Just a quick follow up post from yesterday’s rant about Thatcher and her dementia.
It occurred to me how powerful my dislike for the woman and her politics must be for my hate to be still burning brightly after all these years. I was three years old when she came to power and fourteen when she left it, hardly the prime age for political activism.
But she evoked real passion in the nation. People loved her or loathed her with equal fervor. And the same can be said of her opponent, the Labour party leader Michael Foot. Both individuals had an integrity which is never seen these days.
Foot vs Thatcher was left wing vs right wing. Socialism vs capitalism. Even good vs evil if you like; or that is certainly how it seemed to my youthful and naive eyes.
But what have we got now? Slightly left of center vs slightly right of center. It really does come to something when the Liberal Democrats are the most radical party.
These days I find it difficult to even summon up the energy to vote. It’s only the thought of the mess that the conservatives will make when they regain power that gets me tromping down to the ballet box. It’s not that I think my vote will make any difference, I just want to reserve the right to smugly say “I told you so” when it all goes wrong.
So while I wouldn’t want another Thatcher, I do miss the sense of passion of the politics of the 80’s. But as George Carlin said, you get the politicians you deserve. Maybe bland times calls for bland leaders. Who knows.
Back to the usual rubbish next post I promise.
So Margaret Thatcher has dementia. Of course she does, after all Ronald Reagen had it and those two were pretty keen on presenting a united front. I wonder if Alzheimers is sexually transmittable?
Dementia is a horrific condition, and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. But I do find some dark humor in the fantasy that she will end up in some dank privatized old peoples home. Looked after by indifferent sixteen year olds who leave her swimming in urine because the owners are too busy watching their bottom line to ensure that the place is staffed properly.
You know, the kind of place she is directly responsible for due to her deregulation and privatization of the social care industry.
But alas that really is just a fantasy. No doubt she is being cared for by the finest doctors and nurses in the country.
There has been all this talk recently about giving her a state funeral when she eventually pegs it. And that’s fine by me. She certainly was popular to a certain sector of society (the selfish and short sighted “I’m all right Jack” sector obviously). They deserve the chance to say goodbye to their Iron Lady in a way they see fit.
But so do the people who have a slightly less generous opinion of her achievements. And if they do spend public money on a state funeral then it’s only fair that we get to express our feelings at her passing too.
I’m torn between either dancing a jig or a irish hornpipe on her grave. What do you think?
Slight change of pace today as I stare into my crystal ball and make a few predictions of the future of the British political landscape. Not my usual topic I admit, but it’s always good to mix it up a bit.
Feel free to disagree with me, I always enjoy a bit of a mass debate.
- Labour will lose the next election. Bit of a no brainer there. However the Tories will only stay in for one term. The world economy will continue to decline and houses will get repossessed and people will lose their jobs. The general public will not be able to comprehend this is a global problem and will blame the government (just as they are doing now). They will be reminded of the mess the country was in during the Tories reign in the 80’s and the party will lose the trust of the nation.
- The BNP will continue to gain support as the right wing newspapers publicly decry their existence yet continue to publish scaremongering articles about immigration. It is actually quite scary how popular the BNP are now. They aren’t winning many seats, but they are coming second and third in an alarming number of them.
- The NHS will gradually be turned into a central healthcare purchasing organization rather than a national healthcare provider. No matter how crap you think the NHS are now, trust me this would be worse. These wont be the nice middle class BUPA hospitals, they will be hospitals manned by the cheapest staff possible and run by managers only interested in profits and contracts.
- Politicians will continue to spout environmental rhetoric without actually having the courage to put effective policies in place. Excuses for this will include that age old favorite “There is no point changing our behavior because China and America aren’t doing anything”. This is like saying murdering people is justified because Peter Sutcliffe and Harold Shipman did it.
- We will see an increasing celebritisation of politicians. Political parties will come to the realization that people voted for Boris Johnson because they liked him on Have I got news for you and start recruiting media personalities to run for office
.
Any more?
So it looks like America has now elected Barack Obama as its president. It’s been a long road but there is now a African American in the White House and it is time to reflect on how far the USA has come since the days of…
What?
Primaries? John McWho? It’s not over?
Oh for fucks sake.
Can’t you Americans get a bloody move on? How long does it take to elect a president anyway? Can’t you just take a leaf from South America’s book? They get through about three new ones a week down there, far more efficient.
Still I suppose I better resign myself to reading about the American election for the next hundred years or so. I wouldn’t mind, but I recently made some enquiries and apparently I’m not even allowed to vote. Pure blatant racism, that’s what I call it.
Yesterday it was announced that HM Revenue and Customs has lost two discs containing the names, addresses, bank details, dates of birth, and national insurance numbers of every family with a child under 16 years old.
That would include us then.
Apparently the discs containing the details of over 25 million people who receive child benefit were posted on the 18th of October to the National Audit Office and never arrived at the other end. They were sent via normal internal mail, without any form or recorded delivery or tracking placed on them.
Of course various people have resigned over the affair, and no doubt the responsible junior admin officer has been told to pack up their belongings and never darken the doors again. To be honest I feel sorry for them, I can quite easily imagine myself doing something equally incompetent. And anyway, if it’s anything like the internal mail at the NHS I imagine the discs will eventually turn up sometime in August of next year.
I’m not particularly upset over the issue. Even if some identity thieves do manage to get hold of the discs and empty our bank account any losses will be reimbursed. But it does highlight a very important point. As Liberal Democrat Vince Cable said:
After this disaster how can the public possibly have confidence in the vast centralised databases needed for the compulsory ID card scheme?
The answer is pretty simple. We can’t.
BBC News - UK’s families put on fraud alert
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