[Colchester] The greatest prime minister of all time

[Wayland Sothcott]

Tom Robbins wrote:
> The Internet isn't a power but rather a resource, and unusually for a 
> resource is not subject to scarcity. Artificially imposing scarcity on 
> it is just a bloody silly idea, which I hope is doomed for failure.
>
> I can be so idealistic some times.
>
> The New Deal isn't really a good example of Labours activities, since 
> it was put into place by John Major's government. I'll agree that they 
> have done a lot for vulnerable people, but that has included widening 
> the definition of vulnerable to damn near everyone. It doesn't make 
> them liberal, it makes them (vaguely) benevolent. To paraphrase: a 
> benevolent authoritarian is still authoritarian.
>
> Council housing and unemployment benefits might be nice, but we've 
> also had war, paranoia, the undoing of centuries of citizens rights, 
> being party to torture and murder, and the surveillance society. Yon 
> Tony has been one of the great prime ministers in a similar, although 
> slightly less extreme way, to how Hitler was one of the great German 
> chancellors: he's achieved some quite spectacular things, some of them 
> even benefited the world at large, but a lot of it wasn't nice and has 
> been carefully ignored.
>
> Toby Whaymand wrote:
>> I your points are very vialed. With regards to the data protection Act I'm not saying it right or wrong but just that how it is.  
>>
>> Sadly with great power, (being the internet) comes great responsibility (can't remember which movie or TV show I got that from, prob Star Trek) and there needs to be some kind of control even if it means having new laws that make exceptions to the Data Protection Act.
>>
>> With regards to Labour without a huge debate they have done a lot for vulnerable people. 
>>
>> The Council have a legal duty to house anyone who lived in the area for 2 years or have a connection like family members in the area, who have live in the area for over 5 years.
>>
>> With regards to the unemployment New Deal started within days of Labour coming into power back in 1997 and millions of under 25 years old got into employment and higher education.  The type of vulnerable people who otherwise would have been pushed aside.  - To me that very liberal.
>>
>> I know Labour have made mistakes and I don't want to go into a debate but it is important to remember all the good stuff Mr Blur has done for us.  I would even say he was one of the Great Prime Ministers of are time.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Toby
>>   
>>
>> -----------------------------------------
>>     
Tom,

I am glad you said all that, for a moment I felt I was living inside an 
alternate universe run by the BBC (since David Kelly's death). At least 
in terms of government I no longer believe the saying "Never attribute 
to malice what can be explained by incompetence". To that I say "Ooops, 
so sorry you tripped over my foot, how careless of me to stretch my leg 
just as you were hurrying past".

Toby,

How about tax credits, good thing or bad thing? With the tax system it's 
possible and actually required for a person to calculate their own tax, 
even if that's an unpleasant job. With tax credits you let a government 
agency tell you what you're entitled to, they then pay you a regular 
lump of much needed money. If you were not poor then you would not need 
tax credits. Then a year later they tell you that you were overpaid and 
you have a week to pay back the overpayment. Government incompetence in 
such a delicate area looks malicious. It's inexcusable and it's not a 
one off.

It's time we stopped assuming their heart's in the right place and that 
government action that leads to harm was a mistake. There are too many 
such 'unfortunate' mistakes for this not to be deliberate. The fuel 
tanker drivers are on strike, they are only trying to get a pay award 
but I suspect those with holding the pay award are hoping to gain from 
the strike itself. Maybe the government can exercise or extend it's 
emergency powers? Maybe the price of petrol is driven further upwards? 
Remember a very similar thing happened with the refinery last month. I 
know that people with 'important' local authority jobs are getting 
special documentation to allow them to get petrol when others cannot. 
You can't argue with that but is this a training exercise for when this 
becomes the norm?

I do agree that Tony is one of the Greatest in my lifetime, Maggie was 
probably more important.

Wayland.