Disclaimer – I would consider myself a left-wing moderate and pragmatist. While I will try to be objective and impartial one must always bear that in mind when reading further. My bias may subconsciously select words for me.
It is quite apparent to me, from my years in education, that the majority of people do not have a clue as to what the political parties stand for. Their philosophy has become shrouded in obfuscation. All the politicians are interested in is power and that means votes. In order to get elected they have to compromise and disguise their intent. That is politics.
I am attempting to state clearly, simply and objectively what the main parties stand for and where they came from.
The Conservative/Tory Party.
The Tory party is a centre-right party when had its origins in the 18th Century.
Back in the 18th Century hardly anyone had the vote. You had to own land in order to vote. Politics was dominated by the establishment of landowners/businessmen who organised the country for their own interests.
The Tories started out as a faction in the Whig party. They were supporters of William Pitt the Younger who became known as Tories (a derogatory term they adopted for themselves) circa 1812.
The Conservative term arose circa 1843 and is associated with Sir Robert Peel.
The Tory ethos is to maintain the establishment. It can be summed up as ‘God, King and Country’. As such they are opposed to radical liberalism and reform and are in favour of the Free Market Economy. They do not believe in intervention.
Tories believe in the paternal obligation of the Upper Classes to look after the interests of the Lower Classes.
They believe in giving tax cuts and restraining government spending.
They believe the money going to the wealthy will ‘trickle down’ to the poor.
They believe that if there are big profits there will be big investments which will create a thriving economy and ultimately everyone will benefit. The country will prosper.
Their premise is to support business through deregulation, privatisation and a flexible labour market.
Nb. No doubt my political friends of a right-wing bias will put me right on a few of my assertions!
I was fascinated to read what I had written just under a year ago regarding the politics of the day. Our resident crime syndicate of a government decaying under the weight of its own sleaze!! Makes for interesting reading.
Nearing the end of January (not my favourite month) the sky was overcast but it was dry and not raining so I took myself up my hill for an early walk. At the top of the hill I found myself looking out over a wet and soggy land enshrouded in mist.
I came home and set about editing my Beefheart book while listening to the Kills.
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, Johnson is hovering on the brink. Just as he’s trying to come to terms with Partygate and prepare himself for the onslaught of Sue Gray there suddenly comes Muslimgate out of left-wing. We haven’t got over Bullygate either and still have Covidgate, Sleazegate, Wallpapergate and Brexitgate to come.
The common feature in them all is Johnson’s cavalier attitude, entitlement, lack of detail, lies and laziness. It all sends a clear message. You can break rules, even laws. It’s always party time. You don’t have to work hard. You just make things up. You can get away with anything.
Partygate – the cavalier breaking of rules, lying and love of partying. Wine, women and wallpaper. Arrogant superiority and disdain for the little people. We make the rules. You do as you’re told. We do as we want. It’s party time.
Muslimgate – we can be racist, rude and offensive. We pretend to be inclusive but we aren’t. We have token ethnic minorities but we don’t like them. Why do you think we wanted Brexit? We don’t like foreigners. We’re the party of xenophobia – letter boxes and sacks says it all.
Bullygate – it’s black and white. We tell you what to do and if you don’t do it you will pay. Rules and laws mean nothing. We don’t have to follow them. Blackmail, threats and nastiness are the tools of the trade.
Covidgate – we alternated panicking with complacency, did everything too late or two early, dumped the old, dumped the care homes, used it as an excuse to give billions to ourselves and our chums and killed more people than nearly everyone else. We did not have our eye on the ball, did not know what we were doing, ignored advice and cocked up. No attention to detail, coupled with arrogance and incompetence made everything much worse than it needed to be. Confusing messaging, invisibility and breaking the rules that were made coupled with failure to set examples – a disaster. Silly sound bites and exaggerated claims of world-beating this that and the other, magic moonshots and then lie about it, tell everyone it was a great success and that Johnson introduced vaccination and saved the world. In reality it has been a complete mess up and a lot of Tories made a lot of money.
Sleazegate – second jobs, revolving doors, lobbying rules broken, Cameron and Patterson, government ministers earning millions while working in the Caribbean, backhanders, illegal donations, cash for peerages, cash for meetings, cash for everything. The Cayman Isles must be groaning under the money being stashed away from all the dodgy deals we don’t know about. The Tory Party has been profiteering.
Wallpapergate – the tip of an iceberg – illegal donations from promises and deals. We’re expected to believe that these people do it for nothing. They do it because they expect stuff in return. Meals, expensive wine, refurbishment, expensive holidays. Heaven knows what else goes on in private.
Brexitgate – based on lies, unfounded promises of sunny uplands, xenophobia, racism, nostalgia for an age that never was, nationalism and fear. 5 Million Turks, Muslims taking over, Eastern Europeans taking over, unimpeded immigration. Stark horror out of the minds of racists who despise foreigners and still think Britain is not only superior but should have its empire back. So badly negotiated that it has landed us in the shit, ruined trade, loaded us with red-tape and delays, left food rotting, put costs up, created HGV shortages, nursing and caring shortages and stopped our youngsters having access to Europe for work and study. Obstacles, impediments and competition replace free trade, cooperation and friendliness. But a lot of Tories made a lot of money out of it – how many million did Rees-Mogg make??
It’s a nasty long list of malaise that all stems from one man – a self-serving clown whose character flaws, greed and gluttony have created a government of self-serving, lazy fools who think they too can get away with murder.
It all comes from the top!
So, yesterday there were another 74,800 new cases. Not exactly tumbling down is it? There were only 75 deaths though. That’s something. Though they’ll probably tell us that they forgot to count them over the weekend or that it doesn’t count people with nasty coughs.
The ONS is insistent that there have been 177,000 deaths which mention covid. But what’s 20,000 deaths to a Tory?? Let the bodies pile up!!
We’re fine. There may be a new variant on the horizon and we may lose half of our NHS staff soon who are being kicked out because they’re un, and we’ve lost 2 million days of NHS staff due to long covid, so they’ll be nobody to care for us, but we are trialling the antiviral drug from Merck!! Maybe it’ll work. The hospitals will be closed but they can pop it in the post to us.
Lord Agnew resigned. He’s been in charge of fraud. Well I bet a number of Tories have really been in charge of fraud. But he’s getting out before Fraudgate becomes investigated. It seems that he has mislaid £4.3 billion. It’ll probably turn up in some MPs account on the Cayman Islands.
Johnson will need a lot of money to maintain his lifestyle, childcare and alimony.
Stay safe – this looks like being an interesting week!! We could have a leadership contest for who’s taking over the crime syndicate!
In Scenario 1 the population continued to grow eating up space, wilderness and destroying all naturally living creatures. Technology dealt with the problems of food, water, energy, weather and even oxygen in the atmosphere. We lived in huge urban developments and the world is devoid of wild-life and natural areas.
Scenario 2.
The premise:
a. We realise the impact of our actions on the environment and limit our numbers, conserve the wilderness and wild-life, stop our habitat destruction and pollution.
b. We lay aside 50% of the planet for wilderness and wild-life. We do not allow roads, hunters or development in these areas.
We are extremely good at solving problems. We can easily create a sustainable future where wilderness and wild-life has a place.
The result:
a. We introduce contraception, education and family planning on a global scale and successfully reduce our population.
b. We use technology to produce better transport, housing, energy production, and food.
c. We do not have urban sprawl, deforestation, overfishing, or other unsustainable exploitation of the environment.
d. We raise the standards of life for all people globally so that there is no longer war, conflict or poverty. There are social services, pensions and sick pay enabling people to live without requiring large numbers of children to support them through hard times.
e. We produce technology that is not polluting and is sustainable. We have ample energy (probably through nuclear fusion and solar) and our farming methods are not cruel or ineffective. We can produce ample good food to support the population without encroaching on the wilderness areas.
f. The forests are conserved. Fishing is sustainable. The weather and global warming is controlled.
g. 50% of the world is teeming with wild-life that we can marvel at. The air, water and soil are not contaminated with carcinogens. We globally control the weather and global warming. Everything regarding conservation and pollution is controlled and enforced globally.
I know which of the two possible future scenarios I would prefer to live in.
Let us look into the future and extrapolate from where we are to where we are heading.
Scenario 1
The premise:
a. The population continues to grow
b. There are no catastrophes that wipe us out
Man is extremely good at solving problems. So let us assume that we negotiate our way through problem after problem. We do not annihilate ourselves through nuclear war or manufactured biological warfare. We do not succumb to a virus. We merely continue to grow in numbers.
These are the consequences:
a. Space and shelter. We need land and housing and our cities, towns and villages grow. The countryside becomes consumed in plastic and concrete. Roads connect and transport systems enable easy access.
b. The Wilderness. The wilderness and natural world become open to us and exploited for farming, mining, logging and habitation until there is no more inaccessible wilderness areas. Roads run through every place.
c. The Wild-life. The wild-life now has no habitat left, no food, shelter or way of living. It is butchered for meat, hunted for ivory or medicine (The rarer it gets, the more it is worth, the higher the price, the more worth the risk). The remnants of the wild things are corralled into parks or zoos and confined, protected and used as objects of tourism. Those considered pests, unpleasant or dangerous are eradicated.
d. Food. Even with all the wilderness opened up for farming, the seas fully harvested and hydroponics, genetic modifications and intensive farming methods there is not sufficient food for the burgeoning population. Food is produced from bacteria and fungus in vast industrial vats (Pruteen, mycoprotein etc. – already produced in large quantities – in our pies, sausages etc.), textured, flavoured and used as a meat substitute. Proper meat is a luxury food item.
e. Water. Water is a dwindling resource and desalination plants provide supplies.
f. Energy. Fossil fuels are replaced by large-scale sustainable technology – probably nuclear fusion supplemented with solar.
g. Weather. The effects of global warming are alleviated. The hurricanes and extreme weather conditions are now able to be controlled.
h. Oxygen. Oxygen is a natural product of photosynthesis. With the destruction of the forests and pollution of the oceans it is no longer being produced in sufficient quantities. Oceans are seeded to produce algal blooms and hydrolysis plants produce oxygen from water.
Our lives in these huge metropolises are highly controlled. Our environment is plastic. Our food, water and even the air we breathe is manufactured. We take our children to see the last remaining trees in the tree museum. We then go to the zoo to get a glimpse of and wonder at the little animals that used to run free in the wild.
Nationalism and patriotism divide people, cause problems between nations, encourages racism and xenophobia and is used by cynical politicians in order to get themselves elected.
People, all the world over, are the same. The differences between them are the result of cultural brainwashing.
You can take a baby from any race or culture and bring them up in a different culture and they’d be the same as the others in that culture.
People like things to be black and white. They want their villains thoroughly evil and their heroes pure.
Life ain’t like that.
Hitler was an evil man with a lust for power, a heart full of racism and a desire to rule the world. He oversaw war, constructed concentration camps, practiced genocide and callously killed without a shred of compassion, but he was quite a good artist. If only he’d been a little better and more successful with his art.
Mandela was an amazing man who oozed forgiveness, compassion and humanity; an example to us all. But he used to be a terrorist who practiced violence.
Even the most terrible of people have pleasant aspects to their personalities and the best have flaws.
Opher's World 