The Psychosis of a Nation

The Psychosis of a Nation. 

One does keep coming back to this theme and it is one I am sure, that is absolutely exhausted of analysis by many people but failing a Royal Commission Investigation the current interpretations will, one is certain, to be a topic that will stretch the minds to a situation of incongruity for future instant historians to ponder over. There is no doubt that there will be plenty of material to allow them to suffer the anguish of multiple interpretations and they may still not understand the extraordinary actions of the 2016- 2026 years, that one thinks, as of today, could bring a country ‘to its knees’.  In being narrow with this time fame, it is assumed that there will be a benevolent period over this time that will help alleviate the transition from a financially 5^th wealthy nation to the 8^th; even disregarding a likely disintegration in trade equanimity, healthy financial services, unwieldy balance of payments, PSBR, GDP, European disrespect, or conflict. Just now all this with the shredded respectability of parliament and political dependability is on a wing and a prayer, for although it is certain that the UK will (Brexit) ‘Leaving the European Union’ in legal terms in 2019 there is absolutely no certainty that what is at risk (all complex feature of the above) can be satisfactorily retained in any vigorous measure in the long term.

It has been absolutely tortuously fascinating to observe the interplay within the politics arena; the anguish, stress, vacuous and erudite arguments, devious deceits etc. none of it has shown the competence one might have expected from those whom are employed to be well briefed to a knowledgeable position, whose sole task is to be immersed in the intricacies of government and parliament policies which are to guide the ship of state. One is sorry to have been so anal in perusing the live and media coverage course of events, something that with some confidence one can state that one must be in the minority to have followed the intricacies unfolded from out of that simple stupid binary decision back in 2016. However the country is where it is and most people will have to be willing to accept their own responsibility in the making of the current chaos with, if it were ever possible, holding the political class, already held in contempt, inevitably more accountable for the their ineptitude, spinelessness and intentional ignorance in the drive to acquiesce to the lack of knowledge so obviously evident prior to and after the vote. They are now intent on delivering a future for one element of the populace whom do not have any real grasp of the technicalities required to deliver their fractious uncontainable delusion and in doing so alienate the other elements of the masses in the provinces union.

The interpretation of the decision to leave, one thinks, fell into to the four elasticised tropes: immigration (getting borders back), sovereignty, (out from EU rules) trade to develop own better global links (and keeping all the benefits of EU trade) and financial retention (stopping money going to EU, to be used on HNS). Having attempted to gain some grasp of intent and a measure of their understanding of the parameter around which their decision was made, one has to admit that beyond the tropes there was some honest feelings with descriptive examples to support their views but behind these opinions built on societal associated extensions of the four tropes; there existed for them, (as far as ones limited appraisal extended) little substance to appreciate the administrative governmental and EU forces which have a direct bearing and impact on how those organisational aspects, which influenced their decisive retraction action, actually work. Their understanding of the mechanics of local government, national government and its relationship to the powers and involvement in how the UK and EU legislation is enacted was abysmal. There was limited understanding of the overall electoral systems linking to the EU and no grasp of the power the executive, individual governments, voting mechanic or in exercising veto’s, can have on what legislation is eventually passed for countries to adopt. Much of what these people blamed the EU for should have been laid on the discriminatory policies and inertia of politicians and government unwilling to be realistic to issues raised by areas of the country from the impact of the four tropes; immigrating, housing, jobs, wages, including investments austerity. Too few recognised the benefits derived from being a member of the EU and none alighted on the supranational economics (element of which the EU could be blamed for) as a cause of some of the growing problems effecting the increase in the dispossessed ‘left behinds’. (1&2)

On ones limited analysis and on this basis, all those given an opportunity to influence government had to go on was their own experience, some of it visceral but most of it of limited intellectually knowledgably factual and allegories paraphrased from negative animated news, most of which was hardly effectually challenged by the government or enough independent media . In some way and this is an uncharted interpretation, there was an undercurrent of seething  unrest which came from a grievous sense of unfairness and in this, also a possible putsch against the establishment to give the venting anger at the disregard of the political parties to the long suffering degradation plight of the “left behinds”. Of the reading of intents that generated the result, it is this sense of the opportunity to inflict ‘bloody nose’ to the establishment – the government of the day, which was an opportunity taken with a vengeance.

The results, it was a high turnout but cast on a narrow majority. A democratic decision but for a long time to be seen as one of the worst demonstrations of the abuse of political power, craven cowardice, weaknesses of the uneducated democracy, abrogation of knowledgeable intelligent discourse, the decades accumulation of bad political direction and the exploitation of the people by perverted media in fabricated news. One cannot be sure that all politicians or the government (cabinet) appreciate the implication of what has happened.  As the diametrical fraught discussions being played out now are fighting over the application of the result to deliver, at any cost, ‘the will of the people’ as the death dance of the Conservative Democratic Unionist Party, aided one has to state with the connivance of the incompetence leadership of the Labour Party, is and ought to be frightening.

The tempestuous dichotomy that has infected the nation over the result, meaning, implications and ultimate profundity that has been proliferated by the past 3years, compounds together with; the anger, the emotive rage emanating from an absence of balanced sanity displayed by people runs deep in the majority of the nation and as an observation this ferment of expression displayed by supporter of leaving has been stoked up by elements of the media with the derogatory language it uses against those that do not desire to leave. If one examines the press media of the time this hostility to opponents of ‘leave’ was apparent from shortly after the contemptible event of that June day and is underscored by the absence of truth and the consistent denigration of any semblance of factual analysis of the logistical and economic impacts possible from the disengaging from the 45years of European Union. Of late Politicians of the leave group have been raising the anger level by reassigning the ‘will of the people’ into hyped frustration indicative of some elements of the public looking to open aggrieved signs or encourage demonstrative violence to back their dream of Brexit as it runs up against actual reality of implementation and are warning that the ‘will of the people’ may be “stolen” by parliament from them. The rhetoric of an outbreak of potential violence, located one thinks in the fury being built up by ‘leave’ extremist is not lost on the administrative structures and as part of the preparation of a fatal ‘no deal’, extracting the UK from the EU, some 200+ secret ‘non disclosure’ agreement have been placed on key sector of the business economy infrastructure to insure most supportive activities are kept operating normally, so there is no disruption to supplies. In addition plans are in place to control any violent civil unrest but there is also the undisclosed backstop – to implement a ‘state of emergency’. GodAllahTetragrammaton what is the nation doing?

All of parliamentary time is taken up with attempting to gain a negotiated agreement, possibly recognising too late what a comprehensive “out mean out” and “no deal is better that a bad deal” essentially will mean. To be sure some MPs are really worried that the UK does not have the long term resources to resist the degradation of the economy and have been struggling to make their counter arguments heard above the hard leave extremist bluster.  Unfortunately the curse of that vote has been taken as a democratic mandate (legally or sovereign it was not) which has been taken as an overriding obligation put onto and accepted by parliament to be delivered in inexcusable hast. The Maybot took it upon herself to be the prime charioteer willingly driven on by the secreted extremist and has excelled in what Ken Clark MP once called “a bloody difficult woman”, performing the role so greatly that one could be led to observe that she displays some attribute of a sociopath in being persistent in continuing attempting in getting her way as the only way against all alternative suggestion and so far has failed. Failing spectacularly, perhaps in part due to the advise she no doubt had from Philip May to ‘keep the party together at all cost and get the ERG on her side’, leading to a irreconcilable position and to the circumstances now that for a sitting prime minister to publicly berate all MPs of parliament as self serving obstructive conspirators acting against her designed leave – deal, are going against the people wishes and pleading for them (the people) to know that she is on their side. One might think that with this and the inflexible tack the Maybot has displayed throughout her period that there could be grounds to see her sectioned for this outburst alone. It was one of the most stupid ill-advised spectacles of modern time which other EU nations witnessed with some dismay.

When one comes across aliens it is well to understand quickly the strength and weakness of them and of one’s-self, to reach an accommodation, or failing that, assess the likelihood of conflict and winnable strategies or turn away. Unfortunately there is a manic obsession that has swept through the UK akin to a cultural sickness, a diseased obsession that one may see at the fall of a civilisation were people’s belief in accepted fruitful norms are fractured apart to allow obtuseness of their ignorance to rise and a leader may be projected forward to focus passion onto something to blame. There is no leader yet but there is something to blame and for the infatuated believers of Brexit, blaming the EU for all the travails of the past is making an enemy the UK cannot afford or win. Self inflicted degradation of the whole political sphere and established competence culture is by the UKs own inept self serving political parties which became divorced from the affluence decline of the bedrock of the provinces.

It is difficult to assess how a nation so divided can be made whole, when there are no politicians with the strength to reclaim and redirect the cultural mores. Of the three political parties only one has been steadfast in its view that a mistake has been made (The Liberal party) and in the impasse that has stupefied parliament, they wish to put the solution back to the people who should have a conclusive say in the direction the country takes; but now with a greater degree of information, if that is, there is a willingness to hear it, which seems improbable, given the psychosis that a large part of the country’s population has fallen into. One could be absolutely wrong, paradise and peace a-waits for all after this extraordinary period of confined political views. As one is only on the periphery of the causes of the potential economic catastrophe and as one has said before, the damaged to the UK has been done, no resolution will remove the stain that will roll down the decades located in the caste of Leavers or Remainers.

   

All the above will eventually be lost in the mist of time, then it will be difficult to place the personal ownership of the multitude of views and opinions individuals held over the leaving from Europe, as fact are overwritten by reinterpretation and as far as one knows, as a visitor, this fume might only be read by one at some future point as an aid to remembering ones opinion of what went on in little England at the time of participation; perhaps before one is called home.            

© Renot

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(1) europa.rs/images/publikacije/HTEUW_How_the_EU_Works.pd

(2) fullfact.org/europe/british-influence-eu-council-ministers/

Antagonists for Sedition.

 Antagonists for Sedition.

Over time there have been many descriptive names given to an individual, organisations or bands of people that have been identifies as undertaking dubious acts, whether with forceful results, clandestine preparations or in some surreptitious form aimed at inciting persuadable perpetrators to fall into a stepped progression of actions that have been and are designed to overthrow an established order of lawful administration; knowing that such acts when discovered are highly controversial and challenged the established administration to react with secret investigation, covert embedded insertion, proscription, prosecution or death. Sometimes it can become obvious that there are or have been groups of actors that, due to their visceral desire to highlight an issue, generate open public action and stands out so they become a ‘group or person of interest’ to security services to be watched. Such scrutiny as has been aimed at activist in and bodies of Trade Unions, CND, Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, NUS, RMT, NUT, NUM, NGO’s, charities etc.  Any unaffiliated politic leaning party or any organised public group campaigners and some members of established political parties, terrorist factions or anyone not of the established order who may threaten to disturbed the ‘equilibrium’ of  government script are targets.  Some of these group in the main operate with unsophisticated organisational arrangements, of limited means, of single issue and seldom are of any real threat and over the past 100 years there have been thousands spied / infiltrated upon – just in case. But in viewing a list over the recent time it is interesting to note that there are distinctly less observable corporate, media, financial, or legal players of security interest, organisations that do have the resources and sophistication to influence with concerted prejudice ways and means to manipulate the executive direction of state. Other than infrequent investigative journalism one doubts that there is any security service attention placed on them!  

It must be quite obvious by now that there are a number of forces in play which the administrative structure  is, for the moment, incapable of  possibly really appreciating the full consequences of the latitude allowed to them that in other strained circumstances, using the old contemporary methods of ‘information’ dissemination, (TV, Radio news, paper print or direct oral) they would not be able to freely impress upon recipients, views that would fall foul of libel, slanderous, unlawful, obscene, treasonable subversive or deemed a outrage to public decency etc. without being taken to account by the force of laws, political pressure or new lawfully applied controls.

The cause and power of these forces comes from the sudden injection into organised civil structures, within the effective past 30 years and which have largely been ignored due to the actuality that they were seen as extremely useful tools for corporate and personal communication. It was allowed to progress and expanded without any form or oversight, controls, systemic social affect analysis, or controlled supervision (other than the state tapping into IPS’s) now leads to a situation where any information using their distribution systems can be done pier to pier or generally without knowing what the information is (via encryption), who the originator is, source, funding or the ultimate impact of secreted information.

Computers and IT is the architecture structures onto which are riding the conduits of influential powers loosely called apps but in particular the media platforms that are facilitating electronic print content distribution which by a magnitude is considerable more intrusive, unrestricted and facilitating harm. In defense the platforms plead that they are non- responsible for any content they allow to be electronically produced /printed via their platforms as a way of differentiating themselves from traditional methods. These are not passive systems, there is a guiding mind / policy /strategy in the provision of these platforms and why they are not treated as existing controlled media methods is a question that is coming under due scrutiny. However like many things there are good factors at play in the use of fast accessible communication between linked nodes and also growing examples of the dangers inherent in the secrecy such systems allow.

It is probable, due to the exposed threats, that government now take a belated interest in the monitoring of flagged computer traffic and are extremely cautious to hide their comprehensive intrusion into networks particularly those that are encrypted. As any nefarious party will know anything transmitted over an electronic format can be snooped on and the content cannot be eradicated to hide detrimental misconduct; encryption is no ultimate safeguarded either. This creates a problem for those that want to have influential pressure outside any unwanted inspection and gives rise to the edict of - no electronic trail use, face to face meets, plain covert allusive speech, write or type destroy after use, no observable hierarchy structure, obscure existence and were necessary only use multifaceted domain linked bespoke encrypted content.

There have been names given to suspect pressure groups of the past which have been easily stretched by elements of media to portray the given sinister nature of the actions and intent of such groups, which by doing so it is assumed a reader will just accept the menacing threat of a descriptive noun, useful catch-all phrases like; Extremist (of any description), Socialist, Communist, Fifth Column, Militant Tendency, Momentum, Terrorist; all of whom because of their obvious nature have been of interest yet it is doubtful they have had or will have the capacity to really inflict a long term challenge to the administrative executive, government or the fabrics of the economic / social state of the nation.

There are some clandestine groups that do not court overt public attention and are amorphous with a tenuous structure, apparently just ‘like minded people’, “one of us”, with a collated view on an issue and do not obviously appear to intimidate the established order of the state of the nation, these have both in corporate, public and private fields, attracted none or a light oversight into their affairs.

It must be abundantly clear now that this relaxed investigative stance so obviously given to these three spheres is no longer acceptable and a much greater effort should be made to make public the real purpose of organisation, groups, or names of all supporting individual and funding streams that finance them and their output when that output can have risky consequential impact onto the public arenas. It is obvious that platforms and apps like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, are coming under scrutiny due to their potential use in malign influences used by individuals and such groups, but there are other unarticulated ‘non groups’ that are being passed by and yet are of immediate and real danger to the state of the nation.

If it were not for the impending disaster that is about to be inflicted onto the, once called UK; as a result of the Brexit malfeasances, devious financial illegality, the impact of hidden actors operating to manipulate the government and the future direction of the nation for decades to come, they would have remained surreptitiously unknown, up to now.

It is known that a great deal of discredited money has been used to buy pressure in the direction of the Brexit vote and it is known who some of the acting individual were however it is evident that the source of some of those funds used in the campaigns are still hidden behind an electronic screen of opaque ownership and the originators and key principles driving their agenda are continuing to build on their successes of the influential power gained so far. One of them, called Britain’s Future, which will not divulge the source of its finances nor organisational structure has increased alarm about the influence of so called “dark money” in politics with no details available as to who is ultimately paying for all the hard Brexit targeted advertisement it buys. This group has apparently spent in excess of £340,000 on Facebook adverts backing a hard Brexit since the Facebook social network began publishing lists of political advertisers. It is the biggest spender on this platform than all UK political party and the government combined. (1)

This clandestine group like some others still active should have raised a great deal of alarm in government circles and within security services, that it did not, indicates that there is a staggering weakness in the systems devised to protect the nation from internal or foreign malign interfering powers but what is even, for one, more confounding is the laxity of management that reside within parliamentary parties that do not to recognise that they are under internal assault. In some way the general ‘cut and trust’ of party political interplay, policy differences and the ego power struggles, some of which are on public display, are generally not aimed at insurrection of the government within parliament, however.

There are two (non groups) power blocks of MPs who have been operating in such a manner that they are effectively a 5th column insurgency functioning to force the government to bend to their demands. One, the Conservative Democratic Unionist party has historically been very influential for some 40 years supporting the English conservative party and gaining substantial financial investment for Northern Ireland to keep in power. It now moves against the democratic (of vote remain) mandate of Northern Ireland, bribed recently by the Maybot for supporting the government as it satisfies its own Brexit ends. As is known now there has been a few individuals and other non groups that have been active in the pursuit of applying pressure to public opinion and prefer not to be too closely identified nor be open with the sources of their funding stream but there is one other that has been less well known yet is considerable more effective.

The other (non group) block of MP’s is the ERG, its innocuous title – European Research Group insists it is not (a block) just a lose group really, just a gathering, of liked minded individuals who just happen to have a similar aim. One might assume that the title was to make clear that it was a research facility to cover and clarify European issues for the group; nothing can be further from the truth. This ERG was formed in 1993 by a past Tory MP Michael Spicer to stand for backbenchers concerned that the EU was turning into a federal super state, its first “researcher” was the eventual ardent leave Brexiteer and campaigner Daniel Hannan but one can now assume that its real intent is and has always been the overthrow of the nations membership of the EU by whatever means, aided by sympathetic media publication willing to present an orchestrated anti European agenda at every opportunity and gain directive control over government policies relating to Europe.

“The European Research Group (ERG) has been the most influential lobbying force in Westminster since Britain voted to leave the EU a year and a half ago, pushing May towards a hard Brexit by running an aggressive, disciplined, and highly organised parliamentary and media operation. Now, with the Brexit talks entering a critical new phase, the group has burst into the national spotlight.

First it ramped up the pressure on May to make a clean break from the EU, including fully withdrawing from the customs union. Then it led the pushback against the secret government analysis leaked to BuzzFeed News, which suggested Brexit will be bad for the UK economy under every scenario examined. Anna Soubry, the most outspoken of the Tory Remainers, claimed a clique of “35 hard ideological Brexiteer” are holding May to ransom and urged her to throw them out of the party. Newspaper reports claimed the ERG is ready to overthrow the prime minister if she crosses its Brexit red lines.

The Brexiteer caucus has done more to shape the UK’s Brexit policy than the official Labour opposition, the army of lobbyists employed by the City, big business, and trades unions, and the smaller group of committed Remainers on the Conservatives’ opposite flank. “They are the people who hold the whip hand in the party,” said a former senior 10 Downing Street official with close knowledge of the Brexit process.

But as the group’s visibility has dramatically increased, so have the questions about the extent of its support, its funding, and its contacts with government. Even in Westminster, it remains a mostly spectral organisation. A tight-knit inner circle, fronted since January by Rees-Mogg, coordinate discreetly in their offices in the House of Commons, working back channels to 10 Downing Street and the Brexit department. A wider network of supporters liaises through WhatsApp. The ERG has rarely been penetrated by outsiders, suffering only a handful of leaks. It has barely any presence online. There’s no register of its contacts with ministers and government officials. Even its membership is a mystery, with estimates varying wildly” (2).

It is thought that there are some (obscured) 80 non-members, some paying a subscription reclaimed and paid for by the tax payer as expenses, others are aligned using the ‘research resources’ or contribute ad hoc but all of this insurgent caucus are operating behind and within the corridors of power for years, to their own cohered agenda and not generally consistent with government direction. A few are well known names in the public eye and are instrumental in using manipulating media supporting their EU attacks and pressurising any doubters. They have been intent on creative propaganda in delivering “Brexit means Brexit”, ‘the peoples vote’ and if that meant pushing for a hard Brexit at any cost, so be it! (Some names 3)

While this group has tried its best to remain ‘in camera’, questions and concerns have been raised about the secretive nature operating at the heart of parliament and gaining outstanding control over the government without being challenged. The Conservatives whips office supposedly gave this group the tag "the Taliban", as a short descript term to position its attitudes and influence on MP’s however its manipulative days may be numbered. Fortunately following a Freedom of Information request, by openDemocracy; “the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ruled that the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) must release a list of ERG members. OpenDemocracy appealed to the information watchdog when DExEU redacted the names of ERG members named in a 2017 email exchange with then Brexit minister Steve Baker. Baker, a former ERG chair, became a minister in June 2017. Just weeks later, he offered a private briefing for the ERG on the so-called Great Repeal Bill, the parliamentary act for provides for leaving the European Union. One email noted how there is a “larger group” and “a smaller more senior one" within the ERG” (4).

As the clock is running down to the fixed date 29th march 2019 to leave the EU, one can now observe the state of absolute panic of partisans to Brexit and divisive dismay of parliamentarians as no beneficial leaving deal is in sight, nor is there likely to be one especially as no trade terms have been established yet or will be able to be for 2+ years after this date and finally the reality of the economic cost has nearly overcome the fantasy that has driven the ideological extremists in their force to direct government, which it so obviously has done since its inception in 1993 and is now so close to achieving its prime aim of leaving the EU; with eventually the potentially dismantling the Union?

Had the amount of influence and power demonstrated by ERG been in the hands of any proletariat group; it is safe to say that it would not have had the freedom to insert itself into government. It would have been ostracised, harassed, denied any secrecy, investigated, possibly proscribed and generally made to be responsible for its actions. That this has not happened with such a powerful secret group is, or should have been of concern and may point to how easy it can be for well organised and funded advocates with a stepped strategy to usurp democracy or surmount it, buying into government, manipulating public perception with electronic and print media, thereby imperceptibly gaining sedition against the administrative order and persuading a country to bend to its propagandas, is an astounding achievement.

With another analysis one could say that with the example demonstrated by this influential subversive group, that a takeover of the country has already happened and was secretly planned for probable more than 26 years. For the government not to recognise it has allowed a ‘party’ within an established party to become so powerful to date and has been dictating to the elected government the direction of the most important decisions ever required of parliament, is a complete dereliction of ministerial Maybot duty allowed by tolerating abusing the flexibility of parliamentary privilege and protection. And in this, some of these actors are still continuing to pursue their cant of the mythical golden future for the UK by being out of Europe, they are busy securing their own financial position facilitating benefits to themselves against the possible degraded economy of the UK should their dream be brought to ultimate fruition. This is a financial protective arrangement which the wo/man in the working street is unlikely to be able to copy, against a financial collapse but they will have to carry the cost. For the cosseted MPs and businesses making similar ‘investment hedge’ decisions, the uninformed public are probably just seen as the useful cannon fodder of Brexit.

Is it too strong to take the above view A militant tendency: 5^th column: secreted in the heart of parliament assisted by others of vested interest, covert over years, unobtrusive, with blind eyes upon it; who would have known?

© Renot

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1. Guardian Sat 9/3/2019

2. Buzzfeed 8/2/2018

3. Jacob Rees-Mogg. Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Theresa Villiers, Owen Paterson, John Whittingdale, Bernard Jenkin. Ben Bradley, Charlie Elphicke, Nadine Dorris, Dominic Raaab, John Redwood, Bill Cash, Peter Bone, David Davis, Liam Fox, Maria Caulfield, Michael Tomlinson, Penny Mordaunt, Ranil Jayawardena, Paul Scully.

4. 11/3/2019 www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/