Politics – a Purely Partisan Tribal Travesty.

Anybody who believes that any political parties represent them, who fall for any of the rhetoric, is fooling themselves.

Politicians represent power and wealth. Nothing else matters. We are all merely pawns in their games. They take the electorate as fools, lie, throw them scraps, talk up the partisan hatred, and put spin on all their actions to hide their true intent.

When understanding where they come from and what they stand for it is easy to see their intent.

a. Most political parties where formed by the wealthy to protect the interests of the wealthy – Tories, Whigs, Republicans and Democrats.

b. Some political parties are little more than pressure groups. They were formed on the basis of one single aim – The Green Party, UKIP.

c. The Labour Party came out of the Trade Union Movement and was formed to raise the standards and conditions of working people.

a. It is no surprise when the Tories or Republicans/Democrats get into power that they put in place policies that favour business and the wealthy. A cursory look at their policies shows that very clearly:

1. they lower taxes for the rich and corporations
2. They lower wages
3. they reduce public services
4. they relax rules on health and safety
5. they deregulate
6. they relax environmental laws

While this is terrible for the environment and working people it serves to maximise profits for the wealthy. They tell the country that this is good for business, good for the economy and produces jobs for the people.

Clearly this is rubbish. It might well be good for business and put huge amounts of cash into the pockets of the rich but it has a terrible effect on working people. What good is it to them if the country is doing great if all the money is siphoned off into the coffers of the rich? and their pay, work conditions and environment are all worsened?

b. The Greens and UKIP will never gain power. All they can hope is to influence the policies of those in power. Sometimes they have been effective.

c. The Labour Party are a conundrum. They came into power on a wave of idealism and set about bringing policies that made life much better for working people:

1. They brought in the NHS to provide health care for ordinary people (previously unaffordable)
2. The championed wage rises
3. The championed health and safety
4. They championed regulation of industry to make things safer
5. They took key industry into public ownership so the profits went back into the people and not the pockets of the few
6. They brought in welfare for those on hard times
7. They built up public services – schools, libraries, swimming pools etc.
8. They used progressive taxes to fund it

Unfortunately Labour immediately came under attack and were effectively muzzled.

1. The Tory media howled with rage. They were destroying the economy, starving investment, driving firms abroad, putting companies out of business, making us uncompetitive, and Labour were a bunch of Bolsheviks. Socialism was a dictatorial tyranny that had universally failed, killed millions and did not work. Progressive taxation was grossly unfair. Those who worked hard deserved their money. They were paying for a bunch of work-shy scroungers.
2. The wealthy investors took their money and actively undermined the economy so there wasn’t the means to gain the finance to do the job.
3. The failure of the economy was put down to Labour mismanagement.

The public swallowed the media lies because they were repeated so many times they must be true. They seeped into the psyche.

In order to get elected Labour had to bring the wealthy businessmen on side. They had to water down their policies and become watered-down Tories. They had to pacify the media. They had to convince the public that they were financially prudent.

The Labour Party became Tory Mark 2. New Labour was born. A Tory Party with a softer focus.

So where are we now?

Well it is clear that New Labour has had its day.

It is clear that people are sick to death with lying politicians who all have their snouts in the trough and use their position to walk straight into lucrative deals – see Cameron, Osborne, Straw and Blair. They doubt the integrity and idealism of these people.

They cannot see any idealistic alternative. The difference between Republican and Democrat, Labour and Tory, is merely one of nuance. It does not address the issues that are affecting working people – automation, globalisation, the death of old industries – which have pushed workers from high paid, skilled jobs into low pay skivvy work without benefits or security in the gig economy, or into unemployment with no prospects. Who is addressing these issues?

The answer is nobody. We are rushing towards a future where everyone is on low pay apart from the wealthy who are creaming it in. Where public services are poor and increasingly privatised. The inequality grows bigger by the day and the young are left marooned without prospects. Even those with degrees are flipping burgers, stacking shelves or tearing around in vans or on mopeds delivering crap merchandise for the consumer nightmare.

What is also clear is that politics has become tribal on a new level. Brexit and Trump have both deliberately stoked division and hatred to use for their own ends. Countries are hopelessly polarised. Fury and hatred, born of despair, is ramped up and directed at the opposition. All reason and logic has gone out of the window. We have two warring tribes who despise each other and both believe the other side is the devil incarnate – Lock Her Up!! The Orange Buffoon is Mad – Impeach Him!!

With Brexit and Trump providing no answers and merely exacerbating the situation we appear to be disappearing into a hole of our own making.

Perhaps Corbyn has the answer?