I have lived my entire life under governments dominated by either the Labour or the Tory Party. When I was young, there were genuine differences between them – over public ownership of transport, utilities and strategic industries, over the rights of workers in their workplace, over Britain’s attitude to its Imperial legacy.
However in the course of my lifetime the political agenda shifted fundamentally to the right, as the Labour Party under a series of opportunist leaderships shifted its ground to the agenda favoured by the corporate media. So even our drinking water had to be privatised, the maintenance grants that had enabled me to go to university were abolished as the very principle of free education was abandoned, the NHS was increasingly given over to private provision and PFI introduced the opportunity for bankers and financiers to take the large majority of the total taxpayers’ money allocated to any public investment project. Council housing was sold off and not replaced. Foreign policy became entirely subservient to the United States and a neo-con model of continued armed attacks on poorer countries abroad.
What is worse, the scope for expressing policies that lay outside the increasingly convergent views represented by the main stream media and the Tory and Labour Party narrowed, to the point where dissent disappeared. The opposition to the Iraq War of the majority of people was reflected in less than 2% of total UK TV coverage of that war. The fact that consistently a substantial majority of British people want to see railways renationalised never has any corporate media reflection.
Both “main” parties supported giving over £60,000 per British household to bail out the bankers, which is why we are in this debt mess. Both parties support the fact that 99% of the bankers have maintained the same ultra-opulent lifestyles and income, with no price paid for their failure. The corporate media gave no voice at all to the policy alternatives around allowing bad banks to go bust. It would have been 8% as expensive for the taxpayers just to give to the public and companies the amount they lost in UK bank deposits with failed banks.
When Nicola Sturgeon spoke in the televised TV debates, it was the first time in a decade that I had heard opposition to Trident missiles – a view held by over 40% of the population – even mentioned on television. It had become that bad.
And that Nicola Sturgeon moment was an indication that something really has changed. The electorate have twigged that the Red Tory and Blue Tory parties offer no real choice at all. Whether you want the same Thatcherite cuts spread out over a slightly longer timescale is not a choice.
The political system has quite rightly fallen into disrepute. A pretend choice and charade of democracy is not going to fool the entire population. It is not just that Labour and Tory cannot get over 35% of people who vote. It is also that so many people don’t bother to vote through disillusion. They are not apathetic, they justifiably don’t see how it helps them whose nose is in the trough. Combined with the appalling FPTP system, you end up with a circumstance where Tony Blair’s “triumph” of 2005 was won with 22.5% of eligible voters. The system is bust. The legitimacy of government already does not exist – what is newly in doubt is the ability of illegitimate government to foist itself upon the people.
This is the first election of my lifetime where there is a chance really to give the rotten structure a substantial kick. Any human construct, including the SNP, is imperfect, but that Trident moment on TV represented the truth that the SNP is a real danger to the comfortable untouchability of the neo-con UK state. I urge everyone to vote SNP in Scotland as the surest way to start to force change. Many of the SNP candidates whom I know personally – Mhairi Black, Phil Boswell, Chris Law, Michelle Thomson, Tommy Sheppard – are definitely going to bring fresh air to parliament.
In Wales, vote Plaid Cymru. In England, I think Green is the way to go in general, and I wish all the best to Rupert Read in Cambridge. But if you have a good Independent candidate, consider giving them a vote. Citizen participation against the parties deserves encouragement. There are good people in all parties, and there are some sitting MPs – Jeremy Corbyn, Paul Flynn, John Hemmings, David Ward – who I would vote for; they transcend the moral stunting of party politics. Despite profound differences on Scotland, I do urge people in Bradford to vote for George Galloway, who has done so much to oppose neo-conservative wars, and been an obstacle to the cynical exploitation of Islamic communities for machine politics by the Labour Party.
But above all, today will be remembered as a day when Scotland took a giant stride towards achieving national independence. A vote for the SNP is a vote for Scottish independence and for the break-up of the UK state. It matters not what attempts are made to obfuscate that fact, opinion poll after opinion poll post September 2014 has consistently shown no statistically significant gap between the level of support for the SNP and the level of support for Scottish Independence.
This is a great historical trend which the SNP are surfing rather than controlling. The fundamental answer to the political malaise which I described at the start of this article is the break-up of the UK as the sovereign political institution. A vote for the SNP today is part of an inexorable progress towards that break-up. You would be nuts to be a convinced unionist and to vote SNP, and whatever the propaganda the truth is that almost all SNP votes are nationalist votes, and I for one am claiming every SNP vote as a vote for Independence. The utter panic of the entire Westminster political and corporate media establishment is in itself sufficient evidence that this really counts (I loved the description Scotterdammerung). Freedom is a great thing – get out there and vote for it.
This is the one day that we are all independent, in that whoever we choose today controls us tomorrow. I have lived my life under a rotten system which has got more rotten, more corrupt, more intellectually narrow, and more divided between rich and poor. Today is a great chance to shake that system. Get out there now and shake it!
Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbour.
Communism: You have two cows. You give them to the government, and the government then gives you some milk.
Fascism: You have two cows. You give them to the government, and the government then sells you some milk.
Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
Nazism: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.
New Dealism: You have two cows. The government takes both, shoots one, buys milk from the other cow, then pours the milk down the drain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_have_two_cows
Fred
7 May, 2015 – 9:14 am
‘The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.’
Yes, exactly.
https://twitter.com/SNPOut/status/596171516234047488
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You just can’t see through propaganda Fred.
I feel sorry for you.
Fred
7 May, 2015 – 10:49 am
Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbour.
Communism: You have two cows. You give them to the government, and the government then gives you some milk.
Fascism: You have two cows. You give them to the government, and the government then sells you some milk.
Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
Nazism: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.
New Dealism: You have two cows. The government takes both, shoots one, buys milk from the other cow, then pours the milk down the drain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_have_two_cows
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And you have two brain cell Fred.
cells…
“And you have two brain cell Fred.”
Fuck off and die retard.
Somebody must have rustled my two cows!!!
!!!!!!Bloody feminists!!!!!!
🙂
Austerity to control the national debt has been a big con, they have actually DOUBLED it over the past 5 years. http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock (compare 2009 to 2015)
Its Osborne ecocainomics and since they are all FOIs, Labour has not even brought this ConDem con to the attention of the electorate or as GG said they are all 3 cheeks of the same arse.
Seylidz
Yes, party politics are merely a distraction from the underlying structural problems. Capitalism is a disease that thrives under feudalism and its symptoms are manifold and the prognosis catastrophic. Money the emblem of success, rampant and needless consumerism, greed a societal norm and environmental so self destruction. No green or independence, or respect nor any other party with bells and whistles on will endeavor to cut out the root of this disease. It will be BBBusiness as usual next week.
Great image by the Art badger, from this original photograph
Tomorrow, will it be possible to read not a single reference to Israel & Iran even if the topic is pigeon racing?
Or muesli.
Or how to buff allow wheels to a mirror finish.
Excellent. It is worth recalling that the life of your Soviet citizen circa 1970 wasn’t great, to say the least, and the idea that anythign would change much in the next century or so seemed unlikely. But we humans are a young species, with much to learn, and toads like Cameron teach us almost nothing. The current neoliberal malaise may, like any sickness, pass, if climate change doesn’t kill us first.
Looking forward to all the fake outrage of election day. It has its charms, though can’t vote, beign in Oz. Wouldn’t vote anyway.
Doug: there’s another option, PFI. You buy the cows, the government sells them to foreigners, who it then tops up with your money. The foreigners then sell you the milk.
This doesn’t actually work with milk, however. For milk, you buy the cows, the wholesale price of milk is forced down by the supermarkets to below cost. You then sell it at a loss.
Sorry, that was Fred’s post. All the more appropriate.
According to US Defence Nuclear Agency calculations, the detonation of one Trident warhead on Moscow would result in the deaths of 153,000 innocent civilians within 12 weeks of detonation
This is from one warhead.
Each Trident submarine carries 48 warheads, the deployment of which would result in the deaths of 3 million people, 750,000 of whom would be children,and according to US General Butler would “render Moscow uninhabitable for generations.”
So I have been trying, with no success to get our pro Trident politicians, to answer a simple question.
“If you agree that we spend £100B on Trident renewal, which city or country would be your party’s likeliest or preferred target?”
That whole two cows meme is just totally stupid.
Yes, ok, I will now f-off and die retard, etc. I’m assume Fred himself isn’t stupid, but the meme is just for children.
Hieroglyph
Comparing capitalism with communism is a fallacious argument very often used by capitalistic to justify their chosen ethical paradigm.
Well you can choose from a whole series of doom scenarios that capitalism is currently visiting upon us from imminent wide spread ecosystem collapse (oh yes it will effect you)to radiation poisoning and human immune system failure due chemical poisoning of the foods we eat, the air we breath, and the water we drink to World War 3. Make your choice as well as the creeping but as yet unpredictable effects of global warming. A post neoliberal era is not looking that likely
Dave Hansell
“that criticism is coming from entirely the wrong direction on the political spectrum. It would be prudent to be wary of this particular individual because I have sufficient reason to believe he is not what he seems.”
Baal agreed. I don’t get what you’re both saying. What do you mean?
“Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbour.
Communism: You have two cows. You give them to the government, and the government then gives you some milk.
Fascism: You have two cows. You give them to the government, and the government then sells you some milk.
Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
Nazism: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.
New Dealism: You have two cows. The government takes both, shoots one, buys milk from the other cow, then pours the milk down the drain.”
(Scottish) Nationalism: The government stops paying billions to threaten the world with destruction on behalf of your cow and builds a fence instead, and then you buy an extra cow with the savings
Nonchalant and oblivious of Craig’s powerful observation? Then consume your bowl of muesli and be thankful for food. Polish your alloy wheels and be thankful for transport.
Tomorrow war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength…
Tomorrow, will it be possible to read not a single reference to Israel & Iran ….”
tautologism
Our host defends a system but can only name four mps worth a damn. That’s four out of 650. Or 0.61%.
Our host also personally endorses five SNP candidates. Even if Craig could be certain these people are way too perfect to be corrupted by a system that has corrupted (very nearly) everyone before, which of course he cannot, that is still only 5 out of 59, or 8%.
Pitiful. But then again last time Craig was endorsing the Liberal party. Ho hum.
No one is free until all the cows are free. Let the cows go.
David McCann.
What if the equivalent of trident exploded here?
Phil, this is a personal point of view, and I’m not trying to foist it off as anything else, but for me Galloway’s actions never quite match his (often admirable and always highly articulate) rhetoric. I think he is a disruptive element in the Left, and is incapable of working with it without trying to take charge. I really don’t think that as a serving Parliamentarian he should be regularly employed by the Iranian state media (and you know I would say exactly the same if he worked for Ha’aretz). And I think his purported alignment with Islam is insincere and opportunistic. I invite an opinion from British Muslims on this one, btw. I might add that he added his voice to Better Together, which is just another reason I don’t think Craig’s got his ducks in a row on Galloway.
Dave may have other reasons – but broadly I agree with his conclusion.
Ba’al Zevul
I have known George since I was 18. There are problems with George of many kinds. But unlike the Labour Party he has never killed millions of people in an illegal war. And as the choice in Bradford is George or the Labour Party…
Baal
“is incapable of working with it without trying to take charge”
Fair point but that’s a trot for you. Of course I would not want Galloway running anything but if you must vote why not vote for a thorn in the neoliberal consensus. He is good at that.
Craig
You once endorsed some hollywood twat – you knew him to be sincere. In fact you had met him for lunch once decades before. So I am wondering, do you really know Galloway or have you just met him on occasion?
[cm-org.uk – spam filter false positive, as was a duplicate at 13:36]
“Katie
Really? Doesn’t sound like Rupert to me. I don’t share any of those opinions, and I am genuinely surprised if Rupert does. When did he say that?”
See also here, Craig, in Read’s own words:
http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=6662
To-day is the biggest lottery of all.
I wonder, will it be a “roll over?”