GETTING THE VOTE OUT IN A ROUNDABOUT WAY

The Wasted Land

 

I.               The Burial of the Dread

 

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Liars out of Parliament, mixing
Mendacity and guile, stirring
Dull ministers with spring pain.

Winter kept us locked down, covering

Earth in mournful woe, yielding

Little life to ease our humours.

 

 

A short parody inspired by the current April 2022 happenings in respect of Boris Johnson and the members of his cabinet. It is too long a poem to carry on with it, but I thought the opening line was appropriate. Those who know the original may be amused.

 

Thomas Stearns Eliot, Boris Johnson and I all came to the United Kingdom from the United States. Eliot was born in Saint Louis, Missouri in September of 1888. I was born in New York, New York in September of 1942 at Hunts Point in the Bronx, and Boris in New York, New York in June of 1964 in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Hunts Point and the Upper East Side have very little in common.

 

As to Eliot, both he and I settled in the United Kingdom in our 20’s. Indeed at one point we both studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. Eliot from 1910 to 1911 and me from 2016-2017. I should say that Eliot’s endeavours were probably more academic, whilst I was just an “auditeur”.  Eliot attended lectures with Henri Bergson who, according to Wikipedia, was influential in the tradition of analytic and continental philosophy, and influenced, not only Eliot, but Giles Deleuze, Henry Miller, Guy Debord, Robert Frost, Vladimir Nabokov, Jean Paul Sartre and many others. My other link with Eliot is Henry Miller, who I met in the early 1960’s. We had a few chats and also lunched together at the Village Delicatessen in Westwood Village, sadly no longer in existence. At the time he was living in the Pacific Palisades area and suffered from a slight limp, the result of a sprained ankle from a fall around a swimming pool. It was Henry’s last address where he died on June 7^th 1980.  I digress.

Rwanda? Who would have thought Ms Patel would dream up such a scheme, and in April as well. There was a civil war in Rwanda in the 1990’s, which led to a ceasefire in 1993, The ceasefire ended on the 6^th April 1994 when the then President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down, and he was killed. The incident led directly to what was termed the Rwandan Genocide. Over the course of about 100 days, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsi and Hutu were killed on the orders of the Interim Government. That was 28 years ago. Now another threat of genocide is hovering in the month of April in the Ukraine. Perhaps that is what prompted Ms Patel (whose family came from, Rwanda neighbour, Uganda to the United Kingdom in the 1960’s) to think of Rwanda as an appropriate country to send unwanted refugees and asylum seekers. It’s only just over 4000 miles away and about 8 and a quarter hours by plane. The perfect spot for dealing with refugees attempting to enter the UK from the French Coast around Calais. It looks an interesting drive on Google Map, should she choose to send them by bus, in light of climate change and reducing air pollution

It would be about the same journey many took getting to Calais in the first place.

She is such a thoughtful Home Secretary.

 

 

This month of April 2022 has clearly seen the most ludicrous and nonsensical behaviour from a United Kingdom government that I have witnessed in my 57 years in residence. Integrity and decency have virtually no place in the current political governance of this country. To mislead the electorate on such a scale has never quite been part of the agenda as it is now. The bare faced unscrupulous tenacity with which people hold on to office, coupled with monumental incompetence is not, I believe, an exaggerated point of view.   There are many who hold similar opinions, most of whom write for the Guardian, and write very well I might add; however, it is a biased view. A few other journalists and commentators express disquiet about the current state of affairs, but to little consequence. 

 

The BBC, in its supposed guise of remaining impartial, will always leave the final word to the likes of Grant Shapps et all, who spout the most cockamamie excuses for their boss’ behaviour. Reporters do interview others who disagree, but feel they have to press them by putting the party line, so as to show equal treatment. Stuff they learned from college debating teams. They never push back in quite the same way with a government spokesperson. They will disagree strongly I know. They will claim they are completely even handed. I know they like to think that, but in the face of outright prevarication and openly ludicrous statements excusing criminal conduct, they remain silent. 

 

Very few journalists, during an interview with the Prime Minister, for example, would say “Mr Johnson, you told a lie to the commons, why?” It’s OK if opposing politicians say it, but that’s party politics and that politician will, accordingly, be challenged by the interviewer in the interests of what they believe is fair play. To report a demonstrable lie is reporting a fact. There is no need to try to indulge in fair play. Our political lives are not a game. It’s all very well to show the image, but it needs to be said as well. So to all those journalists who think they are impartial observers (except when it comes to reporting on the war in Ukraine -that is another matter) you should use the same strength you exhibit in Ukraine when reporting on the current domestic insanity.

 

Too many times one has seen an interview of an opposition politician criticising a government minister’s actions, being asked by the reporter “What would you do, instead?”. What the question seems to imply is “Can you do any better?” giving the impression that what the government minister is doing, is in fact better.

 

It gives the impression that the reporter is asking tough questions, which the reporter likes to be seen doing; but, as I said before, it also gives the impression that the reporter is supporting the government view. That is not being impartial, whether they like it or not. There are times when challenging the interviewee is just for the sake of showing off how clever one’s research is, or team of researchers, in what is believed to be fair play. It is not fair play; it is just showing off. I suppose television journalists are entertainers as well, so one must accept the show, but it does get tiresome some times. Journalists can become personalities and perhaps tend to lose perspective. There are a number who have become too full of themselves as a result. They may not like to think so, but you know who they are.

 

I digress again. Please tell Boris Johnson to resign,  choosing whatever means available to you. When you go to the polls to elect your councillors do not support a single conservative. The fewer are elected, one hopes the message will get through to him and his party, and the party may well help him on his way. At least it will be a start. Vote anything but conservative or the like. Vote, Liberal, Labour, Green or Independent. It may not be direct action, but it’s all one can do till a general election comes along; but for god’s sake get out and vote.