Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall? Are you hoping that the snow will start to fall?
Okay, I’ll shut up. No more Slade and no daft Christmas puns. Whatsoever.
Although I must admit, it didn’t feel like capitalism had stolen Christmas when I was a youngster, or at least nothing like what we see today where you wouldn’t be surprised to see McDonalds and Google become the official sponsors of the Yuletide season.
It’s beginning to feel a lot like November and December is more about an economic stimulus leading to massive monthly profits for ginormous tax-shy corporations and the brazen exploitation of the working classes, crushed by inhuman workloads.
The Santa Claus we see today, shaped by Coca Cola in the 1930s, probably wasn’t meant to be the new face of the age of capitalism’s mighty reign, just a useful decorative marketing tool. But the world chose to adopt Mr Cola’s idea and Santa Claus became the embodiment of our culture’s capitalistic fervour.
We need to reclaim Christmas
Over in the United States, it all begins with Thanksgiving, or a celebration of colonial genocide, if you prefer. We then effortlessly glide into the capitalist schemes of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and the next thing you know, you’re in December paying for a Robovac that you didn’t actually need and a huge smart TV that you didn’t actually want — neither of which you can afford.
A trip to Woolworths and Our Price felt pretty magical back in the 1980’s. Late night shopping was on a Thursday evening, and if you went into the town centre it kind of smelt like Christmas, rather than piss.
But even forty-something years ago, the capitalist project had already tightened its cancerous grip on society. Most of us just didn’t realise it at the time, me included.
Wouldn’t it be incredible if we could take back Christmas from the capitalist marketers? I don’t wish to sound bah humbug, but our society has been manipulated into a culture that bases Christmas around the giving and receiving of presents, and the biggest winner is always going to be capitalism.
What would Jesus do?
I’m sure that I have just been incredibly unlucky, this past week, because it seems every time I switch the wireless on to catch up with this and that, we are having the political and media elite once again looking to blame their own litany of failures on migrants and refugees.
Will Keir Starmer address just one question?
Probably not, but I will ask anyway.
How many migrants is the right amount? He must have a figure in mind. Why does Keir Starmer feel unable to tell us what he thinks is the right number of migrants that are needed to keep Britain running?
We do all know a vast majority of migrants arrive in the country perfectly legally, and not in a small rubber dinghy as the likes of Farage and the several-hundred-thousand people that signed a never likely to succeed petition as many times as they fancied will have you believe, right?
The Tories answer to cutting migration numbers lies within the power of automation, and if all goes to plan you’ll have a robot asking you if you want a 200 gram special offer Toblerone with your 10 litres of unleaded.
Starmer won’t solve anything
Let me put this on record now. Keir Starmer, like those before him, will fail to solve the migration ‘crisis’, because the crisis he is trying to solve doesn’t need solving.
I can just imagine Starmer and his cronies coming together to decide the answer to their ‘crisis’ is further clickbait headlines for right-wing tabloids, because that’s been a rip roaring success for the previous umpteen Jonny-Foreigner-obsessed governments, hasn’t it?
Despite the numbers gradually falling, there are still an estimated 831,000 job vacancies in the UK. Surely the ‘economist’ chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will know only too well that unfulfilled vacancies have a massively damaging effect on our economy?
To be completely honest with you, beyond the utterly shameful demonisation of people who are looking to improve and contribute to our society, my immediate concern for the Labour government’s war on disabled people is far greater than it is for yet another government ‘failing’ on immigration.
Assisted Suicide
This malignant Labour government wants people living in mental distress to be forced to receive visits from ‘work coaches’, in hospital.
This hateful, inept Labour government is going to freeze thousands of older people to death, according to their own figures.
This despicable, unpopular Labour government wants to force unemployed people to take dangerous weight loss drugs.
And don’t even get me started on the Assisted Dying Bill.
Disabled people thinking they are some sort of burden, being coerced into ending their own lives? No, absolutely not.
330 members of parliament voted in favour of the bill, including Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer, and you seriously want me to worry about the never-ending failure of successive governments to come up with something that resembles a sensibly balanced immigration policy, while British parliament has just legitimised the killing of sick and disabled people?
I’m not going to waste my life getting angry about foreigners when there is so much awfulness in our own country that has absolutely nothing to do with small boats, a plumber from Poland, a surgeon from Syria, an Amazon driver from Albania, a bricklayer from Bulgaria, or a genocide victim from Gaza.
Merry Christmas – and it’s only 1 December
Indeed, I most likely have more in common with the aforementioned foreign folk than I ever will with the divisive, nationalistic flag-shagging agenda that seeps out of the House of Commons
Desperate Keir Starmer wilfully fuels the immigration fire whilst the friendlier right-wing tabloids will dutifully fan the flames on his behalf, because it serves as the most perfect of covers for his own Diddyesque personal approval ratings, and his government’s deeply unpopular policies.
You might vaguely remember Starmer’s “Five Missions”?
The first pledge was to achieve the highest growth in the G7, and it was central to Labour’s general election campaign.
It said:
1) Kickstart economic growth to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 – with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.
A report from the New Statesman claims this mission/pledge/promise/commitment has been unceremoniously dumped by the Labour Party.
What? Keir Starmer, breaking yet another sacred vow to the British electorate?
If only somebody had warned them.
Featured image via Rachael Swindon
