Just what we need - more quangos!

Hooray!

We're saved!

The ConDem coalition have released their "radical" new document that tells us how they will save Britain - and how will they do it?

More quangos, more agencies, more devolving of power from elected representatives to appointed authorities.

Seriously, the document is vacuous drivel - full of noble sounding phrases which, on examination, amount to precisely nothing. For instance, they promise not to join the euro for the lifetime of this parliament.

Big deal! At best, this parliament is going to last five years - but it's by no means certain that the euro is going to! It's a bit like someone sitting in a lifeboat declaring that they won't climb aboard the Titanic while it's sinking.

They talk about how reducing the deficit is the biggest single issue - but reducing the deficit is never going to be nearly enough. All that will do is reduce the rate at which our debt is growing - it does nothing to reduce the debt itself.

The document is devoid of detail and utterly lacking in direction. I've mentioned before how Clegg and Cameron look and sound like a couple of public school sixth formers trying to be grown up and "adult" - well this document is the sort of thing such sixth formers would come up with.

They might win a school prize for it, but no one would take it seriously.

Jobs for the boys

Perception is a funny thing.

I listened to the joint Con-Dem press conference from the garden of Downing Street yesterday on the radio rather than watch it on television and was, frankly, appalled by the jokey, matey nature displayed by the two men who are supposed to lead us back to prosperity.

However, the media reports of the press conference were almost gushing in their praise for Clegg and Cameron. Had I missed something?

So I watched it later and my first thoughts were not just confirmed - they were reinforced. It wasn't just the inappropriate levity on display at a time when seriousness and gravity was called for, it was that both men appeared to be so lightweight both politically and intellectually.

They looked like boys. They talked like boys.

Neither man said nothing of note or worth - except for Cameron when he mentioned that this was a "progressive alliance". They talked without knowing what they were saying - they just strung together vacuous phrases which it was clear they neither understood or really even bothered to think about.

We're always hearing about the infantilising of society, but even I had realised just how bad it has got. When the leaders of our nation are behaving and looking like a couple of sixth formers let off the leash by the headmaster then you know we've got something to worry about - just about the only thing missing was that they didn't start flicking each other with wet towels.

And back to that "progressive alliance" thing.

Come on Tory voters - don't tell me you didn't notice it. Your dear leader has sold out your principles for that of the opposition. I've known that for years, but when Dave actually said it the blatant confirmation that the Tory party is no longer conservative sent a cold shiver down my spine. God only knows what it did to those who thought Dave was going to get in to Downing Street before throwing off his "mild mannered"cloak and emerge as Dave the conservative superhero.

So I'd really like to know - all you people who have been saying to me "wait and see". I waited and I saw - and what I got was exactly what I expected. How about you?

In the end it's kind of appropriate that as Britain teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, the Union verges on collapse and society totters on the brink of anarchy we have a Con-Dem government.