Luke Johnson is one of a relatively small number of
people who seem to have grasped what an opportunity Brexit presents for this
country. Freed from the constraints imposed by the expensive European human
engineering project it might be possible for British entrepreneurs to
rediscover their inventive roots and show – if any morsel still remains – the
spirit which once made this small, damp island the industrial hub of an empire. Luke cites Singapore as an inspiration; a country barely
fifty years old yet with the highest GDP per capita of any nation on Earth.
Work, not welfare, is the key, because nothing in life except life
itself comes for free. In the soft, over-developed west that free gift so
often carries a curse, foisting existence on unsuspecting new citizens but then
abandoning them to the fates decreed by the architects of the political system
that has ‘yet to be properly tried’. Socialism itself is a prime
example of the laws of unintended consequence – while the notion of a welfare safety
net for all sounds good, the very foundation of human nature is a cool, calculating slab of
opportunism that will milk the state dry.
End the ‘something for nothing’ culture, said David
Cameron, just as others have said before him, only to learn the hard way that
once given it is bloody difficult to claw back that largesse. Impossible, if
you want to be re-elected, or leave a ‘legacy’. The welfare state, like any
industry, would be nothing without its loyal customers and nothing buys loyalty
like cold, hard cash and soothing words. Who dares call out our unsustainable bread
and circuses charade for what it is? The greater the demand, the richer those
who cater to it and under the ‘caring’ umbrella the west has allowed a system
of unearned, unaffordable entitlement to creep and grow.
We don’t want a universal, no-questions-asked welfare
system; not when it creates and perpetuates the very poverty it seeks to
alieve. We don’t want a ‘comprehensive’ equality-driven education system; not
when it denies bright but poor kids the chance to shine. We don’t want
institutionalised kindness and compassion; not when it is so readily exploited
by those who are bred into dependence. And we certainly neither want nor need faux diversity, shoe-horned into the cultural landscape; not when in reality,
regardless of origins or leanings, black or pink, brown or yellow, there is anything but
diversity of thought; not when the naïve advocates of the diverse palette are
the Midwich cuckoos of cultural Marxism.
We need a country where the weak and needy are largely
absent; bred out. Where single issue minority politics can’t enable legislation
to hamper the majority. Where tolerance is freely given to those who work with
us, but a stern face is presented to those who wish us harm. A place where
everybody takes responsibility for their own journey through life and knows
that while help is available should you occasionally falter, you’re on your own
if you continually go off-piste. Fat, lazy, stupid, addicted, accidentally
pregnant, self-or-selfie-obsessed? That’s your shit; you shovel it.
Time to flush?
Britain needs to get its act together and make bolder
decisions. Are we going to continue to pursue the EU model of a low wage, mass
consumption economy, founded on ever greater numbers of lower and lower grade
drones, forever passing the cost downwards to future generations? Or will we
grasp the nettle and instead allow the economy, along with the population, to
shrink back to a size which accommodates and rewards the brave and the busy but
dissuades the third world from beating a path to our door? Isn’t it time to
flush the dregs and clear the system; has anybody got the balls for the job?
Self interest will always get in the way of making the right decisions so your eminently excellent wish list is never going to be more than that. So self interest will have to run it's course until it becomes self destruction and the cycle will starts all over again.
ReplyDeleteOne day if humans survive that long we will put common sense, reason, logic and decency before self interest and reap all the benefits that will bring. However self interest is hard wired into us as it is one of the traits needed to optimise our prime functions of survival and procreation. So dumping it or at least modifying it is not going to be easy.
Socialism is in theory the one way of achieving that because it does away with competition so we do not need self interest as no one gets more than anyone else and all are provided for equally. Oddly it does not work in practice as we do not like equality and we have other traits and attributes that drive us. All pulling and pushing us in different directions.
Bravo.
ReplyDeleteMy Wife said to me yesterday 'I bought my first house at 23. I was very lucky.', but my only decent Sales Manager said to me, 'there's no such thing as luck, you make your own luck'.
He's absolutely right, and he was right on most things.
In order for her to get that house, she had to work hard through six years of further education, to earn a degree which took every day in college and university, not a proportion of that (although she does seem to know a lot about Quincy and Murder She Wrote). The outcome of that was a very stable, and well remunerated position.
As she'd had the courage to move from her parents, she'd now got the courage to move anywhere and make friends. This allowed her to find the right area to live in, with good property prices, close to the job she'd applied for.
She learned to budget and lived according to her means, she didn't overspend, and afforded a car that enabled her to get to work. As she spent 1 and earned 2, this helped her mood, so she went about with a smile.
I'm very much like my only decent Sales Manager. I don't see any luck in that. I see graft and the nouse to get on. You're in it to win it, or you'll fall behind. Get on it, get working, shift, move, be the best, and crack on.
And for goodness sake, stop bloody whining.
;)