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Well, yes, OK

Britain is already in the grip of a deep malaise – what happens when zero growth bites?
John Harris

Why not adopt the policies which might create a little growth then? Like razing the bureaucracy to the ground, selling the population into bondage and sowing the land with salt?

15 thoughts on “Well, yes, OK”

  1. With today’s ‘Giant greenhouses will be used to help end Britain’s reliance on imported food’ headline this government is officially beyond parody.

  2. Had this from that idiot Khan brought to my attention

    Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan
    @MayorofLondon
    Skyrocketing rents are only putting more pressure on Londoners dealing with the cost of living crisis. Introducing a two-year rent freeze would save private renters £2,988 on average-—but the Government must grant me the powers to make it happen.

    Bloody hell, I mean I have no love for my old school in Tooting but I want to make it clear that it didn’t just produce utter fuckwits like him.

  3. Hang on, isn’t it people like John Harris who keep stating that growth must be finite on a finite planet? Let’s face it, they are getting what they want – price rises discouraging use of “nasty” fossil fuels, slowing growth, a Govt committed to eco-nuttery – and they still complain and moan. Could it be that they did not understand the consequences of their desires?

  4. “And when we finally began our journey back home, the inevitable happened: our first train was delayed in Crewe by a “mechanical issue”, and on the second leg of the journey, the collision of hordes of weekend travellers with a measly number of carriages meant whole families squatting in corridors. Here, yet again, was proof of what all the flags and mad parades couldn’t cover up: a country in the grip of an increasingly deep malaise, where life seems to regularly hit the buffers, to the sound of that very British apology: “Sorry for any inconvenience caused.””

    “An increasingly deep malaise”? For you this train trip was an exception, but for me it was Tuesday. I don’t think the “return to work” spastics have any idea just how shit rail commuting was, how often there were problems with it. Less reliable than a 1970s Morris Marina and run by dickheads who can’t seem to get carriages to the right place despite trains being a thing for 150 years. Buses, cars, planes all seem to manage this fine, but then, those are run by private companies in competition.

    “But clearly, there is much more that is frustrating and angering people: most notably, raging inflation, and a crisis in the NHS manifested in sometimes fatally long waits for ambulances, imploding A&E departments and the near-impossibility for many people of seeing a GP or dentist.”

    Another government run thing.

    “On Thursday, the Financial Times drew attention to “an imbalance between levels of UK consumer spending and the ability of companies to supply, partly as a result of additional trade barriers that accompanied Brexit””

    Right, so let’s end those tout de suite. Stop charging tariffs. Cut a lot of bullshit regulation around “safety” that is pure protectionism. Get a whole list of things together and bundle it into one giant Brexit Tariffs Act and let’s start getting American chicken and Turkish olive oil cheaply. Such a massive, simple quick win while all the news stories are about the rising cost of food. Why isn’t Boris doing this?

    “In any medium-sized British town, the spectacle will be much the same: empty retail units, charity shops, chain stores where a bare minimum of staff endlessly coach people in the use of self-service checkouts, neglected public spaces, and a latent anxiety focused on schools and hospitals.”

    All of which would be solved with less government. Let shop owners, pub owners demolish their premises and turn it into housing. Empty retail units are a blight, but many of them were once housing. They were turned into shops as it was a more profitable use of the building. They’re more profitable as housing now, so let them be turned back.

    “That devout Tory free-marketeer, Liz Truss, may yet get the chance to subject us to even more of what got us in this mess.”

    No idea what she’s like on execution, but she’s about the only hope (or maybe Raab). It’s why the Tory membership like her. Because she’s about small government rather than Blue Labour.

  5. No idea what she’s like on execution, but she’s about the only hope (or maybe Raab)

    The only current tory MP taking over as leader that could get me voting tory ever again is Steve Baker.

  6. Diogenes

    Absolutely – although as with many on the Left they’ll pull out the argument’s ‘it isn’t real socialism’ (or a variant thereof) – but you are correct. To quote Tony Soprano ‘you opened this clam’ my friend’

    Now let them see the consequences of their folly and repent – that’ll be the day I’m sure…

  7. “The only current tory MP taking over as leader that could get me voting tory ever again is Steve Baker.”

    The Reform Party have announced their plan to beat the cost of living prices – tax cuts, government spending cuts and turn on the fracking taps.

    https://order-order.com/2022/06/13/reform-uk-launches-74-billion-emergency-recovery-plan/

    Will get my vote at the next election. I don’t care how fruitcakey they are, I’m fed up voting for a so called party of the right and getting nothing but left wing policies.

  8. The Reform Party have announced their plan to beat the cost of living prices

    I saw that. Can’t argue with any of Guido’s summary of the announcement. I’ll be voting for them too.

  9. Jim,

    “I don’t care how fruitcakey they are, I’m fed up voting for a so called party of the right and getting nothing but left wing policies.”

    If nothing else you send a signal to the main parties of what you want. Voting for UKIP led to the Conservatives putting an EU referendum in their manifesto for the next election.

    But I think there’s a gap on the right of politics that needs filling. The Conservatives are stuffed with one nation conservatives who would rather be losers than burning government down.

  10. “The Reform Party have announced their plan“

    Sounds decent enough as it goes (infinitely better than anything any of the major parties has come up with in the last 30 years, and as someone over there said, “It would be a breath of fresh air if our politics was a choice between the SDP and Reform”), but…

    Reduce VAT from 20% to 18%

    I’ve always said I’ll know we’ve really left the EU when the damned thing is abolished entirely.

  11. Jim

    It’s basically on a different stratosphere to anyone else and if it gets a foothold we can build from there – they have my vote for sure!

  12. Sam,

    Do you mean the new SDP? Have you read their policies? It’s like some weird throwback to the 1970s, but without the fun. Other than the repatriation of brown people, I think the BNP were less mad.

  13. “Do you mean the new SDP? Have you read their policies? It’s like some weird throwback to the 1970s, but without the fun. ”

    Are we talking about the same SDP? Looking at the policies on their website there’s plenty to like IMO – reducing immigration to 50k/yr, refusing to allow self ID for trans people (and allowing segregation by sex in sports), tax cuts for lower paid, allowing fracking, ending cancel culture, sound on defence for example. OK there’s still the usual eco-babble, but even there they at least want to have sensible nuclear sources of low carbon energy. There’s far more ‘red meat’in their list of policies than in the Lib/Lab/Con rabble’s.

  14. @Jim

    Plus one on Reform

    SDP have seemed quite sane for years

    Telegraph reporting Johnson v Sunak war
    – Johnson wants more spending and tax-cuts
    – Sunak wants more spending and tax-increases

    We’re doomed

  15. I see Blair is trying to steal a page from Macrons book and start a new ‘project’ (it’s not a party honestly!)
    Seems like there’s blood in the water and the sharks are circling

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