Author: R J Adams

^{Which one is your grandfather?}

Today is a day for the British to take stock of just what they’ve done by voting to leave the European Union.

Today is July 1st 2016. By the end of this day, one hundred years ago, 20,000 men of the British Empire would be lying dead in the mud of the Somme. The cause of this vile slaughter was one of the greatest tactical blunders in military history, led by British aristocratic incompetents.

And for what? So the powerful, infighting, families that ruled Europe could slug out their differences from their fancy mansions without so much as a splatter of mud on their expensive gowns and tuxedos.

The Mirror newpaper today:

“We must never forget the bravery of the young men who exactly 100 years ago today heard the whistles that would send so many over the top to an early grave.

‘Slaughter not in vain’

“Many of the men who died did not have the vote and their suffering played a part in obtaining rights and freedoms we should cherish, respecting those who never grew old so that we may be free.”

From the Times:

…the Somme was a slaughter, but it was not in vain, as it allowed Allied commanders to learn how to fight a mechanised war on an unprecedented scale.

It was knowledge that ultimately helped to secure victory.”

20,000 men on the first day; over one million killed or injured in the following five months, and these newspapers dare to state it was not in vain. How can that amount of death and suffering, young men blown to bits, families back home devastated, ever be justified?

They call them “brave”. They weren’t brave, they had no choice. Most of them were so scared they soiled their clothes before ever going into battle. Those who joined up voluntarily were testosterone-fueled, propaganda victims, who considered it a ‘jolly jape’. They soon discovered there was nothing ‘jolly’ about the Somme. Most were conscripted, as has been the case throughout history whenever a British king or queen needed an army to fight for more land to be conquered, more money to top-up their coffers.

The media and politicians are pastmasters at spouting sentimental guff to make us all feel better. They call them ‘heroes’, the ‘saviours of freedom’, but they were just human beings like you or I, who happened to be born at the wrong time, in the wrong place. They certainly died in the wrong place, and at the wrong time, their lives snatched away so, “allied commanders could learn how to fight a mechanised war on an unprecedented scale.” If that was the case why did it take another four years to defeat the German military, and cost another seventeen million lives?

It was the “war to end all wars”. Maybe they wouldn’t have minded dying so much if they knew that had come true. Sadly, it only took twenty years before realization dawned that “the war to end all wars” was just another catchy little propaganda phrase trotted out by the politicians and media of the day to justify something unjustifiable.

It’s still happening today: “Brexit will reclaim our sovereignty.” “Today is Britain’s Independence Day.”

The European Union was a great ideal, formed with the aim of preventing any more European wars. It has succeeded for over fifty years. Perhaps those who this week voted to leave it might first have stopped to consider what it was their grandfathers and great-grandfathers were forced to die for, one hundred years ago today.

^{Britain’s Next Prime Minister? God Forbid!
NOPE! HE’S GONE!}

What is happening to British politics? Watching the BBC News one could be forgiven for thinking the nation was going to hell in a parliamentary meltdown: the Tory vultures are gathering around the not-yet-quite-deceased body of David Cameron, and Labour’s birds of prey (front-runner, the aptly named Angela Eagle) are hovering over their leader, Jeremy Corbyn, waiting the right moment to rip out his liver.

The BBC (more biased by the week) seemed obsessed today with the video clip of David Cameron telling Corbyn, “For Heaven’s sake, go!”^[1]

It is, of course, a childish remark one can expect from the weak-chinned Cameron, who hasn’t the guts to lead a small puppy least of all a nation, and handed the most important decision of the century over to a populace totally unable to comprehend the outcome of their decisions. Come back, Pontius Pilate, all is forgiven!

As yet, Corbyn hasn’t “gone.” He’s sticking it out, and that takes guts given the mass of negative propaganda pouring out of the gutter press, including sadly, the Tory-controlled BBC.

In a recent response to a comment on Sparrow Chat, this writer was of the opinion that Corbyn hadn’t the abilities necessary to be a Prime Minister. That could turn out to be true, though in all fairness he doesn’t have much to live up to, at least not since David Lloyd George, and he was prime minister over ninety years ago.

Nevertheless, a study of Corbyn’s policies and beliefs make him the only possible candidate for the job. After all, if most of those who voted ‘Leave’ did so as a protest vote over their feelings of disenfranchisement, as seems to be the case with many, they’ll not get much joy from the rest of the pseudo-aristocratic, hodge-podge, of ex-public school flotsam vying for the position.

Indeed, so large was that section of the British voting populace, that if another referendum was held tomorrow, without the squalid campaigning that characterised the first abortive attempt, around twenty-thirty percent of the first time ‘Leavers’ would be changing their opinions and ‘Remain’ would win the day outright.

Which begs the question: if David Cameron was so keen to keep the country in Europe, why isn’t he using his authority as Prime Minister to declare a second referendum?

We’ve heard much of that phrase from politicians over the last few days, “The British people have spoken,” but it’s fairly meaningless when large numbers of said British people have now admitted they didn’t know what they were talking about.

Parliamentarians are using the referendum result as a free-for-all to gain power. Already the number of Tory would-be-prime ministers is heading towards double figures. Even the scourge of the British NHS, Jeremy Hunt, is threatening to put up for the job. Britain would fare better under Donald Trump. Oh no, sorry, he’s promised to the Americans.

Jeremy Corbyn is the only true Labour socialist left in the running, should there be a general election. He’s clinging to his position like a wounded stag that won’t stop fleeing from the hounds baying at his heels. He may yet outrun them.

It might be better for Britain if he did, but only if those who feel truly disenfranchised have the guts to support him. The British working people have a history of chickening out when it comes to the ballot box. Candidates with a true vision of a socialist Britain inspire for a while, but come election time Joe Public won’t put the ‘X’ where their heart is and settle for another gormless, public-schoolite, with a half-baked degree in philosophy and political science, and no more concern for the needs of the majority than Donald Trump planning another Scottish golf course.

If Britain is destined to leave the European Union it will take more than a half-baked political science degree to negotiate with E.U. leaders. It will take a ton of guts, dogged determination, and a firm commitment to make a better Britain for all its citizens, not just those whose over-healthy incomes are extracted from bleeding dry the ordinary folk who are the true backbone of the nation.

Whatever one may think of his personality, Jeremy Corbyn is the only man standing in political circles at this moment who offers even a vestige of hope of achieving that.

Of course, how long he may remain is just another of those myriad debatable questions that have erupted from “Brexit” to which no-one, inside or outside politics, seems to have an answer.

^{[1] “David Cameron to Jeremy Corbyn: For heaven’s sake, go” BBC, June 29th 2016}

^{Ray Of Hope}

It’s sad state of affairs, but the demise of the England football team from Euro 2016, losing 2-1 to Iceland, and coming so soon on the heels of the referendum’s disastrous result on Thursday, is just too much to bear for many English people.

While British Tory newspapers are still desperately clinging to their support for Boris Johnson to succeed David Cameron as the next Tory leader, it’s becoming obvious that the country, slowly coming to terms with the lies and deceit of the referendum’s ‘Leave’ campaign, is beginning to regret its love affair with Johnson and is turning towards a more acceptable alternative.

Johnson can be blamed for many things, but losing to Iceland in Euro 2016 is hardly the fairest thing to lay at his door. Unfortunately for him, football has a habit of producing the most illogical reactions in people, and for many it must seem inevitable that Boris had a hand in it somewhere.

Who may metamorphose as the alternative to Johnson as Tory leader is yet to be decided, but Home Secretary Teresa May is emerging as a potential front-runner. Many Tory MPs are unhappy with Johnson’s performance during the referendum campaign, and his part in splitting the Tory Party asunder.

The forecasts of David Cameron’s ‘Remain’ camp have come to fruition so rapidly – the suicidal pound, the loss of Britain’s AAA credit rating, racial violence on the streets, coupled with the promises of the ‘Leave’ campaign now being substantially diluted, if not denied, by Gove and Farage, that many Brits who voted for ‘Brexit’ are now bitterly regretting their actions.

The disgrace of the England football team just may, hopefully, prove the straw that breaks Boris Johnson’s political back. It would be deliciously ironic if, after all the lies and deceit he has spouted to the British people, his demise were to be initiated by the one thing he actually had nothing to do with.