I still wanted to change the world and believed then and still do now, that we all have a part to play in how we protect our futures. By doing all we can to protect the environment, by ensuring our planet is a safer, cleaner place in which to live, we are acting in the interests of every living creature. In my late teens the Ecology Party (now the Green Party) seemed a new and exciting entrant in British politics. I was so convinced that the world would be a better place because the Ecology Party was there to make it so I joined, but solely because of their environmentally friendly policies.
After following them through the 1979 General Election I realised that their very existence had created a sympathetic awareness of environmental problems. Consequently all other parties realised the vote winning potential of these sympathies and developed their own “green” policies. The Ecology Party was essentially a very effective pressure group in this respect and I believe that although a political failure, it has been a great success in creating this environmental awareness amongst the general public and consequently the demand for the establishment to do something about it. As far as I was concerned the Ecology Party had served its purpose, the awareness of environmental issues had been brought to centre stage, any other policies were irrelevant and seemed too left wing for me anyway.
I was now married with a family and wanted something for me as an individual and consequently my dependents. I wanted to go far in career terms, I wanted more money, a better standard of living and I wanted encouragement to achieve this. I had to prove myself in competition and I was prepared to make the effort and believed people should only get what they deserved. I needed a climate in which individuals could achieve these things.
The Conservative Party had just come to power under Margaret Thatcher. At the time the Tory machine seemed a very powerful force indeed. Mrs Thatcher was either loved or loathed but it was agreed by all she was a great leader. There seemed an air of optimism everywhere, opportunities abounded for those prepared to work for them and better still the socialist would be taken down a peg or two. There was to be prosperity, house prices rose, living standards rose, shares were available for all. I wanted to be part of it and enquired about joining the party but fortunately never did.
What started as a great new dream changed into a nightmare. It was not an immediate change, my disillusionment set in over a period of years. The country I loved, the people, the great Britain of old was being sacrificed for a quick profit. The whole Conservative philosophy revolved around greed. This and their many other failures to uphold all that was good about Britain increased my anger with the fact that no party seemed to really care. The party many believed to be the solution to all our problems really was not. They are guilty of the gross mismanagement of Britain.
Once the envy of the world, our industrial and manufacturing base has been eroded as the Tories have failed to support British businesses and the British worker, against the unfair competition from cheap foreign imports produced by a poorly paid workforce.
There is an increasing, unnecessary and costly interference in our domestic way of life through what is now known as the European Union.
Most of our state-owned utility services, gas, water, telecommunications and so on, have been privatised making the respective shareholders happy of course, but the promised improvements in service have not been forthcoming despite large profits being made. I personally witnessed the dismantling of sections of the Civil Service, not a bad thing in many cases, but these sections were market tested at the expense of many jobs only to result in a the provision of a poorer service at great cost.
Refugees and immigrants are forever welcomed with open arms to our shores. It is not difficult to understand why they come to Britain instead of Sweden or Ireland or Germany, for example. Perhaps it has something to do with the knowledge they have that Britain is a soft touch when it comes to state handouts.
The party of “law and order” have not been prepared to implement policies to ensure acceptable levels of law and order are maintained and there have been no restoration of capital punishment despite the public demand to do so.
We have been subjected to the completely insane plague of political correctness which has embedded itself in the very fabric of our society, an evil essentially created by left-wing militant types during a right-wing government’s term in office. This is being compounded by the continual bombardment of our senses by the wayward influence of the “special friends” across the pond in America, of our business methods for example, and the general deterioration of good social and moral attitudes through the portrayal of extreme anti-social behaviour on television and in films.
It will come as no surprise that I concluded the Tories had not the slightest understanding of the needs or feelings of the general public, the same public which supported them so well at election time. The traditional way of life was being replaced by a faceless and unidentifiable mess. I had to reassess what was important to me and where I was to go from here. What choice was left to me? I believed the Liberal Democrats to be a non-entity with no policies of their own, the British National Party to be fascist boot boys (Note – written at a time when I knew nothing of the BNP other than the media influenced picture of them and their association with Combat 18 etc)... and the Monster Raving Loony Party were, well, a touch unbalanced!
Part 3 of 3 to follow shortly, after which I will write specific details of my political history and activity. It may be of interest!
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