writerlywitterings

Politics

Posted by writerlywitterer on 30/03/2012 · 11 Comments 

I have always been a conservative. Yes. Small “c”. But I stopped voting for any of the three main parties when they decided to ban pistol shooting.

It was a big issue for me. One illegal shooter went mad with his guns, and as a result all legal pistol shooting was banned forever (yes, Hamilton in Dunblane somehow gained a licence illegally and held onto it even though he was found with illegal weapons in his house, when he threatened people at home and in the street with his firearms, when he was not a member of a relevant gun club to own his weapons – in any other police jurisdiction in the UK, he would have not had his licence granted in the first place, or if he had, it would have been revoked after any one of these infractions. In his area it has to be concluded that certain members of the police were either culpably negligent or were enthusiastically incompetent. Since several investigating officers recommended that his licence should be revoked and had their recommendations squashed by senior officers, I think it’s more likely that senior officers were responsible).

I only have a few sports. In my youth I was a keen Karate student. That ended when I accidentally slipped down some stairs and lost the tendons in an ankle. I was still able to ski, though, and I guess skiing is one of my favourite sports – but I haven’t been able to afford to ski since the 1980s. It’s not a cheap sport in the UK.

No, my favourite sport, always, was pistol shooting.

Still one of my favourites: Colt 1911A1 Series 80. Great to shoot.

Pistol shooting was another English-invented pastime: the modern martial art. Before 1945, it was considered a safe and sensible pastime for any Englishmen and women. And with good reason. Pistol shooters had always been trusted. When I had a licence, I could prove I was safer than other people, because I had been carefully checked by the police. That licence proved I had never been suspected of a crime, never been convicted for drunk driving – nothing. No shooters I knew would risk getting drunk in case their licence was revoked and guns confiscated – alcoholics weren’t allowed guns. Pistol shooters were the most law-abiding group in the country, and demonstrably so.

Before gun licencing, when there were robberies, the police would call out in the street for anyone who was carrying a gun, borrow them, and hare off after the criminals. London was a safer place in those days. People would routinely carry pistols in their pockets. They were tools for self-defence. That is, after all, what handguns were invented for: defence.

But now self-defence is not allowed. In theory, all citizens have the right to self-defence, but in practice – no. Pistols are too dangerous – anyone touching a gun could become a crazed murderer – and as for Tasers, mace or pepper sprays, they too are listed as illegal weapons. A little while ago, it was proposed that bullet-proof and stab-proof vests should also be illegal.

The police, of course, are different. They have permission to possess any weapon – while in uniform or on duty. As soon as they clock off, they are not allowed guns. But while working, they’re allowed any form of weapon. They lied to government in Wilson’s era in order to be able to buy submachineguns – by simple describing their toys as “carbines”. And their lies were swallowed then. God only knows what else they’ve fibbed about.

But all political parties decided to ban pistols. Fine – that meant I swore I wouldn’t support any of them.

Ah, my favourite still: the Glock 21 in .45 cal. Lovely, reliable and fun to shoot.

My oath was easy to maintain. I always mistrusted Blair. He struck me as a poseur who would say anything to anyone in order to gain more power. I hadn’t realised how greedy he was as well. Mandelson was clearly only ever in it for the money; Brown was a mediocre politician and execrable economist who destroyed the British pensions industry, savaged our gold reserves and then went on to ruin our economy. I hated, and still detest, the Labour party.

I had always voted Conservative, but that ended in 1997. I wouldn’t vote for a party who took from me my only affordable pastime. As for the Liberal Democrats – well, I have a brain.

Instead I began to search for newer parties who reflected my views.

They aren’t extreme. In fact I think my ideals are pretty much middle of the road.

I want a good safety net for all those who need help when they lose their jobs or their health. Easy as a statement.

I do not want any further integration into an anti-democratic European superstate.

I want the freedom to find my own happiness without any interference from the state.

All of these things used to be the key proposals of the Conservatives.

When I saw Cameron take over the party, it made me happy. I thought that a guy who had enjoyed a privileged life so far would be more reliable and less likely to be corrupted than the greedy crooks who had preceded him. I was fairly convinced that the NHS would be safe in his hands, because he had needed the NHS when his own son was ill, and later when his son died. Someone who has gone through that would surely, I felt, be so grateful that he would protect the service with all his strength.

But the sight of tubby, chortling front benchers jeering and heckling their opponents, all equally chubby and giggly, eating massively subsidised meals, drinking hugely subsidised drinks, and claiming allowances of hundreds of pounds a month for more food, is sickening. One side places VAT on pasties, the other side makes political capital by going to a pasty shop.

It is pathetic.

There used to be a saying “sells like hot cakes”. In the 1970s, when we joined the EEC, that saying went out of date. That was when VAT was imposed, and since hot cakes received VAT and cold ones didn’t, hot cakes ceased to be sold. But I would like to be able to buy them still.

VAT is now 20%. Anything, pretty much, that you want to buy in the UK is one fifth more expensive than it should be. And that is on top of the other taxes we have to pay – the fuel duty, the rents and rates – everything.

But VAT is needed for the massive sums which Britain pays every year into the European Union. It goes to poorer countries so that they can join. There is a belief in the socialist, undemocratic Union that richer nations must impoverish themselves to help the poorer nations.

I don’t agree. I think nations should find their own way to increase their wealth, just as families should, without expecting others to help them. Because at the end of the day, my duty is not to some nebulous concept invented by a politician seeking to gain himself some momentary fame, my duty is to my family first, and my local community second. After that I’ll think about duty to the state.

And families survive and support themselves far, far better when their future and their income is controlled by them themselves. Not politicians, not bureaucrats, not civil servants, and certainly not faceless unelected people in Brussels.

The good thing is, all the main political parties have accepted that this is the feeling in the country. Which is why Gordon Brown promised a referendum on membership of the EU. The hugely pro-Europe party, the LibDems, also promised a referendum on Europe, “in or out”. Oh, and Cameron’s Conservatives promised it too.

And every single party reneged on their promises. They were “political” promises. Clearly not to be taken seriously. They were merely indications of what would be good when the time was right. At some point in the future. Perhaps.

So, my political choice is a lot easier. I still cannot vote for any of these mendacious people.

Nigel Farage, here I come.

Back in the good old days, when pistol shooting was fun.