No such thing as Society

One day to go and emotions are running high. I do hope Cro makes it through without having a seizure. It's too late for Diane Abbott.

Here in middle-class Bath, it's a two-horse race between Conservative and what's left of the Lib Dems. Labour doesn't stand a chance. I suppose in the light of recent upsets I shouldn't say that.

I think that the biggest reason for all the mess everyone is in right now is that there has been a distinct lack of strategy in pretty much every plan of action for the last 50 years.

There was no strategy in place for the unlikely outcome that Britain voted itself out of the European Union.

There was no strategy in place for when things went horribly wrong after the interventions in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and even Vietnam.

The only strategies that have stood any chance of working out as predicted have been short-term, privately financed, economic ones. This is why we are being so nice to Saudi Arabia. 'We' sell them the bombs which they drop on the heads of Yemeni civilians. They drop bombs on the heads of Yemenis because we have politely asked them if they could, perhaps, do just a little bit more to stem the flow of radical nut-cases emanating from their country. It is - to them - a bloody good excuse. Do you remember when they were so powerful that they upped the price of oil just to teach us a lesson for showing 'The Death of a Princess' on TV?

The economic crash of about 9 years ago was predicted about 20 years before that, and the people who made the accurate prediction kept it as quiet as possible for as long as possible, for the sake of their own personal finances. They knew it was going to happen, because it was them who made it possible.

In our system of adversarial politics, the government changes at least every four years, so there is no real incentive to make plans that extend any further than that. Strength and stability my arse.

The Labour Party (new, improved) only got in last time because Tony Blair spent about three months touring the world and making deals with unsavoury global business people - before he was even voted in. "Can I count on your support?" "What's it worth?"

Where is the humanity in all of this?