Self Harming

I have generally considered that voting, or not voting, during a general election is a matter of joining up the dots, or the significant events, achievements, or failings, or the honourable or less honourable intentions, of those hoping to secure the votes- enough of them- of the collective electorate. One simply has to pay attention to what is being enacted in one's name. Just to pay attention!

When all of this- excepting the actual voting- has been undertaken it might then be considered that it is not worth the effort. I have, at times, wondered if this might not be a valid assessment. Not voting is always an option- no longer mine- but, if one opts not to vote then one should ideally 'actively' determine not vote, rather than just to 'inactively' not bother to vote. That is, do the research first, then decide!

In my experience, those who bother to find out tend not to vote for parties such as the Conservatives, the Brexit Party or the former UKIP Party, here so often reside the lazy and the reactionaries. Those who do tend to 'favour' these parties invariably tend not to have bothered, instead to have permitted the MSM to mark their ballot papers, perhaps to endorse their more unpalatable thoughts.

My observations do not properly extend to the landlords, never the upper echelons of society, so I cannot really entertain such a mindset or speculate on their behalf. They are anyway very much a minority- or two minorities- and some of them may tend to vote accordingly, that is 'in the interests of that minority.' Selfishly and without any longer-term perspective or consideration.

'I doubt I'll be around an awful lot longer, so why should I much care?' I could so lazily surmise. Sit and look around for a while and it is easy to deduce that there are already rather too many people who have defaulted to such a position; less so the 'longevity consideration,' more the aforementioned 'default position.'

But, this would be both foolhardy and selfish- a dereliction of duty- in the extreme. As written above, it is sometimes so very difficult not to currently believe that there are whole swathes of voters who have repeatedly done, and may be about to, yet again, repeat just such an action. Really, all that is required is that these people 'pay full and proper attention!' Perhaps look to the Scandinavian countries, compare and contrast! Find out!

There are, of course, our children and our grandchildren to consider. Or there is the next generation, and the one after that to acknowledge. Even if we are to selfishly disregard all of these people, there is the rest of the living planet to consider. It's a valid question to ask, 'If humanity has voted to end itself in one final brawl at the trough, wouldn't it be better to give the remaining planet half a chance?'

So, permit me to simplify the aforementioned joining up process, just to proffer an example.


1a. There was the banking crisis. On the 15th September 2008 Lehmann Brothers Bank filed for bankruptcy. Their untenable position was brought about through massively increased volumes of speculative banking. Banks had been deregulated to the point of farce. This was maybe the first concrete sign that permitting (encouraging) unregulated greed to become a mainstream practice wasn't without risk. 

1b. Today's political manoeuvrings would strongly seem to imply that there has been a concerted shove, to distract from the greed aspect of this scenario. Thus (or ergo) the then New Labour Government opted to bail out, with huge sums of tax-payers' monies, other banks who had been swept up in this contagion, instead of targeting and penalising the guilty parties.  

2a. There has followed ever since a prolonged period of targeted austerity. In June 2010 the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government decided to throw up a screen of targeted austerity so, with due adherence to 1b, they repeatedly blamed the monetary crisis upon over-borrowing on the behalf of the general taxpayer, deflecting from targeting the culpable millionaire bankers, who duly escaped the awful consequences of their own actions, and were given free rein to continue with various forms of malpractice.

2b. This action further signalled to the wider business communities that further deregulation of business practices was the preferred course of government action.  

3. Slashing of (unpopular with Conservatives) Public Services. Public Services were targeted, to enable the repayment, it was claimed, of monies that had been squandered through the deregulated speculative practices of some of the UK's more wealthy. School budgets were cut, NHS budgets were slashed, libraries were closed, benefits were slashed, homelessness soared and became normalised, foodbank usage soared, zero-hour contracts multiplied, police numbers were slashed. When 'cutting to the bone' didn't quickly enough satisfy the monetarists the process accelerated with 'hacking into the marrow!'

4. 2013. Boris Johnson, then London Mayor, tells Andrew Dismore to, "Oh, get stuffed!" when the Labour Assembly Member questions the impact of cuts, and further planned cuts, to the London Fire Service. Johnson was claiming, at that time, that his planned cuts would have, "No impact!"

5. 2014. Boris Johnson, London Mayor, cuts the London Fire Service. Johnson closes 10 fire stations and makes 552 London Fire Fighters redundant. 

6. 14th June 2017. Grendel Tower ignites and the resultant fire claims the lives of 72 residents. 

7. Mrs May, UK Prime Minister, fears to, and opts not to, face angry surviving residents. May quickly deploys sleight of hand to deflect blame away from the guilty parties (ref.8a.)

8a. June 2017 Martin Moore-Bick appointed to lead public enquiry... 

8b. 30th October 2019. Moore-Bick scapegoats the London Fire Service. (ref. 4.)

8c. Those who enabled Grenfell Tower to be constructed as a cheap tinder box continue to evade justice and to throw up further unsafe accommodation, or otherwise operate against the better interests of the electorate. (ref. 2b & 5.)

9. Keep paying little attention and expect nothing to change for the better. (ref. opening paragraph)