Is it Racist?

I have some questions to ask?

Why is it acceptable for British politicians to criticise decisions or actions made by the USA?
Why is it acceptable for British politicians to criticise decisions or actions made by France or Germany?
Why is it acceptable for British politicians to criticise decisions or actions made by North Korea?
Why is it acceptable for British politicians to criticise decisions or actions made by China or Russia?
Why is it acceptable for British politicians to criticise decisions or actions made by the EU in general?
But why is it not acceptable for anyone to criticise decisions or actions made by the Israeli government?

Why does the media get behind outside influences attempting to overthrow an elected government in Venezuela, but ignores Palestine?

Why is it that you can criticise any race or culture in the world but one is exempt?
Why is antisemitism not just called racism? Why does it deserve a special word?

Actually, I can answer all of those questions. The IHRA - International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance - is a body who have created a 'working definition' of antisemitism. It is recognised by the UN and most countries appear to have adopted it in some form or another. It essentially defines antisemitism as any criticism of anything that is related to Jews is a criticism of the Jewish people. So if you think Benjamin Netanyahu and his band of Likud politicians are unjust in their treatment of other dwellers in a similar area to where most of them live and you voice this opinion contrary, you are a racist.

I find that disturbing.

What I find more disturbing is that the Labour party is systematically accused on an almost daily basis of being antisemitic, yet I've only ever heard one example of their antisemitism in almost two years and that was a tweet from a radical leftie criticising Likud over it's treatment of Palestinians. He's been expelled. For tweeting racist antisemitic comments...

I'm sorry, but, what the actual fuck?

My paternal grandmother was Jewish, albeit lapsed and ostracised because she married a gentile, but it's in my blood somewhere and I wouldn't give a holocaust denier the time of day; I'd shout down anyone who would actually be racist - calling a Jew a kike or a Yid. I wouldn't call myself antisemitic (I even worry about criticising Daniel Levy - the Spurs Chairman - for fear of having some nutter accuse me of being a racist. He's a weird looking bald guy but I don't think that has anything to do with his religion...) but by virtue of believing Likud - the current Israeli government - is a paramilitary organisation intent on some kind of radical eradication of Palestinians, I am, by definition, antisemitic. If the BBC reported this they would not report the content just that I'm an anti-Jewish racist who probably worships the alter of Jeremy Corbyn...

You know that I can call Sadiq Khan, the Muslim mayor of London and that would be 100% acceptable, but I can't include the definition 'Jewish' without being accused of racism; like saying 'Jewish' is saying 'dog shit eater' or 'child abuser'. To include one specific race in a definition is worse than any other derogatory description or labelling? If it's to do with the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust, what about the number of Muslims or Hindus who died in the Partition of India? That was done in peace time, not in a war. If I said 'Jewish film producer and serial sex pest Harvey Weinstein' I'd probably get pilloried for suggesting his Jewishness had everything to do with it. But if I mention that the London mayor is a Muslim then everyone else can jump on the bandwagon; including Donald 'Man-Baby' Trump.

How does that work then?

The thing is I firmly believe if the general public who have had antisemitism rammed down their throats for years saw some of the never-mentioned exampled antisemitism most would seriously wonder what the fuss is about. The problem to that is we get no balanced coverage of what is happening in Israel and especially what is happening in Gaza and other Palestinian enclaves. Whatever the politics, the rest of the world is sitting by and silently witnessing Israel obliterate a nation, without a hint of irony. Yes, the Palestinians are 'terrorists', but that's our fault and the Israelis for radicalising them through oppression (but, I can't say that because it's antisemitic). Like it was our fault that there is a rift that won't be healed on the Indian subcontinent or that much of former British Empire-controlled Africa is falling apart.

The media do not tell us what happens in Israel; we don't really know what's going on; the place is more like Soviet Russia for visiting journalists or reporters (Simon Reeve proved that recently on TV). Israel is outwardly a very welcoming country practising an aggressive isolationist politics to its neighbours - who pretty much don't and have never wanted them there.

The Labour party or a big part of it is against backing Israel [specifically Likud] in this conflict; therefore they are antisemitic. Labour party members asked questions of certain MPs of Jewish origin why they supported Likud. They were branded antisemitic? Really; this is how it started: a member for Wavertree asked how Luciana Berger could be a Labour MP and yet support the fiercely right wing Likud party and it blew up out of all proportions, with Berger defending her position by quoting the IHRA. Eventually, she received proper antisemitic abuse, but whether these were from genuine Labour members or from newly-created social media accounts has never fully been explored by our media - because they don't want to report the truth when the lie is so much better.

So, it started with almost innocent questions and exploded into something ridiculous. Berger, Margaret Hodge and a few others used this as a stick to beat the leader they didn't want and the right wing media - whether controlled by Jews or not - saw a way of undermining the Labour party, while simultaneously pushing an Islamophobic agenda and supporting the Tories.

But... You say... How come Labour MPs or Jeremy Corbyn doesn't go on telly and tell people this truth about the 'racist Labour party'? Don't you understand yet? You cannot discuss Likud or Israeli politics; it's not allowed. Apparently, it's called being antisemitic. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy, you can't discuss the elephant in the room in case the elephant gets offended that you might be talking about it, even if it's to comment on the colour of its painted toenails or how it produces nice oranges.

If you can't talk about or address the elephant in the room about why you can't talk about it you can't debate it. Accusations of antisemitism are 97% this. If you mention the Israel government or Likud you are a racist. I can't say it enough, because if the 'press' won't explain it to people who don't care then it's up to me and people I know to do it; without fear of being called a racist (because I will be, especially if people read this and can use it as another stick to beat the Labour party... Except, I'm not a member any more).

No one has ever told me why Jews have to have their own word for racism, unless it's not really racism as we understand it. Zionism is also a word that just to say it has you teetering on the edge of antisemitism. Zionist doctrine is followed by Likud; Zionism is not allowed to be criticised because it is Jewish. That's like the Tories passing a law saying any criticism of their party is an act of racism - a hate crime. Let that sink in and if you think I'm wrong, please tell me why.

On Your Marks... Get Set... Split

Parliament is currently going through a kind of amoeba stage; it's breaking up into groups of like-minded individuals. At the moment we have: the Conservatives, Labour, SNP, LibDems and then you have Plaid Cymru, the DUP, Sinn Fein, a few actual independents and now the Independent Group. But... If it was only as simple as that.

You have a hard left wing of the Labour party which is, by and large, anathema to the rest. You have your moderate Labour MPs, those who won't move because they're in cosy seats. Then you have your centrist or Blairite Labour MPs and you have the defectors. Over on the Tory benches, you have the ERG - the hardline, right wing, Pro-Brexit fanatics who want to literally rip up the rule book and start again in 1840; you have your Conservatives - the likes of Ken Clarke, who are old school politicians and you have your centrists - three of which have jumped ship and arguably as many as 10 more who would join them.

The LibDems could be rubbing their hands together over a possible 'deal' which would, at present, see a block of 22 MPs, which would begin to look like a movement rather than a rebellion. In my mind, the likely outcome of this is a re-branding of the entire set, which essentially would be a new right-centre-left coalition under one umbrella, with a probable manifesto consisting of more investment, more social conscience and a continuation of Blairite-themed economics; trying to please both sides without giving either an orgasm.

As much as I want to sneer at the Independent Group - a limited company, not a political party (so therefore they don't have to name their investors or sponsors) consisting of career or no-mark politicians, the nihilist in me wants to see it flourish. The same nihilist that talked three years ago about being interested in seeing what the hell would happen if we left the EU. For newcomers; while I could never have been correct in what actually happened, I was closer to the mark than many others and in reality we haven't actually left until the end of next month. Therefore many of the worst Project Fear scenarios I might have come up with haven't had a chance to happen yet.

As we won't get what I and many of my friends want; which is a General Election and a Labour government; the realist in me now sees that Corbyn probably isn't going lead the country; the best chance of anything close to his vision might be Keir Starmer - an astute politician but with a personality that makes Theresa 'Skeksis' May sound like an ideal dinner date. He retains his respect and he seems aligned but distant from Corbyn. Starmer isn't what I'd call a socialist, but he has shown he is also a man of integrity. The problem is, if you read my last entry - A Pox on All Your Houses - you'd see I was advocating a new type of politics and political structure in this country and I think, being conceited for a moment, that I'm a bit of a prophet... The thing is a new leader might be too little too late.

Let's look at a hypothetical: if another 15 Labour MPs and 8 Conservatives join the new Independent Group that would put them into 3rd Party territory; this will be an important thing because it would give them more time in the Commons, it would allow them certain permissions. If over the next couple of months and post March 29, we see more defections, we could start seeing some serious inward thinking by the two main parties. As much as I dislike Anna Soubry, she was dead right in saying that the far right of the Tory party is in control of it. They have fought the leaders for 40 years and now they have one who will [happily lie on her back and have her belly tickled] acquiesce.

The press have been attempting to create a schism within the Labour party for three years and even if they lose 30 MPs this won't cause one. However, the Tories have always needed something like this happening if normal people want to have a fairer future. The schism could happen there. The only thing that used to keep their party together was greed; Tories are as disparate as Labour, but the term 'a broad church' is used rather than in-fighting; we have got to a position where so many moderate Tories no longer recognise their party and refuse to accept the ERG as true part of it. The ERG are a party within a party and like Red Wedge in the 1970s, this is unpalatable for a lot of Tories.

However, trust me on this one; there is a lot of right wing sentiment in this country; the divisions between Leave and Remain run deeper than the Mariana Trench and there are a large number of Leavers or Brextremists who would be very supportive of a party headed by Jacob Rees-Mogg, with Boris Johnson and the rest of these elite clowns. The level of intolerance growing in this country is astounding and we're beginning to see Tory MPs looking at this in horror. I said it last time and I still think that there's going to be a massive split between the right wing Tories - the Disaster Capitalists - and the moderate Tories who will not allow the country to be dragged into some un-quantifiable unknown.

We may get to the stage where there are seven parties in parliament and none of them can form a government without the aid of others. People think coalitions don't work; the truth is they do, we've just been a socially divided country that has become even more divided, using unbalanced coalitions as the blame. Consensus politics has allowed Germany to become a world leader. It would work if there is a balance between controlling parties.

Whatever happens the elephant in the room has to be addressed; a large percentage of the UK is xenophobic; we've kidded ourselves for a long time that we're a culturally diverse nation; but outside of the major towns and cities there's a deep distrust and casual racism towards most who aren't British. We are going to be screwed as a nation if we don't deal with this. Not just racism but any -ism or phobia. The Blame Game has to stop. The Whataboutery needs to end. The nation's conversation should not be driven by the Media, yet you need a solution that pleases the Libertarians and doesn't annoy the socialists and the newspapers and TV stations would be the obvious way to disseminate that message. So there's a massive immovable mountain that won't be moved.

Civil War is not such a stupid idea. Countries have torn themselves apart over less. The problem is if there isn't the money to solve these problems now, there's not going to be after Brexit. If the country benefits from any of the money we won't be paying out to areas that didn't vote for the government, will we? Any money will go to the privatised sector, either in tax avoidance or simply as shareholders. Like they were with Brexit, the politicians are ignorant of the fact that in many parts of the country, the divisions are spilling into the streets. There was an interesting bit of news that didn't make the nationals or the TV; in a number of areas post-pub and club violence has increased exponentially and more and more police reports are citing 'disagreements over Brexit'. Families have been torn apart. The ever-tenuous truce between the old and the young has been napalmed. These divisions are being played out in a reasonably civil way by parliament but outside in the real world there's an underlying hatred building - for someone - anyone.

Don't get me wrong; I'd have a 2nd referendum tomorrow, but I really don't think that will solve anything. If it is anything but decisive it will be more divisive. What happens when the Remain MPs have to accept that the population has spoken again and not their way? I wouldn't bet a fiver on Remain winning another vote; I'm not confident. If the vote is Remain by a similar margin, how do you quell the right wing? How do you calm the Eurosceptics? How do you stop the violence and recriminations? I'm not being melodramatic; people fight about football teams in this country; Brexit makes football pale into insignificance.

I've got to conclude that as things stand, we're all fucked.

A Pox on All Your Houses

One of the interesting (for me) things about writing all of this stuff over the last few years is that the way I've often written about the same thing from an enormous amount of angles or perspectives. Politics is a serious interest for me from an anthropological point of view and toa sit in my armchair and comment on it degree of activism; it has caused arguments and loss of friendships on both sides of the political spectrum - because, I do have friends who vote differently to me, but life is too short to allow flare ups to hinder the big picture. We all have to live together whatever the outcome.

This is the underlying problem with Brexit. We cannot split the country in half and let the Leave side have the bit that's furthest away from mainland Europe; even if it was as simple as that, I don't think even our current government would consider it. So, whatever the Brexit outcome the country is going to have to heal and the shock of the lack of money for investment in all the areas who want change will probably be the most devastating in the long run; the spectre of Brexit is going to linger for generations - even if it turns out much better for many.

A great example of what the UK might end up being like would be if you talked to any social historian who knows Corby, in Northants. 'Little Scotland' is notorious in my old stomping ground, but it is everything that might happen to the UK encapsulated inside 40 years. It boomed, it wavered, it crashed and it was ignored. It took generations to change the attitude of resentment towards any government, any council or anything politics. Corby's working class suffered like almost no one else in the country in the late 1970s and throughout the 80s and 90s. Despite the investment and improvement; the growth and the influx of new people, there are areas that are almost ghettos - yes, I know, there are almost everywhere, but these are enclaves of the habitual unemployed; the petty criminal, a black market and a place that has always existed slightly outside of the rest of the world. The hate of government is so strong, there are areas that do the worst things a right wing government would love. The 21st century brought new opportunities, but the unemployed - long-term and the children of, blamed Poles and foreigners for taking the jobs they believed were rightfully theirs despite probably only a handful actually applying. Unemployment as a career was a life option and it was through government neglect not some plot devised by someone other than cynical governments.

No one has done enough or the right things. What are the right things? Who knows any more. We don't have the equipment to do anything on the scale the country needs; we don't have the politicians who can change things because the powers that be will resist that kind of change regardless of the consequences. Yet, we are seeing the death of politics as we know it. 100 plus years of the status quo being held between two parties and a couple of also-rans could, foreseeably, be destroyed over the next few years. The disdain, lack of trust and anger under the surface from all corners of society is palpable. The blame game is out in force like nobody's business and the information war ratchets up another notch. The problem is the political parties who encouraged their factions and supporters to champion their causes via the internet have created marginalised fundamentalists, unseen in this country before. It is the fault of all the governments of the last 50 years, but escalated with the advent of faster digitalisation.

What can be done about it?

Nothing; is the simple answer. We actually had a referendum a few years ago about some form of proportional representation and that was convincingly dismissed without so much as a complaint from either side about reruns or unfairly handled, but it was the LibDems and they don't really do much at all any more. They're just this small party with 9 seats and a history of propping up the scumbags who caused this mess we find ourselves in. There won't be a change to the way we elect people, so presumably there needs to be a bunch of new parties to sit alongside the Conservatives and Labour, offering a hybrid of policies but with differing ... national... concerns.

This isn't actually a joke. Say all the Tories right of Anna Soubry and left of Michael Gove decided that they were not going to be held to ransom and weren't going to have a No Deal Brexit; a far right 'Tory' party could emerge, maybe stealing the name the Commonwealth Party, looking at Nationalism, independence, reunification of Empire and following the ideology of Rees-Mogg and his cronies. This might sound like a far right party, but it would be marketed as a party that looks after National interests; has many policies that would attract a lot of Tory voters; arguably it would concern CCHQ in seats where being slightly right of fascist is a way of life.

Over on the left, Corbyn's Labour party may end up deselecting a number of MPs who have, frankly, been a thorn in the Labour party's side since Corbyn was elected. Like the Tory Eurosceptics, the Anti-Corbyn MPs are just as dangerous because they represent a very middle ground of the party. If the Tory party drift further right and the likes of Anna Soubry and left of Jo Johnson might be tempted to join up with the middle ground Labour MPs and form a British Democracy Party - as dull and status quo maintaining as you can imagine; but, more important than anything else, with a inclusion manifesto with enough constraint to keep as many happy as possible. Economic policy might not ever do enough to convince more left wing voters, but the point is there would be, at least, four factions of MPs and something's got to give (The reality is there are actually about 10 differing ideologies at play across all parties; but the lines are starting to blur which is why talk of splits and new parties has risen - it shouldn't be ignored; it's the best idea politics has had in years).

There is also the other possibility; a new party that is both a mix of socialist - investment in people and industry - while being slightly protectionist with a sprinkling of national pride and understanding the things that the people are concerned about. A party that steals as many ideas from others in a way that interests voters, the way UKIP did with their 'It's Fun to Be a Racist' slogans and fine line in hate crimes and stupidity.

What is really needed is for someone to look at the major issues that affect different regions; see if these issues can be solved or if they need major surgery in and around to ensure the issues can be solved. If racism and anti-foreign is a problem, then educate people about the benefits of multiculturalism but have enough constraints that people coming to this country cannot expect the same freedoms as they would have once - however you word it, it's going to sound racist.

Equally, we desperately need someone to slowly change the way Brits think about others. Xenophobia - because, deep down it is a fear more than a blatant KKK-styled racism, this is probably the largest part of the problem; the giant pink fluorescent elephant in the room playing the trombone and drums. Yet it isn't just this, it's educating rural people about towns and cities and city people about rural lives. It's ensuring that the social problems of regions stay regional. To get the newspapers to stop fuelling what can only be described as hate crimes in order to continue selling newspapers about the hate they stir up. This is not censorship, this is prevention of propaganda, whether overt or covert and ultimately a public service, even if some red-faced twat in Barnsley thinks it's wrong - tough. Frankly, the media has far too much power now; we once believed that corporations owned the planet, but the media does, and the media is a desperate rabid beast. It is narcissistic and self-destructive; it has essentially become everything science fiction films brushed over because it was too long and drawn out to make interesting. Digital made the media into monsters and the people who own them are beginning to treat the world like it's actually a giant soap opera.

So, we need new types of politics to suit the way the world is. That, ultimately will be two kinds of people - generally speaking - socialist/liberal/conscientious humans or national/libertarian/introspect tribes or tolerance against intolerance. These two 'political' positions are like oil and water - they don't mix and both sides have militants who will go to extremes for their ideologies. History tells us that whenever the Right rises beyond tolerable levels we have a war; the world doesn't look that safe at the moment. If the world continues to fuel wars, civil or major, then the displacement of people will continue; we struggle to 'keep them out' at the moment, if things get worse...

In an existence that has peaceful humans on one side and confrontational humans on the other, confrontation always wins out. Humans are the epitome of chaos.

At home, we do need new parties that offer different agendas and ideas. We need, as crazy as it sounds, more coalitions but less perilous than the last two; we need two parties sitting on 400 seats, split in a way that one cannot bully the other into things that could destroy them for a generation. We need politicians who will work for the country's interest but prioritise its people. If not all of them, then as many as possible - no one is perfect, this world has too many imperfections, but it could be fairer. We have to acknowledge there are a lot of people in this country that would probably vote for a party because of one issue because people have grown so accustomed to economic restrictions they like their scapegoats to become sacrificial lambs. It could be because no one really feels that the government can be stopped and if Brexit goes badly that feeling will fester. The divisions are already too far gone for reconciliation; democracy needs to work and it won't with the present incumbents. The people need to trust politics is working for the people; it needs to be seen doing things in the public interest.

Too much of what is happening recently is about preserving political institutions while looking after personal interests. Governments are not private industry franchises for MPs to make gain; it should never be like that and it should never be so laissez-faire about the way it uses parliament to supplement already largely wealthy existences. Government should be run by people who want the best for as many people as possible. Lobbying should be abolished to be replaced with procedures to make cases for and against things; money should never be more important than a human life. We need to change politics to change the country.

Then, maybe, we need to spend less looking over our shoulders at what others might be doing and more looking forward, together.

Madness 24/7

Now that this blog has reverted to a barely noticed part of my oeuvre I feel as though we can be a little more intimate. It's like, it's just us, we can forget about that general rationale I have and just talk like friends; can't we?

Anyone who's been here for a while will know I have touched on the idea that we're stuck in a matrix and it's malfunctioning. That statement suggests the belief that the film The Matrix was simply a post-modern computer generated joke inserted into our collected 'realities' to put us off the nagging feeling that our lives have always felt a little like The Truman Show but from a reverse perspective turned in on itself.

I wouldn't be the first (stoned or straight) person to suggest, philosophically, that reality is YOU. Or YOU. Or even YOU!!! It could also be me. It could be a fantastically elaborate computer program that we kid ourselves would be too complicated to achieve with our feeble human brains, but that might be because our feeble human brains have been coded that way?

It could be that this blog entry is a kind of failsafe mechanism. It's created in the minds of people as a way of preventing them from questioning their existence, or I'm writing it that way to make me realise that I might be the only person that exists and that might not even be as a human. In reality, just someone going into or playing with some interstellar computer-generated interpretation of what early 21st century mankind was like, even if it existed and wasn't just the imagination of a considerably more powerful ... God or programmer.

Wooo.

I don't think it matters any more about whether you're a conservative and I'm a socialist or if someone is a liberal and someone else is a nationalist - the world is quite bonkers.

I actually haven't been impressed by the majority of puppets running the world since I started taking an interest in politics - late 1970s - but now I'm, you know, just over 3 years away from being 60 - For fuck's sake - I kind of think I do have a functioning brain; it probably doesn't agree with the way many of my friends think, but I like to think that while I'm not an expert, I've done enough to actually weigh up both sides of an argument - as an example and nothing more I think I understood Brexit better than some of my friends. However, this isn't about that - I simply and am putting across the argument that I think I'm well-versed enough to be regarded as an adult. I hope you will agree.

In that case... I think I've either gone mad and my mind is generating - paradoxically - what I started this by talking about; or it's some kind of madness and I'm really strapped to a gurney, frothing at the mouth and screaming at invisible monsters climbing through the ceiling at me and this is my way of blocking out my imminent demise.

I think I've done enough to convince you - who might not even be there - that I'm of sound mind; yes? In that case, have you noticed how utterly fucking mad existence has become? Don't you think there's a hint of some nightmarish version of The West Wing and House of Cards about all of this? Like we're trapped in a thriller that started really well but then started jumping the shark so often that ridiculous is now normal and it's a badge of honour to become the most ridiculous without really noticing it?

Imagine the thriller 24 and then apply that premise to reality. We're in season 2018 and the only people watching are 150 die-hard fans, family members of the cast and the Keifer Sutherland role is now you.

Yes. YOU! [points finger in a convincing Uncle Sam kind of way]

That, above, that's what reality feels like to a lot of people. We're told we're destroying the planet faster than we could ever have imagined and the largest nations shrug and continue to spew poison into the atmosphere. We have people arguing for the building of nuclear power stations because harnessing nature's free gifts is ugly or unprofitable. The USA has become this weird place overrun by idiots with guns overseen by a giant orange man-baby; France presided over by the cowardly face of neoliberalism; Poland becoming all of the things it despised about others; Hungary wanting both more power and isolation; the Philippines being run by a murderer, Australia on its, what? 7th PM in as many years? Brazil electing the political equivalent of a military coup and the UK being run by 650 MPs tasked with the job of trying to sort out not just the mess David Cameron caused but the problems generations of MPs are to blame for - the continuous drip-fed indoctrination of people with beliefs that are not real or achievable. The allowance of the propagation of cognitive dissonance and then the feeding of it will be the downfall of this society. From the outside looking in, this reality must look utterly bewildering, if it hadn't been happening there as well.

What I see, almost every day, is spoiled babies shitting and stamping in it because they're not getting their own way. The vast majority who won't even get a facsimile of what they want are going to be as angry but won't have a pantomime to ham it up to; these people - the rational ones - need to look at themselves and find the ability and the desire to do something.

Every so often mankind wakes up.

However, pretty much everything (apart from the truly bizarre) I've talked about in these blogs over the last 3 years has come true. This doesn't bode well for mankind even if it is really just me and the computer game has got stuck in nihilist mode...

A Racially-Motivated Message

I was in Ayr earlier this year. Ayr's like Scotland's Bournemouth and was, without doubt, the most cosmopolitan place I've been to since I've lived in Scotland. While I was sitting in the sunshine, outside Poundland, I saw a group of young women - schoolgirls on holiday - all wearing hijabs. It was the first proper Muslims I'd seen in over a year. No one up here seems bothered by it and the fact all the girls sounded Scottish, you wouldn't have known any difference if you'd had your eyes closed.

Interestingly, about twenty minutes earlier, when we were wondering up to Primark, we saw two nuns - not your usual soberly dressed women, looking like nurses with headgear, but two full-on penguins. More extravagant and with just as little flesh on display. Yes, they're women of God. The girls in hijabs were probably devout followers of Allah. We have preconceptions of Muslims. Boris Johnson displayed that in August with a column about not allowing Muslims to wear what they want to wear.

I'd never defend Johnson. The man is a conniving and devious politician and disguises his ambition with buffoonery. However, reading his column you had to acknowledge that his 'offensive' remarks have probably been made worse by the solitary fact he wrote them. There was elements of casual racism, but largely he was trying to make a jokey point about a sensitive issue.

He failed. But... did he really? He's become more of a champion to the new far-right than he was before that column (and his slagging off of his former boss) and, at the time, we had people uttering the words 'freedom of speech' and so they should, because it is only right. Like it is only right that any speech can be challenged, in a constructive way, using the same freedom of speech rules. Racists and bigots need to be challenged, rather than banning them. That just inflames and makes a mockery of the 'freedom of speech' ideal.

What Johnson has probably achieved is help drive the wedge between xenophobic/racist Brits and normal people deeper. I mean, when you read about Pakistani rape gangs in Yorkshire and ISIS terrorists and radicalised British wannabe martyrs, how can those who will never be happy until all non-British people are gone ever be appeased? How are Muslims ever going to feel accepted when in some places they must have begun to feel like Negroes in 1950s USA? For every newspaper or twat US President claiming we have Muslim enclaves in our cities, we have genuinely scared people avoiding the streets for fear of reprisals because of their culture.

Now we discover that the UK has an incredible racial bias that extends to pretty much anyone who isn't white, heterosexual and, above all, English. Brexit has allowed English people to believe they're on the verge of a new Empire, one that finally kicks Johnny Foreigner squarely in the testes. History suggests when you start to alienate certain groups of people it isn't long before your cohorts are alienating others. We live in a 'Kingdom' that demonises pretty much anyone who isn't British and employed; but as The Guardian newspaper has found, even if you are British and employed, it depends on how 'British' you are.

A percentage of Brits are of Asian, African or West Indian origins. In fact, a number are also of European heritage, but are not as well accepted because they have a foreign - too foreign - sounding name. Farage is okay, but Davidovich or Simkiewicz isn't.

Let's be clear about something; I had a Chinese landlord once who thought Indians were 'dirty bastards'. I knew a man from Pakistan who thought Arabs (Iranians specifically) were allowing the world to destroy itself because they want to rule everything. I've met a man from England who believes in Brexit so hard that any dissenting voice is a liar and I've seen evidence (whether real or Russian bot) on social media platforms of such vile callousness towards people 'not like us' that it's added a new dimension to the "I'm all right, Jack" mentality. An attitude I'd always attached to dyed-in-the-wool Tory voters who believed that homelessness was a left wing conspiracy and that anyone on welfare/benefits was a scrounger or out to make something from the state. The human race is inherently xenophobic - I'd call them racist, but it's simply a fear and loathing of something that you can't relate to.

Michael Gove (or Pob as we like to think of him) pretty much declared there would be violence and national unrest if his Brexit doesn't happen and while that is just the Hard Brexit supporters' own Project Fear, in this world of intolerance he's probably not a hundred miles from the truth. But hey, in the USA BAME citizens feel like their rights and position has been eroded more in the last 2 years than it has since Rosa Parks told a white boy to find his own seat on the bus.

I look at BAME Tory politicians and wonder how long before they start to feel like a token gesture to tempt the delusional blacks and Asians to continue voting for them - 'You're all right, it's those black and Asian kids the Nazigraph is talking about' will be a variation of the excuse given to them.

Living in this part of Scotland you see a lot of casual racism, which you oddly don't see when someone is getting a takeaway from the Chinese or Indian restaurants, and, to be fair, I've not heard any overt nastiness from anyone up here towards anyone culturally different, but that's not to say it doesn't exist. There are enough Scottish Tories with bizarre ideas about a lot of things and there's considerably more Brextremists who've moved up from England, despite the fact that Scotland voted by a big margin to stay in the EU (and has been largely ignored by England since). These are the kind of people who'll always look for someone else to blame and once the country no longer has any Europeans to blame, they'll pick on the black, brown and yellow foreigners, while beginning to cast an eye of suspicion at Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders - because, you know, they might look and sound like us but they've probably stolen jobs, hospital beds and the last place on the twice weekly bus service which was hacked and slashed by the Tory controlled council and nothing to do with a 'foreign' tax payer and contributor...

What we need to realise is white people can't possibly understand what it's like to be black or Asian; the same as they can't really understand what it's like vice versa. Heterosexual people might think they can relate to homosexuals, but we can't really understand what is going on inside their 'souls' even if we can put our minds into that space. I'd like to think rational people - the kind of people who would rather help than hurt - really struggle to understand how a fellow human being can be purposefully vile and nasty to someone less fortunate (and equally, I can almost understand how 30-year-old neo-fascists can believe the Holocaust was just some Jewish propaganda and couldn't have possibly really happened... that is until the first people start being shipped into camps, like Muslims in parts of China).

The thing is it's pretty much the difference between someone with left politics and someone with right.

History is there to be learnt from and if we can't learn from it then we don't really have any right to be here. Without humans there would still be many similar traits in the animals; war, love, compassion, hatred, fear ... that's because, we're still just animals too. Devious, nasty and cruel ones, but we still shit, like having sex and beating the fuck out of people who are weaker or not like us. Not everyone is and many people who vote Tory, or feel their have little or no prejudices, probably aren't. The thing is it's easier to hate than it is to embrace and hold and until a large percentage - the majority of the population of the world - understand and practice this, just about everyone is screwed.

What part of the Bible or the Quran which tells us to 'love our neighbour' also tells us to kill them if they don't agree 100% with us? Because, that's all I've really got. I don't have a solution (apart from the war I've been forecasting for the last three years). When 50% of the planet suffers from different degrees of cognitive dissonance, you ain't got a hope of living in a peaceful non-prejudice world; so you turn your back and let the worst parts of human nature run rampant among the people supposedly running the world. And because you know you're just one person, you know you can't do much about it and if you think like that it's already too late...

The Big (non) Issue

I find myself in a strange situation. A personal dichotomy. With the Brexit negotiations having reached a tipping point and the next week fundamentally the most important for this kingdom since before I was born, there is now almost a clamour for a second vote - a new referendum.

That bothers me. Don't get me wrong, I'd campaign for remain again and I'd be praying to a god I don't believe in that Remain wins by 70%+ and would allow whoever was in power to attempt to appease the 30% with truth and positivity. Except, you know, that isn't going to happen. If there was a vote next week, even after months of incompetence, even if Remain won, it would not be decisive. It would be even more divisive.

This kingdom is so badly split on ideological ways that blood means nothing and grudges have been established that run deeper than we can ever imagine. I have said this before, but it means more now than ever before. We need to follow the will of the people from 2016 and leave the EU. We need to allow the country to sink or swim, prosper or fail on its own two feet. The only way we can repair any damage is to suffer it, that way the country might begin to heal and the people might start forgiving each other. Alternatively, if the country prospers and we see massive regeneration, creation of jobs and wealth, then Remainers will be happy and hope that Leavers don't waste too much time rubbing our noses in it - most of us want what's best, y'ken?

The problem is the country is so divided and it will become even more and that would be bad for everybody. The best resolution would be a compromise Brexit that suits the balance of the vote. 48% of the people - a little under half - didn't want to leave, regardless of who won or who lost their fears need to be considered, even if they have to compromise on a little over half of what the Leavers want. That's democracy at its most basis; liberalism is the perfect democracy - do things by compromise for the benefit of the people; if it benefits some more than others, ensure that those scales are eventually balanced.

We were promised a prosperous, progressive and fantastic future; if that doesn't happen then we have to pay for it. If the people who promised us this can't deliver we should, at the very least, ensure they can't be involved in politics again. Whatever happens, we need to think about democracy - not scrapping it, but making it a compulsory subject and scrapping career politicians in favour of fixed term MPs - answerable to rules - and drawn from all walks of society to ensure all of society benefits and feels part of the process.

A second referendum that delivers anything but a more resounding Leave vote could tear Britain apart and leave a place that most people wouldn't want to remain in.

Belief

I have been known to bang on about education and having at least half a dozen friends who are school teachers (past and present) I am aware I could well be treading on tender feet when I say the standard of education in this country seems to have waned. However, I probably have considerably more friends who believe something that is wrong or isn't a fact.

I think we've stopped educating our children, we just teach them about things and even that isn't strictly true. The number of young people I've met who have no general knowledge is frightening; however, even more frightening is their dependence on Google or internet search engines. "Why learn something when you can Google it?" Said a guy who regularly attends my pub quiz, but never engages in it because using the internet isn't allowed. The stranger thing is this guy - 26 years of age - cannot understand how using the internet to get answers is cheating, despite it being a quiz designed to test a person's general knowledge rather than his ability to Google. What makes it worse is his underlying annoyance - not at his lack of knowledge but at the rule that prevents him from cheating his way to 1st prize.

The advent of the internet has meant the rise of personal belief... We saw it during the Brexit campaign; the dismissal of experts' opinions when we have specifically NOT asked for them. The growth in opinions based not on fact but on something that feels right. The vilification of individuals by association. If you believe it, it must be true.

It's interesting that broadcaster and journalist James O'Brien has chosen to relate a story from his radio show, in his latest book, about the Brexiteer who called his show stating we're now in charge of our own laws, our own rules and free of the bureaucratic EU at last. When asked to name ONE solitary thing - EU law - that has changed his life, the caller was unable to answer; but he believed it was the best way forward for the country to be free from laws and rules he didn't even know or could give no example of...

The thing is we're actually in a world where the truth is just as quickly available as a belief. As matey-boy from the pub quiz quite rightly says - without a hint of irony - who's to say what Google says is the truth or just a lie with a lot of hits, pushing it to the top of that particular algorithms pile?

"Immigration has brought this country to its knees" or variations on a theme has been pretty much the most common statement issued by Leave voters for the last three years. They either ignore the fact or simply don't know that Britain has been one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, since history began. We also have a really shit record of treating foreigners badly, yet they still want to come here because we were the first land of opportunity and like it or not people want to be part of what they believe to be a better world (plus, contrary to some beliefs racism exists just about everywhere - mankind is strangely social yet xenophobic).

The thing is, if you spent five minutes investigating whether immigration has brought the country to its knees, you'd discover that what we're doing is blaming the EU migrants solely for a problem that is a governmental problem and nothing to do with where someone comes from. For starters - migrants, immigrants, foreigners - whatever you want to call them - are not the problem here; they're a symptom. If governments continue to strip mine the public sector of its funding to give the already rich people more incentive to get richer, then you're not going to have more schools, hospitals, houses, bus routes, trains etc etc etc, so you get a strain on the existing services and when the government cuts the funding even further people are quick to blame the immigrants and never blame the culprit. And when they're told this, they put their heads in the metaphoric sand and go la-la-la-la-la-la.

The problems begin when people believe something to be wrong. People, because they're human, hate being proved wrong, especially when they've left school. They don't like a belief or an ideology being challenged and we have governments all over the world who would rather obscure the truth and build their empires on blame rather than investment. Look at it this way, if you're reading this and you think there are too many foreigners in this country and you truly believe that - regardless of where you got your information - I could give you irrefutable proof that your belief is not correct in any way, but because you believe it to be right, you're not going to want to believe me and even if I could make you understand the error of your way, because it is a belief and as soon as I'm gone you'll go back to blaming whatever you were wrong about; because it feels right.

For the last 25 years, I've listened to Liverpool fans wishing their team was as good as it was when they were winning everything. "We just have to believe, lads" was the cry from so many of their fans. I was never aware that winning trophies was all about the belief of the fans. By that logic, Man City and Chelsea fans have seen a massive investment in the belief system of the fans rather than buying the best players in the world. Man City are the best team in the country because their reasonable fan base BELIEVES more than you, who supports some mid-table team of unbelievers...

"Brexit will work if all you remoaners would just believe in it!" You must have heard this? Jacob Rees-Mogg famously accused all those who voted remain of not believing in the country enough. What the fuck have we got politicians for if running the country and being successful is simply about believing? Why are we negotiating with Brussels? Why isn't Theresa May just going on TV every day with a five minute message to remind all the people of the country to believe a bit harder?

The sticking point is the fact that once upon a time, probably before the internet, if you said something stupid down the pub, three or four of your mates would put you straight and if you respected others opinions you'd accept you were wrong. If you were arsey enough you might pop into the library the next day and check to make sure you were wrong, but usually people accepted the word of someone more knowledgeable than them. In fact, back in the day most conversations were more black and white than now because matey boy down the pub's mate who believes that there's a terrorist on every corner has become friends with 50 other weirdos who also think all Muslims are bomb-carrying mad bastards worshipping a false idol. The belief is reinforced. Suddenly you have a right-wing enclave on Facebook...

Let me leave this one here: there has been a 7% rise in membership of the Flat Earth Society in the last five years...

Don't get me wrong, people believing misinformation has been going for years, long before the internet came along and linked all the like-minded nutters together; and you need to realise that some conspiracy theories have legs - this is the genius of misinformation; you can hide truths inside lies and vice versa. The difference between a bunch of people thinking the royal family are lizards with human skin or that benefits scroungers are 95% responsible for the creation of food banks is pretty wide, but the fact they both believe bullshit is just as scary. Tell the people via the Daily Mail that the country is overrun with foreigners and normal middle class - average - people will believe it. People believe the newspapers when the newspapers say something they can get behind. Too many foreigners - Yeah! We mistreat the poor - Left wing rubbish! See, it's that easy.

You might stroke your chin and think, 'That sounds feasible...' It's how fascism spreads; you either ignore it but don't say anything or you think because five others have shared it that it must be true and suddenly you have a belief...

A few years ago, sitting in my old back garden making the most of a rare spell of hot summer weather, I was acutely aware that the weather forecasters had all said it was going to end and the next day would be shit. However, my old next door neighbour was in his garden talking to his neighbour on the other side and I heard, "Oh yeah, Barry down the pub says this weather is in for the rest of the summer." And my neighbour took Barry completely at his word. What he thought of Barry the following day when Northampton was treated to monsoon-like weather without the heat, I wasn't privy to, but at that moment in time he believed his mate Barry more than anyone on the TV. If you'd asked him how he came to that conclusion his answer would probably have been, "Well, the weatherman often gets it wrong, but my mate Barry is rarely wrong." This is probably because Barry often says things my old neighbour agreed with.

Recently, I heard someone express utter disbelief that we had Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus fighting alongside British troops in WW2. The person honestly believed it was like a football match - the English versus the Germans. The fact that the majority of the English football team in 2018 has multicultural roots seems immaterial (and overkill).

Are you aware that all the way through the referendum campaign you had fishermen complaining how the EU has stopped them from being successful and yet Grimsby, on realising that it was actually the EU that kept so many of them in work wanted their port to be exempt from leaving? This is a fact, whether you want to believe it or not, it actually happened.

The EU's fishing policy was implemented to protect fish stocks as well a prevent countries like us from simply strip mining anyone's sea because we're British. If you think it's wrong that we can't go wherever we want and fish, but others aren't allowed to come into our waters then you need to switch off now, because you won't want to believe the truth that for many years our fishermen wanted one rule for us and many rules for others, all based on the simple fact that we are British.

Our UK fisheries policy was pretty much echoed by a Japanese fishing minister in 2002 when asked by a journalist what happens when the Blue-Finned Tuna is fished to extinction. His answer was simply, "We'll eat something else." Except, the British like cod and if we have none in our waters, we believe we can go anywhere else and fish for it. If you can't see what is wrong with that I'm amazed you've lasted this long here.

Brexit politicians BELIEVE we're going to be okay, regardless of all those pesky hurdles created by countries that are less important than us; Remainer politicians BELIEVE based on evidence rather than hope that we're in for a very bumpy ride at best and this has heralded a new breed of ignoramus; the person who don't care what damage is done to the country or the people that live here because in the future, even if its after they've died, everything will be like it was when England ruled the world. Trust me, these people exist and they appear to be growing.

Belief has always divided people, whether its belief in a concept, a person or a thing, but now we have a new belief, the belief of lies that suit the way we feel. It's easier to believe something that isn't true especially if it's an easy target that can't defend itself. Governments have programmed us to blame everything but them and as a result people now believe only in what makes them feel better and if that means blaming something or someone for the woes of the world then it's bloody Abdul's fault we've got no buses or hospitals or social services.

Those bleeding single mums are to blame. I reckon we'd be better off if we banned transsexuals. I don't like this and I don't like that and I think and feel like my belief system is being violated by facts... Stop yourself for a second and think 'How can people be swept up by this utter bullshit?' and you know how Hitler came to power, or how Brazil has just elected a right wing dictator, or that people still think the Tories are far better at running the country, purely based on enough Tories in high places telling you often enough. Old Goebbels, he was a smart bloke for a Nazi...