opinion page 5

10 december 2020

SO HOW DID WE GET TO HERE ?

THESE

WISH I’D WRITTEN THESE

All original writing

2014, 2015, 2016,

2017, 2018, 2019,

2020, 2021, 2022,

2023, 2024

Dr Ian McLauchlin

OPINION page 5

21 Mar 18

Cambridge Analytica - how to stop these attacks on democracy?

With the tories in power, nothing will happen as usual.

"How?" is a good question. Maybe take whistle blowers seriously then protect them properly. But before that, we need to agree what sort of world and what sort of society we want and want to live in. I don't recall anybody seriously asking that question, nor recognising that it's an important question that needs an answer.

Then we need to agree how we can bring it about. I can't imagine any of the useless politicians we have to suffer having the faintest idea that these are important topics. If they did, they're incapable of taking them seriously. And definitely incapable of solving them.

Lions ruled by donkeys. Except donkeys flatters them and lions underestimates us.

26 Feb 18

The tories disparage the state and refer to it as a ‘Nanny State’.

The fundamental reasons for the existence of a State are based on mutual advantage. In return for giving up some freedoms which you have when you're fending for yourself in the wild, the State agrees to look after you and your interests. The State gets an orderly society and we get a safe and secure existence. That's the pact that we make with the State and it makes with us. It seems to me that the State now thinks that it's OK to renege on its part of the deal but it expects us not to do that ourselves. The State wants to behave as outrageously as it sees fit, while we must sit back and take it and do nothing. The State is exceeding its remit and has no-one to blame but itself if we turn round and bite it.

22 Feb 18

How about this for an explanation of the otherwise inexplicable?

"Treason May hates the tory party as much as we all do and is quietly and steadfastly destroying it from the inside."

No, you're only half right. She loves the tory party.

15 Feb 18

This is a government that ignores the plight of many of its population. A government that ignores its responsibilities. A government which acts against the interests of its people and lies to them. A government that lets the fabric of our country deteriorate and does nothing to stop it. A government that loads the dice, intentionally, against those who are already suffering. A government that is content for people to have no home and sleep on the streets, then punishes them for it. A government that squanders public money on failed and failing private providers. It's an evil government without a moral compass. It pretends to be Christian but is the opposite. No-one thought that could happen in this country but it has. And no-one forget that it's a TORY government. Not only are they incompetent, they're immoral.

10 Feb 18

‘Catholic Archbishop won’t report child abuse.’

In case anyone hadn't yet realised, religion, and those organising and running it simply to satisfy their lust for power, is corrupt, deluded, and plays on people's ignorance and need for a comfort blanket.

10 Feb 18

On teachers leaving their job:

The evil tories don't want the population to be educated. That way the population can be brainwashed and otherwise manipulated. Part of that process is to denigrate, overwork, underpay, attack and belittle teachers. Why does anyone vote tory then? Could they be under-educated, brainwashed and manipulated?

10 Feb 18

On perverse and cruel benefits assessments:

And what is the size of the 'problem'? What problem? Benefit cheating, that's what they say they're trying to solve. Well any cheating amounts to less than 1% of the total benefits bill and that includes mistakes by the DWP. So there IS NO PROBLEM. And again the ignorant tories misdiagnose the problem and misapply the wrong solution . . .

9 Feb 18

On Treason May’s latest speech:

This government is moribund. It's leader seems congenitally unable to get a grip and wouldn't know what to do or how to do it even if it could. The government has no plan for anything much, including the self harm it recently brought upon itself and the country, and no idea why it exists at all. Well I'll tell it. It's job is to look after the welfare, wellbeing and security of the whole population both now and in the future. Yet it doesn't have a clue that that is its job. It doesn't even acknowledge the various problems that exist in our society, many caused by its own actions and others by its own inaction. That's the first stage in solving the problems - realise what they are. So at this rate they'll never solve anything. They need to be told that they're incompetent and incapable, and they need to make way for a government that knows why it's there and what it needs to do.

6 Feb 18

We were naive enough to think that when things had got a lot better we were home and dry. What we didn't realise, because we expect the best of people, is that the baddies would be continually circling us looking for a chink in our armour and a way back in. We let our guard down. And now we're experiencing the consequences . . .

3 Feb 18

Ever wondered how the atrocities in Nazi Germany happened? Active brainwashing of the population so that these things became acceptable and unremarkable, even desirable. It's happening here and no-one's stopping it. And soon it'll be too late. Wake up everyone.

2 Feb 18

On bogus ‘scientific surveys’ by the DWP:

And this is how you march towards a totalitarian state. The tories are the enemy within and most people don't realise it. Good people fought and died to stop this and now it's happening.

1 Feb 18

Not only do the tories fail us by doing nothing to improve the lives of ordinary people suffering because of tory policies, when they do do something, which is seldom, they actively work to make those lives worse.

1 Feb 18

"The Government will not privatise the NHS." parrotted my MP.

Here's how not to privatise the NHS. Put everything out to contract. You can claim that it's still in the public sector, if you're dishonest, but the public doesn't then control it. Private contracts syphon money out of the NHS into private pockets so that money is not available to treat patients. The massive profits needed to induce private contractors to take up the contracts mean that we can no longer afford it so people will then have to start paying (having already paid once in taxes and National Insurance). And before they're kicked out (soon) they'll make sure that the contracts last for 50, maybe 60, years with crippling get-out clauses so that what they've done can't be undone.

And that, dearly beloved, is how you privatise the NHS without actually privatising it.

30 Jan 18

On ‘brexit’:

And the crazies in government are running round in circles trying to negotiate something we already have as members while stabbing each other in the back. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so desperately serious . . .

28 Jan 18

Noticeable that when all of this is going on with the NHS, Brexit, tory party tearing itself to shreds (hooray) and talk of the government losing major votes in parliament, and plots to bring her down, Treason May goes to ground as usual. Maybe she's cowering in a corner sobbing her evil heart out.

26 Jan 18

What we have to remember is that the driving force for Brexit was not the Referendum. The driving force came from the small number of anti-EU activists from the crazy wing of the tory party. These were the people who made it difficult for Cameron who decided, recklessly, to try to shut them up once and for all. He wasn't man enough to stick to his instincts, and those of the majority of his party, and face the extremists down. That was the driving force for Brexit. It didn't come from the people. And half the people, having not given the EU any thought until then, and true to form, fell for the loudest and most extreme voices, convinced themselves that that's what they believed, and voted. It wasn't 'the will of the people'. It was the brainwashing from the tory rebels and the tory-supporting media.

26 Jan 18

Jacob Rees-Mogg regrets that "The EU's approach seems to be that we must accept what the EU will allow us to do". He forgets that they don't have to accept anything. They don't want to leave us. It's us that wants to leave them. If we want what we've already got, we shouldn't be leaving. It's obvious to anyone thinking rationally.