We live in troubled and turbulent times

Problems remorselessly keep on increasing and ever deepening.

I cannot recall in my adult life a time like the present where the world, Europe and the nations of the United Kingdom are being confronted with such a wide range of scandals, uncertainties, difficult and seemingly insurmountable problems. This applies to domestic and international politics, finance and economics, collapse of social cohesion, escalating humanitarian and refugee crisis, the global environment or matters of peace and security. There is an over-riding feeling that the political institutions whether at home, Europe or on the world stage are unwilling or unable to secure any semblance of control. By now I frequently doubt the common will or indeed the competence of existing international institutions to resolve matters.

Consider what currently faces us from the ever increasing European/North Africa humanitarian crisis; the financial difficulties of the Euro zone countries and not just in Greece, China’s economic woes, the chaos of Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Into that mixture world powers are struggling to cope with the widening advance of Islamic State, Boko Haram and other groupings in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of south-east Asia.  

After the General Election in May the key matters that immediately impacted on UK politics revolved around the future of the Union; the pending emergence of the SNP as the third force in Westminster; the implications for the continued health of our democracy after the election had resulted in the most unrepresentative House of Commons since universal suffrage; what would be the fate of the Liberal Democrats and who would be the next Labour leader. In the background as well were important unresolved issues centering on the pending publication of the Chilcott Inquiry, the inquiry into the Child Abuse scandal, Cameron’s renegotiation of our working relationship with the rest of the European Union and the migrant/refugee in Calais.

Other than Tim Farron election as the new Liberal Democrats’ leader and the modest recovery in the party’s fortunes all the above matters remain on the agenda.

There is little doubt that matters have worsened almost on all fronts yet the Prime Minister sails on oblivious to everything around him and behaving as if he has a 100 seat majority in the Commons. Indeed new issues have joined the list highlighted above and are beginning to dominate our politics. There are the allegations centering on the existence of a Westminster paedophile ring and the associated apparent cover up stretching back decades. Then there is growing controversy and concern over the potential serious social implications for the deprived, the underprivileged, the less well-off, weak and disabled among us as a result of the George Osborne budget measures. This is closely allied to the uncertain future facing millions as the pending Welfare Bill revolution kicks in. The DWP has been forced to release figures that show that some 2400 people have died after their Employment and Support Allowance claim was ended.

Then today we have arrived at a situation in our ‘great democracy’ following the appointed of almost 50 extra Peers of the Realm and resulting in the United Kingdom having the second largest unelected legislature (the House of Lords) in the world. The first being China!.

Finally the humanitarian/refugee crisis has imploded with such tragic consequences, death and human suffering.

I do not propose to deal with such a vast array of issues and problems in this blog nor is it possible either to provide simple answers. But what can be done is to provide further food for thought on three of the issues mentioned as we enter the holiday weekend. Hence I have chosen some links from various publications for information and further reading.   

There is no doubt that after the 9/11 attacks, Bin Laden, Al qaeda and the Taliban the American–led interference in the affairs of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya has resulted in continuing and probably worsening chaos. Indeed the consequences are spreading further afield into Lebanon and Turkey. Into this cocktail of differing issues across the Middle East the Islamic State fighters, extremists and terrorists have emerged inflicting their own devastation and invariably in extremely barbarous ways.  Just as worrying are the activities of Boko Haram and other Islamic groupings in North Africa and south-east Asia.  

Little wonder therefore that western leaders and many others have all turned their attention to the religion of Islam and have spoken of it as being one “of peace.” Others have vehemently argued the opposite. But the debate about the nature of the faith and its relation to violent extremism is missing an important element. If we want to understand the world view and aims of IS, and why some people seem attracted to its project, we would do better to focus more on the history of Islam rather than the more  difficult question of the essential nature of a religion.

I was led to this conclusion by reading an enlightening and for me at least a highly educational article in Prospect Magazine which attempts to put everything in an historical context and to try to explain the dream of the Caliphate. I knew a little of the history but nothing like the detail outlined. By the way at one time I knew a person from North Pakistan who kept on telling me that these people will never forgive or forget and that they will inflict revenge - 'even if they have to wait a thousand years'. Obviously it begins to look as if he was right but I will leave the matter with you to ponder over.

In the UK there is an ever increasing debate over the likely impact and consequences of the forthcoming welfare cuts. The issue caused chaos inside the Labour Party who apparently did not want to be seen to being in opposition to what was viewed at the time as a popular centre-right view that something needs to be done over the abuse of the welfare and benefits system and especially its ever increasing cost. There is some merit to the proposition but as the dust has settled on the budget measures a different scenario is also emerging. There is the realisation that the Chancellor’s measures would in effect reduce benefits for people who are in work but on low wages.

Opinion polls after the budget indicated that there was a 3 to 1 opposition to the proposal with 45% of the view that too little is spent on those people who are on low wages and who are making good efforts to better their personal circumstance. The Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated that the poorest 10% of families would be worse off by £800 a year by 2019. The next poorest 10% would be worse off by £1,100 a year and that the four year freeze on working age benefits is estimated to cost some 13 million families £260 a year each.

Into the mix has been thrown evidence the government tried to prevent from being published information on the impact of ending the Employment and Support Allowance and the imposition of the Fit for Work Test. According to figures released by the Information Commissioner some 2,400 people have died over a 3 year period.

Again an associated issue is the ongoing debate over the financial burden the immigrant population is inflicting on the benefit system. As with IS I am seeking to find out answers and facts that are not just based purely based on propaganda propagated by right wing organisations or  those seeking to exploit the situation for political purposes.  Hence various links are interspersed with my comments  

   

Finally I must end with the Labour leadership election. What seemed like a straightforward matter has been turned into chaos and nigh on ‘civil war’ in the party. Ed Miliband introduced a new method of electing future leaders that had the expressed aim of making the trade union membership role more democratic and also promoting supporter participation in what was seen as a new and enlarged democratic process. All that made sense to me and Harriett Harman was eloquent in explaining its virtues at the start of the leadership contest.

Initially there were three candidates and frankly not one was an over impressive figure. But from somewhere emerged the idea of broadening what was on offer to the Labour electorate by including Jeremy Corbyn in the process.  It was argued that then all strands of the party, the centre/right, centre and soft/hard left would be on the ballot paper – an inclusive election! Indeed I believe Andy Burnham lent some of his supporters to Corbyn to enable the latter achieve over the number of nominations required from MPs to be a candidate.

That’s where the cosy scene comes to an end. I have little doubt that no one in their wildest dreams, even Jeremy Corbyn himself, ever imagined that he was going to have had such an earth shattering impact on the future course of the party. His consistent views on a wide range of issues had been well known since the 1980s and as a consequence there would be little chance of him making an impact it was thought. But to everyone’s amazement the contrary has happened. There has been incredible grassroots membership support for him and his popularity has taken everyone by surprise. In fact he hardly looks like a likely leader of a political party. So the old Harold Wilson saying ' a week is a long time in politics'! indeed has come to haunt the establishment and centre-right of the Labour Party.

Whatever one's view of Corbyn is he has made Labour face up to the need to make up its mind about what is the party for. The truth is that for far too long Labour has been reacting to the consequences of the SDP & Thatcher years and even though they would never concede this point Kinnock/Blair/Brown were in fact nothing else but SDP Mark 2 leaders.  

So the chaos that Labour has fallen into is beyond comprehension. The party hierarchy/ grandees/centre-right should have welcomed the explosion of some 400,000 affiliate trade union members and party supporters participating. It is a great exercise in democracy and has it not been the plea for decades that somehow we need the public to be more involved in politics? Vetting and finding reasons for excluding thousands of people from voting is somewhat futile particularly there is strong evidence that such a process has resulted in the exclusion of genuine supporters and even activists.

As I understand the situation if someone is not on the electoral register, or has been found to have voted or supported another party in earlier years or even communicated with someone from another party then that person is regarded as an infiltrator!. To try and find the flimsiest reason why a person cannot participate is so ironic when one considers that Kinnock courted former members of the Liberal party to join the party and then in the Blair New Labour years Tory MPs were welcomed into the party with open arms. In fact one or two became Government Ministers or ended up in the House of Lords. Isn’t that funny? But the individuals chosen were establishment people, so that's alright! The truth is Labour is in a flat panic over a possible Corbyn victory

As with the two previous issues I have used links to elicit more information as to the nature and causes of the grassroots uprising and about Corbyn himself. Whatever the outcome Labour will never be the same after this summer because the power of ordinary people will ultimately impact on the party’s policies and direction. So we’ll all have to watch the scenario unfold in the coming months.