I cannot have a situation where businesses close haphazardly.
– Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP, speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme about the Sub-Post Office network, and neatly demonstrating the dirigiste mentality of the Scottish Raj
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Samizdata quote of the dayOctober 18th, 2006 |
 12 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Forgive my ignorance but what does ‘dirigiste’ mean? I did try looking it up without success.
I think Dirigiste means a supposedly capitalist system where the goverment exert control as opposed to own the means of production.
Mini fascism if you will
Apologies if this is incorrect but surely someone will correct me if required
Mandrill, steves
1. Go to Google
2. type in “define: dirigiste” (do not type the quotation marks)
3. hit ‘search’
4. all is revealed
Dirigiste is essentially the same word as dirigible and literally means “steered”.
And every time I go to the Today site I’m astonished at the thumping Stalinist design theme.
Opposite of laissez-faire.
Seems I was quite close but a bit kind. Kinda democratic fascism such as we have today (its from the French which isn’t a surprise).
Give Darling credit: at least he didn’t say “randomly”.
great quote, and its always good to learn a new word, it represents a mindset far too common today
I cannot have a situation where businesses close haphazardly.
We must clearly make the arrangements de rigueur.
many thanks. I did check dictionary.com but being american it didn’t have it, not surprising if its from the french really. I was guessing it had something to do with rigidity, I wasn’t far off it seems.
I also didn’t know google could do that… something to think about.
“I also didn’t know google could do that… ”
Google can do anything (except the dishes, dammit)
Probably thinking along the same lines as Freeman. Does Darling (whenever I hear that name I think of Blackadder Goes Forth) think that any business going under, usually as a result of governmental fiscal or trade policy anyway, should in itself be a matter for state intervention because they are not going bust according to DTI bankruptcy models?
Perhaps we should have grades of liquidation, in order to allow Labour trade policy to demonstrate that all business is thriving and that the government is no threat at all to small enterprises, in much the way that they massage/spin the unemployment figures to show that unemployment is at an absolute minimum.