Poor judgement

Gordon Brown has stated for the record that he is against any new legislation to make assisted suicide legal. He says that the government shouldn't "put pressure on people to end their lives". But that misses the point. Making a law stating that someone who is severely ill or disabled (but who is unable to commit suicide due to that illness or disability) can ask somebody else to help with the suicide without fear of legal repercussions, is simply not the same as coercing somebody to take their own life. Brown's opinion that they are the same thing reeks of political spin in an attempt to avoid getting too deeply involved in something that could have a detrimental effect on his popularity. It is not as if a law would result in people killing others and then using the defence of assisted suicide as an excuse to get away with murder! The law could easily be implemented around an institution like the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland where professionals and counsellors are on hand to ensure that the person wishing to die is in no way being manipulated into it before giving them the means to end it all. But of course, Gordon Brown stated these opinions when in discussion with Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor (who for some reason always insists that his middle name is reported in news stories!), the head of the Catholic Church in England; I should have known that the dubious morality was coming from the religious lobby and decadent scripture; it's just terribly unfortunate that the Prime Minister of a country is so easily manipulated himself. Perhaps Brown is worried that if he did pass an assisted dying law someone would convince him to commit suicide. Or perhaps politics and religion are just far too intertwined for the occurrence of any social progression.

Negotiation And Manipulation

Difficult Issues

The postal strikes are continuing unabated with no end currently in sight. The sides are now even becoming petty as the Royal Mail accuses the Communication Workers' Union of talking "cobblers"! The ability to compromise is apparently impossible on both sides. But surely this is not the way to behave. As much as I loathe the way in which competition in capitalist business structures cause the workers to lose out to unsocial working hours, insulting wage increases and a domineering attitude from managers, strike action will never be the solution. If an organisation were to give in to the strikers' demands then a precedent would be set which would be extremely difficult to reverse: every time the workers had a grievance they would simply strike, get their demands granted and the business would quickly sink without trace for being uncompetitive causing everyone to lose their jobs. I also don't believe that the postal workers are gaining a great deal of sympathy with the general public as more and more post gets delayed in a backlog which will inevitably cause some of that post to go astray; it's certainly not a situation that I'm happy with! Surely a more intelligent line of attack would be to exploit the fact that Trade Unions are a major source of funding for the Labour Party. If the CWU made a pledge that all of its members were immediately switching their allegiance and their money to the Liberal Democrats, the government would go into a panic-stricken frenzy in order to solve the conflict. Just a suggestion, I really wouldn't expect anybody else to come up with anything that bright. However, I'm not trying to make these issues sound simple and I certainly don't support the fat-cat bigwigs and their typical coercive tactics, but in the current climate of people getting increasingly irritated at not receiving their post, it will only take one cheap and efficient competitor to close in on the domestic postal-service market for Royal Mail to vanish from people's minds like an old memory.












Patronising Politics

Gordon Brown has recently indulged in (or at least failed to damp down) profligate speculation on whether a General Election was going to be called. After seeing the Conservative Party do so well at their conference and the subsequent polls, the Prime Minister elected to restrain himself, lying to the general public by telling them that this was the decision he would have made anyway. But it gets even worse from the Labour spin doctors. During the Tory conference, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne had been forced to unveil a policy (due to the possible looming election!) of increasing the threshold of inheritance tax. Now that the election is not happening, Chancellor Alistair Darling has released his plan in his pre-Budget speech today to - surprise, surprise! - increase the threshold for inheritance tax, apparently something he had planned on doing all along. What a coincidence! Exactly how stupid are British people meant to be nowadays? This sort of political manipulation is abhorrent and is something I was hoping Labour would get away from now that Tony Blair had cleared off to Europe. Seemingly this is not to be, and for the time being politics will continue in its condescending lunacy.

Brown And Thatcher?!

When Gordon Brown - the Labour Prime Minister - invites former right-wing extremist Margaret Thatcher to a pleasant meeting at Downing Street, something is going seriously awry in the world of politics. This is a woman who if she had her way would decimate the NHS and make the meaning of life become getting rich! Of course Brown is never going to return to the glory values of Old Labour socialism, but to have tea and cakes with the arch-nemesis from the past is slapping previous leaders and reformers in the face. I imagine Tony Benn must be fuming while Clement Attlee turns in his grave. Up until this point Brown has acquitted himself with a steady, forthright attitude towards politics which I condone (and I certainly have no problems with the word 'stoical' as some of the media seem to), but this latest betrayal of great ideologies is an unnerving glance into what the future may bring. Hopefully, it will just be a glitch and policies will continue to rule news rather than self-promotional spin of being a 'conviction politician', or should that be 'conceited'.

Dictatorship and Cowardice

Dictatorship
It was decided today that Gordon Brown would enter No. 10 Downing Street as British Prime Minister entirely unopposed. This is shameful for the democracy of a civilised nation. The obsessive control freaks of the New-Labour party have closed ranks yet again so that their members and trade union links will be denied their right to a vote. Brown must be creaming his pants right now with delight; spin and dictatorial methods of leadership have once more won the day. The left-wing opinion has been shoved out by a totalitarian ideology due to fear and a need for power. The only slight silver lining is that the deputy leadership contest looks to be very exciting and close; I only wonder exactly what say they will have in the running of this country.

Cowardice
It was also decided today that Prince Harry would not be allowed to go to Iraq. Where have the days gone when our great leaders would charge the country's forces into battle, when legends could be made of figureheads such as Henry V and William Wallace? Of course I understand that these times were long ago, but the world needs heroes and bravery - this was denied us today. Harry isn't afraid! It's just the politically correct 'leaders' who are scared for their own jobs! Where will they be when the charge of war commences? Probably back home drinking vintage wine and patronising their juniors. One senior army figure even had the demeaning attitude to say that Harry has "determination and undoubted talent - and I do not say that lightly"; if he truly meant that, he wouldn't hesitate to send the Prince into battle; there are more ways to get the Prince into Iraq than having to continually inform the gluttonous media about it, just have some guts and determination. I can't help feeling that the British armed forces, along with this country, has become cowardly.

Capitalism dominates again

So Gordon Brown's probably going to be the new British Prime Minister when the Labour sheep vote him in. He might even be marginally better than Tony Blair, by a margin of about 0.01%. I'd so love for old Labour to make a comeback and for Michael Meacher or John McDonnell to get in, bringing back a certain sense of socialism and redistribution of wealth. At least then my wanker boss wouldn't be able to pay me minimum fucking wage while he scrapes profits from the business to put into his own million pound trust fund. Gordon 'take a big breath' Brown is going to be almost identical to Blair in widening the gap between rich and poor, allowing personal religious fundamentalisms to interfere in national and world politics, burying socialism as far underground as is humanly possible so that kids nowadays have never even heard that there are alternative ideologies out there, and spinning every policy so that capitalism will once again reign supreme! Prime Minister Davros will look over his sheep and chuckle himself to sleep at night knowing that those who can make the most money - indiscriminately persecuting those without such ruthless ambition - will always hold the power of social and financial repression, while the hard working, honest-to-goodness decent people in the majority of the western world will struggle unsuccessfully to make morality the guiding issue of the moment rather than strengthening the economy. But will anybody else realise this? Not really, because although we live in the 21st century, the proletariat still deludes itself into thinking that they are in their rightful place of repressed workers and that there is nothing to be done. Then again, I don't really know what to do either, but at least I've got the brass balls big enough to have a diatribe about it to anyone who'll listen!
I hope you liked my rant, because there will no doubt be more to come in the near future; just wait till I get started on religion. If, however, you found this reading a little heavy, please feel free to go and watch another episode of Big Brother or Eastenders, or go and hang around with some chavs, you ignorant fuck!