Throughout history, whether under a democratically elected government or a dictatorship, politicians of every ilk have relied on one simple trick to excuse all their failings. This is to blame someone else, usually the previous administration but eventually this looses its validity. So then they need to point the finger at someone else, and Brexit gives the Tory party an ideal target.
The problem is the state of the country, the debt, the deficit, the failing NHS, education cuts, housing, the list goes on and all caused by the government’s austerity policy.
We can argue about the need for this policy but again, that is a distraction. The country was in debt. The cause of that can be argued over till kingdom come and it won’t make an ounce of different. The country was in debt and the government had a choice, austerity or invest our way out. The government chose austerity, with a reliance on consumer spending to buy our way out. But part of this austerity policy involves reducing the income available to these consumers, reducing the amount they have to spend.
That’s us by the way. Ordinary working people. The majority. A small number, the bankers, the directors of big business and of course, the politicians, who it can be argued, caused the problem in the first place, don’t suffer any of the results of this austerity programme. In fact they’ve seen their income grow. It can also be argued that they’ve used austerity as an excuse to keep wages low and introduce harsh employment contracts that has boosted their already immense wealth to record levels. This is confirmed by the government’s own figures.
Personally I’ve never understood the logic of a policy that relies on consumer spending to solve the country’s debt while at the same time cutting the income of those same consumers. But I’m not an economist so have to rely on common sense and as everyone knows, common sense and politics don’t mix.
The problem with austerity is that things cost what they cost. If the NHS costs £X billion to run then that is what it costs. If the education system cost another £X billion, then that is what it costs, and so on. If the government cuts the money available to run these things, only so much money can be saved by so-called efficiency savings. After that the system descends into a process of increasing inefficiency expense.
What this means is that a hospital cuts the number of nurses on its wards. It then discovers that it doesn’t have enough nurses to do the job. So additional nurses are hired from some private nursing agency, at a far higher cost than if they simply employed enough nurses in the first place.
Another target of blame for all the problems in the country are the unemployed and disabled and the government has spent a lot of money employing private agencies to cut this expense. However, over 75% of the disabled deemed fit to work by these agencies, win their appeal confirming they have a genuine disability. The cost of paying these agencies, plus the cost of all the appeal procedure, runs into millions. That is millions being spent for no return and it could be argued that the government would save a lot of money if it stopped trying to save money this way.
Then there is the issue of school spending. Throughout the country schools are announcing cuts to the number of teachers and the number of subjects being taught. When questioned, all Theresa May says is that, ‘we’re putting record levels of spending into schools’.
Of course she is. It happens every year. For example, if the cost of running our schools increases by 10%, but the government only increases school spending by 5%, the government is putting a record level of spending into the school budget, compared to the previous year, but it still isn’t enough. Any answer to any question on any subject that uses this phraseology is simply bullshit.
It should be obvious to everyone that austerity isn’t working. The country is still in debt and the effects of this policy are really beginning to hurt. Take the situation forward another two or three years, to a time when the Tory Party will be forced to call an election, and simply use your imagination. They don’t want to loose. They don’t even want to risk the possibility that by that time, austerity may have bitten too hard and the people have had enough. So they want an excuse to call and early election but even so, they know the real issues affecting this country, the NHS, schooling, housing etc, might just increase the ire of the electorate to say, enough is enough. Many already are.
So they need to call an early election, giving them another five years, but they also need to divert the attention of the voters away from these real issues. And there, like manna from heaven, is Brexit.
Let’s put a lie to bed. Theresa May and the Tory party do not need an electoral mandate from the people to negotiate a Brexit deal. They already have that, from the referendum. That is their mandate. The result of the election is immaterial to those negotiations and obviously so, unless they can create a storm in a teacup.
And Theresa May wades in, imagining herself as some Boudicca, sword in hand ready to smite the Euro foe. Turn Brexit into a conflict, a battle royal and in doing so, fix the collective mind of the electorate on the issue of Brexit, ignoring all the other issues on which the election should be fought. Then, once the election is won, sit down and negotiate, as they should be doing now, as they will have to in the end, accepting compromise, because all negotiation involves compromise. But none of this will matter because the Tory Party will have won another five years in power. They can give everything the E.U. demands and the electorate won’t be able to do a thing, for another five years. By then a lot of the present Toy M.P.s will be ready to retire, so what does the result of that election matter?
This election should be about the state of this country, with Brexit as a side issue. But if it was about the state of the country, the party that has brought the NHS, schooling, housing and everything else to their knees, could well loose. So make it all about Brexit. Theresa May and the Tory party will con the electorate and the Tory press will support them as they carry out this confidence trick, because the owners of these newspapers are among the rich, who have got richer.
The only question is whether the electorate are mug enough to fall for it.
radicalrog 