Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Sketch for an article: "Hypocrisy"


A RANT I WROTE TONIGHT WHICH WILL BE KNOCKED INTO AN ARTICLE THROUGH THIS WEEK!

As we sit here looking at the arse end of 2011 there is one word that sings out loud and strong over all the bullshit. You guessed it - hypocrisy.
the government, parliament, the police, the press, the tabloids, the city, banks, big tax evading corporations, the middle classes, Liberals, Labour Party - the whole fucking lot. Hypocrites!!!
In 2011 the crisis which was largely to do with the methods that the very rich used to become much much richer. They did it firstly by deregulating the banking system. An early attempt to deregulate credit back in the early 70s led to runaway inflation under Heath, brought under control by Labour, though it left them fatally wounded. Once back into power, the Tories brought the country immediately into recession. That's the recession Labour had spent their whole term in office trying to avoid. So - why?
The root of all that was in the Chicago School of economics. Alan Walters
 visited Chile a number of times in the 1970s and characterized himself as an "honorary Chicago boy" . In chile workers were cheap and had few rights. corporations were able to walk in and do the business they wanted. 


And that is what this is all about. thatcher wanted to make Britain more like Chile. In the process she privatised as much as she could, and deregulated as far as she could in all areas except for the areas that affected the poor or the working class who were subjected to more and more controls, laws, regulations, curbs of freedom; by the time the Tories had finished it was even illegal to dance in a fecking field!

So over the years profits increased. and increased and increased. Private Equities and tax havens sucked the money out of Britain and away from those who could use it to live or for the public's benefit. Governments and the media worked in concert with corporations to do this; academics were bought, we were all sold a lie: that once capital had been set free we'd all be better off. Well, some were better off, and that's where Blair came in. Never in recent history had the rich got so much richer than under New Labour. The Tories may have released the capital, but New Labour made sure most of it flowed to the right people as they continued Thatcher's project of deregulation after deregulation. After all, that's why they were allowed to take power.

And so we had the great orgy of wealth which occurred under New Labour, every Tory's favourite Labour Prime minster until it all went tits up. how marvellous for that was them? They manage to indoctrinate the "workers' party" and get their own crooked man at the top - tony blair the tory fall guy. Well he's getting paid handsomely for his treachery now.

Finally, as the elite - the 1% if you will - decide that it's time to bring the Tories back, we suddenly find out that many MPs were reinterpreting the rules regarding expenses liberally, or creativel even, some to the extent that they went to prison. This was largely used a means to control MPs and hammer Labour just before the election. Even though the Tories who were buying far larger properties and raking in far larger "expenses" seemed to have got off with a lot easier than Labour mps.

The media - and far wider than just Murdoch which we now know about - all fell into line in the general rubbishing of Brown, which made little sense, and was essentially a personal attack. Even the guardian fell behind the Liberal Dems who was being led by elite approved Blair clone, Clegg.

The next set of people who seemed to be interpreting the rules rather creatively were bankers who freely admitted that they would find a way round any kind of regualation the government would impose; and despite huge public feeling against swollen unjustified bonuses, they continued to pay themselves indecently large sums of money.

Look back into the history of the unholy alliance of corporations who were just making money up and then pocketing it, leaving the public with the debt. And you see Enron. Enron were not acting alone but those who should have been auditing and monitoring Enron's activities completely failed, and were never brought to book. Enron was merely the particularly rotten tip of a great festering pyramid of mad labyrinthine accounting practices designed to magic unearned money straight into the bank accounts of the already over-rich.

Democracy has been eroding for years. the gap between what the public want and what politicians delievr has grown ever wider. every elction must bring about a step increase in the number of alienated voters. My own alienation began as long ago as the early 90s as Labour failed to pick up on what was fairly obvious support for a move away from tory politics. Blair was able to ride this obvious desire for change but then failed to deliver change and made the rich richer, and created a whole new generation of disposessed young people who were effectively written out of New Labour's dream of prosperity.

Part of this erosion was due to the corporate media who had most politicians over a barrel. Now we know that there was an unholy truce between media, government and justice system. The full extent of this is no doubt being kept from us still, and the mainstream media is clearly trying to give the impression that what we are dealing with is an isolated instance and in the past. in fact as it unfolds it is clear that it this sort of corruption is the norm rather than a one off anomaly.

It's also interesting how the whole thing is being steered away from being about police, politicians and judges and is now only about celebrities being stalked.

so we come to 2011. those who are now being examined by the media, by the politicians and by the police, as a priority are not the tax evaders, the rule breakers, the corrupt officials, but those who are the poorest in society. We now get news full of benefit cheats, scroungers, those who refuse to work, those who work and still claim, those who sublet their council houses. And this is on the BBC.

And the news never fails to remind us about the august riots. We are invited to morally judge the rioters. the law and order brigade are easy for them lawbreaking is just wrong under any circumstances (oh except for the poor old sainted motorist who is being vicitimised, and occasionally you just have to hit a woman / paki / gay - it's human rights gone mad, and taking a few things from work or fiddling your expenses, that ain't a crime, etc) so they condemn as a reflex.

The liberals condemn because though they sympathise there just is no excuse for criminal behaviour, not even living in a delapidated flat, with no decent school, with impoverished parents, where gangs are the only social order, where crime is the only work, where the police only enter to randomly raid or harass you or your neighbours, where you have to stand up for yourself or stay scared, and where opportunity is like Santa Claus or the Yeti, and what they should have done clearly is sat down and written a stern letter to their MP or got one of those non-extstent jobs that pay you enough not to gradually slip into more and more debt just to keep your head above water, or started a petition! But then we know Liberals don't live in the real world.

And the socialists condemn because while they are pleased to see people rise up and confront the police they're absolutely appalled that these people fail to do it in the prescribed manner, and raid shops to steal a few things that they could otherwise never afford, for themselves, their families and their friends. How dare they be materialistic!

And so the same people who were marginalised by Blair, an kicked in the teeth by Cameron are now being shat on by all and sundry. But as the numbers of the marginalised grow, so will the chances of more riots. I believe that the riots ended not because the police gained control but because the rioters grew weary, and retreated. they will be back despite the appalling injustices they have been subjected to.

while those who fiddled their expenses, fiddled their taxes, bribed the police and politicans, or indeed allowed themselves to be bribed, those who fiddled their system to take an extra few quid, nothing that will make them rich, have been effctively hung out to dry and all the press and the middle class worthies can talk about now is how hard can we punish the poor for daring to complain about being poor.

oh and if all that fails - we can tell the poor how lucky they are that they don't live in Africa, because that's not really fucking offensive at all is it!!

3 comments:

Anthony Hopper said...

Hmmm, a very depressing list of occurrences in 2011. I'm sure something positive happened in 2011? Perhaps some government policy or initiative that brightened the day for someone(s) who were not counted among the top 1%?

Laughing Noam said...

Anthony, thanks for your interest and for leaving a comment, however, I have to point out that I set my blog up in a attempt, at least partially, to represent view points that are not adequately represented in the mainstream media.
If it's a good news story you want there are a lot of other options apart from my blog: the One Show, Hello Magazine, Conservative Party press releases, most other blogs...

Yours
His Noaminess

Anthony Hopper said...

That might be true; however, even blog posts with very strong points of view are strengthened when they add at least one antithetical remark; it adds a sense of balance to the article and serves to anchor the dominant POV.

For instance, he is good at blank but horrible at 50 blanks...The he is good serves to anchor the 50 blanks and provide a semblance of balance. It demonstrates that the author has considered the whole spectrum of possibilities before siding wit his/her POV.