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Liberal Cynic - A sometime activist and definite cynic
Blog Archive
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2009
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May
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- We have a new leader! Step forward Nuck Clegg
- Why do people think a referendum on AV+ is a prize...
- "They want to go now into bed with a bunch of seri...
- Go Nick! Finally I see a LibDem narrative coming o...
- LibDems score well in MEP league of working for a ...
- BBC can't do maths. Alex Salmond can (for some val...
- A Broadcast from the English Democrats was just em...
- We need to get out from under the establishment an...
- Where is the East of England Euro Leaflet?
- Have "The" Labour Party made a naming error?
- Martin Bell - Part of the problem
- Go Vince! Go Vince!
- Tory MP: 'People are jealous of my house' :-( )
- Phil Willis rose to fame playing a computer-genera...
- Vote Match: Aren't we opposed to copyright extension?
- Boy aged 12 did not father baby
- Blair awarded $1m prize for international relation...
- Why did we put Ming on Question Time???
- Why are we fielding Ming on Question Time?
- Conservative candidate loses High Court battle to ...
- National Express trains to charge for reservations...
- A cuddly Beatles-playing monkey toy
- Your Friday animals
- Is there a need for organised Manchester ID card r...
- A Good LibDem use of YouTube
- Why did Lembit vote to keep the second home allowa...
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May
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4 comments:
Agreed. But how do you solve the problem of cronyism and the historic reality that in most societies, capitalist to communist the people at the top give themselves and their contemporaries ludicrously exaggerated rewards? In its own small way the MPs expenses scandal follows this pattern, with so-called honourable members feeling entitled to interior designers and moat cleaning expenses. I like many others work for a modest reward and have to justify every move I make at work. Like most workers I know that only a small mistake could lead to enormous financial difficulties if I lose my job and difficulty getting another job. Yet at the same time I know that for many people at the top of society failure can be rewarded (pay offs to chief execs for example) or excused (witness MPs forgetting that they were still claiming for mortgages after it was paid off). I also know that injustice will always be there, but at the moment the ordinary man and woman are having the injustices of life shoved in their faces. I wonder if anyone has ever studied scandals like this (Blair's prise, Mps' allowances, Fred Goodwin's pension etc) and the enormous gap in wealth or treatment between the rich/members of the political establishment and the average worker as factors in reducing productivity. The usual perspective is on how wealth or affluence motivates people to become wealthy or aspire to greater affluence (which to a certain degree is true). What saddens me even more is that it seems the people who care least about social injustice are about to be voted into power under that wonderfully 'democratic' system first past the post. Well done progressive politicians of the United Kingdom, by your venality and incompetence you have lined up another decade of punishment delivered by the Tories to help their friends the rich.
I think to call the Labour government of the last 12 years progressive is an insult to progressives!
Devolution, the Human Rights Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the right to roam, legislation to make it illegal to sack people under the age of 65 on the grounds of age, the Party List system for European elections, independence for the Bank of England, reforms to stop MPs acting as paid advocates (although sadly this has all been blown away by the abuse of the expenses system), fingers crossed peace in Northern Ireland, raising the school leaving age to 18...all things that most Liberals would support...I know that there have also been lots of bad things, but other than large spending cuts what 'Liberal' objectives will the next Conservative government achieve?
"the Freedom of Information Act"
Don't make me laugh, it's more like a freedom from information act! If they had introduced a proper one or, heaven forfend, stopped being secretive then you may have a point.
"the Party List system for European elections"
This was horrible and a it was a huge mistake for Liberal Democrats to support it at the time (as the EU was going to force a PR system on us anyway). It has knocked back the cause of electoral reform by having people's experience of PR being this deeply flawed one.
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