The Truth and Lies of the Forthcoming UK General Election
Britain is gripped by election fever. The polls suggest voters are as divided as ever. Boris Johnson and the Tory Party face accusations of Islamophobia. Jeremy Corbyn is seemingly the face of acute and widely-held antisemitism in the Labour Party. For some, Corbyn is an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-austerity extremist. For others, Johnson and his party are knee-deep in problems of racist Islamophobia — something they routinely deny existing let alone agreeing that something needs to be done about it but not sure when. This is all too much for the London-encamped Oxbridge-educated pseudo-liberal intelligentsia, some of whom feel free to brandish Corbyn a threat to national security. Who the people of Britain are going to believe and follow will invariably reflect on their predilections. Let us examine first some obvious truths.
The recent furore in relation to accusations of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party deserves particular scrutiny. This is not just because anti-Semitism in any of its forms is completely abhorrent but because the question of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party is a particular line of attack for the pro-Tory press and for those who would wish to silence criticism of the dominant neoconservative economic and political outlook. The fact is that questions of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party have been investigated and are being dealt with. In general, issues of anti-Semitism in the UK are relatively limited, although any kind of violence or intolerance towards minority groups needs to be addressed fully. Corbyn and the Labour Party are invested in a fight against racism, intolerance and bigotry, but the details are never fully elaborated on in the media and so the general perception is that anti-Semitism is rife, that it is unchecked or that it persists in spite of all the utterances against it. This is nefarious mendacity at some level. At another, it is deeply disingenuous — an attempt to do one thing, which is to ensure that Corbyn never becomes prime minister. The reality of the matter is that there is far more antisemitism among the Tories than in Labour. Left-leaning critics of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians are far more capable of separating this from the trouncing of people of the Jewish faith per se, which many on the often right do not.
Why is it that there is so much enmity towards the possibility of Corbyn as prime minister? Is it because of his lifelong commitment to the cruel injustices meted out against Palestinians at the behest of various Israeli governments that have been tilting further to the right over the years? Is it because Corbyn has been a staunch anti-war campaigner, specifically in relation to the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003? We know now that that was a neoconservative project based on lies and deceit at the highest levels of public office and all in an efforts to maintain control over key energy supplies in the region when Saddam Hussein wanted to shift away from petrodollars and towards the Euro. The unnecessary invasion of Libya in 2011 had much to do with the ambitions of Muammar Gaddafi in wanting to switch to trading its vast oil in a new African dinar.
Sadly, there are large international conglomerates with interests in energy, technology and the financial sector whose ambitions are to ensure further deregulation of economic policy at home and a neoconservative foreign policy abroad. These interests seduce politicians. Too many of today’s Westminster MPs are vacuous. Their desires to increase their net worth after their lives in politics is thoroughly palpable. It has a significant impact on the democratic process, with politicians looking ahead for a future career propped up by these very same international players. It is a generational corruption of the political classes. Conservatives, Blairites, Liberal Democrats and other sycophants of the New World Order have fallen foul of the ambitions of wealthy and highly organised others.
This is not to provide a conspiratorial air to the discussion here. The corruption of politics is not new to the global north. Oligarchic powers and the military-industrial complex dictate US politics. Back in the UK, findings on the Russian oligarchic influences motivating the likes of Johnson are suppressed in case they might reveal unfortunate truths. The ambitions of the Tory party to introduce further deregulation of taxation policy while opening up new markets and trade laws under the guise of Brexit, with all of the lies around ‘taking back control’ or managing ‘our own laws’, are means to suppress the truth to support those who would wish to exploit further opportunities for the very few. Corbyn stands in complete opposition to all of these concerns and has done consistently over the years. Various dark and dishonest interests want to prevent exposure of their ill-gotten gains.
The battle lines are drawn. Divisions are increasingly set in stone. But who will win this election time is as unclear as ever. The chances are that it will be a hung parliament, leaving a radical new economic plan offered by Labour, supported by leading economists, dead in the water. If the Tories do form a government of sorts, and with Johnson at the helm, do not expect it ‘to get Brexit done’. This mere focus-group derived slogan is targetted to appeal to the frustrated and the flummoxed to move matters swiftly on. In reality, to undo forty years of trade laws and regulations could take up to a decade of hard and painful negotiations where only the ordinary people of Britain suffer.
So what is the point of this general election — the third in five years? The answer is that there is no point at all — it is happening because Brexit will not go away with any clarity or purpose for anyone, least alone for the people who instigated the sorry, sad, sordid and unnecessary affair. But an election is coming and it is time for Britain to decide. The Tories intend to drive Brexit through no matter the cost or the wider implications for society as a whole. But there is a chance to make a change to the status quo in this imminent election. The electorate is getting wiser to the machinations of elitist political interests. And perhaps there is a surprise awaiting us all. Somehow, though, I am not holding my breath.
