tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993014.post1650041247274334884..comments2024-01-13T10:12:47.756+00:00Comments on Ranting Stan: Not as bad as I expectedUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993014.post-54265045673359299282007-05-28T21:41:00.000+01:002007-05-28T21:41:00.000+01:00Well, you're quite right that those old Labour soc...Well, you're quite right that those old Labour socialists wouldn't have liked being labelled as conservative, but in the modern context they make your average Tory front bencher look positively Marxist - but I was careful to use conservative with the small c.<BR/><BR/>Good point about "intelligent and dynamic" leaders, btw - something which there is a scarcity of these days.Stanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15007863347348182876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993014.post-44503281300508777472007-05-28T11:43:00.000+01:002007-05-28T11:43:00.000+01:00I doubt very much that Attlee, Bevin, Bevan and Mo...I doubt very much that Attlee, Bevin, Bevan and Morrison would appreciate the label of 'conservative', in whatever context you care to use that term.<BR/><BR/>Admittedly they were of a very different hue from today's socialists, who are probably better described as 'statist', but their quiet and more civilised demeanour did not make them 'conservative'. They still viewed politics in terms of the so-called, 'class warfare'. <BR/><BR/>That they did not have the intelligence or intellect to manage the victory, which they eventually won when the welfare state was created, says much of the socialist ethos of the 'group, or committee', with no-one wishing to take the responsibility for decisions, finding some sort of safety 'within the group'.<BR/><BR/>Present day socialists seek the limelight, but have found other ways of avoiding responsibility for their errors, notably blaming their predecessors, or by simply denying that any error has occurred. - ('The NHS has never been in better shape' - Beckett, April 2007.)<BR/><BR/>Without intelligent, dynamic leaders, any project will decline, as we have seen, to our cost, over the past fifty years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993014.post-44035553593331579262007-05-27T23:17:00.000+01:002007-05-27T23:17:00.000+01:00The motives behind the creation of the welfare wer...The motives behind the creation of the welfare were, as you note, very worthwhile. It's worth pointing out that the "socialists" of that time were, essentially, still very much conservative.<BR/><BR/>The fact that it only took a generation for the welfare state to become a "freeloaders paradise" is something that I attribute to what I call "value recognition". By that, I mean that people attribute a value to everything they have or have access to and no one values things they get (or perceive as getting) for nothing.<BR/><BR/>The French pragmatism is,in fact,no more affordable than ours when it comes to socialism. They are heading for a pensions crisis that makes ours look insignificant in comparison. The simple truth - for France, Britain and every other nation is that you have to live within your budget and you have to budget within your means.Stanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15007863347348182876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993014.post-53761169952407997862007-05-27T22:12:00.000+01:002007-05-27T22:12:00.000+01:00The main drawback with the NHS and indeed all of t...The main drawback with the NHS and indeed all of the post war welfarism, was not just the lack of foresight re future funding, but the introduction of the British public to the concept of the 'free lunch'. Thereby encouraging a once basically honest, responsible, and proud nation, to a 'rights demanding' bunch of apathetic free loaders and scroungers.<BR/><BR/>As a result, that which was created with the the best possible motive and the highest of intentions, has been reduced to a freeloaders paradise, and all that was once valued, has been reduced to a shadow of the original intention by the over-use and abuse of those who have never had to fight for the essentials of a civilised life.<BR/><BR/>Such is the way of socialism.<BR/><BR/>Coupled with a series of the most inept leaderships of any postwar government in the latter half of the twentieth century, such a decline has been inevitable. <BR/><BR/>Even the French manage to pragmatise their version of socialism so that it works in some worthwhile degree, while our dogma laden class warriors continue to fight ninteenth century battles.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com