From: jf@threel.co.uk (John Fisher)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: UK General Election (3)
Date: 6 Apr 92 09:36:30 GMT
Organization: 3L Ltd, Peel House, Ladywell, Livingston EH54 6AG, UK

(continuing...)

I'll supplement my two earlier articles on the election by
this more personal note.  I don't expect many people to
agree with me.  DEL now if you're not interested.

For the last 13 years, the UK has been run by the same
government, the same group of people.  The principle issue
of the campaign is simply this: should these people be
elected again?

Now, I am not naive.  I have been an observer and
participant in British politics for more than 30 years, and
I have seen several changes of government.  I am not so
foolish as to believe that any of the parties now asking for
my vote are going to make the UK, or Scotland, a paradise on
earth.  Nevertheless, my question is a fair one.  The Tories
have had, for 13 years, a completely untramelled opportunity
to work out their ideas.  It is fair for us to assume that
we have had a good sample of their view of the world, and
that what they have done is the best they have to offer. 

And indeed, over the years, the Tories have laid out their
stall with admirable frankness.  For the first time for many
years, the country has been run by a resolute group of
ideologists with a most distinct view of the world.  It is
that enterprise, the market, self-reliance and self-interest
are the best engine for improving the wealth of the nation
and the spiritual well-being of its people.  To these have
been added the traditional values of thrift, hard work, the
family and aggressive patriotism.  As Margaret Thatcher
said, "There is no such thing as society; there are
individuals and families, and that's all."

I have to say that I find this a profoundly unattractive
world-outlook.  I believe in society, in the common weal. 
It exists to help the weak and to protect them from the
strong.  To some extent we belong to one another, we have a
duty to contribute to one another's well-being.  The massive
upsurge of self-righteous greed, the complete disregard by
the fortunate for the weak, the shift of resources from the
poor to the rich which has resulted from the Tory philosophy
is profoundly at odds with everything which is important to
me.  I do not like the way they want us to live. 

I don't like it that education and the health service have
been subjected to a series of crack-brained ideological
experiments.  I don't like it that social benefits have been
restricted for some of those who need them most, like
homeless teenagers and lone parents.  I don't like it that
the public housing service which, heaven knows, was bad
enough, has been effectively abolished.  I don't approve of
converting public monopolies into private monopolies and
recycling the proceeds as tax cuts for the rich. 

Nor has this ideology been notably successful, even in
material terms.  When the Tories came to power in 1979,
unemployment was about 1 million.  Currently, it's 2.6
million and rising, even though they have changed the way
they count it.  Last year, the UK economy shrunk by 2.6%. 
In 1979, the trade gap was about 450m pounds; in 1989, it
was 19 billion.  And in 1979, the tax take was 38% of
income; currently, it's 40%, and has shifted from direct to
indirect tax, to the disadvantage of the poor. 

The government's ideas had, perhaps, their reductio ad
absurdum with the poll tax, a flat-rate tax charged on
everybody for local government support.  Everyone should pay
the same, regardless of income.  This fiasco cost billions
to implement, has caused enormous misery and contention and
is now acknowledged even by the government to have been
wrong-headed.

---

I am English, but I've lived in Scotland for 12 years; this
country is my home.  When I came here, I was at first
baffled by the mixture of truculence and queasy self-
deprecation with which the Scots treated England and the
English.  I understand better now.  It's the psychosis of
defeat, and for this reason, even if for no other, I would
be happy to see Scotland get its independence from the
British state, just like dozens of other countries from
Canada to Kiribati.  But failing that, I'd welcome the kind
of autonomy which the inhabitants of Catalonia, or Bavaria,
or California, or even the Channel Islands take for granted. 
The government is determined to deny us any least vestige of
control over our own affairs; I find this deeply, and almost
personally, insulting. 

It's an atavistic refusal to see that the position of the
British state has changed, the same pathetic great-power
chauvinism which has kept us from effective participation in
the European Community.  It's same thing that brought us to
the Falklands war, an episode which leaves me unsure whether
to laugh insanely or scream with pain, and finally to the
historic disgrace of the Gulf. 

And the same atavism makes them resist all attempts to
reform our governmental structure, to give us a reasonable
voting system, a written constitution and a Bill of Rights
or to get rid of the farce of the House of Lords, an entire
chamber of our Parliament which completely unelected.

---

Finally, back to motss-relevance.  I haven't forgotten
Section 28, or the insult of paragraph 16.  I haven't
forgotten the age of consent scandal, nor the Isle of Man,
nor Operation Spanner, nor the endless, immemorial tramp of
gay men through the courts, charged with victimless crimes. 
Nor have I forgotten lesbian mothers I have known who have
lost custody of their own children.  Of course I haven't
forgotten these things.  Was the government really so
pig-stupid that they thought I would?

---

Since 1979, both my parents have died.  Many of the things
they worked for in their lives I would consider quite wrong-
headed now.  But the idea of the common weal, of our
obligations to each other, and of the rights of the weak
face to face with the strong, I inherited from them, and I'm
not ashamed of it.  They'd be delighted to know I was voting
for Labour.  I'm not, not really; really, I'm voting against
the Tories. 

Shortly before she died, my mother said how sad she was to
be leaving the country in the hands of such cruel people. 
That is it.  Cruel, greedy, incompetent, arrogant, atavistic
bloody-handed, enemies of my country and my community, they
have lost all claim to govern.

Down with them. 

--John