Poetry – The Winter of Democracy

Posted on by Opher

The Winter of Democracy

Living in the winter

                Of democracy

As factions stifle voices.

Dead leaves

                Of hope

Blow among the garbage.

Fascism erupts

                From the

Rotting corpse.

Conspiracy replaces truth.

Certainty replaces quest.

Fundamentalism

                Emerges

                                As a black

And white scripture.

Those not with us

                Are always wrong.

Education

                Comes with a gun.

                                Intolerance

                                                With a fist.

Freedom is a prison

                Whose walls

                                Are closing in.

It’s the winter of democracy

                Lies and fake news

                                Spin

For the fools.

17.1.2022

Watching the news as the Tories desperately spin the story. Red meat is thrown to the gullible. Throats are cut. Scapegoats selected.

Careers are ruined.

Anything but the truth.

The lust for power rules.

Operation Save The Big Dog is in full swing – Lie, obfuscate, cover, lie some more.

All singing from the same script.

If you say it often enough……..

Over in the States Trump trots out the same lies, holds the same rallies, cons the same people.

He spills his lies, conspiracy and spin and the fools lap it up.

Democracy??

Who cares for democracy??

This is the business of money and power.

There are no rules.

There is not a shred of truth.

Democracy – The long and often bloody fight for freedom – The Chartists. Please sign the petition!

Posted on by Opher

https://chng.it/x9QhJJFj

Posted on  by Opher


The Chartist aims were simple; they wanted one man one vote for all men over the age of twenty one who were sane and not criminals and payment for MPs (So that those other than the extremely wealthy could stand).
That sounds very reasonable to me. I mean it wasn’t as if they were asking for votes for women. Heaven help us if anyone thought that women might be intelligent, knowledgeable or able to exercise the right to vote.
But no. Even this step was thought a step too far. The establishment believed that if you allowed the poor to vote they might vote for things that would stop them being poor. The only way they could be richer was by taking money out of the pockets of the wealthy. The idea was preposterous. Equality!! Freedom!!! Once one lot had it the rest would follow!! Before you knew it the eighteen year olds and women would be after the vote!! And then what??? The country would go to the dogs!!
Giving the vote to ordinary people was asking for trouble it threatened the status quo and had to be resisted.
We are only talking about the mid nineteenth century here. It’s not a thousand years ago. This was the time when only the wealthy were allowed to vote. Strangely they always voted to protect their own interests and keep ordinary people down. Inequality was rampant.
The Chartists did not believe in revolution or violence. They wanted to exert their power by sheer force of numbers. Their idea was to hold mass meetings and sign petitions. These petitions were signed by millions or ordinary people.
They demanded justice and empowerment
They wanted the right for all men to have a vote. For that to be made in secret and for the representation through the country to be fair.
It became a mass movement, particularly in the North, Midlands and South Wales.
Rejection of their demands by government led to strikes. There were some outbreaks of violence. The State hit back by imprisoning hundreds.
The Church, to its discredit, stayed out of the argument.
In 1848 the Chartists held a protest rally on Kennington Common attended by upwards of 150,000. A petition of an incredible 6 Million was handed in demanding the right to vote. It was ignored. The government ordered the deployment of troops and was prepared for an uprising. They feared a revolution along the lines of the continental revolutions.
It looked like the Peterloo massacre on a larger scale!
In the event it passed peacefully.
The Chartists did not achieve reform but they set a tone.
It wasn’t until 1867 that urban working men were given the vote and not until 1918 that we achieved one man one vote. We haven’t yet had a hundred years of power!

The rights of women took a lot more struggle and effort.

The rights we have are the result of the efforts of millions!! We should exercise them with great care. They are easily removed.

Proportional Representation – Please sign my petition.

Posted on by Opher

Please sign and pass on! We desperately need to have a more democratic system!

https://chng.it/KRrTpzMdsd

The Winter of Democracy

Posted on by Opher

The Winter of Democracy

Living in the winter

                Of democracy

As factions stifle voices.

Dead leaves

                Of hope

Blow among the garbage.

Fascism erupts

                From the

Rotting corpse.

Conspiracy replaces truth.

Certainty replaces quest.

Fundamentalism

                Emerges

                                As a black

And white scripture.

Those not with us

                Are always wrong.

Education

                Comes with a gun.

                                Intolerance

                                                With a fist.

Freedom is a prison

                Whose walls

                                Are closing in.

It’s the winter of democracy

                Lies and fake news

                                Spin

For the fools.

17.1.2022

Watching the news as the Tories desperately spin the story. Red meat is thrown to the gullible. Throats are cut. Scapegoats selected.

Careers are ruined.

Anything but the truth.

The lust for power rules.

Operation Save The Big Dog is in full swing – Lie, obfuscate, cover, lie some more.

All singing from the same script.

If you say it often enough……..

Over in the States Trump trots out the same lies, holds the same rallies, cons the same people.

He spills his lies, conspiracy and spin and the fools lap it up.

Democracy??

Who cares for democracy??

This is the business of money and power.

There are no rules.

There is not a shred of truth.

Poetry – Who Rules the UK?

Posted on by Opher

Who Rules the UK?

Who rules the UK?

‘Not I’ said the poor man

Struggling to get by,

‘I live out my days

Until the day I die.’

Who rules the UK?

‘Not I’, said the comfortable

Investing all their shares,

‘I’m doing alright

I have no need to care.’

Who rules the UK?

‘Not I,’ said the politician

Who is bought and sold,

‘I just get to vote

The way that I am told.’

Who rules the UK?

‘Not I,’ said the Queen.

‘I am just a figurehead.

Of power

I do not have a shred.’

Who rules the UK?

‘Brussels!’ shout the Brexiteers,

Snarling as they speak.

‘We want that power back

We haven’t got all week!’

Who really rules the UK?

Silence from those who do;

Who own the press

And buy the power;

Who quietly smile

As they watch it go sour.

‘There’s profit to be made

From this pantomime charade!

Opher 17.8.2018

The people who have financed Brexit have done so for their own selfish reasons. They don’t care about the country or the people. They only care about themselves.

Some of them are ideologues. Some of them are speculators. Some of them are mad.

We’ve all been used!

Poetry – Militia

Posted on by Opher

Militia

Guys in masks,

With rifles,

On the streets

Subverting democracy.

Called to the polling stations

To intimidate you and me.

Called by their President

To subvert

The process of election.

Spreading fake news

About fraudulent voting

Without foundation.

Can this be happening

In the 21st Century?

That a President

Unleashes militia

In complete anarchy?

Opher – 30.9.2020

If ever there was a blatant attempt to subvert democracy, this was it.

What Trump has been doing is scandalous, yet they let him get away with it!

The man pours out fake news and lies.

He actively calls armed militia out on to the streets.

He’s inviting intimidation and violence.

He is trying to set an agenda that is as false as the stripper’s boobs.

This is unprecedented or should that be unpresidented?

Yet so many are falling for it.

That says reams about them.

Capitalism, Trade Unions and how the economy works.

Posted on by Opher

Absurd Met becomes Boris Johnson stooge!!

Posted on by Opher

How difficult is it to hand out fixed penalty notices?? We’re not talking court cases here?? Why should Sue Gray’s report be delayed or in any way impinged in any way?? This is political obstruction!! Undermining democracy!!

Poetry – The Death of Democracy

Posted on by Opher

The Death of Democracy

So on this New Year’s Day

I’ll raise a cup to democracy

And drink to its death.

For the whole idea

Was strangled

Ere it could ever draw a breath.

Even as the midwives struggled

To get the babe to breathe

There were those who lurked,

In shadows, seeking to deceive.

For in the grubby grasp of fake news

Where the media holds sway.

Those who own that message

Control who has a say.

With cunning, guile and transparency

They throw lies into the fray

To ensure that in this day and age

It’s them that gets their way!

When money talks

It buys the truth

That everybody believes.

Those who own the media

Set out the case

For the robber thieves.

Democracy never stood a chance –

Fingers tightened round its throat.

Now we watch the bloated bankers

Sit around and gloat.

Without the truth there is no chance

For wise choices to be made.

The wealthy used their gold

And the assassins were all paid.

Opher – 1.1.2020

Well my first poem of a new decade proved to be a bit dark.

I cannot help thinking that we are all being manipulated and lied to by the media. The wealthy own the papers and control TV and radio too. They run the world for profit. Their motives are transparent.

If you are not given the facts you cannot make an informed decision.

If you are consistently lied to you may start to believe what you are told.

Fake news is undermining the entire fabric of our society.

Real news is called fake by populist leaders.

Experts are side-lined and conveniently ignored.

Profit is the key word.

How can you have a free election when people are being blatantly lied to and manipulated?

How can any democracy work when the elite control the media?

Democracy does not stand a chance until we have unbiased news!!

Democracy – is it achievable?

Posted on by Opher

For there to be a true democracy a number of factors have to be achieved:

a. We have to have a good choice of candidates.

b. We have to be informed.

c. There should be no bias.

d. Everybody has to have a vote.

e. Every vote should count.

f. Those elected need to be accountable.

What we have is a sham democracy. We have a two-party system of supposedly representational democracy. We have a binary vote. With our one vote we are presumed to support the entire agenda of the political parties manifesto. The whole system is corrupt. It is run by money and power. We are being manipulated, brainwashed and lied to.

a. We never have a good choice of candidates. It’s a two-horse race. The political parties have vested interests. Good candidates do not get selected. We have a limited choice between the lesser of two evils. Without huge financial backing no other candidate stands a chance. The media provides the exposure required. The media has to be bought. The media backs who they are told to back. Propaganda rules.

b. With a biased media run by the establishment no election is fair. Antiestablishment candidates or parties are tarnished, lied about and misrepresented. They have no chance. He who controls the media controls the people. We are never properly informed on issues, candidates or parties. Our electorate is politically uneducated.

c. The media is biased. The internet is worst of all. We are fed lies. We are misinformed. Those squealing fake news are the biggest liars.

d. Everyone has a vote. That is a weakness. The stupid, ignorant and most gullible have the same vote as the intelligent, informed and discerning. The stupid, ignorant and most gullible are a majority. This makes it possible for cynical politicians to lie, cheat, promise and blatantly fool the electorate.

e. My vote has never counted. I have always lived in an area that is strongly for one party or another. The only votes that really count are those in swing seats – a small minority. Until we move to proportional representation most votes count for nothing.

f. They are never accountable. They lie, spin and refuse to answer questions. They look for scapegoats and refuse to take the blame for their sleaze, corruption or mistakes. The Tories refuse to appear on any programme that would ask awkward questions or hold them to account.

This is a sham democracy. It fails on all counts.

It needs changing.

It could be made to work – but it is not in the interests of our ‘masters’ to have a functional democracy. They are happy with it as it is!!