Upside Down

There's an apocryphal tale that when the British forces at Yorktown surrendered to the Americans in 1781, they marched out to the tune of a popular song called The World Turned Upside Down. One story is that this song went back to the Civil Wars of the 1640's when the old style of disorderly celebration of the Christmas midwinter season was passing away as a remnant of Merrie England, and Puritan sobriety of worship and conduct was replacing it at the behest of Parliament.



Now it seems as if it is the world of Parliament that is in disorder and in danger of being turned upside down, as the press and populace demands an end of their recently publicised profligate and disorderly greed. The effect is sobering for our politicians, but it remains to be seen how deep-seated their repentance will be and whether there will be a long-lasting change of heart and a righteous Godly reformation of their conduct. Considering that the tirade attributed to Cromwell on closing the Rump Parliament, (which remains very apt and is being increasingly quoted, and was mentioned in my previous post,) was addressed to people who appeared much more Puritanical than our current raffish crew, one may doubt that the effect on our politicians will be very deep, sincere or long-lasting.



Interestingly, there is an American aspect to this upset of the Westminster world, since it was made possible by the courageous and persistent efforts of Heather Brooke, a noble American lady who successfully fought through the courts to have this information revealed to the public, against the strenuously vicious efforts of the Speaker of the House of Commons and his troughing cronies. Yes, it is appropriate to recognise her as an uncommon woman, whose noble qualities were revealed by her generosity of spirit and courageous action, resulting in a benefit to the public. She would be an asset to the House of Lords, if a future government were to give her the honour of a seat there, a contrast to the thieving vermin of Labour lobbyists who now infest it and disgrace the concept of honour. Titles of nobility of course may confer prestige, but they only recognise rather than create the noble qualities they celebrate. Sadly, when conferred on the instance of political trash, on money-grubbing scum the titles come to mean the opposite of their true meaning.

Parliament was seeking to evade the court ruling, and the public interest, by summarising and heavily editing MP's expense information before publishing it in a month or so; until someone copied the raw data and sold it to the Daily Telegraph, which has been revealing it in daily installments of fuel to the flames of public anger. This time it's not just the tawdry triviality of some of the claims which is enraging the public, but the brazen hypocrisy of claiming to be seeking to help the poor whilst explioting special tax rules to enable one to built a property empire on the sly, and even make claims for interest on mortgages that had terminated. People compare their own domestic circumstances to the details of things for which MP's have claimed, and are first amazed and then outraged at what MP's think they are entitled to claim at the expense of people who are far less well off.

No surprise then, to find that Labour MP's are the most numerous, hypocritical, arrogant and greedy in their corrupt claims. The MP's mantras of 'it was within the rules' and 'it was an honest mistake' are just annoying the public still more. Many people now want criminal investigations and prosecution, but considering how Parliament wrote the rules to suit itself, and the notorious 'Blairising' of the judiciary, Crown Prosecution Service and police force into agents of the New Labour Stasi state, it is unlikely that Plod will get to feel the collars of many politicians. Quite appropriately, the corruption goes back to the 1970's Labour government, beset by demands from it's shop steward MP's demands for more pay whilst trying to resist pay demands from public sector workers, which devised the cunning ruse of allowing loosely defined expenses to be paid instead of a pay rise. Over time both the pay and expenses of MP's have been increased excessively, and an attitude of entitlement has gripped MP's. Unfortunately they are unlikely to be gripped by hempen collars, or receive their just entitlement of a bullet in the back of the neck.

It was amusing to see the public anger directed at MP's on last week's Question Time television show, when three clapped-out politicians from the main parties were heckled and booed by the audience. They showed some courage in turning up at all, but it became clear that they are all past their 'best before' dates, and if prudent would retire to spend more time with their inflated Parliamentary pensions, although no doubt they will cling on for another year to enhance their entitlements still further. They seemed shocked and disconcerted that their usual pompous flannelling failed to soothe the audience, and the repetition of 'it was within the rules' and 'you don't understand', soured the public's mood even more.

MP's are rumoured to be in a chastened mood, although the promised suicides to follow revelation of expenses have not happened, of course. There have not even been any resignations from Parliament, just a couple of suspensions from the parliamentary Labour Party, and one of Cameron's advisers has lost that title. One of the lobbying Labour Lords, who were exposed earlier as influence peddlers has been suspended from the House for a year - but that won't stop him from continuing to use his contacts. There may have to be a few sacrifices, but the politicians are still sticking together, and have even voted themselves higher expense allowances, which they may hope to trade in for higher salaries soon. In a few weeks they'll probably recover their natural obnoxious bumptiousness, and be claiming to have been in favour of reform all along, but were oppressed by an evil 'system' which held them down and forced money into their pockets. The greedier ones have even been claiming extra food expenses of up to £800 per month, including times when Parliament was not sitting.

Naturally the Scots have been prominent in this looting of the Sassenach taxpayer, with that plaster saint of Liberal blather, 'Ming' Campbell amongst the most egregious claimants of extra rations, along with Scotland's current national hero, Alex Salmond who found time to include generous expense claims in his hectic schedule of appearances in the three parliaments of Scotland, the UK, and the EU; with the posts of greatest opprobrium being occupied by Gordon Brown who gave MP's such favourable tax status in 2003, and the repellently toadlike Speaker, 'Gorbals Mick' who has done his best to bully staff, spread the culture of corruption, conceal the truth and be himself one of the most blatant troughers. The quote by which his despicable political career is likely to be remembered is,"I didn't go into politics not to take what is due to me."

The predictable result of this scandal has been to enhance the electoral prospects of the minor parties in next month's local council and EU elections at the expense of the main parties. Currently it seems that UKIP will be the main beneficiary, and Labour may be hammered into fourth place. This is a bit ironic considering that UKIP have had a couple of their MEPs jailed or expelled for expenses corruption, but perhaps they can claim to have purged themselves ahead of the other parties.

There's been a poll on PoliticsHome which shows that Parliament is now held in public contempt. It has, one can't say enjoys, the lowest rating of all public institutions, a staggering -61%. The public appears to be in a dyspeptic mood, for almost all the institutions polled are in negative territory, with only the NHS, BBC and broadsheet newspapers scoring positively. Even that sacred cow, golden calf or idol of self worship, the National Health Service only achieves +18% approval, and the BBC the very model of political correctness and Labour 'luvviedom' only achieves +7%. The makeover of the Church of England from Christianity into another bastion of the new religion of the Establishment and cheerleader for all politically correct causes has not served it's reputation well, since it only scores -30%. It's amusing to see that despite the remorseless propaganda for London's hosting of the 2012 Olympics, this achieves -34% approval, no doubt in part the result of the realization that the original costings were wildly optimistic and the public will be left to pay for this expensive ego-trip of the political and subsidised sporting classes. Curiously, the Armed Forces are not mentioned, perhaps because they don't appeal to the political class, although they would probably receive a positive rating from the public. Neither is the Monarchy mentioned, although Crown, Church and Armed Forces were the basic institutions of the nation. They are what the current Establishment loathes, along with the very concept of a nation.

Indeed our loathsome lefty rulers and depraved Marxist intellectuals have perverted and inverted the nation and it's institutions. The best are by-passed or reviled. The worst, rule. The public have been brought to a low conception of sovereignty. They have destroyed British identity and substituted everything non and anti-British as superior. Instead of service to others of the nation, the ideal is now service to self and to enemies of Britain. A couple of weeks ago I heard a BBC broadcast where some lefty was snivelling about the hordes of blacks who are picked up from overloaded leaky boats the Mediterranean whilst attempting illegal immigration to Europe. Instead of concern over how to stem this tide and destroy the invaders, the filthy lefty was demanding that Britain take more of these creatures, which are already overrunning Malta, and provide them with a comfortable life at the expense of the British taxpayer. No doubt our disgusting Two Home Secretary will agree. Soon they can become MP's and join that shower of greedy traitors! No offers from affluent lefties to move out to make room for them, or to personally pay for them. Oh no, thats what the remaining British are there for, to be degraded and exploited to benefit lefties and their pets and have their own throats cut as kosher or halaal sacrifices.

MP's have been amongst the top few percent of earners for a long time, and at last their cant about not going into politics to make money is coming under scrutiny. Few Labour politicians could hope to make more than a small fraction of what they take from politics if they had to find a real job. Such useless people ought by definition to be excluded from the opportunity to enrich themselves at public expense. It's notable that the moral quality of the public and of Parliament and it's output has declined as Labour has exerted more influence. With few exceptions they're simply evil. Vermin. Orcs. Another lie being exposed is that they went into politics to 'make a difference', to 'improve things', to 'help the disadvantaged'. The only people they've helped apart from themselves are enemies of Britain and of civilisation, and they've done it at the expense of decent people. They rely on the material self interest of their degraded welfare state clients and administrators. Their election broadcasts concentrate on scaring their core vote that the Tories might cut their benefits and quango jobs. Despite the public anger, about 20% of the public still support Labour - about the same percentage of the population as last voted for Blair. This is the pool of filth from which they draw their politicians, supplemented by rich Labour grandees. It is pleasing to note that the rich dolly who was to have been parachuted into a safe Labour seat in London was rejected, albeit for one of of the usual dreary female apparatchiks. They've managed to invert the normal social pyramid whereby a large base supports a smaller tip of rulers and their hangers-on. Now more that half the 'jobs' are held by state employees. The hangers-on outnumber the productive workers. As the economy shrinks, and possibly unravels, tax take declines and lenders become reluctant to give money to a less than creditworthy government, that will be a recipe for trouble.

Our world may be facing the possibility of very drastic collapse and the normal way of life may be in the process of turning upside down - perhaps by 2012. Dmitry Orlov has outlined five stages of collapse. We seem to have started the financial phase. There are worries about world trade and the food supply and distribution system which may presage the second stage of commercial collapse. The third stage, political collapse is hinted at by the events and public responses which we have been discussing. Let's hope we don't get to social and cultural collapse.

The political boat has been rocked in stormy weather, but it will probably right itself, and normal troughing be resumed quite shortly when the winds of public fury have blown over, possibly after some ritual humiliations, and token changes to the rules. No doubt our politicians will soon recover their nerve and resume telling us that they are wonderful people who deserve even more of our money. The public perception of Parliament is unlikely to recover so rapidly. It is now becoming more widely recognised that the self-serving politicing and busy-work which makes our MP's feel so important, and inflates their vast sense of entitlement, is but a screen hiding their lack of power and importance and competence. Most of the legislation comes from Brussels, or is implemented by the bureaucracy via statutory instruments. Their main purpose nowadays is to distract the public from the fact that Parliament has lost it's purpose. It's a hollow sham hiding the loss of sovereignty to the EU Commission, its activity, as Macbeth said, 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'

Lots of people would now like to see most of our MP's hanging from ropes. It would be preferable, though even less likely, that our politicians turned their attitudes upside down, and sought the wisdom represented by the tarot card of the Hanged Man.