The Conservative Party was unable to resolve the rift between the two fractions sheltering under its collective banner. There were those looking back wanting to relive the Empire glory days and those looking forward to Europe to grow a new future for Britain. The solution they came up with to re-unite the Conservative Party was a referendum. As this was more to do about patching over the divisions within the single party state than determining Britain's future there was no need for finesse. So a simple question having a yes/no answer with no minimum threshold was sufficient. As it turned out the country at large reflected the single party state, divided, more or less down the middle. Not a clear cut majority, some parts of the country more or less in favour than other parts. Technically the vote count gave victory to the Brexit, but a victory over a very divided country without a clear ground swell of opinion. The yes/no question was stripped down to its most simplistic, leave or stay. Stripped of any suggestion of complications, consequences or hard choices between conflicting aspirations. Simple, just leave or stay.
Disappointingly the campaigns leading up to the referendum presented either a cake or a pie. The cake option was promoted with fulsome promises of wonderful slices to be enjoyed. The pie option challenged some of the cake slice toppings but did not promote the pie as a better, healthier and more sustainable offering. Worst of all, no one stood up and said hurrah for Europe, with Europe we can be stronger and within Europe we can make change happen to strengthen the pie we want to work with. So the cake with all its tempting deliciousness won. The tragic irony is that this win did not meld the Conservative Party. The referendum turned out to be an empty gesture. The split within the single party state has grown worse if anything, with the PM frantically trying to apply sticking plaster over the increasing rifts. Even the £1B bribe to the NI DUP party has failed to secure her a safe voting base. Britain of course is now stuck with the win/not win referendum outcome. Only now is a degree of clarity emerging about how pitiful the slices out of the cake may well turn out to be. That cake that was held up to be so luxurious and unctuous is turning out to be frugal snack and the pie that was scorned offers to be far more substantial.
One of the more attractive slices of cake offered is for Britain to shake free the EU shackles and sign up free trade deals with the rest of the World. I hear it often quoted that Britain has the fifth largest economy in the world. An economy that can only sustains the illusion of prosperity by building ever more houses for investment. Note, not homes for those unable to get on the housing ladder with their 1.8 children (50% in single parent families), just 4-5 executive houses as investment sinkholes wherever the returns are at their greatest. An economy that, according to a UN report is in breach of its Human Rights requirements for many of its underprivileged classes. An economy that is unable to complete the fitout of the second, let along the third of its new largest aircraft carrier and cannot afford to purchase the planes to fly off them. From this sceptred isle we appear to think the Worlds big trading Nations are queuing up to rush and complete amicable trading agreements with us. USofA cannot wait to dump all their surplus produce on us, produce made without restrictions of all those irksome animal welfare concerns or consequential environmental damage. Or China, the unproclaimed leader of the World that has hoovered up the rights to all the rarer elements in this planet is not going to be bothered about any petty limits, or exchange terms we might waft at them. Is it only me that can get real? Or do you all share a scepticism that the World is not panting to do free trade deals with us. Our importance as a world trading nation are over together with the Empire that first sustained it.
No, our strength now lies with our close neighbours across the channel. Those neighbours that we share so much history, culture and expectations with. Working together we, the combined nations, can be a world force to reckoned with, a force that can require its terms to be heeded. That can make a stand and demand progress towards worthy aspirations. Together Britain can grow strong and can make its own unique voice heard, not just heard but count for the greater good, of us and this planet we have to care for. The is the pie that is on offer. That is the pie we must seize. That is the pie that must offered to the people again so this time they can make an informed choice. A choice made whilst knowing full well of the consequences that flow out of it. Let the single state party sort out its own mess and leave us to direct Britain's future prosperity.
Showing posts with label Empire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Empire. Show all posts
Monday, 26 November 2018
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Bankrupt Nation
Been here before, so see also my Government Savings, this Nation is overspending on its Government. Compounded by us, its citizens, with unrealistic, or rather unaffordable, expectations of what can actually be provided or responded to. The size of slice taken to run UKplc is far too great compared to the income UKplc can generate. We are living way beyond our means and get by, by opening a new credit card then spending to its limits without being able to pay back the interest. Suddenly people are waking up to the total absurdity of private investment in new NHS hospitals. It always was crazy double thinking but it got politicians off the hook and gave a back door way to pay for the desperate re-investment required. A back door that had a very nasty and a painful bite some years on. A bite some people are only now waking up to. There is a huge yearly ongoing cost just to service the investment. A cost way in excess of what it would have cost if governement had made the investment directly.
We are in the centre of fudge land. We have expectations of what our country should do and provide for us. UKplc just cannot afford to meet those expectations. The politicians cannot, if they are to survive, tell us to our face that we cannot no longer get what we expect as of a right. UKplc cannot borrow more as it has already exceeded its spending limits. So fudge, enter the world of magic mirrors, where you can spend on huge luxuries, but not actually spend, well not today but only later on down the line. A huge HP loan with deferred easy payments. Everyone happy right? Of course not. As the deferred payments kick in, as they must some time, surprise, surprise, what you have left to spend has been sharply cut back and you owe more to the remorseless repayment schedules and have nothing left to buy for today. It was and is a lunacy.
Yet we clearly do need massive investment in the NHS, and schools and roads and transport. We do actually need to upgrade the apparatus of government and bring it kicking into the ways of the C21 world. We are not in the realm of finding 5%, 10% or even 25% efficiency savings. We really do have to take stock of what we, UKplc, are and what is the level of governance that is supportable. We were once a global power with a huge global empire, a key player. US of A has made it its business to take us out of that role. Today we are a crowded off shore island associated with a big powerful European Union of large nations struggling to come together and work in some sort of harmony. We are a marginal small bit player. Getting marginalised because we fail to play our trumps wisely and opportunely. At this level of play we simply cannot afford grandiose ideas of having an aircraft carrier, with all the attendant fleet, nuclear submarines, an airforce with world strike capability nor an army able to fight in all theatres of the world. What is affordable within our current so much smaller role in the world is a national defence force able to defend its frontiers, if you must, working in close collaboration with our neighbours. That is the stark reality.
I do not have a down on the defence services per say, more on that another time maybe. It is just that they encapsulate so well this bloated transition from global power to small bit player. We cannot give up the baggage of our past and come to terms with today's realities. We just do not have the income to sustain a world power role. But look around and there is evidence of this same bloat everywhere. Ministries and support institutions that were fit and proper for an empire but are grossly oversized and over ambitious for our now current status. We need a new slimmed down model of government that is fit, sleek and apt for the situation we now occupy. Many cherished objects and institutes of national pride may have to be sacrificed as we navel gaze our way from that empirical past down to our new needs. Political Parties have talk the talk for years, exorcising this tip here or this unloved limb there, tinkering, not radical. We need radical now, what is the minimum basics we must have to survive in today's world? That is the starting premise.
Along the way we will have to confront the issue of our expectations that 'they' can and will do everything about all those things that perturb us in our daily life. This is a socialist fantasy, actually a nightmare dream, of the State being the all provider. We are too unique, too diverse and too individual to ever be content with a uniform state provision. But there is a lot of comfort in that escape route, the government must should do that, sort it out so I do not have to bother about it. It is lazy, self-indulgent thinking that has become deeply rooted in our national thought. Time to turn tables.Out of the chaos will emerge a sleek, energetic and quickly responsive UKplc up for taking on of what ever challenges lie around the corner. Confident in its abilities and able to deliver decisively. Well that is my dream.
We are in the centre of fudge land. We have expectations of what our country should do and provide for us. UKplc just cannot afford to meet those expectations. The politicians cannot, if they are to survive, tell us to our face that we cannot no longer get what we expect as of a right. UKplc cannot borrow more as it has already exceeded its spending limits. So fudge, enter the world of magic mirrors, where you can spend on huge luxuries, but not actually spend, well not today but only later on down the line. A huge HP loan with deferred easy payments. Everyone happy right? Of course not. As the deferred payments kick in, as they must some time, surprise, surprise, what you have left to spend has been sharply cut back and you owe more to the remorseless repayment schedules and have nothing left to buy for today. It was and is a lunacy.
Yet we clearly do need massive investment in the NHS, and schools and roads and transport. We do actually need to upgrade the apparatus of government and bring it kicking into the ways of the C21 world. We are not in the realm of finding 5%, 10% or even 25% efficiency savings. We really do have to take stock of what we, UKplc, are and what is the level of governance that is supportable. We were once a global power with a huge global empire, a key player. US of A has made it its business to take us out of that role. Today we are a crowded off shore island associated with a big powerful European Union of large nations struggling to come together and work in some sort of harmony. We are a marginal small bit player. Getting marginalised because we fail to play our trumps wisely and opportunely. At this level of play we simply cannot afford grandiose ideas of having an aircraft carrier, with all the attendant fleet, nuclear submarines, an airforce with world strike capability nor an army able to fight in all theatres of the world. What is affordable within our current so much smaller role in the world is a national defence force able to defend its frontiers, if you must, working in close collaboration with our neighbours. That is the stark reality.
I do not have a down on the defence services per say, more on that another time maybe. It is just that they encapsulate so well this bloated transition from global power to small bit player. We cannot give up the baggage of our past and come to terms with today's realities. We just do not have the income to sustain a world power role. But look around and there is evidence of this same bloat everywhere. Ministries and support institutions that were fit and proper for an empire but are grossly oversized and over ambitious for our now current status. We need a new slimmed down model of government that is fit, sleek and apt for the situation we now occupy. Many cherished objects and institutes of national pride may have to be sacrificed as we navel gaze our way from that empirical past down to our new needs. Political Parties have talk the talk for years, exorcising this tip here or this unloved limb there, tinkering, not radical. We need radical now, what is the minimum basics we must have to survive in today's world? That is the starting premise.
Along the way we will have to confront the issue of our expectations that 'they' can and will do everything about all those things that perturb us in our daily life. This is a socialist fantasy, actually a nightmare dream, of the State being the all provider. We are too unique, too diverse and too individual to ever be content with a uniform state provision. But there is a lot of comfort in that escape route, the government must should do that, sort it out so I do not have to bother about it. It is lazy, self-indulgent thinking that has become deeply rooted in our national thought. Time to turn tables.Out of the chaos will emerge a sleek, energetic and quickly responsive UKplc up for taking on of what ever challenges lie around the corner. Confident in its abilities and able to deliver decisively. Well that is my dream.
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