UK General Election 2019

All the hate and toxicity around General Election 2019 is fuelling my anxiety. I have woken in the wee small hours two nights in a row having a panic-attack. So, I have decided that this is my last political post until after the election.

Please do use your vote. The number of electors who abstain outnumbers those who vote for any party. We can collectively make a difference. Abstention in effect means support for whoever takes control. And by abstaining you are sharing in the culpability of their wrong-doing through your failure to act.

Please do vote wisely. Where necessary use tactical voting to ensure no-deal BREXIT is not the result. Currently, a vote for Brexit is also a vote for the collapse of the United Kingdom, as Northern Ireland will be forced to re-unite with Eire and Scotland will do its darndest to secede.

I should personally like to vote Green; but where I reside they have little support. On Thursday I shall be voting Labour, not out of love nor respect nor even admiration, but because I believe they are the only party at this election who just might be able to turn around the UK and prevent its break-up.

A final reminder: no-one will be able to turn around after the election and say that they did not know the consequences. Democracy is about shared responsibility of all the people for the people. Don your individual responsibility, use your rights and vote with your conscience for policies not for personalities!

Thank you for reading. %)

Farewell to the United Kingdom; Good-bye England

In view of the 2015 general election results for the United Kingdom (although probably not united for very much longer!), it is with great sadness that I am informing all my readers that I shall now have to leave England for good.

As those of you who have been following this blog, my facebook page and/or my twitter account will know, under the ConDems - due to actions by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the mainstream media (MSM) and the government itself - I had to go back on to anti-anxiety medication. I cannot take another five years of persecution and harassment and live in constant fear of the DWP and the country's Government.

[Image description: Inverness airport & environs]

My ex-partner & best friend and I are now making plans to move to Scotland. At least there will be an NHS there to care for me. I have asked friends living and working in Inverness to advise us of some good estate (real estate)/rental agents, so that we can begin making enquiries. We shall also be looking to rent out our current home pro tem. However, if it looks like any EU referendum means an exit from Europe, that too will be put up for sale.

I am aware that several of my real-world and social-media friends are Conservative party voters: thank you for not gloating about your political party's victory; your sensitivity is appreciated.

Finally, those quislings, the Liberal Democrats, got what they thoroughly deserved; duplicity is one trait I cannot abide. I apologise for voting for them for so many years believing the party to be filled with folk of integrity - I was so wrong. To the Green party: you can hold your head up high; thank you for being a voice of reason amidst all the screeching, dominating, Neo-liberal cacophony.

England, I shall miss my incorrect view of you and despise the wicked, uncaring self you have revealed yourself to be. If there is a G_d, I hope s/he helps the meek, because the English certainly will not be your Good Samaritans.

Ed Miliband, Andy Burnham, Labour & the Privatisation of the NHS

On Monday 12th May 2014, Ed Miliband gave a key-note speech on the NHS in Manchester. I was privileged to be invited, despite not being a Labour party member nor indeed affiliated to any political party - I am non-partisan.

The following is a long quotation from his (hour-long) speech:

"It is up to us. Up to a Labour government to make the changes we need to make sure the NHS is there for the years and decades ahead.…
And it’s about more than that too. It’s about restoring the fundamental values of the NHS.The basic principles.It’s about ending David Cameron’s dogmatic obsession with bringing competition and privatisation into the heart of the NHS. And reducing the huge costs that have come about because of that terrible Bill. The last Labour government showed how private companies can sometimes help bring down waiting lists or provide specialist services that the NHS can’t. So, of course, there is some role for the private sector in our health service. But this government doesn’t just want to do that. It thinks competition and privatisation should be at the core of the way the NHS works. As the government says itself: if it worked for the privatised utility companies why shouldn’t it work for the NHS? Doesn’t that say it all? Well, not under my government. We’ll go back to the right principles. To the right values. Why should a hospital have to spend money on competition lawyers instead of patient care? We’ll stop that happening. We’ll stop the regulators from spending their time on free-market competition in the NHS. We’ll cut back on the consultancy costs caused by the Tories’ reorganisation. We’ll reduce the number of very senior managers who cost too much at a time when resources are so scarce. We’ll stop the threat of European competition law forcing the privatisation of services. And, friends, we’ll repeal their terrible NHS and Social Care Bill. This will save money. At least £100 million. And we’ll put all of this money straight back into improving GP care. Labour will have the right priorities. This is how we plan to improve the NHS. A comprehensive service based on the needs of the whole person. Prevention not just cure. Co-operation not privatisation. The NHS is so important to Britain."

Interestingly, The Guardian published their take on the speech at "18.17 BST", before the speech and the Q&A session were over, so it omitted Miliband's and Burnham's critical promise. The New Statesman's article admits to having been drafted over the previous weekend, but was not published until the actual day at 18.15. 

And that significant promise was also referenced in the Labour Party's second party political election broadcast from 13th May 2014, (3"20 - 3"29):

"We've got to put the right principles back at the heart of the NHS: care, and co-operation, and compassion; not privatisation and competition."

The Q&A session afterwards gave Andy Burnham an opportunity to pledge a public NHS core. I cannot find a video clip of his actual response, but, from memory, he basically stated that the core of the NHS had to be public service with a role for private companies only where they could add value to the over-all service. Ed Miliband concurred with Burnham's comments (see 2"00 - 2"15 of the video below).

According to Left Foot Forward:

"Andy Burnham has pledged to repeal the Health and Social Care Act if he becomes health secretary. This would undo the hospital closure clause, the wholesale privatisation, and reinstate the duty of the secretary of state to provide universal healthcare to the people who voted for them."

I cannot track down any coverage by the neo-liberal MSM of this stance against the privatisation of the NHS. I do not think it is because Labour has back-tracked. I suspect the dearth of reporting on this aspect is due this policy being popular and in-line with the electorate, which is far to the left of all main political parties, excepting the Greens.

I believe both Miliband and Burnham are honest men, honourable politicians; they will keep to their word I suspect.

Interaction with a British Member of Parliament

[Image description: Wikipedia photo of Tim Farron; reproduced on the understanding that the copyright owner does not necessarily endorse my views.]

On August 15th 2012 I was involved in a discussion on Twitter between @blindmike47 and @timfarron (timfarron.co.uk). The latter is a Liberal Democrat MP and also President of said party. From what I have seen and heard of him in the Media, an honourable chap. After some discussion, he asked Mike and myself to email him. So I took him up on his offer and emailed the following letter:

Dear Tim (hope that's not too informal!),

Many thanks for engaging with Mike and myself on Twitter and allowing us to contact you. During the last local election coverage I enjoyed your contributions on BBC.

I have never been desperately political and have never belonged to a political party (as I do not agree with whipping). However, I do admit to having distributed leaflets on behalf of LibDems in the past. I have always attempted to persuade folks to vote, having learned about how we plebs became enfranchised in Politics lessons at secondary school. The last election was the first time I considered not voting (having only ever missed one - European - election after a bout of hospitalisation). I have never trusted Mr. Clegg. Indeed when he first took over as leader, I switched my vote to the local [Green] candidate. My instinctive distrust of him seems to have been corroborated by his in/actions in government.

This past few years I have become politically active like never before. I am petrified, as are many other disabled folk, that we are heading towards some kind of Nazi-type solution for the chronically sick & disabled. I have been on my first ever political demonstration and - health willing - should be attending another in a couple of weeks or so.

The media, even C4 news on occasion, have portrayed a very slanted view of the disabled and other benefit recipients. The BBC is more biased than I have ever known it: for the first time in my life I do not trust it. I suppose because Twitter, facebook, etc. now bring me the news from around the globe, not just UK, of issues ignored by mainstream Media. Being a polyglot I am also able to see similar issues in other countries. This only re-inforces my (and others') sense of anomie, neo-liberal oligarchies and all-pervading sense of despair. Hundreds have committed suicide under this coalition because of their policies, thousands more have attempted or considered suicide.

The only LibDem voice I have consistently heard decrying the situation is George [W] Potter. And to me at least, and many disabled folk, their relatives, friends, neighbours & carers, this is just not good enough. We need to hear a distinctive LibDem voice, arguing vociferously for social justice: not simply for the chronically sick & disabled, but for the unemployed, for young folk (who get a terribly raw deal in British society) etc. If the LibDems are not the voice of the 'disenfranchised', then someone else will be. Or we will descend into 'apathy' and leave the way open to an unchallenged plutocracy.

Regards,

Colin-Roy…

Well, despite a couple of reminders to Tim via Twitter, I only received a response yesterday, 10th September. Here it is:

Dear Colin,

Thank you very much for your email and I apologise for the delay in responding to you. Unfortunately given economic crisis and the extreme financial constraints in which we are currently operating, decision have been made surrounding changes to welfare benefits that no Lib Dem would make if any other viable alternative were an option. I completely agree with you that the Liberal Democrats need to be the voice of the vulnerable and disenfranchised and we are fighting tooth and nail in Government to ensure the best deal possible for those groups. However our choices have been incredibly limited.

Thank you again for emailing and I hope I can assure you that the Lib Dems are trying to do the best we can for the disabled and vulnerable.

Best wishes,

Tim

Make up your own minds whether or not he answered my points.

However, given how much effort it takes for me to write, I do not think I shall waste my time responding. That probably gives you an idea of my thoughts.

It seems quite odd to me that someone would solicit comments and opinions in order to continue a discussion and then so completely close it down. I am left feeling I wasted my time and energy. And furthermore, did Tim simply ask to continue the discussion away from Twitter so he made himself appear to be interested in disabled folks' views whilst in reality not really giving a hoot? Or to remove a hot topic from his public Twitterfeed? His feeble response belies any real engagement.