The Tories have tacitly made a very important concession
When back in 2013 Labour leader Ed Miliband announced a 20-month freeze on energy bills the Conservative Party went into paroxysms of rage. The announcement was a ‘con’ that would not be out of place on the pages of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, according to the Tories.
These were not the shrill cries of the party’s backbenches, either. No, they were the words of no less than the prime minister and the chancellor. Commenting on Labour’s 2013 price freeze announcement, they said at the time:
“We have to address the causes of prices, rather than effectively come up with what is a con.”
– David Cameron, 10 October 2013.
“I know he wants to live in a Marxist universe. He needs a basic lesson in economics.”
– David Cameron, PMQs, 9 October 2013.
Meanwhile the chancellor George Osborne described the energy freeze as something out of Das Kapital.
Conservative cheerleaders in the press didn’t hold back either. Here was Allister Heath in the right-wing newspaper City AM:
“…price controls have been tried thousands of times throughout history in hundreds of different markets and always fail“.
So what do we take from this? Well presumably that all price controls are nascent signs of Marxsim-Leninism that ought to be thoroughly opposed by all right-thinking people.
And yet what’s this we see coming over the horizon today? Only a Conservative party promise of a …rail fare price freeze.
There is already a restriction in place limiting increases in fares to RPI (retail prices index) inflation which has been in place for two years. However under today’s Conservative proposals this will be extended until 2020, saving, so the Tories claim, around £400 per rail commuter.
A price freeze in other words – and the sort of thing the Tories previously decried as an unfailing sign of incipient socialism.
It would be an exageration of course to claim that we are all Marxists now, but there is hope: the Tories have with this policy tacitly made a very important concession to the left: that market mechanisms by themselves do not – and cannot – solve all of our problems.
Welcome aboard, comrades – perhaps we’ll see you in Cuba over the summer…
James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
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16 Responses to “David Cameron comes clean: he’s secretly a Marxist”
Helenpat
And like Stalin the Tories aren’t above fixing elections – especially in Rutland – see http://www.rutlandshire.blogspot.com for account of what happened in 2011 – the Returning Officer had a note attached to her file. But it’s 2015 and it seems we’re going to have fewer weapons to fight electoral fraud this time.
Rutland had highly irregular actions and decision in 2011 on seven
recounts for one seat.
Having complained earlier this week to the Electoral Commissioner’s Office on a number of
issues over the 2015 election namely:
1. Candidates will only be able to attend the count for their own
election. They will not be admitted before their count or permitted to
stay in the chamber after their count has been completed.
2. The Returning Officer usually insists that no one will be allowed to take photographs in the counting chamber.
3, County Council and Parish Council Ballot boxes will be shipped to
Melton for the General Election count at 10 pm on 7th May and then
shipped back to Oakham for the 2 pm County Council count on 8th May in
the Victoria Hall.
4. Bloggers and social media will not be permitted into the counting
chamber – only requests to attend from mainstream accredited media will
be considered.
5. 2011 local election was reported to the Electoral Commissioner –
seven recounts which involved breaches of rules including removal of
votes from the table before reconciliation and return of votes to the
table with more in the piles than removed. Conservatives handled votes –
reported on rutlandshire.blogspot.com
I got this email back from the Commissioner’s Office – seems like
a fix for the Tories to me with the collusion locally of press, police
and judging by this reply from the Electoral Commissioner’s Office too!
Sxxxxxxxx Sxxxxxx
17:04 (6 hours ago)
to me
Dear Ms Pender
Thank you for your recent call to the Electoral Commission.
By
law the proceedings at the count have to be kept secret and for that
reason we strongly advise Returning Officers not to allow the use of
photography or mobile phones at a count. The Returning Officer would
have been acting in accordance with the law and our guidance in not
allowing photography. An election count is not open to the general
public and attendance is governed by legislation. Candidates and their
agents can attend the count in which they are standing but they have no
right to be present at other counts that may be taking place in the same
venue. Indeed having people present who have no right to be there can
impede the counting process and so we make it clear to Returning
Officers that once a particular count has been concluded the Returning
Officer can ask all those involved in that count to leave the count
venue.
With regard to the count at the 2015 UK Parliamentary
election we have looked at the plans prepared by Melton Borough Council
for the count for the Melton and Rutland constituency and are happy with
them . We have no reason to believe that the local Rutland count will
be anything other than effective and carried out in accordance with the
rules and our guidance.
Kind regards,
Stephanie
Sxxxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx
Public Info Officer
The Electoral Commission
3 Bunhill Row
London
EC1Y 8YZ
Fax: 020 7271 0665
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk
So it appears there won’t be any pictures transmitted from any marginal seat by any TV station this election!