Is democracy a lost cause?

It is beginning to look like the whole of Britain has lost the complete plot. The nation voted to leave the EU and ever since then the political class and mediocre liberal London elite has machinated against it. There is a simple question – what does democracy really mean? To me it seems that we have lived in a dream, continually being fed lies but in reality the public might as well get to the beach on voting days and forget all about it. Why spend billions on preparing voting papers and such when our vote means absolutely nothing? We have MPs, even some from the Cabinet who are just self-serving megalomaniacs. Take the erstwhile Chancellor – nice man in his underpants I’m sure but as a politician he might as well go home. The trouble is that MPs no longer abide by party policies and that is shown very clearly indeed by MPs clamouring for another referendum. Moreover we now have calls for another no-confidence vote coupled with Jeremy Corbyn wanting to be care-taker PM. How stupid is this going to be? MPs seem to have forgotten that it is they who rejected a ‘deal’ three times! It must be obvious, except to them it isn’t, that there is no consensus at all and therefore a ‘No deal’ is the best way forward out of the impasse. Boris is right, get it over the line and then start talking business with the EU. MPs need to remember that all this talk about a ‘deal’ means absolutely nothing. It is afterwards when heads get together to thrash out all the finer details. Secondly we here in the UK need to seriously look at how we want to be governed. It has become a bit obvious, well at least to me, that two-party politics is no longer viable. Also the way prospective MP candidates are selected. We simply have far too many Eton and Oxbridge (Oxford and Cambridge Universities) in the bag. As a result we have a political class. If you want to be a MP, it will most certainly help if you have come from the aforementioned background. It also aids the ‘brotherhood’ syndrome where those who come from the same background are preferred. The result has been a liberal aristocracy. The Labour party has adopted a view that can only be called ‘Marxist’. For those who have read Marx’ (Engels) ‘The Communist Manifesto’ will have seen the way things are going there. The class struggle is alive and well and it shows in the present situation. From where I am standing if we want a healthy system we must adopt proportional representation. Simply take out the voting for persons of whatever party you prefer. We will henceforth vote for a party. For those interested have a look at the Dutch or Belgian systems. Let’s hope that we have the courage to change and are not prepared to carry on with a system that is so wrought with problems and yes, also corruption. The act of ‘Voting’ needs to have more importance and therefore fines must be introduced for not voting. All citizens must take it as an absolute honour to be able to vote. Well, interesting I think but whatever will happen, let’s hope it’ll be good!

Infrastructure - problems? You decide...

There is a word that is used frequently in the media, infrastructure. I live in an area of Wales, not far from the capital Cardiff where an enormous amount of building is taking place. Whole farms have been taken over, flattened, and made ready for hundreds if not thousands of dwellings. These are private houses by the large building companies. The question is twofold – firstly why, do we need so many new houses? And why private dwellings and very little social housing? Secondly, has the infrastructure been updated or renewed? The first question is an interesting one because in my opinion, yes we need some new houses simply because of the altering demography. But this house building is happening everywhere. The Rhondda has a decaying housing stock, simply because of past grave mistakes and omissions made by respective governments. But owners and landlords do update the dwellings and frankly there wasn’t a big problem. Tonyrefail a smallish village of about 18,000 people has a LDP (Local Development Plan) with some 1,000+ new dwellings. That would equate to 4,000+ new inhabitants. So, quite a development in South Wales. One might ask what the rationale is? It has everything to do with movement of people westward. People moving out of the Home Counties, in particular the London/Reading areas, selling their expensive homes and relocating to Wales where housing is up to 20% cheaper! It probably stems from the rising criminal activity and lawlessness now prevailing due to government/EU policies. The Rhondda now acts as a 'sleeper town'  to take up the poorer people displaced from the richer southern Welsh areas. Whatever the cause, I am looking at areas full of houses and people but no proper infrastructure, no more doctors, dentists, or improving roads. People will want in the end use their cars to go to work and for leisure. In Tonyrefail there is just one road in and cars parked both sides of the street. It is the major bus route from the upper valleys to Cardiff. At times traffic comes to a standstill. Now all this occurs with 18,000 people, what will happen if we put another 4,000 or so on top of that? 

In the Cardiff region we talk of many more new inhabitants, up to 5,000 or even more. Apparently doctor’s appointments make waiting times of up to three weeks a normal occurrence. Local dentists said their patient registers are closed. Friends, this is just happening in a small area of Wales. We as tax payers are paying thousands for people to ‘govern’, to ensure a decent living for all. By all accounts the council chiefs can earn anything up to £200,000 per annum. With corresponding salaries for those below grades. In private firms if a manager fails they get the boot. In council/government terms, you get promoted.

Indeed, the original two questions have a bearing on that latter statement. It all circles around the quality and competence of public servants. Instead of people going to university to study home economics or pop culture (pop music that is, not lemonade) and apparently there is a university somewhere that offers studies in Harry Potter (don’t mention his underwear). Please start to study the subject of the INFRASTRUCTURE of inhabited environments, as a matter of urgency.

Social Media a scourge on humanity...

Reading the Daily Express’ political article a few days ago about social media by Mr Pollard is quite revealing. Yes, SM is a problem, particularly for 10-17 year olds. But as he said ‘Let’s not forget the adults’.

Using ‘sneering’ language is too easy. The US president governs through tweets which is not how to govern, methinks. But the genie is out of the bottle now, we have to find ways of putting it back without corking the wine. Part of the problem of course is the fact that social media shows up the bad side of humanity. It shows how powerless the lower and middle classes are in real terms. The continual reporting of ‘bad news’ is a factor as well. When politicians elected on promises of ‘I will change the way we live for the good’ forget that the public purse is not their personal purse and showing their every word good or bad then the SM gates are thrown open and the horse bolted. That is the problem, we the great unwashed, adults and kids alike can now vent our ire and disgust about our shabby lives. And with some gusto we do! But unfortunately it also takes away common sense. It warps our sense of reality. It also will make a lot of us aspire to a life unsuited generally. Just look at the celebrity cults. The only thing really is to begin anew. Yes, SM is here to stay so let us belatedly teach children how to use it properly. Starting with school.

Mass extermination or mass extinction?

There is not a great deal of difference in the outcome of both. In the first instance it means someone or ones are doing it, in the second instance some accident or happening is the cause. I saw a TV programme just called Mass Extinction that looked at the two that have happened in the far off past. One in the Permian epoch and one that put paid to the dinosaurs, the Triassic epoch. The outcome of both was that 90% of life just disappeared. The Permian extinction was attributed to an enormous volcanic upheaval somewhere what is now Siberia and the Triassic calamity was supposedly caused by a 50 kilometre asteroid plunging in the Caribbean /Mexico. In both cases it seemed that the enormous amount of gases freed coupled with darkened skies due to dust and smoke killed off plants everywhere. The Earth warmed up considerably due to carbon dioxide, sulphur and other gases. The point made was that today, humanity is taking the place of these natural disasters. We are degrading the land surface of the planet to such an extent nothing can grow. Trees are felled by the million, plastic is poisoning the oceans permeating all life within it. The funny thing is that although warnings have been coming fast and frequent, no-one is taking a blind bit of notice. We are merrily carrying on. We might have thought politicians would be more aware of the reasons why the Earth is warming up and the possible problems that will come with it.

I have said before and mentioned some research that was carried out in species’ density. In other words they wanted to see what the density of species could be in a defined living area. Obviously, food availability and space were the main issues. The same rules will count for us humans. When space gets thinned out, humans like rats will turn on each other. Food and or water becoming scarce will start a great calamity as seen many times in Africa already. Let’s hope that common sense will prevail and that we will not degrade our land by too many houses, roads and concrete over land we will need for future food production. Let’s hope that common sense will prevail and all of us will curtail our nasty habit of over-consumption in almost everything. It should now be obvious that economic growth is no longer sustainable and other ways for living need to be found and developed. How? Well, I’m not a politician or environmental scientist. But through showing my views and possible compound them with other views it will help to redress the balance.

Political class disappointing?

A report in a national newspaper today stated that the Queen (Elizabeth II) is rather disappointed in the political class and their inability to govern. No, really? Well, normally the Queen stays out of politics or rather, refrains from making public political comments. But I think that’s wrong. The Queen albeit the titular head of the nation should be able to talk about the present situation. The situation of our political class to properly govern and direct the affairs of the nation to the benefit of all. I am not sure what people think about the Theresa May government but despite all the ‘upbeat’ messages of ‘We will do Brexit because that’s what we voted for’ she was totally powerless to do so. Instead of immediately resigning she muddled on for three years together with a host of liars and people who saw a chance to further their own agendas. As I have mentioned before we needed a ‘strong’ man or woman to break the impasse. By all accounts Boris has started well, no results yet but if the rhetoric and promises come to life we will finally get back on the right track. Despite well-meaning idiots like the Green Party now trying to set up an alternate government with only women or the Labour party suddenly veering to disband the Union, yes believe it because this is Britain 2019! So, carry on Boris whip ‘m into shape, there is not much time left! Have a little snifter on me.

(For those who do not know what a snifter is – it is found in a bottle, pretty alcoholic and poured into a small glass and enjoyed drinking it, usually served in countrywide pubs).