#UKIP - Too Much Nostalgia, Not Enough Reinvention

Sometimes when you think about our country you have to rise above what the usual commentators present to us. Forget the petty party political point scoring arguments that consistently blight our politics.  You need to just forget politics and the traditional nature of ‘Right v Left’ ideals that we all know and love so much. My reason? Well sometimes there’s a bigger picture to be had.

Two Forces

This bigger picture is something that’s slowly dawned on me recently. What I’ve actually come to believe is that instead of the political parties dictating what we do, there are really two higher forces struggling to dominate this wonderful country of ours. I see these as quite simply ‘Reinvention’ and ‘Nostalgia’.

Reinvention seeks to imagine and work toward a better future by changing the status quo, whilst nostalgia insists that things were better in the past and works to undo change. Both Labour and the Tories are guilty of supporting both whilst being neither at the same time.

Master of Reinvention

It's no secret where my sympathies lie. I've always been a big fan of reinvention. My life and career is a testament to it. There is simply no way that a scared, sickly, simply educated kid from Stockport gets to live the life he's living now without working hard and being willing to scrap old, unworkable ideas and start over (Of course it helped that I didn't have a particularly rosy background to feel nostalgic towards). I was always determined to do better for myself than my parents ever did and I think I’ve succeeded.

UKIP - Nostalgists

Which brings me to the point of this blog. Whilst I agree and support UKIP with everything they’re trying to achieve with regards to the EU they have a part that worries me. It seems there’s an element to their membership which is not about reinvention at all and is purely about nostalgia. This element hates change and seems actively to support regression back to the Seventies and Eighties. It seems based on the wearing of rose-tinted spectacles and selective memory as from what I remember the country wasn’t in too good a nick back then either. It comes from the same people who insist summers were always nicer in their childhood – they weren’t of course, they were similar to now. So it just confuses me why people want seek to return to a life that wasn't really that great to begin with.

I get it if you used to be the ruling class. If your childhood memories include watching your grandparents sipping sherry on the veranda while being serviced by the upstairs maid, then sure, nostalgia makes sense. But, if you're like me and didn't know anyone who had a veranda, let alone a maid, (or even an upstairs for that matter), then why not consider reinvention?

If UKIP (or for the matter the Tories if we get that referendum) are successful in taking us out of Europe then nostalgia will definitely get us nowhere when we have to plough our own furrow in the World again. It was reinvention that built the Empire and our World trade routes and it’ll be an innovative reinventive approach that will bring us success in the future.

Maybe we can make this country a better place to live. But to do that, we need to stop looking back thinking it was better in my day. It's certainly a more exciting way to go. You know, an uncertain future, filled with mystery and adventure. I hope nostalgia doesn’t win the day, and that we don’t attempt to reverse the course of history, this country would never have a hope in Hell of being ‘Great’ Britain ever again.

Move Forward Not Back

What all the political parties need to be doing as we approach next year’s General Election is getting rid of their nostalgia policies (and people). Yes you can learn from history, but that’s it, learn from it, don’t go back to it. Move forward - in new ways. 

#MH17. Political Grandstanding Needs To Stop

So the wet limpet that is David Cameron has supposedly warned Vladimir Putin that his billionaire ‘cronies’ will have their assets frozen in London unless he co-operates with the probe into Flight MH17. If you read the Sunday papers, ‘Call Me Dave’ apparently ‘vented his fury’ at what he sees as Russia’s obstruction in a 30-minute phone call to Mr Putin. By all accounts he effectively blamed Russia directly, telling Mr Putin that he had ‘contributed to an appalling tragedy’.

Well I’m sure President Putin won't sleep at night after Dave’s outrage! More likely he’s thinking "Little man from a little country". For goodness sake, save your breath, Cameron! Do you really think for one minute that Putin was listening to a word you said? Admittedly, I’d loved to have heard that telephone conversation, bet all Putin did during the call was utter "Yah! Yah!" in the right places, and burst into gales of laughter afterwards. We know that all the real posturing by world leaders is done for the media. What’s worse though is Cameron’s already decided its Putin’s’ fault and is trying to glean publicity off the back of it. 

So Who’s Really Responsible?

Quite simply, no one knows for certain yet, in actual fact we may never really find out who pulled the trigger, but don’t let that simple fact stop the likes of Cameron and Obama blaming Putin.

We keep getting told by western politicians that it’s all down to the Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. That may be true, it also may not - nothing has been proven. Even if they are linked and funded by Russia, it still doesn’t mean Putin is responsible. Don’t forget, there is another theory that somebody on the Ukraine side was trying to hit Putin's plane which was due shortly after the MH17, it also has a similar paint scheme, so that theory has some credibility. And the Ukraine has form too; they’ve also been known to tell lies in order to start a war.

In the bigger picture, ultimate responsibility sits uncomfortably with the EU. If they hadn't vowed to extend the EU eastwards, conflict in the Ukraine would never have escalated to the level it now has. There was no trouble in Ukraine until, quite simply the EU encouraged Ukraine to look to the west. This lead to the overthrow of a democratically elected President and his government, only to be replaced with an unelected, EU stooge. The country became split, the rest is history.

Media is Shaping This Tragedy

This tragedy is now being shaped by the media, but as Peter Hitchens in the Sunday papers observed and I said above, the conflict that has contributed to this, was shaped by the EU and the West. We are back to the Cold War. The West believes its views must be adhered to or else, but it is perfectly happy to meddle in other countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya etc. 

The media likes quick wins and sound bites, they like to act as judge and jury whether there’s evidence or not. This suits our politicians as they too are good at acting without evidence; we all remember the warmonger, Bliar and his made-up WMD document.

So for the media and the west’s own agenda, they’ve already decided it’s the rebels who need to be held to account. As the Australian Prime Minister said, Putin has said all the right things so far, but needs to bring pressure on the separatists to yield to international norms when dealing with airplane crashes.

People's anger is understandable but there is too much emotion in pointing blame and demonising Putin without having the full facts, especially Cameron and Obama, and let’s not forget the American’s themselves have form in things like this too. Wasn’t it the yanks that brought down an Iranian Airbus with similar amounts of people on board in 1988?

In conflict zones tragedies can happen. What we should be asking is what was MH17 and others thinking in overflying this area in the first place?

Transparency from Russia and the Rebels

Where Putin and the rebels are failing is in the PR/media stakes. They’re acting guilty without it having been proven, this is playing directly into the west and the media’s hands. The way the bodies are dealt with; removing evidence from the scene; obstructing investigators; allowing the scene to be ‘contaminated’; the disappearance of the black box recorder etc.

Don't think for a second that Putin could not control those people - even if they were out of control. He is Russia's President with more leverage behind his words’ than any other world leader can dream of, he is ruthless and people know that reputation. If he has lost control over those rebels, believe me he could get it back just like that!

If Putin and the rebels played the media game properly and was completely transparent then sympathies and blame may shift. But then again, maybe they are guilty and are trying to lessen the backlash. Whichever way, it’s not working.

The problem with the Russians is we’re constantly dealing with a regime who care about and value life so little. Remember the shooting down of the Korean Airlines’ 747 by the Russians in the 80’s, they denied responsibility for that for some time afterwards until it was finally proved that it was them. That may ultimately be the case here, but we’re not there yet.

Sanctions and Boycotts

The west are shit scared of Putin and Russia and won’t take him on militarily, which is probably a good thing as none of us know what the outcome of that maybe. So the best they can come up with are sanctions and boycotts.

That is all well and good, but firstly these shouldn’t be applied until any Russian guilt in this tragedy has been proven. If it is proven then we need to do it properly. The west needs to not just talk about it, but do it! Freeze their accounts; confiscate their London properties; impound their yachts when they enter European ports; shut them out of the world economy. The Russians already own half of London so it should be imposed that can never be allowed to buy property in the UK again.

And what about boycotts? If you’re going to boycott something then actually do it. There was a so called world boycott on the Russian Olympic Games many years ago but some countries still turned up. Where is the next World Cup? Oh yeah, Russia!  Doesn’t Russia have some teams in European Cup? These are places where Russia can be isolated now.

The problem is these sanctions and boycotts become ineffectual when countries break promises to apply them if it might affect them.  Angela Merkel has promised tougher sanctions, what? Like she promised not to back Herr Juncker's Presidency? At the end of the day, neither Germany nor France will stop their lucrative trade links with Russia so sanctions are a waste of time. I suppose it would have been a completely different story though if it had been a Lufthansa plane!

Cameron playing the media but doing nothing

The events over the weekend with Cameron playing to the cameras again; demonstrating his outrage on behalf of the victims and laying into Putin already having decided who is responsible. It’s all so predictable and laughable. It was all a media show. Let’s not forget, in this country we are all now too reliable on the Russians for our gas.

I wish we had a politician that was not so self-conscious that he felt the need to demonstrate what he thinks is the politically correct response; such personal weakness last year nearly got us into yet another war in Syria. Remember when Cameron was going to stop it all by himself, well no with British troops actually? Cameron must spend his entire day worrying about how he should be seen to respond on every issue. Politicians like that end up like Nick Clegg, trying - and failing - to be all things to everyone.

I've become totally sick of David Cameron talking but effectively doing nothing.  But given the way Cameron has been behaving over this, if it is proven that it was NOT the so called Russian separatists who were responsible then I think his political career may be over and he will become as popular as Tony Blair. Cameron needs to learn to be a statesman, not a petulant schoolboy.

So let’s stop playing up to the USA who do not depend on Russia for its oil and gas. Cameron should wait until there is more evidence before trying to throw his weight around. Russia can beat us by simply turning the gas valve off and ultimately Obama cannot be trusted.

Political Grandstanding Needs To Stop

This tragedy is one of the saddest things ever. Can you try and imagine, losing a loved one on this plane, going about their lives only to be shot down in an act of unbelievable horror, then being told there personal things are being stolen and not knowing if you will ever get there body back home?

I suspect it was all a big mistake. Putin couldn't possibly have ordered the downing of MH17. Yes, Russia is responsible for Ukraine having horrible weapons, just like the US is responsible for Iraq having horrible weapons. Britain, France, China, etc all sell or supply horrible weapons too! Whoever fired that missile probably thought it was a Ukrainian aircraft. It was a horrible mistake! There a war going on and it was flying through a warzone.

Knowing Putin’s reputation, I do suspect that if it WAS a Pro-Russian Separatist who fired the missile, he is now in an unmarked grave somewhere as he would now be a serious embarrassment to his side.

A problem that needs addressing immediately though, is the flying of commercial aircraft through warzones, and we’re not just talking Ukraine here. This is simple to achieve and is something our politicians should be sprouting on about instead of applying unsubstantiated blame.

Putin wasn’t directly to blame Mr Cameron, he never ordered it! Some idiot did send the plane through an active warzone though, and that wasn’t Putin. Then we have the reason this whole conflict started, that sits right at the feet of an expansionist EU that our politicians love but the public hates!

At the moment though, all this political grandstanding on the bodies of the dead by Cameron and Obama quite simply disgusts me!

Equality and Diversity; Can We Really Have Our Cake & Eat It?

I was struck this week by yet another ‘equality’ story which pitted gay rights against religious beliefs. We saw the case a few years ago of the bed and breakfast that refused a gay couple a room because it was against their Christian values, in that case the Christians lost. This week’s case has similar overtones, though I think there’s an element of entrapment going on here.

The story this week involved a Christian family business in Northern Ireland being threatened with legal action for refusing to bake a cake in support of gay rights. Ashers Bakery (incidentally, they’re named after a verse in the Bible) turned down an order for a cake featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie and the slogan ‘Support gay marriage’. They’ve now been threatened with legal action after the gay rights activist who placed the order complained that equality laws had been breached.

The bakery owner is quoted as saying “I would like the outcome of this to be that any Christians running a business could be allowed to follow their Christian beliefs and principles in the day-to-day running of the business and that they are allowed to make decisions based on that”. - Sounds a reasonable view to me.

It’s interesting that the cake was to have the slogan ‘Support gay marriage’ on it. Interesting in the fact that Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where it has not been made legal. It was also to have the logo of the activist’ campaign group, QueerSpace. After the bakery rejected the order and offered a refund, the activists complained to the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland, which has written to Ashers warning of legal for breaching the law by discriminating against the customer on the grounds of his sexual orientation.

 

Equality v Diversity

As I have written previously, I’m an atheist so have no cut either way regarding religions, what is interesting though is the fact that in this case they’re pitting equality against diversity. The lefty’s heads must be in a spin over this one. Who’s right? Who’s wrong?

In the last few decades, we in this Christian country have been forced to respect others, particularly gay and Muslims. But this case seems to prove that while we respect them, they don’t respect the views of others. There are many bakers in Northern Ireland, why go to this one? If you were tolerant you’d find another baker, why make it a thing?

While I support gay marriage, each to their own I say, at the moment not everyone has that view. It seems the activists have deliberately targeted this business which is silly. It's like me asking a Jewish or Muslim bakery to bake an "Eat More Pork" cake. They wouldn't want to. I wouldn't be offended, but then again I wouldn't ask them in the first place.

Entrapment

I would like to see these activists go into a Muslim cake shop with the same cake order; they’re obviously not brave enough to try this blackmail and coercion on them. They knew the owner was going to say no and break the law, so is that not entrapment?

Conversely, if I walked into a halal butchers and asked for meat slaughtered according to my religious beliefs, would I get it? I doubt it somewhat. You cannot do for one what you will not do for another.

If you're going to let other religions follow their beliefs in their work life i.e. Islam then you have to do the same for all. Unfortunately white Christians are an easy target when you live in a lefty society.

It seems, as we’ve seen many times before with the left, that activists use threats to force people to agree with their position. I'm sure the fact they are actually demonstrating dogmatic intolerance is lost on them.

Freedom

Personally like I’ve said, my opinion is to live and let live. I support everyone’s right to choose and that has to include this bakery. Surely serving a customer should be at the discretion of the business owner? If you run a business you should have an absolute right to decline any order you don’t want to service.  If you choose, you should be able to run your business in line with your religious beliefs.

We may not believe in the same ethical principles whether they be religious or sexual preference as one another, it’s still important to respect people’s right to hold their opinion or beliefs.

Many many people in this land have fought, suffered and died fighting for our right to live in a democratic society. Today we generally live in times where we can express our religious, political and ethical opinions freely; it’s called freedom of speech! To take that right away from just one person makes us just as bad as the dictators and fascists our predecessors fought against over all those years.

Freedom of conscience must take precedence over state legislated "equality" provisions. The state should not be forcing people to do something that in their conscience they morally oppose. And at the end of the day is gay marriage really anti-Christian? Shouldn't we all 'love our neighbours' no matter what?

Border Control - It’s Not Racism, It’s Simple Maths !

Firstly apologies for no blog posts recently, I’ve just changed jobs so the blog hasn’t been my number one priority, anyway back on track now with a subject I’m surprised I’ve never tackled before, immigration control !

It’s All About the Numbers

For me, immigration is quite simply about the numbers. This is the basic, simple, fundamental point that our politicians seem to continually fail to grasp. I suspect the vast majority of the British people aren’t currently overly worried about EU citizens coming to the UK and sponging off our welfare state though this liberal view is changing by the day as we see a general unwillingness of politicians to value the indigenous population of the UK.

  

I think, in general we understand that most immigrants work very hard. We see it every day of our lives and we appreciate their contribution to a successful economy in the UK.

We’re only Small

The concerns that many of us have, is about the size of the country in proportion to our continually growing population. We’re concerned how our little, overcrowded country can possibly sustain, literally limitless numbers of people coming in from the rest of the European Union. How can that growth be open-ended? How can it just go on forever?

It’s about our infrastructure which isn’t designed for a population of the current proportions let alone a growing one. It’s about places in schools; it’s about houses and flats; it’s about our overcrowded roads and transport infrastructure. It’s about the NHS, about hospital beds, A&E waiting times and how long we have to wait to see our GP.

Quite simply it’s all about the numbers!

Government Doesn’t Get It

The Government has been boasting that it has got non-EU immigration down. Well done, it’s a start. But why is that really something to be proud of? All it means is that it is far harder to work in the UK, and thats for the doctor from India, the teacher from New Zealand or the engineer from Canada. These are the people we should be welcoming with open arms.

The bigger problem is the numbers coming from the EU, in particular the Eastern Europeans, the benefit tourists, the ones that come here to use our free NHS and contribute nothing. At the end of the day though, benefit tourism isn’t the main issue and it never will be. Uncontrolled, infinite, limitless immigration is the real problem. The simple fact that anyone with an EU passport can come to the UK is the problem.

Recently the Prime Minister spelled it out to us in the clearest possible terms that as part of the UK’s ‘renegotiation’ with the EU he’s planning, he won’t even be attempting to negotiate controlling EU immigration. His actual words were “It is right that people should be able to move across Europe to work”. So he can’t make his position any clearer. Call Me Dave needs to wake up and smell the coffee, this one issue could easily lose him next year’s General Election.

So What Do We Do?

What can we do really? If immigration continues at the current level we could massively increase our infrastructure maybe? Nope, that one’s dead in the water, we haven’t got the space and can’t afford it anyway.

Personally I think we need to go back to basics, back to the simple things. Like getting an understanding as a nation of what we want from immigration. For that we first need to separate immigration and asylum seekers (which are another issue entirely). Immigration should be about what newcomers can do for us, not simply what we can do for them, the unaffordability of our welfare state, the NHS and our job market dictates this. As a model, the Australian one works for me.

This doesn’t sort the bigger issue of EU migrants and I’m sorry, but the only ways that one will be solved would be to blatantly disobey the EU rules and say “No, UK not EU rules take precedent”, this would be a legal minefield. In the interim though we should put some limits on our services in place, examples being you can only claim benefits after you have been a UK taxpayer for say two years, similarly, you can only utilise the NHS for free when you’ve paid National Insurance contributions for over a year. These are measures that show the immigrant is committed to living in and supporting the UK. These are simple things that I think most people would support.

Alternatively we simply leave the EU, Government’s willingness to avoid the issue means this is actually looking like the main option, especially after the results of recent EU and local elections where UKIP took significant votes from all the main parties showing the strength of feeling the people of this country have over the issue.

One thing I could guarantee, is that an in/out referendum on EU membership before the General Election would remove UKIP from the election frame; it would probably get David Cameron re-elected and it might actually sort the issue once and for all, as I suspect the result would be ‘OUT’.