Oh look – it’s ‘fat squirrel’ time again!

 

 

You have to hand it to the Westminster MSM chief editors: they know how to fill their paper editions’ front pages and their online pages with twaddle while leaving out the issues which concern us most: how is it possible that a Foreign Secretary can talk us into “a decade of war” without the consent of us, the people, represented by that bunch on the green benches? And what a bunch they are!

First, the ‘news’ according to the MSM. Here’s the BBC’s customary compilation There’s nothing as important as letting us know that a British mercenary was killed in the Ukraine. The DT has placed this announcement right next to the news that “we” are going to send 8,000 troops to ‘Eastern Europe’:

“Britain is sending 8,000 troops to Eastern Europe in one of the largest deployments since the Cold War. Tanks, artillery guns, armoured assault vehicles and aircraft are also being sent to bolster Nato forces, in what Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, described as a “show of solidarity and strength”. The deployment, intended as a “deterrence of Russian aggression”, came on the day a former British soldier became the first UK national confirmed to have been killed in the war in Ukraine.” (paywalled link)

I see this as a fine manipulation of public opinion: by joining these two news items, insinuating that “we” are sending troops to Eastern Europe’, i.e. Poland, because ‘one of ours’ was killed and another at least is missing. Instead of asking why we are spending more money on an undeclared war, that Westminster lot, inside and outside the HoC, are happy to waste time on “MeTooAsWellLikewiseAlso” ‘investigations! It’s called ‘deflection’.

Meanwhile, Parliament has been prorogued until after the Queen’s speech on May 10th. So at a time when ministers make decisions which potentially can land us in an undeclared war with Russia those whom we elected to scrutinise government are absent – on holidays. I bet they’ll feel ‘safe’ from the questions by Westminster ‘journalists’ about sexpests and bullying!

There’s still ‘no news’ about who that ‘porn-watching’ Tory MP is – but the Westminster gossipers have already ‘got two names’. The Attorney General, Ms Braverman, from whom we’ve not heard anything in the last years, was on the radio yesterday and told listeners:

“[…] that the pornography allegations are a ‘worrying symptom’ of a problem in wider society and that watching porn in public had become ‘normalised’. Meanwhile Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has been busy telling colleagues not to go drinking in Westminster after hours because ‘the problem in the House of Commons is ultimately the overall culture of long hours, bars and people sometimes under pressure’.” (Speccie email newsletter)

Mr Wallace, instead of asking the HoC for a debate on why he’s sending troops to a foreign country which is aiming to enter the war in the Ukraine, seems to prefer to prepare a ‘get-out-of-jail card: it’s the toxic culture, see … all that drinking, all ‘the pressure’.

I’ll use a final quote from the Speccie email newsletter because they refer to their podcast last evening. Podcasts have become the favourite means of communicating opinions because they go in one ear and out the next. All will be forgotten within minutes by the listeners, except that their feelings will have been stirred up – and feelings, as we have learned, are what matter to ‘guide’ the opinion of us plebs:

“The MP who watched porn in the Commons presumably did so because they thought they would get away with it, which was why the two colleagues who complained about it this week raised it: they were angry not just about the incident but also about the way this behaviour generally is able to continue with impunity. This behaviour is not limited to one party or one intake of MPs. There might be certain patterns more characteristic of ‘dinosaur’ MPs who entered the Commons a long time ago, but more recently elected MPs have also been pulled into investigations about their behaviour. And the circular way that Westminster responds to these incidents means that the next intake of MPs will likely be just as bad.” (Speccie email newsletter)

Wasn’t it deemed to be rude to check out what someone was doing on their smartphone? What mind must these MPs have to demand that the accused ‘should not get away’ with whatever he was watching! Blaming ‘toxic culture’, either in the HoC or in society as a whole is a cop-out.

None of the complainants, nor Ms Braverman nor the hacks ask why the MPs need to fiddle around with smartphones inside the Chamber at all. We’ve all seen how, even during some most important debates, MPs are glued to their smartphones. It’s deeply disrespectful – to their colleagues, to the Institution and to us who’ve sent them there to scrutinise government on our behalf.

Why doesn’t the Speaker prohibit the use of those things at least in the Chamber if not in the whole building? Aren’t we warned that ‘foreign powers’ can hack and read what “we” do on those things? Should the MPs therefore not be afraid, very afraid, of being caught out and liable to blackmail – not just by the usual suspects in Moscow or Beijing but in Washington? 

How can those we elect do their job properly – scrutinising government – when they are clearly fiddling with those thing? If this is representative of our ‘culture’, toxic or not, why do we have to worry about ‘bullying’ and ‘misogyny’! After all, these MPs are behaving just like everybody else not in the HoC, correct?

So why make a meal of it unless it’s another convenient squirrel to make us look away from real news, such as the sending of troops to “Eastern Europe’ – Poland, that is, which is planning ‘manoeuvres’ at the border to the Ukraine, with a view to invade (link). Then there’s the news that Biden will ask Congress for another cool $33bn ‘in aid for the Ukraine’. The FT writes:

“US president Joe Biden has asked Congress to provide $33bn in military, economic and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, more than double the $13.6bn it approved for Kyiv last month, in a sign Washington is preparing for a long and intensifying conflict. Biden’s request on Thursday, which Congress is likely to approve, includes $20.4bn for security and military assistance, notably $5bn for weapons from American stockpiles.” (paywalled link)

War is expensive! I’m sure US taxpayers will be happy to shell out even more, never mind that their economy is tanking. Meanwhile, we’re not told how much our ‘engagement’ will cost while our economy is tanking as well. But with hacks more interested in the latest ‘toxic culture’ scandal, with MPs being more interested in who looked at what on their smartphones rather than doing their job, we’ll never know!

Meanwhile we slide into an economic crash as well as into an undeclared war because our representatives do not do their duty but are playing to the tunes of the Westminster cabal – the unelected ‘opinion makers’ and mandarins who pull the strings, secure in the knowledge that our elected representatives are going to do as they’re told, else there’ll be a nice little ‘toxic culture scandal’. 

And these are the only ‘acceptable’ people we’re asked to vote for! I’m incapable to eat as much as I want to vomit.



Print Friendly, PDF & Email