In my column in the Chronicle and Echo a week or two ago I argued that the best thing the American people could do would be to impeach the dreadful Trump.
I got a response in the letters column this week from, surprise surprise the local voice of UKIP(interestingly enough my gadget that enables me to dictate this blog thought that UKIP was actually Phucket-not far wrong there) In her defence of Trump Mrs Gibben, for it was she, bemoan the fact that I had an occasional column and she didn't.
Despite the fact that the little bunch of local kippers seem to get letters printed every week she still pursued the argument that the far right are badly treated by the media, instead of impeaching Trump she thought that Blair(I think this machine has a mind of its own for instead of Blair it substituted the word millionaire!) should be impeached. She obviously has never read any of my earlier columns or blogs where you would have found that I argued that our former Prime Minister should along with George Bush face a war crimes tribunal.
And strangely enough in her love letter to Trump Mrs Gibben forgot to mention that she had been the UKIP Parliamentary candidate for Northampton South. Obviously it had slipped her mind and obviously it could never be considered fake news or an attempt to hide who this innocent soul was from an unsuspecting public.
Yet the love of her life the unprepossessing president in the White House was not and is not the great dealmaker and political highflyer that he pretends and her party adore.
The fact that his big promise during the presidential election was that he would end within the first 100 days Obamacare fell at the first hurdle. With the largest Republican majority in Congress since the 1920s he was unable to secure a majority vote. His frequent boast of being a great dealmaker collapsed before it even got off the ground. He couldn't persuade over 30 of his own Republican congressmen to support him over his flagship policy.
The reason is quite simple his congressmen realised that to cut medical care from 24 million Americans might just damage them at the next mid-term elections. Turkeys rarely vote for Christmas.
However that is not strictly true, not so long ago a large number well over 50% of the British people or more precisely English and Welsh people voted like turkeys for Christmas. They believed the nonsense of cheap and shoddy populism that promised everything all the time to all people provided they left the European Union, the only surprise is that the populists didn't promise to rebuild Hadrian's Wall, thus emulating the knob head in the White House.
The only political thought in the empty heads ofUKIP and the Trumpists is to blame the foreigners, especially those with brown skins and a particular religion. It must have come as an enormous shock when Farage found out that the man who committed the killings in Westminster was like him born in Kent(incidentally my machine went off again and called Farage- Fawaz-I'm growing to love this machine)
At the risk of once again upsetting our local Trump lover I hope the sensible people of America get their act together and begin impeachment procedures against the brute, otherwise as well as punishing the minorities in his country, as well as intimidating people from other religions, building an ugly wall across the American Mexican border, as well as trampling over the historic rights of the Native American people I fear that the Bozo will probably declare war on North Korea, China and anywhere else he sticks a pin in his child's atlas.
Saturday, 25 March 2017
Sunday, 12 March 2017
Whatever Jeremy does is wrong
We live in an age of instant comment, when even the president of the United States tells us his thoughts before he's even had them. So it's hardly surprising that the leader of the Labour Party's is more often susceptible to having words and thoughts put into his utterances before they are even altered
Then of course they are deliberately misinterpreted by those in the Parliamentary Labour Party and elsewhere who wish to cause mischief and undermine Jeremy Corbyn's position. There has been no clearer example than today in the commentary about what Jeremy said about the possibility of another Scottish referendum.
There can be no doubt that if the Scottish people and the Scottish government request a rerun of the last referendum in the light of the Brexit vote then that is surely the right of the people of Scotland regardless of what Westminster, Prime Minister, the Daily Mail or even Nigel Farage(it's amusing by the way that my Bluetooth dictation software interpreted Nigel's name as barrage- quite appropriate really)
All Jeremy said was in fact echoing leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, if the people north of the border determine that there will be another referendum then no one in England or anywhere else has the right to interfere with that decision.
It is clear that there are many in the Parliamentary Labour Party and elsewhere who find it difficult to recognise that the loss of Scotland was not as a result of Jeremy Corbyn but rather the result of decades of neglect and arrogance by those who led the Labour Party previously. The crisis that the Labour Party currently faces is the loss of confidence by traditional supporters in working class areas that have been taken for granted by elitists and those who felt they could be parachuted into traditional Labour seats because they thought it was their right, their God-given right shop
The message that Corbyn has been giving out since his election as leader is similar to the one that Bernie Saunders is giving to the American left. The reason evil Trump won in traditional industrial states like Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio was because too many ordinary people have been taken for granted for too long stop
It is important that the Labour Party learns that lesson, with half 1 million members throughout the country it should be possible to rebuild a political base where it matters, right in the heart of those communities that have been betrayed and forgotten for so long stop
People elected Labour councillors and Labour MPs in the same way that they use to join trade unions and recognise all have is our solidarity and our capacity to work together, not to be in this together not to be just about managing but to take control of our lives and win our struggles at the lowest level as well as at higher and more meaningful levels. Labour lost Scotland because it was complacent, in order to build or rather rebuild its base in Scotland then it needs to listen not to the siren voices in Westminster but rather to the people of Scotland want something different.
There is of course a solution to what has happened, it's not simply about winning back parliamentary seats in Scotland it's about a whole new settlement. And of course it's not simply in Scotland alone any more, the elections last week in Northern Ireland has shown that the old ways are now history there is a nationalist and republican majority in the province, that cannot be ignored or wished away.
The solution of course and one that the Labour Party must embrace is a creation of the Federation of Independent countries within what we know as the British Isles. I would like that to be a Federation of republics owing no allegiance to a feudal monarchy and a system of government that is at least 300 years out of its time.
Each nation of the British Isles must have an independent and autonomous parliament and instead of the present system the second chamber, the nonelected House of Lords must be replaced with an elected Federal chamber that represents the independent nations but can cooperate on those issues like economic infrastructure, foreign policy and I even concede national defence or rather I'll concede that there should be some sort of civic defence force that can assist in times of emergency and that doesn't need bloody Trident!
.
There is of course the question of the Republic of Ireland, but it would be possible for a united Ireland to be part of a Federation of the British Isles, indeed that would make a great deal of sense. This piece has travelled a long way from the puerile attacks on Jeremy Corbyn over his recognition that Scotland has changed and can no longer just be a handful of northern seats in Westminster and simply voting fodder for the London elite.
Labour may not win many seats back in Scotland, but with local MPs representing their communities and working with the grain of the people of Scotland then it will be possible I believe to build a new social democratic alliance and who knows maybe even a socialist one.
Then of course they are deliberately misinterpreted by those in the Parliamentary Labour Party and elsewhere who wish to cause mischief and undermine Jeremy Corbyn's position. There has been no clearer example than today in the commentary about what Jeremy said about the possibility of another Scottish referendum.
There can be no doubt that if the Scottish people and the Scottish government request a rerun of the last referendum in the light of the Brexit vote then that is surely the right of the people of Scotland regardless of what Westminster, Prime Minister, the Daily Mail or even Nigel Farage(it's amusing by the way that my Bluetooth dictation software interpreted Nigel's name as barrage- quite appropriate really)
All Jeremy said was in fact echoing leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, if the people north of the border determine that there will be another referendum then no one in England or anywhere else has the right to interfere with that decision.
It is clear that there are many in the Parliamentary Labour Party and elsewhere who find it difficult to recognise that the loss of Scotland was not as a result of Jeremy Corbyn but rather the result of decades of neglect and arrogance by those who led the Labour Party previously. The crisis that the Labour Party currently faces is the loss of confidence by traditional supporters in working class areas that have been taken for granted by elitists and those who felt they could be parachuted into traditional Labour seats because they thought it was their right, their God-given right shop
The message that Corbyn has been giving out since his election as leader is similar to the one that Bernie Saunders is giving to the American left. The reason evil Trump won in traditional industrial states like Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio was because too many ordinary people have been taken for granted for too long stop
It is important that the Labour Party learns that lesson, with half 1 million members throughout the country it should be possible to rebuild a political base where it matters, right in the heart of those communities that have been betrayed and forgotten for so long stop
People elected Labour councillors and Labour MPs in the same way that they use to join trade unions and recognise all have is our solidarity and our capacity to work together, not to be in this together not to be just about managing but to take control of our lives and win our struggles at the lowest level as well as at higher and more meaningful levels. Labour lost Scotland because it was complacent, in order to build or rather rebuild its base in Scotland then it needs to listen not to the siren voices in Westminster but rather to the people of Scotland want something different.
There is of course a solution to what has happened, it's not simply about winning back parliamentary seats in Scotland it's about a whole new settlement. And of course it's not simply in Scotland alone any more, the elections last week in Northern Ireland has shown that the old ways are now history there is a nationalist and republican majority in the province, that cannot be ignored or wished away.
The solution of course and one that the Labour Party must embrace is a creation of the Federation of Independent countries within what we know as the British Isles. I would like that to be a Federation of republics owing no allegiance to a feudal monarchy and a system of government that is at least 300 years out of its time.
Each nation of the British Isles must have an independent and autonomous parliament and instead of the present system the second chamber, the nonelected House of Lords must be replaced with an elected Federal chamber that represents the independent nations but can cooperate on those issues like economic infrastructure, foreign policy and I even concede national defence or rather I'll concede that there should be some sort of civic defence force that can assist in times of emergency and that doesn't need bloody Trident!
.
There is of course the question of the Republic of Ireland, but it would be possible for a united Ireland to be part of a Federation of the British Isles, indeed that would make a great deal of sense. This piece has travelled a long way from the puerile attacks on Jeremy Corbyn over his recognition that Scotland has changed and can no longer just be a handful of northern seats in Westminster and simply voting fodder for the London elite.
Labour may not win many seats back in Scotland, but with local MPs representing their communities and working with the grain of the people of Scotland then it will be possible I believe to build a new social democratic alliance and who knows maybe even a socialist one.
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