The Brexit we get we deserve...Thoughts on `Independence day `Move on and get over it my fine bluekippers

 The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..” 
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

What is that so many leavers want to leave? What is that the remainers want to remain in? The world has changed. Many leavers want to return to a world that never was. Many want a world that has never existed. Some wish to leave so that a new society or economy could could be created. Perhaps a chance to return to an Eden that once was or might be.
For the remainers the world has moved on. For many that world ended in 2008 with the crash. For others it's a return to the world of Blair and Brown. Capitalism has hit crisis. Neither Remained or Leaver can go back to what was it what was imagined. Too many leavers want a binary, white male answer. Too many remainers want a centrist solution when simply the middle of the road has shifted significantly to the left.

But what amazes me is the blank look in the eye of the leavers when you ask them about changing your mind. It's as if you can't do it. It's as if you argue that once you have made up your mind that you can never change it again. It's a mark of maturity and reflection often leads to it. We elect our parliament very frequently ..we change our mind regularly. We fall out of love with people we once loved. Often we fall back in love with them again. Change is part of life it's only the rigid and narrow who tho k otherwise..To remain in a situation without change is also a poor place to be. Another world or situation is always possible.

If There'sa May can go for vote after vote. If UKIP can ask for vote after vote on its leader tben can we not do the same on the EU. I would still vote remain because of my love of European culture, history and lirmterature. I have travelled widely and know the feeli gs in the ancient places of Europe. I love Florence and Rome and the way the sun shines on the marble of Venice. I love the taste of the food and the wine of the Mediterranean. When I say these thing some blue kipper leavers tells me that they are not against Europe.Yet when I ask them about these things they go blank and their eyes glaze over. I see their loathing of all things European They know nothing of its history culture or outlook I look at the bland empty faced Nigel Evans and Mark Francois and I see that they have no idea what I am talking about. And that's why I would vote remain again...
Brexit is a psychological event. It's an ontological or epistemological problem of security or identity. Research suggests that it's effecting our health both physical and psychological. It's an essential reflection of our internal state , experienced under late capitalism in our schizoid society..

I reflected on Mozart's opera performed for us as we joined some 45 years ago. It was a celebration of peace and hope I was 14 at the time.I knew that day that I was emotionally a citizen of Europe. I loathed the narrowness of the little Englanders I met at my prep school. The problem is at nearly 60 they are still there . They are just the same now I remember their prejudices and their outlook . They are as intolerant now as they were then. i see the same types aping an English outlook of the 20s . The racist words are back, the attitude of superiority returns. Theresa May apes a European outlook but we know it's a ruse, a pretense of understanding and we leave ourselves vulnerable, class ridden and on the outside. Brexit is an excuse for the right to settle it's scores. It's been long planned and they are looking at us all right now....And i tell you now there will be no unity offered by them , they are not interested . They offer a grim future and such ilk as this will not experience any desire to unite with them from me.....

FFS I listen on Radio 4 to Ian Duncan Smith misquote Voltaire on Dr Pangloss. .we should do something about bluekippers misquoting Enlightenment and European philosophers...It's not about things turning out for the best it's "the best of all possible workds" so move on and get over it. Eh Jenni Jenkins? And face up IDS for the best possible Friday...my dire wolves and little birds tell me that the police presence outside parliament has significantly increased today..the enlightenment project is seriously questioned by the Brexiteer


The Brexit we get we deserve...Or do we?

I sleep fitfully on Brexit Eve. I wake early on Brexit day and catch an earlier bus. I feel like a child waking on Christmas morning who finds lumps of coal in sack at the end of the bed. I have been a bad boy all my life. I have been tolerant have let people live their lives according to their hopes, needs and desires. I do not think that any particular philosophy or belief have an innate right to be seen as superior or better. I do not think that my country right or wrong is a valid dictum. I know that there is no such thing as race. I know the history of my country with all its warts . I love continental philosophy and culture and know its warts as well. I celebrate Milton , Chaucer and Shakespeare. And i wonder maliciously how many of the little Englanders have ever read or would understand the words and language they use. Wordsworth we have become your "stagnant fen" have you ever read any of this literature Mr Farage? Have you ever wondered what you have done? I feel a profound sadness for the poison pen letter of article 50. This is a letter of the old, the bitter, the inward looking t
here is no celebration today, no celebration of our diversity, our multicultural , multiethnic society that has been like that for 10,000 years. It is not a letter that celebrates the languages spoken on this island Welsh, Gaelic, Urdu, Kernow and Yiddish, amongst many others. There is no coming together..There is a moving apart. Scotland, Northern Ireland , Wales even Cornwall look at ways to get themselves from this 'kipper paradise' we have become. The fog in the channel is cutting us off frkm Europe . The Mail's headline ,'Freedom" is the freedom of blandness, sameness and intolerance, the freedom to be prejudiced , xenophobic and narrow. Long ago i heard the song by Emerson, Lake and Palmer it ended with the line " the CHRISTMAS WE GET WE DESERVE" the problem is that today we are getting the Brexit that the hard right has given us . It is not what we deserve or need. The sack left at the end of the bed by a purple robed Santa Farage IS our reward.In that sack is a society doomed to the market economy, poor services, lousy civil rights and privatisation. We do not deserve these gifts.....

They sold you a dream of Brexit
They sold you a silent night
And they told you a fairy story
'till you believed in the ukipite
And you believed in Nigel Farage
And you looked to March 2019 with excited eyes
'till you woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And you saw him and through his disguise

Another Byzantine Brexit day.........

Another Byzantine Brexit day...there is no alternative now but a General Election. The indicative votes have failed. Theresa am May has played her last card of her political life. The DUP have now to choose between the backstop and bringing down the government. Boris begins and behind him lurks Bannon. It's coming down to a Boris versus Corbyn general election. There is no muddle/middle ground any more. We must simply choose between a renegotiated Labour deal that will involve Brexit with a customs union and single market or a no deal one with Corbyn's government will come social justice and a well funded welfare system. With Corbyn we will see a reversal of the worship of the 'free market" and of the political right. There is no "moderation" any more. It's simply now Boris or Corbyn...."if left is right then right is wrong; better decide which side you're on" A general election now is the only way.. Socialism or Barbarism the choice is clear.." you either have faith or unbelief and there is no middle ground"to quote Mr Dylan.

There is a hard right of 32% that supports no deal. The other 68% can construct a reforming imaginative government. Only Labour can provide the leadership for that government. It's that simple. I note that the DUP and some ERG are calling themselves the "Spartans" perhaps they should read their history and research the battle of Marathon.the Spartan fate awaits them.I also notice that the "independent group" voted against the Ken Clark amendment. Had they voted for it then it would have passed I guess it must be a "funny tinge" thing they have.
...there is no alternative now but a General Election. The indicative votes have failed. Theresa am May has played her last card of her political life. The DUP have now to choose between the backstop and bringing down the government. Boris begins and behind him lurks Bannon. It's coming down to a Boris versus Corbyn general election. There is no muddle/middle ground any more. We must simply choose between a renegotiated Labour deal that will involve Brexit with a customs union and single market or a no deal one with Corbyn's government will come social justice and a well funded welfare system. With Corbyn we will see a reversal of the worship of the 'free market" and of the political right. There is no "moderation" any more. It's simply now Boris or Corbyn...."if left is right then right is wrong; better decide which side you're on" A general election now is the only way.. Socialism or Barbarism the choice is clear.." you either have faith or unbelief and there is no middle ground"to quote Mr Dylan.


There is a hard right of 32% that supports no deal. The other 68% can construct a reforming imaginative government. Only Labour can provide the leadership for that government. It's that simple. I note that the DUP and some ERG are calling themselves the "Spartans" perhaps they should read their history and research the battle of Marathon.the Spartan fate awaits them.I also notice that the "independent group" voted against the Ken Clark amendment. Had they voted for it then it would have passed I guess it must be a "funny tinge" thing they have.

Plaid in Powys and other stories of collaboration and electoral recall.. .

Plaid in Powys and other stories of collaboration and electoral recall.. . You may remember two weeks ago I wrote about the failure of the Tory Independent coalition that runs Powys failed to pass it's budget. However the following week it was able to force through its budget. This involved a council tax rise of 9.5% and a savage cut back in other vital services. Breakfast clubs and Schools still remain under threat in years to come as does the future of Libraries and other services. Social housing rents are rising and street lights face wing shut off at night. Without the effective opposition of parties as diverse as the Labour "magnificent seven" and the Lib Dems and the single Green the situation would have been far worse. It could well have been that all the libraries throughout Powys would have closed had it not been for the Labour Group. The simple truth is that an independent is not an independent that are simply Tories who do not admit it.

I was very surprised to hear that the two Plaid Cymru Councillors on Powys County Council abstained when it came to the vote on the Tory independent budget that passed last week. I heard that these two Councillors are claiming that they fought against the plans.. abstaining is hardly resistance it is more collaboration by looking the other way. I am not saying that their two votes would have prevented the passing of the bike budget. But it says much..I have heard many explanations for their decision none of which I can write about without evidence.

Last week the Plaid MP Johnathen Edwards refused to rule out a Plaid deal with the Welsh Tories. It was left to Adam Price to rule this out. One wonders if any correlation between the vote in Powys and such statements by Johnathen Edwards have any link at all or indeed imply unofficial cooperation. You might think that but I could not possibly comment.

A Brecon and Radnor by election looks likely . It seems that a recall petition will begin to start the process to remove Chris Davies as the MP for the constituency.. A recall petition can be downloaded and there will also be several points where electors can sign . The process takes six weeks and will require 10% of the electorate to sign. This will be about 5300 signatures. Of course if a General Election comes the Tories will have to decide if Chris Davies will be their candidate. Whatever happens Brecon and Radnor will once more be a significant political locus. Let us see what happens next? Labour will me selecting a parliamentary candidate on Saturday. It's perfect timing..
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The General Election nears

The General Election nears.. very soon it will become clear that there us no other way out. As the ghosts of the Repeal of the Corn Laws near. There will simply be no other choice than for Remainer Tories to vote in a no confidence and bring down Theresa May. Indicative votes may well solve nothing and no other option but an election will be possible. If a new Tory leader Is elected they will need the legitimacy of an election. In that election Corbyn will win. Labour activists outnumber the Tories 7 to 1. Labour funds are brimming and outnumber the Tories. As the polls reveal a neck and neck position of the main parties Corbyn will put on between 5 and 8 percentage points brought about by effective campaigning and enforced balanced reporting. The Brexit Party and UKIP will fragment the right wing vote as the "Brexit betrayal" narratuve bites.. a Labour government nears....Corbyn is coming . ..

The coming culture wars....

`The efforts spent on defending our turf in the culture wars could be better served on loving our neighbor as ourselves.”
― Allen Yeh, 

The coming culture wars.... There is a clear "Brexit betrayal" discourse coming. It will feed the Far Right far into the future. The Sun calls time on the Maybot. The Mail has already been echoing the Weimar headlines of "enemies of the people" .There is no certainty that a series of indicative votes will solve anything. Despite five million signatures and a vast revoke march through London the latest poll reveals that only 35% of the population support remain. If there was a poll I would vote remain again yet I suspect that the leave victory this time would be my 20%. All of these factors facing the neoliberal agenda are symptoms of its sickness and not causes. The only solution now will be a General Election and a referendum on a deal negotiated by Corbyn, Thorn bury, Gardiner and Starmer .

These symptoms also mask a coming culture war between the libertarian left and the authoritarian right. I hear once more the dulcet bitter tones of Nigel Evans MP on Radio 4 wanting to turn back the clock to a world that has gone and gad even gone when we were young. The old farts in our 60s like myself have a simple choice. We must choose between being those who open the door to new possibilities and a new society or become the bitter old men (yes and I di mean men) getting their white, right and blighted binary fictional society back. These are the two discourses locked in battle. The crisis of Brexit is really about these cultural forms. All Brexiteers are not bigots but all bigots are Brexiteers. All remainers are not centrists but all or most centrists are remainers. The Venn diagram is complex on Brexit but the diagram is only a fraction of reality. The map is partial and obscure, as we move ahead. Yet the map is not the territory. It's about culture and culture wars.. and it's about to begin....in the USA Trump will be perceived to have won following Mueller..its up to us to prevent a right wing Brexit winning here...

There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be "the man in the street." Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.

Joseph Goebbels