As I have taken in the news on proroguing of Parliament, listened to the pronouncements of the Home Secretary on freedom of movement and the bully boy tactics of the unelected Dominic Cummings a feeling of dread has crept over me. These are the actions of powerful people who don’t care about the rules and norms. The feeling of dread was enhanced when listening to the constitutional expert Peter Hennessy talking about the reliance for upholding of the constitution on the “the good chap” concept. You will not come across a more unlikely bunch of ‘good chaps’ than the current prime minister, his cabinet and advisor.
All this was going on as we prepared for our latest road trip in Betsy. While the signing the local petition against proroguing of Parliament in Devizes Market Square I felt a sense of comradeship and joining of battle with the folks who had organised the demonstration. Yet 2 days later we were on the ferry to France dashing towards Ancona, Italy for another ferry to Igoumenitsa, Greece. The gloom of the UK receding behind us as we charge through France, Switzerland and Italy. Reality came home when I read the email from our MP Claire Perry in reply to receiving the petition which was just pure propaganda. I was so incensed that against a beautiful Italian sunset composed an angry reply.
I’m writing this in a Greek taverna overlooking a bay amongst a group of holiday-makers from all over Europe where English is the lingua franca. The atmosphere happy and carefree yet we are still locked into our mobile phones looking over our shoulders at the twists are turns of politics back home. I feel that we have abandoned the Devizes folks who have bothered to stand up and be counted against what is a regime that is determined to subvert democracy in pursuit of a propaganda goal.
I am not a believer in a second referendum as it will not resolve the split in the country and will almost certainly deliver an inconclusive result. The referendum result is a given but it should never have been held on the basis of solving the intercine war within the Tory party on such a simplistic basis as IN/OUT with no proper public consultation and debate. IDIOT BOY DAVID (Cameron) should hang his head in shame. The issue is not even about if not the Tories then the fear of CORBYN as both Labour and Conservatives are the corrupt (Ancient Greek meaning decay, rotten) corpses of the 2 party system. This is a threat and opportunity: the threat are the extremes are allowed to subvert our democracy through populism and the opportunity is to improve our democracy with better representation and consultation that can tackle the almost cataclysmic challenges facing us.
These issues are: CLIMATE CHANGE which threatens the existence for our grandchildren, WEALTH DISPARITY which within UK will fuel massive discontent that will lead to violence eventually and is fuelling global migration and SOCIAL CARE which is not tackled will bring down the NHS. These issues can be masked by populists whose self interest will generate fake news to divert attention from them or to solve them will need stable government that has widespread support and can broker solutions to the difficult problems.
The Road Ahead 