I sit and watch the service in Westminster Abbey. It is the usual sequence of hymn followed by reading followed by hymn followed by sermon, followed by hymn etc. the only difference being the collection of attendees. There are two thousand odd people including a collection of the world’s leading politicians and people who knew or were honoured by the Queen herself. Whilst looking at Charles, William and George, I cannot but wonder whether they are representative of the question of “being at one’s own funeral”. All three of them are having a preview of what is in store for them at the end of their respective reigns, assuming there is still a monarchy in place. Indeed, looking at the picture below, one does wonder, doesn’t one, what the young prince is thinking, looking up at the heavens.
But the mourning is done and reality must resurface. There was disturbing news from Sweden and there is equally disturbing news from Italy. Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson vowed at the party’s election night celebration to “Make Sweden Great Again.” A direct reference to the narcissistic psychopath Donald Trump. Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy Party, is equally on the rise. Their collective mantra appears to be about tax cuts and taking a hard line on immigration. Does that seem familiar?
The rapidity with which Liz Truss moved from Labour to Liberal Democratic through support of the European Union ("I don't want my daughters to grow up in a world where they need a visa or permit to work in Europe, or where they are hampered from growing a business because of extortionate call costs and barriers to trade. Every parent wants their children to grow up in a healthy environment with clean water, fresh air and thriving natural wonders. Being part of the EU helps protect these precious resources and spaces." Liz Truss pre June 2016) to the right wing of the Conservative Party and her current position on tax cuts, anti-Europe, ‘ship them off to Rwanda’, bring back fracking and drilling for North Sea oil and gas, is quite remarkable.
In 2016 she was 41 years old, what road to Damascus was she on after the 24th June 2016? The very fact that she has risen through the ranks of the Conservative Party to become its leader in so short a time, is indicative of an underlying xenophobia that appears to be spreading throughout the world.
It began imperceptibly some time ago and became even more pronounced during the pandemic which created the landscape for it to thrive just as much as the virus. The changing pattern of employment, particularly in the western world, because of globalisation and technological advances, meant more could be produced with fewer people; however, the numbers of people were rising, as was their need for housing and all the services that went with that rise in demand. The influx of migrants, asylum seekers and displaced persons also increased. Local populations were to some extent disturbed by this and consequently, the domestic difficulties they faced were somehow attributed, not to the failures of their governments, but to the new arrivals, those tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free. “But they’re breathing our air and sucking the life out of me” would seem to be the response.
The anti-immigration outcry became very popular. The separatists called for a move away from Europe and the end of free movement. It was a call to arms to ‘take back control’. The pandemic was for them, a godsend. It resolved all disputes; the borders were closed and we were advised to isolate indoors. That isolationism has not been reversed with the improvements on movement and association through the vaccine, and there is a loud anti-vaccination lobby as well. It is coming out of the effects of the pandemic that has led to the proposed Rwanda solution as the dispossessed have not ceased to come.
As to employment, prior to the pandemic, with increased technological activity and improvements, there was already a move towards shorter hours, job sharing, working from home and more variable time off work. With the introduction of personal isolation the working from home agenda, already partially in place, became necessity. Coming out on the other side of covid, it has become the norm, and for businesses and enterprises calling the workers back to the office is now a matter of negotiation. Offers of employment in some professions and industries must now contain an element of working from home.
On top of this, where the on line/mail order market, from all sorts of stores, on eBay and amazon was a mere trickle, with isolation it has become a deluge. The major increase in delivery traffic from supermarkets for food, amazon, Argos and countless businesses for goods, has changed the face of the high street, if not obliterated it, altogether. Consequently an entire job sector previously employed in sales and interactions with customers has been dramatically reduced in size.
Communications have equally become automated and largely dissociated from people. In a recent call to the department of work and pensions I was not able to speak to an individual. I was lead through a sequence of button numbers only to be told at the end of the quest to check with the website on line and then being cut off. What about people who are not able to gain access to the website? Is every single individual on the planet able to afford a smartphone, desktop computer or laptop?
Enforced isolationism, it would seem, was becoming inevitable. Those unable to procure what may seem mundane essentials like housing, skilled employment and smartphones are cut off from all governmental institutions which are supposedly put in place to help them. Anyone unable to make use of or obtain the required gadgets is in effect, cut off and isolated. As a consequence they are open to any kind of theory that is claimed to offer them help. This makes them vulnerable to exploitation by charlatans of all sorts, dishonest politicians and fraudsters of every hue. Indeed the increased exploitation of every citizen, through fraud over the internet and over the phone, whether mobile or land line, has increased to an alarming extent.
So it has become with ultra nationalist and populist views over Instagram, Facebook and just about every television network one can imagine. The propaganda machine is flourishing and despite the comments of some, decrying dishonesty and lack of integrity, or denying endemic racism and professing freedom of speech, protest and assembly, the far right seems to be gaining ground wherever one looks.
There is some hope that this trend can be reversed, but I fear that the ravages of educated civilised society, by the Liz Trusses of the world, will have to carry on a bit longer for the general population to realise the cruel harm that is being done to them under the slogan of taking back control of economic prosperity and giving economic growth to a select few.
This ongoing depredation is evidenced by the arrest of protestors against monarchy during the last ten days of adulation of Queen Elizabeth II. The arrests, although accepted as proper, has caused only disquiet among some politicians, who ought to know better. It should cause outrage that our civil liberties are being assaulted and made criminal under the guise of maintaining order. Again I quote from a former late 18th century, early 19th century Tory British Prime Minster,
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
This comment should be emblazoned on the door of number 10 Downing Street. If nothing of what I have written makes any cohesive sense, just put it down to four score years of topic drift.
It has to be said. Keep going.
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