Steven McBrien's Reaction To The Chilcot Report - Emotional

I wrote this late last night. I've decided to share it after all.

February 15, 2003.

I remember that day so well. I marched. We all marched. We marched as one, from Glasgow Green to the SECC. It seemed like the whole of Glasgow, the whole of Britain - God, the entire world - was marching. I even managed to get my old dear out marching. We talked to each other. We laughed as we saw the banners - "BLIAR", "WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION", and the huge mannequin of George W Bush with the words "FUCKING COWBOY" emblazoned on it. Free from the apathy of the living room, liberated from the matter-of-fact-ness of the radio and the safe, controlled detachment of the television screen, we were, all of us, vindicated by each other. We had all been moved to come together here, and we were all bolstered by one another's passion.

John Swinney spoke, Tommy Sheridan spoke, many others spoke. Tommy Sheridan said that the Glesga Polis couldnae count, which drew a big laugh, as I recall. I certainly laughed. The Police had estimated that there were far less of us than there actually were. It felt like there were millions of us. And, of course, there were - all throughout Britain, London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester... the whole of Britain united as one to screech out the words:

"NOT IN OUR NAME".

It was the biggest political demonstration in British history. And it achieved almost nothing, save for certifying our beliefs, and cementing for all the world to see our absolute repudiation of what was about to happen. Not that that would rejoin the dismembered limbs, or resurrect the corpses littering the streets and farms, of course. But at least it meant something.

Tony Blair was scheduled to appear at the SECC that day, to address the Labour Party conference at the very culmination of our march, the very time our demonstration was to arrive outside. Blair's speech was hastily brought forward at the last minute to ensure that he would be long gone by the time we got there. He showed just how much he truly cared about democracy that day. How much he cared about genuine opposition. How much he cared about saving hundreds of thousands of people from violent death, and a tinderbox region of our planet from the ignition that is turning into an inferno even as I type this, even as you read it.

I don't care what John Chilcot says today. I couldn't care less. This isn't a history book. I don't need sources and I don't need corroboration. I was alive. I saw it. I heard it. I lived through it. I remember the lies and the propaganda, the dross that was plastered all over the newspapers about weapons so fast and so powerful that they could destroy me in three quarters of an hour's time. I remember the dodgy dossier. I remember the death of David Kelly. I remember Alastair Campbell's face, skewed and twisted with self-righteous, meaningless fury. And I remember what Tony Blair did. I don't need anyone to tell me the truth about what I already know.

Tony Blair is a war criminal. If all the judges and jurors throughout the planet declared otherwise, I would still gainsay them, because I was there, I remember, and I know exactly what he is. The fact that this man is allowed his liberty, never mind the obscene wealth and protection - paid for by the public - that he is permitted to enjoy, is a monstrous insult against every single decent, just and beautiful thing in this world. He is a monster, a traitor, a dissembler, a deceiver, and a war criminal.

If you ever chance to read this, Blair, know that you are hated. Know that you are despised, held in the lowest contempt, by many, many more people than you realise. Tens of millions of people died in two global wars to get the United Nations established, so it could help end the monstrous power games that took both our species and our planet to the very brink of extinction, and in the year 2003, you unzipped the fly on your bespoke suit and urinated on every single one of their graves. History will condemn you more than I ever could.

I detest you. I revile you. I hate you. But I don't want you dead; unlike you, I am not a murderer. But if karma ever does catch up with you, and your own precious lifeblood is spilled by someone else, whether it be victim or vengeful assassin, you can rest assured of one thing, Blair.

It is "NOT IN MY NAME."

Steven McBrien

Vote for Labour, Get Maggie.

And she isn’t even running in this election, bit difficult, since she’s dead. But her policies and ideals are in the race, and they’re under Labour’s banner too.

As I went through my little exercise yesterday, I was shocked to discover that even UKIP are to the left of Labour?

Yes, surprising, isn’t it?

Personally, I’d always stereotyped the ‘Kippers’ as somewhere akin to the Monster Raving Loonies. How wrong was I? At least in part. That’d be the part that doesn’t deal with any policies of demonisation and racism. 

To try to sort my way through the confusion of the parties in this GE, it seemed fair to tabulate what they were offering, and what they stood or stand for. To that end, I rustled up the ten most important policies to me. I then looked to see where the parties and participants in last week’s debate stood on them. The fact that I was able to find a view from the seven parties on each of my preferred policies seems to support the fact that they might think they’re relevant too.

I use the phrase ‘stood or stand’ above and this is where we find some surprises. For as we know, times changes much.

Any newly adopted policies that might not generally agree with historical positions I marked as neutral - yellow. 

Where a party was in reasonably substantial support of the policy they got a green tick. 

If the opposed or did not support the policies they got a red cross.

Fairly straightforward.

If I couldn't make up my mind where the party specifically fell in regards to a policy, or no particular opinion was expressed, then I’d allocate two symbols. The poor Lib-Dem’s were the only party to get hit that way; you just can’t swear a vow and not keep to it. It’s also why the majority got nailed on this, but the Lib-Dem’s with student fees and a ‘federal UK’ effectively did it twice, so they get two black marks.

On a personal basis I believe politicians who lie like that (really no other word for it, is there?) should be jailed for electoral fraud. They made promises in return for votes, and didn’t keep them. No different to me selling you my ‘reliable car’ then you finding out the following morning it is only good for the breakers yard. The difference here is the big UK parties are asking you to buy another car, in the same condition, while telling you it’s all bright, shiny and new. There’s a fool someplace in that scenario, and judging by the reactions of Joe and Josephine public, it wasn't the big UK parties. On the other hand, with MSM spoon-feeding the public, what other options had they? From this point of view the internet and social media have been a great leveler.

Seems like it’s time for a change? There’s no shame in learning, just - for some - the effort is beyond them.

At least in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, we've got that option, a nice bright shiny new vehicle in the form of the SNP. And so far, it has mostly done what it says on the tin. We’ll need to keep watching it though, just in case those attitudes it’ll be around are infectious. After all, there’s a track record there - just look at Labour?

Anyway, here’s the table, and based solely on policy, with my interpretation of the results, you really can see UKIP is probably a little to the left of Labour, which might account for some of their mass appeal in spite of being so poisonously radical and extreme in some areas of what they propose.



It transpires with these policies, UKIP is further LEFT than Labour.

Interestingly, the best correlation for everything might just be the referencing of 1950 Labour, because it does two things. It shows the popular appeal of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP to be based upon support of policies which Labour championed back then, and shows how far the current Labour Party has drifted from those values. In my world that’s a clear indicator of why the red rose is hemorrhaging support. It’s not that public values or what the public really wants that has changed. 

A glance over these two charts quickly reveals the true state of affairs. 

With nearly 50% of Scotland’s electorate readying to vote SNP on this platform, we can clearly and simply see that what those folk are in effect voting for was much, if not most of what Labour stood for in its prime. 

Scotland has not abandoned Labour. Labour has abandoned Scotland

By looking at this and examining current voting intentions then it follows, Scots still have much the same values they had after the Second World War. Moreover the form that we Scot’s desire our society to take hasn't really changed an awful lot. Does this in point of fact mean that we have not moved forward in 70 years, or is this indicative of our desire to retain a core value that is a foundation stone in our society which we choose to protect? 

The Labour party on the other hand..? Well, only the folks at the top of that tree and their financial backers in the City of London or perhaps the Unions can really answer that one, can’t they? Then again, it has never really been the Labour Party since before Maggie broke the Unions, has it? If it had been, perhaps she might not have been as successful in her aims as she was. I can say that because the Labour Party of the fifties was quite honourable, by comparison anyway, and what gave Maggie her toehold in 1979 was Labour’s reneging and twisting of the vow on Scottish devolution.

Simply put, in 1979 had there been no lie there would have been no Maggie. Now wouldn't that have been nice?

One thing that’s very clear, it’s not your father’s Labour Party, it sure as hell isn’t your grandfather’s, and for all the difference, you might as well vote Tory these days, or Lib-Dem, if you don’t mind backing a bunch of liars.

Then again, from what I’m seeing here, you really couldn't get a silken thread between them, could you?

Additionally, from what I now see when I look at where the Tories were in 1980, against where Labour is today, then it really should be:

‘Vote Labour – Vote Maggie’

Because right now, Labour’s proposing support for things like the creeping privatisation of the NHS and international treaties without looking to see if they’re compatible with our core values.

That’s stuff that even Maggie didn’t dare to put on the table!

No to Democratic Rule.

What else can we think. Honestly, what other interpretation can be drawn from the reaction of England’s London based media to the attempted perversion of the democratic process in the attempt to sway votes or the electoral process with lies, supposition and innuendo.

Again we see what is simply a repeat of previous elections or polls, it was evidenced very clearly in the Referendum.

This time the story runs amok, starting in the Telegraph, about Nicola wanting to see Cameron continue in Downing Street.

Look at the timeline – Story appears.

Nicola Tweets a rebuttal.

The French support Nicola’s position.

The following day there’s an awful lot of column inches and headline space devoted to the now discredited story, but it’s done in such a way, though accurately reported in the body of the article, as to lead those simply skimming headlines (which as the editors are aware is the majority of us) that Nicola Sturgeon wants David Cameron to remain as prime minister. Essentially they reported the earlier article with largely the same story, and tagged in the rebuttals.

What we should have seen in any honest and truly democratic system was a full page apology by the Telegraph, a naming and shaming of the (alleged) civil servant involved, and headlines in all the journals, TV and social media which screamed at us “Civil Servant suspended while investigation launched into Sturgeon memo”, or some sort of variation. The in depth story should then have been carried about how the Telegraph itself had suspended or terminated the journalists in question for not fully investigating and simply producing an unsubstantiated gutter press article. Unless the Editor could also have shown good cause why it was published, he should be looking at his P45 as well.

Even the Labour Party from Ed Miliband to Jim Murphy weighed in with comments – duly reported of course.

It’s not what we’ll see though. We all know it too, at least many of us do.

We’ll not see it, because the article has served its purpose.

It has ‘smeared’ Nicola Sturgeon, it’s planted a seed (hopefully) amongst some would-be SNP voters.

One thing we do know, from the BBC to the now gutter press that’s owned and originates in London, they don’t want a Scots voice in that town, not a politically vibrant one anyway. They only want our wealth and resources to ‘reallocate’ as they see fit.

I could be proven wrong, I’ll be happy to be proven wrong. If I am, I’ll print that apology, hell; I’ll scream it from the rooftops.

It’s easy to prove me wrong too, Ed, Jim, Guardian, Telegraph, et al. Just print that apology, big, bold, front page headlines.

As to the heads of the Political parties, adopt a pledge to make it a criminal offence to try to sway the result of any plebiscite by any political party or registered company if done with unsubstantiated rumour or the reporting of such. The person originating it and the editor allowing it room; five years minimum should suffice.

After all, surely attempting to pervert the course of an election is as bad as attempting to pervert the course of justice. Those who create that justice, who write the laws, in a democracy, are the people we’re electing, and although we've strict and strongly enforced laws against perverting justice, we've apparently few to none when it comes to deciding what laws will actually be passed – which happens in the electoral system. It seems if we do have any, nobody bothers much about enforcing them.

There’s really only one reason for that, it suits those already in power.

Think about it.

If it didn’t, right now, we’d see Cameron, Clegg, Miliband, Farage et.al on the news tonight, all proclaiming this as a disgrace, promising a full investigation, after all, it could just as easily have happened to one of them, couldn't it?

Oh, wait a minute? Maybe not.