Further to Colin’s evidenced response to your assertions, may I suggest that Democracy in the UK was not working from around 2000 to about 2006. From 2007 we have seen clear evdience that democracy is beginning to function properly again – but Labour MPs are doing their best to ignore it by putting off the election our country desperately needs for as long as possible for no better reason than protecting their own personal financial interests.

As to the state of our economy. That has been brought about by an (im)morality that holds consumerism as its god, in turn built upon the flawed concept of personal / relativist ideas of right and wrong.

So-called progressives need to reassess their philosophical positions on morality. If there are no moral / ethical absolutes, then it logically follows that you cannot complain if individuals choose to pursue their selfish ends. Don’t blame the market. It will create opportunities to serve all tastes – however vain or selfish they may be.

“The growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, against house prices that the Bank of England describes as well above equilibrium level. What action will the Chancellor take on the problem of consumer debt?”

Vince Cable:Treasury Questions. November 2003

“We have been right about the prospects for growth in the British economy, and the hon. Gentleman (Mr. Cable) has been wrong.”

Gordon Brown-Chancellor of the EXchequer-reply to Cable: Treasury Questions. November 2003

“We are concerned about the division of responsibility between the FSA and the Bank over banking and
market regulation. Fortunately, conditions in the last decade have been benign internationally, with no
serious threats to banking liquidity. We think it would be safer if the Bank of England had
responsibility for solvency regulation of UK-based banks, as well as having an overall duty to keep the
system solvent. Otherwise, there could be dangerous delays if a banking crisis did hit, with information having to be exchanged between the two regulators; and there might be gaps in each
regulator’s view of the banking sector at a crucial time, when early regulatory action might have
spared a worse problem.”

Conservative Economic Competitiveness Review.
Chair John Redwood
August 2007

Interesting piece in tonight’s Evening Standard. My reading is that it skewers Bagehot.