HAVING only just recovered from his first spasm, Roger Brewis has taken another dose of Labour laxative, and has besmirched your columns again with the results. These rantings are concentrated on reviling our sitting MP with wild, unfounded allegations and his own rabid outdated opinions.
We must always remember that New Labour is the party of lies and smears, leak and spin. That its supporters are desperate and have only these traits in their armoury with which to fight the next election is only too apparent. However, this standpoint is as flimsy as the government's record.
One of the first things that 'Gormless' Gordon did in 1997, was to relieve the Bank of England's authority to supervise all other commercial banks, and thereby opened the floodgates for his 'boom' economy, which his blinkered, short-term outlook required in order to stay in power.
Brown's prosperity required a record borrowing commitment – this country at present has a deficit of £250 billion and a debt commitment that stretches into the next century – and was based on massive consumer debt and unlimited easy credit. Any junior economists could explain to Comrade Brewis and his coven of Labour activists the stupidity of such a policy, but as Labour has always been the economically simple-minded party, it cannot envisage a long-term scenario.
Thus I must not get too technical for the poor man, but hope to guide his memory a little. Very early in this Labour incumbency, Blair spoke about 'education, education and education.' What he meant was 'training, training, training.' But training for what?
This country has been haemorrhaging jobs for the last two decades, and whilst this government has been good at creating utterly useless training schemes, it has also been good at discouraging the expansion of private sector enterprises, by way of increases in business rates, intrusive local bureaucracy, unqualified and semi-literate applicants for jobs and by the stealthy imposition of extra taxes. But judging from his half-baked rants, Mr Brewis is unable to understand such matters.
What Brown did provide – indeed, must be congratulated for – was creating 1.2 million jobs in the public sector. He is also going to create 100,000 more in the near future. This promise together with his intention to borrow even more money must make him the biggest financial idiot of all time! All these new jobs, most of which are sinecures – reference The Guardian – carry super-inflated salaries, high-faluting titles like 'diversity awareness executive,' maximum 'perks,' extended holidays and, of course, protected final-salary pensions. The latter liability presently stands in excess of £1trillion, which Brown merely writes off the books. At the same time, however, he still plunders the private pension funds.
I appreciate that most of this will be way over Mr Brewis's head hence his concentration on abusing Mark Harper. Rather pathetic, though, isn't it? Especially when he accuses him of being militaristic. Surely not even a typical Labour bigot can ignore our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan orchestrated by Blair and Brown, sending young men to their deaths with sub-standard kit, so that they themselves can posture on the world stage. Brown is even now planning to send the Fleet to the eastern Mediterranean in one of his puny gestures at international statemanship.
As regards our MP's euro scepticism, I believe Mr Brewis is on shaky ground here, bearing in mind that a vast majority of the population are of similar thinking. I can think of no better way to perpetuate discredited socialism, and of no better example of its corruption and failure.
But comrade Brewis's portrayal of 'honest' Bruce Hogan, WYSIWG, that shows how panicky the local Labour stalwarts are. I am not implying that Mr Hogan is anything but honest, but does Mr Brewis mean that Hogan is more honest than the rest of the Forest councillors and Mark Harper? Or does he mean that Bruce Hogan is honest and Mark Harper is dishonest, therefore vote Hogan next time?
Whichever, it is a rather puerile plea even by Labour's standards! If we consider this government's record since 1997, bearing in mind their swift embrace of wealth and big business, and the consequent disgraceful scandals it brought about, honesty is the least of its attributes. As I and other political commentators have said 'lies and smears, leak and spin' – those are Labour or New Labour doctrines. Doctor Brewis will have to do better than a childish 'honesty' stance! – Cy Roberts, Coalway.