Leaves

In a short break from politics, some leaves in our garden...

Tactical Voting

So I wrote a longish Facebook post, that seemed to go down well, so I sent it in to the paper...

Nunhead Video

Not entirely accurate, and slightly surreal...

Corbyn

By talented niece Roxy Dunn, writer and actor, from her pamphlet 'Clowning'.  Shared with permission.

Lies

This, perhaps more so more than any other election campaign, has had lies and mistruths as a major theme.  To me, this has been just as significant a narrative as Brexit and the NHS. 

The only other major vote where this was also the case, that I can think of, was the EU Referendum (where the goblin Cummings also orchestrated much of the Leave narrative - think bus - and the Tories lied in spades on both sides of the argument).

A big story on LBC and elsewhere yesterday morning was Jeremy Corbyn’s idiocy over the Queen’s Speech on Christmas day.  He got it wrong, and then tried stupidly to cover up his error.  It was embarrassing and unhelpful.

Also, the factcheckers have said that the Labour estimate that the cost of a US-UK trade deal that changes pharmaceutical prices could be c.£500 billion pounds is at the extreme end of estimates.  

Perhaps it would have been wiser to have produced a more realistic estimate – say 3-400 billion.  The commentators have pushed on this.

So Labour have been caught out.

But this needs to be put into context. 

We need to discriminate, otherwise we fall for another lie, which is that you can’t trust any of them, because ‘they are all the same.’

They aren’t. 

To say so misses a fundamental truth.

Throughout the election campaign, and well before it started, the  Conservative Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, somehow her majesty’s current Government, who are meant to represent our sovereign will, have lied consistently, with no embarrassment, in depth, moment-by-moment, on high days and holidays, morning, noon and night, as easily as breathing, and as a matter of high policy.

The sheer scale, number, reach and depth of their coherent and consistent mistruths is shocking.

People and Websites have been trying hard to keep track of the shabby shedloads of whoppers they have peddled, but they just lose track.

Every time an apparently comprehensive  list is published, concerned citizens jump in and ask ‘but what about this one?  You missed it out.’

Tory lies are fractal.  The deeper you look, the more you find.  They proliferate.  And I suspect there is no bottom.

At some level, we shouldn’t be surprised.  Their leader, Al (‘wormtongue’) Johnson, known as ‘Boris’ to his Russian handlers, made his name by lying about the EU as a journalist, before being sacked, and was also fired for misleading a later boss, the then-Tory leader Michael Howard.  Let’s put this in perspective, a little.  Anne Widdicome of all people couldn’t stomach Howard, saying there was ’something of the night’ about him.  Yet even Dracula thought Johnson was beyond the pale.  Well, there you go.

So, high, wide and simple.  Tories lie. The hard right, slightly more so.

It is in their DNA, stitched into their elementary particles.  There is a new ‘Falsehood’ Quark being proposed by Physicists to try and explain their behaviour. 

When they speak, the question is not ‘are they lying?’, but ‘in how many different ways are they shafting the truth?’ 

And also, let’s not forget this question: ‘In how many ways will this basket of lies help them to screw up my life?’  (And be assured, it will be more ways than you can possibly imagine).

Summary: You cannot believe anything the Tories say.  If their mouths are open, lies coming out.

Never Allow Them Access to Your Money

We now know that the global financial recession of 2007-9 was created by the exceptionally dodgy activities of a group of bankers who, in their greed, promoted high-risk, snake-oil products (‘collateralised debt obligations’) to make huge profits for their companies and massive bonuses for themselves.

Let’s suppose you knew of such a banker, say a managing director of a foreign investment bank at that time, that has been described by a US Senate committee as “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest and wrongdoing.”   This man was directly responsible for pushing some of the worst financial instruments that caused the crash.  And he’s never apologised.

I’m sure you’d agree that there are certain jobs which such a person should never be offered. 

No-one with an ounce of sense would give them a senior role with financial responsibility ever again, given their track record.

One such job is Chancellor of the Exchequer, responsible for our finances.

Step forward, Sajid Javid! The man who wants to play games with YOUR money.

PLEASE VOTE to Stop the Tories, for the sake of our economy.

Warley at the NEC 2019

So, some photos and recordings from this year's show.