Sunday 25 April 2010

DIVISION BELL KNELL

As I patrolled the friendly centre of Newbury today, with my archetypal MP companion (rosette on a pole) I fell to pondering, again, the ANTAGONISM and DISCORD threaded through our society AND ITS GOVERNANCE:


The Division Bell is tolling a death-knell – Westminster or Britain?

'Divide and Rule' is an old adage - division is implicit weakness. In light of this: 'Divide TO Rule' (The Westminster Way) HAS TO BE PRETTY DUMB - and so it is emerging.

In our adversarial system of governance, Her Majesty's (loyal) Opposition is required to OPPOSE. That speaks for itself. Yet Clegg is increasingly invoking COOPERATION! Might he end up in the Tower for DISLOYALTY?

Cooperation is usually mooted in the face of a SERIOUS THREAT (e.g. war - though not, it seems, a phoney war on 'Terror'). But is not the general decline in competence and contentment, of the occupants of these islands, A SERIOUS THREAT?

Where is the sense in institutionally divided governance having, NOW, to bridge the dopey divide, WHEN IT DID NOT NEED TO BE DIVIDED IN THE FIRST PLACE? The politicians of Westminster, drawn there by - AND CONFIRMED IN - adversarial delights (wasting untold time and unaccounted millions) are ill-disposed to harmonious, optimum governance.

Surely it is time to sweep away the whole Westminster ethos and its associated rosetted-ciphers; to put an end to party-gaming (while Britain burns) and to govern through the talents of individuals of proven integrity (not thespians cloaked in rubber-stamp 'honour').

As an illustration of the madness of our political system, consider what happens WITHIN a party when two or more factions emerge. SHOCK-HORROR! "The party must come together or die!" "Any faction OPPOSED to the leadership must be purged!" The party is pronounced SPLIT - de facto WEAKER.

All the above is apparent to the rational mind, applied with integrity. And that is the problem with the Westminster Mind: to survive it must be irrational – integrity is death to party politics. Nothing short of ERADICATION OF EVERYTHING ‘WESTMINSTER’ will open the way to a more competent, contented Britain.

Saturday 17 April 2010

AGENT PROVOCATEUR



Today was the second Saturday that I have taken my archetypal 'Westminster Politician' to meet his constituents, in Newbury high-street (Northbrook Street). He was received with all the respect due to him.

You can see from the photo, that he amounts to a rosette, mounted on a spineles support (the Jelly Babies run all the way down). Both aspects speak of the MP being a 'creature' of the party, where Westmister Politics are concerned, and further, disinclined to support constituents locally, where that support would run foul of party-dogma or the leader.

Locally chosen, INDEPENDENT candidates, chosen for proven integrity, suffer none of these constraints. The Westminster ethos is ingrained, like dry-rot suffuses the masonry of a building. Refitting, will only lead to more rot. Westminster must be metaphorically 'demolished', and a STRUCTURE OF INTEGRITY, supesede it. The excerpt below (from 'Responsibilities of your MP') tells all:

"At times a constituent's demands may conflict with party policy and your MP will have to decide where their first loyalty should lie. " (Note the pejorative use of 'demands' and the laughable invocation of 'first loyalty'! They don't tell you about THAT on the hustings.)

Wednesday 14 April 2010

E=MC²

It is an accepted scientific tenet, that energy and matter are interchangeable. It is an obvious, unavoidable truth, that money and power, are in a similar relationship. Power = Money + Corruption. What is more, if we exclude the odd Saint, WE ALL HAVE OUR PRICE. Those with sufficient money, suitably applied, ultimately control us.

It follows, from the above, that to gain power, money may be spent – to gain absolute power, spent in eye-watering amounts. President Obama’s supreme power was reportedly bought for, in excess of, $1 billion. That figures.

In the coming weeks, one fact is incontrovertible: each political party, with anything that can be described as a ‘fighting fund’ or ‘war chest’, will SHAMELESSLY attempt to BUY THE ELECTION, to whatever degree that it is possible for them. As almost every aspiring MP has pre-sold their soul to a party, the preceding sentence applies equally to the cipher-aspirant parading your high-street. The amorality is stark, the immorality, close to proven; and Westminster runs to the rhythm of these people.

Am I being unreasonable to see some connection with the ‘money = power’ equation and all the horrors recently thrown up by Westminster? No sooner had Tony Blair slipped past ‘Yates of the Yard’, with ‘no case to answer’ (Ks and Ps for cash) than he was gone to spend more time with his (goodly) fortune. Then came the Parliamentary allowances farce; another correlation between a penchant for power and a love of lolly? I rest my case.

The most overt application of money, to the buying of votes, is the phenomenal amount paid to advertising houses and for roadside hoardings. And, be it noted, the advertising is tacky. We have had the rather piggy face of Cameron LENGTHENED, its aspect ratio changed, to make ‘Cameron Tories’ more attractive to voters, by association. The leader of one of the major British political parties, has been found ‘too ugly for purpose’! What manner of man submits to that? When labour put Dave on an Audi bonnet (and egg on their own faces) they went the negative route. Ironically the result was negative also, yet one assumes, they still had to pay.

The bottom line is that power-hungry parties, will cosy-up to some very unsavoury individuals, to fill the coffers. BUT THERE IS ALWAYS A PAY-BACK. I will name no names, as another thing that money can buy is ‘Legal Judgement! Funny that. But you know who they are – well, the ones that came to light. The words ‘iceberg’ and ‘tip’, come to mind . . . Suffice it to say: though our government will have a known flavour after May 6th, NAMELESS MONEY will be in power on a quid pro quo basis.

Thursday 8 April 2010

THE CANNY STATE

In Britain’s ‘Fair’ Land, we are all FREE to smoke, drink and (or) eat ourselves to a comprehensive state of ill-health. All three delights can damage the most vitally functional parts of the body, leading to chronic sickness. Thereafter - WITH THE BLESSING OF FREE CARE – a slow, government-funded decline into helplessness is ‘afforded’, before an ignominious, state-begrudged, death. How fortunate we are!

On the face of it, one might think a caring government would view our damaging dysfunction with concern – but suppose the caring face of government is a mask? PERISH THE THOUGHT. Governments’ first concern is always POWER. (Quite so! It must be won, and held on to, if caring is to proceed!) The voters can always be induced to vote for a party that meets (or pledges to meet) their needs and wants. Free medical care is now an established ‘need’, in the mind of the electorate, while booze, fags, fat and sugar are ‘wants’. Politics could not be simpler.

The term ‘Nanny State’ is hurled at any suggestion of our excesses being state-curbed. Odd – I thought archetypal nannies were firm but FAIR, and FAIR is the ‘new black’! And what of the over-indulgent GRANNY State, giving us all excessive pocket money (debt) and taking us to Tescos as a treat? Granny has the latest, monster TV (HD digi) and lets us stay up until exhausted, watching mind-bending trash. SHE HELPS US BECOME UNWELL yet goes un-perceived. Needless to say: the Granny State, is a Wicked Step Mother in disguise. During ‘sleep-overs’, she drains our soul and sells it down the river, using the money gained to provide policing of the marauding ‘Have-nots’, and funding for the ubiquitous ‘NSS’* – free at the point off nihilism. (*National Sickness Service.)

Parties are not slow to hire the most Machiavellian of advertising agencies, and to apply their nefarious skills, at election time, to the business of gaining power. Governments could choose to use the same approach in turning the citizens away from self-destructive pursuits. Crime, sickness and social decay would reverse. Skilled avoidance of the ‘Nanny State’ label, would allow us ordinary folk to convince ourselves that WE HAD CHOSEN to improve (such is the cunning of the advertiser). This would reinforce the new behaviour. But where would this leave the politicians? Funding the NHS would cease to be a vote-winner, as would crowing over extra police. In short: POLITICAL DISASTER! All they would have left, to flamboyantly fund, is EDUCATION (so called) and that is about to blow up in their faces - from too many heavily-funded initiatives (and a surfeit of Balls).

In summary: British governments tax human degradation, then spend the money in high profile initiatives that can, at best, only restore the original situation. The Canny state is a can of worms.

Wednesday 7 April 2010

FOOLS AND KNAVES

The blinkered, the gullible, the ever-hopeful and the truly dim, vote into Parliament the narcissistic, the arrogant, the self-serving and the deranged. Within Westminster, sub-groupings (parties) play ‘war-games’ - with the winner of every battle pre-ordained by the preceding election. This we call democracy.

The election winners – the party of government - collect taxes. Out of this money they overpay themselves, fund wars in foreign lands – that are engaged in on a whim – and indulge in many an ‘initiative’ like unwieldy IT schemes and (say) ‘Smiling in English’ courses, for immigrants; all doomed to fail.

There are only two progenitors of glorious error: FOOLS and KNAVES. Westminster is, to a man (and proxy man) filled with both – sometimes in one body! Inside that Poseur Palace, these unrepresentative wannabes learn to honour and obey all that is dishonourable. They rise, by submergence of self – with the exception of raw ambition – and Gollum-like fawning to party: leader/hierarchy/whips/dogma/message/lies/deceit, and the latest party-sound-bite. Those who develop the ability to do without sleep and human niceties, while mastering obfuscation and question-deflection, rise to the top of the slippery heap – a considerable feat! It follows that only the VERY PECULIAR attain high office, and from that rare group is drawn A PRIME MINISTER.

Because Westminster is a feudally organised institution – from the duelling-spaced confrontational benches, to the silly dress, and time-wasting rituals, the proxy Monarch (Prime Minister) has ‘life and death’ say, on a whim, over his Knights and Barons (Secretaries of State and ministers) and they repay, with grovelling subservience, plus the occasional ‘assassination’. Westminster is supposed to manage Britain on our behalf. Few successful company managements see advantage in suddenly giving the transport manager, R&D to run and Sales to the production boss. So why do Prime Ministers, routinely, do this? No prizes. Hardly surprising, then, when (say) an ex-postman who has been ‘doing Health’, makes some odd decisions after being ‘given’ law-n-Order to play with.

In the light of the above, we should not be surprised that, whilst we might seem to be prospering as a nation, the truth is that we are ‘default managed’ in the negative terms of mending sickness, controlling crime and warring with (perceived) threat when, were we governed by wise managers, it would be for less illness and fewer crimes at the outset; in short: more contentment. If you would rather see a contented Britain, consider: ‘MPs and the cause of MPs’. Seek out competence and integrity in any candidate; generally amounting to a local choice. Refuse party plants, chosen for party loyalty and ambition.