Purnell Preaching For The State
James "Workhouse" Purnell has had time to think since he resigned from the Cabinet. Unfortunately, thinking doesn't appear to his strongest ability. Since he comes up with platitudinous crap:
"People on the right are very sceptical about the state but people on the left believe the state is a good thing."
So, for lefties like Purnell, the state is automatically a good thing. Probably why Purnell and others who identify themselves as left-wing try so hard to expand it. But was the state under, say, Stalin a good thing? Is the massive state apparatus in North Korea a good thing? And fuck it, let's have a bit of Godwin's Law and ask whether the Nazi state was a good thing?
The people who Purnell puts on the right-wing are sceptical about the state, and with good reason. The state can be a good thing, but only if it is closely controlled and governed using the basic principle that the state should serve the people and not the other way round. And anyone who can say something as stupid, simplistic and wrong as "the state is a good thing" reveals a crucial truth about themselves - they are too dumb to be in government.
Labels: Purnell, State Control, Talkin' Toss
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 4:39 pm
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Not to mention that the various schemes to pay private companies to coerce people into work, which in Purnell's mind represent an admirable public-private partnership, were in fact a huge transfer of our money to corporations with very little effect.
Existing voluntary organisations are the best way of getting disabled & long-term unemployed people equipped with such skills & confidence as will get them back into the workplace. I am not, in fact, completely against state funding for organisations such as the Citizens' Advice Bureau. But I basically think the stste has little role to play.
It should be a matter of admitting that paid jobs are hard to come by these days, especially for unskilled people, & they can better their lot by putting themselves forward & getting some business done. So often, simply compelling people to go on this or that "training" scheme when they don't want to be there is a waste of time. But those who want to get somewhere should be encouraged.
See for example utter shite like this:
http://tinyurl.com/mgp8hy
Not to mention that the whole job centre regime is inefficient:
http://tinyurl.com/5mlfzu
One of the things that pisses me off to fuck is people who don't realise that this isn't 2007, we're in a recession & things are totally different. Things that could have at least pretended to be a good idea then are now irrelevant & inappropriate in the extreme.
They must also realise that people drift into & out of low-paid jobs.
See also the series of posts at Amused Cynicism on the matter if you're not a reader of that.
Time to reduce the State to the skeleton service required to run essentials. Their members are our paid employees.
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