Monday 25 July 2016

Real Time Existance

The world is on fire.

We have Theresa May as Prime Minster our human rights are being ripped up and flushed down the toilet even as we speak. Old New Labour are trying their very best to figure out what democracy is without much avail. Scotland has found itself in charge of a nuclear arsenal that it doesn't want and UK rump have voted to renew it despite the fact there won't be anywhere to put it post the next Scottish independence referendum.  A reunified Ireland is still on the table and the British unionists are of the impression that if they keep on ignoring it it will just go away. Wales' is fucked, Cornwall's fucked and were not triggering article 50 yet..........

Hillary or Trump, Trump of Hillary the world seems to be sitting on a precipice of some kind. 

In the meantime terrorist attacks are going off across the globe like fireworks at New Year. The middle east is carnage, except for Saudi Arabia where women can't vote and they carry out daily public executions. People are drowning in the med and starving in central Africa all the while famine is coming. South Africa harks on about being corrupt and is experiencing the same problems a supposedly independent and yet state controlled media. We're talking about #rhodesmustfall #feesmustfall  #zumamustfall when is should be #universaleducation and toilet paper in primary schools. Zimbabwe must collapse soon mustn't it? Oh wait there what I mean in #mugabemustfall, Zimbabwe collapsed a long time ago. And then people just disappear in Zimbabwe, Egypt, Mexico no doubt Russia too. The crimea is that still happening? Of course it is we just can't keep up with it all. Russia might not even attend the Olympics. Yes there is going to be an Olympics in Rio. Nobodies paying much attention. There is the usual investigative journalism going on, that the Olympics is just a global excuse for cultural, class cleansing in the name of redevelopment. Did I tell you we have capitalism in Cuba.

The right wing media control everything.

Keep Calm and Carry On.

Turn of the T.V and attend local meetings about everything and get your hands dirty. If there isn't anything worth joining, build it. If the most active thing is you area is the church choir join and turn into a fundraiser become a Trot.

We can fight this, where there is a will there is a way. Sitting in front of the T.V complaining won't change a thing. Get down the pub and complain there. Get out to you local constituency and complain there. Knits hats for the local elderly. Take a home cooked meal to a single mum. Buy a homeless person a cup of tea. Support Corbyn. Refuse to engage with the Tories they're abusers. Just stop. Form another government, write to the Queen, actually don't ask for permission at all. Stand for county council election, stand for town council elections. Stand for something.

Don't let them win, any of them. We are humans we deserve to be loved. Take back your life.







Monday 4 July 2016

I Have Something To Say


Sometimes I find it difficult to comment on political situation in the UK when in fact I live in Cape Town, South Africa. I don’t really do much here except challenge perceptions of deprivation and privilege in daily conversation. The two barely bump sides in meaningful ways.

Now post-Brexit we can now confirm that experientially the same is true of the UK. It is one of the most divided countries in the Western world and as I look at my Facebook feed there are few declaring for leave and most if not all of the remain crowd are shocked and cynical of the leavers motives. Including myself.

I phoned a national radio station here in Cape Town to voice my dismay. The difference was that I’d been here before. Scotland knew the BBC had a strong biased that supported an external Westminster view, whatever that might be. Scots knew the media weren’t reporting the facts for each side in a balanced way and none of the news reflected what was going on on my social media. Indy Scotland knew it and we were greeted with the same dismay at the result of the vote the morning after the 1st Scottish referendum. We were sure we had won, we’d been campaigning in one way or another for months and then there was The Vow.

What was The Vow? It was simply a Westminster acknowledgement that they had got the Scottish referendum totally wrong. David Cameron had no idea that 46% of the population of Scotland might actually vote for Scottish Independence and believed that Scotland could be an independent country. So what did all those Westminster MP’s do they flashed the cash across all of those Scottish newspapers that didn’t represent the views of 50% of the country. Made promises, made vows. Low and behold Dave, Nick and Ed changed their mind and dodged their obligations less than five minutes after the referendum result. Scotland had been royally fucked.

Dave not to learn his lesson the first time went in for another try.

The day after Brexit, Britain woke up or maybe liberal middle England woke up to realise that the views of the average Guardian reader was not the all-inclusive apothecary that they thought. If you went to uni few of your friends are builders, plumber or fisherman unless you are a self-proclaimed working class hero. What does that mean anymore? Who’s a miner’s son now? Shipbuilding what’s that? When was the last time you spoke to a dinner lady? Nobody wants to start a conversation with nurse other than to give them a box tissues, a lifetime supply of chocolate and flowers; as we realise what feeble human beings we are and how discordant the country actually is.

So of course what do we do? Blame it on working class racism. When it would be more appropriate to blame it on the facists that are running the country and the fact that we allow them to reside here. I mean who the fuck is Nigel Farage? And yet he gets more coverage in the weekly news than the First Minster of Scotland. So we liberals the first thing we choose to do is undermine democracy itself devalue an individual’s ability to choose correctly. This was not a vote against Europe it was a vote against Westminster and a centralist government that has ignored the periphery for decades.