Modern British politicians are characterised, above all things, by their capacity for lying through their teeth without the slightest twinge of remorse. If a modern Westminster politician's lips are moving you can be sure he/she is telling a lie.

The biggest and most repeated lie, utilised by all our major parties, is that there is no alternative to the policies being pursued to reduce the deficit and cure the economic disaster that was caused by the very same policies. It never fails to amaze me how the British public can accept such nonsense, particularly as it is demonstrable nonsense, and the evidence of its nonsensicality is before everyone's eyes every day. Economics is the study of a particular form of human behaviour. It is not a science and has been demonstrated by our recent past, and present national shambles, to be very imprecise and practised by a professional gang of incompetents. As I have said before, humans are generally irrational and so economic behaviour is generally irrational as well. The free market concept of the rational consumer is obvious garbage. An entire marketing industry depends for its success on exploiting that irrationality, in persuading you to purchase things you don't need and don't even really want.

For every economic problem there is a multiplicity of alternatives. You may not like or agree with them, but they are there and available. For example we could raise taxation and switch the emphasis of our tax system from indirect to direct taxation. This would have the result of redistributing resources from the better off to the poorer; instead of the present system that does precisely the opposite. We could nationalise public industry and services and create employment by direct state intervention. The biggest potential employer in the country is local government, that is one of the reasons why the neoliberal has such a hatred for local government. To say that we can't do such things is simply a lie. It is only not a viable alternative if you are totally committed to the neoliberal free market economic model that has demonstrably failed. Britain used to have upper income tax rates in the 70 and 80% range. The country didn't grind to a halt, the sun didn't fall from the sky and human life didn't suddenly disappear. In fact, a bigger percentage of the population had a better standard of living and most people were in meaningful full-time employment.

No-one should ever vote for any politician who tells you that there is no alternative, and all politicians who persist with this lie should be sacked on the spot. Poverty and unemployment could be seriously reduced in the UK quite easily if the will was there to do it. However, by doing that you would reduce inequality and that is what the neoliberal will not tolerate. As I said, you may not like some of the alternatives, but don't listen to anyone who tells you there are none. It is a lie because they know that what they are telling you is not true. If they actually believe that themselves they are the worst kind of fool.

Your Servant

Doktor Kommirat