look over there ...

One of the great gifts of this assignment in the sun, away from the everyday dramas which distract us, is the time, space and silence to examine what's going on .... and to explore possible alternatives to the carnage of decaying capitalism ...

Eschewing television, radio and newspapers, those powerful tools of mind control, clears the way for broader perspectives. One of the tricks of those who would manipulate us, is to shift our attention from the real issues to spurious, divisive ones .... which can be presented in simple stories, promoted in emotive formats, pushing us into one camp or another, there to cheer our team, sneer at theirs.

Let's take a look at a topic guaranteed to generate more emotion than analysis - the National Health Services of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Set up in 1948 as a socialist project, it was always compromised by the power of the senior doctors (its founder Nye Bevan said he stuffed their mouths with gold to get them to agree to it). Since the mechanistic model was in full swing, pharmeceutical companies found willing customers amongst doctors looking to fix symptoms ... indeed the relationship was corrupt throughout as the drug business sponsored conferences in exotic locations (plus golf) to curry favour ... any amount of freebies followed to remind prescribers who and how to thank for the largesse.

Notwithstanding all that, the NHS became the envy of the world and rightly so ... no longer did we have to count the pennies to see if we could afford to see the doctor. .. and so, like any successful business, it grew ... and since the lifestyle factors, the main determinant of health, were working against well-being, with massive marketing budgets promoting poisonous processed food, sedentary lives, meaningless lives, there was an ever growing market for what became a National Illness Service ... and opportunities for corporations, taking over socialised utilities and services ...

This process, part of the neo-liberal trend of the past three decades, went on remorselessly and seamlessly, whichever political party or coalition held power ... yet somehow the Labour Party positioned itself as the friend of the NHS ... and things became more bizarre in the recent referendum on EU membership, when outlandish claims tying together EU budgets and NHS budgets were cynically plastered on campaign posters ... and swiftly denied after the vote ...

This referendum, composed of supporters and opponents of EU membership from across the political and apolitical spectrum very soon polarised into "liberal status quo" and dangerously radical right wing ... as if the EU was a steady ship, with stable economies, sailing smoothly into a prosperous future ... which it palpably was not ... decaying capitalism takes a while and the wealthy folk of all countries are hanging on to the money as if it is real and not just the expression of economic power backed up by armies ...

The left wing argument against the EU, long supported by the Labour leader (who half-heartedly switched sides to present an establishment status quo) was lost in all the racist rhetoric ... and fear came to the fore ... fear of the foreigners on one side, fear of change on the other .... in the end the out voters, suffering economically, socially, politically felt there was less to fear in change than in the status quo ... and left wing organisations in other EU countries are emboldened to challenge the status quo too ... as, of course, are the racists  ...

This drama has a long way to go, with lots of plots to play out ... the warring Tories working out how to salvage something ... the Labour establishment ganging up on their leader (who, to his credit, never wanted the job in the first place), the revolt sparked by the son of socialist icon Tony Benn and who betrayed his leader and party members by supporting air strikes on Syria ... unforgivable ringing in the early hours to let him know, grounds itself for a sacking ... surely it could wait until after breakfast ....

So, this momentous decision has changed the landscape across the world, since the UK is still a major economic power and the City of London a centre of financial shenanigans ... widening the perspective, maybe this is the start of the end ... the messy breakdown of an economic system past its time ... narrowing the perspective, this blogger is a tenner down on a bet with a good friend and Daily Telegraph reader (and sometime writer) ... and, parked in Spain, finding fewer euros for the pension pounds ...