Seeing a headline like this in The Observer this morning is worrying:
The message from the far-right Covid deniers is that to lead the Tories you have to be willing to kill people.
In some sense there is little new about this. The Conservative Party has always been led by people willing to kill others. That was implicitly required by the tales of empire and suppression on which the Tory myth was built. The difference is that this time those under attack are the population of this country.
More worrying is that I have very little doubt that this demand will be heeded. Those same people who demand that two or more people gathered together in protest be considered a criminal threat to society are simultaneously willing to declare freedom for the right of those who wish to spread a virus that we know on the basis of all reasonable scientific evidence to be a massive threat to life, and thereafter to the economy and much else that we value.
The evidence that Tory party and sanity have parted company is complete. Brexit always made the case. Unnecessary austerity that caused vastly more harm then it ever delivered in supposed good was the foundation. But now we know that matters have moved beyond stupidity. They have now entered the realm of evil.
No one is sure who first said that only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, but what we all recognise is the truth in it.
I suggest that the failure of the government to take major measures to limit the spread of Covid this week, acting at the behest of its right wing and those who would curry favour with them to win the Tory party leadership, would be an evil act.
The question to ask in that case is what do we do about it, when assembling en masse only helps them achieve their goal of massive numbers of deaths from this disease?
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“…….The Conservative Party has always been led by people willing to kill others.”
At least we can take some comfort that, this time, that the virus doesn’t discriminate and is just as likely to infect leading Tories as anyone else!
Whereas I share your loathing of the Tories and Johnson in particular, I feel I should point out the following. It is an article of faith for leaders of any party elected to power in Britain that they have to be prepared to
push the button on our so called independent nuclear deterrent. The media demand it and people who will not blatantly say they are killers are outed. Like a certain JC. All our leaders and parties are therefore willing to commit mass murder (even the blessed Nicola) and if the truth was known about the activities of our “special forces” overseas then all our PM’s would be feeling the heat on war crimes, not just Tony Blair.
Clearly killing our own citizens ought to be thought beyond the pale but they have been doing it for generations in full knowledge of the lethal impact of air pollution and industrial and agricultural chemicals. My own father, was killed by asbestos induced mesothelioma a few years back arising from a lifetime in the building trade.
This appears to be the price all governments, their supporters and voters for them seem prepared to pay for the benefits of industrial civilisation. All governments globally are complicit to some degree. Many have done a better job than ours on Covid but interestingly in Sweden they have done very little and still managed to do a lot better than us. Guess I should be relieved that although I have voted in every election since 1979 I have never elected an MP or a government.
Please remember that we do not have a prime ministerial button for our nuclear deterrent. The reason is in the name. It is not, so we are led to believe, a first-strike weapon, which the idea of having such a button would imply.
It is designed to be used in the event of a prior strike on Britain.
The first act of a newly appointed British PM is to write letters of instruction that are kept in the captain’s safe onboard our Trident submarines.
In the event of Britain being incinerated in a nuclear attack, when the Trident captain has decided that we – that means us- are defunct, they are instructed to open the letter and carry out the instructions contained therein. The interesting point is that it might not be to launch the nuclear-armed missiles, but possibly to sail to the nearest friendly naval base.
The idea that PM’s have a nuclear button is another of those silly Establishment obfuscations, similar to austerity and “not having enough” or “running out of” money.
“Would you be prepared to press the button?” is, as a question, as dishonest in reality as the answer “Yes”.
Karl. The nuclear button is a metaphor for what we all hope is a complex process with controls built in. A quote from Wikipedia “In April 2017 Defence Secretary Michael Fallon confirmed that the UK would use nuclear weapons in a “pre-emptive initial strike” in “the most extreme circumstances”.Fallon stated in a parliamentary answer that the UK has neither a ‘first use’ or ‘no first use’ in its nuclear weapon policy so that its adversaries would not know when the UK would launch nuclear strikes.”
That doesn’t sound like no first use to me and with pathological liars like Johnson leading the country I have no confidence in the nuclear position at all. I could live with defensive deterrence but the way Britain throws its weight about in a manner that increases the risk to the people of this country making them less secure, makes me think that Johnson could bite off more than we can chew. Who cannot doubt from his record that Johnson is prone to miscalculation. As were his predecessors. Events in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and the Black Sea bear this out. Just a few of the many faces of evil. Stupid evil being just as bad as fiendish. All with the same root, money.
I have never believed in the nuclear deterrent, whoever was in office
Karl
With regard to no first use – the situation has changed recently, as stated in https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/16/defence-review-uk-could-use-trident-to-counter-cyber-attack.
We could now use them to attack teenagers in their bedrooms who are hacking computer systems in the UK – what could possibly go wrong?
I’m puzzled by Phil’s assertion that Nicola (presumably Sturgeon) would be “willing to commit mass murder” (presumably by ordering the firing of a nuclear missile). By what stretch of the imagination would that ever be possible? UK’s nuclear armaments are kept in Scotland against the wishes of the Scottish Gov and the majority of the Scottish people and it’s beyond all imagination that the UK’s security forces would ever permit, intentionally or by accident, the First Minister of Scotland, either under the current structures or after a future Scottish independence, to have access to the processes for activating a nuclear strike. C’mon get real!
Hi Ken, of course I appreciate that Nicola Sturgeon does not have control over nuclear launches. She is however a career politician who would have no trouble making an assertion of a kind that she would “press the button” if she thought it was in her political interests. We have a careerist political class who are more concerned with feathering their own nests than the interests of the public. Witness the family control over which the SNP and Scots legal system is held. Any one less self serving would respect the need for division of power and transparency in decision making.
Leaving aside for the moment the question of nuclear retaliation, what worries me is that we are being led by an ideological infestation of right wingers within the Tory party who have no consideration for the welfare of the population as a whole.
These manic free marketeers are only driven by crazy ideals and who are ignorant of the real world realities. Sadly, for the previous two decades, they have infested the government of the day and are classic examples of the Dunning-Kruger effect so eloquently explained in a previous post. In addition the current government exemplifies the same effect in its ignorance.
You know, I really this article this morning but as I am feeling totally “run over by a bus” it passed me by in a haze of Lem Sip induced stupor. Now that I have come down from my Paracetamol high I read it again and have now read this article and it’s replies.
Is it me, or within the replies so far is there a distinct lack of “don’t really give a fuck” ? It seems the semantics of whether or not we are going to help obliterate this planet or sail to a still smoldering port to surrender them to whoever are more important.
FFS, we are talking about a bunch of upper class scum who don’t care if they kill thousands, as long as it does not stop their money flowing in. What is wrong with people? Why are we not out, now, on the streets, with pitchforks and torches if necessary, forcing these chinless fuckers to take a swim in the shit infested waters they have helped to create?
I know it’s radical, but nothing is going to get done unless something happens, and no, not more politician talk shop meetings. If the people of this country, of whatever political persuasion, don’t take a stand and say “enough”, there may be no country left to call a country, unless you have the money to get the hell out of Dodge.
I am not normally a violent person, but I want to see out the last of my life with some dignity, and the feeling that a lifetime of working and paying taxes has at least done a meager amount of good. As it stands just now, I just see this shit show continuing onwards, even under a future Labour Government, I mean, what are their policies, what is their message, give us a shot ‘cos we can’t be as bad as that lot?
I despair!
You are not alone
As I said last week, Truss and Sunak have Johnson’s demise top of all agendas and with a constituency comprising the Tory Party and the Covid Recovery group, absolutely nothing sensible can result. I can think of no more polite descriptor than brainless ideologues. Only cunning and knowledge of your prey is required for success in the jungle.
“ Only cunning and knowledge of your prey is required for success in the jungle.”
……and sadly I can’t see this in any of the opposition parties.