Britannia Radio

The Sunday Times - Comment Leader: Working up a crisis 

This is an excellent article. It summarizes what we have been saying for the past 6 years. 

One in four jobs are govt-related - no wonder Britain is next to being a third-world country in terms of per capita productivity. 

Anybody who has been wondering why this government's tax rises have not led to better public services should read our investigation today in News Review. The public spending binge presided over by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown has led to a bonanza of old Labour-style state jobs. One in four now works for the public sector, the most since Jim Callaghan was prime minister during the best-forgotten winter of discontent in the late 1970s. It would be pleasing to report that this army of public servants was dedicated to the speedier delivery of services. Sadly, the reverse is true. 

It's time for Ronald Reagan to step forward. And I do not mean some gun-grabbing fascist witch like Thatcher, who dared to defile Reagan by claiming she was like him. She was so much unlike him that I doubt he would piss on her guts if they were on fire. 

Texas was a Demoncrat state ever since Reconstruction, and the Demoncrats took full advantage of it. What you saw in Lyndon Johnson was typical of Texas politics. In fact Tony Blair's megalomania is the British version of Johnson's megalomania. We had some pretty arrogant governors here before Bush showed up - Mark White who turned a multi-billion dollar surplus into a multi-billion dollar deficit and Ann Richards (the last of the Democrats, affectionately known as Queen Ann) who raped the Texas budget to buy as much influence as she could. 

But these demagogues overdid it, so when GW Bush ran for governor, the response was overwhelming. He was the equivalent of Reagan stepping on the national stage at a time of crisis. Texas became a Republican state. 

I would like to imagine that something similar can happen in Britain, but there is no Ronald Reagan or GW Bush waiting in the wings to assume power when people finally get fed up with the socialists. 

Few believe the government's claims that the NHS or education are improving. Everybody knows that in key areas such as transport the failure has been complete. Like the Tories under John Major, the government is drifting alarmingly. And you don't need a learning time facilitator to tell you that. 

The typical Brit is best caricatured as the parents of Alex in Clockwork Orange - the embodiment of quiet desperation. 

Like Mr Blair's government, it appears to have been a road to nowhere. 

This is not quite true. Blair has an agenda but it has nothing to do with the one he claims in public. He was foisted into power by the special interests who would benefit from the single currency and he was charged with the responsibility to deliver Britain to the Hun. Everything he has done since 

1997 has been to further that objective - and British citizens can go get fucked.

--------------------------

Hey, Tony, are you talking to me?


POLITICIANS can reveal more about themselves in a throwaway remark than
in 100 speeches and
interviews.

Tony Blair has pretty much perfected his "straight kinda guy", caring,
sharing, everyman routine.

Only very occasionally are we granted a peek behind his painted smile.

For instance, take his ill-judged, unscripted "tally ho" jibe at the
start of his disgraceful "forces of
conservatism" tirade at the last Labour conference.

This was a deliberate attempt to belittle the thousands of decent,
ordinary men and women who had
travelled to Bournemouth to protest peacefully and legitimately at the
government's anti-countryside
policies.

It was a rare glimpse of the real Blair, a vindictive, intolerant man,
full of contempt for those who
dare to disagree with him.

He is a cynical politician who has carefully cultivated his image both
at home and abroad.

But once in a while, the true character of the Prime Minister breaks out
like a blackhead through
the greasepaint.

Which is why I was fascinated to read an interview with Blair in an
American news magazine
published this week.

It is a broadly sympathetic piece written by Robert Harris, a close
friend of the Prime Minister. I
shan't bore you with too many of the details.

You won't be too surprised to learn that Blair is finding the job
tougher than he expected, is looking
forward to the bay-bee and still thinks he can bounce us into the euro
in two to three years.

But there was one paragraph which made me sit up and take notice.

Harris recalls that during the last election campaign, Blair feared the
Tories might still win by
playing the "xenophobic card".

Now what the dictionary means by xenophobic and what Blair means are two
different things.

The dictionary defines xenophobia as an irrational hatred and fear of
all things foreign.

Blair, of course, has an irrational love of all things foreign and an
irrational hatred of all things most
of us think of as British. He's got a sort of reverse xenophobia.

To the Prime Minister, like the Mad Hatter, words mean whatever he wants
them to mean. In Blair's
book, a xenophobe is someone who wants Britain to remain an independent
nation, with its own
laws, own parliament and own currency.

And, Harris reports, Blair said with a shrug: "If that's the sort of
country people want to live in, then
f*** them."

Harris included this quote to illustrate Blair's hatred of isolationism.

But it started me thinking. And what we have in those few words is not
so much a throwaway
remark as Blair's entire political philosophy.

This is the F*** You government.

This isn't Pretty Straight Kinda Guy, this is straight out of Goodfellas.

You don't agree with him?

F*** you.

You don't want homosexuality promoted in schools?

F*** you.

You want to keep the pound?

F*** you.

You don't want to be ruled by Brussels?

F*** you.

You don't think Scottish MPs should be allowed to vote on English issues
when English MPs are
barred from voting on Scottish affairs?

F*** you.

You don't believe the police are institutionally racist?

F*** you.

You don't think hundreds of terrorists should have been released without
a single weapon or stick
of explosive being surrendered?

F*** you.

You don't think Peter Mandelson should have been reinstated to the
Cabinet with such indecent
haste?

F*** you.

You don't want the House of Lords replaced by an upper chamber full of
Tony's unelected cronies?

F*** you.

You don't want compulsory metrication and the use of pounds and ounces,
feet and inches made a
criminal offence?

F*** you.

You think tax on petrol and diesel is extortionate and should not
increase any more?

F*** you.

You think Labour Party members should be able to choose their own
candidates for London Mayor
and the Welsh assembly.

F*** you.

You think the Prime Minister should pay for his own holidays?

F*** you.

On issue after issue, Blair has nothing but contempt for public opinion.

Opponents are subjected to ruthless smear campaigns. He will use any
means at his disposal to get
his own way.

You don't like it?

F*** you.

Are you talking to me?

Yeah, I'm talking to you.

Then, f*** you, too.

Dial M for Swansea