By Andrew McPake, additional writing by me, blogging fae Athens on today’s demonstrations protesting the Greek parliament’s vote to bring in destructive “austerity measures” in the wake of Greece’s near-financial collapse.
PAME demonstration of around 10,000 in central Athens
Athens is a city that is acquiring a reputation for itself. When a taxi driver asked where we were headed with our suitcases, our response prompted him to ask “Athens? Will you no get caught up in they riots out there?”. It would seem that the combination of constant reporting of Greece as overtaken by bomb-strewn madness and the main Scottish reference point when it comes to riots – the Poll Tax Riots – has given people a distorted view of what’s really going on here. The fact is, the IMF are being sold Greece under the table by the ‘Socialist’ government (Read: Greek version of the Labour Party), and their conditions for giving Greece money to bail out its failed banks is that the Greek government goes about systematically destroying any vestiges of a welfare state. It’s understandable why the people are angry. But they are expressing it in a way that is altogether more concise and class conscious than any pictures of anarchists throwing Molotov cocktails at riot police while stray dogs look on cooly can convey.
What we attended today was not a Poll Tax riot. No banks were burnt down, no statues were defaced. What we attended was an eye opening experience that allowed us to see two things:
The diversity and competence of the Left in Greece
The sheer extent of the unbalanced and jaundiced way in which the international press have reported this situation.
SSY events often end with burnt effigies of David Cameron
Tomorrow SSY will be hosting our annual conference in Glasgow, where we vote on motions, elect internal positions, and take part in a variety of workshops. It takes place in the Kinning Park Complex, 40 Cornwall Street, right beside Kinning Park underground station on the Southside of Glasgow, from 12 noon to 6pm. It’s a great way to get involved in SSY and meet new, like-minded fellow socialists in Scotland.
If you’re travelling from outside Glasgow and are unsure about travelling there alone or aren’t sure how to get there, SSY members will be meeting new members outside the main glass entrance to Buchanan Street underground station, on Buchanan Street (a 5 minute walk from Buchanan bus station and Central station, and 1 minute from Queens Street station) at 11.30am to get the underground together. Try not to be late as we have a packed agenda with some really interesting things going on, but if you can’t be there from the start or all day don’t feel shy to come along as there will be plenty to get involved with once you get there.
The finalised agenda for the day’s activities is as follows:
12 – 12.30 – Introductions
12.30 – 1.10 – ‘Current issues for socialists’ introductory workshop
1.10 – 2.10 – Choice of 2 workshops – ‘Public transport, why we need it, and why it should be free’ or ‘Independence and socialism: what we can learn from the Basque Country’
2.10 – 2.55 – Lunch break
3 – 4 – Banner making session
4 – 5 – ‘Blogging for beginners: Contributing to SSY’s blog and learning to write politically’
5 – 6 – Motions to conference, elections for internal posts such as National Executive Committee of SSY
6 – all night – Hard partying.
There will also be a short women’s group meeting following the conference.
The conference is open to all young socialists/anti-capitalists/anti-racists/interested general lefties aged 26 and under. You can join SSY for just £1 for a year’s membership at the conference, and learn about what we’ll be up to in the coming months like our drugs demo and Camp Secret Squirrel
If you’re travelling from outside Glasgow and need a place to stay or instructions on how to get there you can email us at scottishsocialistyouth@hotmail.co.uk or contact Liam M on 07923589493.
By Andrew McPake, a member of the Scottish Socialist Party and a teacher of English. Originally written for friends.
Plutocracy (pl -t k r -s )
n. pl. plu•toc•ra•cies
1. Government by the wealthy.
2. A wealthy class that controls a government.
3. A government or state in which the wealthy rule.
The 'austerity cabinet'/the cabinet of millionaires
Martin Luther King once told us that he had a dream. Ask yourself – what are your dreams? Perhaps they are to have children? Or a fulfilling job? Maybe you are even thinking of a comfortable retirement. These dreams may seem decidedly ordinary. In fact, they might even seem like the most mundane of aspirations.
Few politicians stir hopes now as Dr King did then; certainly not this side of the Atlantic. As Adam Curtis pointed out in his documentary of the same name, politicians much prefer drawing on The Power of Nightmares. When it was produced Curtis was addressing the cynical way in which the war on terror had been used to frighten the inhabitants of Western countries into sacrificing their civil rights. But a new decade has brought with it a new fear and now we are told that we must sacrifice our economic rights.
This fear is build on a number of lies repeated so often in the press that they have now become true. They are namely:
1. That the previous government was too generous in its spending thus bringing the country to its knees.
2. That the only way to reduce the deficit is to cut back on all of the social functions of the state while retaining all of its military and coercive ones.
These are lies. They are ideologically motivated lies to support the aims of a Conservative Party determined to do away with the last vestiges of the welfare state. Dr Joseph Gobbels once said:
“It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle.”
Goebbels would be proud of the way in which those who wish to destroy the welfare state in Britain have been able to promote the lie that social spending must be cut in order to beat the recession.
As David Milliband pointed out in the Guardian the deficit has been caused by falling tax receipts, not by rising spending. So why then did George Osborne find room for a cut in corporation tax? Why could they cut National Insurance?
Contemplating their next move. Benefits? Snookered.
The answer is simple. This Government is a plutocratic clique of small-minded millionaires desperate to hang on to their money during the recession. Far-leftists like myself may enjoy caricaturing them as the henchmen of the deprave and all-consuming capitalist system that will eventually destroy the planet. The truth, however, is altogether far more pathetically British.
Despite overwhelming evidence that the way out of an economic recession is to stimulate consumer demand, the Conservatives have pushed ahead with the single worst measure that they could: they have increased VAT. The Left has already said enough about the impact this will have; cutting the income of the poorest by 2.25%, while only reducing the income of the richest by 1%.
However, I feel that it is necessary to add that the VAT increase is no way beneficial to capitalism. Retailers will lose out as they are forced to increase the price of goods therefore reducing sales. Inflation will soar as the price of many key goods in the RPI (Retail Price Index, a key indicator of inflation) will increase. The only people that the VAT increase will serve are the plutocrats that make up the Con-Dem Government. The tax will raise revenue for the Treasury while impacting upon them as individuals to a minimal extent. When I was a student many of you heard me attack the UK Government for its slavishly pro-American attitudes. However, as the G8 summit approaches, the UK Government is ignoring the Obama administration’s pleas to save the UK economy by focusing on increasing demand.
The result will be catastrophic for the UK economy. And you know what? I truly believe that the Liberal and Conservative MPs are willing to treat their own state with a disregard that is unprecedented. They don’t care if Britain stagnates, so long as they and their wealthy donors are alright.
So what is going to happen to you in this living nightmare? Will you be alright? You might. So long as you are willing to protect yourself from those who would steal your dreams.
Cute babies have now been outlawed by the Con Dem coalition.
The children you want have been stolen from you: with child benefit being frozen in preparation for being smashed and education cuts of 25% any responsible person must surely be having misgivings about having children. Recent discussions also suggest that those children would be very unlikely be able to afford a University Education.
The right to work in useful and gainful employment has been stolen from you: young people of all but the wealthiest social classes face bleak employment prospects. Not only are those of lower qualifications going out of work (page 5) but qualified lawyers, architects and teachers are finding it nearly impossible to find work; a fact that too many of you know all too well.
The right to a retirement has been stolen from you: from now on this will be confined to the wealthy elite who run this country, many of whom retire at fifty. The Conservatives, on the other hand, would like to see you retire at seventy. A Government that quite literally consists of aristocrats and millionaires would like to create a society in which they retire and you work to death. This last point is beyond even the imagination of Dickens.
No doubt you have heard this all before. You may quietly agree, but like the Labour Party feel that these cuts are necessary sooner or later. Perhaps you even think I am behaving in a sensationalist way. Maybe I should recognise that these cuts are necessary to ‘Save Britain’.
If you accept any of the lies that the Con-Dem Government, with great assistance from the media, has been able to successfully propagate you may find my proposed solution to the recession difficult to handle. However, mine is a tried and tested one.
Britain has faced a period of austerity before. After WWII the nation was crippled by overwhelming debts. Yet during this time the NHS was created, infrastructure rebuilt after bombing and full-employment worked towards. How was this Government able to pay back the debt then? Well, by taxing the rich. In the present day the simple fact is that the businesses owned by the rich cannot make money because the poor do not have enough money to buy goods from them. Only by redistributing wealth can the market economy hope to survive.
And what exactly does ‘redistributing wealth’ mean? This document may give you a flavour. However, the most important thing to remember is that cutting spending will not lead us out of the crisis – it will only allow David Cameron and his Etonian pals to preserve their wealth.
They have no right to steal your dreams from you. Wanting children, a retirement and employment are not lofty ambitions but reasonable expectations. You have a right to demand these things. You have a duty to resist those who would take them from you.
George Gideon Osborne prepares to shoulder the burden of the economic crisis by cutting down on fancy waistcoats.
At the same time as Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Gideon Osborne, was announcing the pile of rancid shite that forms his Emergency Budget, it was also revealed that at least 23 out of the 29 coalition cabinet members are millionaires.
So while Osborne and Cameron and Clegg and their other filthy rich pals are telling us that we need to tighten our belts and “share the pain” of the brutal cuts to public services and benefit payments, plus tax hikes, they’re taking champagne baths and laughing into their gold encrusted Cornflakes.
Our very own Prime Minister David Cameron is worth £4 million, his wife SamCam gets £300,000 bonuses for fannying about with some stationary occasionally, and he’s set to inherit a whopping £30 million from his parents when they kick the bucket. Death represents a gigantic bonus for these rich families, and we’re sure the equivalent of winning the lottery several times over does take some of the sting out of bereavement for them.
The richest member of the cabinet is the Leader of the House of Lords, that undemocratic old folks home for senile ex-politicians and descendants of the chums of dead kings, Lord Strathclyde, who hordes at least £10 million all for his greedy little self. Don’t let the name fool you, I doubt he comes fae Glasgow like.
Axeman Osborne himself is worth at least £4.6 million, including a £2 million stake in his daddy’s “luxury wallpaper company”. Yet, we know he’s rubbish at wallpapering. We’ve been in his house and he’s got big bulgy bits, plus he spilt paste all over the carpet.
It’s not just the Tory cabinet members that are trousering gigantic wads and waiting breathlessly for mummy and daddy to die and leave them all their gold, the “real alternative” Liberal Democrats are a bunch of political cash cows too. Deputy Prime Minister/Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Clegg is currently worth an estimated £1.9 million, and is the son of a multimillionaire City banker.
Danny Alexander is upset to find out he's not worth £1million.
Of those 6 cabinet members that aren’t worth at least £1 million, there’s the likes of BARONESS Warsi, who is surely still worth a pretty penny, and Beaker from The Muppets Chief Secretary of the Treasury Danny Alexander. Boo hoo Acne Alexander, boo hoo for you.
It’s worth remembering that all of these figures are quite conservative (with a small ‘c’) estimates and don’t take in to account the vastly inflated salaries these parasites receive from the public purse. And what with the reputation of Tory bigwigs like Lord Ashcroft for cheating the system with scarily high levels of tax evasion, who knows what these chumps have got stashed between the Nazi gold in Swiss banks?
What makes this multimillionaires business all the more offensive is that yesterday they chose to unleash an economic blitzkrieg on the vast majority who don’t stuff their sofas with £50 notes like they do. The UK is in the midst of going through a course of severe economic shock therapy. The budget was called an “emergency” to make us think that what it contained was inevitable when in fact it is just the realisation of long-held Tory sadistic fantasies about what they’d like to do to the working class.
Here are just a few of the many ways you are getting fucked by the “emergency” budget:
"Hi everybody, I work for the DWP!"
Disability Living Allowance - It’s going to get even harder to receive this benefit. To qualify for DLA currently, you already have to go through a medical assessment to prove you really need it. The government’s announcement that they will “introduce a medical assessment for Disability Living Allowance from 2013 for new and existing claimants“. What this actually means is that they’re going to make it even harder to pass the assessments made by the quacks so-called “doctors” they employ to try and trick the vulnerable out of what they need to survive. Those responsible for this are not doctors, violating the first rule of medicine, do no harm. The government has decided that being a disabled person living on meagre benefits is such a laugh riot, that to restrict slightly the hedonistic lifestyles of these publicly funded wheelchair racers they’ll have to pass an exam in how sick they are first. These assessments are humiliating, frightening and about as useful as a statement of medical fact as a Harold Shipman death certificate.
VAT - Value Added Tax is one of the unfairest taxes that can be raised from ordinary people. It’s basically a cut that the government takes out of the price of essential things we all have to buy at the shops, and so the government’s raising of it to 20% will hit the cost of living for everyone. Instead of raising income taxes or others that proportionally work out how much you need to pay based on how much you actually have, they’ve deliberately chosen to raise the one that hits the poorest hardest and leaves the super rich like themselves relatively unscathed. Raising VAT at the same time as chucking people off benefits is the ultimate Tory wet dream, condemning many to the borderline of survival.
A single parent struggles to cope with the increase in VAT
Corporation tax -- Meanwhile, no surprise that the tax on the ultra rich mega corporations is getting cut to even lower levels. If you want to know who’s really in power in the UK, look at who’s done the best from the budget. Companies like the Gulf poisoners BP, merchants of death British Aerospace and public money vampires Royal Bank of Scotland. The tax they pay will be lowered to the scandalously tiny rate of 24%, less than half what they paid under the Thatcher overlordship (56%).
Parents - It’s going to get much harder to have a kid under the ConDems. Ultimately they want to scrap child benefit, one of the few remaining universal benefits. In the meantime, they’re freezing it for the next three years. People with babies will no longer be eligible for child tax credits, perhaps justified by the fact that babies are clearly the most self reliant of all children. And a grant that was previously paid to pregnant women to support them and cut infant mortality is to be withdrawn. Lone parents will also be forced to look for work as soon as their kids start school. There’s only one clear conclusion to draw: the government hates children.
George Osborne hard at work
These horror stories are just a flavour of the vicious hacking you’re going to get from the Tories’ rusty knives. The “emergency” budget is just the start of the cuts agenda -- everything except health and international aid is being cut over the next 4 years. So the real level of disaster they’re going to inflict on us is yet to be seen. In Scotland, we’ll be hit by a double whammy in the next Scottish Parliament budget, when we get two years worth of cuts in the budget of one.
For a full breakdown of the full economic violence we’re being subjected to, check out the upcoming issue of the Scottish Socialist Voice, which will feature in depth analysis from socialist economists. It’ll be available to buy on anti-cuts actions throughout the country, such as the street rally against the budget taking place this weekend in Glasgow. On Saturday people will be taking to the streets from 12 noon, on Buchanan Street, to protest the fact that it and other financial institutions have been kept profitable with our money, whilst the poor majority are face cuts and tax hikes.
In the meantime, check out the alternative budget produced by the SSP, outlining the many simple ways these cuts could be prevented. The fact of the matter is that the government is desperate for you to believe their cuts are inevitable, but in fact they are politically motivated policies aimed at making the rich richer at our expense. To see how things could be done differently, such as our plan to recoup a whopping £120 billion in evaded taxes by rich cunts, have a look here.
Above is exclusive future footage of Scotland just four years after the release of the “emergency” budget
At 4am this morning, armed commandos from the Israeli army (IDF) stormed a convoy of boats owned by the Viva Palestina aid organisation, killing at least 19 and injuring at least 50. The boats were in international waters, 90 miles away from the intended destination of Gaza, and contained activists that hoped to deliver aid to desperate Palestinians, forced out of their homes and into dire situations by the aggressive Israeli state. Attacking boats in international waters is not within the legal power of the IDF, and as a result has drawn criticism from even those who would normally defend Israel’s right to murder on solid land, although of course anyone should know better than to expect unbiased reporting from major news sources where Israel is concerned.
Today (Monday 31st) there will be several demonstrations against Israeli state terrorism in towns and cities all over Scotland. So far demonstrations at 5pm have been announced in:
Edinburgh - Assemble 5pm at the Foot of the Mound, Princes Street (07958002591)
Glasgow - Assemble 5pm at George Square (07870701011)
Dundee - Assemble 5pm at City Square (07941751452)
Aberdeen - Assemble 5pm at St Nicholas Square (07980253337)
Moffat - Assemble 5pm at 2 Holm Street (07786508715)
Inverness - Assemble 5pm at the Townhouse (07881527062)
Banff - Assemble 5pm at Low Street, Council Buildings
Stirling - Assemble 5pm at Foot of King Street
If you condemn the murder of peaceful activists trying to deliver aid into Gaza, please take some time to come along and show our government that we don’t support Israel’s aggressive actions and continued oppression of Palestinian people.
You can keep up with new protests in other towns being announced here. There will also be a national demonstration this Saturday, 5th June, in Edinburgh at 2pm -- again assembling at the foot of the Mound.
Apparently under the NATO charter the attack on a NATO flagged ship in international waters puts all of NATO in a state of war with Israel. Somehow we doubt this will result in severe repercussions for Israel, who have the support of the most powerful Western governments, but we’ll be watching intently to see how many people now begin to realise that Israel officially went ‘too far’ quite a long time ago. Viva Palestina!
In honour of our 300th blog post, Leftfield brings you the EPIC SAGA of Scotland’s long-standing resistance to the Tory hordes of England:
When SSY members were born, like all Scots they were inspected. If they showed any sympathy for the Tories, they would have been discarded. By the time they could stand, they were baptised in the fire of combat. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender, taught that resistance to the Tories was a service to Scotland and the greatest glory they could achieve in their lives. At age 7, as is customary in Scotland, children are taken from their families and plunged into primary 3.
Manufactured by 300 years of the Act of Union, to create the finest socialists the world has ever known. Taught to show no pain, no mercy, constantly tested, tossed into the wilds of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweedale, left to pit their wits and will against posh farmers’ fury. It was their initiation, their time in the wild, for they would return to their people as a socialist, or not at all. The Tory begins to circle the revolutionaries, claws of steel, heart as black as night, eyes glowing red -- jewels from the pit of hell itself. The rabid Tory is sniffing, savouring the scent of the cuts to come. It’s not fear that grips them, but only a heightened sense of things. Cold air in their lungs, windswept banner moving against the coming riot cops. Their hands are steady, their form perfect. The Tories are defeated!
Tory voter shows the hidden goat path into Scotland
And so the young socialists, given up for dead, returned to their people, to sacred Scotland, victorious. It’s been 13 years since the Tories, the cold, and now, as then, a beast approaches, patient and confident, savouring the meal to come. This beast is made of Tories and Lib Dems, Lords and Ministers, an army of civil servants vast beyond imagining, ready to devour tiny Scotland. Ready to snuff out the world’s one hope for reason and justice. A beast approaches.
Although Scotland stands united against the Tories, one solitary constituency (perhaps disgruntled about their horrific disfigurements as a result of inbreeding amongst their posh, landed families) decided to betray their people by showing the Tories their hidden goat path into Scotland. Now it falls on the shoulders of a new generation of socialist warriors to defeat the assembled hoardes of the ConDem occupation. We do not wish tributes or songs (unless they come in the form of blog posts or funny videos), our wish is simple: an independent socialist Scotland!
(Credit to Liam T for his tireless work creating our amazing video and pictures, and to Jack and TheWorstWitch for additional writing. Seriously Turbo you are amazing.)
We think Chavez is cool, and not just because he is obviously a pirate.
In a stunning victory for the working classes in both Scotland and Venezuela, and much to the chagrin of the imperialist pigdogs that control the media, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has announced that he is to employ 200 new staff members to help him deal with the daily deluge of twitter @replies he is getting from the Scottish Socialist Youth. Already there’s been a clear positive response, with Chavez commenting on our blog, “jajajaj chicos, ¡que diversión!” (‘hahaha guys, very funny!’). Sources point to a soon-to-be-announced extension of the Bolivarian Revolution to Scotland. It is set to begin with the Maryhill branch of the Scottish Socialist Party declaring independence from the unionist swine in Westminster and becoming officially annexed to Venezuela. The rest of Scotland will soon follow suit, and join the international struggle. A twitterquake will follow, with #SSYbloginitiatesworldsocialism becoming the top trending topic, EVER!
Nah, only joking, he’s not got back to us yet… But it is true – Hugo Chavez’s twitter account is now such a popular forum for Venezuelans attempting to voice their grassroots concerns to President Chavez that he has employed 200 people to help him sort through all of their comments and requests, replying to as many as they can. It’s been hugely popular, with his followers set to hit the 1 million mark by the end of this month.
It’s not been without trouble for the President, who says that over 18% of the comments he gets are just pure abuse. But he takes it in good spirit, tweeting back jokes to people that think sending Hugo a nasty twitter message is going to break the Revolution’s spirit!
Far from being a waste of money and staff time, clearly Chavez is taking the internet seriously and agrees with SSY that it will be one of the major battlegrounds in the struggle between ideas that will shape the 21st century. It’s also an easy and simple way for Venezuelans to directly petition their government, and for the government to keep in touch with the basic concerns (in 140 characters) of the people. He’s using social networking websites to cut through bureaucracy and allow people to directly hold the President to account, and we applaud him for doing so. He has created a fund to address the problems the people of Venezuela face that they have contacted him to ask for help with – mostly related to housing and health, so it’s already having a real impact on the lives of Venezuelans that otherwise would still be feeling alienated from the political process.
So SSY decided to get in on the act and send Hugo some greetings from Scotland, and the link to this here humble blog. We wrote
@chavezcandanga ¡Saludos desde Escocia! le invitamos a Hugo Chavez pasar por ssy.org.uk ¡Que viva la revolución socialista internacional!
I see u, spoiling Doctor Who over twitter.
Which says “Greetings from Scotland! We invite Hugo Chavez to check out ssy.org.uk. Long live the international socialist revolution!”. One of the drawbacks of twitter is that you must fit each message in to 140 characters of less, so although we’d have loved to have said more we were a bit limited for space. But we are FULLY confident that Hugo will receive our message and be so bowled over by our witty, irreverent yet SERIOUS take on socialism and politics that he will set the wheels in motion for the Venezuelan-Scottish superstate of dreams.
Our hope is that young socialists in Venezuela will be able to use our blog as a source of information about the socialist struggle here in Scotland and the UK, and we’d love to get updates from comrades involved in the struggle in Venezuela about what affects their lives.
SSY would also love to invite the PSUV (the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, of which Chavez is the leader) to send some young members along to our socialist summer camp this August, where they could learn about socialism from a Scottish perspective and share their experiences of living in a socialist country and the pressures they face from the capitalist forces that regularly attempt to undermine the Bolivarian Revolution and other progressive movements in South America. ¡Que viva la revolución socialista internacional!
Nick Clegg points and laughs at YOU, foolish voters
Nick Clegg has confirmed that a vote for his party simply equals a vote for the Conservatives, by admitting that he is looking to speak to Cameron first about forming a coalition government. His party already floundered in the polls and failed to live up to their promised challenge to Labour in this election and appear to have done even shitter than last time around (Current results stand at: Tories 299, Labour 254, Lib Dems 54).
SSY always knew that Nick Clegg would sell out all of the young, enthused voters that he had duped into thinking he was some sort of radical alternative. That’s why we pulled him up when he followed the cynical campaign trail to Glasgow North a few days ago – and 34 leaflets through my letterbox later they still lost to Labour, who increased their vote on 2005!
The Lib Dems are not an alternative, the ONLY alternative is to tell capitalism to get shoved and start working for the people, not for the rich and the powerful.
A Lib/Lab coalition would still be a minority government. A Lib/Tory government would be a majority. Lib Dem supporters can kiss goodbye to their commitment to electoral reform, and any credibility their party might have had over the last month. Tell the Tories (and the Lib Dems who prop them up) to fuck off by coming out in Glasgow tonight for a protest! Some bad people (probably the police/council) have got to the facebook group advertising it and have cancelled the facebook event but rest assured it’s still on, meet 6pm tonight in George Square! Bring banners noisy things colourful things etc etc
Catastrofuck in the government! Today, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a huge cock up when he, after being filmed talking to an OAP about her concerns (her pension, her grandkid’s uni debt, the Eastern Europeans..) was then caught on microphone in his car calling her a “bigoted woman”.
This issue is a bit delicate. Undoubtedly what she was saying, which basically amounted to ‘Eastern Europeans come here to scrounge off benefits’, WAS bigoted. This is the basic level of racism that is on display throughout the whole of society, you come across it all the time. Does that mean it’s her fault, or that she is a nasty person? Not really. These views are supported and perpetuated by the government and the main opposition parties all the time, and it plays into the hands of far right parties like the BNP and UKIP. Just look at the way our own government treats asylum seekers in this country, and the language that has been used to discuss immigration throughout the election debates -- the system isn’t trying to challenge racist ideas, it’s trying to pander to them and perpetuate them. If someone holds a bigoted view, does that make them a bigot? Not really -- if your only reference point for what is going on in your country is the media, particularly the tabloids, then you’re having that view pumped into you day after day. I’m certain that this woman isn’t a hateful person, just misinformed.
So on one level it’s a good sign that our Prime Minister recognises that this sort of view is wrong -- you can bet your last cigarette that David Cameron would never be caught on tape making a blunder like this, because he more than likely agrees with the view of this woman. On one hand that makes him a man of principle. On the other hand, it makes him completely full of shit. He doesn’t agree (at least to an extent, as far as we’re now aware) with this sort of casual racism, he knows what the word bigoted means, yet he’s still willing to push this ‘we must be tough on immigration/benefit scroungers/whatevs’ line that we as socialists know amounts to racist horseshit. Desperate, is what I’d call him, especially after seeing his snivelling apology. How we deal with racism in society is both more nuanced and more simple than hiding in your car and calling people bigots -- we have to recognise that there are deep seated societal issues, mostly led by the fucked up control that the media has over our political experiences, which lead to people coming to hold these views. But also, for the government the solution is simple -- stop telling fucking lies to support and pander to this shite. You’d think not lying would be a pre-requisite for huge fucking governmental responsibility.
What bothers me about this whole ‘blunder’, is how everyone is so concerned about haranguing GB for not being polite to an old lady, but none of the media seem to be bothered that what this really exposes is the extent to which elections and the government in general aren’t about principles -- it’s solely about stage management. It only takes a gaffe like this to show you how fragile the whole thing really is. Let’s recap for you here: Prime Minister is ambushed by TV cameras just waiting for him to fuck up, Prime Minister says a few things that are either excruciatingly vague or he doesn’t really agree with, Prime Minister forgets to take microphone off in car, Prime Minister says what he really thinks (and undoubtedly wasn’t even smiling in the car behind the scenes, the fucker), media goes apeshit and handily happens to still be near the wronged pensioner at the time, Prime Minister grovels.
It confirms what we’ve long known: that The Thick of It actually is just a documentary.
Here we see what happened when Peter Mandelson found out about the catastrofuck:
In fact, this whole thing just reminds me of a certain factory visit undertaken by our good friend Hugh Abbott.
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