More is Usually Less

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Another day, another twist, or rather twists, in the tale of woe in which we, wearyingly, find ourselves. Interesting to listen to Professor Tim Wilson on his YouTube feed, outlining just why the Braverman bill is essentially illicit, and another channel, Novara Media also discussing the same thread of thought: under international refugee and asylum law, you cannot enter a country illegally. You seek to gain legal asylum  status on arrival in the country. As both point out, the onus of responsibility is on the government of that particular country to assess and process whatever claims are made in a timely and even-handed manner: something presently sorely lacking in our case as a nation. As for the government's attempt to deflect from their culpability by accusing Lineker et al. of overstating the severity of Tory rhetoric regarding the whole issue; if you listen to them debating said issue - available on YouTube, folks - the other evening, I think that the phrase 'shooting oneself in the foot' springs to mind.

Rabid is the only description that fits: language, that if you read your history, would not have been out of place in early 1930s Germany, where such phrases as heard in the debate - under the protection of parliamentary privilege - would have been common currency, and which, if uttered publicly these days, would probably, rightly, land you in court on a charge of racial hatred and incitement. If you want to witness the power of 'apparent reason' to subvert reason itself in the service of a malign ideology: the normalization of the extreme, just watch Leni Riefenstahl's masterpiece of propagandism: "The Triumph of the Will". Lineker did not equate or seek to compare the Tories with the emerging Nazi party of the early thirties. He just pointed out that from small trespasses do gross injustices grow.

Interesting also to see that Hunt's flagship childcare reforms - aid(?) are simply the usual Tory vapourware that we have come to know and loathe: just kicking the can down the road, yet again: taking the kudos for an unimplemented future benefit right now. By the time this policy kicks in, the current generation of babies and toddlers whose parents need help now, will be in the school system anyway, and under the duty of care of a Labour government. Abnegation of responsibility, wrapped up as 'policy', in an utterly cynical attempt to garner votes in the very vain hope of re-election in the coming months. Given that Sunak managed to keep the economy afloat during the pandemic's worst months with on-the-spot decisions - albeit prodded into action severely by the opposition - this prevarication is ironic in the extreme. If the will is there, the actions can follow, and in short order. Churchill - not someone I particularly enjoy citing - used the phrase "Action this day" when the occasion warranted: get it bloody done, because it needs doing now. That applies as much in peacetime as in war...

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