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Recently in Politics Category
Neil Kinnock, former leader of the Labour Party through the years of the Thatcher government, was an extremely good orator, even if history has rather forgotten that in favour of remembering him as the Labour leader who managed to lose the 1992 election. This is rather unfair on him. The current buildup to the US elections has reminded me of a speech he made on the eve of the 1983 general election, which Margaret Thatcher won due to the country surfing on a wave of patriotic fervour after Britain's victory in the Falklands war.
In this speech Kinnock laid down his vision of what a second term for the Thatcher government would mean for Britain (and, as it turns out, pretty much did mean), in stark yet eloquent terms. I think it's one of the finest pieces of political oratory of the 20th century, but for some reason I could never find the full text on the web. So I dug it out of a book and retyped it, and here it is. It rings equally true today, even if some of the references (to, for instance, Norman Tebbit) are a little out of date. Change a few words and it could describe the dangers of electing any authoritarian right-wing government.
In this speech Kinnock laid down his vision of what a second term for the Thatcher government would mean for Britain (and, as it turns out, pretty much did mean), in stark yet eloquent terms. I think it's one of the finest pieces of political oratory of the 20th century, but for some reason I could never find the full text on the web. So I dug it out of a book and retyped it, and here it is. It rings equally true today, even if some of the references (to, for instance, Norman Tebbit) are a little out of date. Change a few words and it could describe the dangers of electing any authoritarian right-wing government.
If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as Prime Minister, I warn you.
- I warn you that you will have pain -
When healing and relief depend on payment. - I warn you that you will have ignorance -
When talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right. - I warn you that you will have poverty -
When pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a Government that won't pay in an economy that can't pay. - I warn you that you will be cold -
When fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford. - I warn you that you must not expect work -
When many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don't earn, they don't spend. When they don't spend, work dies. - I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light.
- I warn you that you will be quiet -
When the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. - I warn you that you will have defence of a sort -
With a risk and at a price that passes all understanding. - I warn you that you will be home-bound -
When fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up. - I warn you that you will borrow less -
When credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.
If Margaret Thatcher wins, she will be more a Leader than a Prime Minister. That power produces arrogance and when it is toughened by Tebbitry and flattered and fawned upon by spineless sycophants, the boot-licking tabloid Knights of Fleet Street and placement in the Quangos, the arrogance corrupts absolutely.
If Margaret Thatcher wins -
- I warn you not to be ordinary.
- I warn you not to be young.
- I warn you not to fall ill.
- I warn you not to get old.
Neil Kinnock, Bridgend, 7 June 1983
As a non-US citizen who doesn't live in the USA, it could easily be suggested that I have no reason to think that anyone should care in the slightest what my opinions are about the upcoming US presidential elections. Indeed, my opinions might well be harmful - my 2004 endorsement of John Kerry is widely agreed by political scientists to have tipped the electoral balance just far enough for Bush to win. I'm also not allowed to donate to US political causes, entirely correctly. So why should I feel it's worth even mentioning the US elections?
Here's the thing. It's not something I can really keep quiet on, not least because I'm a big fan of the USA both as a country and as an ideal. The Constitution of the United States is an extremely well-written document - notice that the only bits which regularly spark controversy are amendments - which lays down the foundation of an extremely robust democracy. It's a beautiful, varied country full of nice people (and yes, people can be nice or nasty completely irregardless of their political views). Heck, I even married an American.
As an idealist myself, one of the most painful things of the last decade of both American and British history is the relentless grinding-down of ideals. It's a process that started in the 1980s but which has only really been brought to fruition since the turn of the millennium, as political idealism has been gradually replaced with political fear, government for the people has become government of the people, as people have been encouraged to accept the most mindnumbing jackhammering of their basic rights in return for claimed protection from exaggerated enemies. The America of Jefferson, Franklin and Lincoln has become the America of Dick Cheney, of Guantanamo Bay, of detention without trial, of waterboarding, run by a government of small-minded paranoiacs who see the Constitution as something to be worked around and reinterpreted to suit their own ends.
Don't get me wrong. Britain's done pretty badly too. The Labour government which we ushered in with such optimism in 1997 after 18 years of rule by inhuman Thatcherite dogma has reduced itself in the last few years to a paranoid husk, passing law after law restricting civil liberties as the country grows into a CCTV-studded wasteland where imaginary enemies prowl the streets - if it's not terrorists, it's some other bogeyman du jour, like paedophiles or immigrants or maybe trainspotters. The grotesque spectacle of a Labour government (thanks for that turn of phrase, Neil Kinnock) bribing that party of intolerance and bigotry, the DUP, to support its odious 42-day detention bill is one of the more shameful moments in our recent national history.
I see no prospect for improvement in the UK for the time being - if anything, the country seems to be sinking into a new dark age of superstition, selfishness, bigotry and fear. We shall have our own fights to fight in the future if there is to be any hope of restoring the basic values of humanity, trust and mutual respect to public life. The surprising thing is that the spark of idealism that lights the darkness may be coming from the other side of the Atlantic.
For the first time in a long time, America has an idealist in the electoral pipeline, someone who gives the impression of being genuinely determined that things can be done better, that the USA should be a country run by other things than fear and vested interests. There's something very brave about coming straight out and saying that your campaign isn't fundamentally about stability or cutting taxes or anything else material, it's about hope and change. I would say it's audacious, but that would give the impression that I was just cribbing from the title of the guy's book.
The next few years are going to be critical for both the US and the UK, as what happens over in the US always casts a shadow on the UK sooner or later. Our two countries are tied more closely both historically and culturally than many of my more snooty British acquaintances or many of the more isolationist sections of US society might like to admit. What's bad for the USA will usually turn out to be bad for us, and right now I think that another 4 years of rule by Republicans would be terribly bad for the USA, not least with McCain's dicky state of health making the terrifying prospect of a Palin Administration very real if he wins in November.
Which is why I think an Obama Administration would be a jolly good thing, not just for the US but for the rest of us too. Some may agree, others may not. Some may disagree sufficiently virulently that they post comments about how "we kicked your limey asses in the War of Independence" (newsflash - that was 230 years ago) and that I'm a "pussy", or maybe a "jerkwad" or even worse, a "liberal" (gasp!). I guess they're not my target audience here.
Here's the thing. It's not something I can really keep quiet on, not least because I'm a big fan of the USA both as a country and as an ideal. The Constitution of the United States is an extremely well-written document - notice that the only bits which regularly spark controversy are amendments - which lays down the foundation of an extremely robust democracy. It's a beautiful, varied country full of nice people (and yes, people can be nice or nasty completely irregardless of their political views). Heck, I even married an American.
As an idealist myself, one of the most painful things of the last decade of both American and British history is the relentless grinding-down of ideals. It's a process that started in the 1980s but which has only really been brought to fruition since the turn of the millennium, as political idealism has been gradually replaced with political fear, government for the people has become government of the people, as people have been encouraged to accept the most mindnumbing jackhammering of their basic rights in return for claimed protection from exaggerated enemies. The America of Jefferson, Franklin and Lincoln has become the America of Dick Cheney, of Guantanamo Bay, of detention without trial, of waterboarding, run by a government of small-minded paranoiacs who see the Constitution as something to be worked around and reinterpreted to suit their own ends.
Don't get me wrong. Britain's done pretty badly too. The Labour government which we ushered in with such optimism in 1997 after 18 years of rule by inhuman Thatcherite dogma has reduced itself in the last few years to a paranoid husk, passing law after law restricting civil liberties as the country grows into a CCTV-studded wasteland where imaginary enemies prowl the streets - if it's not terrorists, it's some other bogeyman du jour, like paedophiles or immigrants or maybe trainspotters. The grotesque spectacle of a Labour government (thanks for that turn of phrase, Neil Kinnock) bribing that party of intolerance and bigotry, the DUP, to support its odious 42-day detention bill is one of the more shameful moments in our recent national history.
I see no prospect for improvement in the UK for the time being - if anything, the country seems to be sinking into a new dark age of superstition, selfishness, bigotry and fear. We shall have our own fights to fight in the future if there is to be any hope of restoring the basic values of humanity, trust and mutual respect to public life. The surprising thing is that the spark of idealism that lights the darkness may be coming from the other side of the Atlantic.
For the first time in a long time, America has an idealist in the electoral pipeline, someone who gives the impression of being genuinely determined that things can be done better, that the USA should be a country run by other things than fear and vested interests. There's something very brave about coming straight out and saying that your campaign isn't fundamentally about stability or cutting taxes or anything else material, it's about hope and change. I would say it's audacious, but that would give the impression that I was just cribbing from the title of the guy's book.
The next few years are going to be critical for both the US and the UK, as what happens over in the US always casts a shadow on the UK sooner or later. Our two countries are tied more closely both historically and culturally than many of my more snooty British acquaintances or many of the more isolationist sections of US society might like to admit. What's bad for the USA will usually turn out to be bad for us, and right now I think that another 4 years of rule by Republicans would be terribly bad for the USA, not least with McCain's dicky state of health making the terrifying prospect of a Palin Administration very real if he wins in November.
Which is why I think an Obama Administration would be a jolly good thing, not just for the US but for the rest of us too. Some may agree, others may not. Some may disagree sufficiently virulently that they post comments about how "we kicked your limey asses in the War of Independence" (newsflash - that was 230 years ago) and that I'm a "pussy", or maybe a "jerkwad" or even worse, a "liberal" (gasp!). I guess they're not my target audience here.
While cleaning out the old crud from my web directories just now, I stumbled across an image from late 2004:
It took me a few seconds to figure out what it was, but then I remembered what it related to - this old entry. Well, it's four years later now. Here's hoping, eh?
It took me a few seconds to figure out what it was, but then I remembered what it related to - this old entry. Well, it's four years later now. Here's hoping, eh?
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