Count Binface and The Farce That Defines Us

A Comical Contender

Count Binface might seem comical or ridiculous to you, but in my view he is a send-up of the farce that sometimes defines British life and politics. That he had to give up the aristocratic title of Lord Buckethead for the more continental title of count was an unfortunate result of a humourless copyright dispute.

Count Binface courtesy of countbinface.com

A popular figure in significant elections, contesting against sitting prime ministers in their constituencies, standing in the London Mayoral elections, and more recently in the Makerfield by-election, the count has emerged as the only candidate who will stand against Nigel Farage in the Clacton by-election, a contest that hinges on Mr Farage first being appointed to the position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds.

Update for 10^th July 2026

Nigel Farage has since been appointed to the office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, an alternate position created for handling the departure of an MP from the House of Commons, so the by-election goes ahead.

Death, disqualification and expulsion are the only means by which a member’s seat may be vacated during the lifetime of a Parliament. [UK Parliament]

An Ancient Escape Route

That appointment is an ancient office, one that serves as a legal fiction to handle the departure of an MP from the House of Commons; under a resolution of 1624, it is illegal for an MP to resign or wilfully give up their seat. The appointment is approved by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and there is every likelihood that Mr Farage will not be permitted to resign until the parliamentary regulator on standards in office has reported its findings.

Nigel Farage announced on Tuesday his intention to resign and trigger a by-election in which he would run again, seeking to escape or forestall the parliamentary sanction he was likely to receive for failing to declare properly some of the various streams of finance and payments he has received from the year before he became an MP to the present day.

Dementors in Politics

While Nigel Farage purports to speak for the people of Clacton, he is, in effect, a dementor who feeds on human happiness and joy, leaving those he represents to relive their worst memories; Brexit is a case in point for the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

He is not alone in this cohort of depraved malevolence, for he attempts to re-enact tropes from the playbook of Donald Trump, no less a dementor of the worst kind. The Americans have offered a recent illustration of just how this dementor operates.

The FIFA Fiasco

With the FIFA World Cup hosted in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the president persuaded FIFA to rescind a red card given to the American star striker. This unfortunate development brought unnecessary focus and opprobrium upon everything representative of the United States, tarring FIFA with the deserved taint of corruption, while giving Belgium the impetus to trash the United States 4-1.

That intervention sucked the spirit, resolve, and ability out of the US Men's National Team, so that whatever wherewithal they might have had to make an appearance was served back to them as just deserts for choosing exception over acquiescence to the rules of sportsmanship, fairness, and good conduct in football.

A Serious Manifesto

Count Binface should not be dismissed as laughable, yet his manifesto has included punishments for the public use of speakerphones, the return of 99p Flake ice creams, the restoration of the BBC Ceefax service, a cap on the price of croissants, the linking of ministers' pay to nurses' salaries, the building of at least one affordable house, the nationalisation of Adele, and the moving of the hand dryer in the gents' toilet at the Crown and Treaty pub in Uxbridge to "a more sensible position". [The Tab: Everything to know about Count Binface, the ‘space warrior’ standing against Nigel Farage]

These are serious issues that have garnered votes from serious people, and the odds of Count Binface winning against Nigel Farage present the kind of likelihood that inspired the British public to vote for Boaty McBoatface as the name of a £200m polar research vessel.

The Dustbin of History

If Nigel Farage's political career is consigned to the dustbin of history in his defeat to Count Binface, after a lifetime of pretending to represent people he has deluded and exploited with half-truths, conspiracy theories, and simple solutions to complex problems, no better story could have been written of British politics since the bulb of lettuce outlasted Liz Truss's premiership.

In his quest to escape accountability, after intense scrutiny of his financial arrangements, his ignominious undoing would come in the farcical match-up with Count Binface. He could then return to his grift, never to appear on our screens again except as a pantomime character, a parody of hubris shipwrecked on utter humiliation. I endorse Count Binface.

A Google NotebookLM AI Podcast on this blog

Ashli Babbit, a needless death

What a shame for her

Ashli Babbit, 35, an Air Force veteran from San Diego, California was at the US Capitol yesterday as a staunch supporter of President Donald J. Trump having been fully persuaded of the unfounded claims of voter fraud determining his loss of the presidency.

Egged on by the president, she, unfortunately, found herself at the end of a bullet to the neck or the chest, as she climbed through a broken window as part of a hooligan mob invading the sanctity of the Congress, depending on the reports you read and soon she was dead and probably will not be remembered or celebrated for her needless martyrdom to a hopeless cause.

Silliness as patriotism

Some will have us believe that she was a patriot and there are many who fly the flag, stand for national anthems recite pledges of allegiance with gusto, who believe they are patriots or are more patriotic than those not so enthusiastically consumed of nationalism, jingoism, and belligerence.

The concept and meaning of patriotism has been corrupted, abused, and misappropriated to odious and nefarious ends. Many so-called patriots need to sit back down and have another in-depth civics lesson on the constitution, the rule of law, the separation of powers, the freedoms we all have in the kingdoms and republics in which we live and the responsibilities we have as citizens of our different domains.

Cut loose or perish

I am sorry that Ashli foolishly and needlessly lost her life in the pursuit of an alternative reality that had no evidential bearing of truth even in the broadest sense if there is an afterlife where an account is required of our deeds, anyone would hate to be in her shoes, it almost qualifies for a Darwin Awards citation. If you lose your life hitching your wagon to Donald J. Trump, you should be entered for that award and it is likely Herman Cain is celebrating his somewhere in the Great Beyond.

It is a salutary lesson, regardless of what you are asked to believe, take time to engage your head and do not be so closely hitched to anyone that you cannot cut loose when they are careering into a ditch.

For the Fredric Eshelman in each of us

Trust lost somewhere

Dearly beloved, on this Advent Sunday, let us spare a thought for Fredric Eshelman, 71, a businessman venture capitalist from North Carolina, for he misplaced his trust and we have gathered in charitable concern to seek where he may have lost it. [The Guardian: Trump supporter who gave $2.5m to fight election fraud wants money back]

When the chosen of God, Donald Trump became the not chosen of men by reason of that little issue of an election on the 3^rd of November. God’s chosen did and does still proclaim that the election was fraudulent. We can agree that it is a matter of opinion, but none has not been proven as fact.

Counting Counted

In any case, many that believed in the gospel that Donald Trump preaches and there are multitudes did rise to protest that the votes be counted and the votes not be counted that we were confused whether the count should count if the count does count or on no count should a count count especially in that concept of selections called a democracy.

Then came Fredric, pockets full of money and he counted out $2.5m to make the count not count for he who the count has determined will be the next president other than the chosen one. However, as every claim was tested in court, the judges declaimed sometimes with derision that the claims were baseless and fantasy. The lifelong penchant of running to the court to frustrate and weigh down was achieving record losses with the jokes writing themselves.

Unproven unwarranted

Seeing that no judge had the time for frivolities, the assemblage of electoral fraud sleuths sniffing around for evidence that could stand the test of scrutiny in court realised everything they had gathered in their quest was no better than horseshit and so deigned not to proceed to make a laughing stock of themselves in court.

This obviously irked Frederic and so he seeks to have his count of money returned in full and no one is listening to him. The money, do go, it was going and now it is gone, gone, gone. We the beloved, gathered today were astounded that going by the antecedents of the chosen one, anyone would have believed his fables enough to throw money after the veracity of the tales. I have backed horses before, but they are usually alive at the gate, it is another thing to back one that was long dead and buried.

Soon parted forever

At the age of 71, having made a fortune through pharmaceutical companies, it would appear that the age-old saying remains true, that no matter how rich you are and the skill with which you can make money and earn a fortune, “A fool and his money, are soon parted.” Alas! A venture capitalist just had a misadventure.

Let us bless Fredric Eshelman, yet, not shed a tear, for he was wise in his own conceit and to what a fool he seems to be to the world. Now, I am sure he has a tip for what you should invest in, listen up, you have nothing to lose, but just some pride, maybe some dignity and just do the honourable thing, cut your losses and walk away, even with your tail between your legs.

#GeneralElection2019 Resist The Third Martini

Principle for the people

Mr Jeremy Corbyn is a man of principle, it took a second failed general election attempt to prove conclusively that he is not a man of the people.

As I read on Twitter yesterday when the exit polls suggested Boris Johnson had successfully gambled and won the general election as the Labour Party was about to be handed its most catastrophic defeat in a century, I could not help but agree that “The problem with the government of the people, by the people, for the people, is the people.”

Yet, to blame the electorate for an electoral loss is to entirely miss the point of elections. Democracy and winning elections are the mastery of the art of persuasion. We have to admit, in spite of and despite the prevailing circumstances, Jeremy Corbyn has been unable to persuade the people of your agenda, no matter how noble, you have not successfully won their hearts, their minds and their votes to your side.

He didn’t help himself either

Now, I do understand that there is a perspective that the whole establishment and the mainstream media had demonised Jeremy Corbyn complete, and he for himself probably with his history and associations did not help matters that much. I for one have voted for the Labour Party since 1992 in all general elections including this, whilst I have given my vote recently to the Liberal Democrats in the local and European elections for the simple fact that the Labour Party had departed from the ground where general elections can be won.

Tony Blair won three general elections comfortably, the last he won even after the taint of the Iraq War had taken hold. Whether Tony Blair is liked or not, you cannot ignore his electoral successes and anyone who wants to win elections with the Labour Party will at the very least study the strategy and methods by which he was able to appeal and win the confidence of the people to govern.

Opposition or government

At this juncture, the Labour Party needs to decide if it wants to be a party of government, 9 years in opposition is a long time and if Boris Johnson runs his full term, the Labour Party will languish in opposition for 14 years.

You cannot do policy from the opposition and it is sad that the Labour Party hierarchy ignored the prescient warning of Tony Blair when for the first time, the opposition parties could control the agenda in parliament having had Boris Johnson on the ropes. They ignored him and now, the Labour Party has become a rump of itself with Jo Swinson being sent on her way.

I voted Labour in the election, not for the sake of Jeremy Corbyn but by recognising my constituency MP, Lucy Powell does a good enough job and that she should not be punished for the unfortunate situation of her party leader. All politics is local, at least that is what I see.

No sweet scent of Jeremy

Yet, I cannot deny that there were so many insurmountable misgivings about Jeremy Corbyn with many of my immediate interactions on social media and the reported issues on the doorstep. People just could not see Jeremy Corbyn being Prime Minister. That I was able to hold my nose and see more of the man, that was not how many others felt, odium and opprobrium seemed to dog him to the point that it overwhelmed the ability to assess him objectively.

Having lost two general elections, there is no doubt in my mind that Jeremy Corbyn is first responsible for the losses along with his team and the cult of Momentum which I would hope falls into the black hole of ignominy and history as Mr Corbyn departs the centre stage. There must be a collective responsibility of the shadow cabinet for this disaster.

You need to win elections to initiate and implement policy, else, your ideas remain on paper and are mere words of no import. The idealism that has driven the Corbyn agenda will not win elections, we need more pragmatism that broadens the church of the Labour Party to include the full spectrum of people and ideas that must embrace the Blairites and the Corbynites in common purpose for the United Kingdom.

The five stages of defeat processing

I appreciate that many of the ardent supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are loss in the first stage of the Kübler-Ross model of the Five Stages of Grief (Defeat), they are in Denial of the truth that Jeremy Corbyn bears the principal responsibility for the loss of the 2019 General Election. Some are expressing Anger at the media and even the electorate, that is misguided.

I doubt there is anything to Bargain for, the time for that passed when between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, they could have a coalesced to keep the Tories out. It is the great regret of missed opportunities for which I hold both Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson responsible.

Then, I hope they will not spend too much time in Depression before they reach the point of Acceptance that Jeremy Corbyn is a failure and he has to go sooner rather than later, that the Labour Party needs a new direction with the fundamental principle that they must prepare for government with a leader to whom the people can relate and a message that can persuade the people of the Labour Party is the better choice.

Missing the prize

As for where we are, the prize is with Boris Johnson and I fear with the infighting, the cult of Momentum, the anti-Semitic charge, and the exodus of Labour Party moderates and centrists, the party of the working people took their eyes off the prize and gave victory to Boris Johnson. What could have been, but we are where we are now.

The world will not end, maybe Brexit will really happen, but Mr Johnson has enough room to manoeuvre without being held hostage by a faction of his party. Heck! We have had three years of Donald Trump and not a world war for each year he has been in office. I fear, that Donald Trump might well win a second term if the Democrats do not refine their socialist tendencies.

Resist the third martini

I do not have a palate for strong alcohol, a Martini will probably kill me, if I attempted a shot and dared a second, but by all means, I must resist the third Martini, just as Jeremy Corbyn should not have a third shot at leadership or the general election and the Labour Party as it now will fail at a third visit to the people, if it does not radically reform and return to winning ways.

We’ll be fine, everything has a shelf life and the era of Boris Johnson will pass. Lastly, I congratulate Boris Johnson on his victory, and I hope he sees the great calling of office to lead and be a successful Prime Minister. Our prayers follow with great expectations. Our hope remains strong for a bright future.

Courtesy of the William Kentridge exhibition at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town.

The UK: You haven't arrived just because you now vote Tory

It’s a Parliament not a Presidency

Sometimes, we in The UK want to pretend we have a presidency when in fact we have a parliamentary democracy.

You cannot vote for a party leader except if you are a paid-up member of that party, then, a party leader that can only take office by being a member of parliament.

The Green Party, for instance, has two party leaders but only one is in parliament.

I hear people say they can't vote for Jeremy Corbyn and many of us can't because we are not members of the Labour Party and we are not constituents of Islington North.

Yes, he heads the Labour Party, but if his constituents vote him out of parliament, he is head in name only, he cannot become the Prime Minister because he needs to command the confidence of the parliament.

I am voting for my MP

There was an aberration at the advent of WWII, Winston Churchill was not the leader of the Conservative Party, but with war looming ahead, he commanded cross-party support to form a coalition and leadership was ceded to him.

My constituency MP, Lucy Powell, belongs to the Labour Party, she does a good job, I see no reason to kick her out. I believe Jeremy Corbyn also does a good job for his constituents, that’s why they have kept him as their MP since 1983. Now, there are many things I do not agree with concerning Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership that has necessitated my voting for other parties in the local and European elections.

Yes, he is a pacifist to a fault, he has made friends with a broader spectrum of people I would find utterly reprehensible, yet, I return to Winston Churchill when he said, “Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war.” I do not eulogise Winston Churchill nor do I excuse Jeremy Corbyn, Churchill did what he had to do when he saw the danger of Nazism, it meant war, but once the war ended, he was one of the greatest advocates for peace in Europe, despite his many other failings.

Tough when it is demanded

Gosh! There was a time Jerry Adams and Martin McGuinness could not be heard on our airwaves because of their links to the IRA, then with much talk, we got the Good Friday Agreement, with that even Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness became best pals in the Northern Ireland government.

I believe Jeremy Corbyn would do what is necessary to keep the UK safe if it means war, but he definitely will not be banging the drums of wars at the first sound of a bang. We probably need more level heads in a world of Putin, Trump and Kim Jung-un.

The issue of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party probably should have been dealt with better, but I do not believe Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite, more has been done and wrought by the schism of Brexit to endanger all minorities in this country, be you European, Muslim, Black, Gay, or even dare I say reasonable. The demonisation of Jeremy Corbyn has been complete whilst the lies of Boris Johnson goes unchecked.

No shame in Boris

This is a person who lied to the Queen to prorogue parliament, who when it came to it did not die in the ditch when Brexit did not happen on the 31^st of October, yet, he gets away with more and more offence and lies without scrutiny or sanction. This inveterate buffoon has nothing to offer this country, but we live in the times when you win regardless of whether you play fair or not.

Tory grandees, former Prime Ministers have risen to say one clear fact, there is no upside to Brexit, it is quite likely if a referendum were held in 1939, people could have been persuaded to go for appeasement and avoid the suffering of war because we have no skin in Europe. It was great leadership that gave us the courage to face war and defeat fascism.

There are no sunlit uplands after Brexit, we are not positioned to achieve anything greater as a minor outpost to the largest trading bloc in the world. We are not transitioning from the British Empire to a Commonwealth of Nations, there are no new lands of opportunity to be conquered. This is where we need leadership and conviction, indeed the people voted for Brexit, it is for their leaders to state the clear facts that it was a bad choice for innumerable reasons. That is what leadership is about.

The Tories are the problem

Boris Johnson took a two-faced approach to Brexit, he wrote two articles, one for and one against as if he was in some Oxford Union debating society, then chose to go for Brexit, just for his own advantage. We have been on this since June 2016, we are on our third Prime Minister and all this came about because of the Conservative Party, the party that gave us austerity and has been in power for 9 years pretending they now have new ideas for our future.

There is no social climbing nous earned from being able to say you now vote for the Tory Party when in reality it is not in your interest or the national interest. These are carpetbaggers and snake-oil salesmen. I would rather put my lot with Jeremy Corbyn than Boris Johnson, but as I said before, I can only vote for my own representative in my own constituency, that is Lucy Powell.

Obviously, I would have preferred a better choice to Corbyn or Johnson, say, Rory Stewart or Yvette Cooper, but we don’t have that luxury. I know Jeremy Corbyn has never been anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic, lack in empathy or full of lies, that cannot be said of the apparently well-liked Boris Johnson, he published his views and even under duress been unable to honestly apologise for them.

Beware what you believe

I return to a post I made on Facebook yesterday when a presumed ex-Labour activist appeared to have some friends in thrall helping their confirmation bias. “Like honestly, we can believe whatever we choose to believe, even mine the Internet to find everything to confirm our biases, because there is enough to even convince anyone that if they jump out of the window at the top of a skyscraper, they'll float down and land like a feather.

However, there comes a time where in the cold light of day you have to ask, am I being taken for a ride as I nod like the Churchill dog to everything I am hearing?

Maybe it is time to step away from all this and just consider what is best for you and your community.

No one is going to be persuaded much differently after the stuff this electoral season has produced.”

It is your vote, use it right!

Nigeria: Can we radically rethink our political machinery?

Resisting the laughable

I was not surprised when I heard on BBC Radio 4 in the very early hours of this morning that just 5 hours before the polls opened in Nigeria, they were postponed for a week. [BBC]

It would be convenient for me to write from the western comfort of my abode to rant and rave about the systemic dysfunction that bedevils Nigeria and runs counter to the words of Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa on the day of independence, when he said, “We are called upon immediately to show that our claims to responsible government are well-founded, and having been accepted as an independent state we must at once play an active part in maintaining the peace of the world and in preserving civilisation. I promise you, we shall not fail for want of determination.” [AkinBlog][Dawodu]

The courage of reality

In that assertion at the dawn of independent Nigeria, the claims and the want are no more the subject of debate, the conclusion is an everyday indictment of a nation that is full of potential and that is all we have, potential.

Yet, for all accusations by the main political parties that the postponement could presage the manipulation of the vote in favour of either, I must commend the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for having the courage to realise they were not ready and taking the difficult but necessary decision to postpone.

The pressure to carry on regardless would have been immense but having recognised that certain locations would be denied suffrage and appreciating the logistical problems of getting election materials to the various places that might have been sabotaged, this was the only reasonable option.

The saboteurs gaming the system

The problem with Nigeria is myriad, we have a rentier class of political jobbers who have no occupation apart from peddling influence, they suck the oxygen out of every other viable and productive sector of the economy, society and government, such that things can only work with their agreement.

Then, amongst them, because the remuneration within politics far exceeds that which can be acquired out of qualification, hard work or merit, they employ every means to disrupt and sabotage the electioneering process that represents the will of the people in order to entrench themselves in positions where they can control the commonwealth arrogating to themselves untrammelled fiat over the helpless masses who are best kept in the vassalage of only having begging bowls, living hand to mouth and driven by survival by the belly.

That is the failure of Nigeria that has resulted in postponing the elections for a week. There are people who have a vested selfish interest in what they can usurp to the detriment of others and without any scruples as to whether anyone gets hurt or killed in the process.

Rethinking our political machinery

Sometimes, I wonder what it is that can fix Nigeria in the state that it is, but we can start with one thing, slash the remuneration of the political class to just basic allowances for board, meals and transport. If they need additional income, they should earn it like everyone else.

Nigeria cannot afford a fulltime legislature, at the exorbitant cost at which it is run today, there is no reason to feather the beds of the legislators when ordinarily the middle classes on their earnings cannot afford the basic things without the temptation to malfeasance, corruption or fraud.

The legislature should have a term time with a clear agenda like a syllabus of activities and bills to debate, run with the efficiency of a principal of a secondary school, clearly with objectives and penalties for not producing results. An Office for Government Accountability having the independence to review and sanction the executive and the legislature when they fail in their responsibilities.

As a consequence of this

Taking the remuneration surplus out of politics would immediately divert the eyes of the heretofore political jobbers to other honeypots and troughs, whilst hopefully allowing Nigerians with a sense of altruism and commitment into politics. At least, they would not be politicking for the money but for the opportunity to serve.

Then, reduce all political terms to one term, none should seek re-election without having been succeeded once, within that, cascade the elections such that the executive branch is not elected in the same year as the legislative branch. This is radical, but I think it would go a long way to taking the leeches out of the decision-making framework of Nigeria.

There is still hope

There is a likelihood with this rethinking of Nigerian politics, we might come close to the what Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa dreamt was possible in Nigeria, “that our claims to responsible government are well-founded.”

In the meanwhile, I hope that when Nigerians do finally get the opportunity to elect their political leaders and representatives in a week, INEC would be ready, the people would have chosen wisely and their express will be presented in the validated results.

Long live Nigeria and God bless Nigeria.

We, the people said, 'Silly girl.'

Catching up on it all

No doubt, reams of commentary and analysis would be written about the just concluded UK General Election of 2017, but I will like to write a postscript to the event.

When Theresa May the incumbent Prime Minister suddenly called an election on the 18^th of April 2017, the ruthless streak of the lady was to completely annihilate the opposition and put the Labour Party completely out of the reckoning.

The polls suggested the Tory Party would win a landslide and Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party would lead it to its worst electoral defeat in history. There were analysts who until the day before the election who completely underestimated Jeremy Corbyn and believed their prognostications to the point of annoyingly projecting it on any platform that would accommodate those views.

Giving Jeremy a closer look

Until the election was called, we were coasting to a somewhat ruinous separation from Europe called a Hard Brexit, Theresa May believed she had read the minds of us Britons and came to the conclusion that it was the freedom of movement that bothered us the most and so her headstrong Brexit strategy was gathering moss in that direction.

Invariably, we also had our doubts about what Jeremy Corbyn could achieve and probably would have voted for someone else until Theresa May’s arrogance, audacity and effrontery presented us with a stark choice of giving her free rein to take us over the cliff edge or we begin to subscribe to the reasonableness that became the hallmark and demeanour of Jeremy Corbyn.

The media bias against Jeremy Corbyn and his team was unrelenting and palpable as they brought up every ghost of the past to scare and terrify us into Theresa May’s ‘Strong and Stable’ corner.

Yet, the hashtag #EndMayInJune bore an amazing resonance as we began to look at Theresa May’s record as Home Secretary and then Prime Minister, we began to see leader that probably stood for nothing, all goals, aims, ambitions and promises given the oxygen of rhetoric, sloganeering, soundbite and endless repetition was just a lot of hot air and nothing else.

A broken record it was

We were not convinced that giving Theresa May a stronger hand in the #Brexit negotiations would give us the kind of Brexit that would be good for us. The referendum is a done deal, however, it is my view that if the politicians decided should ask us about whether we wanted to stay in Europe, it is right for them to return to us and review the manner of our leaving.

Basically, if we want to get off the EU bus, it is best the bus gets to a bus stop where we can safely alight rather than us jumping out of the window whilst the bus is in motion. There was a streak of British bloody-minded daring-do that was beginning to inform our manner of leaving the EU that was patently unacceptable.

Then again, even if Brexit was an important electoral issue, there were seriously pertinent local issues that were left by the wayside, those were the issues that Jeremy Corbyn brought to the fore as Theresa May sequestered herself away from needed scrutiny to challenge her record in government.

We had to stop this gamble

She was either clueless or given to sophistry that the gamble she took calling an election was beginning to write itself out as political folly. I had to vote and so I committed myself to a 500-kilometre roundtrip from Edinburgh to Manchester to vote on Thursday morning.

I believe, there were many like me who decided they had had enough of politicians in the mould of Donald Trump who took everything for granted and had no scruples gambling away our future on the whim of egotistical and reckless abandon for personal ends portrayed as a national interest.

Invariably, even after two terrorist attacks within weeks of each other and the local elections that appeared to buoy the Tory Party, the gamble did not pay off, and rather than increase her majority in the Parliament we are met today with a hung parliament with the Tories needing the support of the anachronistic, provincial and primordial Democratic Unionist Party of the Northern Ireland to form a minority government.

What a silly girl

One is left to almost blurt out, ‘Silly Girl’, but a lesson has been harshly taught and history is being penned with the enthusiastic aplomb of an epic-making thriller. Theresa May will go down in history as the incumbent leader who called an unnecessary election to bury the opposition into irrelevance giving her the freedom to traipse about like an empress, only to be reduced in clout, authority and effective mandate.

Unfortunately, the stiff-necked woman has learnt no lessons, the core of the team that heralded the shambles we are in have been retained to continue in shambolic plunder of our commonwealth. The Tory Party is, however, a restive hornet’s nest, it would sooner implode over something before the next scheduled election of 2022. I do not expect Theresa May to last this new Parliament as the leader of the Tory Party.

We, the people

What we have learnt is that people do feel strongly about the way we are governed, they are concerned about the NHS, social care and our communities, but would not be terrified into making choices like the ones that brought us Brexit again. We want a managed exit from the EU that involved consultation, consensus and agreement.

We are done with UKIP and its immigrant poison, the people persuaded of the UKIP agenda did not automatically file into the Tory column as Theresa May expected, they dispersed into columns that appealed to our greater sense of being as the Labour Party that was supposed to become history claimed more seats off other parties than they lost, a net gain of 21.

A strengthened opposition is what we need for the kind of Brexit Theresa May was cooking up for us and we have one led by Jeremy Corbyn who by terms is in the ascendancy. For that alone, I’m in clover.

God Save The Queen!

Related notes

Blog - The UK: One Vote! #GE2017

Blog - Fuck #Brexit, there are people suffering

Blog - Opinion: He was British, what changed him?

Blog - Manchester: Our humanity is our strength

Blog - Homelessness: Make June the end of May - #EndMayInJune

The UK: One Vote! #GE2017

One vote

One vote; that is all it is, that one vote that you can only cast for yourself as one person, an individual, independent, inspired or instigated.

You cannot cast a vote on behalf of your household, when you enter the voting booth, you alone, persuaded by truth or lies, passion or indifference, concern or apathy, duty or routine to exercise a right that much blood has been shed for over centuries. That amazing right of self-determination.

Yet, you also can decide not to exercise that right to vote, leave it to others to decide your fate or fortune, where you have sight you can choose to be blind, where you have hearing you can choose to be deaf, where you have a voice you can choose to be silent.

It is just one vote, but each one vote taken together constitutes a majority for the person who wins against the other who might have won if others who chose not to vote did decide to vote.

A vote that changes things

It is one vote, the doorway to policy that can shape and alter the future for a country, for a people, for a lifetime and more pertinently for each and every citizen, the ones who voted, the ones who didn’t vote, the ones who cannot vote and the yet unborn who will access this world in the circumstances created by that vote.

We can choose to vote as informed people, checking out what is promised against what is possible, reviewing the record of incumbency and projecting that over the possibility that they might or might not have new ideas or we can choose to vote persuaded of soundbite and rhetoric, platitudes and talking points, mantras and slogans, empty boasts that tingle the ears but mean nothing in reality. We have the choice of ignorance and if we boldly embrace it, our folly lays before us.

A moral duty to vote

To vote is not only a civic duty, it is a moral duty, yet there has been no general election voter turnout above 80% since the elections of 1950 and 1951, on average since then, over 30% of possible voters have decided not to exercise the right to vote. [UKPoliticalInfo]

This cohort of ‘can vote – won’t vote’ people can make the difference in the kind of government we elect, clipping the wings of the tyrannical using the dividends of democracy to pursue an agenda that only serves the interest of the few. We are all affected when we vote and we are all affected when some of us do not vote.

Do everything in your power to vote

In the 2015 General Election, I was about to travel to South Africa when the election was called, I was fortunate enough to have ample time to plan to vote that I was able to avail myself of the opportunity of a postal vote, which I did.

I would have like to have a more streamlined process of applying for a postal vote, but the system appears to be a voter suppression scheme that does not lend itself easily to that option, this time around. Working out of Edinburgh I could have let my opportunity to vote pass, it is just one vote, but my one vote is valuable, it is my sight, my hearing, my voice and my full participation in our democracy – the government of the people, by the people, for the people.

My plan to vote

I will not let some people decide for me what I can also get involved in and decide for myself too. It comes at a cost of time, resources and strength, and if you believe in participatory democracy, you will support this view.

I am taking a train to Manchester tonight to arrive home just before midnight, I will be up first thing on Thursday, thankful for the people manning the polling stations from 7:00 AM to vote and then I will be catching a flight to Edinburgh to arrive at work just around 10:00 AM.

That is the plan and I am looking forward to being fully part of this democratic privilege.

It is one vote, one vote from me, one vote from you, all votes taken together become the key to our future, if we choose wisely, we would have a bright future ahead, if we don’t, the prospects are bleak and the pains we suffer today would just be the beginning of a future of more pain and agony. Have you seen nurses at food banks and the homeless on our streets? Those are results of failed policy.

If we are to have a United Kingdom that works for everyone, then it is our duty to go out and cast that vote. On Thursday the 8^th of June 2017, the polling stations are open from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM, change the future by voting tomorrow.

Homelessness: Make June the end of May - #EndMayInJune

Signs of bad times

As I walked to work this morning and then walked back to my hotel to collect my stowed baggage for the station in preparation for my journey back home, I could not help but notice the number of young people sat on the ground, their backs to the walls of shops or offices building signifying some need.

Need, not wants, here were the youth in the 5^th largest economy in the world without a prospect, opportunity, promise or hope. The only thing occupying their minds was the means to take shelter compounded with one sign that broke my heart, the young man’s sign said he had not eaten for days.

Now, I do not care if that is anything but the truth, I would hope that cynicism and suspicion would not rob me of sympathy, maybe empathy, a sense of compassion and the ability to be touched by the hardship of another.

Great needs with little supply

Besides, I know privation, not to that extent, but I have gone hungry in the midst of lack and when I would have been rendered homeless, I was fortunate to find support from people who covered my nakedness, shame and misfortune. To them, I am grateful probably not to the extent that I can repay them, but that when I see another in a situation that I have once experienced, I will not ignore them and walk on by if I am opportuned to do something, no matter how little.

Then, there was another thing on the signs that struck me, at least were asking for £16 to be able to spend a night in a home shelter. What the home shelter would probably provide is a bed, a shower, hot drinks and some safety from the elements and menace. I would not know if they also provide food.

Homelessness is a thief of the future

However, for someone who has nothing and has not eaten for days, how on earth would the shelter take priority over food, the little that comes from alms might only cover just one meal and so they are still out on the streets day after day in the hope that someone would just pour our God and love upon them that they would not only smile but cry the tears of joy bearing hope.

I have said before, homelessness is debilitating to the extent that it almost impossible to see how steals the future away from the present which becomes an enduring and harrowing existence. Without a home address, you probably can’t take on the most basic jobs, talk less of open a bank account or make any headway in life beyond being caught in the rut.

The charity of no clarity

Then I have my gripe with homeless charities, I am not convinced they are doing enough if anything, I see signs that I should give to charities rather than the homeless. I have this to say, if the charities were really seen to be helping the homeless, there would not be so many homeless and somewhat helpless people on our streets.

The other side of this argument is we probably would be persuaded to give to the charities and readily walk the homeless to the nearest point of help just as the Good Samaritan of old committed time and resources to the wounded stranger.

In this electioneering season in the UK, I have even bigger concerns; Theresa May boasts of offering strong and stable leadership, but I have no time for leadership that has no heart. Our social services are cut to the bone, that people cannot get by. The thought that British nurses are resorting to food banks in full employment is a disgrace I cannot find the words to express. [The Independent]

Make June the end of May

Theresa May said there are many complex reasons why people use food banks, I’m sorry, the reason is not complex, it is simple, they are not being paid enough and the cost of living is rising far beyond their means.

The system is completely messed up and I do not believe Theresa May as a bloody difficult woman has the wherewithal to bring the necessary humanity and compassion to bear to change things for the better for those who suffer homelessness, who use food banks or have to rely on the system to get by. That people in full employment should live from hand to mouth is utterly contemptible, an atrocity of the magnitude that has no mitigation or acceptable excuse.

This is not the United Kingdom that should be happy to have remain like this, things must change, the homeless and the hungry nurses are neither thinking Brexit nor strong leadership, they are hoping against hope for respite, food for their hunger, shelter for their heads and a future that gives them a chance for a different life.

Theresa May is not that person and I’m afraid, no such one is in the Tory Party to do that too.

UK Elections 2015: This election needs a human face

Some background

In 1968, my father then training to be an accountant and working for the NHS went to a pub with some of his English colleagues whereupon he met with his local MP and an exchange ensued.

This MP was Enoch Powell and the encounter was soon after his Rivers of Blood speech, the content of which traded on the fears and insecurities of the electorate by demonising selected minorities for political advantage. Immigration!

Populist demonization

This was a populist and sometimes right-wing campaign strategy, it is not new, and today we see the same elements of demonising minorities all around the world for political capital.

Be it minors, womenfolk, the poor, the different by race, tribe, religion, custom, beliefs or sexuality, the disabled, the powerless or the voiceless, some opportunistic politician has found something to excite the basest of our instincts to garner votes.

In this general election season in the UK, the leader of the UK Independence Party in debates decided to aim the crosshairs at refugees with HIV he falsely claims costs the NHS £25,000 for treatment.

This is sensationalist bunkum, but it gave impetus to a malevolent listener to this reprehensible invective to take the picture of an innocent man and make him the face and person of Nigel Farage's rotten lies.

It’s about real people

Bisi Alimi, whose story we know as the first Nigerian to come out on national television, who suffered personal and institutional persecution then had to flee Nigeria narrowly escaping death was the target of the atrocious besmirching.

We granted refugee status to Bisi Alimi and he has been of the most exemplary conduct, contributed immensely to the cause of LGBTI minorities and many human rights issues all around the world. If he remained a refugee, he is one we want amongst us as an inspirational figure and more, but Bisi does have a British passport, he is not a refugee.

However, that is beside the point, this attack was aimed at those who have sought refuge in our country with the devilish intent of persuading us to put cost above our humanity. That has been the bottom-line of the UKIP agenda, making cost the issue at the expense of our greater humanity and tendency to compassion.

The heart of who we are

When people come to the UK seeking refuge on humanitarian grounds, we have had a tradition of welcoming them and helping them thrive in our communities and society. This has been the case for centuries and long may we continue to set the standard for compassionate relief and humanitarian consideration.

The personal attack on Bisi Alimi was not only contemptible but completely unrepresentative of who we are. Yet we must know that this campaign strategy is shocking and awful, one trading on our fears to put wedges of division and difference within our communities.

Nigel Farage is a canny politician and he knew what he was doing by sowing seeds of suspicion and anger in the hope that some amongst us might act unconscionably and irrationally, along with his intention of shoring up support for electioneering purposes. We must repudiate this kind of talk completely.

Taking the fight to Nigel

However, under the auspices of the Thanet Trade Union Action, the irrepressible Bisi Alimi is taking the fight to Nigel Farage in the constituency where he is contesting to be the local MP and you are invited to Meet Farage's Tourist.

My hope is by the time Bisi Alimi has finished speaking we would see Nigel Farage for who he is and give him and his kind of populist rhetoric the heave-ho.

Nigel Farage is not the face of our hearts and minds, I believe Bisi Alimi more represents who we are and the example we want to better be to the world - open, empathetic, considerate, helpful, fair, just and truly British.

Please attend if you can and share with your friends.

Meet Farage’s Tourist

Thursday 30 April at 19:00–21:00

Odd Fellows Hall,

142 High Street,
Ramsgate, Kent.
CT11 9TT

Thank you.

UK Elections 2015: A depressing prospect

On our fears

This election season is the first in the UK I have participated in since Tony Blair won with a landslide in 1997.

Having read manifestos, watched debates and reviewed all sorts of analyses and permutations, I have never felt as downcast about leadership quests in the UK as with the lot shopping for my votes.

Yet, having been on the sharp end of things in terms of moving back to the UK and finding no support systems for reintegration, the inscrutable hurdles into the welfare system for being out of work or being homeless; the policy framework that dehumanised me and many others with stories too harrowing for words demands change.

On our tears

There is no doubt in my mind even with the financial prudence of the Tory Party and the moderating influence of the Liberal Democrats, the Tories have to go. For the deficit, if it is the poor, the jobless and the everyday man that have suffered the most. The rich have been protected from most of the fallout.

The Tories continued the atrocity of privatising profits and socialising the debts. They sold off the commonwealth for a song whilst the big corporations cashed in with little sweat for the humongous rewards.

Oh my dears

The alternative; the Labour Party is bearable, but if they fail to win a comfortable majority, a possible coalition or arrangement with the Scottish National Party spells doom to just over 300 years of the union of Great Britain which comprises England, Scotland and Wales.

These political robots have no soul, no persuasion and no conviction, they are in perpetual soundbite spewing party points like clowns in a circus, and it is so depressing.

Never has a country in need of a vision to maintain hard-won relevance been at the mercy of men with no depth in experience or humanity, talk less of compassion.

#NigeriaDecides II: Goodluck Jonathan is a good man

He showed promise

Goodluck Jonathan is a good man, I have heard many people say. I have no doubts about either the goodness or niceness of the out-going President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has had a 5-year stint at the job and that was good for him.

However, a good man is someone you ask to watch over your bag if you wanted to go to the toilet, hardly someone you ask to run a country.

When he took office in March 2010 as Acting President and then substantive President at the demise of his predecessor, he appeared to have promise. At least, I thought he did when he acted decisively to rejig the cabinet and when that cabinet did not seem to be working to his agenda, he sacked the whole lot and brought in new faces, all within a month. He had good luck and goodwill.

A meteoritic rise

You could say, he was both in power and in office that by the national elections in 2011, even though we were not too enamoured by his political party, we were willing to give him a strong mandate. He became president in his own right for the very first time standing as the main candidate.

A man, more or less plucked out of obscurity to be a running mate in one of the Niger Delta states of Nigeria, where his boss looted the state treasury as if it was his piggy bank, he rose to governor on the impeachment of his boss, and then was plucked from that role to be the presidential running-mate of the ailing, but nice, Umaru Yar’Adua. [AkinBlog]

He had the good luck of succeeding his bosses and urban legend suggests he has had this run of eponymous good luck from as far back as history can glean of his humble beginnings.

He failed himself

Yet, it got to a point where the most academically qualified leader of Nigeria in history with the amazing profile of having been in a number of executive governance roles, just remained a generally good man, but never good enough for the job that he finally got.

He surrounded himself with conflicted and compromised counsellors and preachers whose Christian principles were too questionable for any in-depth analysis to be important, the choose bad advisers who too easily got power drunk, his media team was a constant disaster of atrocious invective and most of his ministers literally had no scruples.

It would seem, Goodluck Jonathan had no good luck in choosing really good people, he seemed to constantly find recycled political deadbeats, institutional fossils, rent-seeking dinosaurs and worse. This led to claims that he was clueless, ineffectual, poorly briefed and quite badly informed too. In that, he woefully failed himself.

Not good for your girls

Having reached the pinnacle of academic achievement, he did not seem to open himself to new learning and so where he could have grown into his role as President of Nigeria, he shrunk into it, developed a cocoon of siege mentality within Aso Rock and was left exploited by chancers and sycophants who painted the wrong picture of his domain to him.

At least that became evident when the Chibok girls were abducted by the menacing Boko Haram insurgency that was left to fester that it became a formidable force able to sack barracks and towns in North-Eastern Nigeria. He eventually admitted that they never initially took Boko Haram seriously.

Indeed, Goodluck Jonathan is a good man, but probably not one you could entrust the security of many ordinary Nigerians to, for about 20,000 lives have been lost to the insurgency, girls and women abducted and millions internally displaced. Life is hellish for those within the sphere of Boko Haram’s influence, even with the imposition of the State of Emergency in the three states affected most.

Unguarded to a fault

Goodluck Jonathan was mostly reactive rather than proactive, and that usually after being embarrassed to act accordingly. Notable statements like ‘I don’t give a damn’ and ‘What they call corruption is just stealing’ appeared to be cues for his people to act with impunity and in fear of no consequence.

The divisive rhetoric from his representatives and people close to him with their personal agendas and hope for reward from the Nigerian commonwealth precipitated the development of an effective opposition to match the ruling party of 16 years at a national level.

A personal good luck charm

In the end, Goodluck Jonathan could not succeed himself, there was no further role he could rise to from being president and I guess that was the end to the power of the talisman that brought a good man from humble origins in the creeks of the Niger Delta where he once had no shoes to the highest office in the land.

To himself, he did well, for Nigeria, it was not particularly good luck, he was limited by his own capacity to grow, his sloganeering had become vacuous and the ruling party had become a haven of entrenched attitudes, all inimical to the progress of Nigeria.

The umbrella (the symbol of the ruling party) was no more wide enough to shelter those who needed help the most, the poor, the child, the masses and the powerless could not look to the government for anything than to be exploited for political gain.

Thank you for coming

Aso Rock had become a cosy place of irresponsibility and obliviousness, a comfortable place to enjoy the comforts of office and nothing else.

The time for change had come and as we send the good man and his wife home with our very best wishes, like any good man, once he knew he was defeated, he called his worthy opponent and conceded.

Goodluck Jonathan is a good man, whether he was a good enough to be the President of Nigeria is one we should leave history to judge.