Over the last few weeks I have followed a number of people on Social Media for ‘News & Views’. Here are my Awards for the best and the worst during the election period.
My No.1 for a thoughtful, if not always calling it correctly, attempt at genuine analysis from a left leaning perspective is Novara Media. https://novaramedia.com/ After all, none, and I mean none including the Guardian, of mainstream media with possible exception of the Mirror have balanced out the constant stream of invective at Jeremy Corbyn from the Right Wing Press. (Remember, now the mail have bought out the “I”, some 80% by distribution of newspapers in the UK will be owned by three people). Democracy, such as we have, requires the full range of discourse. Novara will continue to provide that as the new government increasingly clamp down on dissent. Far fetched ? Just wait and see.
My No.2 for her work with Novara Media but including her contributions on BBC debates and QT is Ash Sarkar. @AyoCaesar I appreciate her insight and intelligence but as a woman of Asian origin she has to fight back strongly against both racist and misogynistic abuse and does so with with humour and irreverence. She also swears like a fucking trooper and that is even more appealing!
My No 3 and My No 1 for total hypocrisy and the most typical of the ‘let’s stick the knife in’ centrist Labour is someone who I have come to despise. @Andrew_Andonis is now someone I have been delighted to block off all my SM links now that the election is over. I see people like him as a genuine hurdle to an effective labour Party.
My No 4 for composure in the face of the most horrendous personal abuse is @HackneyAbbott. I don’t always agree with Diane and she can be prone to errors (though nowhere near as often as the media suggests) but she gets an appallingly rough ride as displayed in THAT Question Time when Fiona Bruce displayed a racism rarely seen on British mainstream TV. Her twitter feed has been balanced and focused throughout. How she puts up with it I know not!
My No 5 and No 2 on negativity – For sheer obnoxious, sanctimonious, bullying, Trump-cock sucking bollocks, I give you – Piers Morgan. What an arse! Need I say more ?
My last choice, My No 6. Is the honourable mention for the most ‘gobbing off’ random ex-sports celebrity I follow. I have a soft spot for Brian Moore. @Brianmoore666 God, Brian can be so mouthy but it’s all genuine as he sees it. He also happens to have written about the only sports autobiography I have ever thought worth reading in which he opens up in a moving and personal way about childhood abuse. He also of course was a member of the England Front Row, which is a big thing in my book.
So, already there are signs that my worst fears are about to be realised. Noises about de-criminalising non payment of TV Licence fees – thus making sure the already emasculated BBC never ever regains the ability to provide any ‘truth to power’ commentary. Noises of banning Unions from taking Industrial Action in the transport sector, signs of longer sentencing (despite massive global evidence that this does not and has never worked), more de-regulation in the financial sector and a surge in high end London house prices (because the billionaires now know there will be no tax investigations or money laundering action) are already visible less than 60 hours after the election. Watch this space as I attempt not to shout – LIAR LIAR LIAR or I told you so.
Finally, so how do we react? Already there are the inevitable recriminations and abuse within the Labour party as the creepy crawly Blairite centrists sneak out from under their rocks. It is tempting just to stay in and hurl abuse at the television when ever Johnson, Gove, Patel and co. come on screen. However, I am going to leave you with a paragraph from James Baldwin. It is not specifically about politics in a narrow sense but it is about the response to power, to the patriarchy and to injustice.
“Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated and this was an immutable law.
It began to seem that one would have to hold in the mind forever two ideas which seemed to be in opposition. The first idea was acceptance, the acceptance, totally without rancour, of life as it is and men as they are: in the light of this idea, it goes without saying that injustices is a commonplace. But this did not mean that one could be complacent, for the second idea was of equal power: that one must never, in one’s own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but must fight them with all one’s strength. The fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair.
(Quoted from James Bladwin. “A Question Of Identity” the collection of Essays
Thank you, Keith, for your usual erudite comments. I am not sure what to make of the surprising result of the election. Did you think that Johnson would get in with such a majority? Over here, some are disappointed in the non-showing of the Lib-Dems.
I’m concerned about what may happen now with Johnson running the UK and Trump continuing to emasculate what’s left of the good old U.S. of A., and their possible partnership.
It’s all very depressing, and I find it hard not to see, increasingly, shadows of the 1930’s.
Hi John,
I can only imagine what many countries now think of us. Most people outside the UK already thought we were mad over Brexit but now we have followed the populist route – Trumpian! this guy is actually worse in a way as he is meant to be educated!
Don’t start me on Lib Dems ! they voted for the majority of the Tory Austerity policies etc when they were in Coalition and their ridiculous Brexi stance was an enabler for Johnson. It is important to note – Labour got well over 60% of the under 44 year old vote – it was the fact that middle age traditional Labour voters in the North have become so disenfranchised with what was their party but is now run by the “vote-Leave liberal London elite” that they voted against policies most likely to help them!