We regulate the sale of houses quite tightly, in fact we regulate the sale, the advertising, the reliability, of most items tightly.

Just imagine for a moment that there was no such thing as rented property. Imagine that you had no choice other than to buy a house to keep your family warm and dry.

Imagine that the cost of that house was going to be 50% of everything you can earn.

In our imaginary parallel universe, there is no home survey, the estate agent can blithely describe the house as five bed-roomed, and then present you with a one bed-roomed flat on completion day.

You cannot sue the estate agent for false description. If the house falls down the next day, you cannot sue the surveyor for not doing his job properly. You have no re-dress on the false advertising, nor guarantee that the house will be fit for purpose, keep you warm and dry, or not change its physical properties dramatically, turning into a one bed-roomed flat six months after you have moved your eight children into it.

Alarming, eh?

We are so used to our regulated world where we are protected from the lies, greed, and avarice of commercial traders, that we take it for granted that any major purchase, house, car, etc., will be surrounded by a raft of legislation to make sure that it does what we are led to believe it does.

That legislation is drawn up by politicians on our behalf. Yet we ‘buy’ our politicians, for near 50% of our wages, in a world which is virtually unregulated.

There have been several legal challenges attempting to hold politicians to the promises they made which induced us to vote for them. None have been successful. Judges have repeatedly held that the penalty for failing to ‘live up to the advertising’ should be political, not legal – ie. five years later you have the chance to vote in another party, on promises which are equally unenforceable.

We can’t even opt out of the system and decide to live free in a tent, although Old Holborn is making a good attempt to do so, true we can live in a tent if we wish, but not free, we must still pay our rent of 50% of everything we earn.

Do we complain? Not really, we change Rachman for another slum landlord occasionally, but we don’t rail against the system itself. When we come close to doing so, it is a five minute wonder – compare the three quarters of a million who marched through London protesting against the Iraq war, with the few thousand who requested tickets to hear Tony Blair at the ‘inquest’, and the desultory 300 or so who are interested in what Gordon Brown has to say about it.

Bloggers rise up like thunderflies at each new indignity, and devote hours to ranting and railing against each new imposition, and yet Sky’s nightly round up of the top Internet stories will reveal that there is more interest in Cheryl Cole’s sex life than there is in 1200 deaths in Staffordshire. Even the ‘top bloggers’ are remarkably unwilling to leave the comfort of their keyboard – witness the few who made the trip to London to support Old Holborn’s annual pilgrimage on Guy Fawkes Day to publicise the fact that it is our parliament.

Politics now inhabits that area previously occupied by organised religion. We believe, we have faith, we go to church, and yet if we stopped and dissected it seriously we would have to accept that there is no proof, no guarantee, no redress, as to whether it works or not, and considerable empirical evidence that it doesn’t.

Our Politicians, who art in Parliament,

Dishonoured by thy name,

Our Kingdom thine,

Thy will be done.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our mistrust.

Lead us not into endless debt,

but deliver us from freedom.

For thine is our kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for the next five years.

Amen.

Have faith Brothers, or rise up – the choice is yours.

First Class posts on Saturday Letters From A Tory

February 27, 2010 at 21:32

1
chefdave February 27, 2010 at 17:08

We have government by default, this allows politicians to be bad at their jobs and get away with it because the public have to vote somebody in. In a real free market the individual retains the right to say no, this gives the consumer considerable power.

I would like to be able to say no when it comes to the GE too. If most people decide not to vote then the constituency returns nobody, or someone without voting rights. If a party cannot get an overall majority then they can’t form a government, this would keep the politicians in check because they’d need a proper mandate from the people to form an executive.

We have enough laws already, we don’t need to keep voting them in only to make more!

2
Ruth February 27, 2010 at 18:31

Good points Anna! Apathy rules here in the UK – which leads on to that well known piece ‘First they came….’.

Very O/T I’m afraid – Having read & enjoyed your piece about the 60’s I guess you must be a lady of ‘a certain age’ – did you know that the state pension rise in April is actually only a rise affecting part of the pension? Graduated benefits and SERPS will not be increased. I’ve got a form letter of protest to Alastair Darling over on my blog – may I leave the link here? If you’re not happy with it, do please feel free to delete the O/T part of my comment. Thank you.

3
Gloria Smudd February 27, 2010 at 19:20

Let’s have a box on the ballot papers for ‘Non of the above’.

4
Anna Raccoon February 27, 2010 at 20:10

Ruth,
One is, as they say, ’sufficiently decayed’, indeed!
Indeed, please do leave a link it will be interesting.

5
Dick Puddlecote February 27, 2010 at 21:59

“That legislation is drawn up by politicians on our behalf. Yet we ‘buy’ our politicians, for near 50% of our wages, in a world which is virtually unregulated.”

I touched on this the other day. Not only are they unregulated, they steadfastly refuse to do anything about it. All parties lie in their campaign literature, yet the only regulators are a couple of guys doing it for free.

They are selling us government on false promises, with manifestos that aren’t worth the paper they are written on, and there is no check and balance, and no recourse to law when they, for example, refuse a referendum or change a proposed law entirely without our consent.

Politicians have corrupted their own profession, and the public have noticed, which is why most have nothing to do with them anymore.

6
Bill Quango MP February 27, 2010 at 22:38

Just discussing this very thing.

http://cityunslicker.blogspot.com/2010/02/politics-is-lies-and-no-one-cares.html

7
PT February 28, 2010 at 09:19

The most succinct expression of these sentiments, I think, is the old saying “Doesn’t matter who you vote for, the Government still gets in.”
When poll turnout is low, politicians, characteristically, blame voter apathy, suggesting that the blame lies with us, not them. Well, what if the turnout were 90% or above, with 80% of those ballot papers deliberately spoiled by various uncomplimentary comments about those seeking power over us? Would we still be apathetic? How would these professional spinnsters dismiss such a first shot across the bows from an unrepresented citizenry?

8
Adam Collyer February 28, 2010 at 21:09

Hmmm. I don’t think the world where courts and judges rule over elected politicians is one I want to live in. Labour have already taken us too far in that direction with the Human Rights Act etc.