Sunday 30 November 2014

Disillusionment

My emotions and behaviours appear to be extremely cyclical. Case in point: the release of the Jurassic World and Star Wars trailers in the same week triggered off my "geeky obsessive" cycle which will eventually peter out to be replaced by a Mormon history or a Scientology obsessive cycle.

A similar thing happens when it comes to my political outlook. I've been quiet on here because, right now, I'm in my disillusioned phase. Our Government is trying to destroy freedom of movement (ironically 25 years after the Berlin Wall fell we're busy trying to put up barriers again) and threatens our relationship with the European Union. UKIP is surging on a wave of anti-immigrant, anti-Westminster, anti-anything sentiment. Labour can't quite decide whether it is still as bad as it used to be or whether it wants to be even worse by becoming UKIP-lite. And the Lib Dems, my beloved Lib Dems, languish at the bottom of the polls (occassionally even overtaken by the Greens) whilst those Lib Dems in elected office have allowed legislation such as this to get passed.

Some bizarre form of feminist, leftie theology is running strong among progressives (who I usually look at pretty benignly) which has turned them into censorious, conservative and aggressive haters against anything that might make a human being smile. Meanwhile much of the right are dribbling over their keyboards typing "EUSSR!". And in Scotland some crazy nationalist creature known as "the 45%" seems determined to tear our country apart despite the outcome of the referendum there.

Where are the good people? The sane people? The nice people?

Where are our leaders? Cameron's current foreign policy is making Britain look stupid in front of the whole world whilst he has failed to stop the gradual removal of our individual freedoms started by Labour. In fact his Government has gone further than Labour dared (not that Labour's complaining).

It is nearly enough to make me resign from the Lib Dems and join the Pirate Party in some sort of last ditch idealistic, but utterly futile, gesture.

I'm British. Get me out of here!

1 comment:

Paul Brownsey said...


The '45' regard themselves as the embodiment of all the virtues, moral and intellectual. Justice, compassion, concern for the poor, love of liberty--these things are exclusively the possession of the 45. Those who voted No are routinely slagged off as, inter alia, hoodwinked, craven, stupid, rich, grasping, selfish, suffering from psychological flaws and (yes) old. They are a frightening lot.

In the run-up to the referendum I attended a Yes meeting. It reminded me of nothing so much as a gathering of evangelical Christians such as I sometimes attended as a student. Whereas the latter used to to tell in reverent and self-congratulatory tones of How Jesus Came Into My Life, people at the Yes meeting told of My Journey To Yes.