Longrider

A report has determined that selfish adults are responsible for damaged childhood.

The aggressive pursuit of personal success by adults is now the greatest threat to British children, a major independent report on childhood says.

Oh? Really?

Family break-up, unprincipled advertising, too much competition in education and income inequality are mentioned as big contributing factors

Look, parents can counter aggressive advertising. Mine did, my sisters do and it is an introduction to the real world for children. Oh and “inequality” for crying out loud. Inequality is a fact of life – that too is something the sprogs will have to deal with when they enter the adult world.

The report, called The Good Childhood Inquiry and commissioned by the Children’s Society, concludes that children’s lives in Britain have become “more difficult than in the past”, adding that “more young people are anxious and troubled”.

And?

According to the panel, “excessive individualism” is to blame for many of the problems children face and needs to be replaced by a value system where people seek satisfaction more from helping others rather than pursuing private advantage.

Excessive individualism… Oh, dear, that sounds just like something the truly egregious Blunkett would have said – and equally noxious. We can’t have the little darling becoming individuals, can we? oh, no, that wouldn’t do at all.

And the Children’s Society?

Well, with grants from the Department of Health and the Department for Communities and Local Government, it looks suspiciously like a fake charity – and toeing the government line on individualism, I’m almost inclined to suggest that they would say that, wouldn’t they? After all, we can’t have future drones growing up as individuals and challenging their masters, can we?

Via Chicken Yoghurt, I see that the Flying Rodent takes exception to Iain Dale pointing out that the BNP are, in fact, a party of the left, rather than as is usually stated in the media the “far right”:

Thus does prominent Tory blogger Iain Dale summarise his belief that the BNP are left wingers, much to the joy of his readership. It’s perhaps the most stark example of the UK’s internet-enabled culture of emboldened, self-confident stupidity and belligerent ignorance as I’ve seen.

Yes, well, if you are going to accuse someone of ignorance, it’s generally a good idea to avoid indulging oneself…

The blunt stupidity of the piece is so blatant that I imagine the argument from authority itself finds it embarrassing. The evidence presented for the leftism of the BNP amounts to a) they support nationalisation and b) that’s it.

The BNP’s manifesto is collectivist in nature. Collectivism is a left-wing ideology. Of course, this only applies if we revert to the original meanings of left and right to refer to economic policy (as opposed to the idiocy of those who assume that right-wing means “not agreeing with me” as some of the lefty bloggers will have it).

I am, for the purposes of this essay, doing just that. Left-wing and right-wing therefore are references to economic policy and nothing else. The left is a philosophy of public ownership of the means of production – encapsulated in the Labour party’s clause 4. The right prefer a free market approach and are liberal on economic matters. The BNP wishes to nationalise the railways for example – this is a left-wing philosophy.

Some snippets from their manifesto for your delectation:

We further believe that British industry, commerce, land and other economic and natural assets belong in the final analysis to the British nation and people.

…..

Renationalise monopoly utilities and services,compensating only individual investors and pension funds

…..

Only nationalism can deliver a successful economy and a prosperous people.

These statements are not, by any stretch of the imagination, right-wing. If you have the patience, a read through the manifesto will determine that the BNP is an extremely authoritarian (and racist) organisation, but it is not right-wing.

Anyway, back to the Rodent:

To say that there’s a lot more evidence for their right wing credentials is a wild understatement. The BNP advocate the hang ‘em and flog ‘em politics beloved of Britain’s rowdy right wing. They blame the country’s problems on the EU, immigrants, the Human Rights Act and a sinister liberal, left wing elite intent on destroying the country. Their politics are a melange of the kind of bullshit victimhood and bellicose race-baiting that would give the average Mail reader a raging hard-on – gun ownership, corporal and capital punishment, execution for paedos, shutting the borders, those bloody queers… The list goes on and on.

The problem with this little rant is that none of these issues has anything whatsoever to do with economic policy – they are on the other political scale; the authoritarian/libertarian axis, which is where most of the BNP’s policies reside. It is perfectly possible to be left-wing economically and yet authoritarian – the two are not mutually exclusive. And while we are at it; racism is not the preserve of the right.

For another – objective – opinion the Political Compass provides a picture of the British Political landscape:

Well, well, well, what have we here? The BNP are (correctly) positioned on the authoritarian left. That is because they are – as Iain points out – a left-wing party. It is also worth noting that it is Labour voters who are shifting allegiance to the BNP. Why is this? No, I’m not offering prizes.

When Iain Dale says that the BNP belong to the left in political theoretical terms, he means according to the ludicrous criteria that I have just pulled out of my arse.

No, it is because that is what an objective assessment of the BNP manifesto tells us they are. 

In order to assert such a patently boneheaded idea, Dale has to define mainstream conservatism as his own beliefs. Ergo, because he himself is not racist and he doesn’t support nationalisation, the BNP must be left wing, and the fact that this argument is honking, brainless shite matters not a jot.

Oh, hello Mr Strawman, I wondered when you would show up. Dale didn’t say this.

An idiotic statement, argued in idiotic terms for the consumption of other idiots.

Um… Well… If the cap fits and all that…. Oh, sorry, you meant Iain Dale…

Joshing aside, the self avowed left do not like it when it is pointed out that the BNP are their fellow travellers (Dale did say that) – but it is time they became used to the idea. That’s the trouble with politics, one cannot always choose those who travel the same or a similar road. The BNP are the flotsam of British politics and any decent left wing activist will rightly despise them. So, too, will those on the right. But make no mistake, they are a left-wing authoritarian party – any objective assessment of their policies will confirm this. Don’t like it? Tough. Facts are not always convenient and we do not always get what we want in life.

Dale is right, Rodent is wrong. 

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Update: I see that the Rodent has responded. As I suspected – the man is an idiot. Yes, Rodent, the majority of the BNP policies are irrelevant to the left/right axis – this is an observable fact. This was pointed out to you in plain English; a language you clearly have difficulty following. Ultimately, your opinion – utter twaddle that it is – is irrelevant. The facts speak for themselves. The BNP is a left-wing party. You don’t like it? Oh diddums. Grow the fuck up.

That the BNP and the Daily Mail share authoritarian tendencies is not evidence that the BNP are right-wing; it is merely evidence that authoritarianism is found on both the left and the right of the spectrum. Politics is not black and white, left and right, it is multi-faceted. Anyone of reasonable intelligence realises this. Oh, right, yeah… The following arse dribble puts paid to that one:

Readers are free to engage in chit-chat on this blisteringly urgent and endlessly fascinating topic, but as a veteran of such debates I have to warn you that you will find this a bit like bashing your own face with a hot iron. By far the most annoying Libertarian habit is their tendency to announce that their own politics are super-cool new political wizardry that nobody has ever thought of before, thus meaning that every other movement in history is obviously left wing.

Not only that, they have a wondrous habit of shouting Tyranny! on everything from parking fines to the licence fee, which doesn’t make for much constructive dialogue – it’s a bit like talking to the dad on Goodness Gracious Me who thinks everything and everyone remotely admirable is Indian, except with fascism instead. I guess if you define your own politics as Freedom, Doodz! anything else looks like oppression, but the whole concept is so thoroughly infected by the Oooh, did you see him oppressing me there? sketch in The Holy Grail I have a hard time taking it seriously.

Knock yourselves out, but I’m off to do something more enjoyable and productive like rubbing a cheese-grater on my clackersack or downing a few pints of hot sick.

My, oh my, it’s that Mr Strawman again. No, that is not what libertarians believe and never was. Libertarianism is neither left nor right – it isn’t difficult to figure out for those of average intelligence. Although the evidence suggests that for some it clearly is…

The Flying Rodent is another of those cretinous lefties – a paid up member of the Righteous – who label anyone they don’t agree with as right-wing; never mind what the term really means; and who clearly is incapable of understanding just what libertarian philosophy actually is. Still, he is right in one respect – arguing with idiots is a pointless exercise.

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Update: Sunny in the Rodent’s comments:

To be honest though, I don’t bother engaging when idiots make these claims because they’re only trying to convince themselves. It’s trolling, with a pseudo-intellectual veneer.

Anyone who spends time looking up the BNP’s economic policies and judges them solely on that basis is an idiot.

Jeez! Talk about stupid. Look, nowhere have I said that I am judging the BNP solely on their economic policies. I judge them on all of their policies, just as I judge all of the parties fighting an election on all of their policies.

Look, it is really, really simple, so I will type it especially slowly so that you can mouth the words as you read:

Left/right refers to economic policies. On this basis the BNP are left-wing.

Authoritarian/Libertarian refers to the social scale. On this basis the BNP are authoritarian. They are, therefore an authoritarian left-wing party. There, not too difficult was it?

Insisting that you do not conflate your silly opinions with verifiable fact is not trolling. And the only idiots in evidence are those who insist, despite the evidence, that the BNP are right-wing and that illiberal authoritarian polices are on the economic scale – oh and those who pick up on one part of a discussion and project a position based on nothing more substantial than their own prejudices. That would be you, then, wouldn’t it, Sunny?

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Update: In response to some of the comments, some clarification. Larry Teabag picks up on my linguistic accuracy. He makes a fair point. In my defence, I tend to type as I think, so sometimes these will slip through. So, perhaps, I could have used words such as “measurable” “logical” or “accurate” rather than “original”.

He makes a point that there is more than one interpretation for left and right in political terms. This is true. Does it, however, change the end result? If we look at dictionary definitions for right wing, we will come across terms such as “conservative”,  “resistant to change” and “reactionary”. The problem with all of this is that they are subjective terms and how one interprets them will depend very much on their own position. Are the BNP reactionary? probably so. This,then makes them right wing. However, the Labour party is also reactionary, therefore they are right wing as well. What about conservative? Doubtful. Therefore it’s back to the left, then. How about resistant to change? Do me a favour – political parties are all about change. Use that as a yardstick and all political parties become left-wing.

If you look up left wing, you will see terms such as “progressive” and “liberal”. Liberal is probably one of the most abused words in political parlance. Ask an American and they will be referring to the left. Ask a Frenchman and he will be referring to the right. The problem with the left liberal concept is that it is an oxymoron. Collective policies will not work without coercion, forcing citizens into obedience against their will. It is not, therefore, liberal. The liberal is laissez faire and therefore belongs on the right – that is, if we only use the mono-dimensional left/right axis. The BNP and the Labour Party are not, by any stretch of the imagination liberal – they are authoritarian. Indeed, in comparison, the Conservative party are liberal.

Using the definitions given us by the Political Compass at least provides something that is measurable. Collective polices reside on the left as they are built on state control and interference to work – big state, if you like. By this measure, the BNP are left-wing. It doesn’t matter which way you slice this one, it keeps coming back to the same position; left on economics and authoritarian on social. Make a point of labelling them racist if you like; but if you seriously believe that racism is confined to the right, you are deluding yourself and have lost contact with the real world. So while I note Larry’s point about use of language, it doesn’t alter the final analysis.

One final point before putting this to bed – Larry makes the classic mistake of extrapolating a position that I have not taken:

OK Longrider, I get it. When Iain Dale and you say that the BNP is left wing according to economic criteria (which it is), you are political theorists exploring a valid argument. But when anyone responds that under other criteria the BNP is right wing (which it is), they are idiots and snobs throwing around lazy insults.

If I was doing this, I would have made similar comments about him and Tom P. I did not and this should have been a sufficient clue. I called the Rodent and Sunny idiots and snobs because they chose to behave as such. Their comments were puerile and palpably patronising. The opprobrium was aimed specifically at them for a purpose; it was not aimed wildly at everyone who disagrees with me.

Okay – it’s time to call it a day on this one.