There is almost nothing good that comes from knowledge of the Windrush affair.
There has been deep, intense, racism at the heart of the British government targeted at citizens of this country by a white, privileged elite who have exploited innocent victims to further their own political careers without concern for the consequences.
Ministers have blamed their civil servants for implementation of their deliberately hostile policies.
Lives have been ruined without apparent conscience or any real remorse amongst those who knowingly created the policy that ensured this happened.
People have been held prisoner in their own country.
Or have been denied access to their home.
The most basic of human rights - which minsters are supposed to uphold - have been deliberately denied.
And there has not been a single resignation.
Not one.
I feel ashamed of this country.
I feel even more ashamed because I know some, maybe many, will feel,nothing of the sort. There is racism in this country. That there is explains the actions of ministers: they were playing to it. And they still do.
This in itself is a cause for national shame. But it is not the only such cause. After decades of supposed modern enlightenment we still suffer institutional sexism. This year's disclosures on unequal pay are evidence of that.
And there is institutional economic discrimination. Those who need the social safety net that our society should provide, precisely because hardship can befall anyone, have been deliberately victimised by the wholly unnecessary policy of austerity.
So too have those with disability been targeted.
As have the young, because the children of those implementing the policy are unaffected.
Long ago it was apparent the the politics of neoliberalism had the potential to be brutal. And so it has proved. But that has not stopped those promoting it. Indeed, it seems to have encouraged them, if anything. Once one brutality had been delivered and seemingly accepted they tried another, as if addicted to the shock it might supply. Until we got to Brexit, when it has become apparent to some at least (but not yet all) that the brutality has turned in on almost everyone. That is why we are so divided on the issue.
The question is, can we stop it?
Only with a new culture. That is a culture that delivers freedom from fear. That is the freedom to live because we know that collectively we are secure.
That there is housing for all.
A guarantee of income, for all.
And education, health care, and work.
As well as a right to live as the person you are.
Don't call that socialism because this has nothing to do with the ownership of the means of production, as such. This is about the liberty that only commitment to others and community and place can deliver. This is not about materialism. It is about our very essence.
It is about freeing what has been oppressed. It is about a breaking the shackles of a culture that wants to divide, contain, and oppress.
It is about liberty found through mutual commitment.
It is the antithesis of the fascist tendencies that stalk our country.
It is about freedom.
It is about hope.
It is about opportunity.
Things that people got in the Windrush for, I suspect.
It's time we delivered.
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Racism and xenophobia are very dangerous human traits to exploit for political gain (as has become fairly commonplace nowadays). Once encouraged they become difficult to control, as they appeal to the basest and most visceral of human emotions.
The lack of responsibility that politicians have displayed over these issues is sickening. Marina Hyde has a good piece in the Guardian exploring this theme – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/20/ministers-scroungers-lose-forms-pm-windrush – this contains the gem (referring to Amber Rudd and her blame shifting to the civil service) “Complete tools always blame their workmen”!
Indeed
Neil says:
“Racism and xenophobia are very dangerous human traits …”
So true. I hate Americans. Then I have to remind myself that there are about two hundred million of them and I’ve only met about three of them (and actually …….they were quite nice, really)
Bravo to every word, Richard.
All of us First.
We’ll never get there, but it wouldn’t take much to make massive improvements.
It really isn’t ‘rocket science’ is it ?
A major problem in this country is the existence of four or so “newspapers” which go out of their way to stir up racism and spite amongst the millions of their readership (now, thank God, ageing and declining in numbers, but for a while yet still a potent force in elections). It’s a classic right wing ploy – one might in the present context say fascist – to play on the worst instincts of the not particularly thoughtful or informed to get them to vote against their own best interests, and in support of the reactionary governments which benefit the papers’ owners. Attaining a more liberal and progressive Britain will be an uphill task as long as these lie-sheets continue to pump out their filth and can still find enough readers fool enough to believe them.
What Teresa May has done with the Conservatives and Liberals in coalition, egged on by Nigel Farage and UKIP is a crime against humanity. I was ashamed to be British during the Iraq invasion and occupation, now it has happened again with the barbaric treatment of Commonwealth citizens who have the right to be British citizens. Even the Daily Mail cant dodge this one.
Bill Hughes says:
” I was ashamed to be British during the Iraq invasion and occupation, now it has happened again with the barbaric treatment of Commonwealth citizens …”
As long as you realise that it isn’t some new phenomenon…. The British Empire was a very mixed bag, and if you do the ‘What have the bloody Romans done for us’ (Monty Python) routine and apply it to the Bloody British I’m not sure the sketch would last quite as long in many of the former colonies.
The period of the post war settlement (1945 – 1971 ) was short and quite out of character.
I feel more ashamed of what this country has become by the day. The HMRC non-compliance with France was a wake up call but buses with go home written on them was almost our Kristallnacht. It’s time for a good look in the mirror.
The question is whether you can manage capitalism and make it kinder and gentler. Or is the only answer to change the whole way in which our society is owned and managed?
I believe a balance is possible
But not with unfettered capitalism as we have it now
But there are many forms of capitalism
Why don’t you all leave this awful racist evil neoliberal country?
Oh, wait, you’re all too plump and comfortably off. Metaphorically for all of you, phyisically for some of you.
A country where the system you claim to despise works so well for you that you can afford to sit and wring your hands and virtue signal while doing not one single thing that puts that comfort at risk.
Not. One. Single. Thing.
Empty pompous words from the lot of you.
I noted very recently what I have Done to effect change
I wish it were more
But your charge does not stack
Nor is there the slightest reason why I should not wish to live in a civilised country
I will even tolerate your wish to dissent without asking you to leave
But it is not the country that is the problem is it? It’s the government and their paymasters. And that can be changed.
“Why don’t you all leave this awful racist evil neoliberal country?”
Because not everyone in this country is evil, racist or neoliberal and it’s our country too. Why should we be the ones to leave?
Jack Simmons
Prima facie a fair charge, except that I’m not sure what any of us could do, other than complain. We can scarcely swap passports with the unfortunate people. There is no point inviting them into our houses, they have houses of their own, they’ve lived here for 30,40,50 years!
Are you suggesting that we should approach the Home Office & say that we will willingly be deported to the West Indies if only the unfortunate victims are allowed to stay in this country?
If not, what on earth are you saying?
Jack simmons says:
“Why don’t you all leave this awful racist evil neoliberal country?”
You like living in an awful racist neoliberal country do you Jack ?
I’m not clear about whether you like it as it is or are complaining that ‘we’ aren’t improving it fast enough for your taste.
I can’t leave. I can’t afford a passport.
Actually Jack I’ve found that beer & cigars keep me quite sylph-like as they allow me to feel quite full without eating anything solid.
My diet book will be out next year. Sparkhill Press, look out for it.
I’m still in favour of the idea that socialism makes capitalism work better.
And as you say “People have been held prisoner in their own country.” I’d add ‘without charge’ to that. It is therefore unlawful, so I imagine there will be hefty compensation coming up. (I hope it doesn’t increase the deficit…)
And whatever happened to habeas corpus?
Excellent point
Peter May
“I’m still in favour of the idea that socialism makes capitalism work better.”
Which is why its v important that Labour is always an alternative to free market capitalism. The main reason things have got so far wrong in this country is that during the prime ministership of Bliar we had a neo-liberal capitalist party in power & another in opposition.
May’s Govt is not , TPIM, a desirable outcome but it has not implemented many of the truly disastrous & spiteful policies that most of her supporters would like. In part, that’s because her supporters are genuinely terrified of a Corbyn Govt. Her supporters would not be remotely scared of a Labour Govt lead by Liz Kendall or David Miliband. If elected it would be the same as May again only a bit softer.
Mrs May would be told, in no uncertain terms, that leaving the EU was the perfect opportunity to get rid of ludicrous nonsense like union rights, the NMW & all that health & safety nonsense.
Peter May says:
“And whatever happened to habeas corpus?”
Coming right up, Sir. Is that with fries or salad ?
Well said, Richard. I think it fitting that this has blown up for May and the tories just after making such hay over supposed antisemitism in the left of the Labour Party – which no one could actually give a clear example of, as opposed to hatred of the current Israeli government.
Carol
The mural was a fairly clear example actually.
That was nothing to do with Israel. It was a stereotypical portrayal of grasping Jewish financiers that could have come straight out of the pages of ‘Der Sturmer’.
I feel naturally drawn to support Labour at present, because I think neo-liberal capitalist economics have done dreadful harm &, if not stopped, will do worse but I don’t want to support or even be involved with a party that celebrates the spray painted sequel to “the protocols of the elders of zion”.
That was not clear if viewed on a small screen. And in my opinion most of this kind of real antisemitism is ignorance about the history of the Rothschilds. Even a very well educated US woman (a previous Green and then Democrat candidate) sent me some nonsense about this a couple of years ago. It’s to do with banking and capitalism, not jews as such. If you believe that Corbyn is antisemitic I won’t be taking your comments here seriously again.
I very much doubt Jeremy is antisemitic
I am not convinced he has taken the issue seriously enough
“I very much doubt Jeremy is antisemitic” Seems very improbable, I agree.
“I am not convinced he has taken the issue seriously enough”
Difficult to say how seriously he has taken the issue, undoubtedly he has not managed to diffuse the hysteria of the witch hunting. And much of the damage seems to be to do with internal LP positioning. (or dare I say ‘posing’)
Oh, FFS, Richard. You too.
Letter sent to Private Eye.
Allow me to be the first to welcome Private Eye to the MSM. “A keen supporter of Jeremy Corbyn shared articles including one accusing Israel of selling oil smuggled from Isis territories and another saying that Israel ‘manufactured’ the Labour anti-semitism row and inquiry.” I look forward to reading your apology: that, contrary to what may have been previously reported, you do not consider antisemitism to be a simple hatred of jews and that you now recognise that antisemitism is in fact hatred of the current Israeli government.
Justifiably so Carol
I agree that the issue has been exploited
That does not stop it being an issue
Corbyn is fallible, like the rest of us
And he can put this right
You are not a LP member so how do you know what Jeremy has done? It doesn’t get reported, does it? I really don’t see what else he can be expected to do. Why not concentrate more attention on the real racism of the tories and their obedient media servants rather than joining in the witch-hunt? I have been threatened by the Campaign Against Antisemitism. My branch VC was suspended just for retweeting something about Palestine. Ken Liveingstone is still suspended for explaining some historical fact about the founding of Israel. He is rather reckless but in no way an antisemite. I am sick of this.
Carol
Sorry – but the case against Liuvingstone was overwhelming
Please do not try to exonerate him
He is rightly excluded
Richard
If my friend Walter Wolfgang does not believe that Ken is antisemitic I don’t see why you should.
Sorry Carol – but that’s to simply ignore the evidence
Carol Wilcox says: Addressed to Richard, but I’m not a LP member either (any longer):
“You are not a LP member so how do you know what Jeremy has done? It doesn’t get reported, does it? ”
And I also don’t know what Jeremy has done except that it hasn’t drawn the poison, or at least hasn’t been seen to do so and hasn’t shut down a largely spurious media circus feeding frenzy of speculation and innuendo. And I fully accept the frustrating problem of media bias as making it very difficult. Nigh on impossible really.
“I really don’t see what else he can be expected to do.”
Well I do. He could change the agenda. Why not announce the plan to nationalise all the woodland areas in Britain (in excess of say….. 3 acres…No make it one acre then there’s somewhere to row back from). With/out compensation (?) and a requirement to make all such woodland accessible to the public including the provision and maintenance of footpaths. Michael Gove would get onside with that – he’s keen to turn the countryside in to a leisure park and wildlife habitat.
That would probably keep the media occupied in constructive fulminating for a while.
Let me know if you would like any more policy suggestions.
As long as the LP is content to fight a defensive position on ground of the Tory’s choosing they are going to get nowhere fast.
Carol
I’ve never met Ken Livingstone, so never had any opportunity to really establish whether he is anti-semitic or not. Assuming that, as you claim, he is not, his comments were extraordinarily ill-advised & moronic.
Firstly, because, as a politician, he knows that even if you produce a cogent, well researched & logically argued thesis leading to an alarming, unpalatable conclusion, “Churchill was a war criminal” or “most English people are racists” or “Hitler was a zionist”,the press are going to ignore everything in the thesis leading up to the headline. Politicians complaining about this makes no more sense than a boxer complaining that as soon as the bell rang the other guy began punching his face in. Them is the rules in boxing & politics!
Secondly, more importantly, there are v few Jewish people in this country who didn’t have a close relative or family friend die or be horribly maltreated in the death camps. If you have the slightest inkling of propriety you don’t talk about Hitler & Israel in the same paragraph, not so much out of political expediency as out of simple human decency.
& to me, the reason I’m Labour is decency beyond anything else.
“Oh, wait, you’re all too plump and comfortably off” – Guilty as charged, metaphorically that is. I would go and live in Spain, Extremadura perhaps, lots of sunshine, cheap wine, super food, where I could walk and cycle 365 days in the year on good paths and roads and hardly ever get wet or suffer day after day of rain and mud and gale-force winds and bloody Unionists and neoliberals who’ve had their conscience surgically removed. I’d just have to ignore the neo-fascist government, well, not much change there, and avoid the thuggish Guardia Civil.
Yes, we inhabit an echo-chamber and some of us, like me, do nothing more than wring our hands. So should I go into politics? Have you seen our political parties? Most of the Tories should be in gaol and not running the country. Labour? ROTFLOL. Remember the great hope, Blair? Or before that Wilson? Promised so much, delivered so little. Echo chamber, reverberating to the confusion of Corbyn, while others whisper in the gallery, concocting Blairite plots. There is another UK party, but I can’t remember what they stand for, if anything.
Personally, I support the SNP and hope to see Independence and the chance, if not the promise, of something different eventually.
But I’m pessimistic about real political and social change through the ballot box – too many wealthy, powerful people have too much to lose. It took the Labour party about 20+ years to form a government, another 20+ years till Atlee’s government did something radical and probably that was only possible due to the war. Since the late 70’s, starting with Callaghan and Healey, it’s been neoliberalism all the way down. When climate change starts to cause havoc later this century, perhaps, but by then it may be too late.
G Hewitt says:
“Remember the great hope, Blair? Or before that Wilson? ”
Yes. I do.
And they don’t bear mentioning in the same breath. Wilson did have some socialist principles, and he did keep us out of the obscenity that was Vietnam. With the result that support we might have expected from the US was withheld. Wilson was undermined by our own security forces and financiers.
Blair on the other hand just pragmatically sold out and joined the gang. Utterly unscrupulous IMO.
P.S. That’s not to deny that some very good work is being done by people like Richard, think tanks and the like, Common Weal in Scotland, the Green Party and others showing that there are other possibilities than the dysfunctional politics/economics and social culture that make many of us ashamed to be called British. I just wish people could open their minds.
G Hewitt says:
Scottish Independence does look a distant prospect at present, but I’m convinced it’s the best hope we have for a reversal of fortunes. As an independent country without the UK’s (‘Great’ British) ego problems we could be radical in a way that rUK will not accept.
There are some very bone-headed conservative unionists to overcome though. They still hold great sway and control so much of the media agenda.
@Jack Simmons
You have clearly gone to a great deal of trouble to post an opinion to not only Mr Murphy himself but to every single regular reader/poster too.
Therefore, it seems only polite to reply to your remarks as they are such wide-sweeping generalisations that they’re actually a bit intriguing and got me thinking. Thank you for that.
JS (that’s you): Why don’t you all leave this awful racist evil neoliberal country?
Not the most original of questions, but here’s my answer anyway, for what it’s worth.
Why on earth should I? There’s still a lot of good in this country, but also a lot wrong. What’s so awful about discussing that? Surely the only way to improve things is to FIRST acknowledge something’s wrong in the first place. Words do have a habit of preceding action… thank god!
There’s a saying that all it takes for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing. Very true, I’m sure you’ll agree. Talking/discussing is something, and at least a start.
Would you have everyone who disagrees with certain aspects of government et al to simply up sticks and leave their country like rats deserting a sinking ship? Bit chaotic if that were to happen en mass.
Not to mention that those most desperate to go elsewhere to get a fair crack of the whip are often the ones who can’t afford to, usually financially.
The days of working passage with nothing but the clothes on your back are pretty much gone.
And where would you suggest I go? Let me take a wild guess that you’d suggest North Korea, or Venezuela. Am I perhaps right?
Which rather beggars the question why on earth would I want to jump from the frying pan into the fire? I’d rather stay put and fight for what I believe in, thank you very much!
It may not be much, but as my ex-employer says, “Every little helps.”
JS: Oh, wait, you’re all too plump and comfortably off. Metaphorically for all of you, phyisically for some of you.
No I’m not comfortably well off, and you’re just going to have to take my word for that.
Whether I’m plump or not is none of your business, and what on earth has plumpness got do to with the price of eggs?
May I also point out that there are physically plump people in all walks of life, including amongst the most neo-liberal of neo-liberals. So that was an utterly pointless statement to make, wasn’t it?
Still can’t work out why you included it. Maybe you’re one of those fitness freaks who looks down on anyone carrying a few extra pounds? That seems to me to be the only logical explanation for you including that rather bizarre and very irrelevant comment.
JS: A country where the system you claim to despise works so well for you that you can afford to sit and wring your hands and virtue signal while doing not one single thing that puts that comfort at risk.
Not. One. Single. Thing.
How can you possibly know that not a single reader of this blog hasn’t done stuff to put their money where their mouth is and risking their comfort? Not. One. Single. Thing.
Are you perhaps God Almighty? Is that why you know-it-all and have such amazing insight into what every single person who’s commented on/reads this blog actually does in/with their lives?
How are the robin red breasts getting on around your way? Aren’t you supposed to know all about their actions too, Every. Single. Minute. Of. Every. Single. Day. (Thought I’d take a leaf out of your book there. Hope you don’t mind.)
As an aside, I do believe that most revolutionary concepts were kick-started by the middle/upper classes. Precisely because they’re about the only ones with time on their hands to observe/think and write in the dreaded ‘comfort.’.
Bit difficult to do that if you’re wondering what your next pay check (if any on a Zero Hours contract) will be and if you’ll have enough dosh to feed the leccy meter for the food you can’t really afford, except that cheap, sugar laden rubbish from the likes of Farm Food, which makes you plump into the bargain. At least in the old days poor people were skinny! That was something to be grateful for, wasn’t it?
I do believe Engels was the son of a mill owner, and Marx was decidedly middle class for his sins.
Just what have you got against people having comfort, and having the wherewithal to write blogs, anyway? Isn’t that what humanity, in its stumbling, bumbling way, been striving for over millennia? We are all of us just a decent roof over our heads and 3 square meals a day away from barbarity.
JS: Empty pompous words from the lot of you
If you truly thought that I strongly suspect you’d just dismiss Mr M’s blog as just another load of way out non-sense and promptly forget all about. Clearly he’s hit a nerve or you’d never bother making your own comments.
Also, in my considered opinion, the most empty and pompous words on this thread so far are from you. A good case of the concept of ‘Transference.’ Google it if you don’t know what I mean by that.
Any road up, the DVD player beckons. Even we armchair revolutionary’s hell bent on smashing the system, and then promptly getting smashed on power ourselves, are entitled to a little light relief once in a while. I’m about to watch a kiddie’s film called ‘The Dark Crystal.’
But you’d already know that, wouldn’t you?
Thank you
Sandra Harvey asks:
” and what on earth has plumpness got do to with the price of eggs? ” (or the price of fish as I would say)
It’s a very old fashioned idea that plumpness was a sign of wealth. Dickens would have recognised the charge because the poor were undernourished. The officer class of military recruits for WW1 were on average six inches taller than the enlisted other ranks. Probably a bit ‘plumper’ aswell.
These days the poor are not necessarily undernourished, but frequently badly nourished by junk food substitutes which owe more to the laboratory bench than to the farm. A very profitable industry .
These days being overly plump (medical people call it obese) is more often a signal of poverty than of wealth.
I think perhaps JS is behind the times. Perhaps one of Margaret Thatcher’s New Victorians, revelling in the old fashioned values that promote the revival of Ricketts and TB. Expect some good poetry to emerge as the only fringe benefit of this.
Or maybe JS is just emitting a frustrated cry of pain at what he sees of the world around him and is simply overwhelmed by the task of making anything better.
I have to believe it can better than this. I’m gladdened, daily, that other contributors, and Richard himself believe that too.
Also, Carol, I don’t understand why you should HATE the Israeli Govt. I can understand a loathing for Netanyahu, but he isn’t Israel any more than Trump is USA. Israeli forces have done some terrible things but TBH so have Palestinian terrorists.
The whole situation reminds me of my school days when a huge gang would gather round 2 lads who were going to “have a ruck”. Once the group had gathered it became impossible for either lad to back down even though, it became clear, they weren’t natural fighters & didn’t really want to fight.
If the arabs & Western liberals would shut up about Palestinian rights & the American Republicans would shut up about Israel’s absolute rights of sovereignty, you know they might be able to reach some kind of workable agreement between themselves.
Perhaps ‘hate’ is too strong a word for a humanist socialist;o) But I don’t recall anything good that it’s done recently, not just to the Palestinians but also to our Labour Party.
Carol Wilcox says:
“Perhaps ‘hate’ is too strong a word for a humanist socialist;o) But I don’t recall anything good that it’s done recently, not just to the Palestinians but also to our Labour Party.”
Absolutely right. Particularly if it was their intention to mire the labour party in a fatuous discussion about antisemitism.
Here you are: mired. Arguing the toss with people who are essentially in agreement with you. You have to hand it to them. They’re pretty good at what they do.
eriugenus says:
” I don’t understand why you should HATE the Israeli Govt. ….”
Quite so. They shouldn’t be pilloried. They just need a PR makeover.
Hmmm…..
How do we provide a house and a guaranteed income to everyone choosing to live in any free country?
We may find that freedom from fear of death from disease, flooding and starvation has to remain the top priority.
I look forward to reading about your plans for securing (or is it delivering?) freedom from fear in the rest of the world and then the UK.
Unless you believe it can happen in the UK first?
Why should it not happen here
It has in the past
Waggler says:
“Unless you believe it can happen in the UK first?”
Why not for heaven’s sake? I don’t really approve of Great Britain having had an Empire, but the people of the day thought it was they should do so they got on with it.
They didn’t sit around watching to see what everybody else was doing then meekly follow suit.
The future will be what we make it. For better or worse. It won’t just happen.
“The future will be what we make it.”
Precisely why I write this blog
First we should be helping other countries to rid themselves of the fear of disease, flooding, starvation and death.
We cannot do this alone but perhaps we’ll be asked to lead or coordinate it.
Then we can remove fear of inadequate housing in our own country including our fear of not being able to serve others through our paid and unpaid work.
Hopefully, by then, the rest of the world will be fearless enough to develop their own country’s freedom from fear.
We can as you say help others
We can also lead by example
And it looks to me like you are making excuses: when the rest of the world is in order we will come into line. It’s a standard tax haven argument that suggests they are willing to reform, but not yet
A bit like St Augustine and celibacy
Abbsolutely spot on, Richard.
I too feel ashamed; sadly those in power do not know the meaning of the word.
* Absolutely
Thank you for this article. Says it all.
One aspect of this Windrush event which intrigues me is the lack of enquiry into what stimulated the remarkable and sudden overnight turnaround in attitude to this iniquity by May and her colleagues. The Press by default it would seem, pointed to the letter from a number of cross party MPs who were dissatisfied with the Government’s response but why would that be the stimulus when No 10 had dead-batted the Commonwealth Commisioners request for an audience not to mention the Government’s habit of ignoring cross-party petitions. (As an aside, how do the remaining MPs account for themselves for not signing the letter, I wonder?) So I’m not convinced this was the primary reason for the turnaround.
Neither am I convinced “IT WAS THE GRAUNIAD WOT DUNNIT !!!”. Don’t get me wrong though. The Guardian has again did a remarkable job in persistently drawing attention to the impact of the Government’s vindictive Immigration Policy in general and more recently on its effects on the Windrush Generation. Their Weekend piece giving themselves a well deserved pat-on-the-back for changing No10’s attitude is understandable but personally I feel overstated. While May’s conversion was remarkable, the idea that she would even pay attention to the Guardian is more in the realms of ‘unbelieveable’.
I’m getting too old to remember accurately, but I cannot recall an event in recent times when there has been such a comprehensive epiphany from Ministers. While not quite a ‘mia culpa’ they have certainly prostrated themselves with the ‘I am not worthy’ chorus’. So what was the Primary stimulus?
Well, living in the sticks ‘up North’ what would I know? However, I can speculate on a sunny Sunday morning. Last weekend when May was relaxing after her ‘humanitarian’ intervention in Syria she might have received a ‘call from the Palace’! Of course no Royal correspondent would be allowed to come up with that angle, but the idea that the Palace was going to let the Queen walk into this political and diplomatic storm created by May and her confederates the following week is beyond belief. The phrase “Sort it!” comes to mind.
Believe me, I am no royalist but if my fantasy has any grain of possibility, then reluctantly but on this occasion I have to say Queenie deserves her accolade of “God Bless the Queen”.
Interesting idea
Rae says:
“God Bless the Queen”.
Well that’s a bit too rich for me, but I take your point.
It wasn’t going to be good look if the entire heads of the Commonwealth nations decided to take their bats home.
Oh! and suddenly they are going to be our key trading partners after Brexit.
Aye Right.
Some Humans are more humanist than others.
Selfish instincts combined with fear of the different must be controlled, they naturally come to us all, to some lesser or greater degree, and some of us are more capable of controlling them.
Education plays a great part in the ability to control this, it can be done at every age through home, school, through proper use of the media, through various community action groups.
I especially despise those in power (political, mediatic, economic) who cynically whip up these base instincts to their own end: divide, crush, and rule.
For me, being partly French, the three words I saw outside all public institutions as a child ring right, there not just words, I’ve followed no other “leader”, they’ve lead my life: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.
They are ideals (I know that now, at nearly 60) so they will never be reached, but tending towards them and working to get closer is the only human way to ensure the law of the jungle does not prevail.
The UK, like so many other countries, seems to have lost sight of civilised thinking and given in to jungle-mode.
Is there anyone there to steer us in the right direction?
Will they be allowed to go there by the power of self-interest and finance?
Something has to change, but to me, it feels like an impossible task, people are so crushed, so divided, I cannot see a way out of the jungle.
I have to believe
If only in the power of belief itself
That cannot be taken away
Indeed, the “power of belief” kept Sisyphus going, step by step, until all was well.
Marie Thomas says:
“Something has to change, but to me, it feels like an impossible task, people are so crushed, so divided, I cannot see a way out of the jungle.”
There are three lessons I learned from Network Marketing. (Maybe more)
1) If you offer people ‘change’ it frightens them, unless they are already in a position so bad that anything is worth trying.
2) If you want to build an MLM (Multi Level Marketing, aka Network Marketing) business you do it the way you do anything else. By constant and unremitting effort. To find others who will join you or be your customer (and this applies to any activity) you must observe (practice) ‘The three Foot Rule’ which states that anyone within three feet of you might be interested and if you don’t ask them you will never know.
3) And if you want more people you need MPL: More People Looking. If more people are looking the chances of someone being able to see their way out of the jungle are substantially increased.
Oh ! And fourthly, there are some pretty nasty people in the world but not nearly as many as you think there are. They are very thin on the ground and you won’t bump into them often.
The last is (almost always) true
In response to Andy Crow:
Number 1 describes a lead up to a revolution perhaps, not just a change, but why not, we may well be ready for one soon, the most vulnerable are crushed, ignored, used occasionally when it suits.
But you know who almost always leads revolutions: the educated bourgeoisie who have much to gain, (but also to lose)…do we have enough of those with enough moral courage and political skills to operate a peaceful but considerable change? I hope so, but I’m not sure they’re coming forward quite yet.
Having enough people on board means campaigning, informing, but also inspiring. Tirelessly. This is also what is needed to make people look. They’ll keep their comfy blindfolds unless you give them reason to look.
As the middle class dies expect change
The middle class never likes being declared rdundant
Racism/colonialism – I think the two are related – has been part of the English/UK psyche for centuries. For example, the attempted extirpation of Scottish Gaeldom, socially, economically and culturally is a case in point: https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/the-sorrow-and-the-shame/ (warning: there are some pretty strong statements in this piece)
We’ve been here before, in many parts of the world, much to our shame.
The British are not unique in this, unfortunately. Looking back at History, whenever a people have felt strong enough to expand and take over parts of the world in a weaker position, they have done so. All you need are the right(or wrong in this case) conditions and leaders. Looking ahead, a different sort of colonialism is taking place, perhaps less obviously tinted with racism, but I’m not convinced.
Richard – thank you for articulating my thoughts – and for the (largely) encouraging discussion that ensued here. So depressing that we do not appear to have a significant political movement preparing to deliver your vision. (Please) keep pedalling…………
“Don’t call that socialism because this has nothing to do with the ownership of the means of production, as such. This is about the liberty that only commitment to others and community and place can deliver.”
What would you call it, Richard? You seem to me too intelligent not too understand that Socialism is not built on nostrums, pace Marx, but on a theory of Equality; for instance, that advocated by R. H. Tawny in Equality: https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.275419/2015.275419.Equality#page/n17/mode/2up
taken up by your favoured man, Clement Attlee in The Labour Party in Perspective:
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.262565
The cry of the French Revolution: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. Well, Cain killed off one, before the time of that other socialist, Jesus. And, for this and the next generation, Mr. Clegg has done away with another. And this is not even the second great betrayal of Liberty in this country alone, but the third. So that leaves Equality, which, as you remarked, we had a tiny attempt at, after the Second World War.
The interesting question is: how do we propose to change the culture of the country? By exhortation? By law-making? Where are the first principles in common law, hmmm? When you are surrounded on every side by the dogs of greed and war, as Mr. Corbyn and our supporters are, what support will you rely on? Christianity? The Jewish faith? The Muslim faith? It is a pretty difficult task, you see – and it is made immeasurably more difficult by the inculcation of sociopathy by nearly every public school in this country.
Socialism is a materially based philosophy
Social democracy is not
Well – that’s a matter of opinion. I disagree. I think R. H. Tawney would, as well.
If the ownership of material things becomes a problem, as it has been, for centuries, in this country, well – that needs to be addressed, surely?
I would not want to be associated with Social Democracy after the SDP and Blair, that’s for sure.
A vision of Equality, before the law, in education, for travel, in access to opportunity; where wealth is not a measure of worth – that is another matter entirely.
I wonder how long you have read this blog for
Do you really think I am unconcerned with inequality, including that of wealth? You are seriously wrong if you do
What I said this was not the sole issue: I think socialism made it such
I think Tawney might be on my side on that
And to suggest that Blair defined social democracy is, politely, absurd
“Do you really think I am unconcerned with inequality, including that of wealth? You are seriously wrong if you do”
No, and I did not say that, Richard. Thank you for your response. The point I am trying to make, obviously incompetently, is that Social Democracy, such as it is, whether promoted by Crossland, the Fabian Society, or anybody else, always seems to end up in its own blind alley, not to say, with a character like Blair.
And I did not accuse you of not caring about Equality – I was worried that there seemed to be no underpinning to what you were arguing. I have been following your excellent blog for about three weeks. Very informative and enjoyable – thank you.
[…] wrote yesterday about the importance of commitment. It is the foundation of the freedom from fear to which I believe our society should […]
Michael Westcombe says:
“Don’t call that socialism because …..
……..Socialism is not built on nostrums, pace Marx, but on a theory of Equality;…”
Michael, you put your finger right onto one of the great hot spots of political division. Since you employ biblical references, I assume you’ll be familiar with the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. Most people are seriously uncomfortable with that story because if taken as about financial reward for labour. That was the analogy not the point of the story. The point of the story is that it is an analogy for the boundless love of God and the ‘social order’ of the kingdom of Heaven….or something like that.
We do not believe in equality. We believe people should be rewarded proportionately for their effort and that success should be rewarded. We’ve got way out of kilter in the scale and distribution of rewards, but that’s another matter.
What Richard calls ‘social democracy’ in not about equality (although equality in the sight of the law is something we would do well to re-establish) What we need to do in the material welfare context is forget about the vexed and fruitless fight for equality and focus our attention on the idea of ‘Fairness’
It’s still complicated, and highly subjective, but negotiable.
Equality is a blind alley.
Well, there you and I disagree. Is it fair that access to the law should be a matter of wealth? I think not, and I believe that you would agree with me, here. That is the subject of Equality – it has very little todo with some vague notion of “fairness”.
“We believe people should be rewarded proportionately for their effort and that success should be rewarded” Who is to judge? Ah. This is all about status, not political philosophy. It is something that I utterly reject, out of hand. The end result is that the banker gets rewarded more than the carer. What could possibly be more ludicrous than that?
Ah, the Bible. Yes. Well here is how your story ends, and a fair reading would give me the argument, not you:
Matthew 20:
13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Every labourer got a penny, the late as well as the early, because that was the price agreed.
Equality, no? 😉
No one here is arguing that there is a need for equality
But your version is far too narrow to be useful in the twenty first century, I suggest
Michael Westcombe says:
“Well, there you and I disagree.
Not at All, Michael. You reiterate all the points I made.
As to the biblical story. The point is that it works, in game theory terms, as a single transaction on one day; as an analogy of a life where there is not ‘perfect information’ (one of the conditions Keynes noted was essential to a functional market)
If the game is repeated as an employment policy it doesn’t transfer well because by about day three nobody will be turning up for work until the final whistle. No grapes will picked (assuming the workers have no other motivation than making a wage)
Andy Crow says: “We do not believe in equality.”
Well I do. OK, absolute equality is probably impossible, (but not undesirable, perhaps?) so I’m willing to negotiate.
“We believe people should be rewarded proportionately for their effort and that success should be rewarded. We’ve got way out of kilter in the scale and distribution of rewards, but that’s another matter.”
So what proportions? I don’t think success should be rewarded beyond a reasonable proportion unless you can define how much is due to individual brilliance and how much to other factors, such as birth & parental wealth, luck and other factors beyond anyone’s control. So it comes back to proportionality. I would go with the Ecology BS – somewhere between 4 & 5 to 1.
And isn’t “fairness” just a consumer-friendly version of equality?
Right on, brother! 😎 😀
Andy Crow says: “We do not believe in equality.”
G Hewitt says: ” Well I do.”
And immediately qualifies that by saying :” OK, absolute equality is probably impossible,”
Of course it is. That’s why it’s a blind alley. What is the point of proclaiming the impossible. ? However you do say you are ‘willing to negotiate.’ and I find that encouraging.
So just how much wiggle room are we to allow to the the concept of equality ? A little bit? a tad more ? How about we adjust it until we think it’s …..Fair ?
You might prefer ‘just’ but that has baggage with it and has been corrupted to mean in compliance with arcane dictates of law. A small child understands the concept of what is and what is not, fair.
I did say : ‘Fairness’ is ‘still complicated, and highly subjective, but negotiable.’
And I did note the proviso that equality in the sight of the law is something else entirely and we should be fighting to rehabilitate the idea. Not least by making the courts affordable (free) to everyone who requires justice (which could be any of us at any time).
Thank you for this article Richard….
I totally agree with every word written.