Of course I would like to see Livingstone go. He's a fool. His comments about the Tienanmen Square massacre are typical of him. There is no leftist or islamist abomination for which he is not prepared to be an apologist. He is the archetypal useful idiot for the enemies of the open society.
But he's popular. The real question to be addressed by right-wing thinkers is "why?" Why do Londoners love Livingstone? Why do millions of British voters love Blair and Brown? To this extent, David Cameron's political instincts are right. The right-wing in Britain have railed against these promoters of clapped out leftist ideology for a decade, to no positive effect. Voters are not interested enough in history, economics or political philosophy to engage in a debate.
Hence the people keep voting for these idiots, even as they make £8 billion pound gestures with the peoples' money to prove that they are "kind" and "caring" individuals. Telling the people the truth; that some of the £8 billion will go towards the purchase of arms to oppress Africans and most will top up the Swiss bank accounts of dictators, does not seem to do any good. Pointing to the £6 billion a year stolen from Britons' pension funds by stealth taxes and suggesting a connection with the waste in foreign "aid" or the NHS is just seen somehow as "heartless". For some reason, the voters don't want to hear. They would happily descend into poverty in their old age in return for these "feel good" moments today. They will happily accept the moral equivalence of a poll tax riot to a massacre, as long as cuddly Ken keeps being a caring cheeky chappie who rides the Tube.
To say we should analyse this is no counsel of despair. That's where Cameron and I differ. He's prepared to be a political tart; to adopt the insane and destructive policies the people have voted for without asking why. I don't see the point in that. How is it better to do wrong yourself than to watch others do it?
We need to understand voters' motivations for doing wrong to see if we can harness them to do right. To do that, we have to look beyond politics and engage in the black arts of psychology and sociology. Labour has been pushing the British people's buttons for a decade until they make it look easy. The Conservatives don't even know where those buttons are. Sadly, until the IMF once more sends in the bailiffs' men, none of those buttons will be labelled "economics".
Telegraph | Opinion | Ditch Livingstone
Monday, April 10, 2006
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3 comments:
As you will be aware, public opinion tends to form a "mindset" that is very difficult to shift in a short period of time. Between 1979 and 1992 it was "Labour are rubbish" and now, "The Tories are useless". Labour will continue being bomb proof no matter what they do wrong (can someone remind me of what they have done right?) but suddenly the wind of public opinion will just change course. Labour's misdemeanors are causing a build up of pressure for change that will prove eventually, irresistable.
In the meantime, we have to accept that Labour will not suffer a crushing defeat in the forthcoming local elections (it will be turned by the media into a Conservative "defeat") Ken Livingstone will win his third mayoral election and if Tony Blair's successor makes an early dash for the polls to earn his own mandate, Labour will secure an historic fourth term.
You could be right and I certainly hope so. However, I believe you make your own luck. I can't help feel that Cameron would be better raising money to commission real research than simply campaiging on a "me too" platform. If the public mood shifts as you predict, but he has managed to identify the Conservatives as "Blue Labour" then he may yet engineer Labour's historic fifth term.
Labour have complete control of the educational system from top to bottom, or maybe it would be more true to say that they both share the same ideology.
Either way, this will be a tough nut to crack.
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