What would happen if an Islamic political party was created?

 

What would happen to British politics if an Islamic political party was created? 

Looking at demographics, it is easy to imagine that if Muslim communities stopped supporting existing political parties and decided to create an Islamic Party such political party would be very successful. Muslim families tend to have more children and therefore, every year, the number of those supporting the said party electorally would be increasing. Nowadays, a sizeable number of those coming to Britain as refugees come from Muslim countries and with European countries increasingle averse to accept Muslim refugees the numbers of those coming to UK would also be growing up.

If Jeremy Corbyn wanted to increase his political influence, he is making all the right moves. Those he is now joining as a group happen to be mostly former Labour candidates and former Labour members now acting as Independents that happen to be Muslim. As the Conservative Party did before, Labour is alienating Muslim voters. More conservative Muslim voters not only oppose the mainstream political parties' policies and attitudes regarding Israel. They also oppose sexual ideology that openly contradicts traditional Muslim values.

Ukraine: I am starting to believe that USA wants Ukraine destroyed

 If anything we learn from the Battle of the Bulge in World War Two is that you should not send tanks into the battlefied without air cover, but this is exactly what the USA is making Ukrainians do and German Leopard tanks and American tanks are being hunted like fish in a barrel.

You also should know that rookies sent into the battlefield with the most advanced technology are still rookies and Ukrainian troops are being slaughered at the tune of 14,000 day, killed and injured and that cemeteries in Ukraine are bein 're-used', using old graves to bury dead combattants.

Is there a secret intention? We knew from various reports, that Bandera units were incorporated in the regular Ukrainian Armed Forces and Bandera units - declared anti-Semites and allies of Germany during World War Two. Is this a way of getting rid of Bandera units? Is the American government sending Bandera units to fight Russian forces knowing that they are going to be defeated by Russian forces.

And what about the turnout of the business? The more tanks are destroyed the more tanks are going to be needed, thus feeding American and German war industries. Never mind if in the process thousands upon thousands of Ukrainian lose their lives and livelihoods.

Members of Parliament under stress: Stress as the rule

We read headlines about Members of Parliament i.e. Ministers that fail to keep their tax affairs in order, sexual misconduct, harassment, vacations abroad when they should be delivering on their promises, et cetera, and we tend to treat Members of Parliament as a class apart. There are in theory 650 Members of Parliament, although in fact elected Sinn Fein MPs fail to attend the House of Commons because of their stances on Ireland and Northern Ireland. Some are very wealthy because of their own professional and business careers outside Parliament and others simply have to make do with what they get from salaries, privileges ande exemptions.

For those who represent London constituencies or nearby constituenties, life should not be that bad or any different from many other jobs in the capital city. For others who represent constituencies far away from London, life is constant travel to and from their constituencies and London. In recent times, given even of public notoriety, on top of the workload comes a series of reasons to be stressed. We are not far from another General Election. This means the fears of not being re-elected and of the consequences of not being re-elected. After very public tragedies, there is also the fear of being harassed, attacked or killed.

For whatever reason, apart from the obvious political reasons, your life could be on public display and this includes unwanted attention or attention for all the wrong reasons. This is something that is bound to have an impact on you personally and on the lives of all those close to you and especially on members of your own close family.

Once you stand for public office, you are a marked man or a marked woman. Whatever you said or didn't say, whatever you did or didn't do will be on record for all to see and you will be constantly reminded about it. So, yes, there is a lot of stress involved and especially if you are trying to do what you are supposed to be doing. You might lose your job not because of being doing a bad job, but simply because of public perception, because of what something else has done or is believed to have done.

Would you like stand for Member of Parliament? Well, although in some cases there is no shortage of candidates, in certain constituencies local associations struggle to find suitable candidates. Some are genuinely afraid of facing the stigma of being associated with a given political party. Family relationships will change. Friends might no longer be friend. Working prospects might change. You could become unemployable. If you are single or looking for a relationship, you will no longer be yourself. You will be so and so of a certain political party. People who have never met you will talk about you, write about you, invent things about you and some will despise you merely because you are associated with a given political party.

So, yes, being a Member of Parliament or being identified with a given political party can be a certain source of stress for all  kinds of reasons.

UK Elections: What for?

Who has real power? Elected representatives? the mass media? the trade unions?

When an MP, for whatever reason, falls from grace, what happens to democracy? Since the last General Election, and since other elections, we have seen Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and other elected representatives exposed as either incompetent, corrupt or both. We can say as justification that those elected are as fallible and as vulnerable as anybody else, but we cannot avoid the consequences. Because they are constantly in the public domain and being talked about, their failings lead to lack of trust not just in them, but also lead to lack of trust in the democratic process.

This afternoon, a Police officer told me about his feeling about how the system to deal with mental health patients is not working and about how he encounters the same kind of situation on a daily basis. He said that having taken a mental health patient to an Accident and Emergency Department, the said patient usually ended up staying in the Accident and Emergency Department for more than 24 hours under police custody because he or she was not admitted into proper dedicated wards inside the hospital. He also told me about how patients are being discharged without proper treatment only to relapse to get involved being involved in life-threatening events. Departments meant to deal with mental health patients are over-capacity and tend to discharge patients before it is safe to do so. 

Now, this is a mental health issue, but it is also a political issue. One government after another, of all political colours, have failed to address the issue of what is done with mental health patients. We are dealing with mental health patients born and bred in the United Kingdom and we are dealing with people who arrive in the UK with mental health issues. We care more about dogs and cats than we care about people. We have more safeguards concerning dogs and cats, than we have safeguards concerning people. The recent Covid Pandemic is a perfect example. How long it took to close borders to present the spread of the disease? Were borders closed at all? On a daily basis we are admitting people who come into the country illegally and there are no safeguards regarding public health.

Even trust in Police forces is falling due to well-known incidents and this has been made worse by the fact that those in charge of Police forces have publicly stated that they don't have the tools to get rid of 'bad apples'. We know that there are individuals in uniform that are a certain liability when it comes to public safety and we accept it as fait accompli. We are supposed to elect representatives that will deal with these matters. So many failures tell you that democracy is not working. So much mismanagement and so many failures happen for a reason. Changing one political party for another will do nothing to change the core reasons that lead to such mismanagement and failures.There is something fundamentally wrong regarding the system itself.

Three Candidates? Hope-ful or Hope-fool?

 

In the state Britain is at the moment, one wonders if anybody will be able to change the direction of travel.

This is not merely about economics so don't get your hopes up thinking that everything can be sorted with proper accounting. Decisions have been made in terms of geopolitics that have had enormous repercussions in Britain and elsewhere.

Everybody is trying to make sure that they are not the ones worse hit by the repercussions. We have got salaries whose buying power could evaporate. We have quite a few pensioners many of whom depend on a state pension that, despite promises about triple-locks, could find themselves struggling to pay for the basic necessities of everyday living. We have authorities in charge of delivering services with budgets that were limited when things were more or less stable.

When it comes to transport in London, for example, the Mayor of London has very little room for maneuver. If he agrees to demands made by those working for rail services, he will have to reduce support for bus services. Whatever he gives to John will have to be taken from Peter. How will local authorities cope when their bills go up with little support received from central government? January is not far away and January is the time of the year when travelling fares are adjusted 'according to the rate of inflation'. Everybody, whether they are involved in transport services or use transport services, will be hit. The impact of energy bills has been limited with funds provided to consumers until next April but such kind of support cannot go on indefinitely. The list of adjustments and re-adjustmens is extremely long and difficult to deal with in a single article. 

Will the British government be forced to reconsider geopolitical stances? It is by no means justifiable to send valuable resources abroad when the country is facing a burden that is pushing more and more people below the poverty line, regardless of the fact that the present troubles have been self-inflicted. 

While some Western countries risk going into recession because of so called green policies, China and others forge ahead using more and more fossil fuels

The present situation could only be described as nonsensical. We wake up to the news that BMW is moving part of its operations in the UK to China. Surprised? Absolutely not. China is using more and more fossil fuels and building more and more energy plants that consume coal and therefore has the competitive edge. On the other hand, some of the most advanced Western economies are starving themselves of energy and talking about blackouts while adding taxes to already high production costs.

We are not going to save the planet by destroying Western economies. All we are managing to do is to create social and political crisis of major proportions. We are involved in a process of self-destruction. Energy costs are preventing us from being competitive and we are going to be seeing lower standards caused by excessive production costs. This is turn is going to create social conflicts that are going to lead to political instability and violence.

The climate hysteria is reaching astronomical proportions with people glueing themselves to roads, blocking passing traffic, destroying public and private property as if by engaging in irrational acts they were going to do anything to prevent damage to the environment. The damage is being done to the social fabric of Western countries, and politicians, mass media and educational institutions are very much part of the climate of irrationality.

Countries are people: We must not allow homelessness or housing instability

 

As somebody who has been married for more than 28 years and brought up three children, I fully understand the importance of having a set abode. Where you live, the quality of the place where you live, and the stability of accommodation is a crucial factor that should never be underestimated.

If for whatever reason you don't live in adequate accommodation or if you are constantly having to move around, your life and your family life will be dramatically affected in a very negative way.

When you look at the language of social services, there is an emphasis on stable families, suitable environment to raise children, et cetera. Such considerations should be ever present when it comes to policies that affect housing. High rental costs for people who can ill afford to buy their own accommodation are a death trap that puts families in danger and ultimately will create a very unstable society.

For most people, working means having to travel around and much time, money and health are spent travelling around. If you live far away from the places where you work, you are going to be spending a long time on the road and this is time that you are not to be spending with your family, looking after your family, and you are going to be losing many opportunities. If on top of that, you have no certainty in terms of where you are going to be living in, you are going to struggle with travelling arrangements and your children are most probably have to move from one school to another and unable to form stable social relationships. This will feel like being regularly uprooted. This is what far too many families in the United Kingdom are facing right now.

If we ignore or underestimate the aforementioned realities, as a country we are bound to pay a very high price because countries are basically people. 

KGH

We don't usually agree with Diane Abbott, but she is spot on on the causes of the crisis in Eastern Europe

Over and over again, the USA has been directly responsible for destabilization and migration crisis. The second campaign in Iraq was an unmitigated disaster that destabilized even more an already unstable Middle East and threatens to lead Europe towards chaos. The major defeat in Afghanistan was yet another disaster and one of the longest wars on recent records. 

American and British warmongering will generate one of the worst economical and political crisis in Europe and most probably turn back the clock towards the 1930 with well known consequences.

The importance of language learning

Not knowing a language and not making an effort to learn a language is a form of disability. Some people cannot hear - this is called deafness. Some people cannot talk and this means that they are mute. If you hear and talk, but cannot communicate then you are disabled.

Not learning a language can also be the consequence of negative attitudes. The usual comment I hear as justification for not making an effort to learn a certain language is 'It is too difficult'. Another common excuse is 'I don't like it'. People who have such attitudes often deprive themselves of the opportunity of having a normal life and/or a successful life.

By not learning a language you are deprived of first hand knowledge and first hand experiences and constantly depending on other people to know what is actually going on.  You only have access to somebody else's interpretation or understanding of what is going on.

When it comes to sciences and especially to mathematics, we encounter similar kinds of attitudes. People want to have a better job, more work opportunities, but they are not willing to do what needs to be done to have a better job and more work opportunities.

Learning sciences is also about communication. Without acquiring certain skills, your understanding will be limited and you will always be prey of those who want you to believe what they want you to believe. How can you be able to make informed decisions if what you precisely lack is the capacity to understand and evalue the data and views you are faced with?

To be able to make an informed decision, you must know what everything is about. 

British Politics: 2022 a crucially important moment

BBC? Channel 4? Radio? With audience levels falling and falling, how relevant they are compared to what they used to be 10, 20 or 30 years ago? How the digital era, including social media, have changed in terms of public opinion, in terms of their influence in decision making? This is an open conversation to talk frankly and politely.

This is about communication and about being able to listen to a wide range of points of view while keeping an open mind. Given what is going on in Europe, is there a mass media war?

Are anti-Russian measures and mass media policies leading to financial, social and political chaos in Britain and in Europe? Inflation is out of control, interest rates are rising, industrial unrest in increasing, both public debt and private debt are growing faster and faster, and countries could become unstable.

In Britain, more than a quarter of about 2.1 million mortgages could be in danger putting the banking system, once again, in danger, causing a lot more than a mere recession. What are your thoughts?

In the meantime, in Britain, as a defining moment gets closer, it is understandable that tensions will rise, but tensions will soon be followed by an anti-climax when the decision is made and minds are focused on what will be the next  Cabinet.

 As soon as the new Cabinet is known, there will be hyperactivity in both political parties.

Somehow, the initial thought was that the rise of industrial unrest would be benefit the Labour Party. What now transpires is that industrial unrest has opened a gap within the Labour Party because there are marked differences between the Leadership of the Labour Party and the Parliamentary Labour Party. As the Conservative Party gives whoever is chosen as Leader the benefit of the doubt - a sort of political honeymoon - the day after the honeymoon has already started within the Labour Party. It is going to be rough.

If rules regarding leadership contests are changed in the Labour Party, then Andy Burham and Sadiq Khan could become contenders. Should Liz Truss become Prime Minister, the pressure to chose a woman leader in the Labour Party will be unbearable and the present Deputy Leader would have more than one reason to challenge Keir Starmer as a female and as somebody who could be closer to the Trade Union Movement. 

Let us remember that all the aforementioned events have as background a crisis of major proportions at an international level and that whoever is in power in Britain and in other countries in Europe will have to deal with.

Time: Aug 7, 2022 06:00 PM London

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Conservative Party is being defeated by demographics

Whether this is accepted or not, the fact remains that demographic changes are changing the political map of England and in particular of London. There are swades of people that might abstain from voting Labour, but would certainly not support the Conservative Party. During the recent local elections in London, there were block votes and mixed votes. Block votes is when all votes on the ballot paper are for a single party. A mixed vote is when on the ballot paper votes are for different political parties. 

After recent changes in terms of the number of wards and of the candidates that could be chosen to represent each ward, it became apparent that people in general could support Labour and Greens or Lid Dems on the same ballot, but very few could bring themselves to choose a mixed vote that included Conservatives. Another option, for many voters who did not want to vote Labour was simply to abstain in a sort of protest vote.

In Conservative ranks there is the view that 'Westminster is poisonous'. This means that events happening at national level are somehow putting off Conservative voters and anybody else who in theory would be willing to support Conservative candidates.

The race card and the socio-economic card play a huge part in local elections in London. The Conservative Party managed to lose the only Councillor it had in Clapham, Lambeth. Members of ethnic minorities would not support the Conservative Party. I have chosen the label 'ethnic minorities' when in fact so called ethnic minorities have become majorities in several London boroughs.

London politics is tribal and tribalism is very much undermining democracy when people vote along racial lines driven by misconceptions about what candidates actually represent. One can understand why Labour demonises candidates of other political parties as a way to keep itself in power, but this undermines relationships between communities. If politics is dominated by ghetto mentalities, and ideas about 'us and the others', peaceful coexistence cannot be promoted.

The brain is for thinking, but we don't think with other parts of our bodies

The human brain is for thinking, but we don't think with other parts of our bodies.

This is something that we all should keep in mind at the time of making decisions that can have unexpected consequences.I don't pass judgment. We are all human and at one point or another have made decisions not with our brains, but with what is between our legs. A moment of weakness and everything somebody has fought for can be jeopardized, ruined, lost.

You have a spouse, three children, more wealth than you can spend, a position of power, et cetera, and one day make a decision that along the line is going to be equivalente of throwing everything away. Like I said in the previous paragraph I don't pass judgment. Most of us have been there at one point or another of our lives and it is much too easy to criticize when we are not free from some kind of blame.

There will be many casualties along the way. If things go badly and the flame is quickly extinguished by following events, there will be plenty of regrets. Most or all of what I talk about I talk from personal experience because every family is a world.

Whether you are the person who did the deed or the one who is on the receiving end, there is going to be loads of pain. Certain joys acquired at the expense of people we should care for including the most vulnerable who are not of an age to be able to comprehend the enormity of the changes that are on the horizon won't come cheap.

Whether you are the kind of person whose face is in all major newspapers or whether you are somebody that is pretty anonymous, if not many people know about our weaknesses and failings, you know about our own weaknesses and failings and you have to endure living with our weaknesses and failings.

This is why when I learn about somebody's weaknesses and failings, I don't rise as a judge. I could say 'what a waste!'. 

Corona Virus: Context and repercussions

Corona Virus: Context and Repercussions

Politics: Pretending that conflict doesn't exist doesn't avoid conflict

Politics: Pretending that conflict doesn't exist doesn't avoid conflict

Some in the United Kingdom complain saying that one of the BBC flagship programmes - Question Time - has become too beligerant, that those taking part in it are not the happy chappies they used to be and that they are at each other's throats even after the cameras and microphones are switched off.

When issues matter people who care become beligerant. As Americans become beligerant when it comes to the right to bear arms. Do they become beligerant? Of course they do. Rights are fought for.

Isn't this something that marks the history of any nation across the world? The expression is: standing up for your rights. Did Britain award the colonies in America the right to vote, the decision power they were asking for because they were paying taxes to the British Crown without representation? Conflict is often unavoidable.

The upper lip, the time to endure without reacting, is on its way out. People become plainly open about their views. They say that in Britain people are learning to litigate, somehow following the example of the United States of America. Those accustomed to pretend that nothing is happening are alarmed when somebody stands up and airs his or her views openly. The time to bow is over.   

When Prince Harry Windsor says "I have had enough", the ground trembles. Those who strive to maintain the status quo are shocked. When reverence feels and sounds like subservience, the time for reverence is over and this happens over and over again and the fact that it happens is a healthy feature of social development.

But in Britain, at several levels, including Universitary education, many are not ready for plain talking. They are literally afraid of plain talking. British universities used to be a lighthouse of free thinking. Nowadays, they are bastions of political correctness and repression. The education system controlled by left-wing ideologues promotes a totalitarian approach. Having said that, when such approach goes not only against true democratic values but also against national interest there is no room for complaisancy. 

Now is the time for plain talking to cleanse Britain of negative structures and negative tendencies. The sooner we call apples apples and oranges oranges the better. Just across the pond, in the USA, the attempt by the Democrats to change the outcome of a Presidential Election will lead to a backlash as the attempt by a Remain Parliament led to a backlash in the United Kingdom and this is very much the consequence of democratic principles. When the Democrats as elected work against the electors, the electors rebel and get rid of the elected.

Regardless of who has the balance of power in the House of Representatives, ignoring the wishes of the American people the Democrats are digging up their own political graves. The Democrats are abusing power to try and change the outome of an election. The vote in the House of Representatives was in itself proof that the attempt to impeach President Trump is no more than a Democrat coup attempt. It was by no means a bypartisan vote.

British Democracy: Myth and Reality in a country in which Police Forces have become Political Police

British Democracy: Myth and Reality in a country in which Police Forces have become Political Police

Fact - In Britain, members of certain legal political parties are banned from certain professions and in Britain your political allegiance can be used against you when you are trying to get a job or keep a job.

Fact - In Britain, Police Forces are politicised and used to do the dirty work for vested political interests.

Fact - In Britain, the Judiciary is a political tool used for political persecution, discrimination and harassment. 

Fact - In Britain, those elected can blatantly ignore the will of the Electorate and promote violence against those who dare to resist the destruction of true Democracy and mass media acting as accomplices demonise and harass those who dare to stand for their rights.

Jayda Fransen: going through hell for the sake of the truth

Jayda Fransen: going through hell for the sake of the truth

This is Jayda Fransen using one of the most powerful weapons known to man: a microphone. Why? To tell things as they are, not as the Political Establishment wants the public to believe that they are.

Marxist Wikipedia calls her a Fascist. Well, if denouncing gang rape of British children ignored for a very long time by politicians and Police forces for fear of being called Racists is Fascism we should all be Fascists.

In Rotherham and in many other cities across the United Kingdom gangs mostly made up of Pakistani Muslims terrorised thousands of children that were drugged, plied with alcohol and pass around to satisfy the sexual needs of individuals some of whom are now being arrested, put on trial and convicted as it is vox populi because their names and image has been publicised by mass media and the press.

Denoncing crime and expressing rejection of crime is not a crime but it seems to have become a crime when individuals like Jayda Fransen are persecuted, harassed, arrested and jailed for daring to speak the truth. No sooner Jayda Fransen was released draconian bail conditions were imposed including Jayda Fransen being forced to live in a hostel sharing space with drug addicts, pedophiles and other common criminals -just a continuation of what she had to endure when she was in jail surrounded by Muslim criminals.

The fact the Probation Service involved didn't allow her to live in her own home speaks volumes about the way processes are being used for political persecution against those the Political Establishment doesn't like because they remind the Political Establishment of the failures of the Political Establishment.

Jayda Fransen is forced to live in fear because any excuse - even the most ridiculous and irrational reason - can be used by the Probation Service to demand her arrest for her to be sent to jail.

When you stand for the truth, when you stand for justice, you automatically become a marked person as I myself experienced on my way to Moscow, Russian Federation, on a family trip and a few days later, once again, in my own home when I was subjected to political interrogation. Unfortunately for the MI5 agents sent to talk to me, I have no political involvement. I am a researcher in the areas of politics, data gathering and military strategy and tactics.

I referred the matter to a Member of Parliament that did the proper enquiries but the government was less than candid about MI5 political involvement in the United Kingdom. I am not talking about counter-terrorism. I am talking about using British Security Services for political persecution - when laws and procedures can be bent for political purposes and Police Forces become Political Police.

  

Politics and Crime: The Godfather is Real Politics

Politics and Crime - The Godfather is Real Politics

When you look at divisions today, divisions everywhere, divided political parties, divided society, divided countries, divided world, and the network of intrigues, you see The Godfather. When big things are at stake, life is cheap.

Looking at the what is happening everywhere, it is easy that Jo Cox was not the first and will not be the last. I don't see how the big political conflicts of today can come to a peaceful end and peace is a very elusive target.

Certainties are over. Trust is gone. If one of the few means any civilised society has to protect itself is censorship, we are doomed. The more censorship is promoted rest assured that violence will follow. If political persecution, harassment, intimidation, discrimination, demonising, distortion, defamation, libel and incarceration for political ends become the norm, Democracy is dead. Political Correctness generates a Totalitarian Society and no one is safe. When the very same organisations that are supposed to stand for Freedom become promoters of Intolerance, we are doomed.

I often remember the famous expression "The Pen is Mightier than the Sword" and say that if Political Correctness builds dams and takes away The Pen that allows us to express our thoughts peacefully, The Sword will rule.

Very much like the old League of Nations, the Organisation of the United Nations is falling apart and treaties are being torn to pieces. Tearing apart a Treaty is merely the recognition that the circumstances that led to signing such Treaty are no more. The World is changing and many are preparing themselves for war and the coming war - unlike previous wars that were called World Wars - will be a real World War and there will no place to hide. There will be war between countries and there will be war within countries caused by conflicting values and people who will take no prisoners. Everything that we cherish will be lost because in the coming wars there will be no winners. There will be only losers.

Looking at one country in particular - Germany -, for some time I have thought that Angela Merkel because of her own wrongdoing might the last democratic Chancellor of Germany. She misused Democracy and created a nightmare not just for Germany but for many other countries that seeing themselves under threat are building barriers to protect themselves. With her policies, Angela Merkel promoted a Siege Mentality justified by the fact the European Continent is being invaded and destroyed by imported forces of Intolerance, invasion that has been promoted by Political Correctness, Corruption, Incompetence and Ideological Madness.

Internet is not a threat. It is a safety valve

Internet is not a threat. It is a safety valve.

I strongly believe that Internet is a safety valve that allows to diffuse much of the frustrations that could turn into violence. I believe that in a deeply divided society in which despite rising numbers the individual is paradoxically increasingly isolated, we need the means to allow grievances to be vented safely. For this reason, I reckon that attempts to prevent people from expressing their feelings in social media are misguided and dangerous.

Some years ago, I wrote a piece about Thomas Hamilton, a loner that was a member of a gun club in the United Kingdom. Thomas Hamilton was a ticking bomb, loaded with frustrations and resentment made a lot worse by the fact that he couldn't let go of the anguish that was growing and growing inside. Suddenly, one day, he decided to arm himself and walk into a public school where he shot dead teachers, parents and pupils.

Jo Cox's case is cited as a case of politically motivated assassination when in fact it was a case of a mental health patient that on the eve of the attack was asking the National Health Service for support because in his own words he was feeling emotionally troubled. Thomas Mair was also having mental health problems but the case was completely distorted and made to appear as politically motivated. Thomas Mair was described as a Right Wing Terrorist.

In a society in which one in ten teenagers are showing symptoms of mental health problems that go untreated in most cases, social media play a vital role. Those who do not have a rewarding and fulfilling private life can use the Internet and social media to relieve some of the pressure they are under.

I think some British politicians are getting things extremely wrong. Censoring and banning can only make matters a lot worse. I do believe that putting things under the carpet is not the answer. It is better for things to happen in the open so that we know what people are truly feeling and thinking. You might not like some of the comments people make but this is no justification whatsoever to prevent them from expressing what they truly feel and think.

Britain has a particularly serious problem. Why hasn't anybody asked why so many people are choosing to live alone and why so many that would like to have some kind of social interaction are being ostracised? Let's remember that we live in a country in which not less than 15,000 people take their own lives every year (this is about the cases that we know but there will be plenty more that we don't know about). I guess we only notice the problem when our train services are cancelled because somebody jumped onto the rails in front of a passing train.

Behind the drugs problem, there are fundamental social issues related to how we interact with each other. In the Digital Era of Mass Communications millions of people don't have a voice and feel completely abandoned.

The Wider World, the Unknown World

A Latin American writer wrote some time ago a book entitled "El Mundo es ancho y ajeno" "Broad and Alien is the World" (Ciro Alegria - Peruvian writer). The title comes to mind when we try to focus on policies and on trying to make peoples' lives better. Never mind the world outside the country in which we live. Never mind the country in which we live. Never mind the city or town where we live. How much do we know about the people living next door? How much do we know even about our own families, our relatives and about ourselves?

Most of the time we make abstractions, or all the time we make abstractions, of the world in which we live, making working assumptions, to issue policies, to design strategies to get things done because in fact we know very little. What we don't know, replace with statistics and presumptions and ideological stances. We are guessing. And politics is - most of the time - about guessing what can be done and how it can be done. When we get things wrong or not nearly as exactly as we wanted them to be, there is always somebody or something or both to blame for the outcome of our endeavors. And this when and if our intentions are honorable.

When our intentions are based on vested interests, never mind statistics, abstractions and presumptions. We are just single minded about what we are trying to achieve come what may with total disregard for the likes of those who are bound not to benefit or even suffer the consequences of what we are trying to do. And this is politics too.

So there is everything in the political garden, including flowers and weeds. The ones who try to do good for all and the ones who with intent try to benefit merely themselves and some vested interests. But behind it all there is a great amount of ignorance about what is the real world and therefore the chances of success in any case are a mere gamble.

Behind words like 'I don't believe in politics anymore', 'I don't trust anyone' and the like there is the overwhelming reality of 'we know very little about the world in which we live' and 'we know very little about what people actually want and how they are going to be affected by the things we do'.

We must reflect then on the words of Rudyard Kipling, his poem IF, for many of the things that happen in our lives in terms of success and content, are the direct consequence of what we do and what we don't do as individuals. Our perceived success is very much the outcome of what we do, what we don't do, the personal and working relationships we have got, but our collective good and our collective evil are still attached to our perceptions about the world and about the political world. People celebrate/complain when a certain political party wins an election and at this point Politics is a bit like Religion - you either believe or you don't believe - because there is very little factual evidence to prove that our celebrations and our lamentations are justified. We still need to believe because life without hope is unbearable.

Elections are a step into the unknown, a leap of faith, and most importantly elections are about abstractions and we come to the point to know why people vote for a certain political party. We go straight into the field of presumptions. We presume that if a certain political party wins, the said party will do this or that. We also presume that the thing we want a political party to do will be beneficial either for the common good and/for ourselves and for those whose aims and needs we identify with. Elections are also a blank cheque. There is no written guarantee. There are just beliefs, hopes, wishes and expectations.

What we call Democracy is a blend of uncertainties, of don't knows, of blank cheques. We celebrate Democracy, even when most of the time, people don't really have real knowledge regarding what they are voting for. We do have expectations. We have beliefs. We have presumptions.

Even when choices might be made to appear as simple options, a single change can be bring about a chain reaction with many unexpected consequences. Let's say that you are a navigator and that you are about to make up your mind about the direction of travel. Should the course be 30 degrees or 31 degrees? The difference between 30 degrees and 31 degrees might appear to be minimal but, as time passes and the length of the journey increases, you could end up somewhere far away from the desired destination if you choose the wrong direction.

Whatever your intentions, to sum up, politics is about faith. Politics is about believing that you are making the right choices. The world is too big a place for us to be able to have a real understanding of it.

European Convention on Human Rights: What we know and what we don't know

European Convention on Human Rights: What we know and what we don't know

The levels of lack of awareness about fundamental pieces of legislation is a matter of great concern.

We hear politicians and the mass media mentioning the European Convention on Human rights on a regular basis but how much is known about it?

When it comes to the business of what is legal and what is illegal there is quite a lot of grey areas generated by legislation that is often used to circumvent the European Convention on Human Rights and this is why in certain political sectors there is growing interest in having a British Bill of Rights to deal with the said grey areas.

There is no point in having such important pieces of legislation when the number of loopholes makes it impossible to proceed to its full implementation. Conventions and Treaties end up being no more than the expression of aspirations that cannot be implement in the real world.