A year ago I was a victim of the recession. Truth is I still am. I'm earning less money than I was 9 years ago (and I hate to think what that means in real terms) and tomorrow I get to pass judgement in the election. I've felt very disengaged with politics for about a decade and a half. Yet this is a time when, more than in a good while, it looks like it could matter a great deal to participate and engage.
I spent the mid 90's dropping out and being a student. I got involved in all aspects and became something of a student agitator. I wouldn't call myself an activist as I always acted quite independently and didn't pin my political colours to the mast. I fought on the identity politics platform and to protect the principles of Free Education. This was something Tony Blair wanted to erradicate. By filling the National Union of Students with Labour yes people, getting the conference to agree that the princple wasn't something anyone wanted any more. If you want to know more about this, drop the MP for Glasgow Hillhead a line as that man, Jim Murphy, presided over this. I've never forgiven Tony Blair for this, and I never will. For me getting rid of the principle that education is free, at point of access, to all be they young or old, is a worse crime than the Iraq war. It has consigned future generations to years of crippling debt spending longer to get a degree and having to take work when they should be studying, just to make ends meet. If anything made education a place for the "haves" over the "have nots" it was that.
The truth is that the Labour Government haven't done half as much for this country as they would like to have done, and much less than they would have us believe. Giving a mandate to them would seem wrong as they have to accept at least some of the responsibility for the state of the nation's finances and the recession. It may have been steeper than anyone predicted but that does not mean you can absolve yourself of all responsibility. The seeds of destruction were sown under their watch.
So for the opposition. Apparently it's time for change. I'm definately not convinced in the case of Daaaaaaaaaaaave Cameron and his posh boy Conservatives. This is the party which has one ex-leader looking after Foregin Affairs and another formulating its social policy through the Centre for Social Justice which has to be one of the most perniciously disturbing organisations currently operating in this country. The centre's policies are very old Tory as is there approach to Europe. Cameron's viewpoint is to go in and debate vigourously with the leaders over getting the best deal for Britain. Yet his MEPs flounder on the edges with homophobes and holocaust denying fools of the right. It's a bit like watching the pushmi-pullyu from the Dr Dolittle books trying to go in both directions at once. All would be a shame - even amusing - if this wasn't our future national wellbeing that was at stake. There is something fundamentally not new, or fresh here. I suspect a wolf in Thatcher's clothing lurks just below the surface. With a soundbite friendly set of policies they seem to have culled from some old Daily Mail headlines this is a dangerously thin attempt to grasp power, and it's not convincing.
Which brings us to the Liberal Democrats. This election has dispelled the fact that Nick Clegg is Cameron-lite thanks to some combative forces. There are some great ideas here. Not renewing Trident is an excellent idea, but too often the detail shows that the truly radical idea may not be quite all it seems. It's as if they are scared to actually follow the conviction to its conclusion. The tax ideas are sound and this is the party with more than one ex-city boy amoungst its front bench number. Yet there are some doubts still as to what will happen.
This election has produced the possibilty of one truly revolutionary possiblity. The end of the first past the post electoral system. If we want a great change in our country, I could not think of a more beneficial and long term one than this. Only one party doesn't support this and their idea to shrink the number of seats and give people the chance to recall their MP is a bit like giving an old banger of a car a new paint job and trying to pass it off as new. This is breathtakingly arrogant. For politics to mean something to people they have to feel like their vote really makes a difference. It's easy to do: give them a system that clearly indicates their vote put someone in the House of Commons and not the lottery currently on offer where not bothering almost seems like a valid standpoint. That's a very sad state of affairs for our so-called democratic system.
So go vote, express your opinion. There's faults with all politicians and, as the old saying goes, "No matter who you vote for, the Government always gets in" yet your voice has probably never been more important than now.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Thursday, 21 January 2010
365 Days Is A Very Long Time
A year is a very long time in life, I feel for Barack Obama, I really do. When he was conducting his campaign I worried about what the results of it would be. The central platform of his winning was hope, which is a very, very dangerous thing to build upon.
Hope is, after all, a very intangilble thing. Emotions should be a part of politics. The trouble with the election of Obama, is they became the whole. His actual ideas are pretty good. The original healthcare reform he proposed was something truly different, and put meat on the bones of all that hope. His approach to Guantanamo, and to the War On Terror both smacked of a kind of sense not seen in the White House for a good while.
Then there are problems. The only significant change was in the presidency. The senators, governers, and the like haven't really changed all that much. Obama wasn't elected with the kind of change in the political make-up that we'll see by May of this year in our own Government. The consequence being that there have been compromises to the Healthcare bill making it something very different to the one he wanted, the numbers of troops in Afghanistan has risen and the intentions to leave at whatever time seem somewhat optimistic at best.
That's the trouble with hoping for too much. You can often end up with less than very little. I know this, I'm writing this from my friend's flat, earning about half the money I was a year ago, doing the kind of work I stopped doing about 8 years ago, just trying to get by. A year ago I was planning a move to Croydon to be near to my work. A good job which - although not exactly secure by any means - looked like giving me a springboard to something better. How wrong I was.
I wonder what President Obama is thinking today, he's lost the absolute majority he had and any future policy decsions will require the kind of negotiations his team thought they had trounced after the elections back in 2007. All that seems such a long time ago. Such is the nature of hope.
No doubt he'll survive and find some kind of way to manouver his way through this. He really doesn't strike you as the kind of person who can't. It's that kind of quality he'll need to move forward. Optimism is the key. As for the American people, it's a different matter.
I was talking to someone about this very subject last week. In fact I've talked about it a lot recently. The worst thing you can lose is your sense of hope. Without it nothing in life is good, and nothing seems worth the effort. It's a very dark place to find yourself. Yet there must be a lot of people in America who are feeling that. The city may have recovered from the recession - at least a little - but it's the greedy self serving incompetents who caused it who are still gambling away, still demanding a bonus, and still costing ordinary people their jobs, livelyhoods, and - worst of all - their hopes. They arrogantly threaten all kinds of things if they don't get what they want like the greedy children they are. That's the image that people in both America, and the UK see as the symbols of the time.
Yet, like my own situation, there is always a way forward, and a way out. In Obama's case that is at the ballot box. His mandate has been erroded at the heartland of Democratic politics with the loss of Edward Kennedy's old seat in Massachusetts. That can be repeated everywhere, it's the consequence of building up people's hopes. They raised the expectations even higher by adding their own making the result somewhat inevitable. The measure of how good a president Barack Obama really is begins now.
Hope is, after all, a very intangilble thing. Emotions should be a part of politics. The trouble with the election of Obama, is they became the whole. His actual ideas are pretty good. The original healthcare reform he proposed was something truly different, and put meat on the bones of all that hope. His approach to Guantanamo, and to the War On Terror both smacked of a kind of sense not seen in the White House for a good while.
Then there are problems. The only significant change was in the presidency. The senators, governers, and the like haven't really changed all that much. Obama wasn't elected with the kind of change in the political make-up that we'll see by May of this year in our own Government. The consequence being that there have been compromises to the Healthcare bill making it something very different to the one he wanted, the numbers of troops in Afghanistan has risen and the intentions to leave at whatever time seem somewhat optimistic at best.
That's the trouble with hoping for too much. You can often end up with less than very little. I know this, I'm writing this from my friend's flat, earning about half the money I was a year ago, doing the kind of work I stopped doing about 8 years ago, just trying to get by. A year ago I was planning a move to Croydon to be near to my work. A good job which - although not exactly secure by any means - looked like giving me a springboard to something better. How wrong I was.
I wonder what President Obama is thinking today, he's lost the absolute majority he had and any future policy decsions will require the kind of negotiations his team thought they had trounced after the elections back in 2007. All that seems such a long time ago. Such is the nature of hope.
No doubt he'll survive and find some kind of way to manouver his way through this. He really doesn't strike you as the kind of person who can't. It's that kind of quality he'll need to move forward. Optimism is the key. As for the American people, it's a different matter.
I was talking to someone about this very subject last week. In fact I've talked about it a lot recently. The worst thing you can lose is your sense of hope. Without it nothing in life is good, and nothing seems worth the effort. It's a very dark place to find yourself. Yet there must be a lot of people in America who are feeling that. The city may have recovered from the recession - at least a little - but it's the greedy self serving incompetents who caused it who are still gambling away, still demanding a bonus, and still costing ordinary people their jobs, livelyhoods, and - worst of all - their hopes. They arrogantly threaten all kinds of things if they don't get what they want like the greedy children they are. That's the image that people in both America, and the UK see as the symbols of the time.
Yet, like my own situation, there is always a way forward, and a way out. In Obama's case that is at the ballot box. His mandate has been erroded at the heartland of Democratic politics with the loss of Edward Kennedy's old seat in Massachusetts. That can be repeated everywhere, it's the consequence of building up people's hopes. They raised the expectations even higher by adding their own making the result somewhat inevitable. The measure of how good a president Barack Obama really is begins now.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Europe - The Final Climbdown?
David Cameron isn't a radical, yet his announcement that he wouldn't have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has been greeted with surprise in some quarters. The thing is, it isn't new. Cameron has been saying this for a long time now. It's the guaranteed button pusher on the Euro sceptic wing of his party and, for that reason, it is a bit radical - at least for him. This week's admission that there was no point in having a referendum on Europe does seem to be the end of the argument on the Lisbon Treaty.
Yet, like Banquo's ghost, the spectre of discontent looms deep over the Conservative Party. Europe has split the party down the middle before, and it looks like it will do so again. David Cameron's new European Policy idea seems designed to appease the anti-European wing by vigorously engaging with Europe to negotiate what he can to get sovereignty back. I'm sure that if he actually goes into Europe and tries this tactic he will be greeted by deserved hoots of derision. The fact is this, we are one of 32 who all have to agree on any fundamental changes to the constitution and that just ain't going to happen. His stance seems impotent at best and the actions of a man who, upon discovering the horse has bolted, closes the door and shuts himself inside the stable for a good old fashioned sulk. Perhaps it's time to do something really radical...
Britain's attitude to Europe is frankly crazy. A total of 51 MEPs elected from the UK are from parties either sceptical of, or outright opposed, to the EU in its present state. It's a bit like sending a team of people who don't like football to go and play in the World Cup next summer. Yet these anti-EU people go there and participate. Surely that is the ultimate hypocrisy. For a generation we've suffered a media happy to pander to the Euro sceptic cacophony. The result is that we've got nowhere. We have closer ties with Europe and the only thing Margaret Thatcher achieved was a rebate which was got at the price of John Major's humiliation as the rest of Europe exacted retribution at her utter inflexibility. The Labour leaders have at least tried something more positive but have done so with the attitude of a major world player with a vastly over exaggerated ego.
The truth is Europe is more of a benefit than a curse. The foaming at the mouth over immigration we have in this country totally forgets that this is a European problem. We face a far lesser issue on this issue than France and Italy who are constantly seeing people sailing across from North Africa in search of a better life in Europe. This is something where David Cameron's idea of making a law just for Britain is almost counter productive. We need to co-ordinate our approach to this problem. We are happy to do this when it comes to cross border extraditions, why not do this with migration issues?
The biggest worry about the Conservative/UKIP/BNP stance (yes, the BNP are rabidly anti-European) is over our economic ties. The right seem to believe that the EU will be happy for us to have independence. The sceptics want us to just walk away from the table altogether. The truth is stark, we'd be a Third World in less than a decade. If I was part of the EU and anyone tried to pull that stunt I'd just slap huge tariffs on imports and exports, remove free trade rights and sit back and watch them flounder. That's a reality. Cameron's approach to being tough could cost us jobs and economic security. We're part of a strong trading bloc and we can't survive without it.
Being a voice of dissent won't win any favours with the major powers within the Union. His ill sighted move away from the centre right alliance to form his own group made up of minor players and radicals is childish and petulant. It serves only to risk his credibility. The comments of the French Minister Pierre Lellouche that this would "castrate" Britain may have been silenced but they are probably the views of many in European politics. To constantly take a negative approach will be counter productive to achieving anything. So let's propose something truly radical.
Let's do it in 3 stages:
Yet, like Banquo's ghost, the spectre of discontent looms deep over the Conservative Party. Europe has split the party down the middle before, and it looks like it will do so again. David Cameron's new European Policy idea seems designed to appease the anti-European wing by vigorously engaging with Europe to negotiate what he can to get sovereignty back. I'm sure that if he actually goes into Europe and tries this tactic he will be greeted by deserved hoots of derision. The fact is this, we are one of 32 who all have to agree on any fundamental changes to the constitution and that just ain't going to happen. His stance seems impotent at best and the actions of a man who, upon discovering the horse has bolted, closes the door and shuts himself inside the stable for a good old fashioned sulk. Perhaps it's time to do something really radical...
Britain's attitude to Europe is frankly crazy. A total of 51 MEPs elected from the UK are from parties either sceptical of, or outright opposed, to the EU in its present state. It's a bit like sending a team of people who don't like football to go and play in the World Cup next summer. Yet these anti-EU people go there and participate. Surely that is the ultimate hypocrisy. For a generation we've suffered a media happy to pander to the Euro sceptic cacophony. The result is that we've got nowhere. We have closer ties with Europe and the only thing Margaret Thatcher achieved was a rebate which was got at the price of John Major's humiliation as the rest of Europe exacted retribution at her utter inflexibility. The Labour leaders have at least tried something more positive but have done so with the attitude of a major world player with a vastly over exaggerated ego.
The truth is Europe is more of a benefit than a curse. The foaming at the mouth over immigration we have in this country totally forgets that this is a European problem. We face a far lesser issue on this issue than France and Italy who are constantly seeing people sailing across from North Africa in search of a better life in Europe. This is something where David Cameron's idea of making a law just for Britain is almost counter productive. We need to co-ordinate our approach to this problem. We are happy to do this when it comes to cross border extraditions, why not do this with migration issues?
The biggest worry about the Conservative/UKIP/BNP stance (yes, the BNP are rabidly anti-European) is over our economic ties. The right seem to believe that the EU will be happy for us to have independence. The sceptics want us to just walk away from the table altogether. The truth is stark, we'd be a Third World in less than a decade. If I was part of the EU and anyone tried to pull that stunt I'd just slap huge tariffs on imports and exports, remove free trade rights and sit back and watch them flounder. That's a reality. Cameron's approach to being tough could cost us jobs and economic security. We're part of a strong trading bloc and we can't survive without it.
Being a voice of dissent won't win any favours with the major powers within the Union. His ill sighted move away from the centre right alliance to form his own group made up of minor players and radicals is childish and petulant. It serves only to risk his credibility. The comments of the French Minister Pierre Lellouche that this would "castrate" Britain may have been silenced but they are probably the views of many in European politics. To constantly take a negative approach will be counter productive to achieving anything. So let's propose something truly radical.
Let's do it in 3 stages:
- Actively participate in European debates from the perspective of a positive outcome for everyone in Europe, working together to produce a result which benefits us all.
- Report all the benefits of our membership, For example, the EU Working Time Directive significantly improved the working lives of thousands of people as they no longer had to work excessive hours. There are two sides to every story.
- Stop looking at Europe as a threat to our sovereignty. See the benefits of being part of a major player on the world stage and use this to influence events globally. Speaking with one voice is not a disadvantage if you use your influence to ensure it has included your words.
We're actively involved in changing hearts and minds in Afghanistan, why not do something closer to home.
I for one am pretty proud to be a European.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
The Public Life Of A Militant Homosexual
I remember, a few years ago turning round to some friends and explaining that I was really getting too old to head out onto the streets and protest. Yet a number of events have made me think again about this. Tomorrow I will join people in Trafalgar Square to light a candle and stand silently to register my solidarity with victims of homophobia in an event I never thought I'd see again - some on the streets gay rights activism.
Since the changes in laws of the past decade, there has been a shift in tone by a great number of voices in the gay community. Having gained some significant victories in the drive for equality a significant number of people seemed to feel that the battle was won. We could put away our banners and leave all the angry stuff to Peter Tatchell. It was all a bit too militant for those stuffing themselves full of cake and champagne at whoever's civil partnership ceremony they were attending that weekend. Taking to the streets has never been something the majority of people want to do, and gays and lesbians are no exception. Especially when can walk through Old Compton Street and the rest of Central London hand in hand with your partner, boyfriend/girlfriend, significant other, or whatever other term you use to describe the person you are currently stepping out with.
Yet the reality for a great many people isn't quite like that. There are still many who consider the mere fact of this as an act of militant homosexuality - something that they will not tolerate in public. Those were the views of Nick Griffin, although they are not confined to the BNP. A great many other people, fundamentally opposed to the far right, openly share those views. Earlier this year I was heading home after a night out with someone, and when we stopped to kiss a car with a group of mouthy young boys stopped their car to hurl abuse at us. Instead of just walking away, we stood our ground and shouted back. Eventually they drove off. I remember at the time feeling quite exhilarated at the fact that it was now possible to do this. We were in Central London, just around the corner from Trafalgar Square.
A few months after that, at the end of September, Ian Baynham did pretty much the same thing to a group of people. He was violently assaulted by two women and a man and on 13th October he died from his injuries. James Parkes a 22 year-old trainee police officer was violently attacked by a group of youths aged between 13 and 16 last Sunday in Liverpool. These are just two of the high profile victims of homophobia. In an age of perceived equality these things are still happening. Usually it's thought that it's the people living in small towns who suffer in silence facing abuse and worse if they publicly declare their sexuality. Yet these two high profile attacks happened in places where seeing gays and lesbians publicly displaying their affections has been more commonplace.
It's against this backdrop that there will be candlelit vigils this weekend organised by people at grassroots level. The one in London, tomorrow was arranged a few weeks ago but seems to have suddenly caught itself in the zeitgeist. It's been arranged by a group set up to fight both racism, homophobia, and intolerance in remembrance of the people killed and injured in the nail bombing campaign which took place in Brick Lane, Brixton, and Soho ten years ago. The Liverpool one is much the same kind of response, ordinary people deciding to stand up and do something. This kind of grassroots activism is welcome, joined as it is by the East London Homophobia group - set up to monitor levels of homophobia and raise awareness of the issue in East London. It's a welcome antidote to Stonewall's increasing cosy work.
Their "some people are gay, get over it!" campaign has their trademark soft centred tone of self satisfaction. It seems we've won equality so let's all sit down and be nice to each other, having all the sincerity and unity of one of those Benetton ads from the 80's. Well I'm gay and I'm not getting over it, I'm glad to say. It's not an illness I can recover from (whatever some might believe). The Stonewall website seems almost blissfully ignorant of this demonstration, and there is no sign of any encouragement from them to join those in Trafalgar Square tomorrow. The website's only listed event is their own awards ceremony (which should read, are taking place, and not is, as you've pluralised awards). I will write something more on my thoughts about this organisation in another piece, as this isn't even the tip of the iceberg on my thoughts about this organisation...
Still, there are many who think the victories of recent legistlation have handed equality to gays and lesbians on a plate which is cloud cuckoo land thinking. When equality is won in law, it needs preserving, the fight to maintain it is just as hard. Look at the number of women MP's there aren't, or top female executives, black or Asian MP's, the fact that the Metropolitan Police was discirbed as institutionally racist 26 years after the Race Relations Act was passed, that women still struggle to receive equal pay in the workplace almost 40 years since the Equal Pay Act. These are just some of facts that sum up the reality that the battles for equality are never over.
I've been verbally abused, threatened, and intimidated largely by people who thought I was gay on a number of occasions in my life, but consider myself lucky that I've only been actually assaulted once. I remember going to my first Gay Pride in 1990 and looking at the faces of the people there and noticing how many of them had little scars on their faces, clearly some had been as result of being gay. I grew up in a small town and I faced homophobia all the time. It isn't nice and it needs to stop, but that will take time. I'm not a radical, I'm not a militant homosexual but I will stand up and be counted. I believe I have a right to be respected for who I am (which is many, many different things) and I have the right to be treated as equal who happens to be gay. Tomorrow I light a candle to stand up and add my voice to the people want to say enough, I light a candle to say I am not afraid, I light a candle for all the people who can't be there.
Since the changes in laws of the past decade, there has been a shift in tone by a great number of voices in the gay community. Having gained some significant victories in the drive for equality a significant number of people seemed to feel that the battle was won. We could put away our banners and leave all the angry stuff to Peter Tatchell. It was all a bit too militant for those stuffing themselves full of cake and champagne at whoever's civil partnership ceremony they were attending that weekend. Taking to the streets has never been something the majority of people want to do, and gays and lesbians are no exception. Especially when can walk through Old Compton Street and the rest of Central London hand in hand with your partner, boyfriend/girlfriend, significant other, or whatever other term you use to describe the person you are currently stepping out with.
Yet the reality for a great many people isn't quite like that. There are still many who consider the mere fact of this as an act of militant homosexuality - something that they will not tolerate in public. Those were the views of Nick Griffin, although they are not confined to the BNP. A great many other people, fundamentally opposed to the far right, openly share those views. Earlier this year I was heading home after a night out with someone, and when we stopped to kiss a car with a group of mouthy young boys stopped their car to hurl abuse at us. Instead of just walking away, we stood our ground and shouted back. Eventually they drove off. I remember at the time feeling quite exhilarated at the fact that it was now possible to do this. We were in Central London, just around the corner from Trafalgar Square.
A few months after that, at the end of September, Ian Baynham did pretty much the same thing to a group of people. He was violently assaulted by two women and a man and on 13th October he died from his injuries. James Parkes a 22 year-old trainee police officer was violently attacked by a group of youths aged between 13 and 16 last Sunday in Liverpool. These are just two of the high profile victims of homophobia. In an age of perceived equality these things are still happening. Usually it's thought that it's the people living in small towns who suffer in silence facing abuse and worse if they publicly declare their sexuality. Yet these two high profile attacks happened in places where seeing gays and lesbians publicly displaying their affections has been more commonplace.
It's against this backdrop that there will be candlelit vigils this weekend organised by people at grassroots level. The one in London, tomorrow was arranged a few weeks ago but seems to have suddenly caught itself in the zeitgeist. It's been arranged by a group set up to fight both racism, homophobia, and intolerance in remembrance of the people killed and injured in the nail bombing campaign which took place in Brick Lane, Brixton, and Soho ten years ago. The Liverpool one is much the same kind of response, ordinary people deciding to stand up and do something. This kind of grassroots activism is welcome, joined as it is by the East London Homophobia group - set up to monitor levels of homophobia and raise awareness of the issue in East London. It's a welcome antidote to Stonewall's increasing cosy work.
Their "some people are gay, get over it!" campaign has their trademark soft centred tone of self satisfaction. It seems we've won equality so let's all sit down and be nice to each other, having all the sincerity and unity of one of those Benetton ads from the 80's. Well I'm gay and I'm not getting over it, I'm glad to say. It's not an illness I can recover from (whatever some might believe). The Stonewall website seems almost blissfully ignorant of this demonstration, and there is no sign of any encouragement from them to join those in Trafalgar Square tomorrow. The website's only listed event is their own awards ceremony (which should read, are taking place, and not is, as you've pluralised awards). I will write something more on my thoughts about this organisation in another piece, as this isn't even the tip of the iceberg on my thoughts about this organisation...
Still, there are many who think the victories of recent legistlation have handed equality to gays and lesbians on a plate which is cloud cuckoo land thinking. When equality is won in law, it needs preserving, the fight to maintain it is just as hard. Look at the number of women MP's there aren't, or top female executives, black or Asian MP's, the fact that the Metropolitan Police was discirbed as institutionally racist 26 years after the Race Relations Act was passed, that women still struggle to receive equal pay in the workplace almost 40 years since the Equal Pay Act. These are just some of facts that sum up the reality that the battles for equality are never over.
I've been verbally abused, threatened, and intimidated largely by people who thought I was gay on a number of occasions in my life, but consider myself lucky that I've only been actually assaulted once. I remember going to my first Gay Pride in 1990 and looking at the faces of the people there and noticing how many of them had little scars on their faces, clearly some had been as result of being gay. I grew up in a small town and I faced homophobia all the time. It isn't nice and it needs to stop, but that will take time. I'm not a radical, I'm not a militant homosexual but I will stand up and be counted. I believe I have a right to be respected for who I am (which is many, many different things) and I have the right to be treated as equal who happens to be gay. Tomorrow I light a candle to stand up and add my voice to the people want to say enough, I light a candle to say I am not afraid, I light a candle for all the people who can't be there.
Saturday, 24 October 2009
"More sinned against than sinning"
It's been a while, I've decided to revamp this and vent my spleen on the world and its failings. There is no better place to begin...
There is something fundamentally disingenuous about Nick Griffin, the racist fascist leader of ultra right-wing party the BNP. Since his election to the European Parliament we are expected to believe that the BNP are a credible party in British politics. The fact that they have exploited the same classic fears of countless fascist organisations by portraying of a country being "swamped" (Margaret Thatcher's term in 1978) by immigrants. A cheap way to legitimise their existence, which is based on hatred and discrimination. The other benefit was that they faced an electorate who took apathy to a new level. The upshot was that the BNP got fewer votes than in the previous European Elections but still ended up with 2 MEPs. So the upshot is we're stuck with them for a while longer.
Last Thursday Griffin got his grinning facade onto Question Time, the political discussion programme on the BBC. His performance was muddled, foolish, and predictable. There were the usual bashing of Islam as he tried to portray every follower of that faith who resides in the UK as a dedicated follower of Sharia law. I'm not fan of any religion, but this is his usual approach. In the process he alluded to being a friend of feminism by siting their views on adultery, conveniently forgetting that The Bible treats adulterous women no better. There were also the rather hilarious attempts to claim he didn't say things he's been filmed saying, or people he's shared platforms with being not quite as nasty as we think they are. Then there was his disputing of the figures of the Holocaust - stopping short of a flat denial - but still the words of a fascist fantasist. Listening to him I was reminded of the people who say, Hitler was a vegetarian, who liked children and animals. I should point out he was also a genocidal monster but that truth, like so many in the life of Nick Griffin, is a little too much to admit.
Watching his performances in the media I'm always reminded King Lear who, upon being thrown out by his two treacherous daughters Goneril and Regan, rages at the storm shouting "I am more sinned against than sinning". That is Nick Griffin's approach in a nutshell. He complains that the ordinary British working people are under threat by masses of immigrants who are either not white or don't speak English, that the liberal elite are undermining our morals, that he doesn't get a fair hearing on Question Time, the list of simpering goes on and on. If we are to believe him, then the poor chap really is as hard done by as the people he misrepresents.
The truths are somewhat different. The population of this country is still not exactly overrun by people who are not indigenous to this country. According to the Institute of Race Relations website:
There is something fundamentally disingenuous about Nick Griffin, the racist fascist leader of ultra right-wing party the BNP. Since his election to the European Parliament we are expected to believe that the BNP are a credible party in British politics. The fact that they have exploited the same classic fears of countless fascist organisations by portraying of a country being "swamped" (Margaret Thatcher's term in 1978) by immigrants. A cheap way to legitimise their existence, which is based on hatred and discrimination. The other benefit was that they faced an electorate who took apathy to a new level. The upshot was that the BNP got fewer votes than in the previous European Elections but still ended up with 2 MEPs. So the upshot is we're stuck with them for a while longer.
Last Thursday Griffin got his grinning facade onto Question Time, the political discussion programme on the BBC. His performance was muddled, foolish, and predictable. There were the usual bashing of Islam as he tried to portray every follower of that faith who resides in the UK as a dedicated follower of Sharia law. I'm not fan of any religion, but this is his usual approach. In the process he alluded to being a friend of feminism by siting their views on adultery, conveniently forgetting that The Bible treats adulterous women no better. There were also the rather hilarious attempts to claim he didn't say things he's been filmed saying, or people he's shared platforms with being not quite as nasty as we think they are. Then there was his disputing of the figures of the Holocaust - stopping short of a flat denial - but still the words of a fascist fantasist. Listening to him I was reminded of the people who say, Hitler was a vegetarian, who liked children and animals. I should point out he was also a genocidal monster but that truth, like so many in the life of Nick Griffin, is a little too much to admit.
Watching his performances in the media I'm always reminded King Lear who, upon being thrown out by his two treacherous daughters Goneril and Regan, rages at the storm shouting "I am more sinned against than sinning". That is Nick Griffin's approach in a nutshell. He complains that the ordinary British working people are under threat by masses of immigrants who are either not white or don't speak English, that the liberal elite are undermining our morals, that he doesn't get a fair hearing on Question Time, the list of simpering goes on and on. If we are to believe him, then the poor chap really is as hard done by as the people he misrepresents.
The truths are somewhat different. The population of this country is still not exactly overrun by people who are not indigenous to this country. According to the Institute of Race Relations website:
- The 2001 census figures to show that out of just under 60 million people living in this country there are just over 54 million white people.
- The white population is attaining the third highest number of A* to C grades at GCSE in 2004 out of a list of 9 defined racial categories.
- The Cabinet Office concluded that, of the 44 most deprived local authority areas contain proportionally four times as many people from ethnic minority groups as other areas
- The English Housing Survey revealed that ethnic minority households are three times more likely than white households to live in a poor neighbourhood.
- The unemployment rate for ethnic minority groups has traditionally been twice that of whites.
Whilst no one is denying that some white people live in bad neighbourhoods, face difficulties in the education system, and with opportunities for employment in the current recession hit employment market, it is a myth to say that they are doing worse than anyone else. It is ridiculous of the BNP to insinuate that white working class people are becoming a persecuted minority. There are simply to many of them to make that claim seem even remotely credible. Gaining a voice by aligning with the far right isn't the way to bring about the changes needed, it merely reduces the amount of credibility to the majority of who people view those demands, however legitimate they are. It brings us back to the Lear quote.
There are many who feel that Nick Griffin should be silenced, that he has no place in mainstream politics, and should not have been asked onto Question Time. I sympathise with this view. I suspect that Griffin and the BNP view their opponents with utter contempt. The same kind of contempt that Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pinochet, Saadam Hussien, Pol Pot, and countless other despots viewed legitimate opposition. If they were elected to govern they would silence the free press, round up and imprison, deport, and probably murder their vocal opponents. Yet we live in a democracy, and so I have to let them have their say. In return they have to let me have mine, for what it is worth. That's the function of a democracy.
The telling moment last Thursday was the man who stood up from the audience and proclaimed that he was proud to be born and bred in Britain. He had brown skin, I'm not sure where he was from. He asked Mr Griffin what he would do with him and got no reply. The next day Nick Griffin claimed that London was no longer British, and I think the man in the audience probably got his answer there. I misread the headline on the paper stand and thought Nick Griffin was no longer British - which would do us all a favour if he and his vile sycophants departed these shores for some Caucasian utopia.
These are people who consider multi-cultural societies as something to be feared. They forget that we live on island which is full of people from all over Europe who came here and conquered. It's all in our DNA. We, and our wonderful culture, are a product of this if the BNP think that white people have been here in this pure unadulterated form then he is gravely mistaken. I long to live in a society where I can use another of my favourite Shakespeare quotes to describe the BNP, "it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".
Saturday, 8 August 2009
One Hundred And Seven Days
It's early on Saturday morning. I've just been out and celebrated a 20th birthday - I had a lovely time and met a lot of people. It was a good experience in a period where the experiences have sometimes been good. In one way I feel quite old when I head out to events like this but then again I also feel it's good to go out there and meet new people. I guess I've never let the grass grow under my feet when it comes to meeting new people.
The person whose birthday it is has only been a proper part of my circle and my life for a few weeks, yet we seem to be able to communicate with each other remarkably easily. Sometimes you meet people who just transcend what would be the normal barriers. I am glad I've got to know this person and can vouch for the tremendously positive effect they have had on my life. They've helped me see that everything isn't necessarily hopeless and I'm not quite the dreadful useless unlikable person I sometimes see staring back at me in mirrors.
It's Sunday now and I'm about to finish one hundred and seven days of unemployment. The Thursday job interview in the afternoon for a customer service role ending up as a training interview. In short, I'm going to start at the customer service role and make proposals to improve the training and suggest other ways we can further develop the people in the call centre. The person who interviewed me is the call centre manager and I think we just got on well. I get the feeling I could do good things there. Tomorrow at 10am it will begin.
Then again it may go horribly wrong. I am still plagued with doubt even though I have a plan in my head for the work I can do for the company which will last about a year in total. That said it's been a terrible period of my life. I've stared into the abyss and I am still looking down. I sometimes think whatever it is just transfixes me. It's the frozen feeling I have when I'm gripped with it. I will be better able to deal with this now I'm working because there will be things in my life which won't just be relating to me.
I have been thinking about what the blog is quite a bit recently. People who have known for a long time would probably describe me as a very happy go lucky and easy going person. I think this began with my mindset still in that mood. I expected it to stay like that but something quite dark overtook me. The job search became a struggle and a battle to stay faithful enough to get me through a day sometimes. I've also voiced my private thoughts - something I don't really do very effectively with people. I find it difficult. I was thinking about this today and remembered something from my past. Just over 10 years ago I got attacked and robbed at knife point. My fingers were damaged (requiring 23 stitches) and they never properly recovered. The most difficult thing about the whole experience wasn't the event itself, or any of its aftermath. The most upsetting thing for me was hearing how upset people were when I told them what had happened. That was much more difficult to deal with.
People's reaction to my situation has touched me. One of my colleagues from my last job told me she was very upset reading this. I want to apologise to anyone who's been upset by anything they've read here. I have tried to be as honest as I feel I can be here. It is what happens and the way I think having a large part of your life feels like when it is taken from you. I think the majority of people currently victimised by the recession really do want a job, and want to make a contribution to the country through working. It's difficult to think about how we can help all those people. I've got lucky - I was in the right place at the right time and was able to show something that may well turn out to be just what the interviewer wanted - even if I wasn't there for that job.
Last night I was at the 40th birthday party of my friend who is being kind enough to let me stay in his flat for the time being. We had a very pleasant evening. It was an odd contrast to the 20th birthday of the previous night. The atmosphere was much less frenetic, surrounded by a group of people I've known on the most part for almost 10 years there was a soft sense of camaraderie about the evening. Then one of the guests asked me what would happen to the blog now? It's a good question.
I've decided not to end it here. It's probably helped me to have a place to come and voice some of the things in my life that trouble, frustrate, bemuse, elate, confuse, worry, concern, and puzzle me. It feels at the moment like I'm only half way towards finishing the story I've been telling. For the casual reader there is probably the issue of how will the job go? Coupled with that I would be leaving the story with me living in my temporary abode and my stuff still stacked up in Croydon. So on we go with this.
It's finally quiet here. The crying protests of overtired children refusing to settle down and sleep has finally stopped as there is silence now from the neighbours. My life has always been full of doubts but it does have a strange way of working itself out. I'd completely lost sight of that with all the despair I've been feeling. Time to remember that I really can survive just about anything life cares to throw at me. I need to go and iron a shirt and get ready for the coming day. Tomorrow I wake up with a new title, "the new bloke". Cross your fingers and we'll hope that everything goes well.
The person whose birthday it is has only been a proper part of my circle and my life for a few weeks, yet we seem to be able to communicate with each other remarkably easily. Sometimes you meet people who just transcend what would be the normal barriers. I am glad I've got to know this person and can vouch for the tremendously positive effect they have had on my life. They've helped me see that everything isn't necessarily hopeless and I'm not quite the dreadful useless unlikable person I sometimes see staring back at me in mirrors.
It's Sunday now and I'm about to finish one hundred and seven days of unemployment. The Thursday job interview in the afternoon for a customer service role ending up as a training interview. In short, I'm going to start at the customer service role and make proposals to improve the training and suggest other ways we can further develop the people in the call centre. The person who interviewed me is the call centre manager and I think we just got on well. I get the feeling I could do good things there. Tomorrow at 10am it will begin.
Then again it may go horribly wrong. I am still plagued with doubt even though I have a plan in my head for the work I can do for the company which will last about a year in total. That said it's been a terrible period of my life. I've stared into the abyss and I am still looking down. I sometimes think whatever it is just transfixes me. It's the frozen feeling I have when I'm gripped with it. I will be better able to deal with this now I'm working because there will be things in my life which won't just be relating to me.
I have been thinking about what the blog is quite a bit recently. People who have known for a long time would probably describe me as a very happy go lucky and easy going person. I think this began with my mindset still in that mood. I expected it to stay like that but something quite dark overtook me. The job search became a struggle and a battle to stay faithful enough to get me through a day sometimes. I've also voiced my private thoughts - something I don't really do very effectively with people. I find it difficult. I was thinking about this today and remembered something from my past. Just over 10 years ago I got attacked and robbed at knife point. My fingers were damaged (requiring 23 stitches) and they never properly recovered. The most difficult thing about the whole experience wasn't the event itself, or any of its aftermath. The most upsetting thing for me was hearing how upset people were when I told them what had happened. That was much more difficult to deal with.
People's reaction to my situation has touched me. One of my colleagues from my last job told me she was very upset reading this. I want to apologise to anyone who's been upset by anything they've read here. I have tried to be as honest as I feel I can be here. It is what happens and the way I think having a large part of your life feels like when it is taken from you. I think the majority of people currently victimised by the recession really do want a job, and want to make a contribution to the country through working. It's difficult to think about how we can help all those people. I've got lucky - I was in the right place at the right time and was able to show something that may well turn out to be just what the interviewer wanted - even if I wasn't there for that job.
Last night I was at the 40th birthday party of my friend who is being kind enough to let me stay in his flat for the time being. We had a very pleasant evening. It was an odd contrast to the 20th birthday of the previous night. The atmosphere was much less frenetic, surrounded by a group of people I've known on the most part for almost 10 years there was a soft sense of camaraderie about the evening. Then one of the guests asked me what would happen to the blog now? It's a good question.
I've decided not to end it here. It's probably helped me to have a place to come and voice some of the things in my life that trouble, frustrate, bemuse, elate, confuse, worry, concern, and puzzle me. It feels at the moment like I'm only half way towards finishing the story I've been telling. For the casual reader there is probably the issue of how will the job go? Coupled with that I would be leaving the story with me living in my temporary abode and my stuff still stacked up in Croydon. So on we go with this.
It's finally quiet here. The crying protests of overtired children refusing to settle down and sleep has finally stopped as there is silence now from the neighbours. My life has always been full of doubts but it does have a strange way of working itself out. I'd completely lost sight of that with all the despair I've been feeling. Time to remember that I really can survive just about anything life cares to throw at me. I need to go and iron a shirt and get ready for the coming day. Tomorrow I wake up with a new title, "the new bloke". Cross your fingers and we'll hope that everything goes well.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Preparation Day
There is just one day to go before my interview. I've just been speaking to the woman who set it all up and she's given me some useful tips - so I'm not going in there totally blind on this one. The plus is that I won't have to go through the usual competency based question interview as the woman conducting it isn't a fan of these things. Truth is, neither am I. I've had a good coaching session from her and now need to focus my explanation time on getting the inteviewer to see that I know what I'm talking about, and will fit into the team and the company itself. This will probably call upon some of my finest dramatic skills.
I'm beginning to get a little nervous about the whole thing and need to relax myself a little. I am going to do this by indulging in a practice run down to the venue. One of my biggest issues is always trying to find the place that I am going to. By doing a dry run, I will know how long it will take and also exactly where it is. This way I will arrive at the interview tomorrow in a better frame of mind than I would otherwise. Making sure I'm not stressed or rushing is so important for things like this. It can make all the difference.
I'm also trying to keep a positive approach to the interview. I think when you have spent such a long time getting nowhere this can be difficult. We've all been asked to go for interviews we didn't really expect to be asked to and the key thing to remember is that, if someone has asked you for an interview they think you might be able to do the job. It's up to you to prove to them that you can. By asking you along they are interested, or curious at the very least. I've not always remembered this when I'm going to an interview and have probably made the mistake of sounding or appearing like I don't want, or can't do, the job I've been shortlisted for. It's a case of remembering two things: you are still in with a chance of the job until they tell you otherwise, and the worst thing they can say to you is no.
I'm beginning to get a little nervous about the whole thing and need to relax myself a little. I am going to do this by indulging in a practice run down to the venue. One of my biggest issues is always trying to find the place that I am going to. By doing a dry run, I will know how long it will take and also exactly where it is. This way I will arrive at the interview tomorrow in a better frame of mind than I would otherwise. Making sure I'm not stressed or rushing is so important for things like this. It can make all the difference.
I'm also trying to keep a positive approach to the interview. I think when you have spent such a long time getting nowhere this can be difficult. We've all been asked to go for interviews we didn't really expect to be asked to and the key thing to remember is that, if someone has asked you for an interview they think you might be able to do the job. It's up to you to prove to them that you can. By asking you along they are interested, or curious at the very least. I've not always remembered this when I'm going to an interview and have probably made the mistake of sounding or appearing like I don't want, or can't do, the job I've been shortlisted for. It's a case of remembering two things: you are still in with a chance of the job until they tell you otherwise, and the worst thing they can say to you is no.
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