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November 27, 2003
Legislative excess
Somewhere back in the 18th Century one of the founding statesmen of the modern democratic system declared that governments should do as little as possible while ensuring the smooth flow of commerce and the continued well being of the nation and its people. A good sound principle one would think, and echoed in the Gilbert and Sullivan chorus from Iolanthe - In good Queen Bess' glorious days, the House of Peers did very little - and did it rather well!
So it's a pity that our Illustrious Leader, Tone the Cronymaker, doesn't believe in the same principle. Mind you, he does have almost 700 Members of Parliament, and about another 500 Members of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh National Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly and all their hangers on to keep busy. Part of the problem is that they can only demonstrate that they are actually doing anything to earn their obscene salaries, by "passing another little law".
The first item on this years agenda is to emasculate the Lord's. Now, whether you approve of unelected peers sitting in the upper house or not, is immaterial. What will replace them is nothing short of an obscenity. You got it; more of Tony's cronies. Poodles and "yes" men galore to replace the men of courage and experience (which Tone still hasn't got!) who dared to tell him when he was getting it wrong. Interesting, isn't it, that Tone and his pals in the power house, all draw very generous salaries and enjoy wonderful pensions (at the tax payers expense!) while the peers do it for "expenses only". The Lord's costs a quarter of the money to run compared to the Commons. I wonder why? Even the Monarchy, constantly under attack "for costing too much", costs less than Tone's entourage and about a third of what it would cost to have a President with all the elections and machinery required for that.
Another 23 (YES, TWENTY THREE!) bills will be rammed through by this shower of morons, even though his own backbench are up in arms about student fees for those attending university. There will be more tangled legislation on immigration, health and safety (it is basically now impossible to bend down and pick something up without breaking the H & S laws around here!), hunting with hounds, health services and anything else we can get our snouts into and make a complete pigs ear out of.
Some time ago I was surprised to discover that almost 80% of all current statute law in this country has been created in the last 40 years. Of that slightly more than 60% has been put on the statute books in the last 10! It looks as if Tone is going for a world record and wants to replace the entire statute book before we can throw him out in another election.
As for that Troll that masquerades as a Chancellor of the Exchequer, he harbours ambitions of being the next PM, but is a totally unreconstructed Socialist of the "tax them 'til the pips squeek" school of economics. He still believes that it is perfectly fair to strip the hard earned income of those who are prepared to work hard, to fund the excesses of his electorate, the feckless and idle.
This is where I have always had a problem with the entire Labour Party agenda. Their brand of Socialism is built entirely on teaching people to look at everyone else's achievements and property, as "ill gotten capitalist robbery of the workers". In other words, envy and jealousy. Instead of creating a society of entrepreneurs, we have created (or allowed the cretins who make a living passing laws and never worked a day in their lives) a society which thinks that they have some "right" to whatever anyone else has worked damned hard to build for themselves.
I firmly believe that society as a whole has an obligation to look after those who cannot, for reasons of disability, age or infirmity, look after themselves. This should not be to put them into institutions, but to give them the help they need were they need it. But, it should never be a carte blanche to every idle and unemployable sponger. This way lies the creation of a state dependency - a belief that I am "entitled" to handouts for not working, not trying to support myself or rendering myself unfit for employment. Half our demonstrations are made up of "rent a mob" clowns living on benefits and sponging on the taxpayer. And the sort of blanket "cradle to grave" state welfare that the Labour Party and others have set up here simply encourages this.
This legislative mania is what has created a system where justice cannot be done because there are too many loopholes, the police have to operate with both hands tied behind their backs, ordinary law abiding people are criminalised for defending themselves or their property from the louts Tone and his cronies encourage and fund, and employers are left unable to fund pensions properly, unable to expand their business successfully because of Whitehall red tape and interference and more and more voters are simply switching off from the entire process.
Tone should not forget that his mandate is hardly an overwhelming one. Only 40% of the total electorate voted at the last election. Only 28% of those who voted, voted for his party. The programme of legislation they are now proposing will be hugely expensive, not only in increased taxes (there aren't many more things he can tax by stealth - he's already stripping £5 billion a year out of pension fund incomes!) but in terms of REAL jobs, that is the ones that actually produce the goods, not the ones that shuffle papers and go round telling you that you have it wrong (but can't tell you how to make it right) or the ever growing army of consultants and advisers on "issues" addressed by the legislation.
There will be a reckoning, and it will be very interesting to see if the society that emerges from that reckoning will be what these cretins thought they were creating. I rather suspect that it will not.
Posted by The Gray Monk at November 27, 2003 10:48 AM
Comments
I feel your pain with the whole socialist thing going on in europe. Being a American living in Scotland the whole dole thing baffled me. I can understand basic medical coverage and housing for a single mother. But I have stepson who has been on the dole since his 18th birthday,he's 26 now. One time he asked if he could come and live with us in the USA. I said sure but you have 3 months to get a job and start paying rent. Needless to say he is still living in Scotland and off the dole. The social programs in scotland are breeding a whole generation of freeloaders who are going to be in for a shock when the system fails.
Posted by: Matthew at November 29, 2003 06:17 AM
As Sweden discovered, a system of state handouts in perpetuity creates a dependent underclass. There will be real problems when the systems crashes here too. Like Pandora's box, now that they have opened it, you cannot put this one back and close it off. Scotland and Wales both have a huge problem as they do not raise enough in taxation to cover their expenditure - both are heavily subsidised by England and now the EU, but this cannot go on for ever.
Posted by: The Gray Monk at November 30, 2003 12:01 AM