Kakocracy

Categories: politics

Date: 01 May 2012 12:03:21

Britain is back in recession. This was yesterday's headline. In the first quarter of 2012 Britain was back in recession. How does Prime Minister Cameron explain this? After all it is Labour's recession, isn't it? After two years in power have things improved? No. Conservative-Liberal Democrat policy has failed to stop the recession double dipping. After two years it is time to look at what during the last election campaign the Conservatives were calling Labour's recession, even at the time I was more than sceptical of that claim, because the recession was worldwide. Was Labour responsible for the collapse of the Icelandic banking system? Was Labour responsible for the economies of the PIGS within the Euro zone of the EC (Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Greece)? Was it Labour's policies that led to the United States government nationalising AIG? If you believe the three statements above then you can believe that it was Labour's recession. If not, how can anyone make that claim? I'll put another interpretation, the recession is the direct result of the policies of the free market. It is the policies of the right, not of the left of centre (just) policies of Labour that have led to the recession. The largest economy in the world at that time, the USA, was in it's second term under President GW Bush. Under Bush, American policy had moved to the right. As a consequence of this, this same government ended up nationalising financial institution. I bet that hurt. So a worldwide recession was caused by following policies of those right of centre on a worldwide basis. Cameron has tried to bring Britain out of recession by following policies of the right, understandably this hasn't worked. The recession has double dipped. What shall we do? The two alternatives are:

Government spends less: Policy of the present Government in the UK.
Government spends more: Building of roads, public buildings, airports etc. The policy of US President Truman's New Deal. People, particularly at the lower end of the economy have more money to spend, and the economy revives.

Actually the policies of all three main UK political parties is some of each of the above, they are only divided by how much. So why have I called this blog kakocracy?

‘Kakocracy’: Governance by a clique representing the worst elements of society, in their interests and to the exclusion of all other interests, from the Greek, kakos, meaning foul, or filthy.

Things are still very comfortable fot the rich, for people such as Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne, whilst people in lower income groups have to endure rising prices on static wages. We have another 3 years of the Conservative-Liberal alliance, less if the Prime Minister sees fit. Then what? History shows that when Labour's policy shifts to the left the party becomes unelectable; as happened under party leader Michael Foot at the height of Prime Minister Thatcher's unpopularity. Labour, under Ed Miliband, is shifting to the left. It looks like we're stuffed.