I do consider my self as a liberal, as in everybody in a country should have as much freedom as possible and not to be constrained by large Government. I also believe in democracy and in accepting the democratic vote. So I find that your statement that “populism continues its worrying progress” as rather alarming. Do you only believe in democracy if your side wins?
Fraser Bailey
4 years ago
‘Or to put it another way: unable to achieve power from voters, certain interests have built it into the working software of democracy itself.’
Very well put, Giles. The liberals (most of whom have never worked at anything productive or useful) have abandoned the working/lower classes over recent decades. The result, in many places, is a populism that seems to me no worse than the liberalism that brought us Iraq and Afghastlystan, rule by and for the banks,the mass movement of people who were often forced to move wherever capital dictated, and many other awful things.
As for Tony Benn, had he come to power the gulags would undoubtedly have followed, probably sooner rather than later.
I would agree and add that the ‘progressive liberals’ from Blair to Obama, taking in the Remain part of the Tory party (Cameron) that held power for so long, also tried, very successfully, to eliminate the Right through the education system. It has moulded a huge part of the educated middle class to accept it’s principles: minorities dictating the way society is run, vast population movement, control of capital by large multinational banks, vast public and private debt and many other aspects of our lives today that need to be challenged and alternatives worked toward.
I do consider my self as a liberal, as in everybody in a country should have as much freedom as possible and not to be constrained by large Government. I also believe in democracy and in accepting the democratic vote.
So I find that your statement that “populism continues its worrying progress”
as rather alarming.
Do you only believe in democracy if your side wins?
‘Or to put it another way: unable to achieve power from voters, certain interests have built it into the working software of democracy itself.’
Very well put, Giles. The liberals (most of whom have never worked at anything productive or useful) have abandoned the working/lower classes over recent decades. The result, in many places, is a populism that seems to me no worse than the liberalism that brought us Iraq and Afghastlystan, rule by and for the banks,the mass movement of people who were often forced to move wherever capital dictated, and many other awful things.
As for Tony Benn, had he come to power the gulags would undoubtedly have followed, probably sooner rather than later.
I would agree and add that the ‘progressive liberals’ from Blair to Obama, taking in the Remain part of the Tory party (Cameron) that held power for so long, also tried, very successfully, to eliminate the Right through the education system. It has moulded a huge part of the educated middle class to accept it’s principles: minorities dictating the way society is run, vast population movement, control of capital by large multinational banks, vast public and private debt and many other aspects of our lives today that need to be challenged and alternatives worked toward.