The Alligator

I’ve been on a long long journey, which has been both fascinating and arduous. I’ve spent sometime in a foreign land, which while interesting has left me severely injured and hurt.

My story begins many years ago when my family and I decided to go on a safari to a land many miles from here.

All of the planning and administration went relatively well. There were of course hiccups with some compliance and currency issues. A lot of countries when you visit them want to know a lot about you, but overall after some time we embarked on our journey. The trip was pleasant. We saw lots of new things. We traded and shared fascinating experiences with people from a new diverse culture. They were friendly and helpful and often helped us by coming to our camp and selling us food and clothing without hindrance and we in turn gave them some money and advice. Everything seemed to be going well. The weather was warm and sunny and we had enough to eat and we were healthy and most of all happy on our travels.

Then one day tragedy struck. I remember it vividly. We were camped by a large gently flowing river. The campsite was perfect with fishing, lots of natural fruits and vegetation and our supplies were plentiful. People from the local village were with us during the evening and we had a bountiful meal together, drank a little too much wine, as is our want. The evening was balmy, the moon bright and it seemed nothing could go wrong.

We retired peacefully to bed later than usual and as I snuggled down into my sleeping bag and zipped myself in, my last thought was what a wonderful life. I wanted it go on forever and hoped my children and their children would enjoy all the things that I had enjoyed in the future.

During the night I woke suddenly. Frightened, rigid with shock as I felt myself zipped into my bag being slowly but inexorably being dragged inch by inch to the cold uninviting river’s edge. I frantically tried to reason through the fog of sleep what was happening and realised that my legs were clamped in these enormous alligator jaws and this prehistoric, huge monster was dragging me to my death. The pain was enormous as this 16 foot, 1000 pound monster, whose bite force on my legs of 3,700 pounds, was forcing me into and out of consciousness.

I couldn’t scream or fight, I was traumatised by fear.

As we entered the water I knew from previous knowledge, that now came the death roll. Over and over and over, turning constantly in the water. One moment submerged and struggling for breath, the next relief as I broke the surface and gulped a lungful of air. I knew how this was going to end and resigned myself to the inevitable. As I blacked out, I thought only of my family, who I loved dearly and would not see again.

Miraculously, I woke to find myself in a stinking muddy hole, full of the rank detritus of bones and putrefying flesh.  I was alive, but barely breathing. I did not appear to have too many incapacitating injuries and if I could unzip the sleeping bag, which had probably saved me, there was just a small possibility I could escape before the animal returned. I discovered later, they drag their prey off to the lair built into the river’s bank and once decomposed and rotten they feed relentlessly over a period of time until all is devoured. I did not want that to happen to me. I was determined now to escape.

I could see the light at the end of the tunnel lair as the moon bounced off the black river water. I had so little time to take decisive action.

 

I struggled out of my sleeping bag and crawled to the entrance of the lair. I could see our camp across the river and slipped into the water terrified, expecting those jaws to clamp themselves around my body again. Slowly, oh so slowly and quietly, I swam to the camp side and roused my family.

They were shocked and relieved beyond belief. Happy to have me back but realised I needed immediate medical attention. The local villagers were roused and they helped with everything, giving of their time and effort to help me back into recovery.

I nearly perished but through my own fortitude and the help of others I am now recovered.

 

Several years later, I realised what a lucky escape I had had, as this alligator was famous throughout this part of the country and had caused the deaths of many unwary travellers. He was known throughout the land as Brexitasaurus.

Posted March 31, 2019 Posted in Current Affairs, Leadership, Politics | Leave a response

What is it we fear?

For twenty months now since the referendum on European membership and the result by a small margin to leave, I have gone through a gamut of emotions.

It has been akin to bereavement for me and possibly like me, others who voted to remain. At first anger, which no matter how I try, still resonates and then utter sadness and disappointment at my fellow countrymen and women, who for my part have been myopic, jingoistic and nationalistic on a grand scale hiding behind a cloak of faux patriotism.

I am wrong and have attributed negative qualities to my fellow Britons because I wanted to lash out and try to impress upon them how wrong they are. I have not fully understood their concerns and fears until now. I have been reading a book called “The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches’, which my daughter gave me for Christmas . Please note, that is not famous speeches, but speeches from all political figures and even moving soliloquies by people addressing the court, who were sentenced to death, for crimes they did not commit.

 The speech which brought me great clarity about where we now find ourselves as a nation was spoken by Franklin Delano Roosevelt on his inauguration as U.S. President on 4th March 1933 (how coincidental that 2nd March 2018 May made her definitive Brexit speech, which I listened to in its entirety). Roosevelt’s speech is entitled: –

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.

This speech was at the time when the Great Depression was at its worst and America seemed beyond help and Roosevelt paraphrasing Henry David Thoreau’s writings where he says “ Nothing is so much to be feared as fear” galvanised the public mood and almost single handedly saved America, who then went on to play such a great part in helping the Allies to defeat the Nazi threat in World War 2.

That got me rethinking my perception of why we as a country find ourselves in the position of exiting an institution, which has done us, overall much good.

My conclusion is I have attributed these rather nasty and insular characteristics to my fellow Britons when in fact the movement to leave was whipped up by a few political and other influential figures that saw their elite power being eroded by the level of workers and human rights raised and substantiated by the European institutions. Power to the many not the few and erosion of deference is a powerful driver for those who have traditionally held power in this country. So, how have they achieved this?

By creating unprecedented levels of fear.

Fear of other people, fear of the dissolution of our heritage, our culture, our traditions and most of all our sovereignity.

But what do we as nation have to fear from belonging to a powerful political and trading bloc, which now and in the future will hold great sway in the world economy and affairs? Why do we, a nation that has defeated the most dangerous enemies the world has seen, created and lost the biggest Empire the world has seen, have the most innovative, creative and dynamic people in the world, who have given and continue to give the world, education, science, art and media, what is it we fear, if it isn’t fear itself?

Instead why not recognise the strengths of our culture, heritage and traditions, which no other nation has ever, and can ever take from us and play our part in shaping and influencing the great institutions of Europe, so we can be part of something that will also shape the world. Because I believe it is only fear that holds us back and will condemn us to isolation and end in us becoming a second rate nation, without influence in the world, without a voice that is listened to, as it always has been.

Don’t let the small group of influential dogmatists bent only on their own self-interest make us all afraid and take a back seat from the world.

As Roosevelt said all those years ago and which is even more poignant in today’s world.

“We have nothing to fear, except fear itself”.

Posted March 3, 2018 Posted in Current Affairs, Leadership, Politics | Leave a response

Harvey Weinstein and Others

The Weinstein scandal is currently erupting all over the media and is due, given the increasing number of complainants coming forward, to become one of the biggest sex scandals ever. The real issue for society is the link between power, behaviour and the responses by institutions and others in leadership positions.

Nothing in this scandal is new and in fact for many decades we have seen people like Weinstein and their behaviour towards vulnerable and powerless people, not just women, replicated across many societies throughout the world. If a person or child is raped, sexually abused or treated violently and there is no recourse to law and justice, then that is a recipe for chaos, which will inevitably undermine the whole fabric of society.

It will create an impervious minority elite of powerful people, treating others as mere chattels and objects.

As with previous reported scandals, Saville, Heath, Janner and Weinstein to name a few, there seemed to be a level of knowledge about the activities of those people, of varying degrees, which was known and nothing done.

So during their lifetimes when evidence is fresh, abundant and current and more easily gathered, opportunities to gather this evidence are wasted.

People are not believed when they complain because how could this pillar of society, often senior religious leaders, in the case of the Catholic Church, knighted or Lords of the Realm possibly have done these things. Alternatively, the perpetrators in the cases of Rochdale, Oxford and many other places, are themselves protected by the racial sensitivities, which may be exposed if this investigation moves forward and anyway aren’t these young children and their families putting themselves in this danger and almost asking for it?

A culture is then created which protects the rich, powerful and famous or racially sensitive to the extent that the vulnerability and powerlessness is inversely increased and renders the victims to a state of abjectivity. No-one believes or wishes to protect us, because we are not worthy of society’s protection.

Weinstein is only different in that he is still alive. The evidence is available to be gathered and justice can take its course. Will he stand trial or even be convicted? We shall just have to wait and see, because the difficulties in gathering the evidence and placing it before a court is very, very difficult. Weinstein has already started his defiance and it is a classic riposte in these cases.

“Everything that happened was consensual”

But let’s look at the historical abuse cases and how they might be investigated effectively. A person comes forward to the police. Do they deserve to be heard and their allegations taken seriously?

Yes of course they do!

It is the job of the investigators to gather evidence, balance the evidence and then submit it to the relevant decision body to decide whether to prosecute or not.

There are only three types of evidence.

Forensic, Witness and Admissions.

All evidence falls into these three categories.

In these cases there will almost certainly be a lack of forensic evidence. Very rarely do the perpetrators admit to their crimes.

All that is left is witness evidence. The memory dims with time and the trauma involved in the case of victims. So, the question is what avenues are left open to the investigators to gather evidence of what may or may not have occurred?

Therefore, asking people who have suffered similarly, to come forward, is the only way to seek a weight of victim evidence. This is often a very traumatic process for people who have suffered. The investigator/team then correlates all the witness evidence and using a chronological timeline, looks for consistency of evidence across, similarities of places, people, behaviours etc, to create a credible bank of evidence. It is not a ‘Fishing Expedition” but a methodical, time consuming and detailed, evidence gathering exercise.

What then seems to happen is that particular areas of the media and particularly the right wing press start to undermine the process and create doubt in the minds of the public. Why, one may well ask?

The establishment figures, their progeny and networks also populate the powerful areas of government, media, news outlets and institutions to such an extent, that they can influence the public mood and even the impartiality of the police service. Columnists are openly lauded for undermining police investigations about powerful figures and often letters to papers are printed to that effect. Dominic Lawson has consistently complained in his Sunday Times column about police historical investigations. The reason seems “as plain as the pikestaff on your face” as is commonly said.

To protect the power they have.

Summary.

Leadership is about being authentic, consistent but most of all about being trusted.

There is a dearth of trust nowadays for people in the establishment and some of the recent historical sex abuse cases in this country have heightened the lack of trust felt by the public. No longer is it enough to be in a position of power to automatically be held in high esteem by the public. Leaders must demonstrate leadership in all they do on a daily basis. If that means exposing their peers as sex abusers, paedophiles or criminals. So be it.

Posted October 16, 2017 Posted in Current Affairs, Equality and Inclusion, Leadership | Leave a response

The Real Brexit

We have been given lots and lots of reasons by the powers that be for Brexit and in order for that to be achieved, lots and lots of people in positions of power, across the political divide, lied to the general public. A few examples are; The £350 million to the NHS bus slogan, the impending immediate economic crash, right through to the picture of thousands of migrants queuing to get into UK and most perniciously the statement by the now Foreign Secretary that millions of Turkish people would be eligible and want to enter UK when Turkey became a member of the EU and we would be helpless to stop it.

Lies, lies and more lies creating and exacerbating the fear of “johnny foreigner”! This was the predication of the means to get us to vote “Leave”.

But what were the real reasons? From Farage to Johnson to Gove the mantra was incessantly, “take back control” and “Get our country back”.

So what exactly do these phrases mean to those who were espousing them?

Clearly, they were appealing to the voters to become independent again, to regain our sovereignty, to remain Great Britain, the superpower in the world and a force to be reckoned with, in our own right internationally. I am suggesting that the back-story to this, as reiterated constantly by the people making those claims, was subtly different.

The establishment, throughout history, has had carte blanche to run the country in their own way and to meet their own self interested needs and expectations. The law was accessed via their wealth, lobbyists ensured government listened to their wishes, legislation was created in their favour, taxes were adjusted so they could accrue more wealth. They did this by, sending their children to public schools, taking all the best university places, creating incestuous networks that ensured the few retained power at the expense of the progress of the majority. Holding onto land and lobbying government through their wealth to ensure their continued dominance.

The establishment through the “Nine Principles” achieves this by;

  1. Wealth wields power via elections. (Battles buses, call centres, breaking election rules)
  2. Legislation increases wealth.
  3. This reduces democracy handing more power to the wealthy establishment.
  4. The welfare state is reduced.
  5. Shaping ideology.(business good, state bad)
  6. Redesign the economy. (Reduce regulation, increase worker insecurity, protect financial institutions from market forces)
  7. Shift the burden. (Increase tax burden proportionately for precariat, reduce tax burden proportionately for plutocracy)
  8. Attack solidarity. (Reduce social security, privatise public services)
  9. Run the regulators. (Lobbyists influence legislation to favour business, e.g. bail out banks not manufacturing)

This is the pernicious cycle of establishment as outlined by Chomsky.

That’s what “Brexit “ is really about. A return to the old order, which the EU threatened by usurping the institutions which were historically, set up by the establishment, populated by the establishment, run by the establishment and perpetuated by the establishment for successive generations.

That’s what you voted for, when you were duped into voting Leave!

One clear example recently of this at work was on Newsnight on Friday 23rd June 2017. When Andrea Leadsom, the failed Tory leader candidate and now promoted to the Cabinet in May’s weak and lacklustre government, when being questioned closely by the interviewer about the current Brexit negotiations said.

“The media needs to be more patriotic”

What she really meant was, know your place, just as you did in the old days when we ran things and you did as you were told.

Well I have some news for Leadsom and it ain’t good.

We are never going back to knowing our place; our mothers and fathers did not fight two world wars, and our sons and daughters did not fight your wars around the world, which has now created this mess, for you to reassert the old dominion. Britain is now an egalitarian country and we will fight you tooth and nail for our new freedoms and the extension of them. Whether that is with EU assistance or not!

Posted June 24, 2017 Posted in Current Affairs, Equality and Inclusion, general, Leadership | Leave a response

Royal Prerogative – A Threat to our Democracy

Let us first of all understand exactly what we are talking about here.

Constitutional theorist A.V. Dicey gives the standard definition of what prerogative powers are:

 The remaining portion of the Crown’s original authority, and it is therefore, the name for the residue of discretionary power left at any moment in the hands of the Crown, whether such power is in fact, exercised by the Monarch him/herself or by his/her Ministers.

 Therefore:

The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity, recognised in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign alone. It is the means by which some of the executive powers of government, possessed by and vested in a monarch with regard to the process of governance of the state, are carried out.

That is to say in layperson’s terms, as I understand it:

Ministers may act in the name of the Sovereign in a discretionary way as they see fit and without the agreement of Parliament.

This was most clearly demonstrated recently, when May the Prime Minister, who incidentally has never been elected by the people of this country, wished to use Royal Prerogative to exercise her personal view of the referendum result. She wished to be allowed under Royal Prerogative to exercise an exit from our long established treaties with Europe without recourse to seeking The House of Commons view on what that exit should look like, even though over 16 million people had voted against the motion. She wished to use Royal Prerogative to override the views of 16 million people in this country without any debate at a representative level (their elected representatives) and instead be able to say that the “will of the people” (the 17 million who voted for the motion) was to exit Europe under her personal guidance.

Clearly, this is not an acceptable way to conduct any representative democratic process.

As a result of May’s impertinence, Gina Miller took the government to court to question this process and the court after a government appeal, again found in Miller’s favour, that the government could not use such a prerogative to action a referendum result arbitrarily. As a result a government white paper was produced in Parliament and our elected representatives voted in favour to trigger Article 50 and put in process the two-year negotiations to leave the European Union, as decided by the majority of the public in the June 2016 referendum. I have no argument with that process; my argument is with Royal Prerogative.

David Pannick QC, who represented Gina Miller, (who should be honoured by the public for upholding the rules of representative democracy and not vilified) felt very pleased that the government could be held to account in this way and that through the law, no misuse of process would be allowed under a prerogative, which should have been rescinded (in my opinion) the day that Charles the First was executed. The whole purpose of the English Civil War and the subsequent reinstatement of an alleged benign Sovereign, answerable to Parliament, under the reign of Charles the Second, was to dispense with exactly this manipulation of process under an egotistical Prime Minister and her Cabinet flunkeys.

But, Pannick’s naivety is breathtaking. How accessible to the many people who may have felt aggrieved by the way the process was being conducted by May and her cabinet, is the law, particularly at the highest civil level? It is laughingly not accessible at all, unless one is extremely rich and able to engage a highly paid barrister initially and pay the costs in the event of failure! The government will not disclose how much of the public money was used to defend the use of Royal Prerogative and so it’s pretty certain it was a huge amount of money and Pannick also chooses not to say how much they charged to bring the case. However some recent reports show QC’s charging as much as £5000 a day for their services. It is also a long and drawn out process where there is no written constitution by which to judge the issue, involving a large amount of court time and public expense.

Therein lies the nub of the problem, Ministers can exercise Royal Prerogative and there is no written Constitution to provide a check and balance against this excess of power, unless one has access through extreme wealth to challenge the process under the law.

Let us now take the example of a country with a written constitution and a newly elected President who wishes to exercise a power through an Executive Order, which is contrary to the constitution. Elected representatives are able, within a very short time of less than a few days, to test that Executive Power in a court and the court is able to overrule that excess of individual power resoundingly, within the confines of the Constitution. This means that the President who has been elected, is always subject to the power of the Constitution through the legal process.

As was recently stated by an eminent judge in the USA, “We elected a President not a King”

He said that, because clearly a Sovereign is not elected and is therefore unaccountable to anyone or any representative body in the country. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the Sovereign or his/her family. No ordinary citizen is able to hold to account any financial or personal action of the Sovereign or his/her family for anything, which we, the people believe, may infringe on our democracy. There are numerous examples of this at the moment including, Charles lobbying government, the cost of the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace from the public purse to name just a few.

Therefore the question raised by this article is “Who holds power in our country if politicians can glibly quote Royal Prerogative when wishing to exercise unrepresentative power”? And the answer must be that power ultimately still resides with the Sovereign as long as there is no written constitution.

So, if that is the case, why are we still persisting with such an outdated institution as the Monarchy? When it is clear that the resumption of Monarchy as prescribed by the aristocratic nobles who brought Charles the Second back to power, was only to support their position as the authority in the land.

We have now had nearly four hundred years of supposed benign power exercised by the Monarchy, surely if we are a country that can stand on it’s own two feet as advocated by the vote to exit the European Union, why do we need the Monarchy, Royal Prerogative and what is fed to us as benign power anymore. Let us stride forward into the sunlit uplands as a country and an independent people, provided by a written Constitution and a Presidential Republic!

Posted February 13, 2017 Posted in Current Affairs, Equality and Inclusion, Leadership | Leave a response

TRUMP

I woke this morning to another devastating blow to democracy and freedom. Another shift to the right, that emphasises the differences between us all and highlights not what brings us together but which polarises us all apart.

The “Land of the Free”, the country to which the rest of the world look to for examples of democracy and true representative freedom have elected a man who has openly stated throughout his campaign, racist, misogynist and homophobic views about his own countrymen and women. Those he wishes to lead.

I am at a loss as to say what this will mean for the rest of the world because Trump has not articulated any political policies merely hatred of others. The worry of course is that so many people who then went on to defend or condone those views and voted for him to attain the highest office in the world, have ignored this.

I believe we can relate all of the seismic political shifts over the last few years, to the bankers who devastated the economies of the world through their greed and whilst they continued to collect their mega bonuses after a short period of contrition, more and more people lost out and became poorer and poorer. In the biggest capitalist project in the world this is unforgiveable and it only needed a Trump to emphasise those differences and create the necessary unrest to give us the result we have today.

Career politicians just don’t get it! We do not trust them. We don’t trust them to tell the truth, we don’t trust them to answer the question, we don’t trust them to act on our behalf, we don’t trust them to collect the taxes due from the rich, we don’t trust them to regulate the behaviour of bankers and other greedy capitalists and we don’t trust them to behave appropriately with their expenses.

 

And so we get BREXIT and Trump. Well Trump’s theme tune throughout was The Stones classic track “You don’t always get what you want” and that maybe true but perhaps we’re getting what we deserve?

 

Posted November 9, 2016 Posted in Current Affairs, Leadership, Politics | Leave a response

“Black Lives Matter”?

Well actually all lives matter, you might say and of course you would be quite right. It isn’t just black lives that matter in any caring, democratic society but all it’s citizens irrespective of their difference. Surely that isn’t what the “Black Lives Matter” movement is trying to say, is it, that only black lives matter?

It’s trying to say that all lives do matter and in our society and throughout the world we live in, that if you are black or from a minority ethnic background, (BAME) your life does not matter as much as the others who inhabit the uplands of power and wealth, hold sway over your life as a black person, and are mostly white.

Over 1000 black people killed by police and only a minor number of prosecutions.

5 police officers killed by a lone gunman.

Virtual unfettered access to high-powered military assault weapons.

The civilian deployment of military technology, against citizens, in order to kill, rather than arrest.

Over 3000 people killed every year where guns and assault weapons are available to anyone who walks in off the street, with minimum checks on their suitability, to own such a weapon.

All this in the land of the free where all men originally and now women, are born equal!

It couldn’t happen here could it and why should it? We are not the USA and all people irrespective of their background are treated equally and we have legislation to ensure that fairness happens.

Right?

You may believe that, but for BME people in this country that is not how it feels. If one is black or Asian or from an Ethnic Minority (BAME), then what can you expect in this country?

You can expect: –

A higher risk of being stopped and searched by the police.

To be more harshly dealt with in a criminal court sentence than one’s white contemporaries.

To be more likely to receive a custodial sentence.

To be less favourably treated in job interviews, if you get to the interview stage.

To be less likely to rise to high political, legal, military or establishment office.

To be less likely to be well educated than one’s white peers.

To be less likely to own one’s own home.

To be more likely to be involved in crime and drugs.

If you believe that this is untrue then here are some statistics.

 

The UK population is some 63million. 13% are from a BAME background.

Custodial Sentences at Court. 27% White, 30% Black, 32% Asian.

Prison population is 25% BAME.

Judges, 6% BAME.

Police Chief officers, 5% BAME.

FTSE 100 Directors, 1.9% BAME.

Members of Parliament, 3% BAME.

Teachers, 6% BAME.

Military, 7% and Military Officers 2.4% BAME, with none above Brigadier rank.

University Professors, 92% are white.

There are over 500,000 stop searches by police per annum and 86% result in no arrest.

One is 7 times more likely to be stop searched by police if one is Black.

One is 5 times more likely to be stop searched by police if one is Asian.

 

All these statistics are available from current government sources and have not improved dramatically whatever political hue has been in government in the last 50 years since the Race Relations Act outlawed race discrimination in the 1960’s.

Yes that’s right!! The 1960’s!

I would argue that discrimination or systemic processed racism in society is so subtle and so nuanced that even some BAME people do not see it.

Let’s take the 2012 and 2016 Olympics as an example of this subtlety. There is a great feel good factor and adoption of many black icons in Olympic sport, which fulfills our need for nationalism and pride in our country. Mo Farah is proclaimed ‘one of us”, British and proud to bear the flag and most of the population will be pleased to see him knighted. None or little mention of his Somalian, Muslim heritage.

The great British public has assimilated Farah into the epitome of Britishness and there can be no room for anything else. One of the worst things a white person can say to a person of colour is “I don’t mean you, you’re one of us,” when referring to BAME people in general.

Returning to the Olympics, Rowing, Cycling, Equestrianism, Sailing, Tennis, Rugby, Hockey and Golf all have one thing in common. They are generally the preserve of the white middle classes, why? Because they cost a lot of money and so why be surprised when the people who dominate the medals in those sports for our country are white and middle class.

Which are the sports that cost very little to participate in and are almost always community based and not dominated by elite clubs and money and so indirectly lack of opportunity? Boxing, Track and Field.

Where does all the money go? To the elite sports where people who are privileged have the best opportunities, not to finding great BAME Hockey players, or Rowers or Cyclists, or Sailors etc from those communities, that because of systemic disadvantage cannot even show what they could do.

In the Sunday Times today 21/08/2016, quite rightly the contribution by LGBT competitors was highlighted. What a pity that all the pictorial representation was, you guessed it. White! Whenever gender imbalances in society are mentioned, again all the pictorial and anecdotal references are of white professional women

Cameron proudly proclaimed “One Nation” and we are all in it together, May declares to govern for all not just the privileged few.

Words are cheap and sound bites sound very nice to welcoming ears.

It is change we want and so when Black people stop holidaymakers heading to the ports blocking the roads by laying down in them under the banner of “Black Lives Matter” –they do!

 

 

 

Posted August 21, 2016 Posted in Current Affairs, Equality and Inclusion, general, Leadership, Politics | Leave a response

BREXIT- Disaster or Opportunity?

We are now in uncharted waters and our country faces the biggest constitutional crisis for over 500 years. This is bigger than the abdication crisis in the 30’s because we have a huge proportion of the population (under 40 years old) who have always been European and British.

The debate whether intentionally or not opened up the deep schisms in our society and the fault lines lie along age, wealth, education, race, social mobility and opportunity.

It is a very blunt instrument when one is in the privacy of the ballot box to place a cross because of personal anger based on lack of housing, jobs and job security, a good education and self esteem based on the fear and blame of “other”, or to place a cross which says, “I’m alright Jack” I own my own house, my kids go to a good school and I know they will have unlimited opportunities to be a success both personally and professionally.

Is it any wonder that if people like Farage, Gove and Johnson who conflated constantly during the debate, the racist attitude towards people from Europe, that the electorate will also do so, not realising that the fault clearly lays with the national politicians that they put in power in the first place. Who then pursued a policy of ideology of small government, big business, tax avoidance and evasion and low personal taxation which stripped our public services, which of course they do not use and only wish to put in place as cheaply as possible, irrespective of the service they provide, because actually they want everyone to pay for them directly.

This has never been a one-nation government and quite clearly it has always been a part nation government. A government of the haves, of the educated, of the homeowners, of the specialist holidays, of the professional elite, of the internees working for nothing, of those who exude privilege and entitlement. Is it any wonder that the other half of the nation, because surprisingly it is half the nation, have stuck up two fingers to indicate very clearly, NOW are you going to listen!

What of the future?

As an analogy, in any divorce, if people indicate they do not wish to live together, they separate tout suite, there are no long goodbyes because both parties feel hurt, rejected and worthless. So you don’t want me anymore, then be gone and you are not having the car, the house or the kids and believe this, I will fight you tooth and nail for all those things that we built together with so much love and care because I sweated and toiled to create them. They are more mine than yours.

Europe has already indicated how hurt and angry they are. This constant carping child we raised for the last 40 years has now come of age and we are no longer responsible for what they do or say, so be gone. This is my house, my money, my family and you are no longer welcome. But can I come back periodically please and have the benefits of your food and shelter, of your money and friendship? NO! Go and set up your own house, earn your own money and create your own new family! That’s the nature of a divorce.

Our “new’ Prime Minister is then going to go to Brussels and beg to be allowed into the EEA but significantly reduce the free movement of people. The “Brexiteers” still do not understand that that is nonsense. The fundamental purpose of the EU is Free Trade and Free Movement of Workers and our PM will be negotiating from a position of weakness. What exactly is it we have to offer that cannot be gained from elsewhere within Europe?

If I am a tomato farmer in Spain, will I sell my produce to a marketplace of 26 countries and 450 million people with little or no encumbrances or into a marketplace of 60 million where it will be difficult to sell because of trade barriers? That is just the economic case.

What will happen in our home?

Scotland has indicated very clearly that a 2nd referendum is on the cards, as they do not want to leave the EU. It may or may not be successful for the SNP but what leader did not see this precipitation of future possibly cataclysmic events?

The Tory party will lurch to the right because that is the heart of a BREXIT government. There will then need to be a General Election, no new PM can govern for a further 3 years without a mandate. This creates huge uncertainty in the negotiations with the EU.

We do not have a credible opposition or government in-waiting under Corbyn, so again more uncertainty.

Irish Republican politicians are taking the opportunity to move for a United Ireland. This is perfectly understandable in the circumstances, and so we may see the break up of the UK within 5-10 years.

How has this hubris been created?

  1. Lack of political leadership.
  2. Lack of engagement with Europe.
  3. Lack of engagement with the electorate.
  4. Individual posturing of an egocentric and ethnocentric without precedence.

 

What needs to happen?

  • There needs to be a period of calm.
  • We need a stable coalition government.
  • We need to make peace with our European partners.
  • We must not leave the European Union and the next government must manage that process.

 

Can we draw a straight line between now and the perceived imperial nature of our long history? I believe we can and some of the things I have heard over the length of the campaign lead me to believe that the xenophobia and sense of superiority over others is reflected in these words.

 

An Englishman

The Zulus have their thumping impis, crushing the baked earth under stamping feet.

The Germans have their phalanxed formations of marching elite,

But an Englishman, is just English

The Indians philosophise and bring us nearer to nirvana,

The Americans have their raucous Stars and Stripes reminding all of Boston and that party.

But an Englishman, is just English

The Australians have their sports stars, driven by chipped shoulders draped in green and gold,

The Arabs have their God who they say is very bold.

But an Englishman, is just English

The West Indians have their cricket and tinkling steel drums,

The Canadians have their quiet and unassuming aplomb.

But an Englishman, is just English

The Irish sing and reel endlessly for the craic,

and the Scots Ceilidh from the first light until the sky is black.

But an Englishman, is just English

The Welsh have their boyos crossing the try line,

And the French have their tricolour gaily entwined,

But an Englishman, is just English and inexorably apace,

has trod in all those places, of earth’s great space.

 

Tod O’Brien September 2013

Posted June 28, 2016 Posted in Current Affairs, Equality and Inclusion, Leadership, Poems | Leave a response

The European Referendum

The EU referendum is probably the most dangerous of times that we as a nation have ever lived through since the Second World War. The result may mean if we leave, that we then become isolated, unheard, lacking global influence and inconsequential on the world stage, both politically and economically.

Firstly, lets be honest, this referendum has nothing to do with Europe. This is much more to do with the machinations of our internal political parties and the lack of leadership and honesty around their pursuit of power in government.

The debate has been toxic and dominated by old white men of a certain class overall. Where are the voices of ordinary people throughout this debate? Why would a certain elite wish to return to the days of warm beer and skittles, deference and class, them and us, the haves and the have not’s? I suspect they hanker for the days when everyone knew their place did not question their “betters” and the rich got richer and the poor did what they were told and asked nothing because “That’s just the way it is”.

However we are now saddled with this referendum and it is important that our national decision is the correct one, not just for some sections of the public but also for the greater good of all, now and in the future. The long term future of our country hangs in the balance like never before and it is not the foreign jackboot and gunfire which is the threat but the jingoism, isolationism and xenophobia of our own citizens which may cause the greatest damage to our country ever.

The “LEAVE” camp conflates EU membership constantly with immigration and at every opportunity. Why? Clearly to pander to the fears of ordinary people that immigration is the root cause of all our national problems. Conveniently, they ignore the greed and endemic, culturally, unethical behaviour of the bankers who caused a global financial crisis which led to a government which ripped the heart out of our public services in the name of “austerity”, causing more and more suffering to disabled people, reducing the income of the working poor and made housing the aspiration and investment cachet of rich, tax avoiding/evading oligarchs.

Let us deal with trade. It is quite right we have always been a trading nation. Most of that trade has been founded on our Empire, which we no longer have and we need to trade on equal terms with the rest of the world. Do we want to trade with a common market of 500 million people who set standards about working conditions, pay, workers rights and manufacturing standards or do we want to trade with people who employ 58 million children in child slavery and 200 million children forced to work and not be educated because they are the main breadwinners in families who are desperately poor. Do we want to trade with countries where there are factories run like sweatshops and degrading conditions just so we can have the latest must have “designer gear” at rock bottom prices?

I do not want to do that!

Let us also examine “Unelected bureaucrats”.

The complaint put forward by the “LEAVE” camp is that we (interestingly, who exactly are “we”, is it the politicians and business mandarins or “we” the public?) have no say in how laws are made in our own country.

The EU Commission is a body of experts who are authorised to environmentally scan the global environment and devise legislation to be put to the European parliament for acceptance. No laws are passed without the authority of the MEPs. That is democracy.

I heard Michael Gove recently answer, when this point was put to him by an interviewer “Yes, but we keep getting defeated in the votes and overlooked” You can’t have it both ways Gove, that is democracy. Work with our European partners, form coalitions and get our point across in Parliament, that is the role of our MEPs! Maybe our national parliament should work with our European MEPs more closely?

Who devises our legislation?

I do not believe that our MPs sit up all night reading and writing new laws, guess what, it may actually be the faceless bureaucrats called “Civil Servants” who do all the donkey work. Are they elected? No!

This system is no different to the European system. What our political classes really dislike is being held to account by the Human Rights Act and the European Court of Human Rights. Are you really happy to trust your Human Rights solely to a minority elected British Parliament elite, which is in thrall to big business?

I for one do not want that either.

Conclusion.

What is clear overall is the lack of leadership displayed by all our political parties over the last 40 years in engaging with the European political system to get adequate reform of the things we don’t like and support the things we do, to get the best deal for the citizens of this country. They have let us down and now blame the European Parliament for their failure. Disgraceful!

“REMAIN” is the only option if we want to be secure, economically stable, kept safe as individuals from government and big business and part of a club which commands the world stage, setting standards for business, public office and individuals.

Posted June 13, 2016 Posted in Current Affairs, Equality and Inclusion, Leadership | Leave a response

Action or Apathy?

When I am asked, as I often am by people discussing politics and the state of humankind generally “Why are you so angry?’ my reply is “Why are you not?”

I find it astounding the acceptance by others of inequality and injustice and just general unfairness in our and other societies as greeted with “It’s just the way things are and we cannot change it”.

If we can’t, who can?

The lack of quality of leadership and gravitas exhibited by people in the institutions and the business world is breathtakingly arrogant and exudes entitlement and privilege. There is currently in recent times a litany of this as demonstrated in;

MP’s expenses, with very few prosecuted for what is theft, the referendum on Europe, prompted only by the internal machinations of the Tories and UKIP and which if BREXIT happens, to use the current parlance, will result in an inability of ordinary people to take their case to a higher European Court, thus reducing individual Human Rights even further. The LIBOR rate fixing scandal for which no-one has ever been prosecuted except a minor player but none of the big Bank bosses who organized it, the lack of accountability exacted against the instigators of the Iraq war, Blair and Bush, who in any other realm would be facing charges at the Hague Court, (perhaps that is why the Chilcott report is taking so long to produce) the current Investigatory Powers bill being whooshed through parliament which will invade our privacy beyond belief in the name of “Security” , The shrinking of the Freedom of Information Act which will prevent us from knowing more and more about what our elected leaders do and hold them accountable for it. Further afield, the FIFA fiasco in which millions of dollars have been illegally appropriated by a few corrupt people and again no prosecutions yet, the IOC debacle where the Deputy Seb Coe has now been elected to oversee a reform when he originally did not want the extensive doping revelations publicised by The Sunday Times and insists he knew nothing about them, tax evasion and fraud on an industrial scale by the rich and corporations, depriving ordinary hard working and tax paying citizens of their right to good healthcare, education, infrastructure and security The litany goes on and on and still the privileged elite continue to dominate our societies, impervious to any sanctions either legal or imposed by their peers.

Furthermore, the unelected in this country deciding on new legislation and having access to government to lobby policy decisions, as endemic in the Business Corporations, the House of Lords and the Monarchy.

Why wouldn’t one be angry?

Clearly the only non-violent way for this to be overturned and to increase the accountability of the elite is more transparency not less. 25 per cent of people voted for this Government, which is not 25 per cent of the country but only 25 per cent of those who voted, which was 66 per cent. How can this be democratic?

7 per cent of the people attend public schools and then go on to populate by over 50 per cent the best universities and then through their networks occupy all the best and elitist positions in society across all the public and private institutions. How can that be democratic and demonstrate equality?

So, how do we answer this? Perhaps the people of Iceland most recently have answered, by causing their Prime Minister to resign due to the overwhelming demonstrations against him in light of his family involvement in the Panama tax evasion/avoidance scandal currently rocking the international media.

We need more internationally agreed transparency in all business dealings so that no longer will people and corporations be able to move money around anonymously and avoid the tax in the country in which they earn their money.

All countries should legislate a form of the Freedom of Information Act to cover all public services and businesses.

Genuine democracy in the form of Proportional Representation, which causes politicians to work together, and not against each other for the benefit of all people should be the norm.

And so nationally in Great Britain: –

  1. Give wider powers to the Freedom of Information Act and include companies.
  2. Bring in proportional representation now.
  3. Reduce Government spying on it’s own citizens.
  4. Hold the Police and Intelligence agencies accountable for their actions.
  5. Get rid of the Monarchy and House of Lords.
  6. Set up an open business register for all companies showing all associated companies and locations and the Directors.

 

Conclusion.

We are sick and tired of the lack of leadership, which puts self interest before ethics as constantly demonstrated by the rich and powerful of the world. We can only change things by holding them to account. That can only happen if we insist our politicians enact legislation, which allows that to happen, and wrongdoers are punished in the courts, either nationally or internationally.

We can only ensure this happens if we hold politicians to these principles in their manifestos and what they do in office and if they do not then vote them out. As demonstrated in Iceland, the people can be very powerful without violence.

Posted April 6, 2016 Posted in Current Affairs, Equality and Inclusion, Leadership, Politics | Leave a response

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