John Chuckman

COMMENT TO AN ARTICLE BY TOM PECK IN THE INDEPENDENT

 

‘Nigel Farage raved about populism to EU parliament – right after an Auschwitz survivor spoke

‘It was fitting, in a strange way, that he should save his most crass moment till last”

 

Farage can be pretty crass, but much of the time he is something of a showman, a political version of the old music hall comics, and he does amuse a large number of people. After all, he has had a serious effect on the future of about 65 million British people.

The world makes no real progress under leaders like Farage.

Absolutely none.

He represents Nativism or Tribalism.

And there’s lots of that around, but the fact doesn’t make it worthy or admirable any more than other primitive superstitions and beliefs, of which we have many.

Just as we advanced from local village with no real connecting roads in the 16th century to superhighways and fleets of jets connecting everything, so our future in global trade and economics and society is in institutions like the EU, not in a music hall comic waving a plastic British flag.

And by the way, just getting to that Union Jack flag was a long and difficult history, from some tribal Celts conquered by Romans with later incursions of Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Norman French. England is a hybrid society, not some purest vision.

Historical change and development don’t just stop at some moment that appeals to some people and stay stuck there.

That’s the view of some religious cultish folks like Mennonites or Amish or Hasidic Jews. It’s wrong for most people and packed with superstition, and it goes absolutely nowhere in terms of progress.

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Response to a comment saying “Always the idiot …”. Supported by many idiots.

Just as Jesus said, “The poor you have with you always”, so with idiots.

It’s just the human condition and why it takes so long to get anything worthwhile done.

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Response to a comment saying, “In the 21st century democracy = populism”

That’s simply not true.

We have very little democracy anywhere, but a great deal of “populism.”

The establishment uses populist movements as tools of control.

Just as Hitler was made possible by bankers and industrialists, both from Germany and America. The Third Reich just would not have existed without them.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN MOON OF ALABAMA

 

“The Leaden Lady Steps Down

“It was high time for this to happen

“Theresa May has announced she is to stand down as Prime Minister on 7 June following months of mounting pressure over her failure to deliver Brexit”

 

It was indeed high time that Theresa May leave her office.

She is the second worst prime minister in modern British history.

It is just embarrassing what she has put Britain and the entire EU through over Brexit.

And it’s not just what she’s done around Brexit.

It’s also her utterly servile posture towards American imperialism.

Good God, that whole ugly, made-up Skripal Affair with no evidence ever supplied and no one allowed to even talk to the “victims?”

All to increase the amount of Russophobia in the world and please the American government?

Making the most horrific charges in public without evidence against a major world leader?

And imagine wasting countless billions on the new Trident missile submarines and two huge aircraft carriers when the county’s basic health services are in peril and British railroads can’t even maintain good service? Some priorities.

Her appointment of Gavin Williamson as Defense Minister, a man who made some even more insane statements in public than Donald Trump? Well, at least she sacked him, but surely a five-minute interview should have confirmed him unfit to hold any cabinet post, much less defense?

She ranks second worst only to David Cameron, who created, needlessly and foolishly, the entire Brexit crisis.

Imagine thinking you can hold a general referendum on a devastatingly complex matter like Brexit, one which baffles experts?

Never mind its being called democratic, it was just plain stupid, in the extreme, asking people to vote on an immensely consequential matter with little understanding of it.

And at a time when xenophobia, never too far from Britain’s public consciousness, was rearing its ugly head. Something guaranteed to drive “leave” votes for the wrong reasons.

But Boris Johnson? The fart in a church service? As Prime Minister?

Britain really has had some terrible leadership for decades.

Good old Tony Blair and his lying and cheating help to illegally invade Iraq and kill a million people. Unlike May and Cameron, Blair was “effective” in getting what he wanted. It’s just that what he wanted was completely evil.