Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Ask not for Whom the Bell Tolls; Here's where we are going if not already there
Topic Started: Oct 8 2012, 09:34 AM (232 Views)
Joan Foster


Scotland the Not So Brave..

Keep spending more and more money on more and more voters, and you've built a client state. Those in receipt of the largesse will want it to continue. One day the money will no longer be there to spend (see technical note from Liam Byrne for details), but by that point you will have engineered a situation where any modulation of public spending will cause pain to such a large proportion of the electorate that the chances of the Conservatives winning a straight fight will be much reduced.
Brownism, as we might call this method, is the opposite of arithmetic (a good title for Mr Brown's autobiography), but if you're interested in total power rather than social justice – and any dispassionate observer of the effect of Labour rule on inner-city Glasgow, for example, would conclude that, indeed, it must be the former rather than the latter which drives Scottish Labour, else they wouldn't tolerate the poverty which exists there – then it's a good tactic.
But arithmetic always wins, and now the money has run out, as we all know, as even Labour's leader in Scotland muttered last week. Now the energetic leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson – whom I now suspect has as Euclidean an approach to politics as myself – makes the point at conference this week: nine out of 10 Scots receive more from the state than they contribute in taxes. Even families on middle-band incomes receive about £20,000 more from the state than they contribute.
We can't go on like this – the situation is extreme in Scotland but it's a UK-wide problem – but Scotland can't afford the SNP's separatism. The effect would be like a car running out of oil; the whole thing would seize up. As Ms Davidson will know, however, speaking the truth of arithmetic doesn't guarantee electoral reward – but what's the alternative? Lying about it? Pretending not to notice? Assuming that to depend on the state for most of your income has no psychological or sociological consequence?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/graemearcher/100184171/labour-has-built-a-client-state-in-scotland/
Edited by Joan Foster, Oct 8 2012, 09:34 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Baldo
Member Avatar

That is much of Europe in a nutshell. It is also the model for Obama's plan for the USA.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kbp

Baldo
Oct 8 2012, 09:58 AM
That is much of Europe in a nutshell. It is also the model for Obama's plan for the USA.

That "Obamaphone" video just about sums it up!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · LIESTOPPERS UNDERGROUND · Next Topic »
Add Reply