JO SWINSON - BEWARE THE CON-DEM KINDERGARTEN THATCHER

• Pro-Austerity
• Anti-Environment
• Pro-Increasing Tution fees
• Anti-Sick & Disabled benefits
• Pro-Zero Hour contracts

Her voting record, Corbyn - The difference between truth & her claims is at least this big!

As someone who has always supported the call for a more even gender mix in politics - both local and international - I was pleased to see the Liberal-Democrats choosing a woman for their new leader. OK, I already guessed that Jo Swinson had nothing like the ability of a Vince Cable or a Paddy Ashdown but still...

You see, personally I would like to see the Labour Party have a female Deputy Leader -  two Deputy Leaders in fact being groomed under Jeremy Corbyn as an eventual successor. One man, one woman - so long as neither was called Tom Watson to my mind that would be ideal.

Yet I digress somewhat. I could never, ever vote for the Lib-Dems I need to make quite clear - even if faced with a so-called 'wasted vote'. Not after the way the poodle Clegg and his cohorts of flip-floppers happily became the enablers for David Cameron and the Tories Class War with the evil roll out of austerity targeting the weak and defenceless whilst giving tax breaks to their wealthy big business chums.

Nevertheless quickly growing heartliy sick of Swinson's screaching, aggressive posturing over the past few weeks; not to mention her clear adddiction to negative personality politics with the incessant, childish attacks on Jeremy Corbyn I have to confess that I was still shocked by the appalling truth revealed in Swinson's voting record once I looked in to it.

'I'll sc-weam and sc-weam and sc-weam until I get my way!'

My impression has been that Jo Swinson would like the public to somehow believe that she is some kind of caring, 'new kid on the political block' since winning the Lib-Dem leadership against an admittedly lackluster opponent. When you consider just the few facts that I have set out below however I would posit that you can probably see why: 

This isn't a caring, principled, capable Laura Pidcock or Caroline Lucas who somehow stumbled in to the wrong party - this is an uncaring Kindergarten Thatcher. And just a cursory look at the way she voted in brown-nosing to the Tory-led coalition spells out why her Lib 'Con' Dem promises should be treated with the contempt they deserve.

Only last week if you happened to reside in the West Country as I do currently you would have realised just what blatant liars the Lib 'Con' Dems are by the latest propaganda newsletter pushed through your door. According to this, under another big mugshot of our political Violet Elizabeth Bott, the Lib-Dems are now apparently "winning all over the country!"

Really?

'Changed again' Chuka - Soon to be chucked out of Westminster?'

Then you have Mr Pro-Tory-Austerity-Made-Flesh Chuka '3 Parties' Umunna claiming the Lib-Dems may well win 200 seats. Just where do these political odd-bods get this guff? Will they really say absolutely anything to try and con (dem) a vote?

The real Jo Swinson...

Laughing at the gullible? Just look at Swinson's votes

Far from having any great plan to re-build and regenerate Britain this is how our Kindergarten Thatcher really votes given a sniff of power. And remember this, as Gary Lineker would say, is 'only the highlights'. Will Swinson really look after the sick, the poor, the hard-grafting low earners, the young, the environment? I appreciate that some, even all of this will not be news to all. But if, like me, you somehow missed it until something niggled you to look at sites such as They Work For You et all... Make up your own mind.

Austerity:

Between 2012-14 as far as I can see from her masses of pro-Tory votes Swinson happily voted with Cameron's gang in support of the horribly unfair 'Bedroom' tax. Meanwhile, a quick glance at Tory Nose-Picker Iain Duncan Smith's favourite subject, cutting welfare payments for the ill and disabled, shows 'caring' Jo Swinson regularly voted for this too (2012-15). 

Back in 2011 - unless I really am mixing her up with another person (Just William's Violet Elizabeth Bott again, perhaps?) - Swinson also voted to undermine funding for over-stretched local councils. Councils now having to cut even basic essential local services like fire stations/engines. This is happening right where I live.

Young People/Education:

In 2010 our Kindergarten Thatcher voted in favour of raising tution fees for students to £9000! Compare that to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour plans to ensure all young people get the chance to shine! Jo Swinson also voted to scrap the so-called Education Maintenance Allowance for young people aged 16-19 in Further Education. You can still apply in Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales as I understand it. But England - gone! Well done caring Jo!

Never mind kids - Auntie Jo will look after your future! (Not)

Climate Change & the Environment:

Back in 2012 Swinson voted against forcing the so-called UK Green Investment Bank  having to support a target for reducing carbon emissions. Similarly, a year later she again voted against introducing a cap on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. 

Our Kindergarten Thatcher even voted against introducing emission standards on current fossil fuel power stations. Finally - and I am sure there is a whole lot more had I only the time to dig some more - new Lib 'Con' Dem leader Jo Swinson voted against (again and again) imposing much needed regulation on Fracking!

The evidence against Hydraulic Fracturing is daming. But Jo Swinson doesn't give a Frack!

When you further consider that Swinson has also talked up the proliferation of the Zero Hour contracts currently making so many hard-working lives a misery of uncertainty; and is in favour of reducing Corporation Tax that the new Lib-Dem leader really is just another grubby little Tory wolf in sheep's clothing is surely impossible to ignore. Indeed, suddenly all the otherwise inexplicable, mealy-mouthed attacks on Jeremy Corbyn makes complete sense.

If she was half the leader that she pretends to be Jo Swinson would be putting the good of the country first right now. In essence standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the other opposition parties at Westminister to save the UK from crashing out of Europe with a 'no deal' Brexit. This by installing Corbyn has a time-limited 'caretaker' Prime Minister  prior to a General Election. 

Instead Swinson has, of course, been pontificating that the Leader of the Opposition 'doesn't have the numbers'. Well, it's 11.59 on the Brexit clock in case our Kindergarten Thatcher hasn't noticed. 

So isn't it about time that any Lib-Dem member who genuinely cares about the country's future popped a bit of sticky tape of the ever-open 'Bott' gob for a moment and pointed out that Corbyn - and HOPE - just might - have the numbers if only she and her own little motley crew of  just 17 stopped playing politics and thought about where a 'No deal' Brexit will take us?

Sadly, somehow I think that Jo Swinson's voting record tells us that she will instead just 'Sc-weam! And Sc-weam! And Sc-weam!' until it is all too late and a generation, maybe two, are condemned to an even lower standard of living that really could have been avoided.

No wonder Swinson was so keen to have that statue of Thatcher built...

But Keep the Faith - If Jo gets her way I think we are likely going to need it! 

ANARCHY IN THE UK - TIME FOR THE PEOPLE TO TAKE THE TINPOT TORY DICTATOR DOWN?

What do you mean Mussolini ended uo something like this?

"The people have the power to redeem the work of fools..."

Patti Smith, Poet & Rock Icon

WHEN DOES THE GOVERNMENT'S BETRAYAL OF DEMOCRACY JUSTIFY TAKING TO THE STREETS TO TEAR IT DOWN?

Westminster has fallen victim to a coup.

Politicians really should have seen it coming. We all should have seen it coming. But we didn't. A sizable number of us understood full well about the mechanism - the anachronism - known as prorogation. Or we thought we did. I must acknowledge that I was one of them. So why did it happen and what, if anything, can the British people do about it now at 11.59 Brexit time?

The 'why' aspect is pretty simple to explain - not that it offers any kind of excuse for the politicians at Westminster in particular.

The fact is that lazy, incompetent, lying, cheating, racist, apparently coke-snorting, elitist, far-right, pretend-Churchill clown that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson undoubtedly is I really don't think any of us politicos really, deep-down imagined that beyond the bluster Johnson would risk sending the United Kingdom crashing in to the Second division.

And maybe even lower?

A very stupid boy actually...

Doing so just to, by hook-or-by-crook, achieve the mad Little England dream of the pinstripes and brogues army of Captain Mainwarings, Colonel Blimps, Reece-Moggs and other assorted Johnny Foreigner haters who yearn for the mythical days of a Golden Empire.

A mad dream Johnson also simply must know can, and will without fast and drastic action, end in disaster which will continue for years - decades to come. And one to boot from which only the super-wealthy like him and so many of his motley band of nanny-loving loons will emerge relatively financially unscathed.

Like the cautionary legend of Nero what all in Britain now have to wake up to as the first flames begin to smoulder and Emperor BoJo de Pfeffel gets out his fiddle is the fact that the madman now just has to be stopped and the only way to achieve this may have to be drastic - a rebellion in fact the like of which we have not seen since the Poll Tax Uprising took down the Wicked Witch of the West. 

"Trust me - I have a very exciting agenda..."

In truth it may have to be a whole lot more extreme?

For what are the genuine political or judicial remedies on offer when the people are simply being ignored? Indeed, are there actually any?

Option 1: No-Confidence Vote leading to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as temporary Prime Minister & General Election

As an advocate of 21st Century Socialism, that I believe this would be the best outcome of all will come as no surprise. It would also be the easiest way out of the mess whether one supports the Corbyn project or not. It would by definition be a temporary, time-limited solution ultimately ending with a General Election that would, I challenge anyone to say otherwise, offer the best opportunity to salve the Brexit wounds no matter what was the outcome.

Not that I am suggesting even this, a new government and a new vote, will mend the division David Cameron set in motion before scuttling off to the million-dollar after dinner speakers circuit and some serious sunbathing.

Jeremy Corbyn - the PM Britain needs - receives a raptuous welcome at Glastonbury

Yet the sad thing is that it won't happen because even those Tories who know Johnson is in the throes of destroying Britain for a generation or more; and their party possibly for ever, are so hardwired in to doing anything but that which might risk the first truly Leftist government since that of Atlee after the war - and the first genuine alternative to neo-liberal greed and forced austerity for the poor - would rather see Britain go down in flames.

It is the sort of scorched earth; condemn everything and everyone to oblivion if we can't have our way mentality that Hitler and the Third Reich pursued as the tanks rolled in to the Fatherland. But that, I am afraid, is bottom-line Conservatism for you.

Throw in the pathetic Lib-Dems of non-entities such as new 'leader' Jo Swinson and Chuka '3 parties' Umunna who will all react in exactly the same 'anyone but Corbyn' way and even then the chances are remote to say the least. Just remember Clegg who happily supported a cruel austerity just for a minor lick on the lollypop of power: leopards really don't change their spots!

There should be greater co-operation with the Greens

Yes, there is small hope with the Greens - who we of the Left really should be encouraging closer co-operation with in my opinion. Maybe the SNP too - even if it is partly in the interest of their wider agenda. But trust me - best way out of the malais as it is by  far Option 1 just ain't happening!

If there is to be a General Election those Socialists who believe in a world for the many not the few have got to find a way to force it ourselves. 

Option 2: Bringing Theresa May's Brexit deal back from the dead

Least we forget in the prorogue turmoil this was rejected not once, not twice but three times! It also brought about the downfall of one of the worst Prime Ministers in Britsh history - it was that bad. Could any self-respecting politician who had voted it down for the festering cowpat May's proposals were really just hold their noses and vote for it now; just because they might view it the 'least worst' option? 

The Brexit deal of the dancing robot should stay in the dustbin where it belongs

I think not. And I desperately hope not. 

Option 3: Overturn Prorogation through the courts

Some people I have spoken to over the past couple of days really think there is a chance of salvation here. I hope that they are right but unfortunately I don't believe it myself for a minute. And the reason that it won't happen in my view is quite simple: Johnson has shamelessly but quite brilliantly dragged the Queen in to the mix. 

As I see it unless the Queen can be shown to have been legally misled over the prorogation - which I would wager that she has not - then whatever some initial ritual posturing for appearances sake it just won't be happening either. 

Her Majesty indicates that we need a political swing to the Left

For I just do not believe that the Judiciary would go up against 'its' Monarch in a million years.

So what are the alternatives - Follow the lead of the gilet jaune?

Anyone who is old enough to remember the demonstrations, mass public disorder and downright rioting that arose back in 1990 when, drunk on a decade of power, Margaret Thatcher deluded herself that she had become Untouchable, knows that even in a politically restrained country like Britain, mass rebellion and taking 'people power' to the streets really can work.

Indeed, having only a short time ago lived in France we only have to reflect upon the so-called gilet jaune phenomena to see that such mobilisation - if not allowed to become hijacked and slide in to wanton destruction for the sake of it - can shock the Untouchables in to thinking again. Has Britain now reached the time for such action, I ask?

In times past both Zapata and Che were attributed with the famous saying: "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees!" Why do I highlight this? Simply because one thing is quite clear to me after the events of this week. 

"People liberate themselves..."

If Boris Johnson's abuse of Office as a petit sawdust Caesar mandated by less than 3/4 of the tiny Tory Little England party membership - and just 0.13% of the UK population - is left to roll on down the Highway to Hell of one thing alone we can be quite certain. By the time Halloween and Brexit comes around democracy and any chance of a quick-fire salvation will be crawling down the burning streets on its hands and knees.

So I ask readers the question: gilets jaunes, mes ami?

Or given the true 21st Century Socialist revolution that we need perhaps the offer of bonnets rouges is more in line? 

The Bonnets Rouges - all the best revolutions are Red!

Thanks to Boris the need to storm our very own Bastille could be very near at hand...

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