For readers from countries outside of the Disunited Kingdom, a collective madness has descended upon this benighted land as the political class embark on another episode of the great soap opera which is "democracy" in late stage capitalism. Mainstream media is fully signed up, with the leading characters getting some great scripts .... social media joins in enthusiastically ... even many of the commentators who critique the charade are pulled in to add their energy ... the result being more polarisation and collective energy focusing on trivia .... watch out for more serious dramas playing out while we are distracted!
And whilst not wishing to add too much attention energy, having started, it is best to explain a little ...
The Disunited Kingdom jibe is prompted by various sub-plots ... the UK having split nearly 50:50 in the referendum on whether to quit the economic union with much of the rest of Europe ... Scotland strongly against leaving, finding new energy for independence ... having narrowly voted to stay in the UK at the previous referendum ... Wales, having polled more in favour of leaving the EU, now reconsidering, along with many other folks gulled into voting to leave by highly misleading promises, since reneged upon ... Northern Ireland currently without a functioning devolved government and having voted to remain, moving steadily towards a united Ireland, within the EU ... maybe ... and another plot twist as the nice guy persona of Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is tarnished by historical ties with the IRA to undermine his credibility, as if many of his own treacherous MPs weren't enough to cope with ... meanwhile, a more rounded view of the Northern Ireland political tale is told after the recent death of Martin McGuiness, young firebrand IRA commander who led the peace deal for the Republicans, and became close personal friends with his nemesis, Ian Paisley, erstwhile chief rabble rouser of the Unionists, as they embarked on power sharing in the devolved administration ...
Of course saying that "Scotland" voted for this, "Wales" voted for that and so on, is fairly meaningless ... as with all these artificial constructs which separate humanity ...
Current Prime Minister, Theresa May, who campaigned against leaving the EU in the Referendum, now leading the exit, is playing the Villain role in the pantomime, whilst Jeremy Corbyn, who was historically against the EU from a Bennite leftist position, campaigned to stay in and will not change that for the election .... which means that the issue currently top of the political agenda in the country, to continue the process of apparent economic suicide by quitting, or to review the situation and call the whole thing off, has no major force campaigning for the review ... peculiar ...
Which raises the question of why these two parties and their two leaders would vie for the poison chalice of disentangling UK and EU affairs ... a chalice swiftly declined by the instigator of the referendum in the first place, PR man David Cameron ...
Such is the madness we are invited to join ...
Meanwhile, news arrives from two friends with first hand experience of the world beyond political and media disinformation ... mostly confirming and enriching the views expressed in these ramblings ... new information suggests that Peak Oil is an untrue story and that technology is increasingly able to exploit reserves of oil and gas previously left in the ground, along with new sources being discovered ... whether continuing with carbon extraction is desirable being another question altogether ...just understand that humans making huge sums of money in the business ...in the words of a Scottish pipeline supplier to me on the station at Dyce, Aberdeen Airport, some years ago: "Listen, these people are addicted to oil and they will keep going until they have squeezed the last drop out of the Earth". Scary!
Meanwhile, money, the root of all this evil, is itself teetering on the brink ... since its only true purpose, which is as a medium of exchange, has been so subverted by greed ...
Well, there's the political rant over for a while. If it's any comfort, the UK Panto is far less risible than the USA version ... perhaps reflecting a less sophisticated audience across the Atlantic Ocean ...
And what if none of it was real?
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