Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

At a time of austerity and cuts it is very difficult for people to stomach the idea that companies are willing to pay vast sums in order to meet leading members of the government with a view to influencing policy. Unlike the huge American political fund raising industry, the one in Britain is covert, creepy and tacky.

The tone of bragging, the assurance of impact, the childish reference to ‘premier league’ all grated badly when the Sunday Times recording was played in every news bulletin wall to wall during Sunday. However this is not the only problem facing the Tories. There is a malaise about the prime minister’s friends, quite a few of whom seem to have been arrested in connection with phone hacking. Once again this raises judgement issues. There is also a malaise about government policy implementation. The budget should have been a success; instead it was a PR disaster. The NHS reforms, though in many ways right, have been chaotic in implementation and parliamentary process, ending in a Act as fat as a telephone directory. Anybody who thinks an organisation can be successfully run on such a basis is a fool.

We hear increasing talk of aircraft carriers with no planes; they now appear to be incapable of carrying any planes because they lack any means by which various different designs can land and take off. They are also powered by cruise ship engines needing 8000 tons of oil on board, when every other carrier at sea from friend and foe alike is nuclear powered and needs refuelling not every few thousand miles, but every twenty five years.

The jury is still out on the education reforms, necessary as they undoubtedly are; will they work? What about the welfare reform programme? Is that drifting off course too? And then there is growth. Soon we will know more about that. It will need to be good news.

This is all beginning to add up to something. An aura of inefficiency, miscalculation and murky doings. It could all come right in the end, but at the moment it is beginning to look like a one term government. Not only will that be a disaster for the Tories; it will end voters’ brief honeymoon with the idea of coalition government.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Malcolm Blair Robinson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.