Conservatism in a nutshell

This article is repeated in full with the kind permission of the author, Kitty S. Jones (Twitter ID: @suejone02063672).

It’s not enough to defeat Tory ideology. We also have to defeat the “drum beat”. We have to defeat the propaganda machine that brainwashes people with their slogans and catchphrases. You’ve heard those slogans -“less government”, “personal responsibility”, “hard-working families”, “making work pay” and lots of flag waving. These are shorthand for an entire world-view. But ever such a shabby, ruthless and paltry one.

A clue is in the name: The word “Tory” derives from the Middle Irish word tóraidhe, which means outlaw, robber or brigand, from the Irish word tóir, meaning “pursuit”, since outlaws were “pursued men”. It was originally used to refer to an Irish outlaw and later applied to Confederates or Royalists in arms. The term was thus originally a term of abuse. The Tories live by plunder. They steal your taxes, your public services, your state provision and your labour, in order to raise more money for the rich.

It’s a world of corporate feudalism, and I heard some smart person from the States once sum up the Tories neatly with the phrase “cheap-labour conservatism”. How very apt. It fits so well. Basically, the larger the labour supply, the cheaper it is. The more desperately you need a job, the less you tend to demand for your wages, and the more power those big business Tory buddies have over you. This is what the Tories actually mean by “making work pay” – it’s either rationed out peanuts or starvation.

The Tories engineer this socio-economic situation every time they are in office. Think back to Thatcher, she did it, Major did it – it’s a manufactured recession and a large reserve army of cheap labour every time. Always the same with the Tories. Because it suits their “business friendly” agenda.

Conservatives don’t like social spending or welfare – our safety net. That’s because when you’re unemployed and desperate, companies can pay you whatever they feel like – which is inevitably next to nothing. You see, the Tories want you in a position to work for next to nothing or starve, so their business buddies can focus on feeding their profits, which is their only priority. Cheap-labour conservatives don’t like the minimum wage or other improvements in wages and working conditions. These policies undo all of their efforts to keep you desperate. They don’t like European Union labour laws and directives either, for the same reason.

Cheap-labour conservatives don’t like unions. Because when we unite and organise, wages go up. Working conditions improve. That’s why workers unionise. Seems workers don’t like being desperate. But businesses don’t like to pay out money. They like to hoard it.

Cheap-labour conservatives constantly bray about “morality”, “virtue”, “respect for authority”, “hard work” and other such vaguely defined values. This is only so that they can blame you for being desperate due to your own “immorality”, lack of “values” and “poor choices”.

Cheap-labour conservatives encourage racism, misogyny, homophobia and other forms of bigotry. That’s because bigotry among wage earners distracts them, and keeps them from recognising their common interests as wage earners. Divide and rule.

An ugly truth is that cheap-labour conservatives don’t like working people. They don’t like working class opportunities and prosperity, and the reason for this is very simple. Lords have a harder time kicking us around when we aren’t desperate.

Once we understand this about the cheap-labour conservatives, the real motivation for their policies makes perfect sense. Cheap-labour conservatives, the neo-feudalist fools, believe in social hierarchy and privilege, so the only prosperity they want to permit is limited to them. They want to see absolutely nothing that benefits us whatsoever. And even better if we fight amongst ourselves for scraps. Divide and rule.

The Tory mantra “making work pay” is an argument for raising wages, not cutting benefits, talk about the rationally illiterate…. But then cheap-labour conservatives hope that those affected will take comfort in the fact that if your wages are not enough to meet the cost of living, at least those without a job are much worse off.

The Tory “race to the bottom” is plain, and after four years of austerity, Osborne is forced to concede that the new welfare cuts leave £9bn of the deficit reductions promised by the Chancellor unaccounted for. The cuts are purely ideological. Tories: dangerous with the economy, dangerous for society.

“Less government” is another defining right-wing slogan. It’s also all about cheap labour. Included within the slogan is the whole conservative set of assumptions about the nature of the “free market” and government’s role in that market. “Less government” permitted the Conservatives’ cunning transformation of a crisis caused by banks into a crisis of public spending. It was a huge triumph of Tory dogma over the facts. And of course, our public services are being sold off to private companies.

And anyone would think, to hear the Tories talk, that the “free market” isn’t rigged to benefit the wealthy. The bedroom tax, welfare cuts, public service cuts, cutting inheritance tax and handing tax breaks to the wealthy are, after all, examples of state interventions, and not “market forces”, which the Tories always use as a front to suck the life out of communities, and to keep people desperate.

The whole “public sector/private sector” distinction is an invention of the cheap-labour conservatives. They say that the “private sector” exists outside and independently of the “public sector”. The public sector, according to cheap-labour ideology, can only “interfere” with the “private sector”, and that such “interference” is “inefficient”, “costly” and “unprincipled”.

Using this ideology, the cheap-labour ideologue paints him/her self as a defender of “freedom” against “big government tyranny”. In fact, the whole idea that the “private sector” is independent of the public sector is totally bogus, because “the market” is created by public laws, public institutions and public infrastructure. But the cheap-labour conservatives aren’t really interested in “freedom”. What they want is the privatised tyranny of industrial serfdom, the main characteristic of which is – you guessed it – cheap labour.

http://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/conservatism-in-a-nutshell/

This article is repeated in full with the kind permission of the author, Bernie Evans (Twitter ID: @paperblogwriter).

The Tories cannot be trusted with the economy

Isn't the Prime Minister's warning of "red lights" in the economy simply a case of buck-passing? Blaming Ebola and events in Ukraine and the Middle East is a sure sign of Tory panic, with the election looming. With the chancellor claiming to have halved the recent EU surcharge of £1.7bn when everyone knows he simply factored in Britain's rebate, the question has to be again asked: why do people trust the Tories more on the economy than Labour?

Opinion polls reveal this to be the case, but that must tell us more about the inadequacy of the Labour propaganda machine than about Tory economic success. What has the Tory-dominated coalition done in the last five years to suggest that a Tory government would manage the UK's economy in a way that would be remotely effective or competent?

Of course, the Tories' well-oiled propaganda devices did an excellent job in 2010, when they blamed the Labour government for the economic crisis, and stressed the subsequent need for deficit reduction and the imposition of austerity, and it seems the opinion polls reflect its effectiveness. However, some simple facts suggest that the Tories` propaganda works more smoothly than their economic policies.

Remember how the deficit had to be removed immediately? Living beyond one's means was wrong, and failure to act would mean lumbering the next generation with massive debt. The country fell for it. There were no other arguments or alternatives; Labour was in limbo without a leader, and supporters of a Keynesian solution, blaming bankers and the recession, and proposing government spending to speed up the economic recovery, had little chance. Facts and evidence have rarely played significant roles in Tory narratives, with Lib Dems complicit in everything, as long as they could claim a share in government, but the fact is that the Tories were spinning the nation a yarn.

Reducing the deficit was neither as essential nor as urgent as they claimed, especially as quantitative easing would soon re-capitalise the banks to the tune of £375bn and kickstart the economy. It did give them, though, the excuse they wanted to make savage cuts in government spending, which meant at least 350,000 job losses in the public sector, and huge reductions in benefits to the less fortunate; their real aim was a low wage economy for the people and a low tax regime for corporations and the rich. They wanted to shrink the state back to levels last seen in the previous century, and their stated aim now is to shrink it further, back to levels last experienced in 1948. With their "economic wisdom", the economy flatlined and still the deficit did not disappear! Back in 2010, Osborne predicted the effect of all the cuts would be to reduce the deficit to £40bn by the end of this year, but it is likely to be near £100bn. So much for Tory expertise!
       
What about their point of it not being fair to lumber future generations with debt? Strange how this didn't figure at all in their thinking when they tripled the fees university students would have to pay! The argument was, of course, that with their university qualifications, they would earn large salaries, and easily pay off their debts. But in their low wage economy, with its reduced social mobility, many graduates would fail to earn enough even to start paying off debts. The so-called Tory economic experts did not expect that either!

Notwithstanding, Labour gets the blame because of all the borrowing its Blair and Brown governments had done. But when the figures are examined, which party deserves the criticism? In the last five years, the coalition has borrowed £157.5bn, with billions more on the cards, compared to the £142.7bn borrowed by Labour in its thirteen years in government; a much vaunted long-term economic plan which fails to balance the books and leads to exponential borrowing needs to be seen for what it is, a complete failure!

Reducing the tax paid by the rich when they're meant to be lowering the deficit? Exactly! Sacking workers at HMRC when they're meant to be ending tax avoidance and closing the tax gap of £40bn plus? Having representatives from the "Big Four" accounting firms on Treasury tax committees so they can sell their avoidance scams to companies like Greene King? Selling off prized assets like Royal Mail and sections of the NHS at reduced prices, ignoring state-owned successes like the East Coast line, giving £85bn in grants and subsidies to  private corporations? The list goes on. So much for Tory economic sagacity!
   
And still more needs consideration! Is the economy really safe in the hands of Cameron and Osborne?Wonder what Cameron's Oxford tutor thought when his ex-student suggested everyone should pay off their credit card bills to boost the economy? Did history graduate Osborne expect the economy to get the kick start it needed back in January 2011 when he increased VAT to 20%, thereby reducing expenditure and cutting the demand for goods? Not knowing what 8 times 7 is, he can hardly be expected to understand that if you drive record numbers of workers into low pay employment, income tax receipts will decrease.

And still we are told, because of Osborne's shrewd handling, the economy has recovered. Really? National income is higher now than it was in the first quarter of 2008, but the population has grown by 3.5m, so in actual fact, income per capita is down 3.4%, and real wages for most are down 10%. CEOs of the FTSE 100 companies earn 143 times that of their average employees! Oh, but unemployment is down to 6%, they will say. But, we all should say, take zero hours contracts, record 15% self-employment, many out of necessity or desperation, plus all the part-time work, and they do not add up to an economic recovery.

As Cambridge University economics lecturer Ha-Joon Chang recently wrote, the country is experiencing a "bogus recovery, largely based on government-fuelled asset bubbles in real estate and finance, with stagnant productivity and falling wages". And the electorate is supposed to put their trust in them to manage the economy? I don't think so! Now they are promising £7.5bn tax cuts, without actually knowing from where the money will come. The Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts spending cuts of another £50bn under a Tory government.
   
It is abundantly clear that one of Labour`s most important of the many tasks it has to perform in the coming months is to ensure the voters know the facts. The myth that the Tories are able economists, and that the UK's economy is safe in their hands, is one which needs serious de-bunking. Voting for an over-cautious and reticent Labour Party may not always appear an attractive option, but the alternatives are much, much worse.

http://paperblogwriter49.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-tories-cannot-be-trusted-with.html

Pretty good piece that, Ivan.

Cheap labour disgustingly introduced by the Tories, that is why my neighbour needs 3 jobs to earn a living, to pay council tax rent etc.

Good post Ivan and very true, but I have always believed you can not trust a Tory "FULL STOP" whether it is on the economy or anything else and the reason is "They are Born LIARS"

If they are not born liars Redflag, as soon as they join the Tories they are made into liars.

One very big lying bastard.

Two tories in no time at all showing what they really are! Cameron will have to spite even more poor foreigners to drive them out before they can pay our pensions!

Why have they got to drive the foreigners out Penderyn? that sounds like what UKIP would say.

Rich robbing the poor seems about right Ivan.

stuart torr wrote:One very big lying bastard.

Stuart every Tory is a "BLATANT LIAR" that is how they are drawn to join the Tory party, if the people of the UK think the Tories have been vile & nasty over the last five years if they allow them to get in to power in 2015 when it could be a coalition with Ukip the people of the UK have not seen NOTHING YET.   Because it will not be foodbanks but WORKHOUSES with the unemployed building them.

If they get in again Redflag start booking funerals.

I agree stu its a way the Tories think about of a way of getting rid of some of the Plebs, less money to pay out in different Welfare payments something they do not want to pay for, just like the way there trying to sell off our NHS because they can afford to pay for private health Insurance.

The poor will not be able to pay the private health insurance will they as I said earlier Redflag, so they will die or free hospitals, if and when they are around.

I out of curiousity phoned around a few years ago to find out how much it would cost for private health Insurance what a shock I got the cheapest was £90.00 per month but it did not include any health problems you already have.

It has actually gone down a little because of competition Redflag, but it is still expensive EVEN NOW.
More than any unemployed person could afford, so best just to dig a hole somewhere or find a nice tall building.

Their latest gimmick is to "encourage" pensioners to voluntarily refuse universal benefits such as Winter Fuel Allowance.

I'd encourage Cameron to spend more time with his family.

Living on unemployment allowance only when they get kicked out OW, that would wake the snobby bastard up a bit.

Stuart, Davy boy has enough money of his own so that he would not have to claim JSA, plus his wife is very wealthy she is a Heiress to a few Million. What we could do is stop his pension from the HOC and the money he will get when we boot him out of office in May NOW that would be funny

If you're answering the most recent message on a thread, there really is no need to copy/paste it.  

I wouldn't put it past Cameron to claim JSA if he should be out of work for a few days (before retiring to the House of Lords or a seat on the board of an investment bank). Let's not forget that he took the maximum mortgage allowance when he was leader of the opposition, and he even charged the taxpayer for wisteria to be removed from a chimney. He also claimed disability living allowance for his now deceased son - before coming to power and stopping people far less well off than himself from claiming it for their children.

What I said was he should live on that only? unable to touch his millions or his fat cat wifes lolly, how would he feel then?

Several years ago, a Tory MP, Michael Portillo, did actually spend a week living in the home of a poor family, as an experiment.

He didn't like it, and the experiment has not been repeated, but it would still be nice to see one of the bloated coalition members actually endure a few days on the dole.

Character-building.

It would would it not OW.

oftenwrong wrote:Several years ago, a Tory MP, Michael Portillo, did actually spend a week living in the home of a poor family, as an experiment.

He didn't like it, and the experiment has not been repeated, but it would still be nice to see one of the bloated coalition members actually endure a few days on the dole.

Character-building.

Eric Pickles & IDS would be suited to do that experiment OW

Auctioning off politicians isn't a joke. It's corruption

From an article by Adam Bienkov:-

"Maybe I'm naive. Maybe selling off politicians to the highest bidder is just something that happens now and we should all just laugh it up. Perhaps I should join in by rolling my eyes and chuckling about anonymous donors paying to eat chicken with Michael Gove, or buy shoes with Theresa May.

But I can't. You see to me the idea of government ministers being put on sale to the highest bidder isn't amusing. It's a disgrace. It's a disgrace that government ministers are listed in a brochure, then bought and sold on the open market. It's a disgrace that we are not even told the names of the donors who have bought them. It's a disgrace that this continues without the barest whiff of protest from the rest of us.

It is a feature of British politics that the smallest scandals get the most attention, while the biggest scandals go largely unnoticed. So a single tweet of a house sent by a Labour MP becomes a resignation issue, while widespread cash for access continues year after year, without anyone lifting a finger.

In many ways it's understandable that we've grown immune to this. After decades of cash for access scandals, we understand that British politics is up for sale and we have just grown to accept it."

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/02/11/auctioning-off-politicians-isn-t-a-joke-it-s-corruption

Here’s the brochure; just look at all the goodies you've missed:-
http://www.buzzfeed.com/sirajdatoo/conservatives-black-and-white-fundraiser-feb-2015

Adam Bienkov is of course at risk of the accusation that he has no sense of fun ---- he has a very good point, though - at the very least the selling off of members of the government lacks dignity, at the most uncharitable interpretation it does rather look like selling influence.

Now that Tory Government Ministers have been sold (auctioned) at an expensive/exclusive function the buyer/bidder should be named and the price paid so that the British voter can watch for their names appearing on the next few 'Honors' Lists..........

because that is more than likely what will happen

Ivan wrote:If you're answering the most recent message on a thread, there really is no need to copy/paste it.  

I wouldn't put it past Cameron to claim JSA if he should be out of work for a few days (before retiring to the House of Lords or a seat on the board of an investment bank). Let's not forget that he took the maximum mortgage allowance when he was leader of the opposition, and he even charged the taxpayer for wisteria to be removed from a chimney. He also claimed disability living allowance for his now deceased son - before coming to power and stopping people far less well off than himself from claiming it for their children.

It will be a waste of his time going into the Lords Ivan because Ed Miliband will be cleaning out that vipers nest, I think it will be a really good clean out and if they want back in (only some) will have to get the people of the UK to vote for them, I cannot see them traipsing round delivering leaflets through peoples letterbox can you

The Tories are putting Britain’s democracy up for auction

From an article by Owen Jones:-

Britain’s railways, the NHS, the education secretary’s dignity – is there anything the Tories won’t flog off for a bit of cash? A morning jog with Nicky Morgan followed by a “hearty breakfast” (a recalcitrant comprehensive school served with bacon and eggs, perhaps) may not appeal. There’s always a “mini-Iron Man-style” 10k cross-country run with Iain Duncan Smith, which is probably a pilot scheme for a new daily regimen for benefit claimants. Or there’s shoe shopping with Theresa May, although this cruel and unusual abuse may have to wait until she has finally scrapped the Human Rights Act.

Britain’s booming rich have a taste for many things: fine wines, yachts, country mansions – but this season’s must-have accessory is a political party. That awful embarrassment of the financial sector plunging the country into economic disaster could have led to all sorts of unseemly demands for tax hikes on the über-rich. A wise investment, then, to back a party that continually reminds us that the nation’s ills are down to benefit claimants, immigrants and public sector workers.

If you’re one of the richest 1,000 Britons who have enjoyed a doubling of wealth during one of the worst economic crises in modern history, it surely smacks of ingratitude not to fling a few pennies into the Tory coffers. Scared of the exposure? No need to worry: the nation’s media are far more agitated about Labour being funded by fat-cat supermarket workers, gold-plated dinner ladies and scrounging bin collectors.

For the whole article:-
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/10/tories-britain-democracy-auction-party-funds-donors

Nicely put, Owen - but still the assertion that Labour have no positive policies and are merely the least worst - what am I missing here?

My impression is that Labour have a raft of positive policies and will make strenuous efforts to reverse the current trend to increased inequality, which seems to be at the root of all our current difficulties

Great article by Owen Jones Ivan thank you for puting it on CE, Owen has put his finger on the truth of what the Tories are really doing. I just hope that the people of the UK do not believe the Tory LIES like they did before the 2010 general election because if they do the next five years will be worse than the last Davy boys plan is to make the low paid sick, disabled pay for the Bankers bailout & they will get off scot free.

Rising anger at the tax-dodging Tory elite should sweep Labour into power

From an article by Steve Doohan:-

"I wish I’d been able to report the detailed goings-on at the Tories’ £1,500-a-head Black And White Ball. But – with pornographers, hedge fund managers, property tycoons and serious tax avoiders worth tens of billions present – they didn’t want people there who are paid to ask questions.

Shame really, as I’d have loved to have rubbed shoulder pads with such 80s A-listers as Peter Stringfellow and that fella who used to be in ‘The Bill’. Or bid in the auction for supper at Michael Gove’s (where presumably he gets chauffeur-driven from couch to dining-room), for a £500 shopping trip for shoes with Theresa May (does it cost that much to skin a kitten these days?) or to dine on a family of poor people with Eric Pickles (I made that last one up; there’s not enough meat on the poor to satisfy that stomach).

With pheasant shoots going for £110,000 and holidays on secluded island estates going for £220,000, no wonder the uber-wealthy raised £3 million in the hope of keeping their puppets in power, thus ensuring no 50p tax rate, no mansion tax and blind eyes turned to their dodgy off-shore affairs.

Such a brazen show of hedonism, just as Cameron hands out lessons to the rest of us on the need for another five years of austerity. The timing grew more embarrassing when it emerged a string of Tory donors had hoarded millions in Swiss bank accounts, including a former party treasurer. And that when they made HSBC boss Lord Green trade minister, HMRC knew of tax avoidance at his bank. The stench grew more putrid when Cameron tried to squirm out of questions on Green."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rising-anger-tax-dodging-tory-elite-5159837

bobby. Yes, you’re right. And I never understood why John Major negotiated the payment of £12.5 million of national lottery funds to the Churchill family for Winston’s wartime papers, especially as the family had already received £393,000 for them in 1946.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7352232/Winston-Churchill.html

I’ve always assumed that what you make - or write - for your employer when you’re at work belongs to the employer. The Tories clearly take a different view, namely that the UK is a kleptocracy and they own everything, which means that if they want to sell state assets to their cronies on the cheap, they are perfectly entitled to do so.

Surely there must be a law somewhere that can be used to bring this Tory gov't to account for the selling off of what is "NOT THEIRS" Ivan.   As far as I am aware Thatcher started this by selling off our gas & electric to Tory donors then Major carried it on now Davy boy & Osborne are going to town with our NHS Royal Mail and I suppose anything else they think can make a profit for Tory donors.

Not forgetting the B(W)ankers that put the UK in the mess the rest of us are having to pay for and Davy boy will make sure we pay every penny if the UK are stupid enough to let them back into power in May, the UK will not know what has hit it because the next tranch of cuts from the Tories will be double of what they have been over the last 5 years.