Sunday 27 August 2017

More on manipulation of our history

John Elledge is only partly right when he says that "the centrality of the Second World War to the national myth warps our view of history" (Left Field, 18th August, 2017). There is another very important factor contributing to the mythology which goes by the name of "national history", and that is the destruction of millions of files, and the continued secreting of millions more, by governments intent on manipulating the story of this country`s past. Only when thousands of Kenyans sued the British government in 2013 for damages after the Mau Mau rising of the 1950s did British historians become aware of Operation Legacy, and the deliberate destruction of evidence relating to the UK`s imperial past. The truth about the atrocities, looting and other varied acts of imperial barbarism have to be kept hidden!
    Elledge is totally right, however, in stating that Churchill`s role in the 1943 Bengal famine "rarely comes up in biopics", but the trouble is, it doesn`t appear either in the best selling biographies of the wartime leader, like the one by pseudo-historian, Boris Johnson. Nothing must, it seems, damage the version of our "glorious past", and judging by the Brexit vote, that mythology still reigns supreme. The sooner the 1.2 million files hidden at Hanslope Park are released for scrutiny, the better!

Friday 25 August 2017

"Skin-crawling" is catching!

It`s no surprise that Hillary Clinton has admitted that Trump made her "skin crawl" during a televised debate, as he must have a similar effect on millions every time he appears on television (Hillary Clinton says Trump made her "skin crawl" during TV debate, 24/08/17). What makes it disappointing, however, is that it makes May`s efforts to court friendship with him as soon as he was elected even more embarrassing.
   Are we to believe our country is in such dire straits, and so desperate for trade deals, that our prime minister will never have the courage to criticise this most arrogant and despicable of American leaders? The answer appears to be in the affirmative, as any leader, regardless of the lack of democracy and civilised behaviour in his country is fair game for British envoys. The fact that huge food shortages in Yemen, coupled with the inevitable disease, does not stop either the Saudis bombing, or the British selling them the means with which to do it, must go down in history as one of the most callous action by any country since World War Two.
   Trump makes my "skin crawl" too, but others closer home have the same effect!

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Osborne: Brexit and ambition

There were many reasons 37% of those eligible to vote did vote to leave the EU , ranging from believing the lies about £350m a week going to the NHS, and getting back control, to anger over immigration, and a desire to return to our "glorious past". George Osborne was heavily involved in bringing about the Brexit result on at least two counts, so when he warns the Tory cabinet that Britain is "not ready to crash out of the EU", and that the EU now has the "upper hand" in the negotiations, one has to be suspicious about his reasons (Brexit: UK "not ready to crash out of EU",George Osborne says, 22/08/17).
   Osborne had instigated the austerity policies which hit the least fortunate hardest, harmed the rich not an iota, and did nothing to decrease the North-South divide, so many voted for Brexit to get back at Tories like him and Cameron. Then, in desperation over the 2015 election polls, Osborne came up with his "Northern powerhouse" idea, something which might attract votes, but which he thought would never be implemented in a coalition government, which at the time was the Tories` best hope. By 2016, voters knew Osborne had lied about it, so when his warnings came about the dire effects on the economy Brexit would cause, no one believed him.

  How typical of this duplicitous Tory to step in again with another warning. Nothing to do with leadership ambitions, surely?

Tuesday 22 August 2017

Guardian letter on university reform

Sonia Sodha in her article on university reform was absolutely right to say that "the value for money question is critical", not only because of the idiotically high fees and interest rate on the loans, but because of the ever-decreasing teaching and tutorial times  (Journal:turn the universities into comprehensives, 18/08/17). "University reform should start", not only with reducing fees but with making it compulsory for all degree course publicity to include the number of hours, both of teaching time in each year of the course, and in tutorial time where any academic problems can be dealt with. Whether personal tutors are available or not should also be included.
      Sodha`s suggestion of "introducing a quota for working-class students" might run into problems relating to definition. An insistence that no university is allowed to recruit more than seven per cent of its undergraduates from private schools, in line with national figures, would be preferable.

Friday 18 August 2017

New Statesman letter on foreign policy

Stephen Bush makes the debatable points that the Tories "might be able to win an argument about Venezuela", and that most of the British voters don`t have "a flicker, let alone a quantum, of interest in foreign affairs", with the implication that the latter is good news for Labour, as the Tories are hopelessly divided on domestic issues (Politics, 11th August, 2017). The patronising idea that the people don`t mind their leader sucking up embarrassingly to Trump, Erdogan and dictatorial leaders in the Middle East is, quite frankly, insulting; Bush will be writing next that the public think it perfectly acceptable for the UK to sell weapons to the Saudis to be used in Yemen, adding to the misery of millions already suffering horrendously from the effects of famine and disease.
   If Britain`s right-wing-dominated media concentrated their efforts more on showing the crisis in Yemen rather than trying to embarrass Corbyn over Venezuela, more on May`s failure to urge a more conciliatory and diplomatic approach from America over North Korea than comparing Labour`s nationalisation policies on railways and energy to Maduro`s economic troubles, political commentators like Bush would soon realise their mistake. 
 In this age of sabre-rattling politicians and dictatorial autocrats, leaders who stand by their principles and urge caution, and an end to belligerent rhetoric, stand out a mile. Thank goodness the British public has begun to realise Labour has one.

Rees-Mogg for Tory leader (i letter)

According to Katy Balls, Jacob Rees-Mogg has "shown that traditional conservative values - yes to fox-hunting, no to gay marriage - can have a place in modern times" (Where Moggmentum goes next, 17/08/17). There must have been a "typo", with the capital letters and speech marks omitted! The Chaplin movie, made in 1936, certainly appeared at a time when such "values" might have had "a place", but there certainly would not be one on an election-winning Tory manifesto in the 21st century.
Mind you, if Tories want to choose Rees-Mogg as their leader, that`s fine with me. The sooner we have a Labour government, the better!

 

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Full Guardian letter on schools

I was pleased to see a contemporary of Bowie, Howard Scholey, defending their old school, in the wake of Hanif Kureishi`s attack (Letters, 15/08/17). I taught for over thirty years in a comprehensive school in a deprived area, and whilst some pupils probably thought of it as such, it never deserved to be classed as a "shithole"; to be fair, some pupils would never have had the chance to witness what went on in the examination classes, or see the delight and relief on results` day. There were certainly numerous unruly pupils and many lessons disrupted, even a small number of "hopeless" teachers, but, like in Bromley I suspect, most were hardworking, not just "okay", and many colleagues were "inspirational".
 Hundreds of pupils did "progress to a university education", about a dozen to Oxbridge, so whilst many will doubtless still have unhappy memories of their school years, hopefully many more will not.
   Schools tend to get labelled, with local press and gossip not helping, resulting in the "label" being difficult to change. Had the school I taught in, for instance, not had such a reputation, many hundreds more parents would have enrolled their children there, and more students would have stayed on for A levels, improving the results and educational experience even further. 

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Independent letter on May`s holiday

A prime minister who goes back to work “almost four weeks after she began her summer break” does not deserve to be in office, taking the people she is meant to govern for what clearly is a ride.
Even worse, with so many crises developing both in this country and in the world in general, it becomes almost criminal for a democratically-elected leader to absent herself at such a time, and it now behoves parliament to pass legislation prohibiting such glaring unprofessionalism ever happening again.
Work is urgently needed to clarify the Brexit situation, caution is needed from the UK`s apparent “closest ally”, words of leadership are essential to deal with prison and midwifery problems, and policies need to be formulated on caring and health, education funding and so many other issues.
It matters not a jot that she is “a dead man walking”, or whether she has been told to stay away by party bigwigs. May is the Prime Minister and needs to do her job, or be replaced immediately.  

Sunday 13 August 2017

Observer letter on Compassionate Conservatism

What Will Tanner doesn`t appear to realise is that, with the prospect of another election hanging "Damoclean-like over the Conservative party", it`s not only the "message which needs to change" (To win again, the Tories must become radical champions of fairness, 06.08.17). It cannot be only pro-Remain Tory voters who view the present group of leaders with distrust, especially as they display behaviour which not only has clearly far more to do with personal ambition than the electoral prospects of the party, but which contrasts sharply with the principled stance adopted by their Labour rival. 
     As for the Tories becoming "radical champions of fairness", there is more chance of Shergar being found alive and well! History shows that the Conservative party is based on preserving the wealth, property and benefits enjoyed by the wealthy, who in return become party donors. Businesses have their regulations reduced by Conservative governments so that they can make more profits, and in return, help to fund the party. "Fairness" per se has never been a Tory objective. Leaders like Cameron and May might well espouse ideas like the need to act on "relative poverty" and help the "just about managing", but the rhetoric found reality with austerity measures aimed at the least fortunate, and "burning injustices" being ignored.

   Does Tanner really expect the Tories to tackle "corporate excess", regulate greedy landlords, and increase tax "on unproductive parts of the economy, such as property", when so many Tory MPs, supporters and donors would be targeted? If there is such a thing as the ultimate oxymoron, it has to be "compassionate Conservatism"!

Saturday 12 August 2017

2 Independent letters: Venezuela and Cable

How refreshing to read something sensible at last about Corbyn's reaction to the recent crisis in Venezuela, by Mary Dejevsky. Of course he was being set up by the right to "divert attention from the two main parties divisions over Brexit", and no matter what his response was, the Labour leader would be criticised.
What makes this so typical of the right's behaviour in politics currently is that little or no demands are made of Theresa May to denounce the atrocities committed every day by her allies in the Middle East or for her to pressurise the Saudis into stopping the bombing of Yemen.
Venezuela has, as Dejevsky says, provided the UK media "with a stick to beat Corbyn with", but the many opportunities offered by May's flirting with the likes of Trump and Erdogan are ignored.Sasha Simic's letter rightly stated that the media should be working to insist May tone down Trump's bellicose outbursts, but as she doesn't even keep her own Foreign Secretary sufficiently under control, there is no chance of her being a force for peace anywhere.

Sir Vince Cable’s desperation to win back lost Lib Dem voters has hit a new low. Claiming that the older Brexit voters with “views coloured by a nostalgia for an imperial past” have “shafted” the young really does take the biscuit, seeing as it was he and his Lib Dem associates who agreed to support the Tories’ austerity policies, which ruined the future for so many young people. 
Not only did their complicity bring about all the cuts and real wage decreases, it harmed the education of so many by slashing state school funding and ending the important Education Maintenance Grant, and, of course, is the reason for graduates leaving university with £50,000 debt.
The good news is that young people, as revealed by the last election, are more interested in politics than they have been for forty years or so, and most certainly will have “sussed” out Cable, his motives and his hypocrisy.

Morning Star article on Manipulation of History

The day after possibly the worst day in British military history, July 1st, 1916, the News of the World reported that the "day went well". 20,000 British soldiers had been mown down in the first hour of the Battle of the Somme. As Tuesday`s editorial mentioned, it was the wartime Prime minister, Lloyd George, who insisted the people at home "can`t know" the awful truth (Morning Star, 01/08/17). The trouble is the British people have not only been fed lies about events during wars, they have not even been told the whole truth about the country being at war in the first place. A list of British military engagements in the same editorial lacked completeness, with Vietnam and Oman notable absentees!
     An argument can be made for remembering the courage and bravery of soldiers, as happened recently with the men from both sides who fought at Passchendaele 100 years ago, but there is a danger that, if wars are only remembered for bravery, little will be learned. People need to be reminded of the politicians` mistakes which caused the wars, the nationalism which was glorified  through education, and which was embraced by the politicians, the atrocities which all sides committed, the appalling weapons and tactics of mass destruction which were used, and the misinformation which is always fed to the public to justify all wars. How many British people have ever been told, or have even heard of, the fact that poisonous gas, or to use its modern description, chemical weapons, were used against the Germans in the First World War? Indeed, wasn`t it a certain Winston Churchill who insisted on keeping these weapons for further use in the Middle East? Commemorations, like films, often perpetuate myths, rather than destroy them!
    The film to see this summer, apparently, is "Dunkirk", but even this focuses on bravery, fellowship and courage rather than historical accuracy. Nigel Farage has endorsed it, for goodness sake, for all "youngsters" to watch! The film ignores, for example, the fact that Britain had the backing of a global empire, and was never standing "alone", and omits any acknowledgement of the roles both of the Royal Indian Army Services Corps, who were on the beach and moving supplies, and the sailors from SE Asia and India who were on the British merchant vessels. French colonial troops at Dunkirk were conspicuous only by their absence, and apart from one crowd scene, white faces predominate. How is this country ever going to come to terms with the truth of its past if its major blockbusting films insist on historical inaccuracy?
     Books which do trim away some of the layers of mythology which permeate our history are available, however, for summer reading, and  people who read them cannot fail but realise how the distorted and manipulated version of our past plays far too an important role in today`s society. Britain`s "burning the historical evidence", recounted in Ian Cobain`s book, "The History Thieves: Secrets, Lies and the Shaping of a Modern Nation", was done for the same reason Special Operations Executive records on its "incompetence" over failing to protect its agents in France during WWII, "disappeared in a fire", as told in "Last Hope Island: Britain, Occcupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War", by Lynne Olson.      

      The conspiracy to indoctrinate British people that this country has a glorious past, to be remembered with "fondness and respect", and superior to all others, is shameful, and still continues, but another book, "The Fear and the Freedom: How the Second World War Changed Us", by Keith Lowe, sets out to dispel a number of enduring myths. Using the experiences of those who lived through the conflict, Lowe refutes the idea that, whilst all Nazis were evil, the allies` moral purity won the day. Similarly, the belief, as most propaganda tells us, that it was essentially a European war is dispelled, with very effective evidence from, in particular, Sam King, a Jamaica-born RAF veteran.
     Let`s hope not only that the books become best-sellers, but that they start a trend for accurate history-telling.
      The UK`s so-called  "glorious past" actually refers to a time when the country`s wealth was created by the slave trade, piracy and looting, whilst native populations existed in a state of servitude, with atrocities and extreme acts of barbarity committed by British troops ensuring little or no resistance. Isolation was never a reality nor "splendid"! If ever we are to accept the veracity of our past, and if Germany can, it should be possible here, three changes have to be made:
 journalists and writers generally, must stop referring to the past in such terms as "Britain`s imperial glories", and her "buccaneering spirit", as they engender unhelpful images, and can contribute to ridiculous ideas about racial superiority;
 the vast archive of over 1.2 million files, which governments keep hidden from the prying eyes of historians at Hanslope Park must be handed over to the National Archives at Kew;
 the department of education has to insist on the teaching of accuracy whenever British history is delivered, with less reliance on so-called "facts", and more on analysis and evaluation of evidence, so that the students` use of "lacking completeness" can be highly rewarded. 
   Until all established beliefs about Britain`s past are thrown into question and the truth revealed and accepted, there is little chance of reducing the bigotry which permeates our society.
 

New Statesman letter on BBC`s gender gap

Helen Lewis rightly stated that the BBC`s justification for its "unequal" and unfair pay policy, that it "has to compete in the market", doesn`t "stand up to scrutiny", but she fails to tell us what the real reasons are (Out of the Ordinary, 28th July, 2017). Profligacy with the licence payers` money is one, but clearly idiocy is another: how can anyone believe, for example, that Match of the Day`s viewers would not watch the football highlights programme, if Lineker and Shearer were not on? Also, "outright sexism" is not a new phenomenon at the BBC, which far too frequently resembles a boy`s club for the privileged, rather than a public sector organisation, immune to parliament`s laws. Another cause is the presenters` greed; if they are not happy earning ten times the national average, a figure which is highly inflated because of the obscenely high earnings of people like themselves, they should be told to leave. 
       The most obvious ways to reduce the gender pay gap, not just that of the corporation, but of all businesses, are either for an earnings` cap to be set at £250,000, or for income tax to be 100% above that level. Politicians tell us how keen they are to reduce unfairness and inequality, so isn`t it time they put their legislation where their mouths are?

Guardian Review letter on Middle East

The excellent review of Jared Rubin`s book, "Rulers, Religion and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not", states that such "economic complexity" is explained with "clarity and concision" (Review, 05/08/17). Strange, then, that there appears to be no mention of the roles played by British and French governments in the area since World War One. Support, overt or otherwise, for autocratic rulers in the region, encouraging their accumulation of obscene wealth, as long as their oil flowed westwards, whilst the people they rule live in poverty, has to be regarded as an important a factor as the removal of "religion out of politics" in the west.

Tuesday 8 August 2017

Guardian letter on need for dignitaries to speak out

Rather predictably, following Sir James Munby`s "blood on our hands" outburst, the NHS  "identified a bed" for the suicidal seventeen year old, (Bed found for suicidal girl after judge`s fury, 05/08/17) leaving him to claim, probably correctly, that NHS England would not have acted "as effectively or speedily" without his "outspoken warnings" (Judge`s plea as suicidal teenager is found refuge, 08/08/17). With new  crises being highlighted almost daily, the latest being the closure  of maternity wards, and pregnant women being "pushed from pillar to post", Munby`s example should be followed (Maternity wards closed 400 times as shortage of beds and staff grows, 08/08/17). At a time when the "austerity chickens" are coming home to roost, and Labour protests are not always getting the media attention they deserve, he cannot be the only dignitary to be appalled by the current situation; is it not incumbent upon all judges, archbishops, lords, and even some "celebrities" to make their voices heard. If the "brand" is indeed to be "reinvented", royals also could be doing more than "championing mental-health charities" (The royals, a brand reinvented by the millennial generation, 05/08/17).
    It is not only our MPs who should be feeling embarrassed by the huge inequality and unfairness which has been allowed to pervade society in the fifth richest country in the world!

Time to end the manipulation of our history

The day after possibly the worst day in British military history, July 1st, 1916, the News of the World reported that the "day went well". 20,000 British soldiers had been mown down in the first hour of the Battle of the Somme. As Tuesday`s editorial mentioned, it was the wartime Prime minister, Lloyd George, who insisted the people at home "can`t know" the awful truth (Morning Star, 01/08/17). The trouble is the British people have not only been fed lies about events during wars, they have not even been told the whole truth about the country being at war in the first place. A list of British military engagements in the same editorial lacked completeness, with Vietnam and Oman notable absentees!
     An argument can be made for remembering the courage and bravery of soldiers, as happened recently with the men from both sides who fought at Passchendaele 100 years ago, but there is a danger that, if wars are only remembered for bravery, little will be learned. People need to be reminded of the politicians` mistakes which caused the wars, the nationalism which was glorified  through education, and which was embraced by the politicians, the atrocities which all sides committed, the appalling weapons and tactics of mass destruction which were used, and the misinformation which is always fed to the public to justify all wars. How many British people have ever been told, or have even heard of, the fact that poisonous gas, or to use its modern description, chemical weapons, were used against the Germans in the First World War? Indeed, wasn`t it a certain Winston Churchill who insisted on keeping these weapons for further use in the Middle East? Commemorations, like films, often perpetuate myths, rather than destroy them!
    The film to see this summer, apparently, is "Dunkirk", but even this focuses on bravery, fellowship and courage rather than historical accuracy. Nigel Farage has endorsed it, for goodness sake, for all "youngsters" to watch! The film ignores, for example, the fact that Britain had the backing of a global empire, and was never standing "alone", and omits any acknowledgement of the roles both of the Royal Indian Army Services Corps, who were on the beach and moving supplies, and the sailors from SE Asia and India who were on the British merchant vessels. French colonial troops at Dunkirk were conspicuous only by their absence, and apart from one crowd scene, white faces predominate. How is this country ever going to come to terms with the truth of its past if its major blockbusting films insist on historical inaccuracy?
     Books which do trim away some of the layers of mythology which permeate our history are available, however, for summer reading, and  people who read them cannot fail but realise how the distorted and manipulated version of our past plays far too an important role in today`s society. Britain`s "burning the historical evidence", recounted in Ian Cobain`s book, "The History Thieves: Secrets, Lies and the Shaping of a Modern Nation", was done for the same reason Special Operations Executive records on its "incompetence" over failing to protect its agents in France during WWII, "disappeared in a fire", as told in "Last Hope Island: Britain, Occcupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War", by Lynne Olson.      

      The conspiracy to indoctrinate British people that this country has a glorious past, to be remembered with "fondness and respect", and superior to all others, is shameful, and still continues, but another book, "The Fear and the Freedom: How the Second World War Changed Us", by Keith Lowe, sets out to dispel a number of enduring myths. Using the experiences of those who lived through the conflict, Lowe refutes the idea that, whilst all Nazis were evil, the allies` moral purity won the day. Similarly, the belief, as most propaganda tells us, that it was essentially a European war is dispelled, with very effective evidence from, in particular, Sam King, a Jamaica-born RAF veteran.
     Let`s hope not only that the books become best-sellers, but that they start a trend for accurate history-telling.
      The UK`s so-called  "glorious past" actually refers to a time when the country`s wealth was created by the slave trade, piracy and looting, whilst native populations existed in a state of servitude, with atrocities and extreme acts of barbarity committed by British troops ensuring little or no resistance. Isolation was never a reality nor "splendid"! If ever we are to accept the veracity of our past, and if Germany can, it should be possible here, three changes have to be made:
 journalists and writers generally, must stop referring to the past in such terms as "Britain`s imperial glories", and her "buccaneering spirit", as they engender unhelpful images, and can contribute to ridiculous ideas about racial superiority;
 the vast archive of over 1.2 million files, which governments keep hidden from the prying eyes of historians at Hanslope Park must be handed over to the National Archives at Kew;
 the department of education has to insist on the teaching of accuracy whenever British history is delivered, with less reliance on so-called "facts", and more on analysis and evaluation of evidence, so that the students` use of "lacking completeness" can be highly rewarded. 
   Until all established beliefs about Britain`s past are thrown into question and the truth revealed and accepted, there is little chance of reducing the bigotry which permeates our society.
 

Monday 7 August 2017

Cable`s hypocrisy

Sir Vince Cable`s desperation to win back lost Lib Dem voters has hit a new low (Brexit: Older generation with nostalgia for Empire has "shafted" Britain`s youth, says Vince Cable, 06/08/17). Claiming that the older Brexit voters with "views coloured by a nostalgia for an imperial past" have "shafted" the young really does take the biscuit, seeing as it was he and his Lib Dem associates who agreed to support the Tories` austerity policies, which ruined the future for so many young people. Not only did their complicity bring about all the cuts and real wage decreases, it harmed the education of so many by slashing state school funding and ending the important Education Maintenance Grant, and, of course, is the reason for graduates leaving university with £50,000 debt.
   The good news is that young people, as revealed by the last election, are more interested in politics than they have been for forty years or so, and most
certainly will have "sussed" out Cable, his motives, and his hypocrisy.

 

Sunday 6 August 2017

Jagger`s "concern"!

It`s little wonder that Mick Jagger is so "politically" pessimistic about this country`s future. He clearly knows how easy it is for the rich to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, and so deny the Treasury billions of pounds, causing what he calls "a lot of problems". Setting up camp in France to avoid tax in the early 1970s was followed by a tax avoidance scheme whereby the Stones` income was directed to the Netherlands. This apparently played a key role in their financial recovery, having the "satisfaction of paying £4m tax on earnings of £240m".
    How would the country manage at all without the loyalty shown by its celebrities who, almost all it seems, either pay for avoidance schemes, live abroad in low tax areas like Monaco, or set themselves up as companies so that the lower corporation tax is paid? Yes Mick, lots of us share your "sense of vulnerability of where we are as a country", which is why we won`t have to wait until next year until "these two tracks....mean nothing"!

Observer letter on Rawnsley`s bias

Andrew Rawnsley says that "everyone has lessons to learn from the general election", but conveniently has learned nothing himself about allowing his bias to dominate his writing (The Tzu Rule and other iron laws that always apply - until they don`t, 30.07.17). He couldn`t resist, for example, mentioning the "amnesia" that exists "about the number of howlers" committed by Labour during the campaign, even citing one, but listed none of the Tory "car crashes" caused by Gove`s forgetfulness over immigration, Hammond`s confusion over the funding of HS2, the costing of free breakfasts in primary schools, Fallon`s frequent errors, and, of course, Johnson`s utterings about anything.
  Rawnsley does admit Corbyn was a "more effective performer" than anticipated, 
and rightly says Labour must not be too complacent before the next election. He does, however, omit to mention that the expected "fiery scrutiny" the next manifesto will face can be countered by the addition to already popular fiscal policies of a financial transaction tax The fairness of making those earning over three times the national average pay more tax will have the electoral bonus of increasing the tax bill of financial institutions.
  Also omitted is the political advantage Labour will reap by listing the number of U-turns made to the Conservatives` manifesto since the election, the still hidden details of profligacy regarding HS2 and Crossrail 2 at the expense of the rest of the country, and the truth of the mythological Northern Powerhouse. 
   Rawnsley`s university History course will surely have involved the analysis of primary sources, but the detection of bias still seems to elude him!

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Unpublished i letter on Birrell`s anti-Corbyn rant

What Ian Birrell apparently does not understand is that the millions of us whom he thinks are being "conned" by Jeremy Corbyn actually do not agree with the view that we currently have a "liberal economic concensus that has dominated our nation with such success for decades" (It`s amazing but true - Hammond deserves praise, 31/07/17). Does this "success" include the thousands of food banks in the country, the millions working on zero-hour contracts with little hope of prosperity, and the millions more living in over-priced rental accommodation with no prospects for improvement, those who have seen their "real wages" diminish, graduates with debts of £40,000 plus and aspirations blocked by ever decreasing social mobility, the victims of an unnecessary and callous austerity programme, schools and hospitals facing the future with reduced funding, and so on?
   Birrell`s unjustified scaremongering clearly shows he needs to get out more!

 

A history in need of facts

Ian Sinclair was right to take issue with the traditional depiction of events like Dunkirk which "inflates the British role and omits the unsavoury detail" (Morning Star, 28/07/17). Sadly, such management of the facts is typical of the way our history has been manipulated, in ways which glorify the role of British soldiers in war, exaggerate the enemies` atrocities, ignore events which portray the British far from the superior race many politicians like to imagine us to be, and in our domestic past, blame trade unions for the failure of business to increase productivity.
British people, instead of being allowed to know the truth of our country`s history, are refused even to see anything which might challenge the mythology of our"glorious past", and are fed crumbs of so-called secret history which have been denied to us for thirty or so years. Some "secrets" were released recently: a letter written in 1991 by the prime minister John Major to Mrs Thatcher about her poll tax, papers left by the British military governor of Spandau which advocated Hess`s release, and other innocuous Foreign office and Downing Street papers, including even the ones detailing how Churchill apparently tried to cover up the Duke of Windsor`s Nazi links, all illustrate the contempt in which governments held the British people.
  A 21st century government should not be afraid to share "secrets" with the electorate, which, let`s face it, have been treated like mugs for far too long. It`s time to repeal all legislation allowing state documents, unless their release would threaten our security, to be held in secret. Not only are we all adult enough to be told officially things about the royal family which are well known anyway, or that our revered war leader held racist views, or facts about Major fearing Thatcher`s wrath, we also deserve to know the truth about our history which is hidden from historians in the 1.2 million files locked away at Hanslope Park.

   Politicians all stress the importance of transparency, but few, if any, advocate  its use in transforming the way out history is viewed and taught. That is shameful, as almost certainly the more the truth is known, the more chance there is of  reducing bigotry and partisanship.