“The role of oxygen atoms in supply side economics”

The title of this blog is meaningless. It was composed by cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett to highlight scientific reductionism; the abandonment of theory, laws, interactions, and deeper understanding of the connections between chemistry, physics, and biology and even social sciences in an attempt to unify them all into a category, which almost always leads to the idea of social Darwinism. What Dennett is saying, is that to break down theories to their bare minimum, and then to attach them to other broken down bare minimum theories in an attempt to unify them, is meaningless at best, and very dangerous at worst.

Recently, the musician Frank Turner revealed that whilst his fans quite enjoy his apparently left leaning political ideals – he is actually a Libertarian. He accuses people of not understanding politics, if they believe that from this, he is a Republican/Tory. He also claims that Fascism, is a Left wing phenomena. Here:

“To start with, most people don’t seem to understand what the difference between left and right is. For example, the BNP are a hard left party.”

- For those of you who don’t know, the BNP (British National Party) is a fascist political party based on race. It has ties to neo-nazi groups, and its leader Nick Griffin once said:

Without the White race, nothing matters. Other right-wing parties believe that the answer to the race question is integration and a futile attempt to create ‘Black Britons’, while we affirm that non-Whites have no place here at all and will not rest until every last one has left our land.”

- He also denies the holocaust happened, believes that there is a Jewish conspiracy to destroy White Europeans, and is good friends with David Duke. For all intents and purposes, the BNP is a neo-nazi. Fascist, at the very least. Which suggests that Frank Turner believes that Fascism is a product of the Left.

This idea – that ‘National Socialism’ or Fascism are products of the Left – is not new. It represents a deeply reductionist understanding of the political spectrum, dismissing all theory and motive, and ending up with ‘well the Nazi’s controlled the State centrally. And enacted some social protections. As did Communist regimes. Therefore, the Nazi’s are a left wing party‘. It is a very very weak understanding of the difference between Right and Left. For the record, I do not place Fascism on the far right. I think the ‘right’ has changed incalculably over the years. And that both Right and Left are almost entirely different to their early 20th century counterparts. As noted in my previous article, the conservatism of Disraeli is similar to the social democratic principles of a politician like Barack Obama today; of which most of those on the right would consider ‘socialist’, whilst 100 years ago, would certainly not have been. The right has (for the sake of argument, though this assertion is debatable also) become a beacon of free market ideals, mixed with a dose of patriotism/nationalism. In that sense, it is not libertarian, as it seeks to strengthen national borders, rather than diminish them. Libertarianism is specifically the free, unhindered movement of labour, capital and goods. It recognises no national borders.

It is fair to say that Fascism and Socialism may have traits in common; central economic planning for example. But, then, so does Libertarianism and Communism; no government, free association, no borders. But the motives and the differences in organisation are enough to render them entirely at odds. The same is true of Fascism and the Far Left.

Turner seems to be suggesting that central economic planning, means far left. Theory, motive, and overriding political aims are ignored entirely. It is supremely reductionist and ignorant. The blurred lines between left and right when it comes to totalitarian dictatorships are often exploited by both sides. Ignore theory, and motive for just a second, and you can come up with all sorts of comparisons.
We can say that Hitler centralised power, providing a dictatorship of the German people. Marxist-Leninism calls for a similar ruler and control over the economy.
We could say that the Nazi’s use of the term ‘work shy’, followed by punishment for refusing jobs, is eerily similar to right winged austerity rhetoric coming out of the Republican/Tory camp.
We could also point out that Thatcher took on, and crushed the power of the trade unions in the 1980s, as did Reagan. Similarly, after coming to power Hitler banned trade unionism entirely.
Both comparisons miss the point; the reason Fascism differs entirely from the far left, is because it bases its entire being, its essence on a community based on race/nationality. The driving force of history, to Fascists, is shared heritage that must be preserved and perpetuated. The central economy of Fascist States thus works to this end and nothing else. When Hitler replaced the trade union movement and imprisoned German socialist leaders in the mid-30s, he created a new movement in order to control the working classes. He called this the ‘German Labour Force’. The name is significant. Before this, the trade union movement and the German communist/socialist groups associated with it, were international in their scope. They supported their comrades around the World. There were not understood in terms of national borders. Suddenly, they became the ‘German’ labour force. Their whole point, was advancement of the nation state. Alongside this new movement cloaked in patriotism, was a list of ‘un-german activities’. This included striking. Anyone who turned down a job in both the public or private sector was named ‘work shy’ and imprisoned. 8.3% of the unemployed were conscripted. It is important to note that a Fascist State depends on the strength of its armed forces, this is Nationalism, not socialism. Here is a song sung by the new ‘German Labour Force’….

“We demand from ourselves service to the end, even when no eyes are upon us.
We know that we should love our Fatherland more than our own life.
We vow that no one shall outdo us in loyalty,
That our life shall be one great labour service for Germany.
So in this solemn hour we pray for blessing on the oath we take,
We thank thee, Fuhrer, that we have now seen thee,
Do thou behold us as thine own creation?
May our hearts ever beat with thy heart’s pulses, Our lives find inspiration in thy love,
Behold us here! Thy Germany are we.”

- This highlights, again, the difference between Fascism and the far left. The far left bases its existence on class. It stands to obliterate class, ending in a completely classless society. Class is the driving force. Race, nationality, religion, sexuality and most other social constructs are not important. This is in stark contrast to what we see in this song. The German Labour Force had a purpose. That purpose was the advancement of the nation. The line: “We know that we should love our Fatherland more than our own life” is the key to the difference between Fascism and the far-left. The far-left is more often than not, completely obliterated by Fascist forces. The Fascism of Hitler attempted to destroy the far-left…. the Fascism of Saddam attempted to destroy the far-left. Fascism cannot abide the far-left. The two are vehemently opposed.

The Nazi Charter of Labour does not grant total control over the means of production to the workers, as you would expect if the Nazi’s truly were a party of the far-left. Instead, it states that the ‘leader of the enterprise’ (also known as the employer:

“……..makes the decisions for the employees and laborers in all matters concerning the enterprise.”

- This, along with the banning of trade unions, cut wages (from 20.4 to 19.5 cents an hour for skilled labour, and from 16.1 to 13 cents an hour for unskilled labour), the banning of strikes, the outlawing of collective bargaining, and the move to make the labour force a cog in the Nationalist machinery suggests unequivically that referring to the Nazi’s as a far-left party, could not be more ignorant of historical fact and the environment in which the left had to exist under a Nazi leadership.

Let us also not forget who supported, and who opposed Fascism. Communists and Socialists across the World opposed the Nazi’s. Between 1933 and 1939 150,000 Communists were imprisoned by the Nazis purely for being Far-left. A further 30,000 were executed. The oldest Communist party in Germany, the KDP started in 1919 (the biggest outside of Russia) was declared illegal by Hitler in 1933. All Communist publications were closed down. Other Socialist groups – The Baum Group, Red Orchestra, Home Front, the Uhrig Group – were routinely terrorised by the Nazis, imprisoned and executed. In 1944, there was a workers uprising in an attempt to inspire a socialist revolution, in which 200,000 workers were arrested. This isn’t far-left.
And yet, the support seemed to come not only from the Catholic Church, but also from big business. The Fascists in Spain were being aided by Ford and DuPont. Standard Oil also worked with Franco. US Steel and Alcoa supplied the Fascists with steel.
An exert from the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary in 1974 stated:

In Germany, for example, General Motors and Ford became an integral part of the Nazi war efforts. GM’s plants in Germany built thousands of bomber and jet fighter propulsion systems for the Luftwaffe at the same time that its American plants produced aircraft engines for the U.S. Army Air Corps….
Ford was also active in Nazi Germany’s prewar preparations. In 1938, for instance, it opened a truck assembly plant in Berlin whose “real purpose,” according to U.S. Army Intelligence, was producing “troop transport-type” vehicles for the Wehrmacht. That year Ford’s chief executive received the Nazi German Eagle (first class).
On the ground, GM and Ford subsidiaries built nearly 90 percent of the armored “mule” 3-ton half-trucks and more than 70 percent of the Reich’s medium and heavy-duty trucks. These vehicles, according to American intelligence reports, served as “the backbone of the German Army transportation system.”….
After the cessation of hostilities, GM and Ford demanded reparations from the U.S. Government for wartime damages sustained by their Axis facilities as a result of Allied bombing… Ford received a little less than $1 million, primarily as a result of damages sustained by its military truck complex at Cologne.

- Are we saying that GM, and Ford are also far-left? Seriously?

Glenn Beck once claimed that ‘social justice’ was a term used by both the left and the Nazis, in an attempt to draw links between the two. And yet, one of the main strands of Nazism; harsh restrictions on trade unionism was adopted by the American Right Wing of which Beck belongs. It is illegal in the US for unions to ask other unions to picket alongside them. In 2001 a contractor named Ruzicka Electric hired to build a student centre at Lindenwood University were picketed by the union representing their staff for paying too low wages. In support of the union, other unions working at Lindenwood picketed alongside them. The Eighth Court and Supreme Court ruled that:

The picketing will be unlawful if there is an expectation or a hope or a desire that employees of the secondary employer will be induced or encouraged to take concerted action to quit working behind the picket line…Ruzicka Electric presented evidence that Local 1 agents, acting as observers at the neutral gate, engaged in picketing activity, asking neutral employees to refuse to work. If believed, this evidence establishes Local 1 engaged in unlawful secondary activity.

- It is thus illegal to ‘expect’ or ‘hope’ that another union might picket alongside your union. If Beck was truly anti-Nazi, he would recognise that limits to unionism is not only undemocratic, it is totalitarian in principle.

Motive is the key.

Economic centralising is meaningless without a purpose. The purpose of the Fascist centralised state is perpetuation of the Nation based on perceived heritage – be it race, religion, or any other man-made social phenomena that they claim is a natural way to order society. All economic planning in a Fascist centralised economy is geared toward the advancement of the Nation. It is a war economy. By contrast Left wing economic centralisation does not hold the Nation, or race to be a great natural truth that must be protected and advanced. It works to create a more equal society based on wealth distribution. It is international in its approach to social relations, and has absolutely no regard for perceived social heritage.

The Nazi’s certainly pushed social policies, and abhorred Capitalism when it suited them (we can call this left wing, if we wish), but they also promoted Nationalistic principles (we can call this right wing, if we wish). We can find Left leaning policies and rhetoric coming out of Fascist States, we can just as easily find Right leaning policy and rhetoric coming out of Fascist States.

Turner, whilst insisting that it is the rest of the World that doesn’t particularly understand political spectrum, makes a hugely ironic mistake. In an interview with ‘Moon and Back music’, he says:

“I consider myself a libertarian”

And yet, in 2011, in an interview with ‘Huck Magazine’ he says:

“I’ve got no problem with using taxes to pay for essential things like defence or the basics of a healthcare system.”

- It is my understanding of Libertarianism, that they believe taxation to be evil. A Libertarian system would include no taxation whatsoever. No healthcare system. No publicly funded anything. Libertarianism calls for free association without state coercion. It is the belief that taxation is theft (seriously ridiculous) and all government should be voluntarily funded, rather than collectively (because collective = evil). It is based on the premise that all wealth is individually obtained, and that the owner of wealth has no duty toward the rest of society. It is the ultimate in Hobbesian hell. A Libertarian’s fundamental beliefs are that individuals should be free to acquire property, without any State coercion, and form voluntary associations paid for by the individuals within the group, if they wish. The moment you believe in a tax payer funded program of any sort, you are not a Libertarian. Frank Turner is not a Libertarian, if he believes in any sort of state funded ‘basics of a healthcare system’. He’s just a little more Right Winged than Thatcher.

Turner makes the very fundamental mistake that a lot of commentators make when they attempt to attribute labels to political ideas; they reduce the complexity of methods and motives and aims and the roles of institutions, down to their simplest explanations. They do this, because they fail to note that ideology is dogmatic; free from the context in which they are placed. Whether a country be rich, poor, racist, liberal, democratic or totalitarian…. to ideologues, it doesn’t matter. We see this in the way that Communism was forced upon a largely unprepared agricultural Russia in 1917. The Nazi’s were neither a party of the left, nor the right. They incorporated methods for both, their motives were strictly Nationalistic, their aims were oppressive if they came into conflict with anti-Nationalist forces. This is neither a doctrine permitted by Marxism, or promoted by Friedman-ite New Right. Whilst the far-left strives for human equality, Nazism strived for human inequality in which the group (white German’s in this case) are superior.

Frank Turner, does not understand the very basics of political thought.

During the Bush years, Keith Olberman of MSNBC called Bush a Fascist. During Obama’s Presidency, Fox News have attempted to draw links between Obama and Fascism. It is simply propaganda in a simplistic attempt to discredit the Right or the Left, using very loose comparisons lacking any sort of context, without much thought and absolutely no analysis, drawn from flawed reductionism.

Fascism and Islam

So the EDL are in my city today, breaking stuff and assaulting people. Beneath the mask of “we just don’t like terrorists” lies quite obvious fascist sentiment by a bunch of illiterate chav thugs in cheap tracksuits. We must remember that there is nothing ‘English’ about exclusion. We are a diverse and dynamic culture. We are not a divisive and static culture. The EDL promote a very divisive and static agenda. Nationalist rhetoric tends to increase at times of economic hardship. Our ‘culture’ is vastly under threat from a neoliberal elite, and a Tory government insisting on an economic and social engineering project that seems to show new signs of failure every day. What neoliberalism has been utterly superb at achieving, is dividing the poorer communities on the basis of race. As noted in previous blogs, this tool of economic division disguised as racial division was really first used before the American civil war. And it works every time. The EDL are a confused product of that division.

It is of course necessary, given the title of this blog, to explain what I interpret as Fascism. Fascism is not a single doctrine, with a single goal, and cannot be explained so simply as perhaps Communism can. And so we must allow for a variety of explanations, but each has common threads. For me, it is a range of ideas merged into one: Mass movement ideologically opposed to full political emancipation, indoctrination at the point of childhood through education, violent, oppressive, free expression is very limited, pressing for some sort of utopia based on a very narrow vision of what they consider to be decent and correct, nostalgia based on a time before all was lost to a perceived threatening force from ‘outside’, extreme dogma, intent on running a social system in a very repressive way in order to keep on a sort of ‘righteous’ path, adverse to even the most fundamental human rights.
Whilst regimes may cite the supremacy of what they see as a master race to be the reason for following that line, others use what they consider the supremacy of their religion. Politically, it has traditionally been a very useful tool to divide lower classes against each other. Religiously, it has been a way to divide what those in control call “true” believers, with those considered not religious enough. This is how the Taliban controlled most of Afghan in the 90s, it is how Saddam kept control of Iraq for so long; especially in his ability to perpetuate and deepen the divisions between Sunni and Shia. This is the essence of fascism for me. It is not restrained to the political, it incorporates and sometimes manifests itself through religion.

It does seem to me that if you do have a criticism of Islam, people automatically presume you’re a bit racist. That you haven’t thought it through. That either you accept this religion as a beacon of peace, or you’re racist. Personally, I happen to despise Nationalism as much as Religion. And so groups like the EDL are just as much of a cancer to me, as Islam. It seems that Islamofascism has a lot in common with Nationalist fascism and the EDL. I’m of the belief that both Nationalism and Religion hold divisive principles based on abstractions that just aren’t real. Nationalists hold the concept of some sort of nostalgic Nation above the individual. Religion uses ‘prophets’ and ‘gods’ in the same way. But essentially, both are fighting for a fairy tale, using the most vicious and oppressive methods that are abhorrent to me as a Secularist.

The fear of criticising Islam is quite widespread. Muslims tend to claim “offence” at anything slightly critical, but fail to see the irony in their own behaviour. When the Danish cartoons were published in Jyllands-Posten, the Pope criticised the Danish papers. Politicians criticised the Danish papers. The Washington Post started its column by depicting the outrage felt at the publishing of the cartoons. The real crime , was the Islamic response, including the bombing of the Danish embassy in Pakistan, 100 deaths, Hotel Jørgensen bomb explosion, and countless death threats. These people are the enemies of free thought and free speech and should be forever dismissed as such. Whilst Danish papers often satirise religious figures within the Jewish and Christian traditions, the only time violence erupted was when the paper satirised Islam. Islam likes to claim special treatment, it cannot abide criticism, it cannot abide satirisation and it certainly cannot abide freedom of speech.. The hypocrisy of the Islamic reaction to the Danish cartoons can be seen more evidently, when we examine cartoons coming out of the Islamic press:

This cartoon was printed in ‘Arab News’ an English language publication in Saudi Arabia. It is considered a moderate paper. What it shows is rats, with the Jewish star of David as eyes, running in and out of a building called “Palestine House”. Racism, propaganda, hatred and hypocrisy all in one cartoon.

This was printed by Al-Arab Al-Yawm in Jordan. Overwhelmingly, cartoons coming out of the Arab press depict the Jewish people as killers.

Most Islamic cartoons aimed at Jewish people, show themes of Jewish blood lust and a people who wish to control the World. It is eerily similar to propaganda printed by the Nazis. Islamic countries in the Middle East (including the Palestinian Authority in Palestine, and the Islamist groups in the new Egyptian Parliament) are Fascists. Dr. Joël Kotek, a political scientist at the Free University of Brussells states of the anti-Semitic cartoons:

“The collective image of the Jews created by Arab cartoons lays the groundwork for a possibility of genocide. My collection of Arab caricatures demonstrates this. One can argue about whether these genocidal ideas are conscious or subconscious. My view is that they are still at the subconscious stage.”

- It is against this backdrop, that we must look at the Danish cartoons, and understand that they are not the issue. The issue must be a sort of Islamic sense of superiority free from criticism and satirisation.

Through fear of causing offence, there is a horrible denial that Islamofascism exists at all. And so groups like ‘Unite Against Fascism‘ pop up. The UAF is a group that opposes one sort of fascism. Nationalist fascism. Islamic fascism, which is widespread also, it tends to ignore. It ignores the attacks on free speech that Islam seems to plague us with. It is very difficult to engage with Muslims, when even a cartoon satirising a religious figure like Mohammad, is manipulated to appear like a serious racist attack. It is actually a disgrace. It is fascism. It is demanding a special place in society, above criticism. Groups like the UAF ignore this.

If you go to the UAF website and search “Tommy Robinson” the leader of the EDL, you get countless articles attacking him. And rightly so. The man is a nazi. But, if you type the name “Anjem Choudhary“, you get no results whatsoever. Choudary is one of the idiots who will refer to Muslims in war torn countries as “brothers and sisters“. It’s a rather curious sentiment, because these people didn’t seem to give a shit when Iraq was run by the Hussein crime family. Or when Afghanistan was under the heavy hand of the Taliban. I am lead to the conclusion that “brothers and sisters” is a mask. It seems to show support for individuals, yet what it is actually suggesting is that when you’re killed or tortured under a Islamic fundamentalist regime, it is fine, because you are simply a sacrifice in the name of the perpetuation of Islamic rule. Motive is important here. When Islamic regimes kill their own people and their “brothers” in the UK keep quiet, the regimes notice that they can get away with it. When Saddam took out Halabja, there was very little condemnation in Western countries. No march through London. No anti-Saddam protests. Saddam killed thousands on purpose. If an American bomb hits the wrong target, and kills innocents; suddenly Muslims in the UK come out in force against Western “imperialism“. Here is what Choudhary said on BBC Hardtalk:

Look, at the end of the day innocent people—when we say ‘innocent people’ we mean Muslims—as far as non-Muslims are concerned they have not accepted Islam and as far as we are concerned that is a crime against God.

- Now here is the problem as I see it with Islam. The Koran is so very vague, and has intense amount of contradictions, that for moderates to claim that a nut case like Choudhary is “taking the Koran out of context“, is entirely disingenuous. It goes without saying that Choudhary does not represent Islam. But his views are no more illogical or irrational than moderate Muslims. It is easy to find passages that support Choudhary’s interpretation of the Koran. It is easy to find imperialistic, war driven, hate filled diatribe within the Koran and because it is easy, it will absolutely always have Fascist support, such as that of Choudhary. Islam is an imperialistic religion. The Koran sets the tone. The Hadith follow up:

Paradise is in the shadow of the swords.

He who dies without having taking part in a campaign dies in a kind of unbelief.

A day and a night fighting on the frontier is better than a month of fasting and prayer.

- There is absolutely a very clear link between Islamic text, and Islamic violence. To deny it, is to turn our backs to the root of the problem. We then tend to fill that hole, with “George Bush” or “The West” or “Imperialism“. Let’s also not forget, that Islamic regimes are not simply standing tall against Western oppressors. I have lifted this from a blog I wrote on Palestine a few months back, but it is entirely relevant to this entry:

Fatah is a political party within the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Even though the UN officially recognised the PLO as representative of the Palestinian people in 1974, and gave it the right to participate in debates in the Security Council, in 1976; its largest member Fatah still carried out terrorist attacks in which they took over and killed 11 people in the Savoy hotel in 1975 and the Coastal Road Massacre in 1978 killing 37 Israelis. To take over the Savoy in the centre of Tel Aviv, they threw grenades at anyone who came close, and threatened to kill all hostages unless the Israeli government released five Palestinian prisoners. The killings were planned by Khalil al-Wazir, the man who set up Fatah. Al-Wazir, who is viewed as a great martyr in Palestine, was not simply retaliating for Israeli aggression, he believed Jerusalem was divinely handed to Muslims, and that Israel had stole it from them. The problem here, is religious fundamentalism. Fatah hasn’t changed that.

Today, the Constitution of the Fatah Party states quite clearly:

12. Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.
13. Establishing an independent democratic state with complete sovereignty on all Palestinian lands, and Jerusalem is its capital city, and protecting the citizens’ legal and equal rights without any racial or religious discrimination.

- It wants Israel gone. How can a State like Israel really expect to support the Statehood of a Nation next door, who wish to see it destroyed? How is that responsible? To compare, as Abbas has done, and as many Pro-Palestine bloggers do, the Arab Spring to the Palestinian problem is not helpful and very short sighted. The Egyptian people do not wish the wipe their next door neighbours off the map. There is no mention of setting up a Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital. It wants Israel gone, and Jerusalem entirely an Islamic city. It is a religious problem, nothing less.

- Fatah is Islamofascist. It isn’t the product of Western aggression. It plays the victim card perfectly. It is imperialistic by its very nature. And yet it is viewed as a force for progression and good. Its ideology does not require Western imperialism, or Israel. Its ideology is autonomous, and transcends the cultural landscape of the time, because it is firmly rooted in 7th century tribal society. Mahmoud Abbas, is not a good man.

As noted, the claim of imperialism against the West coming from Islamic writers, is also widely hypocritical. History of Islam expert Bernard Lewis, writes:

Imperialism is a particularly important theme in the Middle Eastern and principally the Islamic case, against the West. For them, the word “Imperialism” has an inimitable meaning. This word is for example, never used by Muslims of the so-called ‘great Muslim empires’ which conquered vast territories and populations and incorporated them in the “House of Islam.” It was perfectly legitimate for Muslims to conquer and rule Europe and Europeans and thus enable them to embrace the true faith. It was a crime and a sin however, for Europeans, to conquer and rule Muslims.

- In the 21st Century, there is a tendency to blame the West, for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. As if, maybe if we be a bit nicer, it wont exist. It is again a horrible attempt to deny that the Koran contains passages that permit the use of Fascist methods of war to promote an Islamic Imperialistic agenda. The argument is not with oppression against Islamic states…. it is with anyone who attempts to block the spread of this putrid little ideology. It starts with education. It is Fascist education, in the following way. In a study into Palestinian textbooks called “From Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian Textbooks Present a World Without Israel”, it was found that text books in schools throughout Palestine, teach:

….repeatedly reject Israel’s right to exist, present the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, teach Israel’s founding as imperialism, and actively portray a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all. The following description of Israel’s founding represents the dominant dogma about Israel in Palestinian schoolbooks: Defining Israel’s founding as a “catastrophe unprecedented in history,” “a theft perpetrated by “Zionist gangs,” together with numerous other hateful descriptions of Israel as “colonial imperialist” and “racist”, compounded by the presentation of the conflict as a religious war, leaves no latitude for students to have positive or even neutral attitudes towards Israel. This negative imagery and religious packaging are compounded by hateful presentations of Israeli policy. The young students are imbued with a Palestinian identity as “victims” just by virtue of Israel’s existence. The well-meaning student is left with no logical justification or religious option to accept Israel as a neighbor or to seek coexistence. Given the total rejection of Israel’s right to exist, on nationalistic and religious grounds, Palestinian terror against Israel since Israel’s founding in 1948 is defined as: “resistance … acts of most glorious heroism.”[17] PA educators teach that fighting Israel is not merely a territorial conflict, but also a religious battle for Islam. The schoolbooks define the conflict with Israel as “Ribat for Allah” – “one of the actions related to Jihad for Allah, and it means: Being found in areas where there is a struggle between Muslims and their enemies”

This has absolutely nothing to do with the West. We may have funded fundamentalists in the past for short sighted anti-communist reasons. We may have trained them. And we are responsible for encouraging their growth. We did not create them. The victim card, the refusal to accept you might be to blame at all, is very Fascist because it helps add credit to the notion that your cause is ‘right’ and those on the outside must be wrong. It is actually a tactic the EDL use often. To add to that, the education that promotes a victim-like mentality, does so in conjunction with promoting hatred, in the above case toward the Jewish people. An easy target. Create a false enemy to rally a mass movement. Fascist reasoning. And i’m sure you do not need me to point out the obvious link between the suggestion of a sort of Jewish conspiracy, and the literature coming out of 1930s Germany.

My intense lack of respect for Islam (note; not a lack of respect for individual muslims. I believe you should be free to practice your faith in private whenever you wish, regardless of the Country you reside) stems from the apparent demand for respect, without actually offering a reason why it should be respected especially when the passages concerning the fate of nonbelievers such as myself are so insulting and offensive anyway. How dare Islam demand respect from me, when it condemns me to horrific eternal punishment simply for my lack of faith:

Allah has, surely, cursed the disbelievers, and has prepared for them a blazing fire,
Wherein they will abide forever. They will find therein no friend, nor helper.

Sura 33:65 – 66

We shall let them live for a while and then shall drag them to the scouge of the fire.

Sura 2:126

Allah is an enemy to unbelievers.

Sura 2:98
Now, I didn’t ask to be made the enemy of ‘Allah’. He made it that way. And so I have to ask, why on Earth should I respect my enemy? He apparently has nothing but eternal torture for me, which is perfectly fine (the rather pathetic excuse from Muslims about these passages is; “Well you don’t believe in Hell, so it doesn’t matter“…. the fact that billions of people who don’t know me, think I deserve eternal punishment is disgusting enough, thank you) but if you draw a cartoon, you’re offensive? What a crock of shit. It goes on too. Unbeliever bigotry: 2:85, 2:154, 2:114, 2:162, 2:175, 2:24, 3:12, 3:19. Respect it? No. It is a disgrace. It is a cancer. Taught to kids, it perpetuates division. It is no different to anti-Semitic Nazi literature. One must note that Islamic fascism – that is, Islam based fundamentally on the teachings of the Koran – is poisonous.

I think it is important for anti-fascist groups to step up and not be afraid to speak out against all varieties of fascism. The EDL represent a Nationalist fascism. They are the product of a World system based on the continual tug of war between the concept and culture of previously devised pre-capitalist Nation States and the concept of Capitalism itself. People like Choudhary and in fact, most modern Muslims to one extent (whether they claim offense at any criticism, thus attacking the very foundation of freedom of speech, or they promote widely fundamentalist Islamic principles) are the product of an outdated Holy book that preaches imperialism and war at its very core. Nationalist Fascism exists. We must distinguish between those who are proud to be a certain Nationality, and those who promote Nationalist Fascist agendas. Similarly, it must be said that Islamofascism exists too. We must distinguish between those Muslims who are simply privately practising their faith, and those who wish to promote a mixing of Islam and politics; these are fascists. Those of us who consider ourselves children of the enlightenment, should be vigilant against both vicious menaces.

Hope not hate

Unite Against Fascism

Hope Not Hate

Searchlight

Love Music Hate Racism

I’m sick of bigoted Hitler-esque BNP rhetoric. Aimed at making the white British people feel as if we’re the victims of some vast foreign conspiracy, an us VS them mentality, an exclusion philosophy that has no place in the inclusive modern World. A World built on difference, celebrated for that individuality, regardless of ethnicity. We do not need a fundamentally backward and vicious organisation polluting minds. Let the BNP bitch about their rights being suppressed, and the “liberal” media just because the BBC doesn’t spew white supremacy bullshit.

I’m sick of anti-Islam fanatics joining with Hitler sympathisers and football hooligans in a Nationalist Party, whilst claiming to be “non-racist“. Are we going to make Muslims, England’s version of the Jews in 1930s Germany? Nationalism is just as deadly as Religious bigotry and intolerance.

I’m sick of the BNP hijacking the British flag, creating a racist aura around the Union Jack. The flag should be a symbol of diversity, culture, innovation and unity, not of “you’re not white? Get the fuck out“. Nationality and colour are the superficial, man made obsession with segregation, competition and superiority.

I’m sick of the slow rise of the far right. Of evil; hatred, intolerance, separation, suspicion and violence. Infecting the minds of the easily influenced and manipulated. The belief that you’re not racist if you support the BNP, whilst their leader is free to say “we affirm that non-whites have no place here at all, and will not rest until every last one has left our land“. Not racist? Seriously?

I’m sick of feeling like being White and British is an achievement, above any other, rather than out of sheer luck. Cooperation, and a mutual respect with all religions and colours is the way the World should work. If you choose to hate because others hate you, you’re no better.

I’m sick of how many people are buying into it.

I’m sick of being told that I hate my Country if I have no problem with a Pakistani gentleman getting a job ahead of me. Britain helped to defeat psychotic Nationalism in the 1940s. I wont stand by whilst the legacy of hope and unity left by our grandparents is destroyed by a bunch of bigoted idiots.

I’m sick of this “ indigenous white race” bullshit. Didn’t we defeat Nazism? Aren’t we past that regressive phase of human existence? You aren’t telling me what it means to be British, i’m British, i’ll come to my own conclusion.

I’m sick of hearing every year, “They’re banning St Georges day!“…. i’ve never seen anyone arrested for celebrating St Georges Day. Put on a party, go celebrate it. Who’s stopping you? Perhaps you could go find an article in the Daily MFail, but not in the real World. And here’s the shocker….. St George was Palestinian. An immigrant!

I’m sick of hearing them tell me that they are not racist……. the fact their party does not allow black people in, is contrary to that claim. The fact that Mark Collett of the BNP, is on record as saying that Nazism was the best solution for Germany in the 1930s (you know, the regime that killed 6 million Jews including children), suggests otherwise. The fact that Stewart Williams, a BNP candidate in the local elections is seen on film saying “All I want to do is shoot Pakis” suggests that claiming to be non-racist, is a little misleading. No matter how many times they say “We’re not racist, we’re not fascist“, it doesn’t deviate from the fact that they are racist, and they are fascist.

I’m sick of being told that the BNP are “sticking up for British people“…… I don’t need far right racists sticking up for me, nor do the largely liberal and tolerant population of Britain, fuck off. Stick up for the thugs who line the streets on a Saturday night demanding fights, don’t stick up for me. I’m better than that.

I’m sick of the underhanded racist attitudes hidden under a web of deceitful claims coated with pictures of Churchill, as if he’d ever be part of a Party whose leader once called interracial children “tragic“.

I’m sick of the fact that decades of struggle, war and peaceful demonstration aimed at gaining liberation and rights for those less fortunate, for different cultures, for homosexuality, is threatened by a bunch of hate filled thugs.

I’m sick of hearing the suggestion that Muslims are trying to turn England into an Islamic State. Where the fuck is the evidence? An article from the Daily Mail highlighting one Muslim Lady’s concerns that Christmas decorations might offend her children, is not an indication that the entire Muslim population of Britain is trying to replace the Queen with a Sultan.

I’m sick of the BNP telling me that by “sending them home” they will be able to put all British people back into work ending unemployment. What sort of pathetically ridiculous claim is that? What about the businesses owned and run by foreigners? What about McDonalds, Starbucks, and American owned franchises? Surely by the BNP logic, those places will be shut down? So where do those workers go? BNPDonalds? The pool of unskilled, semi skilled, skilled, and highly skilled workers out of work would be huge.

I’m sick of hearing BNP supporters spout “i’m not racist but….“, usually a pretext for an indescribably ignorant and racist statement to follow.

I’m sick of hearing “they take all our jobs” – the laws of supply and demand suggest otherwise, you neo-nazi moron.
I’m sick of the BNP lurching on to discontented voters in working class communities, promising them the World, sparking up hatred, as if immigration is to blame for the problems we all find ourselves in.

I’m sick of BNP supporters demanding their right to free speech, moaning constantly that the Liberal media tries to oppress their right to free speech, and yet paradoxically the BNP do not believe in freedom of speech for anyone other than White Brits.

I’m sick of the people suggesting that calling someone a “paki” is fine, that it’s like calling someone a “brit”. No it fucking isn’t. You use paki in an abusive way, and so it’s connotations are not friendly and tolerant. It isn’t a term of endearment. It’s ignorance at it’s best.

I’m sick of Nick Griffin trying to defend his views, whilst the BBC filmed him saying of Muslims, to BNP members “do something for the BNP because otherwise they will do someone in your family” … suggesting all Muslims are plotting some form of attack against the white families of Britain. Where’s your evidence? Where’s your proof? Why doesn’t he talk to my Muslim friends about that? Instead of providing evidence for his pathetic views, or apologising for his parties violent past, he says that the documentary was from the “institutionally anti-white and Islamophile BBC“. Anti White? Why is anyone who isn’t a bit of a Nazi, anti-white? The utter utter cunt.

I’m sick of their website, it’s “news” page, which at the top shows a billboard advertisement and tells me that muslim gangs have threatened to destroy it. Where’s the news that BNP’s Tony Lecomber, their Group Development Officer had been convicted for possessing home made hand grenades, and attacking a Jewish man for peeling off a BNP sticker. Or Mick Treacy, The Oldham organiser who has five convictions for violence, theft, and handling stolen goods. Or Robert Bennett, A BNP activist in Oldham, Bennett has served five years in prison for the gang rape of a woman, served seven years for armed robbery and has over 30 convictions in total. Where’s that in their news? When have they ever acknowledged any of that? Why mention the banning of one white man from the UK (Geert Wilders) and suggest it’s disgusting because it goes against freedom of speech, yet not complain about the banning of Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Safwat Hijazi and Amir Siddique, Muslim activist Abdul Ali Musa, Hezbollah terrorist Samir Al Quntar and Kashmiri terror group leader Nasr Javed? Racism cuts both way right? Of course those muslims should have been banned, but so should Wilders. We don’t want him here.

I’m sick of hearing from white ignorant British people, who can barely speak English themselves, whose lives consist of drinking, fighting and a bit of racism on the side, insult others for “destroying our culture“; logic would that these thugs must know all about our culture, and the history surrounding it. Logic is wrong on this one.
Let’s stop pretending you’re sticking up for British people, and start admitting you’re deeply prejudice, deeply disgusting, deeply pathetic, deeply ignorant, and so anti-British you couldn’t be more so if you tried.

Unity, tolerance, togetherness, respect, education, love and a feeling that no matter what you’re colour, no matter what you choose to believe in, no matter where you were born – we’re all people.

Watch this video. If you agree with what Griffin says on here, it’s probably best you never talk to me again.

Hope not hate

British Nazism

The sky is falling in England today. Our Country is painted white. Which, is relevant for todays blog.

Not too long ago, at the Labour Party Conference, Gordon Brown made the catastrophic mistake of using the phrase “British jobs for British workers“. You’d be under the impression that he’s bowing to Nationalist pressure. Especially given that the UKs terms for entering the EU in 1973 stated that workers from other member states have the right to work and live in Britain.
The Labour Unions this week, along with their members are on strike, due to key infrustructure work being outsourced to foreign companies, who are refusing to let British Workers in, choosing instead to use their own foreign workers.

As a Liberal, you may be forgiven for assuming i’m going to take the foreigners side on this. Normally, I would. But the fact that they are excluding British workers, purely because they’re British, is no different to the British National Party stating on their website … “.. the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin...”, and so it is my morality that leads me to support the British workers, not because they are British and deserve British jobs ahead of migrants, far from it. But because they are being discriminated against because they are British.

I am part of an anti-Fascism, anti-BNP group on facebook in which arguments tend to arise quite often between us liberals and those Nationalists. Feel free to join it. Give your opinion. It would be amazingly appreciated.

The problem with statements Gordon Brown chose to make … “British jobs for British people”…. is it just isn’t feesible within a Global economy. And when it doesn’t work out the way it is suggested, disgruntled workers turn to parties like the BNP as a safe haven. Nationalist agendas, built around the flawed logic that one can be “proud” to be a Nationality, as if it’s an achievement rather than pure luck. It fuels the ridiculously weak argument that “Immigrants are taking all our jobs!!”. People start to support them based on their promise of British jobs. They fail to recognise the deeper problem underlining the BNP agenda. Interracial children are referred to as “immoral and tragic”. They do not allow non-white members into their party. They want to deport all non-white Brits whether born here or not. Their senior members include…

Nick Griffin, the party leader, given a two year suspended sentence for inciting racial hatred.

Colin Smith, the South East London organiser, has 17 convictions including armed robbery and stealing cars.

Tony Lecomber, the group development office, convicted of possessing home made hand grenades and attacking a Jewish school teacher for peeling off BNP sticker at an Underground station.

Kevin Scott, the North East organiser, convicted for throwing glass at a black guy, purely for being black.

Robert Bennett, BNP activist, jailed for gang rape. Also served time for armed robbery

Warren Bennett, chief steward, convicted of being a football hooligan and deported from France.
….. these people are starting to pick up support. They pray on the working class victims of New Labour’s shift to the centre. Racial hatred that did not serve in the lives of most working class people, is now being stirred up by neo-Nazis who claim only to be sticking up for White English people. I’m white and English and I certainly don’t need a bunch of thugs claiming to be sticking up for me.

We all have a common ancestor. We were all people before anyone drew a line on a map, and so i’ll always see myself as human before seeing myself as any flawed Nationality.

The paradox of Nationalist concept of freedom is bewildering at the best of times. They continually cite their right to free speech, to incite racial hatred, and yet they want to stop the right of a Muslim lady wearing a burkha. Who’s it hurting? In fact that Burkha is doing less damage to the social progression of our Nation, than a group of White Supremacists are doing with words. One Liverpudlian man went so far as to rip the veil from the face of a Muslim woman. I cannot imagine why a civilised human being would dare put their hands on somebody else and tamper with their freedom. The BNP, obviously, had nothing to say on the matter. Now, if it were the other way around, if that Muslim woman was preaching hatred toward white Brits, the BNP would have gone mad. The paradox of the Nationalist concept of freedom.

Immigrants are needed. Our economy works on the basis of demand and supply. Therefore, if a large number of new people enter the economy, they will need a new TV, Car, House, DVDs, Towels, Bedding etc…. which means demand rises, which means supply has to rise, which means new jobs are created, which gives us a better economic standing. Not only that, but according to the Home Office, a large number of immigrants come over here in their twenties, which means they haven’t used our free schooling system and so have cost us nothing. The moment they start working and paying tax, they are giving to a country that up until then, has given them nothing.
We also have an ageing population. The baby boom generation of the 1950s is getting old. They will soon retire. The ‘dependecy ratio’ , meaning the young generation who works to prop up the pensions of the old generation is becoming out of tune, which means we need immigrants to fill that gap.

Nationalists tend to talk constantly and hypocritically about how they love our culture, and yet I personally haven’t met one of them who can name a great British artist, or when the Protestant reformation that gave birth to the modern era happened, or a war hero from the two world wars, or a poet, or anything that actually resembles knowledge about the civil war; or for that matter, any thing that resembles knowledge about our culture, other than they’re white and born in England. It’s hypocritical bollocks. I’ve met Indian people who know more about our culture than most English Nationalists. It’s shameful. But I expect nothing more from neo-Nazis. It’s hypocritical because the greatest achievement of the past 150 years, was the victory over facism. And yet, these people preach a fascist agenda as being the cornerstone of ‘Englishness’. It isn’t. It’s a lie. It’s utter nonsense.

They also talk about our culture being eroded and how they want to put the ‘GREAT’ back into Great Britain. When were we ever ‘Great’? During the 1900s when children worked in mines? or during WWI when millions died for fuck all. Or the 1920s when we had huge economic difficulties and women couldn’t vote? Or the 1940s during the war? Or the 1950s when you could be banged up for being gay? Or the 1970s when we had the winter of discontent? Or the 1980s when 60% of Liverpools work force was unemployed?

Britain has never been “great”. Britain is ever changing to try to achieve Greatness, that is what is so Great about Britain. It’s ability to constantly update. Nationalists seem to possess a nostalgic feeling, pulling them back to a ‘better time’. I’m unaware of when Britain was better, and has as many opportunities and benefits as it does today, whilst at the same time, free from Government sponsored Gay bashing (Section 28 of Thatcher’s local governance act) and racial discrimination. We’re greater now, than we’ve ever been, because we have accepted that Culture is dynamic, ever changing and updating not static. That’s what makes it’s Liberal population; great.

It’s as if Nationalist would like Evolution to stop now. There stance on interracial relationships is despicable, and that’s even before you consider that we’re all interracial. Our ancestors intermixed over and over again to get to where we are now. It’s how the World has always worked. The mixing of cultures, brings new ideas, new technologies, new medicines, new foods, and new reasons for racial harmony. We are edging much closer to recognising that race doesn’t exist. That we were human before anyone invented the concept of Race or Nationality. Nationalists, do not accept this most liberating of facts.

Nationalists have been known to quote Dr Aiden Rankin, who was a member of the far right and was often quite critical of interracial relationships. They fail to notice however, that Dr Aiden Rankin renounced his far right beliefs, and has since become critical of Nationalism, and a strong supporter of equality of Liberalism. He is quoted as saying recently, in the Guardian…
“far-right racism and the scapegoating of immigrants or refugees, given voice by the British National Party, but believed in by many members of the UK Independence Party, the Eurosceptic groupuscules and the Tory party’s “traditionalist” right. This has always profoundly repelled me, both for its creeping totalitarianism and its simple-minded classification of individuals by race or group.
Soul theft is an accurate depiction of the experience of becoming right-wing. It starts as a vague impression, then progresses – if that is the word – into a world-view; it begins as a bad mood, then becomes a permanent, brooding anger. “
From an enlightened ex-far right winger, that is exactly how those of us on the Left have imagined the far right to be for a long time. Dr Rankin just confirms our apparent correct suspicions beautifully.

One the facebook group, not too long ago, a white supremacist is quoted as saying “If the election system were better representative, England would have a Nationalist government today”. This quote represents the core of the flawed arguments these Nationalists tend to make. According to election 2005 statistics….
Largely Liberal Parties:
Labout – 9,562,122 votes
Tories – 8,772,598
Lib Dems – 5,981,874
Green Party – 257,758
Nationalist Parties:
The British National Party – 192,746
UKIP – 603,298
I cannot imagine an electoral system that allows a combined Nationalist popular vote of 796,044 to take control over government, and do away with the ‘Liberal agenda’ given that the three main Liberal parties, gained a total of 24,316,594 votes. That would be an incredibly odd system.

Another guy in referring to the stabbing that took place in London this weekend, stated “I see the blacks are stabbing again”. As if he was proving somehow that all black people like to stab. I pointed out that…
Hitler was white and committed genoicide.
Musolini was white and committed murder.
Stalin was white and committed genocide.
Ted Bundy was white and committed serial murder.
Ian Huntley was white and killed two kids.
Roy Whiting was white and raped and killed a child.
Myra Hindley was white and murdered children.
Ian Brady was white and murdered children.
Rose West was white and murdered children.
Fred West was white and murdered children.
….. He then tried to suggest that although all races committ crime, the black race is the most consistant. I do not know what this means. Surely going on statistics, white people make the worst World leaders? And appear to be the most consistant paedophiles going by his logic? The point is, it highlights is just how disastrously unintelligent these Nationalists really are. However, it’s easy to see just how people are taken in by such Nationalist bullshit. And it becomes even easier to see just how people took so strongly to Hitler. Luckily, we’re a strongly Liberal country. It will stay that way for a very long time.

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.” – Einstein.

Immigrants: We need them!!

This blog will argue that immigration is much needed. I’d appreciate genuine arguments against my blog instead of the usual “fucking muzzies coming to our country with their fucking burkas, fuck off, you terrorist scum”.

INTRO:
I’m becoming increasingly uneasy about the level of animosity toward anyone who happens to have an Asian skin complexion in this country, particularly in the City I live, Leicester. Whenever someone says “I’m not racist but….” you can guarantee they’ve been reading the Daily Mail, and are about to spew some disgusting out of date bile.

I’ve said before, the majority of British Nationalists, who insist that they love our Country and see immigration eroding our culture, have absolutely no knowledge of our ‘culture’ other than the fact that they like to drink a lot, fight a bit, and be a bit racist. Our culture consists of historical events like the Protestant Reformation during Henry VIII, Edward and Elizabeth’s reigns, the Civil War of the 17th Century, art movements like Gothic, Renaissance Realism, pop art and post-modernism, the horrors of the Great War that saw the deaths of millions of people for less than a square foot of land. The fight for liberalism, as Churchill’s army of warriors defeated the destructive force of Fascism. This is our culture, and the Nationalists are the ones responsible for trying destroying it.

We have a large Asian community in Leicester. One of my friends tried to suggest that the white man is in the minority in Leicester now. He went on to suggest over 70% of the City must now be foreign. I disagreed. He laughed and decided to insult my intelligence some more. It annoyed me quite deeply. He suggested that if I look around, it’s like “spot the white man”.
Firstly, even if that was the case, why is that a problem? If I were the only white guy living on my street, what’s the problem? As long as they don’t treat me like shit, why should I care? It’s a skin colour. It does not go deeper than that.
And secondly, I was fucking right. According to Leicester City Council, the White race accounts for 63% of the population of Leicester. So to sum that up, I was right, he was wrong.

I’d now like to argue against those who believe Immigration should be cut off, and we should “keep Britain White”.

AGE:
During the 1950s, after the War, we in Britain had what is described as the “baby boom”. Soldiers coming home and starting families. Between the 1980s and today, we have a “baby slump”. Hundreds of thousands of more women are starting careers early and not having children. Which means, we have an ageing population. The baby boom generation is getting old. The younger generation need to support the pensions of those ageing majority. This is known as the “dependency ratio”. Given that there aren’t enough younger people to deal with this, if we took the BNP line and stopped immigration completely, we’d have the worst pensions crises ever. If this extended to Europe, according to the author Philippe Legrain, the population of Europe would fall by 60 million by 2050. This creates a worker shortage, meaning businesses close, deflation sky rockets. An economic disaster. You need immigration.

The Welfare State:
I refuse to give a response to the awful “they come over here, taking all our benefits” whilst in the same breathe muttering “they come over here, taking all our jobs”, it’s an old outdated argument that no one has been able to prove.
The majority of immigrant workers come to Britain (according to Home Office Stats) in their 20s. They then start to work, they pay taxes.
Those workers have not been to British schools and so they have cost the tax payer nothing, whilst they pay back into the tax system. Which means more investment into public services like The NHS. So actually, we benefit, not them.
Many then start up a business, paying more into the tax system. Perhaps they’ll then have children, who will go to British schools, on the money pumped into the tax system by their parents, which is fair and just. All the time contributing to an ageing British population.

“GO HOME!!”
Many immigrants come here for a better life. If you lived in a Country where you feared for the life of you and your family every day, wouldn’t you jump at the opportunity for a better life elsewhere?
The Phillipines has began calling those people who leave the country, to work abroad “heroes”. This is because the workers, after paying tax in America for example, then send some of their earnings home, which boosts the local economies, allowing the National economy of these countries to grow, lifting millions out of poverty. It has no damaging affect on America. It’s a boost to the poor nation’s economy, and it’s much needed. Otherwise we get rich, whilst the poor get worse and worse, and that’s simply wrong. It also then means the poor countries are able to create new opportunities, new jobs, new exports, which benefit us directly.

Job Creation:
“Stealing all our jobs” seems to be suggesting that there is a static number of jobs, limited in presence, and that immigrants are fighting the British born Whites for those jobs. This is simply ignorance.
When an immigrant comes to live here, he’s going to need a house, a car, a bed, a bath, a towel, a mug, a photograph frame, sugar, a carpet, and every other luxury you can possibly imagine. When 200,000 come here, there is a sharp rise in demand for such objects, which means production needs to increase, which means new jobs need to be created for supplies to meet demand, which means instead of stealing all our jobs, immigration create jobs. It’s basic economics. If we denied these people access to our country, demand would fall sharply, prices would deflate, wages would dramatically decrease because the pool of unemployed would get bigger and bigger as businesses everywhere shut up shop.
We’d all be worse off.

“This Country is a mess!!”
To suggest the country is now a mess, is to compare it to a previous time when it wasn’t a mess. I’m not sure that this has ever been the case. Was it the 1900s during a needless war in which parents watched as their children were sent to their deaths for no good reason? Or the 1920s during the Great Depression? Or the 1940s and World War, when kids were sent away from cities and their parents? Or the 1950s/60s when women were treated as 2nd class, gay people were imprisoned simply for their sexuality and racial prejudice was rife? Or the 1970s when our binmen went on strike leading to the winter of discontent? Or the 1980s when the miners went on strike and 60% of Liverpool was unemployed? Or the 1990s when The Spice Girls topped the charts?
When was the World and in particular Britain, perfect? It wasn’t.

My conclusion:
A Nation is simply a line on a map. A meaningless flag. A place where those who have deep Patriotic feelings can get together and proclaim just how wonderful their Country is compared to the rest of the World.
We are all citizens of the same Planet. We all benefit each other economically. We all bring with us knowledge and cultural awareness that can benefit each other both socially and for our own mental strength. Only by mixing and interacting, sharing and understanding, can there ever be anything near to peace.