The FT has reported President Obama as saying last night that:
This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win.
Evidence to support this hypothesis has been reported. But I am not commenting on the US election by noting what Obama said. What I am interested in is the growing belief that the rules do not matter any more.
The evidence for this is widespread.
Cummings, Gove and Johnson give contracts for hundreds of millions to their friends without a tendering process.
Matt Hancock tears down a public entity employing thousands without consultation or parliamentary consent and appoints a friend with a long record of failure to head its replacement.
Priti Patel posts tweets regretting the death of a 16 year old refugee in the English Channel but continues to send gunboats and demonise those desperate people who try to make that crossing.
The Daily Mail does nothing to stop those gloating about his death.
And the Chancellor intends to end furlough support for those who might be unemployed and smaller businesses whilst continuing programmes to support the City.
Do they think we don't notice?
Is it that they think there are enough gloaters in the Mail to get them re-elected, because they are undoubtedly real?
Or have they been so corrupted by neoliberal thinking that the means do not matter any more, and only the end does?
I cannot answer those questions. that is because I cannot comprehend mindsets that think as these people do. It's not just that their lack of ethics and empathy repulse me, it is their greed and indifference based in a sense of wholly unjustified entitlement that I cannot understand.
And yet I know this is the issue we must face. In the face of blatant corruption, in the sense of the distortion of all that we have thought to be appropriate in public life, we have to make clear why standards matter. And given the deep seated nature of that corruption now that is going to be hard.
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There is no respect for the rule of law any more. That’s where the tax avoidance mind set adopted by the elite leads. One law for the little people, no rules for them. Our independent justice system is anything but. Corrupted by the elite so they can get away with anything and used as a tool to persecute those who stand against them like Julian Assange and Craig Murray. It all went downhill when Tony Blair stopped the British Aerospace prosecution. Money is the only thing that matters to these people.
Anyone who takes the time to reflect comes to the same conclusion as you, Richard. But Radio 4 Vox Pop in the former ‘red wall’ areas, revealed that the former Labour heartland voters, that went Tory in the election, still think the government is doing a good job in difficult circumstances.
It will take quite some time before these folks will accept they have been seriously misled.
I suppose that what gets me is the continued spinelessness of what should be moderate Tory MPs keeping their heads down. I understand why they do that, but I do wonder how they will reflect on their unwillingness to stand up and speak out for all the people they are supposed to serve.
“The Daily Mail does nothing to stop those gloating about his death.”
What, exactly would you have the Daily Mail do? Their story I just read online called the death a ‘humanitarian crisis’ and a ‘heartbreaking tragedy’.
There as no ‘gloating’ in their story at all.
The only person I can see trying to exploit this incident is you, using it to put an unwarranted boot into the Daily Mail.
I am referring to the comments under the story – which they have permitted
What might they do? Easy: they could block all who post such comments
And don’t tell me they could not do it. I do. Trolls are not welcome here. As you will discover.
“they could block all who post such comments”
Perhaps they believe in freedom of speech on their website? Something you clearly do not. You won’t post anything that shows up your hypocrisy and block anyone as soon as they show they know more about a subject and hold an opinion different to your own. Your blog is an empty echo chamber. I assume that is why you so rarely venture outside it.
Freedom of speech does not require tolerance of those who celebrate the death of an asylum seeker
Nor does it require that I allow those who want to abuse here so that proper debate is stifled – which is the aim of those who use this argument
You can have your own websites
I do not seek to stop you having them
I, therefore, support freedom of speech.
But I will readily pop9int out those who abuse
I would go so far as to suggest that the Mail may be acting illegally by allowing such comments since, I suggest, they incite racial hatred
I’d go one further, Richard.
As laid out in the ECHR, freedom of speech explicitly excludes hate speech.
Therefore there is no room for tolerance of comments exalting the death of a refugee, anywhere.
However, many believe freedom of speech gives them cover to say whatever they want, whenever they want, which is evidently wrong, and is a misunderstanding people need to be re-educated about.
“I cannot comprehend mindsets that think as these people do.”.. that’s because you are not inside their “normalising bubble” – where everything looks fine and – by definition – normal. It is a self sustaining system – developed over time – the link goes to a useful document which adds further detail:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/a-corruption-of-conservatism-how-a-cartel-of-tory-mps-broke-british-politics/
the trajectory is, UK as a min-me USA, no NHS, no safety nets nothing.
The English cannot claim that this has not been well flagged – it has & with the current crimi-death-clown “government” it is well on the path to a truly dismal future. Not that on current reckoning English serfs seem to care (exception: many visiting this blog).
Accepted
But I still find the corruption of the sensibilities that define us as human beings required to reach this po8int incomprehensible
Maybe I do not want to comprehend it
Here in Australia the government is just as corrupt. Only New Zealand among English speaking nations has shown it has a heart.
I keep commenting with sorrow: voting intention Tory 43, Labour 37 (14th August figures). Mencken got it right: “No one lost money through under-estimating the stupidity of the populace”.
The margin has reduced now
But they’re still ahead
Which is staggering
You are right to think to think that Daily Mail blindness to corruption and cronyism is in comprehensible. I think (but no hard evidence or data to go on) that it is years and decades of the tiny elite and the old boys public school/Oxbridge/Bullingdon that the toffs can do what they like and if and when are found out can pay for expensive law firms to defend them. Daily Mail editors and journalists are so entranced with these people who have been brought up as thinking of their “betters” and owe them obedience will not make a murmur of protest. If the public cant see the cronyism of Cummings getting away with his Durham/Yorkshire eye test run and with the recent allocation of more or less secret contracts for NHS equipment, Tower Hamlets development tax dodging by HM ministers then we are in a sorry state. Thankfully commentators like Richard Murphy are doing their best to expose these lies and hypocrisy of HM Government.
The continued lead that opinion polling gives to the Tories comes as no surprise to me.
The right wing press have a captive audience, that was brought home to me this:
A friend of mine subscribes to the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. He recently complained to me that a Labour standpoint on a particular issue was unacceptably “ideological”, whereas the Conservative was not. He was visibly shocked when I pointed out chapter and verse how his standpoint was thoroughly “ideological”, and Labour was being realistic and pragmatic.
He is an otherwise intelligent and successful man, but his example serves to show how propagandised and bamboozled the electorate of this country are.
I hold no candles, but the idea that “a Corbyn government would have been much worse” rings increasingly hollow.
My father read The Telegraph his whole life
Amongst the many things I rebelled against that he espoused was readership of The Telegraph
He appeared to be an intelligent man but was thoroughly indoctrinated.
Steve Bannon has been charged with fraud. Should we judge politicians by the company they keep?
https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/steve-bannon-charged/h_dc87c19146ecadb7f5adba4f5bd09838
Yes
Farage
Rees Mogg
There is a glimmer of light in the USA where some leading republicans are declaring for Biden, extolling his virtues as being “decent”, even though they disagree with his policies. We need some decent Tory MPs (I still live in hope that there are some) to follow their lead.
I live in a constituency with an Eton-educated Tory M.P. I think that it is more likely that Hell will freeze over than that he would support anyone but the Tory party.
The “teenager” who sadly drowned turned out to be 28( or maybe not, who knows without legit paperwork). The British tabloid media is indeed a malign for me, not just in itself , but in how it frames the broadcast media news agenda daily; and also how issues are taken up on digital platforms. I was lucky to study sociology at LSE and the State University of New York at Stony Brook: this gave me the analytical tools to critically read the malign tabloids (I regularly read the Mail, Sun and Torygraph broadsheet). Liberals need to read these to see how opinion can be manufactured over time: this was ultimately why Corbyn lost. Huge swathes of especially northern England voters told reporters and opinion pollsters they could not vote Labour while he was leader. Considerably less than 0.01% of those asked would ever have met Corbyn.But they voted for a party led by a dangerous, indolent, amoral, dissembling, reprobate buffoon, who has no interest in their life problems. Grand victory to billionaire-owned press magnates, who reside abroad ☹ï¸
After several years I’m re-reading The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell and I’ve just got to the part where Tressell is summarising the groups of men out on a “Beano”, and the Socialists, quote ” never encountered their opponents but to defeat them, was a powerful testimony to the accuracy of their reasonings and the correctness of their conclusions – and yet they were undoubtedly mad….They entertained the delusion that it is possible to reason with demented persons…. “
It IS the issue we face……
What are we going to do ?
Are there 3.5% of us who are concerned enough? What do we coalesce around?
Edmund Burke rings ever louder in my head –
“All that is necessary for evil to triumph……” etc.
The US are better off than the UK, they have (imperfect) checks & balances which will get activated if the abuse of power by one administration goes too far, as it does now.
It will be tested as it was during the McCarthy era, it may take time but it will be used.
The UK is in a much worse position.
Parliament is paralysed, courageous MPs are a minority.
The education system is socially divided and divisive.
The people are easily indoctrinated by a rotten press and a compliant state-controlled BBC, and most don’t even read/listen to it, they just get it second hand through their community’s loud mouths.
A bit like Covid, those populist slogans spread though minds exponentially. The least educated or informed people are, the more they get infected.
The electoral system is unfair, so unrepresentative. Very useful when you want people disengaged, they may know or understand little of politics or governance, but they eventually realise votes don’t count the way they should, so they stop voting.
The Judiciary & the Police are far too close to the executive power. All very cosy.
Think Tanks run the roost, spreading their bosses’ messages, unchecked hotbeds of puppets.
Corruption is no longer just rampant.
It’s not Johnson-Cummings at the helm, they’re just facilitators for high finance, money launderers, press barons, ‘entrepreneurs’ only interested in accumulating wealth. Wealth & power addicts, sociopaths.
The UK has been sold off. It’s probably the least sovereign consortium in Western Europe.
There’s more to sell though, so they need to keep going till there’s nothing left.
How do we get it to be healthier? Where do we start…
Middle of tunnel moment. Not sure where it ends.
In hope
That may be all we have
Corruption and a willingness to break rules has always been with us. What has changed is that, in some circles, it’s seen as a badge of honour–not something to hide.
Corrupt elected officials and the people working behind the scenes to enable them make little or no attempt to hide what they’re doing any more. Good journalists keep uncovering these messes–but too many people just don’t care, or refuse to ‘believe.’ Corrupt governments get tons of votes from the people their policies are actually hurting.
It’s that factor we urgently need to address. The ‘so what?’ response. Maybe this has got to get a lot worse before it gets better? Dunno. I look at the direct attack on the Postal Service in the USA, and think …will this be the issue that wakes people up? It might be, as the service seems to be backtracking on some of the changes. I can only hope.
For us, it might be Brexit. Actual Brexit, as in 1 January 2021 Brexit. When suddenly everything stops. It’s going to affect Tory voters same as everybody else, except the howlingly rich ones who have already fixed their escape route. But somebody who voted Tory and now can’t get their medication, or their food, and their business folds because it can no longer trade overseas? Sometimes folks need to get their heads slammed against the immovable object, before they pay attention.
Or it might be the death of the NHS.
Meanwhile, the rest of us suffer as well, and grow VERY angry….
Richard Murphy. I hope that you do not mind that I have used your article in a letter to my MP. Unfortunately it will be a waste of my time as Richard Drax is a bigoted died-in-the wool neo-liberal ERG member. I have asked him what he is doing as a back-bencher to counter being locked out of parliamentary debate on major decisions.
You are welcome…
Latest edition of By-Line times is excellent on this.
https://bylinetimes.com/
Who would have thought that the Plymouth Brethren are so well connected?