I am watching the debate on Osborne’s Fiscal Charter live on the Parliament Channel. The barracking and baying at Caroline Lucas by roaring Tory MPs making that weird public school hawing noise was quite astounding. She was making an entirely sensible point about the viability of government borrowing to fund productive investment.
Listening to George Osborne speak, I find it hard to believe that it is seriously expected by the commentariat that this man will win the 2020 election and become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. If ordinary people find him an acceptable human being, let alone leader, I really do not understand what has become of society.
I hardly know where to start to deconstruct his speech, but one fact stands out. Osborne purported to give an overview of Britain’s economic crash and “recovery”, without making a single mention of the banking crisis or bankers’ corrupt and greedy practices as the cause of the crash, of vast banking bailouts by the taxpayer and the rapid contraction of the economy. That banker behaviour was of course accelerated by Gordon Brown’s extreme banking deregulation, but that was Brown’s great blunder, not the levels of public spending.
No, no, no – Craig – the crash was _entirely_ caused by the greed of public sector workers and excessive spending. Yes – those overpaid firemen, nurses and so on, with their lavish pensions and luxurious working conditions, they bankrupted the country – didn’t you know?
Western politics is all lies, diversions and inversions these days, ably assisted by corporate media and the BBC.
The mass of peeps who listen to this garbage are living in a fantasy world I’m afraid, and things will only get worse and worse so long as these liars in media contimue to support the corporate project.
Brown’s blunder? The crash was what the deregulation was for. Cui bono?
Good point, K.
Blunder and Blowback are but excuses for what are in fact intentional acts.
Chaos is the goal.
I am just finishing reading Nicholas Stargardt’s The German War. The book is shocking in what it reveals about the extent to which Goebbels’s propaganda succeeded in deceiving most of the German people, almost until the very end of World War Two.
Makes one pessimistic about the prospects of defeating today the propaganda of the corporate media.
Yet another sign that democracy is disappearing in Britain. Telegraph: GCHQ can spy on MPs, tribunal rules: The Investigatory Powers Tribunal said the so-called Wilson Doctrine, designed to stop intelligence agencies tapping MPs, was not enforceable in law:
Goebbels.
Useful distraction from his master, the real maestro of Propaganda, Bernays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dtg-qFPYDE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
The hermetic bobble of propaganda, even has got you you blaming the improvised, illiterate, disenfranchised we the people.
While I was on the Telegraph site, I read another article that struck this retired naval officer: US navy returns to celestial navigation amid fears of computer hack: US Navy recruits to learn how to navigate using the stars as America grows increasingly worried about possible hacking of computer navigation systems.
It isn’t only ships that rely on GPS for navigation. GPS is also used for missiles and aircraft.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the Russians never made the mistake of relying on satellite guidance alone. After all, it’s well known that they long continued to use vacuum tubes — which, unlike transistors, are not vulnerable to electromagnetic pulse — in their aircraft.
Agree Craig. He is a lightweight.
A farce. I believe 90mins was allocated for ‘debate’ on this important matter. Debate is a misnomer. There are no orators now. Most read from scripts.
Voting now with the result expected at 9pm.
The ‘Crash’ was just a harbinger of the Great Crash which will make the 1929 event seem like a kerfluffle.
Ayes 320 Noes 258 Majority 62
There are 650 MPs. Where were the others?
Cameron,Gove,Hunt,Osborne,IDS,May et al..
Fuck me,i despair of these sick twisted evil lying bastards.
Its all so very very wrong what theyre doing.
‘The BBC is hearing that about 30 Labour MPs defied the leadership by abstaining.’
That leaves 42 others who were absent or abstained.
Osborne speaking as shadow chancellor about a not too dissimilar Labour Fiscal Responsibility bill in 2010. Someone should have read this out to him in this evenings debate
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100105/debtext/100105-0012.htm
“Western politics is all lies, diversions and inversions these days”
Agreed.
The role of politics is inverted. Instead of representing the peoples views to the powers that be, then our politicians do the exact opposite. They represent the powers tb views to the people. Modern politicians are just a distraction. They are all abject failures in their primary purpose.
“The mass of peeps who listen to this garbage are living in a fantasy world I’m afraid”
Agreed again.
It is far better to ignore the main media completely. Don’t read or listen to it at all. This is particularly true for television, but the “serious” newspapers are all blatant in their deceptions, and propaganda, now as well. All of them. The media lies as a default mode. So why bother with it at all. What is there to gain?
By far the best part of Parliament today was after Cameron and Corbyn had done their stuff.
As Lysias has pointed out, the debate about the Wilson Doctrine was fascinating to behold.
It’s like the banking disaster never happened. Trillions of dollars later, with evidence of corruption and fraud aplenty – real, documented evidence that has stood up in court – nothing has changed. I think psychologists call this phenomenon ‘denial’, or similar.
The real time expirment of neoliberalism has, quite clearly, failed. Again, the evidence is clear, and the jury has ruled: failure. But it’s only the failure of it’s stated aims, it’s been rather successful in its real aims.
“But it’s only the failure of it’s stated aims, it’s been rather successful in its real aims.”
Those charged with keeping the Titanic afloat are just Innkeepers keeping the beds made and sewer functional. The plundering rapists only have acquisition as their goal and it’s a zero-sum game. The problem is human nature with greedhead aims being enabled by administrators who can find no moral quandary.
Don’t worry about Osborne becoming PM- he’s far too demonic looking for that to happen.
Edward Bernays – “Propaganda” – One of the basic texts governing modern society.
Read the whole classic book for free here:
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/bernprop.html
I also watched the debate- flicking back and forth from Sky to BBC and have to say that the BBC was far more biased towards the Tories than Sky!!
And what a complete arsehole Osborne is, all this posturing and hand wringing over a piece of legislation that means absolutely fuck all. Another game being played by the vile Osborne, that the public will pay dearly for.
Of course the Wilson doctrine is not “enforceable at law” and has no “legal basis” – this is because it is a convention and not a law.
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In any case – whatever you may think of surveillance by the intelligence services – what is the rationale for saying that MPs should be exempt? After all, it’s not inconceivable that the proportion of villains on the HoC is no smaller than that in the general population; indeed, from the many comments on this blog, it is clear that many commenters believe that the HoC consists almost exclusively of villains.
Lance Vance
“Don’t worry about Osborne becoming PM- he’s far too demonic looking for that to happen.”
____________________
Perhaps that’s why Michael Foot never became PM (that Wurzel Gummage look) and Anthony Wedgewood Benn never became Labour leader (those swivelling, mad eyes)?
RobG
“As Lysias has pointed out, the debate about the Wilson Doctrine was fascinating to behold.”
______________________
I don’t think our Transatlantic Friend said anything about watching the HoC debate, did he?
You must be on your third bottle.
“That leaves 42 others who were absent or abstained.”
“a further 16 MPs were given permission to be absent by Labour whips.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34524078
They were probably paired with Tories voting the other way – so that leaves 10 others, probably Irish etc not accounted for.
Eavesdropping on legislators is worse than eavesdropping on average citizens for the same reason that blackmailing legislators is: it subverts the whole idea of democracy.
This is the point, isn’t it, which could lead to J.Corbyn being PM in 2020.
Habba, courtesy of Channel 4 News you can watch all of today’s PMQs here…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kZHiWL59gU
I suggest you familiarise yourself with the subject before going into childish character assassination.
Here are the abstainers according to the Labour Whip’s Office:
For clarity there were 21 Labour MP’s who abstained tonight. Everyone else either voted against or were authorised absences. The list of the abstentions is:
Abstained (21)
Fiona Mactaggart
Rushanara Ali
Ian Austin
Ben Bradshaw
Adrian Bailey
Shabana Mahmood
Ann Coffey
Andrew Smith
Simon Danczuk
Jamie Reed
Chris Evans
Graham Stringer
Frank Field
Gisela Stuart
Mike Gapes
Margaret Hodge
Tristram Hunt
Graham Jones
Helen Jones
Liz Kendall
Chris Leslie