Red Toryism is a return to the smugness of noblesse oblige.
[Blow by blow account of the debate below]
"Will the Bullingdon Club be dining with you tonight Master Cameron? If so I'll cover the floors with plastic to stop the vomit.
"Yes they will my man. Have a shilling for initiative. If only hoi poloi took the initiative like you. Britain would be a much better place to live in for decent people like us."
"Thank you young Master you are so kind."
Do we really want us to go back to this?
David Cameron, you lost.
We don't want to play those old Edwardian parlour games.
Cameron is worse, far worse than Thatcher because of his "Red" Tory philosophy. This philosophy builds on Fukuyama's triumphalist "End of History". Red Toryism constitutes a serious attempt at retrenching Capitalism in Britain. Most ordinary people think something that probably goes something along these lines:
Capitalism is an evil that needs to be ameliorated by the state which is paid for by the people and should serve the people. The state redistributes the money from people who have exploited others for profit and gives some of it back, by right, to the people who need it and who have been exploited for profit.
But with this incredibly cynical Tory Red Shift strategy, we see the lurch towards smug validation of British capitalism, despite all its deep faults. The banking crisis is forgotten. The problem is now the big state sez Cameron. The big state that saved the ass of his friends in the City. Tory hypocrisy piles upon Tory hypocrisy. Cameron's philosophical Red Shift says, instead:
The best form of society is capitalist society. Generating large profits makes a company and a country powerful and "competitive". Those people who act in union to prevent this profit extraction are greedy and unreasonable and, after all, if the poor and needy (ie anyone who can't afford private education, to live for a time without a job, to retire, or to get private health care), require something in difficult times then they should rely on the "generosity" of capitalist benefactors. Noblesse oblige.
The establishment party, the Tory party, uses people like Philip Blond to produce cloaking ideologies and to misinform the general public by appropriating a seemingly "socially concerned" camouflage. That is what our ruling class, our establishment, has always done. It has tried to hide its true nature and to preserve its dominance. That's why we still have a monarchy in Britain in 2010.
______________________
The establishment party, the Tory party, uses people like Philip Blond to produce cloaking ideologies and to misinform the general public by appropriating a seemingly "socially concerned" camouflage.
_______________________
But what is this "Big Society" Cameron is yabbering on about?
Big society, unwrapped, actually means capitalist society. The most powerful people in so called Big Society are Mr and Mrs Biggety Big. The Big companies dominate and rule many people's lives. There is no democracy in a company. You do what you say or you are fired.
For Big Society read Tesco Society, read Goldman Sachs' society. Large companies have the power. They dominate society. So what Cameron's idea really amounts an attempt to dismantle the redistributive apparatus of the state and returning it to its former owners in pre-war times: to the likes of anyone who cares to invest in it and make a profit out of society: to the Tescos, British Aerospaces and the private equity firms like the Kingfishers of this world; to all the companies foreign and domestic companies that hold the real economic power in Britain. That's what Cameron really means by "Big Society".
What the state in Britian has done, in reality, up till now is merely to hold the arena and act as a referee. Cameron wants to change that now. He wants it on the side of big business.
Cameron's class has no need to call on the services of the state, except the services of the police and military to protect its dirtily accumlated wealth:
_____________________
Cameron wants to roll back the state and give it to his Big, society friends.
_______________________________________
Now this is what Philip Blond's red Toryism amounts to. It is a shift in philosophy that builds on Fukuyama's End of history.
If bourgeoisie capitalism, the model of society. Capitalists accumulate. We "compete". Workers accept lower wages to produce higher profit. An endless cycle of deregulation and increasing exploitation continues until we are all earning the wages and living in the conditions of Chinese garment workers. But don't worry. You may have low pay, a weird timetable and not job security, but Britain becomes awfully "competitive".
Philip Blond's gobbledygook is merely an ideological ploy. In fact Red Toryism is not even a philosophy it is only the dregs of a philosophy.
Why has Cameron lost the debate?
I think David Cameron has completely lost any debate for a simple reason:
Cameron wants to bully us all back into the service of Capitalism. He wants to create a service mentality. But look around you. Nobody wants to be "in-service" except the servile. People have expectations. They have rights. They have demands. The British electorate is not naturally servile to the establishment, whether the establishment calls itself the "Big Society" or "Freddy the friendly frog" or "Murdoch, the bear". Democracy, human rights and the right to defend yourself at work and organise and even strike were all seized from the establishment after protracted struggle. We have these rights and powers in spite of Capitalism not because of it.
Remember, in Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian times a vast percentage of the British population, and especially women, were in service. Look back a few generations and it's probable that your forebears were too. You who are thinking of voting Tory. Snap out of it. Your great-great grandmothers were subjugated to the whims, sexual advances, unreasonableness and so called "generosity" of well-off householders and of the establishment. Do you really really want to hand over the ownership and management of our entire social democracy to the private sector? Do you really want the population of Britain to go back into service?
And the job of private people, the social entrepreneurs of their day, was to help the poor and benighted. Your forebears. Cameron's establishment mob want a return to these "good old times". They want private people (while making a profit) to be involved in doling out charity to the likes of you and me when we need it and Cameron's mob want us to be grateful for charity. To be grateful for the jobs the rich provide and to be grateful for the opportunity to be exploited.
But if the British people choose Cameron then they are brain dead or delusional like the Monty Python prisoner egging on his dungeon tormentor in the prison and praising him for doing an excellent job keeping the likes of him in their place.
Cameron is worse than Thatcher. You have been warned.
Round 1 to Brown.
Live debate
20:40
Cameron lying low. Looking nervous. Trying to act self-effacing.
20:41
Brown looking Prime Ministerial. Good point about arbitrary cap. I like the emphasis on tolerance.
20:42
Cameron the former PR MAD man is showing his teeth with that old chestnut: immigration. Appealing to UKIP and to the BNP. It reminds me of all the people, the ultra-right he is allied to in Europe. You can't hide your true views.
20:44
Clegg sounds in tune with Brown.
20:45
Brown is talking about the measures he has actually taken. That's substance.
20:46
Clegg is contradicting himself.
20:47
Concrete policies from Brown. He's winning.
20:48
Another Tory nasty party policy. The unemployed are lazy. Immigrants take our jobs. These are the ideas of Michael Howard's Conservatives. Cameron is showing nothing of the Red Tory bollocks. It's just a PR cover.
Labour and Liberal Democrats win first round.
Law and Order
20:50
So what's this go to do with Red Toryism? Lock em up! Law and order fetishism. Same old nasty Tory Party. Philip Blond is just a patsy, a part of Tory PR spin.
20:51
At least Clegg has a bit more to saw about the causes of crime. That makes his proposals more credible..
20:52
The Tories don't talk about parental responsibility. Brown does. So much for Cameron's spinning.
20:53
Deal with drug addicts. Is Cameron a Daily Mail colomnist? Forced rehabilitation for people on drugs? How many people take soft drugs in Britain? This is the slippery slope fallacy ad infinitem. Clegg has a good analysis. No soundbites. Cameron speaks in pre-election soundbites.
20:55
Cameron is weak here. Because he will not ask for Police accountability
20:57
Brown spiking Cameron's Big Society spiel. Voluntary work is important.Clegg against Knee jerk locking up. Tories in favour.
I'm waiting for Cameron's bullshit about the big society and the attack on the state. Let's hear about the cuts. Thar she blows.....
21:00
Cameron bullshitting about the police. He's planning cuts. How will Cameron do it? Instead of answering he attacks Clegg. Long prison sentence fetishism.
21:21
Cameron blames Brown for bailing out the banks. Come on! Interviewer cuts off Brown. It's a fix! It's a fix! It's a fix!
MPs Expenses
20:04
Clegg shouldn't attack MPs. He is an MP himself. It sounds hypocritical. People want mea culpa.
20:04
Brown the Scot has a good idea. Also he is credible. He is careful with figures, whatever the Tories say.
20:05
Wasn't Cameron one of the Prime culprits. Didn't he actually use a lot more money on expenses than other people, though he was technically "clean".
20:07
Good point of Cleggs. Murky party funding. Nice jab. Lord Ashcroft in his offshore haven in Belize.
SCORE!
20:07
Good point. All of us represent neighbourhoods which deserve representation. Good point. Nice jab at the hereditary peers. Cameron sounding posh. Don't go there David!
20:10
Cameron wants to take representation away from people. His idea is poorly thought out. He is avuncular. Brilliant.
20:11
Cameron is attacking Clegg. Bad move.
20:11
As Cameron and Clegg bite each other, Brown is looking statesman like. We should raise the standard of debate here.
20:13
Clegg paddling away from Brown. But he won't say he does agree with Labour.
20:13
Cameron looking weak. Brown. But I want a more fundamental reform. Good for Brown.
20:15
Good question. Brown. Concrete proposals. Full-time education. Brown is wiping the floor.
20:16
Cameron's going to get elitist pretty quick. Streaming. Same old Tory policy. Support for private education. Sends his child to a state school. Hm. How old is the child? Probably quite young. Let's see what happens to his child in a few years. If he doesn't go to private school like his good old Pa and then on to Oxbridge and the Bullingdon.
20:18
Don't agree with academys at all. Brown should not be saying this. Good that he says he will not cut budgets.
20:19
Discipline in schools. God this is traditional Tory policy! Order children about? I teach in a place where kids are free and they do fine and they mature faster.
20:21
Smaller class sizes. Well said Clegg.
20:22
Attack on the state coming. Same old nasty party. Cameron's attacks are based on anecdotes. This coming from a private school boy whose parents paid tens of thousands for him to study at Eton. Every penny counts? You bet it does. Look where it gets you.
20:23
NI stick. NI money goes back into the state and education.
20:24
6 billion. Complete invention from cameron. Avoiding the challenge from Brown.
20:25
Clegg making cheap comments. Is he a serious contender? He's looking more like a lightweight by the minute.
20:26
Clegg is irritating me. He sounds childish.
20:30
20:31
Brown interrupted at a crucial point again. It's a fix! It's a fix!
By Phil Hall
[Blow by blow account of the debate below]
"Will the Bullingdon Club be dining with you tonight Master Cameron? If so I'll cover the floors with plastic to stop the vomit.
"Yes they will my man. Have a shilling for initiative. If only hoi poloi took the initiative like you. Britain would be a much better place to live in for decent people like us."
"Thank you young Master you are so kind."
Do we really want us to go back to this?David Cameron, you lost.
We don't want to play those old Edwardian parlour games.
Cameron is worse, far worse than Thatcher because of his "Red" Tory philosophy. This philosophy builds on Fukuyama's triumphalist "End of History". Red Toryism constitutes a serious attempt at retrenching Capitalism in Britain. Most ordinary people think something that probably goes something along these lines:
Capitalism is an evil that needs to be ameliorated by the state which is paid for by the people and should serve the people. The state redistributes the money from people who have exploited others for profit and gives some of it back, by right, to the people who need it and who have been exploited for profit.
But with this incredibly cynical Tory Red Shift strategy, we see the lurch towards smug validation of British capitalism, despite all its deep faults. The banking crisis is forgotten. The problem is now the big state sez Cameron. The big state that saved the ass of his friends in the City. Tory hypocrisy piles upon Tory hypocrisy. Cameron's philosophical Red Shift says, instead:
The best form of society is capitalist society. Generating large profits makes a company and a country powerful and "competitive". Those people who act in union to prevent this profit extraction are greedy and unreasonable and, after all, if the poor and needy (ie anyone who can't afford private education, to live for a time without a job, to retire, or to get private health care), require something in difficult times then they should rely on the "generosity" of capitalist benefactors. Noblesse oblige.
The establishment party, the Tory party, uses people like Philip Blond to produce cloaking ideologies and to misinform the general public by appropriating a seemingly "socially concerned" camouflage. That is what our ruling class, our establishment, has always done. It has tried to hide its true nature and to preserve its dominance. That's why we still have a monarchy in Britain in 2010.
______________________
The establishment party, the Tory party, uses people like Philip Blond to produce cloaking ideologies and to misinform the general public by appropriating a seemingly "socially concerned" camouflage.
_______________________
But what is this "Big Society" Cameron is yabbering on about?
Big society, unwrapped, actually means capitalist society. The most powerful people in so called Big Society are Mr and Mrs Biggety Big. The Big companies dominate and rule many people's lives. There is no democracy in a company. You do what you say or you are fired.
For Big Society read Tesco Society, read Goldman Sachs' society. Large companies have the power. They dominate society. So what Cameron's idea really amounts an attempt to dismantle the redistributive apparatus of the state and returning it to its former owners in pre-war times: to the likes of anyone who cares to invest in it and make a profit out of society: to the Tescos, British Aerospaces and the private equity firms like the Kingfishers of this world; to all the companies foreign and domestic companies that hold the real economic power in Britain. That's what Cameron really means by "Big Society".
What the state in Britian has done, in reality, up till now is merely to hold the arena and act as a referee. Cameron wants to change that now. He wants it on the side of big business.
Cameron's class has no need to call on the services of the state, except the services of the police and military to protect its dirtily accumlated wealth:
- They use private education; they don't want their tax money to be spent on state education.
- They use private health care; they don't want their tax money to be redistributed to the NHS.
- They have private pensions; they don't want their tax money to be redistributed to ordinary pensioners.
- They have built up private fortunes from the exploitation of others and speculation; they don't want their tax money to tide the people they exploit over during times of unemployment. Unemployment is a natural state for them. If Cameron stopped working tomorrow his life would not be affected one jot.
_____________________
Cameron wants to roll back the state and give it to his Big, society friends.
_______________________________________
Now this is what Philip Blond's red Toryism amounts to. It is a shift in philosophy that builds on Fukuyama's End of history.
If bourgeoisie capitalism, the model of society. Capitalists accumulate. We "compete". Workers accept lower wages to produce higher profit. An endless cycle of deregulation and increasing exploitation continues until we are all earning the wages and living in the conditions of Chinese garment workers. But don't worry. You may have low pay, a weird timetable and not job security, but Britain becomes awfully "competitive".
Philip Blond's gobbledygook is merely an ideological ploy. In fact Red Toryism is not even a philosophy it is only the dregs of a philosophy.
Why has Cameron lost the debate?
I think David Cameron has completely lost any debate for a simple reason:
Cameron wants to bully us all back into the service of Capitalism. He wants to create a service mentality. But look around you. Nobody wants to be "in-service" except the servile. People have expectations. They have rights. They have demands. The British electorate is not naturally servile to the establishment, whether the establishment calls itself the "Big Society" or "Freddy the friendly frog" or "Murdoch, the bear". Democracy, human rights and the right to defend yourself at work and organise and even strike were all seized from the establishment after protracted struggle. We have these rights and powers in spite of Capitalism not because of it.
Remember, in Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian times a vast percentage of the British population, and especially women, were in service. Look back a few generations and it's probable that your forebears were too. You who are thinking of voting Tory. Snap out of it. Your great-great grandmothers were subjugated to the whims, sexual advances, unreasonableness and so called "generosity" of well-off householders and of the establishment. Do you really really want to hand over the ownership and management of our entire social democracy to the private sector? Do you really want the population of Britain to go back into service?
And the job of private people, the social entrepreneurs of their day, was to help the poor and benighted. Your forebears. Cameron's establishment mob want a return to these "good old times". They want private people (while making a profit) to be involved in doling out charity to the likes of you and me when we need it and Cameron's mob want us to be grateful for charity. To be grateful for the jobs the rich provide and to be grateful for the opportunity to be exploited.
But if the British people choose Cameron then they are brain dead or delusional like the Monty Python prisoner egging on his dungeon tormentor in the prison and praising him for doing an excellent job keeping the likes of him in their place.
Cameron is worse than Thatcher. You have been warned.
Round 1 to Brown.
Live debate
20:40
Cameron lying low. Looking nervous. Trying to act self-effacing.
20:41
Brown looking Prime Ministerial. Good point about arbitrary cap. I like the emphasis on tolerance.
20:42
Cameron the former PR MAD man is showing his teeth with that old chestnut: immigration. Appealing to UKIP and to the BNP. It reminds me of all the people, the ultra-right he is allied to in Europe. You can't hide your true views.
20:44
Clegg sounds in tune with Brown.
20:45
Brown is talking about the measures he has actually taken. That's substance.
20:46
Clegg is contradicting himself.
20:47
Concrete policies from Brown. He's winning.
20:48
Another Tory nasty party policy. The unemployed are lazy. Immigrants take our jobs. These are the ideas of Michael Howard's Conservatives. Cameron is showing nothing of the Red Tory bollocks. It's just a PR cover.
Labour and Liberal Democrats win first round.
Law and Order
20:50
So what's this go to do with Red Toryism? Lock em up! Law and order fetishism. Same old nasty Tory Party. Philip Blond is just a patsy, a part of Tory PR spin.
20:51
At least Clegg has a bit more to saw about the causes of crime. That makes his proposals more credible..
20:52
The Tories don't talk about parental responsibility. Brown does. So much for Cameron's spinning.
20:53
Deal with drug addicts. Is Cameron a Daily Mail colomnist? Forced rehabilitation for people on drugs? How many people take soft drugs in Britain? This is the slippery slope fallacy ad infinitem. Clegg has a good analysis. No soundbites. Cameron speaks in pre-election soundbites.
20:55
Cameron is weak here. Because he will not ask for Police accountability
20:57
Brown spiking Cameron's Big Society spiel. Voluntary work is important.Clegg against Knee jerk locking up. Tories in favour.
I'm waiting for Cameron's bullshit about the big society and the attack on the state. Let's hear about the cuts. Thar she blows.....
21:00
Cameron bullshitting about the police. He's planning cuts. How will Cameron do it? Instead of answering he attacks Clegg. Long prison sentence fetishism.
21:21
Cameron blames Brown for bailing out the banks. Come on! Interviewer cuts off Brown. It's a fix! It's a fix! It's a fix!
MPs Expenses
20:04
Clegg shouldn't attack MPs. He is an MP himself. It sounds hypocritical. People want mea culpa.
20:04
Brown the Scot has a good idea. Also he is credible. He is careful with figures, whatever the Tories say.
20:05
Wasn't Cameron one of the Prime culprits. Didn't he actually use a lot more money on expenses than other people, though he was technically "clean".
20:07
Good point of Cleggs. Murky party funding. Nice jab. Lord Ashcroft in his offshore haven in Belize.
SCORE!
20:07
Good point. All of us represent neighbourhoods which deserve representation. Good point. Nice jab at the hereditary peers. Cameron sounding posh. Don't go there David!
20:10
Cameron wants to take representation away from people. His idea is poorly thought out. He is avuncular. Brilliant.
20:11
Cameron is attacking Clegg. Bad move.
20:11
As Cameron and Clegg bite each other, Brown is looking statesman like. We should raise the standard of debate here.
20:13
Clegg paddling away from Brown. But he won't say he does agree with Labour.
20:13
Cameron looking weak. Brown. But I want a more fundamental reform. Good for Brown.
20:15
Good question. Brown. Concrete proposals. Full-time education. Brown is wiping the floor.
20:16
Cameron's going to get elitist pretty quick. Streaming. Same old Tory policy. Support for private education. Sends his child to a state school. Hm. How old is the child? Probably quite young. Let's see what happens to his child in a few years. If he doesn't go to private school like his good old Pa and then on to Oxbridge and the Bullingdon.
20:18
Don't agree with academys at all. Brown should not be saying this. Good that he says he will not cut budgets.
20:19
Discipline in schools. God this is traditional Tory policy! Order children about? I teach in a place where kids are free and they do fine and they mature faster.
20:21
Smaller class sizes. Well said Clegg.
20:22
Attack on the state coming. Same old nasty party. Cameron's attacks are based on anecdotes. This coming from a private school boy whose parents paid tens of thousands for him to study at Eton. Every penny counts? You bet it does. Look where it gets you.
20:23
NI stick. NI money goes back into the state and education.
20:24
6 billion. Complete invention from cameron. Avoiding the challenge from Brown.
20:25
Clegg making cheap comments. Is he a serious contender? He's looking more like a lightweight by the minute.
20:26
Clegg is irritating me. He sounds childish.
20:28
Cameron contradicting himself. Don't reduce taxes. Reduce taxes. Brown...
Attacking Cameron as a cutter £6 billion Tory cuts.
20:30
So Cameron is trying to spin his cuts. Brown scores!!! Don't put people at risk by withdrawing.
Cameron talking about "Mothercare". Didums. Invest in the economy this year. Don't pull out the money. We have to be responsible.
Clegg is a tosser. Sounds like Vince Cable light.
Brown interrupted at a crucial point again. It's a fix! It's a fix!
Army and defence
20:33
Pwoper. Clegg looks and sounds like a school boy. Cameron's ITV worm is dipping LOW! He looks awfully slick and untrustworthy. What would the Tories have done.
20:35
Why are we in Afghanistan? There is chain of terror. 3/4 come from that border area. Build up. Really?
20:39
Cameron's establishment mates talking to him about modernisation. Clegg reaching out to Cameron. Yuck.
20:40
Cameron looking stiff and fake. Brown looking confident humble and prepared.
20:41
Cameron threatening China. Eeek!
20:42
Cameron looking down his nose. Where's Saatchi and Saatchi when you need them? He's looking posher and posher. He looks worried. He knows he's lost.
Health service
20:46
Brown is making strong promises. Good. We'll hold him to them.
20:47
Cameron using his dead son to win a debating point.
We expand it. Cameron says. How. By privatising it of course.
20:48
Clegg brings in his son too. Yuck.
21:50
PR agent goes into spin. Eeek. Horrible to watch. David Cameron has lost the debate. Code for "Choice driven system"? Privatisation.
Say it Cameron.
PRIVATISATION
21:51
Do you belive a cutter will not cut?
21:52
Good attack on Cameron.
20:53
Cameron is a ridiculous PR man. He's fighting back with anecdotes.
This debate is going to boost Brown enourmously. What a surprise.
20:54
Good attack on top earners.
Interrupted Brown again...three times.
Elderly care
20:56
Nobody believes Cameron. Mr Slick is totally flustered.
20:58
Brown has come into his own.
Health service
20:46
Brown is making strong promises. Good. We'll hold him to them.
20:47
Cameron using his dead son to win a debating point.
We expand it. Cameron says. How. By privatising it of course.
20:48
Clegg brings in his son too. Yuck.
21:50
PR agent goes into spin. Eeek. Horrible to watch. David Cameron has lost the debate. Code for "Choice driven system"? Privatisation.
Say it Cameron.
PRIVATISATION
21:51
Do you belive a cutter will not cut?
21:52
Good attack on Cameron.
20:53
Cameron is a ridiculous PR man. He's fighting back with anecdotes.
This debate is going to boost Brown enourmously. What a surprise.
20:54
Good attack on top earners.
Interrupted Brown again...three times.
Elderly care
20:56
Nobody believes Cameron. Mr Slick is totally flustered.
20:58
Brown has come into his own.
By Phil Hall
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