Sunday, October 30, 2005
It's Okay to Lose
The thing that worries me is-
Okay, let's start that again.
Many things worry me. At the moment I worry that the voice of God is telling me to kill the dirty whores to usher in the End Times, but apart from that old chestnut, what worries me is that in the UK we have a Government that has to win, regardless of the cost. Whilst that is one of the definitions of a Government, this leads to some really stupid situations. Take top-up fees. Yes, they were evil, but there was a faint chance that with them in place the better-off would subsidise the worse-off (although I doubt it). So all the Labour MPs from middle-class consituencies revolt. Does the Government decide to shelve the bill or wait and try and find a way around? No, because failure is bad. STRONG TRUTH. So, they force through an abortion of a bill in which everyone pays more and no-one is helped out at all. This deal with the problem of the numbers of people going to university as only the upper classes can afford them, once again.
Then there's ID Cards. Obviously you know where I stand. But I would have to admit that an argument can be made for their usefulness in containing information on a person, health details, credit history etc and so on. But, faced with a civil liberties revolt from everyone outside of the Cabinet, does the Government give up? No! They instead turn the ID Card into little more than a piece of plastic with your photo on it. When the Government announced how much these things would cost they were much cheaper than what the reports suggested, but forty pound is still a lot higher than the fifty pence it costs for my ID badge at work. So what is the point of having them at all?
With behaviour like this New Labour should thank their lucky stars they're in a majority. If they weren't then they'd not be able to get their hamfisted, suicidal, self-defeating legislation through Parliament any more. Then they might have to create laws that actually made sense.
Okay, let's start that again.
Many things worry me. At the moment I worry that the voice of God is telling me to kill the dirty whores to usher in the End Times, but apart from that old chestnut, what worries me is that in the UK we have a Government that has to win, regardless of the cost. Whilst that is one of the definitions of a Government, this leads to some really stupid situations. Take top-up fees. Yes, they were evil, but there was a faint chance that with them in place the better-off would subsidise the worse-off (although I doubt it). So all the Labour MPs from middle-class consituencies revolt. Does the Government decide to shelve the bill or wait and try and find a way around? No, because failure is bad. STRONG TRUTH. So, they force through an abortion of a bill in which everyone pays more and no-one is helped out at all. This deal with the problem of the numbers of people going to university as only the upper classes can afford them, once again.
Then there's ID Cards. Obviously you know where I stand. But I would have to admit that an argument can be made for their usefulness in containing information on a person, health details, credit history etc and so on. But, faced with a civil liberties revolt from everyone outside of the Cabinet, does the Government give up? No! They instead turn the ID Card into little more than a piece of plastic with your photo on it. When the Government announced how much these things would cost they were much cheaper than what the reports suggested, but forty pound is still a lot higher than the fifty pence it costs for my ID badge at work. So what is the point of having them at all?
With behaviour like this New Labour should thank their lucky stars they're in a majority. If they weren't then they'd not be able to get their hamfisted, suicidal, self-defeating legislation through Parliament any more. Then they might have to create laws that actually made sense.
