Did you watch Dr Who on Saturday? I’m an avid fan and I think the new Doctor is such a dream; I just love languid, laid-back men! The episode itself was called The Beast Below. Let me just sketch a brief outline.
The Doctor with Amy Pond, his new assistant, arrives in a future where Britain is a wandering spaceship. On landing he and Amy find a community dominated by some grotesque smiling puppets. At five year intervals people have the right to go into a voting both, presided over by a smiler, places where they are shown a video tape of the realities of Spaceship UK. Then they are given a choice: press a protest button or press a forget button. But the message is so awful that people invariably push the forget button. “Every five years”, the Doctor said, “people chose to forget what they have learned-democracy in action.”
My dear Doctor, touché! My goodness, is there a Conservative resistance cell deep within the bowels of the socialist BBC, I have to ask? A grotesque smiling face asking all of us to forget everything that has happened since the last election, could there be any better metaphor for the present realities of Spaceship UK?
But I’m a rebel; I always have been. I chose the protest button as an angry scowl appears on the face of the puppet. And what do I see? Unbelievable levels of fiscal irresponsibility by a smiler who was Chancellor and who is now Prime Minister. I see a man who created a kind of South Sea Bubble economy, recalling the great financial crisis of the eighteenth century. I see a man who sent more and more soldiers to places like Iraq and Afghanistan, while starving them of the equipment necessary to perform the task they had been given.
I see a man who allowed immigration to get out of control, to the point where the cultural cohesion of this country is in danger. I see a man who presided over one of the most venal and corrupt Parliaments in our history, again with eighteenth century parallels, and immediately went into denial when the truth came out, not having the courage to begin a proper cleansing of the Augean Stables.
I see a man responsible for ever greater moral turpitude in the standards of public life, surrounding himself with aides whose favoured method of dealing with opposition and perceived enemies is the vilest forms of character assassination. I see man who surrendered more and more of our national sovereignty to a corrupt European oligarchy, a practice that at one time would have been defined as treason. The list could go on and on.
Yes, I press the protest button; I will press the protest button on 6 May. Some truths have to be confronted, and confronted with courage.
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Would have to say that I'm a bigger fan of Karen Gillan than Matt Smith! I will probably not be voting, my constituency is a safe-seat so my vote is inconsequential - hopefully I'll be abroad, and able to return with a new government (but not a hung Parliament). Unbelievably, I heard Ed Balls wants to challenge for Labour leadership afterwards!
ReplyDeleteFair play on managing to link Dr. Who with the general election though!
"Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow." - Thomas Paine.
Jimmy, so is mine, but I will still vote! Balls as leader, eh? I always knew that party was balls. :-))
ReplyDelete:)), balls is not what I would have used!
ReplyDeleteThe election debates on ITV start tomorrow evening, hopefully Brown will seal his own fate. I would like the option to forget the last 13 years of New Labour! The sooner they are out the better.
Any recommendations for a good political magazine? British newspapers do nothing but drive me up the wall, and I much prefer my time spent on the ground.
Well, the Spectator is the one I like best, but Prospect, The Economist and Standpoint are also quite good. And there is always Private Eye. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, I'll give them all a try.
ReplyDeleteDoctor Who is still on? I mean they are still recording new episodes and such??? OMG! I need to catch up, it's like one of the best shows ever!
ReplyDeleteYes, Ella, Can you get BBC iPlayer? You will find the latest episode there.
ReplyDeleteI bought a copy of The Economist today, it's a good read so far.
ReplyDeleteDid you catch the debate? I think half of the dialogue was made up of the word 'economy' and phrase 'frontline services'. The decor belongs in the 50s (why hasn't ITV gone in to administration yet?), the mise-en-scène made me feel as awkward as Gordon Brown's posture throughout, as if being summoned to an important meeting only to find yourself overseeing a debate on how maybe, possibly, you could find yourself saving a tenner by changing from a regular toilet flush to an automatic which dispenses just the right amount of 'flush'. Gordon Brown spent the whole time smerking, like a smug c***. In his own mind he is to his opposition parties, what Christopher Hitchens is to Evangelical Christians, only without the wit, intellectual charm, and self-assured swagger. He only addressed the person answering the question once, during his closing statement. Too busy trying to tell dour jokes, "this isn't question time, this is answer time Dave" - oh how the audience roared (in his mind). Nick Clegg had the advantage of being unknown to a lot of voters, and without his parties baggage was always going to come out reasonably unscathed - at least when he wasn't patronising voters by treating them like "adults". Made a sensible decision to let Gordon harass Dave like a schoolyard bully, and then chose his moment wisely to repeat himself over and over again - "you don't need the old parties, we haven't got any money", ad infinitum. Very reassuring. He is well versed in reiterating that there isn't any money to spend, but as "adults", we heard him the first time. Presumably he'll sell Gordon Brown at a low-rate. And David Cameron will probably pick up votes as a result of Clegg, and a lack of awareness that himself and Clegg aren't the same person. Though at least he made a sensible arguement (?) for cutting government waste and bureacracy - it may not sort out the deficit, buy at least it's a start (à la Lenihan). He also rode out Brown's insistance that cutting spending is a detriment to public services, even if you're cutting waste and empowering people to run their own affairs. Brown was scare-mongering essentialy, you need the New Labour State to administor your life, and the Tories and LibDems are bad for wanting to give you your own choice. His other ploy was implying that if you voted out his government now, the economy would be wrecked as a result - he kept making references to the fact that the economy needs more stimulus (how much more?), and as the other two parties were less likely to increase spending, they were risking our financial futures. Just, cheap.
Apart from that, I wasn't personally enthused by any of them. They were just trying to relate to voters by telling stories of when they met one of their constituents. They've met ordinary people :o!
Brown, give yourself an uppercut. These debates only serve to remind everybody that the man needs to be ousted, pronto.
I caught some of it, Jimmy. Brown's perfrmance reminds me of Belloc And Always Keep Ahold of Nurse, For Fear of Finding Something Worse. Yes, he needs to go.
ReplyDelete