At 10:45 14/05/01 +0100, you wrote:
>Part of the reason why they haven't delivered the promises that I think
>are
>important (decent public services) is because they've hamstrung themselves
>with this clueless tory low-tax approach.
Yup.
>I genuinely believe that the
>public are sick of watching the NHS, education system etc wasting away on
>a
>starvation diet and would be willing to pay a bit of extra tax to make
>sure
>that their kids can get schooled and that their sick can be healed.
For a very very unusual definition of 'bit'. Also, money is NOT the
solution to schools (and prob. NHS). They don't suffer simply from under
funding. Schools suffer from under funding, insane overegulation and
bureaucracy, low public approval of teachers, increasingly stupid parents,
and so on. These are deep problems with society that "A penny on income
tax" will do nothing against on its own. For your amusement, here are some
regulations that teachers have fun complying with, in addition to working
long hours (standing up, mind) for bugger all money.
1. There is a law that specifies the minimum distance apart towel hooks
must be in children's changing rooms.
2. A teacher can't be alone in a room with a pupil unless the door is open.
3. Teachers are responsible for children taking their medicine. If a child
has a critical allergy to (bee stings, etc, etc) the teachers are
responsible for administering intra-venous beta blockers etc. They don't
get paid more for being nurses too.
>Let's face it, it's possible to say "Labour isn't working", but after the
>systematic dismantling of manufacturing industry, the fragmentation and
>decay of our rail infrastructure at the hands of private companies who
>sack
>thousands of track maintenance staff to increase profit margins, boom and
>bust economics leading to the worst recession in decades, deregulation of
>the cattle-feed industry leading directly to the BSE crisis that made
>British meat an international laughing-stock/pariah ... I could go on ...
>I'd say that conservative ideas worked a lot worse.
Yes, in these instances. As regards agriculture, EU legislation has done
far more harm than anything ever passed by any UK government, mainly
because there's 10 times as much of it. In other areas (education, foreign
policy) I'd say the right had better ideas and a better track record.
>You can't expect public services that have seen two decades of alternating
>neglect and red-tape frenzy, with a workforce that is completely
>demoralised
>after being scapegoated for twenty years ("What do you mean we've screwed
>the education system - it's the fault of those loony-left teachers and
>their
>'progressive' ideas!")
No, it's the fault of loony left legislators and their 'progressive' ideas
:-)
>I have deeply unfashionable political views, though. I think tax and spend
>is a *good idea*.
Tax and spend isn't an idea. It's _how_ you tax and _how_ you spend. I
don't mind the left wing notion of high tax and high spending. I mind the
dumb way in which they spend it and (to a lesser extend) the dumb way in
which they tax.
--
Jonathan Peterson
Technical Manager, Unified Ltd, 020 7383 6092
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
