And even if we do then the Liberal Democrats should not be it!
Why are we considering privatising the Post Office so that we can invest in it. This sounds like shades of railway privatisation. Yes of course we want to support the Post Office network and it is vital for local communities that they are retained. Indeed we should be finding ways of reopening some of those that have already closed but not this way. I can think of a number of other ways of paying for this or indeed legislating for it.
Then we start on single parents. We should be standing up for the poorest and most disadvantaged in society.
Just a final aside I wonder if anyone who thinks Sarah Teather should be promoted watched Question Time on Thursday? Nuff said
Tag Politics Lib Dems
13 comments:
"I can think of a number of other ways of paying for this ..."
Care to share them with us?
If you feel uncomfortable about it, why not join the Green Party? Or perhaps soon the modern, compassionate Conservative Party will be closer to your values?
Ways to pay for it - put taxes up perhaps the 50p top rate? - cut expenditure - stop wasting so much money on Nuclear Weapons development for a start.
As for joining another party - no thanks anonymous. I will stay in the Liberal Democrats thanks and argue for the right course of action.
The most ironically enjoyable speech on this motion on the floor came from the speaker, opposing it, who spoke at length on the subject of socialism, calling it liberalism.
This policy is a fine plan for supporting the Post Office network, and enabling Royal Mail to endure the competition that it is already subject to.
Maybe if I had been there I would understand it better - but the way it is being presented in the media comes across as pure privatisation
Don't start me off on rural post offices and the loss of them and the effects on the community. When they are lost they often take the village shop with them. This now means a round trip of 18 miles for milk , bread, newspapers - let alone anything else.
I am not entirely sure what the solution is to the Post Office problems - all I know is that it/they are NOT working.
If we can save rural village post offices so much the better - but the way this debate is going (or at least the way it is being presented) makes me worry
Well, how about the Liberal Party? They seem to share your views about who should own the means of production (as the railways).
It may comfort you to know, that Peter Black explained very skilfully why this privatisation isn't actually privatisation at all, but "retaining vital services in the public sector, attracting much needed private investment to bolster a important social business network and guaranteeing a better service to all customers". Thoug I think Lord Greaves might disagree.
Ok so maybe it is not full blown privatisation and doubtless the £2bn for the network will be great. Does anyone know what this will provide and how long it will guarantee the network of post offices for? And no I do not want to join The Liberal Party either!
[...]
Tony Ferguson of Ballots, Balls and Bikes writes:
"We do not need another centre right party in British politics - and even if we do then the Liberal Democrats should not be it!"
I think we should avoid conflating the economic liberalism espoused by Mrs. Thatcher with the sort of authoritarian, racist, misogynist, class-warfare Toryism that we all detest, both pre- and post-Lady T - or, for that matter, the principle-free zone that is the current Labour administration.
[...]
http://onlibertyonline.blogspot.com/2006/03/pushing-envelope.html
"Does anyone know what this will provide and how long it will guarantee the network of post offices for?"
No, but when the money is spent, there will be still a share of 51% to sell... ;-)
It seems David Cameron is going for the vote of Guardian readers and we nay be seeing the beginnings of a trend for Ming to be going for the more liberal readers of the Daily Telegraph.
Bizarre, really.
We also don't need another Centre-Left party which by some measures Labour is and the Tories are becomming.
Complex tax systems, managerial government, arbitrary decision making, taking power to the centre, removing individual rights and creating some sort of mythical 'collective good'.
All policies of socialism and the left of the last century or so.
We need a liberal party, we cannot do that by unthinkingly following socialist principles of collective ownership (or by following neo-liberal shock tactics).
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