What we need in 2011 is an opposition

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/c...pposition.html
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What we need in 2011 is an opposition
On all the most important issues effecting our lives, our politicians are in deluded agreement, says Christopher Booker

Ed Miliband at PMQs

There is no greater problem confronting us as a new year dawns than the way that “politics” has come to have two quite different meanings, On the one hand, to the political class and much of the media, it is about such questions as whether the Coalition can last, whether Ed Miliband is any good as leader of the Labour Party, or who is going to win the Oldham by-election. Looming behind all this, however, as Everest to a molehill, are those real political issues shaping people’s lives which scarcely ever get talked about in the Westminster bubble, because our main parties are so agreed on them that they can simply be buried from view.

There is, for instance, the astonishing way they avoid talking to us honestly about the scale of our government deficit. How often do we hear any politician pointing out that, thanks to Gordon Brown’s hubristic decision in 1998 to double spending in a decade, the state is still having to borrow an additional £3 billion every week to cover the resulting shortfall? In Westminster they prattle about “cuts”, but the reality remains that George Osborne’s plans do not envisage any reduction in public spending, only an accelerating rate of increase, from £696 billion a year to £739 billion by 2014. With the prospect that, by then, we shall be paying the equivalent of £60 a week for every household in the land to cover the interest on the debt, our headlong rush to national bankruptcy continues unchecked.

Equally unchecked is the rush to take over ever more of the power to govern our country by the EU, which again our Government seems unable to resist. Tomorrow, with the EU facing the greatest crisis in its history through the slow-motion collapse of the single currency, with Spain and Italy hanging over the abyss, its External Action Service begins work. It plans to set up 136 EU embassies across the world to represent its Common Foreign Policy. This year will see the EU’s noose tightening around Britain’s biggest revenue earner, the City of London, as three powerful new agencies take over the supervision and regulation of our banking, insurance and stock markets.

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On this as on the other issues, what we lack above all, in these days of coalition and consensus, are politicians prepared to step outside the cosy little bubble and face up honestly, on our behalf, to what is going on in the real world. If there is one paramount challenge in 2011 it is the need to shake ourselves free of the tyranny of a political class which has completely lost the plot. What we need, first and foremost, is some proper opposition.

This just sums it up perfectly (more in the article about the 3-party consensus on the subject of the dying religious cult of global warming) and people must ask the question of; what is the difference between the Labour Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrat Party? if you look at the figures for the 'cuts', as Booker points out - there are none. So why are Conservative supporters talking about tackling the debt when that is clearly not happening and why are Labour supporters pretending to hate the Tory Party when the Tory Party is doing exactly what Labour did in office and what they want? - the reason? party politics at its worst putting party before ones own principal or before the country itself.

Afterall I ask, how can you oppose what you created?

Thoughts? who are you planning to vote in the May local elections and who did you vote/support in the 2010 elections?

[Ajthedragon]

If I could vote, I would have voted Conservative at the GE. If I could vote at these local elections I would vote for Conservatives. I just believe in their morales. You shouldn't believe everything the papers say. The Daily Mirror uses a ******* rabbit to manipulate people into voting Labour.

[dbgtz]

No, they hate them because they raised standard VAT which is tackling debt, they want more Who would I vote if I could? I don't know, they are all awful. If my MP helps me, it would be conservative and if she does, then I am assured my dad would vote them.

[Fez]

RE May elections: The Pirate Party is going strength to strength lately, they haven't had any strong candidates in Yorkshire, but I've heard whispers of a more Northern centric campaign after the May elections. Us being mostly working class and all we don't exactly have freedom of speech above the immigration issue.

[Jordy]

RE May elections: The Pirate Party is going strength to strength lately, they haven't had any strong candidates in Yorkshire, but I've heard whispers of a more Northern centric campaign after the May elections. Us being mostly working class and all we don't exactly have freedom of speech above the immigration issue.

If there isn't freedom of speech are you implying the government censors northerners?

[Cheryl]

Some people do really have some odd political views..

I was unable to vote in the GE, however my mum voted for the Tories and my dad exercised his right to vote - by not voting. We are in a strong conservative area, and I would always consider myself a Conservative supporter.

[Inseriousity.]

I agree, the parties agree with each other so it's good time for a small party to come up and tell everyone why the 'big 3' are no longer fit to lead the country. Despite that, unfortunately, all the small parties that run in my town are right-wing (UKIP, BNP) so I'd rather not vote for them as that goes against what I believe in.

[Jordy]

I agree, the parties agree with each other so it's good time for a small party to come up and tell everyone why the 'big 3' are no longer fit to lead the country. Despite that, unfortunately, all the small parties that run in my town are right-wing (UKIP, BNP) so I'd rather not vote for them as that goes against what I believe in.

Well if you don't like either Labour, Lib Dems, Conservative, UKIP or BNP what are you looking for? A truly socialist party or something?

[Arron]

I actually have never took no interest in Politics. They all say they'll do something but just fail! I might start studying this though and come May I will vote - just because I can

[Fez]

If there isn't freedom of speech are you implying the government censors northerners?

The government doesn't censor anything, really, it just likes to keep its great big eye on his 100% of the time. I wouldn't say there's a wide freedom of speech anyway, with governments and affiliated bodies being too scared of political correctness sometimes. Huckleberry Finn, the Mark Twain novel, is going to be censored in its new edition and the US government arms have just opened up a whole can of censorship in the world.