Today In Rummelsberg

April 03 2014 I was told I had to find somewhere else to live, I am 50 so it’s nothing that bad really – just a shock.  The timing was pretty crap as well, from my point of view, and also being ‘Northern’ didn’t help. Given two months I decided I would live as soon as possible – no point sticking around where you are not wanted is there?

The timing was crap as it was the busiest month for me ever, a gig in Birmingham, entertaining my German Aunt, and three trips to Berlin (extravagant I know, but I don’t organise the tour dates) on top of finding somewhere to live, packing, sorting along with finding new furniture, this has been one hell of a month, and it has been exactly one month, I never thought you could fit so much into one month.

Most of the boxes are packed, I have some residual things to panic about later this week, but today I am resting, I am resting and taking stock, I am resting and being ‘creative’ in my own way.  Perhaps I should be busier and enjoying the sunshine but I am not.   I woke this morning being reflective.

I reflected on a man that rushed into me at Berlin Zoo Station two weeks back, I have tears in my thinking about him (I am still human, thank God!).  Almost naked, dressed literally in rags but almost naked, almost feral running out of the main station as if being chased by his demons, terrified and wild. I felt helpless, unable to offer any words that he might have understood, and later he was unwilling to take money, as he cowered by the Luggage Lockers.

I want to know about him, I want to know his name, where he came from, what his family is, was, like, where is family is, how did he get like this and how did people allow this happen.  I want to know where he sleeps, and where he spends his days, I want to know so much about him and I ask myself why?  I question my curiosity, but I think it is more than being curious it is about this nameless man is a person, a person with a story, and person with meaning and worth. His story needs to be recognised and confirmed, more than that I recognised this person, it was me.  It was me amidst all that I have, still in need, still in need of love, affection, food and water.  I am no different.

It hurts me, hurts me that there are nameless people we walk by, people we subconsciously erase because they ‘don’t matter’.

My mind was, and still is, dancing around the encounter even as I boarded the Flight home and I prepared for the next back to Berlin a few days later my mind was still there.

A society has to be judged on how it treats it’s weakest, I think that was Ghandi talking, and whilst that quote is true it invokes the escape for my conscience – the quote has to move further, it as move from the general to the specific, the quote needs to ‘a person should be judged on how it treats the weakest’ I am remembering that man.

My Flat will be furnished with everything second hand, I was tempted by the deals to be had, interest free and pay later – I saw a lovely Sofa for £800 – but there are just things, they make me no better than anyone else, they perform no auxiliary function other than to look a little better.

I don’t begrudge people their comfort, it is just that this is my path, it is path I can start walking again.

The nameless man in Berlin Zoo Station is my focus, he is the my grounding, and whilst the encounter is still disturbing it has awakened the good person I used to be, the compassionate and caring.  The move is good for me, it will be a new start, a new beginning.

 

Sure Start, a Letter to my MP

Hi

Being a businessperson and an MP I am sure you can smell a good deal, and according to figures released to Parliament in questions to David Cameron – who did not, and has not disputed them – the SureStart scheme shows a 4:1 cost benefit, and to put it into perspective gives a greater return than HS2 is supposed to do, so sounds like a good deal.

Not only does Sure Start give a better rate of return than HS2 is is very much cheaper and is also universal (HS2 Ltd has recently released figures saying some areas may actually be dis-benefited).

Not only does it give a benefit to society it also gives a benefit to families and children, the most vulnerable.

I think we both agree it is a win win situation, perhaps why David Cameron promised not to cut SureStart and thought the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s accusation that the Tories would cut Sure Start was scurrilous. I remember emailing you regarding his comments ‘Call Me Dave’ made in Parliament in questions on the subject – so I know he actually said that Sure Start would be ring fenced because he understood its importance.

I appreciate that the Conservative Party has been deleting its promises (NHS, VAT, Sure Start, EMA, and Child Benefit) from its website but there is still plenty of evidence that the Tories made these promises – unfortunately for Tory MP’s.

Of course you can imagine how I felt when I heard that 570 Sure Start Centres have been closed, these figures are from the ONS, and confusion when the Government says only 45 have been closed (surely some mistake) and wonder how you feel about this.  It is also happening in Swindon so this is very much something to do with you.

I really hope you will be pressing the Government to stop attacking the poorest in society and perhaps spend a little less effort on protecting Bankers bonuses in the EU – I am sure you understand that it is the weakest in society need help, and with a cost benefit of 4:1 you can’t claim it is frivolous ‘Nanny State’ interference?

A is to B as B is to C

I understand perfectly that Twitter can be an insane, crazy, and dangerous place in part that is why over the past few months I have retreated into the relative safety of my ‘fun’ account of @TrainOddity for relaxation.  Inevitably I am a political person so there has been some leakage over to the serious stuff.  I was perfectly aware that @MancLibertarian was a political act, even so I did it.

Some interesting tweets followed and then the ’everything is Labour fault’ I think it was something to do with the Welfare State, which is my Holy Grail.  A copy of the exchange of tweets, like the recounting of a conversation, is not much fun so I will forgo the pleasure of watching people suffer.  One tweet followed another and I quickly realised that my training of political argument was still valid.

One of the best speeches I have ever heard was Barbara Castle in 1984, the Sheffield Arena (I was on Nights a stone’s throw away and listened to it on the Radio) and her punch line was

‘never argue with a Tory over policy, ask them what they have done with the money, ask them what they did with the money!”

Barbara was a political heavyweight, and Yvette Cooper reminds me very much of her, she sought no mercy, and gave no mercy, she was what we would call today a ‘conviction politician’ as opposed to the slimy career and opportunistic politicians we are saddled with today. Though despising her politics so was Maggie Thatcher, they believed in something, and more importantly knew what they believed in, Mancs. sought of knew what he believed in,  but couldn’t stomach the logical outcomes of his professed Libertarian ideals – primarily that he would have to sacrifice total unquestioning support of the Conservative Party.

The first rule political argument is to understand the argument, and never commit 100% to the proposition – unless you are prepared to acknowledge its weakness and accept the contradictions.  For instance let’s talk about the Welfare State, I agree with it but I admit it is a political solution and has flaws, but I would rather have a flawed Welfare State than the alternative, the depravation of the 1930’s.  Alternatively, once I had assessed ‘Mancs’ unswerving loyalty to the Press Handouts from Tory Central Office, let’s talk about ‘Secret Courts’ lack of support for ‘Equal Marriage’ and ‘snooping on emails’

All three should be ringing alarm bells of a democrat let alone a Libertarian, the State not supporting equal marriage (well the facts are its just the Conservative Party not supporting Equal Marriage) legislating to have Secret Courts where Justice cannot be seen to be done, and in Kafkaesque style not be able to face you accuser?  Perhaps the most insidious is the ‘email snooping’ where the State, on a whim, can read my private email?  These are the measures of a Police State.

I understand that counter argument that criminals maybe getting away with crimes, but I am happy with that, that is the price we pay for living in a free society.  We have to accept the flaw in justice that a guilty person can escape, but make it as impossible as practicable for an innocent person to be found guilty because we have to presume innocence and it is up to the prosecutor to prove otherwise.

The response was equally as blasé as his other statements ‘if the Tories stood on a totalitarian manifesto then I would vote against them’ sort of thing, like many totalitarian regimes stood on that kind of manifesto.

Back in the 80’s the ‘Guildford Four’ were found to be innocent of the charges that had been brought against them, even though it transpired that they had been involved in other bombings they were innocent of the charges made.  Justice has to be that even if you were guilty of something else the charge that is brought is the charge that has to be proved.

Whilst I wanted Al Qatada deporting as much as the next sane person I have to agree the process should be made as difficult as possible for the Home Secretary to deport someone, the State can have carte blanche to act as it will, it has to be accountable and it has to prove its case, not the other way around.  It is difficult, but it’s called democracy.

The one thing that makes me despair of the level of political debate today is the total lack of intelligence and it becomes political point scoring, we need to have a respectful debate, with well articulated ideas, and the acceptance that we may not have all the answers on everything.  If we are going to label ourselves we need to ensure that we are aware that of the consequences of our belief structure.

Call me Jack, as in I’m alright

This is still my ‘happy picture’ it is still the photo that makes me smile, laugh and think about the courage and suffering these girls would have gone through to get there – it makes me see beyond the present to the past and to the future.

It is the nearly the end of January and I have had one the best January ever.  I seem to be, as my Boss would say, cooking on gas.

Having started the year on 10 Nights, I have managed to recoup the time lost and on with some amazing stuff, all rounded of this weekend with ‘Steam Gala’ at Loughborough with the incredible mixture of sun and steam, heady.  There are two possibilities of jobs that would mean that I can live my partner, and there is another job in the pipeline outside of Swindon I have also got into my new hobby of collecting Railway themed Postcard and got some great Postcards off Ebay of the great ’50s trains such as the 20th Century Limited and the Hiawatha, the last train was a prize – well it was until the card arrived and I found it to be reproduction from Zazzazle. To cut a long story short it was returned, and with all guns blazing I asked my money back.  I knew what was happening, someone had the card and was just reprinting it endlessly and making a lot of money doing it.

Yesterday I had to email the seller again and ask for the money, I was in my rights, only ‘within in rights’ is what is the matter with this world, and I had just contributed to the problem.  I received this email back

Hi – I don’t know how the paypal got mixed up. I think I sent it through the normal channels. I refunded $28.00 to include shipping both ways. I didn’t notice the 3rd card until later and sent $2.00 more. I hope this is satisfactory. I am not really a dealer, just a retired stamp collector selling off items from my collections and other items I have accumulated. My children and grandchildren are not interested so I am selling the lot. Unfortunately, I know a lot more about stamps than I do about postcards. I am very sorry for the problem. I try hard to describe the items correctly. Jack

It was the last line had me nearly in tears, someone had spent a lifetime collecting Postcards and Stamps and now was selling them, no-one was interested, they were just so much waste paper.  When I get information like the email above my empathy genes kick in big time.  I don’t know why this guy was selling his collection,was it to raise some cash to pay for food, was he dying and wanted his collection to go to a good home, what was this guy thinking has he posted each lot to a different bidder?  I felt bad, I had assumed that I knew this person, and proved only that I am more cynical than I should be and it is people like me that cause so much unpleasantness in the world we live in.

As daft as it seems I want to give this guy a hug, and also I look around at my collection and wonder what will happen to that, will it be just thrown out as so much rubbish?

So far this year in Swindon alone 2,000 jobs have been lost, and I have to care about this.  I know it is easier not to bother and not to notice, but that is because of out fear that we might be one of those, but we need courage and compassion to acknowledge what is happening around us, to be involved, to be change we desperately need to see; so a belated New Years resolution is not to get caught up in the rat race, to try to understand people more, and try to be a lot less judgemental. Whilst I’m alright Jack, Jack isn’t and I need to do something about that.

If you are wondering I gave him the money back for the postage, it was not fair that he should pay postage both ways, and it was the least I could do.

Skivers and Strivers

If his Omni-shambles of a government is good at anything it is the sound bite – reducing complex political and social issues to binary opposites, to black and white, good and bad. I the parlance of this Government my Mum would have been a striver and my Dad a skiver. Mum worked as ‘Buffer’ in one of the Cutlery firms in Sheffield, my Dad latterly unemployed. The fact that the reason my Dad was unemployed was that he had broken his back down a Coal Mine would have escaped notice, We would also be more socially suspect that it was broken marriage, so I guess ‘The Sun’ would have weighed with ‘stay away Dad’.

No need to bother questioning the facts – it only complicates matters

Making ends meet was a problem, and I know Mum struggled to pay the rent and keep putting food on the table, but she did. Of course we must have been on ‘State Benefit’ so Mum was probably a ‘scrounger’ as well, and was in a Council House – the list of our social crimes must be endless as imagined by this Government.

Mum was proud, fiercely proud, and tenacious with it, she fought the Sheffield Council, the fifth largest in the UK, for a house for us to live in, she wasn’t seeing her kids in ‘Care’ – she held the family together with a rod of iron, normally used for battering anyone who cared to ‘have a go’. My paternal Grandmother who took over the looking after me and my brother after Mum and Dad died was no pushover either. They came from a time when you had to survive somehow, and after 1947 and Labour Government victory, the State stepped and helped. It helped by providing social support, a health service and Welfare assistance – it was there to help ‘from the cradle to the grave’.

I was in Sheffield yesterday, and impromptu visit, and couldn’t help wonder what had gone wrong. I looked around at the decaying city centre where once there had been thriving businesses there were just ‘For Lease’ signs, or grubby little second-hand shops (I have no problem with ‘second hand’ by the way, in fact I love the idea); the Cocktail Bar where we used to decamp from the Theatre is now looking very tired and has become a ‘boozer’ and ‘Redgates’ – the emporium of literally everything in the universe that you could buy (I was seven at the time) now lies empty and forlorn.

More than anything else I looked at the people, the life blood that courses through any city, the same old familiar faces, but more and more I saw families barely old enough to have children, more than likely jobless, pushing Pram. I know it’s a cliché but rather than castigate the Chavs I could not help but wonder that Socialism had failed them. They were given everything the State could offer, education, health care, and housing and they did not use it. Yes I know we are in a recession, but I have to agree with the Tories, like I did in the late 70’s for a few weeks, that people should be entrepreneurs and seek advancement.

Surely the aim of socialism is not necessarily to provide, but to enable? Socialism should be about providing people who do not have equal chances to education and health care access to the means of bettering their lives and in the process bettering the life of society? Socialism is not about hand outs, it about enabling and providing a safety net that capitalism cannot, or will not.

I read recently in an article that the reason why people who receive a State Education fair less better than those who go to Eton is not so much the education, or the social connections, it is that people are told incessantly how inferior they are, and that the constant erosion of self-confidence leads to under achievement, yes I can run with that one. What socialism in the UK has totally failed to provide is a sense of confidence in people, a sense of aspiration and a sense of possibility.

Of course we cannot have a sensible political debate, and the binary opposition of skivers and strivers will have to suffice, not only is it binary opposition (you cannot have a skiver without reference to its opposite) they sound similar but mean the opposite, it is clever, and it’s definitely catchy, but it’s not helpful, it does not discriminate and yet on the other hand it does discriminate.

I not sure where we go next, but labelling people ‘skivers’ – or labelling people at all – is not the way forward, it creates for more divisions and a society that finds it easier to alienate those who are a burden, mainly through no fault of their own. It is designed to divide.

NEEDED – 21st Century Martyrs

Dorli Rainey, Occupy Seattle, Pepper Sprayed

On the second day of May 1923 Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton died of a heart attack at the age 54.

history has somewhat bypassed Lady Constance, but in 1909 she was arrested, imprisoned and when she went on hunger strike she was forced fed. Lady Constance was a suffragette, but as a ‘Lady’ each time she was arrested she was separated from the other suffragette and released, it was only when she was arrested and gave her name as Jane Warton was she ‘allowed’ to treated as an equal (an interesting to corollary to Andrew Mitchell who allegedly called Police ‘fucking plebs’ and had I done I would have been arrested for a ‘breach of the peace’ – but he is a Government Minister).

A few days ago Yekatrina Samutsevich was released from jail in Russia on the grounds that she was not part of the Pussy Riot – I am using the Russian State’s language – incitement to religious hatred protest on the grounds she has been removed from the Cathedral before the protest took place. It seems in their haste to prosecute the Russian State forgot that to commit a crime you actually have to be there, or at least take part. I have to admit I was a little disappointed that she hugged her comrades and left prison, leaving the two other members of Pussy Riot to be taken to a detention facility. I felt cheated that someone ‘escaped’ – martyrs are supposed to remain in prison. Whilst the other member of the Pussy Riot Collective were happy to see her released, it was only a few days after that Yekatrina resumed her protest, but even better Yekatrina can now tell the story of the conditions faced my her comrades.

Thinking about this story I couldn’t help but wonder what made a martyr, what raises one protest from the crowd to spark revolutions, what made Rosa Parkes refusal set the United States on the path to the Civil Rights Movement by simply being too tired to move to the ‘black’ part of the Bus in Alabama, what was different about a Tunisian fruit vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, setting himself alight that ignited the Arab Spring and felled Mubarak and Gaddafi, more than likely Assad – what is the essential ingredient to be a succesful martyr?

Information Technology is definitely a factor, but there has to be passion, despair, there has be commitment and, unfortunately, something evil, something wrong with the society, that society has to be on the verge of collapse. Martyrdom has to illustrate the brutality of the status qou, make us and the world question.

I looked recently at the picture of Dori Rainey, the 84-year-old woman Pepper Sprayed in the Occupy Seattle, and I saw the indiscriminate brutality of capitalism, and I saw the transient nature of martyrdom in the 21st Century, Pussy Riot are yesterday’s news, the Occupy Movement flourished and died, well to those do not share the ideals of a fair society.

I ask you one question – what do you believe in so much that you would be prepared to die for, if you believe in anything that strongly?

I am socialist, and I leave you with Red Flag

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we’ll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

The Olympic Economy, the rise of the 1%

It is just two days away from the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, it has been announced that the UK economy has shrunk by another 0.7% in the last quarter, and a man in Hackney has been forced to take down his Olympic Flags because they are not official.  The Olympic Games is, to me, a great metaphor for not only for the UK economy, but also for the global economy.

The enforcement by LOCOG – the Olympic Organising Committee of all things Olympic is a great metaphor for the establishment of the corporate State in which the State acts as subcontractor for Capital, laws have been changed, zoning regulations enforced on the roads, copyright infringement stamped out to eradicate anyone making money that LOCOG could have coined, in effect the State has been operating as agent of LOCOG by enacting legislation specifically for one organisation.

What you can take into the Olympic is strictly controlled, no food – I suppose if I am being charitable it could be argued it could save on litter; and of course you then have to buy the overpriced food of the corporate sponsors.  No branded products other than those of the official sponsors (which makes me want to turn wearing one of the logo of one of the non-sponsors) can be worn, advertising on the Olympic routes is strictly controlled and only advertisements of the corporate sponsors can be shown – a violation of free market enterprise if there was ever one! The copyright Police have been working overtime to ensure that any mention of the Olympic Games that can be stopped is. – other than that sanctioned by LOCOG.

The security of the Olympic Games has been farmed out to G4S who have been unable to meet the required numbers and the State has kindly stepped in to lend them some troops – in all about 10% of the UK Armed Forces are policing this event, yes for the security of the people attending, but also to protect corporate interests.  The State is now operating on the behalf of capital, and blatantly so.  Protests are forbidden.  Security is being put in places which, not being too paranoid, could be  used to repress democracy.  The Olympics seems like a test bed for how far the State can control the population.

Again it is the State that is propping up private capital.

Civil Liberties are being infringed with restrictions on photography – from public places – being challenged by over zealous security guards, the protection of the corporate state over the individual is almost complete. The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 – gave Police the power to act pre-emptively against people who could be protesting against the games.

The utopian ideals of the games are long dead, it now about big business.

In a previous blog I wrote about the squalid conditions the cleaners are working in the Olympic games, 75 people to a shower, and having to pay £18 for accommodation, just another sign how

Known Olympic protestors have also been suspended from the micro-blogging site Twitter, but the site “10 Reasons to hate the games” is still running  – the official protestors of Olympic 2012.

Of course on the opening night we will, well I won’t, be watching the £40 Million opening spectacle, something to take our minds of the shrinking economy, people on disabilities facing starvation due to the austerity measures and the decreasing freedom we have coupled with increased surveillance – bread and circuses just like in Rome as it teetered on the edge of oblivion.

The Rise of the EuroLand

A Europe without Britain ?

The continuing crisis in the Euro Zone, and the resultant uncertainty in the European Union, have taken another twist with the Greek elections, we appear to have Greece indicating it will stay in the Euro Zone despite the heavy cost to the people in Greece; whilst maybe this is a good long term decision, in the short term it is going to painful for the people of Greece in the short-term with more forced austerity and more pain – of the human suffering variety and not the abstract ‘national’ variety. The hardships of the Greek people will continue as the State continues to cut essential service in the vague hope growth. Conventional wisdom would suggest that cutting spending through a recession is not a very bright idea.

I was disturbed at the simplification of the issues involved, one by @LouiseMensch – the MP for Corby – who’s reaction to the election of the Centre/Right Government was:

when push came to shove, the Greek people voted for austerity and sanity. Are you listening Labour? @LouiseMensch (17 June 2012)

The most important point is that Louise, in my opinion, is just looking at the financial side of the problem, like Legarde a case that the only problem is money, when it isn’t its a problem about people suffering not only from the crisis but also the perceptions, the holiday makers are staying away in droves, as far as I can see this economy is not growing, it is in terminal decline. Secondly, and less important if you are starving, Antonis Samaris didn’t win a resounding victory which I am sure he realises as he scuttles around trying to hobble together a coalition – very much like Louise Mensch’s party who could not command a majority in House of Commons and then proceeds to dismantle the Welfare State claiming a popular Mandate (incidentally the Tories are doing everything they said they wouldn’t, but that’s the Tories for you!).

The counter view came from my Sister In Law on Facebook which read:

Sick of listening to the news and hearing Angela Merkel & Germany this and that. What gives her the right to dictate to the Greeks? Watch out Europe. What they failed to do in two world wars they are trying to do through trade and fiscal policies. Don’t let her brain wash you.

The answer as ever is not popular.

The first priority is getting Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland and the UK on an even keel, we have to start becoming profitable again – which means growth, which means income, less spending on Welfare and more revenues from taxation. Its boring, but to do this we need to borrow. The UK can apparently do this quite cheaply (and we have done to the tune of about £187 Billion a year, with no results because it has not been invested. Europe could issues Euro Bonds, but Germany will not allow it, why, because it would be Germany underwriting the debt.

There is the argument that if Germany is so sure of the solution it should underwrite the debt, but it will not because of its history.

The causation of the rise of the Third Reich was hyper-inflation, and we have seen the swing to the right in this country due to economic depression. The second part of the solution is the bit no-one will like, if you are you going to have fiscal union you also have to political union – personally I am not tribal enough to let this worry me, but a lot of people are, and it is that fact that will ensure it will never happen, or will it?

The idea of the European Union is ‘an ever closer union …’ this is something that the isolated mentality of the UK could ever countenance, in Europe the idea is more palatable because in Germany where my in-laws live they are quite used to popping over the border to fill the car with Petrol, though they get a bit miffed at the Dutch neighbours living in Germany and working in the Netherlands.

The whole point of the Euro was to stop Germany from expanding and dominating Europe, the logic went like this: A unified Germany needs to be contained, create the Euro and that enforces economic co-dependency with its neighbours, as a nod Spain was let in because it emerged as democracy from under Franco, if you let Spain in you have to let Portugal, and of course then Greece …

Its going to be difficult, but we are seeing an emergence of a New World Order.

The Resistable Rise of the Right

I’m off to Berlin in the morning, I’ve visited it several time over the past few years and each time I marvel at the sense of history and the place Berlin holds in the history of Europe, I am sure that the last 100 years of European history pivots around this city of 3.5 million spread over the the Eastern part Germany will feature in most of the past 100 years, to me the symbol of this history is the Bundestag or formally as it was know the Reichstag. As a Parliament it is an unimposing building, quite nice, but unimposing.

The Bundestag has seen the current problems before, and despite the criticism of the Chancellor, Angela Merkel, Germany is utterly determined not to make the same mistakes again that led to the rise of fascism and the years that still haunt this country. The reasons for German very cautious approach to the current crisis is that spending its way out of the Euro Crisis could lead to inflation, and it was inflation that was the catalyst for the rise of Hitler, a people in poverty, looking inwards, being isolated saw a glimmer of hope of the charismatic, very German, Adolf Hitler – and the rest they say is history.

One of the major criticisms levelled at Germany is that it holds most of the financial cards but is unwilling to lead the game, and looking at what is happening in Greece can you blame, the anti-German feeling is rife, and in the G8 summit Germany is being blamed again – in a sense justifiably, and in another unjustifiably.

True Germany is not allowing the European Central Bank to ‘print money’ like Germany did in the 30’s, but then again Germany has worked hard for its position. It has a social system that it has paid for, it has not borrowed excessively and it has only paid itself a ‘living wage’ according to its income, it has been prudent – unlike Greece. It has created a system of governance and workers rights that ensure social stability – yes in May you tend to a spate of car burnings in Berlin, but social unrest is not a feature of the German political scene, in effect it has created a ‘stake holder’ society long before it became political currency in the UK, and the Big Society is the norm in Germany, and it works.

The problem of economic crisis we are living through – and we are living in historic times, the decline of the West and the rise of China as economic superpower – is the tendency of Governments, like the current one in the UK, to lurch towards the right. The attack on the Welfare State is almost complete, the NHS has been effectively privatised, the Social Security system has been slashed making thousands of people who are disabled marginalised as scroungers and the undeserving poor that exist on ‘hand outs’ from the State in its largesse, but many of the disabled are now facing an uncomfortable living.

The Right needs two things to increase, a threat and group to demonize, to blame, to punish. All the ills of the Nation can be blamed on them, the weakest as often the best targets.

The Threat is the current economic crisis, and the target group are the poor, the weak, and the destitute. The next group will be the Workers. The current Queens Speech includes proposals to make it easier, a lot easier, for Companies to sack people, this is needed, so we are told, to increase productivity. FACT Germany has a far more integrated Worker / Employer structure and is far more profitable – but a fearful workforce is far more compliant. Health & Safety Legislation will be repealed, again to make business more efficient – of course workers are now more replaceable with a large unemployed pool created.

The problem is, Government should be about the people it represents and not Big Business and vested interests – but that is fascism for you. I am a monarchist, but I find it ironic we are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee in a year when the elite are grasping more and more control from the people. We need to be in this together, not scrambling over the weakest in society to ensure our own wealth.

I am naive, I just found out Scissor Sisters is a gay group – I honestly didn’t know, or even care, I just like their music – and perhaps saying that when times get tough we can exhibit the best of human nature not the worst.

Welcome to fascist Britain

Gay Marriage is not Toxic – the Tories are

It is amazing what you forget.  In the furor of the past thirty I had forgotten what the Terrence Higgins Trust was all about – it had just become ‘another charity’.  It started in the 70’s when Terrence Higgins died and his partner – being gay was barely legal and you could be sacked for being gay – was excluded from any decisions about his lover, excluded from the Church, Mourning, Estate, or even if his life support machine was switched off.  It must have been heart rendering.

Things have changed radically over the past 40 years, but still we need the final push to equality – seperate but equal went out of fashion in the 60’s in Alabama.

On 09 May 2012 President Obama moved the argument from Civil Partnership to Marriage in the worlds, just, most powerful nation. President Obama, with an election less than six months away, has come out in favour of same-sex marriage, this has been a reasoned progression from scepticism to cool logic – it’s called logic.  As Louise Mensch re-tweeted a few days ago:

 …  telling same-sex couple to be happy with Civil Unions is analogous with telling Rosa Parks to be grateful she is on the bus.

In this country we have a long way to go, though thanks to a Labour Government we have come a long way. To hear Eric Pickles blaming that the Gay Marriage proposals are one the of the reasons people did not vote Conservative in the recent Local Elections is insulting, naive and politically infantile – but then again we have become accustomed to the lunatics running the asylum like it was an Etonian Common Room. The comments from the Conservative Party seem to be coming from the reactionary wing in an attempt to keep the issue at the forefront of the media in the hope that inertia wins the day, it is wrong that these elements are trying to demonize human rights to justify their prejudices.

I would be surprised if anyone went to the Ballot Box on Thursday 03 May 2012 thinking about their objections to Gay Marriage; if the ‘gay thing’ that was turning voters off voting Conservative then this would have been mirrored in the London Mayoral Elections, which was won by Boris Johnson who has been photographed attending Gay Pride in a Pink Stetson – the ‘gay thing’ is really a non-issue.

With ever more bizarre claims on how Gay Marriage will erode society more gravity by the reactionary elements in society who seem to think that equality is just for some, as the argument continues Gay Marriage will; be blamed for everything –  pretty much like Race Relations Act, Votes for Women, and ending of slavery.

To quote a Supreme Court ruling on interracial marriage:

Marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man’, fundamental to our very existence and survival. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State

Once again the Tories are using the age-old tactic of the ‘Establishment’ of ‘divide and conquer’ playing one group off against the other, making shifting alliances that suit them for the season, and then pillory your former allies – this is the fate of the Liberal Democrats and was ably demonstrated in the Referendum of Electoral Reform.

It is worth noting that in the French Presidential Election Sarkozy has not blamed Gay Marriage for his defeat, or Lords Reform, but the severe economic crisis – Cameron take note, Leaders take personal responsibility and do not look for scapegoats.