Issue 42, March 2008

Nation Revisited

An occasional e-mail to friends. # 42, March 2008

Believing your own propaganda

Politicians tell you what you want to hear. When speaking to farmers they promise to promote agriculture. When talking to the middle class they promise immigration control and stronger measures on law and order. And when they are courting the immigrant vote they promise new laws against discrimination and extra handouts.

They are all things to all men. Their real interest is in preserving their privileged positions and inflated salaries. If they start out with a set of principles they tell themselves that the end justifies the means. We are only saying that in order to get into power; we are really socialists, conservatives, racialists – take your pick.

The trouble is that the leadership manipulates party members. So people who join a political party to fight for a declared programme find themselves supporting all sorts of policies that they never subscribed to. They have been hijacked by unscrupulous populism and their good intentions are lost in a fog of half-truths and distortions.

That is exactly what happened to the UK Labour Party. In order to get elected Tony Blair abandoned socialism and turned Labour into a reactionary party strongly allied to George Bush and the neocons. They took Britain to war on a tissue of lies and sold off all that remained of the state-owned industries. There may still be dedicated members working for peace and progress but their leaders long ago embraced plutocracy.

As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you.” And if you preach nonsense because you think it will make you popular you will end up believing it.

People do not know what’s best for them. Given the chance they would reinstate hanging and flogging for a variety of offences. They seldom think beyond the last move and rarely consider the bigger picture. People are tribal, spiteful and selfish in equal measure. Of course they can also be wise and compassionate, but only if given leadership and guidance. That’s the function of religion and politics.

No government could collect taxes without consent. People can be persuaded to accept laws and obligations without necessarily endorsing them. Instead of pandering to their irrational fears politicians should be trying to educate them. But they find it easier to spout worn out clichés about “national independence” and the “clash of civilizations.” The danger is that people will actually believe them.

Natural resources

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice claims that we are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq to keep the world safe from terrorism. Britain’s PM Gordon Brown agrees with her and will call for more troops at the forthcoming NATO summit in Bucharest. Neither of them mentioned the 1,680 km trans-Afghanistan pipeline that is being constructed to supply 33 billion cubic metres of gas per year from the Dauletabad gas field in Turkmenistan.

9-11 was planned and executed in the United States by Saudis led by an Egyptian Mohamed Atta. The alleged mastermind Khalid Mohammed is a Kuwaiti and the infamous Osama bin Laden is a Saudi, now thought to be hiding in the mountains of Pakistan. The 7-11 attacks in London were the work of British-based Pakistanis and the botched follow-up operation was by Somali immigrants. The Madrid train bombing was by Moroccans based in Spain and the Bali bombing was by Indonesians. Not one of these terrorists was an Afghan. 

Coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq are meeting with stiff resistance. We hailed the courage of the Polish Home Army, the French Resistance and Marshal Tito’s Yugoslav Partisans for fighting the Germans. They fought with any means at their disposal and we backed them with money, personnel, weapons and military intelligence. We even backed the Afghan rebels when they were fighting the Soviet occupation. In those days the Mujahideen were praised as heroic freedom fighters but now they are dismissed as terrorists and fanatics.

The collapse of the Soviet Union inspired the neo-conservatives to launch their master plan for the “New American Century.” They have established military bases throughout the world, even provocatively on Russia’s borders. The US Navy dominates the oceans and NATO has become an imperial army committed to enforcing the “Pax Americana.”

They calculate that thousands of dead allied soldiers are an acceptable price to pay for Iraq’s 112 billion barrels of oil. But the $10 billion dollars a month of military spending is destroying the American economy. It would be better spent on healthcare and social security. George Bush’s attempt to seize the world’s energy supplies is doomed to failure. Only international agreement can ensure a fair distribution of natural resources.

Russia has paid off her foreign debts and amassed reserves of $470 billion by selling gas and oil to Europe. But China is buying oil in Sudan and Burma in defiance of American trade embargos. They are America’s great trading partner and massive holders of US dollars and bonds. It would be damaging for both countries if they fell out over oil. America faces economic as well as military disaster unless she gets rid of the neocon warmongers. Having the world’s biggest and most expensive armed forces will not guarantee future oil supplies.

Bugging MPs

The House of Commons has been having a fit of moral indignation about MP Sadiq Khan being bugged during his prison visits to suspected terrorist Baba Ahmad. Such surveillance apparently violates the “Wilson Doctrine” of 1966, a convention that forbids the bugging of MPs by the security forces.

Our elected representatives have decided that it’s fine for us to be bugged so long as they are left alone. They think that they are above suspicion and that their relationship with their constituents is as sacred as that between a doctor and patient. Nevertheless they are proposing that electronic surveillance should be allowed as prosecution evidence.

No section of British society harbours more political extremists and potential traitors than parliament. Prominent members of the governing party owed spiritual allegiance to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And elected members of Sinn Fein maintained a close relationship with the IRA during the terrorist campaign leading to the power-sharing agreement.

The incessant sleaze reports of recent years have linked politicians to illegal payments from businessmen seeking favours. This has affected both old gang parties and has involved cabinet ministers and ordinary MPs. The case against Tony Blair for accepting payments for honours seems to have evaporated but new scandals involving the ruling Labour Party are being investigated.

MPs think that they are too important to be bugged. But history shows that they are more likely to be involved in financial irregularities, criminal conspiracies and terrorist activities than the rest of us.

Britain has a long tradition of political corruption at all levels of government. Bribes have always been solicited ranging from millions of pounds for defence contracts down to a few thousand pounds for planning permission. It did not take the arrival of Third World carpetbaggers to seduce our elected representatives but their presence has added an exotic touch to the Westminster bazaar.

Every government in the world eavesdrops on private conversations and phone tapping is as old as the telephone. The police and the security forces are bound to spy on people; that’s what they are paid for. The taxman has got access to your bank account, the utility companies know all your bank details and your supermarket even knows what you like to eat.

We are living in a surveillance society and it’s not going to get any better. The only thing that we can do is to insist that there is one law for all. Politicians must not be granted special dispensation. The relationship between an MP and his constituent is no better than that between a prostitute and her customer.

Understanding academics

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has caused a storm by mentioning Sharia, the legal system based on Muslim teachings. Very few of his critics have actually read what he said before exploding with indignation. They have simply heard the word “Sharia” and reacted predictably.

Dr Rowan Williams is an academic who speaks in an obtuse and intellectual way that is hardly understood by the common people. It’s very difficult to follow his train of thought and much easier to pick out key phrases and write alarmist headlines around them.

The Press did the same thing with Enoch Powell. He made so many classical and biblical references that few people knew what he was talking about. He was an old-fashioned Tory free trader who thought that Britain was admitting too many blacks and Asians. He was never a racist. He was a devout Christian and an accomplished linguist who spoke several Indian languages.

As Minister of Health in Harold Macmillan’s government he imported West Indians to work in the National Health Service. But in 1968 his “Rivers of Blood” speech captured the mood of the public and resulted in the end of his career as a Tory cabinet minister.

Few of the workingmen who marched in support of Enoch Powell would have agreed with his proto-Thatcherite views on selling off the state owned industries and allowing “market forces” to determine unemployment and inflation rates. But they knew that he was calling for immigration control and they agreed with him.

Now it’s Dr Rowan Williamson’s turn to be misunderstood. He merely acknowledged that ethnic minorities “inevitably” look to their own traditions when dealing with legal matters within their own communities. But his matter of fact statement has been misinterpreted as a call for the adoption of Sharia Law.

Under the strictest interpretation of this system many of our bribe-taking politicians would be missing some of their limbs and we would probably run out of stones to throw at their adulterous wives and daughters. It’s not surprising that these serial recidivists are so outraged by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s innocent, if somewhat naïve, remarks.

We need a written constitution that’s entirely free from religious interference. If some people want to go to Church on Sunday that’s fine, and if others want to play football or go shopping that’s their business. Minorities must not be allowed to dictate to the rest of us. When we were uneducated peasants we needed priests as magistrates and teachers. But all that is in the past; today the Law must be at the service of the People.

Democracy

British society has never been overburdened with intellectualism. The old aristocracy put their brightest offspring into business, their bravest sons into the Army and their oddballs into the Church. The Arts were considered to be at least effeminate and probably degenerate. “Cleverness” was regarded as a foreign thing that was not to be encouraged. It offered no advantage on the battlefield or when hunting and fishing.

Our new aristocracy is made up of footballers and entertainers that are usually semi conscious and spend their undeserved fortunes on narcotics and rehabilitation clinics. They are obsessed with their own celebrity and devote their time to posing for the paparazzi. They think that their meaningless pronouncements are deeply significant and they support every politically correct campaign from global warming to the abolition of licensing laws. 

We have gone from the oafishness of the old order to the posturing pretence of the present without noticing it. The working class never understood their old masters and they are just as baffled by the new landed gentry. A constant barrage of second-rate game shows keeps them amused. They live on deep-fried take away food and spend their money on packaged holidays to destinations that they could not find on a map of the world.

Music is popular but the general public has little interest in painting or literature. Although over 90% of Europeans and Americans are literate very few of them read books or sensible newspapers. They read papers like The Sun and follow the latest exploits of their favourite stars.

But every four years these dedicated underachievers elect the government. People who have little idea what country they are living in decide who should govern them. Voters who are ignorant of history, economics and geography put illiterate crosses on ballot papers in support of opportunists who have flown in from all over the world.

White workers who are hostile to Afro-Asian immigration vote for Afro-Asian candidates, and homeowners struggling to meet mortgage payments vote for politicians who are on the boards of the banks that enslave them. This is the crazy system that we are currently trying to impose on fiercely reluctant Iraqis and Afghans.

If everybody embraces popular culture our long journey from the prehistoric caves will end in front of a television set. Noble ideas such as liberty and progress cannot compete with constant amusement. We must hope and pray that the innate defence mechanism of the human race is still intact and that there are enough gifted people left to save us from the disaster of democracy.

UKIP and NATO

MEP Gerard Batten made a speech on defence to the 2007 UKIP Conference. He was standing in for their official defence spokesman Rear Admiral Richard Heaslip who was unavoidably delayed by his late-docking cruise ship.

Batten started by outlining UKIP’s defence policy. “The purpose of a British defence policy must be to defend Britain, and our remaining overseas territories and overseas interests from attack, and a continuing commitment to NATO which has been the cornerstone of our defences over the last 58 years.”

His loyalty to NATO is matched by his enthusiasm for the “Special Relationship” and his suspicion of all things European. “The Europhiles like to say that the EU has kept the peace since 1945. No it hasn’t. It has been NATO that did that and our alliance with the United States of America.”

But his commitment to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation starts to disintegrate a few paragraphs later. “We should urgently reappraise our involvement in Afghanistan and review our commitment.” Batten’s loyalty to the USA is also in doubt: “Our forces in Iraq are now little better than sitting ducks in a shooting gallery. We should withdraw them in good order as soon as possible.”

It’s difficult to see how UKIP can have a commitment to NATO, “which has been the cornerstone of our defences for the last 58 years,” and at the same time advocate the withdrawal of our “sitting duck” army from Afghanistan. And it is not clear how Britain can have independent military forces when they are under NATO command.

Batten rightly suspects that the EU has its own military agenda. “The failed European Constitution, and its successor the so-called Reform Treaty, clearly states the intent to create common European Foreign Policy leading to a common European defence – as they phrase it – or as you and I might call it, a European Army.”

He surely doesn’t think that our participation in the proposed European Defence Force would be more harmful to British interests than our continued membership of NATO. He has already questioned our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. He must know that British troops under NATO command are not acting independently but on behalf of the New World Order.

UKIP’s defence strategy is as muddle-headed as the rest of their policies. We have no independence within NATO. It’s an instrument of American foreign policy that is provoking Russia and trying to revive the Cold War. We cannot remain in NATO and withdraw our forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. As George Bush famously said, “you are either with us or against us.”

The Multi-cultural disaster

The French attempt to assimilate Afro-Asians has left their major cities teeming with disaffected and unemployed second-generation immigrants. The French discouraged foreign languages and even tried to ban cultural icons like the Muslim headscarf. Every effort was made to integrate Third World immigrants and turn them into black and brown Frenchmen. But this exercise in cultural imperialism has ended in total failure. Immigrant riots have become a summertime fixture and the Sarkozy government only survives by stealing the rhetoric of the Front National. Now the race traitors that aided and abetted the non-European invasion are spouting patriotic slogans and talking about “defending French values.”

Britain took a completely different approach to the problem. Instead of trying to turn blacks and Asians into Britons we “celebrated diversity.” Alien languages and customs were promoted; “Black Studies” and “Diversity Awareness” was force-fed to our children. Countless millions of pounds were poured into immigrant areas and the police were hamstrung by political interference. The result has been an identical failure to the French model, and our cities are just as violent and lawless. The French failed to achieve racial harmony and so have we.  The same alienated second-generation immigrants are seething with hatred for the indigenous population. And the same white liberals are wringing their hands and wondering where they went wrong.

Law and convention have enforced political correctness. In a boxing match between a black and a white fighter the commentator will refer only to the colour of their shorts. Every media outlet has contributed to this illusion of racial harmony The hero of every American cop show is a black man and the desperate criminal is always white and often British.

But despite fifty years of relentless propaganda and state bullying non-whites are still seen as outsiders. Some white kids who grew up in multiracial areas have adopted alien lifestyles but most are proud of their heritage and are ready to defend it.

While the postwar boom lasted our greedy bosses couldn’t get enough Third World labour.  But now that George Bush has plunged the world into recession there is no need for them. If we still need workers there are plenty of Europeans available. It’s becoming clear that liberal propaganda in favour of non-European immigration had more to do with economic exploitation than brotherly love. Legions of social workers, schoolteachers, ministers of religion and politicians have failed to achieve their dream of a multiracial utopia. Now even they are beginning to question mass migration and the viability of the multi ethnic state. The genie of repatriation has been let out of the bottle and will not be put back by repressive legislation.

Views on the news

The independence of Kosovo is a political deception that changes nothing. Kosovo remains a EU protectorate occupied by 16,000 NATO troops. The Kosovars are still unemployed and their economy is still in ruins. They are victims of petty statism and international interference. Kosovo was a self-governing province of the Yugoslav Federation under Josip Broz Tito. But President Slobodan Milosovic took away their autonomy following Tito’s death in 1980. Yugoslavia has been carved into seven mini states and separatists from Cornwall to Transdniestria are threatening to turn Europe into a patchwork of glorified parishes. The Yugoslavs came together because they spoke related languages and shared a common history. They have been pulled apart by tribalism but eventually they will be part of United Europe. The evolving system of regional, national and federal government will protect all of our traditions. Those who can’t imagine hostile states working together should remember what Britain, France, Germany and Italy were doing to each other less than 70 years ago.

Gordon Brown was considered a good economic manager during the Tony Blair decade. As Britain shared in the worldwide boom his authority was established. But the collapse of Northern Rock and the threat of global recession have severely dented his reputation. Our Chancellor has been revealed to be a mere spectator with as much economic power as Robert Mugabe has in Zimbabwe. Britain is tied to a global economy that is driven by war and regulated by the price of oil. We are as independent as Puerto Rico and as sovereign as the Virgin Islands. The dreamers of UKIP must understand that our only hope of genuine independence lies in separating ourselves from “free trade” and building a viable alternative. Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown are committed to global capitalism. But Europe has the potential to develop into an economic superpower that can break free from Wall Street.

Filmmaker Steven Speilberg has resigned as artistic director to the Beijing Olympics in protest at China’s trade with Sudan. He thinks that China should do more to stop the fighting in Darfur between the central government and the rebels. The African conflict has killed and maimed thousands but it cannot be compared to the genocide in Palestine. The good and the great are protesting about Darfur but they are not interested in Palestine. Speilberg should focus the attention of the world on Palestine as he has on Sudan. All victims are deserving of sympathy and their oppressors are just as guilty whatever their ethnicity. America and Europe have consistently ignored Israeli aggression and maintained a deafening silence on their weapons of mass destruction. Not content with confining the Palestinians of Gaza to the world’s largest concentration camp the Zionists are now starving them to death. We have the necessary diplomatic machinery and military forces to police these trouble spots. But we lack the collective will to put down tyranny and protect human rights, especially when the humans concerned are Palestinians.