Rarely will you hear me say ‘Fuck the BBC’

… but you just have, and, with what I believe is a just cause. I believe in the freedom of speech. I may hate the very essence of you for saying what you’re saying, but still I will defend your right to say it. Comes to actions such as genocide, we my come to blows, but I digress. The BBC have no right whatsoever in banning the full song Ding Dong the Witch is dead, not only because the fact remains that she is – but in a celebration of that said fact! Thatcher, a most hated and reviled witch ever to surface in the guise of a politician, let alone and British politician, is finally dead. And as so many in the world laugh and have a party while the dictator slumbers in any place other than heaven we should too.

 

 

The vile agreer of Apartheid, the vile killer of good servicemen and women, the vile subjugator of the working people of the UK. The BBC, in this action, defends her. Not from the millions who are celebrating her passing, but from those of the Mail and the Sun. Those media mogal that make life hell for the ordinary UK citizen. The BBC who should be stood upon parapit to denounce what Thatcher did and be responsible toward the UK public.

 

 

Simply ask yourself whom among who should have a state funeral? And I am not asking the men, women and children of the UK – I asking the BBC.

The vile carcass is gone, so it is a matter of celebration that we and the world are now rid of her. Now BBC, start standing up for the downtrodden as you once did – or has Thatcher got into your very bones you now have nothing but fear?

The price of inclusiveness

Over the last few days it should have, but won’t – we know that the real talking point is about Mick Philpott, been about how the Tories have raped the British people en masse and the British people, namely, and almost exclusively the English don’t care. They have with one foul sweep eradicated the Tory ideal of helping ones fellow man once on the deck – and normally getting a kicking from said Tories. But my truck is not with the Tories – they are a vile bunch and will, as we have seen, do anything to anyone with no concern for their actions. I have a gut wrenching feeling of utter detest when I think of the Tory or their followers. And a pity that a Tory voter is more akin to an avarice than to any human I can relate to.

But no – my seething anger is not toward them, it is toward New Labour and those who are in charge of what was once a Labour Party.

I said many moons ago that if New Labour were to stay in charge of Labour, if Progress got a foothold, Labour would be doomed. It is, and I hate to say this, I was correct. I blame the lilly-livered Fabians for believing their crooked view of socialism.

People voted massively for the Lib-Dem lie at the last election, why many did ask? In brief, this is why. Voting so massively for the LibDems have led the country to this. People wanted a change from neo-liberal policies enacted by Blair, Major and Thatcher – people still want that change today – where then is Labour? Still fighting in the corner of the Tories, basically being rope-a-doped! Now is the time to come out and lay out specific policies, not 8 weeks before an election. Now is the time as it will both leave open Tory/LibDem policy but will open up the debate that a Labour party could win. Policies of shoring up social security, bringing back the NHS into and under public control. Making the banks pay for their mistakes and making sure they pay back the public purse. Taxing those who can afford more and not taxing those who cannot.

I and many know this will not happen because New Labour are not and never will be the Labour Party of Nye. They are, as we know, Tories – and are cowards of the yellow hue because they will not admit it. The unions need to dump them like a bad penny and fund a more progressive party such as the Greens, though even they need to rethink certain policies.

The Labour Party is dead, long live the Labour Party – where ever it may be.

If you can find money to kill people you can fine money to help them – Tony Benn MP

That is why no amount of cajolery

Economics, said Mr Stanley, is 50% psychology … What we need, apparently, is not statesman but hypnotists, not scientists, but witchdoctors, not confidence born of scientific prediction of the future, but confidence created by a political Confidence Trick. There is nothing surprising in this. It is the kind of mystic Mumbo-Jumbo to which capitalism is driven when austere reason pronounces sentence of death upon it. It is the primitive recoil from reality and the burdens of reality which lies at the root of Fascist psychology.

Tribune, 5 November 1937: Aneurin Bevan

I have been asked in the past whom in the whole political spectrum do I most admire? There are a few, Marx, Engels, Smith, Benn, Hardy – so many more but one still stands out – Aneurin Bevan. I relate to him more than most because he said what I have felt for most of my limited political thinking life. He, and I, hate the Tory party. Not necessarily Tories, they, I believe, are merely misguided souls – bereft of human compassion. Leaked of life that they have to loath those who are without so that they can have. How attacking the very people whom are most vulnerable in any society is of political gain is beyond me. Yet, for those who both watch Jezza Kyle, drive their white vans, blue-rinse, read the Mail it is a virtue. A virtue that will lead to they becoming 0.0003p richer – of which they are gladly grateful for as as they are, we all should be.

I believe that history is one of the greatest tools of human expansion, one that is rarely used to full effect.

We now see a new fight in the US, a country that would have very little, if not no knowledge of Bevan; today. Multi-millionaires fighting for the scraps of power benefited to them by wealth. One who lies openly, one who uses statistics to promote their cause – neither converting the other’s supporters to any respective cause because of entrenched beliefs.

It is not going to change any time soon.

That is why no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party that inflicted those bitter experiences on me. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin. They condemned millions of first-class people to semi-starvation. Now the Tories are pouring out money in propaganda of all sorts and are hoping by this organised sustained mass suggestion to eradicate from our minds all memory of what we went through. But, I warn you young men and women, do not listen to what they are saying now. Do not listen to the seductions of Lord Woolton. He is a very good salesman. If you are selling shoddy stuff you have to be a good salesman. But I warn you they have not changed, or if they have they are slightly worse than they were.

Speech on 3 July 1948 at the Bellevue Hotel, on eve of the entry into force of the National Health Service.

Their propaganda is good, they took lessons from Goebbels himself – and it is you that have to remind yourselves that it will not be you who fights the great fight, it will be your children, and even your childrens children – all because it was you who did not listen to history. Do not let the vileness that is Conservatism dress itself in clothing of capitalism decimate, once again, the working-class, the middle-class.

Whether you agree now, or agree later, Toryism/Conservatism/Capitalism is at the very centre of fascism. Let history warn you well

The trouble with socialism: Understanding

I have no problem with people being scornful of socialism – it is par for the course when you look upon what those who scorn it know through propaganda to be socialism. Tyranny at its best; some would think. Though, those who do know socialism would see it as the opposite, rightly, to that tyranny. But after years and decades of socialism being dragged unmercifully through the mud – some of it sticks. So then, what do we do to change that?

Changing people’s mind isn’t that hard to do – especially once you have the right amount of money being thrown at the problem. The American Tea-Party is abject proof of that. Add to that particular vile mix Murdoch press, Koch and you have a very powerful concoction. Yet – is it simply a matter of throwing enough money at the sparkly new socialism? We could ask the local multi-billionaire to help out – I just don’t think that this would work. Billionaires haven’t become billionaires by way of a socialist mindset. Is it, then, a matter that you have a new way of thinking about socialism? To me the answer is simple, and a no, to boot.

In the UK The Labour Party is supposed to be the party of the left, quite, quite laughable really. Though its past you would have believed it but today, and throughout the Blair/Brown years – not so much. New Labour embraced liberalism and Toryisms. Policies from both centre-right ideologies – which were supposed to united all and bring about something akin to all being middle-class and worshipping the almighty dollar. All New Labour did was carry on right-wing dogma that grew as the party took power election after election. In 1997 the majority that New Labour had could have changed the nation, it didn’t.

Now we have Maurice Glasman. His vision is a “Blue Labour” vision. New – blue, at least they rhyme.

Hats off to Maurice Glasman for trying to re-acquaint the Labour party with the imperative to think via the much-misunderstood creed of Blue Labour, but he cuts a very lonely figure.

So he should. If you have people such as Hazel Blears, James Purnell in any of the mix whereby The Labour Party are thought of, you are on to a loser. If you want a party of the left then right-wingers should not be calling the shots within that party. Left-wingers, both soft and hard should be at it. Left-wing politics are not, nor ever will be, easy. But, as we see with so many politicians – an easy life will I have. This is why you do not have more Dennis Skinner’s – Tony Benn’s. They, like most, are not duped by politieratti! Nice shot of wife/mother/girlfriend shopping at the local shop struggling to get by while wearing a Gucci or some other unpronounceable expensive brand produced in a sweatshop.

Capitalism has failed for most. Certainly not for the richest in society – they can call for greater tax cuts for themselves because so many have bought into the propaganda they spew. Worse still is that you have ‘thinkers’ trying to say that moving ever further to the right will be the end to all the worlds ills – it won’t, as proof I offer you the last 40 years.

To understand, then, what socialism is. Tell people. Say it out loud and be proud of it. If they wish to argue the premise that socialism is all about tyranny and Stalin, show them that it isn’t. People will believe propaganda for as long as an alternative is not out there making it look as ridiculous as it really is. Understanding comes from education. Education comes from speaking about something that is possible. People are crying out for that alternative – stand up and give it to them and they will listen.

“Decapitation” – will it work?

The National Union of Students in the UK are planning to “decapitate”, not literally, figuratively, Nick Clegg and others of the LibDem’s for their brazen disregard of what they, the LibDem’s, said was a core policy of their manifesto. One, that they have admitted they didn’t really mean – but it sounded good to get votes.

The National Union of Students will launch a “decapitation” strategy aimed at ousting Nick Clegg and other top Liberal Democrats from parliament in protest at the party’s U-turn on student fees.

The move aims to build on anger about coalition policies – which spilled over into violence on Wednesday – in Lib Dem-held constituencies with large student populations.

I am sure that people are really angry with both ConDems and the Lib’s – this was shown only a few days ago with the protest in London. Yet – I have to question whether the new tactic will work – I certainly want it to. But we see that the ConDem government are going to go for the full term of Parliament – can the UK afford that they do? I doubt that the country can – the devastation that will be left will, I believe, make the most middle of Middle-Class weep. Though that would normally make me smile I am now of the belief that the Middle-Class, Working-Class and anyone else should join in and try to do something about the draconian policies that are about to be enacted by, and who would have thought it, a more right-wing government than New Labour. New Labour, though not dead, still has some influence on the Labour Party – it would have agreed with the militarisation of the police – but how can the Labour Party or its members – or, in fact, the UK public at large?

The ConDems know that there is about to be rising protests, they are getting ready for that and them. They want the remaining police to be on their side. So, we have to question how will these acts of decapitation of MPs work? A stimulus of protests in London will not. The government is hoping that this is where the protest will take place, they want them their so that both media and police action can be controlled. If you want MPs to listen to you, and their constituents they that is where the protests have to be. And, I may add, not simply about tuition fees. The country and its people need to come together with coordinated action, peaceful action that will lead to certain MPs being removed from their seat in parliament. Bring the message home to those who will or will not vote for those same MPs – but there must also be an alternative for people to vote for! That is where the Labour Party comes in.

The final push out, total removal of New Labour from the ranks of the Labour Party must happen, and happen quickly. The vile proposals that New Labour brought about have to be purged. Now is the perfect time. The media will be on hand to scan the protests, if they should go about, a mere lopping of the few remaining aspects of New Labour will make very little or no news. Labour can then help in the coordination of the protests, even if it means bussing in those who cannot afford to get to them. The unemployed, the sick, the disabled and disadvantaged should have a voice, too. What would be better than mothers and fathers marching along side their children telling this vile government that it has to change or it will lose power? Brothers and sisters, hand in hand walking side-by-side those who have, at present, no voice at all.

Let those who can speak up that this 30 year experiment has to end, it has not, nor will it ever, work. We have seen how millionaires simply put the tax breaks they get, and demand, away for a rainy day when they they can utilise – even in recession – to demand even more. These are not the Middle-Class I despise so much. Even they, those who want cheap labour to keep them in abject splendour who believe it is their rite, on the back of the poor and working poor, to rise to the echelons of the lower parts of the aristocracy for they will never achieve the higher. Even they will be disastrously affected by what this government will do. They, too, must protest.

Nick Clegg, and his LibDem’s offered so much – he showed that there is a significant sector of the people who do want a country that is left-of-centre because those voters, like me, voted for them because of what they offered. The Labour Party can ask those voters to vote for them. But they have to offer what they want and make sure they deliver.

It will take coordination over a time, a time-span that will last, if we are to believe Cameron and his ilk, years. But that is to the betterment to a left-of-centre government in waiting. It means they have time to get that message across – and to get people motivated to elect them – to deliver for the people, something that has not happened for so many-a-decade.

The counter-attacks will be loud, and they will be backed by the right-wing press, nothing is more sure than that. But if the correct message is within the sound-bites that so much news now has to resonate with – so be it. That can change at a later date. The Labour Party has to move more toward its roots than ever before. The left have to explain why this is both better for the country and the people. To try to convert and explain to the aspirational Middle-Class that stomping on the heads of those who give you your wealth is not the way forward (the hardest part). There is now exponential proof that there is no such thing, or ever was, as compassionate Conservatism. Or ever will be.

The game must be played over time, and with each election victory the left have to dig deeper to keep the message going. To be ready to bring about more election victories until they can show that a general election victory is within the grasp of the people so that the country can, once again, be governed for the people and not a few corporate special interests.

The fight for the next election begins now, and this policy of decapitating the LibDem’s for their abject betrayal begins today, must be carried forward to tomorrow and the months and years to come.

[Protest peacefully - there is nothing more certain than the right-wing press showing a few caving into violent urges]

The best time not to be in government

Jonathan Freedland says that Labour needs to get its socks pulled up and start yelling at how ‘two-faced’ the current government is. I disagree, 100% disagree.

What Labour needs to do is, with a miracle, elect a leader that will move the party from the current right-wing twattery back to the left. Who knows, a left-winger could be acting as advisor to one or more of the current crop of leadership contenders. It could be the reason that some of them are voicing the odd left-wingish verbiage. They could be testing the water to see the reaction they get, maybe. Though what they have to remember is that people do have long memories – something the current government had better get a grasp on soon, too. The election campaign run on making it all hard for everyone because we are all in this together – and then slapping out pure blood Tory policy once in office will not be forgotten. This is only strengthened when the cuts hit, jobs – thousands of jobs, are lost in both public and private sector, with the added strawberry on top of a further recession. All this after the last election winners said they would keep the country out of that double-dip.

But perhaps Janus, the Roman god that stared into both the past and the future, might offer a clue.

This is something that I do agree with. But certainly not the recent past as Jonathan speaks of. That would be the New Labour era and that era was rejected by so many of those who voted and by those of the left and the core vote who didn’t. Where so many moved away from New Labour that is the indicator of where in the past Labour should look. Look back to John Smith’s Labour party. I would look forward to any of the current crop of leadership runners to embrace many of the things John Smith did. It would be interesting and a turn away from the Blairism of New Labour.

Now is not the time to be in government. Certainly not for a Labour Party that has to renew by looking back and embracing where the road turned right and went so wrong. Even if it was true that Brown was going to cut, even if it were true that VAT was to be raised – all that this would have done would show, even more, if needed, that New Labour were the Tories so many saw them for, and still do. You can yell and scream as much as you like – the time is not now. As this government earns more its nickname of ConDem with valid reasoning let them do so. Let them have their rope, it was, after all going to happen under a New Labour government. The time couldn’t have come better for Labour to lose. It could be the inspiration for a renewal, it should be. I cannot see, no matter how chummy Cameron and Clegg are – even the best of relationships have hiccups, and arguments, and the siblings do see such things. If, as I can see coming down the line, Clegg will have to bow to the leader to stay in power his siblings (The LibDem Party members) may see at that point the bowing is one step too far – will there be a change of leadership of the LibDems? Something we need to look out for, as I just cannot see Clegg staying in the Dep. PM position if he is to lose that job. That would be an interesting drama for the ConDems to spin.

If The Labour Party can get things right, and now that Mandelson is out of that picture it is a possibility, if they can get together and look back as well as forward and be ready to hold the safety net rigid for a falling country – then I feel they can then begin to show they are ready for government, albeit a left government ready to hold those who were responsible for the crash that brought us here.

That is one of the questions the Labour Party has to answer. In answering that they have to overturn what they have become. So now is not the best time to be in government.

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So the question is: Who do we vote FOR?

It is now bloody obvious that where ever you look there is negativity. You have the New Labour Project attacking the wrong part of the coalition, the LibDems, not because they are wrong in supporting the Conservatives, which they are, but because New Labour likes to be bullies. In their nature so to speak.

You have the negativity of the Conservatives by attacking the people – that, we know, is a prerequisite of being a Conservative.
I noticed that it was as negative as the rest. So I deleted most of it. I sat back and began to think about the whole negativity thing and basically decided to have a quick search of Goggle. I won’t go into all the boring search terms I went through. I looked on facebook – still nothing. Then with a mishap of typo fashion, and looking to see what new films were being released I stumbled across numerology. Don’t ask.

So, I click the link and typed in New Labour, Conservative and Labour.

Result, I thought to myself.

New Labour

You entered: New Labour

There are 9 letters in your name.
Those 9 letters total to 39
There are 4 vowels and 5 consonants in your name.

Your number is: 3

The characteristics of #3 are: Expression, verbalization, socialization, the arts, the joy of living.

The expression or destiny for #3:

An Expression of 3 produces a quest for destiny with words along a variety of lines that may include writing, speaking, singing, acting or teaching; our entertainers, writers, litigators, teachers, salesmen, and composers. You also have the destiny to sell yourself or sell just about any product that comes along.

Your Soul Urge number is: 6

If you have an over-supply of 6 energy in your makeup, you may express some of the negative traits common to this number. With such a strong sympathetic attitude, it is easy to become too emotional. Sometimes the desires to render help can be over done, and it can become interfering and an attitude that is too protective, rather than helpful.

Labour

You entered: Labour

There are 6 letters in your name.
Those 6 letters total to 24
There are 3 vowels and 3 consonants in your name.

Your number is: 6

The characteristics of #6 are: Responsibility, protection, nurturing, community, balance, sympathy.

The expression or destiny for #6:

The number 6 Expression provides you a truly outstanding sense of responsibility, love, and balance. The 6 is helpful and ever conscientious, making you quite capable of rectifying and balancing any sort of inharmonious situation. You are a person very much inclined to give help and comfort to those in need. You have a natural penchant for working with the old, the young, the sick, or the underprivileged.

A Soul Urge number of 1 means:

Your Soul Urge is the number 1. With a Soul Urge number of 1, you want to lead and direct, to work independent of supervision, by yourself or with subordinates. You take pride in your abilities and want to be recognized for them. You may seek opportunities to display your strength and usefulness, wanting to create and originate. In your desire to manage the big picture and the main issues, you may often leave the details to others.

Conservative

You entered: Conservative

There are 12 letters in your name.
Those 12 letters total to 54
There are 5 vowels and 7 consonants in your name.

Your number is: 9

The characteristics of #9 are: Humanitarian, giving nature, selflessness, obligations, creative expression.

You like to help others as you were intended to be the ‘big brother or big sister’ type. You operate best when you follow your feelings and sense of compassion, and allow yourself to be sensitive to the needs of others. You work well with people, and have the potential to inspire. This suggests that you could successfully teach or counsel. Creative ability, imagination and artistic talent (often latent) of the highest order are present in this expression. It’s possible that you’re not using or developing all of these capabilities at this time.

Your Soul Urge number is: 8

A Soul Urge number of 8 means:

With an 8 soul urge, you have a natural flair for big business and the challenges imposed by the commercial world. Power, status and success are very important to you.

So there you have it – Labour please!

Numerology from Paul Sadowski

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Tribalism of selfishness, Conservatism

Conservatives, especially the UK kind are selfish. That is their tribe, full stop. You see the working-class Tory vote slavishly in the belief that what the Tories want, and will give – even after generations of evidence – something of the crumbs that is fervently given to the Tory masters, those who are what we know as big business and the wealthy. Some changed side and gave to New Labour, but most have moved, once again, back to the Tories – their natural home.

Dave Osler over at LC wrote:

For the kind of Conservative who remains convinced that the Tories only failed to win a landslide last month because they were insufficiently rightist to satisfy an electorate that positively craved neo-Thatcherism by the bucketload

He is correct. Even now many of the comments in that piece claim that New Labour bought vote by simply expanding the government jobs – needless to say that they forget that the New Labour vote was falling over the terms that they were in office. I believe that the vote lessened because New Labour tried, and almost succeeded in out right-winging the Tories. I still believe that the UK electorate on the whole is a progressive tolerant nation who do believe in fairness. Though that isn’t shown in the ballot box when you have a working-class Tory. They, seemingly, don’t want to pay higher taxes for better services. Yet they do want those services – for they are some of the first to cry foul when those services go. It can be said for the cost of fuel, the cost of a vehicle tax disc. So, if Dave is incorrect, why was there not a massive swathe of people, both middle-class and working-class dive into the Tory ranks once it was obvious (and it was for such a long time) that the Tories were going to win the next election? I believe it was down to the policies that people saw were about to be enacted by the Tories – though some, still, believe that these policies have been watered down by LibDems being somewhere in the vicinity.

New Labour were going to lose the general election. They were going to lose big if the Tories had not been made to speak out about what they were going to do in power. That didn’t, and still doesn’t matter one iota to conservatives. They were going to vote Tory no matter what – they said so and would have done even if New Labour had dressed themselves in the very skin of Margaret Thatcher. Even now their selfishness reigns supreme. Some Tories I know don’t care. They have said so – they are quite willing to admit it. They are selfish to an extreme. They do not want one penny of their money to go to someone else, ever. It is theirs so they should keep it. Even if this means that their neighbour goes without food, hospital treatment, they do not care. They do, on the other hand want more prisons and they do, unsurprisingly, want those prisons to be full of anyone who breaks any draconian law that would be brought to bear so they could live their lives in solitude in a country of almost 70 million people.

What we need to do is look at what the UK actually want. The Tories have asked, but asked the selected few what they want – and they are acting out that fantasy on behalf them. Tories make policy on the back of a wide-read, for God’s knows why, news rag. New Labour did the same, and it is then no surprise when this fantasy wasn’t, in fact, real. A significant number of voters moved to the Tories because they were saying the correct things, in some ways they still are – under scrutiny it is a different thing – and people will move away from them once the shit hits the fan.

Now is a time for a Labour party to get its act together. With the leadership race as is, I am not too sure they can even do that – there are way too many New Labourites wanting to be leader, and one woman.

Will these crop then say that we want us all to share in both the wealth of the nation as well as paying for all the things needed to be a civilised one? Will they come out and tell the people that they will make those who cause the crash pay for its clean up? Will they be open and tell people that “Look, to have the best health service in the world, we have to pay for it, and if it means the top earners have to pay more”?

Not sure – but what I am sure of is that the current crop of conservatives are more selfish than the last – and the next will be even more so.

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Extraordinary insouciance?

Well yes – but Polly, like so many are trying to get the boot in way, way too quickly!

What she is saying, I think and in short, is that the budget is going to hurt – really hurt – and it will. But what she is forgetting is that people were hurt just as bad under a New Labour era. People are not going to forget so quickly, it just is not going to happen. I have spoken to family and friends and they are of all political hues, even they wince remembering the last recession – which, if we are honest, hasn’t quite ended yet for so many people.

The Tories, as Polly and others should know are not, never have been nor ever will be, for the good old working man or woman. They are for the middle-class and business. Even those who believe themselves to be middle-class think that Tory policy is all for them. “Getting us all out of this deficit is what really matters”. At the moment that is the mindset and it isn’t going to go away any time soon. If that is the indoctrination then that is what will bounce around in peoples heads until things hit the fan and boom!

That is the time to try and get the message across. Be as frustrated as you so wish – but jumping the gun isn’t going to work because people are way to focussed on the shit that is the UK economy. It matter nothing that is was, in the majority, banks who brought about the economic fall – but that can be traced back to those who were in government at the time who allowed the banks free reign. Let the budget do its work, let the bankers get the indefensible bonuses – it will come out that this is what is happening, Then is the time to remind people that this should be addressed as a matter of priority – that to allow banks to regulate themselves really isn’t a good thing at all.

Let the LibDem activists get to grips with what is happening within their party by signing over with the devil. They will, eventually. But it takes time, as I have said before – let that time pass. There is, after all, plenty of it while waiting for a credible opposition. What Polly and those commentators must remember is that the opposition will still be New Labour. Without any real change within the Labour Party by kicking out, and I mean that literally, those who usurped the Labour Party to get into power – call it a cull of the right if you will, much as they did to Militant – people will only see the last vestages of Blair and Brown and worse, Mandleson.

That is the cuts that need to happen – what is going to happen, no matter how noble you want to be in protecting the poor and underprivileged – until the spectre of New Labour is gone, nothing Polly or other write will mean anything. New Labour is the stain that needs to be washed. Once, then, that has happened – even if D’Mil becomes leader – and comes to his senses – you will see that some trust will eke toward a new invigorated Labour party. Not a new New Labour, one that can call itself Labour with pride. The cuts will be argued over and there will be U-turns on them because they are far too great. But that will, like most other things political, take time. Prepare to take the proverbial piss out of the U-turns – that is what I am waiting for. But to fight a battle of minds while those minds are against you is a losing battle from the off.

An opposition is needed right now – what we have is a beauty pageant.

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George Osborne’s strategy – crosses fingers

While I have been wading through a ton of papers today – one thing that come across well and truly to the fore, Osborne is hoping upon hope that this budget works. I cringed, and I mean sphincter cringed when I read that he had raised VAT to 20%. First thought: The man must be mad! Then I read more and it seems the mad hatter had taken over the tea party.

Not only has he hit the poor with the VAT hike, they will start thinking about not spending, something the economy needs, he has hit them with less and less safety net cash. Add to this he is attacking the disabled, something the Tories, and their brethren New Labour love to do. But what convinces me more is that Simon Jenkins – over at the Guardian of all places sings the praises that it is the return of Thatcherism! Yeah, great – but you have to red even his title: “If Osborne’s gamble pays off, it is Thatcherism’s finest hour” If, what kind of idiocy is that? He must have been wetting his pants as he wrote that piece.

What we see from this budget is, and this brought a “WTF!” to my gritted teeth – that this budget is going to hit everyone – everyone, not just the poor, the middle income earners and the rich. Though, it has to be said, it will hit the poorest in real terms the most. But it is a ‘we are all in this together’ budget. So, Osborne has decided to take the demand out of the economy from everyone.

Osborne claims that this budget will be one for jobs – yet as there are so many chasing each and every job, where are all these new jobs going to come from – we have yet to see what the actual figures are going to be in respect of the slashing to public services. Today was, after all, just the beginning.

Wet your pants Thatcherites will be singing with glee that her evilness has returned to the UK economy, wait for the return of The Boys from the Black Stuff. But this time there is no oil to sell off, no Post Office telecommunications, Gas, Electricity. There is the dole queue for millions, though. That is, again, after all, what Thatcherism stands for. It is a gamble, but a gamble not with a few quid and a hope that you can win big – it is a gamble with people lives and one that, if it doesn’t pay off – will be remembered by so many come the next election. Because I cannot see the ConDems picking a war to help them to victory.

Let’s hope in the mean time that there is a rise of the real left in both the country and the Labour party, because it will be up to them to put things right. And put them right from 13 years of New Labour and the Tory governments that preceded them.

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