I Have Better Things to Do

A little thing with wider implications.

I appreciate that, because of our politicians, we live in a less safe world and security is now a big business defending our heads of government from errant joggers; but has anyone else noticed the almost unreal stance taken by the media over 'Joggergate'?

Let's put this into perspective. There's a hipster guy running to his gym; he's decked out like a runner, he has an ipod playing and he, like many runners, is having his own tunnel vision moment. He accidentally happens upon a prime ministerial visit and bumps into the entourage. It was an accident, it could have been anyone.

Right, let's put some different perspective on it. Whether you like Cameron or not, he's the prime minister and he's got to be protected. What his security team did was no more than you would expect and the safety of our #1 has to be guaranteed. Except...

What happened after? We had a couple of hours of 'terrorist attack' on the news, then as the real story came to light there was a definite hardening of the media, the government and all the security advisors Sky, the BBC and Al Jazeera could rope in at short notice. Even though this was an accident, a mistake, a bit of mistimed fortune, suddenly it's all about ensuring our politicians are protected better; about enhanced security and yet there was nothing at all about the poor sod who got bundled to the floor, arrested on terrorism charges and had to spend two hours trying to explain to, I'd hazard a guess, rather unsympathetic or unrepentant MI5 and Special Branch officers, while trying to come to terms with how his life had suddenly taken an 'Enemy of the State' turn for the worst.

I can't understand why no one has bothered to even offer an apology to the guy. The police issued a statement saying he had been 'dearrested' [sic] and when it was suggested to a junior Home Office minister that this may well have been an over reaction and perhaps someone should seek out the hipster and offer some solace, this was dismissed with a subtle dig at the guy's appearance. He's a hipster and a young person, he won't vote for the Tories, why bother trying to make things right with him?

Yet this is endemic of our press and media at the moment. Do you know what the funniest thing I hear trundled out year after year by Tories? That the BBC is left biased and doesn't like the Conservatives. Take this EU budget debacle. All it needed was for Sky news and the BBC to donate 15 seconds of air time to the fact the 1.7bn euros it has to pay extra is something that happens every year and sometimes we've got a rebate. This has never been mentioned once; instead what we have is Cameron posturing and becoming more and more resigned to the fact that if he wants to hold onto power he's got to start sounding like Farage on European issues, so this is reflected in the media. All because he's crap scared of losing the next by election to the sweepingly popular Adolf Farage.

How come none of the news suppliers - TV or print - have bothered to spell out the real pros and cons of pulling out of Europe. The simple fact is economic analysts have said if we pull out of Europe it could take us 5 to 10 years to get to a situation where we can compete and negotiate with the rest of Europe without it penalising us in some way - in other words, we pull out, it takes 10 years to get back to where we are currently in terms of negotiating powers.

Also, why has UKIP suddenly become as important as the major parties? The media bias towards these halfwits wouldn't be so bad if they were being portrayed for what they are, but there's almost a sense of glorification. People with consciences will post things on Facebook and other social media highlighting the true nature of this new party; the fact they court fascism; have no real policies, have MEPs who do nothing and sound like they're making things up as they go along and yet citizens of this country dismiss this as fear, of people like me running scared of this steamroller. Because the media seems to think of Farage and co as media darlings now, the average idiot who will vote UKIP is obviously being lied to and mislead, but no one is actually questioning UKIP like a proper party - where is the discussion of their non-existent policies outside of pulling out of the EU? Surely that should be the purpose of the BBC if nothing else; to explain to the plebs how things work rather than having loads of time donated to what some bloke in Hemel Hempstead thinks about 'Joggergate'.

UKIP has got where it is because no one took them seriously. Now, no one is still taking them seriously yet their rise is just like the Nazis in the 1930s - fuelled by the middle aged and the middle class. The militants, the shipbuilders, the young never embraced Hitler, so he targeted national pride and stirred up passions in those who survived the First World War; those who believed Germany should be great and free from the shackles of the rest of Europe. Sound familiar?

Where have Labour been? There's barely a peep out of Millidee and co., and that's frightening because a real opposition leader would be chomping at every bit possible, but Labour are acting more and more like a party that doesn't want power because there are dark days ahead and I'm beginning to think the power behind Labour knows that if it gets in it won't be able to do what has needs to do to restore some balance to society because it costs too much money and they can't be seen to be frivolous again, what with all that infrastructure rebuilding to stop the country from decaying from the inside out.

The frightening thing is the Scottish referendum was supposed to encourage debate and reinvigorate the people to talk about and understand politics more, the problem is everyone has better things to do, in a lot of cases struggling to exist and when politicians come on the TV, most want to switch off because none of them ever say what we really want to hear. I said years ago we need a new politics, something that appeals to the people; maybe even a new way of electing our officials - some kind of scrutiny test. We need to stop corporate lobbying; tax fairly and evenly; support and look after the people who run the country on a daily basis not keep them in a constant fear. Fear doesn't help productivity in the long run - workers should be happy because happiness is key to productivity. Yet we live in this unwavering climate of fear (and loathing), stoked by a media that is almost isolated from the real world and is run the same way as every other cohort is run.

The world is getting better! The world is getting worse!

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, immortally, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" - he meant it in a different way, but his words ring so true today. we live in a world where you are scared into doing things, accepting things, obliging things because you're being told we have much to fear.

We do. We're just mistaking the thing we need to be fearful of.