No bad taste here

Over the last couple of weeks (the scene shown here in the photograph with the post is from June 13th, 2019) we have been subjected to the unedifying spectacle of a bunch of gurning Tory MPs, banging the tops of the absurdly low desks they were seated at, demonstrating just what a state our politics are in. Over grown school boys, wetting themselves as they re-lived their public school days of yore, playing a major part in the completely un-democratic choice of our next prime minister. This should not be acceptable to anyone.

Note the token woman at the desk, presumably there to remind the assembled aristos of their nannies and/or the, very strict, castor oil administering school nurse.

But, even more notable, we see that, in an eminent place sits our own Ludlow MP, Philip ‘Do Nothing’ Dunne. The PR gurus clearly advised him to place his dunce’s cap (awarded for his dis-service to the NHS when fagging for Jeremy Hunt) under his seat for the occasion. Mr Dunne is the very model of a modern major landowner, with acres in Herefordshire and an ancestry of politicians and courtiers. His house boasts a former deer park, knot gardens and parterres, 150ft border and a pavilion designed in the style of a Chinese temple complete with Chinese dragon. It has been in his family since 1678, covers 2500 acres (probably bringing in a cool £200,000 in annual subsidies just for owning the land) but is coyly described on Mr Dunne’s website as a ‘family farm’ near Ludlow. Aristos know well enough the meaning of embarrassment but better the art of dissembling.

They should be embarrassed, only the accident of birth has gifted this largesse to Mr Dunne and many like him and it brings with it a sense of entitlement not only to wealth but to power.

For instance, Mr Dunne’s fellow Shropshire Tory MP, Owen Paterson, before he was re-shuffled, sacked that is, as environment minister (!) could be heard telling the populace that they should do what ‘the people who RULE OVER THEM’ say. OP is another ‘farmer’ whose father in law just happens to be a Viscount and owns, in addition to his land in Shropshire, a property in France. Interestingly this last place was only bought in 2013, not long before the Brexit turmoil and maybe a handy precaution for a rich man in the know.

How can our democratic process be taken seriously when this exclusive cabal of hyper-privileged people choose not just their own leader but the Prime Minister and hence the ‘leader’ of us all?

Not surprisingly they have chosen two very much of their own for the final showdown, with the favourite of those very likely to bring the biggest role in British politics into further disrepute. Typically, the latest stage is being polluted by accusations of vote-rigging on the part of the shady ‘team’ backing the favourite. Such suggestions are just shrugged off by those Tories asked about them – ‘that’s politics’ being a stock response blithely accepted by the media.

Just to rub it in, we have just had a government minister, no less, showing the nation how uppity folks should be dealt with at the Mansion House. Only the horsewhip was missing.

The whole circus adds to the misleading claim that politics is ‘broken’ as made by pretend political parties such as the Brexit Party and the, fast disappearing, Change UK – both limited companies NOT political parties. A claim unchallenged by the media in their usual, populism-encouraging, lightweight way.

In fact, there are serious politicians and serious people in the UK, some of them are even (misguided) Tories if only full attention was paid to them. It’s not politics that’s broken, it’s the corrupted means of communications and general trivialisation of discourse that are broken. The exploitation of privilege discussed earlier just happens without comment from the most visible and well-known commentators as if they are acceptable.

As well as this lack of interrogation of the cavalier attitudes, there is no attention paid to either how bad the Tories and their policies are or the serious and detailed policy proposals put forward by the Labour Party on a regular basis - a very quick Google search reveals at least 9 such ideas, with topics ranging from housing to bus routes released over the last 18 months. This shoddy approach to our political situation is the reason that chancers can make the claims they do about a ‘broken’ system.

We are in a situation where many people, who only read headlines because their time is precious and they only have an attention span of 20 seconds, end up being misled into thinking that Jeremy Corbyn is a dim, lazy security threat to the country. Those people are being effectively lied to every day at the same time as the real threats the country and the world are side-lined in favour of the antics of various self-seeking scoundrels not all of them landed gentry and by no means all of them from the Tory party.

– Bill Booker