'What's it all about, Georgie?'

With apologies to Bert Bacharach, Lilly Rose Allen and Greg Kurstin, the creators of that splendid song Alfie because I have reproduced part of it here but replaced their hero's name with Georgie, as in Georgie Osborne, our none too bright Chancellor of the Exchequer

What's it all about, Georgie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What's it all about when you sort it out, Georgie?
Are we meant to take more than we give

I ask the questions, Georgie, because I note that in July, a month in which the Exchequor is normally expected to be in surplus, you actually had to go out and borrowed a few quid, well, £600 mill to be exact, and I can't help wondering, Georgie, if you really have quite got a grip of things, I mean, one asks, and it hurts me to do it, but are you quite up to the job?  Or, to put it another way, do you think you might be better employed doing your part-time job as (and I'm trying hard not to giggle here) 'political strategist' to the Tory party full-time rather than wasting half a day everyday pretending to be our Chancellor and losing my our money hand over fist?

Well, I will avoid an early death by not holding my breath waiting for an answer.  It is now quite clear that Georgie and 'Dim Dave' have no coherent policy for steering us through these austere times not least because they have no knowledge or interest in economic philosophy and therefore no ideas beyond the commonplaces of second-raters like that old fool at the Bank, Sir Melvyn 'Plank', who advise them.  Exactly how the coming crash will develop no one can be certain but one thing is dead sure, the future of the 'Stupid Party' is grim beyond belief.  There are a variety of reasons why the Tories are known as the 'Stupid Party' but perhaps the most recent is the fact that they elected 'Dave' as their leader and also, perhaps, because they allowed themselves to be drawn into the viperish embrace of the 'Even Stupider Party', the il-Lib-non-Dems'.

'Dave 'n' George' between them seem to have set out deliberately, not just to upset their natural followers, but to actively attack them!  High speed trains straight through the normally Tory-voting heartlands, wind turbines forced into beautiful countryside inhabited by Tory-voters, planning rules eased so that any get-rich-quick merchant can slap up makeshift houses for the untermenschen to live in even if it's the Tory-voting Home Counties, refusing even to consider leaving the EU, forcing the churches, which by and large are filled with Tories, to accept gay marriage . . . the list goes on.  In fact as I write this I am trying to think of a single idea that they have produced and which I can support wholeheartedly.

So, the chances are, given the extreme unlikelihood of Tory MPs giving the pair of them the boot, that the Tories will lose the next election which means that we will have 'Edenoidal Ed' Milliband as prime minister and 'ur wee Gordie's' very own, personally-trained Big Spender, Ed 'Testicles', as Chancellor.  That could well occur just as the final ramparts of the European dis-Union are crashing all around us and, be honest, if you look long and hard at 'Edenoidal Ed', does he give you a warm feeling of confidence?  Take that as a 'no', shall I?

My prognosis?  I think it's probably very gloomy if only I could see through all that fog.  Or, to put it another way, life's a bitch and then it rains!

 

Comments

[A K Haart]

UK politicians don't usually worry me, but I'm not at all keen on the prospect of the two Eds getting their hands on the levers of power. Not that the levers seem to be connected to anything these days. Maybe that's a cause for optimism.

[JK]

"'Dave 'n' George' between them seem to have set out deliberately, not just to upset their natural followers, but to actively attack them!"

So I take it - you've come to answering your question?

http://duffandnonsense.typepad.com/duff_nonsense/2009/05/so-is-he-a-hamlet-or-a-coriolanus.html

Which is it then.

[David Duff]

By Jove, JK, what a very well-written, shrewd post that was, to be sure! And you can be teacher's pet for the week for your diligence in digging it up - what do you do, memorise them all? Actually, I don't think 'Dave'has turned out to be either Hamlet or Coriolanus, both of whom being men of considerable character and courage. I suppose, and I put this forward somewhat hesitantly because I am not tremendously well-up on the play, but he is beginning to resemble Timon of Athens, a man who threw money around as though it was going out of fashion and when it was all gone he was "shocked, I tell you, shocked" to discover that now everybody despised him. 'Dave' will suffer that indignity at the next election.

AK, yes I sometimes get the feeling that the train is running downhill and none of the controls are working.

[JK]

Don't actually memorize "whole cloth" David, thing is for me, D&N turned out to be a sort of window on stuff that was not as um, reachable perhaps(?) to the extent things used to be within my personal fingertips.

I can pretty well - with some exceptions as in my 'commenting while intoxicated' - recall those posts we've disagreed on. But there are certain posts the subjects of which, my being geographically distant, stuck in my mind. And, for whatever reason, I was interested in what my "cousins" would come to think.

Initially, D&N was a window for seeing my more local scenery from a different perspective. Turns out - the window passes light in both directions!

[Whyaxye]

"High speed trains straight through the normally Tory-voting heartlands"

I think even this could have been forgiven had they arranged for a few low-speed commuting trains to be laid on, at prices that your average office worker can afford. But Georgie has taken the cap off the rail fare increases, which will probably piss off more natural Tories than a gay marriage to a wind-turbine.

Utterly self-defeating, and they don't even realise it yet.

Do you still think Boris would have any more sense? He supported gays against the Christians, and is now well used to appeasing the metropolitan "progressive" elite.

[rogerh]

'Strategy is nothing without tactics' is an old military maxim - and one George ought to think upon. So where are his 'tactics' - in fact he has none available - at least not the usual options - which is why he is looking at the unpopular measures - the measures governments of all complexions have fought shy of for the last 30 years.

So houses - and dare I say social houses - will have to be built - in places people actually want to live and where there are jobs. Not on some abandoned airfield in the middle of no-where but the outskirts of Virgina Waters and Esher where there is work to be found and transport to be had.

Another good maxim is 'where there's muck there's brass' and for too long we have wrung our hands terrified that some mucky factory will land on our doorstep - tough shit, unless you want to go bust and descend to CCC junk status muck is what you will get. No good relying on phony services like Facebook or ScratchMyArse.com, the only way to leverage the skills of the average worker is to make things. Oh and don't forget we are in competition with the Frogs, the Germans, the Poles etc etc who are all in much the same boat. Be bold George and Dave - for the sake of our pensions.

[David Duff]

JK, all I can say is that you have a better memory than me, even when the wind changes direction and you find yourself down wind from the still! I can't even remember what I wrote yesterday let alone nearly 3 years ago. And it's a nerve-wracking experience reading it, bit like hearing a recording of yourself at the last dinner party you went to!

'W', I think Boris is either brilliant or bonkers (er, that's 'bonkers' not 'bonking', by the way!) There appear to be one or two very bright young men in the new intake of MPs - and, no, I can't recall their names - whom I would like to see and hear more of. Acting the clown is not a bar to being PM but it is not a qualification, either.

It seems to me, Roger, that 'Dave 'n' Georgie' failed in the first two years. It is not possible for governments to actually *start* businesses. The only *real* power they possess is to run their government machine very tightly and efficiently and with minimum cost to the tax-payer - and then stand back and let business do business! These two have only scratched the surface of government spending.