Are Politicians really so Stupid?

Some difficult family matters have taken my time this week but I have been listening to the news on the way past.

We had Cameron prattling on about immigration and why it should be controlled. A very populist sentiment with many people, but a moment’s thought makes it obvious the damage is long done and he can’t do anything about it. As long as Italy gives temporary residence to North African refugees and the EU continues to expand eastwards we have uncontrolled borders and a continuing influx of people able to claim benefits, housing and help from the UK taxpayer. While the European human rights act is raised above the needs and rights of the native population then he can’t do anything about many non-EU arrivals either. He waffles on similarly about controlling EU budgets, opposing votes for prisoners and all sorts of stuff where similarly he has no real control because that power has long been given away.

So why do politicians say these things and pretend? Are they really too stupid to realise that they are powerless or that we won’t notice the broken promises? Much as I despise many of them I personally don’t think they are. Individuals may be a couple of slices short of a sandwich, but the powers that pull their strings are not, the body politic is not stupid.

Could it be simply populist rhetoric? On the basis of increasing their popularity while they hope and assume nobody will see the reality that belies their words. Do they assume that we will approve their supposed position, think positively of them, and by next week a new issue will have made us forget their vacuous assertions of this week? I expect there is an element of this, just as there are parts of society intellectually feeble enough to be swayed by it, but again it doesn’t explain why they say and do these things.

The more likely explanation is that they are working to an agenda. It all seems idiotic and nonsensical from here and looks as though they have no plans or visions, but that’s because we don’t fully understand what their agenda is. What looks stupid, contradictory and out of touch with reality is usually being done to pursue hidden goals, and indeed often to disguise those goals. Why, for example, at a time when climate science’s alarmism over man-made warming has been severely discredited, and industry needs every helping hand it can get did Osbourne introduce a carbon tax during the budget?

The problem is that we don’t know those goals. Self aggrandisement and personal profit are obvious but there has to be more, and the EU is generally held up as the driving force. All our main politicians are pro EU integration (or have been bought into the cause) so we need to look at EU plans to see how some ‘local’ developments and pronouncements fit, and we can find a very good fit for much government activity.

Cuts to the armed forces mean that any military action has to be a co-operative EU activity where states share resources, and this is exactly what is happening. The discussion about 2 year MOT tests has little to do with freeing motorists, it brings us into line with the EU norms. Our NHS is being reorganised to be more like continental Europe. The carbon tax is the EU’s intended vehicle to enable direct EU taxation, it is mostly hidden from public view and can be collected separately to other taxes. Raising speed limits on motorways, well of course it brings us into line with France and Germany.

And so it goes, everything the political elite do and everything they say has to be seen in the context of their real agenda. Start doing that and all sorts of things begin to make sense.