less on ‘schoolzandhospitals’. As one frontbencher puts it:
If the Tory Party is going to get its message across, we have to be in the marketplace. If people think we are going to slash spending, then we are not in that marketplace.
The Tories are so obsessed about getting elected that they are losing their grip on substance. Mind you, they lost that with Thatcher’s departure… She may have actually increased the size of the state in some measures, which is evidence of how hard it is to cut the hydra down to size, but she was certainly aware of the true role of the state. Michael Howard is not.
Some people say it is still worth voting – maybe but not when a a sad greedy bunch of oily politicians out of power are competing with a faltering greedy bunch of oily politicians in power.
Gabriel,
Your last paragraph suggests that you have been reading my mail!! I don’t think you’ll have anyone disageeing with you.
Isn’t that the bloody truth!
I think Michael Howard is pretty sound, but he is surrounded by greedy incompetents. The shadow cabinet is scrapping over territories they’re not even occupying yet, yapping and snapping at ankles trying to protect “their” turf. They are sickening.
Worse, with the exception of Michael Howard, they’re all talking like touchy-feely, warm ‘n’ fuzzy preachy kindergarten teachers aka New Labour. What is the matter with them? Are they insane? Don’t they understand that Britain wants the grownups back in charge?
“Don’t they understand that Britain wants the grownups back in charge?”
You and I might want the government to treat us like grown-ups–I hope that’s what you meant–but it is possible that the Tories have done the research and discovered “Britain” doesn’t. In which case it would be insane for competent politicians to offer that option.
Do the majority of Britons wish for such tax cuts and the corresponding decrease in services provided by the government? Do they, really?
My take: Never underestimate the stupidity of the common people. When they do vote logically and sensibly, it’s a bonus, but not to be relied upon. After all, they can only be counted on to act in their own best interests, and having “schoolzandhospitals” is regarded as being in their best interests, never mind the taxes that they pay, and the abysmal service quality. It’ll take a very determined politician to demonstrate otherwise, that removing those public services and lowering taxes is in their(the working class) best interests.
While it is a mistake for many politicians to claim ythat they speak for the people, it is also sheer hubris for anti-statists to say that “Don’t they understand that Britain wants the grownups back in charge?” without a more careful examination of prevailing attitudes.
Because you might just be proven wrong. Very, very wrong.
The Wobbly Guy
I wonder if there is a single member of the Shadow Cabinet, including their main finance spokesman, Oliver Letwin, who could give a straight answer to the following:
Name one significant spending item you would abolish upon election to office. Name one. Go on, tell us.
tick-tock-tick-tock
Guessedworker,
This is off thread but you expressed an interest in what response I might get from my MP (Conservative) to the copy of Sean Gabb’s 113. His words were: “Thank you, Henry, I’m sure that I will find it most interesting.” From previous experience, that will be the last I will hear from him on that subject!