The Gray Monk

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June 02, 2006

Nice work if you can get it ....

So now his own kind are out to get him. I refer, of course, to that buffoon we tax payers keep in two jags, Royal Flight and Train freebies, four houses and a fat salary to take charge in the absence of that other charlatan we call a Prime Minister. Step forward that great example of Socialist gravy train riding, John Prescott. It seems that even his "working class" origins, the pies and pints in t' working man's club and the back slapping, language mangling pronouncements are no longer enough to keep t' lads onside!

The spectacle of this party of ideologues whose sole ambition is to hold onto power and to entrench themselves in the trappings (and rewards) of power tearing into the old Doofus is somewhat less than edifying. Blair has tried to be the "President of the UK" modelling himself on that other great democrat Oliver Cromwell and completely ignoring the fact that we are; a) a democratic State with a Sovereign at its head - not the Prime Minister, and b) that the Cabinet ruling elite works in the US primarily because it is balanced by TWO houses of elected reps and not one stuffed with poodles and the other jumping to the Whips. Prescott enjoyed a range of perks at our expense, not least being Dorneywood House, a nice little country estate managed and run by a fairly large staff and largely funded by trusts set up for the purpose. In essence it is supposed to be a place where he and other Ministers of State can entertain visiting Ambassadors, Ministers and their minions and hold meetings. That is not the purpose to which Mr Prescott has put it, rather for him it has been a place for a "quickie" lunch. Mind you, anyone who has had to deal with him will quickly tell you that a meeting chaired by him is something to be avoided.

It would seem that this was a complete waste of a valuable resource, so, at the very least, Mr Blair should have deprived him of its use and assign it to some Minister who will make better use of it. Likewise the expensive and very des-res flat in Admiralty Arch. This buffoon was not capable of enjoying it, so his decision to let it go to someone who does appreciate its position and the value of the honour bestowed in having the use of it should be applauded!

We all sneer at poor old JP, but in reality none of Blair's ministers are much better. Certainly some can string together sentences that make sense, but few, if any, can actually argue a case for the policies they have imposed. Most take refuge in bluster, in accusations that the questioner must be mentally deficient, racist or some other -ist that the policy is supposed to prevent or cure and very few have the ability to make a success of their original careers. Mind you, as most of them are career politicians, I suppose one must assign credit for the fact that they have blackmailed, bludgeoned and bullied their way into power so successfully. And that they have managed to pull off what Abe Lincoln said could not be done - they have fooled the majority of people, for the greatest ever length of time, into believing that they do in fact care for their constituents and not for the lining of their pockets and the trappings of power.

And therein lies the rub. Politics has always been about the exercise of power, and anyone with half a brain can figure out the fact that this mob are simply the continuous line of descent from the previous generation of career politicians. It has become dynastic, and no matter how hard we try to change it, they remain in or close to power and the proletariat so beloved of Lenin, Stalin and the rest have no choice but to suffer with it. Coupled with a "professional" Civil Service (a clear oxymoron!) and you have those who are elected and who exercise power through ideology and their control of what passes for a democratic process - and the people who wield the real power and who are never subjected to election or penalty for failure - the Civil Service. I am no longer sure which is the worse offender in the assault on civil liberty, the politicians who seek to circumscribe everything they don't like either on "moral" or "safety" grounds - or the Civil Servants who actually draft the rules, regulations and red tape and then apply it rigorously and frequently, it seems, maliciously.

Both groups have things stitched up nicely - the politicians cannot lose since even if chucked out of power they have a wonderful range of featherbedded benefits which continue for life, and the civil servants also cannot lose as their perks after forty years of "Yes Minister-ing" are as generous as the politicians and they don't have to take the can when they screw up either.

As I said in the title - Nice work if you can get it - but don't hold your breath trying, if you aren't one of the network of "good old boys" you haven't a snowballs hope of survival in a furnace. Probably less.

Posted by The Gray Monk at June 2, 2006 02:37 PM

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Comments

Posted by: Slim Jim at June 2, 2006 11:02 AM