Politics is the practice of never saying no to any request for free stuff from voters, and the art of obscuring who really pays for it.
I almost feel sorry for wannabe politicians that think that just governing responsibly might somehow be an attractive alternative to this most basic rule of modern politics. Cut the deficit? Forget it. Just spend the money. Spend, spend spend until you’re physically stopped, then blame the person who stops you. You’ll look like a saintly altruist who wanted to cure the world of all ills.
That’s how you really win in politics… or, at least, that’s how you win over the crowd on the BBC’s Question Time. He Who Promises To Spend The Most Money Without Explaining Where The Money Is COming From… wins.
Gah. Sick of this.
I thought that was interesting (in an ‘understanding what’s going through people’s heads’) sort of way. Well, tonight I had a quick look on the internet to discover a bit more about the history of universal suffrage in the UK, and was surprised to discover that it was a Liberal that gave us the 1918 Representation of the People Act, the one that extended voting rights to all adult males (and women over 30 with appropriate property rights) and a Conservative, Stanley Baldwin, that gave us the 1928 Representation of the People Act that extended voting rights to all adults, male and female.
Going back a little earlier, it was Gladstone – another Liberal Prime Minister – that got us the 1884 Reform Act that added another 6 million to the number who could vote.
It’s funny, when I try to think where Labour has empowered anyone but themselves and those that fund them (including trade unions and all the other rubbish) I come up blank.
Pity really. The true measure of the quality of liberalism was the way that it did, in fact, give power away – which it never got back again. Turns out the trick is to f**k your opponents over as hard as possible… who knew?