We’ll move on if you tackle big problems
I THINK we should try to allow people who have done wrong to repent and do right; we should let them move on – though move means action not just vapid cheap words.
So I look forward to the prime minister moving on. But not away from the scene of his crimes and embarrassments – rather moving on to tackle the big problems that are likely to require painful and sacrificial action, more so due to the cowardly procrastination when things were easier and short-termists didn’t nip them in the bud.
Leaving aside tackling tax-dodging, one example that will save us all money immediately and sustainably in the long term is a radical programme of energy conservation – both by demanding that all new construction is to the highest standards from day one and also retrofitting, necessary for old buildings.
Like his hero Winston Churchill he should be straight with people, leading when sacrifices have to be made, even to the extent of renouncing the cult of year-on-year growth – does more stuff really make us more equal, happy and stable as finite resources are exhausted to satisfy the privileged few?
It’s said that the primary role of government is to protect people.
This doesn’t just mean from the threat of military aggressors like Vladimir Putin, it also means from economic attack and dictation by the likes of China, pharmaceutical corporations sitting on patents letting millions suffer and die and plutocrats dictating a world-view that isn’t environment or peoplecentred.
So I’ll give the PM and his party a chance – let him ‘move on,’ but more betrayal and failure of Conservatives to conserve our world and people’s future will only condemn him and them as not only the ‘Nasty Party,’ but also as the morally bankrupt.
Conservatives worthy of the name know what needs doing.
BORIS Johnson and his supporters may think ‘going Thatcher’ is the way out of a hole but in reality it isn’t.
When you take away the scores of bagcarriers, flunkies, and gofers on the government pay-roll dependent on his patronage, one sees that Conservative backbenchers mostly want shot of him.
The back-of-a-fag-packet razzamatazz about extending home ownership shows how out of touch he is – people simply don’t have the deposits. And a desperate housing shortage, hidden by people living with friends and family, isn’t going to be helped by social housing being sold to those with the cash – buy-to-rent landlords.
Do poor people really want negative-equity when the boom crashes?
Time and again we see so-called ‘affordable housing’ projects devouring scarce land passed by acquiescent councils.
These are questionably affordable for ‘dinky’ professionals – not those in need. But perhaps we shouldn’t worry too much, there will be another wonder announcement trumpeted tomorrow.
Perhaps it will be police drones to scoop up crooks and convey them straight to prison, or paramedic drones whisking cancer-sufferers past delays to 24/7 virtual-operating oncologist teams on the other side of the world efficiently controlling robot surgeons, nurses and ancillary staff.
The government may be trying to get the initiative back, but are Labour, Lib Dems, Greens and others (including responsible Tories) prepared to work together for the greater good?
If they don’t they can’t expect support or to turn things around, bearing in mind our compromised system where money indirectly buys its way.