NO DIFFERENCE!

MAX HASTINGS has written that David Cameron’s speech at the Tory Party Conference could have been made by Tony Blair. Having only dipped into parts of the prime minister’s speech, it was enough to convince me that Max Hastings was of course right.

            I say “of course”, because all the main political parties have been singing from the same hymn sheet ever since Tony Blair gave birth to New Labour - a delivery that was supervised in retirement by the Iron Lady herself (to whom a grateful Blair himself often paid tribute).

            Both the Left and the Right within all of the main parties have been driven to the fringes, while what passes for ideology has become a spin-doctor’s prescription, and an image-maker’s creation. Shallowness has undermined intellectual endeavour, while presentation has tried to distract us from such superficiality. The sound-bite has diminished the speechwriter’s art by seeking only to procure the headline.

            It is only the favourable headline that the coterie of advisers surrounding our leaders are seeking. Their skill comes in finding ways by which the party they work for can put “blue water” between themselves and their opponents; and it is becoming ever more difficult to do so. So such people do indeed earn their corn, despite their parasitic reputation among journalists and cynics.

            Fighting over the occupancy of the centre ground leaves one with only the sound-bite for ammunition, and so it is the only weapon that can be brought to bear by such equally matched contestants. The great ideological divisions are no longer there…everyone now dances the same dance, but with subtle differences of movement magnified into great ideological partitions.

            Let us take, for instance, the current debt crises. When the Coalition was created, it was determined that serious cuts in public expenditure needed to be made in order to convince the markets and the IMF that we were serious about, ultimately relinquishing our debt. It was decided that 20 per cent cuts across the public sector were needed to help bring this about…which means that, even today we have managed to hang on to our triple A debt rating.

            The newly defeated Labour Party, which had played a significant part in procuring us our debt while in power, set about challenging the newly formed Coalition. They did so, not by making demands that ran counter to the proposed cuts, but only challenging the pace of such cuts. It was not about the need for such cuts, but merely about the speed at which such sacrifices should be made..

            It was almost like the Lilliputians and the people of Blefusco fighting a war over which end of a boiled egg should be cracked open. This is what modern politics has come to mean. Any real differences are to be found on the fringes of politics, for this is where Conservatism has been driven by Cameron. New Conservatism may be new but it is not Conservatism as many of the empty seats in Manchester testified during the prime minister’s speech.

AT A TIME WHEN the West is in economic turmoil, we are bereft of leaders worthy of the title and the challenge. The political elite of Europe are ever more obsessed with saving the single currency; and, it seems are even prepared to bring their Federal European Super State down around them in order to try and save it… despite what this would mean to the people of Europe.

            Like all of the modern generation of politicians, those within Europe are as vacuous as those across the pond. The West is, sadly, impoverished by the quality of its political leaders. In this country they have, since the Blairite age, spent their time dancing on the head of a pin to find sufficient differences between them in order to grab power.

            The whole of main-stream British politics and their journalistic camp followers, are trapped within the Londonistan bubble. It is incredible to think that from such a warped perspective that we are to be governed and expected to trust the word of those who govern us.

            We are today ill-served by our politicians. They cater only for their ambitions instead of that of their country; they see themselves as being contestants in a race for personal significance on the world stage. David Cameron, as with Tony Blair, seeks personal enhancement; and if, in some way he manages to eliminate our country’s deficit, then no one will begrudge him his importance and whatever financial remuneration he accrues for himself as a consequence.

            But our politicians are a frail example of that which history has set before them in the past. Our current intake are, to say the least, a mediocre bunch. In terms of the Labour Party: being a women or from an ethnic minority was the only requirement of preferment to being accepted as a candidate… while the same now applies to Cameron’s “Conservatives”.

            When colour and ethnicity transcends ability, as, it seems, it now does, then is it little wonder that our politics and our politicians are becoming perceived by the public as being of such a lowly caste in what remains of our culture.