Politics - the big Con

This is just some random thoughts on politics today

Firstly let let it be said that the Gorse Fox OBJECTs. Why should his aspirations and quality of life be constrained by reckless government spending, and flim flam emanating from bad science and a political bandwagon that has no substance in reality.

The Times review of the Quality of Life document tells us:

Material gain in Britain is making people less happy and only radical
action to protect society and the environment can prevent economic
growth from further damaging our wellbeing, according to a major
Conservative policy report endorsed by David Cameron yesterday.

and

The Tory leader said that much of the document would be included in the
party’s next manifesto, signalling that he will campaign to introduce
many of the green taxes that it proposes. He sought to draw the sting
from increasing the cost of cars, flights, loft extensions and
televisions by pledging that all additional revenue raised would be set
aside in a “Family Fund”.

Apparently the introduction should raise a few eyebrows:

Its introduction states that, beyond a certain point, "ever-increasing
material gain can become not a gift, but a burden. As people it makes
us less happy, as the environment upon which all of us, and our
economy, depend is increasingly degraded by it”.

So, there you are. By paying more stupid taxes you'll be happier because you have less of a material burden.

Whilst we are talking about these things we should expand the scope slightly and look at other "winning" policies that really benefit us.

Conning the Electorate

Labour	Conservative	Commentary
Inheritance Tax		Iniquitous theft of family assets that have been acquired over time from taxed income. This is double taxation, and amounts to theft.
Pension situation		The near destruction of the UK Pension system by stealing £7B per annum from the funds is the most cynical treachery that a government can foist upon its people. Having spent a working lifetime saving for their pension the governments cynical raid on these funds is morally reprehensible and no more acceptable than Robert Maxwell's similar raid on the Mirror pension scheme.
Personal freedom		The continued erosion of personal freedom is breathtaking. A country that has, throughout its history, fought to protect its freedom and those of others now wants draconian controls on its own people: They are watched by CCTV Their cars should be tracked They will have to carry Id Cards They will have to submit their DNA to an already discredited databases They will have to allow tax assessors into their homes
	Short haul flights	The "elite" have decided that short haul (national) flights will be subject to additional taxes to encourage people out of the sky on the pretense that this is to reduce CO2 and save the planet. This is a penalty not on flying, but on people's personal time. Very few people fly short-haul within the UK for fun. They do it because their business requires it. If this is to be penalised it will have one of several outcomes: the extra charges will be passed on to the end consumers; the extra charges will make business more difficult and slow the economy; individuals will have to consume even more of their "free time" to travel by alternative means. The elite, however, will continue to fly.
	Plasma screens	As the Gorse Fox wander round the offices of Whitehall he sees the 60in plasma whiteboards where TV can be displayed and video-conferences held. This is too good for the rest of us though. We have to make do with other technology because plasma screens may contain harmful gasses.
	Car Sales Tax	We are no longer to be allowed to make a choice of cars unaided. The latest proposal is that cars that are deemed "bad" by the elite will have extra sales taxes added to their cost so that we will by cars that they deem "good". Good and bad is based on CO2 emissions. CO2, for those not up to date, is the gas that gets the blame for Global Warming but has been proved pretty conclusively to have no effect on GW, indeed it seems to grow as a result of GW (not the other way round as you are led to believe). See Falsification of CO2 As Clarkson said recently regarding the Toyota Prius: These use just as much fuel as normal cars and are designed only to assuage the guilt of people whose opinions come from a man so hopeless he couldn’t even beat George Bush to the White House. (Actually they use more fuel that my car).
Low energy light bulbs		Oh, this is clever. We must use low energy light bulbs - but can't import the cheap ones from the Far East, we have to use the expensive ones from Europe... the ones that contain unacceptable levels of mercury. Why? its CO2 stupid. Less CO2 is created because less energy is consumed by the light bulb.
	Standby mode	Standby mode must be removed from devices because of the energy consumed when it is quiesced. May make sense in terms of saving electricity - but don't paly the CO2 card again. Just how stupid do you think we are. See Skeptics Guide to Anthropogenic Global Warming
	Supermarket parking charges	This is so ridiculous it it is laughable. The concept of a supermarket is that you can get all of your shopping under one roof. This means that you then have to get that shopping home, which for most people demands a car, and probably a single trip per week. This is an efficient use of transport, particularly if you combine the trip with another necessary journey. But no, the "elite" (who probably never go shopping) have decided that the proletariat should pay for the privilege of collecting their weekly shopping. It is seen as a green tax. Even if there is a local bus service (there isn't one where the Gorse Fox lives) - how are people going to struggle onto the bus with 10 bags of weekly shopping? The Gorse Fox sees it as an absolute suicide path for the Tory party.
Council tax re-banding		This is wrong in so many ways: it give tax assessors the right to enter your home (with the police if necessary) If you live somewhere that has a nice view, or is near a good school then your tax will be increased If you have improved your property (with your taxed income) its tax value will increase.
	Company parking	In order to cut carbon emissions, companies should charge for the parking facilities they provide. Excuse me! Most people have no alternative to their car for work. Why should they be penalised because of the rickety bandwagon of carbon politics. (The Gorse Fox has a simple choice - a 3 hour drive to work once each week or a 6-hour series of train journeys. He would have to charge his time for these as he considers this a major inroad into his quality of life. If his client then charged him for parking, he would then charge that fee back to the client... who wins? Well, as his client is the Government he reckons he does!)
Downgrading local hospitals		As the Government attempts to reduce regional health inequalities, there are growing funding disparities between the North of England and the South East The Government spends £1,250 per head on patients in the South and £1,450 per head in the North (Alice Miles, The Times, 15 July 2006) Is the Prime Minister aware that consultants at Worthing hospital, which is threatened with downgrading because it is in a Conservative area, have been told that they must not see their patients before eight weeks, even if their patients’ conditions deteriorate?
Spin		Another word for Dishonest or Lies. Spin has done more to erode the electorate's trust in their politicians than anything in the last 10 years. "Why don't the voters trust politicians?" - Alistair Campbell, Ed Balls et al. that's why.
Destruction of independence of the Lords		The Lords is an institution that has been all but neutered by the the "politics of envy". The Lords created a check & balance to the Commons. Because it was not elected, it could take the long-term strategic view, without worrying about being popular when the elections come along. This was a worthy body that served the country admirably for centuries. It was disliked because it was predominantly hereditary so had to be neutered - particularly when they started to provide too much scrutiny of the government.
Lowest disposable income since 1981		Yep. Remember the feel-good factor and "you've never had it so good" - well thanks to the profiligacy of the government we're moving to the point "you've never had it at all" as it will all be deducted before we get paid.
Multiculturalism		Utter failure. Multi-cultralism has created ghettos of non-English speaking immigrants who have no intention of integrating. We should welcome immigrants into our society as it enriches the nation - but in return they have to conform to our way of living, our laws, our language and integrate into mainstream society. This has worked perfectly for 1000 years, but fallen apart and created separation and strife since liberal multi-culturalism has been allowed.
Emissions		MOTORISTS are facing a fresh squeeze from Alistair Darling, the chancellor, with a one-off £2,000 tax on 4x4s and the most polluting cars, a leaked Treasury paper has revealed. The aim is to reduce emissions. This is stupid enough to have come from the Tories "quality of Life" document... In most cases it is OLD cars that create the emissions. Lower taxes so people can afford to replace their old high-polluting cars to newer low-emission vehicles. This is further elitism - as the wealthy will still buy whatever they like - and ministers will be ferried around at our expense. People who need big vehicles - because of large families, disability, work (farmers, builders, nurserymen etc), or the rural location in which they live will be penalised.
Human Rights act		Hah! It seems that the only people who actually have any rights are criminals and troublemakers. When the Human Rights Act starts working for the victims of crime and injustice the Gorse Fox will start to support it. At the moment it is a perturbation of justice.

Paraphrasing Henry "Who will rid me of these damn cretins". Evidently the electorate can't as we have a morally corrupt government and and a totally inept opposition. No vote will solve the problem. What we need is a politician with charisma, common sense, and no personal agenda or ambition - someone who genuinely wants to serve the voters and won't be swayed by hype or bad science.

Just to make it clear - the Gorse Fox is not against taxation. He doesn't like it, but he's not against it. It is right that a society collects money from its people to provide services that matter and to protect and care for those who cannot look after themselves.

It is NOT right that this society gives money to the indolent and feckless.