Kids can be very cruel, when I was at the start of my teenage years at school in 1961 the banter we used was often quite cutting. If anyone wanted to wind another lad up they would often use an insult using the abbreviation of a word which inferred the other lad's sexual leaning were not quite what was expected from a member of the male species. The following verbal rough and tumble would usually end up in either a punch up or a fit of hysterics, no one was ever harmed and we would all walk off knowing it was just banter thinking nothing more about it. Sadly, these days kids are either brainwashed to be too politically correct or get into such a state when experiencing the realities of life they require counselling. We of an older generation grew up and went into our careers and jobs fully prepared for the work banter that was to come, in. those days such banter was a normal part of life and we learned to give as good as we got.
How things have changed during our lifetimes, these days people often say things without thinking then suddenly pull themselves up asking: 'can I say that?' Sadly the politically correct thought police have ingrained themselves so much into our lives we now censor ourselves due to being so frightened that if we really say what we think it may land us in a whole pile of trouble. Looking to what is the come this censorship on freedom of speech is about to get worse, Keir Starmer and his Labour thought police are coming and the future does not look good.
Looking at the political landscape it is pretty certain, come the next general election, we are going to have a Labour Government, so what can we expect when Keir Starmer and his comrades are in charge?
Going back to my teenage banter, it has already been revealed the the Labour leader, who strangely cannot tell you whether women have male appendices, or not, has proposed that anyone who misgenders another person could face prison. Had this been law when I was a teenager I would be, by now, an old lag after spending most of my life behind bars, and not the sort that sells beer! There is a sort of madness that has overcome our political classes, especially those of the left. They tell us there are many genders and they should all have their own pronouns. Yet anyone with an ounce of common sense will tell you there are only two genders, male and female, and there are only four pronouns, Mr & Mrs for married men and women and Master and Miss for unmarried men and women. This is logical, straight forward common sense, how can it be an insult to state a fact? Yet if Starmer and is Labour henchpeople (as we will no doubt have to call them) gets his way, we will be in serious trouble for calling people factually what they are.
To see what is coming all we have to do is take a look at what current Labour administrations are doing and how they are performing, also to look back to previous Labour Governments - to do so is pretty scary. As someone who has been on this planet for more years than I care to remember I have lived through the leaderships of several Labour Prime Ministers, I was born when Clement Attlee resided in No10 Downing Street. He is remembered as one of the few great Labour leaders, it was under his administration the National Health Service (NHS) came into being. As someone who had a stroke in 2016 and now, fully recovered thanks to the NHS, I have to be eternally grateful to it and to Attlee for bringing it about. Out of all the Labour leaders he was the one who inherited the worst time to take over the leadership of the nation, it was the end of the war and the country was both broke and bombed out, it could not have been easy with no money, in hock to the USA and trying to rebuild the nation. Yet so obsessed with Labour's socialist desire to control everything, under his administration many parts of industry were nationalised, including the railways, transport, mining and much else. Without the drive of enterprise and the dead hand of Government on them these nationalised industries quickly became burdens around the taxpayers necks. Atlee won the 1950 general election with a much reduced majority and due to internal battles within his party called another general election in 1951, which he lost. In reality the only good thing to come out of his years in office was the NHS, which Tony Blair, years later as our PM, sold off and privatised with PFI.
The problem all Labour Governments have experienced over the years is with finances, they are good at spending other people's money, be it the taxpayers or borrowed, then have no idea how to extract themselves from the fiscal mess they have got the nation into. A prime example is to take a look at the Birmingham City Labour run Council, going broke and having to be run by the Government. During my lifetime every Labour Government has left office leaving the country broke. Harold Wilson devalued the pound and made that infamous television and radio broadcast telling the people 'the pound in your pocket has not been devalued', which was total bunkum. When he resigned Jim Callaghan took over and by the tail end of his leadership the nation was in such a mess the IMF had to step in and, in effect, took over the running of this country. More recently people will remember when Labour lost the 2010 general election after thirteen unlucky years of Blair and Brown, the Liberal Democrat MP, David Laws, who was the incoming Conservative Lib Dem coalition Treasury chief secretary, was handed a note from Liam Byrne stating there was no money left. How long will it take for Starmer to break the bank and leave us broke?
Going back to the dreadful Birmingham City administration, it is responsible for bringing misery and mayhem for many drivers by introducing a pollution charge for older cars and commercial vehicles, which has created a ring of polluting slow moving traffic around the City all to avoid the charge which they would have to pay if they wanted to use the fastest route from one side of the city to the other. By trying to cut pollution they have created it. However, when compared to what the Labour Mayor of London has done and the misery and poverty he has created, bankrupt Brum falls into insignificance. The Labour war on freedom of movement does not stop there, the uninspiring Labour leader in Wales, Mark Drakeford, has gone against the wishes of virtually everyone in Wales by introducing the snails pace 20 MPH speed limits. When looking at which party runs the councils where pollution charges are in operation or being proposed, most are Labour controlled with the others, Labour under a different name - the Liberal Democrats. Based on these facts it can be taken as pretty much a certainty that Keir Starmer as the the Prime Minister will be coming for your cars and freedom of movement.
Then there is taxation, sadly, the current pretend Conservative Party now running the country is taxing at an all time high, but the masters of tax creation schemes are without doubt the Labour Party. Again, those of us with a few years under our belts will remember Denis Healey who said they will "Tax the rich until the pips squeak". The Labour Party introduced supertax which meant the wealthy were expected to pay tax at up to 95%. The trouble is with taxiing the rich, which is always a Labour Party favourite, is the fact the rich can afford to leave the country, along with their wealth, and go and live where they, and their money, will be made welcome. Sadly, when the majority of the rich have gone, taking their wealth and job creation plans with them, that just leaves the middle and working classes left to pick up the Labour created sizeable tax tab. Starmer has announced his Labour government will target private schools hitting them with V.A.T., which is foolish as people who send their children to private schools, including the children of many Labour MPs, help to reduce the pressure on state schools. Labour taxes always finish up hurting the very people Labour pretends to support, I remember seeing many work friends lose their jobs in the large Birmingham store where I worked in the 1960's due to Labour's Selective Employment Tax (S.E.T.). This was an ill conceived tax meant to get people out of retail into working in factories. But those who lost their jobs in retail just looked for other retail jobs and sat on the dole. All Labour governments are geniuses when it come to creating devious ways to tax the population and enterprise. Starmer will be no different.
Finally, lurking in the dark recesses of the Labour Party are the trade unions, these not only finance Labour but are the puppet master of its leaders. Whatever Starmer wants to do as PM he will be looking over his shoulder for approval from the Union bosses. Many young people, enamoured with left lurching socialist ideology, after years of left wing doctrinarian in the education system, will have no knowledge of what it was like when the Trade Unions ran riot and created havoc and misery across the country during the 1960's and coming to a head in the 1970's, they were grim times when Trade Union bosses used to march into Number 10 Downing Street and instructed the PM what they wanted him to do. Due to constant strikes rubbish filled the streets, people could not bury their dead and we had power cuts. They were grim days and it was only with the last true Conservative Leader, Margaret Thatcher, coming to power, the tyranny of the unions was finally dealt with. When Labour enters office the Union bosses, who are again creating misery with train strikes, will be flexing their undemocratic muscles and giving their instructions to Starmer.
Come polling day those placing a cross against the Labour candidate on the ballot paper will, in effect, be loading a weapon that they will very quickly find will be turned against them. Nigel Farage predicts that the Tories are finished and Labour will romp in when the general election comes, and like most of what Nigel has to say I have to agree with him. To see and predict our future with the Labour Party we just have to look to the past, socialist history really does repeat itself, it is authoritarian and wants to control all aspects of daily life. Sadly, this means I live in fear of the future under a Labour Government.