Why I like Jeremy Corbyn

I've finally worked out why I quite like Jeremy Corbyn and want him to be the next leader of the Labour Party.

He actually has ideas. Really bad ones, but ideas none the less. He thinks stuff like railways should be owned and run by the government. He thinks the erosion and degradation of British society is a good thing. He thinks we should destroy our military capability.

All of these things are wrong. All of them have happened anyway under both Labour and Tory governments who said these things were wrong and that they wouldn't happen. I don't know if Blair or Cameron actually think these things are good like Corbyn does. I suspect they just don't care and do them when in office because it's expedient.

If Corbyn stands up and says they are right then he has to say why they are right, and the Tories have to say why they are wrong. Cameron and his ilk can't do this because they don't really believe they are wrong, but others can. Whether that's a rump of level headed people in the Conservative party, UKIP or someone else compeletely doesn't really matter.

Next time we might not have to suffer the banality of the last election, with two vaccuous imbeciles arguing over basic administrative competence (of which neither have any) and attempting to outbid each other on a meaningless array of tax and spending promises they couldn't possibly keep.

Instead Corbyn's stupid, failed and wrong headed ideas would be brought out into the open where they would once and for all be smashed to pieces by uncompromising reality, probably even more comprehensively than they were smashed in the late 1970s where a then timid Thatcher was being advised by wets from the Heath camp, and Hayek, Friedman et al were a guilty secret, and the National Front was the main opposition to mass immigration. Now we have the likes of John Redwood who have been in governments who implemented free market policies and saw them work. We have the likes of Nigel Farage who can make a compelling case for national independence without being fascists.

So bring it on. Verbalise what the Labour party actually think and are planning to do next in their century-old quest to ruin Britain and watch the rotten idea fall apart. Or vote for another bland "modern" candidate who says all the right things about free markets, moderate taxes and national independence then continues to piss all over them.

Tin Foil Hat

As a keen wielder of Occam's Razor I tend to throw out conspiracy theories pretty quickly as convoluted explanations which rely on too many guesses, when there is enough errant nonsense and blatant lies spouted publically to last any angry man several lifetimes.

However, if the current migrant crisis leads as it probably will to calls for joint European efforts on asylum and foreign policy, and an EU defence force to back this up, haven't we had a brilliant few years of disastrous British foreign policy to make it seem like an attractive option? From our foolish intervention in the Balkans, to the disaster of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the idiotic overthrow of Gadaffi with no follow up plan, and our tinkering around in Syria despite parliament roundly rejecting our involvement. 

All of these things have directly contributed to the current crisis, and all were apparently inspired by a stupid desire to run behind the US and pretend we're part of some sort of global crusade for freedom, but one which we clearly don't have the military or financial might to make good on.

What better background against which to frame a new approach, pooling our resources with our more humanitarian European neighbours to have an EU foreign policy which Britain can be a leading part of? What better carrot to dangle in front of a vainglorious dimwit like David Cameron than the irresistible prospect of facing the President of the US as a true equal? 

In short, if you wanted to discredit the whole idea of a British foreign policy and pave the way for it's replacement with an EU one, you couldn't do much better than the dismal mess of nearly everything we have done since 1997.

Petition to the Guardian

I hadn't heard of Richard Seymour until his spiteful little comment recently about Simon Weston. Weston was injured during the 1982 Falklands war when an Argentine bomb hit the ship Sir Galahad on which Weston was serving. When Weston recently expressed his antipathy to Jeremy Corbyn apparently saying he would seek a deal with the Argentine government over the disputed islands, Seymour decided to step in with: "Seriously, who gives a shit what Simon Weston thinks? If he knew anything at all he would still have a face." 

I'm all for free speech and the right to express an opinion, but Seymour wasn't expressing an opinion. He could have said that Weston was just an old squaddie and his opinions on diplomatic matters didn't count for anything. He could have even said Weston was a publicity seeking right wing stooge if he really thinks that, though I would like to see any attempt at a reasoned argument for saying so.

He was making a crass and extremely nasty remark, which can only really be read as jeering at the life-altering injuries Weston sustained in the defence of British sovereign territory against annexation by a military dictatorship.

I don't think he should be prosecuted for it or exiled to Siberia or anything. He has the right to say it. I do think however, that it is a prime example of the sort of vitriolic hatred that many on the left have for everything good and decent which this country ever stood for, and underlines the fact that, at heart, they favour the grubbiest and most despotic regimes of the world when they're plainly in the wrong over a democratically elected British government whose colours they don't like.
So I have posted up a petition on change.org to ask Katherine Viner, editor of The Guardian, to stop publishing Seymour's work and giving a platform to this nasty and spiteful little cretin who has put himself far outside the boundaries of civilised discourse. Please sign it here.

Killing with Kindness

Anyone with a heart would be appalled at the picture of a dead toddler washed up on the beach at Bodrum, now being bandied around by papers like The Independent who link the story with their petition to let more refugees into Britain. As emotional blackmail goes, you don't get much more blatant or cynical.

However, it's worth looking a bit further into the story behind this shocking image before reaching the conclusion that throwing open the doors is the humane and decent thing to do.

Ayland Al-Kurdi, the boy who drowned had fled with his family from the war-torn Syrian city of Kobane. They had applied for asylum at the Canadian consulate and been turned down and were staying in the resort town of Bodrum in Turkey, far from the fighting in Syria. It was from Bodrum that they attempted to make the short sea crossing to the Greek island of Kos, where presumably they believed onward travel within the EU would be easier.

They could have applied at a European consulate in Turkey and made the journey overland quite easily in relative safety. Instead they chose to make a risky and illegal journey in the belief that this would speed up their resettlement. With Angela Merkel saying that Germany can take 800,000 refugees, you can't really blame them for trying. Who in their right mind would not attempt such a journey, when you can see Kos from the beach in Bodrum?

That though, is precisely the problem. Europe, with it's crowded cities and faltering economy simply can not throw open its doors to millions more migrants. The rise of right-wing parties across the continent demonstrates that Europe's population recognises this. The notion that we can is a dangerous delusion.

This child was not killed by those who recognise this and are demanding a tougher stance on asylum, but precisely by those like Merkel who deny this obvious reality and continue to encourage thousands to make these risky journeys in the mistaken belief that they will be welcomed with open arms and enjoy a life of plenty if they can just cross the 4km body of water between Bodrum and Kos.

True kindness is not competing to take more mirgants than we can absorb but sending a very clear message that illegal entry to Europe will not be tolerated or rewarded. Only then will we stop seeing these heart breaking images which are the inevitable consequence of encouraging thousands of desperate people to make dangerous journeys for which they are woefully ill-equipped.