Tag: politics

On the eve of “Freedom Day”

By Daviemoo

Reader, I have to be honest. I didn’t think this would happen. I assumed that, at some point, someone would talk common sense into the admittedly plankish head of our esteemed Crime Sinister Johnson. But as tomorrow looms with no last minute sanity from our erstwhile government, some thoughts.

When I saw that Sajid Javid, a man who has been health secretary for less time than I’ve had bell peppers in my fridge, confirmed that he’d been diagnosed with COVID-19, my first thought was “right, well his name is now Sajid Covid in every video I make about him”.

I felt a small hope that perhaps this might prompt Westminster to realise that their diet eugenics plan probably wasn’t so brilliant after all. And most of all, I felt absolutely sure that Javid, as was shortly confirmed thereafter, would have shared a room with our mop haired muppet prime minister- and I wondered how he was going to escape this one.

I don’t want anyone to suffer from COVID-19 – I’ve seen, in front of me, someone die in a very similar way to the way this disease kills you if you’re so unlucky as to suffer that fate. I’ve heard someone complain that they’re drowning in their own pleural fluid. It’s not something I would wish on anyone, best friend or worst enemy. It’s part of the reason I’ve been so careful throughout the pandemic, acting as best I could without going absolutely insane.
You can imagine, then, my dismay when this morning’s news brought an update that both our illustrious thatch haired goon of a leader AND Rishi Sunak would NOT be isolating as we have, for the last twelve months (delayed, “world beating” app) been told is the “right thing to do”.

The outcry from the public was thunderous and for once I was pleased that the British public were outraged by something. But fleeting that feeling was because of course, they did their little U turn and all the Johnson fans jumped straight back on the bandwagon.

I have to wonder exactly what “freedom” it is that people are missing?
Those who haven’t wanted to wear masks haven’t been doing. Many a right wing grifter has been proudly declaring in their ignorance that they never downloaded the crap and trace app. And as for social distancing, the amount of sweaty headed idiots I’ve had spluttering at me throughout the pandemic is… many. I think I must have a different understanding of freedom. People seem to think that risking other people’s lives, hell, their own lives, is fine. I can’t tell you how many people have told me we just need to “get on with…” whatever. Our lives? Bit difficult when I’ll be worrying about passing on a virus to anyone I care about that might mean heart failure, coma, death, long term lung issues and more.

I’m not sure what the people desperate to go “free” think will happen next. We’re all up for the chopping block now. Likely we’ll all be sick, some of us very much so. The shops they’re so desperate to avail themselves of will shut again due to sickness. The coffee shops will become endless breeding grounds for the disease. Hospitals will fill and shut down.

Doesn’t seem like much of a freedom day to me.

I suspect if I get COVID-19 I’ll be okay, though my chances of long covid are still high. Who knows.

But I want this blog post to stand as an epitaph for anyone I love who I lose. I’ll write your name here, and that will give me the fuel for the fire I’ll summon to utterly destroy the enduring legacy of the charlatans running our government who allowed this disaster to unfold.

EDIT: it’s 23:06 on 21/01/2022 – since freedom day, 24,727 people have died in the UK from coronavirus. Twenty four thousand countryfolk, who have died at the hands of a government desperate to prop up their economy using the corpses of hapless Brits.

What “Context” Excuses Racism from the highest office of the country?

By Daviemoo

CW: I have copied highly offensive (but censored) wording of Johnson’s own writing- if you are a POC please take caution in reading this. If you’re a white person- read it and absorb that this is who we have in charge.

Boris Johnson’s refusal to acknowledge, condemn and apologise for his outright racism is yet another canker on the face of a country already under strain from several angles- begs the question, why won’t people who made mistakes just admit to them and condemn them? And further to that- is an apology enough to POC for us to be able to accept that we’re currently being ruled by racism?

I’m not a POC, and I worry all the time that being brought up in simple ignorance means I’ll say something offensive. I’m sure some people’s first reaction to that is a hearty eyeroll but I know exactly what it’s like for someone to say something really rude without even really meaning to and the internal “what the hell… do I say something? That might be awkward. Maybe I’ll just leave it. I’m pissed off now”. It’s exhausting and it must be worse for a person of colour, especially because their whole lives have been blighted by the conversation more and more people with less and less actual understanding are weighing in on- what is racism, what is acceptable and how do we stamp it out?

It’s only recently that the UK government commissioned a report that we were all glad to see be requested- an in depth look into institutional racism in society. Hopes were high that the report might be able to find where our society was landing against people of colour, and how this could be adjusted so that it was reduced to vanishing- hopes that quickly disappeared before the report was even disclosed when Munira Mirza was added to head the report up. Why, you ask?
Here’s an excerpt from the Guardian article, showing that Mirza believes her own personal experience is universal- rather than being borne by the privilege she has attained:

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/munira-mirza-pms-nonsense-detector-who-has-attacked-racism-claims

Mirza attended Oxford- that well known school for the elites- but somehow is able to believe that she is representative of all POC in the UK. I’ll leave you to search up her other quotes about racial divisiveness in the UK- there are plenty.

To defend the PM, rather than asking he show contrition, is something that’s confused me since I became aware of his divisive verbal diarrhoea- so many people leaping to his defence- including himself. I’d have some respect for someone who came forward and apologised for their actions, explained that they had hideous views once and condemn them now having learned how poisonous they are- but ultimately it’s not for me to forgive- it’s not a violation of my existence. People of colour have the ultimate say as to whether the comments he makes are forgivable. Perhaps this instance, then, was a simple slip of the tongue.

But Crime Sinister Johnson’s tongue is, if anything, very slippery:

These comments, he proudly published himself! Source: the prime minister’s own writing in the press

His response?

Source: politics for all on twitter

Please re-read his column, and tell me what context there could be for that?

Are we also going to forget this:

Source: Evolve Politics https://evolvepolitics.com/boris-johnson-called-black-traffic-wardens-nggers-and-said-black-man-was-stupid-because-he-was-a-cn/
Source: https://evolvepolitics.com/boris-johnson-called-black-traffic-wardens-nggers-and-said-black-man-was-stupid-because-he-was-a-cn/

I don’t know: can someone else tell me what context is needed to use that language, and to imply some kind of imaginary verisimilitude in damning the actions of a person doing their job, referring to the transgressor as “indigenous”.

Johnson wants to distance himself from a culture war, and yet so conveniently forgets his multiple bloody handed instigations of racial division. Unable even to condemn, decry or apologise for these words, he fails to see how his rhetoric started the battles he’s now begging to bow out of.

The instigation of a “culture war” (what culture- being a person of colour?) pre-dates our erstwhile PM though of course. But can a man who has pushed this divisive wording over and over whilst hiding behind the self assured illusory comforts of a person like Mirza or Priti Patel really claim ignorance? You need only look at the sentiments he uttered about kneeling for racial equality (he falsely attributed kneeling to the Black Lives Matter movement despite repeated clarification from the England football team that kneeling was apolitical and a simple but powerful act to show solidarity against racism), literally refusing to condemn racism on and off the pitch – then his speedy turnaround to “shocked and appalled” when said racism tore through the internet like a thunderbolt.

As several prominent people have said since- you don’t get to refuse to condemn people who boo an apolitical act to show solidarity with victims of racism and then act surprised when racism finds footing in the country you run- especially when you have a pathological incapability of apologising for your words.

Lies? Stupidity? Or Just Callous Indifference?

I’ve started to believe that Johnson is just blissfully unaware that every word he throws off the cuff has disastrous consequences- look at the evidence.

He made a speech recently where he confirmed that it “only makes sense” to wear masks in enclosed spaces during another building wave of the coronavirus pandemic- only to be photographed not wearing a mask in his chauffeur driven car with his security and driver- IN THE SAME DAY.

People have taken his words about “freedom day” and twisted them, there is no denying it- but how he can cast off the mask mandate and not realise the abuse he’s foisting on anyone who needs to enforce it for their own good… he is either very foolish or just as callous as his regular mistakes indicate. Perhaps both, but I refuse to believe neither. Anyone who claimed masks were “not necessary” after the 19th in the face of this building wave of infections must either be extremely incautious… or extremely devious.

Back on Johnson’s terminal indifference to his own racist remarks, we had another ridiculous and transparent attempt to silence POC in parliament today- because originally there were NO people of colour tabled to speak out against the recent events in the press and public! At the speaker of the houses’ insistence, MP Zarah Sultana was added to the roster- and when she, a POC speaking passionately about anti racism, was speaking- she was told to lower her tone (!) by a tory MP!

Led by a man whose flippancy with racist terms, can we truly be shocked that they feel so empowered to speak over someone who will have (not may have- will have) suffered racist abuse in her life.

Johnson’s insistence that his racist writings are taken out of context is beyond disingenuous- there is no context he could write the things he has written, that would lead to a belief that it’s anything other than the stoking of division and some form of self aggrandisement on the basis of his own lily white hide.

Let’s speak about another incident shall we?

No proof unfortunately, but MP Dawn Butler recounted a story where Natalie Rowe, writer of “Whipping up a Storm” was at a party and Johnson approached her, carrying a watermelon and making monkey noises- tell me I’m missing context, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Summing up

People like Patel and Mirza whose infamy amongst the country as apologists for the abuse heaped on persons just like them are unwittingly enabling Johnson to compound this behaviour. He’ll never learn his lesson whilst his enablers continue to whisper that he’s doing right, that people just don’t “get” him- and until he understands that his verbosity and generosity with racial gaslighting has real world consequences- like the events of the BLM protests, like the events of the football rioting, like deepening distrust of the establishment when a report written to help the existence of POC is bastardised and sold on lies to expunge the conscience of wilful racists like Johnson et. al- this will only continue and worsen. The only question is what the final blow to push POC and their allies over the boiling point will be, and if it’s close or far.

The Citizens of the UK- or how we became the kindling to restart the fire of a pandemic Economy

By Daviemoo

As Crime Sinister Boris Johnson is set to reopen the country with zero restrictions on the 19th, a quick reminder that a vast chunk of England seem absolutely fine with walking gently into mass hospitalisations, long covid cases galore and, indeed, the needless deaths of our loved ones.

I don’t like the conservatives.

You might have picked up on this simply by standing near me for more than 10 minutes, watching my internet videos or reading this blog- or simply sensing that I possess a moral compass that I actively try to align to true north when I can.

I haven’t liked them for a very long time, and frankly it started out as a grumbling resentment that the party of “family values” so openly touted a distaste for me and people like me simply based on my sexuality which still persists to this day with the animated ancient mummy herself Baroness Nicholson leading the charge.

But over the years this grew from a distaste to a naked hatred- not necessarily of conservative voters though I do find conversation with right wing voters entertaining because the pretzels they can knot themselves in to escape the reality of voting for bigotry is truly impressive- like watching one of those people that can fold themselves up to fit in a box.

Am I saying that all bigots are right wing? No… having stepped further and further left I do sometimes worry that some of my fellow far left folk fall prey to a different type of bigotry, one that assumes that we’ve always been how we are- “sensitive souls”, those who care about the people around us enough to hear them out and try to accommodate them. The fact that the left sometimes continue to condemn people even when they apologise openly for their behaviour confounds me- though I often find it right to do so when the apology is contrite and focuses more on the feelings of the accused, rather than sorrow for the harm their actions caused.

Nevertheless I do feel an open dislike for conservative voters to be quite apt at the moment, as we’re watching England in particular careen towards what I and others like me see as an abject humanitarian disaster. Below is a graph that shows the figures in England on lockdown day 2020- vs the repeated fuckups of a government run by a shaven orangutang in an ill fitting suit, vs now.

Source: google data on COVID cases in the UK

I’ve listened with numb horror to every bit of news coming from Downing Street for several weeks, sure that it was more right wing pomp, the showmanship of a man convinced that if he acts rough and tough despite looking like a dishevelled fop, people will laud him as a tough, decisive leader when we know- from the literal mouth of his previous adviser and sundry leaks- that he is incapable of doing the job which the tories wangled him into.

But no. Here we are, heading into literal disaster, a worst case scenario so unutterably dire that I cannot process it- and still bay the tory voters, “we just need to get on with our lives”.

Were this not a matter of life and death for others and, who knows, maybe even myself – I’d sit back and watch as these people lose their grandmothers, wives, cousins- and suddenly realise that maybe charging naked into a bush fire isn’t quite the brave notion they think.

But I know many vulnerable people who will be paralysed with fear in their homes, unable to take vaccines, unable to visit shops during the day for fears of crowds of people so excited to return to normality that they’ll cheerfully sacrifice the over 1.5 million seriously disabled among us who, and I can’t believe I have to write this, also deserve to “return to normal”.

Of course I’m not foolish and I know that the internet is a vacuum and people will spout their nonsense there, only to toe the line when the chips are down – but the sheer number of people excited to reach “freedom day”, an odious term coined by the office of our lacklustre leader, feverish to ditch masks which are treated like the lead at the neck of a particularly ferocious dog, terrifies me.

Firstly, a word on oppression- the reactionaries’ current favourite term.

If your oppression consists of the act of wearing a bit of material on your face so you can walk into asda for some custard creams and a pint of milk, or being asked to not breathe directly down the neck of the people in front of you at the pub- what a privileged, easy life you must lead.

The types who feel this is oppression are so quick to compare it to Nazi Germany which proves beyond doubt they’ve never actually read history books or accounts of what exactly it was like to live in Nazi Germany. To think that we walk amongst people so cosseted that they believe that mask wearing, an act that protects others more than yourself, is oppression, would be laughable if it were a pastiche- so ridiculous that you wouldn’t believe it.

I remember seeing this meme about six months into the pandemic and even though it made me laugh, it also made me sigh and understand that this was the “normal folk” I was expected to walk around with. It simply said something to the effect of “any zombie movies after this will be really unrealistic if a huge portion of us don’t go running towards the zombies to prove how undeadly they are”.

That meme has become a mental symbol of how I’ve coped for so long- making comedy out of the growing insanity of the country to get by, because to look at people’s behaviours factually I think i’d have snapped in May 2020.

Heading to disaster

I wake up every day, a little bit amazed that we’re allowing the tories to just blow the doors off the pandemic because “if not now, when?”- we were told so many times we had an amazing vaccine rollout- surely it does it an injustice to open before it’s finished? But people don’t care. A worrying portion of people somehow function in their daily lives whilst equating vaccines to poison, population control, tracking and an exhaustive list of other fundamental nonsense.

I can never imagine what it’s like to be someone so insane as to think that almost every scientist, doctor, nurse, politician and more, in the whole world, sat down and said “so we’re going to pretend that this virus exists/ so we’re making an evil vaccine- don’t tell anyone though, we’re making a new world order for *insert laughable reason here*”.

All of that- the disinformation that’s been allowed to spread, unscrupulous characters trying to shill their idiocy to a nation all too willing to believe the one person who says no when 99,999 other people say yes, a government headed up by a man who, we now know without a doubt said “let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” rather than facilitate a lockdown out of a fear of his friends’ pockets getting lighter, has led us to this moment. As we stand on the precipice of what I confidently believe will be a disaster for the people of the UK, I think I’m more offended for the people failed by the education we were given by a state in disrepair who believe the nonsense than I am by the man so callous as to push for it.

There seems to be a worrying amount of credence to the notion that Matt Han-dsoffmywifeyou-cock was removed from his role by angry tory backbenchers who knew he was throwing rope at an intern he hired with public funds, who then facilitated the installation of Sajid Javid who would be their mouthpiece for the end of lockdowns. The reason? Isn’t it always money? Need you ask.

I don’t have the spoons today to go into the Brexit reasoning behind reopening, plus I think that brexit is only a factor, not THE factor in reopening. Plus saying Brexit three times usually gets you mobbed by angry people who are genetically incapable of speaking in cogent arguments.

And now for some pretension!

I feel like Cassandra. If you don’t know who Cassandra is, here’s a little history on Greek tragedies for you.

Cassandra was a woman gifted by fate to see the future- but cursed to never be believed when she told people what she saw.

I imagine if Cassandra were here now she’d be screaming at the top of the shard, begging people to stand up against a government who seems to be falling just short of eugenics, as people point and laugh and call her crazy. But we don’t need Cassandra to spell this out to us- we have doctors, scientists, immunologists, people whose roles are to study pandemics past and advise us on how to get through it, telling us en masse that this is a bad idea.

Of course there’s conflicting opinions- people saying it will work – but we live in a world where Nazis still exist so to speak for the mental acuity of individual, educated people who speak out in favour of the erasure of measures, is not exactly ground breaking, nor does it mean that they are the pied pipers we should be following.

My concern comes for the people of the UK who may – I hope I’m wrong, I don’t want to see abject suffering and mass deaths of course and woe betide the tories if I lose someone I love- be facing a nightmare from which the escape will be long, arduous and filled with the suffering of those we care for most.

I repeat, I hope things work out okay- but if things do go wrong, I hope Johnson and the scum who enabled the disaster to unfold are hoisted high from their own petards and castigated by the masses they’re so willing to throw to the wolves, all in the name of the post-Brexit economy.

I suppose my main question is as simple as this: how and why are so many people absolutely fine with the possibility of getting sick themselves, of their families getting sick, of losing friends, loved ones?
The usual answer seems to be that “we’ve sacrificed so much”- begs the question why we’re so keen to sacrifice more.

The Radicalisation of the Left

By Daviemoo

In a country utterly obsessed with woke cancel culture, with media outlets like the BBC and the guardian facing daily callouts on it’s factionalisation of the transphobia row, where racist events like the euro cup are fully expected by POC and their allies and where anti LGBTQIA sentiment is slowly burning backwards- can we really claim surprise that those pushing for tolerance are getting happier and happier to claim the weighty mantle of “radicalised” against the other side?

Here’s an excerpt from an email I’ve just sent my long time friend Pam: “People will literally twist themselves in knots to avoid actually confronting their implicit biases cos they cannot admit that we might be in the wrong and have work to do to make the world a better place; It’s up to everyone else to take the blame, it’s everyone else’s job to do the work to make the world better. The second you say hey so maybe our country is racist its IT IS NOT PEOPLE ARE JUST SENSITIVE CANCEL CULTURE WOKE SNOWFLAKE… it’s literally more work to cling to your rhetoric than just admit it and work on yourself.”

I often laugh when I read the endless epithets I’m gifted online by the supposed anti woke brigades: woke, weak, snowflake, SJW. What’s thrown at me as an insult, I wear with pride. If it’s woke to care about others, weak to be offended by hate speech, snowflakey to demand racists are held to account then I am the SJW you so angrily proclaim me to be, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

I’m also not quite sure what a “radical leftist” is, and why they are apparently so dangerous. I hardly plan to break into the houses of parliament and force Boris Johnson to respect people’s pronouns at gunpoint. It just so happens that I’m very much frustrated by injustice and therefore, loud about it’s removal from a society that has the means but not the wherewithal.

Easy as it may be to rest in your ignorant shell, there comes a time where those with any moral fibre become embroiled in the fights that may not directly involve us and suddenly become aware of the impact we can have just by standing shoulder to shoulder with others.

I can’t tell you how many times a month I’m asked if I’m trans because I defend my trans brothers, sisters and enby folk. I’m not trans, and I can scarcely imagine their struggle- but imagine I have, to the best of my abilities. But you shouldn’t have to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to empathise with their plight.

As a white (as fuck- I am roughly the colour of fresh milk) cis man, I will never understand even a corner of the struggle that POC face in a country with such blatant systemic racism oozing from every crack in it’s wall of ignorance- but that doesn’t mean I can’t empathise fully with those who suffer from it, and want to do what I can to chip away at that wall, to expedite the drainage of such disgusting pus that festers in the wounds of every heart it infects.

Today, as is par for the course, my insistence that a man who tweeted the N word, blaming the POC players for England’s loss at the Euros led to me being compared to Nazis. This comparison always confuses me: Nazi ideology was based on only the able bodied arian white folks being the cream of society, able to live on the backs and deaths of anyone who was other, on the subjugation of those seen as lesser- and the weakness of a mind who compares a demand for consequences to that is beyond the stupidity I can muster the energy to comprehend.

Nazism is the most abhorrent system of thinking that’s been widely accepted and known to humanity- so for internet weaklings to compare holding people to account for their own actions, to conflate holding people to account for refusing to absorb the simple truth that racism is appalling and only believed by fools and willing bigots- should be, but is not, laughable.

The invective that right-wing aligned people throw at the supposed “woke” always misses the fundamental hypocrisy that nazis were… far right politically.

As right wing populism grows underfoot, as it snakes into the houses of parliament, the left are further demonised by a press monopolised by right wing punditry: from Rupert Murdoch’s empire to what I can only equate to “tabloid-lite” papers like the daily mail, England in particular is beset by bigotry at every turn, and every word carefully selected by journalists to toe the line and maintain the fiction that England isn’t steeped in the blood of the people of colour who were dragged here to build it, manufacture for it and better it at their own expense, is another brick in the wall mentioned above- as one falls out, another journalist who believes the rhetoric that white people could ever truly understand daily racial abuse will simply slide another block in.

Is it any wonder…

That leads me to the whole point of this post: Is it any wonder that, as this system propagates itself even in the face of it’s own hypocrisy, as it grows and maintains itself even under growing calls for it’s examination, it’s dismantlement, it’s replacement with equity for all who share this land, that those who have patiently or impatiently watched it’s sinuous twisting of the truth for it’s own benefit, have grown tired and become, to use the descriptor the right so love- Radicalised.

I’m not quite sure what reaction right wingers expect from me when they call me a radical lefty. “Yep” is usually it. I am. They see the moniker of radical as a terrible thing, because of course they equate it to the oft-disparaged, even in their own rags, far-right.

Here is the difference.

On the far left we have people willing to fight for equality, equity and fairness in a system that’s always been kiltered to cater to the few instead of the many.

On the far right? Literally nazis.

The Myth of the “Tolerant Left”

It’s been said before many times but it bears repeating that the tolerant left is a myth.

Do we “tolerate” (a word anyone who follows my video posts will know I detest), or as I prefer to call it, accept people whose needs and wants are different to our own? Absolutely. Do we try to cater for those who need different requirements than us to exist with dignity and prosper in a world that caters to homogeny? We do, or we try.

What we don’t, won’t and can’t tolerate under our wide arching but moral beliefs, is bigotry.

If you think we should accept that people have a difference of opinion on whether tomato soup is the best soup, I can cope with that. Accepting that you think gay people are disgusting, that POC are lesser than you with your white skin etc, that’s quite another thing.

To tolerate the existence of beliefs that mean others should suffer for their existence when it harms no one and is as normal as any other is the cognitive dissonance I feel the right are well known for in leftist circles.

There are many right wing arguments I’ve gone to pains to debunk over the years, including:
Gayness is not a choice, but even if it was it’s still not unworthy of respect in a democratic society, hiring practices that prioritise people of colour are not “biased” in a country where POC are underrepresented in many workplaces and specialities, trans women are not comparable with cis men.

But as time goes on I’ve realised that all I’m doing is recycling talking points to shut right wing mouthpieces up when they begin their usual ignorant sermonising. You can not change the mind of someone who has willingly immersed themselves in bigotry, even if it’s more work to continue to cling to and push said bigotry- because the terrifying reality for these people is that they would have to question themselves, realise that the bias is with them, that they are in fact in the wrong, and they’d need to do work on themselves to improve- so the choice comes to continue to cling to bigotry over questioning their own internal bias and ask whether it’s worth keeping that ignorance alive, or letting it die and becoming something else.

The war on woke is essentially a bunch of people claiming that they’re fighting for their freedom – their freedom to remain ignorant in a world filling, daily, with information that proves their choice to stick to ignorance makes them part of the problem.

I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’m told that the fact I’m not willing to compromise and have calm discourse with racists and bigots and scumbags, oh my, is the reason for their continued ignorance- so let me spell this out for you:
We are not your mothers. We are not here to teach you. The resources exist in the world to help you- you need only stop knee jerk reacting with your fragile emotions towards the changes that keep happening, and listen to POC, listen to minorities, read the books that are written about these topics- and realise that when you simply start to address those inner biases you’re doing the same thing we did to become your most terrified title: woke.

So Many Causes, not Enough Time

One of the strangest things someone said to me recently is that they’re surprised I have enough time to work when I’m so busy being a “woke warrior”.

The short answer is: if you care about black oppression, trans rights disinformation or the other glaring issues you see daily – you’ll make time. I’m surprised people have all the time in the world to watch a 1 hour and 20 minute football match which includes kneeling for BLM, LGBTQIA representation and a hugely diverse set of players and still miss the point of the hilariously mistitled “gesture politics” that take place. Again as I’ve argued with someone recently, if you see these things as gesture politics you’re probably likely to not have ever needed to see that representation and therefore are incapable of understanding how much it means to those who do. If you think a rainbow armband or taking the knee are unnecessary then please tack on the words “for you”. Because for those it represents, many are thankful to feel like we’re cared for by others who may or may not be like us.

The mental gymnastics involved in decrying kneeling against racism, only to go on and leave so many racist comments a 19 year old player for your country’s team that he deletes his social media, or to give the usual tired bleating of “the gays forcing it in our faces!” but say nothing when a gay man walking down the street in liverpool is assaulted so badly he’s convinced he is about to die, is quite something to watch play out in real time.

It may be easier to simply start questioning why these things are being introduced to you, why they please those they’re for and why they annoy you so- simply because you’re suddenly made aware that the world does not cater to you exclusively, and that others deserve the same basic experience of existence without conflict that you have.

Wrapping up…

This blog was essentially a place for me to write down my thoughts as I grow more frustrated with the country I’ve been raised in, to get to grips with my own frustrations when it comes to politics. It’s become one of the few things I have that allows me to vent my anger at a world so screwed up that I willingly paid for it to be hosted. I don’t even really care if others read it. I just wanted a space that was mine, where I could write down my thoughts and explore my ideas out loud.

A few people have said they appreciate it and I’m very glad of that. It’s becoming more isolating to hold moral views- I’ve tried to reason with people I grew up with who refuse to let of of bigotry, I tried to gently explain that I’m allowed to exist as a gay man with people who think gay sex is worse than murder, I’ve tried to gently express hope that I’ll be accepted- no more.

It seems that as we’re accused more and more of being extreme, so we have to become that. The country takes drunken lurching step after step to the right, and as we dig in our heels, lean back and pull on the tautened rope we’ve thrown around it’s neck, we become more tired and less capable of patience.

Blamed constantly for “radicalisation”, I’d like the right wingers who throw the labels I’ve brought up in this blog post to ask the question: do you blame us? Do you take ownership for your own part in our radicalisation, as we have to become louder, more indignant, more insistent to work to counteract your hateful rhetoric? Or is it, as is always the right wing way, our own fault: no one is responsible, it’s a hum dinger, clearly people are just magically becoming radicalised by… I don’t know, society, music, drugs, instead of the appalling behaviours of our fellow man- otherwise known as you.

The Violence we Foster

By Daviemoo

After another loss at a football tournament, the curtain was pulled back and never has it been clearer that the peace and security of a nation depends wholly on the satisfaction of white men.

I don’t know if you were unfortunate enough to witness the myriad scenes of violence, unrest and vile behaviour across this nation yesterday. If you weren’t you must be an expert at avoiding social media for the good of your own mental health.

To witness the scenes yesterday, you’d be forgiven in believing that finally the uprising of a frustrated proletariat was underway. But no, the “gentleman’s game” was reaching it’s conclusion at Wembley.

People were drunk from 9am, and in a country in the grip of a serious pandemic and on the verge of unleashing it’s populace on “freedom day” in 7 worrying days, we saw scenes like nothing I’d have pictured before it and hope not to see again.

Jubilation there was not- from watching a man hoisted in the air and sniffing a line then screaming at his cheering fellow gammons, to the streets crusted with litter, cans, glass and blood, or the violent scenes at wembley basically the entire day, who actually enjoyed anything yesterday is a mystery to me.

My neighbours broke covid restrictions- again- to have a viewing party of the game.

Of course many who may read this blog post would decry it as the minority of people- and yet I have to wonder at what point we accept that this minority is a terrifying amount of people, minority or not.

Twitter is awash today with reports of racist violence, racism, attacks on people who were simply walking by at the time these Neanderthals decided to unleash their smooth brained stupidity on the nation who so quickly disavows their actions.

Lets look, as we should, to our leadership for the reasons this country may be in the mire it is…

Prime Minister Wafflestick McMuffintop suggested that the team should be lauded as heroes- always with your fingers off the pulse prime minister, because it’s nothing to do with their actions on the pitch that they should be held up as heroes for- it’s the fact that Marcus Rashford has created and maintained a sustained campaign to feed hungry school children, victims of your twelve year austerity and more than lacklustre choices for Education Secretary. It’s people like Gareth Southgate running a sustained campaign of inclusion even in the face of his team facing abuse from their own fairweather supporters.

Home Secretary Priti Patel whose famed distaste for anything outside of homogeny, from anti LGBTQIA views to the most restrictive bills on immigration since Enoch Powell’s inflammatory anti immigration posters graced our shameful nation, was seen condemning the racism on twitter- mere weeks after endorsing kneeling and booing the players.

The hypocrisy of two people who mock, ridicule and deride what they see as “gesture politics” to then flip flop on their views stinks just as much as any of the political corruption that daily oozes further from Westminster and over a beleaguered nation where these negative attitudes thrive, and move further from the dark corners to which we’d like to banish them daily.

A side fact- thanks to tory interference in a bill lodged by Labour, it’s officially possible to face more jail time to assist someone seeking refugee status in england (which is NOT ILLEGAL for the 10000th time), than it is to rape someone. Tories voted down a bill to punish rape as a more severe crime whilst Patel pushed through legislation to give those who aid refugees a possible DECADE in prison.

But again, let’s look at the parallels. Loath as I am to invoke the name of Ms. Sarah Everard in this mess, the rage I feel towards a nation that fosters scenes like THIS

Source: getty images

Where came minimal or NO police or security intervention, and yet the peaceful and impassioned vigil for a woman murdered by a policeman brought about violent arrest of women standing up for their right to feel secure in the street.

Why, we ask ourselves- knowing the answer. That women, defenceless against the thuggery of police with batons and riot shields, are easy targets for brutality – but these embittered, empty headed scumbags can do as they please because no amount of policemen could tackle the tide of thuggery they wish to commit.

We live in the illusion that police can and will protect us- but against this, we must ask, how? What threat did women standing up against murderous police pose, that could have been matched by this? Nothing- it is simply that when the targets are easy to take down, suddenly the police leap into action.

Let’s then look at my favourite comparison so far: The BLM protests.

Even if every BLM Protest (less than 6% of BLM protests were violent) had created swaths of damage, comparing a social movement combating THIS VERY THING- Racism and white entitlement- are unfairly compared. Every BLM protest I went to was peaceful – simply there to share the pain and lessen the load of people of colour in a country that does not and will not support them to better their lives by curtailing the entitlement of the people who maintain a system fundamentally made to hold them down.

To conflate BLM protests, a cause with righteous anger behind it, to thugs throwing bottles at each other because some rich men were kicking a ball, is the most hilarious false equivalence.

High irony that the disgusting Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts bill isn’t in action – I wonder whether it would have made the slightest difference in these scenes which have so disgraced our nation- unlikely. The bill is purely designed to quash dangerous activities like gentle protest against racial inequality, a government mired in corruption or to silence those already silenced by misogyny.

Let’s also look at the scenes no one needed to see- one man had a lit flare placed somewhere that only his wife should see when he leaves a room, and another decided that thrusting what can only be described as a knoblet at the air was appropriate.

My favourite comparison to make here is that the people there would cheerfully say the stock homophobia lines like “They’re just forcing it on us” or “why do they need a parade where they’re all naked and being sexual”.

Pride, again, is a protest against a heteronormative system that holds us down, under the thumb of- well, these people. Not once at any pride parade have I seen a penis or breasts. But the ignorant flag wavers so proud of themselves for these displays will believe the salacious lies of hate groups like the LGB alliance who so often compare sexuality with sex and stir up hatred against the groups they claim to represent- and they refuse to see that a parade to show that we’re proud of who we are even in the face of hatred is important and necessary and is not lesser than the need of a football fan to insert a lit flare into his anus on camera.

My disgust in this country grows every day- the fostering of a government who doesn’t even have the popularity of the nation, disgraceful acts by large groups of people who claim that it’s their right to boo anti racism gestures as they foist racist abuse on the players they cheer when it suits them, a police force built to crush opposition to anything but what is deemed by the government as acceptable; and of course, the rallying cry of the gammon- “if you don’t like it here just leave”, something I now find much harder to do, because you brexit voting sausage rolls took away our right to free movement.

In Conclusion

I made this post to piss off the gammons who so indignantly shout mental discord as if they understand what they say. To continue to watch this country wallow in it’s own filth is proving to be exhausting, and not just for me I’m sure. You can decry yesterday’s behaviour as “not all fans” all you want and you’re correct, but the fact of the matter is- it was anticipated. We aren’t the only country who gets violent when football is on, or other sport- but perhaps that speaks more to a societal problem with men who won’t publicly cry when their mother dies, but will cheerfully rip things cemented into the ground out of place because their sports team lost.

As a nation we need to address the underlying problems that these events bring out- the thuggery, racial hatred, ignorance and discontent of people let off the lead to act like fools with… what recompense but anger online.

And if you understand how many people realise that we live in a nation where you don’t feel safe because men aren’t happy then you’ve missed a stupendously obvious point- I don’t even have the spoons to give you resources to make you see the problem with that very salient point.

Sleepwalking Into Authoritarianism- The English Nightmare continues

By Daviemoo

Let’s get some things out of the way first: I am a woke, lefty do-gooder. If that upsets you, it’s a problem you may want to consider discussing with an experienced GP. This blog is my own version of part human/egg hybrid Dominic Cummings’ effusive ramblings on the monster he installed in Westminster, and if you disagree that is your right- but whilst it is A right, it does not mean you ARE right.

I’ve always been somewhat politically aware, but was one of the crowd who gleefully sleepwalked through British politics at large, designating it “out of my control” or “someone else’s problem”. This issue seemed to renege with age, and as I became aware of the power of the proletariat I felt something greater than I- a collective will to better the country which I was born in.

As I’ve grown though, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend of the stupider, the louder, the more uncouth running roughshod over traditional politics- from the human custard era that was Donald Trump’s wittering presidency, having to watch a man masturbating his own ego for a nation of people who didn’t even vote him into power, to the closer to home installation of the perceived bumblingly innocent and somewhat daffy Boris Johnson, or even looking to countries like Brazil with angry little men like Bolsonaro in charge; politics has changed and seems to have become a game for those who are happy to stand on the neck of morals for the sake of being seen as “strong”.

I finally broke and created this blog to get some of the words I’ve had rattling around my head down in word format, though I’ve been creating internet videos making pastiche of British politics for around 7 months now- the only way to manage the ever increasing political rage I feel.

As ridiculous day after ridiculous day rolled by, my patience and understanding of British politics has been worn down to the type of nub I expect both Johnson and Trump to be concealing in their oft-stained slacks. I am done with being pleasant to people who disagree with me politically because my politics are aligned to “for the good of everyone” in a nation whose politics daily seem to slide more into “for the good of the rich” or “for only me”.

I savour the daily insults from red faced lunatics who call me woke and sheep and weak, because the more they rage that I’m NOT LIKE THEM the more I am convinced that I’m on the side of right. And though I always treat my own views with a healthy dose of scepticism, the high irony of people who can’t even work out the hierarchy does not include them telling me that I am the stupid one, the sheep, the weak one, is a hefty source of amusement in a world with scant other resources to entertain me.

Kill The Bill

Today, in my virgin post on here, let’s talk specifically about the latest tory travesty – the death of non manufactured, and therefore helpful, protesting.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill was passed in parliament yesterday by a margin of 100.

This bill lays a heavy blanket of suppression down on everyone- regardless of political affiliation, though clearly those who are not in support of this government will suffer most. Protests, even one man protests, cannot take place without assent from, and collaboration with, the police- who, in the age of the BLM protests are often the subject of said protests. Protests by their nature are meant to be disruptive- they are, at their core, a show of the power of the proles, a demonstration that whilst we accept governance we can and may voice our displeasure with a simple show of bodies and chanting. This has been a right since time immemorial- and the false conflation of protests and riots has become laughably common in today’s society. Those with no sense of nuance will happily conflate the two, and decry those who partake in either- those people are usually the privileged who are either lucky enough to be unaffected by social issues or who simply don’t care.

The police already had too much confidence in their role as mediator of protesting- look at the vigil for Sarah Everard, in which police cornered and injured women who were standing up for their right to be safe- against men, but also- POLICE, because Everard was murdered by one of their own- subsequently other police were suspended for making off colour jokes about murder on WhatsApp- of course, we had the usual mumblings of “it’s just a few bad apples!”, but as usual the revisionists who want to protect the establishment so conveniently miss the finisher of that saying- “a few bad apples spoils the bunch”.

Again the police showed themselves up at the counter protests for this dangerous bill in Bristol, were accused- and it was proven with video footage- of using their riot shields as weapons, slamming them down on the backs of hapless protesters whose crime was… sitting. A nurse who was at the protests said “I cannot express how quickly it went from peaceful chants to head injuries. Not just bumps of a shield. I’m talking in excess of 5cm lacerations to the top of the skull – all of the ones I saw were struck from above.”

The larger picture of legislation this prohibitive passing is that we now live in a country where we must meekly accept the whims of politicians who do not live our lives, who do not understand our woes and yet who feel entitled to lay down edicts as to how we should operate as a society. But this is indicative of a society who has spent years, even before Conservatives came to power, being governed by those who do not understand the lives of those who fill the country. It has long been a source of frustration for me that we have health secretaries who have never worn a stethoscope, education secretaries educated at the finest private institutions, whose yearly rates are more than some parents make in twelve months combined; those best placed to govern are those who experience the life of those they work for.

Focusing back on this bill though: even in countries like Russia- a literal dictatorship- do protests take place without assent from the police- when Russia’s hope for independence from Putin’s rule, Navalny, was arrested and sent to essentially a horribly unsafe prison his group protested in the street- until, of course, Putin counteracted; now anyone seen to be allied with Navalny is a terrorist and STILL they protest.

In Bolsonaro’s Brazil, the streets are currently awash with violence after Bolsonaro’s bumbling has allowed COVID-19 to ravage the country- a country ruled by a maniac is protesting. And in our supposedly free nation, with our magical sovereignty that hasn’t changed one jot post brexit, that right, that fundamental right- is gone.

The fact that we operate in a society that politicians are trying to control the masses is not a shock- this has been the case since fiefdoms were the order of the day. The shocking part is that no media outlet, no prominent celebrities, barely any political figures, and almost no actual voters, humans in the street – are as furious as I am about this.

The UK now has the most prohibitive laws against protests in Europe- purely because Johnson and his crony Patel- want to make sure that we are toothless in our fight against their corruption – and the British public at large seem willing to simply lay down and accept it.

It’s such a fine irony to grow up in a country where you’re constantly told about our proud legacy as those who stood up to fascism and died in the fields to protect other’s freedom.
Our freedom has just been decapitated before our very eyes, blood still warm on our cheeks, and the fools it affects are just happy to let it go on.

Those who so proudly claim the doings of their own blood in wars are the ones so keen to support the tories, because somehow the conservatives have convinced people that they are “the party of Britain”, but to those I’d like to pose a question: is it truly patriotic to nod, smile and accept your country with all its faults, or is it patriotic to work for change, to expel the negatives and to work for your country to be something bigger, better, to remove the obstacles in society so everyone can live freely? If you truly believe that sheep-like acceptance of the status quo is patriotism i guarantee you that the relatives you so proudly edify would be ashamed of you, and would tell you that this is how fascism starts: acceptance that the state can and will do what it may, and that you must agree, blank eyed and fervent.

My question, therefore, to the British populace at large, is simple:
How long will you continue to lie down under tory rule- not governance, but rule- and allow this feckless band of grifters to dictate to you how you should live? And what, if anything, will it take for you to realise that you’re marching to their beat, not yours?

Update- Contact your local MPs

I hereby include an email I sent to my local MP and his response: it’s vital to contact your local representation and make yourself heard.