We live in a land........................

 

My last post of 2023 and I wish I could bring the year to a close on a cheery note. But I can't. The world has been a shitshow in 2023 and to be honest, I can't really see it getting much better in 2024. So many places of despair around the world. I'm just going to comment on how I see the UK at the moment, and that's depressing enough. I'll confess to going into 2024 with my normal optimism rather dented.

We live in a land which has gone insane. We live in Tory Britain. 

We live in a land where it’s the poor who are condemned, not poverty.

We live in a land where it’s considered normal that working people don’t earn enough to feed their families and have to resort to foodbanks while the richest who profit from their labour get ever richer. 

We live in a land that will not admit to the damage that Brexit has done in so many ways - the venom injected by Brexit is still poisoning public discourse.

We live in a land where the refusal of the EU to bend over backwards for us is condemned as threats and bullying. 

We live in a land that has lost its moral compass and is adrift in the modern world.

We live in a land where all these cruel insanities and many, many more are defended by otherwise rational people because, because.... I don't know why. Haven't the last few years been bad enough to convince people not to put their trust in such a duplicitous bunch?

I am genuinely afraid for the future and genuinely depressed about what’s in store for us. How many bright futures will be sacrificed on the altar of an inept Tory government that’s strong and stable only in its greed and inhumanity?

We live in a land where people who campaign peacefully and democratically for a world are decried in the same breath as terrorists who bomb and kill. 

We live in a land where those who do the decrying are British nationalists who glorify military might and who have a fringe of violent extremism of their own.

We live in a land which demands unity but which offers no compromise or concessions to those who have a different opinion. 

We live in a land where the past is exalted and lauded because the future offers nothing to welcome. 

We live in a land where there are no checks or balances, no written constitution, because strength and stability is said to come from a Prime Minister who can do as he pleases and whose power is unconstrained and unconfined. A Prime Minister whose grasp on reality is increasingly tenuous. A Prime Minister who refuses to be held to account, who speaks in soundbites and never answers questions. 

We live in a land which has gone insane. We live in Tory Britain. 

We live in a land which heaps wealth upon the rich and hoards power for the powerful. 

We live in a land where the inept, mediocre, cronies and neophytes are awarded formal state honours for political opportunism.

We live in a land still in thrall to the Ruritanian fantasy of the Monarchy.

We live in a land where the king remains the only person in the world who still wears a double-breasted suit.

We live in a land where the space for democracy is diminishing and decaying. 

We live in a land where the media doesn’t challenge but cheer leads for the right wing zealots.

We live in a land whose government is strong only in its avarice and stable only in its vindictiveness. 

We live in a land which has gone insane. We live in Tory Britain. 

We could live in a land which has potential. We could live in a land which can offer a future to its people. We could live in a land where hope can flourish. We live in a land where increasingly the scales are falling from the eyes of the deceived and the downtrodden. We live in a land where we are learning that the way out of the insanity is to defeat the Tories. We live in a land which can be better than this. Let’s live in a better land. Let’s defeat the Tories. Make that your resolution for 2024. And a Happy New Year to you all!