The Tories – Where they came from and who they represent.

Posted on by Opher

Politics

The British Political Parties – The Conservative/Tory Party – What they stand for and where they came from.

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Opher

tory2
Tory

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!

Poetry – I will tell you the truth.

Posted on by Opher

I will tell you the truth.

I will tell you the truth.

We do not know what the truth is.

Everyone has a vested interest in a version of the truth.

They all want to fool us.

To manipulate us,

To convince us that they are right.

None of them are right.

Some believe they are right.

Some are sure they are right.

The truth is that we do not know what is right;

Nobody can be sure of anything;

We are all guessing.

Beware the people who believe they are certain.

They are the ones to be concerned about.

Some of them are very dangerous.

Many do not care about the truth.

They simply believe what they are told

Without question;

They accept that it is the truth.

Some manufacture their own truth.

They create stories, exaggerations, perspectives,

In order to control us.

For them the truth is malleable.

They think we are stupid

And will believe anything.

They feed us lies.

Once, long ago, I thought I knew the truth.

I was naïve.

All I understood was opinion.

I had not experienced how complex life was

Or how devious and cynical people could be.

I now know that everything is uncertain.

That is the truth.

Opher – 11.7.2020

We live in a world of fake news.

People are telling us they know the truth – the politicians, the religious leaders.

They know nothing.

Some believe what they are told in textbooks, in tabloids, on TV, in broadsheets or on the internet.

The information is always from people trying to sell you something.

I don’t want what they’ve got to sell.

They are selling you a version of themselves. They want you to believe. They want you to do what you are told. They do not want you to think.

The truth is that nobody knows.

Boris Johnson – Memes of Truth

Posted on by Opher

Whether it’s the pandemic or Brexit the end result is the same – a disaster.

A stream of lies followed by a string of inept actions.

With all the fears about Brexit becoming real and all the lies that Johnson told becoming more apparent everyday we are looking at a travesty that made a number of people very rich while costing the country countless billions.

With the inept and complacent handling of Covid-19, which has made a number of people extremely rich, needlessly killed 128,000 people and cost the country countless billions.

See a pattern? Naked greed?

Yet this bumbling, gaffe-prone buffoon seems to hold the country in thrall.

Dominic Cummings – finally telling the truth

Posted on by Opher

I do love Chris Riddell! Thanks John Peachey for sending them through.

There is a great irony in Dominic Cummings. He’s like a jilted lover. His lies are what powered Brexit and propelled Johnson to the Prime Ministership. Will he now gain his revenge by telling the truth?

He was the one who cooked up all the lies about the oven-ready deals that turned out neither to be world-beating nor oven-ready. He was the one who lied about the £350,000 on the side of the bus and stoked up the xenophobia and racism with scare stories of terrorists, five million Turks and being swamped with Eastern Europeans. He was the one who created Project Fear and had all the sane Tories kicked out.

The man was the mastermind behind a right-wing coup that has put Britain in a very dire situation.

Now the man has the inside information on the sleaze and incompetent that is the very centre of Johnson’s corrupt regime! Will he spill the beans??

Instead of spinning lies will Cummings seek revenge by telling the truth for once??

The Truth

Posted on by Opher

I find it sad that people are brought up to believe that the purpose of life is to own more than you could possibly spend, to use any means to gain even more and never to think about the misery we are creating by our actions.

Three of my Core Values – Number 1 – the truth.

Posted on by Opher

I am reading this book by Yuval Noah Harari at the moment. He really makes you think about things – such a great writer. One of the things he made me think about was what were my core vales.

I selected three:

  1. Truth

I believe in truth. That means I do not believe anything without proof. I hunt for truth. It makes me cynical.

I’m a scientist. Science is the search for truth. We might not find it but we learn on the way. If it cannot be demonstrated, repeated and explained I remain skeptical.

Science doesn’t explain everything but it certainly gives a better explanation than everything else.

I do not find truth in religious belief. There is no evidence. It does not make sense. It is all based on faith in some human concocted fantasy. All very good when we understood very little but it does not hold up for me. Religion is constantly trying to reinvent itself as science reveals its cherished beliefs are not true.

Things we do not understand are explained by fantastical gods, paradise, heaven, angels and the rest – visions in wildernesses, up mountains or in caves don’t do it for me. Humans have created thousands of gods and afterlives. We used to worship the sun and moon and perform ceremonies to produce spring and rain. I really do not think any of those ceremonies, dietary restrictions, sacrifices or costumes had the slightest effect on the sun and moon.

As for politics – well I am sure that some politicians are genuine and do their best. I always take what they say with a pinch of salt, judge them on what they do and not what they say, and look to hold them to account.

I vote Labour because they do support public services and the poor. I wouldn’t vote Tory because, despite what they say, they always give tax cuts to the rich and cut public services.

The truth is that politicians are politicians. They use spin, lies and deceit.

Then we have the media. The truth is very difficult to ascertain. It depends who owns it, what spin it has and what propaganda they are spewing out. I prefer newspapers like the I and the BBC to that of internet sites. One has to read between the lines and weigh up the evidence. The internet is controlled by obnoxious people who pump out lies, conspiracy and fake news. At least I know the bias of media outlets I know about. The media has become polarised and full of lies.

I value the truth and honest, genuine people.

Poetry – I Aim

Posted on by Opher

I Aim

I aim

To speak

The truth.

I seek

The evidence

Of proof.

I want

To live

In peace.

Without

Fear that

This may suddenly cease.

I am not content

To believe all that I am sent.

I am agnostic

About its portent

And content.

I feel manipulated –

A thought

That cannot bear

To be contemplated.

So what

Is the aim

Of those that lead?

Self Gain?

But leave

The world to bleed?

Surely not?
But Pol Pot

Hitler and Mao

Tell another story.

They hardly cover the

Human race with glory.

History reveals

The lies

We believe

To be false.

We are

Indoctrinated

With the rules

And beliefs,

Of course.

He who controls

The media

Controls the minds.

We are victims

Of the

Ruler’s crimes.

I do not know

My own mind.

It has been

Otherwise defined.

Go quietly into the market

To purchase all you can.

For the world is a supermarket basket

And a tantalising tan.

Religion is a morphia

Politics a scam;

Life the whole world over

Is based on a sham.

It’s all run for profit

Without regard to the future.

I despise all of it

As I seek a meaningful culture.

In vain.

Don’t give me the religious

Stance as real and meaningful

Indoctrinated garbage

Controlling the sinful.

I reject its human creation

As contrived and primitive

Attempts to seek power

And apply the inhibitive.

Life should be free to wonder

And delight;

Not a fear to ponder

And an everlasting fright.

Give me life –

Make me free.

All I want

Is to be me!!!

Opher 9.8.2015

I Aim

Life could be totally wonderful if it was not for the greed and selfishness that creates war, poverty, inequality and environmental degradation. I fear we will destroy it all along with ourselves out of sheer stupidity.

I suspect we are manipulated on many levels by many different groups with vested interests.

The politicians lie, promise and cajole.

The religious indoctrinate with false dogma.

The businessmen seek your gold.

In amongst all this manipulation, false facts, lies, deceit and indoctrination we are expected to believe.

I do not. I am sceptical about everything. All I know is the evidence of my eyes. It is sufficient to inform me that we are being exploited.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

Posted on by Opher

I believe there is truth. It might not be absolute but it is near enough.
Science has brought us an amazing advancement in technology that has altered the world and transformed our lives. Some of that is for the best and some of that is far worse. Mostly it has improved.
We are always very keen to seize the fruits of this work – transport, energy, computers, medicine, materials, gadgets……… but we are keen to bash scientists and experts if they are not one hundred percent certain.
We have gone from the horse and cart and oil lanterns to nuclear fusion and space stations in no time at all.
So we will place our trust in the latest jet-liner but will reject evolution. We will try the latest cancer drug treatment but deny climate change.

And science is still in its infancy.

The truth? What is that? It has many levels. Is it a factual concept of what has occurred, how it has occurred and how that operates?
That is what we are investigating. We are in the infancy of science. We have understood so much so quickly. We still have a lot to learn. But we have made great progress. Scientists and experts have a pretty good handle on what is going on – far better than any of the ‘public’ or politicians.

I contend that Social Cohesion is much more important than the careers of politicians.

We need to put an end to this politicisation of information – both the perversion of science and the constant crying of Fake News and Project Fear. It is tearing apart the fabric of society.

Populism is destroying cohesion. It is tearing our societies apart and playing into the hands of those who want us to fall.
It’s time we put more faith into scientists and experts. They do not all talk rubbish.
Species extinction is real.
Climate change is real.
Evolution is real.
Brexit will badly damage our country.
Trump is actively causing division and hatred.

A healthy scepticism is one thing. Total rejection of all the evidence is something else. We are throwing the baby out with the bath water and allowing the religious lunatics and political extremists to spout their stupidity unopposed.
Look at the lunatics that are raising their heads with their fundamentalist claptrap!

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Posted on by Opher

We want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth – and that is precisely the problem. In this post-truth era we are all in denial of the truth as presented to us by experts, the media and politicians. We don’t believe any of it. Hence we go to sites we think we can trust because they peddle the bias we want to believe in. We choose the truth we want to believe.

It is far from the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; it is a version peddled to satisfy our tribal positions, to exaggerate, give bias and inflame. It undermines the truth.

None of us are good judges of who to believe. We are all being manipulated by someone. Those who believe otherwise are fools.
This is the post-truth era. There is no truth and our own judgement is highly suspect.

This lack of belief in experts, scientists, the media and politicians is very destabilising. The belief in truth is what binds society together. Without it we have anarchy. Anarchy is not good. It is a place where the rich, powerful and biggest bullies exploit everyone else with impunity in all manner of ways.

How do we get back to believing that these people are spouting truth?

People like Trump are busy undermining the truth and our institutions and spreading their own version of truth for their own reasons (Power and Wealth). If this continues then the fabric of our society falls apart. The cement is gone and the fiction breaks down. There is no unifying force.

The current division and tribal hatred is a result of this tear in the fabric of society. The unifying fiction is dissolving. God, King (the President) and Country no longer holds everyone together. We’re divided. Too few people believe in that fiction anymore. We think we’re being lied to and exploited.

The holocaust, Jews, Trump, climate change, 9/11, Brexit, education, extinction rate, overpopulation, the UN, NATO,  – we choose what we believe on political tribal grounds and gather the stats to back up our own view. We do not trust the experts, the politicians or the media. We even reject history. Instead it is superstition, intuition and our flawed judgement that is brought to bear.

How do we reclaim the truth before disaster hits?