A Growing Pain

Apparently I am a "woke leftie, spouting a redundant Marxist narrative" - an accusation laid at my door recently by someone who not only believes both 'woke' and 'leftie' are forms of abuse, but also clearly doesn't understand there's a difference between democratic socialism and communism.

And there was me thinking I was simply advocating a world in which everybody has a secure roof over their head, isn't in danger of being gassed, bombed, ethnically cleansed or otherwise physically and mentally abused, has enough to eat and drink, is offered education while young and work at a reasonable remuneration in a world where being a good, caring and responsible citizen is the pre-eminent goal, where any form of discrimination is unacceptable, where exploitation (whether by 'greedy fat cats' or 'lazy scroungers') is simply not tolerated, but where the truly needy are supported and restored to equilibrium and a sense of worth. Isn't that what a decent society ought to be about?

Is it naïve idealism? I was told when I was a young man that I would grow out of such illusions when I got older, with a wife and kids, a career and a mortgage to worry about. But I still hold to those ideals, that social conscience and aspiration for the greater good. To me, that's what being 'woke' and a 'leftie' is all about. Far better than dozing into the nightmare of this creeping right-wing 'laissez-faire (i.e. rampant and unchecked) capitalist-oligarch domination that we're currently heading for. Maybe I just never grew up.

I take the view that we all start off with enormous potential as little human beings, with the latent ability to learn to be open, positive, kind, generous, co-operative, adventurous, creative, as we grow - providing we're given the right milieu and role models.


How disappointing that what starts like this....

If we're shown love, care, kindness, tolerance, the importance of honesty and fairness, most of us  will end up internalising and exhibiting those qualities in life (and pass them on in turn).

It doesn't always go according to plan. There are vast inequalities in this country where 5% of the population (just over 1 million people) own 90% of the wealth, a gap that's widening, by the way, and in which millions of people are living below the poverty line. Without political and social change enshrined in law (i.e.a leftie agenda) those inequalities are never going to be "levelled up" (to use the current buzzword). Instead, the power-brokers - the have-a-lots who mean to have even more - will always deflect away any criticism of their own privilege and motives by encouraging a sense of dissatisfaction with something or someone else: like the nasty EU (which has actually done more good for the average citizen in this country than any Tory government of the last 50 years), welfare scroungers, or those dirty immigrants. So it goes, shameful and disdainful.

...so often ends up like this!

"Boris is my PM", "No more immigrants here", "Our own rules", "Fuck off EU", "Oven ready, go!", "Tough shit, remoaners" - just a few of the placards endorsing and celebrating a democratic vote to leave the European Union thanks to a Brexit campaign founded on outright lies and misinformation peddled by right-wing pressure groups and part funded by Russian roubles, playing on the xenophobic bigotry and narrow-mindedness of a nation disaffected ironically by years of Tory austerity, supposedly necessitated in the wake of a financial crisis caused by the cynical greed of a bunch of exploitative free-market capitalists.

It's a growing pain (as far as I'm concerned), this groundswell of baying right-wing venom against the best of our social and democratic constructs as a tolerant and caring society. We have the greatest state health service in the world (the NHS) and yet the Tories are planning to decimate it as part of a trade deal with the USA. We have the finest public service broadcasting organisation in the world (the BBC - and we should be as proud of it as we are of the NHS), but it is under attack for proposing to charge the licence fee (means tested) to over 75s because the Tories have decided to pull the government subsidy that has funded the pensioners' free licence for decades. It's this government which should be receiving pelters of abuse, not the BBC. And then most recently there has been the ugly campaign against migrants and "illegals living off Britian's generosity".

Well here's a financial argument to put it all in perspective: if the business-men and companies that are illegally avoiding paying tax in this country stumped up the hundreds of billions a year of which they are defrauding the exchequer, that would more than cover every penny that's paid out in social benefits and universal credits (and those are the government's own estimates). Earlier on I  mentioned exploitation and it is abundantly clear that 'fat cat' illegalities far outweigh 'lazy scrounger' illegalities - but the Tory press and the right-wing pressure groups make sure your average Joe - or Doris - will vent their spleen on those at the bottom of the heap, the lazy scroungers and the pitiable immigrants, rather than the cynical captains of industry and financial makers and shakers who are the real culprits, sitting arrogant and supposedly untouchable on top of the pile, taking us all for a ride.

Okay, rant over. Let's cut to some poetry - and this week a piece loaded with satire, plus not a little irony and (in its tail) the sting of existential retribution. Don't be like Doris!

Lust And Loathing In Suburbia
Doris Motion, matronly and decorous,
is nonetheless a slave to patriotic lust.
It's discreet, like the ancient vibrator
in her dressing-table drawer, this secret
she shares with the blue-rinse ladies
with whom she plays fours; their mantra,
"In Boris We Trust", the only outward
token of such deeply felt devotion.

In another age, a picture of Our Lord
might have graced her bedroom wall,
but since her husband passed away
a framed photograph of Boris Johnson
and the sympathetic note he wrote her
are on proud display. If they made
a bust of her hero, she'd have one too,
for that extra touch of patrician gravitas.

In this chamber fashioned as a shrine,
every night she lights red, white and
blue candles, the better to contemplate
the man she adores as she peels off lashes,
cleanses her pores and, in deshabille,
pulls the brush a hundred times through
a once lush gilded mane. It captivated
Father; she imagines Boris is the same.

Sometimes she gets a hot flush
just gazing into his Labrador eyes,
would happily mother the sweet boy
for his brave sacrifice,
could fling her arms around
his stout form in mute gratitude
for making Britain great again -

and rues the fact that both her sons
have moved away, turned their backs
on this neat suburban nest, the elder lad
to France, the younger fled to Italy.

Kneeling nightgowned by her bed at length
to pray, beseeching: "Give Boris strength
and keep those dirty migrants at bay",
Doris doesn't see the dark stain of shame
spreading across her expensive pink rose paper,
nor sense that pervasive whiff of disdain
like bad drains which has been hanging
around the gated cul-de-sac for some days now...

Thanks for reading my "woke leftie spoutings", S ;-)

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Kapow!

Welcome to Saturday Blog # 219, struggling to explore facets of  Power & Energy. If you're pro-Brexit you might almost stop reading now - though I always think it's a good thing to keep an open mind and then make an informed decision based on the arguments, so maybe stick with it.

I should have been in three places today: firstly at a friend-of-a-friend's wedding, secondly supporting my beloved Blackpool FC playing away at Bradford City (well done, Seasiders) and thirdly marching in London with a million-strong crowd campaigning to secure a people's vote on the Brexit fiasco.

Even if I had the energy required to participate in all three events, I don't have the power to be in more than one place at a time or to travel at warp speed from one engagement to the other and so I'm staying ensconced in the jewel of the north and bashing out this heartfelt reflection on the deepening Brexit crisis, surely the biggest issue facing this country since the second world war, a ludicrous scenario foisted on us by a self-centred and shockingly complacent Conservative administration under David Cameron. His clique's lack of forethought on the whole issue just beggared belief. There followed a campaign in which prominent Leave campaigners lied to the electorate to make the prospect leaving the EU a seemingly attractive one; and then ever since the narrow vote in favour of Brexit in June 2016 and Cameron's resignation, the replacement Prime Minister has allowed the process to be hijacked by right-wing anti-Europeans (the ERG and the DUP) who have effectively dictated the political agenda for the last three years by holding the government ransom. Of course Theresa May is struggling to get her deal through. Two thirds of MPs don't want Brexit at all because they realise how very damaging it is going to be for the country if we leave - and yet they are struggling with the legacy of Cameron's flawed referendum and the democratic implications of a narrow majority in favour of 'Leave', whatever people thought that meant at the time.

The more I've read, discussed and thought about it, the more convinced I've become that project Brexit - which you'll gather I regard as a huge mistake - is largely motivated by xenophobia in its various manifestations. Here's the reasoning behind that conclusion.

Firstly, of the 17 million who voted Leave in 2016 (that's less than a third of the adult population,  by the way),  the vox pops, interviews and surveys would suggest a significant percentage cited concerns over immigration as a principal trigger: 'they're flooding in', 'they're taking our jobs', 'they're exploiting our benefits system', 'they're scroungers' et cetera.

They are all quite emotive reactions and are at odds with the facts which are these: more people migrate into the UK from outside the EU than from within it every year; net migration into the UK from the EU is considerably lower than the base immigration figure because of the large number of UK nationals going to live and work in other EU countries; without EU nationals coming to work in the UK, many sectors of the economy would suffer acute labour shortages - the healthcare system, the catering trade, agriculture, light manufacturing; EU nationals contribute far more in terms of stimulating the economy, paying taxes and so on than they take out. All of this would change for the worse if there is any flavour of Brexit (hard, soft, indeterminate).

My friend Peter Statler recently posted a comment on another blog of mine to the following effect: the UK exchequer loses £35 billion every year in tax evasion by big companies and very rich individuals (HMRC statistic); it loses only a fraction of that, £2 billion each year, in benefit fraud (DWP figure). Interestingly, the government employs 4,000 to tackle the problem of benefit fraud but only 500 to address the much bigger issue of tax evasion.

Secondly, of the 17 million who voted Leave, many expressed the view that they don't like the fact we have to abide by laws and legislation 'imposed' by Europe and would like the UK to be in sole charge of its own laws again. They talk about the value of self-determination and sovereignty, about protecting British identity and tradition. I interpret all of that to boil down to them just not wanting to be part of the great European project, because when they are asked 'what EU legislation has not benefitted UK citizens?' or 'what legislative changes would you like to see reversed?' or 'do you think the French are any less French, the Germans any less German or the Italians any less Italian because they are in the EU?' there are surprisingly few answers of any substance (apart from the one on freedom of movement).

Finally, it is very much in the interests of the right-wing to push for a break with the EU (those nasty foreign bureaucrats in Brussels who have plans to stop the exploitation of tax loops by the rich - referenced above - and are pressing for a more equitable and socially responsible use of capital). The High Tories think they will find it much easier to re-jig legislation in their favour - and to the detriment of the mass of working people - if they only have to hold sway in Westminster and are not answerable to the very sensible social legislation that emanates from the EU on behalf of its citizens. They sell this concept to the constituencies by playing to an instinctual xenophobia, the 'make Britain great again' and 'we don't like it because it wasn't invented here' attitudes which justify themselves - quite dangerously - by suggesting Britain as a country would be happier, wealthier and would have greater political sway in the modern world if it were to 'go it alone', 'unshackled', 'standing on our own feet' and 'not having to pay into the EU club'.

That seems to me so much misguided blind faith in the face of all the informed opinion which suggests the economy will contract, international business - including finance - will move across the Channel (we are already seeing this happen) and Britain will end up as a poorer and more divided country with reduced influence on the global stage if Brexit is allowed to happen, deal or no deal.

The worst case scenario is that we are in real danger of ending up an impoverished European outpost, even eventually a Disunited Kingdom, with the possibility of the Scots (and maybe the Welsh) seeking independence and a rejoining of the EU and talk about the reunification of Ireland resurfacing. As such, Britain could turn into a country that people no longer want to flock to - then at least the fears about immigration that have driven so much of the Brexit debate will finally be a thing of the past, though it all seems a very high price to pay!

What had all this got to do with Power & Energy? you ask - and I hoped that was becoming obvious.

The saddest and most frustrating aspect of all of the shenanigans of the last three years is that the real problems facing Britain in the 21st century have very little to do with our relationship with the EU; they are much more structural to do with how we shape ourselves as a society (regardless of whether we are part of the project or not). The fact is we haven't done a very good job of it. That seems to me to be in part because there has been a lack of vision about how to shape the future for the greater good, in part because of the divisive and partisan nature of British politics, and largely because of the cynicism and greed of the ruling elite. The fact that public debate in the last three years has centred on whether we should be in or out of the EU rather than on addressing the real social and economic issues facing the country proves the point, I think. It is truly depressing to hear the number of people who say "I just want it settled one way or the other, I don't care which."

Those fundamental issues will still be there and will be harder to deal with if/when Brexit happens. The irony is that the one time 'the people' have been gifted the power to shape the future they appear to be backing a move that is likely to set the country back and not take it forward.

What is a poor poet to do while the Mother of Parliaments tries to figure its way through? Apart from supporting a revoking of Article 50 that is. Simply to use the power of words to try and distil the reality of the situation in the hope that it might help anyone reading or listening to see the situation in a different light. At a minimum, a more informed decision by the people ought to be permitted. Be energised, people. If more now wish to remain than to leave, then as some MPs have said it's time to abort the suicide mission with the permission of the people.

Here's this week's pithy piece of poetic observation...

That Brexit Psychosis
It's like electing
to have both legs amputated
(though there's nothing wrong
with either of them)
and then proclaiming stoutly
"we'll make the best of it
once we're standing
on our own two feet."

You have to laugh or you'd cry. It doesn't need to end this way. Be empowered, S ;-)

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