Friday 13th Pepsi Trump Horror Show

The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the Axe, for the Axe was clever and convinced the Trees that because his handle was made of wood he was one of them. — Turkish proverb

Friday 13th Pepsi Trump Horror Show https://t.co/cjZSoS6bjw #GE2019 #PepsiTrump #BrexitBetrayal #democracy

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) December 24, 2019

Thursday night exit polls showed a massive swing to the Nasty Party. As the results poured in, exit poll confirmed.  I turned off the coverage, it was too depressing.

A nightmare.

A decade of the Nasty Party — zero hours employment, pay less than living wage, poverty, mass closure of libraries, food banks, serfs working for apps, human robots in Amazon warehouses, class warfare, mass transfer of wealth to the rich, tax dodging on an industrial scale, austerity, neo-liberalism, shock doctrine, NHS on point of collapse, disintegration rail infrastructure.

Labour offered a radical progressive future, a green new deal.

But hey what the fuck, let’s vote for Pepsi Trump.

What went wrong? Why did people on the doorstep say No Jeremy Corbyn.

Why?

Wherever Jeremy Cobyn went, he was greeted to rapturous applause, he related to people, in debates he was calm and measured, had good grasp of the issues.

The problem therefore was not Jeremy Corbyn. The problem was the perception of Jeremy Corbyn.

We had the most vicious smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn. And it was not only the usual suspects, Murdoch and The Scum. It was fake-Left Guardian, too often the originators of the smears.

Then we had back bench MPs who thought they had a sinecure for life, wanted to back to the good old days of corrupt Labour, who spent their time sabotaging Labour, aided and abetted by the media, especially BBC News and fake-Left Guardian only too willing to grant them a soapbox.

Again we have to ask why?

Those in poser were scared shitless of radical change. The Deep State was under threat.

Had Labour a leader who would tinkle at the edges, policies that were businesses as usual, the choice of Tweedledum or Tweedledee but no real change, they would have been happy.

Therein lies the dilemma. Labour must not lose sight of the prize, dealing with tax dodgers, bringing in a fairer society, a green new deal.

In the meantime, take to the streets, direct action, form the resistance.

To those who say it was democracy, I suggest visit an exhibition in Berlin at the foot of the Berlin Wall which drawing upon Nazi archives shows how Adolf Hitler and the Nazis rose to power. Adolf Hitler was elected.

In Hungary and Poland, Fascists have been elected. They are shutting down a free press, destroying the judiciary.

When Pepsi Trump failed to attend the Channel 4 Climate Debate and in his place a block of melting ice, unnamed Tory sources threatened to remove the broadcast licence of Channel 4.

We have had Laura Kaunsberg and Robert Peston act and still acting as Pepsi Trump propagandists, drip drip drip of propaganda from unnamed sources. If not on record then do not regurgitate as news. Otherwise being played like a fiddle.

What of the climate?

Five more years of no action on climate. We have seen COP25 collapse with no firm commitment to cut carbon emissions by the levels required, zero carbon by 2030. The climate will not wait, the planet burns whilst corrupt politicians fiddle. What we can guarantee is cataclysmic chaos, brought about by climate change and the rapid deep cuts in carbon emissions that will have to be made.

The longer we leave action, the greater the impact, the deeper the cuts will have to be. How much more flooding, when do we act, do we wait until London is flooded?

I fear for this country. I also feel ashamed.

I know how they felt in US when Donald Trump was elected.

This article has been expanded on Medium under the same title Friday 13th Pepsi Trump Horror Show.

The facts don’t lie, and nor do I – An open letter to Jeremy Hunt MP

NHA - South West Surrey Group

Dear Mr Hunt

On Thursday night, in your acceptance speech, you accused me of “falsehoods”.

In your words, you accuse me of lying about “both our record with the NHS and also our motives”. You were clearly rattled that over 12,000 people in South West Surrey showed their concern for the NHS and voted for someone who questioned your record, but that is what democracy is all about – holding the government to account.

The truth is that I haven’t lied for the simple reason that I haven’t needed to. The facts speak for themselves.

When I talked about your record, I drew out many facts:

• The number of people lying on trolleys waiting more than 4 hours to be admitted to a hospital bed increased from 387,737 in 2015/16 to 560,108 in 2016/17 – that’s a 45% increase in one year. I’m sure…

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Aldershot Labour tried very hard not to win an election

Aldershot is a run down town, more like a large inner city. Prime picking for Labour one would have thought when Theresa May called an unnecessary General Election.

Labour in Aldershot ran an atrocious campaign. They tried very hard not to win.

Local candidate, local party, leader of local party, did an excellent job to work really hard not to win an election.

A useless candidate, and little evidence of any campaigning.

But when you look at their local councillors, easy to see something very wrong.

The only reason these useless candidates get elected is that they stand in slum estates where the electorate, when they can be arsed to vote, vote Labour as a knee-jerk reaction.

A complete failure to make use of social media, both by the candidate and leader of the local party.

Where were the posts of Jeremy Corbyn addressing mass rallies, John McDonnell making excellent economic points, the videos produced by Momentum?

Ex-Aldershot Para Dan Jarvis MP urges people of #Aldershot to vote for Gary Puffett as their Labour MP @AldershotNews @EagleExtra @arrse pic.twitter.com/wgjK5EX5Qk

— Alex Crawford (@CllrRushmoor) May 25, 2017

The only video posted, of Dan Jarvis, who for some perverse reason was invited, the same Dan Jarvis who had been calling for Jeremy Corbyn to go. I say invited, not invited to visit, invited to post a message, that is so lacking in enthusiasm, it is palpable.  A video that was going to go a long way to obtain votes, I think not.  But if nothing else, illustrates how bad their use of social media, if this was the best they could do. And sadly it was.

But then this local party was one of the few not to support Jeremy Corbyn

Local activists did more on social media than the entire local party.

The candidate was not even local, parachuted in from outside.

Where Jeremy Corbyn inspired people, the Aldershot candidate generated as much enthusiasm as a wet dishcloth.

It could though have been worse, neighbouring Fleet the candidate was one of these useless local councillors.

To show how bad these councillors are, at least two have used social media to attack and abuse local activists who support Jeremy Corbyn.

The useless councillors would argue the Labour vote increased. Whilst this is correct, it should be noted the Tory vote has been on a  downward trend. Any increase in the Labour vote is entirely due to the efforts of Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and Momentum, and the work of local activists.

Aldershot Labour would form an excellent case study in how not to win an election.

If a second General Election is called this year, which is a real possibility, the candidate needs to be someone from Momentum, an activist, a candidate with vision and drive and charisma, who is known on the streets and has the ability to communicate and connect with people.