Run for the Hills. The Lunatics have stormed the Asylum.

[Soph0571]

The rise of the far right across Europe is very worrying indeed. In the UK it is somewhat unparalleled in modern history. Generally speaking the British are a middle of the road nation. One of the reasons I take such an interest in American politics is that there are distinctive ideological and policy differences between the parties, which makes for great debate. Until recently the same could not be said in Britain. Middle of the road politics where ideology may be slightly different, but policy implementation is all terribly similar, no matter the party in power. Which, of course, makes for a very boring debate for a nerd like me.

Within the last five years everything has turned on its head when comes the rise of the far right. Anti-immigration, racist, sexist, homophobic, and people are buying into the hate. The far right is being normalised with the great likelihood that a populist wanker who is a friend of Bannon is likely to occupy Downing Street in short order.

Now do not get me wrong, all countries have their nutty far right element. We have always had the BNP, the neo-nazis and various ragbag parties that no-one listens to and no-one takes seriously. Until they do take them seriously. Seriously enough to swing national politics so far to the right it is almost impossible to recognise your own country and the electorate starts listening to these bringers of hate and division.

It is politics of fear in its crudest form and it is working. Working on the elderly, and the poor. Working on those hit the hardest by the austerity measures of the last decade. Working on those who choose to live in enclaves where being white and straight, is right, looking at anyone who is different from them with fear and suspicion.

The Brexit Party cleared up in the EU elections last month. Ironically, the anti-European party does not have representatives on a national scale, just in Europe, where they will be aligned to far right groups and generally make very poor representatives of the needs of the British people within a European context. They will do everything in their power to disrupt negotiations and bring about a no deal Brexit with the economic catastrophe that will ensue. Those who are hurting cannot see that. They point the finger at other and support people who politic through fear.

The rise of the far right. The lunatics have finally taken the asylum by storm. Boris Johnson, a far right racist, sexist, populist wanker (sound familiar people?) is about to be chosen by 160,000 old, white, male and stale individuals who are wholly unrepresentative of our wider communities, to lead my nation. And it really looks like they are going to pick this horror:

1. Calling women wearing the burqa “letter boxes” and “bank robbers”
2. Palling around with Steve Bannon
3. Writing a poem about the Turkish President having sex with a goat
4. Dismissing “part-Kenyan” Barack Obama’s views on Britain
5. Describing Commonwealth citizens as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”
6. Calling Papua New Guinea a country with “orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing”
7. Championing cheaper alcohol – in a speech at a Sikh temple
8. Joking about “dead bodies” in Libya
9. Failing to secure the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from Iran after mistakenly referring to her “teaching people journalism”
10. Calling Africa “that country”
11. Reciting a colonial-era poem at a sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar
12. Comparing the EU to Hitler
13. Calling gay men “tank-topped bumboys”
14. Comparing gay marriage to bestiality
15. Criticising the “appalling agenda” of “teaching homosexuality in schools”
16. Declaring that voting Tory will give your wife “bigger breasts”
17. Saying Malaysian women go to university to “find men to marry”
18. Advising the next Spectator editor to “pat her [the publisher] on the bottom and send her on her way”
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/06/boris-johnson-s-racist-insults-dog-whistles-and-slurs

I fear for the future of my much-loved middle of the road nation. The loons have actually pulled this off.

[saidsimplesimon]

1. If "The loons...pulled this off.",

"Run for the hills", then fire from above, begin guerrilla political warfare, never surrender without a fight.

You make very effective use of what I call "the word" mighter than the dull blade sitting in our WH. imo