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Wednesday, 20 November 2024

It's what they do best



As we know and should have known decades ago, what political parties promise before an election usually bears no resemblance to what they do afterwards. Keir Starmer's government is a reminder of this Golden Rule of Politics. 

No tax increases for working people turns out to mean tax increases for working people, as we should have expected. Stopping illegal immigration means nothing much and Net Zero means we should expect zero volts of domestic electricity from our windmills every now and then. When it isn't windy apparently.

In a world run by amoral careerists, the main purpose of political parties turns out to be division. It's the only way they can keep voters guessing. Anyway, divide and rule has been a governing technique within democracies for a long time. Here in the UK we see it in our legislature with an adversarial party façade with party colours and logos in case voters forget to take sides over trivial policy differences.

Diversity is another divide and rule technique in addition to party politics. Some time ago, the main UK political parties merged politically to confuse a divided electorate more consistently. It has been a fairly obvious consequence of more extensive and congenial global involvement among political elites and senior bureaucrats.

National political issues and national voters have been left behind because no political party leader can be nationally effective from within globally framed narratives. Not that they wish to be nationally effective, that would be distinctly démodé within their social circles. So elites continue with the adversarial party façade, party colours and logos and they carry on lying. Not that they do it well, but it's what they do best.

5 comments:

Inspector Alleyne said...

I think this covers it: https://youtu.be/yED2b-GGRKg?si=dnQt38o0CAC-WBTc

DiscoveredJoys said...

It's the same old story. Careerists rise to the top of a party - by paying more attention to their career than the political principles they are supposed to follow. For a while democracy kept this in check with regular elections, but now there is almost as much kudos in being the Leader of the Opposition as being the Prime Minister. It's easier on the nerves too.

I've often thought that Starmer has the look of the dog that has finally caught the car - and doesn't know what to do with it.

Sam Vega said...

I'm hoping that the adversarial facade extends as far as Russia, given that Sir Keir has authorised Zelensky to use our kit on the homeland of a belligerent nuclear superpower. Maybe the deal was that we could get to see our missiles in action if we also collectivised our agriculture like the Soviets did. If so, we are heading for a choreographed famine.

DiscoveredJoys said...

It's not government, it's a performance.

A K Haart said...

Inspector - thanks for the link, yes it does cover it very well. Depressing but it covers it.

DJ - he certainly doesn't know what to do with it. Fly off to yet another gathering seems to be his approach at the moment. I wonder what his Christmas cards will look like - Lord Alli in a red hat going "ho ho ho"?

Sam - Starmer does seem to like the idea of collectivised everything.

DJ - yes it is a performance, nothing else.