Tories?
A few months ago, the Labour party of the United Kingdom elected a new leader - the politically inexperienced, but authentically left wing Ed Milliband.
Up to the point of his election, the word round the campfire was actually that his more moderate brother David would get ‘the big job’.
This was a very interesting development. Former leader Tony Blair had created a massive centrist shift in the party dynamic in an effort to gain power from the incumbent tories in the May 1997 elections.
These efforts were made to remove the stigma of the “loonie left” element of the party which had grown out of the increasingly powerful trade unionist movement of the 1970’s and then dominated the public perception of the party after the early 1980’s miners strikes and the militancy of the socialist GLC (Greater London Council) of the same period.
With a more moderate approach from (most of) the Conservative party, British politics in the 2000’s sat in a vague, liberal no-mans land, with many of the Tories policies sitting to the left of the ‘champagne socialism’ of Blair’s New Labour.
So, with the new leader of the Conservative party - in David Cameron - we have an authentically upper middle class, old order (ex-Bullingdon Club http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bullingdon_Club), right wing Tory.
This (in the name of proper democracy and balance) is just where they should be.
With Ed Miliband as Labour leader - a second generation marxist of Polish Jewish extraction, whom was heavily active in the party by the time he got to the LSE. Ditto.
(Needless to say, between fire and ice, sits Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats - a bit like luke warm water..)
So, I wondered this morning on checking the news, “What the hell is this?”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13756396
Whilst I believe the policy actually makes sense, surely this is quoted from the wrong party leader.
Can’t they just stick to their respective sides of the fence and actually stand for something?
