Tory disaster at the Crewe & Nantwich by-election

(NB: Typepad, in its, er, wisdom, has seen fit to change the entire typographical system under which my posts are written and of which, after several years, I had mastered approximately 50%. Attempting to understand this new system has thrown my seven brain cells into utter confusion and the end result may prove to be unreadable. This may, or may not, be "A Good Thing"!)

All of that, of course, comes under the heading of 'wishful thinking'.  The fact is that after the local elections, the London mayoral election and the Crewe by-election, 'Dim Dave' now has absolutely no incentive to propose, or even to think, anything radical. All that he needs to do is behave like one of those soppy, wet social workers and tell everyone that he feels their pain and, honestly, he will do something about it when clapped-out Labour is put out of its misery and a grateful people give him the top job.  Even so, there is one possibility, perhaps probability is more accurate, looming over the horizon to be filed under "Events, dear boy, events".  I refer to the disastrous economic tsunami that is rumbling with increasing speed towards us.  Today, Waitrose, the very essence of affluent(?) middle-class shopping, reported two weeks of falling sales.  That is the equivalent of the sea beginning to be sucked away from the beaches which presages a mighty wave crashing in on us at a later date.  When markets correct themselves, or, when they adjust themselves to new conditions (and I suspect the latter is very much more influential than the former as a cause of the current and future turbulence), it is always very painful for most people.  Nevertheless, it is, like a caning from the headmaster, good for us all in the long run - and please don't quote Keynes at me!  It will certainly be very painful for the politicians at Westminster who will have to come to terms with a state of affairs in which, effectively speaking, they are broke, skint, lacking even a pot to piss in. (Interestingly, there was also a report in today's news of a fairly large town in California declaring bankruptcy in order to save itself from its creditors!)  Such will be the situation here and if that well-known oxymoron, the public service unions, think they are hard done by today, they should prepare themselves for really hard times in the next 2 or 3 years.

Not the least of the corruption of British life that occurred under Blair and 'Broon' was the deliberate increase in the public sector employment numbers aimed at establishing a huge Labour-voting sector.  We are now paying not just for their salaries but also for their generous pensions. When people were feeling themselves to be fairly affluent they didn't really look too hard at 'this monstrous regiment' of un-civil servants but when they feel the pinch, when they see and feel the taxman's grip around their wallets they are going to rebel. A small trickle of international companies has already announced their departure for low-tax havens like Ireland, and that trickle presages an avalanche.  Thus, one of the 'Broon's' favourite milch-cows will disappear.  When the big City banks and dealing houses follow they will lay off tens of thousands of high-earning employees who will then cease to pay income tax and so yet another milch-cow will be off to the knacker's yard.  As unemployment rises across the country the demands on the welfare budget will be enormous - who will pay?

These "events", along with others yet to be apparent, will demand some very radical thinking from the Tories if they are handed the whole smelly mess in two year's time.  Are 'Dim Dave' and his smug, little coterie giving any thoughts to this hideous possibility.  I doubt it!

(This final paragraph has nothing to do with the post but is merely a passage of prose upon which I can experiment with different typefaces - see comments for discussion.)

Additional: Attempting, in my ham-fisted way, to offer you a choice of typefaces and font sizes, I appear to have wiped the opening paragraph of my wise and witty commentary on the Crewe by-election.  I am now so hacked off with the entire exercise that I really cannot be bothered to resurrect it. Personally, I blame 'Dearieme' for moaning about the blasted font size in the first place. Anyway, I'm off to bed in a bad temper!

Comments

[dearieme]

Your blog is no longer responding to the "view" instruction that makes the font big enough for me to read.

[David Duff]

'DM', I have struggled with the system and changed the layout of the post into different paragraphs with different typefaces and font sizes. I leave it to you and other readers to comment.

Para 1: Arial 15
Para 2: Times New Roman 17
Para 3: Times New Roman 16
Para 4: Tahoma 15
Para 5: Trebuchet 15

Personally, I prefer No.3 but deliberately I have a large-ish screen in order to make reading easier. Perhaps on a lap-top it might be too small. I also like No. 1, a very plain but clear typeface in my opinion.

Incidentally, I have deliberately not put any of them in 'bold' because I would like to hold that in reserve for 'expletive deleted' moments!

Let me know your thoughts, people!

[Tatyana]

#3, and no cursive, please.

[Hank]

David

Unless there is a reason to do something else I like Times New Roman or Arial.

The type face should not compete with what you are saying, fancy type face only to make what you are saying clearer.

[Hank]

Ms. Clinton may be looking for an executive position soon, she could not do any worse than Labour.

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(Interestingly, there was also a report in today's news of a fairly large town in California declaring bankruptcy in order to save itself from its creditors!)

I’ve thought California was bankrupt in a number of other ways, why not financial?

Interesting, the unions want a pay raise. The city says it can’t afford to pay the current salaries and offered a pay cut. The bankruptcy court could order a pay cut. When private companies have done, the bankruptcy court usually slams one or both sides when it figures out who is pulling the BS. At least the law requires some minimum protection for the workers themselves. (Not the union). It could be the start of a big problem, or just hardball labor negotiations. .

And you thought it was weird on your side of the pond.

[dearieme]

The font in which the comments appear is ideal, David.