Tuesday 24 March 2015

LET'S LOOK AT BRITISH VALUES

We should know what they are. Otherwise we might be infringing them, and making ourselves terrorists.

The expression says: Ughh Ordinary people!
I just read this comment on Wings from “Heedtracker” (to whom my thanks):

‘The Home Office defines extremism as “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.” '

I always get a bit annoyed when I read about “British Values”. We often hear about how “fair play” and “decency”, “cricket” and all that sort of stuff, forms the very backbone of our society, and somehow is exclusive to people from these islands. 

I get even more cross when I hear British values defined as “democracy”, “the rule of law”, “individual liberty”, etc. What rubbish. Britain is a chancer nation. A SPIV.

We've talked about this alleged "democracy" so many times on Munguin’s Republic.  What democracy, we've asked!

We have no constitution. I know that they say we do, and that it’s simply unwritten. But in reality they make it up as they go along, citing tradition or discarding it, as and when it suits their purposes.

We have an unelected head of state whom we were brought up to believe had no real powers (the real powers having been ceded by custom and practice by Victoria when she took VERY extended bereavement leave after the death of her husband). But we've found out recently that she actually has authority to interfere with law making and that she uses it.
We are not amused!

A person above the law because she IS the law.

Additionally she has an heir who has powers to alter laws, in particular over the Duchy of Cornwall. 

Furthermore the entire royal family has vast privilege and huge influence over affairs of state with the authority, or influence, to summon ministers and to be listened to. These powers are frequently accompanied by an astounding lack of skills.

We have a chamber of parliament populated by: 
two hereditary aristocrats; 
90+ aristocrats self selected from within their own class of a thousand or so dukes, viscounts, earls and marquises; 
26 senior churchmen from only one religion, and at that, only one sect of that religion (where is the tolerance of different faiths there?), 
and hundreds and hundreds of placemen of political parties. 

These placemen are appointed by political leaders to sit in the upper house, for life, with aristocratic titles (with their children being granted junior titles). Some are ex politicians, in certain cases high ranking, but in other cases, dead-weights who have been bought with aristocratic titles because their seat has been needed for someone better connected, and sometimes people who were rejected at the ballot box and rewarded with a job in politics anyway. "To hell with what the public thought of you... have a Barony!" Sometimes of course the seat os bought by enormous donations.

Then there’s a Privy Council, a convenient way for a few selected faithful (it has a quorum of 3), in the presence of the queen, to pass laws as ‘Orders in Council’ without any discussion in parliament.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...£300 and bubbly ZZZZZZZZZ
There is a House of Commons elected on a first past the post system, capable of producing massive majorities, or elected dictatorships, on as little as 35% of the vote. Seventy-five percent of seats never change hands and many members have a seat for life. (Some even pass it down to their offspring, eh Anas?).

There is a whipping system within the chamber which guarantees party loyalty on pain of career collapse, or personal embarrassment (we'll tell your wife!), and there are a variety “lost in the mists of time” procedures which can stop a bill in its tracks.  

The “I spy Strangers” ploy!

As Jim and John pointed out below, there's the Remembrancer. Now there's something from the middle ages!

As for the “rule of law”. Oh please, this cracks me up!!

Would that be the rule of law that allowed the Hillsborough disaster to be relayed to the public in the way that it was, with backing from the very top, so as not to damage the incompetent police management, but happily destroy the reputations of football fans… because they could?

Would that be the rule of law that, time after time, saw child abuse investigations being closed down by the secret police, by senior police officers or by MPs themselves?

Would that be the rule of law that saw the BBC cover up Savile’s (and others) behaviour for decades; that saw the Civil Service lie and cheat for the UK government during the Scottish referendum (and how many other times)  and have the Queen voice an opinion against all her supposed constitutional responsibilities?

Would it be the rule of law that saw police colluding with the press in return for pay-offs to get red tops sensational stories and make HSBC quantities of money? 
Now, here's the plan LOL

Or the rule of law that found the senior management of these papers to be blameless, utterly unaware of where the sensational stories came from, or where all the money was going?

Is it the rule of law that saw Blair and his ministers lie to parliament and to the people so that he could go to war in Iraq, against the United nations advice, to support his friend, George Bush? (How did that work out Tony?)

There’s the rule of law for some, and a very different rule of law for others. 

The much vaunted respect for people of other faiths, of course, as well as favouring bishops and archbishops of the English church by giving them titles and a seat in parliament, excludes anyone who is not a member of the Church of England, from being in line to the throne.  Not that that affects many of us, but it remains incredibly disrespectful to other Christian sects, and and other faiths not considered good enough.

What about the rule that in state schools (depending on the country) an act of Christian worship is obligatory on a regular basis (once a day in England).

So what democracy? What rule of Law? What respect?

British values…?

Stop and ask yourself:  Who do you trust in the British establishment?

You're the most wonderful man in
the world Sir Jimmy
The members of the House of Commons who as recently as 2009 were shown by the Telegraph to have an inordinate number of cheats in their midst? And who, despite being shown up for what they were, continue to be found out by sting operations from Channel Four’s “Despatches” on a weekly basis?

The members of the House of Lords who were similarly shown up by the Times? The Noble Lord Hanningfield who, having gone to prison for fiddling, and managing to get out within days by having a nervous breakdown, went straight back to his old ploy of signing in for his £300 and buggering off home?

The police who took bribes from the newspapers or who demonised Liverpool fans, or who were described as “institutionally racist” by the Lawrence inquiry?

The newspapers themselves who would sell their granny into slavery for a story?

The BBC which, when it wasn't paying executives massive salaries to travel around the world in first class, like royalty, was turning a blind eye to depravity in its dressing rooms?

The City of London and the hallowed banking and insurance industry??

Do you… could you, actually trust anyone at all?


I sometimes wonder if people in the Home Office, and indeed other government departments, have ever stopped and listened to themselves, or if, living in cloud cuckoo land, they really actually believe the rubbish they spout.

33 comments:

  1. Hi Tris / Minguin - completely off topic but possibly very important and would appreciate if you could get this out to all the people who follow your excellent blog - I've also posted on Wings. Right, registering to vote in the forthcoming GE if you live overseas. It is a very easy process and will allow you a postal or proxy vote in the constituency where you were last registered in the UK. You will need to have been registered there within the last 15 years, will need your UK National Insurance no and passport details. After that go to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote and the rest is easy. Also needs to be done by 20th April latest. Probably a good idea for everyone (overseas and UK) to check they are registered
    Many thanks
    Gary - Alberta, Canada - hopefully voting for a resounding AS victory in Gordon!!

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  2. Thanks Gary. Happy to oblige. Have put it up on Twitter too.

    https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

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  3. Hmm ... British constitution. I think I've heard about this, yep I'm sure I've heard about this. Now if only I could rememberwhere I heard about it ... hang on in there I'm sure it will come back to me any second now ... GOT IT! It was that lovely political leader of all things British, now what was his name again ... oh yes GORDON BROWN. He keeps going on and on and on and on and ... well you get my drift I hope ... about the British constitution. LOL

    Funnily enough it appears that the whole of the British media circus including the BBC seem to have succumbed to wee Gordie's *ahem* charm because no one in the London centric circus that is the MSM and BBC appears to have EVER asked one very important question of wee Gordie and that is this ... "where can we read the details of the British constitution?"

    As you so rightly point out Tris the *cough* British constitution is not written down so no one can actually go anywhere and try to read it or even underrstand it. This however is no excuse for our *ahem* friends in the media circus NOT to ask the question regarding the location of this alleged constitution.

    This is just yet another ABSOLUTE failing of the British media and BBC in their abilities to ask questions of the politicians that we, the people of this alleged great country want answers to.

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    1. I remember studying the abdication crisis and its aftermath at school. I remember that the new king gave his brother the title His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor. However, in a strange move, he refused to allow Mrs Simpson to be called Her Royal Highness. He allowed Her Grace as a style. It was said that, because Mrs Simpson was already married and a divorcee, twice over, and on the balance of probability, likely to do the whole thing over again, and divorce David, and because UNDER THE CONSTITUTION THE STYLE ROYAL HIGHNESS, ONCE GIVEN, COULD NOT BE TAKEN AWAY, it should not be given in the first place. This would save potential embarrassment if the woman made an ass of herself with another man.

      It was, of course, a nonsense. Then, as now, (somewhat out-modedly) a woman took/takes her husband's status and titles!

      However, that was the decision and that was the given reason..

      Somewhat oddly, then, that the style Royal Highness was taken from Diana Princess of Wales and Sarah Duchess of York in the 1980s when their marriages to Charlie and Air Miles failed.

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  4. Tris

    Brilliant post and will be getting shared as wide as I can, everyone should read this one and you truly have excelled. You have highlighted in one post every single hypocracy of us and them we have in this disgusting country. We might have a fridge, a second hand car, a tv and sky but we are no further forward than we were 2 hundred years ago. In this country most people are viewed as the scum of the earth, here to serve their betters and the elected greed is good bunch. I was having a debate on twitter today trying to explain the dfference between those who are British first then Scottish, but basically was shot down and accused of a variety of things, obviously no voters.

    Long after we are gone, tin pot dictator states will study how the British did it to their own people for hundreds of years as their model for their own countries. If ever have so many been deceived for so long by so few and fell for it every time. I am ashamed of this country and ashamed of the many who continue to fall for this crap, millions happy to eat the crumbs that fall off the table of the elite that the elite would not feed to their dogs.

    A lot of us need to wake up.

    Bruce

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    1. First of all, thanks Bruce. nice compliment.

      I think that we don't know the half... we don't even know 1% of the corruption and malfeasance that goes on. Not just here, but throughout their rotten empire.

      I found out about the Bengal famine the other day... God what a rotten lot.

      It strikes me too that all the time the empire was earning VAST amounts of money for the business classes, people working in the jute and cotton mills were on starvation wages in filthy hovels in the richest country in the world.

      I must re-watch Neil Oliver's History of Scotland... he goes into a fair amount of detail about how life was.

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    2. https://grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/not-so-civil-servants/#respond

      Bruce... Just read this piece of yours which is likewise bloody good. Advise everyone to have a read.

      My question would be ... If this character was struck by the fact that it was his duty to break all the rules of the Civil Service and release details which were confidential... did his fellow Civil Servants never have the same pang of conscience about, for example, the Iraq war, where all the lawyers in the FCO advised that invasion was illegal? Did no one in the Home Office ever feel morally obliged to mention anywhere the number of kids that were allegedly being abused by senior establishment figures? Did no one at the top of the Home Office ever think that the monstering of Liverpool football fans to cover up for an incompetent policeman's fatal errors was more than his conscience could stand... I could go on.

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    3. It seems that Bruce and I are often of one mind and funnily enough I was just thinking today that we never really get any better. I am sure that many people think they are doing well, two cars in the drive, a colour telly ( though why they bother when you cannot find anything on it) foreign holidays, well a week or maybe two in Spain.
      WE are not getting anywhere, as Bruce says we are still regarded as serfs, you only need to look at how people are being treated in the workplace. It had started when I was leaving and has got much much worse. People are being treated as if they are machines which you switch on and off at will hence the zero hours contracts. My Husband says that they will be happy when we have returned to having only enough money to eat and get to work, he could be right.
      I think many people in Scotland would fail the "British" test, I told my Thai sister in law I would.

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    4. I was talking to a guy in the Virgin shop the other day, and he was saying how they get hauled up if they fail to get their targets for tv/internet/phone packages.

      What misery going in to work every day knowing that if no customers come in, you're in trouble.

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  5. Don't forget the "remembrancer", whispering in the ear of the speaker, ensuring no law is passed that'll harm London in any way.

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    1. Oh damn. Thanks for that. I'd forgotten that the City of London has its own man in parliament to ensure that its rights are protected.

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    2. Let's hope we send down enough MPs, to remind them that Scotland wants, what it was vowed.
      As for the British qualities, there's enough of them in Westminster, that would quality for being terrorists.

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    3. Someone was just pointing out to me that there are groups of Anti SNP starting up (some with inaugural dinners, wouldn't you know) advising on tactical voting.

      Let's not assume that there will be fair play (another of our famous British fallacies) at thesis election.

      They will play dirty; they will even cheat, just like they did before.

      I'm waiting for the queen to appear in a cat suit and purr at us to think very carefully before voting for the jocks, and president Obama and prime ministers from Canada and Australia to tell us that we should just vote for the establishment that they so successfully rejected.

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  6. Qualify not quality, damn you autocorrect.

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  7. jimnarlene. You beat me to it. The man who represents the City of London.

    https://archive.today/cjMn9

    John H.

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    1. Excellent John...

      It's quite amazing...

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    2. Excellent John...

      It's quite amazing...

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    3. There's the remembrancer, and about 600 others that care for London only.

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    4. Updated with Rememberancer added, and link to the article (because ,my article was already far too long!)

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  8. Tris and the stirrers

    this extremism seems a tad like McCarthyism
    Who decides what values are the right ones ?


    Thought we went through this to get what
    limited freedoms we are allowed .
    hard to get easy to lose especially in the
    cause of saving us from extremist danger.

    i mean muslim mullah preaching hate
    obviously they have never read the christian
    bible lots of hate filled retribution in there
    eye for an eye ugly man should not lie with
    another ugly man as its an abomination in
    the eyes of God........very christian i must say

    This Tory government has killed more citizens
    with thier hate filled attack on the weak using
    welfare cuts to do so .

    I fear an overstrong state more than any extremists
    i fear a unacountable secret spy service more than any extremist
    i fear the loss of free speech even if it offends me more than any
    hate speech.......which the Conservatives are past masters of

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    1. Well, it's worrying, but of course we have provoked the Middle East, the Arabs. And our interference in things we understand not at all seems to have caused now, and historically, a great deal of the trouble in the world.

      It's not even a Labour or Tory thing. It's not even a Brit thing, it's a Western thing.

      What have we recently been involved in?

      Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya? Under both governments, and both parties we have poked our nose in, and we have made a mess.

      And they are cross with us. After all, as I've said before, supposing Iraq said, let's bomb London because they have WMDs, and the UN said NO and Iraq did it anyway, killing hundred s of thousands of Brits, i reckon Brits would be a bit cross with Iraq!

      Of course I reckon that's a really good excuse for the government to poke it's nose into our emails and phone calls...

      Of course it seems to me that at least half the wars in the history of the world have been over bloody religion.

      You're right about the Tories and their campaign of killing against the people who didn't cause the crisis.

      I could do a blog on a story of misery every single day, but I guess you'd all get bored with it.

      I hope, when he goes to hell, mr Duncan Smith is put in a small room with Mrs Thatcher and spends eternity listening to her reading her boring books over and over to him in that grating voice.

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    2. You voted for it niko, so stfu.

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  9. Hello Tris. It looks like they are going to stir things up with Argentina again, just before what looks like being a very close run G.E. I wonder how they intend to pay for this. Barnett perhaps? After all, we Scots must be punished for our rebellion last year.

    John H.

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    1. I heard something about that this morning, based on an unconfirmed report that Russia was selling some arms to Argentina.

      Some little pip squeak of a minister of war was getting all excited thinking that he might be riding high in another conflict... I wonder if they'll be trying to sink another ship with a few hundred young kids on it, or was it only Thatcher who could be that disgustingly wicked?

      One thing you can bet, John, is that they won;t be paying for it out of anything that they could get their greedy mitts on.

      They'll have to starve a few thousand more incapacitated people to death, I suspect.

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  10. I see from just under the story that there is someone who disagrees, which, of course, is absolutely fine.

    I was just wondering if they would like to tell us what they DO trust about the British establishment...

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  11. With the advent of the internet,the London establishment have no chance of sneaking Charlie up to Edinburgh for a secret coronation as King of Scots in the way that his ma was made Queen of Scots.
    Surely,we Scots have to agree that he is allowed to be our King...or not...1320 and all that?
    Then again,since we don't even have democratic rights,I suppose not.

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    1. Yes, in theory, he would be king here by grace of the Scots, not by grace of god.

      I'd probably vote for it. I can think of nothing as destructive to the monarch as King Charlie and Queen Mrs Parker Bowles.

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    1. Or for frightening intruders and scaring the mice.

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    2. Or for frightening intruders and scaring the mice.

      If you have eaten free range eggs in any shape or form then the chances are that you have eaten mouse sometime in your life.

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    3. Thanks for that CH. I only ever eat free range eggs... and I feed the mice that live in the garden shed.

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    4. Now if she were only as good a dresser as that. How come they can have all that money and look so badly dressed, and I do not exempt the men either, they look like they have been dragged through a hedge backwards.
      I used to watch my little field mouse eat the bird food in my other garden. So cute, and he/she moved into the compost heap in the winter.
      I forgive you CH, a tube of glue with Dim Jim on it, I would like you to know I have some taste in people and he is not included.

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    5. Hee hee you did ask for something to stick Helena,I just sent two tubes together for the price of one.

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