The Immortal Axis Of Evil?
From the James Bond films we must all have our favourite villains, be they Goldfinger, or Ernst Stavro Blofeld. We assume that Messrs Goldfinger and Blofeld are aware that they are the bad guys, or at least the actors playing them. But looking at the spectacle of Putin, Xi and Kim discussing their potential extended life expectancy on a hot mic this week, one wonders whether fiction and fact have merged into horror. This is particularly said on the basis that it would appear they think that are as pure as the driven snow.
But listening to the discussion between the dictators regarding the potential for prolonging life, one might conclude that the reason we are all (thus far) mortal, is to prevent the likes of Hitler, Stalin et al, and the above mentioned trio, ruling over us for ever.
So death really is nature’s way of ridding us of dictators who we otherwise would be unable to eliminate ourselves. Indeed, it seems that whether they are initially elected, and then never want to leave (Putin), are born to the role (Kim), or have a system that only choses autocrats, once in, they are very difficult to remove. It is to be hoped that modern medicine does not become modern enough to ensure such villains are with us indefinitely.
The Politics Of Tax
It was quite noticeable that Angela Rayner, and everyone else in the public eye gets so moral when it comes to people paying their fair share of tax. This is even when the rules are so complex that one of the more senior politicians in the country can be bamboozled by them, if indeed that is what happened. If there are lessons to be learned from the Rayner affair, the main one is that we are long overdue a rehaul of the tax system. Be it VAT, corporation tax, National Insurance, and even the way it is assessed and collected, please get us into the 21st century. Tax as you spend, or earn, or having HMRC as your accountant, anything would be better than what we have at the moment. While the media was of course baying for the “result” of Rayner resigning, few have said that rather like the law at the moment, the tax system is also an ass, it being the highest in 80 years notwithstanding.
Starmer Shuffles The Pack
Cabinet reshuffles are always something of a comedic event, even at the best of times, and even when a government is strong, if only on the basis that there is always a new minister or two whom everyone knows is initially absolutely clueless regarding their new brief. In the case of the latest moves in the wake of the resignation of Angela Rayner, the various great offices of state are being handed out like cards at Blackjack. Indeed, they could be just as risky, or indeed, akin to poison chalices. That unless you are Ed Miliband, where he is on a mission to make his poison chalice as poisonous for his political career as it is ruinous for the country with reference to Net Zero. Indeed, Miliband’s brief seems akin to placing Dracula in charge of a blood bank. But then again does the decision to make Shabana Mahmood Home Secretary. How can she possibly not be partisan with relation to migration, and especially at a time when the topic is at the front of people’s minds in such as controversial way? David Lammy replacing Angela Rayner as Deputy PM, risks replacing one politician where anything could happen and just did, with another. Indeed, one just has to look at the video of Lammy answering questions wrongly on Celebrity Mastermind to realise that he is one wrongly overpromoted token appointment, replacing another.
All of the talk of reset, and Starmer previously insisting he gets it (when he did not) and will do more to achieve results, totally misses the point of where the electorate is. A reset, phase two, or any other changes are all not what is wanted, the public if they want anything would want everything done to date reversed, and no more 1970s Labour government.
Instant Reform?
It was supposed to be the case that the war in Ukraine would be over in 24 hours once President Trump was re-elected. This never happened. It was probably never going to happen. Of course, Trump could have said that from day one in office he would try very hard to bring about peace, entertain President Putin in Alaska, and generally try to coerce someone who is a stubborn, aggressive psychopath into a peace deal without them noticing, or suffering loss of ego. But this would not have been the same as saying there would be instant peace. It may be the same with a new Reform government, if we actually get one without the egos there imploding under the cult of Nigel Farage’s personality.
We already know that we have The Blob, we have Fabian supporters amongst the Court of Appeal. We know that the judiciary has its own political agenda, and we know that any centre left government has the judiciary on its side, whereas a right leaning government can have difficulty even “getting Brexit done”, in the wake of a successful referendum.
Therefore, what chance does Reform have of stopping the boats in days, affecting local government, getting rid of gold plated pensions for civil servants, or even being able to get civil servants to do its bidding in the first place? Absolutely none. True the party is riding high, understandably off the back of migration, free speech, cost of living crisis, and State overreach. But the institutional block we have on anything other than centre-left has been developed over decades, and it is not going to be removed or abolished just by a triple digit majority in the House of Commons. The Establishment has plenty of time to prepare, block, sabotage and scupper Reform, and will delight in doing so. The question is whether knowing all this there is any point voting for a populist government in the UK, which Boris Johnson’s government was effectively an example of.
The Free Speech We Never Had
As we hurl ever deeper into the 21st century, it feels as if it was a naïve belief that we live in a democracy, we have free speech, and of course have control over our borders. Of course, we know that for much of the post War period we were living under consensus politics.
This meant that whether you voted Labour of Conservative, you would get the same policies, with the exception of the 1979-1990 Thatcher period. Indeed, she had to be kicked out so that what we now know as the Uniparty could be resumed. And it has been fully resumed. Even a Brexit vote could not change the status quo, or even technically leaving the EU.
Instead, there has been the punishment beating of even more of all the things that those who voted to leave and then some. Perhaps the worse aspect has been the erosion of free speech, and this really has been an eye opener, much more than the Lucy Connolly and Graham Linehan cases. What no one has hitherto identified is that there was never free speech in this country. The press spoke on our behalf, and the media in general. And of course, the politicians of whatever party we voted for. But both the press and politics are closed shops / mafias, where only the chosen few are allowed in.
All of this changed with the advent of social media, the era of influencers, podcasts, and people with independent platforms. This was great when X, Facebook et al were relatively small, but now the tail is wagging the dog, eg Connolly getting 300,000 views of her tweet before it was deleted. Now, any dodgy comment can get a massive audience, perhaps even greater than the mainstream media. And now we see that we never really had free speech. It is just that in the 20th century and the beginning of this one, we never had a voice. Now we have a voice, there is the permanent chance of having armed police knock on the door.
