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Politics goes round the twist

In the face of climate change and an international drift towards fascism, the centre and the right are descending into farce, writes NEIL FINDLAY

POLITICS has gone mad — completely stark raving mad. What the hell is going on?

And I don’t just mean the Tory Party leadership election, where among a rogues’ gallery of austerity junkies, Frankie Dettori lookalike Rory Stewart was seen as “a bit of an outsider” with “fresh appeal.”

Outsider? The son of “a diplomat” who sought to become Britain’s chief spook, he was brought up in Malaysia and educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, then of course Eton College and Oxford University before becoming a colonial official and then a Tory MP. Yep, our Rory had a real outsider’s CV.

However, up against the sinister serial fantasist Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Dominic Raaaaaaabbb, “Power Ranger” Sajid Javid, “Charlie” Michael Gove and “Charisma bypass” Jeremy Hunt, it didn’t take much to make him appear the most interesting in a crushingly tedious line-up.

Opium, cocaine and cannabis are the lesser of the objectionable things some of them are alleged to have done — support for Donald Trump, racism, tax cuts for millionaires and more austerity for the poor are the far more. The future does indeed look grim.

Johnson, the favourite in the Tory race against Hunt, has avoided journalistic scrutiny — remember this guy is a journalist himself.

When he emerged from his summer hibernation, his performances were so abject, they made Trump sound coherent. On Brexit de Pfeffel’s answer to difficult questions consists of magic beans. On the backstop it’s unicorns, and on the impact of a no deal, it’s Lord Lucan on Shergar.

Meanwhile the European Parliament elections saw the return of rent-a-gob Nigel Farage, another man with solid anti-Establishment credentials: private school, city stockbroker, then an MEP for 20 years. Rock ’n’ roll rebel he ain’t.

And what of the return of the Liberal Democrats? Have we forgotten this sorry party were the bridesmaids of austerity as the Tory Party’s coalition partners between 2010 and 2015?

Along with David Cameron and George Osborne, they oversaw a huge increase in poverty, benefit cuts on an unprecedented scale, tax cuts for the rich, the growth of hunger and need for foodbanks and massive cuts to council and social housing budgets. Not to mention the tuition fees debacle, the bedroom tax and benefit sanctions. What short memories some have.

In the Labour Party Chuka Umunna, “Milkman Mike” Gapes and their wee gang of egotists harrumphed off to set up something called the Independent Group.

It swiftly became Change UK, but after a farcical dispute with petitions website change.org, it is now seeking the rename itself the Independent Group for Change.

Meanwhile Umunna has chucked it and joined the Lib Dems — a party he spoke of in glowing terms in 2017 when said: “I could never ever countenance suggesting voters support Liberal Democrat candidates on account of their Remain credentials — this would require turning a blind eye to the cuts to our local schools, the NHS and other public services instigated by both parties in government from 2010 to 2015 and was carried on by the Tories alone since 2015, which all our communities are now suffering from.”

Don’t you just love a man of principle who sticks to his guns? Especially when they are discharged at his own feet.

Still with Labour, Parliamentary Labour Party meetings [at Westminster] appear have all the allure of a torture chamber, with a visceral group of Blairite has-beens joining the disenchanted and entitled, gobbing poison at any member of Labour’s front-bench or backroom team who dares to stand out against their view of the world.

“These same people claimed an against-the-odds victory in the Peterborough by-election was actually a disaster and welcomed the winner Lisa Forbes to her first PLP meeting with a call for her expulsion. I shit you not.

In Scotland the SNP demands a confirmatory referendum on Brexit, but not on leaving Britain. And it insists that leaving a 40-year economic union with the EU will be a disaster that will be with us for decades — but leaving a 300-year-old social, economic and political union with our neighbours across Britain will be easy. And — wait for it — it can be done within 18 months! Jeez, these magic mushrooms are strong.

Across the Americas, the far right and forces of reaction are making gains. Trump’s victory has buoyed reactionaries everywhere. His reach can be seen fomenting unrest in Venezuela, supporting Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, rolling back US-Cuba relations and much more.

In Europe, a highly unpleasant “band of brothers” is on the rise: Matteo Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France, Victor Orban in Hungary, the AfD in Germany, the Brexit Party in Britain, and far-right parties in Greece, Austria, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.

Taking a deep breath and looking at all of this is a depressing task. It appears that the politics of hate and division are winning — a politics that thrives on victimising individuals and groups because of their nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexuality or anything else they can latch onto to promote division.

Trump has made it safe for hate to become mainstream. It is no surprise that the US president has praised Boris Johnson, the man who likened burqa-wearing Muslim women “letter boxes” and “bank robbers” while attacking London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Trump and Johnson are cut from the same cloth — privileged, arrogant elites who believe there is only one world view — theirs.

They rail against diversity, blame the poor and low-paid for their plight. They think nothing of saying anything — no matter how big a pile of horse manure it is — if it advances their ambition.

Things could all be so different. Imagine a world where equality, compassion, empathy, solidarity and co-operation were the predominant themes in our politics — where governments care for all their citizens, not just those with wealth and power.

Where our resources are shared and everyone has a full belly and a roof over their heads. 

Where the purpose of education is to enrich lives, not merely seen as component of economic growth.

Where the justice system treats everyone fairly irrespective of class, race or ethnicity.

Where foreign policy seeks to build peace, democracy and human rights.

Where the sustainability of our planet drives decision-making and is the overriding policy objective of all governments — not least Labour governments in Westminster and Holyrood.

Such a world will not come about with a continued adherence to failed neoliberal economics. “Trickle-down” promotes inequality. Indeed, it is central to its purpose.

The world we seek will never come about by building physical or political walls and barriers, or driving the innocent into refugee camps.

It will never come about with economic nationalism. It will and can, only come about through a planned, progressive, sustainable, socialist approach and with such an approach, hope and optimism will prevail over hate and division.

Neil Findlay is Labour MSP for Lothian.

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