Shame No Shame

At the start of the summer I went from my usual part time work to doing two jobs (my full time boss’s work plus my own) for nine weeks – a shock to the system – hence the dearth of proper blog (or, indeed, any writing). Exhaustion coupled with those images (refugees) left me miserably wrung out.

The news that our ally Saudi Arabia has sentenced a teenager to crucifixion (but this is the Twenty-first Century so he will be beheaded first, so that’s ok) made me sick. The news that Saudi Arabia will now head a “key UN human rights panel” must mean satire is truly dead, along with anyone who protests the Saudi regime. Meanwhile London hosted a massive arms fair and many regimes with unpleasant records will have attended.

Our leaders have no shame.

But here are glimmers of light. Yesterday’s #piggate #snoutrage Twitterstorm was sublime though, yes, satire must be rolling in its grave; four years ago Charlie Brooker imagined a storyline in Black Mirror where the PM is forced to have sex with a pig.

We know the Eton/Bullingdon elite are bound by shared experiences but we had no idea they were so hilarious – and that the rivalries would be so childishly exposed. So Cameron did something gross? Ashcroft hardly comes out well with the expose – which also begs the question, What have all your other friends been up to, chaps? “We’re all in it together” really does apply for them.

And what is the Daily Fail aiming for with this? A swing to the right for the Tories? Or a Fail switch to supporting UKIP as a “balance” for some British plebs’ shocking surge to the left? Should we be afraid? Well, yes and no: yes in that we need to be ready for the Fail’s brand of divide-and-conquer hate to spew but no because it is fear that feeds that kind of hatred.

The Tories were rattled even before #piggate; the contexts in which “security” have been invoked lately are mind-boggling. I particularly recommend Margaret Attwood’s recent blog on “freedom”.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos from that weekend visit to friends in Devon I mentioned in my previous post…