It's time again for my occasional political rant. As usual, these are
the things I'd try to do if anyone were daft enough to put me in
charge; they're also promises that would encourage me to vote for
people who made them.
The things I've said before are still valid, I think, but here
are some things that are not in the mainstream political discourse and
really should be.
-
Rejoin the European Union. More than half the people in the UK have
said they want this. Why is no political party talking about it?
(The Lib Dems mention it as an "eventual objective" waaaaay down
their list of things to do. It should be a headline policy. After
the last few years, the UK as an individual country has nothing left
that the world wants, no reason anyone else should listen to us or
do us any favours.)
-
Admit that COVID is still here, bird flu is coming, and we all
benefit from a healthier population. Mask mandates and proper
air-exchanging ventilation (a solved problem) in every indoor space,
and if you can't mask, sorry, I know some people have genuinely good
reasons, but you still spread disease and you can't come in. Free
vaccinations for all.
-
The scary trans are not out to "recruit" your children and despoil
the purity of your womenfolk. (Some of them are not saints. I gather
there's the occasional non-saint among non-trans people too.) There
are more visible trans people now just as there are more visible
gay people, because they believed the politicians who claimed not to
despise them. Everybody promised to ban "conversion therapy" for
homosexuality, which does not work and is just legalised torture;
they haven't even done that. While we're at it, tell the Americans
who are coming here and paying to try to get abortion and
contraception made illegal to naff off. All these things are part of
the same sad little need to control other people's sexuality.
-
Genocide is bad actually. (Yes, time travellers, this is not a
mainstream opinion among the political classes, though it's nearly
universal elsewhere.)
-
Remember when we had the right to protest? We should have that
again.
-
Holy crap the planet is literally on fire. Start by trying to keep
older promises (like say not opening new oil fields), and
immediately start phasing out all fossil fuels. Yes, I like my
car, but I also like not being dead. Yes, we'll need more and better
trains, so talking of which.
-
Nationalise them. Buses too. And the power and the water, and the
gas until it's turned off completely. Competition over shared
infrastructure just means shareholder profits come before everything
else. Public benefits generate economic positivity by existing; they
don't also need to give money to shareholders.
-
Immigration? Yes please! We don't have enough people working to look
after our pensioners now (either in tax base or in the jobs that
directly help them). It's immigration or Carousel.
As ever, my core point:
- End the politics of fear. Yes, we have lots of challenges. Let's
face them with open eyes rather than by cowering under the bed and
calling for strong men to protect us. Strong men do not have our
best interests at heart.
- Posted by John Dallman at
10:11am on
06 June 2024
On re-joining the EU, I agree entirely we should do it, but the EU won't be interested until there's a solid political consensus in the UK, and we're quite a way from that. It would also have to be a consensus for the deal we'd get on re-joining, which would include adopting the Euro and not getting various rebates and opt-outs that we used to enjoy.
Notable among those are media ownership rules that would end the Tory press' diversification into TV. That's their financial motive, and a significant reason why Labour are keeping quiet. When Rupert Murdoch dies, there may be some re-thinking, delayed by embarrassment over the way that politicians danced to his tune.
- Posted by RogerBW at
10:57am on
06 June 2024
The thoroughgoing divergence of the political-media class as a whole from what most people actually want was very clear over the EU even before it became utterly blatant over Palestine. But I honestly don't think there is any way to change that other than bloody revolution, and that's no guarantee of making things better.
In relation to joining the EU specifically, even if it's going to take ten years, if we don't make the domestic process a top priority now it'll take fifteen years, and if we don't start it at the next election it'll take twenty, and so on. It's probably too late for you and me anyway.