BREXMAS

Corbyn is a pudding and the PM is a turkey

The railways are in chaos and the banks are rather murky

But at least it’s Christmas and we’re buying piles of tat

Oh Jesus Christ, what d’ya think of that?

Corbyn is a fruitcake, Theresa is a stick,

The high street’s for the high jump and the NHS is sick

But at least it’s Christmas with our faces in our phones

Oh Jesus can you please control those drones.

May is a bit racist, Corbyn’s a bit slow

The environment is knackered and we ain't had any snow

Theresa gave us Windrush and the nasty ‘go home’ van

Jesus help us, Jeremy Corbyn still thinks he’s our man.

Jezz cannot articulate and May don’t give a shit

Brexit is Apocalypse and we are all bound by it

There is no Great Escape; there is only Die Hard 4

Oh Jesus Christ I can’t take any more.

There is no leadership, there is no opposition

Nobody is driving so we can’t change our position

How did we get to such a state, we didn’t think it through

Its Christmas once again lord but

It’s now to do with you…

MERRY CHRISTMAS

*

blog book page

https://plus.google.com/collection/UNSKRE

BACK PROPER BLOGGING ON JAN 14th 

293. BREXIT – The conclusion of a Con.

Brexit will conclude the betrayal of Britain’s Working Class and the corruption of the post-war promise of equality.

I once heard a young journalist talking about the Iraq war after its nominal conclusion but before the financial collapse of 2008. He declared, even back then, people were – in his view – bored of talking about it.  I’d argue that we are still very much in the thick of the consequences of that illegal invasion so that comment seems even odder to me now than it did then.

To put this in context – I believe that Brexit – for those of us who don’t put political economic and social phenomena in neat boxes with a public interest sell-by date – has its roots way back before the turn of this century – and before the gutter press seriously got their teeth into anti-EU rhetoric – straight bananas and all that crap.

The betrayal of the peace dividend, the trashing of the welfare state, insane foreign policies and a stranglehold gained by the sly, stealthy and wealthy, is actually what led to Brexit. Bizarrely, many voters were easily diverted to an incongruous and catastrophic conclusion by the very people and the very class that betrayed them.

Here I offer up four videos I made for this blog, three short talking heads – two comedy and one not - and one monologue.  In this first extract from my recent show Just Words (a rather ropey recording – sorry)  I start with the world I was born into in the 1960s and the beliefs people then had, that slowly emerging opportunities for equality would grow not diminish...

BREXIT: 1 - The Con - a slice from my show 

Just Words clip

*

When the world around us starts to feel scary, the con artists have an easier job and they love to offer rose-tinted spectacles.

BREXIT: 2 Rose tinted twaddle  - comedy poem

The Good Old Days!

*

As the world was destabilised by the illegal invasion of Iraq, mass migration and economic corruption and with inequality growing exponentially especially in the UK and the US, terrorism (like much of everything else) went global. Predictably, people began to fear the mass migration set in motion by that destabilisation.

BREXIT:3 Reckless destabilisation - performance poem

New Improved Terror

*

And with global credibility so important to all political, social and economic aspects of national life – the empire / colonial fantasists forgot that the world is watching.

BREXIT:4 Collapse of credibility - performance poem

African Journalist in Britain

***

I'll be back blogging in January.

remember to check out my books

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amanda-Baker/e/B0181KEN9E

https://www.amazon.com/Amanda-Baker/e/B0181KEN9E

292. ‘Respecting the Will of the People’ is the nastiest Brexit euphemism going.

Respecting the Will of the People, is the nastiest political euphemism going and it is vomited up daily by Brexiteers and even politicians who voted Remain and know this is a disaster.

Satirists in the US are complaining they have a weak, senile, nazi at the helm. Here in the UK, we have no one driving this tug.

The offending phrase is worse than ‘let me be clear about this’ which occurs just before MPs prevaricate and muddy the waters. It is worse than ‘I wouldn’t insult the intelligence of the British people’ just as they do that very thing. It is worse than going all dreamy eyed when talking about our ‘friends and allies’ while alienating those very countries. It is marginally worse even than the phrase ‘taking back our borders’ when pretty much anything worth building a border around – all the family silver – was sold off between 1982 (first public utility sale of The Docks Transport Board  under Thatcher) and 2013 (last major sell-off - Royal Mail – thanks Vince Cable – undersold by £190m).

Many voters were lured in by the jingoism and xenophobic rhetoric, entirely missing the point that what the big hitters of the Leave Campaigns were actually slavering over was total de-regulation at a level thatcher could only dream of, the obliteration of all those pesky workers’ rights and environmental protections that stand in the way of profit.

The utter delinquency of the phrase ‘Respecting the Will of the People’ which is trotted out, ad infinitum, as an argument against holding a second referendum, is that  it means the double opposite of what it says.

a.     The ‘will of the people’ has palpably altered now folk know the extent to which they were lied to and catastrophic reality is staring them in the face.

b.     If the Will of the people is to be respected with regard to the above point, a full second referendum is not just common sense it is a democratic imperative.

*

Thanks hugely to everyone who came to my gig last night. It was very, very much appreciated. This will be my last post this side of 2019 but if there are any good video clips I will try post them. Meanwhile – don’t forget to put one of my books on your Christmas list.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amanda-Baker/e/B0181KEN9E

https://www.amazon.com/Amanda-Baker/e/B0181KEN9E

291. Brexit T.V. debate - May v Corbyn? God please no…

I’d rather watch blood drying on an abattoir wall – and I’m a vegetarian.

I wonder though, does Corbyn’s eagerness to debate Brexit on telly with Theresa May mean he’s actually made up his mind which way the wind blows? Are May’s delusions now so complete she thinks she is Darcey Bussel? Once again I can be glad I gave up on TV last century.

It’s not exactly the Rumble in the Jungle is it? More like your local GPs oldest receptionist v that dull guy at the allotment you keep mistaking for a scarecrow. I listened in fascinated horror this morning to the radio as Labour supporters were interviewed about Brexit. Yes they were against May’s deal. No they have no idea what Labour’s position is.

While Trump is having wet dreams about the possibility of vulnerable migrants being shot on the Mexican border (because that is the situation he has set up in case you weren’t paying attention), Britain is shooting itself in both feet.

I assumed even the  foolish, blinkered, Blair old guard who put up a left winger to protect their democratic creds – would see Corbyn’s surprise election as evidence the rank and file were sick to the stomach of Blairism and New Labour and not that they were simply gagging for a different white male messiah. The party glitterati did not understand this and nor does Corbyn.

So, now here we are again – at crisis point(s) – which I know is the new normal. Our opposition political vegetable just sits there clogging up the drain while the most electable and capable and on-the-ball potential leader the Labour party has had in decades is trotted out for the media bits because she – Emily Thornberry – is actually, clearly leadership material.

You do have to ask of the party that has struggled with anti-Semitism, whose leader flirted with jingoism when he supported the Farage stance on no free movement of people yada yada yada – er, what about the misogyny? How come Labour remain the only major party – not just in Britain but in the developed West that seems to be woman-proof even when the most prominent woman is head and shoulders (and torso and legs) above the current lacklustre bloke?

I was right about Miliband – hang on to the bloke you’ve got and pretend everything is ok - FAILED. It will fail again with Corbyn; it will just be too late to matter.

*

6 DAYS TO GO…

And remember to check out my books@

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amanda-Baker/e/B0181KEN9E

https://www.amazon.com/Amanda-Baker/e/B0181KEN9E

290. Brexit bedlam - who to despise most.

I know – it’s tough. When it comes to those responsible for the self-inflicted and now festering wound that is Brexit - you can choose from so many out-and-out scum bags to dithering idiots and everything in-between.

There’s the guy who landed us with the totally unnecessary, unplanned and unexplained sink or swim option and then pissed off - Cameron.

There are those who lied and lied and lied and whipped up xenophobia with agendas we could only guess at – like Farage, B Johnson, Gove, Ree Smogg.

There are those who corruptly connived behind the scenes – like Aaron Banks, Cambridge Analytica etc.

There are those who have played the mess entirely for their own gain – such as B Johnson (anyone want a second-hand water cannon?)

There are the rats that helped create the lunatic climate for Brexit and have since left the sinking ship in droves e.g. the Banks.

There are the 10 dinosaur DUP hypocrites who propped up Theresa May's listing Brexit government for a £1bn bribe despite Ireland voting Remain.

And there are those who made absolutely no effort to stop it because they were too inept, self-focused and slow witted to try (and actually didn’t want to) - Jeremy Corbyn.

Then there is the broad band of bonkers Brexiteers themselves who – now that the inevitable mess has come crashing down - are either fleeing for their political lives or blaming everyone but themselves. I mean – don’t you have to laugh at Dominic Raab? The recently resigned Brexit secretar claimed to be amazed and appalled at the deal he was in on negotiating and just a few days prior to that had admitted he hadn’t understood just how man essential UK supplies came into Britain on the Calais to Dover route…

Finally there's us – the hapless Remainers – looking on like bewildered spectators at the worst freak show in history – horrified, sickened but unable to escape. How did it come to this?

 *

On top of all that, the ‘C’ word is going to be regularly yelled in our ears with a megaphone at close quarters so, avoid THE CURSE OF THE CHRISTMAS SCENTED CANDLES -

http://browngirloutsidethering.blogspot.com/2017/11/256-black-friday-curse-of-christmas.html

- and instead get something original and worth having and that won’t be giving you  a headache by New Year – whether it’s for young readers who want adventure stories, little readers who enjoy picture books, adults who like quirky adult novels or dystopian sci-fi or even a very odd sortofautobiography. Check out my book page.

https://plus.google.com/collection/UNSKRE

289. A new top ‘N’ word for America…

By the slimmest of painful margins, US Democrats swung the House of Representatives back towards sanity. And while the effort and the votes were huge the gains are fragile. We know from Presidential elections that while the majority of Americans regularly vote Democrat, the Electoral College voting system and the weighted voting to Southern states (a hangover from the days of slavery) plus gerrymandering and voter suppression, often make the difficult – impossible. But gaining The House of Representatives is something. Now American needs to exercise a new top 'N' word – NO.

NO – to Trump’s white nationalism

NO – to racism and misogyny (this one already looking hopeful - see my letter in The Guardian last week - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/08/how-much-progress-have-the-us-midterm-elections-brought  or a fuller version in The Scottish Herald https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/17212281.sweet-irony-in-native-american-victories-in-midterm-elections/  )

NO- to denying climate change

NO - to corruption, nepotism and abuse of power - etc...

When I turned the radio on early Nov 7^th the first thing I heard was that Ted Cruz had managed to hang on in Texas and I was sweating for the next line. If someone as electable as Beto O Rourke couldn’t unseat a spineless creep like Cruz, what chance did everyone else have. Enough - it seems.

Here in the UK, if we only had some similar awakening but Brexit trundles on its crushing destructive brainless way.

On a local level there is uproar here in Edinburgh as 50 mature trees were chopped down in the small park area in front of Waverly train station to make way for extra temporary tourist Christmas tat - https://www.thenational.scot/news/17205567.letters-why-are-trees-being-felled-to-make-way-for-tat/

So – this side of the pond political folk are far from WOKE.

*
Remember to check out some books for Christmas@

https://plus.google.com/collection/UNSKRE

288. YEMEN. If Saudi Arabia is a moral cesspit – what does that make us?

Yemeni children are suffering and dying in droves because both the US and UK current administrations value their weapons sales to the Saudi royal family more than dealing with the humanitarian horrors evident for years now in Yemen.

When it’s Arms v Alms, armaments win every time.

It was reported last week that, in the light of the Khashoggi murder, John Cena – WWE wrestler turned actor – pulled out of an event in Saudi Arabia. Not so Prince Andrew who went ahead and attended 'Davos in the desert' nor any number of representatives of firms from around the world and including Britain and America – who were not prepared to forgo the chance of lucrative profits just because the money might be soaked in children's blood. So, it seems, a wrestler has more moral fibre than the combined governments of the UK and the US. If it weren’t for Trump and Brexit that would be hard to believe.

Emily Thornberry – who SHOULD be the leader of the Labour Party but is currently shadow Foreign Secretary - recently spoke passionately about the link between arms sales to the Saudis and Theresa May’s pathetic side-stepping of this huge humanitarian crisis with an estimated 1.8million children under the age of 5 suffering severe malnutrition – and that is before we consider those civilians dying in the air-strikes and dying because they cannot access basic medical facilities or clean water.

In April 2016 I wrote a blog called Is Saudi Arabia the world’s moral cesspit? http://browngirloutsidethering.blogspot.com/2016/04/183-is-saudi-arabia-worlds-moral-cesspit.html

And that was before they chopped up Kashoggi in the Turkish embassy without too much effort to hide the fact.

I now need to add that if you hang on to the bloody robes of the Saudi regime for profit, you must be worse than a moral cesspit

 – I just can’t think what that is…

*

My new show previews on December 3^rd and I’ll post details next week

Happy to sign books brought along (after the performance) or if you just want to get something more interesting for C’mas than the dreaded scented candle – check out my book page.

https://plus.google.com/collection/UNSKRE