A black & white look at British Politics

I do not wish to be too negative here but this election has probably come when the Labour Party are the worst prepared than they have ever been for a General Election Battle. Theresa May knows this well and has seized upon this as the moment to pounce. However this is not a reflection of Mr Corbyn’s leadership it is simply that the Labour Party is itself in turmoil. Corbyn although appearing strong has failed so far to take ownership of the Party or to steer it in the direction that the membership want. He has failed so far to live up to his left wing promise and is struggling to appease both the growing left and diminishing right in his Party. The Labour Party is struggling with an Identity Crisis and amidst this we now have a General Election to fight. However there may yet be a twist in the story and the election of Trump in the USA is a reminder that there are no certainties. Corbyn could still claim a victory of sorts if he diminishes Theresa May’s majority in the House of Commons and/or if he wins back the Scottish Labour Vote: so even in defeat he could theoretically win something in this battle. Would this be enough to help him retain leadership of the Labour Party well this remains to be seen and in any case who could really follow him?

In the May 2015 General Election the Tories exploited the Scottish People’s desire to get independence for Scotland. In truth Cameron was dependent upon the hope that people would vote for the SNP as a protest vote or at least to split the vote and divide what were traditional loyalties of the Scottish People towards the Labour Movement. There is some truth though that Miliband offered nothing more that a wet version of the Labour Party during this period but this is only a small part of the equation. Alex Salmond in his quest to become ‘King of Scotland’ simply took his eye off the ball and failed to grasp that he was nothing more than a Tory Puppet being used to undermine Labour’s overall position in Scotland.

The 2017 General Election is not a vote for Devolution for Scotland: it’s about which political party governs the United Kingdom in the meantime

In truth the Labour Party need to do better in Scotland and the only way they can do is to give the Scottish people what they want: which is a referendum on Scottish Independence. This is to avoid this General Election in 2017 simply becoming an opportunity to get this referendum regarding their independence and a vote simply about regional politics/issues or devolution. The SNP are in reality a single issue Party so the Labour  Party need to blunt Sturgeon’s sword and steal the rug from under her and her Party by offering the Scottish people the very thing and only thing that the SNP can really offer. Once this is done and promised by Labour in a Manifesto Pledge then Scotland can  get to grips with the real political issues that face not only Scotland but the whole of the United Kingdom.

If this can be achieved by Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour Party then if there were to be a swing back to Labour in Scotland then even if Labour were to loose the General Election it may still be possible to increase Labour’s seats and thus reduce the Conservative’s majority in Parliament. This could be seen as a miscalculation by Theresa May and a significant loss if her majority were actually to be decreased in a General Election of her own calling. The Labour Party have a great deal to gain by stealing the show from the SNP in Scotland by playing Sturgeon at her own game. In the same way the Scots have to answer questions about why they have let the Tories in at the last General Election by taking their focus off what happens to the rest of the United Kingdom by simply focusing on their own needs in a General Election situation. General Election’s should not simply be about regional politics and attempting to get the most out of it for yourself and your locality: you need to see the bigger picture by establishing a Government that will bring about not just localised improvements but improvements across the whole of the United Kingdom, this is a given up until the day when devolution does actually occur. In the last election the focus on regional politics simply let the Tories in to have a greater share of the vote than they have historically held. This situation simply gifted the last election to the Tories and gave the a much stronger position in Parliament than they actually deserve. Scotland and the Labour Party need to get it right this time for the sake of the greater good in the United Kingdom.

The sad reflection of the Brexit Vote is that reason and intelligence have been sacrificed in favour of a Popularist Vote and Majority rule. It has encouraged the small minded section of the British Public to believe that their opinions matter. In fact the Brexit Vote has endorsed this belief. Now it seems that Britain is being run not by elected governments with the expertise to run a country but instead by a misconceived Popularist Vote. What a way to run things! This sort of thing would simply not happen in business where people are selected for various tasks and duties based on expertise and competence. Instead we have the situation where the future of Britain and it’s economic status is being decided by a vote that was composed mainly of people who: latched onto only one aspect of the argument, saw an opportunity to openly express their prejudices and right wing views and who saw an opportunity to express an extreme dislike of foreigners entering the country. I would say that if a poll were to be taken the majority of British citizens would not have the least idea about topics such as Economics, Inflation, Trade Tariffs or International Trade so why have we what is basically an uneducated majority decide what is best for Britain on these matters?

Now we all have to face the consequences of David Cameron and the Tory parties desperate bid for power in seeking to appeal to the small minded biggots that unfortunately we find today in Britain. Cameron’s gamble backfired which ultimately led him to resign. Personally I do not take well to be told what to do by people when I neither respect their opinion nor credit them with a certain amount of intelligence or competence to do the job correctly. Now my whole future will be influenced by this decision taken by a majority that I have no faith in and together with me the fate of the whole country has been decided in this fashion as well. It is a prospect I am not looking forward to at all. This choice has been imposed upon me by a section of the public that most probably has no understanding of Economics at all.

Brexit is a gamble and Britain is now officially a Nation of Gamblers

Brexit is quite simply a gamble. It’s like backing a 100 to 1 outsider. Brexit has turned the whole country into a nation of gamblers betting irresponsibly on uncertainties. Many people who voted for Brexit did so based solely on: their own personal opinions and what effects them personally; what upsets them about Britain, their own prejudices, their uncharitableness towards others in need of assistance; their own interpretation of what Brexit meant to them without considering the larger picture and the long term consequences for Britain as a whole. Many of these people most probably voted for the first time and probably have little genuine interest in politics, fiscal policy and economics nor in General Elections. How can we trust this section of the public to make the right choices for Britain? How can it be that Britain could so willingly sacrifice: reason, intelligence and it’s economic future for the sake of prejudice and bigotry.

Here we will be looking at whether or not Jeremy Corbyn really plans to change the Labour Party into a left wing political party with socialist principles or whether it has just been a stunt to gain the left wing support he needed to retain the leadership.

The first clue is to have a look at who has been selected to his shadow cabinet and who has been chosen for the front bench. We need to look at these candidates in detail and see on what basis they were selected and whether or not they are committed to socialist left wing or whether they are moderates loyal to the principles of Tony Blair. A good leader will surround himself with people he can trust to be loyal to his cause. Change can only result from commitment and hard work from people who are loyal to the cause and who actually believe that the cause is worthwhile. Mr Corbyn has suggested that he wants the Labour Party to return to it’s traditional values and socialist principles. The only way to achieve this is by electing the right people available to do the job and surrounding himself with the right team. So has Mr Corbyn selected wisely?

We will be looking at recent speeches in the Commons by Jeremy Corbyn and how his speeches seem to conflict with his plans to let Theresa May and her Tories have a free hand, unchallenged in processing their Brexit plans through Parliament. Is the Labour Party now colluding with the Tories to get a swift Brexit. Should not the Labour Party be opposing Theresa May and her government in their attempts to speed through what is essentially the product of a right wing and extreme right movement. Brexit is loosing momentum and support on a daily basis as it becomes clearer of what the consequences to the British Economy will be with the value of the Pound steadily dropping and the prospect of a hard Brexit looming. The Labour Party would be best served preaching good sense and be thinking what is best for Britain and the British Economy rather than attempting to gain electoral advantage by courting support from right wing voters.

Continue reading Is Jeremy Corbyn being duplicitous by not seeking to defeat Brexit?

It was a cold winter’s evening and Theresa May sat in front of her class of children who understood from her words that they were there to be punished. May repeated again and again ‘Brexit means Brexit!’ as she watched the children cower in front of her. She preached her words over and over again to emphasise how foolish the children had been to vote for a Brexit. The simple repetition of the word Brexit only served to castigate them even more as if Mrs May were saying that I am only doing this and punishing you so severely because you have made me do it. ‘Brexit means Brexit’, she said again, further implying that she herself had no choice in the matter; she was merely an instrument of their own self destruction and she was merely the un-willing instrument to bring all this retribution and reckoning for a totally self inflicted act of stupidity. But as she sat there repeating those words to the castigated and downtrodden children there appeared to be a look in Theresa May’s eyes that suggested, in spite of her apparent unwillingness to bring about this stupid end to the stupid chain of events, that she might in fact be enjoying all this.

Have you taken a moment to understand that Brexit will be bad for Britain. It’s now getting obvious that there will be no good deal for the U.K from our European partners and why should there be. Theresa May is emphatic that we will succeed in getting a good deal for Britain but this is mainly just Tory arrogance. Why should we believe that we are a special case deserving of the best or a better deal than anyone else. This has always been our attitude to Europe we somehow have this notion that we are more deserving or best placed to have special rights. Well no more because the European Union are going to make an example of us : how dare they leave. They will make it hard with no special deals. It is in their interests of survival that we are made an example of: isn’t that just so obvious. They are not going to make us a nice cosy deal otherwise all the other European Union Countries will want to leave under similar cosy little arrangements. Theresa May already knows this because she has been attempting to find friends in Europe since being given the messy job of being the Brexit Prime Minister. She can’t find friend nor favour and time is quickly running out. Despite this Theresa May is sitting pretty and brimming with confidence so you have to wonder why. Well the answer to this lies in the simple rule of Conservative Party undeclared policy: Simply blame someone else for the mess that they might find themselves in. So when it all goes horribly wrong and when the British Public are complaining that they have received a hard Brexit and prices have risen, people have lost jobs and Inflation has rocketed who will be to blame: Well You of course. The British Public will be to blame for making Theresa May do this economically Hara-Kiri. Theresa May is sitting pretty and pressing ahead with this economic suicide because you, the British Public, wanted her to. Yes your to blame for Brexit : you the bigots and small-minded people who actually bothered, probably for the first time in your lives, to go to the polling stations. Who else is to blame  well David Cameron of course for encouraging the small-minded bigots to rally for their cause and in letting them express their misguided opinions.

Then you have to ask yourselves who benefits from Brexit. Well Theresa May and the Conservatives stand to benefit from the stupidity of Brexit by inheriting a Thatcherite Utopia of a low wage economy with high unemployment and high inflation which Thatcher sought to bring about and exploited by eroding wages and working conditions for U.K. citizens and workers. This is what Theresa May wants for U.K citizens and when this happens the metamorphosis of may into Margerat Thatcher II ( no spelling mistake I assure you)  will be complete.

And finally to those of you who are saying that there will be a British Economic Boom as a result of Brexit and our isolationist stance  falsely believing that there will be more jobs and better opportunities for British workers well here is a small lesson in Economics.

Any downturn in the Economy such as higher levels of inflation reduces people’s spending power and as such sales are reduced. Higher inflation and a weak pound may make us appealing to exports but exactly who we will be exporting to is in serious doubt because the US will also be attempting economic isolation and Europe simply will not be playing ball with us. High inflation makes us all worse off so we spend less sending our economy into further decline and recession. Recession results in job losses and under Tory control will also result in erosion of wages and workers rights. Higher unemployment again results in less affluence and reduced spending which also results in more benefit payments and increased financial burdens on Central Government which then results in higher levels of taxation and or borrowing. Thus increasing the deficit.