By Phil Thornton 7th July 2022
Boris Johnson was always a creation, a kind of anti-politician cartoon character that appealed to the type of people who complain that ‘all politicians are the same.’ These ‘new populists’ – the Johnsons, Trumps, Macrons, Bolsonaros, Orbans – are always rich and right wing opportunists using the familiar tricks of the demagogue to whip up hatred against others in order to divert attention away from their own criminality. Migrants, gay people, indigenous people, women, strikers, single mums, benefit claimants, poor people, ill people, football fans. They don’t care who they target as long as their pet mass media propagandise on their behalf.
Suddenly all these defenders of Johnson have discovered he’s a lying, manipulative narcissist willing to throw anyone under the bus to save himself. Yet, even as panic grips Downing Street, the loyal, embedded mass media will do its utmost to protect their paymasters. Public Service Broadcasting is a myth, what it amounts to is state funded propaganda and both the BBC and Channel 4/ITN are as embedded as Sky or any number of US channels that never deviate from the accepted state narrative. The middle ground play offs between all three main parties will yet again result in consensus stasis after the next election. Red Mist is one place we hope to break this stranglehold upon public opinion, what those self-elected arbiters of social discourse decide what is within their imposed boundaries of acceptability. Don’t expect the Guardian or the Mirror or any of the middle-class liberal rags and broadcasters to reflect ‘our’ culture and our outrage.
| LIARS A-E “The Conservative Party is an organised hypocrisy” so said Benjamin Disraeli. Boris Johnson is merely the latest and arguably the most blatant Tory Prime Minister to use his position as a way to further enrich himself, reward his chums, bask in the glow of senior office and lie and cheat his way through office regardless of how many other people his actions destroy. He and Cameron were the conjoined twins of Neo-Etonian privilege, the Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber of Tory rule since 2010. Cameron was merely a bag man for his own family interests and those of his fellow off-shore tax avoiding pals. Johnson is by comparison, a pickpocket of the public purse, brazenly lining his own pockets as he bounced from one scandal to another, all the while no doubt still convinced of his own unique abilities and talents. Neither Cameron or Johnson have ever had to hold down a real job. They’ve moved from one shoe in position to another aided by their old school ties and political connections. They exist in an upper-class cocoon that has protected these dim witted, mediocre men and women for centuries. Johnson’s reputation as a so-called ‘vote winner’ was based upon his displacing of Ken Livingstone as London mayor in 2008 and then by usurping the Tory leadership by any means necessary and fighting the 2019 general election on one issue; Brexit. That he was in favour of EU membership before the election was by the by, this, he knew would resonate with voters across the political spectrum, not only those ever reliable xenophobes and racists in his own party but those xenophobes and racists in the Labour ‘heartlands’ who had backed Brexit in massive numbers. Johnson’s tenure as PM will end very soon but will also allow the Tories to re-group and re-brand themselves in time for the next general election. Once the middle class begin to feel the pain of ‘the cost of living crisis’ (never austerity for these people), then any support for sneering toffs soon evaporates. The likes of Rees-Mogg and Johnson symbolize a rotten, decadent culture that truly wants to return to the class deference and ‘values’ of the Victorian/Edwardian era. In many ways, I don’t blame them because if the British public are too stupid or timid to accept these maggots as their political leaders, then why should anyone expect decency and honour and discipline and truth and responsibility and wisdom and energy and morality and competence? |
Holywell Street 