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Tuesday 29 August 2017

244. A litter of letters…


As promised, I’ll be back blogging next TUESDAY 5th Sept – meanwhile – here is a selection of my letters published in a variety of broadly left-leaning UK newspapers over the past few months -

The National - Aug 23rd 2017
(re; the over-hyped silencing of Big Ben)

I READ with some bemusement about the emotional reactions of some MPs to the silencing of Big Ben for maintenance.
Odd that there is not the same choked-up response to child poverty, the increase in 
homelessness, the drug epidemic in our over-crowded prisons, the failure to improve literacy rates, increasing use of food banks, the looming economic crisis and personal-debt tsunami, rising prices and flatlining wages, poor infrastructure, the increasing dangers caused by problems of NHS staffing levels ...

The Herald Scotland - Aug 23rd 2017
(re: Steve Bannon departure from WH)

STEVE Bannon's departure ("Trump’s chief strategist Bannon out of White House", The Herald, August 19) is not the victory for common sense it is being hailed as in the US. It's not just that this ex-military media-savvy, white nationalist says he will "wage war" for the Trump presidency (by which he means the presidency he created, not Donald Trump as President).

It is not just that Breitbart News was clearly ready, eager and waiting for his return after he'd staked out the White House. It's more like when you find a big dirty spider in your home, you just don't want it to suddenly disappear.


The National - Aug 14th 2017
(re; the media playing with the idea of Jacob Rees-Mogg as Tory leader)

THE summer political madness has clearly deepened to all-consuming national psychosis with amnesia thrown in.
For those playing the “Jacob Rees-Mogg would be fun for leader” tune, may I just say this.
Is this privileged throwback, who has given the world six more mouths to feed and six more drains on the planet’s resources, the same extremely fortunate Etonian who said that aid to disadvantaged countries should stop (Radio 4, February 1 2013)?
The man who makes Downton Abbey look understated said that aid to the poor, hungry, starving, exploited should be a matter of philanthropy. In other words the rich give a few crumbs from the table if they happen to feel like it.
Those living in countries that have, for centuries, subsidised the living standards of the West, and more specifically the highly privileged like Rees-Mogg, are to be abandoned unless some rich toff finds that their tax status will benefit from a bit of charitable giving.
I can only assume that the Rees-Mogg idea is an attempt to divert us from impending nuclear annihilation – with something worse.

The Independent - July 19th 2017
(re; the BBC’s partial gender pay gap mea culpa)

I’ve not had a TV since 1999, thankfully (despite being a finalist in the BBC 2004 national comedy-writing competition). However, other working-class licence payers and people of colour and people not resident in London dutifully pay the licence fee year in, year out.
So as well as informing the UK public that in 2017 only a third of top earners at the BBC are women, would Tony Hall also do a breakdown on how many non-white, non-privileged persons are in the top percentage of wage earners at the British Broadcasting Corporation?
[a shorter version of same letter appeared in The Guardian 20th July]

The Herald - -June 10th 2017
(re; Brexit & the general election)

SO – a reduced Tory government with no negotiating power. A flaky Labour Party leader who – while he dithered over the EU referendum - pulled out the stops for his own election and who will now see no reason to resign. Disgruntled Brexiters who cannot possibly get the core elements they wanted from Brexit – that is, a return to a fantasy 1950s Britain.
I thought the UK was done for on June 23, 2016 when it made itself irrelevant on the global stage for the foreseeable future. I didn’t believe it could get much worse. Since then we’ve openly fawned over Donald Trump, the banks have pretty much bailed out. UK citizens in the EU and EU citizens in the UK have their lives on hold.
David Cameron flushed us down the toilet with the ill-considered EU referendum and Theresa May has ensured we flounder around in the sewer for at least the next year and 10 months and then have to accept whatever the EU chucks over its collective shoulder as it heads into the future without us.
What a mess.

The Guardian - 5th February 2017
(re; a T. Helm article on Jeremy Corbyn)

While Toby Helm’s article on Corbyn (Guardian News) and the Labour party soap opera provides insight into how we’ve ended up in the current swamp, it highlights something more important. Many in the political community still don’t get that this battle was lost way before 23 June 2016, and Britain is damaged for decades to come. Now they have passion? Now they can fight?
If the Labour party had put real energy into promoting Remain and shown leadership to a nervous and confused country, we might have been able to turn this tanker around. It’s on the rocks now and the opposition are just oil-slicked seagulls squawking and flapping uselessly.

The Herald - 19th Jan 2017
(re; Theresa May’s Plan for Britain speech earlier that week)

AS a descendant of Caribbean slaves, I found head girl Theresa May’s Empire Mentality speech mesmeric, bizarre, hugely ironic and repulsive all at the same time.
Listening this morning to the braying in Parliament of Brexiters – many of whom will not be around in three to four decades when the chickens really come home to roost was just depressing.

The Guardian - 6th Dec 2016
(re; the much vaunted but unexplained term - British Values)

Dame Louise Casey is the latest establishment figure to bandy about the term “British values” – without stating what the hell she means. She spectacularly fails to understand that many in the Muslim community shrink back to traditions because they are constantly the target of ignorant ivory-tower nonsense like hers.
Can I help? As a black person who – despite being a British citizen – was publicly insulted in the immediate aftermath of the 23 June referendum, I have a view on this.
British values currently seem to involve kneejerk short-termism, bigotry, populist rhetoric and socially-sheltered ignoramuses shooting their mouths off.
In which case, Dame Louise Casey perfectly personifies British values.

The Independent - 7th Oct 2015
(re; Theresa May on tackling extremism)
Apparently Theresa May thinks immigration makes it difficult to create a cohesive society. Funny, I thought it was elitism and massive wealth disparity.

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