The Politics of ...

The Politics of ...

Wednesday 6 March 2024

Everything is Broken...

Last week, I said the the wife, "Honestly, I think if any political party came out tomorrow and said, 'we're going to spend money fixing the roads, the schools and the hospitals before we do anything else' they would probably win the next election". That is, of course, if people believe anything politicians say any longer. I cannot remember a time in my 60+ years when politicians and the people have been so far apart. The divisions highlighted in this country in 2016 have widened to the point where certain political parties are branding people who want peace and unity in the world as extremists and when something like that happens you kind of realise you're on the wrong side of history.

The talk is we're headed for a General Election in November, but it could be May, depending on whether Rishi Sunak wants to oversee the destruction of the Tory party or the complete annihilation of it. Things have gotten so bad even a poor Labour party looks destined to achieve an overwhelming landslide victory - something, once upon a time, I would have welcomed with open arms, but now fear it almost as much as an unlikely Tory victory. The reason is simple, Keir Starmer's Labour doesn't appear to be offering anything apart from Tory policies that were unpopular 14 years ago, but seem far more palatable than policies the Tories are offering now.

We all live in bubbles; we surround ourselves IRL or on-line with likeminded people (which is a generalisation for some people, but is largely the case) and therefore we have our beliefs confirmed by people who agree with us or we agree with them. That doesn't mean there aren't many people out there who vehemently disagree with what you or I might believe in. I had a conversation about this with a right leaning friend recently, about how Britain is broken and his opinion was that people moan too much; that we live in a country where people have been given too much freedom to complain and therefore they complain about everything, even if it isn't broken as much as they claim. This is one of those intransigent cover-all sweeping generalisations that is difficult to argue against in a way that doesn't lead to more divisions. The problem I see is that people moan more because the country is in a far poorer state than I can remember it being in, even in the dark days of the 1970s.

My friend isn't a free market, modern Tory by any stretch of the imagination, but he is set in his ways and is as immovable in his beliefs as I am in mine. Whereas I see a broken country riddled with divisions, he sees a problem that needs overcoming. The dilemma is he votes for a party that has no desire to fix things because malcontent is, in many ways, a vote winner especially for the disenfranchised who still put an X on a ballot paper. It's why the 'Red Wall' became blue in 2019. Boris Johnson told unhappy voters that he would make it better for them by getting Brexit done and because they'd been fooled once they allowed themselves to be fooled again. The dilemma for the rest of the country is whether Labour has any desire to fix things or do they intend to just make people feel a bit better about themselves while pandering to the highest earning 10%?

The truth is simple - you turn on the news, read a newspaper or listen to - so-called - politically savvy people and all you see is misery, hopelessness and people trying to make the best of a bad thing. Do we deserve life to be like this in 2024? Surely we want nice roads, good schools, functioning hospitals, public services, less crime, less prejudice and blame - it didn't seem that long ago that we were on the cusp of a bright future, but over the last 14 years that future has been whitewashed over with hate, mistrust and division. 

The future, at least the immediate one, doesn't appear to be optimistic. Labour talk like the Coalition talked in 2010 about there not being any money, about tough choices needing to be made all the while shifting their position from a party of hope and optimism to one that is gaslighting us into realising that they're not bringing anything to the tables apart from not being Tories. This simply confirms the old adage of it doesn't matter who wins the election, the government always gets in. A Labour government appears, at the moment, to be promising more austerity, more support for wars, more marginalisation, the same for London while the rest of the kingdom has to tighten its belt buckle. Fewer green policies because we have too many voters who simply don't believe that the climate crisis is anything that can't be solved by the next generation of scientists - if it exists at all - and so what if its a few degrees warmer, we all like a barbecue or a bit of sunbathing.  

To be even handed, even the Green Party are beginning to look like politicians. The Libdems are largely anonymous, lurking in the wings hoping to pinch Tory seats from voters who can't hold their noses and vote Labour. The SNP, if you believe the press - which you probably shouldn't - appear to be suffering from having been in power too long and the Reform UK party - formerly UKIP - appeal to racists, bigots and people who like a fight after the pub on a Saturday night. The kind of people who want smoking bans lifted and people who aren't white deported to another country as long as it isn't "are country". We have a political landscape that feels dystopian... 

And I'm sorry, but I haven't got a solution for you. This isn't going to be a long list of what's wrong and here's a way to fix it - not that it would make an iota of difference anyhow. We're a poorer country because of Brexit. We'd rather our politicians play whataboutery than fix things; we're happy with them blaming everything on everyone else and some of us are even happy for the Tories - in POWER for 14 years - to say the country has been taken over by Islamist extremists, woke lefties and whatever this week's insult for people who still care about others is. The people who like this kind of rhetoric don't appear to have the emotional intelligence to ask the question - if this is really the case, how come the Tories have allowed it when they've been in power for so long? Whose fault is it?

The Daily Mail or Express will try and say it's Labour's fault for not being effective opposition (they've done this before, accused Labour for why the Tories are failing) while simultaneously gaslighting their readers into believing that brown people or Europeans or Remoaners have brought the country down; to say the UK is led by blame culture now is pretty much accurate - no one takes responsibility any more, they just blame others for it and if they can't blame others they make them pay. Look at it this way, the Post Office scandal has been going on for over 20 years and despite everything we've seen and learned, the Post Office is still trying to avoid responsibility. In a half decent world this mess would have been sorted out as a priority, but subsequent governments - who own the PO - appear to be doing everything in their power to ensure that nothing is done.

Take the Grenfell fire? Nearly eight years after the event there are still 15 tenants living out of suitcases in hotels and temporary accommodation and the only accusatory fingers being pointed are at firefighters and the fact that many of the tenants were extremely poor. No landlords or councils have been implicated, no cladding firms sued and no justice has been served, because you know... people. People don't deserve proper justice, especially ones who have ethnic or other religious backgrounds - the people who made the country tick are the least important - you need to realise this.

While politicians stoke the fires of racism it allows them to ignore problems that need solving; to strip mine communities of their resources, because they know that eventually people will get used to or accept there is no safety net and create one from volunteers rather than rely on governments and councils for support. All David Cameron's Big Society idea amounted to was 'we're taking money away from things the poor need and we're hoping philanthropists will fill that financial or work time gap' - but, don't despair, you can feel good about yourself for helping keep your local library open by volunteering six hours a week - think of the money that can be saved for shareholders and PFIs?

We have so much poverty now in sectors - fuel and food specifically - yet companies are paying so much in profit dividends it's amazing we haven't had some kind of revolution. Supermarkets have benefitted from mega inflation and are posting profits that are eyewatering and insulting to even well off people - yet still ask customers to donate to food banks. Energy companies are the same, yet we don't get people asking why the average price increase in Europe for energy bills was just 4%, but a staggering 54% in the UK? This figure is also staggering because Europe depends on Russian gas and oil, whereas the UK gets most of its gas and oil from... Norway. The problem is you don't see journalists asking MPs questions like why is it like this, because we don't really have journalists any longer; we have people who are told what and when to ask things. The absurdity of it all is that if a proper journalist asked an MP why energy prices are so high in the UK as opposed to the rest of Europe, they're likely answer will be to blame someone else - probably Russia, despite Russia having no discernible relationship with our energy usage. It's probably Islamists or Just Stop Oil supporters driving the prices up and gammons will lap this kind of fantasy bullshit up because it makes far more 'sense' than the actual truth. All we get is dog whistling and whataboutery because politicians don't want to upset the rich; they can't afford to upset any applecart because, arguably, they are in thrall to them all.

And there in lies a huge dilemma for the country as a whole; if we do not hold governments to account then they do things like the current one is in the process of doing. With the knowledge that only a seismic miracle will see the Tories retain power, they are deliberately making it difficult for Labour to solve issues and install some optimism, especially for the poorest in society. Every decision that has been made since the autumn of 2023 until the dissolution of parliament three weeks before the election has or will be to make whoever wins have such a problem that the voters won't trust them with anything but a single term. How can we allow a situation where our duly elected MPs can make life so difficult for everyone and prevent their successors from making life better and not be held to account?

The national debt is three times higher now than when the coalition came into power in 2010; we have seen public services decimated, corruption go through the roof, the country's infrastructure falling apart and MPs suspended or sacked for breaches of rules; in fact, we've seen unprecedented levels of incompetence since 2014 to the level had it not been the Tories in power, we'd be suffering an onslaught of headlines and TV coverage demanding the government are removed, yet despite the lives of the majority of people getting worse over the last 15 years, the Tories have not only held onto power, they've increased their number of seats! The party of fiscal responsibility is anything but, yet we're told almost every day that they're the best we can expect so we need to keep hold of them and still there are many hundreds of thousands of people who will vote for them because they seriously believe that under someone else it would be worse...

Let's be straight about this - the country is broken, almost beyond proper repair; no political party could have caused so much havoc and division in such a short time; not even a communist takeover. We have lived through an era where the poor have become not only poorer, they've been joined in their ranks by people who 15 years ago would have considered themselves financially secure. Yet we have idiots trying to blame this affront on humanity on anything else but the sitting government. If it isn't the disabled or immigrants, it's people not being positive enough about Brexit. Single parents, woke lefties, Islamists, atheists - if the charlatans in power can tell you it's someone else's fault but theirs they will and in a lot of cases they will be believed. It's amazing that after nearly 15 years in power, our current government has been powerless to stop all these things that have ruined their plan for a better Britain and if it has been everyone else but them, they couldn't have been that good to start with if they allowed all of this shit to happen on their watch.

The bad news is it isn't going to change. The more disillusioned the public become with politics the lower the turnout, the fewer people decide the fates of the many. The UK hasn't got a political party waiting in the wings to do radical progressive politics, it has different cheeks of the same arse.

Tuesday 28 November 2023

Reason to be Fearful

Someone I know posted something on their Facebook page; it was by someone called Matt Haig and it was an excerpt from his book. This is what I saw:

The world is increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn't very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more?
How do you sell an anti-ageing moisturiser? You make someone worry about ageing. How do you get people to vote for a political party? You make them worry about immigration. How do you get them to buy insurance? By making them worry about everything. How do you get them to have plastic surgery? By highlighting their physical flaws. How do you get them to watch a TV show? By making them worry about missing out. How do you get them to buy a new smartphone? By making them feel like they are being left behind.
To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To be happy with your own non upgraded existence. To be comfortable with our messy, human selves, would not be good for business.

It got me thinking about how misery has become the norm. How the 'world' profits from the unhappiness of everyone and how the media - in all forms - is culpable for the general dehumanisation of people. It does appear that capitalism is the most important thing on the planet and ensuring the very very rich become much much richer is by far the most important goal. People are expendable, the rich are not.

Just this alone would be a reason to be scared for the future, especially people with children and grandchildren. What kind of a future will they have if all they're going to be doing is trying to solve the mess their forefathers have dumped on them? This is pretty much how I see it; the people destroying the planet are happy in the knowledge that their children, grandchildren or great grandchildren will come up with a scientific solution because today's wealthy want to be as rich as Croesus and in a twist on that fable are happy to turn everything they touch into shit to get that wealth.

People have always been expendable and what makes that worse is that so many of us are quite happy to be. The people who say shit like, 'That's the way it is, what's the point in moaning about it' should be the first people tipped into the meat grinders (and probably will be when all the rich have left to eat is the poor). I am also aware that with over 7 billion people on earth that we need to be expendable because we're the planet's biggest threat. I also think we're entering a crucial stage in the life span of capitalism, because capitalists are not stupid and they're probably aware that everything has a lifespan and capitalism is entering its end life - the tipping point won't be what revolutionists hope, it will simply be an extinction event that stops the flow of money and those with the money will know that their lives will change to the degree that they will have to make do with what they have left while living on their well-stocked islands. Their only problem will be finding idiots to do their bidding for the minimum they can get away with - but rest assured, there will always be some fucking wanker prepared to suck a rich person's cock if it means beans for tea...

The reason I have this particular bug up my arse at the moment is simply because I think we were being conned and the people conning us have essentially stopped the charade and don't care who knows any more. This isn't about politics, but if the Covid enquiry has taught us anything it's that the government - Johnson's government - didn't really give a shit about people and were more than happy to share the country's wealth with all their friends, despite knowing that it would all come out one day. The fact they can stand up and tell us there's no money left after wasting literally £130billion over two years should make people never want to vote for them again. With £130bn you could not only fix the NHS you could build 300,000 affordable houses, abolish child poverty and come up with a reasonable way to prevent migrants from wishing to 'invade' our shores en masse. Yet that would be the last thing any of them would do; why solve a problem when you can exploit it, use it and weaponize it to ensure everyone stays fearful of the problem. Stopping people fear for their lives will stop people from going down the xenophobia route and that means there's less money to pilfer.

Take Cop28 in the United Arab Emirates. Just the fact we're holding an annual climate crisis seminar in one of the biggest producers of oil in the world should be laughed at; factor in the news that both the UAE and the Saudi Arabians are using the conference to sell oil to the poorest nations attending should tell you everything you need to know about how fucking altruistic the governments of the rich world  are and how much they care about you. They don't. They simply want to make more money; not to try and solve problems, and that's because once you have everything you still want more. 

The biggest existential threat to the planet isn't just climate change it's the effects of climate change on populations - it is expected that up to 1 billion people might have their homes destroyed and that means 1 billion climate refugees seeking new homes. Do you know what the biggest issue with the western world is at the moment? Refugees or economic migrants. The Netherlands, a country most people with intelligence assume is one of the most liberal countries on the planet, have just voted in a right wing anti-immigration zealot. A lot of people might baulk at the rise of the right in politics, but that's because we're constantly having the threat of immigrants shoved down our throats - if it's bad at the moment imagination what another billion people queuing up to get in your country will be like, these people who will steal your jobs and put extra pressure on public services, this is what is going to happen, oh and don't forget to buy more fossil fuel or electric cars or books...

The other biggest threat to the future of mankind, other than the promotion of hate, is actually these yearly climate crisis soirees - an excuse for ministers to jet in from wherever they are to enjoy a week's hospitality before promising nothing and flying home to carry on whatever mass destruction they have planned. And no this isn't a conspiracy theory because this isn't what I believe it's what is going on under your noses at the moment, you just don't choose to see it because your life is already shit and you don't want it to become even worse, even though it always does.


Monday 30 October 2023

We [Don't] Care A Lot

My paternal grandmother, Alice Maher, was Jewish. I just want to put that out, in the public forum, before anything else. She may have been a lapsed Jew, but London, before, during and after, the Second World War wasn't as safe a place for Jewish people as you might imagine. It wasn't Germany, but they faced as much hate and segregation from some quarters as any Jews in Germany, Poland, Hungary or France. The plight of the Jewish people has, it seems, always been a struggle.

Imagine being mainly white and yet persecuted for being a religion that for many centuries has been a label to detest? Yet, here we are in the 21st century and the same thing appears to be happening to the world's largest organised religion. Muslims, especially since the turn of the century, have become the race and religion to be treated with distrust; to be sceptical about, to make up all kinds of bullshit about to reinforce people's beliefs. In the USA, there are white Christians murdering anyone, with high powered assault weapons and yet the American people are incapable of coming up with a solution to stop it and simply offer their hopes and prayers that 'God' will eventually stop the senseless killings.

The Republic of Ireland is an independent country apart from the bit at the top, which is part of the United Kingdom. It has been part of the UK for 800 years, when the British invaded Ireland and decided it was theirs. For centuries it was ruled by the British and it wasn't until 1921 when they finally escaped their captors and forged their own independent country, apart from the bit at the top... 

Imagine, if you will, that island of Ireland. Imagine that despite the Republic gaining its independence, the North decided that the area of land it had wasn't big enough, so gradually over the decades it took bits and pieces; starting with, say, Donegal, which is also at the top and to the west. Then it moved onto Louth and then Monaghan and then by the 1950s it took Cavan and Leitrim. Not content with having all of North Ireland, the British then took Connacht and moved down the west coast of Ireland 'repatriating' it and returning it to British rule until in 2000 when all that was left of an independent Ireland was Dublin, Wexford, Munster and most of Kerry - the rest were called the British Ireland Territories and the British weren't content; they still wanted lots of what was left.

Imagine this happening and it getting the full backing of the United States, and all the major European countries and as a result any dissenting voice coming out of Independent Ireland was either silenced or isolated so it sounded like feeble excuses, especially given that the Irish Liberation Organisation had been labelled a terrorist organisation and were not recognised by anyone apart from those crazy Irish people, who seem to have elected the political wing of these 'murdering terrorists' who have the audacity to challenge and fight the invading British armies...

This scenario is essentially what has happened in the Middle East since the Balfour Declaration in 1917, when the British acknowledged the right of the Jewish people to have a Middle Eastern homeland and from that point on, especially after World War Two and then the Six-Day War in 1967. In fact since that short-lived Arab-Israeli war in 1967, the Israeli governments have slowly but surely driven the Palestinian people out of their homeland and 'settled' in areas that they believe was their ancient home and their birth right to regain. While this has happened, the West has steadfastly ignored everything the Israelis have done and whenever the region gets into the news it's because Palestinians - either the PLO or now Hamas - have dared fight back against the oppression they have suffered since 1948. The example I gave you above about Ireland is essentially what has happened in the Middle East; Israel was smaller than Palestine in 1948, by 2023 there's probably going to be a region comparatively the size of Yorkshire in the UK that is for Palestinians, everywhere else has been 'settled' by the Israeli people and they do this with the full backing of the USA, the UK, most of Europe and a large percentage of 'important' countries in the world.

A fantastic example of the bubbles we live in can be found if you trawl through social media and the comments sections of all the major UK newspapers. We have been indoctrinated so well over the last 50+ years that we now think of Palestinians as 'Muslim terrorists' even if they're just young children and we also think that Israel has an almost God given right to annihilate them; almost as if they're really just an infestation rather than being the indigenous race. Everywhere we look or listen to it's about the poor Israelis and how they're suffering. It's pure indoctrination, the same way that the west has demonised left wing politics as communism or how socialism is a bad thing and like anti-Muslim rhetoric, the sheep will believe what they're told by those with a vested interest in people believing them.

What Hamas did on October 7th was a heinous and cowardly act of aggression, probably akin in many ways to a mass suicide bombing. Palestine was going to be assimilated inside the next 20 years anyhow; the Israeli government have been looking for an excuse to raze the place to the floor to make occupying it much easier and allow other countries to come in and rebuild it for them, thus cementing the brilliant relationship between Israel and its Western allies. What Hamas did was essentially sacrifice its own people so that the world would start to look at Israel in a different way. The problem is despite the hundreds of thousands of people who have marched in protest last weekend, the rest of the world doesn't care. We've had 22 years of constant bombardment from the press about wicked, extremist or bonkers Muslims, so in many eyes around the world this is just pay back for all the terrorism caused by Muslims - which, of course, represents less than 10% of all actual terrorism caused since 11th September 2001, but why let facts get in the way of hatred?

The unbelievable silence from world leaders about the mass murder of women and children in Gaza, dismissed away by the flimsiest of excuses, 'there were Hamas fighters in that hospital' and the acceptance that anything the murderous IDF or the Nazi Likud party tells us and the scepticism from the same world leaders at the amount of women and children who have died in Gaza is reprehensible; it's like anathema against Palestine because they exist and it would be far more convenient if they didn't.

However, if you look at social media or news media or newspaper comments sections you will see that if you support Palestine you're the enemy - you're anti-Semitic - as well; because people don't see other people, they see terrorists and if children die it's one less future terrorist for their own children to worry about. If Israel says that a hospital bombing killing hundreds of people was caused by a rogue Hamas missile that malfunctioned and landed in the courtyard which as well as containing 1000 refugees also has a explosives dump, then people will believe that flimsy excuse because people will believe that Palestinians sleep with their missiles as pillows. They don't believe that Israel is capable of committing the kind of atrocities that the Nazis committed against them, despite extreme Zionists stating in their holy book the Talmud that no gentile (non Jew) is important and their lives don't matter.

Social media and comments section show that most people support Israel, despite there apparently being 78% of the population supporting an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds; the problem is half of that number want a ceasefire because they're fed up with Palestine filling up the news and current affairs programmes; they're fed up with it being all over their newspapers and on-line, just the same way as people have almost already forgotten the Ukraine crisis - out of sight, out of mind. People don't really care; especially not when there's a cost of living crisis, or when there's a zombie government doing nothing for them but seemingly raising interest rates, food prices and everything else while turning a blind eye to the profiteers wringing their last drops of profit out of people before the Labour Party come into power and might possibly stop that (which they won't). People don't care. They didn't really care when they put Ukrainian flags on their Facebook pages; the gammons in this country were happy for Ukrainians to come here as refugees because a) we weren't having that many and b) they weren't brown and didn't worship a God they were unfamiliar with. People don't really care and they regard the actual people that do as 'woke' or 'lefties' - that is how numb a large part of humanity has become to the lives of people who are dying.

If the UK allowed Palestinian refugees, which it probably wouldn't, how long before they get labelled 'economic migrants' or are pilloried because they have mobile phones or Nike trainers? How long before the faux fascists in this country start supporting the eradication of all Palestinians, in the same way that many of them felt we should shoot asylum seekers in the channel and let the French clean up the bodies? Saying you care is a whole lot different than actually caring. We live in a country where people don't even like their own neighbours and have been indoctrinated with a 'shop they neighbour' mentality, especially if they feel their neighbours have something these ignorant heartless bastards don't have.

But I'm getting away from the point - no country has any justification to target children or hospitals regardless of what they believe, especially not with missiles against a country that doesn't have a navy, an air force or an existing proper army. Yes, Hamas might be bankrolled by Iran, who we regard as our enemies, but Israel have state of the art weapons technology, sold to them by the UK and the USA, which they are using to kill children and then when challenged they feign incredulity and get angry that gentiles could be so harsh by criticising their right to defend their stolen country. 

But what's the point of telling you this; of explaining the actual facts of the situation and the reasons for why this has happened when most of you simply don't care? Maybe we need to be under threat before people start to realise that our leaders allow genocide as long as it suits their political aims and purposes. Maybe it's time people started to look at the bigger picture, explore the history, ask why this has happened rather than shout angrily at some 'rag head' or 'wog' they don't want to understand or sympathise with. The human race is lauded for its humanity, so where is that humanity when innocents are dying?

Monday 31 July 2023

We're All Going to Burn (or Freeze)

Dump your Green credentials and you'll be elected. That's the message Rishi Sunak is being fed by many people in his party. If you're a sensible, intelligent person you'll see this as a crazy, short-sighted message, but the problem isn't with you, it's not really with the climate change deniers, the problem lies in the perception that India, Brazil, Nigeria, USA, Russia and many other economic powerhouses just aren't doing enough so why should I. What is the point of individuals being green if it equates to a grain of sand on a massive beach?

I can't answer that. 

You might wonder what the point of this is then? Well, just recently I've been doing that exercise in futility by trying to argue with climate change deniers and given we've just had a fucking awful July it makes arguing on the side of climate change very difficult, mainly because people are stupid and can't see that climate change is probably responsible for us having a shit July and could be responsible for our own island's future climate crisis because there's a chance the gulf stream might disappear and if that happens our weather will be more Iceland than England and that will be a huge shock to the system.

Yet people don't want to believe it. They don't want electric cars, they don't want heat pumps, they don't want to spend any money on green things when entire countries are flipping the middle finger to scientists and other people trying to save the planet. The Death Cult of Deniers is actually winning; I know that seems strange considering the amount of EVs you see on the road, but that isn't a fair comparison because you can see a lot of football supporters at a game but that doesn't mean the entire country is a fan of football. The thing is you just have to look at the Uxbridge by-election to see that the wealthier you are the less likely you're going to support changes for the climate; the problem is until that result came through we thought it was just the 40% of the country who aren't wealthy, can't afford green things and were poorly educated thought that way. The truth is green people are in the minority and we don't have a government or a government in waiting that wants to commit to green policies because it's not a vote winner.

That means the Tories issuing 200 more North Sea oil exploration licences; opening a coal mine in Cumbria and spending years denying licences to off shore wind farms, because it seems the country would rather look at the sea than look at wind turbines providing them with cheap green energy. The internet has allowed conspiracy theories to gain ground to the point where people would rather believe bullshit than accept that the world might be dying. Ask them about how this will affect their children or grandchildren and you might as well be asking how an air fryer works in Albanian. The thing about denial is if you're in denial you'll deny everything.

I can say that we're doomed and attach that to many things such as governments, the rise of fascism or the growth of idiocy, but in reality we are doomed because the planet is going to fuck up badly and those least affected by it will refuse to believe it's anything but weather. The growing number of climate change deniers in the UK look outside their windows and see the rain and think, 'It's a load of bollocks.' How do you convince people using experts when they want to believe the guy down the pub more?

People like me and my peers are going to be dead by the time it gets really worse (or at least I hope so) and we're going to need the children of the world to say NO, but given the amount of scepticism out there I'm not sure young people are going to be immune from this kind of indoctrination.

Enjoy the planet, over the next ten years it's going to change beyond all recognition; there will be so many refugees - because of the climate crisis that doesn't exist - the gammons will be having aneurysms on a daily basis. The world will change and that change will be its death. It might take a couple of hundred years, but we're at the start of an extinction event, I just hope the planet survives the end of mankind.

Sunday 16 July 2023

You Can't Trust Labour

I would never have believed at any point in my life where I would have said 'you can't trust Labour'. It's anathema; not just unlikely but unfathomable. Me, a lifelong socialist and lefty, looking at the Labour Party and thinking, 'Thank fuck I live in Scotland and have an alternative party to vote for.'

Obi Wan Keir Starmer lied his way to the top job - very much the way Boris Johnson lied to everybody to try and keep his job - and over the last three years every single one of his promises have been ditched in favour of what appears to be slightly watered down versions of what we've been getting for the last 13 years. This might appeal to a small section of floating voters or Tory voters not happy with how their party has swung so far right they make fascists seem like nice guys, but it doesn't appeal to a hardcore group of Labour supporters who feel Starmer has sold out far more than Tony Blair ever did.

So what have they done now that has driven me to writing this?

Well, not a lot in the last week or so; nothing has happened specifically to make me so anti-Labour, but a lot of things have happened in the last 12 months that has left a bitter taste in my mouth. Take North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll as the perfect example of everything that is wrong about Labour at the moment. Driscoll is enormously popular in his area even amongst Tory voters. Yes, he's a bit of a Corbyn supporter and is most definitely left wing, but his success rate in the area is second to none, hence why he is extremely popular and, get this, for a politician he's also a really nice guy (just listen to him on You Tube or anywhere else you can find him). He was invited by his local arts centre to interview enormously successful, Oscar nominated film director Ken Loach - famous also for being an ardent campaigner for Labour and extremely anti-Tory. This is the man who made the shockingly brilliant and horrible film I, Daniel Blake and is passionate about having a fairer society...

Ken Loach is a friend of Jeremy Corbyn. He also publicly said that he felt the antisemitism row that the press foisted on Labour during Corbyn's reign was largely made up and was blown out of proportion by certain factions of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) who were prepared to lose elections to rid the party of Corbyn. This has made Loach toxic to the new Labour and he was summarily expelled from the party he'd been a member of for over 50 years. Jamie Driscoll was invited to interview and talk to Loach about his film career and subsequently Driscoll was deselected by Labour and will not fight for re-election with their support - he's effectively been kicked out of the party.

The reasons given were simple: he was on stage with Loach, he should have challenged the director - now in his 80s - about his pro-Corbyn and new Labour stance instead of, you know, talking to him about his films, which is why he, Driscoll and everyone else was there. This was an arts event not something that warranted being hijacked by politics. Driscoll's defence was simple, he was invited to talk about films not politics and the audience were there to see a film director not to see him attacked for supporting a friend. This was dismissed by Labour's chiefs without the right to appeal.

Or how about Neal Lawson, 44 years a member of the party who was expelled by the party for tweeting 'Grown up politics' to LibDem Layla Moran when she said her party would stand aside at a by-election to allow a Green candidate a better chance of unseating the Tory party. His 'grown up politics' remark wasn't even really in support of anything apart from treating politics how it should be rather than how it is.

Lawson who runs the cross-party progressive campaign organisation Compass, said that Labour had been "captured by a clique … behaving like playground bullies". In an attack on the Labour leadership, Lawson claimed that Starmer had chosen "the Rupert Murdoch path to power over the progressive majority route". In their defence, the top dogs on the Shadow cabinet all came out and essentially accused Lawson of supporting another party - blatantly not true - and therefore he needs to be kicked out. This is trial by affiliation; Lawson was something of a Corbyn fan, however he was a fan of the proposed policies rather than the bearded allotmenteer. 

This and stuff like this has been going on for months now as the right wing of the Labour Party purges everyone who is left of centre, and with prejudice. That's bad enough, but start to look at Obi Wan Keir's top dogs - Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor, she advocates austerity as a way of balancing books; she's actually voted in favour of a number of Tory proposals. Or Wes Streeting, who positions himself as a working class kid from a council estate, but he's a career politician who, like his hero Tony Blair, would represent any party if he thought he had a sniff of power. Streeting is the ONLY politician currently in parliament at the moment who has publicly stated that parts of the NHS need to be sold off to private companies. Not even Jacob Fucking Rees Mogg has ever said that out loud.

The list of broken promises before they get into power is horrendously long and includes backtracking on the nationalisation of certain industries, the creation of a country-owned energy company or the refusal to abolish some of the Tories' more abhorrent and distasteful bills such as the right to protest and the so-called illegal immigrants bill. This is a Labour Party that is targeting racists, bigots and intolerant arseholes for votes while throwing genuine Labour supporters under the bus claiming there's money for the NHS now we've left Europe.

Oh and speaking of Europe. In a recent Gallop poll it was estimated that over two thirds of the people who voted Leave in the EU referendum would vote to remain if it was held now. Even some anti-Euro Tory MPs are admitting Brexit hasn't worked and we're suffering because of it, yet Starmer still talks about making Brexit work. The majority of Labour voters in 2016 voted to remain, in 2023 the majority of Labour voters would like us to re-establish closer links to Europe, maybe even rejoin eventually, but Labour are following this populist bullshit of making something work that clearly doesn't work and ignoring the fact the only way it can work is through closer ties and that means being in the single customs market or accepting certain rules and regulations on health and safety and Obi Wan Keir isn't even considering going through that door.

What is the difference now between the Tories and Labour? Well, the Tories aren't Tories any longer, that boat sailed after David Cameron fucked the country up and then ran away; what we now have is a neo-fascist libertarian government with populist policies that appeal to racists, bigots and the ignorant, while Labour has morphed into a form of moderate one nation Tories. Almost every left wing idea has been purged or been thrown under the aforementioned bus in favour of populist lite policies and rhetoric that sits uncomfortably with people who regard themselves as a bit socialist. 

But... if we don't get behind Labour the Tories will win again... I doubt it. The Tories are so unpopular now a dead cat could stand against 50% of their sitting MPs and win. The majority of people are fed up with them and their one-sided policies. However, while social media tends to be dictated to by 'bubbles' of likeminded individuals and there are huge swathes of ex-Labour voters who are looking for viable alternatives or are mobilising people to vote tactically at the next GE. Labour will win the election but they might have to do some deals or, more likely, a large number of seats won't be won because they will go to the Liberals, the Green or Independents. Just look at a recent council by-election in Newham, east London. The sitting Labour councillor was deselected and stood as an independent and won 43% of the vote, shaving 25% off the Labour share and forcing Newham council to re-evaluate as it has becomes perilously close to being a No Overall Control council. This could be reflected at a GE, especially in Labour areas with close ties to unions and the left wing of the party.

The problem is the press, who for years have warned us about the dangers of Labour, are now warming towards them because they're offering NOTHING different and they see themselves being unharmed by a Labour government, much like they did when Tony Blair came along and while the press don't have the sway they once did, there are many people out there who will read blogs like this or see independent headlines bemoaning the actions of the party and they'll dismiss them the same way they dismissed all the allegations against Boris Johnson, because it's what they want to believe rather than what the facts tell them. 

If I was still in England I'd be looking at what the alternatives for the seat I reside in are and whether they stand a chance of winning, especially if there was an alternative to Labour or Conservative that stand a chance and if that was the case I'd be urging people to vote tactically, primarily to get rid of the Tories (because they need a decade in opposition), but also to ensure Labour doesn't get an overall majority. This country needs a progressive centre left alliance, with the Greens, SNP and possibly the LidDems ensuring Starmer and his pink Tories don't allow the injustices and unfairness we've suffered for so long to continue. 

Friday 7 July 2023

Our Government is Shit

In February, I posted a blog about this being the Final Season of the Tories or words to that effect, because back in February, under Boris and with things starting to go wrong from almost every direction. At the time, the Tories looked rudderless, directionless and a little bored with being in power and yet now six months on under Rishi Sunak, the third leader of the UK in roughly the same time, it's just got worse and when the Tories aren't absent they do things that make the average person reel in horror.

The racist rhetoric, the lack of empathy, no help in a cost of living crisis, allowing corporations to strip mine once nationalised industries or defile the countryside and rivers. The latest is Robert Jenrick having a cartoon mural painted over in a children's asylum centre in Kent because they need to realise this is a law enforcement establishment and not a creche. What a heartless bastard! Yet, these low level snake shit salesmen do this almost on a monthly basis - stop benefits rises, stop free school meals for the poor, stop benefits, stop the boats, stop foreigners, stop protests, stop anything that means they're not paying money to the poor and happily give it to the rich, who hoard it and force interest rates up so high that thousands of people, already facing huge costs now have seen their mortgages increase almost double in some cases.

Just what are this mob doing? And why are they so uninterested and callous? What makes them think that the way forward is through division, racism and corruption? Sunak is always absent and when he isn't he says things that can be interpreted in a number of evil ways. There's a big bunch of Tory MPs who think the country needs to be more racist and prevent foreign care workers from wiping the old and disabled bottoms because some feckless 18 year old unemployed kid from Wisbech will do it or won't get any benefits - the perfect storm of disregarding safeguarding.

We have shit roads, dead rivers, more food banks than Big Mac outlets, rotting schools, rotting rented accommodation, the NHS on its knees, businesses going under because of lack of staff because locals won't do the jobs. Then there's the climate crisis and we decided not to spend the £11.2bn we pledged to it - not only does that infuriate the rest of the world it makes us look like liars and not Statesmen. I can list so many things that the Tories have fucked up since 2010 it makes depressing reading considering they're constantly voted in despite the destruction they bring; it's madness.

What we're witnessing is a dereliction of duty. They have given up. Loads of MPs are standing down at the end of this parliament - some are going because they know they're going to lose their own seats, some because they feel Parliament is now a toxic environment with undercurrents of sexism, misogyny, nepotism and corruption and to all the people who say 'what else can they do' or 'it's not their fault' - these scumbags gave away £40bn at the start of the pandemic on shit PPE, their mates and let's not forget the parties and the One Rule For Them But Not For Us lifestyle. They had the money to fix everything but they pissed it up a wall.

Just for parity - Keir Starmer and his cadre of Deep Blue Labourites have done so many policy U turns in the last year they sound like they're now selling themselves as Tory Lite just to attract the votes of about 12% of the population who are racist and want the country to suffer as much as possible by not blaming Brexit. Labour has no progressive ideas any more, they just offer Not The Tories.

Politics is fucked. No one seems to be able to do any good because of the scandals, corruption, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Cancel Culture - no one is doing anything because they're too busy obsessing over each other. Mhairi Black - at 28 - is quitting her SNP seat because she's had enough of the horrible atmosphere and hateful vibes parliament spews out. We're losing the good as well as the bad and I suppose we're going to have a much different parliament after the next General Election. This might be good or it might be an influx of new serial politicians who are there for their own benefits before those of the people who voted them in.

We need a party to win the election and then say everything needs reforming; that parliament and the way it is run needs overhauling; that they need an independent ombudsman to police the MPs; they need to stamp out second jobs and lobbying. Someone needs to get into power and change the way we do and participate with politics. We need the education system overhauled with more emphasis on years 9 thru 11 about life and how to live it and how to understand how we fit into society and how others do as well. We also need proper leadership for the people.

Tuesday 30 May 2023

Time to Change?

Before any of my 'not lefty' friends baulk at the title of this expecting it to be another attack on the Tories and why we should all vote Labour, you can put that notion to bed straight away. No ordinary Tory should be fearful of voting Labour at the moment unless you thought Ted Heath's Tories in the early 1970s radical loose cannons. Left wing political representation is almost non-existent in UK politics at the moment, so you can put that 'woke socialist takeover' on hold and concentrate on which party will privatise National Health first.

However, what I am going to talk about is trust in politicians and politics, because no one has trusted politics for about 15 years now and it doesn't matter what colour you wear, the average man in the street thinks you have yourself, your party and your party's friends interests at heart and the rest of us will have whatever's left of their time and inclination. The idea that a local MP has entered politics for altruistic reasons might have been the original narrative, but most MPs become so corrupted by what's on offer to them that principles often get thrown out with the rubbish and if you remain a man of principle then you're often the target of ludicrous smears and accusations.

Just remember kids, if you call your neighbour a cunt and then write it down on paper and post it through other neighbours letterboxes, at least two things you'll have is libel and slander; your neighbour can have you on those two things without hesitation. In politics, decent people can be called anything the press fancies and the victims have zero recourse unless they want their careers replaced with long-running libel/slander cases. The haters always win this scenario because if you want to stay true to your beliefs then you have to accept and ignore the shit that is thrown at you and if you decide to argue with these people you're therefore prevented from doing what you want to do, so your opponents always win.

Today's episode of 'What the fuck has my politician been up to today?' is about the Tory MP who thought he could put the cost of his own birthday card on his expenses. Remember something here, there are actual genuine cases of poverty and hardship out there that even gammons accept are not dole scroungers or liggers, but all Tory MPs for the last umpteen years have voted consistently to prevent the poorest people from getting more in benefits, yet he thinks he can put the cost of his own living as an MPs expense?

If it wasn't so horrendously stupid and ignorant it would be offensive. These people are on a minimum of £84,000 a year; they only have to breath and it can go on expenses. More than half of them have other jobs, whether actual physical jobs or acting as 'consultants' and some of these people get £3000 an hour for doing these extra jobs. They'd rather see a child starve than pay £2.50 for a birthday card (let alone try to claim someone else's expenses as your own).

What we need, whoever is in power, is a code of conduct for MPs that strips away all of the things that make being an MP a cushy job with no need to do much apart from say 'hear hear' or laugh at the opposition. No subsidies on second homes; no jobs for the wives and children if they're not actually working; no putting everything from cards to stables to coy carp ponds as MPs expenses. We need to stop normalising this kind of casual corruption, especially as these people would be the first to fire someone if they nicked so much as a Post-It note. 

MPs are elected by US to serve US and be responsible to and for US. That seems to have gone. It now seems to be we elect these charlatans to go and do whatever they want with no fear of recriminations. This is wrong and needs to stop. Then people might start to trust MPs again.