Ev'ry thing's broken?

Wakefield general election address.                                                                    Mark Harrop,

Broken Britain?                                                                                                  Independent candidate.

Despite the protest of Govt it's undeniable that the UK is in a mess, although, however much is 'broken' it generally means that people no longer care and need repair rather than roads, drains and misguided Regeneration schemes. Much noise is made about returning pride and a sense of purpose as in 'The Good Old Days' but this turns things on their head. The days of Britain being Great were not just through superior arms but in more progressive ways: the industrial revolution starting here, bringing advanced production methods to the world and changing an impoverished, illiterate peasantry into a better educated and aspirational working class.

Today, humanity's place on the planet is called into question. Apparently we've gone too far, become wasteful and destructive; knowledge no longer power but leading to unsustainable desires - for the masses, that is. When once the future was considered to be about jet-packs, colonising distant planets, unbound knowledge and a capacity to deal with any eventuality, these things now seem ridiculous. Today we are led to revere nature above all, limit our footprint and know our place. Babies are considered not so much bundles of joy but bundles of carbon emissions, the elderly as burdensome and all others in need of restraint.
Never before has humanity been viewed in such loathsome terms.

If we're broken and need fixing then who better to do that than Govt and their advisers? Yet, they don't make anything and rely on the productivity and compliance of the rest of society to keep them in their place. If people are wasteful in their ways then it's fairgame to enforce behavioural change - smoking bans, five-a-day, recycling, don't use lifts, leave the car at home, speed bumps and not repairing roads, get off the bus a stop early, voluntary work, ad infinitum. 

It is in these areas that Wakefield local government's rating improves from poor to fair with no end of agencies and govt departments urging the self-same advice. Irony being, the only growth area is one that wrestles with 'no growth' and no wonder the country grinds close to a halt.
This Govt remains immune to its faults and even after apologising manages to re-assert itself before claiming how bad things would be under anyone else.
Calls for transparency in politics seem unnecessary under such circumstances.

Britain is patched up and creaking rather than broken.

Maybe because it's Spring or an election but there has been some recent strategic public works. 'Strategic' as they are prominently placed: kerbs and drives being relaid close to main roads, some rural areas have new signs and street cleaners working on Sundays - someone needs seeing to be 'working hard for you'. These may be prominent works but are very much cheap and cynical window-dressing.

Most roads in the district are in an appalling state which is bad enough for cars and begs the question whether the great and good practice what they preach - 'leave the car at home' - and ever travel by bike. New Labour may now promise a considerable cash injection but why aren't these matters done automatically and without fanfare?

With the economy near collapsing and public services all calling for a bail out just where is the money to come from? Unwarranted and overstretched military campaigns, an Olympics on the way and New Labour's hardcore of embedded professional counsellors suggests a messy period ahead for anyone attempting to maintain this tired and tiresome approach.

Gordon Brown may talk of protecting 'frontline' services but given his Govt's whole approach is based on hectoring people to conform he may have a different idea of what public service means. It is not so much the people at fault but the intolerable circumstances lived under - if anything is broken it is current Govt thinking and policy. It's inconceivable that matters can be stabilised - let alone progress - without a complete abandoning of such a programme. The only thing in need of repair is the pioneering spirit and man's further grasp over nature and natural events.

For a life worth living there can be no other way.
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(Tues 4th. May.)

Not the smoking ban, again?

The smoking ban is actually little to do with smoking. Neither is having a right to smoke the biggest issue facing us. Even so, not too many arguments for the ban stand up and, otherwise, simple arrangements can be made for those wishing to indulge the habit at their own risk. The ban is, however, indicative of wider trends in society.

For the most part, smoking is obviously unhealthy, it's expensive, smells, is disliked by many and others are glad for the ban. Some smokers even state that there has never been so much camaraderie amongst themselves. For now, outside, in shelters good, bad and ugly.

Why fuss over the ban?

Frail and elderly smoking customers hardly get out come the cold weather as smoking in a shed regulated to have less cover than a pigsty is no comfort. Govt legislation is creating more problems as people become less tolerant of others - the noisier beer gardens when neighbours want some peace and quiet or the gauntlet of smokers in pub doorways, for instance. There may not be an 'app' for that but there's certainly a law . . and a fine.

It's well known that many pubs are going to the wall. Publicans suffer variously from ill health, mountains of debt, over-regulation, excessive licensing and being tied to and having punitive get-out clauses with Pub companies, and they taking full advantage of the cull by squeezing as much money as they can from sitting-duck licensees.

Many pubs are barely hanging on under these conditions and it's fair to say that a significant part of public life is set to change, too. Stopping people smoking is among the many intrusions into behaviour: everything from alcohol, food, calling the barmaid 'love', telling jokes; everything. Even train-spotters are suspect terrorists and young boys playing war are labeled as racist.

The smoking ban expresses much that is wrong with the UK. Everything is subject to a risk assessment for the remotest thing that could go wrong or we can be bullied or hurt by a word or activity of another. Supposedly, we need guidance as we're deemed not adult enough to negotiate life without the many helping hands of govt, council officials, professional advisers or charities to regulate, fine or harass us into making the 'right' decisions.

Politics has become less about the best way forward and nearly all about manipulating the character of the public.  

A reversal of politics.

For politics, the rise of character and personality is a dead end but reflects what happens to individuals at ground level. If policy is based on character assassination then politicians can't expect to avoid being judged by the conditions they helped create. Hence, MPs are caught short with the so-called expenses scandal, Gordon Brown caught muttering what he really thinks of the electorate and vacuous leadership debates on TV.

There is no longer a progressive character to politics and things today are about how flawed we are, not the way society functions or could be made better.


A reasonable economy?

If this is bad enough for our personal and social lives then it has proved disastrous for the economy, now collapsing under the twin burdens of such over-regulation and notions of sustainability. In essence and practice both deny human capacity to negotiate daily life or larger problems. Yet, our future is being mortgaged to maintain the same problem so won't mean greater freedoms as we do our bit to rescue a situation not of our making.

The market system - capitalism - is far from perfect and to have it replaced with a freer, more productive and beneficial economy wouldn't be a bad thing but, even so, its dynamic character and our livelihoods are thwarted by the actions of a political class hell-bent on restraint.

A public vote?

On current track we can only expect more of the same as main electoral contenders are more like different brands of cheap soap powder. Whether we have a hung parliament or not there's going to be a mess. Unless we use the current election period to sort out some genuine democracy.

Now, while there's an election on is the ideal time to send a message to those who wish to represent us and have them pay attention to our concerns rather than take us for granted. Seeing as how the smoking ban is symbolic of further controls and the aim of politics should be a society where people are free to indulge their pleasures then we ought take a public vote as to whether pubs, clubs, cafes, etc can reasonably offer 'smoking or non-smoking' - part, throughout, occasionally, ventilated or not at all. Even those of us who hate smoking ought allow others to indulge their lifestyle choices as who knows what's next?

These days, tired and tiresome politicians are falling over backwards for votes but remain disconnected from the public to make other than superficial claims. Unfortunately, it remains that New Labour and their official opposition still feel the need to control most things public.
Allowing them to carry on unchallenged is dangerous for personal choices, wider society and the economy, too.

The smoking ban, then, is not just about smoking but us as individuals having the right to choose our activities and the company we keep. Politicians should butt out of private affairs and get on with their proper job - getting to grips with a progressive economy and getting the country working properly.

Mark Harrop. Independent candidate
Wakefield, general election.    

At the HoP . . .

                                            . . . the most Public of all Houses?