Upon freedom of the press...

At present in Britain, the tone du jour is the so-called "Brexit" referendum, called for June this year. A referendum seemingly called by the Conservative Party to claim back votes that might've been lost to EU sceptic party UKIP.
Now, for some time in Britain, there has existed the claim that we are being overrun with immigrants. Being that I am middle class, work in science and university educated I don't see this. I've never seen it. I grew up in a village in Northamptonshire. A village where we could count the people of differing ethnicities on one hand. A village where, upon reading the record of the "Board School", there was a delightful account of the time the "Negro came from Northampton."
But, also I've never seen immigration as a problem. I've lived in Bradford and Leicester which are 2 of Britain's most ethnically diverse cities. I've always embraced multiculturalism, sought to learn more about my neighbours and enjoyed the benefits of living with different people. It creates a global atmosphere in my own back garden, so to speak.
My childhood was interspersed with long phone calls with "Uncle" Ghulam in Kashmir, and I learned the Arabic greetings before I started at secondary school. And I loved it. It wasn't cultural misappropriation, it was necessary to allow cohesive discourse with those who I lived with. I knew my Hindu Gods, and aspects of Brahma by the time I was 10 and I made my first Holy Communion in the Roman Catholic church at the age of 11.
Now building back to my initial point, I have encountered in more recent times, an alarming streak of xenophobia running through this country. The type that we mock our elderly relatives for, is rearing it's ugly head. But why should it be? I mean, we seem cohesive. Living in Leicester, I always enjoyed seeing the men in the town in their mosque hats, and occasionally bumping into a Dominican Friar. There was no "us and them", it was all us.
Yet, certain newspapers and internet media seem to fan the flames. The Daily Mail runs a non-story with the headline "THE NARBOROUGH ROAD IN LEICESTER. OVERRUN WITH 40 SHOPS FROM 60 DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES"
and the comments,
"It's political correctness gone stark raving mad."
"White people are a minority in Britain"
"My Grandad died in the 2nd world war for this..."
This statements can be handwaved away. The vast errors can be pointed out. Now, it seems as if the press wants to link the exit from the European union with the "immigration problem" - which it isn't.
But why are they doing this? What do they have to gain. Well, the press are unfortunately now in the employ of the power hungry ones. They understand that the European Union, with it's regulations that do such pointless things as securing maternity pay and equal rights for men and women and fair working hours and prevents child labour. Oh only the cornerstones of civilisation. But not something that really sits well if you're trying to turn a profit.
And that's really what it comes down to. They are fostering their own interests at the expense of their fellow man. It is how history has always been. We have hoped that perhaps it had been overthrown but the foul taint of monarchy and plutocracy are rearing their ugly claws once again.
And it is for this reason that a free press is so essential. To call out the media in the employ of big business. It is why magazines like Private Eye are so important. It is why inquisition like institutions like the recent enquiry into the actions of the News of the World are appalling. They tear down any semblance of a sane and free democracy.
"EVERYTHING FINE" reports newspaper in employ of authority.
Tony Benn said "The people in power don't want the public to know too much as they might challenge what they decide themselves."
If we know this, and we understand it, we must move to protect our free press before it is totally bought under the control of the Murdoch's and the oligarchs who have no interest in morality, freedom or society but in turning a cheap profit at the expense of human misery and life.

Aphorism on the state of politics

I am not a political theorist, or even an expert in politics. However, I shall comment as little more than an outsider on these matters.
It occurs to me that politics in this country is fundamentally broken. New Labour stripped away any semblance of a right and a left. However, where New Labour succeeded was as an institution.
So the principle problem with right wing politics is the contempt that it appears to hold the electorate with. The outcome of right wing politics is logically to ensure a free market, however the means employed to get to this stage is to rely on fear and misinformation to coerce a public, viewed as fools, into submission. This can have the unexpected side effect of collapsing into totalitarianism when not balanced by democracy.
Conversely, left wing politics succeeds in that it does not view those who vote for it with contempt, but fails fundamentally as it has lost its moral compass. The foolish electorate, unfortunately, require morality to be spelled out. When a left wing government does this, it becomes right wing in that it will view its electorate as fools to be goaded but when it doesn't do this it can never succeed as no one will support a cause that has no morality.

100 Days of Corbyn

So a lot of (most Conservative) people keep saying that Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable and ridiculous and he should step down.

May I ask, if he's unelectable, then why are you worrying? Why bother with a smear campaign if he won't win in any case? Unless you view the British electorate with such contempt as to think they are not capable of making decisions by themselves.

In fact if anything, the continuous rhetoric of how unelectable he is, the constant smears, surely show how much of a threat he actually is.

I like short blog posts...

"This Government makes me happier and happier." Said No Ordinary Man.

So the government is forcing more benefits changes on people. A new budget that will cut billions from those who are most needy in society. This naturally filled me with a lot of vitriol, so be prepared for a tl:dr.
Well I'm so glad that this government is going to put countless disabled and ill people through needless stress, heartache and suffering just to save a few quid. And all because, as a culture, we have decided that being disabled is a swindle to cheat the state after money.
Nobody asks to be disabled. Nobody wants to have to claim disability living allowance. It's not "for fun" or a swindle. Stop the rhetoric that it is. Just accept that people need to claim it.
You can't incentivise people into not being disabled like you can with people who are out of work through choice.
Somehow we voted for a government that actively discriminates against the disabled because it knows that they won't fight back or that if they do they won't be listened to.
I'm disabled. Like many people it is a cause of great shame and not a badge that I wear with honour - more a cross that I have to carry in a culture that kicks me to the floor more often than it helps me up. And changing the benefits that make life bearable; by putting people through unfair hoops and forcing them through bureaucratic targets, making then into statistics instead of people, this government is kicking disabled people to the floor once again.
And to add insult to injury, the Home Secretary has decided that questioning government policies is tantamount to treason. Disagreement makes one a "terrorist sympathiser".
I suppose this is hardly surprising when one considers the bed fellows but do we want to fall foul of a Saudi-Chinese system of state control and interference?
I am opposed to military action in the middle East AND to sweeping welfare reforms.
I am pro funding education, healthcare and the police.

A return to First West Coast and HS2

So, it's been a few months and First have lost the west coast franchise, though not in the circumstances I might've predicted. But it's nice to see a re-evaluation of the bidding process and a continuation of Virgin Trains services on the West Coast route.

But this is a minor point; a mere reference to something that was before.

My main rant today is about HS2, this government's farce of a high speed rail plan.

So I think we ought to go over the plans to begin with. The first stage of High Speed 2 is the construction of a new rail route through the midlands serving just outside of Birmingham. Coming later is the construction of a new terminus (at the former LNWR station at Curzon Street), and if the money doesn't run out then the route will be extended to serve Manchester, the East Mids and Leeds.

I have a few minor problems with this. My major concern is with the initial route. It doesn't go anywhere, and I do not believe that passengers will pay extra to save a very small amount of time. I am not opposed to the idea of a high speed line in Britain, as we are one of a very small minority of European nations who do not have an intercity high speed line. I just fear that this will be a prime example of what I can only refer to as "British Engineering" that is, something that was hurried out to appease a lot of people but fails at a key level and will be used mostly as an excuse for future governments to criticise the decisions of the current government.

Now, I would propose a few changes to this high speed proposal. I believe that the current route from London to Birmingham is fine, but that it ought to be routed out of a different terminal to Euston, as Euston is extremely busy. Say, Marylebone for example. This route should travel along the chiltern until outside of London, where it can branch away and become a high speed line proper. This could then pass over the west coast mainline near to Birmingham, and an interchange from the high speed line could be provided. That is to say, the high speed train could leave the high speed line and travel to Birmingham New Street, where it could say, continue onwards to Manchester or Liverpool or even Glasgow.

I like this as it helps relieve pressure on the overly busy West Coast line between London and Birmingham, freeing up spaces for more commuter services between the two cities and creating more freight opportunities also. I also like that this would mean that in theory the high speed line could be extended when ready to be as opposed to all being done at once. People will always be able to travel from Euston to Manchester, just the journey time would be reduced when the extended high speed line would be opened.

Now this is not without some problems, and I think the main is engineering a train that is compatible with both the limited loading gauge of British urban railways and the European loading gauge usually used on high speed lines, but hey, this train already exists in the form of Eurostar. We would merely have to update this to a new spec.

But, y'know, what do I know?