Denial

I look at the goings on in Westminster this week and thank God I'm not involved in British politics. Their behaviour never ceases to surprise me. When I was younger we used to have a terrier who thought the rest of us were stupid (she might have got that one right of course). If given a bone, she would seek to hide it but did so in a rather surprising way. There used to be a thick mat at the front door and she would drag the mat out of the way and place the bone down. She would then drag the mat back over the bone safe in the knowledge that nobody knew it was there. I was reminded of our dear departed West Highland terrier yesterday morning as I listened to Ed Balls being interviewed on the Today programme. Asked if he knew of any of the smears being exacted by Damian McBride, Balls denied any such knowledge. Given his then position as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and his known allegiance to Gordon Brown, it stretches belief to the point of Never Never Land to try and believe him. Only when our politicians begin to treat us with a modicum of respect will the sentiment be reciprocated. Today, Labour makes a raft of promises as they seek to divert attention away from the revelations that Damian McBride openly admitted to engaging in smear campaigns against opponents of Gordon Brown. Would it be unreasonable to expect that Gordon Brown and his advisors were aware of this? I think not. The HS2 rail project is the latest target of New/Old/Same Old Labour. For the record, I agree with them but do so for rather more straightforward reasons to which I have alluded in previous posts. Labour know that in the unlikely event of them hoodwinking their way back to power two years hence, they will have to find their money from other sources. But find money they will because every labour government since the dawn of time have been big spenders. That is alright provided you first have the money to do so. Each time, the ensuing deficit is left to government which succeeds them as we have all just witnessed. Their rejection of HS2 will be to finance a house building project which will result in 200,000 new homes per year being built by 2020. Ergo, the house building creates jobs and the economy returns to its pre 2008 steroid-induced self. Have no doubts they will also seek to restore the Public Sector to the enormity of the Brown years. The current Labour leader also asserts that he intends to cut taxes to small businesses. This is the only policy which I agree with - but with reservations. Where exactly is the money going to come from to finance this? Put simply, there will be a 50p tax rate before you can blink if they are re-elected. They will therefore tax more, spend more and guess what? Borrow more. Given that their borrowing got us in to the mess we are now in, I find it hard to believe that anybody could consider letting them. They don't even spend it wisely when they do borrow! The arrogance though is unbelievable. Just today, Gordon Brown refuses to condemn the actions of Damian McBride. The man who lost the last election in the aftermath of slating a lifelong Labour supporter as "that bigoted woman" seems to have learned nothing in the mean time. Brown is now out of front line politics but Ed Balls would soon be Chancellor if we let him. Balls today says that there is no need for Gordon Brown to come clean. If there is no need for Gordon Brown to come clean about his Stalinist past, what need would there be for a future Chancellor to come clean with the people whose money he intends to spend? The message is clear. On a final note, I understand that several bookmakers are offering odds of 4-1 on a Tory victory in 2015 with Labour the clear favourites. Not that I vote Tory, but could somebody please explain that to me? Another coalition is our only hope for even a semblance of common sense. Whatever his faults, Clegg will at least provide an obstacle to the worst intentions of Labour and the Tories. If either of them gets let loose, we are all in for a rough ride...