Cheap purchase - votes paid for with selfish promises

It struck me as I listened to a major political party making six pledges prior to the election that's bound to come soon ... every one of their pledges started with the word "YOUR". It was "YOUR health", "YOUR school", "YOUR job" ... and it struck me that they're appealing to the selfish worst in everyone. This is the Labour party - our "left" - and it's reminiscent of the worst that they were complaining about in the Conseervative Party in Margaret Thatcher's day - the capitalist "me" culture as they would have described it. But at least Maggie was encouraging wealth generation to stimulate the economy and bring the willing along; I've an uneasy feeling that this lot will do it by higher taxes. Tell trainees on a course to allow for a changing VAT rate in a program (always best programming practise to anticipate the need for change) and you get howls of laughter if you suggest the rate may go down, and a glum look of realism if you say it may go up.

The selfishness is sad. But where it's at the expense of people who want to join our society and work hard for everyone's betterment, it's a tragedy. The UK is a melting pot of nationallities, but there's still a fervour whipped up by talk of people who seek asylum, and people who seek a better life here. There's a fear that there won't be enough jobs to go around, that the country can't cope, and that the indiginous local population will become the minority. The tragedy is that much of that fear is founded only on the words of politicians looking for short term votes.

A vote based on gross misrepresentation and/or narrow minded bias and fear in an election carries just the same weight as a properly informed vote. A loosing canditate may say "but the people who voted for me were better informed" but as there were fewer of them, it doesn't do much good.

In the UK, we've got near-full employment. It's hard to find a good electrician or builder. It's next to impossible to find cleaners and other staff that we need to help in our business in the way we need; at best, we find someone to do a job in their timescale between other jobs to the detriment of how we run. We have yet to find a windowcleaner who can clean all of our windows and not just the bottom of the house. And yet the people are there who want the jobs ... just not able to come and take them up. The political partys seem to be playing a game of "outnastying" each other. Schemes designed to appease the voters, and in the process crushing down those faceless people who aren't here, can't speak for themselves and (the real crux of the matter) don't have a vote.

(written 2005-02-15, updated 2006-06-05) 2d0e

Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles

Z300 - Politics and Religion
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  [3806] 2011 Census results - initial figures for Wiltshire. - (2012-07-17)
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  [3264] Alternative Vote (AV) - explaining and an example - (2011-04-25)
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  [2792] Should Government compete with private industry? - (2010-06-03)
  [2757] Bodicea, Lincoln, and our new MP - (2010-05-09)
  [2752] Voting day - UK General Election - (2010-05-06)
  [2740] Melksham Hustings at George Ward School - (2010-04-26)
  [2712] A more informed decision than ever before - (2010-04-08)
  [2689] Can my dog eat potatoes? Doggie Dietary Research, and political sleaze! - (2010-03-23)
  [2640] How is your tax pound spent? - (2010-02-18)
  [2353] All change - Wiltshire Parliamentary - (2009-08-13)
  [2288] Wiltshire Community Area Partnerships - (2009-07-15)
  [2279] Understanding the new local government structure in Wiltshire - (2009-07-11)
  [2270] Wiltshire - a chance to improve life for everybody - (2009-07-05)
  [2257] Ramblings on church and state linkage in Melksham - (2009-06-25)
  [2206] Spot the odd one out - (2009-05-29)
  [2178] Melksham Candidates for Wiltshire Unitary Election - (2009-05-12)
  [2075] Supporting Parkinsons and Trains - (2009-03-11)
  [2028] Things people say on the phone - (2009-02-06)
  [2012] The Wiltshire Police - (2009-01-29)
  [1987] One Cheer for Local Democracy - Asda in Melksham - (2009-01-11)
  [1882] Wiltshire Council says - part 2 - (2008-11-14)
  [1881] Wiltshire Council says - part 1 - (2008-11-13)
  [1872] Barack Obama wins US Predidency - (2008-11-05)
  [1769] July child ponders on August children - (2008-08-23)
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  [1135] Government pressure on me to shut up after I make the papers - (2007-04-05)
  [1109] False imprisonment - a contrast from the news - (2007-03-15)
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  [875] Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones - (2006-09-22)
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  [607] On being British - (2006-02-14)
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  [539] rich and famous - (2005-12-23)
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  [469] Yesterday was Kiss and Ride - (2005-10-19)
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  [326] UK Tax payment totals and where the money is spent - (2005-05-27)
  [313] Making bona fide international marriages more difficult - (2005-05-16)
  [301] General Election day, UK - (2005-05-05)
  [289] MP for Devizes, Wiltshire - (2005-04-23)
  [280] Spotted - the local MP - (2005-04-15)
  [257] Politics gets nasty. Must be an election coming up. - (2005-03-25)

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