LOOSE ENDS

Funniest political moment of the year in the UK was the sight of right-wing backbench Tories flushing boundary changes down the toilet by sabotaging House of Lords reform.[1] Their response was priceless as the worm finally turned and Nick Clegg uttered ‘Non,’ De Gaulle style, to supporting the boundary changes as a tit for tat response for their wrecking his plans and mocking him in the Commons. “That,” you almost heard them shout aloud, “ wasn't in the script.” This move almost certainly will prevent them obtaining a majority at the next election and demonstrated if any further proof was required, that there are few creatures inhabiting the planet more stupid than a backbench Tory.

But laughter of this kind at the expense of the Tories is usually short lived as they turn nasty when cornered. It is difficult to find humour in their attack on the basic living standards of those at the bottom of the economic rung, whether in or out of work.

Leveson was the greatest show in town for a while, shining a light on the tabloid press like never before. Exposing the reality of the fetid tabloid culture; parading the unaccountable, unacceptable and unconscionable before our eyes. Rebecca Brookes was a villain straight from central casting, self serving, manipulative, devoid of genuine compassion or remorse, the evil White Witch of Wapping.

Though Now that the entertainment value is over it is essential that Brookes legacy is not the state involving itself in regulation of the press. The very fact that The Labour Party supports such a move should be cause for concern. The Labour Party’s record on civil liberties is not only abysmal, it is frightening.

The past haunted 2012; Hillsborough and the revelations about Jimmy Saville filled the air as summer became autumn, a foul stench of institutional corruption and a diseased morality. I fear more is to come as the thin veneer of the Thatcher years is ripped back.  

I would name Malala Yousufzai, the teenage Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban after advocating education for girls, as my person of the year, but fourteen year old girls have no business becoming international heroes. She should be in school, having crushes, daydreaming about her future, moaning about homework. What a world we inhabit when a 14yr old girl is forced to summon up such reserves of courage.

Of course 2012 was also the year of misogyny, represented so horribly by the rape and murder of a young Indian student; but of course so was 2011, 2010, 2009 and the year before that, on and on down the years.

The hatred and contempt that so many men across the planet have for women, usually bolstered by religious dogma, is truly staggering. After gang raping and beating this young woman she was then thrown of a bus. Whatever sexual element exists here it is minuscule beside the hatred underlying the act. This hatred needs to be named and the violence that is rape seen as it is, deeply rooted in cultural misogyny, primarily, though not exclusively fuelled by religion.

I see that Time magazine has named Mitt Romney as the man of the year…1912. Nice touch, I had never associated Time with a sense of humour. All progressively minded people should be grateful to the Tea party crowd, since they successfully rendered Romney unelectable. Unless the Republican party recognises the reality of the America that actually exists rather than the one that inhabits their imagination, it will remain in the wilderness.

After Obama’s re-election I allowed my self a brief moment of optimism that he would use his second term to adopt a more radical stand toward Israel. This now looks increasingly unlikely. Sometimes I feel I never learn.

Syria continues to bleed to death before our eyes, and the failure to intervene early enough on the side of those fighting against the ghastly Bathaaist dictatorship run by Assad and his thugs has led to the bloody quagmire of civil war and also strengthened the hand of the Islamacist elements; all woefully predictable. Whatever happens Galloway and the Stop the War crowd will adopt an ‘I told you so,’ holier than thou attitude, in reality providing cover and ongoing support for the theocrats in Iran.

I’m currently reading a sadly heavily abridged copy of the Journal’s of The Marquis de Custine[2] recounting his experience of visiting Russia in 1839. It is at times heavily patronising and Russo phobic, but also acute and penetrating. This edition produced in the early 1950’s has an introduction by Walter Bedell Smith, former US ambassador to the court of Tsar Stalin. Unsurprisingly it draws parallels between the period described by Custine and Bedell’s time in Moscow. However it is just as easy to see Putin and his sycophants described here; Russia rather like a beautiful woman who somehow always conspires to end up with violent and abusive men. 

Outrage in this country over the treatment of the punk group Pussy Riot feels somewhat contaminated by our own record respecting protest and free speech, with people jailed for sending ‘offensive’ tweets or posts on Facebook. It’s been a bad year for free speech.

I don’t want to say anything about the Olympics, it’s all been said, though the national love-fest with itself over the event is beginning to grate.

Outside it is grey and the rain is falling in sheets. It feels better to draw the curtains and keep the Christmas lights flickering. And so I end the year as I begun it, feeling disappointed with my self for not having read or written enough.

For everyone who has read this blog over the year, particularly repeat visitors, wherever you are I wish you all the best for 2013.

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[1] Though the ghastly nature of this proposed 'reform' to the House of Lords, creating an unaccountable elected QUANGO deserved destruction.

[2]Journey for Our Time, 1953 Arthur Barker Ltd London.

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