I’ve been watching Alan Bleasdale’s Boys from the Blackstuff this past week, originately broadcastin 1982 with its bleak, exploration of the effect of the UK’s Thatcher lead economic depression (sound familiar?) on a desperate group of Merseyside characters struggling to survive and reflecting the real life of normal, working class people being ‘administered’ almost out of existance.
And totally relevent even today, because if you look at the underlying ethos, we’re at the same stage, nothing has changed. Working class folk supporting their own in the face of a rich, ruling class government who’s sole aim is to apparently strip everyone else of everything they have with impunity and disregard for compassion and understanding. The rise of foodbanks is a prime example of this, where the poor are relied on to feed their own, whilst the rich absolve themselves of their responsibility to contrbute. Boys From The Blackstuff should be a staple part of any social history lessons in school of how not to run a country, especially for the Eton cult of dictatorship.
And the worst thing of all is that the excesses and continually exposed criminality of the current Government continues without restraint. It’s even got to the stage where the bare faced robbery of the State in no longer considered newsworthy by a mass media that appears to be totally controlled by Tory ‘influencers’ (hate that word, usually it’s associated with social media ‘stars’ who appear to be entitled, boring, self important nomarks without value to mankind. Influencers used to be people who changed the world, now they’re people who can’t seem to change flights without whining) who manipulate a dumbed-down population in to acceptance.
For a number of years, the general population have been lied to, whilst the structure of their lives has gradually been changed and eroded so that there is no longer any will to resist. Television, that panacea of the masses, is structured so that there is no real thought process to be used at the viewers end, just mind numbing drivel. The news programmes are carefully constructed to eliminate any Government criticism, and when there is yet another scandal involving Government, a new ‘sensational’ story mysteriously appears and dominates each and every media outlet, until the Tory spinners can hide or mitigate the story we should REALLY be focussing on and concerned about.
No longer can anyone with the ability to see what is obvious be that person who explains in simple terms what is really going on, because the main part of the population no longer care. Apparently football ( the new religion), soaps, movies, ‘stars’ etc. take precedence over humanity. The invasion of the Ukraine by the Russian aggressors continues, peole are dying daily in their struggle to preserve their freedom and democracy, yet what do we see? The Womens World Cup, Harry Kane going to Germany, and anything else that consumes the people’s need for trivia, but if it distracts us from the Boris Johnsons refusal to comply with the laws of the land and the still missing millions from the UK’s PPE procurement scandalwhich has cost us billions that’s a great result for them.
And as for the continuing defunding and privatisation of the NHS, ask the businesses (always run by Tory supporters strangely) where their Emergency department and ambulances are. What’s that? They don’t have them? If you want private health care thats fine, but you should be excluded from using ANY NHS services. Choosing to support a private health system like the USA have is detrimental to the ethics and wellbeing of a free service and should be completely seperate. Wait until the Tories have completely destroyed the NHS, and your cosy arrangements with private health suddenly becomes VERY expensive to you to the degree you can’t afford it, and becuase you’ve helped the Tories kill off the alternative, it will mean NO health care for the less well off. It’s already happening with dental care, people being forced to pay for treatment because of a shortage of NHS dentists (strangely, no shortage of private dentists available). Your National Insurance will go directly in to private business pockets once the Tory plan is complete, and will rise to pay for services you currently get for free.
Stockholm syndrome, where feelings of trust or affection are felt in many cases of kidnapping or hostage-taking by a victim towards a captor, is now apparent on a national scale.
Remember that next time you vote. Atherton and her ‘party’ don’t care about you and I, just feathering their own and their cronies nests and especially bank accounts.
