The news this morning can be summarised in one word, which is ‘staggering'.
Rishi Sunak staggers on as prime minister. He won the vote on the second reading of the Rwanda Bill last night. No one really believes he will win the vote on the third.
The Tories as a party also stagger on, but are so divided that there are now at least six parties within the party, and yet all of them deny the need for proportional representation, so out of touch with reality are they.
COP28 staggers on, with no one now believing that it will be a success, and with the crisis of dealing with the financial power of oil companies now being apparent to everyone. The dilemma of ‘dollars today, live tomorrow' appears to be insurmountable at present. Blame the business schools who have taught this absurd mantra.
US policy on Israel is also staggering. Its rejection of yet another United Nations demand for a ceasefire continues to discredit it, just as the UK continues to be discredited by its abstentions on the issue, even when Biden has been forced into finally criticising the Netanyahu regime in Israel, which probably now makes him an official anti-Semite in the USA, so staggeringly extreme is their position.
Elsewhere, staggering too is the position of Labour, which still cannot bring itself to use the word ceasefire when talking of Gaza.
And in the real world, the death by suicide of an extremely talented Cameroonian doctor held on the Bibby Stockholm should remind us of the staggering indifference in this country to the plight of real people desperate for freedom who seek asylum here, in response to which we, staggeringly, see the Tories seek to deny us our own freedoms.
And, staggeringly, all this is happening as I see the Christmas lights go up on houses around my little city, supposedly celebrating the birth of a person who was destined for a mission to bring ‘peace on earth and goodwill to all people'.
Staggeringly, it seems that we have completely forgotten that fact.
I refuse to do so. That continues to be my hope, whatever the idiots who think themselves to be in charge do. I'll stagger on believing that is the right thing to do, whatever they say.
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Quite right and well said Richard. Was JC ‘destined’ or like what this shabby country does, was he ‘detained’?
The BBC Scotland News interviewers cannot even work out the difference between the important points in an issue, from a red herring; even when it is starkly obvious. In an interview with a Scottish Labour MSP on immigration, GMS this morning, the interviewer focuses on the Rwanda policy; challenges the interviewee on why Labour do not give the Rwanda policy a chance, to see if the Government policy of “deterrence” works, when £200m+ has already been spent; and then asks almost as an aside whether 750,000 immigrants is an acceptable number to Labour; without it even dawning on her that the small boats account for only a fraction of the 750,000; do the maths and it is 4%-6% of total immigration (based on ONS/Home Office Stats). The BBC is focusing on a Government policy that does not even address the substantive immigration issue, and that the government must know is a policy of communications deflection from the issue – because the conservatives never, ever had any intention of reducing immigration – they just want the reputation of being anti-immigrant to appease their core support. The Rwanda policy is blatantly obviously a Conservative PR stunt (and always has been), and the BBC frankly do not have sufficient spine or independence of mind or spirit to do other than follow the prescribed Right Wing Press Agenda.
BBC Scotland is not fulfilling its duty to inform the public. When is anyone going to stand up – for the facts?
John
We live in a world addled by Fascism, which means unfortunately that feelings have the same status as facts and worse, make better copy.
Add in the blatant lies from Neo-liberalism about money and we have a perfect storm of There Is No Alternative – the Eternity Politics as described by Tim Snyder.
The ‘road’ to unfreedom? I think we’ve arrived.
And the biggest joke of all is this hasn’t been brought to us by an extreme version of the Left as the West has predicted – it’s been brought to us by the ‘freedom’ loving Right.
We’ve been had big time.
I give one non-partisan piece of advice for my students who are registering to vote or are reaching the voting milestone:
“While there are honest politicians, the default is at best selective truth, at worst outright lies. Politics, like picking pockets, is the art of distraction from reality. You owe it to yourself to research context, facts and contrasting views before you donate your vote”.
What I don’t say to them:
“Since the mid 70s, the Right has been accusing the Left and Centre of that which they themselves are busy doing – principally, subverting order, probity and democracy”.
The UK education system and media largely deny voters the information, the political system any power. Einstein (1949!) and Sagan both warned that the process was almost complete.
As you say, our sorry state of affairs has been brought upon us primarily by the Right, with perverted ‘liberty’ based on individualism, “there’s no such thing as society” and so on. But I think the root of it is postmodern philosophy that undermines the idea of objective truth and our ability to find truth (at least some of it) by seeking evidence and using critical thinking. Much of the media focus on feelings, impressions and opinions, because that’s the mental paradigm of their viewers, listeners and readers.
John – using that 4-6% figure doesn’t help in my view.
Here’s an example why.
Suppose net migration next year is 300k leave, 400k arrive and the number of small boat arrivals is 10k.
The Tories will claim the small boat problem has come down significantly from the 25k ish for this year.
Your arithmetic will show that the small boat problem has gone up, to 25% in one example, and that doesn’t credit anyone.
I’ve just an email from James Cleverly:
“hard-working Brits rightly want control of our borders – and don’t want illegal migrants to jump ahead of those who’ve played by the rules”
It’s a fair play issue based on the Home Secretary’s comments.
Comparing the percentage of a problem to the percentage of legal immigration which is not a problem doesn’t work. We don’t compare the temperature of the earth to the temperature of the moon.
This Dun Groaning is not me!
My only comment is timed 11.29 am.
Is it a mistake by poster or am I being sock puppeted?
Not sure
I will avoid a repeat
Suppose you are right. You offer a counsel of despair. You are saying facts do not matter; and can’t matter. Then do not waste time making comments. It is all pointless. There is nothing to be done. Put the facts away. We are finished. Facing grand larceny of all the evidence (for anything) in politics, I would merely point out; the facts are all we have on our side. We do not own the Press titles that drive the news agenda; the news agenda that politicians exploit, and that exploits politicians. They are owned by billionaires and oligarchs who use their Press to back the political party that will serve them best; it doesn’t matter whether it is Conservative or Labour, they do not care. Provided the chosen Party follows their agenda they will support whoever they think will win an election; and they always win.
I am tired of reading emotional responses to everything; when everything cannot be fixed by emotional responses. Sometimes you need facts to guide policy. I know only too well that politics has become a matter purely of communications spin, stunts and deflection; and that Big Tech is leading us down a road we are going to regret. But the facts are all we have.
Your Cleverly quotation is meaningless: “hard-working Brits rightly want control of our borders – and don’t want illegal migrants to jump ahead of those who’ve played by the rules”. It is a straw man: froth (an invitation to believe in fairy tales, because the Rwanda policy cannot deliver anything meaningful from such a banal, vague characterisation of the problem). Since we do not know what this actually means in terms of hard facts, the government can make of it what they will. Nobody believes there is “control” of the borders. The Rwanda policy doesn’t even offer it; because tackling 4% of the immigration problem (and they aren’t even doing that – they are creating an unsubstantiated ‘deterrence’ proposition that if executed, will make no real substantive difference to total immigration whatever happens) doesn’t fix the immigration ‘problem’. Ignoring 96% of any problem doesn’t make it go away. Suppose the electorate believes this rubbish. What counts as success? 741,000 net immigrants next year against 742,000 last year. What has that to do with small boats? Virtually nothing. They whole Government characterisation of the problem is meaningless, because the Conservatives not only can’t deliver control over the borders; they have never believed in lower immigration, and never implemented a policy to deliver it; because they are (rightly) terrified of the effects on the economy; and neoliberalism has always relied on high immigration. The electorate will find out soon enough that they were fooled again; and from there? On we go, endlessly in the same mad circle.
Meanwhile in Scotland we know we have an existential demographics crisis, and this can’t go on. Scotland must have immigration, or it will face an imminent, serious, insoluble population problem. I am confident enough people in Scotland realise, in an old-fashioned idiom, ‘we are being sold a pup’ continuing like this in a Union that is slowly destroying the country. We cannot afford to indulge your abject despair.
Well said, John.
Much to agree with.
Can I ask a question.
I notice that you have an obsession with talking about inequality. There are many types of this such as inequality of opportunity which is relevant to people escaping France in small boats. There are also inequalities of income, of wealth and health all around us.
My question is this:
Would you like to live in a world where the Israel Defence Force and the Hamas military had equal weapons?
It takes a particularly warped mentality to even come up with such a question.
I suggest you seek counselling.
You are now banned here.
Now come on Fiona – there’s a whole slew of questions concerning inequality on the Gaza matter and I’ll be kind and suggest to you that you know it. Or that you should. You don’t have to look for too long before you find them.
Good day to you all and glad to read this article here.
There is a staggering disconnect being perpetrated upon our Western Psyche. With two weeks to Christmas, there is complete disregard of the Nativity Story! I haven’t seen such a dearth of cribs, stables , shepherds and 3 Kings following a star scene, on our streets and shopping centres.
Kids are more likely to connect reindeer to Xmas than camels or donkeys! Their parents just older versions of their children.
More interested in the northern frozen fairytale of Santas Lapland and presents and merrymaking, instead of the spiritual landscape of the Levant, where the story of the unborn child Jesus escaping from being murdered by the despots of these mythical time is set.
In what is the current real Palestine.
I guess that old nativity scene would be certain to have been stopped if the IDF had been around then, as the high explosives tend to wipe out all the children. First, last and yet to be born.
All hospitals destroyed. No inns left standing, No stable even to hide in.
Did someone say that calling out that as the shitshow it is, is in some way judaeophobic?
That equating such destruction unseen since the fascists first unleashed it in Guernica, with exactly that fascism/nazism is NOT allowed?
We are served ever more desperate Narratives by our media.
We have ‘No Shame’ as we are made complicit by continuing our fairytale Christmas festivities whilst ignoring the fact of tens of thousands killed , injured and driven to extermination in the illegally occupied ‘Holy’ Land’.
What is Geo-politic is personal to me. I am not an island.
No one is. No major issues are unconnected.
I am not wishing anyone a merry Xmas this year.
Thank you
Herod the King, in his raging,
Ordered he hath this night,
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young to slay.
I wonder if anyone will dare to sing that carol this Christmas?
The so-called Coventry carol – easily the darkest of the season
Has anyone remarked upon the fact that Suella Braverman Did Not Vote on the Second Reading?
One may guess she was paired – but if pairing was going on, why did the Minister have to fly back from Cop28?
She was there – I saw her on the television coverage on the floor of the House
Braverman was not marked Absent (Not in the House), she was marked DNV.
Your are missing the true genius of the Rwanda bill.
Under UK law, Rwanda will be a safe country.
This brilliancy can be taken much further
– A law that there are no hospital waiting lists and to suggest otherwise is criminal spreading of disinformation
– A law that climate change is a hoax and suggesting otherwise is pseudoscience.
– A law that poverty in the UK does not exist
– Best of all, a law specifically moving January 28th 2025 to 2028, where it can replace February 29th. Thus postponing the need for an annoying election.
Why not?
Good Catholics will recall that the sun only ceased orbiting the earth in the 1820s.
I think in parts of the USA, the earth still ages 4 billion years when you cross state lines.
I am losing a lot of sleep, paralyzed by the ongoing Gaza Genocide atrocities, to the point where the ra, ra, re over Christmas is just plain gut-wrenchingly irrelevant and vomit worthy nausiating! Last year I bought artificial Christmas trees in celebration of surviving a year after stage four kidney cancer diagnosis. This distressing ‘holiday’ I could not face digging out my artificial Christmas trees and pretending I was ready to celebrate: I am not. I bought an artificial Olive Tree and placed it in my front window: the only thing I want now is peace.
I have also paid for a live Olive Tree that I hope Oxford City Council will allow me to donate for placing in Bonn Square in the centre of Oxford. All over the UK beautiful live trees are felled at Christmas, only to be decorated for a few weeks of display over Christmas just to encourage shopping, before being hauled away to be mulched! I think the UK public need to see a lot more, permanently installed, live Olive Trees in our public spaces to remind us that we must constantly demand, not just an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza in line with the UN General Assembly, but ‘Peace on Earth’, for all nations, at all times.
Pie in the Sky, but humour me, and wish me luck with getting my donation accepted by Oxford City Council…
Good luck
Can olive tress survive in Oxford? Genuine question…..
The Olive Tree I have secured is from Spain is currently being held at a Nursery in Kent. I am assured that this Olive Tree is a hardy variety that can survive in the UK with the right care. I still need to secure the right support for the project from Oxford City Council.
Mr Sanders-Fisher,
Break out the artificial Christmas tree. You deserve it. Your Olive Tree will light up a corner of Oxford; give yourself the cheer of your own tree lighting up a corner of your home; you have earned it, and it owes you the chance to smile. The Olive tree will understand.
“ tackling 4% of the immigration problem”. What immigration problem is there, though? It has to be repeated that seeking asylum is different from immigration. Just saying immigration is a problem is dog whistle politics. Why is it a given that immigration is a problem? I thought we need people to fill the jobs that EU citizens used to do. In the scale of problems we face, where is immigration and who has made explicit what problems it is causing and at what cost? Why can’t asylum seekers work? Why is immigration a problem when medical staff leaving the NHS isn’t a problem. What effect on housing and other services does this notional problem cause and can this not be mitigated? The answer only ever seems to come down to “we can’t take everybody and there are too many non English speakers in the high street” , which isn’t a workable answer
I understand why you ask, but I think if you look at my argument in full, and the closing argument about Scotland you will see that it misses my point. There is an immigration problem, in spite of what you say, but it isn’t the one you describe.
Scotland needs immigration badly, and everyone knows it, save an elderly, lunatic fringe Scottish Conservative minority that does not have the political leverage to be decisive for public opinion there; and England, frankly does not appear to know what it wants, and is dragging us all down. That is a political problem, just – as I argue – not the problem the Government pretends. I can’t fix the English political problem, it has been created by politicians deliberately, on the basis the country is being “overwhelmed”. That argument depends on conflating small boats with the greater immigration issue, because the small boats only overwhelms the home Office because they mismanage it. That is why I focus on the facts (which are necessary to explain the issue, and solve it).
The small boats are not the immigration problem, but nobody is interested, because this is the “problem” that Conservative and right-wing Press can hyperventilate into public anger with the greatest ease; thus it is conflated with immigration as a single, unified immigration problem; which is the real point of the exercise (because the Conservatives want the reputation of being anti-immigrant, to keep their militant support quiet, by giving them ‘immigrants’ to blame and penalise; but do nothing about the underlying immigration). I am pointing out that once this issue is conflated in the public mind, the only way to separate out the constituent parts is to focus public awareness on the scale of the problem – the quantum. Addressing 4% of a problem that has no effect on the other 96% is not addressing the problem; it is simply avoiding it. Only then can more complicated questions be asked.
The problem is there is a population problem for the economy and public services that can only be fixed by immigration. Eventually the public will have to face the real problem, and real fixes; all realistic solutions will require compromise. The Conservatives want simple answers but no solutions. This only works in a perpetual world of political chaos, finger pointing and administrative failure. Fixing that requires the facts to be faced.
There is no way round this. If you are really saying, simply that the public is too hopelessly stupid to grapple with real problems and their solution – what do you expect me to say?
Richard, you are staggeringly accurate (well, ‘unsurprisingly accurate’, actually!)
If you’re staggering on, I hope you can see your supporters here and elsewhere as a sort of walking stick to help you march onwards with renewed vigour 🙂
And have a Merry Christmas!
We could certainly do with peace and goodwill.
Thanks
I take active steps to avoid staggering
Fitness is now part of my blogging regime
And have a good Christmas too
It would be good to see Scotland’s SNP getting credit for standing up for Palestine at Westminster, demanding a ceasefire, voting unanimously against the bill, and roundly condemning the actions of Netanyahu and his regime.
They seem to be the only major party in the UK doing so. Scotland’s SNP First Minister, Humza Yousaf, actually has members of his extended family trapped in Palestine just now.
Yet ….crickets?
There IS an existing, viable alternative to this horrific, right-wing mess we’re in—at least if you live in Scotland. It’s the SNP. And always has been. I’d love to see them getting some support—or at least a mention?
I have done on Twitter
Steve Flynn is asking good questions on this – including this week
“And in the real world, the death by suicide of an extremely talented Cameroonian doctor held on the Bibby Stockholm”
Have you retracted this assertion?
You can’t retract something reported in good faith based on reliable sources.
We now know it was another person who died.
And you are only concerned with trolling about that event.
How do you live with yourself?