THE NASTY PARTY?

British Politics and the Race to The Gutter

One of the funnier Monty Python sketches, Four Yorkshire Men, consisted of a group of four affluent middle aged men sitting in sunny climes smoking fat cigars each trying to outdo the other in tales of childhood poverty and squalor.[1]

First Man: “Four of us used to live in one room, no furniture, with holes in the roof.”

Second Man: “Roof, roof, we used to dream of having a roof! Whole family lived in sceptic tank at bottom of garden!”

You get the drift. I thought of this sketch the other day whilst watching two MP’s one Labour the other Conservative trying to outdo one another on who was the tougher on welfare and immigration.[2] This disgusting spectacle, a race to the gutter in a grubby bid for the votes of the misinformed,[3] the bigoted and the malign, was characterised by an increasingly unpleasant tone and the touting of ever more vindictive, discriminatory, repressive and downright nasty proposals. The tone is easily satirised, but I find it hard to laugh.

Tory: “Bulgarian’s and Romanians, we would make them all surrender their watches and any valuables against any future claims they might make on the National Health Service.”

Labour: “You would let them access the NHS! We would compel them to go back to their own country to be sick. And we’ll make anyone unemployed for more than six weeks sign ‘I am a lazy bastard’ contract  and force them to polish boots for their welfare payments.”

Tory: “Six weeks, six weeks, we’ll send them on compulsory military training in the Sahara desert if they have been out of work for more than six days!”
Rachel Reeves: "We'll be tougher than the Tories."

A free word of advice to the Labour Party, it’s not a good idea to try and out- nasty the Tories; they are professionals at that sort of thing.

As to immigration pandering to ignorance and prejudice is a very dangerous strategy indeed. European history is littered with the consequences. Labour politicians, Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper, please take note, should hang their head in shame at engaging in this kind of grotesque bidding war.

When I think of all the young Bulgarians that I know, decent, generous, hard working and well educated, I blanche in shame to hear them slandered in the media by British politicians, journalists, and ‘know-nothing’ pundits.


[2] It is probably unfair to single them out when so many are engaged in this disgusting exercise, so I will not mention that Rachel Reeves was the Labour Politician and Philip Hammond the Tory.
[3] And no prizes for guessing who is providing the misinformation.




Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.

Popular posts from this blog

NESRINE MALIK AND THE UNSUNG VIRTUES OF HYPOCRISY

Image
As I write this a 27 year old woman, Mariam Ibrahim, has just had a baby in a Sudanese prison, ‘the condition of the mother and baby is not known as Ibrahim's lawyer and her husband, a US citizen, had been denied access to her. Omdurman women's prison has a basic clinic, where the child is thought to have been born. Ibrahim has been shackled since being imprisoned.’ [1]   Mariam also has an 18 month old child who is also being held in prison with her. The ‘crime’ for which she is imprisoned is apostasy, for which she has received the death sentence. She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes, for the additional crime of having sex with her Christian husband. Although she has been a lifelong Christian her father was a Muslim, Sudanese sharia law forbids women to marry outside the Muslim faith, men needless to say can do as they please in these matters. Mariam Ibrahim and her husband.  Nineteen countries punish their citizens for apostasy, and in 12 of those countries...
Read more

INTERVIEW WITH TOM VAGUE

Image
Tom Vague At the top end of All Saints Road there is a refuge, an enclave in which a local Bohemian culture retains a foothold, this is the Book & kitchen , a café/bookshop with adjoining terrace. Here the bustle of the nearby market gives way to conversation, conversation in the presence of images of the recent, and not so recent, past. The past of an area that has contributed so much to the life and culture of the city. I was there to meet local historian Mr Tom Vague a man intimately familiar with so much of this history. What Tom doesn’t know about the recent history of the area probably is not worth knowing. With Tom’s energy and effort Colville Community Forum, supported by City Living Local Life, recently held a gathering at The Book and Kitchen to celebrate this rich history. February 16 6-9 Pm, with Film Screening and Readings Exhibition February 16-26 2016. Featuring 30 Classic Westway Photographs and Posters. This represents one of a number of initiatives of t...
Read more

VOLINE AND TROTSKY

Волин и Троцкого A Footnote in Russian History In April 1917 the Russian anarchist revolutionary Voline* and Leon Trotsky were both stranded in New York as the Russian revolution broke out in Petrograd , inevitably coming into contact with one another. Voline stated that he felt that the Bolsheviks, given their ruthlessness and single minded determination, would ultimately come to power. They would then begin eliminating their opponents, amongst whom of course were the anarchists; this persecution would end with the Bolsheviks shooting the anarchists “like partridges.” Trotsky was dismissive, they might have their differences but they were comrades in arms, they had different interpretations of the revolutionary process but shared the same goals. It was nonsense to speak of Bolsheviks shooting revolutionary comrades, “we are socialists, comrade Voline! So we are not your enemies….” [1] In December of 1919, whilst gravely wounded Voline was captured by the Bolshe...
Read more