Austerity and comrade Len McCluskey’s approach

THE LEFT, led by comrade Len McCluskey, have done what they enjoy doing most. They have given birth to a new acronym; this one, the TPAAA (The People’s Assembly Against Austerity), is claiming that ‘anti- austerity’ views are not being given a sufficient hearing. Unlike government quangos, left-wing protest groups are not tax-payer rich; so whoever is appointed as overseer to the TPAAA, does it either from conviction or (more likely) through a pathological class hatred of the Tories.

            

            Protest groups are part of Left-wing culture; while the right (with the exception of the extreme fringes) prefer to vote at elections and live with the consequences until they get their chance to vote again. Conservative voters rarely take to the streets; although the issue of fox hunting did make them break cover briefly.

            

            No, on the whole it is the Left that enjoys being glared at by Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square; that hallowed theatre of protest for the Left. Poor old Nelson has had to stand on his plinth having to listen to the likes of Arthur Scargill, Tony Benn, and George Galloway, all ranting at the top of their voices; while being cheered on by  a sea of Socialist Worker Party posters and hate filled young idealists thinking themselves and their ideas, the only workable future.

            

            As for the TPAAA; its leaders, know or care little about the £1.5 trillion national debt that our country has been allowed to accumulate - for the most part under a Labour government. They only feed on people’s fears and worries, offering support but little else in the way of a workable alternative. They just lay claim to people’s emotions using their fears for their own political purpose.

            

            I have little time for today’s politicians from any of the main parties. But at least this government is doing something to try and remove the economic blight off the shoulders of future generations. If we continue without radical reform, then those protesting against the austerity measures will have to explain to their children and grandchildren why their standard of living is lower than that which they themselves enjoyed for the better part of their lives.

           

            Parents are prepared to make all sorts of sacrifices for their children’s future. There has never been a point, even during the last war, or even in post-war history, when such a sacrifice is needed. Such sacrifice entails real austerity. Austerity which hurts and will be seen as being unfair by many people.

            

             I, for instance, object to the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ that comes, like many other cutbacks, into force today. First of all it is not a tax, even if it feels like one. But it horrifies me that people are expected to take in total strangers if they have a bedroom to spare (and no, I do not live in council or any other kind of social housing).

            

             This so-called reform has more to do with the lack of space wrought by opening the flood gates to immigration, than it does to reducing the national debt. For the national debt will not be reduced by any significant amount by any of the reforms that are implemented today –  Ian Duncan Smith has already said as much.

THE LEFT however, has to accept that real sacrifice of the nature experienced by those war time and post war generations under rationing is today once more needed. I am not suggesting such devices should be introduced today; I am only alluding to the propensity of the sacrifice that that generation, immediately following the war, had to put up with – this was true austerity.

            

            TPAAA is addressing a condition of austerity that bares little equivalence  to that described above. Yet they will ferment anger and protest. Comrade McCluskey has appeared Bill Gates like to announce (not the latest Microsoft edition)  but the latest acronym in the Left’s protest portfolio.

            

             My mind is dizzy counting the many synonyms the Left have issued over my 63 years as a onetime socialist and communist. They announce themselves as if their significance mattered to the population, who, in 90% of the causes they protest in favour of; 90% of the British people disagree with.

            

             The liberal Left as well as their socialist cousins, including within all the main parties as well as the BBC, represent a fringe group compared with the innate conservatism of the British people. Yet it is the sway these groups have only to matter.

            

             The TPAAA is a protest group to far ( I know little about its finances). They, as a union backed organisation  will be brought out to attack this Coalition. But strictly under comrade McCluskey’s  baton.

IT WILL BE his orchestration that will decide the TPAAA’s future targets. Austerity is the hand- break that brings over consumption back to reality. A reality that the TPAAA little understands because, rather than blaming such over consumption on the public as a whole, they prefer to blame the rich and powerful.

           

            Whether the likes of the TPAAA, or the politicians, seek to find an easier route than the very limited approach adopted by this government; then any such approach will not only increase the deficit, but will bring about a further reduction in our credit worthiness by the credit agencies; which will demand higher interest to be paid on any borrowing by a British government as a consequence: and if such borrowing magnifies without counter action on our  national debt - then financially, we will become like Greece.

            

             So TPAAA  should be cast aside. For they have only an impractical and naive grip (known as socialism) on economic reality and will betray the very people they seek to represent if their socialistic, virus like ideas, are to find any kind of home within the general population. If this latest Left-wing acronymic attempt at resurrecting state ownership achieves any kind of success, then, like North Korea and its Great Leader, Len McCluskey will, along with the British people, be left living on potage or even be in receipt of UN aid

             

            If we cannot come to terms with our trillion pound deficit, then we will indeed have to rely upon UN aid. A situation that even Greece has not yet experienced.

           

             My advice to the British people is to bite the bullet. They must suck it up, and must accept changes that go well beyond those that the Coalition have yet to come up with. Our national debt needs to be reduced, at least by 50% in order to settle the markets and remove the spectre of further downgrading of our credit status. If this does not happen then we will, as a nation, end our decline through insolvency.