I admire Jess Phillips. She seems to be a truly honest politician. She says what she feels, and”speaks truth to power” even if some people call her a “Gobby Cow”.  

Today I read that she’s “been forced” to suspend her aide Salma Hamid for supposedly anti-Semitic messages.

Apparently she said the following (in 2015):

“Because Israel obeys human rights/law? Hilarious! Isis are terrible too. So really there is no difference.’”

 “We must show the world that “Israel” is the murderer!”

“Israel IS inflicting Holocaust conditions on Palestinians! Oppressive, racist and violent!”

She also drew a distinction between Judaism “a faith based on peace and love” and Israel or “Zionists”.

I’ve made all these points myself, so I guess I’d better not apply to assist with Jess’ campaign!

I completely understand that Jess Phillips wants to stand apart from any claims of anti-Semitism in her campaign to be the new Labour leader.  

However I’m saddened that it now seems to be impossible to say what I believe; that these are two different issues.  Jews are beautiful people and Israeli government are pure evil.

Conflating the two issues is exactly what the Israeli government want us to do:  Keep it simple just call everyone that disagrees with them anti-Semitic.  No-one wants to be associated with anti-Semitism so they shut up.

Well, based on what I’ve read, I stand by Salma Hamid , and remain pro-Jew and anti-Israeli.

Here’s my previous blog on this subject.

It’s been a while since I posted in the “opinion” section of this blog.  It’s been a stressful period, culminating in the loss of the final “elder” member of the extended Cogle family.  As the song says, there is …..

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

Certainly it’s been a time for reflection.  So much has happened over that short period. 

In Australia, the wildfires have intensified. More Aussie land is currently burning than exists in the entire country of Belgium. The smoke is causing breathing problems in New Zealand, 2,000km away. Half a billion animals have been killed. Eight people are dead.  The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, seems to care little about the effect on his country.  He even took a vacation in Hawaii during the crisis.

In the US, Donald Trump had bombed Iraq, in order to assassinate Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, who was in Iraq at the time.  There is talk of Iranian retaliation and disproportionate US counter-retaliation. The world waits with baited breath to see who blinks first. In the meantime we hear from Trump that he is “Heaven Sent” and we see US Christian leaders hands-on praying for him. On the flip side he was impeached by the House of Representative.

In the UK, Boris Johnson has taken an extended vacation in Mustique, amongst wealth press-barons and other businessmen; no-doubt to say thank you for the donations to the Tory party and the lies they help spread.  He didn’t even come back early after Soleimani’s assassination despite the obvious implications on UK troops in Iraq.

Whilst he was away his unelected strategic advisor has put out a call to hire a new kind of staff into Downing Street:  super-talented weirdoes, unusual mathematicians, economists, scientists or software developers. People who need to need to commit two years of their time, but who could be sacked within weeks if you don’t “fit” the profile – although he says he doesn’t know what he’s looking for.  Is this a refreshing new take on recruitment requirements, or given his hatred of the UK political machine and a desire to dismantle government as we know it, just a cynical way of trying to circumvent the civil service?

So I have to ask….. Is this the kind of leadership we really want in our world?

Do we just say “well they were elected” and leave it at that?  Do we believe in the political process and accept that those that have the majority can do what they want?

Or is it becoming increasingly obvious that we need to take direct action and state what we want?

In 2016 it was a matter of hours after the referendum before the Leave campaigners told that the “Let’s spend £350M on the NHS” slogan on their bus was a lie.

One day after the election Tory MP Damian Green was on LBC saying that we all need to start paying towards an insurance type system to pay for our care.  A couple of days later Tory MP Nicky Morgan has said that the 50,000 ‘more’ nurses will take over 10yrs to reach and none will be in place before 2024.

All politicians tell us lies, half-truths and messages that are meant to make us hopeful and forward looking, but honestly, we’re going to see that the entire Tory list of promises are lies.

I’ve spend the weekend “in reflection” (and also in the pub with Clithers and Ro, which was marvellous!).  I’ve acknowledged that I’m now living in some social media “leftist” bubble that has done nothing to prepare me for such a Tory majority.  I need to get out more.  I need to understand the views of the people physically around me.

Agreed, in my constituency 53.3% of the voters are true blue. But 24.3% are Liberal Democrat with an 11.6% swing, which I helped to create.  It’s going to be a tough story to hear.  There’s going to be a lot of xenophobia and an awful lot more of people that are “good intentioned” and yet still voted for Boris the Bastard.

But as I’ve said before, I’ve always been in the minority, and that will never change. I just need to make sure the people that voted for the Tories see every lie exposed every broken promise shouted from the rooftops.  I want to, hold these bastards to account.  

I was bloody mad and I’m still bloody mad.

Thatcher famously said “There is no society. There are individual men and women and there are families”.  It’s a phrase that has always bugged me.   A fair and good society has always been something I’ve striven for.  Yet the process to “remove” society that she began back in 1979 has now come true in 2019. We have a majority Conservative government elected by individuals that seemingly have no interest in a better society.

This campaign has been the dirtiest in British history, with both Conservatives and Labour employing Machiavellian spin-doctors to turn votes to their advantage. The Lib Dems have tried their best to get us to Vote Tactically and even their own leader has lost her seat.

The left basically ran terrible campaigns and the right brought all of their political and economic might and influence to bear on a witless population who fell for the slogan “Get Brexit Done”.  The end of the beginning of Brexit is now a foregone conclusion.  We may march, we may sing, but with a Tory majority in parliament we cannot stop anything. 

So, prepare yourselves!  We will have years more of Brexit as we tear ourselves apart from the EU and the Union will tear itself apart from within.  It’s only a matter of time before Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland decide they can do better without the English.  Good luck to them, but I doubt it will be true, unless they re-join the EU and get some protection.

So is there really no society?  Did the founders of the NHS and the Welfare State get it all wrong?  Or have we just changed?

Let me tell you now: I have not changed. I still believe in a fairer society. I may be crying into my beer this morning, but tomorrow I will pick myself up, restore my dignity and start the fight again.

I admit politics has been quite tedious in the last three years.  It’s all been about that one THING. That THING that divides us, that focuses our attention, our passion and our hate.  We don’t agree what that THING is, how long it will take to get it, or whether it will be any good for us in the short or long term.

Quite frankly if I’d put forward a proposal in business to do a THING like this with the same level of data to back it up as the politicians have then I’d probably have been ignored. I saw a video yesterday by Deborah Meaden, one of the UK’s Dragons in Dragon’s Den, saying she would be “out” if the THING was a pitch on the TV show.

It’s the lack of any economic assessment that gets me. There are no published reports that detail how the economy will change as a result of the THING.  No SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and no logical comparison of options.

Ironically, it’s Boris Johnson’s idea of writing two pieces, FOR and AGAINST the THING that actually strikes a chord with me. Do the analysis and make the decision. Make a plan. Right or wrong.

But it’s the way in which the analysis was presented to the people is what annoys me.  I frequently watch documentaries which purport to tell me the science behind an invention or a discovery, but which dumb it down so much, and repeat the headline points after each advert break; we never actually get to the detail. It’s as if the program makers think we’re too stupid to understand it all. It’s looking to be the same way with politics. They keep telling us the FEATURES not the BENEFITS, just like any bad salesman does.

So 52% of people made a decision in 2016 that was ill informed and dangerous.  The campaign that campaigned for LEAVE was been found guilty of breaking electoral law. Yet those that want to leave say we must respect the vote and deliver the THING.

Back in the boardroom, if I was still advocating for the THING after I’d been shown to have broken the law and dumbed down all the facts, I wouldn’t just have been ignored, I’d have been fired.

Which brings us to today’s election.  We, the board members, must decide if the people behind this are an asset to our company or a liability: “Should I stay or should I go?” to quote one of Boris Johnson’s “favourite” bands.

I’ve worked for firms who have done the wrong thing. Nokia’s wrong decision cost me my job and the company everything. If we vote Boris Johnson back in office and he “Get’s Brexit Done” then it’s doing to be déjà-vu for me, all over again.

Succession planning?  Not very sexy is it?  Planning for the day when you retire, die, get fired or pushed aside in a boardroom coup.  Yet it’s essential.  All organisations need someone to take on the mantle of the person that started, founded or built it up from nothing.

So why do companies chose family members to do the work?  Why is it “Somebody and sons” on the label.  Why do they believe the children have the ability that their parent had?

And it’s not just companies.  Take the Monarchy, the oldest “firm” in the UK.  We’re going to get Charles at the helm of his mother’s “empire” at some point soon.  Sooner rather than later if we were to believe reports earlier this week that the queen was, in fact, dead.  But is he up to the job?  He’s 71 at time of writing; an age when most people would be looking to retire.  But they are well looked after these royals and seem to go on forever.  Queenie is 93 and Phil “the Greek” is 98.  Unless of course they have been replaced by look-alikes sometime in the early 2000s?

But I ask again, is he up to the job?  Sure he’s been brought up to take on the role, with perhaps the longest apprenticeship in history, but all we know about him is he’s a tree-hugger, and critic of modern architecture and an adulterer.  But what is the role anyway?

As an aside, today we find that Eddie Stobart’s trucking business is in trouble.  Eddie gave up the business to his sons in 1989 and since then they have done the usual company shit:  expanded, contracted, sold bits off and floated as a public company. Now we have two members of the family fighting over what is the best plan to stop a collapse. Plans being decided over by shareholders that, typically, don’t give a toss about anything other than their dividend.

Unions have called it “bandit capitalism” and investors have offered to help with a loan with a 25% interest rate. Talk about wanting their pound of flesh.

Perhaps the whole idea of succession planning should not automatically include family members, or whether they want to the same school, or came from the same social class?  Perhaps all positions should be decided on merit alone.

I’m in a very lucky position.  I’m not starving.  I don’t have to use food banks.  I don’t have much money coming in, but I have some money put-by when I had better days.  I have a home, it’s warm and I have a loving family.

I’ve just been watching videos from people at food banks asking how they will vote on December 12th.  Their comments are all based on “what can this party do better for me than another party?”. It’s that simple.  Which party can help these poor people?

I don’t have to think this way.  I can think about which party benefits society as a whole.  I can think about which party can give money to help the poor, pay for the NHS, or decide what level of tax people and companies pay.

Some of my friends have lots of income, others have very little.  Some of the high earners save for a rainy day, others spend like there is no tomorrow.  They make themselves “poor” (in their eyes) because of the huge expenses they have to pay out as a result of their lifestyle.  It’s their choice, so who am I to tell them what to do? It’s a free society.

But when my wealth friends (and let’s face it, they are wealthy – they just spend a lot) tell me that they cannot afford to pay a higher income tax, or feel wealthy people (like them) should not be forced to pay for the poor, the scroungers, the benefits frauds, then I get cross. When I hear that they have earned their wages and they should not have to pay more for others that have not worked hard enough, I get very cross.

I have always been happy to pay my taxes.  I’ve declared all of my income even when I could have “kept quiet” about some additional earnings from podcasting came my way.  I would be happy to pay more taxes.  If we can shut down food banks because they’re not needed anymore I would be pleased to know it’s down to my tax – that’s the society I want my taxes to pay for.

So, if you, like me, are blessed by being “comfortable”, then think about what you want society to be.  Think about whether it’s all about YOU, or whether you are prepared to fund a better life for OTHERS.  

If you like that idea, then congratulations, you have become a socialist. Now you can vote Labour and get a caring government, with caring policies. Admittedly I’m voting tactically for the Liberal Democrats again this year, but that’s because I live in a part of the country where there are few people that think like me – and fewer act like me.  Maybe one day my area will be socialist? Nah, who am I kidding.

I can still dream can’t I?