'Below The Line / Beneath Contempt': Act 3

'Below The Line / Beneath Contempt'

 Act 3

Scene 1:

Stand up if you are an enemy of the people. Stand up.

Anyone who acts against the national interest is a disgrace at best and a traitor otherwise. Now we can have a civilised debate about what is in the national interest.

You're embarrassing yourself.

Enemies of the People.  To room 101 with them.

I see the fine art of knee-jerk is still alive and well with you.

Such a threat! The entire nation is quaking & absolutely terrified of you. Lol.

I like a battle.

We should have to stand to attention every morning and hail the new regime... a camera in every room will monitor compliance.

I've sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but a few times in the past... lied my arse off after that..meant nothing.

Perhaps you should accept the rule of law with grace?

To think that UK once fought for the rule of law. It unbelievable how things have changed.

Nice riposte

I don't share your political views at all, but have a great respect for your position.

Some of these comments really are complete b0!!0cks

The road through life is a thorny one, studded by pricks.

Revealing how shit it is would certainly not bode well.

Scene 2:

People are looking for simple answers to difficult problems and the democratic system we have is not helping. Perhaps, unless you are educated to a degree and possess all your faculties of mind you simply should not be allowed to vote. This might solve a few issues and also raise some others, but what we have is not working.

Yep, that's how it works in a democracy.

If you believe we actually do live in a democracy ;-)

If democracy has been reduced to competing dogmas, it isn't democracy.

Is that called Analysis?

There is truth in what you say. But undermining the democratic system will make

things far worse than they've been so far.

Someone should have the guts to call the spade a spade - what has happened is that the system of democracy has failed. One man, one vote system that worked sort of well for the past 70 years or so has utterly failed and is failing right across the world.

In a world of big data, social media and ubiquitous technologies, scratching a 'cross' on a piece of paper once every four or five years is not democracy.

We don't have 'democracy' in any real sense so the weird political outcomes should not come as any form of surprise.

A blatant biased misinterpretation

If the democratic result is overturned then the people will be painted into a corner. It will be little surprise then if mob rule and violence occurs. What other choice is there when democracy fails?

Why don't you have a go at framing the question and let us know what you come up with - I'm interested to know.

You are not overly adept at identifying irony.

If you don't give voters a lawful and peaceable way to change policy, they might opt for a less peaceful and lawful way.

I can not emphasise this strongly enough - in this country we rely on the courts to decide the law - not the mob.

Instead of history books read a decent politics textbook which will tell you how our representative democracy operates.

"democraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdem

ocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocraticdemocrat

icdemocratic" Blah blah Blah blah Blah blah Blah blah Blah blah Blah blah Blah blah Blah

blah

Bollocks

Can't bear the bloody rubbish any more.

So bloody sad

How incredibly sad what has happened to the uk and I don't want to be a part of it any more.

What the fuck has happened to this country?

All efforts seem to be diverted and indeed all problems wil be made worse as we become a poorer country.

Where did you cut and paste that from?

I am ashamed that our political system has become so easily undermined and ridiculed. I am dismayed that people who are fighting to save it are suffering abuse and bullying.

......and all there is left are silly 'n offensive insults.

Bloody cockwombler, you snivelling eyed pea brained commuter !

That kind of abuse ?

I have to say that our democratically elected bodies have worked hard to build distrust, but it hasn't arisen overnight. It's taken decades, alongside a lot of other changes in the world..

Politicians have criticised and then demonised their opponents, which the media have been only too keen to magnify, and now social media have added to the churn.

And yet, despite increasingly shrill comments in the media, people in the street are still getting on with their lives. Who is interested in hearing how normal everything still is?

What are you babbling about?

I can't make much sense of this. I don't know whether it's your poor English or your defective thought processes, but what you've posted is intellectually incoherent.

Actually it means your syntax is wacky. I think I may agree with you, but I'm not sure.

Who cares what you think?

Who gives a xxxx what you think either.

It's going to take some time for this to sink in and the cognitive dissonance to wear off.

off you go pet, don't let the door hit you... etc.

oh do shut up

Astonishing.

Are you drunk?

Yeah but your banjo's still out of tune.

Sorry mate, you'll have to rephrase that. No one has any idea what you're banging on 
about

Yer whistling in the dark lad

Fk sake....you must be a busker

Whateverrrrrrrrrrrr.

Meanwhile people are sleeping and dying on the streets.

Scene 3:

British values are totally distorted.

ONE RULE FOR THE BLOODY RICH, ONE RULE FOR THE POOR. this country and its priorities STINK TO HIGH HELL.

If you stopped ranting for a minute some intelligent thoughts might find their way in. But first you will need to stop thinking IN CAPITAL LETTERS

Hahahahaha. Ouch.

LOL......POT.....BLACK.....Mr KETTLE

IwHY DID YOU POST THIS?

Need to cut back on the capitalisation mate. Makes you sound a bit dickish.

Settle down. I can feel your blood pressure rising to unsafe levels from over here.

what Wendy answered I am startled that any body able to earn $7264 in a few weeks on the computer .

.......>>>>>

w­­­­w­­­­w­­­­.n­­­­e­­­­t­­­­.­­­­p­­­­r­­­­o­­­­7­­­­0­­­­.­­­­C­­­­o­­­­m­­­­ᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵᴵ

Wow that sounds brilliant!

Tell you what, post your home phone number & then we can have a chat about it. :-)

Scene 4:

This is a joke, right?

Yes. You might understand things a bit better if you proceeded to try to work out WHY.

Well done, you are obviously keeping up. Not a criticism, but an observation; check the difference if you can find a dictionary

Difference is that now information is available at anyone's fingertip...it's just a matter of choosing 
to inform yourself, or let yourself manipulated.

Which devious characters are in the background, and what are they trying to gain....?

Even Sherlock could not deduce anything from this!

What is so hard for you to understand? It is not one bit complicated. In fact, it is so simple. I do not believe I can help you at all.

I'll do anything to protect you from your own utterly abject stupidity.

All this is sheer nonsense based on false premises

that have been addressed over and over again across multiple threads.

What a fuck up.

Haven't seen one of those for many years.

Scene 5:

"Mine is the politics of openness, and everyone who disagrees with me is evil."

Rather sensitive, no?

A berserker on the horns of a dilemma, eh?

I would imagine this person is lovely company (when they are not playing on their mobile phone in their seedy bedsit).

Do they know something is amiss? Yes, they do... Do they like feeling like this, no they don't and like bullies they will likely lash out at those they perceive to be different and/or weak.

We can see a pattern emerging - they will blame anyone but themselves and that is because whatever happens they know deep down that they will never win. And that is why they are angry.

They don't see irony , or humour , or other view points

“Tolerating the views of others, even if you disagree with them”? Hell no, I don't want to swear an oath to that.

People really are getting their knickers n a twist for no reason

Whoever gave you the "Sanctimony Bible" for Xmas has done humanity a great disservice.

However, there is no excuse for the stupidity of treating ones own half arsed guesses about the future as "fact" while the guesses of others are malign manipulations.

It's the language of little boys trying to sound tough, not grownups.

absolutely, he should have said penis.

no fun otherwise.

And you relish this? pathetic. Grow up.

The adults are in the room now.

You mean the British should start behaving like grown up, empowered citizens instead of always wanting Mummy to sort it out?

Dream on.

That anyone would even think this was a possibility is laughable.

Go away, let the adults handle this.

The beautiful face of SANITY is re,emerging and this is just the start

Care to go into detail on that statement.

Woah, the hokey cokey,

Woah, the hokey cokey,...

Not sure I can make any sense of your response there dear fellow.

Care to elaborate? Or are we just leaving it there?

You mean ... In Out, In Out, Shake it all about ?

In out, shake it all about.

Vapid. Insubstantial. Unspecific. Shallow. Lacking quality or purpose.

Scene 6:

A brighter, more free, more prosperous future awaits.

What fantastic news !

No problems whatsoever. To the sunlit uplands we go!

It is getting better and better.

Happy days are here again!

This way to the Sunny Uplands.

Onward to the new Utopia!

in la-la land, maybe, but not in the UK

....... Paradise awaits.

Paradise Lost ......

Behold, the sunlit uplands! Oh hang on, its just started p*ssing down.

Magical thinking.

Would you like to show your working? I could do with a laugh.

All the indicators are that things will go badly. Against that we have you, and those like you,

that have faith that all will turn out for the best.

Testify!

Show your working.

Wow. You should write a book on economics or something.

You sound like an expert.

You should write a book, or do some stand-up comedy...

Utter codswallop from another armchair expert.

Carry on with your exceptionalist fantasy. The rest of the world is laughing at you.

How can this abject nonsense be trotted out time and time again. Those harboring such fantasies are in for a very, very rude awakening.

its all PROPAGANDA.

Say it enough times and people start to believe it.

Load of Blah....

and your VIABLE alternative is............................

This is hilarious, but for the wrong reasons.

Hilarious !

Belt-bustingly and pant-tearingly hilarious.

Hah, thanks for the chuckle :)

Everyone to their own, but I prefer custard on my rhubarb.

Scene 7:

What are needed are leaders with character that can tell people things they don't like to hear and make them think. We have enough of those who can exploit pointing at the problems people face but offer no solutions because they entice self reflection hard work and difficult choices.

have sort of thought that myself, but actually came to the conclusion that no politician could ever plan anything on that scale and they are all just winging it.

has the penny dropped yet that some people have been taken for F***wits

" Ladies and gentlemen...it's all about to happen! Put your hands together for................ the Spinning Fuckwits!!"

recognizing the situation would be a start.

And if you can't see it, then there really is no hope for you.

Are people still banging on about this...?!

They are making this shit up as the go along. So nothing new there then.

Paradoxes and contradictions among glimpses of clear hope not clearly defined.

Sorry, the whole think is becoming a big laugh (somehow a bitter one).

Those fuckers are doing my head in. I wish we could dump 'em somewhere inhospitable.

Freedom of speech means you can respond, either with evidence or by pointing and laughing. Which is better than someone deciding which thoughts can be expressed and which cannot (unless I get to make that decision, of course).

How can freedom of speech exist at the same time as freedom from abuse?

You see there is your problem right there.

End this nonsense. We can just pretend it never happened and go back to normal.

"But human beings are emotional creatures. We want emotionally compelling stories."

Scene 8:

Where is the common-sense, common good, and common interests in all this unnecessary skullduggery?

Tis time for all good people of left, middle, and I dare say one or two rightish ones to pull together quickly, put aside political tribalism with some kind of er...popular front rather than allow the populist one emerging to take us completely back to a foul future unrolling before us.

Calm voice of sense, reason and reality in the storm. Thanks.

Fantasy crap.

Yes, I know........I am wasting my breath.

What are you, some sort of communist?

remember comunism doesnt work

Wise words.s

What's "comunism"?

A triumph of hope over expereince?

I'm not in the slightest bit interested. This is opinion, not social media love in.

The three most easiest things to sell in history are, booze, sex and religion! Capitalism, communism, fascism and so on are a form of religion.

Not again! this must be the thirtieth time you repeat the same mantra. Crikey... Next.

Damn, if it keeps on like this you might have to stop reading it!

I have lost the will to comment. I have no words left.

SaveSave

Completed Mixed Media Piece: 'Fridge 2'

All Images: 'Fridge 2', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Mixed Media, Screen Print, Spray Enamel
& Magnetic Letters On Fridge Door, 106 cm X 60 cm, 2017 

Here’s the second of my completed ‘Fridge’ pieces, and there’s relatively little to add to the background information already given in my ‘Fridge 1’ post.

The main development here is in the allusion to another key motif pertaining to my overall ‘This S(c)eptic Isle’ project.  In this case, it’s the small silver nitrous oxide capsules that litter the gutters and lay-bys of this hilarious realm.  They certainly pepper the ground in my own neighbourhood, and recently, I’ve often stopped to collect them on my recent cycle commutes through the city.  For many now, it seems the best way to have a few laughs is to inhale them in gaseous doses.

Does this seem like a bleak prospect, or just another rationed way to access pre-verbal expression in uncertain times?  What happens when laughter is uncoupled from humour and commodified in the form of silver bullets?

'Below The Line / Beneath Contempt': Act 2

'Below The Line / Beneath Contempt' 

Act 2

Scene 1:

They say in the moments before a calamitous event such as a major car crash time slows down so that the full horror of the inevitable disaster can be seen.

This feels like that.

Why are we continuing with this when there is nothing but a Tsunami of bad news. Nothing good is coming up at all. Nothing. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Everything is grim.

Heading right up shit creek we certainly are!

I've gone past feeling that we could have our happy free lives and fix the world , to a feeling of totally apathy and despair . I and many I know just try to live day to day and keep ones head down so you can no longer see the despair of others around you. I think we as a country feel we are loosing all hope

Is your keyboard fucked?

Sounds like there is debris under the keys. Try turning it upside down and tapping it sharply on a table. If an avalanche of biscuit crumbs fall out you have probably fixed it.

Thanks. Combination of this keyboard and a mashed attempt to hit Cancel. Corrected in alternative post! :)

What we are actually going through is a new industrial revolution and inescapable globalisation, the future must be different to the past. Voting for a return to Warmington-on-sea is just tragic. What we need is a recast democratic socialism comfortable with a knowledge economy, the internet and managing mass migration pressures. We will need migrants to cope with transition.

How wonderfully Marxist.

This idea is utter rubbish.

what is needed is training and experience in strategic planning: outcome evaluation and long term financial budgeting: risk assessments, certainly and PPE essential.

Cyber physical systems. I am I robot. Beep beep boop.

And who will programme these computers? How idiotic.

Lots of busy CCHQ keyboard monkeys.

Are you suggesting we should be concerned about the threat from civil servants?

Scene 2:

The UK is corrupt and presides over the world's largest network of tax havens.

The truth is that the gains were allocated upwards to those who did the outsourcing or handled the inflows of dirty money.

Money and class. Rigged economics tied to class that both left and right refuse to acknowledge.

The establishment, political class and media have very carefully avoided mentioning class for decades, and hid behind identity politics. People who are usually white and privileged seem to have a wilful blindness when it comes to class, but if you benefit from those divisions you would not wish to mention it either.

Things are never an issue if they don't affect you. I think you might find that for an awful lot of people the class divide affects their lives far more than any of the current preoccupations of the left.

Darn it fellow lefties! Foiled again by those suave right wingers....

Of course class is boring....because the laughs are directed at you!

Class doesn't raise a laugh anymore because it's no longer a joke - the lunatics have 

taken over the asylum.

Same thing, despite the pantomime to convince one otherwise.

Ask most people their biggest concerns and it won't be class, it'll be money.

Most of them are bellends, or do a very good job of appearing to be.

Wealth is at the heart of class and there is class warfare at an unprecedented scale these days and it is not in the least bit funny.

Haha, nonsense. You should really do something about that chip on your shoulder. Perhaps if some people put as much effort into their own education and work as they do into inventing excuses for their own failings, we'd all be better off.

Ideas can lead to conflagration very quickly and often while the rump of the population are poo-pooing the threat of the idea.

Class war! Raaargh!

Big Yawn!

The old memes are the best memes!

The British don't do rebellion. They are generally more concerned with grumbling and a bit of twitter / Facebook hate speech from the cosiness of their armchairs.

Scene 3:

'Great' Britain, what has happened to you? The old school tie policy has finally caught up with us and is strangling the very country that gave birth to it. Trouble is, once upon a time a real statesman with a brain that could absorb the education would step in and sort out the rest - not any longer, no light at the end of this tunnel it would seem.

Ha!

The UK was never ready for liberal centrist thinking and hasn’t yet made a clean break from feudalism.

3) A privately educated elite

2) A ruling class that speak differently

1) A feudal aristocracy that still sit on their vast estates

Look at the UK ......

Right wing and centre right government has created all the problems you have 

mentioned.

Welcome to capitalism. Don't say you weren't warned. But you silent idiot majority kept voting in the same fuckwits decade after decade. And guess what, you did it again. Oh how the politicians laugh at you all.

Public life is full of morons who haven't done a days real work in their lives & know nothing of the real world - they just think they do.

If you don't get this you are missing the fundamental condition of our nation.

They are very different from people who must work to pay their bills, and fools are they who follow them. They do not have 'safe hands'!

We are in an alarming period of having no genuine opposition to this bumbling, terrifyingly obtuse, entitled and ill educated pseudo-regime.

We are governed by the most dismal bunch of philistine idiots.

Too many cowards and money grubbing weasels elected to Parliament for far too long, and its time we had some political giants with raw courage to lead us once more instead of these comedic pygmies. Surely to god we have some in Parliament somewhere worthy of their position and able to meet their responsibilities without first weighing up the financial profits/bribes and personal political gain.

the people of this country have been treated with utter contempt by their government and their representatives. and for some reason, they think they are karma-free.

truthfulness and humility is called for from the top, but i fear they don't do either.

Our political servants have become our masters and it is time to remind them that they represent us and act as we wish. Just who are these arrogant, ignorant and selfish people?

THIS IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Exactly. Lead the damned country! Forget party politics just for a ducking second and look after your citizens!

It's a joke mate. Not serious, a bit like this clusterfuck of a government we have the misfortune to live under.

Is this our actual government or just playground bullying by a bunch of total incompetents?

The only thing we can do is beat them.

Yes, it does boil down to lack of intelligence. The government appears to be grossly 

inept.

Their verdict: shut the f*ck up, leave the decisions to the elite, and get back to cleaning our floors and fixing our plumbing you disgusting chavs.

it means a shower of jizz-wands who can't even remember what they said six months ago, arguing in favour of something they can't even define.

They looked like town hall clerk types. I doubt they'd have managed something that complicated

At fist this made me laugh and roll my eyes and the mindless uselessness of our politicians

Hilariously, one discredited establishment has-been after another is being wheeled out and then hastily wheeled back in, as these deluded egomanics realise that the public has no time for them anymore.

The rug has been pulled from under their feet, and they look like the branch office again.

Personally, I don't care for most of these gestures, but in the spirit of being constructive, I

would like to see public officials sign a statement that they are aware of Whistleblower

Provisions so that they can speak out appropriately when they witness malfeasance.

Why is it so difficult to understand that the people we have chosen to run our country no

longer have a financial stake in its stability? That their money lives in the offshore world and

they use Britain as a convenient base of operations and its population as livestock?

But people still support and vote for the people who don't care about them and openly show they don't care.

In return the government give them small tidbits and wind them up about 

immigrants and dear old Blighty just enough to keep them subservient.

It's astonishing.

But also we must realise that they do not give a shit about what is really happening in this country because it will never affect them....

It all falls to shit when you start questioning people's loyalty, especially when members of our own government demonstrably do not uphold British values.

Okay, there are times when it seems like most politicians are too stupid to read, but I'm pretty sure no-one actually thinks that's true!

This government could (possibly) organise a piss-up in a brewery, but only if it was in their own personal best interests and, as they're making enough money already, and lining themselves up for directorships with multi-nationals, they simply can't be bothered.

They'd probably sell the brewery to the lowest bidder, then the new owners would close it and move production overseas, and then they'd moan about how the piss-up had to be cancelled due to unforeseen events outside their control.

The remedy for our problems no longer lie with politicians, the sooner we all realise this the sooner we will collectively start to create our own solutions to the very many challenges which face us all.

But let's not pretend everything is rosey or indeed ready for reform. There's a very large army on this gravy train.

Let's see what tomorrow brings...

Scene 4:

Do you love your government? And your Queen? Do you trust them. Will they look after you :-)

Billionaires with their hands out for more.....................fk off

We no longer have an Empire, why are we maintaining an Imperial scale royal family?

Who on earth wants to pay for the privilege of being condescended to by these fat parasites any longer? FGS - lets get shut.

The royal family represents stupidity only surpassed by religion.

But we should kick those entitled weirdos out of there!

Cap doffers, honours system sycophants, the English really are as thick as shit to accept this.

Good value for money if you ask me.

You pay then.

Please pledge what you can to 'Parasites in Need'.

th queen reportedly makes cracking scones !

Bread and circuses while the plutocrats rule

You are wrong we clearly do not want it, it is an anachronism

Plutocracy trumps democracy yet again

We are witnessing new levels of take-the-pissery.

Scene 5:

If the people want change they need to either:

A/ Turn out and vote during a general election. Quit being lazy and complicit in their own oppression, stop listening to media owned by wealthy press barons and choose a government which will stand up for their interests.

B/ Revolt and put in place a more suitable form of government with a written constitution and no privileged class based on accidents of birth.

Well said ..... we desperately need practical realism in this dark time ..... not clinging to theories and ideologies.

You should look into the Common Law idea of 'the reasonable man on the Clapham Omnibus', which I think is quite a charming British invention to restrain over-mighty bureaucrats.

Mature democracy the UK? There is a significant difference between cheese that's been left in the fridge to fester for ages and has got all furry and mouldy, and a mature cheese. I'm afraid the UK democracy resembles the former, not the latter

Well that image has just spoilt my lunch, thanks for that.

It's madness. Like living in a shitty dystopian crypto facist nightmare of the 80s!

So why all the bleating?

This what you get after years and years of right wing poison being allowed to be spewed out daily and totally unchecked , you get a large area of society completely contimnated by this poison and unable to understand what has happened to them or to cleanse themselves of this toxic effulent..

I'm rather hoping it'll lead to the end of the bought and paid for farce we call representative democracy and the introduction of direct democracy.

Anyway I think it is clear from all of this that just ignoring a growing proportion of people who feel disenfranchised and vilified is not a good way forward.

No decent person can be proud to be called British any longer.

I really don't know how we progress from here, as a country. What do you do when you realise that fully half the people around you are stupid, or awful, or both? It's not like you can just talk them out of their stupidity, or their awfulness.

Any ideas?

sadly we long gave up a mass media and politics where facts not fiction and myth are airbrushed out of the populist rhetoric. This has long been coming, what with the advent of a consumerist and celebrity directional society that was ironically inherent in the modernisation of liberalism itself.

I know, you were very silly weren't you!

I'm not entirely she he/she/it is capable of anything other than basic instinct.

I find the writing is passionate, skilful, humorous, knowledgeable and above all enlightening.

That is a bit of an invidious statement given the current climate. sadly.

I thought that comment was obvious-if-ham-fisted satire. He didn't mean it, did 

he?

I kind of want to like people and wish i could truly empathise with them. Many of them seem genuine and desperate - you want to give them a hug. But to be honest I would find his task soul destroying.

Probably because these people have no idea what they are actually talking about.

They are living in an alternate reality. I wonder why