Arachne's Deception

'Oh, What a Tangled Web we Weave/When First we Practice to Deceive.' Walter Scott's words from "Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field" published in 1808 are as ever true today as at all times since he wrote them. Deception, sleight of hand and diversion are the stock in trade of politics. Farage has given up on his project of courting the reactionary vote of the shires and the English upper middle classes; as the political ground has shifted beneath the feet of both him and the Tory Party, as it has careened vastly to the right and scared their natural demographic toward more the moderate parties of the middle ground, including Labour, Liberal-Democrats and the Greens. Expediency, however, is Nigel Farage's middle name. His focus now is more populist, aiming at the disaffected working class and lower middle class voters who have frankly become pissed off with the establishment per se [egged on by socials, traditional media and sundry influencers] and are looking for some sanctuary within which to cast their vote in the form of Reform. The fact that Reform has nary a policy to its name is neither here nor there, as they deal in juicy soundbites that sound positive to the disaffected. The Labour government, by the same token, has shifted to a centre-right position and made a strong move toward bolstering national defence [a power-play in response?] in order to garner some of the escapees from the Tory ranks.

There is some very complicated manoeuvring going on at the moment in global politics, and the current DEFCON 3 state that we appear to be in at the moment with regard to the US/Russia eyeballing situation - with the rest of us [in Europe, particularly] stuck in the middle of it - is I think probably yet more posturing, with a side-order of knock-on benefit to the UK government, in that it can show itself to be acting in the national defence as all small-c conservative government/establishments should, particularly in the public eye. Is this a deliberate ploy to keep the swivel-eyed Farageists at bay long enough to see them wither and die under their own hand? May-be, maybe not, but whatever you think of the government and its economic policies as they stand, the old ruse of getting the populace to rally round the flag when threatened by an external force has always worked in the past, however grudgingly on the people's part, to at least go along with the establishment on the issue. Is this the prelude to World War Three? I'm not so sure. Whatever happens, on a domestic level, we do need to stem the threat from the extreme right and 'populists' alike: neither have any positive contribution to make to our society. I just hope and trust that the rest of the political bunch can get together and do some good for a change...