Sunday 4 December 2011

AIN'T IT JUST SO...?


*Chris Riddell in the Observer.                                                                  Click to enlarge

21 comments:

  1. I agree that the current display in mainstream westminster politics is disgusting.

    The right celebrates the fact that we now have echoes of the 1980s

    The left celebrates that this echo gives them political advantage...

    all the while the poorest get poorer ...

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  2. Deano

    the rich get richer and the poor get poorer

    Just an inevitable consequence of Capitalism tear the system down its the only way the best way.

    Take all the Capitalist roadsters and execute them in front of their families.......Clarkson style

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  3. Capitalism has generated more wealth on this earth, and pushed living standard up higher than socialist centralist economics ever did.

    Its all a question of regulation, and progressive taxation.

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  4. Deano

    You mean Capitalism used more resources quicker with more waste than any other economic system before or since surely?

    as for living standards it was Partys of the left which forced limited income equality on the capitalism system.

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  5. Cuts even in Klosters!

    Financier Nat Rothschild has his main residence in the resort. The banking scion has been seen driving around Klosters' twisting roads in a vintage Ferrari with his friend Peter Mandelson.

    Now which party is Peter in Niko?

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  6. Capitalism has generated more wealth on this earth, and pushed living standard up higher than socialist centralist economics ever did.

    The only growth for decades has been in debts to cover up the fact that we have gone past the limits to growth.

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  7. I think you both have points. First of all, I agree with what you say Dean about a return to the 80s, only I think probably worse.

    The Left may feel that it gives them political advantage but I'm not sure that that is what is showing in the polls. Most polls show Labour in the lead (in Westminster politics) The Tories only 3-4 points behind and usually the Liberals trailing at under 10%.

    The poor are certainly getting poorer, and of course so are some of the moderately well off, although for them it may mean going somewhere cheaper on holiday and coming down a star in hotels, whilst for the very poor it means going hungry or cold, or both.

    Every time I knock on the door of the guy downstairs from me, he comes to answer with a scarf and hat on! And he and his wife are in work. What a life!

    Niko: I'm thinking that socialism always ended up the same. Don't tell me that the average Soviet or Albanian, Chinese or Vietnamese in the 80s was in any way as well off as the average worker in the UK under the dreaded Thatcher (who bears a huge amount of the blame for this mess).

    So that's not the answer either.

    Certainly, Dean, the capitalist system has generated wealth, but as we can see, while the average worker got a rise of 1% last year, the average fat cat director took himself 49%. It's all very well generating wealth, but if you take it all for yourself, it's not doing my neighbour much good.

    As for raping the planet of resources Niko, I think that all you need to do is look at pictures of East and West Germany around 20 years ago. The factories, the chimneys, the rivers....

    I think socialism used as much in the way of resources, they just made less of them.

    What is wrong with both these systems is human nature. Greed.

    Simple.

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  8. CH: I always thought that Peter Mandelson was in the Peter Mandelson Party, and that it was loosely affiliated to the Tony Blair Party, which bought over the Labour Party and asset stripped it.

    Peter and Nat, huh? Well, well!

    And yes, I agree with you that the whole thing has been a great big Ponsy scheme since the 80s, when a certain woman made it all about finance and not about actually making things.

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  9. Niko: I agree with you that the then Labour Party (which bears no resemblance to the current Labour Party) did, with the unions, bring about a vast improvement in living standards for the working classes and indeed many of the lower middle classes (teachers, nurses, firemen, etc). Wages, housing, sanitation, and much more.

    It seems that they were aided by the determination of the men who came back from the second world war to fight against the bosses determination that things should revert to normal now that the nasty work was done, and all the heroes could just go back to tipping their caps to their betters.

    The movement made huge strides forward in the 50s and 60s against vested interests and governments that couldn't understand all this equality nonsense.

    But it started to go wrong in the 70s when the balance of power had completely shifted and men started going on strike for the most ridiculous reasons. Hard toilet paper, nasty soap... THEY spoiled it; THEY demolished all the work that the brave 50s and 60s trade unionists had done; THEY sickened the public with their constant bickering over nothing; THEY opened the door for Thatcher. And all that that meant for us all.

    Greed again.

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  10. Niko

    It is not the Failure of Capitalism, it is the appropriation of Capitalism and its benefits for the benefit of a criminal gang.

    Gangsterism is what is failing us and we are letting it happen.

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  11. Much more eloquently expressed in 4 lines than I managed in 40 Wolfie.

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  12. 3 lines

    Niko doesn't count.

    Whooooooooooshshhshshshh

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  13. :)

    Auch, he does really!

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  14. Or maybe it is just that he can't count; 2 question, 3 questions referendum?

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  15. On another topic altogether
    but equally as riveting the arrival of the two Panda in Scotland make them more numerous than Tory MPs.

    Thanks to The Road to Independence blog group on Facebook for that one.


    At least the Pandas might breed.

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  16. Well counting may be an issue, I will agree.

    LOL: there are indeed now two pandas and one Tory. Are we sending the pandas to parliament?

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  17. They'd make more sense than Mundell and we could always pit them on the Tory list for two seat at Holyrood.

    That would raise the average IQ on the Tory benches and the entire Opposition's too

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  18. LOL.

    Next time I'm at parliament I can expect Bamboo in the salad?

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  19. Make sure you chew it well as it is very sore on the way out.

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  20. There speaks a man of experience...

    Poor pandas.

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  21. More than you realise, Tris.

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