The rich are getting richer. The divide between us and them is wider than at any point.
The world is becoming less safe. Either through wars, disease, politics or austerity.
The media is obsessed with our fears. It seems to have an agenda that wants to take our minds off of domestic issues and wants to focus on things that many find superfluous or even insulting.
However, possibly the scariest thing is how we've all been led to believe that we have a say in how agendas are set. The press and media, the government, the internet makes us all think that we have an influence, so therefore if the Home Secretary talks about stripping away some of your civil liberties in the name of safety, the world is such an unsafe place many people would welcome this. They have nothing to hide and those who do protest either have something to hide or a some mental case with conspiracy theories and tin foil hats. Or some leftie.
I've maintained for ages that our politicians really are akin to buffoons and so in tune with the real world they look like disco dads at a '70s dance, DJ'ed by Jimmy S for good measure. This illusion of 'inclusion' really is a myth. For people to think some tweet or telephone call they've made might put something on a list of topics to be discussed seriously is less sane than believing you can breath on the moon. If our politicians weren't just in it for themselves, subjects such as the massive number of cock-ups and deaths caused by the DWP's mishandling of Universal Credits and their 'non-existent' targets they don't have to fill or the fact that more money was avoided being paid in tax than the entire country's budget deficit would be on the agenda; yet the major political parties are still telling us how we're going to have to pay for it all, again and again and again...
This was possibly one of the most important issues of the election, yet the apparent desire to get the money the massive corporations owe us and not keep screwing the plebs disappeared when the British public decided it was actually more right wing and selfish than many of us believed. But tax evasion isn't on the agenda of the Tories despite being an obvious elephant in the room. The welfare budget is about £1.2billion and four out of five voters think this is too high. This is because the right wing influenced media (far more prevalent than any left wing media) has told us that £1.2billion is too high and must be stopped. It would be nice for someone, maybe a prospective Labour leader or a non-Tory paper to highlight the fact that tax evasion amounts to HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of POUNDS. Or that deals done between ministerial mates costs the country MANY BILLIONS. But you know, I don't claim benefits so why should someone who needs them get them, they should get a job, or sell their children or just die to save us money. And the average Joe will defend his selfish position by saying they voted Tory for their children's futures. The words 'Tories' and 'children's futures' are as compatible as sticking a beta tape into a VHS recorder. Tories don't invest for the future, if they did they'd see that renewable energy would make them considerably more money in the long run than coal or nuclear power. Or they would have rebuilt schools, hospital and amenities during the Thatcher and Major years. You might remember that it was Blair's party that rebuilt decaying Britain and now you Tory voters have elected them back to allow the country to decay again until someone comes along and fixes it. Stupid, that's what the electorate tend to be.
The fact we live in a world where over 1 million people seem to think that punching a work colleague in the face is acceptable if the person throwing the punch is a 'national treasure'. Or the imminent destruction of Greece by the German Economic Nazi Party and their mates at the ECB. It seems that in a time when everyone is apologising to everyone else for past indiscretions, Germany thinks it's distasteful to be reminded that most of the countries in Europe pretty much verbally wrote off all of Germany's post-Hitler debts allowing them the help to become the economic powerhouse it is today, while Merkel looms over the Greek people like some Teutonic Freddy Krueger, telling them the nightmare is far from over and they all must continue to suffer for the crimes of a former corrupt administration. Germany can't have physical wars with other countries, so they bully them all using money.
What with radical Islam; growing Arab insurgence and a withering relationship with the west; a strangely quiet Israel and all adjacent to this is Africa, which is rife with 3rd world angst, disease, radicalisation and prejudices - and as a result they view Britain as the Holy Land and constantly try to break into a country where, ironically, its indigenous poor are all in fear of their lives.
The far right is growing and oddly enough so is the far left, except it will be crushed by capitalistic right wing governments, because democracy is dead and at some point, some people will realise this and rise up.
War. Revolution. Disease. Famine. Inequality. Prejudice. The list of pretty horrible things grows every day; to people old enough this must be a little like the 1930s except televised and tweeted. The thing is the poor countries want capitalism so they can have what the rest have; and the rest no longer want the richest 1% to have most of it. There might not be the fight in the British for revolution any more - we're too fat or ill or depressed - but there is all over the world; from race rearing its ugly head again in the USA to the Ukraine to North Korea to something akin to history repeating itself - Argentina talking up ownership of the Falklands at a time when their president is struggling to hold onto her country or its support.
Cameron is so confident of the Tories being in power for a while he's already talking up his own war - against ISIS - because prime ministers love to have a war on their CVs. The SNP look to be the only 'organised' party in opposition and the Labour Party is headed for yet another political schism because it no longer has a common ground. The Labour party disgusts me like never before at the moment because the suits are trying to turn it into something it has never been and the real members are essentially being ignored because they might elect someone the suits can't accept. I think Jeremy Corbyn would be a bad thing for Labour, but in an awful situation he's a damned sight more acceptable than the three stuffed suits and pseudo-Conservatives vying for the crown. I have supported Labour all my life, now I am in a political wasteland because there's no one I'd be happy voting for.
Oh and just going back to the Greek business. The UK holds an unbelievably important key to the future of the EU - the In-Out Referendum. Twelve months ago if you'd asked all the MPs in Westminster how they'd vote, you'd see 90% of them in support of staying in Europe. I expect that would be the same today. The big difference here is that 12 months ago almost 70% of Brits would vote to stay in; today the polls (always a laughable example) suggest that figure is down 55% and is still falling. The undemocratic way Greece has been treated has soured a lot of peoples attitudes towards the EU. If Britain votes to pull out next year, it will all come down like a badly designed house of cards. We might not be classed as that important by the Euro crowd, but without any cement, the European house will crumble and fail.
The world is a horrible place for many people at the moment, but for some people it's okay and that's all that matters. I got vilified for suggesting friends and family adopted the 'I'm all right Jack' philosophy that Thatcher championed, by voting Tory and rubber stamping their demonisation of the poor, disenfranchised and disabled. I was accused of scaremongering, of lying about Tory intentions to scare people into voting Labour. I didn't, that was the job of the Tory's papers and media. In the days since they won the election many of the things I warned of are happening, but I have no desire whatsoever to seek out the people who shouted at me and accused me of being disrespectful to their voting intentions. I am also not going to ask for them to acknowledge I was right, because it achieves nothing. If people want to accept being butt-fucked because someone has told them they need to be then they need a lot more help than some twat gloating over his prophecies.
The Tories might turn out to be a benign power, who do what they can for their people. There is evidence that they are not as shit as they could have been, but as with all Tories there is a caveat and that usually means that the poorest non-Tory voters will be punished and in 2015 the British people seem to have lost their compassion and if they don't know an unemployed person, or a disabled person to balance their opinions, then the rest are obviously scrounging thieving bastards, so if they don't get off their death beds and contribute they should die horribly. People are like this now, they just wouldn't admit to it in civilised company.
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