Budget Smuggler

Well, Budget Day came and were there any great surprises save an attempt by the Tory government to appear to be espousing socialist ideals and therefore trumping the Labour Party? Not really: the bones were adequately picked over by not only the Opposition parties, but by Tory backbench critics as well. The general consensus amongst the naysayers was that it appeared to give generously(?) with one hand whilst the other snatched it away with interest. Classic Tory budget, then.

One of the more entertaining passages of the debate was when Ian Blackford, leader of the SNP - for those who aren't fans such as we, he's probably the best Parliamentarian we've had for a very long time - called out the Chancellor over reducing passenger duties on domestic flights between Inverness and the Highlands and Islands; as well he might have: there ain't any, anyway. Oops, as Jane put it. He also pointed out quite rightly that short-haul 'commuter' flying is far more destructive to the climate than the long-haul flights the Chancellor intends to penalise. Oops indeed, on the eve of COP26.

Another fact that really needs pushing home was also raised due to the present rise in UK inflation. Inflation reached its objective and subjective nadir in the UK in 1980: rising as high as 18% under a Tory government led by Margaret Thatcher which had only been in power for around a year; having successfully raised unemployment levels by around 100% from the lowest post-war figures in that very short time, and setting the benchmark to which her government would continue to aspire for most of my young(ish) adult life and into my early middle age. My son and his husband have never known or experienced a society or politics otherwise since that time, save the remarkable blip of David Cameron's brief tenure as PM and gay marriage; and even Cameron, for all the good stuff he presided over, still managed to precipitate Brexit and the consequent fallout we're still not really dealing with.

The fact is that there has not been a financially, fiscally or socially successful, or even vaguely honest Tory government since the Second World War. Prior to that point, they had it pretty much their own, uncontested way anyway. They haven't changed their stripe to this very day. They haven't progressed, and are still the party of privilege and wealth, and anyone not of their ilk who supports them needs to have a serious talk with themselves. As my Dad wisely said, the '48 Labour government should have nationalised land when they had the chance, but like all underdogs feeling their way, they were hedging their bets and probably still felt in some way 'subservient' to the toffs. Pity: it would have made such a difference to the following seventy-odd years in British politics and might well have seen the Tories off for good, casting them into the bin of history like the Whigs before them.

Addendum: we'd have been better off had the Whigs survived and the Tories withered and died back in Queen Vic's day...