Wednesday 31 December 2014

The Loose Cannon @ No. 10

"Duck, mi old pal!" Arturo said.

"Why what's wrong?" I asked nervously.

"Watch out for those cannon balls that are flying this way." Arturo, crouching low, pointed dramatically to a Guardian headline:
Downing Street files reveal how Oliver Letwin kept poll tax plans alive

The article by Alan Travis stated:
A young adviser to Margaret Thatcher who is now a minister for David Cameron explicitly suggested that Scotland be used as a testing ground for the introduction of the poll tax, the flagship policy that was eventually to topple her as prime minister.

Oliver Letwin, now a Cabinet Office minister, emerges in official papers publicly released on Tuesday as the man who single-handedly kept the idea of the poll tax alive in the mid 1980s despite attempts by two senior ministers to strangle it at birth.

Travis ended commenting:
The steamroller was to prove unstoppable all the way to the mass riots of 1990 after its introduction into England and Wales – and its role in triggering Thatcher’s downfall six months later.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/30/downing-street-files-oliver-letwin-poll-tax

The Telegraph, in an article by Gregory Walton, stated:
David Cameron’s policy chief Oliver Letwin lobbied Margaret Thatcher to force through the "poll tax" despite warnings from leading ministers that it would be politically "catastrophic", it has emerged.

Letwin, then a policy wonk at Number 10 and now Minister for Government Policy, persuaded the Prime Minister to defy both her Home Secretary and Chancellor and retain the tax officially known as the Community Charge.

The scheme, a forebear of council tax, proved disastrous with widespread rioting and Cabinet dissent over the scheme which was characterised by its detractors as a tax on voting.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/11316656/David-Camerons-policy-chief-lobbied-for-poll-tax-despite-warnings.html

So there you have it in a nutshell! Here was - Oliver 'Loose Cannon' Letwin - the 'policy wonk' of Thatcher, of Iron Lady fame, being shown to have pulled the plug on her career. What it is to have friends and advisers! But Thatcher wasn't the only one who had their career cannon-balled by Oliver ''Loose Cannon' Letwin. No siree - just take a gander at this from the New Statesman:
Oliver Letwin's biggest gaffes
In this article, George Eaton wrote:
... Letwin, then shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, was forced to go into hiding during the 2001 election campaign after briefing newspapers that the Conservatives planned to cut taxes by £20bn, far more than the £8bn promised by William Hague. He told the Financial Times that he was "190 per cent" confident that the Tories could offer additional cuts.

A furious Michael Portillo [then shadow chancellor] replied: "The figures are not right. I have made it perfectly clear that in the first budget I am only committed to £2.2bn worth of tax cuts and that is to produce the reduction in the tax on fuel ... At the end of my second year, I will have produced £8bn of tax cuts."

But the damage was done, with Labour producing "wanted" posters for Letwin.

Incredibly, Letwin, by now shadow chancellor, all but repeated the error three years later when he was secretely recorded telling the Institute of Economic Affairs that he would like to cut public spending by billions more than planned but that it would be electorally disastrous to do so.

Letwin said that his preference would be to cut spending to "shall we say 35 or 30 per cent of Gross Domestic Spending" - rather than the 40 per cent planned by the Tories. His comments were political gold for Gordon Brown, who replied: "These are the most amazing admissions. We know he was committed to £18bn of spending cuts but now, by cutting public spending from 42 per cent to 30 per cent of GDP, he would cut £150bn. That is the equivalent of cutting health and schools from the public budget."
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/10/letwin-cut-ideas-exist-20bn

At the 2001 Election, it was William 'Cocky-Boy' Hague who lost the chance to become Prime Minister and then resigned from the Leadership of the Tory Party!

So two balls fired from the badly aimed sights of Oliver 'Loose Cannon' Letwin and, with uncanny accuracy, two Tory leaders felled! What's it they say about 3rd time lucky!! Well, all Arturo and I can do is hope that 'Boy David' Cameron was given a sturdy flak-jacket for Christmas. Why? Well - where to begin?

1. There will be a General Election in May 2015

2. Oliver 'Loose Cannon' Letwin holds a senior position in Cameron's Cabinet!

No - really - I kid you not. Despite his amazing dexterity at wounding his party leaders - someone, somewhere, somehow thinks Letwin has a brain cell! Yes! Really! They must do. Why? Because 'Loose Cannon' Letwin is - wait for it - Minister for Government Policy. Yes! You did read that correctly - this 'policy wonk' who doesn't know his Poll Tax from disaster or his Budget predictions from gibberish is now the leading light in guiding POLICY for Cameron!!!

You couldn't make this story up - if you tried! Not even Spielberg could have written a better script!

Arturo and I are off to the Sales to see if we can buy some tough cannonball-proof outerwear! Then we're off for some fish & chips!

Bye

Friday 5 December 2014

Cloud Cuckoo Land at No.10

"Did you hear it?" Arturo asked.

"Hear what?" I hadn't a clue what he was on about.

"The cuckoo!" he chuckled. "No neither did I, mi old mate, but I tell you this - we're right in the middle of Cloud Cuckoo Land here in Downing Street!"

Now - let me explain what had made Arturo come to this conclusion. Before the Leader of the Opposition got involved at Prime Minister's Questions, this was heard from Richard Bacon Conservative MP for South Norfolk:
On Monday morning at Norwich research park, I thought I heard the sound of a cuckoo, which was remarkable since we have not even reached Christmas, let alone spring. Does the Prime Minister agree that this may be further evidence of the strength of our long-term economic plan?

The Prime Minister: I was delighted to meet my hon. Friend and other Norwich MPs at Norwich research park
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm141203/debtext/141203-0001.htm

I really couldn't believe my ears. Richard Bacon commenting about a cuckoo heralding 'the strength of our long-term economic plan'. He and the Prime Minister clearly live in Cloud Cuckoo Land which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as:
A state of absurdly over-optimistic fantasy
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/cloud-cuckoo-land

Now - if he'd heard a wise old owl - that would have meant something - but a cuckoo!! It shows you the sorry state of affairs of British politics today that they have to resort to cuckoos!

Prime Minister's Questions was the usual knock-about performance one has come to expect. However, what we were all waiting for was the much heralded Autumn Statement from 'Georgy' Osborne. Everyone was in their place - or were they? There was one notable exception - 'Wailing Lad' Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister. And where was he? The BBC reported that:
The deputy prime minister said he chose to "talk to normal people" in Cornwall.

He told LBC he was not "sheepish or ashamed" of what Chancellor George Osborne announced.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30326161

There you have it! From out of one of the cuckoo's beaks! He went to "talk to normal people". Ipso facto, MPs are not 'normal people'! Well, you said it, Deputy Prime Minister!

Arturo and I have not yet digested the full facts of 'Georgy' Osborne's Autumn Statement - neither of us has an economics degree - but maybe that's no bad thing! However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, who arguably do understand such things were quoted in The Guardian by Phillip Inman. The headline was:
Osborne’s spending cuts will change state ‘beyond recognition’, says IFS

The article quoted the IFS Director, Paul Johnson:
“... it is surely incumbent upon anyone set on taking the size of the state to its smallest in many generations to tell us what that means. How will these cuts be implemented? What will local government, the defence force, the transport system, look like in this world? Is this a fundamental re-imagining of the role of the state?”

Later the article quoted Johnson:
“We calculate that, just to keep the pace of departmental spending cuts over the next parliament to that which has been achieved over this parliament – that is cutting at just over 2% a year – would require welfare cuts and or tax rises of about £21bn a year by 2019-20.”

Phillip Inman ended the article with a comment from Frances O'Grady, general Secretary of the TUC:
“The chancellor now wants us all to pay the price for his failure by cutting public services down to a stump with the loss of a million jobs.”
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/04/george-osborne-spending-cuts-change-state-beyond-recognition-ifs

So this Cloud Cuckoo Land ain't Utopia! No siree, if Paul Johnson is correct when he says: "... just to keep the pace of departmental spending cuts over the next parliament to that which has been achieved over this parliament – that is cutting at just over 2% a year – would require welfare cuts and or tax rises of about £21bn a year by 2019-20." To me and Arturo this sounds a regular Dystopia! A world in which the poor just get poorer even if the rich get richer!

Arturo was looking thoughtful, then he said: "All this reminds me of the story about the South American Dictator who, when he addressed the downtrodden people, announced:

"When I took over this country - we stood on the edge of a precipice. I can now tell you, we have taken a big step forward!"

Arturo is right! This country is on the edge of a precipice, isn't it? And now .....? We all know what lies at the bottom of a precipice!

Hang on a minute! I thought I saw a bird flying passed the window. Could this be Richard Bacon's fabled cuckoo? No. I think it was a vulture flying over Downing Street!

Before the calamity hits us all, me and Arturo are going out to cheer ourselves up! We're off to have a bit of coq-au-vin with Anatole, Arturo's second cousin!

Bye