Government Cuts
So, as established, I’m not exactly politics woman; I’m not an economist (despite the three years of LSE… history, people, history rocks!) and I’m not a member of a political party. My ideology, if we can call what I have such a thing, is probably leftish liberal. But again, to say that I have an ideology implies that I’m going to stand up and fight for it with the spirit of Stalingrad, and no absolute political belief merits that. A few moral beliefs, sure – don’t hurt people, don’t screw around with guns etc.. – yes, I’ll fight for those – but politics? Far too complicated to say.
Which brings me to the government spending cuts.
Okay, so I’m a leftish liberal, which implies I’m anti-Tory. And yes, I have never in all my life voted Tory, and felt a shudder of horror when this government came to power.
But why?
It wasn’t just the politics, I realise. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I find Tory politics rather frightening… being, as I am, a pro-European, immigration friendly, multicultural happy kinda girl. (I refer you to my previously expressed views that nationalism has caused nothing but shit for the last 5000 years, and while I’m cheerfully open to discussion of all views expressed on this blog, please be aware that on this subject, I may footnote.) No, not just Tory politics… its the make-up of the party as a whole. Which is, I know, reprehensible, but I just genuinely worry when people with lots of money run things. Its a reprehensible view because, let’s face it, if someone offered me a million quid, would I say no? Try me if you dare…
What frightens me about too much wealth, is when it is not appreciated for what it is. When a house in Kensington is accepted as a norm, or it is understood that you need not take the District Line to work, when you don’t have to go to the bank once a month to check up on your overdraft, when you are, in short, liberated of all the burdens that weigh the vast majority of the society you are supposed to govern. I mean, all of these things are amazing, and again, none of us would probably turn them down if offered. But to either be unaware of how amazing they are or, and this is the absolute worst of all, to believe that they are somehow deserved, frightens me. Doctors deserve reward; charity workers and scientists, firefighters and coppers, the people who deal with all the crappiest things in society, they deserve reward, and even then, no one surely deserves reward that is so out of kilter with the rest of society. The scale of all things changes – witness the expenses scandal. To you or I, a reward for a hard days work might be, say, a take-away curry instead of cooking. Or maybe a bit more cream on a hot chocolate – hell, I dunno, maybe that’s just me, but the point is, the scale of perception seems so different. Especially when compared with, say, an MP on what is already a damn decent salary, claiming tens of thousands of pounds of expenses on services dubiously rendered for implausible deeds.
Thus, when Tory Party spokesmen talk about the deserving poor as compared to the undeserving; about hard-working students who will benefit big society and about hard times and shared burdens I can’t help but feel a little part of my soul die. For who will share these burdens? Where is this big society, what is it? Have our rulers met it, do they have fish and chips with it, do they watch TV with it and count the pennies with it? What is this great ideal of ‘Britishness’, this hearty image of a nation where we are all, basically, honouring the same things and believing in the same ideals as if somehow sameness makes equality. For me, Britishness is a horrifying notion – it implies over-boiled vegetables, mushy peas, Eastenders and getting pissed on a Friday night until you puke – is this what the government is talking about??
And after all this, I grant you, prejudiced conjecture, there’s the actual deeds of the Lib-Con Coalition. Let me take this sentence to add that I put in ‘Lib’ as an after-thought, since that’s what they have become.
Take the student loans. My generation struggled at university when paying £1000 a year; most of my contemporaries will not be out of debt for another 5-10 years. And now the government is going to put whole generations into debt for… how long? What madness is this? We don’t make anything in Britain, we sell services and ideas, and the bedrock of both these is education, and it’s being destroyed for what? A thing that seems a lie, plain and simple; do not say that the poor will benefit, for in this day and age poverty is a far deeper and wider thing than the government’s obscene cuts are budgeting for.
Then there’s the NHS. I hate the idea of privatised medicine, I really, really hate it. It seems the ultimate extension of the idea of deserving – that he or she who has a greater wealth than him or her may deserve better, finer medicine faster, though there are limited resources to share between all. I mean, okay; elective surgery, fine. Diet plans, okay. But life and death is far, far too important to ship out to the lowest bidder, and this seems to be exactly what the government proposes, in between asking the doctors to add to their medical duties, a few administrative ones on the side in the name of forced redundancies.
Arts cuts – of course you know my views – and of course I’m angry and upset that one of the few bodies which not only receives a tiny, barely-worthwhile portion of the budget and turns of a profit on that, whose theatres and films have helped keep Britain a tourist destination and a place worth talking about – is being gutted.
‘Multiculturalism has failed’? Seriously? What is proposed instead? Segregation and isolationism, or the imposition of British culture on others? Because, quick query, what is British culture without American TV, chicken korma, pad thai, sweet and sour sauce, pizza, hummous and books about travel, adventure and far-flung climes? Is culture not evolving, is evolution not good, has any society ever functioned with perfection, is perfection anything more than an imposition of one man’s ideal on everyone else’s liberty? And is not the problem within our society one of unofficial segretation, of he is a Muslim so lives there and she is a Christian so talks to him? Discuss.
Finally, and in fact, the final straw that prompted this blogging post, a few days ago I heard on the radio that we were selling the forests.
I thought this was a joke, at first.
We’re selling the forests.
It takes a little comprehension.
What will we sell after the forests? What is there left? When the people no longer own the trees, surely there is little left of note to own? Is this not a part of the country itself, the physical, actual land? Can we sell the waters, the roads? We’ve already sold the railways, the electricity, the gas. We’ve sold the debt, and the debt on the debt, and the next ten years of interest on the debt, and the right to bring food to the soldiers, and the factories, and the ships. What is there left to sell?
We are becoming a corporation, not a country. And sure, I’m not a fan of nationalism…
… but I’m really, really not a fan of corporatism. Who will own me, when all this is done?
