Good Lord!
I agree with George Monbiot…
For the first time in my life I resent paying my taxes. Until now I have seen this annual amputation as a civic duty – like giving blood – necessary to sustain the life of a fair society. Suddenly I see it as an imposition. Its purpose has reverted to that of the middle ages: subsidising the excesses of a parasitic class. A high proportion of the taxes I pay will be used to bail out companies which, as the Guardian’s current investigation shows, have used every imaginable ruse to avoid paying any themselves.
Last week, I forked out a four figure sum to the HMRC and resented every penny, for those very reasons.
We are trapped in a spiral of political alienation. Politics isn’t working for us, so we leave it to the politicians. The political vacuum is then filled with heartless, soulless, gutless technocrats: under what other circumstances could political ghosts like Jack Straw, Geoff Hoon, Alistair Darling, Hazel Blears, Peter Mandelson or John Hutton remain in office? Unmolested by the public, corporate lobbyists collaborate with this empty political class to turn parliament into a conspiracy against the public. Revolted by these phantoms, seeing nowhere to turn, we withdraw altogether, granting them even richer opportunities to exploit us.
Yup. Indeed so. I realised this some years ago. That is why I left the Labour Party. Anyone who continues to support these people is both morally and intellectually bankrupt.
I can’t say that I agree with some of George’s solutions. I did, once, but no longer. Reform of the Lords has been a fudged disaster, so leaving it to Labour to fulfil its manifesto promise of 1997 would be chucking kerosene on a conflagration and I don’t have a problem with the idea of MPs moonlighting. Indeed, I would go one further and have them employed as MPs on a part time basis, in which case, they would have no option but to support themselves in the real world. This might make them more responsible when it comes to legislation – and too busy to mess about with unnecessary legislation.
Today Nick O’Donovan, a British academic working in the US, launches a movement in the United Kingdom built overtly on the MoveOn model. Dosomethingaboutit.org.uk is a rolling petition which seeks to ensure that the people who sign up don’t lose touch with each other. When there’s an important vote in parliament or when the government is threatening to shut down a useful public service or to waste our money on subsidising the rich, it will set up a petition and mobilise its members.
I watch with interest…
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