War Baby

c8znbtexcaas064-jpg-largeSo a week in and we’re threatening war with Spain. This is going well.

Explanations vary. Some say they forgot about Gibraltar in the same way that they forgot about Northern Ireland. This theory rests on the idea that Boris Johnson (allegedly our Foreign Secretary) is as thick as Gerald Ford, who Lyndon Johnson said was ” so dumb that he can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Others that there’s  a sort of desperate over-compensation going on. Neal Asherson wrote last November that “It’s insecurity, not complacency, which is prompting such Little England deafness and blindness to the outside world”:

“Nothing in British history resembles this spectacle of men and women ramming through policies everyone knows they don’t believe in. Never mind the few genuine Brexiteers. Amber Rudd, Philip Hammond and Theresa May – among others in government – all tried to keep the UK in the European Union. Now they are trying to take it out again, apparently on the terms that will do their country most damage.

There’s a kind explanation, a white-coated one and a coarse one. The kind account says that they feel democratically obliged to carry out the wishes of the English people, whatever their private opinions. (A variant suggests that they think themselves duty-bound to save the country from the worst consequences of a disastrous decision, but their recklessness over Brexit doesn’t support that.) The white-coated shrink account is that they are pathologically over-compensating out of guilt for backing the wrong side. And the coarse explanation is that they just want to stay in power.

This is a government that stamps and shouts in order to hide its inner weakness. Its majority in the House of Commons is tiny; the Conservative Party is noisily divided; the quarrelling cabinet – despite the ‘no running commentary’ proclamation – leaks and briefs daily about Brexit. And it’s led by a politician whose show of flinty determination conceals – I increasingly suspect – awful fears about her own ability to control her party and something close to panic as she leads Britain into the black cloud of unknowing that covers Brexit negotiations, the trembling economy and the future of the United Kingdom itself.”

This weird “bedraggled exceptionalism” is shifting rapidly from an economic debacle pivoted on lies and propaganda to a nightmare of Foreign Policy.

British amnesia about our most recent foreign policy disasters brought to you by Tony Blair Inc is now complete. The carnage of Tony’s monstrous ego played-out through his  Liberal Interventionism, jumped  host species to David Cameron’s ‘Muscular Liberalism’ and is now  spewing itself out into public life in the form of this new bellicose nationalism.

It’s the sort of distorted English nationalism that is angry enough to snarl that it ‘would go to war over Gibraltar’ but self-obsessed enough to have forgotten that it even existed.

Neat isn’t it?

The forgetfulness is rampant.  Northern Ireland – an area disregarded in the mash-up of Westminster’s ludicrous contradictory statements about hard and soft borders. As Peter Geoghegan has put it: “In the almost two decades (since the Good Friday Agreement) Northern Ireland has quietly slipped from Britain’s national consciousness.”

Britannia Unchained, England’s awakening has unleashed a form of madness, and we’re beginning to realise that in remembering itself, its forgotten the rest of the world exists too.

 

 

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  1. c rober says:

    I still reckon with todays bluster about protecting GIB , that it will be a VETO bribe to be used on Scotland – double whammy for Spain and Catalan , preventing Scotland entry if post brexit proper , but not direct via continuation though. so win win.

    Once Britain has left it has no EU protection on GIB , that tax haven in the sun much like the Channel Islands which seems to also have been forgotten about , so Scotland as an asset is still more important though with its 5 million tax payers , the NSO bankrupt Briatin pension fund , vs that of a small village like Gib without tax haven in the EU status.

    The new goal of the wealthy elite is to adjust , coming out of the EU means nothing to them , only that they can avoid the legislation and resell the national assets onward to say American companies – and that is something far , far , worse than the EU with TTIP et al.

    The true division that politics creates and thrives on is that of the wealthy on the poor , but the working poor are just too stupid and preoccupied with other things , like affording the roof over their heads , keeping their jobs , to see the wood for the trees. And that timber is that they too , like the unemployed , disabled and immigrant are in their same boat. Thats a division thats desired , while claiming all other division , nationalism , is wrong.

    The poor dont own their media , its controlled as an enabler , just like politics , for the wealthy elite. Today we have two billionaire families that own over half of the uk news media , and one that owns 40 percent of the Tv media ie sky is Murdoch – one of those printed news families mentioned.

    If Scotland needs clarity for an INDY ref II , then it wont be garnered by those mentioned , more so in that they are pro England , pro brexit , and anti Scots indy – amnesia or not.

  2. bringiton says:

    Going to war with Spain would be a very different prospect from that with a country far far away and the question would be “What for?”.
    The Tories may wish to have another war to distract from their continuing incompetence in government but this ain’t going to be it because it would would involve 26 other European countries as well.
    They are just going to have to suck it up for a change….shame!
    As far as Scotland goes,I think in response to dumbed down screaming headlines from HM press,we should come up with dumbed down responses e.g.

    Would you hand over your pay check to your neighbour and let him decide what to spend it on?
    Multiple choice question:
    The government of which country would be best placed to run Scottish affairs?
    England
    Poland
    Australia
    Russia
    Scotland
    Spain
    Bonus points for getting the right answer (hint not England).

  3. Robbie Carroll says:

    Post office privatised,in a mess, prisons privatised,in a mess NHS in a mess,work and pensions in a mess, trains in a mess,Roads in a mess,wages mess(stagnant) whole U.K. In a mess House of Lords ,great wages and expenses sleep when you like,house of commons same, and as many jobs as you like ,subsidised food,drink,open all hours if you like, Labour Party and liberals both in a fucking mess,as are the tories but they hide it better,Northern Ireland going to leave,Scotland also leaving, and we think the USA is in a mess ,not a hope in hell against the EU

  4. Gavin says:

    Any attack on Spain would presumably bring NATO in to defend a fellow member, under the terms of the NATO constitution.
    Where this would leave the USA under Trump would be anyone’s guess.
    Perhaps he would phone Putin for advice.

    1. Harry Molloy says:

      See Robbie Carroll above, he seems to have cracked it.

    2. c rober says:

      Its all bluff and bluster though , no war at all , just to offload Gib and look like its reluctant to do so in return for a VETO on the fatter cat that isnt a tax haven – but a black gold pension fund for bankrupt Britain once again.

      What is sticking in my craw these days is those that WERE proper working class , from Shipyards , Mines , Steel , all must have selective amnesia , or is it dementia , forgetting exactly what the Union means that destroyed Workers unions , and with it the WM control that destroyed their industries.

      Strictly speaking in indy 1 either they are all dead , or shit feart that there was worse to be had now they are all of pension age… thats if they survived the Glasgow effect. A good tactic would also be redressing the womans pension age inequality , but i digress.

      These voters now should be backing an indy Scotland , for fear of worse , and where there will indeed be a war by Westminster , but it wont be on Spain – but instead Project WAR replacing Project Fear. We cannot simply let that happen this time around , so the answers to protected pensions , NHS , Care , Currency , Membership of the EU or EEA/EFTA needs concrete evidence… some of which can now be answered by the EU itself not that the starting pistol has been fired.

      Just today I sent off an EMAIL to the EU , well one of its MEPs. As our FM and elected officials supposedly cannot approach the EU parliament until indy , then I thought I would fire off my own salvo of Questions across the political bow.

      1. Direct Membership , or continuation by already being a member possible? Inc Back of the Q , and amending the article or writing a new one before UK leaves proper.
      2.Spanish VETO , answer once and for all , which depends on the result of the above as one is preventable and would save face in Madrid.

      I now wait my answer.

      Once I have this in Writing , then I will forward this to every editorial decision maker , creating a webpage with press complaints and Ofcom email addresses when it is uttered to the contrary for everyone else to complain , even by inaction where it is allowed to be done without correction by commentators , newsreaders or pundits.

      Its time to shoot down the cruise missles that are project misinformation , and it will be done legally with the appropriate threats to those in the political sphere that are continuing it , ie our Frasers , Dugdales , Rennies , Mundells and Davidsons.

      Its a tactic that our Parliament has had two years to create , ie responding to slander and lies in the media , more so when two anti indy Famlies control over half of the printed and online news sources , so an oligopoly – one to increase with more power should Murdoch complete the purchase of Sky.

      While the majority of the legislation to punish said media is either voluntary , ie PCC and the likes of the Mail avoiding its membership , or legally reserved to WM , there is some legal avenues left that the SNP , HOLYROOD , could and should have pursued since the first round. This is where those quantified answers come in , and a crowdfunded legal fund , and or indeed a pro bono legal practice , to pursue the offender offering those lies in public office AS FACT.

      Then in a post indy scenario we need to have more teeth as legislation against them , but not in a Turkey sort of way , but in a live council of Judges one , with full front page retractions and loss of daily income as a fine. Only by doing so will be prevent the media from becoming anyones bitch , or monopolies , oligopolies further.

  5. Alasdair Macdonald says:

    The sad thing is that this sabre-rattling will have a lot of support, both from a substantial section of the public and from almost all of the press and broadcast media.

    There seems to be a group psychology which makes otherwise sane and sensible people continue to follow a course, despite evidence that it is wrong, to the inevitable denouement. Wilhelm Reich wrote about this in “The Mass Psychology of Fascism”. Prior to the EU Referendum, I recall the programme from South Wales, mainly shot in front of a sculpture celebrating the massive EU investment in that part of the country, where almost everyone in employment was in work because of the EU, yet, despite acknowledging ’tis, all the interviewees wanted to LEAVE, because of ‘immigration’, of ‘foreigners taking all the jobs, housing, NHS resources’, of ‘not wanting to be dictated to by Brussels’, etc.

    There will be opinion polls next week sowing the ‘bounce’ for the Tories, with Labour being cowed into ‘warning Spain’.

    Nothing like a crisis to put the wind up people and force them to ‘cling to the old rugged cross’, Dunkirk spirit, ‘bulldog breed’, etc. Look at how the murderous attack on Westminster Bridge and Parliament has been spun

    1. Interpolar says:

      Well, given the rhetoric of HM’s Government, it is safe to assume the the foreigners will continue to take the jobs – take the jobs with them when they are forced to leave.

  6. Willie says:

    I’m not sure that Britain would with a war against Spain. They might try but Spain is no proxy island in the middle of nowhere. But the will now, as the rest of Europe, be only too well aware of the bellicose a d beligerant nuclear menace off their coast.

  7. Julian Smith says:

    The only way I can make sense of it all is to regard British Nationalism as a kind of national dementia – forgetful, angry, paranoid. Unfortunately there is no CareHome for demented nations.

  8. barakabe says:

    How would France- the 3rd nuclear power after the US and Russia & with the largest army in the EU- feel about being sandwiched between two warring nations? No doubt the Empire 2.0 set holed up in Knightsbridge will view France & Spain as Micky Mouse states whilst they watch reruns of Churchill’s WW2 speeches in the cinema room of their bunkers. Those who compared the Brexit phenomenon to the rise of Nazism in Germany ( where the Germans had some perceived legitimate grievances over WW1) seem to have touched some nerve of truth. For the perceived grievances of English right-wingers towards the EU is eerily paralleled, as it this mass psychotic lurching towards neo-fascism, authoritarianism, in a bellicose cult of war worship. With Trump, Farage, Brexit, Le Pen etc, these are scary times indeed.

    1. Willie says:

      Can’t help but think that the recent beating of a young man of 17 as a horde of about twenty came out of a Croydon pub is a reflection of the British pysche. Kicked his till nearly dead, and with senior politician declaring they will go all the way with Spain, this is England 2017. A rerun of 1930s Germany.

      1. Barakabe says:

        Willie that was truly horrific- the first time I heard that story I felt physically sick with moral abhorrence- when it came thereafter I simply couldn’t listen to it anymore. 20 or so grown men almost beating, more or less a child, to death, is despicable and just frightengly incomprehensible. What kind of sewer of depravity has brexit opened up by lifting the EU lid?

        1. Willie says:

          It is sewer Barakabe. It could have been your seventeen year old lad lying on the pavement. But such action reflects the institutional hatred that is extant in British Nationalism. We may not like it, we may abhor it, but unless we confront it, it will only continue and get worse. The language from our Westminster governent is clear. Filthy foreigners stealing our jobs, bleeding our health service. Howard reinforced it on Sunday as a wall of Tory aquiesence refused to refute his outrageos threat of force. A nuclear armed UK must now be making the EU wonder what exactly it has on its border.

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