Syria.

 Watching and listening to the proceedings in the houses of parliament, as they debated Syria, and the subsequent responses and comments, filled me with a mixture of hope, despair, hilarity and disgust.

Hope:

• ·         The majority of MP’s made a rational decision, lead by Ed Miliband, based on available evidence. They set aside the macho, tub thumping bombast of the blazered golf and country club types, who love to wrap themselves in the flag of patriotism, knowing full well they are safely thousands of miles away from any bombs or bullets, and made a choice that has given everybody time to reflect and make a measured decision that, hopefully, will be more effective and sustainable.
• ·         The Liberal Democrat MP’s who voted against the motion. Perhaps there is still hope for them at the next election.
• ·         The parliamentary system worked, as the views of a posturing Prime Minister and his swaggering cohorts were defeated in favour of the people’s views. It’s rare, but a parliamentary democracy actually fulfilled its duties towards its citizens.

Despair:

• ·         A British Prime Minister, with the weight of recent history in full view, almost made the same knee jerk response as Tony Blair did and seemed more concerned with playing soldiers with the USA rather than learning from past mistakes.
• ·         A Prime Minister, who was keen to act militarily before waiting for the report from the Weapons Inspectors, who were on the ground. He appeared irrational and incompetent. Parliament did not need to be recalled.
• ·         Foreign Secretary, William Hague, who over the past few weeks, seems to have grown a liking to striding across the world stage while at the same time losing all commonsense and sense of perspective. It’s not a computer game Hague, it’s War. People die horrible deaths.
• ·         Obama, demonstrating a frightening sense of naivety and stupidity by drawing a line in the sand over the use of chemical weapons. Firstly, red line diplomacy is handing control to your enemy and secondly, why is the use of chemical weapons so abhorrent, yet killing by so-called conventional means is acceptable. Are we saying it would have been acceptable if Syrian government troops had gone into a village and bayoneted 400 hundred children to death, that  would have been OK. Murder is murder, whatever the method used.

Hilarity:

• ·         The responses of commenter’s and radio phone-in callers who treated it as if the empire had ended. (Note: The Empire ended in 1945. Be comforted by the fact that the British Empire lasted almost 200 yrs and the American Empire barely scraped 60yrs).
• ·         A radio phone-in caller saying “it was a day of shame for Britain, we are a nation who steps in when people are being killed”. Unless of course it happens in North Korea, Zimbabwe, Sudan, China, Somalia, The Congo, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, the list goes on.
• ·         The vote was a shambles; two ministers missed the vote and almost 100! MP’s either abstained or did not vote. MP’s should not be allowed to abstain on any vote. They are suppose to be representing their constituents. Any  ministers who missed the vote should be immediately dismissed for incompetence.

Disgust:

• ·         As soon as the vote was lost, 10 Downing Street and the Tory’s started spinning stories about Miliband “ giving succor to Assad” in an attempt to portray him as an appeaser, collaborator and traitor. It was sickening and repugnant but unsurprising. Downing Street and the Tory party are filled with ‘posh boys’ suffering extreme arrested development, who are used to getting their own way. It is predictable and boring, that when they had their toys taken away, they flew into a massive hissy fit.
• ·         The Tory’s comments to The Times, after they had lost the vote, that “ Miliband was a f***ki** c**t” and “a s**t”.
• ·         The Liberal Democrats who voted in favour.
• ·         The 18 Liberal Democrats who failed to vote either for or against.
• ·          The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Osbornes’s doom laden interview, when he made veiled comments inferring that if more people died it would be Miliband’s responsibility because he was obviously a quisling and a traitor. You got the feeling that if news came through that more children had been killed, Osborne would be jumping with glee.
• ·         The attitude of some MP’s, after losing the vote, seemed to belie their true motives. You got a distinct feeling that it was not about bringing the perpetrators of this atrocity to justice, after all, it would appear military intervention will still be taken by the USA, just not in partnership with the UK. It was more about being excluded from all the fun. It was more about machismo than morals.
• ·         The predictable response by that bastion of ‘little englanders’, the daily mail.
• ·         The pompous prattling’s of Paddy Ashdown. “ In 50 years of trying to serve my country, I have never felt so depressed or ashamed……We are a hugely diminished country.” He wittered. Everyone in Britain knows he used to be a soldier because he never misses an opportunity to remind us.
• ·         Politicians, talking of their disgust for the use of chemical weapons, citing Hallabjah and the gassing of Iraqi Kurds (Saddam Hussain) whilst willfully and conveniently ignoring the use of chemical warfare in Fallujah(depleted uranium-USA), Palestine (white phosphorus-Israel) and Agent Orange (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam-USA)

The entire vote was a farce from beginning to end. 10 members of the government did not even vote, that's how important they considered it. No concrete evidence had been gathered. The entire vote was rushed and ill prepared. Two Tory ministers, Justine Greening and David Simmons, although actually in the houses of parliament, unbelievably, missed or forgot to vote. What they were up to, we can only guess. It was evident from the number of MP’s who either didn't vote or abstained, that the whips, failed abysmally, and Cameron’s childish attitude of removing all possibility of military action from the table, after losing, is risible.

 If proof of the perpetrators is produced then the necessary  response can be re-calibrated, but this proof needs to be independently verified, as the majority of intelligence will be from Israeli/Saudi Arabia sources, and Israel and Saudi Arabia will see a strike on Syria as a proxy strike on Iran, Syria’s main middle eastern ally. The opportunity to draw the USA into a conflict that could, in turn also draw in Iran (Shia) must be very tempting for Saudi Arabia  (Sunni) and Israel. Also any subsequent military action must be legitimised by the United Nations Security Council, then another vote, accompanied by compelling evidence, can be put before the House of Commons. But instead with have a Prime Minister flying into a massive sulk and taking his ball home.

It’s not statesmanlike, it’s pathetic.

A glimpse into the Future for Eurosceptics.

I hope all the eurosceptics, desperate to unshackle Britain from Europe, noted how quickly the French moved from being known as ‘cheese eating surrender monkeys’ by the USA, to being ‘America’s  oldest ally’.

Punishment Hierachy.

Lindsay Sandiford, 57, was arrested and found guilty, in Indonesia, of smuggling 4 kg of cocaine. She is due to be executed by firing squad. I agree the punishment is inhuman and disgraceful, but why is she always mawkishly referred to as ‘a grandmother’, as if the sentence is even more disgraceful because she has grandchildren. I presume, if she was a maiden aunt or a spinster, then executing her by firing squad wouldn't be quite so unpalatable.

“Shut up Fat Tongue”

Jamie Oliver, apparently he’s a cook and known by some as ‘fat tongue’, has joined the burgeoning ranks of the comfortable middle classes who consider that people working in excess of 100 hours a week, for a pittance, is apparently acceptable in 21^st century Britain.

This attitude of “ arbiet macht frie” (work makes you free-Auschvitz) conveniently allows greedy employers to abdicate responsibility for their employees pay, conditions and welfare, whilst adopting a pious, self righteous and sanctimonious stance that is hypocritical and self serving.

Throughout history it has been shown that the middle class masses have always been keen to jump on any ideologically bandwagon that will ultimately serve their own greedy and grasping agenda. This current trend, gleefully encouraged by the current Tory government, of kicking the poor while their down, whilst simultaneously, attempting to scapegoat them for the current economic woes of the nation, rather than confront the awkward truth, is another example of  repellent middle class cowardice. It’s a long list.

“I may not be paranoid, but it doesn't mean they’re not after me.”