Voting TaKtiX

Would it work?:

Do you think that if we ran a publicity campaign to let people know that the left/right distinction is French, then we could rely on latent British Francophobia to finally abort the distinction?

Well, something has to. “The Lib Dems move Right”, “That’s a left-wing policy”. Um, no. It’s neither. left vs right is and ill-defined, misunderstood term that is abused by the commentariat (especially in the MSM) who show little understanding of the history. (more…)

So, Charles Kennedy announces he will not now run for leader:

it had become clear he did not have strong enough support among MPs and had decided to quit with immediate effect.

Good. Having been reading blogs and comments in many locations, it had become clear to me, as with many others, that, no matter how much we like the bloke, his position was untenable. I wish him well, hope he can recover from his problems and, specifically, hope that he can both remain in politics and return to a frontbench position at some point; talent such as his should not be thrown away. So…

Where now?

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Right, it’s all Chris’s fault, he started it. Then another Chris decided to join in, and Gav joined the bandwagon. Thing is guys? It’s, um, a little old hat. Did it back in October. As always, I put it on the Journal, but in this case I think I’ll repeat a bit of my comment on it here:

Essentially, I’m strong on social freedoms, but strong on social protection. The problem with these things is it judges a desire to give a safety net and an equal start to everyone as being economically controlling, and makes me non economically permissive.

Wrong! I’m a strong believer in the principles of a market economy, the Market is undoubtedly the most efficient means of distribution and exchange yet discovered, and it’s pretty good with assessing the value of an individual product, as long as it is a functioning market.

The thing is, I don’t believe in corporate ownership, and would rather shop in small, local businesses than chain stores whenever possible. But every tick in favour of controls on corporations makes me “less” in favour of economic freedoms. This isn’t tied to online tests, it’s endemic within commentary on economics. It’s assumed you’re either ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ economically, there doesn’t seem to be any understanding of the difference between social justice, fair trade and a functioning market analysis.

It is the natural order of a capitalist market to merge and acquire, potentially leading to oligopolies, cartels and anti-competetive practices. In order for a market to continue to function, you need a system of preventing cartels. The best way to do this is to decentralise, and rely on small to medium sized businesses for your economic backbone.

These simplistic online tests assume that because I believe in a strong safety net and because I’m not a fan of massive conglomerates that I’m economically controlling. I’m not, I ideally want to take economic power away from the centre and the state as much as possible. I’ll stop repeating myself now.

Instead, I’ll point out that Paul and I also did Chris Lightfoot’s Political Survey thing during the election campaign, and I didn’t note at the time but will now; Chris^[1]? You’ve got socialist and free market as being polar opposites. They’re not, socialism is a system of ownership, a market is a system of distribution and exchange, you mean socialist vs capitalist; not all capitalist economies are market driven, and socialism (note the small ’s’) doesn’t preclude a market as a system of setting value; Socialism and Marxism do, but they’re not the only systems you can have.

Oh, on the grounds that Livejournal allows a much better category system than Blogger, if anyone wants to read my more light hearted and/or older pre-blog observations, they’re here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/matgb/tag/politics

[1] Regrettably Chris Lightfoot died since this post was written, but the survey is still live, and he did the courtesy of explaining in the comments here that the axes are based entirely on survey results and the descriptors are what people believe rather than what technically is.

On a purely entertaining level, I like Boris. On a political level, sometimes I read him and agree with every word, othertimes I disagree vehemently. Sometimes, like today, I chuckle at his attempt to play partizan, and note that he, like many others, completely misses the point:

I am slapping a preservation order on Charlie Kennedy, and listing him as a Grade One landmark of our culture

Are the LibDems left wing? Right wing? In the mythical “centre ground”? Boris thinks that the party having disagreements over policy is evidence of doublethink. No, not really Boris, it’s evidence of the party being a broad church coalition. (more…)

Well, the Tory leadership contest is once again making the news, and we might get an idea about who is in charge at some point before Christmas. Musings from Middle England has aan amusing round up here. The scary thing for me is that I grew up under Thatcher, and I had no doubt whatsoever by the time I was old enough to vote that the Tories were the enemy and must be defeated. It wasn’t, really, the economic policies that bothered me about them, it was the illiberal lock them up, hand ‘em and flog ‘em approach they took to all crime, criminals, people with long hair, young people who like to party, etc.
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