A new dawn?
Yea, verily and forsooth: a new dawn has broken in British politics. Everyone seems to be happier, Conservatives are thrilled about having their hands on the levers of power, Lib-Dems are over the moon about actually being in government again and even Labour acolytes are confined to muted and visibly knee-jerk grumblings of how terrible it’s all going to be. Everywhere you look, people are quietly optimistic about the merger of the economic credentials of the Tories with the liberal credentials of the LibDems. People are only too glad to be rid of the dour, one-eyed and almost certainly insane Scot.
True to form, however, I am rather miserable about all this.
Nick Clegg talks a good and even passionate talk, but Tony Blair was also an outstanding and compelling orator; he also said lots of warm, fuzzy things that everyone was desperate to hear. David Cameron has moved swiftly and ruthlessly to neuter the Tory backbenches, even as a number of sleaze scandals start to rumble. Manifesto promises are now the subject of “consultation”, the favoured New Labour trick for kicking a difficult matter into the long grass.
It looks like a “vote for change” may have been nothing of the sort.
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1
May 21, 2010 at 07:24 -
A new dawn for the left, certainly. Our political choice is now between socialists on one side and communists on the other. Little did I realise in ‘97 I was saying goodbye to the last right wing government this country would ever have.
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2
May 21, 2010 at 08:24 -
You pessimist, Thaddeus.
They’ve decided to scrap the unnecessary, inessential, unneeded, undesired, unwanted, gratuitous, pointless, dispensable, superfluous, HIPs – so that’s a step in the right direction.
Just wait ’til Georgie-boy has completed his sums on the Labour-inheritance; the cuts to the extravegances we can’t afford will be a breath of fresh air.
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3
May 21, 2010 at 08:51 -
New dawn ? indeed.
“what does the middle class feel about becoming the milch cow for a Tory government ?” (Jeremy Paxman, Newsnight 18 May)
“We feel the Hand of History on our gonads, squeezing very hard” (Tory MP)
Vitaï Lamenta
There’s a breathless hush, twas a close-fought fight
No.10 gained in a famous win.
A bumpy economy, money tight –
Bad; but at last our man is in.
And it’s not coalition that sticks in the throat
Or the selfish hope of avoiding pain
But History’s Hand on the tax-payer’s scrote –
‘Pay up! pay up! and pay again!’The exchequer’s books are sodden red,
Red with the ink of a bank that’s broke;
And Darling’s out; New Labour dead;
And Mandelson gone in a puff of smoke.
The river of debt has wrecked the banks,
As Brown skulks off with blackened name
And the tax-payer hears, as Sterling tanks-
‘Pay up! pay up! and pay again!’These are the words that year by year,
Whenever a Chancellor’s plans are set,
Everyone who pays tax must hear,
And none that hears it can forget.
This they must all – yes, each man must
Bear through life like a ball and chain,
And cursing Brown for his boom and bust
‘Pay up! pay up! and pay again!’ -
6
May 21, 2010 at 09:28 -
Most of the stuff being scrapped in England will still be enforced in Scotland so we will continue to suffer. We’ve got the HIPS with bells on and no sign of it being scrapped.
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7
May 21, 2010 at 16:16 -
It would appear that the LimpDims have the most say in what the government can and can’t do. This is totally against the wishes of the English voters.
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8
May 21, 2010 at 16:19 -
A speedy return to control freakery and business as usual then? Looks like it’s still the blogosphere versus the dark forces of authoritarianism.
Bring ‘em on, we’re ready.
One of the differences I’ve always noticed between Britain and America is that new governments over there enjoy a much longer public opinion honeymoon. There seems to be a far higher percentage of Britons who are willing to get right on the case of each new administration. Blair was an exeption to this but I’m glad to see the nation has come back to its senses.
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9
May 21, 2010 at 19:29 -
How about ‘A New Dawn Fades’ (aka Joy Division song) to sum up the current state of british politics. The coalition will continue New Labour policies but present them in a different style, so this new dawn is already fading, see. More of the same.
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10
May 21, 2010 at 21:18 -
Actually it’s rather nice to see a Tory leader moving swiftly and ruthlessly again. It’s like the old days!
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11
May 22, 2010 at 23:23 -
I voted Conservative – with misgivings that David Cameron was too “metrosexual liberal trendy” and was rather too much of a Blair clone, and those misgivings appear to be justified.
The haste with which Conservative ideals & values have been dropped and LibDem standards espoused has been breathtaking. It almost appears that the Tories are very much the Junior partners in a Clegg-led government.
Just as Blair hijacked the Labour party and changed it into something totally unappealing to boost his own ego, it appears that Cameron has pulled off an almost identical coup.
Plus ça change…
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