They’re still stupid
Back in the 1990s, I came across an article in Spin magazine with the best lede I’d ever read.
The article was about prisons in the deep South in America reintroducing the concept of chain gangs as additional punishment and humiliation. Groups of prisoners chained together wearing comedy striped pajamas were forced to clean litter and break rocks on public roads.
The writer (whose name sadly eludes me) wrote that the use of the chain gangs was a message from the South to the rest of the country. And that message was: ‘We’re still here. We’re still stupid. Fuck you.’
Chaos theory
Watching the selection of John Bercow as Speaker of Parliament yesterday reminded me of that fantastic introduction to an article about ignorance, ineptitude, petty governmental ladder climbing, and the kind of tin-pot-dictator-envy that seems to be a bizarre hallmark of our modern democracy.
As I listened to duplicitous Labour MPs lying shockingly to the cameras and the voters of Britain, smirking as they did so (seriously, why does the Labour party allow Diane Abbott to ever go on television when she’s such a good advertisement for any other political party?), I actually felt nauseous.
After the last few months, how can it be that they’re not taking any of this seriously? How foolish are they?
Parliament is regarded with contempt by a vast majority of the country at this point. Those who work in government are ashamed to admit that to those who do not. I have never in all of my life seen a western government held in such low regard by its citizenry. I cannot imagine how they expect to lead a country that increasingly refuses to follow.
And if they cannot lead, then there is no legitimate government, and that – as anybody who remembers the 1970s will tell you – means chaos.
But otherwise, everything’s fine
The idea that, after the last few weeks, Labour would be so callous as to choose a speaker solely because he would upset the Conservatives is breathtaking.
At a time when Parliament is this close to not existing as we have known it, they’re still playing games of British bulldog with our government.
Let’s just reassess where we are right now. We are engaged in two wars – neither of which we show signs of winning. North Korea is perfecting its nuclear catapult. Iran is enraging extremists Muslim groups – who already weren’t too fond of us – against us. We are in the midst of the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression – and despite what the Prime Minister might say we as a nation are culpable in that crisis. Every single member of Parliament has been in some way tarnished by a corruption scandal on a scale none of us has ever witnessed in our lives. And throughout it all the Prime Minister has appeared to be out of his depth, terrified and at sea.
Nightmare
This is a nightmare situation. And the election of the Speaker could have been a first step towards waking us up from this horrible dream.
Instead, the selection of John Bercow for petty political purposes perpetuates the horror. And the smiling lies of the Labour and (some) Lib Dem MPs on the news last night means that they either do not understand or do not care how angry we are, and how sad, and how tremendously awful this situation is.
After hundreds of years of democracy, through wars and deprivation, from Cromwell to now, how is it possible that this feckless lot have managed to undo so much good, and leave us in such a desperate situation?
But they have, haven’t they? And the message Labour and Lib Dem MPs sent to voters last night was the same one those southern prison wardens sent to America 15 years ago.
‘We’re still here. We’re still stupid. Fuck you.’
Comments
Leave a Reply
Jack on 06.23.2009
You know what else this speaker election was? Unprecedentedly divisive. Never in modern times, to my knowledge, has a Speaker been elected on such a clear party political divide. Labour MPs didn’t want (the eminently more qualified) George Young because they didn’t want two Old Etonians in such high positions of power after the next election. They didn’t want a Lib Dem because they were seen as most responsible for bringing Michael Martin down. So who do we have instead? A self-regarding political turncoat, whose journey from Powellite to Thatcherite to Blairite was motivated by nothing but his own ambition, who was badly tainted in the expenses scandal, who is now, for better or worse, the appointed public face of parliamentary reform.
It could be a moot point, of course, if the Tories do win the next election and decide to unseat him (dishonourable, maybe, but we’ll have to see how he does.) If word on the blogosphere is to be believed, he may be gone rather sooner if there is indeed a tape of him out there somewhere, singing football songs about the Irish Famine, Bobby Sands, and Fenian F***ers. What a charming creep he is.
From a motley bunch of candidates, the Labour Party has ensured the selection of the most divisive, the most self-regarding, the most ambitious, and one of the most tainted by the very expenses system the public will now look to him to reform. I’d have readily taken Beckett (even with her gardening bills), Young or Widdecombe over him any day. If I had a vote, I’d have voted for the wonderful Parmjit Dhanda in an instant. But, alas, I don’t.
The Centrist on 06.23.2009
According to the Times, Bercow has grandly offered not to claim his second home allowance while living in the luxurious grace and favour apartment provided by the tax payer.
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
I’ve rarely seen so many angry comments on a Times story, BTW.
JAMES on 07.04.2010
Buy:Actos.Nexium.Prevacid.Synthroid.Zovirax.Retin-A.Human Growth Hormone.Accutane.Mega Hoodia.Valtrex.100% Pure Okinawan Coral Calcium.Lumigan.Zyban.Prednisolone.Petcam (Metacam) Oral Suspension.Arimidex….