The day after the announcement that air defence missiles are being stationed around London to guard the Olympic stadium from the Luftwaffe and the army will be coveing the turnstiles from armoured vehicles, we have the arrest of six Muslims, three of them in Stratford, for yet another famous “terrorist plot”. The Guardian reports this as a “pre-planned operation”. You betcha.

What scares me so much is that is blindingly obvious what kind of society we are becoming, but so many people refuse to see it.

Henry Sheilds as me and Nathan Ives Moiba as Colonel Isaac in One Turbulent Ambassador, on until 10 July at the Lyric Hammersmith.

One Turbulent Ambassador

Believe it or not, I haven’t actually seen One Turbulent Ambassador yet, largely because I am on the wrong continent. But there is a very interesting interview with Robin Soans about the play by the Cambridge academic Scott Antony in Exeunt.

I rather liked this judgement:

History is a strange and fickle creature,’ smiles Soans, ‘at the time of his demise Craig Murray was a figure of ridicule, and Tony Blair cast him out as a traitor. But he’s now a rector of a university and addresses student rallies and appears on television and talks really very intelligently, while anyone of discernment has no time for anything Tony Blair has to say at all. Virtually everything says he’s ludicrous. So much of what he said was duplicitous, and underhand, and not even approaching the truth. And that’s just seven or eight years and history has already done a volte face.

But some of it is a bit tough for me to read, like this:

The students and Jessica said I think you’re emphasising the heroic side of this man, rather than the shitty things he’s done to various people and the trail of misery he’s left in his wake.

But then as the great man himself said

O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An’ foolish notion

I am on tenterhooks for some honest feedback. There are I think only three performances left. If you can catch one, please do leave your impressions here.

The hopelessness of New Labour as a vehicle of change is underlined by their fixation with “judge-led” inquiries into anything that crops up. Remember the Hutton whitewash? Will a senior judge really recommend the fundamental reform of casino banking in the City of London and the careers of the banking squillionaires he undoubtedly knows so well at his club, lodge and golf course?

Which of these best describes most senior judges?

a) A fearless crusader for truth and social justice with unimpeachable morals and the intellectual stringency of a great philosopher

or

b) A very well paid establishment figure with an authoritarian streak who got his position from Jack Straw or his predecessors by very carefully in his career never stepping out of line with the very powerful.

Frankly, it makes no difference at all whether politicians or judges conduct the inquiry into banking practices. It’ll be the same old whitewash. Andrew Tyrie MP happens to be one of the very few decent people in parliament. But if he does chair the inquiry as Cameron proposes, be sure the forces of control will rapidly close over his head.

I didn’t bother to watch the Bob Diamond select committee appearance yesterday. In fact, I have come to terms with the (to me) shocking fact that I now believe our political system to be so corrupt that our horribly and increasingly unequal society will eventually, and rightly, be changed by extra-parliamentary means. Probably not in my lifetime, but one day. I never imagined I would end up believing that.

The political blogosphere will buzz today with parliamentary debate on the banks. It seems obvious to me that parliament is not going to do anything against the financial services paymasters of the politicians.

Parliament is irrelevant.