Whilst the government sinks into a mire of its own creation the FT is focussing on the legacy of its corruption in its editorial this morning.
As their headline notes:
The first paragraph says:
In defence of their own indefensible conduct this government is seeking to destroy democracy as we know it.
Get angry about Christmas parties, by all means.
Do, however, remember what the the real threat is. These people are seeking to cement their right to be corrupt forever into our law. That is what is actually happening.
The FT is right to focus on the big issue. As Downing Street parties the last vestiges of our democracy are being destroyed. No wonder they think they have something to celebrate. This was always their plan.
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Off topic.. just sharing in case you haven’t seen this yet : https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/10/spending-without-taxing-now-were-all-guinea-pigs-in-an-endless-money-experiment
I will be responding as soon as I can
As usual with articles in the Guardian on the subject of money & governments, vast numbers of straw men are errected & the time allowed for people to make comments is very limited.
“Other than nature’s free bounty (sic), everything has a cost” – in one short sentence, Das managed to trash the planet as well as MMT.
??
The problem with the erosion of civil liberties is not what tory incompetents will do with the new-found laws, but rather what Liebore are likely to do with them. Because at some point Liebore will get into power – and sitting in front of them will be a nice pile of laws that will allow them to supress dissent. Starmer is a nasty piece of work ditto the people surrounding him. If you think the toryscum are bad, wait for the next lot. The link to the article below provides the back story on Starmer.
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/06/05/five-questions-for-new-labour-leader-sir-keir-starmer-about-his-uk-and-us-national-security-establishment-links/
The tories are writing the playbook for future governments.
Starmer has been busy practicing on Labour members, and barely a day seems to pass without another attempt to alienate them.
Latest example : Labour has suspended a Merseyside branch that tabled a motion demanding Keir Starmer’s resignation after he wrote a column for the Sun (Merseysides least favorite MSM in the wake of Hillsborough, over which feelings still run high).
The Ford branch of Bootle Labour tabled the motion, which was passed unanimously by outraged members of the constituency party (CLP) – and has now been suspended by the party in what locals consider a revenge attack for the branch daring to call out Starmer for his actions.
https://skwawkbox.org/2021/12/08/labour-suspends-bootle-branch-that-demanded-starmer-resign-over-sn-column/
The Skwawkbox is a good source of what is going on within Labour at the moment, and I suggest that anyone who believes Starmer is a moderate should check it out.
The trend of the government’s legislation programme is very worrying indeed. A governing party packed with self-styled “libertarians” enacts legislation that will abolish or erode age-old freedoms and rights.
The issues are discussed in more detail in the latest article by Media Lens:
https://www.medialens.org/2021/a-christmas-tale-the-downing-street-party-laughter-and-bigger-state-crimes/
And today we learn that Julian Assange is to be extradited by the country whose war crimes he reported. The extradition agreement with the US is asymmetrical and unfair. So much for “taking back control”. The UK has become a client state of the USA.
“The UK has become a client state of the USA.” Precisely
And the outrageous, asymetrical extradition treaty was negotiated by David Blunkett, one of New Labour’s worst. His record as Home Secretary is equalled by his time as Education Secretary, where his efforts to maintain the disastrous Thatcherite settlement were monumental.
Blunkett is now advising the current Labour leadership. https://twitter.com/mish_rahman/status/1464920782111453184?t=Hn-Dzs2PmHulxYgdToNvsA&s=19
This whole debacle just shows why we now need a written Constitution in addition to a Bill of Rights. Relying on custom and practice is fine when you have decent and honourable politicians, but when you have charlatans and chancers, as now have on both sides of Parliament, we will just sink lower and lower as a country.
The problem is that given the public apathy in the U.K. I wonder how far we have to sink as a country before the public wake up and start to address this.
This is what happens when Neo-liberal/Libertarian monopolist business attitudes infect politics: you get dictatorships which are actually the public sector versions of monopolies aren’t they?
Just think of poor old Chile and Pinochet.
The fixed term parliament act for example is nothing more than a get out clause for any sclerotic ruling party to keep itself going (avoiding valid competition from those organised to rule effectively) whilst it effectively stops ruling and argues with itself.
We know from reading (say) the ‘Road to Mont Pelerin’ that the Neo-libs were not really for real competition. Since Neo-liberal ideas became Trojan horses for the aims and objectives of distinctly monopolistic private sector practitioners (and funders) we should hardly be surprised at the result. And we must remember that Neo-liberalism itself has benefitted from the profits of established monopoly power – not from new market entrants – so it’s likely to favour monopolies anyway for its own survival.
It’s monopoly power that undoes us over and over again. Another chicken coming home to roost bequeathed to us by one Margaret Hilda Thatcher.
And as the world seems to be hurtling towards some sort of ecological denouement, those monopolies I’m afraid will increase their grip on everything.
Starmer was DPP. You do not get that post without MI5 approval. The leader of the Labour Party is MI5 approved. The point is not rhetorical. Observe the ruthless, unrelenting attack on the Party membership alluded to in other posts here. This is NOT conspiracy theory. It is fact and of course explains the failure of the Opposition to oppose. It is NOT failure. It is POLICY.
Tory regimes always descend into chaos and calumny.
I have no doubt that this disgraceful bill will not prevent the customary and predictable riots.
The Governments assault on democracy may provide the opportunity removed by Brexit for me to live in France. It may be that, as an opponent of this cabal of right-wing extremists it’s as someone seeking political asylum but every cloud and all that and no, if you take this to its logical extreme, I’m not joking
Yes to all the above, and thank you all.
Just a note to say that Liberty has a petition at
https://action.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/page/78339/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=Website
and both they and opendemocracy.net are organising campaigns to write to MPs.
Living abroad, I have no further ideas to help, I’m afraid.