Wakey wakey

Now don't go all trump derangement syndrome on my ass, I'm going to posit a potential positive of the orange man's election. Yes, I know he's a maniac, misogynist, a climate denying, rights repealing, erratic, highly dangerous maniac who's not fit for office. But, his emphatic election victory has brought about change. Beyond the bourgeoisie and far left, who've doubled down on their assertion that anyone not them is a Nazi, I sense the body left have had the scales begin to fall from their eyes. For the first time I'm listening to leftwing commentators question the efficiency of coding the working class, all their concerns, in fact, everything about them as base and deplorable. Of abandoning the class struggle in favour of identity politics. It's about time we woke up!

I genuinely believe that the majority of people are on board with progressive policies around race, sex, gender, orientation, the climate, equalities, you name it, right up to the point that we start babbling mad Shit. And if you question the mad shit, the rigid orthodoxy aggressively pushed and policed by the far left and bourgeoisie activists, you're a heretic. Contrary to advertised, the left has become anything but inclusive. If we want to affect change we need to build coalitions, build consensus, and to do that we've got to engage in good faith discussions with those outside of our collective silos. People with different ideas and perspectives to ours. Obviously the dyed in the wool ideological ultras on both left and right will resist, but beyond that I think the majority of people across the political spectrum are hungry for genuine change, not worthless rhetoric.

The last 10 years of rightward slide vividly highlight where our current divisive narratives have got us. The left are losing hearts and minds. The far right is gaining ground hand over fist, as the left eviscerates itself in its pursuit of unattainable ideological purity. We've got to replace inflexible orthodoxy with nuanced thinking, otherwise we'll have no one else to blame for fascism but ourselves.

Mad Hatters

Yes I will, because no I haven't. Each to their own and all that, but our culture's proclivity for twatism is beginning to wear thin.  If the freedoms these chumps refer to -are- being eroded, it's because of afore mentioned chumps and pals not acting in the best interests of society in the face of a global pandemic. The government aren't responsible for the pandemic, it's not a cunning plan of theirs (or a global cabal of Bond villains led by Bill Gates), though I have no doubt the government (and any Bond-esque bad actors) will exploit the chaos in which ever ways they can. Not adhering to safety protocols gives the government the cover of legitimate concerns  to implement the restrictions the chumps wobble on about and much more beyond. I swear some form of ideological madness or simple bonkers thinking is this seasons must have accessory...it's everywhere, it's fingers in every pie. I think Negan nails how I feel about our current cultural climate when he said  ''You taste that Simon...? That is the taste of shit!'',......... it is. 

The fall of reality

'Oh no, there ain't no sanity clause'...The Damned weren't wrong, were they. What's wrong with folk? Wherever you look the threads of reality are being pulled at, unpicked or beginning to unravel. QAnon and kin warp folks minds with weird tales of strange conspiracies, Critical Theories lay siege to provable science with fantasy narratives and a global pandemic can be denied in the face of overwhelming evidence and personal testimony. And that's before we consider the everyday effects of the algorithmic echo chambers, crony politics...crony everything, a polarizing media, and a raft of other destabilizing influences on reality.  An anti vaxxer told me that the vaccine is a conspiracy to inject nano crystals into us in order to disconnect us from the Godhead and connect us to the cloud, from where we'll be controlled...they were serious, to them this was real. Inquiries around evidence were met, as so often, with me being told to go educate myself...no evidence though. No, there's never any credible evidence, quantifiable evidence is so passé in our post real world. People have fallen out of love with truth and reality, they've been seduced by sci-fi B movie plots and competing ideological orthodoxies offering whatever...and if you disagree with them, even a soupçon, you're either a fool or their sworn enemy. With reality under attack like this from all quarters, you have wonder where this road will lead us and how long before we arrive. I'll be honest, I'm still quite hoping for the zombie apocalypse, purely as it would be simpler.

We have a choice.

I love a bit of history me. History shines a light on the lives and times of our ancestors and illuminates the road which brought us to today. One thing you quickly realize is that people have changed little throughout thousands of years of human history, or rather, our desires, motivates and machinations have changed not one bit. I've long believed that if you brought a citizen of ancient Rome, or Athens, or Beijing, or Memphis, or wherever, equipped them with a universal translator, they'd quickly recognise what was going on today as the same as in their day. Another aspect of history, and a most important one in my opinion, is it can act like a map through life's cyclical minefields, and if studied will save us from having to relive our mistakes. Live and learn, rather than  repeat and repeat. And you don't have to travel back to ancient times for pearls of wisdom (although it is rich in them), often there's much to learn from the events of decades closer to our own, from the words of those who experienced them. 

Take 'Homage to Catalonia', Orwell's experiences of the 1930's Spanish Civil War. Reading 'Homage to Catalonia' you may glean some perspective and insight into the possible direction our current political dichotomy is travelling; and we have a choice, we can learn from what we read, and act on what we learn, and maybe avoid a similar fate, or of course repeat it. During the Spanish Civil War the Republican/Communist/Anarchist forces of the Left, fought endlessly amongst themselves, all the fractions vying for dominance, in the process they killed thousands of there own, their allies and the public. As a consequence of their in fighting they were militarily and politically weakened, as well as losing the hearts and minds of the people in their territories due to their abhorrent behaviours. I look at the left today and see striking similarities, and that makes me angry and sad in equal measure. Obviously not to the same extremes or the ideologically driven extra judicial killings, no, we're not barbarians, now we just label people then socially isolate them and destroy them, of course there are plenty of death threats too, though we tend overlook them when perpetrated by our own side. No, I was thinking more of the ideological battles, the divisory attitudes, the splintering, the witch hunts and purges, and the developing group think devoid of any space for nuance or difference, driven by the pursuit of some imaginary ideological purity, and that bullshit word 'wokeness'. A left too busy looking through their ideological milk bottle bottomed glasses, eager to look like everything to everybody, and in danger of becoming nothing to anybody; a left where too many people compete to tell each other/everybody how f*cking great they are, how virtuous and right on their lives; and a left too easily distracted by pointless and strategically bankrupt 'stunts' to recognise that they're manifestly failing to properly address the fundamental issue of structural inequalities....our real objective, being a key to a better everything. A left that hands PR opportunities to our enemies, not once, but again and again, doing the enemies work for them, making it too too easy; a left that's in real danger of disappearing up it's own arse...whilst applauding itself. It's ugly, man, ugly and counterproductive. Most of the time I don't recognise my own ideological home, and more worrying than my sensibilities, is it's increasingly not carrying enough people along with it to be a genuinely effective vehicle for real positive change. I'm just so frustrated and disappointed, man, every day I grow more convinced that we wont see positive change in our lifetime. Why? Because we're stupid. For goodness sake, take a look at history, look at the Spanish Civil War as an example (there are plenty of others too), see what happens when a fragmented left doesn't carry the people with it..............the Nationalists win.

1st of June 1985

Photo ukrockfestivals.com

Thirty five years ago today saw the Battle of the Beanfield, a dark day in Britain's policing history, when a convoy of peaceful travellers and festival folk known as the 'Peace Convoy' suffered a brutal unprovoked attack, subsequent arrest, with many of their homes destroyed by the police as they made their way to the Stonehenge Free Festival site. I wasn't at the Beanfield, though some friends and I were near Stonehenge that day. In brief, in 1985 the annual Stonehenge Free Festival (which in 1984, for me, had been a life changing experience), was banned by the government who defined it as lawless and criminal, this ban was to be enforced viciously by the police. Obviously, those who organized the festival and those attended it had other ideas, and the die was cast for a confrontation in the Wiltshire countryside, the allotted date, the first of June 1985. It was to be a long and memorable day, culminating in an event no one could have imagined, though today I'm focusing on  just one element of it, about an hour and a half of the afternoon, near Stonehenge. 

Weather wise it was day much like today, hot, sunny, airless. Whilst the Convoy made it's way from Savernake, several hundred peaceful proponents of the free festival found themselves corralled by the police on the A303 and half a mile from Stonehenge, on the ridge where the New Kings Barrows are.  It wasn't long before the group decided to flank the police road blocks, leave the road and make for the festival site cross country through the summer fields. There was no sense of what was to come as we reached the field adjacent to the festival stage field.  There were only a handful of police, heavily out numbered by protesters, forming a line between the two fields. We didn't want any conflict and so sat down and chilled in the sun, the mood was upbeat, smiles all round; the line of police were all smiles too, though in hindsight there's might have been more sinister knowing smiles. On the horizon you could see the ancient stones silhouetted against the blue sky. We'd held the field for no time when a column of vans raced along the A360 alongside the stones, this obviously got our attention, especially when we saw the occupants disembark. It was the police, or was it, some were definitely police, though there has long been suspicion that others, possibly military, were involved too, as few had insignia or proper uniform, just boiler suits, some with shields and most with batons.  Naively expecting a stand off situation followed by a negotiation, some of us formed ranks, linking arms in preparation to hold our captured ground. Still, the mood was peaceful. That was all about to change.  The boiler suited mass moved slowly down the slope through the field, though not to reinforce the police line as we'd imagined, they moved directly towards us. As they neared they picked up speed and raised their batons, there was to be no stand off, no discussion, and with no advanced warning or justification they charged into us flailing their batons wildly. It would be fair to say, it was a a bit of a surprise, chaos ensued and any resolve to hold our ground soon withered under their assault. We were quickly forced back up on to the A303, all the time the police lashing out indiscriminately, kicking, pushing and striking with batons, no one was spared, they were out of control. I saw people battered and bloodied, all ages, both sexes, I actually saw a pregnant woman bleeding from her head. It was shocking, I'd never seen people acting like this. At one point back on the A303 I slowed to light up a cigarette and was immediately struck by a succession of baton blows to my sides, 4 or 5 maybe, I crumpled, prepared for more, when a guy shouted 'leave him alone', I turned to see a chap coming to my defence. Of course, he was battered too, before the 'officers' moved on to others. Angry, I approached a senior officer (an inspector), who just told me to 'piss off' and I was forcibly moved on. so I wandered on, hoping to see someone I knew in the chaos. Then right in front of me a man was knocked out of his wheelchair by marauding boiler suited 'officers' (they were merely thugs really), they subsequently beat the folk trying to help the guy up. Thugs, man, nothing more, it's not hard to beat up peaceful 'hippies' in retreat. Then an incensed uniformed police sergeant rushed over, and as I remember it, he physically picked up and threw the 2 thugs doing the beating behind him, yelling at them to fuck off behind the police lines, he then immediately reached in helping get the wheelchair guy up and check him and the others were okay, he apologised and then disappeared back into the fray. This all happened just a couple of hours before the same police/military attacked the Convoy, I've always thought we were their hors d'oeuvre, and the Beanfield their main course, when many of them gorged on violence like pigs.

I was reminded of that particular event today watching the horrible news coming out of America of the public murder of a man by the police, watching vile police/military thugs using legalised violence to attack innocence with impunity. Though I also saw others wearing the same uniforms posting messages, being filmed, decrying the actions of those thugs, and behaving with decency and honour. That day in '85 could've seen me hating the police full stop, and if it wasn't for the actions of that sergeant I surely would have. Division and polarization, the 'them and us' or 'other' narrative, is a key weapon currently being deployed by right wing populists leaders....they've long used it as it's so very effective. Fed the right diet it's an easy route for folk to take (any folk, from whatever perspective), especially with provocation or reinforced through experience or media driven perception, though we mustn't be drawn in to those mental cul-de-sacs. Experience tells us that there are good and bad individuals in most groups or organizations, and if we lose sight of that, we'll have already handed our enemies victory. The good from all quarters must coalesce.

The Watcher

We lazed in White's Plantation this morning, enjoying laying out under the warming sun, it was glorious. Though it was changed from our recent lazes, today there was a slightly ominous air. Only a few short days after Johnson's change of message and already all over the increase in movement is palpable, nature's silence broken by the return of the low hum of human activity, occasional punctuated by the throaty roar of a speedster on the nearby A35. Remember in the Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, King Theoden muses 'So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?' Well, I don't think it's reckless hate that now afflicts us, more abject indifference tempered with a soupçon of disdain. With threadbare credibility the Government seeks to hastily loosen lockdown, and moves to coerce people back into the service of the economy. We must remember to bow to Economy. We'd be fools to imagine the ideological cogs have ever stopped turning, on the contrary, they've made ground. Of course, the return is to be undertaken using prudence and common sense; 'trust us', 'you'll be safe', 'there'll be measures to protect you', words spoken in reassuring tone, unfortunately said measures are amorphous, cut as they are from the same cloth as Emperor Johnson's new cloths. Ooh, but don't the red tops, owned by those who couldn't be more removed from the people or the metaphoric 'front', love it, they rush to promote the Glorious leader's new narrative. We've all got do our patriotic duty, blitz spirit and all that, we've returned to a 'take on the chin for the economy' and 'herd immunity' mindset, though by stealth. Blue collar workers first of course, stay alert now, this is on you! Mulling it over I kept returning to Theoden's question, and kept coming up empty handed. What can you do? Alone most of us have no real agency to effect change, and I see no unifying banner being raised. It's frustrating. Then I remember an interview I'd read, ages ago, with the legendary Patti Smith, during the piece she'd briefly discussed living through the social collapse and chaos of late 70's/early 80's dystopian New York.  And I remember Patti Smith saying how she and others of the creative community got by through becoming, sort of, passive observers of it. I thought, you know, that's not a bad perspective to adopt. As much as you can, you have to exist outside of the madness, remain informed (in that respect Johnson's right when he says we should stay alert, we really must), just watch and wait stoically, like a Watcher from the Marvel universe. Ah comics, you can always find respite there too.

Hail the glorious leader

It would be fair to say that I have little time for Johnson, nevertheless I want him to recover as much as anyone else, it's a horrible illness, and I'm not a monster...that's his role. What I really don't get is this cult of the glorious leader thing that's emerging around him. All over social media you've got...ooh he saved us, ooh he's a hero, ooh he's sacrificed so much for us, what utter delusionally nonsense. The idea that Johnson is any kind of hero, let alone one who's gone above and beyond to protect the nation is ludicrous, and is certainly not born out by any of the evidence. Remember, this is the same Prime Minister who watched the Covid-19 pandemic developing around the world and did nothing, failed to prepare, failed to procure the necessary equipment and medicines, just failed to act. Johnson watched with complacency, puffed up with the hubris of his recent victories, as Italy fell hard to the disease, though still allowed people to return without from there and other infected communities without any screening or any monitoring. This is the man who insists his government follows the medical and scientific evidence and advice, though whose best strategy for facing the epidemic was to ''take it on the chin'', ''let it run through the country'' in order to develop herd immunity (herd immunity being a consequence of an epidemic to be mitigated, it's an outcome rather than a strategy), until the modelled predictions of that course of inaction suggested a worse case scenario of 250,000 to 500,000 dead. The same Prime Minister who chortled enthusiastically about shaking the hands of people suffering from Covid-19 whilst on a hospital visit. And then when he finally realised the gravity of the looming national disaster, far too late, he acted indecisively, bluster-mumbling lacklustre confused messages and half measures which lacked authority or cogency. Right up to him falling to the illness, he still had no screening at entry points into the country, still slow to roll out testing, still failing to procure and supply the front line with the necessary equipment and medicines. Johnson and the government left every one of us vulnerable, they left NHS staff and all key workers particularly vulnerable, woefully ill equipped, desperately overstretched and under staffed. Look, I understand why the government and their media allies are keen to promote the 'hero leader' of dedication and sacrifice narrative, it works to their advantage, you can't knock heroes. It distracts people from the truth, and helps mould the narrative that Johnson and his government did their damnedest for the country... always only following the medical and scientific evidence and advice.  What I really don't understand though, is why people would be so eager to believe such utter nonsense entirely at odds with the evidence. Ah, just another day cognitively dissonant Britain.

Accountability

I'm posting this because I feel it's important, we've been failed by our government, a government that put the economy and money before the well-being of it's people, before their actual lives, and as such peoples lives have been destroyed and sadly many lives have been lost, made even sadder due to their avoidability, and that the ledger on the death toll is far from closed. What this guys says is true, it's what many of us have been thinking and saying for over a month now. When this is done the government must be held to account for their failures, none of this is on us, and we must ensure that we never find ourselves so unprepared and slow to act when a similar epidemic/pandemic develops...and it will, our current behaviours in both the human and natural world will ensure that.  As Michael Rapaport puts in his rather sweary tirade, and he's right, we have to survive and advance. Stay strong, stay safe, endure, as there's work to be done when the storm has passed.  

Brexit's sunlit uplands

Turns out that the contractor delivering Brexit's sunlit uplands, may be the same one who brought us the 2008 Lapland-style theme park in the New Forest...similar M O.  Rule Britannia, and all that.

A weight lifted

I went to bed last night seething, angry at a country I saw as populated by a majority who'd shown themselves to be xenophobic and bigoted, myopic and wilfully ignorant *****, happy to celebrate their own craptitude. The exit polls had come in and it suggested a landslide for the conservatives, even after 10 years of ideological austerity, swathing cuts to public services, the associated suffering and 10's of thousands dead as a consequence.  Angry that so many had voted for a leader who shown himself to be a racist, a misogynist, a homophobic, a serial adulterer, a man sacked three time for lying...twice in political office, and arguably the worst Foreign Secretary this country has ever known. Angry that with the light of truth so thoroughly illuminating all the filthy lying corners of the Brexit argument, when every pro had withered and dissipated in that light, even then my country voted for the thing they now must have known was a lie, in an act of national suicide.  As I say, I was seething, although most of all I was frightened by the prospect of another 5 or 10 years of Conservative attacks, hardships, and what I knew would be coming for many of us. 

Although this morning I awoke to feelings of complete tranquillity and inner calm, as if a huge weight had been lifted from me...I felt freed. To be honest, I was taken aback, so striking and incongruous were these feelings in light of my outlook last night. It dawned on me that the one thing that was different from last night was that I'd relinquished hope, or more to the point...relinquished false hope. I've long seen hope as a dangerous and debilitating thing if not based in reality, and I'd allowed myself to be drawn into hoping for something, that in my heart of hearts, I knew was never going to happen, no matter how much I wanted it too.  I like Jeremy Corbyn, he's man of principle whose political record and long history of support for those who needed support spoke for itself. I agreed with him that we needed a new type of political discourse, I liked many of his policy propositions, and believe he'd have made a great peace time Prime Minister, and therein lies the rub, we're at ideological war and the enemy has the (politico) media industrial complex behind it, the most powerful of weapons. In my opinion Jeremy and the party's policy of non-engagement, of not coming out fighting, was a mistake, allowing the government and predominantly right wing media to salt the ground ensuring the seeds of Labour's messages would never took root, let a lone flourished. I knew there was never a chance of Labour winning, and yet I let myself hope, subconsciously (and consciously if I'm honest) knowing that was hope without a solid foundation. Well, I'm only human.

This quote resonated...''Whoever has nothing to hope, let him despair of nothing'', (Seneca, stoic philosopher 4BC to AD65).

News-lite

A lot's being made of 'fake news' at the moment, and yeah, there's a lot of it about. Though fake news is usually easy to spot, it's created to push buttons and therefore it'll be so far up the chosen confirmation bias scale as to intuitively set the alarm bells ringing in rational folk. And of course there's the other use of the 'fake' label, truth labelled fake to discredit it, though that's less talked about. Whatever, it does what it's intended to do, muddy the waters. The thing is, we know it, so we can compensate. Something I find equally worrying, if not more so and just as problematic is 'news-lite', a story with some of the inconvenient truth removed. It's becoming common place, particularly when relating history, and it's the supposedly trustworthy media who are most frequently guilty of it.  A good example is today’s main story, '100 years since women get the vote', a great story, and obviously a step forward on the road to women's emancipation. But..., we were only given half the story, with the inconvenient aspects ignored.  Yes, women got the vote, but ah, only about a third of women were given the vote in 1918, and those women had to be over 30 and possess substantial property or wealth. So, the real story was, 'some' middle aged middle class (and above) women were given the vote. Okay, it was still a start. Though, why weren't we told that? Why weren't all women given the vote in 1918? Well, it was because the government/establishment of the time feared the power that women would have in light of the number of male voters who'd died during World War One.  Little has changed there then. Many of those denied the vote, the two thirds of women, were those who'd worked so hard in the dangerous and health destroying war industries invaluable to the war effort, though their effort and work was not to be rewarded.  Little has changed there then either. It would take a further 10 years for them to get the vote, and a further hundred to breach the bastions of the government/establishment, and that war is far from won. I answered my own question, why was the story edited, why weren't we given the whole story? Because really very little has changed. So, we'll spin the story. I listen to the media today, and but for a few occasions where the whole picture was alluded to, none of the reports honestly reflected what happened in 1918.  I can guarantee that the majority of people now believe that 'all' women were given the vote in 1918, which just isn't the case. Though to many it's now actual history, the beeb said so. History can be dangerous, especially when it differs from the historical narrative on which an establishment has built a nations psyche. Man, this is just one historical event to be presented to the masses, doctored. Dunkirk, Churchill, the Empire and our colonial past, to cite a tiny few, have all been edited to the benefit of the establishments 'benevolent, heroic Britain' narrative. Isn't not telling the whole truth, just more damaging fake news? 

Tolerate it? We actively embrace it!

The 'Manics' tried to warn us when they sang 'if you tolerate this, then your children will be next', but did we listen? NO. We passively tolerated, accepted, that our consumer goods and services were being made and delivered under conditions of modern slavery. We accepted the suicide netting, the dangerous workplaces, the exploitation and abuses, it was all happening elsewhere. Beguiled by our things, we looked away, we could buy our desirable disposable shit at a competitive price. Even when we paid through the nose for items we knew cost a few pounds to manufacture, made by the powerless in unbearable conditions, we stayed on message; yeah, but this is designer. After all, you had your 'thing' and that's all that mattered. And anyway, we couldn't change the conditions of over there, that's how they do things 'over there'.  The 'Manics' knew their stuff, man, they saw the future, and their words were prophetic. We already tolerate zero hours contracts, we're accepting the erosion of workers rights along with growing wage and wealth inequality. Then on Friday Uber learnt their licence wouldn't be renewed; a company who've frequently been in the media for alleged poor employment practices, dangerous work practices and underhand shenanigans of plenty.  Embodying the worst excesses of the capitalist model. You'd have thought folk would have celebrated, an alleged abusive employer, who allegedly hid crimes and thwarted compliance and public safety, getting what they deserved..right on! But no, we're far too obedient to our corporate masters, or maybe we just don't care about the lot of others as long as we're all right. No, nearly 750,000 people signed a petition in support of Uber! That's nearly 3/4 of a million people supporting an alleged abusive employer, with questionable and dangerous work practices. How fucked up is that! I can't really get my head around it, it's too weird, too wrong. I can't say whether the future will be Orwellian or Dickian, I can say it's most likely going to be shite, and shite of our own mandating, the stupidest type of shite.    

Always with the racism

So, racism's on the rise you think, and of course you're right (no pun intended), there's no doubt that that ugly side of our human condition is gaining dominance once again, the EU referendum was fought and won on an overtly racist/nationalist platform, the papers sell on race/religion hate and people feel again empowered to voice their ill informed opinions on 'immigrants' at the drop of a hat. You can see the years of built up frustration born of the 'pc' years. It's worrying, without a doubt, but it's nothing new, racism rears its ugly head when times are hard, people are scared and governments need scapegoats. We just need to stay resolute in our opposition to it. Back in the 70's it was just as bad, if not more so than now. That said, I think we're moving swiftly back to that 70's mentality and morality on this topic and more, where casual racism was acceptable, funny even (there were always jokes), if you're white that is. Another example of how the politics of the present is dragging back into the past. Back in the 70's it was the National Front, the NF were fore runners to the likes of the BNP, EDL and Britain First. Just as misguided, just as potentially dangerous. You had two choices as a kid in the 70's, no, three choices: be a racist and align yourselves with the NF, oppose racism and join the ANL (Anti Nazi League) or just look the other way. Max, Ray and Steve, who added NF to their graffiti clearly took the first option. This piece of graffiti, along with a similar piece nearby are clearly from the 70's, dated by the nature of the scaring and the association, the conjoined NF. I'd thought (or rather hoped) that we'd seen off the racists, or at least sent them scurrying marginalized into the shadows, but it appears they're back with a vengeance, like dark Obi-wans, strike them down a come back stronger than we could possibly imagine.  

I am not a money cow!

I am not a money cow, man, and object to being treated as one. We appear to be on and endless conveyor belt of consumption, no sooner has one purchasing opportunity passed, then another rears it's head, thrust before us. And of course, you're expected to participate, the media makes that quite clear, or you'll be different and you don't want to be different, do you? It's deplorable. The all pervasive pressure to continually consume the unwanted and unnecessary in pursuit of the material dream is damaging to us as individuals and collectively.  It's a multifaceted scourge of misery, dressed with enticing bling. We end up encouraged, no, pressured to spend too much, eat too much, get into debt, to participate in these norms and values of our society's events and activities you're told you 'must' participate in to be 'normal'.  Those exhibitions of gratuitous overindulgence shown in Christmas or Easter (substitute what ever event or festival) adverts reflect reality, don't they? No, they suggest that if you're not living like that then you must have failed or just missing out. Which is bollocks of course, but effective bollocks, as people flock to overspend on demand. And when we've messed up, overspent, eaten and drunk ourselves stupid, we're pilloried for our poor choices and lack of self control.  As the song says, 'it takes two baby'.  Yeah, we could exert more self control, but that would be a lot easier if we weren't constantly bombarded with pressure to consume. Sale after sale after sale, endless opportunities, must haves, adverts coming from every surface, speaker and screen.  Though all responsibility is removed from the purveyors, the sellers, the 'dealers', no, the ownness is all on us. What you see in the photo above is selling at its most cynical. We're being encouraged to buy products so in advance of an event (Easter is 15th of April) in the hope we'll consume them and have to buy more. Cynical fuckers! We need to take a stand, man, as Zamo said 'just say, no!'.

Remember what they want you to forget.

If you think today is about remembrance, you're surely mistaken.
'Maybe', it once was, but now the day has been taken.

By politicians who'd send our friends and family to die.
In their endless wars for profit, all based on lies.

We shouldn't wear our poppies with pride.
Because behind their red faces the real truth hides.
That the poppy is now used to stifle public dissent.
For those endless wars on which politicians are hell bent.
That politicians need us to wear poppies to hide the fact.
That those same politicians have broken the military pact.
That 10,000 soldiers sleep cold in the streets.
Whilst our politicians bath in the glory of their heroic feats.
They fell for our freedom is what politicians will say.
As they cynically strip those rights and freedoms away.
Remember the war dead and why they all died?
They died for nothing, and they'll continue to die for lies.

Attacks on the NHS

It appears that every day now you see or hear more reports in the 'news' about the NHS, nearly all negative and most ill informed or purposefully misleading. Of course this is not by coincidence, it's part of a well orchestrated plan to demonize our publicly controlled NHS and sow the seeds of a commercial model heath service. Not a day goes by, it seems, without some new report being published on failings or some scandal about treatment, and if someone’s anecdotal musings are aired, they'll be almost entirely negative, of course with one tiny positive anecdote shoehorned in to stifle claims of media bias.

Well, bollocks I say. My wife has just been in hospital for a couple of days to have a spinal implant op, a serious neurological procedure. The NHS were fucking brilliant! Yeah, you can see it fraying at the edges, some of the equipment looks tired, and yeah, there don't appear to be enough staff and the staff that are there are all rushed off their feet, and things appear to take longer or sometimes you have to ask a couple of times for things. But don't blame the doctors, the nurses or the support staff, blame successive governments (and the wilfully ignorant who mandate their policies) who have constantly undermined and underfunded the NHS. Any failings in the NHS are there by establishment design. Blame outsourcing (or privatization as it really is), look behind the headlines and 9 out of 10 times the area of the 'NHS' which has failed is in fact a private contractor! This is never mentioned, corporate secrecy to protect competitiveness, don't you know. Blame underfunding. Blame structures embedded by government policy, designed to create discord and demoralize both patient and practitioner, aimed at creating a fertile bed on which to sow the seeds of privatization.  Privatization doesn't work, except for those shareholders reaping the profits. Name one public service or state company improved by privatization; I bet you can't (with honesty).

So next time you see or hear a report on the NHS failing, look behind the headline, think about what's motivated the story, who's directing it and what narrative is being projected. Treat the NHS staff with love, and if you have to wait too long or you have a minor complaint, speak softly, remembering it's not their fault, on the whole they're trying their best to give the best service and care, with ever diminishing resources and ever diminishing respect. Direct you disdain at those truly responsible, government, the establishment and those who give mandate to their wicked plans. The NHS is this country’s greatest achievement and it's being dismantled for profit in front of us, and that's not to the people benefit, no matter what line we're spun. Love it (the NHS) or loose it! It's as simple as that.

And, while I'm going on, the same ill informed and wilfully ignorant who mandate the governments attack on the NHS are usually the same people who complain about immigrants 'coming over here and stealing our jobs' (both being elements of the same ideological package). Whilst in hospital a good half the people we spoke to were foreign, all were competent, coherent, lovely, caring, professional people. They've not stolen anybodies job! That's just right wing rhetoric created to distract from the simple truth, which is, successive governments have intentionally failed to invest in training and recruitment, and we need these foreign workers to staff the NHS. I for one thank the gods for them.

I didn't vote in the referendum.

So it's over, it's done, the nation has spoken and we're out. I didn't vote, mind. That's right, I didn't vote in the EU referendum. Yes, I talk and comment on politics regularly (too much some would say), and I'm sure my reluctance to vote came as a surprise to some of my friends, it was a surprise to my family.  But what did I have to vote for? What was my choice? 

Vote out? Align myself with the far right, closet racists and the misinformed nationalists. Those who seek to remove our rights, relegate us to mere work drones living to work and working in poverty. No, I couldn't do that. Of course, that's not the whole picture at all. A huge number of Brexiteers were disenfranchised working class poor, abused and ignored by the establishment and marginalized to an existence in poverty.  I feel their pain and understand their anger, although not their view that immigrants have caused all their woes, they clearly haven't, it's the establishment who have. The same establishment, elements of whom, have pointed them towards the immigrants, and ironically the poor and sick, as their enemy. And, elements of whom have been actively directing the out campaign.  Voting out will not make the life of the poor and disenfranchised any better. On the contrary, out will mean more suffering, more pain, more disenfranchisement, more austerity and more hate and division. That will soon become apparent.

Or.

Vote in? Align myself with the far right, closet racists and the misinformed nationalists. Those who seek to remove our rights, relegate us to mere work drones living to work and working in poverty. Hang on! That all sounds a bit familiar.  I used to be a fan of the EU and understood the benefits it brought. One world, one people, and all that.  Although that was then. In recent years the EU has changed, embarking on a program of watering down employment rights and environmental protection to make us more competitive, embracing TTIP and as for what they did to Greece, well.  Many EU countries are moving to the right, some the far right. The EU continues to expand east, and with it NATO, purposely antagonizing Russia, in clear dereliction of the agreements and promises made at the time of Glasnost. Not to sound like an 'outer' the EU is becoming a monster, a powerful capitalist monster, at that.

Some not really much choice there. As a good friend of mine puts it, 'the opportunity to choose the least odious of two odious turds', again! I just can't participate in these charades, these illusions of choice, any more!

For 6 years those on benefits, those living in social housing, the sick, the disabled have been marginalized and scapegoated, blamed for the country's problems, pilloried and attacked by our government and the press. It was all us and the immigrants what done it. As I remember it, the EU didn't come to our  aid, the EU didn't step in to support us or hold the governments to account for said attacks. When you've been vilified by the government, the media and a population too wilfully ignorant and easily fooled to understand that it surely can't be the poorest in society that have taken all the money and brought the country to its knees, what stake do you have in society? Note, I'd say. No matter which side had won the referendum the attacks on the weak and vulnerable were guaranteed to continue; does it really matter who's kicking you, or how hard the kicks are? Not really, you just want it to stop. I wouldn't have voted out, but I couldn't vote in either, I had no reason or right to vote, I hold no stake in society, 6 years have made that clear.

The illusion of choice

So, we're off! It's time for us to decide which end of the shitty stick we'll grasp. Today the political pantomime around Britains' position in Europe has began in earnest. The actors, as with any good performance, are well versed in their lines and have taken to the stage with all the gusto of members of an armature dramatics company.  Don't misunderstand me, I didn't expect more, I long ago resigned myself to the nature and purpose of our political charade and its participants.  The charade was always most clearly visible around Europe. For the British Europe has always been a performance, a slight of hand using tried and tested set pieces, all spurious, all tired. Our leaders telling us angrily about ridiculous European rules (most of which didn't exist) we needed to fight against and how they'd stand and fight for us, whilst simultaneously doing shady back room deals to support their corporate friends and invariably being the first to sign the motions and treaties they shouted so loudly against. Europe has always been an exercise in smoke and mirror politics for the British establishment, so how could we expect that a referendum on the subject would be any different. I think it's a done deal, no real debate will be had and the real threats from what's developing in Europe will not be aired, nor will the real threats of leaving.

In my mind Europe was always a good thing, a hopeful thing. Europe gave us protection from the worst excesses of our political elites, it gave us stronger employment rights, environmental protections and human rights, it stood up for people over elite establishments and corporate interests, it would give us peace, prosperity and be a road to better more egalitarian future. I was all for it, who wouldn't be. Although sadly I have to say, in recent times I've seen Europe mutate, losing its way and its lustre. Slowly its motivations began to shift away from the good of the people to a more business orientated position, new allegiances with corporate interests were forged and blind eyes turned. The need to be competitivity was mooted, as was the need to water down some of our employment rights and environmental protections. Then Europe rounded on and destroyed Greece, and from the dark corners of Europe the right and nationalists spied their opportunity.  Whilst all the time in the background secretly European institutions worked on TTIP, hidden from the people TTIP will destroy all that is good about Europe and shift the notional power from the will of the people, to the will of the corporation. Corporations who will reign unhindered from the rule of law or sanction. Think of every despotic, dystopian scifi book you've read, that's it. Europe now doesn't appear so good, and the direction it's travelling in scares me, it should scare others too, but who knows? And, where's the real debate? All we're given are polarized half truths and blatant lies, delivered on the main by suited Marmite characters designed to divide and enrage; polarizing politicians and personalities, most with strings attached.  Even those politicians whose words I like and who I trust like Caroline Lucas appear to lack credibility on this topic, although I'm certain they're coming from a good place. There will be no working from the inside for change, merely hoping for better, and I see that as a forlorn hope. Love them for it though.

And if we leave Europe, do I think we'll fare any better? Bollocks do I! The arguments put forward by the 'Brexit' brigade have been examined, re-examined, dissected and found wanting on countless occasions. Enough to say It'll all be great. Of course. We'll need to be competitive, mind, we'll have to water down some of our employment rights and environmental protections. It's a free market out there, survival of the fittest, we'll need to be hungry. Of course we'll see the rise the right, you see we'll have to have national pride if we're to get on. And no one does national pride like the right. No dissenting now, or are you one of them! And TTIP, we'll need to embrace that if we're to trade freely. No, don't look at the detail, it'll be fine. Trust us, the government will say. Our notional power, that will have to shift from the will of the people, to the will of the corporation, we need them. It'll all be for our good and the good of the nation. Hang on, isn't that what Europe’s mooting, the direction they're travelling and what's actually happening now?

We can 'choose from phantom fears' Neil Peart told us and that will certainly be the case in the coming weeks, as the real things we should rightly be scared of will remain hidden. That's not the right type of fear, it's non profitable fear. So,  choice we've been given is, as I see it: we leave Europe, see the power of corporations, lobbyists and political elites run riot as our environmental safeguards, employment protection, human rights and public services are whittled away and our entire lives commodified; a dark scary Orwellian/ Dickian future of oppression, slavery and forever wars, for sure. Or, we stay in Europe, and see the power of corporations, lobbyists and political elites run riot as our environmental safeguards, employment protection, human rights and public services are whittled away and our entire lives commodified; a dark scary Orwellian/ Dickian future of oppression, slavery and forever wars, for sure. On the tick of a box we'll decide our futures, this is our 'choice'! It's not much of, if any, choice really. Though of course we've our freewill to decide. Which is nice. 

Neil also said that 'if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice'. Sounds good, I'm really in no hurry to grab either end of this shitty stick.  

I support the NHS

The British NHS is amazing and the envy of much of the world, although successive governments have sought to undermine it, underfund it and implemented policies of creeping privatization to completely destroy it. We talk a lot here in Britain about our national pride, rule Britannia and all that guff. But when looked at it in a cold light there are very few things to be proud of: rising child poverty, spiraling homelessness, growing inequality, social care cutbacks, attacks on the poor and disabled. Are we 'really' proud of that? Of illegal conflicts, dodgey arms deals, corporate excess and exploitation, or our support for numerous despots. I'm not. But I am proud of our NHS, of a cradle to grave assurance of high quality free healthcare for all. The government want to take this from us, sell it off in chunks, just as they have our other public services and national assets. We're faced with a stark choice. The NHS, verses, the American style commercialized horror story of health care? Millions exluded from medical care. An NHS free at the point of use for everyone, inclusive and beautiful or a privatized system where if you can't pay you suffer or die, and even if you can pay, you'll be in hock for the rest of your lives. If you have to think about it there's something wrong with you. Support the NHS and its staff!

Disappointment

The events in Paris are terrible, indiscriminate killings, lives truncated without warning, fear and hate manifest. That cannot be doubted or questioned.  Though the reaction of some people could be, and I've found it wanting. Disappointing. I'd say there's a 40/60 split. 40 percent of what I read on social media was compassionate, caring messages of regret, love and support. Although sadly about 60 percent of posts I read were knee jerk, xenophobic, right-wing or jingoistic.  People baying for blood and revenge, as misguided and delusional as the terrorists, both motivated by the base instincts, the only difference is one group have made good on their words to the extreme. Some posted both. And so the cycle continues, even spirals down a touch further as acts of hate feed and are used to justify acts of hate.  Always the innocents will suffer more than the guilty, and resolution remain distant.

We forget that this was, thankfully, a rare occurrence for the West, although this is life for much of the Middle East and North Africa, and has been for decades, in fact it's life for many around the world. That same day hundreds died in the Middle East and we said nothing, no out pourings, no one changed their profile picture. We looked away, we always look away; well that's not entirely fair, our corporatized media left us ignorant; willfully ignorant? Or is that too far.  And that's how it is and how it's always been, we are fed a highly editorialized, myopic, western centric view of world events. We are told that events 'over there' have nothing to do with us, that the weapons and the money which fuel terrorism just materializes out of the ether.  Far from the truth, but that's a whole can of worms on own. And I see that as the root cause of our empathic deficiency and plurality.

People can't seem to equate their shock, anger, fear and a gut need for retribution and revenge, with the very same emotional responses which fuel terrorism and are used by the terrorist recruiting sergeant. We have no empathy for 'others'. What happened in Paris was appalling, and the loss of life devastating, and that was one event, whereas in terms of loss and destruction, it pales in comparison with the daily loss of life to terrorism, or the war on terrorism, which occurs throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Only recently Western forces bombed a hospital, by mistake granted (although that will be cold comfort to the families of those who died in what to them is terrorism) and we just brushed it away, collateral damage, no justice. Just like the memes circulating in the West blaming refugees or migrants or Muslims on mass, for the death and destruction, those in the ravaged Middle East and North Africa blame the West on mass; of course neither are accurate, I and many others don't support the actions of the western military industrial complex, just as the majority of those in the Middle East and North Africa don't support extremism or acts of terrorism.  Really most are just ordinary people just like us who want none of it. But increasingly people don't want to or wont hear that, and that frightens me, people on all over the world are becoming entrenched.

I've noticed a growing polarization when you try and point these things out or call for unity, empathy and compassion rather than an escalation of hate you're subject to personal attack and accusations of being a terrorist sympathizer by those who already on the road to a form of radicalization themselves by far right extremism, whether they know it or not. There's little space for debate, you're either with us or against us, there's no place for anyone deploring terrorism and rejecting escalating military action. It's black and white, and we're the white...obviously. I'm sure it's similar in the Middle East and North Africa too for those who don't see everybody in the West as culpable enemies as described by those radicalized by extremism, just in reverse. I despise and deplore terrorism of all types, against anybody/thing, be individual, group or state sponsored, but blaming and stigmatizing or demonizing whole swathes of innocent people is not the answer and only serves the fuel hate, fear and division. Say that though and , as I've said, you're shouted down as either a sympathist, a traitor or just plain weak.  How many innocents will die or suffer as a consequence of the innocents who died and suffered in Paris? Horror will beget horror, ad infinitum.

I don't know the answer or even the path to the answer, but I do know that if we want a better world, a good start would be to ensure that liberté, égalité, fraternité are global and manifest for ALL in more than just words.