Clacton don’t be catastrophically clueless - please! (506)

 Put to one side that the man whose only significant contribution to UK politics has been the utter disaster of Brexit is still happy to show his frog features to the multiple media outlets more than happy to elevate and fete him – Farage’s 8^th attempt to slime his way into Parliament is no joke.

Oh – and I hope that if he gets in this time – as the media are doing their autopsies – they give thought to the endless hours of unearned media attention they’ve gifted him over the last decade in a quid pro quo of rantings for ratings…

Put aside that he is a blatant racist whose sole aim is self-promotion.

Put aside that he was tagged as a racist while still at his expensive private school.

He is the ultimate turd that won’t flush.

And – yes – while I have been sceptical for a while now about the ‘ordinary folk’ the media find for their on-street interviews, you have to say the mood music aint great.

One suspects that ‘researchers’ are often sent scouting for the stupidest, most reactionary, incoherent lunatics to pose as ordinary folk.

But one woman – in an interview shortly after Farage announced that he was going to be the candidate for Clacton after pushing aside the nominal leader – Mr 1975 himself – Richard Tice – while praising Farage, looped Tommy Robinson (violent white supremacist) into the same sentence. Could there be a bigger tell as to the mind-set of the people who find Farage acceptable.

I’m way past asking the obvious question about how the rich get the poor and down trodden to constantly vote against their best interests with the very tired, grubby old trick of playing the race card but they do. They’ve been doing it not for decades but centuries. They’ve also been getting away with the whole ‘I’m one of you’schtick. I wonder how many of the folk in Clacton are millionaires or have set up companies to make money from elections and are funded by billionaires?

So yes – these elections seem to be as hideous as we expect these things to be these days.

Nery a day goes by without another bribe to electors from the two main parties that both we and the people spouting know aint gonna happen.

Nery a day passes without more evidence of pandering to the mob.

Selective amnesia is also handy and many, like Farage, are actively relying on a public that seem entirely willing to comply.

Surely two of the biggest absences from this current carry-on are any mention of Brexit or any mention of the biggest threat to our very existence – climate change.

Though we do carry on regardless – the one thing that would make this half bearable would be knowing that the good folk of Clacton were not going to show themselves to be catastrophically clueless by falling for Farage.

*

And no – another reminder – I am not on ANY social media (for those who’ve enquired) I mean - come on - I don't even have a smartphone...  This is just political therapy.

For lighter reading do check out my books HERE. Other than that it’s just good old fashioned letters to the press which you’ll find randomly in quite a few papers here and abroad. If I could use a quill pen and parchment I’d be up for that though I’m very much enjoying my Remington typewriter. May have to get splints for my fingers but it’s very like the one I learnt to type on in 1979.

And – yes – I know – there’s me referring to Tice as Mr 1975! What a hypocrite.

From "The United States of Amnesia" to The United Spindom... (505)

 

Note to Kier Starmer...

Regarding Labour’s Kier Starmer upping the anti on Sunak’s ‘dangerous world’ pitch with his own statement on the “new age of insecurity”.

The current ‘age of insecurity’ with global terror, mass un-managed panic migration around the world and Middle East destabilisation began when Labour’s Blair and US Republican Bush illegally invaded Iraq.

The rest is climate devastation, a subject making very little sound in either his own or Sunak’s who has the biggest willy UK general election posturing…

It was Gore Vidal who coined the phrase ‘United States of Amnesia’. Here in Britain where all is spout today and re-set tomorrow, do we now live in The United Spindom?

*

As always for lighter reading do check out my books HERE or on goodreads. Soz no social media.

British Conservative Government – a 14 year UK virus? (504)

What does a virus do? 

A virus makes you weak, disorientated, listless, disconnected; often they hang around much longer than expected and leave you feeling not quite the same as before even when you are finally clear. Such an illness can cause a sufferer to lose their senses.

Viruses creep around the body making things not work, just as the Tories have crept around the body politic, weakening systems, confusing others, making others malfunction.

Viruses raise the body’s temperature just as the jingoism and racism of an increasingly right-wing Tory party has done, befuddling brain function sometimes harming essential organs, heart and brain, creating long lasting damage.

The Tories have mucked up essential social organs such as the NHS and schools.

Plus, a long virulent ailment can leave you vulnerable to other maladies. Having a Tory administration this last decade and a half has left the UK vulnerable to all sorts of social sicknesses; hatred, fear, cruelty towards the poor and vulnerable. Viruses can cause painful inflammation in some areas – just as child poverty has become inflamed. Ditto foodbank usage and homelessness.

Poor decision making can occur as a result of reduced brain activity – David Cameron. In extreme cases – spasms or odd jerky movements may be induced – Theresa May. High temperatures associated with some viruses prompt delusions, babbling and incoherence – or what we might term a bad case of Lizz Truss. Perverse mental meanderings and unpleasant swellings – Boris Johnson. Ultimately the illness may lead to ongoing whining, tetchiness and self-pity – Sunak.

Some viruses cause nausea and vomiting – and to be base – this lot certainly make me feel sick regularly.

Now the virus is seeping out of the body – many spores leaving in the hope of avoiding Portillo-itis.

Quite simply, you’d have to conclude that, outside of covid, the Tory party is one of the most debilitating collective viruses the UK has had.

*

For lighter reading do check out My BOOKS

When Nelson Mandela spoke to me, I was sure the world was going to get better…(503)

In a very early post on this blog I wrote an account of Meeting Nelson Mandela

 

More recently I was scanning a piece in The Guardian about the whole collapse of hope and momentum in S Africa since Mandela died. A little disingenuous one might conclude considering the collapse of hope and absence of positive momentum here in the UK and the rowing back of social and political gains and collapse of social infrastructure since the Thatcher years – and all without the challenges faced by that troubled country…

 

One strong recollection of the day was the euphoria over his release and how ecstatic I was when I met him in Glasgow and how convinced I was that this was a sign that anything could change for the better.

 

I'm not someone who idolises people. I never had posters of popstars on my walls as a teen even but I was star struck that day and as brimming with hope as everyone else. I felt an echo of it when Obama was elected - and now it all seems to have turned to ash.

 

I don't get it.

 

It’s like the table was spread with a very appetising buffet - someone finally took the covers off but we let a handful of yobs in, they stole anything good, trashed everything else and left decent folk with scraps and wreckage...

‘Most Dangerous’… (502)

…is what rubbish Rishi tells us the next few years in the UK will be.

Like everything else he burbles out these days – no one can really get a handle on this.

What is most likely is that desperation at his own inadequacies and a potential Tory wipe-out at the election we are all literally gagging for – has turned to mad diversion tactics with a whole heap of incendiary fear mongering to pepper it all.

How should one respond?

I mean other than completely losing your mind and running down the street naked screaming at the diseased pigeons…

How about this

Dear Rishi,

If you are poor or a migrant or mentally ill or on an NHS waiting list or living in a house with RAAC concrete or going to a school with RAAC concrete or if you are elderly relying on home care or if you are working mad hours to pay your massively increased mortgage or if you are stupid enough to go swimming in the coastal waters around England or a river or if you are under threat of deportation to Rwanda for the sake of a right-wing headline or if you are a child living in damp, insecure housing or in the centre of one of our increasingly polluted inner cities or sleeping on the streets or cycling on pot-holed roads or waiting for an ambulance or struggling with the anxiety of life lived in perma-debt OR if you’re a child in Gaza being bombed with UK supplied armaments – a decade and a half of Tory mismanagement have already made life pretty bloody dangerous - you out of touch twonk.

Alternatively…

You could just go full child and (as I lived in Newcastle for many years) try this little ditty…

You can have a Rishi

On a little dishi

You’ll get a squishy Rishi

When the votes come in…

Dear Gaza, for what it’s worth – 3 out of 4 countries in the UK union care… (501)

As the world burns – only the cold, hard horror of Gaza can chill us to the bone.

It is popular in the right-wing press and for bought-and-paid for politicians to sneer at climate change in a way that helps the world ignore that once again – it is the poorest who suffer –at least at first.

Somehow – the world also seems to be able to ignore militaristic man-made horrors – Gaza, Ukraine (yes – the Western Media even seems to have tired of a conflict where White people are dying). Yemen barely features.

Right now Vietnam and Thailand are seeing their hottest ever temperatures. Delhi is burning. Meanwhile the hideous miscalculation of America and its long-term ‘special friend’ Britain - both still arming Israel as a further descent into madness - has paved the way for the imminent onslaught of Rafah.

No moral person can seriously claim that Netanyahu is anything other than insane if he thinks this will a. bring remaining hostages safely home b. lead to real future security for Israel.

At this point, it’s anyone’s guess what his actions are intended to achieve.

The death toll mounts. The suffering deepens. The destruction is almost total.

A few blogs ago, I posted that The Ghosts of Gaza would be waiting for UK politicians come the general election. In the local elections last week in England there was evidence that The Gaza effect is there. This is small beer in terms of global considerations except that it shows that the politicians are, again, out of step with the people. At least that is how it appears.

As The UK Conservative Party implodes in government – all their talk is how to stay in power and nothing at all to do with what is good for the people of Britain never mind anywhere else in the world. However, The Labour Party under Keir Starmer has followed the Tory line on Gaza – they in turn have followed the terrible missteps of Biden on this issue.

Looking at the UK and US you could be forgiven for thinking there is nothing more important for the world to focus on than (US) a rapist conman prospective Republican candidate – falling asleep and farting in court or (UK) the lunatic remnants of The Conservative Party showing the public just how much money they can waste with their cruel, unworkable Rwanda migrant deportation policy.

But know this – the UK is made of FOUR nations. Only England has failed to call for a cease fire in Gaza. The 3D governments – devolved administrations of Scotland, Ireland, Wales – have all called for an immediate end to the suffering.

Here in Scotland the (now –ex) First Minister called for a ceasefire last year. Once Stormont was up and running in Ireland – their First Minister used her inaugural speech to call for a cease fire in Gaza. And even in Wales where Labour is the largest party – The Parliament, without Labour’s support, managed to win a vote overall on the subject of calling for a cease fire. So – of the four nations of the union THREE have supported an immediate ceasefire.

It’s a small thing. A very small thing. But for what it’s worth

We care in Scotland

They care in Ireland

They care in Wales

Gaza and those in Israel who genuinely care about the future of the region - please know this… 

The only thing killing humans faster than Putin / Assad / Netanyahu - is the climate crisis...

 ...as we can see from the unprecedented broiling going on right now in Thailand and Vietnam++

*

As it is again BANDCAMP Friday - Friday 3rd May - do check out my family audio environmental story-poem - Casey & the Surfmen

or

If you prefer environmental dystopian sci fi - check out my novella

Zero One Zero Two