Conservative Reaganomics

[mtbc]

I can't help but think that the modern Conservative party still feels very Thatcherite. Now I hear of Sajit Javid and others wanting to tax-cut our way toward growth and, combined with what the administration's done with personal independence payments, universal credit, etc., I can't help but imagine even pre-purge Republicans smiling. Apparently we haven't learned anything from the US' track record since, up to and including the tax cut that came early in the Trump administration.

Decades ago, I like to believe that policymakers were looking at evidence and honestly trying to do their best. Perhaps that's how we achieved triumphs like Milton Keynes. Now? Maybe I'll yet hear something more persuasively coherent than soundbites from the Opposition but I've been disappointed in Labour leadership and I don't know that I ever noticed Sal Brinton. Sure, I'll vote, but I'd love to do so with any enthusiasm.

As somebody in Colorado asked recently, Britain has 60 million people. Surely there should be hundreds of people capable of doing a better job than Johnson, but none are presenting themselves. Yeah, I should be part of the change I want to see but I'm rather overwhelmed with other things right now, hardly settled domestically.

Comments

[aldabra]

I think the political outlook is grim enough that the competent people look at it and decide to do something else with their life.

[thewayne]

Yep. "Tax-cut our way into YOU giving ME more of YOUR money!"

Bunch of rat bastards who will probably be re-appointed to office.

[wpadmirer]

The problem in countries like the USA and the UK is not that there aren't competent people, it's that no one votes for someone who is.

[mellowtigger]

But... you have to vote for [party X candidate], whom you dislike but party machinery declares is their nominee nevertheless, otherwise [party Y candidate] will win! You don't want to be responsible for [party Y candidate] winning, do you? And so nobody votes for what they really truly want. Except me, but I'm cantankerous in politics.