Having a Tory Government again....

[redunderthebed]

Just wait until the mass unemployment and riots kick in, it'll be just like the old days. Huzzah!

Worse than the old days. The Tories have spent years festering in a corner waiting for the day, learning nothing and becoming infintely more stupid in the process. Unlike before they have no ideology, no game plan just a intense liking for power & greed.

They do have an ideology:-

Use the cover of "austerity" measures to
a) Privatise EVERYTHING
b) Punish the poor.

Ok, it's not much of an ideology...

You poor bastards that sounds like liberal party our mob of conservative bastards.

Here's to rioting and hanging every MP of the liberal party and conservative party by the genitals.

[Rum]

As they polarise the country the Tories will ultimately be credited with the resurgence of Marxism in the UK, which I predict will emerge as a new and refreshed ideology in the next year or two.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by resurgence in this context. I can't ever imagine Marxism being a popular political choice for even a large minority of the population.

I certainly can.

I think the term 'hegemony' is applicable here..and now. The notion of hegemony is that the cultural and political dominance of one way of thinking or a political conceptual system so dominates a society or country(s) that it overwhelmes and sometimes invalidates other ways of thinking. This is certainly true of America to a great extent where anything but total support for 'free enterprise' is almost impossible to discuss in a serious fashion in most quarters. We saw, following the collapse of the UUSR that any positrive thinking about the notional of communal social structures was ridiculed too. The 'hegemony' of capitalism and the mental straitjacket that it has on the population is currently in control and even limits the agenda and the language we can use.

It will be a long time yet before Marxism as such will be seen as a positive way forward. Given the horrendous history of the social 'experiments' so far, let alone the hegemony issue that is also easy to understand.

However if people are not totally oppressed to the point where there is no way of even expressing the desire for fairness, that voice will not be silenced.

[Atheist-Lite]

As they polarise the country the Tories will ultimately be credited with the resurgence of Marxism in the UK, which I predict will emerge as a new and refreshed ideology in the next year or two.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by resurgence in this context. I can't ever imagine Marxism being a popular political choice for even a large minority of the population.

I certainly can.

I think the term 'hegemony' is applicable here..and now. The notion of hegemony is that the cultural and political dominance of one way of thinking or a political conceptual system so dominates a society or country(s) that it overwhelmes and sometimes invalidates other ways of thinking. This is certainly true of America to a great extent where anything but total support for 'free enterprise' is almost impossible to discuss in a serious fashion in most quarters. We saw, following the collapse of the UUSR that any positrive thinking about the notional of communal social structures was ridiculed too. The 'hegemony' of capitalism and the mental straitjacket that it has on the population is currently in control and even limits the agenda and the language we can use.

It will be a long time yet before Marxism as such will be seen as a positive way forward. Given the horrendous history of the social 'experiments' so far, let alone the hegemony issue that is also easy to understand.

However if people are not totally oppressed to the point where there is no way of even expressing the desire for fairness, that voice will not be silenced.

Things change fast when they do and the abrupt moment is seldom noticed by any before it arrives. I guess food inflation and then clearing of the shelves at the supermarkets might lead some to doubt the current paradigm. Whether the tree falls to the extreme left or extreme right is not certain but the tree is being gnawed away at by the powerful teeth of a system in crisis. I think it is called a slack ron event !!!

[Clinton Huxley]

Ben Goldacre was tweeting about the health debate in the House of Commons last night (was on the telly) and he was almost apoplectic about the childishness of the way MPs conduct themselves. No surprise, really, but we do seem to be cursed with a particularly venal, stupid and arrogant ruling class. If Blighty wasn't also blessed with the worlds most apathetic public, things would have come to a fairly definitive pass a long time ago.

[Pappa]

Ben Goldacre was tweeting about the health debate in the House of Commons last night (was on the telly) and he was almost apoplectic about the childishness of the way MPs conduct themselves. No surprise, really, but we do seem to be cursed with a particularly venal, stupid and arrogant ruling class. If Blighty wasn't also blessed with the worlds most apathetic public, things would have come to a fairly definitive pass a long time ago.

The sad thing is, it's not just the ruling class. I don't know if you've ever been to a County Council meeting, but they are a sight to behold. The combination of politico stupidity, individual and party ground-winning tactics that are reminicemt of the Blackader Goes Forth turf-winning scene, and blind factionism is really very angering. Our whole political system from the very bottom to the very top is populated almost exclusively with selfish idiots.

[Clinton Huxley]

So, does our political system attract selfish, corrupt, pompous, self-regarding twits or does it turn normal people into selfish, corrupt, pompous, self-regarding twits?

[Pappa]

So, does our political system attract selfish, corrupt, pompous, self-regarding twits or does it turn normal people into selfish, corrupt, pompous, self-regarding twits?

I think mostly the former but also the latter. Politico types are obvious attracted to politics, but the way town and county councils are run encourages otherwise good people to turn sour. In order to survive in that system they have to play the game, and I'm sure it's easy to get so embroiled in it you forget why you decided to be a councilor/MP in the first place.

Not all of them are like it, but it always seems to me that the good ones are in a minority and also usually relegated to position where they have no teeth too.

[Azathoth]

[Feck]

[Pappa]

haha.... nice. I wonder if the producer gave him stern words or a pat on the back.

[Atheist-Lite]

The guy who asked him if buys value or premium produce from the supermarket is hilarious as well.

[Warren Dew]

This is certainly true of America to a great extent where anything but total support for 'free enterprise' is almost impossible to discuss in a serious fashion in most quarters.

You are so far off base it's not funny. What dominates in the U.S. is quasisocialist political correctness. Areas where free enterprise is recognized for its contributions to human happiness are few and far between.

Your statement bears no connection to the reality here.

[Warren Dew]

Worse than the old days. The Tories have spent years festering in a corner waiting for the day, learning nothing and becoming infintely more stupid in the process. Unlike before they have no ideology, no game plan just a intense liking for power & greed.

That's my impression as well. Thatcher did a good job of raising England's economy out of the mud of decades of socialism through specific, well targeted economic policies. In contrast, Cameron seems merely to be redistributing the wealth in different ways than Brown did.

To put it another way, Thatcher and Blair both had visions of how the nation should operate - which in both cases worked better than the lack of vision of Major and Brown. Cameron's government seems to have skipped the first step and gone directly to the "lack of vision" stage.

[devogue]

Worse than the old days. The Tories have spent years festering in a corner waiting for the day, learning nothing and becoming infintely more stupid in the process. Unlike before they have no ideology, no game plan just a intense liking for power & greed.

That's my impression as well. Thatcher did a good job of raising England's economy out of the mud of decades of socialism through specific, well targeted economic policies. In contrast, Cameron seems merely to be redistributing the wealth in different ways than Brown did.

To put it another way, Thatcher and Blair both had visions of how the nation should operate - which in both cases worked better than the lack of vision of Major and Brown. Cameron's government seems to have skipped the first step and gone directly to the "lack of vision" stage.

This is what I get as well. I hear the arguments from those who think Thatcher was a hateful and spiteful bitch - perhaps she was, but at least she could lay out her thinking and show that the shift from a declining manufacturing and industrial economy to a service and information economy was a valid move, even if she was (necessarily?) brutal in the implementation of her policies.

This crowd just seem to be ridiculously, almost cartoonishly destructive and self-interested.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

...Thatcher did a good job of raising England's economy out of the mud of decades of socialism through specific, well targeted economic policies...

Are you kidding? By laying waste to manufacturing in favour of the service and financial sectors, she was responsible for setting in motion the very 'unbalance' in the economy that even the torywhigs now admit needs 're-balancing' (though they have offered sod-all ideas of how they're going to make that happen).