Peaky Blinders, fascism, broadband and the common good ******



I am currently watching the fifth series of Peaky Blinders in slow motion, the broadband service in shotleyfields is slow, we lie at the end of the line from an exchange four of five miles away and we are about a quarter of a mile from the road, so the signal, by the time that it reaches us is exhausted, so on iPlayer for every sentence spoken we get about 5 seconds of buffering before the reply.

It seems that the writers of Series 5 of this Brummy Gangland drama have put their finger on the current state of play in both society and politics.

So Sir Oswald Mosley is in cahoots with the Peaky Blinders and Thomas is about to abandon Socialism for Fascism?

However it plays out, apart from the Home Secretary's latest announcements with regard to Romany's and trespass, it seems that the Zeitgeist of the thirties is being re-enacted in the 20's and as Berthold Brecht warned in his play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui: The Bitch that Bore him is in heat again.

Always Fascism masquerades as populism. So we have the populism of Brexit played and replayed. Nigel Farage is granted a hearing by the BBC in the interests of fairness, after all he is the leader of a political party!

But as Brecht warned in his play the rise of Fascism is resistible and that resistance is both necessary and given the increasingly right wing rhetoric emerging from Europe and the USA urgent.

There has never been a time in history when the 'solutions' offered by Fascism have offered either peace or security to societies, rather there has  been conflict, racism and war.

We are constantly told that it is the older generation that are keen to achieve Brexit, 'Get it done' as our current Prime Minister says, again and again like a drum beat.

I am only old enough to remember the early days following the end of the second world war, I was born in 1945, but I do remember the end of rationing and I remember my parents speaking so positively about the bringing into existence of the National Health Service. 

Both my Grandfathers lived with the consequences of their being gassed in the first world war, one dying of cancer the other living with Bronchitis until he died aged 63.

It is for this reason that i continue to celebrate the birth and the continuation of the European Economic Community, not only as a 'Common Market' but as the underlying rationale has it, a community which has maintained peace between Nations since its founding.

It seems to me that  in the forthcoming General Election we are faced with some stark choices.

The politics of hope ......

The politics of despair .......

The politics of sheer stupidity .....

I always seek to be clear and respectful of the political views of others. As the saying goes 'some of my best friends' and indeed I have friends who voted Conservative and supported Mrs Thatcher.

We agreed to disagree our friendship was far more important.

I remember on one occasion arranging an appointment with my friend, who was also my GP. I waited in the surgery waiting room to be called and was gently chastised, you could have called to the house, I was told,, rather than spending your valuable time waiting in a queue. 

I explained that waiting in the queue was an important part of the mission of the Church I sought to serve and we agreed to disagree.

Looking today at the Labour Party manifesto I see much to applaud:

Investment and Security for the NHS, Homes, rent capping and an end to the scandal of homelessness in our society, income security for those working in public services, a commitment to tackling climate change, the return of fairness to taxation as a way of providing public services.

This manifesto is a gauntlet being thrown down to the claim that the market is the best way of delivering public services and achieving the public good.

As iPlayer stutters towards the conclusion of series 5 of the Peaky Blinders I can only think that Open Reach has failed to do what it says on the tin, it is not Open and it hasn't  Reached me or provided the broadband service that iNorthumbria claims we have and so I will certainly be voting for 'fast and free fibre-optic broadband for all'.

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