Tony Benn on politics of protests (26Jun11)

[incredibleXMan]

Interviewer is another typical Marie Antoinette.

[CrixMakin]

Love how she ends with "people should roll over and accept a shafting from the Tories rather than inconvenience the public".

[AnnoyedDragon]

What annoys me about the current government isn't the cuts, which are needed given the amount of debt we are in. But that they negate the effects of the cuts, by needlessly increasing spending elsewhere.

How is a £9 billion annual IMF contribution increase going to cut the deficit?

[tojoconfused]

Radio5's Peter Allen summed it up when he said "Bring back Jane Garvey, 'cos this witless cunt is driving me nuts". 

[kbdkbd99]

Public sector workers argue that a deal cannot be broken and hence we cannot morally meddle with their pay and conditions.

This approach overlooks one serious fact. The deal the taxpayer has made with the public sector was never fair.

Unions threaten to strike if they do not get what they want - that is coercion with threats. Secondly, the politicians who negotiate on our behalf are often in the back-pockets of the unions.

We have every moral right to rip up these so-called contracts.

[MetaReaLizard]

@kbdkbd99 Who is we? The collective force of people who believe that any collective action is coercion? Go ahead rip up your coerced contracts and whilst your at it every statute, every limited liability clause protecting companies and their directors; every property law et al... Us lefties would welcome that thought process with open arms.

[kbdkbd99]

@MetaReaLizard I would gladly put every banker in prison, and I am no friend of the corporatist (almost facist) state we are in.

You think you can oppose my point with this strawman argument ?

The bottom line is that public sector salaries have been negotiated in smoke-filled rooms by labour politicians and union officials who are ideologically in favour of giving public sector workers far more than their real value.

Public sector workers are inefficient and not worth the money they recieve.

[MetaReaLizard]

@kbdkbd99 Efficiency and profit are often equally opposed by free-market economics. Short term profiteering has torn our manufacturing base to shreds. The bottom line is that free-market thinking is not a fit for all solution. "Value" is a very complex parameter that can't always be measured directly in quantitative terms. The same scumbags that buy off unions officials also buy off and plant the politiicians. If you are an anarcho-capitalist then I apologise for misrepresenting you.

[Sleck06]

@kbdkbd99 how is the private sector efficient its collapsed in the the past few years independent from government and banks are private sector too

[kbdkbd99]

@Sleck06 the private sector is efficient because if it is inefficient it makes a loss and goes out of business whilst those companies that are efficient make a profit.

I assume when you say "collapsed" you're talking about ...capitalism/markets... - unfortunately you are not smart enough to know the difference between libertarian free markets and corporatism.

We do not have free markets or capitalism - and have not had them for a long time. Whatever it is that has failed is statism.

[Sleck06]

@kbdkbd99 I do know from history that laissez faire free markets lead to massive wealth redistribution to the top the super rich combine medium and large companies to form corporations then corporations takeover small business and monopolize trade then corporations use wealth and influence to shape government policy rigging the system so all wealth flows to the top through tax cuts and deregulation and then you have corporatism.

[kbdkbd99]

@Sleck06 you are right - large companies do lobby government for favours and regulation, and try to influence government policy.

You've been influenced by too much left-wing media spin. Big business - with monopolies or oligopsonies ... that is NOT what capitalist and libertarians support - that is called corporatism.

What you called laissez-faire lead to the biggest increase inwealth for the poor. Marx predicted the poor would get poorer. Take a look around the world - the poor are richer.

[irdial]

Left cover Gatekeeper!

[holyhell5050]

He didn't seem to get the point about protests being an indicator of failure on both sides. His answer suggests he thought they meant the protests would fail or so, rather than people's feeling for a need to protest these issues shows that parliament has failed these people.

[2010butchd]

they dont need do it once it needs to be everyweek then everyday untill the goverment do what people want

[RockofEngland]

As soon as Labour are out of power the Unions gt militant. The Unioins should look at who made the mess and protest against them (Labour) or stop funding them even.