I don’t think there is much doubt that Johnson is the most personally repulsive PM in British history. But by focussing exclusively on ‘character’ it’s easy to forget the ‘characters’ who brought him to power, and the political forces that used him for their own purposes.
For example…the donors
And the party members…
And the advisers…
And the journalists…
And lets not forget the voters…
So many more people waved him on. Cheered him on…even if they later turned against him. They were good times…Fun times
Only a few examples from an extensive list. All of them complicit in his resistible rise. And as we career from one lie and disaster to the next, all of them should take a good look at themselves. And we should take a good look at them and ask ‘what the fuck did you expect?’
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This is a classic example of performative rightwing nationalism and historical revisionism. Villarruel is a horrendous character - notorious for her defence of the fascistic 1976-82 dictatorship. Here, she is trying to play get some alt-right brownie points with an utterly fake
‘anticolonial’ defence of the viciously racist song sung by the Argentina football team. Check out the lyrics to this song. The idea is clear, leaving aside the ‘trans lovers like that fucker Mbappe’: (black) French footballers aren’t ‘real Frenchmen’ because of where their
parents or grandparents came from. Even Enzo Fernández has apologised, no doubt anxious about his Chelsea place. Not Villarruel. According to her, Argentina never had ‘second class citizens’ and was built on the ‘sweat and courage of the Indians’. Those would be
Utterly shameful and unbearable watching what Israel is doing to Gaza. This really does feel like the nightmare solution that the Israeli far-right have longed for for so long - another nakba. A society of 2m people reduced to bloody rubble while the world lets it happen.
The cynical, calculated destruction is off the scale. Worse than anything that has happened to the Palestinians in the 75 hellish years since their first expulsion. Hospitals, universities, schools, neighbourhoods, refugee camps wiped out. Generations of the same family killed
Two million people herded into one corner of a tiny strip of land. Food, water, medicines running out. And everyday the same barefaced lying from the Israeli government, supported by dehumanising propaganda from the likes of Murray, Pollard et al, and crocodile tears from pious
Phew! Just been to see #NapoleonMovie and it is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. Epically, comically bad on an almost cosmic level of badness. First, the history. There isn’t any, I mean apart from battle scenes, which of course Ridley Scott does well. But no sense of
living, breathing history. Of the man Napoleon and the way he shaped his times and his times shaped him. No understanding of the duality of Napoleon and Bonapartism: the liberator/tyrant. The revolutionary/counter-revolutionary. The racist. The pro-slaver. No insight
whatsoever into his political & soc significance, his ability to mobilise France behind a revolutionary/imperialist/nationalist project, his emotional grip on the French people - except for one scene when French troops take his side, pre-Waterloo. There was no sense of his
Having been to Gaza (three times), it’s utterly heartbreaking to see the shattering devastation being inflicted on such a small densely-populated area…again. But this feels different. The destruction is so intense, so widespread, that I don’t see how the population
can continue to live there if it continues. I mean, entire neighbourhoods (Hamas hubs) erased overnight. A ground offensive still to come. The Rafah border closed. Where can people go? But they will go, they’ll have to. If the bombing continues like this, 2 million
people may be on the move. Or become refugees yet again, by forcing their way across the border. Leaving Hamas & the IDF to fight it out in the ruins. So that will be the end of Gaza. And the end of any possibility of a Palestinian state. And the ‘West’ - the same countries
A piece of advice friends. If you want to find out about the North, NEVER put your trust in Tory politicians who come bearing imaginary gifts. And before you listen to them, check out the ‘Grim Up North podcast that I co-host with the poet Adrian Scott. Why? Because,
The only heartening thing about the #ToryLeadershipContest#ToryLeadershipFarce is the fact that Tories genuinely believe that the awfulness and mediocrity of the contenders will be acceptable to the country as a whole.
The party seems have lost contact with reality. Unable to see things as they are. Its collective brain hollowed out by Brexit. Fatally compromised by its previous adulation for the worst PM in British history. Only a party like that would even think that people like
Mordaunt or Truss are prime ministerial. Or that they could appeal to wavering voters or the voters who have so comprehensively turned against Johnson. A party that has people like this to offer has lost the plot. And that means, hopefully, we can look forward to the time