Beginning to See the Light: ‘Megaphone Diplomacy’

 

‘In this age of grand illusion

You walked into my life

Out of my dreams

Sweet name, you’re born once again for me’

 
We are currently experiencing what I regard as the breakdown of ordered society in this country. The government is paralysed; fronted by a liar who believes he is above the law, supported by supplicants too spineless to change it.

The police, rather than upholding the law are sinking to new levels. Their racism, and misogynistic behaviour shows that we are all not equal in the eyes of the law.

The government attacks on judges and lawyers is fuelling a distrust of the courts and encouraging bogus notions of ancient ‘common law’ supported by conspiracy theorists.

Money continues to buy you influence: the Sunday Times reports that the Tories direct their biggest donors to apply for public posts controlled by a Downing Street unit hidden from public scrutiny. A win-win situation; the party gets funding and packs their supporters into appointments with public and arts bodies.

A leaked email from their treasurer’s office to big donors said: ‘We thought you may be interested in the latest list of public appointments. It is important Conservatives rebalance the representation at the head of these important public bodies.’ The party’s donor club the Leaders’ Group charges a minimum of £50,000 a year for access to ministers.

‘OpenDemocracy’ found that donors giving >£3m to the Tories are virtually guaranteed to be offered a peerage.

The Times reports that Ben Elliot, the party co-chairman told senior advisers at No 10 that one major donor would be an ‘excellent candidate’ to oversee emergency Covid-19 loans. His staff lobbied for Mohamed Amersi, the telecoms millionaire and £750,000 Tory donor, to chair the National Lottery Community Fund; he made it to the last round of selection.
 

‘Donors giving >£3m to the Tories are virtually guaranteed to be offered a peerage’

 
The Tories funding is skewed towards the top-end, meaning that power is concentrated in the hands of a few donors. Since Johnson became PM, 10-people have donated 25%, > £10m, of their funding. No wonder Johnson plans to abolish the Electoral Commission’s power to prosecute illegal donations.

Another Tory ‘influencer’ is Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul. During a recent trip to Saudi Arabia, Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, found time to remove the legal restrictions put in-place by Thatcher that prevented Murdoch from interfering in the editorial independence of the Times and the Sunday Times when he bought the newspapers in 1981.

Murdoch has long regarded this safeguard as ‘state interference’, but it took until July 2019 before his complaints gained any traction. Coincidentally the same month Johnson became PM!

In his first 14-months as PM Johnson met Murdoch three times, for one ‘general discussion’ and two social events. He also had dinner with Michael Gove, lunch with the chancellor and a ‘lunch with friends’ with Jacob Rees-Mogg.

You scratch my back, and I will scratch yours!

This week saw the ‘return of the thin white duke’, John Major, who last featured in November 2018.  In a speech last week, he summed up much that is currently wrong with our government.
 
‘Our democracy has always been among the strongest and most settled in the world. It relies on respect for the laws made in parliament, on an independent judiciary, on acceptance of the conventions of public life, and on self-restraint by the powerful.

If any of that delicate balance goes astray – as it has, as it is – our democracy is undermined. Our government is culpable, in small but important ways, of failing to honour these conventions.

Where governments fall short, candour is the best means of shoring up support. But that candour must be freely offered – not dragged out under the searchlight of inquiries. If it is not wholehearted and convincing, the loss of public trust can be swift and unforgiving.

We have seen that playing out in recent weeks. Trust in politics is at a low ebb, eroded by foolish behaviour, leaving a sense of unease about how our politics is being conducted.’
 
As if on cue, Ipsos Mori polls showed that:
 

• 70% of voters are dissatisfied with Johnson, up from 65% in December.
• 34% of Tory voters are dissatisfied with Johnson went up from 28%.
• 14% of all voters think Johnson is honest, while 72% think he isn’t,
• 18% say he is a PM they can be proud of.

 
The electorate have finally woken up op the fact that Johnson, and the shambles that masquerades as a government, is a series of lies. The emperor’s new clothes are non-existent.

Lies have been the bedrock of Johnson’s career as he has bounced from one scandal to the next.

The government excels in sociologists call ‘strategic lying’, which allows them to shift the agenda onto their ‘preferred territory’. For example, the big Brexit lie that leaving would deliver £350m a week to the NHS, or when Johnson lied that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile, ‘trapped’ their opponents into spreading the lies as they refuted them.

The lack of backbone displayed by many Tory MPs in failing to condemn Johnson does them no credit. They are elected to represent their constituents, to serve the people. Instead, they are putting their own self-interest ahead of everything else.

Yes, many Tory MPs who are angry with Johnson and doubt that he will still be leader come the next general election. However, few speak with any conviction about replacing him, and are full of excuses for not doing so, leaving us with a government marooned in no man’s land.

Waiting to see if the polls are confirmed in the May local elections puts Tory councillors at risk. As I wrote last week major donors are shutting their cheque books. Johnson is in self-preservation mode; policies are being thrown together with no consideration for the national interest, and decisions are driven by his need to appease differing Tory factions. The promise of a summer reshuffle is crude seduction of the gullible careerist.

Part of the problem is that many MPs are unsure what the outcome of a coup might be. Once the brave submits the required 54 letters of no-confidence, this triggers a no-confidence vote, should Johnson lose this he has to resign; a minimum of 181 votes are required for this to happen.

‘One of the worst outcomes is that we get a confidence vote and he narrowly survives it,’ says one senior Tory. ‘If he wins by just one vote, he will stay. Anyone else would walk, but he will stay.’

As MPs dither Johnson’s supporters becomes more shameless, saying that if he does not get a fine from the police, he will have been exonerated and can carry on. Meaning that all his lies to parliament are of no consequence.

Another suggested that the Met should give Johnson a free pass over ‘partygate’, saying the police have ‘a degree of discretion’, implying he should let off because you can’t have the ‘Metropolitan police deciding who the prime minister is’.
 

‘His supporters, like him, see themselves as being above the law’

 
These sycophantic delusions show that his supporters, like him, see themselves as being above the law. The job of the police is to apply the law without fear or favour, and to maintain the principle that no one is above it.

Speaking of the Met, it comes as no surprise that my call regarding Cressida Dick’s future, or lack of, was accurate.

Before continuing, I will admit to having long had a healthy disregard for the police. Their winging defence of ‘having a difficult job’, has always been their excuse for doing it badly. Their racist and misogynistic attitudes shows that we are not all equal in the eyes of the law.

Dick failed because she couldn’t see, or acknowledge, the truth of the situation: the Mets problems are systemic. Instead, she continuously fell back on the pathetic excuse that her officer’s horrific behaviour was the work of the odd ‘bad ’un’.

This was highlighted last week by a newspaper who quoted her 2019 comments about the TV show, ‘Line of Duty’; ‘I was absolutely outraged by the level of casual and extreme corruption that was being portrayed as the way the police is. It’s so far from that. The standards and professionalism are so high’.

Jed Mercurio, who wrote the show, said his inspiration was the shooting of an innocent man and their dishonesty in the aftermath. It was, of course, Dick, who ran the bungled counterterrorism operation that resulted in Met officers fatally shooting Jean Charles de Menezes, an entirely innocent 27-year-old electrician.

Her failings were encapsulated in her attempt at apologising after it was revealed that two officers had taken pictures of the scene where sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry lay fatally stabbed:
 
‘If those officers’ actions have added to the family’s unimaginable distress then I apologise.’
 
The breakdown in society is fueling an incoherent rage in right-wing libertarians who see this as their moment, E.G., the truck blockade in Ottawa. These people also see themselves as above the law, and exempt from public health measures, such as lockdown and vaccine passes.

To back-up their stupidity they produce pseudo-legal documents, such as the ‘memorandum of understanding’ published by two of the leading organisers of the Ottawa blockade, which makes impossible legal demands of the government.

These people attract followers when times are hard. The less equal the economic system becomes, the more popular their ideas become.

From WW2 until the late 1970s rich nations prospered, and everyone appeared to benefit. The top 1% captured a decreasing proportion of total income.

Much of this was an illusion, as prosperity in rich nations was financed largely by poor ones. Decolonisation was resisted, then partly reversed through coups and assassinations.

As we reached the 1980s, the situation is countries such as America, the UK, Canada, Ireland, and Australia, the 1% began to grab an ever-greater share. This trend has continued, sustained by the neoliberal doctrines first imposed by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
 

‘Since the beginning of the pandemic, the world’s 10-richest men have doubled their wealth. By comparison, 163 million people have been pushed below the poverty line’

 
The ultra-rich have been the biggest winners: since the beginning of the pandemic, the world’s 10-richest men have doubled their wealth. By comparison, 163 million people have been pushed below the poverty line. Wages for many people in the Anglosphere have stagnated, whilst the costs of living have soared.

These protest movements tend to be infested with racism and white supremacy; some of the key organisers of the Ottawa action are reported to have a history of racist statements, whilst other protesters have flown swastikas and Confederate flags. This, in part, is driven by black and brown people assuming positions of power and authority, which they perceive as an ‘intolerable reversal’. This is the case in the US where protests were a reaction against Barack Obama’s government, and evolved, with the encouragement of Trump and others, into undisguised white supremacism.

Trade unions are another enemy for protestors. What they fail to understand is that their pursuit of ‘independence’ and ‘freedom’ only reinforces the neoliberal policies, such as the crushing of unions, that helped cause their impoverishment and insecurity. E.G., in Canada truckers suffer from wage theft, unsafe conditions and other forms of exploitation, caused in part by a loss of collective bargaining power.

I conclude as I began; we are currently a country in denial and disorder.

The government is paralysed while the PM attempt to lie his way out of crisis after crisis.

The police that are there to uphold and enforce laws behave in a manner beneath contempt, led by those that can’t, or won’t admit it.

And those that feel ‘left behind’ are seduced by right-wing populists into believing they are also above the law.
 

‘Things just fall to pieces

While I sit and watch the door

I can never give to you

anymore and more and more’

 

To borrow Philip’s description, ‘this week it’s samo, samo; Johnson is clinging on to power which, coupled with his spineless MPs, is leaving us in limbo.  However, they are still finding time to look after their mates’

Certainly some familiar themes and, regrettably, things don’t seem to be improving; Sir John Major has made his feelings clear, and its difficult to argue with his assertion that this mob are bringing democracy into disrepute.

Boris being sent a questionnaire just about things up; it is pretty clear what went on, please don’t insult us any further with your lies.
‘The Met are systemically everything they shouldn’t be. Unless you are a criminal who they don’t seem to be able to catch’ – Philip’s never left us guessing about his thoughts re the Met, but there was something particularly ugly about Sadiq Khan and Priti Patel snapping at Cressida Dick’s heels.

‘Where this leads us is disorder. Everyone thinks they are above the law, anti-this, anti-that, do as I please’ – certainly it seems that to flourish a wad is to escape the long arm of the law as it would be applied to to you or I. As Philip would have it ‘I sidestepped the Royals, Andy didn’t do it but he coughed-up £[12]m anyway. The obvious response of an innocent person. I wonder how much the taxpayers will fund.’

And spare a thought for HMQ as it is announced that Prince Charles’ charity is now being investigated for selling gongs. I guess the question has to be, what is the value of ennoblement by this crowd?

‘This could be somewhere in the third world.’ Maybe the people smugglers will be in less demand when asylum seekers realise that this place is worse than where they came from.

Lyrically, we start with a tribute to the thin white duke with David Bowie’s ‘Word on a Wing’, and finish with a new band to this column, early-80s US punk from the Gun Club and ‘the Lie’. Enjoy!
 

@Coldwar_Steve
 

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

 

Click on the link to see all Brexit Bulletins: