The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

Gordon Brown: David Cameron's cuts will make the recession worse – mirror.co.uk.

From time to time switched-on bloggers express incredulity that there are still millions prepared to vote Labour despite the dog's dinner it has made of, well, everything. I grew up among those millions and think I know why. Click through to the linked article in the Sunday Mirror for an example of how Labour manipulates these poor fools (bearing in mind that for many Labour voters in the heartlands The Mirror and, perhaps, the BBC are their habitual sources of political "news").

Gordon Brown has found a simple story to tell; one that will resonate with such voters. It's not true, but that doesn't bother him. The man is making political omelettes and will shed no tears over the breaking of ethical eggs. While even the panellists on such mainstream shows as Have I Got News for You are now openly laughing at him, he is targeting not even the viewers of such light entertainment, but the nation's idiots (each of whom has just the same vote as you or me). Forget your intellectual pretensions. Forget your sense of shame that your IP address may be recorded at such an embarrassing location. Click through to The Sunday Mirror site and marvel at the contempt in which this man holds the British people. Then worry that they might be worthy of it.

A Conservative analysed Labour's spending plans (by adjusting them for inflation and how much would go on servicing our massively increased debts) as a 10% cut in real expenditure on public services. Brown (or, more likely, Mandelson) heard the words "Conservative", "cuts" and "10%" and stitched them together into the standard Labour electoral message. Now they have their minions repeating it everywhere, and Brown has chosen the Mirror, the grand old propaganda organ of that great Socialist Captain Bob, to sound his own clarion.

Never mind that the Conservatives have so far said nothing except (foolishly, in my view) that spending on the NHS and foreign aid will be protected under their spending plans. Never mind that the Conservatives are in no position to say how hard they will have to cut everything else until they know how long Labour is able to pursue its present scorched earth policy. Never mind that it will have to be a damn sight more than 10% in real terms, even if Labour (Heaven forfend) were re-elected.

Every word of Brown's article is politically dishonest. We are now led (if garnering our cash while cowering in fear of our eventual wrath can be characterised as "leading") by moral degenerates clothed scantily in the tatters of their always-flimsy democratic mandate. The only interesting question now is whether Brown of the Broken Moral Compass is their master or their puppet.