Politics of Britain

Life's been a little weary, and I agree not the best way to start a blog post. But it goes without saying it could have been much worse if it wasn't for the help and support of dear friends, so a big thanks guys for being there and you know who you are.

So what's been happening in Toni land? Well I have to admit that I've had my nose glued to the Guardian online edition for weeks now, mostly due to the state of Britain, corruption, rioting, British police shooting dead an individual, the death of a suspect in the custody of police after being tasered by them. I know that sounds a bit Orwellian, and maybe it is, but you can't help but feel that Britain is in danger of imploding on itself. None of which is helped by the present prime minister, David Cameron.

I think it's been obvious now for last few weeks and recent months that David Cameron's leadership qualities have taken on the surreal qualities of the infamous 'Judge Roy Bean', who wanted to hang everyone who came before him for committing a crime. In trying to be portrayed as a 'man of action' Cameron has urged every court in the land to literally send people to jail, if they were involved in the recent British riots in London and elsewhere. Consequently, 'macho call me Dave' Cameron doesn't feel in any way sympathetic to the jailing of an individual for stealing a bottle of water, along with a young mother who was thrown in jail for accepting a 'gift' of stolen shorts. Whilst in no way condoning theft, I'm utterly aghast that the British justice system is acting in the interests of political expediency and not judicial independence.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the recent riots, and there will be many on either side, Cameron looks like a man desperate to appeal to a certain section of British society so that he can be voted into power at the next general election. His lack of judgement in recent times, makes him look pathetically out of touch with what's going on; but then there's nothing new in that. For a man who has his finger on the button that launches the A-bomb the thought is truly frightening. Equally, when he stands up in the House of Commons and declares that Britain is 'broken' and that he will mend it, stretches any amount of credibility he had left. This is the prime minister, who's government has introduced massive cuts at every level in society, resulting in thousands of job losses, with more to come. The only level that's not been effected by his hollow rhetoric is the rich, who continue to do very nicely, despite the economic problems. 

Life in Britain is of its own making, and sadly at its very epicentre is nothing but corruption and appalling bad political management. Are there any answers? Yes, but for politicians they are not ones they wish to take, so weak is the political structure. British democracy, no matter how outdated it is, is governed by the notion of a 'social contract', yet the present government does nothing that will betray its roots and debt to those unknown 'faces' scurrying about like cockroaches in the City of London.

I'm not surprised by the decline of Britain's fortunes, they have been largely self-inflicted with the rise of Thatcherism in the 1980s, Blairite continuation of the same policies, and now a coalition of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats ruling the country without any political mandate whatsoever. All of which is made sadder by the fact that the electorate of Britain, last May, chose to remain with the same political system that's all too willing to trample on them. Deeply saddening is that the British electorate is reaping the rewards of its own lack of willingness to change British democracy for the better.

Deeply, deeply sad.