Well folks, this is
going to be my first blog post in about four years. A lot's happened
in that time, I've finished uni, had a very frightening health scare,
got a job, almost had a girlfriend and also watched with despair as
the country slips further into the abyss.
In 2010 I had such
high hopes for the coalition government that took office. I was a
staunch Conservative but I thought maybe it could work. Perhaps I
should have taken more notice of the people who were naysayers of
David Cameron on my own side. He has (they would say predictably)
managed to sell out on every promise he made. Even those people who I
viewed as potential bright spots (Michael Gove and IDS) have come
unstuck with the education system still being a mess and welfare
reforms now taking on the appearance of being designed to kill off
the disabled rather than help the needy and thwart the scroungers.
It's a far cry from
that roaringly triumphant year long run up to the 2010 election. Even
with the expenses scandal claiming several scalps we Tory types
thought we had it all in the bag. Alas it was not to be. So much of
the blame for that belongs to Shameron (as I now call the incompetent
fool who occupies No 10) and his team. Against what many of us
considered to be an open goal, he fell short and had to make a deal
with the Liberal Democrats.
I think the point of
my disillusionment began before I even started this blog. It was the
rather absurd moment when the government declared it had no money
left, scrapped Britain's only carrier borne fighter aircraft, hiked
tuition fees up to approximately £9000, made swathes of cutbacks
elsewhere but then somehow found £3,000,000,000 for the overseas aid
budget.
Now don't get me
wrong folks, I know that in the grand scheme of things, three billion
pounds is a small sum and the DFID (Department for International
Development) budget of twelve billion is tiny compared to what is
spent on both the NHS and social security. However it's not always
about the figures, it's about the principle. To tell people around
the country to “tighten their belts” and then announce you can
find money for other countries. At the time of writing (November 11th
2014), aid is still going to countries such as India and Pakistan.
Pakistan is expected to become the largest recipient of UK aid,
roughly £405 million in the fiscal year 2014/2015. I don't dispute
the fact that many, many people in Pakistan live in terrible poverty
and require help. What I find galling is the fact that Pakistan has:
-An endemic amount
of political corruption and instability (three major coups that have
resulted in Pakistan having a military dictatorship in power for 33
of the 67 years since Pakistan become an independent state).
-A very poor human
rights record.
-Links to certain
terrorist organisations (such as the Taliban).
-Has roughly 100 TO
120 NUCLEAR WARHEADS
I really cannot see
why politicians in this country are prepared to justify such a
country getting more aid money, indeed to become the largest
recipient of aid from this country. How do you tell a Cancer patient
there isn't money to fund the drugs to save their life but you can
find the money for a nuclear armed state? It's almost as though they
know it will antagonise people but do it anyway. I don't doubt that
people in the countries we give aid to have issues and some of them
will lead far harder existences than we could contemplate. I don't
think we should have no aid program at all. My problem is with the
ring fencing and then increase of the budget in the face of a tanking
economy and the mantra we had drilled into our heads of “There is
no money left” by politicians in the run up to the election and
after it (compounded by Liam Byrne's now infamous note that he left
for his successor David Laws).
If this sorry state
of affairs was the beginning of my disillusionment, what followed
merely reinforced my contempt for the Shameron led Conservative
party. Despite all the Eurosceptic noises prior to the election, this
government has probably caved in and done as little as possible to
repatriate any significant power than any other. You get the
occasional storm in a tea cup but when has the government ever
actually followed through on any threats it has made? Even now we
have the unedifying spectacle of the government trying to squirm out
of having a vote on the controversial European Arrest Warrant.
There are other hair
brained ideas that have illustrated the utter incompetence of this
government. Weak gimmicks such as the “National Citizens Service”,
the idea of a repealing tracts of legislation but conveniently
missing out some of the more tiresome “nanny state” acts (such as
the smoking ban), all the way to much more dangerous things such as
the “Help to Buy” mortgage scheme (which has all the hallmarks of
the things that led us to the financial crisis in the first place).
In short, I can't
stand this government. Can't stand the potential government in
waiting either (Williyband's bunch of imbeciles). Whoever wins, we're
all going to lose.
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