269. Westminster 2018 – land of obfuscation, hypocrisy & selective amnesia.

For years now, the British government has cared little about the suffering of Syrian civillians and it has turned a blind eye to the suffering of Yemen where British manufactured weapons are used with impunity by Saudi Arabia. One Russian is targeted with a nerve agent – yes a horrifying weapon as many in the Middle East can attest to – and next minute we are suffocating in indignation and national outrage and demanding support from ‘EU allies’. Those would be the same EU allies the British press has denigrated for decades and who – with the help of nasty, xenophobic privately educated white bloke Farage, the gross misjudgement of incompetent elite-educated white bloke Cameron and lack of gumption of ineffectual posh prep school white bloke Corbyn – we just ditched. (check out blog 171. Privileged white blokes keep getting it wrong - why do we keep listening to them?)

Inch by inch news drips out about the painful progress of Brexit talks that often end with a limited agreement and a caveat that Britain submits to EU rules in that particular area (see the City of London compromise last week).

IT’s as if Britain cut its right leg off without an anaesthetic and now – bit by bit – we are building a lumpen, wonky prosthetic that looks something like what we had before but – not as good and likely to send us sprawling. However, each desperate tortuous inch of partial agreement is hailed as a success while in reality nothing is truly agreed until everything is agreed and David Davis is still talking about a backup ‘plan’ for no agreement.

There is mounting and compelling evidence that the result in June 2016 was worse than a farce – a result of admitted lies, xenophobia, general fear and now it seems – dirty dealings by Cambridge Analytica headed by grubby privileged white bloke Alexander Nix. And that is before you consider the growing row over the Leave campaign’s dodgy expenses – enter disastrous racist privileged white bloke Boris Johnson stage left to deny it all. And yet – even those MPs who were, supposedly, against ditching our EU allies and main trading partners at this crucial time in the planet’s history, sing out the mantra loud and strong ‘we are respecting the will of the people’ until you think you are going to go mad with the discordant, jarring, tuneless dirge.

2-steps-behind-everyone- else Corbyn then sacked Owen Smith, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary. Smith, who had a front row view of just how damaging Brexit will be for Ireland (N Ireland voted clearly to stay in the EU) and especially for enduring peace, broke ranks and demanded a referendum on the Brexit deal. Breaking ranks was something Corbyn did repeatedly before he became Labour leader. Dithering Diane Abbot – possibly the only person on the Labour front bench who could make Corbyn look competent – previously also called for a challenge to Brexit but she keeps her position. But then this is the woman who failed to resign while serving under Blair even though she claimed to be vehemently anti the Iraq invasion and said she would resign and who chose to send her kid to a fee paying school.

Add to this the fact that after her disastrous snap election, Theresa May spent £1bn – buying support from 10 DUP MPs in order to remain in power and you have hubris and hypocrisy and fudge of monumental proportions. The colossal contempt for candour is spectacular even by the standards of modern politics.

Remember, this whole sorry mess of congealed Brexit spaghetti is being served up by a Prime Minister who did not support Leave, who argued calmly and strategically that the UK was better off inside the EU and who is currently kept in power by a party whose constituents voted to Remain.

268. Russia banana-skins into Brexit as Brexit rear-ends carpetbag Britain and it’s not pretty…

Secretary of State for Defense, the inexperienced and squeaky back room boy Gavin Williamson, competed effectively with racist Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for title of biggest UK embarrassment on the world stage last week. Yes, some-mothers-do-have-‘em Gav was the guy who, in response to Putin’s denial of attempted murder of an ex-Russian agent on UK soil told Russia to ‘go away and shut up’.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Philip Hammond, in his spring budget statement, jauntily referred to himself as children’s story book character ‘Tigger’ and announced that the UK economy isn’t as bad as he thought (see blog 261 Beware the Disconnect). Yay.

And as the Brexit Committee was forced to put out conflicting sets of recommendations two days ago because of more bickering and sniping in a corner of the 6^th form common room and the pound rose slightly because a transition period providing a modicum of certainty post-March 2019 was agreed, Brexit has never looked more ridiculous.

All of this in the face of the dawning reality that the UK is falling apart at the seams.

The most recent rat to leave the sinking SS UK - Unilever - has been based in the UK since 1890. It is not, we are told, leaving because of Brexit. Apparently, UK business legislation prioritises shareholders over the interests of business and even over things like the environment. In other words, the asset stripping we’ve seen over the last four decades and ratcheted up in the last 5 years is legally built in to UK company structure.

Then there is the fantasy about the UK becoming a banking hub after Brexit as the la la land Leavers claimed. Icy water was poured on that nonsense in January when Brussels flatly rejected a City free-trade deal for when the UK leaves the EU.

But, a significant vehicle in the car crash pile up of disasters with Brexit and the international mess, is the desperately degraded state of Britain’s infrastructure. It is a result of decades of merciless, relentless carpet-bagging. Margaret Thatcher spawned privatisation with a capital P and it has spread like a cancer, unchecked by subsequent administrations. One thing has been thrown into sharp focus by the magnifying glass of Brexit and that is how little has been invested in infrastructure. Just today it is reported that 1 in 5 UK roads are not properly maintained. Belatedly we can see how sticky-taped and patched together everything is.

Independent reports show UK rivers in the NW are some of the most polluted in the world. Michael Gove, our doesn’t-believe-in-experts Environment Secretary, criticised the water companies for lack of investment. Astoundingly, he seems to have forgotten that his party, under Thatcher, began the wholesale selling off of utilities to the profit mongers. Gas and Electric companies are a mess of over-priced nonsense repeatedly told to do better by government whether for over-charging or terrible service. But during our few days of cold weather we discovered that gas storage facilities have been shut down – putting us more at the mercy of foreign gas suppliers – including Russia. Don’t even start me on BT – slavishly given multiple government contracts to deliver modern broadband and failing failing failing to do so for years.

Our prisons – according to recent widely publicised reports – would make a third world dictator blush.

Obesity is epidemic – despite the ridiculous bribes to get a weary public to accept the eye-watering cost of the 2012 Olympics. Babble about legacies for health and involvement in school sports has been shown for a farce. Many schools cannot even use their own premises outside school ours because they were built under private contract. The schools that have not been upgraded are falling apart, many have no decent outdoor facilities and huge numbers have budget deficits.

As wages remain depressed, train fairs continue to rise at a time when - for reasons of environmental protection and the economy – trains should be affordable and efficient. They are neither. Much of the rail network ground to a halt in the recent 6 days of winter and it's not great when the sun is shining.

 Our hospitals are using failing equipment and cannot get enough qualified staff. This is only going to get worse as EU worker numbers slump and migrant labour from other parts of the world switches to EU Europe where workers rights are protected.

And now – just as the UK is completing the task of making itself an economic basket case – we enter a new chill with Russia. Cynic that I am it even crossed my mind that gobshite Boris Johnson prematurely called out Russia – (rather than follow the existing protocol which would have meant Russia could be condemned formally from a position of 100% strength) because it’s such a marvellous distraction from the Brexit bungle he helped orchestrate.

It is a perfect shit storm. 

It is the confluence of decades of UK carpet-bagging with Brexit putting us on the worst possible footing with a host of economic, social and military allies plus the international monster mess caused by going into bad situations when we should not have done (Iraq) and not going into others when, even someone as anti-war minded as me, cuold see we should have done more – (Syria).

Greed and gormlessness and gung-ho. Game playing at the top tables with the price being paid, always, by those at the bottom.

 

It’s not clever and it’s not pretty.

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267. You have the power but it’s not where you think it is…

People power no longer lies in the ballot box but in the bank. Thanks to mad credit – you don’t even need actual money to have pocket power these days…

Real representational democracy depends on what choices are being offered and who is offering them. In the UK, our current choice is between a PM with an insane, contradictory position on Brexit and an opposition ‘leader’ with an incoherent position on Brexit and no coherent position on anything else.

Democracy is also about democratic expression and respect for democratic institutions. So, for example, the clear democratic will of the people was ignored wholesale and democratic institutions were side-lined when Blair took the UK into Iraq with Bush. (see two posts ago)

But – horrific as it was – the latest headline school slaughter in Parkland US by yet another right-white with high powered weaponry, shows us something amazing. And I’m not even talking about the incredible, mature response of the young people. It’s the power of the purse. The weight of the wallet. The pressure of the pound or the dynamite of the dollar to really shift things.

In the US, the NRA has held numerous governments to ransom at the cost of countless wasted lives. And it’s not just guns. Big money is one reason our kids are eating shit like never before. The commercial food industry has a spend power that outweighs any health campaign by $billions. For decades the tobacco industry was the same, though here in the UK – finally - a calculation was done which proved that the cost the public purse via the NHS was just too great and we got some sensible legislation on smoking at least in public places. However, even within the short life of this blog I’ve written about the way David Cameron’s previous administration, yes – the ‘leader’ who gave us Brexit, barred and blocked and prevaricated on tackling tobacco advertising. (See blog 47 Smoking causes Government Insanity).

The UK has been a grab-what-you-can fest for the elite since 1979. Thatcher sold off Britain’s family silver (and we’re all paying). Blair sold out democracy and world peace (and the world is still paying in the hardest currency). Clegg sold out the young who put their trust in him (they will always be paying). Cameron squandered Britain’s future for a Tory 6^th form game of dare (and they’re still playing). May and her flaccid grey dull cabinet of clowns are simply allowing the tattered remnants of Britain’s reputation to run, ever more quickly, through their fingers. For your elucidation I have tried to illustrate this in new cartoon see ‘something’s gotta give’ @ https://plus.google.com/collection/E8toME

But in the US, big companies have taken minor action – finally realising that the overwhelming majority of Americans don’t want their kids gunned down in school. Airlines and car rental companies started by pulling NRA perks. Hunting shops and even Walmart have unilaterally introduced the kinds of minimal safeguards that government would not.

It’s not altruism. Companies with profit margins see better than those who should be paying attention that the tide has turned. Parents will no longer put up with school carnage or those who allow it. Corporations sensed the mood change and do not want to be on the wrong side. Commerce seems therefore, far more attuned to their consumers than politicians have been. Rest assured politicians will follow.

I’ve written many times about this kind of power. In the face of – for example – the BBC’s blatant disregard for the fact that it is no longer 1950 – I suggested that anyone who is not a privileged white male and/or living in London is mad to still pay their licence fee.

I’ve written about the dehumanising money-grabbing practices of many high street outlets from supermarkets to banks (e.g. blog 218 Lidl – 0 Barrack Obama - 1). Before its too late and ALL of them have banished human employees – is it too difficult to find your way to patronise the ones that still treat us like humans i.e. those that have staff?

Ditto services. If you are unlucky enough to have to use a law firm or other money orientated institution look for one that employs people who were state educated, working class – black - female. WHY? Because fairly quickly you’ll see more and more of those firms suddenly opting to give ordinary kids a chance. Some shops may decide to keep actual human employees like people you know. Elitist organisations may suddenly find a sense of fairness. If it affects their profit margins, do not underestimate how ready they would be to throw their own under that bus and give those who’ve never had a chance – a chance.

The UK chancellor is again claiming that the UK economy isn’t doing too badly – (ref; blog 261 - Beware the Disconnect – where I examine how this could be technically true but also a very big lie). But if ever there was evidence that those in power simply care about money (and power)  it’s all around us. Even their measures of success have little to do with real human lives.

We have the Power but it’s not in the ballot box - it’s in the bank.

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266. Snow froze off the Brexit monkey's cojones. Only the Viagra of jingoism keeps it going…

Don’t you just love the idea that Britain is ready to go it alone – I mean after what 6 days of snow has done to the UK’s degraded, failing infrastructure and what that revealed?

The Beast from the East froze the cojones off the Brexit monkey. With only the Viagra of jingoism to keep it going, Theresa May and her carnival of fools are doing a remarkable job of bluster and tallyho applying ever shrinking sticking plasters to the rotten Tory party and with the rabid support of only a minority of the sentient public whistling Rule Britannia with their fingers in their ears while ironing their union jacks (I know that is not physically possible but then neither is Brexit).

Who needs a stable, vibrant, tried and tested trade system and dynamic integrated economy when we’ll be able to replace all that by selling plastic models of London buses to Tuvalu?

Following just six days of ordinary winter weather last week and viewing the complete failure of basic infrastructure, from the road and rail network to airport closures to the worry about energy shortages as we discovered that the offshore gas storage facilities had been closed by a profit-hungry privatised gas industry – a question occurs.

It’s the same question that came to mind as I listened to the news of cold commuters on stranded trains with no alternative means of heating and people found dead under cars – or born in motorway snarl ups.

It is the same question that occurred to me when multiple hospitals were closed to all but emergency procedures and Brits muddled through in the absence of plans.

It’s the same question that occurs when we hear that swathes of the country are without water. Gargoyle Gove, our Environment Secretary recently tapped [pun intended] the water companies on the wrist for not investing in infrastructure – conveniently forgetting that it was his party that sold off Britain’s utilities and infrastructure to the private sector. Oh and another Russian has been bumped off by Vlad here in old Blighty.

The question is this -

Who actually thinks that the UK has the quality of leadership to negotiate a viable EU departure deal? Who in their right mind thinks we have the stable, robust systems and infrastructure to carry through something as legally and socially complex and life changing and economically rocking as Brexit? And who but a completely delusional basket case thinks that the UK is fit and ready for Splendid Isolation? We can’t manage a week of snow… (I know – that is 3 questions…)

The kind of teamwork evident in this pictures (my youngest daughter and some pals built a snow cave on a school snow day) is not evident in either of Britain’s main parties.

Sadly, it is the future of these young people that will be blighted by Brexit.

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