Whilst watching the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme yesterday, it was interesting to see the panel having so much fun sneering at and mocking the ‘alternative Tory Queen’s speech’ and Peter Bone in particular.
As with the Sunday Politics panel, most commentary on these Private Member’s Bills have tended to deploy ad hominem arguments rather than deal the substance of the proposals.
I don’t agree with all these bills, but if these commentators had bothered to look at the substance, they’ll realise that many of them would be popular with ‘blue collar’ voters. These include measures to toughen sentences and to ensure criminals serve their entire sentence. They also include measures to control immigration – something that the political class keeps telling us that they regard as important and will listen to the people on. And they include reforming measures such as merging government departments and reforming the House of Lords. I thought the Lib Dems would be pleased about the last one. But, of course, by throwing their toys out of the pram last year, they proved not to be serious when it came to this issue.
Even some of the bills I don’t agree with, such as the restoration of the death penalty, are more popular with the public than the liberal elite would like to admit.
But liberal commentators, bloggers, and the Sunday Politics panel continue to mock. That whole segment yesterday just represented the ever increasing gap between the political and chattering classes (who still believe it’s 1997) and the people. You would’ve thought the liberal elite would have learned from the local elections by now. But they continue to sneer at what they regard as the primitive attitudes of the working classes. And they continue to promote their own obsessions whilst ignoring the wishes of the people they’re supposed to be representing.
The liberal elite must understand that if you keep this up then you’re just going to drive more people away from the mainstream parties. But I suppose they’re too busy with their own hobby horses to notice.
