July 9 2008
Propeller-Head Wonk Watch: Maurice Saatchi's "Enemy of the People" published today by the re-energised Centre for Policy Studies (IEA trustees take note) is brilliant. Written in the form of an indictment it succinctly lists the chief charges of which New Labour is guilty as their era closes.
The core of the criminal conspiracy was “The Four-Stage Plan":
... the defendants concocted and put into execution a four-stage plan to secure power over the people:
Step 1 The victims pay more tax
Step 2 They receive “benefits" to pay the tax
Step 3 They are grateful for the “benefits"
Step 4 They vote for the defendants
This is the central charge against the left universally, whether social democrat or socialist, humanist or Stalinist, they always end up taxing to give back benefits to the people they took the money from in the first place. An astonishing 22,400,000 people in this country claim benefits, 39% of households, the number has doubled under New Labour. If we lifted the threshold at which taxes were paid to say £12,000 (as advocated by Adam Smith Institute) millions would be able to get off the tax-bureaucracy-benefit merry-go-round. Gordon has built a client class of state bureacrats and those dependent on the state. The only reason Gordon deliberately pays child benefit to millionaires is because he thinks it will shore up support for the welfare state.
It is a shame that Saatchi is out of favour with the Cameroons, mainly because he sings from the old Thatcherite hymn sheet. Well, he did after all write some of the best hit tunes...
Published on Guido Fawkes' Blog here