Will bribery boost Nick Clegg's popularity?

Nick Clegg is desperately trying to turn around the catastrophic collapse in his popularity and the support for his party ... following crushing defeats in recent elections. 

Local election results were a catastrophe for the Liberal Democrat party, and the Referendum on Electoral Reform turned into an anti-Clegg vote instead of a vote on changing the electoral system (given it was his pet project) - which was a major setback to any real democracy in this country.

But will bribing the country, by offering them a few shares in RBS, help revive support for him and his party, or will voters see it for what it is? Early indications seem to suggest the latter, but if it this con does work, it will just go to show how low these politicians are prepared to go and how gullible, selfishness and immoral the people have become (giving up their principles, such as trust, honor and respect for others, for cash). 

By giving the share money away they expect most of it to be immediately spent back in the economy, but if they used the money to pay off debt it would reduce the tax burden for generations to come ... so everyone would benefit (ie. children, and their children). However the problem with paying off debt in this way is that the children don't have a vote, so there is no point in Nick Clegg trying to bribe them! If Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats really cared about the future he would focus on the future generation too. Instead he wants to give everyone on the electoral register (i.e. with a vote) a few shares, but is not interested in putting any shares into trust funds for the young, or reducing their tax burden and/or helping to reverse the tripling of student fees!

Nick Clegg needs to remember that Gordon Brown tried hard (and failed) to gain popularity and also create dependency ... by bribing people with their own money (and money he did not have) and by expanding 'tax credits' to higher income groups! Brown then went on to warn people not to vote for someone else ... as they might lose the benefits they were now used to getting! His scam didn't work ... and voters still voted with the feet ... and away from one of the most callous and manipulative 'leaders' in history. Let's hope the electorate are clever enough to spot Clegg's game, and walk away from this scam too!

If you think education is expensive ... try ignorance

One picture is worth ten thousand words ...

and given Nick Clegg (and the Liberal Democrats) pledged before the election not to raise tuition fees, but on entering power is overseeing the process of tripling them ... it is no surprise he regrets such actions, but which ones ... pledging not to raise them ... or for tripling them ...?

This one decision, by yet another rich millionaire (made from banking/property just like David Cameron), could result in the demise of the Liberal Democrats, and casts further doubt that anyone in the corridors of Power really has the future of this country, and hard-working people's best interests, at heart ... 

Students wanted to protest outside Liberal Democrat headquarters today but were stopped from doing so ... and why was this ... what has happened to free speech?

Ignoromics (Type 1 is Ignorance, Type 2 is Apathy) is what allows Poweromics to flourish ... and denies a better future for everyone ... which IMHO makes the placard held by the student above so poignant ... 

to be continued ...

University education - who 'pays' ?

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) today stepped forward to say University students in the UK should pay more for their loans and accept higher tuition fees as "inevitable".

The National Union of Students attacked their report as "gross hypocrisy" from the "fat cats at the CBI". The Association of Teachers and Lecturers attacked the proposals as "arrogant and elitist".

In my view the CBI is once again promoting the wrong strategy, and Robert Peston has today done a fantastic job in challenging this position in his blog ... and points to the issue of inter-generational social justice the CBI ignores ... I've included a few of his comments below:

'... More by luck than desert, the generation of Lambert, Balls, Laidlaw and even Peston have had it pretty good ... we had free university education ... we have saved for a pension over the many years of a bull market and when companies and the public sector felt obliged to offer gold-standard final salary pension schemes ... we managed to get on the property ladder before house prices became ludicrously inflated...

... It was our generation which royally messed up the economy with the inadequate governance that led to the credit crunch and the worst global recession since the 1930s ... but we're - on the whole - alright Jack, thanks to the accident of when we happen to have been born ...

... but those leaving school and university today face an altogether bleaker future: a drought of jobs; a bewildering and unappealing set of options for saving and investing; over-priced residential property (even after the "correction"); relentless fearsome competition from India, China, and so on ...

.. and there's the costs of providing a health service and welfare state to sustain an older generation ...

... so some may well argue that as and when a new government decides to make cuts or increase taxes - to fill the hole in the public finances created by the current generation - its first instinct should probably not be to penalise students ... shouldn't the older generation bequeath them something other than debt?'

and in response to his blog I added:

'Well put - an excellent article again ... and many great comments from bloggers too. IMHO setting a target of 50% of people going to university is a joke, the CBI comments are a disgrace and the Government need to think very carefully about what they choose to do in this area ...

... for instance young people also have a choice where they live (n.b. they can move anywhere in the EU without restriction), and if hard-working young people move out of the UK to work elsewhere then there will be few value/wealth creators at all here in the future and no-one to pay the taxes necessary to subsidise any public services at all (or to pay off any of the debts) ... and the whole system will continue a downward spiral ... until widespread protest/social unrest hits the streets ...

Instead of passing more debt on to future generations, what about introducing a new tax - a 'Land Value Tax'* (which a number of other countries currently have) ... as it's known to be particularly effective at targeting rich landowners who own most of the land, assets & wealth ... as this group can more than afford it, it can't easily be 'passed on' and they also can't avoid it - unlike most/all of the other taxes aimed at them**! ...

... It would raise large amounts of tax and would allow other taxes to reduce as a result. It would also push landowners to make more land available for housing - which would partly tackle the over-priced residential property market we still have too. A small fraction of this tax revenue could be used to subsidise free tuition fees and provide maintenance grants (e.g. more 'means-tested' grants) for future generations of value/wealth creators (e.g. so long as they are UK residents and continue to stay in the country) ...

... Let's also reduce the number of students going to University from the stupidly high target of 50%, support proper vocational apprenticeships and scrap/replace all the poor quality courses we see today e.g. most of the very expensive, and yet completely flawed, MBA programmes ... which teach students 19th century management practices instead of 21st century management practices (i.e. outdated courses, which partly got us in this mess, and which are often referred to as 'Maybe Best Avoided' - even without all the debt)!

* take a look at http://poweromics.blogspot.com/2009/08/land-of-free-but-whos-paying-for-it.html for instance.

** NB the Government have allowed 'land' to be one of the very few things exempt from inheritance tax too!