Infuriating slant on all political stories

I'm so tired of the way Jeremy Corbyn and the current Labour cabinet is talked about in the media. Robert Peston tweeted that it's ridiculous that a Labour win in areas which have always been Labour would be seen as a victory. But he needs to realise how much times have changed. The Mail and the Sun constantly tell readers to hate anyone who's not British. The BBC constantly present Nigel Farage as the popular voice. Labour's inclusive, hopeful, nuanced arguments gain no traction in the face of this onslaught so although I do agree that Corbyn has not made the best job of battling back against, this, with opponents from all sides, he hasn't stood a chance.

Brexit wasn't my choice but we have to live with it

I can only think of a couple of good reasons for leaving the EU but I can think of many for staying in. But it's happened, so much of the talk in the media has been on whether we can overturn it, so let's focus on reasons I think the vote isn't an accurate reflection of public opinion:

1) At least some of the people who voted for it did so because they believed one or more of the following:

• That we would 'take back control' from unelected bureaucrats (MEPs are elected, unlike Theresa May who has chosen a bunch of Brexiters to oversee proceedings) but in fact, we will be left desperately trying to sell ourselves to other countries - and this has already started with the PM's desperate early meeting with Trump shows
• That we would remain in the single market but on our own terms and would save on our EU membership cost whilst making more money than before (playing hardball with the EU is not paying off and we look like being out of the single market and unable to trade freely with EU nations)
• That we would give £350m per week to the NHS (not sure where they got that idea)

2) At least some of the people who voted to leave will be dead by the time we actually do and be replaced in the electorate by young people who would more likely have voted to remain

3) 16-18 year olds (whilst old enough to marry and have children) were denied a vote on their future. They would most likely have voted to remain.

However, I don't think the vote should be overturned. Whilst I think this is the worst episode in post-war British political history (created by the worst Prime Minister in post-war British political history), lies in the media and from politicians is nothing new. Virtually every government is elected on promises they either had no intention of carrying out, or fail miserably to do so. It's all words and Brexit is no different.

What is different is that, for the first time in a very long time, the forgotten millions from Berwick to Bexhill and Solway to Sennen have had their voices heard. Yes, maybe many of them did so because they were misinformed about what it would mean. In some cases because they're a bit racist. But a lot of those who voted to leave the EU did so because they have been forgotten by successive (Conservative, Labour, Coalition and Conservative again) governments, left to fend for themselves in areas with decreasing opportunities and devoid of meaningful or worthwhile investment and support.  Meanwhile the capitalist classes reap the benefits new infrastructure projects, lower corporation taxes, tax cuts for the highest earners and our senior politicians going to the EU to argue on behalf of special treatment for their industries. As the invisible majority saw it, the establishment wanted them to vote remain, so they told them to shove it.

Leaving the EU will fall hardest on the areas which voted strongly for Brexit but if those in power and those with influence were to even try to ignore their vote, it would only further their belief that the political classes hold absolutely no value in them whatsoever. Millions of people would be even more separate from political decisions made in this country. They would be less likely to vote in elections than they are now and as a result, would be less likely to get a government who might actually do something to help them, and so the situation would snowball.

The difference between the affluent and the rest is already too wide and it is widening quickly and overturning Brexit would only make that worse. Instead, let's listen to what the public voted for and most importantly, make sure they are part of what happens next.

Words fail

My ramblings on here are becoming increasingly rare. Part of that is because I'm more busy than I used to be (I didn't think it was possible to cram much more in but I was wrong) but it's also partly because I just don't know what to say.

We have politicians who no longer seem to care that we know they're liars, or care that we know what they say bears no relation to what they think or what they plan to do. We have a hard brexit where we're apparently playing hard-ball with Europe when they hold all the cards: our government and a lot of the people who are in their circles seem to think that our financial sector is crucial to the single market when actually, it will just move to Frankfurt or somewhere else on the continent. We have a situation where parliament voted to renew trident for eye-watering sums of money at a time when that could be spent on areas we really need it - only to find out now that the government hid details of an enormous fault which saw a test missile heading off to the wrong CONTINENT. We have a National Health Service completely on its knees which pretty much everyone in the country - including all medical experts - feels is vital and a government who seem intent on letting it fall apart so the heroic private health vultures can step in and make massive profits from our misfortune. The US has a lying, misogynistic, sexist, racist, needy, narcissistic moron for president and our PM is cosying up to him, pimping out our NHS and whatever else she feels the UK could sell to preserve our 'special relationship' that most of the UK public would rather turn their backs on. We have a government who want to turn the UK into a tax haven - a sort of off-shore Luxembourg - in order to keep their paymasters happy once their profits take a dive post-brexit. We have homelessness rising rapidly, GPs, teachers and prison wardens quitting their jobs.

The 1980s were a dark, depressing time for anyone other than the wealthy and well-connected but this is so much worse.

But hey, we've got Facebook and Netflix these days so we're all better off. Right?

I want to criticise Teresa May more...

But what if people think I'm only doing it because she's a woman? There will definitely be men out there (possibly some women too) who are more critical of the Prime Minister because she's a woman. For me, this is not an issue, in fact I'm delighted that we have a female Prime Minister. Of course, I can't possibly support a Tory PM because they want a very different UK to the one I want but it's worse than that: Teresa May is proving to be completely incompetent.

David Cameron was a useless Prime Minister too: he failed on his own terms (he said he would sort out our economy and it's now in a worse state than 2010), he brought us Brexit and he's probably caused the perfect conditions for a second Scottish independence referendum which this time will result in the break-up of the UK. But at least he managed to sort things out for himself by leaving at the right time. Teresa May has come into office with Brexit to deal with, the largest national debt we've ever had (and by some margin), a divided party and no idea about how to deal with any of it.

It's a shambles. She's very lucky that all of the mainstream media is focusing on Jeremy Corbyn.

The people have spoken, we need to listen but most of all, understand.

Former leading politicians including Tony Blair and David Cameron have piped up recently about Brexit, Trump and what is going on in Western politics.

I've been left pondering this sizeable question: do these two have any clue of their place in our new, post-truth, post-expert, populist world? My best guess is that, somewhere at the back of their minds - for these are intelligent men, their superegos are saying "and you are partly to blame". But clearly these men have tuned little superego out: if they hadn't done that Britain would look very different right now.

In a way, I'm delighted for the "ordinary working people" who voted for Brexit and for Trump. For too long they have been either lied to or ignored. This time, they've been lied to and then they've been heard. And that's not my way of saying that those people have been mislead and have made the wrong decision (although there are certainly some for whom that is true): many have been lied to but would have voted the same way anyway as their way of telling the establishment that they won't be ignored any more.

So let's go back to Cameron and Blair. Cameron has been saying that victories for Brexit and Trump were part of a "movement of unhappiness" and he's absolutely right, but I wonder whether he realises how much of that (in the UK at least) is his fault?! Meanwhile Blair has been defending the free market against ideas - from the left - that successive governments on both sides of the Atlantic have looked after business rather than people. These two men are an example of precisely where politics has gone wrong. Blair and the people around him switched Labour's focus from the public and onto business. At first, it worked, but in the long-run it left people feeling that none of the main parties looked after their interests. Cameron used Blair as a template and seemed to be taking the Tories to the centre ground in a bid to defeat Labour. But after the economic crash happened, the Tories seized their opportunity to shrink the state and blame benefits claimants, immigrants and union action for the state of the economy. The cuts that have been made since have hit the poorest and most vulnerable hard whilst the richest have become richer.

Blair's government worked hard for business and didn't address the potential for disaster in the financial industry while allowing areas with less opportunities to stagnate. Cameron's cuts fell hardest on those areas and, yes, people are unhappy! With neither Labour nor Tories doing anything to improve things for them, and with local amenities and infrastructure suffering from cuts (when they needed more money not less) and feeling the strain, it was easy for UKIP and the right wing media to convince people in these areas that immigration was the problem. Thus, it was inevitable given these conditions, that people in these former "Labour heartlands" would vote overwhelmingly for Brexit.

I'm guessing that similar scenarios in the US have led to Trump's victory.

Going back to an earlier point: I'm pleased that people finally felt they had something they wanted to vote for, I'm just desperately sad that they wanted Brexit and Trump. We need to understand why they voted this way and work out how to address the real issues behind these results. Blair is dead wrong when he argues against the left's views on neoliberalism and supporting big business: if our financial industry and large corporations are as fantastic as he would have us believe, then the public money poured into those areas isn't needed and can instead be spent on infrastructure in less prosperous areas and trying to bring the poor out of poverty with education, training, opportunities and most of all, HOPE. Then people might be less unhappy. Then they will be less likely to cheer on and vote for opportunists like Trump and the Brexit right. Blair is also wrong to suggest (as he did in October this year) that there should be a second vote on Brexit. As much as I don't want the UK to leave the EU, one of the biggest reasons for this vote was disillusionment with the political system: so imagine what would happen if the political system turned around and ignored the result!

The thing that sickens me most is the amount of money Blair and Cameron (and those who worked with and around them) will be making out sharing their ideas which have proven so out-of-date as to have caused the very issues they're professing to know how to fix.

Singling out one journalist for criticism

In a sea of bad journalism, it seems odd to pick out one person who actually writes well-considered pieces for a good newspaper but Simon Jenkins really gets up my nose. He seems to have a line in contrary commenting: "A total ban on the ivory trade would be disastrous for elephants", "Amber Rudd was right to leave Orgreave in the past", "Stop obsessing about trains and planes and start using roads better."

He probably doesn't write the headlines and for example, the ivory trade article is about how a total ban would drive the value up and that Africans should be allowed to farm elephants. So whilst I don't always disagree with his take on a topic, it is his apparent desire to find the opposing view which makes him appear that rather than seeking to make a good point, he merely wants to stand out from the crowd. Which is annoying.

"Labour must now unite"

Now Corbyn has won again, with an increased mandate, everyone waits with baited breath to see what the Labour 'moderates' will do next. It turns out most of the MPs who have spent the last 12 months rubbishing their democratically elected leader in the media, undermining him at every turn, conspiring against him and generally turning the party in on itself and letting the Tories off the hook have decided that the party must now unite.

What they clearly mean is "our coup failed; our attempts to get Corbyn off the ballot failed and our leadership challenge failed, so we insist the leadership change their policies to keep us happy." There have been no apologies, no concessions and no humility. 'Moderate' MPs carried on criticising Momentum as "a party within a party" whilst turning up and in some cases, speaking at Progress fringe events, seemingly unaware of the hypocrisy.

(Just as an aside, there are three differences between the two campaign groups: 1) Progress has been around a lot longer than Momentum; 2) Progress has a few very large donors whilst Momentum relies mainly on many small donations; 3) attendance at Momentum events was huge whilst Progress events mainly catered to a few 'Moderate' MPs and their hangers-on).

It seems that the 'moderates' will stick to their 1990s Thatcherite consensus politics. They are willing to try and convince people that more of the same identikit politicians is better than anyone offering a genuine alternative but unwilling to try and convince people that austerity is not necessary and that trickle-down economics doesn't work.

The world is moving on. People don't want Blairy-Camerony leaders anymore and if the UK public has any collective common sense, they'll elect someone from the left quickly before some Faragey-Trumpy character comes along and convinces everyone that hell in a handcart is going to happen without them, before delivering it personally.