I am back, but not happy.

Well it has been 5 years since I mashed my thoughts into this crumb filled keyboard.5 years worth of pent up anger and rage should be spewing out of me like a fountain.It isn't. Instead a feeling of doomed acceptance sloshes out of my defeated brain. How have we ended up where we are? In the 5 years past we have had a Tory majority and we have brexeted. People whom I work with have bought into the very political ideas that will see them poorer and less advantaged. My Facebook feed has morphed into right wing propaganda for dummies. People who I found warm ,engaging, compassionate and sensible, have changed into hard uncaring, unthinking sociopaths.

 This disorder is characterized by a disregard for the feelings of others, a lack of remorse or shame, manipulative behavior, unchecked egocentricity, and the ability to lie in order to achieve one's goals.


It may be me, I am 5 years older and I suppose 5 years more cynical.Back when I last posted I was in my very late 30s. I worked for a socially progressive supermarket whose ethos was to take care of others and be a responsible member of the business community.I have had to, for my own sanity,leave their full time employment as their fanatical desire to compete with the so called budget supermarkets has dissolved any compassion and ethical treatment of staff away so much that as i sat and looked at photos posted on a store facebook page, I became suddenly aware that most of the people who cared and actually gave a damn have long since left.The demise of my once beloved employer mirrors that of our British society.We have long since given up on the idea of social justice and equality. We now as a country target groups and blame them for what is wrong, we worship the rich and powerful to the point that, whatever they say, we like sheep, follow them with no regard for truth or fact. We have stopped valuing critical thinking for the shine and spin of a sound bite or the distracting flash of a meme.Our whole political life seems to be lived on Facebook and Twitter, where the best meme wins.
No longer do we discuss or debate points, we just throw meme after meme at each other and try to win by shouting and screaming, The art of debate is dead. We seem to put up with blatant lies if it suits our own view. We have been somehow persuaded that austerity, a falling pound, rapidly increasing inflation and a small island mentality are what is needed to make us great again.No one I know is happy, that is not to say that they don't have a certain level of happiness in their lives, but I know no-one who is happy about their wage, the cost of housing, the cost of living or
the general state of the country.
Sadly the current obsession for mocking and derisory memes has reduced the political savvy in our country down to almost zero. People have long since stopped asking questions or doing even the smallest amount of research, and now take as gospel the daily diatribe of flashy graphics served with a side of outright lies.
The thing that gets me most is the acceptance of this type of drip drip drip politics. There was very little anger when the infamous brexit bus quote of £350 million to the NHS every week was, only 6 hours after the result of the vote, proven to be completely falsehood. Those on the losing side already knew it was a lie and those on the winning side excused it because "both sides lied".

The outrageous decision of the CPS not to prosecute MP's for electoral fraud as it is not in the public interest speaks volumes for the unthinking masses ability to ignore facts that dont suit their position.This blatant abuse of power is the exact thing that should be at the top of our public interest.

The shocking and inhuman sustained attack on the disability benefit system by the tories in the name of austerity, whilst simultaneously lowering the tax demands of the richest in our society,should be questioned by everyone no matter where your political allegiances lie.

 Whatever side of the political coin your views fall, surely we should all want free and fair elections conducted in the spirit of transparency? suley we all want those most able to help, to pay a bit more and those least able to help themselves, helped from the public purse? We all want our politicians and political parties to play fair, right?

We as a country need to shake ourselves out of this political malaise and start demanding truth and fairness from all our political parties. We need to stand up to the lies and half truths used to manipulate us into voting for who ever. All political parties are guilty of this to some extent, but by far the biggest culprits are us. We  say we dont have time to research properly but have time to play games on our phones or chill out with a bottle of wine and watch 6 episodes of a drama back to back. We are sleepwalking into a situation that will affect every single one of us and our kids and grandkids. We need to wake up and start asking questions NOW!