Alt-Right on the Night

c4kyboewyaejne2From Kirsty Wark’s hilarious opening diatribe in Latin for Newsnight last night, in which she declared Theresa May ‘the imperial master of all before her’ [watch it and weep] to the media’s vitriol against Corbyn’s unillingness to conform, the media class is blithely unaware of the unfolding ‘British crisis’. Wark’s performance was the sort of extraordinary anglocentric news programming that would you have screaming for a new TV news programme for Scotland, oh… wait a minute.

Her analysis seemed to systematically exclude the entire Brexit shambles, or indeedd the trifling matters of Scotland and Ireland in her imperium.

But while the media gloats in Labour’s tragic floundering, and the knives are sharpened by Old-New Labour’s rejected (and equally directionless) coterie (John rentoul, Peter Mandelson and yes Tony himself) there’s another story from this week’s by-election results.

This was a day where a candidate called The Incredible Flying Brick got 3 more votes than the BNP. This was day where the media-enhanced power of the UKIP fell apart. As Jonathan Shafi has put it:

“The radical right are meant to be the insurgents – a rising tide on the back of Trump and Brexit. They are meant to have won the hearts and minds of the working class, and are lavished with massive media attention. They have big money, and declare loudly that this is their time. They have the White House, they have an enormous social media reach, and everything they argue has been pre-packaged by the right-wing press for years. Corbyn’s Labour is permanently savaged in the media and undermined internally as Mandelson admits, on a daily basis. Today was meant be the UKIP breakthrough that reflected the new Brexit Britain. Up until a few short weeks ago it was looking like this might come to pass. But Stoke said no. If the job of the radical is to raise confidence and hope, then the English left might look to Stoke for both.”

UKIP’s comically stupid leader makes their old champion look like a figure of gravitas. UKIP are a busted flush, and the Tories despite the hyper-ventilating over at Newsnight face a catalogue of difficulties that won’t be covered-up by Corbyn’s ineptitude.

As the Guardian’s John Harris pointed out: “England is faced with a mounting NHS disaster, which blurs into a matching meltdown in adult social care.” He continues: “Theresa May regularly looks scared out of her wits; under harsh light, her government seems plagued with crises” and still “In essence, we now find ourselves back where we were before both these contests started. Labour is racked by a deep, historic crisis that preceded the arrival of Jeremy Corbyn, but which his leadership seems to have immeasurably deepened.”

Ando so, despite the triumphalism of media coverage of one party and the nihilistic cartoon coverage of another, the reality is of a nation unable to confront the social reality of its governing decisions. Labour lost Copeland because they dared to challenge the orthodoxy of a failed nuclear power source and won Stoke wrapped in the St George’s flag. Theresa May may well be imperious but she presides over a broken land heading into an abyss.

Comments (5)

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  1. c rober says:

    Nuclear related job protection and promises ensured it , much like the recent Scots Tory manifesto for 2 more nuclear powerstations in Scotland- Which I may add here the SNP are also behind the scenes pushing for another , plus processing in Hunterston… processing waste which may mean from ANY EDF site , including Hinkley.

    Nuclear power in Scotland which means exporting to England , and the reasoning behind the recently laid , or soon to be , Northern link.

    For proof of that assertion I have made of the SNP , you only need to read up on the LDP for North Ayrshire. Which was compiled under SNP stewardship as leaders of NAC. So can the SNP be a party of saying one thing , doing another , at least in North Ayrshire? Yep , they have form.

    1. manandboy says:

      c, please, LDP and NAC ? IHAC!

      1. c rober says:

        LDP = Local development plan
        NAC = North Ayrshire Council

  2. MBC says:

    You write so well Mike. ‘A nation unable to confront the social reality of its governing decisions’. That’s spot on. Absolutely brilliant.

    On Stoke though, John Harris reported earlier that Momentum were out in force at Stoke and he felt that had made a difference and was inspiring.

    I absolutely agree with you that Copeland was won because of local support for the nuclear industry.

    The Lib Dems are also showing a recovery and given their recent by-election win I’m surprised Newsnight didn’t make more of that story.

  3. john young says:

    Watched that arch self seeker on RT George Galloway,nothing positive to say about Scotland mocking the possibilities of independence laughing at us about how we would need a new bank”the white heather bank” about our debt but no mention of our share of the assets,don,t know theguest but he wasn,t ant better,fcuking clowns,I am surprised at RT who usually have it a lot more balanced,not once not ever have I heard of any positive ideas for our country not ever.

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