I don’t envy my British friends who last week went dutifully to vote for someone they deeply despise. In UK, people don’t vote directly for the Prime Minister; they vote for MPs who in turn pick the PM.
Remembering reign of three consecutive Tory administrations which turned Britain into an experimental lab supervised by free market fundamentalists, most of the voters thought that they had no choice but to insure that the present status quo, no matter how disagreeable and distasteful, prevails. They felt they simply couldn’t vote for Conservatives. They closed their eyes and cast their vote for Labor, no matter how “new” and how treacherous it became. Therefore, Tony Blair, a man associated with shameful lies, survived.
According to Greg Palast: “…The majority of the Queens subjects – deathly afraid of the return of Margaret Thatcher’s vampirical Tory spawn – holds their noses, vote for their local Labour MP and pray that an act of God will save their happy isle. A recent poll showed the British evenly divided: forty percent want Blair to encounter a speeding double-decker bus and forty percent want him to stretched, scalded and quartered in the Tower of London (within a sampling margin of four percent).”
“Special relationship” with George Bush and his neocons across Atlantic is one, but not the only reason, for the scorn so many Britons feel towards their Prime Minister. Blair is obsessed with America, willing to sacrifice social and political principals in his own country which are still dear to so many U.K. citizens.
The well educated and informed majority of British public was opposing invasion of Iraq. However, it was first ignored and then offered a primitive and twisted lecture about democracy and freedom. Lecture repeatedly delivered in an arrogant tone full of spite, resembling that of some old fashioned secondary school principal.
The British public woke up to a cold reality: no matter how high the percentage of those who were opposing the war, the only voices which seemed to matter were those coming from the White House and Downing Street.
The war was not the only issue surrounded by doublespeak and outright lies. While giving passionate speeches defending the working men and women of Britain, Tony Blair was presiding over the monumental dismantling of what was left of both British Labor and the welfare state. True, he was not alone; the same was happening in Germany which was ruled by the Social Democrats (or should they be called “New” Social Democrats, too?), but he was surely in the vanguard, running closely with his counterpart across the Atlantic.
On the international front, the United Kingdom under Blair while sounding increasingly compassionate and concerned about the fate of poor world (at least two thirds of the planet) remained practically idle and indifferent towards the lands devastated by colonial and more recent neo-colonial policies.
There is no doubt that on almost all important issues, Tony Blair refuses to take under consideration the will of the British people. While he joined Washington hawks, British public was demanding peace. While he was assassinating progressive traditions of Labor, the majority of working men and women felt they didn’t ask for it – they were fine with the good old and real thing!
How to defenestrate someone like Mr. Blair from power? Across the rich world, people of Europe, North America, and Japan are dissatisfied, often disgusted with their rulers, while feeling powerless; unable to find a way to vote into the highest office someone who would represent their interests. They often vote for a “lesser evil” as major political parties look increasingly identical, pushing for almost the same domestic and international agendas.
In the past, voting for Democrats or Republicans in the US, Social Democrats or Christian Democrats in Germany, Labor or Conservatives in the U.K., would make a serious difference and influence lives of millions of people. Now almost all differences are gone – every major political force is “pro-business”, ready to defend the privileges of the handful of countries, companies, and individuals.
Voters are angry and frustrated. Often they choose to “punish” their rulers, applying desperate acts like giving millions of votes to neo-Nazis (Germany and France) – a counter-productive undertaking.
If political climate was – unscientifically – measured by opinions in the local European cafes and pubs, it would be clear that a majority of Europeans still desire elaborate social safety nets, full employment, free education and medical care, heavily subsidized public transportation – all that is being taken away from them, little by little. Germans (on both sides of the former wall) nostalgically remember privileges of the social state; French and Italians are, in their majority, still closer to 1960s ideals of left-wing parties than to the oligarchic principals of people like Berlusconi.
But people were told – by the media and by the mainstream politicians – that the Left was finished after the collapse of Berlin Wall, that there is no going back. And “thousand times repeated lie becomes truth.” Clichés are not challenged, anymore – at least not publicly – as the media became complacent with the system.
The Left didn’t die! No matter how often we hear that it did – it is still alive. It was kicked out from the Presidential palaces and PM offices, from television studios and newspapers. But it survived in the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of voters. They have to make sure that they meet again; find each other – The Left and the citizens. They have plenty in common!
For now, Tony Blair will remain in power. But he didn’t win. He merely outmaneuvered the British public, employing an antiquated election system which doesn’t represent the interest of the people. He is clever enough to know what occurred and one has to wonder whether this victory is going to make him sleep well or feel shame, at least at night, behind the closed doors.
In the meantime, the British voters had no choice and they are well aware of it. Paradoxically, unless they demand a change, they may end up – like many in the former colonies where the western interests were force-fed through a corrupt political system and through the US-subsidized coups – not being able to express their will through the ballot. If they could, they would probably vote for real Labor which is battered but not yet defeated.
I don’t envy my British friends who last week went dutifully to vote for someone they deeply despise. In UK, people don’t vote directly for the Prime Minister; they vote for MPs who in turn pick the PM.
Remembering reign of three consecutive Tory administrations which turned Britain into an experimental lab supervised by free market fundamentalists, most of the voters thought that they had no choice but to insure that the present status quo, no matter how disagreeable and distasteful, prevails. They felt they simply couldn’t vote for Conservatives. They closed their eyes and cast their vote for Labor, no matter how “new” and how treacherous it became. Therefore, Tony Blair, a man associated with shameful lies, survived.
According to Greg Palast: “…The majority of the Queens subjects – deathly afraid of the return of Margaret Thatcher’s vampirical Tory spawn – holds their noses, vote for their local Labour MP and pray that an act of God will save their happy isle. A recent poll showed the British evenly divided: forty percent want Blair to encounter a speeding double-decker bus and forty percent want him to stretched, scalded and quartered in the Tower of London (within a sampling margin of four percent).”
“Special relationship” with George Bush and his neocons across Atlantic is one, but not the only reason, for the scorn so many Britons feel towards their Prime Minister. Blair is obsessed with America, willing to sacrifice social and political principals in his own country which are still dear to so many U.K. citizens.
The well educated and informed majority of British public was opposing invasion of Iraq. However, it was first ignored and then offered a primitive and twisted lecture about democracy and freedom. Lecture repeatedly delivered in an arrogant tone full of spite, resembling that of some old fashioned secondary school principal.
The British public woke up to a cold reality: no matter how high the percentage of those who were opposing the war, the only voices which seemed to matter were those coming from the White House and Downing Street.
The war was not the only issue surrounded by doublespeak and outright lies. While giving passionate speeches defending the working men and women of Britain, Tony Blair was presiding over the monumental dismantling of what was left of both British Labor and the welfare state. True, he was not alone; the same was happening in Germany which was ruled by the Social Democrats (or should they be called “New” Social Democrats, too?), but he was surely in the vanguard, running closely with his counterpart across the Atlantic.
On the international front, the United Kingdom under Blair while sounding increasingly compassionate and concerned about the fate of poor world (at least two thirds of the planet) remained practically idle and indifferent towards the lands devastated by colonial and more recent neo-colonial policies.
There is no doubt that on almost all important issues, Tony Blair refuses to take under consideration the will of the British people. While he joined Washington hawks, British public was demanding peace. While he was assassinating progressive traditions of Labor, the majority of working men and women felt they didn’t ask for it – they were fine with the good old and real thing!
How to defenestrate someone like Mr. Blair from power? Across the rich world, people of Europe, North America, and Japan are dissatisfied, often disgusted with their rulers, while feeling powerless; unable to find a way to vote into the highest office someone who would represent their interests. They often vote for a “lesser evil” as major political parties look increasingly identical, pushing for almost the same domestic and international agendas.
In the past, voting for Democrats or Republicans in the US, Social Democrats or Christian Democrats in Germany, Labor or Conservatives in the U.K., would make a serious difference and influence lives of millions of people. Now almost all differences are gone – every major political force is “pro-business”, ready to defend the privileges of the handful of countries, companies, and individuals.
Voters are angry and frustrated. Often they choose to “punish” their rulers, applying desperate acts like giving millions of votes to neo-Nazis (Germany and France) – a counter-productive undertaking.
If political climate was – unscientifically – measured by opinions in the local European cafes and pubs, it would be clear that a majority of Europeans still desire elaborate social safety nets, full employment, free education and medical care, heavily subsidized public transportation – all that is being taken away from them, little by little. Germans (on both sides of the former wall) nostalgically remember privileges of the social state; French and Italians are, in their majority, still closer to 1960s ideals of left-wing parties than to the oligarchic principals of people like Berlusconi.
But people were told – by the media and by the mainstream politicians – that the Left was finished after the collapse of Berlin Wall, that there is no going back. And “thousand times repeated lie becomes truth.” Clichés are not challenged, anymore – at least not publicly – as the media became complacent with the system.
The Left didn’t die! No matter how often we hear that it did – it is still alive. It was kicked out from the Presidential palaces and PM offices, from television studios and newspapers. But it survived in the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of voters. They have to make sure that they meet again; find each other – The Left and the citizens. They have plenty in common!
For now, Tony Blair will remain in power. But he didn’t win. He merely outmaneuvered the British public, employing an antiquated election system which doesn’t represent the interest of the people. He is clever enough to know what occurred and one has to wonder whether this victory is going to make him sleep well or feel shame, at least at night, behind the closed doors.
In the meantime, the British voters had no choice and they are well aware of it. Paradoxically, unless they demand a change, they may end up – like many in the former colonies where the western interests were force-fed through a corrupt political system and through the US-subsidized coups – not being able to express their will through the ballot. If they could, they would probably vote for real Labor which is battered but not yet defeated.