Inequality

Jacob Rees-Mogg said that the Tory government “absolutely” should “not” act to deal with inequality, that it was not the mission of the government to do so.

That is what I find most difficult to understand about these hard right bastards, even the Nazis had a vision of equality even if it was a perverted one.

The idea that inequality is no priority, that it should just be, this is pure Tory Evil. Its the pushing down of the weakest to keep them there. Its the destruction of life chances. Its the repealing of laws to help them. It is everything that this utter scum Tory government is going full throttle to do.

I cannot conceive of any moral reason how if you rule or govern a country you decide to fuck over half the population.

I was asked by a friend why I did not think Trump was right when he was saying that he was a successful businessman and thus would make a good president. I pointed out that in business you have a closed circuit of employees, but in government you could not fire the poor. You had to help them, which is not business ideology.

These Tories have taken Trump’s idiocy and made of it a mantra for government, that you CAN fire the poor, eject them from the body politic, you can demonise them, destroy their life chances.

THIS HAS NO PLACE IN A CIVILISED SOCIETY

And if twats like Rees-Mogg cannot get that through their aristocratic thick heads, then the whole system needs a thorough cleaning out from top to bottom

 

Winds of Change
5th November 2015

Dear SNP

Since #GE2015 we have been impressed with the comradery of the SNP MPs in Westminster, and by their generally fantastic maiden speeches. We have laughed as you laughed, over seating, clapping and challenging the yah-boo-sucks mentality of parliament.

But we have become worried. In just 5 weeks, we have become worried. There are two strands to this, one is the co-ordinated social media barrage where multiple MPs’ accounts, each apparently the private domain of its owner, state on social media almost exactly the same thing, as if singing from a hymn sheet not broadcasting their own thoughts.

The second is the ultimately confusing and very swiftly self-defeating war of words, tweets, broadcasts and statements between Labour and the SNP. Nobody really understands who is right, if anyone is right. The SNP say one thing, and blame Labour. Labour often say the same thing, and blame the SNP. Neither of you back the other’s amendments. Or if you say you do, the other says you don’t.

Why don’t Labour and the SNP get together, agree common amendments, take them to the relevant bills and push for them?

By continuing this ragged argument you are simply playing to two narrow fields – one is your own supporters who already support you, the other is the right-wing press who can tar both of you with the brush of chaos.

Sort it out and co-operate. The SNP needs to show its supporters South of Borders that it is capable of working with Labour, not just battling them on territory they both claim. To do the best for Scotland, they need to co-operate at Westminster. On a larger focus, they need to show they are willing to form a progressive alliance for the UK opposition.

If they both keep bickering, claiming the same thing, and ultimately defeating each other, then it will just be to their joint detriment and they only beneficiary will be the Tory press.

Winds of Change
16th June 2015

Tim 2 Lead

I’d never joined a political party before, I’d never seen the point, in fact I’d seen it as a straightjacket imposing a restriction on my ability to vote for the candidate I wanted to.

At the same time, from 1983 to 2013 I had always supported the Liberal Democrats, first in the guise as the SDP, then the Alliance, then the Liberal Democrats. That is true as a timespan, but is not true as a fact. After the formation of the SLD I remained supporting the old SDP, and became increasingly disillusioned with politics, but speeches by ex-SDP members of the Lib Dems at the party conference, broadcast on the BBC, in either 1992 or 1993 (its too long ago to remember) reinvigorated me, and got me behind the united party.

But I never joined it. I always voted for it, but I never saw the point in joining. I don’t join anything, so it wasn’t unique that I didn’t join. But it was how politics was. You supported someone, but you reserved the right to withdraw that support.

I did. In 2014 and in the General Election of 2015 I voted for Plaid Cymru. I am proud of that vote, I like Plaid, respect Leanne Wood, and if I went back in time I would vote for them again.

But in May this year, after the General Election, I became one of over 16000 people to join the Liberal Democrats. Why?

There is only one answer, but it has many facets, and that answer is Tim Farron.

The many facets of that answer include those who welcomed me on Twitter, talked to me about the idea of the #LibDemFightback and who all spoke highly of Tim. I was directed to watch a video from the Liberal Democrat conference in Autumn of last year, and saw what they were saying to me – that Tim Farron was a brave and dedicated liberal, that he understood the issues, that he was not afraid to take them on, and most of all that he was a powerful and impressive speaker.

I was then led to watch Tim’s speech to the Beveridge society, a few months prior in early Summer 2014, and here he expounded on similar themes, showing his range of talents. Once again I was very impressed.

So I joined, but joining is just one action. I am a keen observer, and I watch and see what people say about the issues. I have seen Tim Farron speak on housing, and on diversity, read his views on LGBT issues, on the legalisation of soft drugs, on refugee issues, and on electoral reform. In everything, I have seen a dynamic and intelligent politician, using that word in its factual sense as a person in politics, rather than its derogatory one, as in a liar and a cheat. These are things that Tim is not.

Even more I have been massively impressed by Tim Farron’s willingness to work alongside other progressive groups, whether to fight to preserve the Human Rights Act, to fight for electoral reform, or – and this is important to me – as a general principle.

I have said in a previous blog post that I believe it is imperative that an alliance of progressive parties come into being to block extreme right-wing legislation, to protect the Welfare State, to stand up for the poor, the victimised, the disabled and everyone who does not have a say in their own fate. And I have said that I believe it is vital that this progressive alliance actively work to collapse this Tory government well before they have the chance to impose 5 years of Hell on the country.

It can be easy for an MP, with their generous salary and their expenses, with the knowledge that they have years ahead of them before they need to be challenged in that luxury, to simply speak the words, to make a show of opposition, to forget the real people and fight for ideas and abstracts whilst the everyday man, woman and child suffer increasing hardship.

But I believe that there is a majority of opposition MPs who do not want to do this, who want instead to unite across party lines and defend the vulnerable, and who will be willing to cut short the security of their priveleged existence if by doing so they can bring about an election to rid this country of the Tory scurge.

And I believe that Tim Farron is the man willing to undertake such a powerful and positive leadership for the Liberal Democrats, to work alongside those in other parties who would equally sacrifice a security of tenure built on the suffering of millions, to achieve a No Confidence vote against this Tory government and bring about an election well in advance of 2020.

I have said before that the Fixed Term Parliament Act is a scam, a confidence trick (or a No Confidence trick if you like). No government losing the vote could continue to govern, regardless of whether they lose the vote “enough”. The FTPA is designed to prevent people trying, not to prevent them succeeding.

By joining the Liberal Democrats I am doing a bit more than lending them my vote at an election, I am putting my faith and trust in something, and in someone. That something is both liberalism and social democracy, and someone is Tim Farron.

 

Winds of Change
9th June 2015

One’s Limitations

I’m not that clever. In discussions with several people on a politics board I had to admit that to myself. I may have feelings, a good turn of phrase and beliefs, I may be able to bring in history or current affairs but when it comes to a grasp of the minutiae, I don’t have it, and never will have it.

To me, the AV Referendum was an illogical question. Why would I want my second choice to win? I would prefer my first choice vote to count proportionally, percentagewise towards a total of seats. That was PR to me. Whatever AV was, it was not that.

And the EU Referendum. Is it democracy to say that the only two choices you have are between “concessions” that make things worse, unless you’re a Tory, or getting out? Where is the status quo, where is closer integration in this? Nowhere! That’s why I opppose the referendum – not because I am anti-democracy but because the whole process of the Referendum is about making things worse for the UK in the EU, and that once embarked upon, remaining where we are, or engaging in a more positive and constructive manner is not possible.

I realise that people don’t understand me, so here you are, some answers

 

Winds of Change
29th May 2015

False Narrative

We have to win back our lost voters, we hear that from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats. ‘Our’ voters? They are not yours, they are not anybody’s, they lend you their vote, it belongs only to them.

The idea that a majority is some fixed item that exists for more than a moment after an election is also an illusion, a psephologist’s dream.

Vince Cable had a safe seat because he had a majority in the many thousands. No! He lost his seat, so where did the Lib Dem votes go…? No! There were not “Lib Dem votes” they were voters who had lent their vote to the Lib Dems, but now did not.

You can hold a thousand autopsies. You can have a hundred investigations. You can write a dozen reports. You look into it until the cows come home, or they refuse to. But you CANNOT analyse where “your” vote went, because you did not have that vote.

What you had was the trust and belief of people, and that is the only truth in this whole debate. Why was it lost? How can you get it back?

PARTY ANALYSIS

Labour – Scotland is an interesting microcosm, it shows not only how it was lost, but what the end game is if you lose it. Labour no longer seemed a viable left-wing party to many Labour supporters in Scotland. It stood alongside Tories in the Referendum, and in this it served to emphasise the right-wing policies that New Labour adopted – PFI, war in Iraq, everything that people’s anger and resentment simmers under the surface.

Lib Dems – the party I supported for 20 years, and ten before that supporting the SDP in the Alliance. But I did not vote for them in 2014 or 2015. Why? Not because they entered a coalition with the Tories, but because of the laws they supported the passage of in coalition – the laws which attacked the poor, the disabled, the young.

What I see in the debates after the twin disasters is that Labour is bouncing to a Blairite right-wing analysis! Never mind about abandoning their core voter, never mind about the slow build up of betrayal that came to a head, just worry about the rich and corporations who constantly moan whilst they make money!

The Lib Dems I see a better debate in. Their disaster was more dramatic, but the core belief seems to be stronger, the understanding that they have to reconnect and show belief, show vision is stronger.

BELIEF, VISION and TRUST

Don’t look to the segmented electorate in all your A1s and C2s (or whatever). Don’t look at what the rich and privelege moan about, they will always moan, they are selfish and conceited, they want more, believe they should have more, they don’t care for the poor, for the ordinary person. Ignore them!

Look simply to why you exist, what you stand for, what you are in politics for. Don’t play games trying to find a policy “to appeal”. Know what is right, and put all your energy into it. If people don’t accept it, use the word “yet” and redouble your efforts.

Political parties don’t exist to win election. Think about that! They do not exist to win elections. They exist to promote a vision and to implement that vision they must win an election. But if they have no vision, then winning an election is pointless, it swaps one lot of centre-right conservatives for another. Without the vision, the parties are pointless.

With the vision, the votes will follow. It is axiomatic that you have to have someone who can propound that vision, who can enthuse, who can lead. That is personality, that is charisma, but it is also a willingness to listen, to be humble, to not seek power for its own sake, but to seek it for service to the people.

Votes will follow Vision, but you must have vision!

Winds of Change
21st May 2015

Open Letter to Nicola Sturgeon, Angus Robertson & Alex Salmond

Please support the progressive agenda

Is EVEL in place? No! Then you have both the moral right and the moral obligation to vote alongside the other progressive parties to defeat Tory laws.

In Scotland, you have laws to protect foxes against hunting. Why do you not think that English laws to this end deserve defending? Either you accept that as things stand Scotland is part of the UK and the SNP is part of a progressive opposition to the Tories, or you make it clear that EVEL already works and you consent to the right-wing agenda.

Whilst you have the voice, and whilst you stand as the standard bearers of the progressive left, you owe it to the rest of the UK to stand with the others to defeat the Tories.

Tories won’t thank you or give you anything for helping to defeat the other parties, they will just take what they want and if they can they will play you. Conversely, Tories will not penalise Scotland, will not become harder to do a deal with because you stand up for the progressive left in the rest of the UK. They will neither take umbrage on the one hand, nor respect your strength on the other. They will deal with what they have, and if you continue to stand up to them they will deal with you as you are.

Stand alongside Labour, alongside the Lib Dems, alongside Plaid, the Greens, the SDLP and say in one voice that you accept the leadership of the progressive left when it falls to you. Make it clear that you will not abandon the left in England, in Wales, and in Northern Ireland. You will not sit back and gloat that you already have built-in defences when the rest of us are under a renewed onslaught.

You get nothing for weakness, and your whole message is that only strength gets things. Don’t be cowards now. Stand up for the rest of us when we look to you for leadership.

Thank You

Winds of Change
18th May 2015