The Fear Karma

The recurring theme of the #GE2017 is of an elite scared of any dissent, whether its the Thurrock Lies footage, the censorship of Mr Ethical at the Rye hustings, the fear in the PM’s face as she stammers out ‘Are you a journalist ….?’ at a factory visit, the repression of the Captain Ska’s anti-Tory song Liar Liar (which they then added insult to injury by asking him not to “go too hard on the Tories”), the multiple media refusals by Theresa May, or the Scottish press’s inability to report on an Edinburgh film-maker who produced a film predicting the Corbyn phenomenon weeks before it happened (and subsequently was locked out of all of his social media platforms – despite achieving a million views) – only The Canary covered it.  When Bella put it to two well known Scottish journalists they treated us with complete contempt and refused even to watch it.

The overwhelming theme we’ve seen day after day is fear. Fear of the public, fear of ordinary people, fear of the most plaintive easy questioning, fear of having to defend their track record in office, fear of the world outside their gothic pallisade.

As the PM comes to Leith (allegedly) the Tories love of carefully choreographed “public” events looks more and more bizarre.

As writer Peter Geoghegan notes:

“The prime minister’s preference for stage-managed public events with almost no unscripted public involvement looks presidential when you are 20 points ahead in the polls. When that gap narrows to five it appears as if the leader is avoiding the people.”

This country has changed utterly in the past twenty years.

Does anyone remember the ‘man in the white suit”?

“In 1997, twenty-four days before that year’s British General Election, Martin Bell announced that he was leaving the BBC to stand as an independent candidate in the Tatton constituency in Cheshire. Tatton was one of the safest Conservative seats in the country, where the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament, Neil Hamilton, was embroiled in “sleaze” allegations. The Labour and Liberal Democrat parties withdrew their candidates in Bell’s favour in a plan masterminded by Alastair CampbellTony Blair‘s press secretary. Hamilton was trounced, and Bell was elected an MP with a majority of 11,077 votes – overturning a Conservative majority of over 22,000 – and thus became the first successful independent parliamentary candidate since 1951.”

We are a long way from Martin Bell.

You can view the Tory MP for South East Cornwall trying to get the chair at a hustings to call the police because people speak out against her at a public meeting here:

You can view the Home Secretary trying to shut down Nicholas Wilson, an independent anti-corruption candidate standing in Rye here:

 

 

These are both politicians in a state of fear, both unable to engage in public discussion, both hiding behind threats or censorship, both colluded with by timid chairs in supposed democratic public events.

Both of these simple examples are an absolute affront to democracy.

Many on the left point out the inadequacy of parliamentary politics, how its stage-managed, framed and filtered from beginning to end. But if this election proves anything it is that social media makes there less space for candidates to hide.

Mr Ethical is today’s man in a white suit, but instead of being celebrated he’s smeared and ridiculed.

This is Project Fear eating itself, live.

As someone in Kent erects a huge version of Theresa May – equal parts Little Britain – Boadicea  – and The Wicker Man – giving the whole of Europe the V sign from the White Cliffs of Dover, this General Election has an air of un-reality about it.

Maybe it’s the hot-weather the screeching tone or the uncomfortable shifting as Theresa May and her Home Secretary squirm under the mildest scrutiny, the colour draining out of their faces. Maybe it’s the madness of Katie Hopkins on US television with ‘Person of Interest’ Nigel Farage talking about how we “should round up the Muslims”.

There’s fear too in the Telegraph declaring Colonel Ruth the Queen of Scots and working themselves up to declaring a landslide defeat as a magnificent victory.

Is this actually happening?

*

Don’t hate the media be the media. Support Bella Caledonia here.

Tags:

Comments (6)

Leave a Reply to SleepingDog Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

  1. ronald alexander mcdonald says:

    I predict a Tory majority of about 50 seats, sadly.

    Don’t underestimate their massive support in England, aided by the collapse of UKIP. In addition, Corbyn isn’t very popular in traditional Labour seats in the north of England.

    1. Josef O Luain says:

      Neither you, me, nor anybody else is in a position to predict anything, my friend.

  2. bringiton says:

    The organ grinder in chief according to some.
    I wouldn’t let her anywhere near my organ,let alone grinding it!

  3. Graeme Purves says:

    Fear is right! Financial pundit David Buik’s outburst on BBC Radio Shortbread’s ‘business’ slot today was priceless – “The markets will not stand for it!”

  4. David Sillars says:

    Maybe arranging the removal men from No 10

  5. SleepingDog says:

    I’ve talked to some people who regard displays of distancing and dissent-crushing authoritarianism as strength, which is odd, since it seems a clear sign of weakness and indeed fear. Simply ‘winning’ an election where you have inherited and augmented a stacking in your favour will hardly quell such fear, as the sand it is built upon could be washed away in the next storm. And predicting the political weather is as prone to chaos as the meteorological kind.

Help keep our journalism independent

We don’t take any advertising, we don’t hide behind a pay wall and we don’t keep harassing you for crowd-funding. We’re entirely dependent on our readers to support us.

Subscribe to regular bella in your inbox

Don’t miss a single article. Enter your email address on our subscribe page by clicking the button below. It is completely free and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.