The Words of Erasmus

Returning to the subject of a previous post, I still don't think the electorate really have a clue about the real extent of the financial difficulties that our nation faces.

Even though the media is now generally accepting that public spending will have to reduce and has stopped saying the recession is over, this just isn't getting extent of the problem through to people. Only then will they want to know who is responsible for this hopeless state of affairs (the current Labour government) and really want to do something about it - i.e. remove them.

There is no reason why it is not possible to describe a problem in it's full and terrible detail - provided that you have a credible solution. To get wrapped up in ideas that say you shouldn't tell people the truth because no-one votes for pessimism really misses the point. Whilst it is true to say that you need to be optimistic, that doesn't preclude describing a problem. the difficulty only exists if you can't provide a positive solution.

Opening people's eyes to the realities is the answer.

Because otherwise as the Dutch philosopher Erasmus (1466-1536) said:

'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king'