The Sound of Confusion Is In The Air!

I don't often post Political issues here on my blog, which is normally dedicated to Music, but a couple of songs in the past week have given me concern enough to pen a few thoughts.

A week has passed since the whole EU vote here in the UK and it's still a bit of mystery as to exactly what is going to happen following the result to Leave the EU that was announced on Friday 24th June.

I have been thinking about this whole issue a lot the past week and my head is spinning. Obviously, as one who voted to Remain, I feel that the UK made a bad decision based on the foundation of false promises of the Leave Campaign.

The song above speaks of The Sound of Confusion and that's exactly where we are at this moment in time. Confusion is everywhere, in the Papers, on the Television and the Radio. Social Media is rife with reports of the rise of racist attacks, there are various petitions doing the rounds contesting the result and basically we are all running around like a dog chasing its tail and is never likely to catch it!

The two leading Political Parties haven't helped much in this crisis either and find themselves embroilled in a bitter battle to appoint new leaders. David Cameron had already said he was stepping down and was going to leave the details of the departure from the EU to the new leader of the Tories and of course new Prime Minister and The Labour Party, well they have the appearance of a very badly staged car wreck at present.

The Parliamentary Labour Party have risen up against Jeremy Corbyn and have issued a vote of no confidence in him, despite many members of The Labour Party still supporting him. What is interesting though is that many of The Parliamentary Labour Party have sought his demise right from the very beginning of his Leadership journey and instead of standing firm together against the Government at this very difficult time in our nation's history they have chosen to attack the man they deem as "Unelectable" in order to become the Party that is "Unelectable"! Everyone is saying Corbyn should resign but at present he's standing firm. If he survives and manages to contest the challenge to his Leaderhip and actually wins again I have absolutely no idea where on earth that leaves The Labour Party!

The person that everyone thought would challenge for the Leadership, Angela Eagle, who had in tears declared she was resigning from the Shadow Cabinet on Sunday morning (along with most of the other Shadow Cabinet members in what was clearly a co-ordinated attack upon their leader) is being a bit cagey as to whether she will actually stand now! So the 172 Labour MP's who voted no confidence in their leader seem to have no one who they think could actually defeat Corbyn! They really did think this through didn't they?

The Tories on the other hand seemed to have it all together and Boris Johnson looked as if him and his scruffy mop top were on the way to 10 Downing Street. But wait a minute, Michael Gove who stood alongside Johnson giving the impression of the next Leader and Deputy Leader of the Tory Party, seemed to be acting out a part in the West End Production of Julius Caeser as Brutus when he stuck the knife in the back of ol' Boris and declared that he was basically unfit to be the leader. The Man Who Would Be King then basically had to back track and announce that he was no longer running for the leadership...Bye Bye Boris! So now it's down to Gove and a few others to fight it out among themselves for the position.

If that doesn't sound confusing then this little thing I saw on FB this morning basically states the confusion that possibly all of us are feeling at the moment! I do not know the author Benjamin Timothy Blaine from Adam (but I did message him to ask if I could use his fb post for this blogpost and he said yes) but he does seem to capture what's in our minds at the moment.

"let me get this straight... the leader of the opposition campaigned to stay but secretly wanted to leave, so his party held a non-binding vote to shame him into resigning so someone else could lead the campaign to ignore the result of the non-binding referendum which many people now think was just angry people trying to shame politicians into seeing they'd all done nothing to help them.

Meanwhile, the man who campaigned to leave because he hoped losing would help him win the leadership of his party, accidentally won and ruined any chance of leading because the man who thought he couldn't lose, did - but resigned before actually doing the thing the vote had been about. The man who'd always thought he'd lead next, campaigned so badly that everyone thought he was lying when he said the economy would crash - and he was, but it did, but he's not resigned, but, like the man who lost and the man who won, also now can't become leader. Which means the woman who quietly campaigned to stay but always said she wanted to leave is likely to become leader instead.

Which means she holds the same view as the leader of the opposition but for opposite reasons, but her party's view of this view is the opposite of the opposition's. And the opposition aren't yet opposing anything because the leader isn't listening to his party, who aren't listening to the country, who aren't listening to experts or possibly paying that much attention at all. However, none of their opponents actually want to be the one to do the thing that the vote was about, so there's not yet anything actually on the table to oppose anyway. And if no one ever does do the thing that most people asked them to do, it will be undemocratic and if any one ever does do it, it will be awful." - Benjamin Timothy Blaine


Still confused? Yep, I thought so!

The other song that's been on my mind is one from 1977 by Punk band The Adverts, The Great British Mistake. Many people seem to feel that the UK has made a huge mistake in deciding to leave the EU, and there seemed to be a lot of regret around a few days after the event when it became clear that many of the "promises" of the Leave campaign were not going to be upheld and infact those who had been at the forefront were now backtracking on those promises on TV and in the newspapers. The one promise that seemed to bite the hardest was the giving of £350 million to the NHS instead of giving it to Brussels, that was all but denied by the leaders of Leave...funny that because they are all saying they never said it yet it was emblazoned on their battle bus for all the world to see!

Just incase the Leave Campaign lost the vote, a supporter had set up a petition to call for a second referendum due to it being a very close result, the supporters of Remain then took it upon themselves to sign it by the thousands (it's into the millions now)

TV Smith's song that he wrote for The Adverts debut album way back in the late 70s seems oddly prophetic.

 The great British mistake was looking for a way out,
Was getting complacent, not noticing
The pulse was racing.
The mistake was fighting.
The change, was staying the same.
It couldn't adapt so it couldn't survive,
Something had to give.
The people take a downhill slide into the gloom.
Into the darn recesses of their minds.

I swoop over your city like a bird.
I climb the high branches and observe.
Into the mouth, into the soul.
I cast a shadow that swallows you whole.
I swoop, I climb, I cling, I suck,
I swallow you whole.

String out the drip-feed, they're losing their world,
They're losing their hard boys and magazine girls.
Advert illegal, T. V. As outlaw, motive as spell.
They'll see the books burn. They'll be 451,
It's people against things and not against each other.
Out of the pre-pack, into the fear, into themselves.
They're the great British mistake.
The genie's out of the bottle, call in the magician.
They didn't mean to free him, devil behind them,
Devil in the mirror, chained to their right hands.
They're the great British mistake.
They'll have to come to terms now, they'll take it out somehow.
They'll blame it all on something.
The British mistake - when will it be over?
How can they avoid it?

The great British mistake.
The great British mistake.
The great British mistake.

 

I have not posted this today to jump on anyone's head but merely because I found my own thoughts drifting in response to the music to think about these matters.

Our nation is in a confused place at the moment. I have no idea what the road ahead looks like but from what I can gather neither does the Politcal machine here in the UK.

Normal service on the blog will be resumed tomorrow I can promise you that (and hopefully you won't find me going back on my word!).