Have you noticed how many policies the coalition has announced which have either been dumped or significantly amended within weeks and even days? School sports and the book scheme are just the latest.
Well over one or other fine tables of food and wine this last couple of days SWMBO came up with an interesting theory. And it has the ring of probability since the suspicion is not only mine that in reality they haven't got a clue what to do.
The idea goes like this: Think of something that the blue rinse brigade, the county colonels and the Daily Mail will really like. Get a Lib Dem to announce the policy but stress the need for consultation and how this is a listening government blahdeblah. Then sit back a while and see what reaction there is. If it is nasty or seems to have set off some sensitive Tory souls then quickly announce that you have consulted, listened blahdeblah and the policy is dumped, amended or back in the melting pot. But if nothing much happens then w-hay! Get to it and make sure it now looks strongly Tory policy led. After all, when you remind them in a year or three what a radical, conservative AND dynamic government you have been all the u-turnS will be forgotten.
Hmm, I think the sherry may have made her even more cynical than I am....
Showing posts with label coalition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coalition. Show all posts
Monday, 27 December 2010
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Anyone wish you a Happy Christmas yet?
When I was a boy you couldn't get down the street for the cheery Happy Christmas calls. And you'd cop it from the parents if a neighbour didn't hear a reply - a polite one that is.
Now that might be taking things a bit far but for most of my life it has been pretty much the same. It even picked up a bit 15 years ago when we moved to Norfolk where almost everyone still salutes the time of day when you pass. Until this year.
It could be me of course. I am older, maybe less enchanting, less appealing perhaps. But I don't think that's the reason. Others say much the same.
I do call Happy Christmas whenever I am parting from someone I know, however vaguely. Even check-out operators get the treatment. This year everyone looks slightly startled and mumbles a response. Even friends look almost puzzled. In the snow-braved mobile library today three recipients of my bonhomie struggled to respond. Two I count as friend/neighbours.
Is it that we are all miserable now? Could it be that the universal cry of difficult decisions, cut this, slice the other and worse to come is finally wearing us down?
In fact it has hardly felt like Christmas, despite the stunningly early beginning of retail activity this year. Most shops are selling Christmas but few are decked out for it. Where are the lights? The tinsel? I don't see many ads for grottoes and so far only one Santa Claus and he at a National Trust house. To give them credit Blickling Hall was the one place where it really felt like Christmas, apart from the annual Christmas tree exhibitions here and in Fakenham. But to be honest that's it. I ate in a restaurant this week and had to look for any decorations; some white lights and couple of hangings was it but they could have been the norm really.
I am hearing and reading moans about school nativities that don't include carols or hardly refer to the sacred story. I'm an atheist. For me it's the winter solstice but I acknowledge a lot of people get a strong feeling from their faith. I respect the Christian festival just as I respect Divali or Passover. And they should be clearly their own show, as it were. So even we atheists mark the festive season in a traditional way. I enjoy a good carol - it has its place. Which is now. Mix in a modern one or two but allow our Christian brothers and sisters this little space for their own thing please.
There is a chance this year of a white Christmas. Personally I fear it will rain on that parade around here; this is England after all. Thousands are doing their utmost to get 'home' for the event. The weather and our unfamiliarity with it is against them. But the TV pictures? There is nothing to show it is Christmas. Snowbound streets are littered with cars but no lights, no Christmas trees. We see empty streets of banked snow and empty shops - but where are the lights? The banners? The trees.
Is it really Christmas or did the coalition cancel that as well?
Now that might be taking things a bit far but for most of my life it has been pretty much the same. It even picked up a bit 15 years ago when we moved to Norfolk where almost everyone still salutes the time of day when you pass. Until this year.
It could be me of course. I am older, maybe less enchanting, less appealing perhaps. But I don't think that's the reason. Others say much the same.
I do call Happy Christmas whenever I am parting from someone I know, however vaguely. Even check-out operators get the treatment. This year everyone looks slightly startled and mumbles a response. Even friends look almost puzzled. In the snow-braved mobile library today three recipients of my bonhomie struggled to respond. Two I count as friend/neighbours.
Is it that we are all miserable now? Could it be that the universal cry of difficult decisions, cut this, slice the other and worse to come is finally wearing us down?
In fact it has hardly felt like Christmas, despite the stunningly early beginning of retail activity this year. Most shops are selling Christmas but few are decked out for it. Where are the lights? The tinsel? I don't see many ads for grottoes and so far only one Santa Claus and he at a National Trust house. To give them credit Blickling Hall was the one place where it really felt like Christmas, apart from the annual Christmas tree exhibitions here and in Fakenham. But to be honest that's it. I ate in a restaurant this week and had to look for any decorations; some white lights and couple of hangings was it but they could have been the norm really.
I am hearing and reading moans about school nativities that don't include carols or hardly refer to the sacred story. I'm an atheist. For me it's the winter solstice but I acknowledge a lot of people get a strong feeling from their faith. I respect the Christian festival just as I respect Divali or Passover. And they should be clearly their own show, as it were. So even we atheists mark the festive season in a traditional way. I enjoy a good carol - it has its place. Which is now. Mix in a modern one or two but allow our Christian brothers and sisters this little space for their own thing please.
There is a chance this year of a white Christmas. Personally I fear it will rain on that parade around here; this is England after all. Thousands are doing their utmost to get 'home' for the event. The weather and our unfamiliarity with it is against them. But the TV pictures? There is nothing to show it is Christmas. Snowbound streets are littered with cars but no lights, no Christmas trees. We see empty streets of banked snow and empty shops - but where are the lights? The banners? The trees.
Is it really Christmas or did the coalition cancel that as well?
Monday, 20 December 2010
Getting in a Pickle
Is this where I came in? Today I read that another of the line up of loonies in this coalition of the unwise is to roll back one of Maggie Thatcher's few good ideas. Yeah, I know but she did have some, be fair. Eric Pickles wants to do away with the Uniform Business Rate - the clue, Eric is in the title - and allow councils to independently vary the levy.
The UBR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_rates_in_England_and_Wales) was introduced in 1990 in response in large part to the reasonable complaint from businesses that two identical businesses in identical premises on opposite sides of the same street could be paying vastly different "non-domestic rates" to different councils. This unfair competitive factor was one among many that made this rate unpopular with small business in particular. And now Mr Pickles tells us that it is in response to small business demands that he wants to effectively put the clock back.
Now admittedly Maggie's writ didn't have long to run in 1990 and the Poll Tax, possibly her daftest idea, was soon to lay her low. But really Eric, don't you think it would be a good idea to learn something from history? If you must tinker then at least be innovative and not simply re-create the errors of the past. And please try not to trample Maggie's reputation - you'll startle the horses in the shires.
The UBR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_rates_in_England_and_Wales) was introduced in 1990 in response in large part to the reasonable complaint from businesses that two identical businesses in identical premises on opposite sides of the same street could be paying vastly different "non-domestic rates" to different councils. This unfair competitive factor was one among many that made this rate unpopular with small business in particular. And now Mr Pickles tells us that it is in response to small business demands that he wants to effectively put the clock back.
Now admittedly Maggie's writ didn't have long to run in 1990 and the Poll Tax, possibly her daftest idea, was soon to lay her low. But really Eric, don't you think it would be a good idea to learn something from history? If you must tinker then at least be innovative and not simply re-create the errors of the past. And please try not to trample Maggie's reputation - you'll startle the horses in the shires.
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