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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day …given there is a cross-party consensus that energy rationing is good for growth.
…given there is a cross-party consensus that bureaucrats can manage businesses better than their owners.
…given there is a cross-party consensus that paying money to people to not work is investing.
…given there is a cross-party consensus that the more complex the tax system is, the ‘fairer’ it is.
…given there is a cross-party consensus that when the public ignore the current laws then more laws are needed.
…given there is a cross-party consensus that giving ‘offence’ is a more heinous crime than mugging.
…etc.
…etc.
– Samizdata commenter Kevin B.
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Which may explain the outstanding success of the Cross-Party in elections.
Good post.
cross party consensus = unexamined assumption
Even if the subject of the consensus starts off by being true, you can bet that the consensus will stay the same even when the world changes around it.
The reason there’s so much cross-party concensus is that the major political parties long ago gave up actually standing for anything other than getting elected in any way they possibly can.
For the past century and more, that has meant catering to the endless cries of “crisis this” and “crisis that” by the progressive/statist community, and enabling more and more state expansion at all levels.
There are no true political parties, merely factions of a large, amorphous political class whose sole purpose is to acquire more and more power, control more and more resources, and enrich themselves and their cronies by draining as much wealth as possible from the productive members of society.
For the most part, I find little difference between the various political factions and the 5 families of organized crime in New York, with the possible exception that the wise guys don’t pretend to be compassionate humanitarians.
Of course you’ve all seen this:
The Democratic Party (Labour) is the Evil Party.
The Republican party (Tory) is the Stupid party.
Sometimes they get together and write legislation that is both Evil and Stupid. This is called bipartisanship (cross-party consensus).
It makes you wonder if the conspiracy-theorists have a point. Perhaps Britain is really being governed by a Bipartisan Committee operating in the background. If you join that, then you get to really run things. Perhaps they could come out of the closet, and openly campaign as the Bipartisan Party!!!
The appointments to the “Quangos” are made by the Prime Minister (and so on) – but 80% of the appoitments are Labour party supporters.
Basically there is a broad measure of ideological agreement.
What a “history Czar”? I do not – but Mr Cameron did so NATURALLY he appointed Simon S. the leading SOCIALIST historian.
Ditto the majority of members of his “Human Rights” commission.
And handing out the totalitarianism-by-the-stallment-plan book “Nudge” (Cass Sunstein) to ministers – not as a waring, but as a plan to be followed.
Is Mr Cameron a socialist – no he is not, but he is part of the mainstream ideological consensus.
Paul–Is Simon S. generally correct on the facts?