The Gift

For many, Brexit is like being given the truly awful present of a colourful tank top by your favourite auntie who lives on the next street and who you bump into at least three times a week.

It is the gift that keeps on shitting on the mat.

It has been over four months since I wrote a politics blog; a large percentage of that time has been spent writing a massive tome about why leaving the EU might not be such a stupid idea, if the right party is in power when it happens. However, since I last did any work on it, Boris Johnson has become PM (by default); Brexit has gone up several ladders and slid down as many snakes; we've gone from Treeza's 'Brexit means Brexit' and 'Nothing Has Changed' to BJ's 'Dead in a Ditch' and the Libdems abstaining from a vote which, in the event of a shit Brexit deal would stop the NHS being sold off to the highest Yankee bidder (thus proving the LibDems really can't be trusted with anything apart from taking the trash out - themselves).

What I can't understand is why Boris's first 10 attempts at getting a GE are not as important as the current one, which has the media going full scale nuclear on Labour's arse. Unless this is a rouse?

Boris is high in the polls (nearly where Treeza was when she called a GE in 2017) and everyone continues to try to demonise that Corbyn fella, blaming him for everything and then a bit more. BJ's trying every possible way to call a Christmas General Election now that's he's failed to get one any earlier. In many ways he sounds like an opposition leader trying to get the PM to resign and call a vote, and I suppose in a way he is in opposition. The thing is so many Tories (who voted for the Fix Term Parliament Act) are so desperate for a GE they really are sounding desperate; but is that desperation because they're so confident they can win big or is it, for the rather surreal reason, that they think they might lose.

There's a reason for this, which I'd like to explain because it does sound a wee bit crazoo...

There is a very good chance that a General Election will deliver us with another hung parliament; in fact, talk to any pollster and despite their affiliation to the Tories they will honestly say they couldn't put their hands on their hearts and forecast a massive Tory win. If we have a hung parliament then there's going to be a huge chance that there will be too many anti-Brexit MPs for whoever forms a government to achieve Brexit without, at minimum, a second referendum. The constitutional dilemma facing the Brexiteer Tories is another hung parliament pretty much guarantees more Brexit deadlock and can you imagine if we're still trying to sort out extracting the eggs from a baked cake in 2025? Can you imagine what the population will be like?

In a poll held in the last week of 1000 Leavers and 1000 Remainers, 63% of Leavers felt that civil unrest, violence and another MP's death was 'a price worth paying' to get Brexit done. Rather scarily (because it flies in the face of my belief) 53% of Remainers feel the same way... It might not be obvious - apart from the rise in hate crime - but tempers are simmering; hate and vile comments are increasing and it won't be long before something boils over. The division is now so great, I reckon we're on the brink of an existential civil war.

But back to the deadlock... Would Boris really want to be PM in charge of the same parliamentary numbers? Would Boris keep trying with subsequent general elections in the hope that eventually he gets the result he wants? That is a joke, but given this PM and his (lack of) success rate, I wouldn't put it past him. There's also the fact that despite being Mr Popular, he's also not particularly trusted, even by his supporters. He's seen as a slightly Machiavellian character and while that appeals to some people, he needs some victories to make him truly electable and for people to stop scrutinising him and his flippy-floppy nature.

Fortunately, he has the Mainstream Media on his side and they're not going to scrutinise him as much as they scrutinise Labour and Corbyn, but as we learnt from Treeza's botched effort in 2017, the MSM stopped trying to besmirch Corbyn because they realised it doesn't do much but make people wonder why everyone attacks this gentle man, who has an allotment and wants a fairer country for all - yes, they can call him a terrorist sympathiser (it's a shame Mo Mowlam isn't still alive to tell the wankers who keep perpetrating this myth that we wouldn't be where we are in Northern Ireland if Corbyn hadn't been on her team forging the Good Friday Agreement; but why let a fact get in the way of casting aspersions?) or they can call him a socialist or a commie, but people might also start thinking, "Well, we've had the Tories for 10 years, I'm worse off, no one trusts politicians any more, no one knows who to believe - why should I give them another go at screwing up the country they've made a good fist of screwing up already?" Labour won a lot of votes in 2017 on this fact alone; we're three years down the line and the Tories don't exactly cover themselves with glory, do they?

So, would Boris and his ERG buddies really want to be in charge of a parliament that will be as intransigent as it currently is? Or would they maybe think, 'Sod this for a game of soldiers, let's see if Commie Boy and his band of cultural misfits can do any better. If he fucks up we'll win by a landslide and can do all the things we wanted to do but legitimately and hey, we're all still young enough...'

I know this is an unlikely scenario, but Treeza's 16 point lead over Labour disappeared faster than a Boris Johnson prediction and Boris hasn't got that lead. When people start talking about the country's issues rather than Brexit, the Tories have a problem because no one really trusts them, not even their largely intelligent middle class supporters (forget working class Tory voters; they could have their children put up chimneys and they'd still vote Tory, because... [insert utter bullshit here]).

Plus there's the 1945 scenario. At the end of the Second World War, Winston Churchill - a hero of BJ - was walking on water; if there were personal approval ratings in 1945 he was as popular as Jesus and the election was going to deliver a Tory government who would do whatever Tory governments did in the first half of the 20th century, except they got annihilated. People decided they wanted something new to rebuild the country; to build houses, hospitals for the new NHS, more schools, more infrastructure - create jobs so that everybody post-war could contribute to the return of GREAT Britain. This current situation isn't much different than then, or at least that's the way it's being painted.

One last thing for the benefit of the moaners - not the remoaners, but the people fed up with it all, fed up with MPs for spoiling life by dragging Brexit out. I know there's a lot of people who think we should just leave; tell the EU to fuck off and go it alone. Even if that were possible Northern Ireland is part of the UK. I know that English Brextremists couldn't give a shit about the Irish, but there are a lot of people who do, not least some of the people we hope to make free trade deals with. If Northern Ireland is even in the same universe as a return to the troubles then we really would be fucked. You can dismiss this as project fear or say I don't know what I'm talking about, but pretty much all of the problems now to do with Brexit is how to extricate Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic without causing a civil war and how to do it to keep 10 fruit and nutcase DUP MPs happy. This is akin to giving a chimp 10 Rubics cubes and telling him in Cantonese that he has 10 seconds to solve them all - pretty much impossible without some shit being thrown first and a lot of anger.

This, along with the actual fear of economic oblivion, are the two reasons why so many MPs have thwarted Brexit. We elect them to serve us, yes. But we also elect them to do the best for us; to make the decisions that are not going to cause us great hardship and that's all of us, including the people who voted remain and those that through whatever reason didn't vote at all. I know that Leave voters hate the fact that they didn't win by 99% to 1% but dem's da facts; the referendum 'victory' wasn't a win-all-and-exterminate-the-losers kind of deal; concessions have to be made to try and make as many people reasonably happy as possible and to make sure that even the most rabid of Brexiteers don't starve to death, die of a lack of medicines or most likely get blown up by an Irish Republican bomb while Christmas shopping in Sunderland.

Most people say, 'I don't do politics' but in 2019 most everyone does, even if it's to call MPs 'wankers' or wonder when it's all going to stop. What is even more crazier than my belief the Tories might actually want to lose the election is that all those people who convinced Leavers that the sunlit uplands of Britain would be awash with diamond encrusted Unicorns dispensing money and free sex to everyone are now the same people claiming they never said it would be better and people actually voted to be worse off and culturally bereft. If Aaron Sorkin introduced this kind of story when he was doing The West Wing he probably would have been told the show was trying to stay as realistic as physically possible.

Whatever happens, just remember most of the MPs have been pissing you off to ultimately save you. You might not see it and you certainly don't appreciate it, but at some point in the future you might wish they'd succeeded.

We probably need to leave to shut down the right wing; to stop all this talk and focus on how to fix the country. That depends on who is in charge when it happens. If you work for someone be very careful about who you vote for when that day comes, because one of the parties actively talks about how citizens rights prevents the country from competing with Tiger economies; that same party would be happy to see sickness, maternity and holiday pay outlawed, because it would mean employers could get rid of whoever they didn't like and replace them with people equally as expendable. That same party thinks the NHS is a drain on resources and would like swathes of it privatised and that same party wants to keep reducing public spending while giving the richest 10% more money (which, if you are a Tory voter can you explain to me how that benefits anyone apart from the already very rich?)

If you want a future of uncertainty, fear and no security, you know which party is already offering you this. It's led by a buffoon and his army of posh wankers who wouldn't piss on the average Brit unless there was a fat cash bonus involved.

You don't do politics? Maybe you should. It's as important to humans as breathing; it affects every aspect of your life whether you want to believe it or not and 99% of the time it's instigated by ourselves and has nothing to do with 'unelected' (they are) 'bureaucrats' (aren't all politicians) in Brussels. People need to understand how it works otherwise they will continue to rage at all the wrong things.

Excuse Me, Would I be Correct in Thinking That Digging Implement is a Spade?

You know how we get wound up by things? Doesn't matter if we're driving, walking, sitting or shitting, something happens, can happen, does happen or might happen that lets our minds have a good old whinge and a lot of times our mouths verbalise what our brains are thinking. We like a good blat.

The thing is, I've noticed recently that we're all fair game to be blatted at and it doesn't necessarily only come from individuals but also from companies. The country has become so divided that 'freedom of speech' is actually interpreted by many (and a growing number) as 'freedom to say what you think, however awful, under the guise that it's allowable in a free and modern society, you worthless cunt.'

I ran away from England because it was becoming too easy to be insulting to the ignorant and feel no remorse, but since I've been in Scotland I've seen the situation overtake what I was seeing and now almost seems perfectly normal. People I'd regard as far more tolerant and understanding than me, sounding considerably harder and less caring. I've seen, in a time of real crisis, a majority of people on TV, radio and all around me becoming more insular; drawing in their own into huddles and bubbles; and then there's the people that don't consider anything other than their own and they will justify this as being 'how it should be' because we've been taught that or have had it installed in us by a rudimentary version of mental osmosis.

What I can't understand is how we're allowing everyone but white, male, heterosexuals become allowable targets for attack and derision. And before you say that's bullshit, if I told you men were now responsible for the regulation of women's reproduction rights in several US states; or that women are still criminally underpaid in the work place; or that women are penalised for being women by the retail industry; or that women of differing religions can be told what to wear and how to behave? These are just a few examples of the prejudice and discrimination being aimed at people without penises.

Let's not forget, blacks, browns, gays, lesbians, the disabled, the mentally ill, the unemployed, foreigners, other foreigners, certain areas of society, especially if these areas involve helping any of the aforementioned targets... All of these are targets, while white straight men are not.

You can't tell me that you've not seen an example or many examples of the above on your social media travels, and if you haven't are you looking hard enough? Or maybe you're one of the growing army of angry white straight fucktards who think it's fair to bully and intimidate others because you get erections round women?

Did you know that some women don't help themselves? Take Tory wannabe fascist Priti Patel, defender of Boris and a woman from Indian heritage (where women's rights is about as comparable, if not slightly worse, than a donkey's rights in the UK), who felt it was important to both criticise BoJo's neighbours for being concerned about the welfare of BoJo's woman and to point out that the woman, apparently responsible for taping the incredibly loud and harassing convo, was also a Tory hating feminist. I mean... Really. How absolutely awful... I know that Patel is enormously wealthy and doesn't need to care about the plight of anyone other than maybe her own family, but when right wing women come out in support of arsehole right wing males you have to wonder how far we've got to sink before common sense and equality return to our lives in a tidal wave of decency and humanity?

The problem is centrists and the left wing of politics are growing as hateful and disdained about the right as the right is about anyone who can't run a factory full of slave workers. I see ordinary people sticking up for other ordinary people called out on social media as everything from Libtards to SJWs to snowflakes and this brigade of nasty feckers seem to think this is a really horrendous thing; being nice and caring to and about people... Ugh...

*I try and fight for the people who don't have others fighting for them.
What a special kind of wanker you are.

*I helped an old lady over the road the other day.
You fucking rubbish social justice warrior, I hope you get AIDS and die.

*I support gay marriage and a woman's right to govern her own body.
I hope your children get cancer and die.

These are three examples of things I've seen right wing or Brexit supporting bigots say in public, in forums and comments sections and the crazy thing is these people have endorsements in the form of likes or messages supporting their hate.

Did Brexit really just create a huge number of really nasty arseholes and as a result are we now getting normal, mild mannered people thinking, 'Fuck this, I am fed up with the abuse these cockwombles throw at me; it's time I started throwing some shit at them.' and I'm as guilty of that as anyone who has ever got fed up with reading nasty shit. I'm aware that by being nasty to nasty people you're sinking to their levels, but being reasonable doesn't fucking work; does it?

The things is, since when has caring about the welfare of those worse off than ourselves been so bad? Some of these people advocating mass murder (I kid you not) call themselves Christians. I'm betting some of them are really nice people in and around their families, but put them in front of a keyboard and everyone and their aunt is a leftie untrustworthy cunt...

Intolerance happened before the 2nd World War. There was a growing tide of it, also aimed at anyone not white, male, hetero and blonde. Not got a foreskin? Gassed. Family got some Romany in them? Gassed. Gay? Gassed. Disabled? Experimented on and then gassed. This happened 75 years ago and still happens in some fucked up right wing countries.

How is it even remotely acceptable now?

In a world where a nipple is a heinous crime, but a live beheading isn't (unless the executioner is showing off his/her nipples); surely we need to stand back from the madness a little; take a look at ourselves, decide whether we have anything in our pasts (or our family's pasts) that might eventually make us the target and work out if this is what we want in the future.

Come on, sharing your country with a brown person isn't all that bad - their food is usually good; you learn about a different culture and you're not scared that you might get executed for being their friend... or collaborator. Having a gay relative isn't that bad either; but it might be when some faux scientist suggests that the gay gene is present in all gay peoples' relatives, so they all must be executed. Because that's eventually where the Nazis ended up and we're not far from theoretically and virtually emulating them at the moment.

You think I'm being melodramatic?

Go and look at any comments section on the BBC, or the Mail Online. Pick a contentious subject; maybe one you have a problem with and after reading it all tell me if you have that much of a problem? Tell me if you get apoplectic enough to advocate violence and death and then tell me how we're going to stop us from emulating our recent, unpleasant, history?

Brextremists

Here's a meme:

The truth of this meme is it pretty much proves we've always had our own sovereignty; as it states, none of these decisions were enforced by the EU. Our governments have been responsible for all the key decisions that have effected the UK, for many years.

Our Tory government - the current one - is also responsible for the deregulation of the fracking industry; something the EU weren't keen on because it would affect the lives of too many people - detrimentally. On Saturday, I asked a Brextremist who lives less than 5 miles from the key fracking site in Lancashire about fracking's dangers and his answer was, 'As long as we're not buying Russian gas I don't care where we get our gas from.' He also pooh-poohed the idea of any long-lasting effects on the Lancashire countryside, despite evidence that earth tremors are REAL not made up by Remainers.

The sad irony is that this person wants to frack because he doesn't want Russian gas. This is the Russia that the EU has sanctions against. Russia backed Brexit because they don't like the EU being bigger and more powerful than them. Trump's USA backed Brexit because the EU regulates them too highly. The madness is that most Brextremists don't believe anything except what they believe, even if they can be categorically proven to be wrong. The moment they start losing an argument they just give you 'that smile', the smile that says, "You know nothing." The arrogance of Brextremists is going to bring the country to its knees and the scariest thing is THEY DON'T CARE. 

I don't know if they simply think it won't affect them or if they really think that the sunny uplands of wealth is just around the WTO corner. What I do know is they get a far bigger voice in the media than Remain voters want; because every time a fisherman in Cornwall or a factory worker up north says, 'We voted leave, we should just leave.' I admit none of these people actually understand what they're wishing for, but it's a powerful voice and one that resonates among the fence-sitters. You hear more dissenting voices you start to think, 'Hmm, they might be right.'

The Remain vote has increased, allegedly; people have died and new voters eligible; the problem is if you go to some of the most depressed areas of the country, those who voted Leave because they actually thought it was a protest against their misery, their vote has hardened and got even more desperate and angry. The country is truly split between Leave and Remain; far worse than disagreements between Labour and Tory voters or Celtic and Rangers fans and Remainers who live in Remain strongholds cannot accept that the ignorant rest of the country doesn't agree with them...

I appreciate that simply by calling leave voters 'ignorant' is fanning the fires, the problem is I don't think that many of them really knew what they were doing, but now they've done it and one of the few times they've voted they won and they're not going to let that be taken away from them. This is why Theresa May's 'deal' has been pilloried by all sides. Remainers hate it because we're not in the EU any more and Brexiteers hate it because we still are; it was the best of both worlds deal to reflect the 52-48 split. It was a compromise that no one wants, but probably needs. 

Another issue that is constantly ignored is the cognitive dissonance and subconscious nihilism of a large percentage of leavers. Faced with all kinds of worst case scenarios, if they even accept the viability they deny it or worse still accept it as 'a price worth paying' - surely a worse country than what we had isn't what these people voted for, yet 2 years down the line some of them will tell you that's exactly what they voted for. A perfect example of this is the aforementioned man who doesn't want Russian gas. When asked what his kids would do or how they'd cope with fracking, your man simply doesn't care. Like a number of other rabid Tory leavers I've met, he actually wants his children to suffer because 'They shouldn't have it as easy as we had it!' This, in my humble opinion, warrants a 'What the Actual Fuck?' response. Have we created such bitter and twisted baby boomers - the generation who honestly never had it so good - that they'd actually like to see their children and grandchildren have less opportunities than them?

Actually, probably not, because this is where the cognitive dissonance is at its worst. Brextremists are so convinced that the sunny uplands of prosperity is so close, they're children will thank them for this decision, despite them not being allowed to travel all over Europe. Some leave nutters simply argue that getting rid of all the foreigners will allow us to have FULL employment; a country that has no one on benefits because they'll all be out wiping arses and cleaning toilets - because that's what our 'feckless' youth want, yes? 

I've actually met people who think Nigel Farage would be a better PM than anyone else. This has nothing to do with anything apart to highlight just how crazy some people really are. I've met people who advocate things such as WTO rules or No Deal, who refuse to believe that nothing will change; that all the countries of the world will be queuing up at our door to do business, despite there being zero evidence, just facile windbag blowhards telling us trade deals will be the easiest in history. We currently have a good deal for something with the semi-autonomous Faroe Islands - how good is that?

The problem is regardless of all the evidence, all the experts, all the warnings; it's all Project Fear and it will remain Project Fear even after we leave. It will be the EU's fault for making it difficult for us; it'll be the remainers for not believing enough; it'll be the unemployed, the foreigners, the Muslims, the single mothers, the disabled, the left wing - it'll be a long list of people to blame for the shitstorm heading our way and this blame will be attributed without even a hint of irony. Brexit for Brextremists is essentially having yourself on film killing someone and then swearing black is white that it's fake news, manipulated footage, taken out of context, just remainers smearing them - everything will be blamed, no one will say, 'Yep, I killed someone' because it is and will continue to be everyone else's fault.

The government is responsible for this huge divide and now they really don't know how to solve it. Why? Because without the EU we won't have half the money for investment that the Tories have already never invested in. Throw £1.6bn at the opposition to sweeten the deal; despite the fact that we get £20bn back from the EU - every year - in rebates to ensure the government invested in areas that need help. If you're a Tory voter, can you honestly tell me of one investment project this current government has been responsible for? Just one. I'll take anything at this point. 

The Tories don't invest in the economy; they free it up to be commercialised. Look at the Probation Service as a perfect example. Or the cuts to the infrastructure of the country; such things as the reduction in police numbers and police auxiliary workers - only a Tory PM would say there's no correlation between cuts in police and rising crime. If that's the case, why is crime rising?

Okay, you hate Labour. You won't vote for Corbyn. That's fair enough; I mean Labour have been in power so little in the last 40 years there's no real way of you knowing what it would be like. It's like imbeciles I hear who said they never made money during New Labour's 13 years in power... Funny how they won two elections with landslide victories where even Tories voted for them; I wonder just how much these people really struggled compared to say 2019?

The worst case scenario and, in my now not so humble opinion, the most logical outcome is civil unrest whatever happens. Parts of the country will burn and the Tories will continue to bleat on about Labour hating Jewish people - because, you know, the future of the country hangs on whether half a dozen supposed Labour party members said something hateful - Tories say hateful things about the unprivileged Muslim community (or Sadiq Khan) all they want and never get accused of racism for very long, but 95% of all Labour antisemitism is anti-zionism - criticism of the Israeli government's rather Nazi attitude to the indigenous Palestinians; but you can't do that. You can criticise every government in the world but not Likud because they're Jewish.

The country is really fucked; it was fucked before the Brexit vote and now it's massively divided and the hate that's risen to the surface isn't going to go away quickly. Unless the Tories invest BILLIONS of pounds into the economy (and then we need to be able to deal with other countries) it will get worse, especially after Brexit. The Tories will have to do something they've avoided doing for 40 years - spending money on people who don't vote for them. Do you really think that's going to happen?

There will be no way under the sun to reunite this country. Even if us remainers are all 100% wrong and Brexit is the boost we've all needed; there will be a large percentage who will hate each other because of what they've done. As we're not likely to be 100% wrong then the hate between leave and remain will fester and eventually boil over; oh and we won't have enough police to deal with it.

The bottom line is people who hate the EU are ignorant of what they've done for this country. The laws they hate, no one can actually name. The EU's laws are protectionist at worst; to protect the people and the environment from unscrupulous idiots who did all of the things in the meme at the top of the page. The problem is, these people haven't just allowed the unscrupulous to sway their opinions, they did it without really trying. They still have no understanding of the things the EU has actually done for everyone in Europe. Yes, there are victims, but aren't there victims when you get a Tory or a Labour government? You see hairy arsed twats complaining about the treatment of Africans as an excuse why they don't want to be in the EU, but ask them how they feel about the government's treatment of the disabled or disenfranchised and you'll probably get 'Fuck them' as a throwaway excuse.

This is a situation that cannot be won because we've reduced a huge swathe of the population to bigots quoting nasty lies and believing them; people who really don't care about their neighbours, so care even less about people 'over there'. You can't divide the country into two - leave and remain - although I'm surprised our government, rooted in imperialism, haven't considered it; I mean, we did it for Israel and India and that worked out really well, didn't it? We backed white South African supremacists over indigenous peoples, so why not stick all remainers down south and all leavers up north; put a wall round Scotland because they're a problem to post-Brexit democracy.

At the weekend, I decided it was more pointless trying to show a Leaver the error of their ways than it was hoping Tottenham will win a trophy. When people would rather see their children worse off than see the country stay reasonably okay, you know you have no chance of winning an argument that they won't let you have. We need to Leave to show everyone what happens; if it works - fine, but if it doesn't you might start getting some people realising that maybe they fucked everyone over, including themselves. However horrible that idea might sound, it could be the only way to heal the rifts and get us going again.

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...