The Coalition: Cameron’s Fig Leaf

The Polemicist

by Michael House

LONDON England—(Weekly Hubris)—3/14/11—The last Labour government in Britain was appalling. The dreadful Blair was followed by the almost-as-bad Brown.

The score after 13 years in power was: a catastrophic illegal war that made Britain a legitimate target for every Muslim terrorist; the destruction of civil liberties by an increasingly authoritarian government; cozying up to Big Business and allowing cowboy capitalists like Rupert Murdoch a free hand, in exchange for support in his newspapers; letting the banks effectively regulate themselves, leading to a catastrophic recession; presiding over a society in which the rich got richer and the poor got poorer; and a daily diet of spin, lies and cover-ups.

They had to go, whatever the cost.

The alternatives were limited. The Conservatives (Tories) were as bad if not worse. The Liberal Democrats, the best of the bigger parties, were always the victims of our undemocratic “first past the post” system. The Greens, my preferred option, were tiny and unlikely to make an impact.

The only result that was both realizable and that got Labour out of power was for the Tories to be the biggest party, with the Lib-Dems holding the balance of power.

So, we would have a minority Tory government, whose worst excesses could be checked by the other two main parties combining.

Sadly, it didn’t work out like that. The Lib-Dem leadership, seduced by the prospect of power for the first time since Lloyd George (Prime Minister, 1916-1922), prostituted themselves by joining a coalition. David Cameron, the Eton-educated Tory millionaire, became Premier, and Nick Clegg, the right-wing leader of the Lib-Dems, another public schoolboy toff,* became Deputy PM.

Having torn each other apart during the election campaign, they bonded in a way not seen in political life since the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939.

Cameron used the huge public spending deficit Labour had built up (by bribing the electorate over 13 years) as an excuse to dismantle the Welfare State. He pretended that the British people were “all in it together,” while slashing expenditure on public services. Of course, he knew full well that such cuts always hit the poorest hardest. But by privatizing public services, he could put lots of cash into the hands of his fat-cat capitalist friends, who would then make generous donations to his party funds. He was able to introduce a right-wing ideological agenda in the guise of measures to deal with the deficit.

Cameron has played his hand very skilfully. He has made a huge effort to show that the Tories are no longer the “nasty party,” by a measure of social liberalism. The man who voted for a ban on schools’ “promoting” homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle is now a supporter of civil partnerships and has gays in his government. The only area of public expenditure protected, other than health, is overseas aid. He has defied the right wing of his party over the coalition and by appointing some “liberal” Tories to his cabinet of millionaires.

But all this is a cover for an extreme right-wing economic agenda. He has tried to mitigate the worst excesses of his slash-and-burn policies by promoting something called “the Big Society.”  What it means, in practice, is that instead of the government providing basic services, they will be provided by volunteers, who will set up and run schools, sweep the streets, etc. They will have copious free time, because they will have been sacked from their jobs in the public service. In essence, people will be doing for free what they were once paid to do.

It is total nonsense, but it gives a veneer of coherence to an attack on public services that even Mrs. Thatcher (of odious memory) didn’t dare attempt.

Instead of trying to rein in these appalling policies, the Lib-Dem leadership is actively supporting them, including some figures supposedly on the left of the party, like business secretary Vince Cable. He is both a fig leaf and a safety valve (and a very mixed metaphor). He is licensed to make bellicose noises about bankers’ bonuses, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, another public-school millionaire, allows business to proceed as usual. And the Lib-Dem rank and file, trusting good old radical Vince, don’t make too much fuss about the excesses of the coalition.

The result is predictable. Betrayed Lib-Dem voters are flocking to the Labour Party, while the Tories remain fairly popular and Big Business pours money into their coffers. The Lib-Dems face a wipeout at the next general election. In a by-election this week, the Lib-Dems slipped from second place to 6^th, losing 13 percent of their vote. Nick Clegg will find that his party will pay a heavy price for his personal ambition and treachery. The result will be either a Tory government or a Labour government with an absolute majority.

Two equally appalling prospects.

It is reported that George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton are getting together to set up the National Institute for Civil Discourse. The organization, based in Arizona, is committed to introducing and encouraging civility in American politics.

Among the board members will be Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren.

Some situations are beyond parody.

The Pakistan minister for religious minorities has just been shot and killed. Shahbaz Bhatti was the only Christian member of Pakistan’s cabinet. He had campaigned against the country’s prehistoric blasphemy laws. He was on his way to work when his car was riddled with bullets. He had earlier complained about the lack of security the government was providing him.

In January, another campaigner against the blasphemy laws, Salman Taseer, governor of the Punjab, was killed by his own bodyguard. When the killer was brought to court, he was applauded by a crowd of lawyers and showered with rose petals.

The current law provides the death penalty for insulting Islam.

An aide to the President told the press, “This is a concerted campaign to slaughter every liberal, progressive and humanist voice in Pakistan.”

Psychotic Muslim thugs are destroying the rule of law in Pakistan (such as it is.)

Score two more deaths for religion, to go with the millions that have gone before.

*Editor’s Note: “toff” is a juicy little noun used in the UK (a variant of “tuft,” meaning “titled college student”) to signify a “dandy,” or “swell.”