Don't be fooled by the foolishness

We shouldn’t be distracted by Johnson’s shambolic performances in parliament and at the daily briefings. Behaving like a clown whilst dangling on a zip-wire didn’t stop him going on to become a ruthless liar of a PM. And his current reality-defying smoke & mirrors tricks, scripted by gaming-meister Cummings, don’t take away the government’s world-beating result of excess deaths per capita during the pandemic – see more details here, nor the steady approach of a Brexit & US trade agreement car crash see more details here and here.

The emperor's empty wardrobe

When the going gets tough and his braying cheerleaders are stuck at home, not only does the manipulative and cynical world king reveal that he has no clothes but that he has no substance of any sort whatsoever beyond that of a deflated charlatan. 

The schadenfreude bells will be ringing out across the globe, but that's scant compensation for us in the UK, stuck with this sociopathic incompetent as our so-called prime minister, potentially for another 4 long years.

Looking on the bright side, if we survive it, and if Nietzche was correct, we could be very, very resilient by 2024.

Theatre of the Absurd. Farce & tragedy combined

#JohnsonMustGo
#CummingsMustGo
#HancockMustGo
#PatelMustGo
#GoveMustGo
#RaabMustGo
#ShapsMustGo
#TrussMustGo

UK lock down since March 23 (except for select members of the government advisory team, obvs)

We can't trust any of these mendacious & arrogant hypocrites - they should all resign.

We pay our taxes and obey the laws (well, some of us). In return, the government's responsibility is to protect its citizens. So, how's that going ?


Stay Alert
Save Lives
Sack The Government

#SelectiveMemory #Cummingsgate #JohnsonIsADisaster 

Day 53 of UK lock down: yadda yadda

Due to unforeseen circumstances the blog is on hold. Hope to be back soon x

Day 49 of UK lock down: More Oliver Hardy than Winston Churchill

Stay alert – for what ?

For sub-microscopic infectious agents lurking in dark doorways ?

For more absurd hyperbole being used in an attempt to distract from the hypocrisy & failures ? (5 points for every use of fantastic, amazing or world-leading)

For Johnson and his mendacious crew of Brexit-monkeys giving back-door bailouts to the aviation industry in their rush to get back to planet-wrecking business as usual ?

For desperate trade agreements with the US being snuck in through the back door whilst nobody is looking ?

Day 46 of UK lock down: VE Day

Tomorrow marks the end of the European chapter of the bloodiest conflict in global history, involving a total of 190 countries. Over just 6 years an estimated 60 million people died - 20 million military and 40 million civilian (almost half of whom were in Russia). Many, many, millions more were injured, traumatised or displaced. And the damage wasn’t confined to people – the impact on marine and terrestrial ecosystems is still being felt.

To commemorate the 75^th anniversary of that day by flogging the dead horse of British exceptionalism, or by using bunting & flag-waving to distract either from the clusterfuck of the UK government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, or from the impending car crash of a hard Brexit at a time of global economic meltdown, would be a grotesque abuse of the memory of all those millions.

Instead let’s remember, and celebrate, the collective international effort which transcended petty nationalism to bring that appalling and devastating war to an end.

Day 45 of UK lock down: Dead cat day

32,000 people in the UK have so far died as a result of the virus – putting the country at the top of the league table of deaths in Europe. Dominic Raab predictably brought his

junior barrister’s mind into gear to point out that the positioning on the league table is just speculative and not to be taken literally. Fair enough Dom, but 32,000 deaths juxtaposed onto the UK government’s slow and inept handling of the crisis is not speculative and should be taken very seriously indeed, regardless of how we compare to Italy.

Similarly, the sensitive Matt Hancock has reportedly been left speechless by the news, smeared all over the British press, that one of the government’s top scientific advisors contravened the lockdown guidance and had a social visit from a friend. By implication, and comparison, Mr Hancock must be a man of great integrity, which makes what he has been up to when not sweating in front of the daily bulletin cameras all the more breathtaking – steadily transferring large chunks of our heroic NHS to the private sector in the midst of this crisis. That’s the same NHS that we’ve been told to save and applaud, whilst trying not to think about its woeful lack of funding.

#hypocrisy  #LedByDonkeys  #disastercapitalism

Day 44 of UK lock down: No such thing as a free trade lunch

In 1776 Adam Smith wrote, in the Wealth of Nations: “It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy. If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some advantage”.

By ignoring the whole-life cost, which takes into account the social and environmental price of manufacture, use & disposal of goods, Smith’s legacy has been one of gross inequality, back-door imperialism, sweatshops, wage slavery, and minimal to non-existent protection of workers and environment. Oh, and, in the case of smiley International Trade Secretary Liz Truss, the “inadvertent” and illegal shipping of military supplies to Saudi Arabia, twice.

That’s the same Liz Truss who was promoted as a reward for supporting Johnson in his leadership campaign and for being the architect for plans to cut taxes for people earning over £50,000. And who is now embarking on free trade negotiations with the US to “help the economy bounce back” from the Covid-19 crisis. True, this may adversely effect the much-clapped NHS, but things are definitely looking up for UK exports of pork pies and shower trays.

Day 41 of UK lock down: Just Stop Lying

The lock-down is giving a good opportunity to reflect and prepare for what comes next, but the uncertainties are so bewildering, that it’s difficult to focus.

 However, what seems as certain as night following day is that the UK’s Conservative government will continue to spin and lie in response to every challenge. Johnson’s track record of lying is thoroughly recorded, as is that of Gove , Raab, Patel,  and Hancock. Yet they keep going. The tactic, from the same dezinformatsiya black propaganda  & disinformation playbook that has worked for Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro,  seems to be to spout whatever bollox suits the narrative of the moment, in the hope that more people will believe it than not, before quietly withdrawing it later when attention is elsewhere.

The Tories did it about Brexit. They’re doing it about Coronavirus. And they’ll be doing it about the climate and ecological emergency when it’s back on the mainstream agenda.

Extinction Rebellion’s first demand is Tell the Truth. Not complicated but massively important. This is reality we need to confront, not some computer game.  If we allow lies and spin to become the norm of discourse, then we are simply, and comprehensively, screwed.