Nanny Blair and the Erosion of Independence ....
Discussion
A piece I saw in The Times yesterday stirred something in me.. (Podie, Molly.. don't! 
)
www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-493006,00.html
) www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-493006,00.html
Thought provoking indeed....
Blair fights a guerrilla war against independenceMichael Gove
The deeply anti-bourgeois Government is assaulting middle-class self-reliance
The Blair Administration is fighting a war on two fronts. Against the firefighters the Government scrambles to find a defensible line which it can hold from hour to hour, like the Wehrmacht falling back through trackless Baltic wastes before a disciplined Red Army. But on its other front, the Government’s progress is steady, disciplined and remorseless. As readers of this newspaper are discovering to their cost.
For years now ministers have been conducting a form of submarine warfare. The scale of the campaign has been shielded from view, with only the shrieks of those caught by the latest torpedo blast alerting others to the scale of the endless attrition. The Government’s enemies in this war, who are only just realising the scale of the assault, are Britain’s productive middle classes. They are the real losers in the defining fight of our time — the war on independence.
Although this Government is middle-class in form, with Blairite children at St Paul’s School for Boys and a Prime Minister more at home on the tennis court than on the terraces, it is deeply anti-bourgeois in practice. Like a radical Archbishop of Canterbury using the authority of his office to question the faithful’s beliefs, the Blair Government seeks the natural authority which comes from appearing to be of the respectable classes while all the time working to undermine the scale of values on which the respectable rely.
The British middle classes are defined not so much by income, or neighbourhood, as attitude. The values which define them are a belief in self-reliance, an aspiration to self-improvement, an attachment to respectability and an instinctive respect for property rights which manifests itself in attachment to home. These values are the foundation of national stability, culturalhealth and economic growth. And they are all under attack from this Government.
Self-reliance is undermined by the assault on saving built into Gordon Brown’s pension tax rises and it is mocked by the massive increase in the level of state dependency engineered by Treasury changes such as the tax credit system. Last year 22 per cent of families relied on the Government for half or more of their income. And the Government has relied on more and more middle-class money to fund that increase in dependency.
The principle of self-improvement, and the instinct to self-reliance, is also challenged by the Government’s education policy. Those who are public-spirited enough, and sufficiently devoted to their children, to pay for private education deserve the State’s gratitude. Anyone who can afford school fees will, by definition, already have paid handsomely through their taxes for the state education system yet they choose not to burden it. But far from enjoying either government gratitude, or even neutrality, such parents face outright hostility. Their children will be actively discriminated against when it comes to securing a university place, their futures will be blighted specifically because their parents chose to invest in them.
The middle classes’ attachment to respectability is the value which is undergoing the subtlest, but perhaps most long-lasting, damage. Marriage, a symbol of unselfish commitment not just to another individual but to the transmission of our shared culture, is now actively penalised by the State. Detailed work by the think-tank Civitas shows that for young couples at the bottom of the income ladder, who aspire to better themselves, marriage can cost up to a quarter of their income, after housing costs have been paid for.
As for the middle-class belief in the independence which comes from acquiring one’s own capital, that has been undermined, alongside the instinct to self-reliance, by the Chancellor’s tax changes. Stamp duties have risen on house purchases, with the Treasury pocketing a sum that amounts to half the average annual wage from the purchase of a standard London family home. Overall, taxes increased by £28 billion in the Government’s first four years of office, and still they grow, with next spring’s rise in national insurance contributions a clear breach of the Government’s pledge not to raise direct taxes on income. These increases deprive middle-class families of the sums with which they could make provision for themselves and feed a public sector which nearly all are compelled to use but on which none can safely rely.
The growth of Government is in itself an attack on independence, but even the middle classes who serve the State are under assault. Dependency on the Government muffles the cries of pain, but they are growing. Whether it is the decision of a leading Oxford academic like Richard Jenkyns to transfer to America, the rejection of a pay deal by consultants unhappy at the degree of political control they now have to endure, or the direct insubordination towards his political master shown last week by the Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Michael Boyce, those professionals who can are demonstrating their disaffection.
All this week the Government’s fight against the firefighters has been depicted by the naive as a re-run of Margaret Thatcher’s battle against the miners. The fatuity of the comparison between ministers’ stumbling response to the FBU and Thatcher’s resolution towards the NUM hardly needs spelling out. But what was truly important about Mrs Thatcher’s victory in that struggle was that it was part of a longer campaign against collectivism, an enduring crusade to promote what the academic Shirley Robin Letwin has called the “vigorous virtues”, the values of self-reliance, respectability and above all independence.
Now it is precisely those values, and their defenders, which are under long-term attack. Whoever wins this winter war of fire, the middle classes are undeniably losing their war of independence.
Excellent article.
Expressed what I have been feeling but unable to really put my finger on. Bit like an itch in your inner ear I suppose.
Am increasingly worried about this government, the discontent by the masses in terms of public sector pay rings familiar alarm bells, but also Gordon Brown is now going to the house to outline that he intends to increase government borrowing by a massive %.
This would be fine if we could point to savings elsewhere in the system and that the policies were having the desired effect, but:
They have missed 80% of the health service targets set 2 years ago by themselves.
There are more people drawing social security benefits now than in 1997.
Public spending is slowing as the equity release rush draws to a close. House price rises will stop, and may even drop.
The Bank of England has indicated that interest rates cannot go any lower to avoid fuelling the housing market any more but British Business needs it to be lower to stimulate the economy.
Public sector workers are demanding increasingly ridiculous wage rises. (no doubt to counter the added tax burden that has been introduced).
America is showing no real signs of strongly emerging from recession, and so we can expect London's economy to dally in the same way.
Oh dear, tough times ahead. My point is that I'm not yet convinced that the economy can stand Mr Brown's spending spree and I'm definitely not convinced that increasing borrowing is the way to do it.
Expressed what I have been feeling but unable to really put my finger on. Bit like an itch in your inner ear I suppose.
Am increasingly worried about this government, the discontent by the masses in terms of public sector pay rings familiar alarm bells, but also Gordon Brown is now going to the house to outline that he intends to increase government borrowing by a massive %.
This would be fine if we could point to savings elsewhere in the system and that the policies were having the desired effect, but:
They have missed 80% of the health service targets set 2 years ago by themselves.
There are more people drawing social security benefits now than in 1997.
Public spending is slowing as the equity release rush draws to a close. House price rises will stop, and may even drop.
The Bank of England has indicated that interest rates cannot go any lower to avoid fuelling the housing market any more but British Business needs it to be lower to stimulate the economy.
Public sector workers are demanding increasingly ridiculous wage rises. (no doubt to counter the added tax burden that has been introduced).
America is showing no real signs of strongly emerging from recession, and so we can expect London's economy to dally in the same way.
Oh dear, tough times ahead. My point is that I'm not yet convinced that the economy can stand Mr Brown's spending spree and I'm definitely not convinced that increasing borrowing is the way to do it.
mondeoman said: So how do we fight back?????? Fair makes my blood boil.
Walk into parliament with weapons, take those damned socialist b*st*rds into the courtyard and execute them, after a hearing, of course. they're all a bunch of trotskyist traitors, and for treason capital punishment is still on the law books.
JMGS4 said:
mondeoman said: So how do we fight back?????? Fair makes my blood boil.
Walk into parliament with weapons, take those damned socialist b*st*rds into the courtyard and execute them, after a hearing, of course. they're all a bunch of trotskyist traitors, and for treason capital punishment is still on the law books.
Woah! Steady on there cowboy!
smifffy said:
Oh dear, tough times ahead. My point is that I'm not yet convinced that the economy can stand Mr Brown's spending spree and I'm definitely not convinced that increasing borrowing is the way to do it.
Your worried about Mr Brown's spending spree!!!, how much is herr Blair going to blow on the next war with Irac
MInd you Brown is trying to get the 2012 Olympics a drop in the blue stuff at £1.8billion yes BILLION to host the event.
And dont forget the little trinket of the glass pyramid.
Paul
Detailed work by the think-tank Civitas shows that for young couples at the bottom of the income ladder, who aspire to better themselves, marriage can cost up to a quarter of their income, after housing costs have been paid for.
Erm, what was the point of this bit? A call for subsidised suit hire? Wedding dress tax relief? Abolish VAT on flowers? If people want to throw away a huge proportion of their own money having a bit of a posh do (and I did) then it's really down to the individual isn't it?
[i>smiffy said:
Woah! Steady on there cowboy!
Why? A traitor is a traitor, and the telegraph article shows why. We're British, not some left over from failed communism, labour doesn't work it never has, all they do is destroy jobs, increase taxation, and feather their own nests. Communism and labour has failed see the whole of the eastern bloc, and phonytony and his cronies are errecting something similar, and we shouldn't get worked up about it?!?!?!?
and smiffy I aint funnin either!
JMGS4 said:
mondeoman said: So how do we fight back?????? Fair makes my blood boil.
Walk into parliament with weapons, take those damned socialist b*st*rds into the courtyard and execute them, after a hearing, of course. they're all a bunch of trotskyist traitors, and for treason capital punishment is still on the law books.
I'd like to buy you a drink, Sir.
err... people who send their kids to private schools are finding their children are discriminated against when it comes to getting into university...?? sounds like some parents are gutted they're letting more state school kids into Oxbridge, and the private school route no longer makes up for academic weaknesses.
I can see some of the points about infinging on self-reliance, but if a tory paper wants more tory values then they should try and get the tory's to stand up and give some glimmer of opposition to labour. Labour have some good ideas, but some stooopid ones too yet the tory's can't seem to string a sentence together against them.
The Times may have a problem with the firefighter's collectivism but who else would stand up for them? Labour? Obviously not. The Tories? C'mon. At the moment the unions seem to be the only people who can scare the government.
I can see some of the points about infinging on self-reliance, but if a tory paper wants more tory values then they should try and get the tory's to stand up and give some glimmer of opposition to labour. Labour have some good ideas, but some stooopid ones too yet the tory's can't seem to string a sentence together against them.
The Times may have a problem with the firefighter's collectivism but who else would stand up for them? Labour? Obviously not. The Tories? C'mon. At the moment the unions seem to be the only people who can scare the government.
JMGS4 said: Walk into parliament with weapons, take those damned socialist b*st*rds into the courtyard and execute them, after a hearing, of course. they're all a bunch of trotskyist traitors, and for treason capital punishment is still on the law books.
Someone tried that once before and did not succeed. Still, if we don't try to do something the country will be going to hell even quicker..
Tekta, no one has a problem with then letting state school kids into Oxbridge etc, the issue is that kids from private schools are being positively discriminated against, and that is unacceptable. Places should go to the best candididates, irrespective of social background, race, gender etc.
Jason F said:
Someone tried that once before and did not succeed. Still, if we don't try to do something the country will be going to hell even quicker..
Cromwell didn't succeed? At which school did you learn history? His republic wasn't a long lasting success admitted, but he did have a resounding effect on all later politicians! and I wish these labour scum would also learn that Britain has had enough of their pampering to all extremist minorities but never to the majority.
derestrictor said:
JMGS4 said:
mondeoman said: So how do we fight back?????? Fair makes my blood boil.
Walk into parliament with weapons, take those damned socialist b*st*rds into the courtyard and execute them, after a hearing, of course. they're all a bunch of trotskyist traitors, and for treason capital punishment is still on the law books.
I'd like to buy you a drink, Sir.
And I'll buy the weapons!!!
Is it just me or does anyone else sense a wind of change (well, a small draught at the mo ....
) in more and more publications and independent radio/television reporting..... Just a thought, but from the wings of a butterfly n all that. Certainly the beginning of the end for labour
the have clearly failed ideologically but more important practically.
Example - Labour Minister Alistair Darling announces action on transport - following an rac report that £1000m is need in new roads to keep congestion AT THE SAME LEVELS over the next 7 years
Darling welcomes the report, says creative solutions are necessary - won't commit to spending but does ....
What .? - Sets up a talking shop ! hurrah
he then critisises red ken for the congestion charging policy - which love or hate ... it least it is being TRIED. Darling then says he is creating a roads supremo to liase with all the london boroughs and transport for london to do things like .... charge utility companies for roads works (see headlines like the strand dug 250 time in one year)
HOWEVER ... this post will have no legal authority until an act of parliament can be passed, which earliest timetable for is 2004 !
Says it all
couple with legislative defeat for airports and the mess they made whe the killed railtrack, they really are in a mess - an absolute shambles
I could go on - 26 tax rises - spending up £150bn annually - 5% tax on insurance premiums, Dividends tax on pensions, off balance sheet financing on PFI to the tune of £100bn.
etc etc - any arguments ?
the have clearly failed ideologically but more important practically.
Example - Labour Minister Alistair Darling announces action on transport - following an rac report that £1000m is need in new roads to keep congestion AT THE SAME LEVELS over the next 7 years
Darling welcomes the report, says creative solutions are necessary - won't commit to spending but does ....
What .? - Sets up a talking shop ! hurrah
he then critisises red ken for the congestion charging policy - which love or hate ... it least it is being TRIED. Darling then says he is creating a roads supremo to liase with all the london boroughs and transport for london to do things like .... charge utility companies for roads works (see headlines like the strand dug 250 time in one year)
HOWEVER ... this post will have no legal authority until an act of parliament can be passed, which earliest timetable for is 2004 !
Says it all
couple with legislative defeat for airports and the mess they made whe the killed railtrack, they really are in a mess - an absolute shambles
I could go on - 26 tax rises - spending up £150bn annually - 5% tax on insurance premiums, Dividends tax on pensions, off balance sheet financing on PFI to the tune of £100bn.
etc etc - any arguments ?
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