tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post6218495999404974478..comments2024-03-17T00:10:44.022+00:00Comments on From Arse To Elbow: The Crisis of ConservatismDavid Timoneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03568348438980023320noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-87417839424350776462016-03-27T11:12:57.335+01:002016-03-27T11:12:57.335+01:00Herbie -- "No! I remember Frankie Boyle sayin...Herbie -- "No! I remember Frankie Boyle saying we should have Dulux paint charts at airports to control immigration. This very nicely summed it up for me."<br /><br />It seems to me that Frankie Boyle is a defender of mass immigration, so why is he more trustworthy than the opponents of immigration when we are trying to determine what motivates said opponents?<br /><br />And incidentally, why do defenders of mass immigration always tar their opponents as "racists" rather than as "Malthusians"? Is racism considered more morally objectionable than Malthusianism for some reason (perhaps the spread of environmentalist thinking in the left)?George Cartyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12170378024031141482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-91320888167478725852016-03-16T17:09:43.262+00:002016-03-16T17:09:43.262+00:00"that an underperforming economy was the faul..."that an underperforming economy was the fault of organised labour and that the welfare state was badly managed - has lost its bite both because the Tories shot the fox of the trade unions"<br /><br />I don't think it has lost its bite at all. If there really was a crisis of conservatism what would have happened is this, people would be asking, maybe the attack on unions is actually undermining the economy, we need stronger unions. But no, this is not the narrative, which to me proves that as soon as we see increased union activity the tabloids and right wig media will easily be able to trot out the old unions holding the nation to ransom argument. Actually they did it in relation to tube strikes and it worked!<br /><br />"Despite the Tories' fondness for further restrictions on strikes and the continuing privatisation of the NHS, these "reform impulses" are proving less and less popular,"<br /><br />How popular they are is irrelevant, the party in power are adopting these positions. People have long held the belief that the railways should be nationalised, but this belief may as well not exist because only a Corbyn government will implement it.<br /><br />"This suggests that conservatism is at a crossroads. It can either double-down on the radical tropes or it can adopt new ones."<br /><br />No it doesn't it suggests something else, which I have long held to be true. the right wing can lie, break promises, miss economic targets and get away with it. The left are judged by a different standard and would get hammered. One law for the right, one for the left. Nothing has changed at all.<br /><br />"In the UK, there has been a search for new tropes"<br /><br />Well, all we can say is the right wing always have their eye on how to divide the workers. It doesn't reflect conservatism at a crossroads but simply reflects the right's consistent creativity in this regard. It also shows that the right wing narrative is able to manipulate peoples minds than the left narrative.<br /><br />It is the left who are in crisis. the right are still smiling, smugly. And I can't blame them!Herbie Destroys the Environmentnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-89177364735256734602016-03-16T00:16:39.190+00:002016-03-16T00:16:39.190+00:00Herbie,
I'm arguing that there is a crisis of...Herbie,<br /><br />I'm arguing that there is a crisis of conservatism, but that it has arisen as a consequence of conservatives successes over the last 30 years (under both Tories and New Labour) and the hegemony that has made the centre "utterly conservative" in its thinking. To put it in football terms, they're facing a David Moyes moment.<br /><br />The 1970s conservatives analysis - that an underperforming economy was the fault of organised labour and that the welfare state was badly managed - has lost its bite both because the Tories shot the fox of the trade unions and because their (and New Labour's) panacea for the welfare state (marketisation) has produced worse outcomes at greater cost.<br /><br />Despite the Tories' fondness for further restrictions on strikes and the continuing privatisation of the NHS, these "reform impulses" are proving less and less popular, hence they are notable by their absence from manifestos (famously Lansley's NHS reforms) while the "core message" has been a return to an almost parodically antique form of conservatism in austerity.<br /><br />This suggests that conservatism is at a crossroads. It can either double-down on the radical tropes or it can adopt new ones. In the US, conservatives have largely chosen the former path. The problem is that the rhetoric has legitimised both insurgency and the promise of an activist state (and it is this combination that produces Donald Trump), which isn't what conservatives actually want, hence the GOP panic.<br /><br />In the UK, there has been a search for new tropes, with the innate shortcomings of the working class and intergenerational fairness to the fore. The problem is that this risks alienating both working class voters, as aspiration gives way to bitterness and division, and middle class voters, as economic antagonism shifts to the family. David Timoneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03568348438980023320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-16110697549652359782016-03-15T18:03:23.277+00:002016-03-15T18:03:23.277+00:00"isn't anti-immigration sentiment in the ..."isn't anti-immigration sentiment in the UK (and to a lesser extent in the Netherlands) more about "space, not race"?"<br /><br />No! I remember Frankie Boyle saying we should have Dulux paint charts at airports to control immigration. This very nicely summed it up for me.<br /><br />This article is confusing, I am taking from it that there is no crisis of conservatism?<br /><br />“Few people today consider trade union power to be a major issue, while most agree that "sorting out" the NHS is a matter of funding not further reorganisation. “<br /><br />I think we are living on different planets here. The only reason trade union power is not a major issue is that they don’t have power, but if they did it would be an issue. Even worse, because they have been so weakened any slight gaining of strength is now seen as a threat. So in fact the threshold for what constitutes Union power has been very much lowered. So 1 – 0 to the conservatives. The NHS is being dismantled in front of our eyes, so if the public think funding is the problem then this is totally irrelevant because the reorganisation is happening anyway! 2 – 0 to the conservatives.<br /><br />The long hoed for attack on the welfare state and the obliteration of the distinction between public and private is happening in front of us and indicates the objective of the conservatives has been attained. 3 – 0 to the conservatives.<br /><br />The result of the 2008 crisis is that neo liberalism is even more entrenched than it was before, via austerity and other such measures. 4 – 0 to the conservatives.<br /><br />You are presenting the successful attainment of conservative goals as a defeat for conservatism! You need to stop listening to Arsene Wenger!<br /><br />By doing this you fail to recognise that the centre is now utterly conservative! I think?<br />Herbie Destroys the Environmentnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5312853715123370916.post-23981062206851065432016-03-14T14:10:40.878+00:002016-03-14T14:10:40.878+00:00While anti-refugee sentiment in Eastern Europe is ...While anti-refugee sentiment in Eastern Europe is clearly xenophobic (and enabled by the lack of a colonial past to render naked ethnic nationalism taboo there, as it did further west), isn't anti-immigration sentiment in the UK (and to a lesser extent in the Netherlands) more about "space, not race"?<br /><br />If the UK is overpopulated enough to need a Town and Country Planning Act (with the resulting unaffordable housing), is it really wise to allow so much immigration? Of course greedy landlords love immigrants from the Third World (and temporary migrants from Eastern Europe) as they are far more tolerant of overcrowded living conditions than native Brits.George Cartyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12170378024031141482noreply@blogger.com