Comments on Obsolete: Dave's raves pt. 94.

I don't think it's entirely fair to call it an "in...

2008-07-09T19:50:00.000+01:00

I don't think it's entirely fair to call it an "intemperate rant"; if you want those you can click on the link QT provides at the end of his post.

I'm also not sure what the BNP have to do with this; few of those who this speech is directed at are likely to vote Tory instead based on this message. The reason why the BNP is gaining support in some areas is because Labour has so clearly abandoned its core vote to the economic wolves and forgotten what its purpose is, while the BNP blames the easy targets and cultivates its vote through continuous personal interaction, only to then abandon them once they actually get elected.

The main reason I also so doubt whether the Conservatives will be any better is precisely because of your last comment: Cameron offers no change whatsoever in personal style over Blair, and if anything is surrounded by even more determined and ideological figures. I've written before that they're the real uber-Blairites, and it's been Blairism which has so abandoned the working poor and led to the situation we're in now.

Thanks for the link to Cameron's speech, which in ...

2008-07-09T18:01:00.000+01:00

Thanks for the link to Cameron's speech, which in its entirety is much more substantial and sensible than the MSM extracts led one to believe.

As for your intemperate rant about it, when political prejudice comes in through the door common sense flies out of the window. Of course there are humbugs and hypocrites in all walks of life and in every political party. Clearly, the voters are sickened by the current crop of incompetent meddlers and sycophants presently in office. The Tories' performance may turn out to be not much better - though I doubt it - and you obviously dislike their philosophy so much that you are reluctant to give them the benefit of the doubt. But presumably you'd prefer them to get the votes of the growing army of disgruntled in preference to the BNP? Cameron is obviously starting to position himself with that in mind.

Don't forget your own remark that "we make judgements every minute of the day based on the most shallow information we have to hand, informed by our own personal prejudices". I've lived through several governments, both Conservative and Labour. Some were fairly good, some were pretty awful, and that didn't depend upon which party was in office - much more on the character of the leading figures [notably the prime minister], as we've seen only too clearly over the past decade.

I think what he is trying to get at in the section...

2008-07-09T12:09:00.000+01:00

I think what he is trying to get at in the section you've highlighted is largely right, but I can certainly understand your bemusement at the bizarre first line:

"We as a society have been far too sensitive"

I can only conclude that he has been wrapped up in the political bubble of think-tanks and pressure groups and policy advisers for so long that he's come to mistake that for 'society'.

The rest sounds about right to me, if you're talking about politics rather than wider society.

It's good to see him talking something approaching sense on the subject of personal responsibility, rather than listening to bloody Toynbee and her favourite think tanks, which will never be sated of interventionism, all the time.

More: Devil's Kitchen