Back to the future

Ron Todd

It is giving people that are likely to vote labour access to the net. Link this to the desire of some to 'modernise' our voting methods and the paranoid could suspect they are up to more than a simple bribe for the voters.

Augustus

Nothing in it then about the recent Bank of England's report to Darling which mentioned the possible loss of a further 2 million jobs before Christmas?

Robin

Watching Brown show his "human" side was a touch frightening. I can accept that on some issues he is committed and sincere.

But, frankly, the thing that frightens me more than the economic crisis - and Brown's role in creating it - is the the ever-encroaching grasp of Labour's Nanny State. John le Carre's comments in today's Telegraph about our civil liberties ring a loud bell. Whilst I don't agree with everything that he says, the general tenor of his piece is correct.

When I read that NHS trusts are selling patient data to drug companies - before or after they lose the data - I become very angry.

It's doing something about it that is my problem. Clearly there has to be an election within 24 months, but who receives my vote. Not Labour and not the irrelevant Cleggites. But the Boy David? The Tories are going to need rather more incisive policies than they now have.

What Brown and his cronies seem unable to realise or accept is that they are suffocating us by their determination to control every day of our lives.

Austin Barry

The omissions were extraordinary. The parochialism abysmal. But perhaps that's how it is for us now: parish pump politics amidst the Hogarthian squalor and the distant sound of thunder or perhaps a rolling barrage barely heard.

Tiberius

His sense of his own infallibility is very dangerous, and is indeed responsible for much of the damage he's caused to the country.

He's big-headed and vain but a tragic figure none the less.

Ann

It was one of the most cringe-making, embarassing speeches in living memory, against very stiff competition from McPinocchio himself on previous occasions. Totally horrible. The man is an utter prat.

LRBJ

So he seems to mean well, Brown does. But does that qualify him to be Prime Minister?

Roland

The rather feeble and prevaricating nature of this article backs up what I felt while listening to Gordon yesterday (and I suspect Mel felt in her heart too) -that it was actually a rather good speech, which passionately re-asserted Labour's core values and moral principles. There is Mel's vague insult about the NHS - apparently a sentimental ideal(really?)and a half-hearted and unsupported jab at Sure Start.

The oncoming Tory ascendency will be based on a willful re-writing of history- the creation of a myth which states that nothing good has happened since 1997,and that the state cannot be used to improve peoples' lives and opportunities. Tories have to re-write history in this dishonest way so that they can pretend to believe in social and communal action while gleefully dismantling the structures which facilitate it.

Labour's failure is in allowing this lie to grow. What was good about Gordon's speech was his impassioned attempt to nail the untruth - and that attempt is why there will be scores of comments here spitting with hatred and rage!What can be worse than knowing in your heart of hearts that your opponent is morally and intellectually superior?

Andrew

Interesting that as Brown announced further plans to dragoon young mums back into work by extending nursery stalags his own transport secretary, Ruth Kelly, announced she was quitting to spend more time with her children - presumably better company than the bun-throwing squabbling cabinet at tea time.

Ronnie

I haven't seen or heard the speech so this is a more general point.

It seems that the United Kingdom no longer has a foreign policy. Is it really the case that we have no interests to promote, maintain or defend in the wider world?

Can a British Prime Minister seriously speak for an hour and make little or no reference to the situation that is unfolding in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a region where we have a growing number of troops (1500 more next year) on very active and very dangerous duty. What are they and their families supposed to make of that?

Our troops are actually fighting a war in Afghanistan, despite what John Reid notoriously said, and yet they are ignored as we carry on with our normal lives watching Big Brother and other mindless entertainments.

Maybe the Brown government is embarrassed about the war in Afghanistan but it really is time that we stopped allowing them to forget the young people out there fighting.

Hugh Janus

Ann: "The man is an utter prat."
... as opposed to a right tit?

Does Dave (nice-but-dim) still float your boat? However, his trusty pal George, with his prior experience er .. as a milk monitor, should make an ideal chancellor. In addition, with his connections George should have no trouble in papering over the cracks in the economy.

LibDems? We'll still all be ....

Ann

Hugh,
Cameron has 10 times the brains of McBean.
McBean came in as a complete novice, and ruined the economy with his stupidity, incompetence, stealing and lies.

phil

One has to admire sincerity and compassion ,but I liken my conclusion to going for a second opinion to a doctor because you do not trust the first -it does not mean you despise the original just that his professional opinion is suspect .Mr Brown is always sincere but his competence in this particular job has to be doubted -the speech seemed to contain unending criticism of the Tories rather than positive and sustainable plans for his party ,so I do not see he advanced his cause with this speech .

Nevertheless, .he certainly does not deserve the spurious comments from our regular lady poster of hatefilled remarks .he may be mistaken but he is not a villain .

Robbit

And as for humble apologies for "mistakes"!! The only one apparently the 10p tax fiasco!
No mention of selling off half the nations gold reserves at the bottom of the market and against the advice of the BoE - at mostly to whom? Why mostly, evidently, to the supposedly commie Chinese! No mention of running up an additional £110 billiom of government debt (i.e. tax-payer debt) hidden from the account-books by being disguised under the mushrooming PFIs!
Its just a joke!

Familiar Clown

What Roland says is mostly bunkum. There's Brown, arrogantly parading as the father of the modern NHS, the father of the nations children blah, blah. What about good housekeeping when times are good? And not squandering the nations assets? Never my the 'I'm a sincere, compassionate bloke' bit. We want a leader who thinks ahead and shows that Britain means something. Brown is an also ran, and his race is over.

Dee Ranged

I was struck by the repeated standing ovations that were showered on Brown during his speech.

It was as if the audience knew they had a looser, so they had to show solidarity and support beyond measure in order to camouflage that dismal fact.

Tom

Ms Phillips touches on a very interesting point about the omission of foreign affairs and the terrorist threat.

The Labour Party seems simply oblivious to the dynamite it has placed at its granite base, that is, people who follow politics closely and who would have (until recently) voted Labour – not just the generally uninterested voter who despises them now anyway for wasting all their hard-earned money on state salaries and pensions.

Perhaps the Labour Party thinks we were all waiting for Nick Cohen to bring out his book before it entered our heads that we’d been diddled? Or for Christopher Hitchens to say that his vote rests entirely with one issue: which US presidential candidate is best-suited to defeating Islamism?

Sorry. I wasn’t waiting for any commentator to say any such thing. I can see and hear what’s going on with my own two eyes and ears. I didn’t need to read The Koran twice after 9/11 to know where we’re headed. All other political issues are off for me.

And yet there they all pop up on the telly; Alastair Campbell yesterday saying no-one knows what Cameron stands for. Yes, Alastair, I don’t know what he stands for but I’m sunk with the Labour Party’s craven appeasement to Islamist terror and so I’ll take any political lifeboat going, mate. I haven’t got time to look what’s inside it. I’m folded. I’m a goner. My investment in freedom is worthless thanks to your pointless government’s grovelling to Islamism.

All I know is I want the Labour Party sunk before it takes me down with it. As Trevor Kavanagh keeps writing in his Sun columns: “We are under attack.” What part of that don’t they get?

That issue and that issue alone will determine who gets my vote from hereafter. For now the job is to bury Labour – and if the Conservatives show the same lack of spine? God knows.

Roland

Comments on bunkum etc. - would that be the NHS saved from being brought to its knees by Tory neglect? New hospitals, more nurses, waiting times slashed, number of operations greatly increased, cancer treatments advanced?

Oh yes, that NHS. Oh yes, that fallacious Tory re-writing of recent history.

Robbit

And as for 600,000 more nursery school places for 3 to 5 year olds?

Qui Bono? Qui Bono?

Assuming a birth-rate of approximately 2.5 children per pair of adults that means nearly half a million more adults who have been absolved of a good chunk their responsibility for bringing up their own infants and are now more dependent than ever on the State for their lifestyle. Half a million more adults with a vested interest in voting for big-government nanny-state socialist Labour.

Assuming an incredibly efficient 30 infants per nursery teacher and supporting army of bureaucrats that means at the very least 20,000 more de-facto state employees whose - you guessed it - job security and vested interest depend on voting for ever more big-government, nanny-state, socialist Labour.

Qui Bono?

The infants themselves? Fat chance. The only place, that over thousands of years of human history, has proved that it is consistently capable of producing motivated, confident, socially adjusted children is some form of traditional family, embedded in a civil society that is free and independent of state and politician influence - not state-funded institutions.

And what, in twenty years time, will the inevitable result be? Exactly the same as before. We will find that kids from lower and working class backgrounds - that have become ever more dependent on the state - are even less socially mobile than they are now. They will have even less chance of climbing the social ladder - simply because they have been raised in state institutions rather than in strong independent families in a vibrant civil milieu that is not a state dependency. And what will we hear then? You guessed it again! All the Ed Balls and Will Huttons of the day will start ranting about the heinous, devious middle classes that have yet again found some wicked means of circumventing our noble efforts at social engineering to create the classless society and the socialist millennium! The despicable bourgeoisie will still be managing (better than ever) to get their kids into the best universities, professions, etcetera! And what will the solution be? You guessed it again. More state control, more “redistribution”, more state dependency, even bigger government.

Why has every totalitarian regime in history tried to arrogate to itself responsibility for bringing up children and remove it from the family and civil society? Parents will just become superfluous appendages - biological machine for producing children who’s upbringing is then handed over to the state so that the “parents” can return to work - for the state - by paying ever more taxes to fund it. That is even worse than Medieval Serfdom.

If the British public buys this rubbish from “caring” Gordon McBottle - then it will just have taken yet another big trudge further down the Road to Serfdom foretold by Hayek 60 years ago.

Qui Bono? QUI TRIBUO?

Tiberius

Superb post, Tom. I hope Cameron's pledge to ban Hizb ut Tahrir is just the first step.

Roland: Labour has brought healthcare spending up to European levels, but we have the dirtiest hospitals and lower rates of successful outcome from heart disease and cancer.

Spending money is not the answer - reform is, and that will be difficult as Brown has done his utmost to embed his clientele within the system.

Robbit

As for the NHS!!!
Under who's watch were the vast majority of compenetnt dentists forced, by appaling management, to withdraw from the NHS? Under who's watch were I and probably millions of others forced to go private in order to stay with the dentists we had known and trusted for decades?

Mike Woodman

Tom, I heartily agree with you. The islamic invasion is the litmus test that trumps all others. Labour and hordes of left-wing cronies seem to be incapable of seeing it. I'm desperately looking for leaders who are prepared to face this threat and deal with it robustly. Any measures need to take a very long-term perspective because Islam is simply programmed for territorial expansion and conquest. As long as it exists, there will be no peace for freedom-loving, free-thinking people.

raymond douglas

So this it,the great Gordy strategy,throw more goodies at the chav classes!So who is to pay for this "free" internet access and school dinners?Us mugs of course,the ones who try to pay their own way!

Nick Kaplan

Roland; the NHS was not neglected by the Tories, in fact spending was increased under both Thatcher and Major. The difference is that Tory governments were fiscally responsible and did not increase spending at such a ludicrous rate as this government’s 7.2% real terms increases each year. This has in fact been a disaster by any objective measure. The main result of pumping such vast sums of money into such a system in such a small period of time is inflation. Essentially the supply of funds in the NHS has expanded at an infinitely greater rate than the supply of the actual service it offers or possibly could offer. As a result there have been huge increases in the cost of medical equipment and drugs (greatly exceeding the rate of inflation elsewhere in the economy). The pay of GPs and middle managers went up at a ludicrous rate, despite them working fewer hours. Therefore whilst there have been some minimal marginal improvements in the NHS for some patients, the principle of value for money has been destroyed in a way only a left wing government could possibly achieve. This should be seen as a financial scandal rather than an achievement.

As for your claim that waiting times have decreased, this is only true for the mean waiting time. In fact the median waiting time is actually about a week longer than it was before this government came to power. Therefore there has not actually been any real improvement, just some moving about of different patients and some new ways of measuring waiting times.

The advance in Cancer treatments has nothing to do with the government but is instead the result of technological innovations in the private and voluntary sectors.

In fact the only rewriting that has been done in the last 11 years is a rewriting of rationality by Labour. This government has redefined what an achievement is. It used to be the case that an achievement would be getting better value for money, either by spending more and getting better results in return (such as increased productivity). Or by saving more and still getting the same service. Instead this government, in true socialist style, has measured the strength of its achievements purely on the amount it has spent; this kind of irrationality is beyond parody. I have lost track of the amount of times Blair or Brown have just listed different spending commitments during PMQs as a general rebuttal to the Tories.

Well I have a news flash for you.... Spending is NOT an achievement! If I had as much money as the government I could sit in front of a fire and throw five pound notes in it all day, it wouldn’t mean I’d have achieved anything, except for wasting a monumental amount of other people’s hard earned money.

Corin

CUI BONO! CUI PENSII! Qui is how, Cui is who and Tribuo is a verb.

Hugh Janus

Phil: " .. he may be mistaken but he is not a villain."

I would have to disagree with you about this. Ann's remarks were fair comment, hardly hateful. You're not stalking again are you?

I do not thing that Brown was an "incompetant" chancellor because his actions were carefully crafted, deliberate and always skillfully concealed with smoke 'n mirrors. I don't see how the accusations of stealing and lies could be spurious when they are undeniable.

Dave needs to start 'next term' with some slicker performances at PMQs than the one finished off with. We need an election asap not in 2010.

Hysteria

What Robbit said ! Excellent post describing the ultimately futile and self defeating approach of the left.

Sadly the current market screw-ups does not put the right in too good a light and I fear the lumpen proletariat will again select the easy option - I despair!

Robbit

Thanks Corin. I Know my cod-Latin is appaling!

Brian Moshe

Like Dee Ranged I was struck by the way the audience at Manchester kept rising to its feet, but I do not agree with Dee Ranged's analysis of why this was (you wrote:Dee Ranged
September 24th, 2008 10:49am

(quote)'It was as if the audience knew they had a looser, so they had to show solidarity and support beyond measure in order to camouflage that dismal fact.'(end of quote)

To me it seemed that the audience were like the delegates that used to fill the congresses of the Soviet empire.

It used to be regarded in the West as one of the hallmarks of any such congresses that delegates simply tried to ensure their own survival by trying to be the first to rise to their feet and last to sit down.

I am not suggesting the audience at Manchester were quite as subservient, but I couldn't help noticing on TV that the standing seemed to originate from the back and seated delegates were turning round as the row behind stood up to check the current ovation was a standing one.

Nothing Brown said, well nothing shown on TV, suggested it was really that worth standing to applaud mid-speech.

Neil Kinnock was frequently shown clapping so hard and doing his nodding and grinning routine to the point where he looked quite carried away with excitement.

Kinnock can at least console himself that even if he never made it to Number 10 his personal courage in facing down Militant paved the way for Tony Blair to get there.

I see no such courage in Brown's vacuous pleas and pledges. Labour used to face the deadly virus of Militant and saw it off: where is a fraction of that facing up to facts now that Britain faces the millions of times more deadly threat from a global terrorist and expansionist agenda?

Monobrow

Brown just wants his army of common purpose approved and trained nannies to mould the minds of our young from an even earlier stage.

phil

Hugh Janus-typical juvenile response with nothing constructive to say just sarcasm -lets have a sound opinion from you -there is your chance !maybe yuo actually have one .

Hugh Janus

Phil: "Hugh Janus-typical juvenile response with nothing constructive to say just sarcasm -lets have a sound opinion from you -there is your chance !maybe yuo actually have one ."

Yet another ad hominem attack from Phil in trademark ill iterative mode as his Brownian motion disappears around the S bend.

Roland

Various statistical distortions and contortions from Nick Kaplan of course, both in relation to Labour and the last Tory governments (any attempt seriously to argue that the NHS was in safe hands, nurtured or fostered between 1979 and 1997 are beyond parody). Even Nick has to admit there have been improvements in treatment (this admission slipped in his post very grudgingly). Some wildly off-beam comments about socialist measuring of success purely through how much money has beeen spent - what? - in this target-obsessed government?

Only one possibly accurate fact in his post, with reference to the Doctors's pay deal. Otherwise, Nick's attempt to appear rational and well-informed falls apart in the last paragraph, where it degenerates into something like a saloon-bar rant. In my opinion of course!

A general point I'd like to make. This government has made many mistakes. Gordon Brown has been privy to, and sometimes the architect of, many of these. But many great things have been achieved too since 1997. As I said initialy, Tories find themselves having to re-write history with dishonesty in order to get away with what they plan. Much of what has been achieved which is good will be dismantled. Much to the glee of many of the posters here.

JohnW

Roland:

"But many great things have been achieved too since 1997"

Well - would you care to list them out here? I'm sure we're all extremely interested to see what they are and what you define as "achievements"!

James Murphy

It's time for some latin pedantry - Robbit don't be too apologteic to Corin! I'm afraid 'Cui' is not 'who', but the dative case meaning 'to whom'. Ah the memories! The declensions! The semi-deponents! Grammar school! Now there's a phrase to conjure with! There was life before Labour - there will be after too. Time will prove it's all been a bad dream. -Patience mes braves! Back to the croissants...

raymond joseph douglas

I am prepared to forgive Gordy for much of the damage he has done.But i will not forgive him,or the labour party,for it's assault on marriage and the family and the relentless pushing of the Gay agenda!

Robbit

Yes, Hysteria, its is a serious problem. Conservatives (with a small "c") do not necessarily have to dogmaticaly commit to
unbridled laissez-faire capitalism, and I for one do not - any more than I believe that our other freedoms are, as it were, "laissez-faire" freedoms. However after pleading for "self-regulation" and lifting of the "heavy hand" our banking and financial institutions have indulged in a gargantuan and disgraceful breach of trust that now threatens all our economic freedoms under the law, which are inseparable from all our other freedoms. And they should be brought to book. But god knows how.

But, that said, it is about time we heard at least some leaders and politicians pointing out that ordinary people also have some responsibility for their own decisions and that someone who takes out a 110% mortgage at 5 times his annual income and on a 50 year term, is, in his own small way, as stupid, greedy, irresponsible and culpable as the fat-cat crook that offers him the facility.

Robbit

Thanks James (Murphy)... but I do believe that Corin is in fact right - "Cui" is correct... I think..

Indeed there will be life after Labour ... but, Ah! do I long for the day that they are consigned to their rightful place in our society - namely a barrow in the provincial market places, somewhere between the stalls of the SWP and the peddlers of aromatherapy, crystaltherapy and diverse other new-age remedies and accoutrements.

phil

Hugh Janus we can all make typing mistakes as I see you have on every post ,but I write something about events and you are just indulging in childish sarcasm ,but never mind ,its fun and I am not too busy at the moment -by the way you will notice?? that I am not happy with Mr Browns performance ,but I do not have to insult him -I am sure he is trying his best which you patently are not .Why not post to our mutual friend .,there you can trade insults to your hearts content .you have a sense of humour so I will tell you ,your name came out rather differently on my spellchecker -but as you will see I corrected it (lol)

james Murphy

Now Robbit, I warned you about my pedantry, this is a grammar school boy speaking here: here's that declsion in full for the interogative 'who'! Repeat after me:
Nomin quis
Genitive cuius
Dative cui
Accus quem
Vocative - -
Ablative qu?... - and don't show your face again on this site until you've learnt it properly this time!

Ronnie

Huge Anus!!!!

I just got it.

Ronnie

James Murphy, I know nothing of Latin, but you are making me think of John Cleese as the Latin-teaching centurian in 'Life of Brian'.

Thank you.

Ronnie

I think this blog is going nowehere because we all know that Brown is finished, his government is finished and it looks like his party is finished for some time at least. So, it seems that we can't even summon the energy to attack them any more.

We are just waiting...as community of bloggers, as a society, as a nation. Stranded like BA travellers at Terminal 5.

Makes you wonder why we had to go through all that New Labour pantomime in the first place. To what end...?

How the mighty have fallen

Roland

JohnW, for one so apparantly blinkered (do you read the Daily Mail by any chance?), it hardly seems worth the effort, but, if you insist:

10 years of sustained economic stability, low interest rates, low unemployment and continuous growth unparalleled in recent history.

As previously said, rescue of NHS from Tory neglect - no easy task,and mistakes en route including over-emphasis on targets, but steady progress leading to shorter waiting times (let us ignore feeble statistical sleights of hand attempted here by Tory spinsters), more doctors, more nurses, improved treatments, more operations, reductions in cancer rates, investment in research, new hospitals and local health centres.

Sure Start, and family centres - real improvements in support for young parents and for children - always provokes a yawn amongst the idly-chattering classes, but has brought real change to peoples' lives.

Education - not the best field for this government, and some massive errors including the retention of Chris Woodhead and testing, overloading of teachers etc. but undeniably in primary education great leaps in provision including the teaching of numeracy and literacy. New buildings (every school in this borough rebuilt or refurbished -under Tory rule school roofs leaked).

Peace Deal in Northern Ireland.

Sustained increase in overseas aid.

Civil Partnerships - equality at last for thousands of gay and lesbian British citizens.

Biggest omissions? - how about the failure to reform the political system, especially the House of Lords and a proper written constitution? Some might add the introduction of a fairer voting system. Iraq, of course. And a general failure (out of a desire to pander to the right-wing press and to the perceived prejudices of the electorate) to commnunicate their achievements and thus set the agenda for future debate. Though I would say that over-all this is a more civilised, more decent and more tolerant country than ten years ago. The axis had moved just slightly towards the civilised liberal-left. Except of course on this curious little blog.

phil

Ronnie at 9.58 you just got to the bottom of it :)

JohnW

Roland,

Hilarious - straight out of the NuLiebour spin machine.

You don't read the Grauniad and the Independent do you, by any chance?

You lost it totally in the second paragraph when you uttered that famous Gordonism "sustained economic stability". from there on, it went downhill. I'm surprised you didn't mention "no more return to boom and bust".

Keep on spinning - Gordon loves you.

JohnW

Roland,

Don't worry old chap - at least you'll be able to console yourself at the next election when you join the ranks of the minorities for which your beloved Liebour party exists. It's only a matter of time before Liebour voters are declared a minority group and worthy recipients of affirmative action. Oh wait - they already are - witness Gordon's Manchester speech!

Enjoy your years in the wilderness.

R. Supwards

Phil - Glad to see you got there eventually.

Brown's record as COTE is well documented. His actions were deliberate. The nation's finances are now totally buggered after bankrolling the morally bankrupt New Labour "project." Team GB have broken all previous records. I don't see any point in discussing Brown's finer points because as far as I am concerned he hasn't got any. It is way past the time for being polite and nice about him or any of the rest of them.

Robbit

James, Sir, I be soundly rebuked. I is contrtite. I peck yer pardin an yer clemencie.

But kine Sir, considerin' as "cui" be this dative thingummy "to whom", mightn' it be as "cui bono" meenz summin like "to whom the profit" kinda, I meen, like "hoo bennyfits?"? which man is like what I is orlaze arskin theez assholes...

U C man like we don't got no lattin books in my skool, in faq not 2 menny books at all cum to fink of it... but we got all theez compooters - what Tony and Gordon say we mus hav be4 ennyfing els so we can get on the infirmayshun sooper hiway wif google an yootube and man like there is this real cool guy calld wikipeedia an he got a real cool blog where I does all my lessens an homewerk an he got this amazing list of the hole lattin langwidge an he say like “cui bono” is like man sort of “Good for whom?” so may be its sort of like OK man… ceteris paribus?

Nick Kaplan

I think Roland’s latest post calls for a good fisking due to the vast number of untruths that pervade not only his post but, for some reason, the public psyche also. It’s a mystery to me how so many people (including the intelligent such as Roland) have fallen for the lies of the New Labour spin machine.

1)“10 years of sustained economic stability, low interest rates, low unemployment and continuous growth unparalleled in recent history.”

Much of the last 10 years of economic growth has been built purely on a credit bubble (which is currently bursting) thus the growth has not been real it has been created by bad debt. The low interest rates we have had are actually the cause of all this bad debt as, accompanied by the promise that boom and bust had been abolished, it became rational to take out huge mortgages up to 125% of the value of one’s home. Unemployment in no sense has been low, it has stayed over 5 million. In fact if one does not count all the jobs that have gone to immigrants, those who were previously retired, and those jobs created in the public sector, then employment in the UK has actually decreased i.e. there are now less working age British workers in the private sector than before 1997. As for unparalled growth, the UKs growth rate has been lower than several major economies e.g. the US, Australia, New Zealand etc. Brown’s economic record is less than impressive and his legacy will be one of the highest ever budget deficits and very bad national debt, accompanied by the highest tax rate as a share of GDP for the last 30 years.

2)rescue of NHS from Tory neglect

As I have already explained this is pure fantasy. Of course there have been some improvements (they have pumped in over an extra 100 billion pounds for God’s sake!) but the point is too much money was put in too fast not accompanied by a single substantial reform and the result has been massive inflation, decreased productivity and a huge waste of money and opportunity. This should be seen as one of the government’s biggest failures rather than a success.

3)Education - not the best field for this government

That’s putting it mildly. Again the last 11 years has been a massive waste of an opportunity and money. Despite huge increases in spending (remember spending is not an achievement!) the UK has declined in its international standing in education. At the same time social mobility has decreased, whilst ceaseless new initiatives have demoralised committed teachers. The only decent idea for reform was the academies programme (a Tory invention in the first place) that was speedily blocked by leftist in the Labour party, more interested in ideology than the well being of children, those leftists include one G.Brown.

4) Peace Deal in Northern Ireland.

This is perhaps one good thing that has been achieved, but by no means should all credit go to Labour, John Major did some great work getting this started.

5) Sustained increase in overseas aid.

How many more times will I have to say that you cannot measure and achievement by the amount that is spent, but instead by results? ‘Increases in Aid’ is just a euphemism for massive amounts of money given to various tin pot dictators with little foreseeable benefit to those it was meant to help. There is no evidence to show that all the Aid given to various countries over the last few generations has had anything but a minute impact on the lives of people it is supposed to help (although many voluntary organisations i.e. NGO’s do do some fantastic work it is on far too small a scale). What is needed is an entire rethink of development policy and huge changes in the governing structure of most third world countries before any more money is granted. At the same time it is far better and more sustainable in the long term to promote trade rather than aid.

6) Civil Partnerships

I agree this is an improvement. However it does not make up for the pursuit of multiculturalism, and its pernicious sister political correctness, that have done so much to shut down debate over the last 11 years.

Overall the record of Labour can be summed up as: A waste of money, a waste of time, funded by the growth of massive public and private debt combined with the systemic destruction of British culture and British values, to be replaced by the empty and divisive policy of voluntary ghettoisation i.e. Multiculturalism. Pretty much a disaster all round.

Roland

Ah bless - such closed minds! Your vein of honesty occasionally shines through Nick - you can't help admitting to improvements in the NHS and Education - but, as with the last post, this one, which starts as an apparent attempt to engage in serious debate, slides away again into a generalised rant against leftism, multiculturism etc. etc. etc. Come on - you can do better than that - why not leave such dreary inanities to the JohnWs of this world! And you do play fast and loose with statistics.

Incidentally, no back-up to your vague assertions on foreign aid.

The Civil Partnerships/multiculturism distinction seems bizarre. Rights are surely universal, not just for one's own group (mine - yours?).

Back to where this all started - the oncoming Tory ascendency will be based on the lie that everything in the last ten years has been bad. I sense in teh subtext of your posts a knowledge that this isn't really so. I'm far from a Labour speak-your-weight machine - like most of my friends, I am in many ways deeply disillusioned and even on occasion dismayed (for example by Labour's appalling cowtowing to bigotry in their asylum policies). But, as an assessment is needed as this government comes to an end and the Tories look set to return, surely that assessment is better based on honesty, on both sides? Just as when T. Blair came to power, a frank assessment of where the country stood after Tory rule was neccessary for him to take his administration forward. There are things I'm proud of, lasting changes in attitude and real lives - and also achievements which the clueless Cameron and Osborne will sadly unravel - though not perhaps to an extent sufficient to satisfy JohnW et al.

phil

R. Supwards glad to see your name reflects a sense of humour unlike mr hugh j anus -I didn't need to get there either ,I already was there as you will have seen when reading my original -I just did not think it seemly to insult the office of prime minister ,which office does honour to all of us ,even if one does not like the incumbent either in person or by his policies .
Those that wish to demean themselves by filthy comments reflect only their own lack of substance -ok

Robbit

Mostly well said Nick. But no mention of completely decimating private sector final-salary pensions by his dawn raids on the pension funds... and the the message that we all now have to work until we drop. Oh, all except public sector employees whose final salary pensions at 60 are inviolate! Sacroscant of course - Labour's core constituency!

Nick Kaplan

Roland; given that you have not actually addressed a single point I have raised I would imagine that I am flogging a dead horse, however there is absolutely no substance to any of the illusions you’ve been tricked into believing. All the claims that you make seem to have been lifted straight out of some Labour hand book on spin. You are unable to back up your assertion that the last 11 years have been brilliant because there simply is no evidence to back it up with.

Vast sums have been wasted on the NHS, on schools, on public sector growth, on the surveillance state and on target culture. There has been such minimal improvement in the NHS that one can only be astounded by the staggering waste of money. As for education the situation is worse not better. Proper policing has been killed while violent crime has shot up (excuse the pun). The economy has been riddled with debt, private debt now being the highest in the developed world and public debt one of the highest and still increasing. The tax rate is now at its highest for thirty years at 43% of GDP and, given the debt, can only rise in future. Unemployment is at a ludicrous level given that we have had such a long period of growth. Nothing has been done about the benefits culture which has kept people in poverty for too long. Worse still, now that the 10p tax rate has been abolished the marginal incentive to move from benefits to work is disgustingly low which will be a disaster as we enter a downturn. The experiment of multiculturalism has proved to be nothing but a disaster (and I do not understand what you think it has to do with universal rights, it’s been about telling people not to integrate).

The problem is that this government has been so addicted to spin that it cannot tell the difference between saying and doing. All we have had is initiative after initiative, target after target and no real action to follow through. The improvements that they and you list are non-existent because you keep confusing inputs with results when they are not the same! Just because you spend more or talk more does not mean anything is any better.

Ron Todd

Qui Bono? QUI TRIBUO????

and for those of us that weni to the proverbial bog standards and have enough problems with English never mind latin.

I vaugly remember a TV drama about Cicero using a very similar phrase that ment something like

who ended up with the dosh.

Am a remotley close?