I Love The Tories - NOT

Soooo, does this mean ALL the things I wanna watch at Christmas wont clash at the same time anymore ??

I thought its the whole point of tv to have top shows at peak times?

does this mean ALL the things I wanna watch at Christmas wont clash at the same time anymore ?? - Azriel

{{By the time the Tories are done I expect the BBC won't be allowed to show their xmas day stuff on xmas day incase people want to watch it.
This is completely barmy- still at least ITV can finally beat Who on a Saturday night (also I think the Tories might be underestimating how crabbit the Who community can be, especially if Who is forced off Saturday night tv by the government).
As far as I am concerned the BBC managed to piss off the last Labour government and the current Tory government- so they must be doing something right
But the notion the BBC needs to be reigned in because people like it to much is completely hat-stand- we pay for it through taxes its suppose to be good and what we want- that's the whole point of it. Punishing the BBC for being successful seems bonkers}}

It's the classic conservative approach.

1. Be opposed to a successful government program on ideological grounds.
2. Cut funding from said program so that it starts to suck.
3. Talk incessantly about how horrible this program is and that it's no good for taxpayers.
4. Cut even more funding to punish the ineffective program.
5. Blame the program and/or its employees for how shit it is now.
6. Eventually privatize what's left of it.

Thanks for reminding me why I hate living in a conservative safe seat

{{I'm off to the polls this week- got two votes not decided on the second one yet- dont you wish you had PR in England? }}}

Eldorion wrote:It's the classic conservative approach.

1. Be opposed to a successful government program on ideological grounds.
2. Cut funding from said program so that it starts to suck.
3. Talk incessantly about how horrible this program is and that it's no good for taxpayers.
4. Cut even more funding to punish the ineffective program.
5. Blame the program and/or its employees for how shit it is now.
6. Eventually privatize what's left of it.

a bit like the welfare benefit system really. most of it is in the hands of dodgy private companies who fuck the poor and disabled every day. ATOS was French and corrupt, and MAXIMUS is from the US and corrupt. The Tories have given contracts to 2 companies who have criminal records in their countries of origin. fuck the Tories.

Wow Eldo, that really does crystallize the conservative program.  

The only thing I'd add is that once it's privatized into multiple companies, claim that the poor who can only afford the cheapest deals are getting no more than they deserve for not working hard enough to pay for better service.

(Ignoring that many of them are working 3 low paying jobs to make ends meet, with no time to spend on education or time with kids, and so the cycle continues.)

Good point, Halfy. Distaste for the poor and blaming them for their situation has unfortunately been a mainstay of politics for as long as politics has really been a thing. It's a lot easier to not care about inequality (or your own privilege) if you assume the people suffering deserve it somehow.



But yeah, conservatives in the West have had great success using that strategy to roll back social programs since stagflation in the '70s undermined the post-War/post-Depression consensus in political economy. And to be fair, that system was obviously not perfect (as the '70s proved) and government is often inefficient and cumbersome. But I think the last 30-40 years have reminded us that while the free market is good at improving standards of living for many people (certainly moreso than Communist regimes did), it's shit at helping the most disadvantaged in society, because capitalists benefit from having an underclass, whose mere existence (and the prospect of joining it if fired) keeps workers in line. It's also beneficial to try to keep enmity strong between the very poor and the rest of the working class, so you get hateful rhetoric like "welfare queen", as if anyone enjoys being on welfare. In the interest of fairness again, it must be admitted that some people do try to game the system, but this is true of every class; the very rich are if anything the worst offenders here.

Mrs Figg wrote:

Eldorion wrote:It's the classic conservative approach.

1. Be opposed to a successful government program on ideological grounds.
2. Cut funding from said program so that it starts to suck.
3. Talk incessantly about how horrible this program is and that it's no good for taxpayers.
4. Cut even more funding to punish the ineffective program.
5. Blame the program and/or its employees for how shit it is now.
6. Eventually privatize what's left of it.

a bit like the welfare benefit system really. most of it is in the hands of dodgy private companies who fuck the poor and disabled every day. ATOS was French and corrupt, and MAXIMUS is from the US and corrupt. The Tories have given contracts to 2 companies who have criminal records in their countries of origin. fuck the Tories.

NHS is next on the chopping block. They're about halfway through the above process by my best estimate.

I remember a while back the Republicans were trying to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control. What their reasoning was escapes me; probably something along the lines of "don't throw money into elite scientific based institutions that benefit the masses".