This one is politics

My blood pressure started to increase when I read the headline "Brown in pledge to devolve power" on the BBC News site this morning.

Until that nice Mr Brown came along, we had a private pensions system in the UK that was the envy of the world. Gone.

Until that nice Mr Brown came along, most people took responsibility for themselves, with Society helping those who couldn't. Now, through the tools of tax credits and means testing, we are in a position where more and more people rely on hand outs in some form or other to pay for life and its many luxuries. A fundamental relationship change.

Until that nice Mr Brown came along, we were beginning to get a grip on public sector costs. The proportion (%) of all workers employed in the public sector has gone up slightly since 1997 (Source: Office of National Statistics), but as the total number of people in employment has significantly increased. This increasing proportion is a sign of how inefficient the public sector is and how wasteful it is with our money.

Until that nice Mr Brown came along (and his mate next door, Tony), we had a governmental system in place that worked. Responsibilities were clear and extra layers of government (ie cost) were kept to a minimum. We are now in a position where devolution has occurred for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland [See: The West Lothian Question], and there has been pressure placed to have locally elected mayors, though thankfully the population seem to have seen through the sham.

Why does all this matter? Well, with Power comes responsibility.

• If you destroy the future hopes and aspirations of millions, you must take responsibility.
• If you increase peoples' reliance on state handouts you must be doing something wrong and must take responsibility.
• If you increase the number of people YOU employ in the public sector, but choose to forget that everyone else has to pay for them, you must take responsibility.
• If you crave power but pretend to devolve responsibility while retaining control of the purse strings, you are not only being irresponsible but you are hoaxing the British people. For this you must take responsibility.
  

I, for one, do not want Gordon Brown to be the next Prime Minister.

(Now, I'll get off my soapbox and back to writing about trains and stuff)