Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Tomorrow The First Cuts

There have been leaks already about where the £6 billion axe will fall, as well as warnings of pain to come. The argument to cut now or later has been largely overtaken by the Euro crisis and the reports of Mandarins being overruled by outgoing Labour Ministers, who pumped up spending in the last hours of the Labour dream. The economic argument for cutting is now irresistible among those in touch with economic reason. Promises to be fair and compassionate will be judged valid only once we know.

There is more than economics at stake here, powerful though the sums are. This is an opportunity to start shutting down intrusive, meddling, excessive and inappropriate government. The most positive legacy of New Labour is its constitutional reform bringing devolution, elected mayors and peace in Northern Ireland. The most negative, even worse than the ridiculous wars, was the explosion of quangos, regulators, processes and practices all of which pushed up costs and drained both responsibility and initiative.

Tomorrow will have within the gloom, good cheer, if the axe starts to cut at this suffocating bureaucratic tangle.

Another Sting

This Blog has no interest in, or knowledge of, the finances, business affairs, introductory powers or relationships of the latest victim of a set up, the unfortunate Duchess of York. Recently it was Lord Triesman, who found himself at the centre of an expose (sorry my keyboard does’t do accents). At one level one can take the view that it serves them right. The newspaper no doubt takes the view that it serves the public interest. Lawyers may claim invasion of privacy or entrapment.

This Blog finds itself disturbed. A society in which people cannot hold private conversations, however wrong these converstions or remarks may be, without fear of being recorded, is a society which is no longer free. Clearly there may be security issues. Surveillance for public safety is one thing. It is quite another if it is conducted to keep the population to a certain political line. Words like Gestapo, Stasi and NKVD spring at once to the recoiling mind.

It is also quite another thing if its purpose is to sell newspapers.

We all need to think about that.