All quiet on the Normandy Front.

Literally!

This is a quiet village that manages a church, with clock and bells, a Mairie with a function room; which has been used twice in the three months I have been here (neither time revealing evidence of broken bottles or casual vomit), and a minor road that runs directly past my door, but knows nothing of rush hours and queues. There are always cars, vans, HGV’s interspersed with large tractors towing massive trailers of hay or muck. It’s the nature of the French countryside for farms to be dispersed parcels of land requiring constant movement between them. I suspect that this is due to the French inheritance laws which give property right to all the offspring of the deceased landholder. This may be egalitarian but, like much else in France, it is inefficient and inconvenient – quaint!

For these past six days, there have been few cars and “sans license” microcars (think posh tuk-tuk) passing my door. Even the HGVs and tractors seem less numerous. This is my war. A quiet war. A sadly pathetic war of isolation. I fight by staying at home. It is a worthwhile fight, but hardly heroic. This land of Normandy has seen bloodier.

My father fought his war navigating a ‘plane that took off and landed on the swaying decks of an aircraft carrier. From time to time he dropped bombs and torpedos on the ships and homes of the enemy. His open bi-plane (seriously) attacked the battleship Tirpitz in its Norwegian fjord. Flying steadily into the ack-ack so that he could aim, release and then photograph the consequences.

An uncle scaled cliffs at night, slitting the throats of Nazi guards to keep the peace before the real attack began. Another was captured and held prisoner deliberately shot in the legs after a failed escape attempt.

My grandfathers fought in the trenches alongside their pals; those who remained. When returning home on leave having to strip naked in their back yard to be disinfected by wives or mums, before being allowed into the home they were fighting for. Their uniforms remaining outside to be boiled in the copper to cook the lice.

They, more or less reluctantly, returned to normality and rationing. They got on with lives, not always well, but without option.

I sit in my heated home, plan my weekly shop; my excursion into the land of the enemy; tidy my garden; “work” on my computer; watch my tv; eat proper meals with beer or wine. This is my war! I hope to survive it. I hope to avoid contact with the enemy. I want to catch nothing and, in particular, kill no one!

This is my war, I hope I don’t suffer from PTSD after weeks behind my wall of toilet rolls.

It’s rare to see anything that is nearly perfect outside of nature, but yesterday the world was treated to something approaching perfection!

For those of us who are irregular viewers of the Parliament Channel yesterday was a real treat. The Government, having been reluctantly forced back into the democratic fold, mounted a campaign of denial of wrongdoing and sprayed the House and the Country with the rose water of innocence.

The Attorney General has not wasted his time as a lawyer, indeed he has learnt much from watching the obviously guilty pleading “Not me Guv” to every accusation levied at them. In his view the wrongdoing lay at the feet of those who had the temerity to question the legality of his advice, and his Government’s actions, in shutting down the House of Commons so they could avoid Parliamentary Scrutiny of their actions.

For a learned man, he seems to have forgotten one of the basic rules of law. Precedence gives us the rule that those who follow may try to extend and amend the law as laid out in previous cases. For this Law Officer, the Royal Prerogative of Prorogation was a tool for creating a temporary dictatorship for a minority Government, and the suppression of Parliamentary Scrutiny of the Government of the day, not a hangover from the days of Absolute Monarchy when Parliament was a minor part of governance. Convention allowed this Royal Prerogative to continue simply as a convenient way of clearing the Parliamentary decks to allow a short period of respite before a new session began.

By his unlawful advice, the Attorney General was either, willing to create a precedent which would allow ever longer periods of unquestioned governance, or actively seeking to create a precedent that would allow us to return to unscrutinised, minority governance paving the way to dictatorship. Either way he was fully aware of the effects of his advice, and willing to harm, limit or destroy democracy in the, just, United Kingdom.

It is a case of short term advice and actions leading to clear long term consequences.

His dismissive treatment of the Supreme Court and its unanimous judgement will undoubtedly pave the way to new legislation designed to reverse its judgement and to quash the courts powers to deal with such cases and act as the protectors of the liberties of the individual against an over powerful Government.

For this Attorney General claims that this Government is the direct representatives of the people and that Parliament is the enemy of the people. Yet we are in this position simply because of the actions of this Government.

It was this Government that, for its own internal purposes, held the Referendum;

It was this Government that negotiated terms that were found to be unacceptable;

It was this Government that was so divided that its MPs rebelled;

It was this Government that, twice, threw away its own majority;

It was this Government that acted unlawfully; and

It is this Government that denies any wrongdoing or fault.

Most importantly

It is this Government, and this Attorney General, who forget that Sovereignty lies with the People, who elect a Parliament to represent them and that the Government comes from the Parliament and is accountable to the People through that properly elected Parliament.

Yesterday, (25/09/2019), those of us who witnessed the proceedings in the House of Commons were treated to a near perfect display, by the privileged and mighty,  of Regal Arrogance. The Plutocrats claiming to be the true protectors of the people.

Hogwash not Rose Water!

As for the Prime Minister he yet again showed himself to be nothing more than a very lazy but dangerous buffoon! A footnote.

There is a lesson in this for the far humbler personnel of the Liberal Democrats. In the, unlikely, event of the Liberal Democrats gaining around thirty-five to forty percent of the vote and forming the next single party Government, they must not act as if they were the sole representatives of the people. In the Referendum the majority of the people spoke, even a successful election cannot wipe this off the slate of history. A Liberal Democrat Government cannot simply chose to remain in the European Union as if nothing had happened. They must get remain ratified (or not) by the people in a further Referendum if they are to avoid arrogance replacing democracy.

The People are the Power!

Hilton (26/09/2019)

Recent events have all too clearly shown the effectiveness of these Laws of nature.

Murphy’s Law clearly states that “If something can go wrong it will!”

Sodd’s Law on the other hand deals with the consequences that happen after something has gone wrong viz: “A slice of buttered bread, when accidentally dropped, will always fall butter side down!”

If something can go wrong, it will, and in the worst of all possible ways!

In short think Brexit Vote lost and BoJo as Foreign Secretary.

But perhaps we have got away lightly, we could have had a Gove-erment!

The people have made a radical decision and it deserves radical action.

If we are to show the Leave camp, and especially those infrequent voters who came out and actually believe that their participation has made a decisive change in the way the country will be governed, that we have heard them, then we need to accept:

a) That we will not renege on their desire to close the door firmly on ‘Free Movement of People’ and

b) That we will therefore no longer have access to the ‘Single Market’ as free movement of people is an integral and unmovable part of the single market.

We are therefore left with the obvious solution that we must accept the (quite low) tariff barrier that will be imposed and that we are now in unfettered and direct competition with the EU as well as the rest of the world.

There is little point wasting time trying to negotiate a deal to stay in the Single Market when we quite simply reject one of its fundamentals. If we renege on a major plank of the Leave campaign we will simply prove that all those ‘non-voters’ who voted this time were right all along to believe that the country was governed by an establishment that they could not influence. Its simple really, or should that be really simple. We Lost! Hard Cheese!

There are hard lessons to be learned from this result:

1. If you don’t take part you don’t get counted;

2. If you’re in Scotland you are bound by the choices you made last time around – this horse has bolted! Any second Independence Referendum will fail, and the SNP will lose support.

3. The English are not scared by tales of hellfire and damnation, they are a bloody minded lot and are rightfully proud to be so.

It is unlikely that we will see a ‘One Nation’ Tory win their leadership battle (Yes I know May describes herself as that – Really!). Nor will we see the Labour Party putting forward a radical agenda as they move back to the centre.

It is not illiberal to be radical, bloody minded or proud to be British. It is illiberal to be racist, and a Little Englander. It is up to Liberals to make sure that the architects of this result are not the victors of the various elections which will take place in the next few months and especially in 2020.

We can defeat them by really accepting the result and putting forward our own radical measures.

In the negotiations, there will be attempts to ‘misplace’ some of the protection (workers rights etc.) which has come through our membership of the EU. Our first task is to bring such attempts to public attention and to keep a very beady eye on the legislation that will be introduced to bring into UK law those matters which were previously settled at EU level.

The decision to go it alone, will put in doubt major infrastructure projects; the Third Runway at Heathrow; the HS2 line; Nuclear Power. In the now, somewhat colder world, we have to show that we are moving forward confidently as a nation and that the Third Runway and Nuclear Power (we need two power stations not one) are driven forward rapidly. We also need to add to these projects major support for Renewable Power and the British based manufacturers of such, and a commitment to House Building, including Social Housing by local councils and others.

This to be paid for from the absolute decision not to contribute a penny piece to the EU budget (our competitors) or as the price of admission to a watered down Single Market. If savings are to be made, they need to be invested in infrastructure.

Now is not the time to pander to those who, rightly, say that the NHS and Social Welfare are under funded. These need to be paid for from earnings not savings, that is future taxes. There will be no room for the collection of greater taxes in the foreseeable future. Indeed we must expect the tax take to fall as the economy and international confidence falter. We must also expect inflation to rise as we pay more for goods due to the falling pound and EU tariffs – There will be no room for an increased tax take until we use the falling pound, and an increase in productivity, to increase our sales abroad. It is likely that pressure for higher wages will increase with a rise in inflation and this must be completely resisted. The people have chosen a Hard Road, they must take the consequences of their choice.

Whilst the NHS must be maintained, the welfare budget needs to be constrained and reduced.

There are areas where money could be cut. The payments (subsidies) for second and later children need to be radically reduced and preferably done away with. There is no need to subsidise the production of children. Those who want them will have them regardless and find a way of affording them, those who don’t needn’t.

The whole Motability Scheme needs to be tightened up, it is not a way to subsidise new car sales. It should be genuinely means tested, and real efforts made to regularly recheck the status of applicants.

The DWP could easily turn the JobCentres into a major employment agency, so that the unemployed are helped into temporary or part-time work and back onto benefits, without losing out on benefits (which is a very real danger for those who chose this route to try to regain their status as employed). If we are to seriously try to live without East European Leek Pullers, and Strawberry Pickers, then we need to mandate that those on benefits take up these jobs, at proper levels of payment, and then move back onto benefits (if needed) with the minimum of paperwork and no consequential loss of payments. The alternative is immigration or simply ploughing the produce into the soil and buying from abroad.

Being a Liberal at this time means advocating the policies that will show the British voters that we have listened to their democratic wishes, and which will make us competitive against the EU, China, Brazil and the advanced nations, and also independent of the major providers of carbon based fuels.

As an aside, if May wins the Tory Party leadership challenge, then she will also win the 2020 General Election. If Eagle wins the Labour Party leadership then she will see a revival of their fortunes, including in the still conjoined Scotland, where the SNP will be in decline.

We will be squeezed!

We need to be radical and to the forefront in everything.

There can be no “Let’s turn the clock back and rejoin the failing EU (and by then it will be seriously failing)!” This sort of thinking may be popular this week, it is a serious dead-end and has no future.

Liberals need to accept that the people have chosen a different road, which will be harder! Looking for soft options now will will, rightly, be rejected by voters.

Let’s take the Hard Road in the hope that the Sunny Uplands can be glimpsed way off in the hazy distance. Do we have an option?

The radicalisation of extremists (religious or otherwise) doesn’t just happen because the people concerned watch a few videos!

Reading ‘The Sun’ does not cause otherwise deep thinking people to adopt simplistic solutions for tricky problems. People who want simplistic solutions look to ‘The Sun’ to provide them.

The numbers of non-swimmers who decide (having watched a video entitled “Swim in a Day”) that they will go down to the sea, put on a cossie and swim across the Channel to buy some cheese, is few in number.

So it is with religious extremists. The extremists chose the videos they watch.

In Europe, in the British Isles, we know about ‘home-grown’ religious extremists. Our history is riddled with the power play of religious factions. We’re pretty good at religious wars and civil wars over ludicrous religious (and other) belief systems.

100 years ago, Britain was involved in a centuries long war in and for Ireland. A war fuelled by cultural, racial, tribal, and religious differences. Like most wars it was about who should exercise power for and over a people. In this, as in so many other wars, ‘God’ was on both sides, sharpening the swords, later filling the bullets with powder and later still the bottles with petrol.

Before the partition in 1922 it was Protestant terrorists who held the guns and threatened unholy hell if they were to be ruled by the Catholic majority. After the partition it switched around. And yet, neither side had ever seen a video!

The simple truth is that people are taught to fear, hate, despise and hold themselves aloof from the lesser beings who do not come from their background, race, religion, sect, class, caste …. This teaching starts in the home, continues in the community, the school, religious institution, general media etc.. long before the child finds a sub-cult to which they can belong and which produces the videos that build on the established core beliefs already inculcated.

The parents, priests, imams, teachers, politicians, and communities who try to hide behind the latest media (think printing-press, radio, tv) are simply passing the buck. Those children who chose to join ‘Islamic State’, and who are prepared to kill and be killed, are doing so because of the beliefs that they learnt long before they pressed the ‘video on’ button. Those parents etc. who blame the media are just as responsible as the parents whose children joined the crusades, or enlisted with the IRA/UDA.

Parents, whose otherwise sensible children have joined Islamic State, need to ask themselves about the things they taught their children.

Did they teach “The Lie of God”?

The belief that there is a ‘God’ and that they have a duty to do his bidding as expressed by the ‘Prophets’.

Did they teach “The Aloofness of Believers”?

That other belief systems can contaminate and are best avoided. That true believers need to be separated and then united by rituals and practices which are significantly different to those practised by other religions and especially by non-believers. These may take the form of; more frequent prayer; excessive fasting; visibly different dress; the wearing of emblems or symbols. Anything which makes them stand apart and together. Conformity in these things is designed to say “We are exclusive, better.” Think ‘Goth’ with bells on.

Did they teach “Exclusivity of The Afterlife”?

That there is a good afterlife that is available only to those who believe in their ‘God’ and who follow the same practices that they do. The rest of humanity being either doomed to die or live on and suffer a painful eternity.

Parents need to realise that these are extreme views.

Religious leaders have long known that it is through the indoctrination of the young that they secure the long term future of their belief system. Parents who teach these values have done the spade-work and planted the seed, online videos are simply extra manure.

Moslem young are often caught between two worlds. The constrained taught world, of home, community and mosque, and the more open ‘western’ world of daily ‘temptation’. So it is for many religious groups. The majority will find a way to exist in two worlds. But that does not deny the fact that they live in two worlds.

For some, who cannot or will not live in two worlds, the answer may lie in ending the confusion by choosing to opt out. Living in ghettos which they rarely leave, and there are plenty of these in our inner cities. Others may seek a sort of ‘final solution’. Those who refuse to kow-tow to ‘extremist’ beliefs are simply unacceptable and need to disappear.

Extremists may chose to watch extremist videos, but it doesn’t start with the videos!

IT STARTS IN THE HOME!

So enough of ducking the issue and putting the blame on internet videos. If the land was not already well dug, and watered, how would the seeds grow so strong with just a little video manure?

For each radical who flies off, there are many, many more who feel the pull but reject it. The unknown factor is how many feel the pull,  chose not to go, but give tacit support. Like those young women who never wore a headscarf before 9/11 but did the day after.

Killing in the name of ‘God’, or anyone else, is obviously not the solution, videos are just as obviously not the cause.

The liberal problem! 

For liberals and Liberals there are questions to ask.

Can those who seek the freedom and right to follow their own beliefs or practise their own religion be genuinely liberal if they see others as somehow lesser beings because of their beliefs, race, gender etc.. Ever been told by a doorstep evangelist that they will live for ever whilst, if you persist in your non-believing ways, you will perish or worse. Not much love, compassion or equality in that!

Can a father who ‘arranges’ a marriage for his son or daughter be a liberal?

Indeed can the son or daughter who accepts this be a liberal?