tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post363822561650741505..comments2024-03-27T09:14:27.496+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Centrism Rebooted?Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-8409713605252682312021-05-22T18:44:16.436+01:002021-05-22T18:44:16.436+01:00«I think all the talk about "aspiration"...«<i>I think all the talk about "aspiration"</i>»<br /><br />To illustrate even better what "aspiration" really means for "centrists", my usual quote as to the apotheosis of "centrist" ideology:<br /><br />http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/labour-fears-corbyn-will-be-seen-as-unambitious-3tww86v5n<br />“<i>Labour MPs have raised concerns that Jeremy Corbyn’s rhetoric on tax avoidance could appear anti-aspiration. A senior shadow cabinet source said the party leader was in danger of overreaching himself in his criticism of David Cameron for investing in Blairmore, the fund set up in an offshore tax haven in the Bahamas by his father Ian.</i>”<br /><br />Here "aspiration" means to Labour MPs the yearning for policies with well designed loopholes that allow offshoring of large amounts of income and wealth to tax havens by millionaire tory politicians.Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-49933592871836826962021-05-22T18:38:41.198+01:002021-05-22T18:38:41.198+01:00«all the talk about "aspiration" was bas...«<i>all the talk about "aspiration" was basically a middle-class demand to always be the centre of attention, a refusal to understand or empathise with the plight of others in society.</i>»<br /><br />That is a very generous and optimistic opinion. In practice "legendary" Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander in a 2008 pamphlet described “<i>aspiration</i>” as a yearning for “<i>second home ownership, two cars in the driveway, a nice garden, two foreign holidays a year, and leisure systems in the home such as sound, cinema, and gym equipment</i>”.<br /><br />That gives away the game: there is no way the average voters can get all that upper-middle class living standard without massive tax-free property profits. Just read the two newspapers who are the very heralds of the politics of aspiration, the "Telegraph" and "Daily Mail": it is all about BTL and property prices.<br /><br />It is not merely being “<i>the centre of attention</i>”, or just “<i>a refusal to understand or empathise with the plight of others</i>”, but a strong and persistent demand for policies to actively redistribute immense chunks of wealth and income upwards, from less rich people to richer people, by rigging the property and financial markets without any regard to fiscal prudence or economic growth.Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-86509703422398792752021-05-22T11:16:41.778+01:002021-05-22T11:16:41.778+01:00The diagnosis, completely unsupported by polling e...<i>The diagnosis, completely unsupported by polling evidence, was Labour lost because it was too weak on "aspiration".</i><br /><br />Looking back, I think all the talk about "aspiration" was basically a middle-class demand to always be the centre of attention, a refusal to understand or empathise with the plight of others in society.<br /><br />Don't want to engage with the human rights abuses the coalition government is committing? Hey, it doesn't matter - there's no such thing as society remember?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-24711493303765446492021-05-21T23:57:01.963+01:002021-05-21T23:57:01.963+01:00But it did deliver the most hilarious quotes. But it did deliver the most hilarious quotes. Nellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14873255215619436420noreply@blogger.com