A Rose by Any Other Name...

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The tragedy of our current political situation here in the UK - the disaffection and disassociation of the majority: formerly known as the working classes, the hoi polloi or simply 'the common'; from any true engagement in politics and the democratic process is down to two key factors: the appallingly bad approach to teaching history that has always prevailed at school level; focussing on the history of privilege and conquest at the expense of the rôle and fate of the majority throughout the centuries; and to be truthful, the unstintingly boring nature of the political process.

It takes time, a degree of education and it takes effort to get a grip on the underpinnings of democracy: a combination of needs that most people simply don't have in sufficient abundance. Coupled with a spurious and credit-fuelled 'prosperity' that feeds into a sense of entitlement and being part of 'the club', and the Right will always have a field day convincing otherwise much poorer people that they represent their collective best interests, despite all credible evidence to the opposite. Lard this with a media system controlled for the most part by the stupidly rich and their aspiring acolytes: only too happy to provide a heady dose of tribal bullshit, and the Left are up the proverbial without one.

All of this has happened in my lifetime: my dad's parents never really saw too many of the benefits that organised Socialist thought brought to us after the Second War - the Welfare State hadn't kicked in fully when they died - they and my father remembered a life without a National Health Service: they remembered a time when the Workhouse was a thing; a life of relative poverty during the Great Depression and beyond. And let's not forget who and what caused that: the speculating rich and their overarching need for the control of money, privilege and political power over the masses.

If you voted Tory today and you fall into that group we might still call working class, I'm sorry for your decision: it may well come back to haunt you and your children, big time. As for me, I'm growing old and the effects of all of this might not yet impact on me personally: that it is so will be no comfort to my son or his husband in future years. The USA got it right with Biden - sadly, we've taken ourselves back generations here: Organisation and political/historical awareness should not be seen as some throwback: it is what has got us to our present position of relative prosperity, with free health care when needed and not at the drop of a credit card. If any one organisation should be praised, supported and funded at the moment, it's the NHS, not this sham of a government.

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