Posted: Mar 06, 2012 7:55 pm
I'd just like to break the back of a strawman I've noticed being applied to objectors to the coalition's proposals in some quarters of politics, the press, and elsewhere.
Challenging the premises and implementation of these reforms does not mean objectors, like myself, are against any or all reforms to health and care services, or maintain that the NHS is perfect or cannot do better, or that at top-heavy bureaucracy should not be guarded against, or that the NHS should resist all changes, or that a government has no responsibility to strive to make it as good as it can be or should just leave it to do whatever it does, or that the issue of the projected costs associated with an ageing population should not be addressed, or that objectors are necessarily akin to a howling mob of faith-based trotskyites who are ideologically wedded to opposing everything the coalition stands for or does in office, or akin to Nazis peddling propaganda, or anti-science, or are fundamentally anti-capitalist and stand against the very notions and principles of free and fair trade and competition, or are irrationally capricious, erratic or otherwise axiomatically inconsistent in their views, or intentionally deceitful. The function of such strawmen serves only to promote an argument ad hominem and should be dealt within that context.
Just thought I'd make that clear.
edit: clarity and little fixes
Challenging the premises and implementation of these reforms does not mean objectors, like myself, are against any or all reforms to health and care services, or maintain that the NHS is perfect or cannot do better, or that at top-heavy bureaucracy should not be guarded against, or that the NHS should resist all changes, or that a government has no responsibility to strive to make it as good as it can be or should just leave it to do whatever it does, or that the issue of the projected costs associated with an ageing population should not be addressed, or that objectors are necessarily akin to a howling mob of faith-based trotskyites who are ideologically wedded to opposing everything the coalition stands for or does in office, or akin to Nazis peddling propaganda, or anti-science, or are fundamentally anti-capitalist and stand against the very notions and principles of free and fair trade and competition, or are irrationally capricious, erratic or otherwise axiomatically inconsistent in their views, or intentionally deceitful. The function of such strawmen serves only to promote an argument ad hominem and should be dealt within that context.
Just thought I'd make that clear.
edit: clarity and little fixes