The Dreamworld of Politics

Politics is a complex business. It is not good to be seen to be weak, stupid, arrogant or wrong. Yet sometimes it pays to admit all of that - when the communication is in the hands of skilled communication coaches, that is.

This week we saw David Cameron come out and eat humble pie by saying his Party should have done more to stop the excesses of the last 10 years - even better he was 'sorry' for not doing so. Very clever.

It forced out into the open the Government and the PM specifically to do the same. Like a clockwork sheep, Gordon Brown did exactly the same.

They May Have Been Mistakes, But They Were Great Mistakes

Somehow Brown tried to manipulate the situation skillfully but he has only left us baffled. On the one hand he admits that 10 years ago, in the wake of the Asian crisis, he should have acted against other nations and implemented greater controls on the markets. But he then says that this is in fact a global crisis and so this is different anyway.

He tries to turn the fact that he takes responsibility for his mistakes as saying his mistake was to believe in the 'Washington Consensus' which he describes in his typical textbook fashion as a '40 year old prevalent orthoxody' - which would be very insightful if anyone knew what he was on about. He then makes claim that the Centre Left Party is the only one which can actually have the policies for the future.

It's amazing really, and once again in Blair-style, he assumes the electorate are too thick to link things together. But my take is that, we should trust him to get it right BECAUSE he made all those mistakes in the last 10 years.

Silly me for thinking that was a reason not to trust him.

He claims 'laissez faire' has had its day. From the first day Labour won its first election in 1997, we have seen laissez faire Government be the hallmark of their policies and actions. Its why we are in two wars we can't win while decreasing the armed forces, educational standards are falling, the NHS is worse off and kids are killing each other in the streets.

Laissez faire is Centre Left Politics.