Thursday 1 January 2015

This May I will have to vote?

This May I will have to vote, and for the first time in almost fifty years I have a problem.
When I was a student it was relatively easy, I was registered to vote in three places, In Hackney,in Whithorn and in Brighton.I could vote for Monty Goldman, the Communist candidate in London, George Thompson the SNP candidate in Scotland, or Dennis Hobden, the Labour candidate in Brighton.
It was really a no-brainer, Hobden was a left wing postman with a chance of winning Brighton kemptown for the first time.So my minuscule wee vote helped secure a Labour MP for the first time in Brighton-I really felt I had made a difference.
Since that election I have always voted Labour,sometimes even for myself.The only time I have not voted Labour was last time when I voted for Tony Clarke,and in truth he was real Labour as opposed to the ersatz vervison the Regional Labour Party foisted on the Northampton South constituency.
Incidentally after that election Mr Loakes vowed to return and fight to win once again....Mr Who?
In truth I really haven't a problem.
And if I had any doubts then the comments of Bliar convinced me- his absurd assertion that Miliband is too left wing shows very clearly the way the wind is blowing.Added to that the inane comments of the Rochdale MP who believes that Labour is too left wing, dominated by the unions and njeeds to support business(interestingly his idea of supporting business is to run a company that collapsed owing over £200,000-a good role model there!) and finally the awful knob that is Jim Murphy,the leader of Labour in Scotland.
Well with a triumvirate like that busily putting the boot into 'Red Ed' can there be any doubt where my vote will go this May?

Well for starters I cannot vote for any party that thinks the awful mess that is Afghanistan is some sort of victory.
Will Hutton wrote a very perceptive piece in the Observer:
"Britain has just suffered a humiliating defeat,the worst in more than half a century and,arguably,ranking with the worst in modern times.The truth is inescapable,we are no longer a great economic,technological or military power."  
He points out that none of the objectives that three Prime Minister and six Defence Secretaries set out to achieve.The situation is as bad, in fact probably worse than when the action started,opium harvests are at record levels, the Taliban are back in control of vast areas,the sock puppet government is corrupt and venal, and millions of pounds worth of equipment have be left,either destroyed or as gifts to the insurgents.
And after spending upwards of £40 billion the real price is 453 young men and women dead!
Nobody doubts their bravery and courage, but that they should die because of the vanity project of   a labour Prime Minister is beyond belief.
And why did it all happen/
Because Blair and Brown and Cameron and Clegg and all the rest of the jackasses-and that includes the obnoxious Farage really believed that they were 'fighting a war against terror'.
But then that was the Bush response to 9/11- a war against terrror! Now you can fight armies in the field, you may even have a little success with combatting a guerilla army(mind you the Americans came to grief in Vietnam)-but a war against terror?
It's a bit like fighting a war -oh yes,their phrase- against 'lone wolves'
If you believe that fighting in a romote desert in Southern Afghanistan will make the streets safer inNorthampton,then you must also believe in the tooth fairy and Mickey Mouse.

Of course Blair believed that losing young British lives in some way strengthened the 'special relationship' with the yanks, that showed how we could stand 'shoulder to shoulder' as brave allies.

Not quite how our brave allies saw us.
General Jack Keane, Chief of the US General Staff, speaking in 2013 at Sandhurst after the failures in Basra and Helmand:
"Gentlemen,you let us down,you let us down badly."
Further the US commander in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill said:
"The British made a mess of things in Helmand."
Truthis there is no special relationship, all we are for the neo-cons in Washingtonm, and all we ever have been, is a floating nuclear base where, if things get hot in Europe, the first missiles will knock out the Trident base in Scotland before they reach the US of A.
As long as we have Trident mooching around the British Isles, with the command in the hands of the pentagon-we have nothing, no special relationship, no heroic alliance,nothing but a juicy target- and that is unlikely to be a missile from Afghanistan or indeed any where else for that matter.
It is just the comfort blanket for the American strategists and some really expensive toys the the military bonehead in the MoD and their political clowns in Westminster.
To add insult to injury each Trident submarine comes in at £25 billion each, and the UK is committed to two of the fucking things, not to mention one and a half aircraft carriers with no aircraft, and aircraft that will be obsolete before they enter service.
So I know who I'm voting for-the party that promises to end the absurd pretention that this small island is an important military power.
In Scotland it would be easy-I'd note SNP, and  here its also very clear-I'll vote Green unless someone in the nacent Labour party can convince me that it's really a left wing party after all and Blair is right!
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1 comment:

  1. Hi John
    Excellent piece.
    I've had to face similar problems with who to vote for and which party to back in the years. All in all your comment about voting Green is the same conclusion as mine. So much so I have re-joined the Green Party and about to volunteer for the Luton & Beds GP. This being so I won't vote against Kelvin Hopkin MP for Luton North as he is Old Labour and agrees with and works with the Green Party on economics and environmental issues.
    Also I am in the process of persuading the Green Party to take up the issue of Work Abuse and campaign to make it illegal, if they do they will be the first political party to take workplace abuse seriously.
    For more about workplace abuse go to Http://justiceatworkuk.wordpress.com

    Best wishes

    Peter Wakeham
    Sacked Northants County Council employee

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