I worry about politics. In the US yesterday, a pro-Trump candidate defeated the pretty far-right US Senator Liz Cheney in the Republican primary for Wyoming, meaning that Cheney, whose crime has been to criticise Trump over the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021., will lose her seat. Supporting insurrection and the violent overthrow of government now has widespread support in the USA.
And here the unedifying Tory leadership debacle continued with hustings in Perth last night. I watched some of it. There was the predictable denial of democratic choice there too. The Tories might change their minds four times since 2016, but Scotland is denied the opportunity to change its mind about the Union, and the rest of us are refused the chance to revisit Brexit. Choice is now, apparently, only available to the right wing. Just as the left can apparently be cancelled with government consent now despite the Tory obsession with cancel culture, democracy is an option only if it reinforces the opinion of the upper echelons of the Tory Party and the opinions of the Daily Mail.
Democracy was what defined liberalism, which in turn delivered the possibility of freeing people from material poverty by the creation of a social and economic safety net within society. The Tories are now very definitely following the Republicans in seeking to deny us democratic choice. We should all be worried. Our survival depends in turn on the survival of democracy: nothing else will deliver the changes to society that will prevent climate meltdown. I am fearful for both.
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Totally with you Richard – though I note you seem to be gaining some traction, and tehre is widespread, openly spoken about anger at the treatment being dished out to us, and a great deal of fear about what is to come, such as I’ve never heard people express in my liftime….
I hope there is traction
I am back to antibiotics again…
Bloody Covid
Sorry to hear you are still not recovered from Covid. I have been lucky; have had all the jabs but been infected twice – fortunately with very little impact. I think you need to have a complete rest – at least for a few days. Much as we need your (lonely) voice of sanity crying out in the wilderness of our sorry democracy, I worry that it is taking its toll on your health. Best wishes for a full recovery.
I have booked a holiday…
“I am back to antibiotics again…
Bloody Covid”
Why are you taking antibiotics for Covid? Covid is a viral infection. Antibiotics treat bacterial infections.
As the Journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society noted last year
“Bacterial co-infection is unusual in noncritical COVID-19 cases, so we must reduce our antibiotic prescribing
Antibiotics are rarely indicated for COVID-19…. Antimicrobial resistance has not gone away, so we must not forget our stewardship principles.”
The viral infection I have is well documented as Covid related
If you really think there are no side effects of Covid you really have totally misunderstood it
As one living in Northern England and looking at the current state of the Tories, I would happily support Scottish independence.
But…………
The border must be drawn just South of Birmingham !
It’s the human disease that is it fascism isn’t it once again raising its ugly head.
My view is that we know that we are coming to the end of what has been an industrial period that we have know for so long as to be unsustainable. So now, some of us who have benefitted from that and wish to continue to do so.
So, we have to be pushed off the scent and new problems and foes have to be found to take our mind of our own demise.
And fascism is the method.
But what goes around comes around – Cheney’s Dad was an absolute dark force – I always look back the Valerie Plame case (the covert CIA agent who was named in an apparent political reprisal).
British politics is a laughing stock and dysfunctional; American politics can be a venal open sewer in comparison but then totally surprises us with something positive. But you are right:- it’s a bit tightrope at the moment and democracy is not safe.
My concern is the government is now so extreme and unhinged they will (try to) :
1. defer the next GE “indefinitely” by any means available and /or
2. take actions to stymie the GE to such a degree it’s bereft of any democratic value
[2019 GE was not a democratic election IMO.. I don’t think we’ve had anything close to true democracy since well before the referendum]
Either case – ramming through so many destructive bills and structural spanners-in-the-works in the meanwhile that it takes decades to roll back
My worst fears since the demise of “moderate” (relatively!) May and the rise of far right fascists are materialising
You are achieving traction, and I hope that continues as we need national level consciousness-raising
Enjoy your holiday Richard, Come back refreshed.
It’s not yet