I am unable to recall any sporting event that has been virtually plundered non-stop by politicians with the aim of raising their own profiles while embarking on yet another brainwashing exercise of the British people. Today in the Sunday Telegraph we have Boris Johnson urging David Cameron and the Coalition to harness the legacy of the Olympics by embarking on a radical agenda of policies to boost economic growth. He wants ‘bold steps’ taken on housing, infrastructure and regulation to take advantage of the confidence and international respect that hosting a successful Games has won Britain. On the same page of the print edition of the Sunday Telegraph (no link) Ed Miliband pens a comment piece in which he maintains the Games have given us a glimpse of the country we can be – and later in the piece saying that now the Games are over politicians will return to doing politics on our TV screens. Jeremy Paxman joins the chorus of brainwashing by stating that the opening ceremony celebrated the spirit of democracy. Incidentally, in the print edition Paxman’s article includes a shot of the spectators waving the Union Jack, with a caption “the union flag has been waved without tribal loyalty”.
Since when did the ‘politics’ of housing, infrastructure and regulation have the slightest link to a sporting event? Since when did politicians stop doing politics on our TV screens? For sure, our athletes have done extremely well in their individual sports and our medal haul bears testament to that, but hey, they had a load of wonga thrown at them for training facilities, coaches etc; and their success was theirs and theirs alone, because, as far as I am aware, politicians had no management role and no control – there is a lesson there, one which I fear will have escaped the attention of our political class. What the hell does the opening ceremony have to do with the spirit of democracy? As for the union flag not being waved with tribal loyalty – are the British not a tribe? Is not a tribe a group of families or communities of people linked by social and economic ties?
The Telegraph editorial states:
“…..we cannot, and should not, expect government officials to do everything for us. The Government does not, and should not, have the resources to step in and provide everything we want. We ought be able to get together with others and contribute something.”
In that extract is encapsulated the power that politicians have assumed by usurpation, brainwashing and their use of gadgets. The editorial is but a not-so-subtle plug for Cameron’s Big Society and it contains this final paragraph:
“The London Olympics have laid the foundation for a new culture of volunteering in Britain. But if that foundation is to be built upon, so that a lasting edifice is constructed, the Government must act to ensure that the barriers which deter people from volunteering are removed.”
The fact that neither barriers to volunteering will be removed, nor the barriers to people achieving self-government for themselves, can be laid at the door of politicians and their sycophants. The first would make those employed in fake charities, quangos, advisory bodies, bureaucracy in general and journalism redundant – and the second would make the political class virtually redundant. Mind you, when* Harrogate ‘takes off’…………..
* And no pedantry, please, about my use of ‘when’ instead of ‘if’!