Curiouser and curiouser. I awoke to the news that the there was a Fox and a Crabb both vying to be our next Prime Minister. It was also suggested that an Eagle was to challenge Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. Lewis Carroll would have loved this. At the beginning of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland we are introduced to The Caucus Race. And lo, we have a real one of our own and we too are all swimming aimlessly in a pool of tears.
We were promised that Theresa May may stand, but when I left my house for my weekly shopping trip to town the only addition to the menagerie was the Gove, who is I suspect a sort of flightless bird which is endangered and prominent on the CITES red list.
Well we got back home and unpacked the car. Mother Theresa of Maidenhead had announced she was standing, declaring she was the one to heal the rifts in the party. So was somebody called Andrea Leadsom, possibly the least well known candidate in history since I withdrew my name.
Jeremy (some of my best friends are doctors) Hunt has announced that he wasn't standing, disappointing cartoonists and satirists everywhere. The weasel Farage announced on Radio 5 Live that David Cameron was a 'conman'. Hmm.
At 11.18 Nicky Morgan announced she would not be putting her name forward causing wailing and gnashing of teeth from teachers across the land, and then at about a quarter to twelve Boris Alexander Stanleyovich arrived to hold a press conference where he proceeded to waffle at length, as only he can, about what we can learn form the campaign; how the future is rosy and that we will be at the front of the queue (up yours Obama); and what a brilliant job he did as Mayor of London; before finally announcing that he would not be standing as a candidate for the leadership of his party. This news prompted an audible intake of breath from those present. Boris Alexander had been offered the poisoned chalice and had declined to drink. Woo hoo!
In other news Aaron Banks, multi-millionaire and all round good egg, is reported to be thinking about setting up a new party on the far right, but isn't keen on Nigel as its leader. I was thinking that as Farage is keen on the idea of completely cutting himself off from the rest of Europe which was made clear when he almost as rude to those who may control our future relationship, as it is possible to be without actually dropping his trousers and farting at them, why don't we offer him the chance to set up on Rockall. It's only small but it is part of the UK. There he can be as rude and obnoxious as he wants and nobody will care because nobody will be able to hear him. If he gets lonely he can also arrange training days for the EDL or BF who can take the opportunity to hone their survival skills, something they seem to think is important judging by their videos.
I haven't really touched on the left today, beyond a brief mention of Angie the Eagle. If she wanted to take up ski jumping she would have my full support, heel, I'd pay money to watch, but as a potential leader of the Labour Party. Nah. Her shortcomings have been rehearsed by those much better qualified than me. I direct you to this if you want a more reasoned argument.
http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/is-angela-eagle-more-electable-than.html
Today has seen many developments in the wasteland which is our political landscape. It remains to be seen what we can salvage from the wreckage.
Will we actually leave the EU? Well I don't know. David Cameron certainly didn't want to be the man responsible for invoking Article 50. Nor as it turns out did Boris Alexander Stanleyovich . In all probability it will by Mother Theresa versus The Gove in the final showdown. The Gove is a leaver who knows he is always right so he will have no compunction in starting the process of us leaving the EU (I assume, although this is a man who stated unequivocally on at least five occasions that he didn't want to be PM http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/30/michael-gove-denial-categorial-not-equipped-to-be-pm-candidate?CMP=fb_gu so who knows?) Mother Theresa has said that 'Leave means leave' a fairly obvious statement I'd have thought, but one that does seem to make her position abundantly clear. Neither seems keen on following Tam Dalyell's advice to ignore the results of the referendum because 'Parliament is sovereign... They should have some guts and less cowardice'.
If we do leave the EU what can we look forward to? A sustained period of total effing chaos I'd have thought. We will however also be presented with abundant opportunities for reform which I personally think have been shown to be long overdue. First we need to address electoral reform. The last referendum before this one in which the whole of the UK voted was in 2011 and was about whether to adopt a form of Proportional Representation for use in Parliamentary elections. The proposal was rejected, I voted against it because firstly I felt that AV, the system we were being offered was not rigorous enough and secondly because I had an instinctive dislike of coalitions and I thought that First Past The Post was the best way to avoid them. I still think AV is a half hearted approach to PR and would now support like the single transferable vote, especially if it was allied to compulsory voting. Incidentally I have started a petition to ask the government to consider he introduction of compulsory voting. If you share my feelings you can sign it here https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/156093/sponsors/ml301KTipwBMZhxq0D3N
We also need to reform the House of Lords. What price democracy when we have an 800 strong unelected upper house? I shall share my thoughts on this, and on things we might be able to improve when we are no longer bound by our membership of the EU when I return tomorrow. And if I sound like a happy leaver, I am not. I don't think our future economic stability is something which should have been recklessly gambled away on an idealogical pipe-dream, but I was never totally happy with the EU either and maybe we can take advantage of our leaving to create a better fairer way of doing things.
Love Tim xx
Thursday 30 June 2016
Wednesday 29 June 2016
How could I forget Boris?
How indeed? In yesterday's blog I left you with some of my ideas of who the major players in this referendum most resembled in fiction. I struggled with Cameron. Could it be that he is such an odious character that no writer of fiction would dare create him? I hope not but I will return to him if I have any ideas. Actually I've just had a thought. How about Charles Pooter? Not as posh, I'll grant you, but every bit a self important.
Many will have noticed (well not that many, as not that many people read this so let's say many among you) many among you will have noticed the absence of that tousle-haired man of the people, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson who by the way is known as Alex at home but adopted the 'Boris' for his stage-name because it was more exotic. The complete opposite to Osborne who ditched the Gideon for a more prosaic George at the age of thirteen.
The thing is I was struggling to find a match and I wanted to make sure I did him justice. I toyed with Flashman, not the Flashman from Tom Brown's Schooldays but the adult Flashman from the novels by George MacDonald Fraser. The womanising work-shy coward who always somehow seems to come up smelling of roses. And then I had an even better idea. How about Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee combined in a hideous two faced oaf constantly fighting with itself and unable to make up its mind? I imagined this played by Matt Lucas in one of Michael Fabricant's cast-off wigs.
Boris: Don't ya love 'im?
I was also reflecting on my choice of Robin the Boy Wonder as the alter ego of Gideon and I realised it was an even better fit than I had at first thought, because he even has his own super-hero costume. Hi-vis jacket, hard-hat, safety-glasses. Every time you see him in public that is how he is dressed. The only time we get to see his true identity is in the House of Commons. How exposed he must feel, which is maybe why he appears to need a stiffener of some sort before he takes his place in the chamber. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about have a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLcPkZ0LzUA
Anyway, enough already.
Back to our muttons.
I was wondering yesterday what had happened to Nigel and I left you with the news that he had crawled out from beneath the Misty Mountains, paddled across the channel on a log and had pitched up in the chamber of the European Parliament, where for the moment he has every right to be, and here he gave one of the most bizarre speeches imaginable. He has got his way and Britain is poised to leave the EU, well say poised, maybe not poised exactly, not on the brink, but still heading inexorably towards it. The world economy is in turmoil despite all the assurances given to us by those heading the Leave campaign. Nigel had promised that we will be much better off negotiating with the countries of the world as an independent nation, and here he is effectively alienating the largest trading bloc in the world. Whoever negotiates our future relationship with the EU will not have a lot to thank him for. The member states are not going to give up a smooth ride anyway, and Nigel has just let all the air out of our tyres. Thanks Nige. But he doesn't care. He was mightily miffed by the way the Leave side treated him during the campaign and this is payback time Power without responsibility again.
It's no wonder Alex has said that if he becomes PM he won't call an election. That would open up the prospect of a sizeable number of UKIP MPs in Westminster, sadly in all probability at the expense of the Labour Party. Life is going to be difficult for whoever succeeds David Cameron without Farage and his attack poodles snapping at their heels.
Before the referendum Farage had already made veiled threats of violence if his supporters did not get their way. To quote him verbatim as he enjoyed a curry (oh the irony) with John Pienaar. I think it's legitimate to say that if people feel they've lost control... completely... and we have lost control of our borders completely as members of the European Union, and if people feel that voting doesn't change anything, then violence is the next step... I find it difficult to contemplate it happening here but nothing is impossible. He may well have had a few at that point but that's pretty unambiguous.
Anyway Farage got his way and the British electorate supported him and his side and voted for us to leave the EU (just in case you had missed the news).
So, you might think, no need for this violence, they can take back control and everything will be peace and love and fluffy kittens and we will all live happily ever after in Merrie England.
Unfortunately nobody remembered to tell the knuckle draggers who represent the dregs of UKIP and the EDL and Britain First and any other far-right, neo-Nazi group I have failed to mention that this meant that the racism could go back in the cupboard and it would all be sorted out in a civilised manner by forced repatriation and quotas.
The buggers have won and still the spirit of Oswald Mosley stalks the land. Sales of black shirts will no doubt rocket (ironically probably made by muslamists in Bangladesh). Vile and disgusting acts of racism have already started and it has been less than a week since the vote. Somehow these specimens of pond life have decided that it's now ok to be overtly racist and they have come crawling out from under their rocks, spraying hate filled graffiti, calling people with different skin colour 'paki', the fire bombing of a Halal butcher. Human Rights Watch have recorded 90 incidents in three days. There is a Facebook page called Worrying Signs (https://www.facebook.com/groups/610588862443201/) where people can post their experiences. It is truly horrible.
Much has been made by the leavers of the dangers of a European left-leaning super-state.
It's not the left we should be wary of, groups of protestors shouting:
What do we want?
To help people whose homes have just been bombed.
When do we want it?
Now.
The danger to the stability of the whole region comes from the radicalised right. The right have no tradition of 'the greater good for all' which is one of the basic tenets of left wing philosophy. There is no danger of the left seizing the means of production. In Britain we have precious little production left anyway and much of that may move to the mainland of Europe when we finally get around to invoking Article 50. Again the irony is that once we are free of the constraints of the EU there will be nothing preventing us re-nationalising industries and services should the government choose to do so. Bloody red tape, all gone.
Which is all to say that Farage must be watched and every effort must be made to stop him becoming more powerful. He and his kind must not win seats at the the next General Election, whenever it is held.
I am now going to shout in time honoured fashion:
I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK.
And on that note I will take my leave. Talk again soon.
Love Tim xx
The thing is I was struggling to find a match and I wanted to make sure I did him justice. I toyed with Flashman, not the Flashman from Tom Brown's Schooldays but the adult Flashman from the novels by George MacDonald Fraser. The womanising work-shy coward who always somehow seems to come up smelling of roses. And then I had an even better idea. How about Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee combined in a hideous two faced oaf constantly fighting with itself and unable to make up its mind? I imagined this played by Matt Lucas in one of Michael Fabricant's cast-off wigs.
Boris: Don't ya love 'im?
I was also reflecting on my choice of Robin the Boy Wonder as the alter ego of Gideon and I realised it was an even better fit than I had at first thought, because he even has his own super-hero costume. Hi-vis jacket, hard-hat, safety-glasses. Every time you see him in public that is how he is dressed. The only time we get to see his true identity is in the House of Commons. How exposed he must feel, which is maybe why he appears to need a stiffener of some sort before he takes his place in the chamber. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about have a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLcPkZ0LzUA
Anyway, enough already.
Back to our muttons.
I was wondering yesterday what had happened to Nigel and I left you with the news that he had crawled out from beneath the Misty Mountains, paddled across the channel on a log and had pitched up in the chamber of the European Parliament, where for the moment he has every right to be, and here he gave one of the most bizarre speeches imaginable. He has got his way and Britain is poised to leave the EU, well say poised, maybe not poised exactly, not on the brink, but still heading inexorably towards it. The world economy is in turmoil despite all the assurances given to us by those heading the Leave campaign. Nigel had promised that we will be much better off negotiating with the countries of the world as an independent nation, and here he is effectively alienating the largest trading bloc in the world. Whoever negotiates our future relationship with the EU will not have a lot to thank him for. The member states are not going to give up a smooth ride anyway, and Nigel has just let all the air out of our tyres. Thanks Nige. But he doesn't care. He was mightily miffed by the way the Leave side treated him during the campaign and this is payback time Power without responsibility again.
It's no wonder Alex has said that if he becomes PM he won't call an election. That would open up the prospect of a sizeable number of UKIP MPs in Westminster, sadly in all probability at the expense of the Labour Party. Life is going to be difficult for whoever succeeds David Cameron without Farage and his attack poodles snapping at their heels.
Before the referendum Farage had already made veiled threats of violence if his supporters did not get their way. To quote him verbatim as he enjoyed a curry (oh the irony) with John Pienaar. I think it's legitimate to say that if people feel they've lost control... completely... and we have lost control of our borders completely as members of the European Union, and if people feel that voting doesn't change anything, then violence is the next step... I find it difficult to contemplate it happening here but nothing is impossible. He may well have had a few at that point but that's pretty unambiguous.
Anyway Farage got his way and the British electorate supported him and his side and voted for us to leave the EU (just in case you had missed the news).
So, you might think, no need for this violence, they can take back control and everything will be peace and love and fluffy kittens and we will all live happily ever after in Merrie England.
Unfortunately nobody remembered to tell the knuckle draggers who represent the dregs of UKIP and the EDL and Britain First and any other far-right, neo-Nazi group I have failed to mention that this meant that the racism could go back in the cupboard and it would all be sorted out in a civilised manner by forced repatriation and quotas.
The buggers have won and still the spirit of Oswald Mosley stalks the land. Sales of black shirts will no doubt rocket (ironically probably made by muslamists in Bangladesh). Vile and disgusting acts of racism have already started and it has been less than a week since the vote. Somehow these specimens of pond life have decided that it's now ok to be overtly racist and they have come crawling out from under their rocks, spraying hate filled graffiti, calling people with different skin colour 'paki', the fire bombing of a Halal butcher. Human Rights Watch have recorded 90 incidents in three days. There is a Facebook page called Worrying Signs (https://www.facebook.com/groups/610588862443201/) where people can post their experiences. It is truly horrible.
Much has been made by the leavers of the dangers of a European left-leaning super-state.
It's not the left we should be wary of, groups of protestors shouting:
What do we want?
To help people whose homes have just been bombed.
When do we want it?
Now.
The danger to the stability of the whole region comes from the radicalised right. The right have no tradition of 'the greater good for all' which is one of the basic tenets of left wing philosophy. There is no danger of the left seizing the means of production. In Britain we have precious little production left anyway and much of that may move to the mainland of Europe when we finally get around to invoking Article 50. Again the irony is that once we are free of the constraints of the EU there will be nothing preventing us re-nationalising industries and services should the government choose to do so. Bloody red tape, all gone.
Which is all to say that Farage must be watched and every effort must be made to stop him becoming more powerful. He and his kind must not win seats at the the next General Election, whenever it is held.
I am now going to shout in time honoured fashion:
I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK.
And on that note I will take my leave. Talk again soon.
Love Tim xx
Tuesday 28 June 2016
He's not the messiah, he's...
Good morning campers.
I had intended to take a slightly satirical look at the situation in Britain this morning, when I was thinking yesterday about what I might say.
I'm a great believer in the 'you gotta larf' approach to most things. I think that's one of the really great things about the British as a nation (will that soon have to be 'as several nations'?). If there is a genuine tragedy, an earthquake, say or a horrific motorway pile-up we generally respond in an appropriate manner, and also buckle down to help. If however, no loss of life is involved and the cock-up is of our own making one of the first responses of the genuine Brit is to find the humour in the situation. No sooner had Iceland knocked England out of the European Championship than the silly tweets began. It's probably a defence mechanism but it sure as hell beats going out and giving someone a good kicking.
Anyway, when I was thinking yesterday about how to start my ramblings I wondered if it would be amusing to try and find which character from fiction each of the major players in this sorry fiasco resemble most.
I started with Jeremy, who is seen by many on the left as a latter day messiah, one who will free them from the yoke of the evil Empire that is the idealogical right. If he is The Messiah he is very much an accidental one. If we look at his progress, before the leadership elections most outside the party had never heard of him, possibly many inside the party as well. He had been an outstanding constituency MP since 1983 and a long time backbench rebel who liked to vote with his conscience against the wishes of the party whips.
To digress for a moment, on Newsnight last night Evan Davis tried to liken his actions in defying the whip to that of those who are currently trying to depose him. I would like to respectfully point out that his actions never threatened to destabilise the party to the point where a permanent split is a very real possibility, nor did his actions ever threaten to topple the elected leader of the party.
Revenons à nos moutons. When he stood as the only anti-austerity candidate in the elections Corbyn struggled to get the requisite 35 nominations and was quoted at 200/1 by bookmakers. He then went on to win by a landslide. As I was walking in the woods I couldn't help feeling that there was a parallel here with what happened to Brian Cohen in Monty Python's Life of Brian. It wasn't a very parallel parallel obviously, but here was a man plucked from relative obscurity to discover that the hopes of thousands of people had been put on his shoulders, and who ends up getting crucified. I rather wish that when Cameron made his famous dig about what his mother would have said Corbyn had replied. My mother would have said, 'He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy.'
Continuing with the religious theme, as I was making my way down the bit of my walk which I always think of as 'The Ride', a straight track overshadowed by ash and oak trees, a thought struck me. Last night I had been engaged for some time in a Facebook exchange about whether or not the Leave Camp should have had a plan ready to implement. My basic argument was that somebody should have had one and that it was down to the Tory party to provide it as they were the government. Which bit of the Tory party, inners or outers, I didn't much mind. In response to Faisal Islam's comments one punter posted this:
We all have a duty to respect the views of others. At one time nobody would disclose who they voted for, and if Faisal Islam "read" the news instead choosing to ridicule then he would see that thatthere are so many changes taking place that it is not the right time to divulge anything concrete.
Which as far as I can see means that he believes we should vote on trust for whoever we think is going to best represent our interests but that they don't need to tell us what they are going to do. So, a bit like religion then.
If you do as I say you will go to heaven.
What's heaven like?
Not absolutely certain, but it's definitely good.
What, better than what I've got now?
Oh yes definitely.
Have you been to heaven?
Actually no.
And do you know anyone who has?
Err, no. You see they're all dead.
Oh well that's ok then. I can't wait to go to this wonderful place full of dead people which is definitely better than what I've got now. Will I have an iPhone 6 in heaven?
And I think much of the less well informed leave vote, those for example who are now expressing regret at how they voted, can be explained in terms of a Billy Graham style revivalist meeting. As a student I was briefly entangled in fundamentalist Christian group called The Navigators. One of their tactics was to get members to learn specific verses from the Bible, mostly the Old Testament, with which we were supposed to counter the arguments of the unbelievers. I'm afraid I couldn't be arsed to learn any, never got into any arguments with any unbelievers and literally ran all the way to the railway station when, at a meeting I was instructed to reach under my chair where I would find a form to fill in which would enable me to donate cash every month to help the cause.
Leavers had similar phrases which they repeated endlessly and mindlessly throughout the campaign. 'Get our country back'; 'Undemocratic institutions'; 'Dictatorship in Brussels'; Unelected Bureaucrats'; Uncontrolled immigration'; 'Sovereignty'; Leftie scum', although I'm not clear how that last one was supposed to apply to our prime minister. Even now following an out vote, I'm coming across those from the winning side who come out with stuff like this (and I apologise for its length):
Not a single, solitary word in any mainstream media in support of the leave camp. That, in itself, speaks volumes for how the left has total control over our media. They are telling us WHAT to think, not HOW to think - where is the other side of the story??? The part about self-dself-determination and governance and rejection of the dictatorial EU elitists who are aligned with the big banks & corporations. Or the part about the people feeling overwhelmed by out of control 3rd world immigration. Or the part about being shamed for wanting to preserve one's culture and way of life. Or the part about constantly being lied to with things like "all cultures and equal and Islam is a relgion of peace, when everyone can see with their own eyes that it is complete and utter rubbish.
There's just no pleasing some people.
I was going to look at who the other major players remind me of, is there time? (Looks over at producer, producer nods). Ok.
- Farage. You'd think this would be easy but the problem ist here are so many to choose from. I've already proposed Cut-my-own-throat Dibbler (Throat to his friends) from the Discworld books, and I shall probably stick with that, although there is more than a touch of the Steerpike about him, and Uriah Heep.
- Cameron. This is a difficult one. I need a smug, self satisfied, well fed, pig headed character, who knows he is always right and who gets angry and bullying when anybody disagrees with him. I'm sure there must be someone in Dickens or Trollope who fits the bill or even Austen or Tolstoy. Contributions gratefully received.
- The Boy Gideon. That's easy, even if Cameron isn't Batman Gideon is undoubtedly Robin, the Boy Wonder.
- The Gove. I'm tempted to choose Violet Elizabeth Bott. It's not a very good fit but the idea makes me smile. Otherwise it might be Wentworth, Tiffany Aching's annoying toddler brother, once again from Terry Pratchett.
- Ian Duncan Smith. I would say Death, from the Discworld but Death has too many redeeming features. Maybe Wackford Squeers although with wafer thin veneer of civility.
I think I'll leave it there. I've probably run out of steam a bit at this point as I realise that my knowledge of English Literature is not as comprehensive as I might have wished and anyway I would need more time to think about it than it really deserves.
I leave you with the news that Nigel has resurfaced in Brussels and is sitting gurning in the chamber of the European Parliament, looking like a frog who has just consumed the biggest worm imaginable while the vultures are circling for Dodgy Dave up above.
In London we await developments.
Love Tim xx
Monday 27 June 2016
The Loony Left.
You couldn't make it up. You really couldn't. The Night of the Long Knives has become the Day of the Long Pointy Sticks. The shadow cabinet has gone into meltdown and half of them have resigned, to make it easier to stab Jeremy Corbyn. Not that they're bothering to stab him in the back. It's a bit like the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. Corbyn is so full of arrows it's difficult to recognise him. The only difference is that he isn't dead yet. When I last looked the one sane player in this sorry game from what might be called the right of the party is Andy Burnham who has tweeted that he will not take part in this disgraceful assassination attempt.
Whatever you think of Corbyn, whether you agree with our soon to be ex-Prime Minister Dodgy Dave that he is a bit scruffy, which is certainly true, but also part of his appeal, you cannot deny that he is a thinker, and a man of honesty and compassion. Politicians used to come in all shapes and sizes, like fruit and veg. Now somebody has decided we need conformity. Teflon coated, besuited clones are the order of the day. Meet the new boss... etc. Keir Hardy refused to conform to the dress code in parliament when he took up his seat. I quote from Wikipedia: On taking his seat on 3 August 1892 Hardie refused to wear the "parliamentary uniform" of black frock coat, black silk top hat and starched wing collar that other working class MPs wore. Instead, Hardie wore a plain tweed suit, a red tie and a deerstalker. Although the deerstalker hat was the correct and matching apparel for his suit, he was nevertheless lambasted in the press, and was accused of wearing a flat cap, headgear associated with the common working man. It was the same with Michael Foot and his supposed donkey jacket. Individuality of any sort, especially among male politicians is looked on with deep suspicion by the more conservative members of society.
It's now Monday morning and nothing much has changed. The knives are still out for Corbyn and he is still refusing to budge. More resignations are expected from the shadow cabinet, amid denials that this is an orchestrated campaign. Well the Telegraph predicted it in an article by Ben Riley-Smith published on the 16th June which makes me think it probably is and even if it is not it, it certainly represents the most shameful display of opportunistic bandwagon jumping I have ever seen. Whether the jumpers turn out to be lemmings or the saviours of the party remains to be seen. For the moment he is not going anywhere and for what it's worth he has my support. I don't support him for his charisma and ability to produce sound bites. I support him for his integrity, his honesty and especially for his vision of what this country could be if we start to move in a different direction. It has become a truism that socialism is a discredited form of government. I reject that absolutely and counter it with the opinion that rampant capitalism has proved to be a disaster, especially for the ordinary person. We may all have our iPhones and tablets, but we are also so deep in hock to our unelected masters, the banks and hedge funds, that most of us can only look on the prospect of retirement on a pension as a distant dream which might turn out to be just that. A dream.
The support network that socialism provided after the Second World War is being eroded at an alarming rate by those who don't need it and never will. The NHS can scarcely cope, support for the unemployed is paltry and punitive, social services are stretched beyond belief, state pensions have become a distant prospect with a distressing propensity to move further away the closer you get, social housing has been sold off and not replaced, private rents have gone out of control. Meanwhile the rich have become so rich we need to distinguish between those who are merely 'rich' and those who are 'super-rich'. We have been distracted from this by the old Roman expedient of 'bread and circuses' or as it is now known 'pizza and X-Factor'. Alcohol is now so cheap that large swathes of the population can go on the lash ever more frequently, preloading on supermarket vodka then topping it up with Jager bombs and a kebab before leaving it all behind on the pavement where it will remain as a lasting testament to a good night out, because the street cleaning services have been put out to private tender and the streets are now only cleaned on the first Thursday of every second month.
When Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party I at last thought that here was a man who understood how I felt, who shared my vision of how society could be. It turned out that I was not the only one. What is sad and slightly worrying is that most of our elected MPs do not share this vision, or anything remotely resembling it. Well, you'd expect that from the Tories, they are Tories after all, although this current crop seem to have gone further and instigated a special system of punishment for those less fortunate than themselves: Anti-socialism you might call it. Maybe it's a new form of thought caused by the unwise use of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Whether Jeremy Corbyn is the right man to spearhead this movement for change in the long term is a matter of some debate within my own head, let alone the country. How much longer will he want to put himself through the mill. There are times when I want to shake him and say, 'Say that a bit more loudly. Make them listen.' One thing is certain though and that is that none of the crop of naysayers in the PLP will do the job. If they combined behind their leader, providing him with vocal and enthusiastic support then The Labour Party might be able to turn the country round and stop the rot. Instead they have decided that now is the time to tear the party to shreds. For that I despise them.
Enough about my own woes, let's have a look at those facing the entire nation. Once again I woke to the Today Programme and its jaunty messages of fun. It seems Boris wasn't playing cricket all weekend. He actually took some time to write a piece for the Telegraph. Well to be fair they do pay him quite handsomely for writing for them so it's only right that he earn his money, having just (not quite) single-handedly plunged the entire nation into a political crisis the like of which I have never seen nor do I wish to see again. There is a link to the article here if you would like to read it http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/26/i-cannot-stress-too-much-that-britain-is-part-of-europe--and-alw/
I must say that his mendacity quite took my breath away. Life on planet Boris is life Jim, but not as we know it. I quote from the article: It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so. Really? And why don't you believe it Boris? Because if you deny it happened then you can ignore it and stuff it back under the carpet yet again. You may be technically correct in that the majority of leave voters were driven by things other than immigration, but there is considerable evidence that many first time voters were persuaded to vote on this matter because they perceived immigration to be the cause of their woes. These voters were clearly from traditional working class, Labour voting areas, their support for the Leave side was in all probability what gave it its majority, but as they are not from traditional Tory heartlands and would not vote for the Tories anyway, they can be ignored. Be careful Boris. Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap. You have tried to keep Farage out of the picture, and I don't feel he is a man who likes to be ignored. It was he who whipped up this anti-immigration feeling, and he has not gone away.
In other Tory news the Boy Gideon has come out of hiding and made a statement designed to reassure us that everything is under control. We are apparently facing the future 'from a position of strength'. What? Planet Gideon is as weird as Planet Boris. Beyond that he didn't have anything to say. I wonder what he has been doing since Friday.
In late news JC has just announced his new shadow cabinet, I shall look at it and muse some more in the future.
Until tomorrow.
Love Tim xx
Whatever you think of Corbyn, whether you agree with our soon to be ex-Prime Minister Dodgy Dave that he is a bit scruffy, which is certainly true, but also part of his appeal, you cannot deny that he is a thinker, and a man of honesty and compassion. Politicians used to come in all shapes and sizes, like fruit and veg. Now somebody has decided we need conformity. Teflon coated, besuited clones are the order of the day. Meet the new boss... etc. Keir Hardy refused to conform to the dress code in parliament when he took up his seat. I quote from Wikipedia: On taking his seat on 3 August 1892 Hardie refused to wear the "parliamentary uniform" of black frock coat, black silk top hat and starched wing collar that other working class MPs wore. Instead, Hardie wore a plain tweed suit, a red tie and a deerstalker. Although the deerstalker hat was the correct and matching apparel for his suit, he was nevertheless lambasted in the press, and was accused of wearing a flat cap, headgear associated with the common working man. It was the same with Michael Foot and his supposed donkey jacket. Individuality of any sort, especially among male politicians is looked on with deep suspicion by the more conservative members of society.
It's now Monday morning and nothing much has changed. The knives are still out for Corbyn and he is still refusing to budge. More resignations are expected from the shadow cabinet, amid denials that this is an orchestrated campaign. Well the Telegraph predicted it in an article by Ben Riley-Smith published on the 16th June which makes me think it probably is and even if it is not it, it certainly represents the most shameful display of opportunistic bandwagon jumping I have ever seen. Whether the jumpers turn out to be lemmings or the saviours of the party remains to be seen. For the moment he is not going anywhere and for what it's worth he has my support. I don't support him for his charisma and ability to produce sound bites. I support him for his integrity, his honesty and especially for his vision of what this country could be if we start to move in a different direction. It has become a truism that socialism is a discredited form of government. I reject that absolutely and counter it with the opinion that rampant capitalism has proved to be a disaster, especially for the ordinary person. We may all have our iPhones and tablets, but we are also so deep in hock to our unelected masters, the banks and hedge funds, that most of us can only look on the prospect of retirement on a pension as a distant dream which might turn out to be just that. A dream.
The support network that socialism provided after the Second World War is being eroded at an alarming rate by those who don't need it and never will. The NHS can scarcely cope, support for the unemployed is paltry and punitive, social services are stretched beyond belief, state pensions have become a distant prospect with a distressing propensity to move further away the closer you get, social housing has been sold off and not replaced, private rents have gone out of control. Meanwhile the rich have become so rich we need to distinguish between those who are merely 'rich' and those who are 'super-rich'. We have been distracted from this by the old Roman expedient of 'bread and circuses' or as it is now known 'pizza and X-Factor'. Alcohol is now so cheap that large swathes of the population can go on the lash ever more frequently, preloading on supermarket vodka then topping it up with Jager bombs and a kebab before leaving it all behind on the pavement where it will remain as a lasting testament to a good night out, because the street cleaning services have been put out to private tender and the streets are now only cleaned on the first Thursday of every second month.
When Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party I at last thought that here was a man who understood how I felt, who shared my vision of how society could be. It turned out that I was not the only one. What is sad and slightly worrying is that most of our elected MPs do not share this vision, or anything remotely resembling it. Well, you'd expect that from the Tories, they are Tories after all, although this current crop seem to have gone further and instigated a special system of punishment for those less fortunate than themselves: Anti-socialism you might call it. Maybe it's a new form of thought caused by the unwise use of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Whether Jeremy Corbyn is the right man to spearhead this movement for change in the long term is a matter of some debate within my own head, let alone the country. How much longer will he want to put himself through the mill. There are times when I want to shake him and say, 'Say that a bit more loudly. Make them listen.' One thing is certain though and that is that none of the crop of naysayers in the PLP will do the job. If they combined behind their leader, providing him with vocal and enthusiastic support then The Labour Party might be able to turn the country round and stop the rot. Instead they have decided that now is the time to tear the party to shreds. For that I despise them.
Enough about my own woes, let's have a look at those facing the entire nation. Once again I woke to the Today Programme and its jaunty messages of fun. It seems Boris wasn't playing cricket all weekend. He actually took some time to write a piece for the Telegraph. Well to be fair they do pay him quite handsomely for writing for them so it's only right that he earn his money, having just (not quite) single-handedly plunged the entire nation into a political crisis the like of which I have never seen nor do I wish to see again. There is a link to the article here if you would like to read it http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/26/i-cannot-stress-too-much-that-britain-is-part-of-europe--and-alw/
I must say that his mendacity quite took my breath away. Life on planet Boris is life Jim, but not as we know it. I quote from the article: It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so. Really? And why don't you believe it Boris? Because if you deny it happened then you can ignore it and stuff it back under the carpet yet again. You may be technically correct in that the majority of leave voters were driven by things other than immigration, but there is considerable evidence that many first time voters were persuaded to vote on this matter because they perceived immigration to be the cause of their woes. These voters were clearly from traditional working class, Labour voting areas, their support for the Leave side was in all probability what gave it its majority, but as they are not from traditional Tory heartlands and would not vote for the Tories anyway, they can be ignored. Be careful Boris. Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap. You have tried to keep Farage out of the picture, and I don't feel he is a man who likes to be ignored. It was he who whipped up this anti-immigration feeling, and he has not gone away.
In other Tory news the Boy Gideon has come out of hiding and made a statement designed to reassure us that everything is under control. We are apparently facing the future 'from a position of strength'. What? Planet Gideon is as weird as Planet Boris. Beyond that he didn't have anything to say. I wonder what he has been doing since Friday.
In late news JC has just announced his new shadow cabinet, I shall look at it and muse some more in the future.
Until tomorrow.
Love Tim xx
Sunday 26 June 2016
Where have all the bad men gone, mummy?
Where are they all? The Today programme yesterday was interrupted so they could go over to Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson's house in the hope that they could interview him or at least get a quote from him as he left, to go we know not where. Not a peep was to be heard from him and that's not something you will hear said very often about the heir presumptive to the Tory throne. Similarly The Gove, he too was nowhere to be seen. Where were they, and where was Gideon? The chances are that The Gove and Alexander were closeted somewhere absolutely bricking it because they had realised what had actually happened and that it was, in all probability going to be down to them to sort out the mess they had created. Dave had done a Pontius Pilate and cleared off. Gideon was probably consulting whichever oracle he had been using in his startlingly successful career as destroyer-in-chief of our public finances.
Who knows? We shall just have to wait until they put their heads above the parapet again.
Meanwhile in the Red Corner the knives are out for Jeremy Corbyn. Well that is scarcely news. They were out for him before he had even been elected and have not been put away since. The PLP are really not covering themselves in glory. The Tory party is in total disarray so they decide that this is the moment to take advantage of the situation by copying them and trying to destroy what little unity there is within the Labour ranks as well. For a democratic organisation they really fail to see the irony in trying to get rid of their leader in this way. It's not even as if they have a strong alternative candidate to replace him. I have to admit that I find Jeremy Corbyn a bit underwhelming at times. He is capable of anger, and I have seen him speak with real passion but often comes across as lacking in fire by speaking quietly and avoiding soundbites. Over the issue of the EU he has refused to associate himself with the Tory camp, and for that he is accused of losing the Labour heartland vote. I saw an interview on the BBC with Angela Smith MP the Labour member for Penistone & Stocksbridge, a Sheffield constituency. This was an area where a large number of traditional Labour supporters voted Leave. She complained that Jeremy Corbyn had failed to connect with the Labour core voters in her constituency and had been less than charismatic. I don't like to point the finger, but two things occurred to me as I watched her. The first that she no stranger to the art of lacking charisma. The only thing she inspired me to do was to fling something at the TV, and I resisted that. The second was: It was her constituency. They had elected her, why had she not been able to persuade the voters to support the Labour Party line? After all Corbyn was travelling the length and breadth of the country in his uncharismatic quest to keep us in the EU. She only had to travel the length and breadth of her constituency. Who was the more culpable? I will leave you to decide.
There are definitely times when I wish that Jeremy Corbyn had a sharper tongue, but he made a conscious decision not to indulge in banter and name-calling and to try to conduct himself in a way which would distance himself from other politicians of the Trump/Johnson/Cameron school, where bullying seems to be second nature. This approach may ultimately not work but he has been party leader for less than a year and deserves a chance to prove that it can.
As I see it if we strip away the bombast and shouty behaviour and look at the policies there is no contest. The celebration of greed or the establishment of social justice. You decide once again. Many matters need to be sorted out, not least that of immigration. It was undoubtedly that which swung the result of the referendum. As I said yesterday there are many ways to deal with the fears of the electorate. One is to demonise foreigners and pretend that somehow we can take back control of our own borders. I wait to see how that actually pans out. The other is to start spending on social housing and services in deprived areas. It's become a radical idea that we might actually spend money, which we would have to borrow, despite this being the way that every business in the country behaves. We have been sold an austerity lie by that world renowned economist, the Boy Gideon, he who has gone off radar, and the poorer in society are suffering greatly as a consequence. Farage has somehow convinced them that he has the answers and that he has their best interests at heart. Let me just quote myself from a Facebook post. This man has all the allure of an undercooked pork sausage glistening on your plate and promising a dodgy few hours on the loo. He has already gone back on the promise to spend the £350 million per day we send to the EU on the NHS, saying it was a 'mistake' and that he would never have said that despite video evidence from the BBC Question Time which would suggest otherwise.
I shall break off here as I need my tea, and will continue anon.
Right, it's Sunday morning and I'm back and I have discovered where Boris had gone to. While eating my tea I watched a recorded edition or The Last Leg on which Stanley Johnson revealed all. In a drunken performance which rivalled that of Oliver Reed on Aspel, he told us that the whole family was playing cricket. Is this the modern equivalent of fiddling, while Rome burns? It must be close. And if you have ever wondered why Boris is like he is, watch his father, it will tell you all you need to know. If you get a chance to watch the show it's available on All 4 but here is a taster to whet your appetite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxRkQ8rO7PQ.
I'm writing this having just slept through a re-run of the Night of the Long Knives. Hilary Benn has been sacked, Heidi Alexander has resigned. A posse is being formed, a rope has been found and the PLP are off to lynch Jeremy Corbyn. Why? I'm going to go for a walk and I will give you my thoughts on my return.
I'm back. Lovely morning and a brief toddle through the woods followed by coffee and toast. No developments on the Labour Party front although Tom Watson has been seen making his way back from Glastonbury. That may be significant or maybe after catching Adele yesterday he has no stomach for Coldplay and left early to avoid the rush.
To return to the Corbyn issue. It's no secret that a majority of the PLP do not want him as leader. They didn't want him to stand and he only just scraped the requisite number of seconders in the nomination. Why was this? I don't have a definitive answer but it is clear that the old grass-roots local Labour MP has become an endangered species. Hilary Benn is a Londoner representing a Leeds constituency, John Ashworth was parachuted in to Leicester South, Luciana Berger represents a constituency in a city with which she has no connection, Roberta Blackman-Woods was born in Northern Ireland and represents the City of Durham. I could go on but I think I have made my point and I've only got to the letter B in Wikipedia. I know all this proves nothing and that many Labour MPs are local to their area, but It always puzzled me why voters in Hartlepool voted for Peter Mandelson, and indeed what voters in Sedgefield saw in Tony Blair. One can only suppose it was tradition and the lack of a credible opponent which gave these two their mandate. Neither was remotely local nor what could be described as 'a man of the people'.
The current crop of Labour MPs seem to come from the right of the party, They have believed the assertion that:
This fight in the PLP is not about the election. It is not about the people. It is not about the EU. It is about the careers of Labour MPs. And what is the greatest threat to them? Not Corbyn. Not the Tories.
Farage.
He is on a roll and must be stopped. Not because I don't like him but because he is dangerous. A man who lies as a matter of course and yet manages to convince his target audience that he 'tells it like it is'. From the moment I first came upon the odious little prick, I had a flashback to pre-1933 Germany. In style if not in substance the comparison still stands. Goebbels, I think, rather than Adolf with a touch of Goering's flamboyance.
Farage managed to persuade people to vote who have never voted before. People who have never even considered voting before. Now they see that their vote can make a difference. Who knows what he has unleashed? I hope we never find out.
Love Tim xx
Who knows? We shall just have to wait until they put their heads above the parapet again.
Meanwhile in the Red Corner the knives are out for Jeremy Corbyn. Well that is scarcely news. They were out for him before he had even been elected and have not been put away since. The PLP are really not covering themselves in glory. The Tory party is in total disarray so they decide that this is the moment to take advantage of the situation by copying them and trying to destroy what little unity there is within the Labour ranks as well. For a democratic organisation they really fail to see the irony in trying to get rid of their leader in this way. It's not even as if they have a strong alternative candidate to replace him. I have to admit that I find Jeremy Corbyn a bit underwhelming at times. He is capable of anger, and I have seen him speak with real passion but often comes across as lacking in fire by speaking quietly and avoiding soundbites. Over the issue of the EU he has refused to associate himself with the Tory camp, and for that he is accused of losing the Labour heartland vote. I saw an interview on the BBC with Angela Smith MP the Labour member for Penistone & Stocksbridge, a Sheffield constituency. This was an area where a large number of traditional Labour supporters voted Leave. She complained that Jeremy Corbyn had failed to connect with the Labour core voters in her constituency and had been less than charismatic. I don't like to point the finger, but two things occurred to me as I watched her. The first that she no stranger to the art of lacking charisma. The only thing she inspired me to do was to fling something at the TV, and I resisted that. The second was: It was her constituency. They had elected her, why had she not been able to persuade the voters to support the Labour Party line? After all Corbyn was travelling the length and breadth of the country in his uncharismatic quest to keep us in the EU. She only had to travel the length and breadth of her constituency. Who was the more culpable? I will leave you to decide.
There are definitely times when I wish that Jeremy Corbyn had a sharper tongue, but he made a conscious decision not to indulge in banter and name-calling and to try to conduct himself in a way which would distance himself from other politicians of the Trump/Johnson/Cameron school, where bullying seems to be second nature. This approach may ultimately not work but he has been party leader for less than a year and deserves a chance to prove that it can.
As I see it if we strip away the bombast and shouty behaviour and look at the policies there is no contest. The celebration of greed or the establishment of social justice. You decide once again. Many matters need to be sorted out, not least that of immigration. It was undoubtedly that which swung the result of the referendum. As I said yesterday there are many ways to deal with the fears of the electorate. One is to demonise foreigners and pretend that somehow we can take back control of our own borders. I wait to see how that actually pans out. The other is to start spending on social housing and services in deprived areas. It's become a radical idea that we might actually spend money, which we would have to borrow, despite this being the way that every business in the country behaves. We have been sold an austerity lie by that world renowned economist, the Boy Gideon, he who has gone off radar, and the poorer in society are suffering greatly as a consequence. Farage has somehow convinced them that he has the answers and that he has their best interests at heart. Let me just quote myself from a Facebook post. This man has all the allure of an undercooked pork sausage glistening on your plate and promising a dodgy few hours on the loo. He has already gone back on the promise to spend the £350 million per day we send to the EU on the NHS, saying it was a 'mistake' and that he would never have said that despite video evidence from the BBC Question Time which would suggest otherwise.
I shall break off here as I need my tea, and will continue anon.
Right, it's Sunday morning and I'm back and I have discovered where Boris had gone to. While eating my tea I watched a recorded edition or The Last Leg on which Stanley Johnson revealed all. In a drunken performance which rivalled that of Oliver Reed on Aspel, he told us that the whole family was playing cricket. Is this the modern equivalent of fiddling, while Rome burns? It must be close. And if you have ever wondered why Boris is like he is, watch his father, it will tell you all you need to know. If you get a chance to watch the show it's available on All 4 but here is a taster to whet your appetite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxRkQ8rO7PQ.
I'm writing this having just slept through a re-run of the Night of the Long Knives. Hilary Benn has been sacked, Heidi Alexander has resigned. A posse is being formed, a rope has been found and the PLP are off to lynch Jeremy Corbyn. Why? I'm going to go for a walk and I will give you my thoughts on my return.
I'm back. Lovely morning and a brief toddle through the woods followed by coffee and toast. No developments on the Labour Party front although Tom Watson has been seen making his way back from Glastonbury. That may be significant or maybe after catching Adele yesterday he has no stomach for Coldplay and left early to avoid the rush.
To return to the Corbyn issue. It's no secret that a majority of the PLP do not want him as leader. They didn't want him to stand and he only just scraped the requisite number of seconders in the nomination. Why was this? I don't have a definitive answer but it is clear that the old grass-roots local Labour MP has become an endangered species. Hilary Benn is a Londoner representing a Leeds constituency, John Ashworth was parachuted in to Leicester South, Luciana Berger represents a constituency in a city with which she has no connection, Roberta Blackman-Woods was born in Northern Ireland and represents the City of Durham. I could go on but I think I have made my point and I've only got to the letter B in Wikipedia. I know all this proves nothing and that many Labour MPs are local to their area, but It always puzzled me why voters in Hartlepool voted for Peter Mandelson, and indeed what voters in Sedgefield saw in Tony Blair. One can only suppose it was tradition and the lack of a credible opponent which gave these two their mandate. Neither was remotely local nor what could be described as 'a man of the people'.
The current crop of Labour MPs seem to come from the right of the party, They have believed the assertion that:
- The only way to get into government is to ape the Conservative Party which is how Blair did it
- Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable.
This fight in the PLP is not about the election. It is not about the people. It is not about the EU. It is about the careers of Labour MPs. And what is the greatest threat to them? Not Corbyn. Not the Tories.
Farage.
He is on a roll and must be stopped. Not because I don't like him but because he is dangerous. A man who lies as a matter of course and yet manages to convince his target audience that he 'tells it like it is'. From the moment I first came upon the odious little prick, I had a flashback to pre-1933 Germany. In style if not in substance the comparison still stands. Goebbels, I think, rather than Adolf with a touch of Goering's flamboyance.
Farage managed to persuade people to vote who have never voted before. People who have never even considered voting before. Now they see that their vote can make a difference. Who knows what he has unleashed? I hope we never find out.
Love Tim xx
Saturday 25 June 2016
Why?
Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time banging on about why I was angry about Thursday's referendum, which basically boiled down to the fact that I thought it should never have been held in the first place. But I also said that for most of my life I had never really given any thought to the EEC/EU at all. Yesterday I discussed what I was angry about. Today I hope to look at the reasons why.
I certainly have to confess that at certain times in my life I have felt irritation at things which either came from Brussels or at least were purported to have come from there. Many of these absurdities turn out to have been inventions of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson from his time as The Daily Telegraph's correspondent in Brussels. His propensity to make stuff up had already got him sacked from The Times and remember 'the leopard doesn't change his shorts'.
Nevertheless I did have a sense that the EU in all its manifestations was a bit top heavy and bureaucratic and that I was probably paying for it in some way. The irritations I felt towards the EU however paled into insignificance when compared to those I felt with regard to the actions of our own government here in Westminster. Governments of different hues have been responsible for the bombing and killing of countless people, many of them strangely in oil-rich areas of the world. Taxes have been levied; cuts have been made; assets have been sold off; banks have been propped up; expenses have been fiddled; I could go on but I hope you get the picture. And not once have I felt that I have had any say in these actions or any ability to stop them, slow them down, or even make those carrying them out explain clearly why they think they are a good thing. Such is the nature of our democracy, which might come as a bit of a shock to all those voters who think they've 'GOT THERE COUNTRIE BACK.'
Democracy is a flawed system, and ours, despite Faragic rhetoric, is far from perfect, possibly far from democratic. I doubt the ancient Athenians would recognise it. I have spent many fruitless (as it turns out) hours on social media patiently explaining how the EU is democratic as well, to those who claim that ALL ARE LAWS ARE INPOSED BY EUROPEAN DICKTATERS. This was an absurd position. I could see that the EU set-up was far from perfect, that there could have been more accountability and certainly more transparency.
The EU needs to be reformed. In my mind there is no question about that but now we will have no say in how that is done. It may be that it will lurch to the right and collapse in a sea of nationalistic hubris. It may carry on much as it has done for quite a while now. I may fall under a bus tomorrow. The future is unknowable and even the bookies can't predict it. Actually, because of cuts to rural bus services here I would have to go and actively seek out a bus in order to fall under it, so that is probably less likely than either of the others.
If we start from the premise that we are not happy with the top-heavy bureaucratic leviathan that is the EU then there are certain actions we can take to do something about it. Or at least there were, but let's ignore that for a moment and talk hypothetically. We could seek to reform it from within or we could decide to leave.
That is our first binary choice. In or out. But the situation is much more nuanced than that. Within both choices there are different approaches that could be taken. If we decide to leave, do we leave and cut off all ties with the EU and rely on trading with the rest of the world? Do we remain part of the EEA? Do we join up with Norway as one Facebook poster suggested although what Norway would gain from that I cannot quite imagine. This list is not exhaustive but it gives us an idea of what might be possible.
On the remain side it seems to me that there are two approaches to reforming the EU. The Anglocentric approach and the Pan-European approach. The first was attempted by David Cameron, who went round all the leaders of the member states, trying to persuade them that we in Britain were a special case (I hesitate on the grounds of good taste of categorising that as the 'special-needs' approach, but what the hell) and this despite the fact that we already receive a substantial rebate on our contributions for reasons which completely baffle me. This approach failed. The other members didn't seem moved by our special needs, and let's be honest, we don't actually have any. We are a wealthy country who are part of a club, some of whose members are quite poor. We should pay more than them, it's that sort of club.
The other approach is that put forward by Jeremy Corbyn as part of his Remain campaign. If parties across Europe who want change within the EU were to join together and work for that reform it might have some chance of success. Much has already been said and written about Corbyn's contribution to the referendum campaign. He was criticised for being too low key, despite touring extensively round the country putting forward his take on the vote. What those critics really mean is that he wasn't willing to stand side by side with Cameron, the man who every Wednesday bullies and ridicules him across the floor of the House of Commons. A man whose take on the referendum was to tell us how passionate he was about membership (so much passion, so little substance), what a great deal he had brought to the table and how well the economy was doing under his and Gideon's guidance. I totally support Corbyn for taking that stance. He appears to be a man of principle in a bathtub of opportunists.
Cameron invoked Project Fear. And he was right. As Tim Farron said yesterday 'Project fear has become project fact'. The pound had fallen, the markets have tumbled... just like he said they would.
And that is why I am so angry about the result. Those who persuaded a majority to vote leave have put our future and more specially the future of our children and grandchildren at risk. They demonised immigrants and called up the spirits of bogeymen and promised to MAKE BRITEN GREAT AGANE (with a nod to Nigel Molesworth there).
In the short term this economic volatility will make little difference to the 'vote in pen' voters, who do not own shares and have not grasped that falling markets may affect their pensions and falling sterling will make their European holidays more expensive. Moreover they look at their own lives and see precious few signs of the burgeoning economy of which Cameron boasts, and which seems to me to be built entirely on the fact that house prices in the capital are rising. They see increased migration, particularly to deprived areas where rents are cheaper, creating added pressure on public services which have already been slashed to to the bone by austerity cuts and make a causal link. That link may not exist but it has been used by those in the leave campaign to garner votes with promises to curb immigration, promises which they almost certainly won't be able to keep, and which I will look at tomorrow. It is not those voters with whom I am angry. I am disappointed that they voted for us to leave. It is the leaders of the out campaign who anger me most. From Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson who saw this as an opportunity to become leader of his party and thus PM to Murdoch the Maleficent and his plan to take over the world. They used prevarication as a political tool in a most despicable way, and all of us now have to suffer the consequences.
Just now I have some dry stone walling which demands my attention so I will leave and return tomorrow with more musings from the foothills.
Love Tim. xx
I certainly have to confess that at certain times in my life I have felt irritation at things which either came from Brussels or at least were purported to have come from there. Many of these absurdities turn out to have been inventions of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson from his time as The Daily Telegraph's correspondent in Brussels. His propensity to make stuff up had already got him sacked from The Times and remember 'the leopard doesn't change his shorts'.
Nevertheless I did have a sense that the EU in all its manifestations was a bit top heavy and bureaucratic and that I was probably paying for it in some way. The irritations I felt towards the EU however paled into insignificance when compared to those I felt with regard to the actions of our own government here in Westminster. Governments of different hues have been responsible for the bombing and killing of countless people, many of them strangely in oil-rich areas of the world. Taxes have been levied; cuts have been made; assets have been sold off; banks have been propped up; expenses have been fiddled; I could go on but I hope you get the picture. And not once have I felt that I have had any say in these actions or any ability to stop them, slow them down, or even make those carrying them out explain clearly why they think they are a good thing. Such is the nature of our democracy, which might come as a bit of a shock to all those voters who think they've 'GOT THERE COUNTRIE BACK.'
Democracy is a flawed system, and ours, despite Faragic rhetoric, is far from perfect, possibly far from democratic. I doubt the ancient Athenians would recognise it. I have spent many fruitless (as it turns out) hours on social media patiently explaining how the EU is democratic as well, to those who claim that ALL ARE LAWS ARE INPOSED BY EUROPEAN DICKTATERS. This was an absurd position. I could see that the EU set-up was far from perfect, that there could have been more accountability and certainly more transparency.
The EU needs to be reformed. In my mind there is no question about that but now we will have no say in how that is done. It may be that it will lurch to the right and collapse in a sea of nationalistic hubris. It may carry on much as it has done for quite a while now. I may fall under a bus tomorrow. The future is unknowable and even the bookies can't predict it. Actually, because of cuts to rural bus services here I would have to go and actively seek out a bus in order to fall under it, so that is probably less likely than either of the others.
If we start from the premise that we are not happy with the top-heavy bureaucratic leviathan that is the EU then there are certain actions we can take to do something about it. Or at least there were, but let's ignore that for a moment and talk hypothetically. We could seek to reform it from within or we could decide to leave.
That is our first binary choice. In or out. But the situation is much more nuanced than that. Within both choices there are different approaches that could be taken. If we decide to leave, do we leave and cut off all ties with the EU and rely on trading with the rest of the world? Do we remain part of the EEA? Do we join up with Norway as one Facebook poster suggested although what Norway would gain from that I cannot quite imagine. This list is not exhaustive but it gives us an idea of what might be possible.
On the remain side it seems to me that there are two approaches to reforming the EU. The Anglocentric approach and the Pan-European approach. The first was attempted by David Cameron, who went round all the leaders of the member states, trying to persuade them that we in Britain were a special case (I hesitate on the grounds of good taste of categorising that as the 'special-needs' approach, but what the hell) and this despite the fact that we already receive a substantial rebate on our contributions for reasons which completely baffle me. This approach failed. The other members didn't seem moved by our special needs, and let's be honest, we don't actually have any. We are a wealthy country who are part of a club, some of whose members are quite poor. We should pay more than them, it's that sort of club.
The other approach is that put forward by Jeremy Corbyn as part of his Remain campaign. If parties across Europe who want change within the EU were to join together and work for that reform it might have some chance of success. Much has already been said and written about Corbyn's contribution to the referendum campaign. He was criticised for being too low key, despite touring extensively round the country putting forward his take on the vote. What those critics really mean is that he wasn't willing to stand side by side with Cameron, the man who every Wednesday bullies and ridicules him across the floor of the House of Commons. A man whose take on the referendum was to tell us how passionate he was about membership (so much passion, so little substance), what a great deal he had brought to the table and how well the economy was doing under his and Gideon's guidance. I totally support Corbyn for taking that stance. He appears to be a man of principle in a bathtub of opportunists.
Cameron invoked Project Fear. And he was right. As Tim Farron said yesterday 'Project fear has become project fact'. The pound had fallen, the markets have tumbled... just like he said they would.
And that is why I am so angry about the result. Those who persuaded a majority to vote leave have put our future and more specially the future of our children and grandchildren at risk. They demonised immigrants and called up the spirits of bogeymen and promised to MAKE BRITEN GREAT AGANE (with a nod to Nigel Molesworth there).
In the short term this economic volatility will make little difference to the 'vote in pen' voters, who do not own shares and have not grasped that falling markets may affect their pensions and falling sterling will make their European holidays more expensive. Moreover they look at their own lives and see precious few signs of the burgeoning economy of which Cameron boasts, and which seems to me to be built entirely on the fact that house prices in the capital are rising. They see increased migration, particularly to deprived areas where rents are cheaper, creating added pressure on public services which have already been slashed to to the bone by austerity cuts and make a causal link. That link may not exist but it has been used by those in the leave campaign to garner votes with promises to curb immigration, promises which they almost certainly won't be able to keep, and which I will look at tomorrow. It is not those voters with whom I am angry. I am disappointed that they voted for us to leave. It is the leaders of the out campaign who anger me most. From Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson who saw this as an opportunity to become leader of his party and thus PM to Murdoch the Maleficent and his plan to take over the world. They used prevarication as a political tool in a most despicable way, and all of us now have to suffer the consequences.
Just now I have some dry stone walling which demands my attention so I will leave and return tomorrow with more musings from the foothills.
Love Tim. xx
Friday 24 June 2016
A view from the hinterland.
I woke this morning to the sound of Caroline Lucas sounding depressed. I wasn't sharing a bed with her, I'm sure she has far more taste, but the tone of her voice on the Today Programme told me all I needed to know. The electorate had done the unthinkable and voted for us to leave the EU.
I have spent a lot of time on social media over the last few weeks having what I hope are civilised discussions with people from both sides of the debate. Some of them were not so bothered about being civilised in return but it's water off a duck's back. I am old enough and ugly enough not to worry about personal insults. I have had instruction on the workings of the EU from people with only a nodding acquaintance with the Queen's English. I have been screamed at in BLOCK CAPITALS by those who WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK. I have been called a leftie (quite accurate, that one), I have been told how much better things will be when we get Farage in. At no time have I read a cogent comment or even article which has persuaded me even to consider that leaving the EU will be a good thing. By the way I refuse to use the work Brexit or to call Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson Bojo so please bear with me.
Let me put my cards on the table. I was born in the early fifties. Both my parents were slightly bohemian left leaning teachers/lecturers. My father left school at 14 and went to work as an apprentice and then a fitter on the railways and my mother studied Art at Goldsmiths college. For much of my life I have been a wishy washy leftie, occasionally tactically voting Lib Dem but generally being a low level Labour supporter. I voted to join the Common Market and I voted to stay. The Common Market/ EEC/ EU never bothered me that much. I was living in Ireland when the Euro was introduced and thought nothing of it. I had no strong European feelings either way.
Two things served to radicalise me. The first was the election of the Coalition Government and the appointment of David Cameron as PM and Gideon (Robin to his batman) as Chancellor. The systematic destruction of the welfare state in the name of austerity made me spit feathers. After five years of coalition they were freed from the steadying hand of the Lib Dems and really cut loose. That was the first thing. The second was the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. I had always been very suspicious of 'New' Labour. Here was a man who offered a more left-wing stance, and who promised to attempt a new kind of politics with less name calling and more persuasion. This approach may well be doomed but it appealed to me so on the day the result of the leadership election was announced I joined the Labour Party. I have never been a member of any political party in my life but felt that I needed to make a statement. I cannot claim to be much of an activist and I live in one of the few remaining Lib Dem constituencies but the Party has my support.
Why then was I so depressed when I discovered the result of this latest referendum. Well my main point is that I believe strongly that it should never have even been held in the first place. We have a Representative Democracy in Britain. Every five years (they slipped that one in under the radar, didn't they?) the political parties in this country each produce a manifesto and we, the electorate choose which one we prefer and vote accordingly. In doing that we mandate the party who can command a majority in the House of Commons to make decisions on our behalf. Any law that is passed must go through many stages and will be subject to scrutiny all the way through. There is a problem in our current ruling party, The Conservative Party, and that problem is our relationship with the rest of Europe. What brought the problem to a head was the emergence of UKIP and more specifically Farage as a potent political force. Who remembers that UKIP was once led by Robert Kilroy Silk, a man with a Donald Trump fake tan and all the charisma of a used wet-wipe? Farage's UKIP won the European Elections in 2014 and scared the pants off the Tories because they were seen as a Tory breakaway group who would haemorrhage Tory votes. To counter this in his manifesto pledges before the 2015 General Election Cameron offered an in/out referendum before 2017 on our continuing membership of the EU. In the end the General Election played out in a slightly different way and it was the Labour Party who haemorrhaged votes, allowing the Conservatives to win an overall majority and triggering the referendum. I suspect that Cameron was thinking that there was every chance of a hung parliament, and he might not have to fulfil all his election promises and having successfully kept Scotland part of the UK he was fairly confident that he could win this one should it come to that. From this I consider that the referendum was nothing to do with Europe and everything to do with the Tory Party. Bloody hell did David Cameron get that wrong. Firstly he promised to negotiate a better deal for the UK, something he did in a rush. He managed to get absolutely no concessions worth talking about. Then he unleashed on the the British Public, the nastiest, most divisive campaign I can remember, if we ignore the London Mayoral Election which was arguably nastier but ultimately less divisive. What he did when he gave the British Public the right to vote on our continuing membership was to give them/us power without responsibility. The electorate had the power to completely change the future of Britain, yet they were not responsible either for sorting it out, or rebuilding afterwards. We pay our elected politicians to make decisions like these. This time they bottled out and we are left in what I feel is a very uncertain position. That is why I believe we should never have had a referendum at all.
That might seem a tad undemocratic, but let's just think. The total electorate in the UK is about 44.5 million. The winning vote was 17.4 million or just under 40%. However it can be argued that as these decisions are permanent that we should look at the total population as those too young to vote will have to live with the consequences long after I'm dead and gone. The total population of the UK is put at about 65 million, but let's ignore say 5 million who are not permanent residents so that means that 29% of the population, all of whom are affected by this, decided on a course which is irreversible and potentially dangerous. It is quite likely that if a referendum were held on the return of the death penalty it would be brought back. Referenda are a relatively new phenomenon in British politics, and not one which I can support at all. It remains to be seen what will happen.
By the way I have been wondering who Nigel Farge reminds me of. For those of you who have read the books of Terry Pratchett I have to say that he really reminds me of CMOT Dibbler, hanging around like a bad smell, turning up at the drop of a hat and peddling very dodgy wares. You might gather I don't like him very much. There is too much of the whiff of the Bierkeller about him.
I woke this morning to the sound of Caroline Lucas sounding depressed. I wasn't sharing a bed with her, I'm sure she has far more taste, but the tone of her voice on the Today Programme told me all I needed to know. The electorate had done the unthinkable and voted for us to leave the EU.
I have spent a lot of time on social media over the last few weeks having what I hope are civilised discussions with people from both sides of the debate. Some of them were not so bothered about being civilised in return but it's water off a duck's back. I am old enough and ugly enough not to worry about personal insults. I have had instruction on the workings of the EU from people with only a nodding acquaintance with the Queen's English. I have been screamed at in BLOCK CAPITALS by those who WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK. I have been called a leftie (quite accurate, that one), I have been told how much better things will be when we get Farage in. At no time have I read a cogent comment or even article which has persuaded me even to consider that leaving the EU will be a good thing. By the way I refuse to use the work Brexit or to call Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson Bojo so please bear with me.
Let me put my cards on the table. I was born in the early fifties. Both my parents were slightly bohemian left leaning teachers/lecturers. My father left school at 14 and went to work as an apprentice and then a fitter on the railways and my mother studied Art at Goldsmiths college. For much of my life I have been a wishy washy leftie, occasionally tactically voting Lib Dem but generally being a low level Labour supporter. I voted to join the Common Market and I voted to stay. The Common Market/ EEC/ EU never bothered me that much. I was living in Ireland when the Euro was introduced and thought nothing of it. I had no strong European feelings either way.
Two things served to radicalise me. The first was the election of the Coalition Government and the appointment of David Cameron as PM and Gideon (Robin to his batman) as Chancellor. The systematic destruction of the welfare state in the name of austerity made me spit feathers. After five years of coalition they were freed from the steadying hand of the Lib Dems and really cut loose. That was the first thing. The second was the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. I had always been very suspicious of 'New' Labour. Here was a man who offered a more left-wing stance, and who promised to attempt a new kind of politics with less name calling and more persuasion. This approach may well be doomed but it appealed to me so on the day the result of the leadership election was announced I joined the Labour Party. I have never been a member of any political party in my life but felt that I needed to make a statement. I cannot claim to be much of an activist and I live in one of the few remaining Lib Dem constituencies but the Party has my support.
Why then was I so depressed when I discovered the result of this latest referendum. Well my main point is that I believe strongly that it should never have even been held in the first place. We have a Representative Democracy in Britain. Every five years (they slipped that one in under the radar, didn't they?) the political parties in this country each produce a manifesto and we, the electorate choose which one we prefer and vote accordingly. In doing that we mandate the party who can command a majority in the House of Commons to make decisions on our behalf. Any law that is passed must go through many stages and will be subject to scrutiny all the way through. There is a problem in our current ruling party, The Conservative Party, and that problem is our relationship with the rest of Europe. What brought the problem to a head was the emergence of UKIP and more specifically Farage as a potent political force. Who remembers that UKIP was once led by Robert Kilroy Silk, a man with a Donald Trump fake tan and all the charisma of a used wet-wipe? Farage's UKIP won the European Elections in 2014 and scared the pants off the Tories because they were seen as a Tory breakaway group who would haemorrhage Tory votes. To counter this in his manifesto pledges before the 2015 General Election Cameron offered an in/out referendum before 2017 on our continuing membership of the EU. In the end the General Election played out in a slightly different way and it was the Labour Party who haemorrhaged votes, allowing the Conservatives to win an overall majority and triggering the referendum. I suspect that Cameron was thinking that there was every chance of a hung parliament, and he might not have to fulfil all his election promises and having successfully kept Scotland part of the UK he was fairly confident that he could win this one should it come to that. From this I consider that the referendum was nothing to do with Europe and everything to do with the Tory Party. Bloody hell did David Cameron get that wrong. Firstly he promised to negotiate a better deal for the UK, something he did in a rush. He managed to get absolutely no concessions worth talking about. Then he unleashed on the the British Public, the nastiest, most divisive campaign I can remember, if we ignore the London Mayoral Election which was arguably nastier but ultimately less divisive. What he did when he gave the British Public the right to vote on our continuing membership was to give them/us power without responsibility. The electorate had the power to completely change the future of Britain, yet they were not responsible either for sorting it out, or rebuilding afterwards. We pay our elected politicians to make decisions like these. This time they bottled out and we are left in what I feel is a very uncertain position. That is why I believe we should never have had a referendum at all.
That might seem a tad undemocratic, but let's just think. The total electorate in the UK is about 44.5 million. The winning vote was 17.4 million or just under 40%. However it can be argued that as these decisions are permanent that we should look at the total population as those too young to vote will have to live with the consequences long after I'm dead and gone. The total population of the UK is put at about 65 million, but let's ignore say 5 million who are not permanent residents so that means that 29% of the population, all of whom are affected by this, decided on a course which is irreversible and potentially dangerous. It is quite likely that if a referendum were held on the return of the death penalty it would be brought back. Referenda are a relatively new phenomenon in British politics, and not one which I can support at all. It remains to be seen what will happen.
By the way I have been wondering who Nigel Farge reminds me of. For those of you who have read the books of Terry Pratchett I have to say that he really reminds me of CMOT Dibbler, hanging around like a bad smell, turning up at the drop of a hat and peddling very dodgy wares. You might gather I don't like him very much. There is too much of the whiff of the Bierkeller about him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)