Misery for entertainment

A RECENT tourist attraction in Britain has provided one of the most damning critiques of modern life you could ever hope for.
Dismaland was created, at least in part, by the guerilla artist, or vandal depending on your point of view, Banksy. The idea was to create a temporary artistic endeavour revelling in a dystopic version of a well known theme park. Even the four to five hour queues to get in have been suggested by some as part of the experience. One thing which seemed clear was that anyone trying to buy the tickets online were in for a depressing time as payment timed out before you could input details.
The more that people were told the exhibit was designed to be a miserable and depressing event the more they flocked to it.
The thing is that this fascination with misery for entertainment seems to have permeated throughout our entire social structure. The refugee crisis has become a reality show for some. People tuning in to wring their hands and preach while all the while detaching themselves from the reality of the situation.
It is one of the problems of a social media driven 24 hour news cycle. People are saturated by partial information and ever more explosive stories as news organisations fight for the crumbs to gain viewers. As part of this they have moved away from serious news and journalism to entertainment as they dumb down to capture the mindless masses. The viewing public have become the ultimate consumers of misery and human suffering demanding ever  more to satisfy their obscene appetites.
This same approach has encroached into politics, rarely the most pure of professions. As Donald Trump leads the pack to become the Republican party's Presidential nominee it has become clear that it is not because of his well defined policies or engaging personality.
Mr Trump is leading the way because he has tapped into the dissatisfaction of the masses. He has shifted blame to those who cannot defend themselves and away from those who may vote for him. It is a time honoured political approach which keeps working, and likewise being condemned afterwards when it inevitability increases feelings of hatred and bigotry.
While it would be great to hold Trump to account as the figurehead of the growing culture of misery entertainment he has not created it. It is something which had been rising slowly over the years and we haven't done anything to stop it. Instead we have all allowed ourselves to be dragged into its slurry of hate and recrimination.
The recent 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain showed that this wasn't always the case. There was a time when people came together to fight back against what was wrong. A time when no matter how bad things were you focused on the possibilities, the solutions, you held onto hope and honour. A time when people valued bravery and courage, rather than condemning it as Mr Trump as done in various ways during his campaign.
The human race has not been built on hate or pain. Our humanity came about as we fought to tear these things down. We can no longer view the anguish of others as fuel for our insatiable need for misery. Instead it must stoke the fires of compassion and solidarity and drive us forward to a achieve so much more for the good of all.

Corbynmania is just madness

JEREMY Corbyn's election as the leader of the Labour Party has not come as a surprise to many political analysts. The signs have been there in the polling data, which unlike during the British general election actually appears to be accurate this time round.
Despite the expectations his election has not been roundly welcomed by MP's within his party. He has been accused of being too left wing, of failing to find compromise and of flip flopping on crucial policy areas. For many in his party he has destroyed their chances of regaining power. For his supporters however is landslide victory during the leadership election demonstates an ability to motivate disaffected voters and draw people to the party.
Only one side can ne right though and at the moment the facts seem to favour the pessimists. Mr Corbyn did appear on paper as having mobilised a previously uncounted portion of the electorate which took advantage of the £3 registration fee to sign up and throw their support behind the left winger. If the numbers are taken as a sign that those registered voters who didn't turn out for the last election will vote for Labour then it could mean a parliamentary win.
The reality of the situation is that the areas where Mr Corbyn is drawing non-voters back to the fold are in large part already Labour held. While the party may increase its majority in seats it already holds the drive to mobilise a new base is unlikely to help then win new regions.
The next phase of Mr Corbyn problems is his lack of ability to compromise. By placing the hard left MP John McDonnell, a self proclaimed "enemy of capitalism", in the position of Shadow Chancellor he will have made the chances of reconcilliation within his party that much harder.
Within days of being elected splits were already showing in the shadow cabinet. Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn pledging Labour's supporter for staying in the EU quickly undermined by Mr Corbyn's speech to the Trade Union Council for example shows a lack of cohesion on key policy matters.
Then there is Mr Corbyn himself. There is something praiseworthy in this day and age of plastic politics for someone to rise to the top on old fashioned principles. The problem is that the old fashioned principles may not be suited for the modern day. The time for Michael Foot's donkey jacket are long gone. People expect certain things from a party leader.
Most notably among these is at least a passing respect for the armed forces and monarchy, whether genuine or just out of professional courtesy. Mr Corbyn's failure to sing the national anthem or confirm that he will wear a red poppy rather than the white will have just as much of an impact on the electorate as his poorly thought through outdated policies.
For now Jeremy Corbyn remains a sideshow to the real running of the country but as he begins to fulfil his role as leader of the opposition he needs to start facing facts. The 1970's are long gone and we live in a different world.  No amount of wishful thinking will bring it back. If Labour are to have a hope for the future they must move with the times not backwards.

The economics show Britain should do more

Despite thousands of refugees dying over the last few months it has taken one heartbreaking picture of a dead child lying abandoned on a beach to make people care. The very same people who were claiming that we shouldn't do anything suddenly switched their views.
While the images of young Aylan Kurdi have prompted a outcry from people who really didn't have a clue when all they could see were statistics, the government's knee jerk response is both irresponsible and dangerous. The pitiful level which it has placed on the number of immigrants allowed into the country, 20,000 by 2020, will not even make a dent in the hundreds of thousands fleeing a war which we are at least partly accountable for. By prioritising certain refugees over others it is likely that families will be ripped apart as they try and save their children. Most importantly though by circumventing the rules for foreign aid and using it domestically to prop up councils the government is saving a penny now only to spend a pound further down the line. The foreign aid budget isn't an ego boost it is a necessary fund which should be used to combat refugee crises at the source and thereby mitigate against a future influx later down the line. Give a man a fish and he will feed himself today. Give him clean water, shelter, security, education and hope and he will feed his family for a lifetime as will his descendants.
That coin you gave to someone sleeping rough to make yourself feel good about how generous you are, this isn't like that. This isn't about handouts as so many on the far right seem to think. This is about building something.
On one side of the argument has been the claim that Britain cannot take anymore refugees. A strange belief that it will create further ghettosiation of specific regions, particularly around London and the South. This claim focuses only on a knee jerk Daily Mailesque reaction to the crisis which fails to accept the statistics and figures covering the crisis.
A well managed programme, such as that being implemented by Germany which accepted 18,000 refugees last weekend, sees family units kept together while also ensuring that no one area becomes saturated.
A carefully drawn up approach allows for thousands more refugees to be allowed into the country, more than that however it actually allows for, over time, a boon to the economy from money being brought in.
A common argument that even when refugees find employment they send money home fails to accept that every sensible study on the issue finds that the amount sent out of the country is minimal when compared to the amount which British citizens, as a whole, take out of the economic flow through savings. It also fails to take into account the fact that per person migrants tend to pay higher rents, money which landlords then put back into the economy. It doesn’t take account of the fact that they still buy food and clothes, in short they live and survive. This money circulates, and for the most part it comes from jobs which British citizens have refused to do, yet which are necessary and provide a foundation for better jobs for others.
As for the argument that migrants cost the government more money than the good hard working British public even a cursory glance at official figures shows how much greater the proportion of Brits living on welfare is compared to migrants, even where data is amended to take into account disparity of population proportion.
Even without this evidence there is one overwhelming fact, people are dying and dying in their thousands. The refugee crisis is no longer about nations and states it is about humanity. As humans it is our duty to help those who need it.