LONDON LETTER 3RD NOVEMBER 2013
Feeling cosy has nothing to do with being wealthy, - Dickens images are all of the lower middle classes, - though poverty renders it impossible. The state of being cosy is only possible when you have just enough money not to worry about paying the heating bills. The greed of the energy companies now seem likely to make this state of bliss as quaintly archaic as Dickens’s Christmas stories.
Great fuss has been made
about an interview between Jeremy Paxman and the Comedian Russell Brand.
Brand who is 38 behaves
like a 13 year old with a sugar rush. Indeed he possesses all the charm of an
intelligent and precocious adolescent, though those possessed of such charm can
very quickly outstay their welcome.
There seems to be
particular surprise that Brand makes some valid points about disillusionment and
disengagement with the political process, making the point that the reason that
so many people don’t vote is not apathy but a feeling of impotence. |
| Brand holding forth to Paxman |
I am sure that Brand’s display of petulant rage will find a resonance, indeed the fact that the interview has gone viral on YouTube is indicative of that. What worries me that his brand, no pun intended, of anti-politics is precisely what ruling elites can most easily handle. The silly/clever mantra, ‘don’t vote in only encourages them’ is not a philosophy that would commend itself to someone in
The franchise of course only represents the tip of the iceberg of political engagement and, in a point that seems to have simply gone over Paxman’s head, it is perfectly possible not to vote, indeed be actively opposed to the existing political structure, whilst being fully politically engaged. The operative word here is ‘actively.’ I now look forward to seeing Brand at UK Uncut actions and on the picket lines.
If I do see him there I will be the first to applaud. Though please if he does so engage can we not have the media select him as the ‘peoples’ spokesperson.
I am currently reading
Death of a Dissident, concerned with the murder of Alexander Litvinenko,
written by Alex Goldfarb with assistance from Marina Litvinenko, Alexander’s
widow. The book is somewhat misnamed, since the overwhelming majority of the
book is concerned with the struggle between the oligarchs, primarily Boris
Berezovsky and the old guard of communists and ex KGB thugs.[1]
The KGB now resurrected as the FSB.
Winston Churchill in a radio broadcast of 1939 famously stated of Russia that it was “…a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.’ Politicians and diplomats in the west have struggled to make sense of Russian politics ever since the rise of Muscovy. This intellectual effort has often been combined by disgust at ruthless autocracy and the all too often mounting piles of corpses.
Respecting the Putin regime the number of individuals opposed to the Putin government who go on to meet violent and or mysterious ends are suggestive of something more than coincidence.
Why Russia of all countries should be so cursed is difficult to fathom. One element may be something that the Russians call ‘Vlast,’ this can be translated as something close to ‘the aura of power’ but also means a right to behave autocratically. This aura, according to Goldfarb, attaches to anyone occupying the Kremlin. Thus as soon as Putin took up office any opposition to his rule constituted the crime of lese-Majeste. Bestowing this kind of authority on anyone is probably not a particularly good idea, but to grant it to a gangster like Putin is a recipe for disaster.
Speaking of Les-Majeste, on Tuesday I will be attending a Mayoral question time, chaired by no other that Kit Malthouse, (see below), who I am sure considers any challenge to his political views to be the height of impertinence.It will be interesting to see whether I am able to put a question. These events though are merely the appearance of democracy rather than the substance. I am sure it enables Boris Johnson, the current incumbent, to say how much he is in touch with ‘the people.’ Of course nobody from the most marginalised estates or communities ever attends such gatherings, let alone get to put pertinent questions. I will report back on this event.
Given that newspapers are no longer primarily purchased as a source of news we are increasingly living in the age of the newspaper pundit. Some of these columnists even attaining the giddy heights of C list celebrity. Reading the likes of political pundits such as John Rentoul or Dan Hodges one quickly becomes aware that, more often than not, one is reading a form of wishful thinking, they describe how they want things to be, at worst they are a form of political masturbation.
Both Rentoul and Hodges are former cheerleaders for Tony Blair, though to say they are of the left would be to stretch the definition to breaking point. Now unable to get over the demise of the object of their unconditional love they compete in writing articles foretelling disaster for the Labour Party, both wanting Ed Miliband to crash and burn.
 |
| John Rentoul |
Yours
A T November 2013
[1] The book tilts very
strongly in favour of the oligarchs, again particularly Berezovsky. I find
Berezovsky a difficult character and I would argue that the behaviour of the
likes of imperious oligarchs such as Berezovsky that contributed so greatly to
the collapse of democracy in Russia
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