Friday, August 21, 2009
Let us discuss
Nor for the first time a commenter on a previous posting asked rather despairingly what it is we, the people or we, the electorate can do to get out of the mess we got ourselves into by what I call a mixture of apathy and self-satisfaction. I could try to blog on it yet again but, then again, we are all in this mess and we should all be thinking about getting out. So, uncharacteristically, I am being democratic and opening the discussion up to all and sundry. Let's roll.
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There is no easy solution. If only the British media would tell the truth instead of being up Gordon's backside. The BBC in particular keep hinting that we are coming out of recession. Try telling that to the unemployed. Can you imagine what the media would be saying if it were the Tories who got us into this mess? But then again I would hope a Tory government wouldnt be so stupid.
ReplyDeleteYes, well, I am not sure complaining about the media and wishing it were something else is helpful in terms of what we can do. And the Tory government would do exactly what the Labour one does - invent non-existent jobs and courses to fudge unemployment figures.
ReplyDeleteI write to my MP on issues to do with removing long fought over freedoms (Letters which seem to have no effect)
ReplyDeleteI write an occasional blog, but there are far better around
I bore my hard working busy family with details of where their future freedoms are being eroded
I vote once in 5 years.
What else can one of little influence do against a seemingly deaf and unapproachable governing elite?
Kieran:
ReplyDeleteWe have lost the ability to conduct a principled debate.
As Richard has pointed out, we are buying non-mine-proof "mine-proof" trucks (not fighters, or UAVs, or carriers, TRUCKS!). We are letting kids die from liver failure due to a "time-out" period that they won't survive. We were proposing to hold people (it might have started with terrorists, but terrorist powers tend to leak into non-terrorist cases) for 90 days (which is apparently more than you'd serve for a 6 month sentence, without charge. The NHS is so stretched that euthanasia is likely to be legalised.
And we are likely to have rolling power cuts for much of the next decade.
And we have been out of prison places for much of the last decade.
We are unable to discuss these issues at the level of duelling politicians and broadsheet editorials. We are in some kind of half-way-house between principled debates, and proscription lists of the second triumvirate. Debate doesn't exist, but no-one is being killed yet. And I don't think this state is stable.
I am curious as to one thing - the antipathy of the Boss toward UKIP and Farage in particular is a well known and long-documented one, but where do you stand on UKIP as a viable alternative to push in terms of Party Politics? They seem to tick most of the boxes required, certainly in terms of the democratic core issues which have been so perverted by the three main parties.
ReplyDeleteI am on record on both blogs as being a supporter of UKIP, certainly in the European election. I am not sure what will happen in the general next year. Until now small parties got nowhere far in domestic elections though UKIP has done quite well here and there in local elections. I think this may change now, partly because of the general dissatisfaction with MPs and big parties and partly because the European issue is becoming more important in people's minds. So, yes, I support them.
ReplyDeleteHowever, for very good local reasons - my sitting MP who is obnoxious even by Labour standards - I shall have to vote Conservative in May. I have written about this before: http://yourfreedomandours.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-can-only-sigh.html
To the other commenters, let me say that I do appreciate the feeling of despair that overwhelms one and that is why I started this thread. It is easy to see what is wrong (plenty, as it happens) but more difficult to think of a useful course of action. Easy for me, I suppose, as I can alway hide behind my writing, which is disseminating ideas and information.