Snap political thoughts

From Unfocusgroup.org

25 Jan 10:

• The problem with communism is that when there is only one manufacturer of things, then you are doomed. How on earth can the government ensure that it's making just the right amount of bread, toothpaste etc? I was talking to this Hungarian chap about this one time the whole country ran out of toilet paper.

26 Jul 09:

• This recession has little to do with debt or overspending. They are symptoms. The underlying cause is laziness. In Britain, we have stopped doing work, and decided that "industry" consists of "investing" money in other people and expecting them to do the work. Even worse, people borrow money in order to "invest" it, and expect the money to do the work. People expected something for nothing. There would be no recession if people got off their lazy fat asses and did some work.

2 July 09:

• It is ironic that the government are introducing legislation to stop people from getting into debt (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8129555.stm). The government themselves have borrowed millions from the taxpayer and are now in huge debt, so they are the ones most in need of these measures.

29 Jun 09:

• It is no surprising that the Royal Mail sale is delayed [1]. Everything is always delayed with the Royal Mail.

17 Jun 09

• Politics by statistics: many politicians set their policies based on what most people will vote for. Whilst some would say that this embraces democratic principles, I prefer politicians who say what they actually believe and set policies accordingly. Over-reliance on statistical data pervades other spheres: for example, many companies, invididuals and even pop stars posture themselves towards what other people find appealing. Again, I prefer people who stand up for what they believe rather than trying to mirror the status quo.

16 Jun 09

• You need a united world before you can tackle things such as global warming. And to unite the world requires tackling international social inequality, which is a motivating factor towards conflict, and which also requires travel, industry, agriculture etc to conquer, all of which require energy and hence potentially contribute to global warming.
• It's difficult to find other people who are against mainstream culture who aren't blaggers, slackers or serial underachievers.

13 Jun 09

• The government/press are hand-wringing about poverty. But they are defining poverty in terms of income, which is ridiculous. You have to measure poverty in terms of lack of basic needs, such as food, water, education or shelter. [2]
• I have long thought that the problem with Islam is the fact that it's about personal interpretation of the Koran. The Christian viewpoint centres on choice of doctrine e.g. Catholicism, Protestantism etc. What ends up happening is that governments in Islamic countries end up becoming de facto religious leaders, which is obviously undesirable. Christian countries always tend towards secularity, because the church and state always end up becoming separate. Islamic countries always tend towards the personal whims of the leaders, which usually comes down to things like beard-lengths and headscarf fashions.
• Corrupt people have to employ stupid people who tolerate corruption, in order that they don't get overthrown. Smart, honest people are free to hire smart, honest people.

10 Jun 09

• Sadly, the NHS costs too much money. Whether you are capitalist or socialist, it's clear that we need reform. [3] I think that the government should sell off the NHS, and use the money to create a new one called the "Real NHS". This would "externally" marketise the NHS, rather than internally as is often proposed. Of course, potential buyers would realise this and the price would change accordingly.
• What happened to Boris Johnson's manifesto commitment of a "no-strike" deal?

8 Jun 09

• Good to see the Lib-Dems doing badly. Despite appearing to be a Liberal Party, they have no cohesive policies to this effect. [4]
• The BNP's tagline should be "We're only a little bit racist". They have actually stolen the language of the liberal left, claiming to be standing up for the rights of poor hard-working indigenous people.
• Re Omagh: It's a sign of the times that it's hard to convict terrorists of murder, but it's easy to sue them for breaching health & safety regulations. Soon, all criminal justice laws will be replaced by health & safety guidelines.
• Petty bureaucracy is being used by the state as a way of raising money by stealth. You have to pay money for a licence for everything, from getting married to passports, driving etc. The amounts involved seem well over the odds, and more than the cost of the time taken to process the applications. Plus, a lot of the time, you shouldn't need to have a licence to do most of this stuff anyway - we should be living in a free country!

7 Jun 09

• Gordon Brown deserves criticism, but most people are criticising him for the wrong reasons at the moment. It's the Labour Party's lack of ideals that is the general issue, and Gordon Brown is ultimately responsible for this. They need to work out what they stand for: otherwise, they are not really much of a party.
• The Labour Party should re-invent socialism. There's a complete void at the moment, where nobody knows whether the private sector is a good thing anymore, but nobody quite trusts the public sector either. We don't want the state to run our industries, but nobody in the private sector wants to kickstart anything or commit to an investment. However, the government now controls the banks. It can use this as an opportunity to seed companies, which are initially controlled by the government but eventually privatised. For example, it can startup a national car company, making practical cars for the nation and beyond. I call this brand of socialism startup socialism, because it is about the state taking on the initial risk of starting up the company and using its capital resources, and then floating the whole thing on the stock market, making money for the country.
• I must confess that chinese totalitarianism does seem to lead to a sense of social cohesion, at least as it appears from here. I'm not sure that this sort of thing will last though, as we have seen with Ceaucescu and all that. China is doing well, but as some people prosper and others remain poor, resentment will build up and a revolution becomes likely. Of course, the army crushed Tiananmen in 1989, and the communist party probably feed the army well. In addition, China is still a growing economy, and has adopted hybrid "market socialism" and is likely to prosper further. So we shall see.
• We need to make it easier to sack people in this country. People often get complacent.

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