Saturday 6 November 2010

Remember, Remember The 5th November........

Yesterday Nourishing obscurity had a great post, linking to 'that speech' from the film "V for Vengeance" - one that I shall shamelessly reproduce from Nourishing.......
"Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke.

But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.

There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way.

Why?

Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there?

Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.

How did this happen? Who’s to blame?

Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be?

War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor … He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten.

More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory.  His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.

So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot."
 It is worth noting that the high chancellor in "V for Vengeance" has mutated from Major, through Blair and Brown, to Cameron. As is now acknowledged, we live in a 'one-party' state in that there is no difference between the Lib/Lab/Con as to how we should live our lives - they may all use a different form of words but the end result is exactly the same.

Since approximately 1990 we, the people, have been lied to; we have been 'conditioned' to changes in our country and society by political gerrymandering; we have been led to accept intrusion into our private lives, all in the name of terrorism; we have had our sovereignty and the right to self-government handed to unelected individuals based in another 'country'; we have been taken to war in conflicts in which we had no place to be; all this in the name of 'democracy' and with the full connivance of the media. In a nutshell, we have been well and truly fucked.

With apologies for the use of basic 'Ango-Saxon', I can but refer to words addressed to me by my former wives at the time of each divorce: "The fucking has to stop - I no longer love you". As a people, we must turn those remarks to the vast majority of our politicians and say to them: "The fucking has to stop, we no longer love you and we want a divorce"!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

WfW,
excellent post as usual, agreed we are well and truly fucked. I have a long running, one sided discussion with my own MP, the europhile David Crausby. He absolutely refuses to answer any question I put to him, quoting 'parliamentary protocol'.They
the ptb just dismiss we the people, so I can't even ask for a DIVORCE
WTF!!!!

david:

Witterings from Witney said...

thanks for the comment, David.

Scooper said...

I saw this film for the first time yesterday and wished it was a documentary rather than fiction. It would be great to see Westminster blown up like that and we start our political system from scratch. We might even get some worthwhile debate with people who actually have some life experience rather than a bunch of wealthy kids who all have the same pointless degree and circle of friends.
Like Anon above I have also had a long running conversation with my own MP. Well, it's only been 13 weeks but that's long enough to go without a reply to some very basic question about the Government's energy policy. Yesterday a letter arrived on HoC stationery but I haven't had the heart to open and read it yet as I know what sort of crap it's going to contain.
My belief is that we should all be questioning our own MPs all of the time. I recently emailed my own to ask in advance how she intended to vote on the Draft EU Budget and got no reply until after the vote to be told that she hadn't seen my email but would get back to me! I checked Hansard and found out how she voted and then emailed by thoughts to her, and they weren't exactly subtle.
While we take no interest in what our own MPs do, they will please themselves. If enough people in my own constituency were to do what I am doing, it would much more difficult for my MP to be whipped, or concentrate on her career progress if she really though that she was going to get it in the ear (and ultimately lose her seat) when she defied he constituents' views.
We may or may not change things but I'll be damned if she's going to vote pro-EU without once thinking that she's got an email on it's way from me and potentially heckled next time she opens a local supermarket. It's the first step in my view and we should all engage with letting the bastards know what we want - if I'm in the minority in our constituency so be it and I'll accept that, but I won't be silent while she votes for hare brained, self serving policies which few if any of the people around here agree with.
If I had the time and ability, I would start a campaign to help people take on their MPs and make them directly accountable to their constituents.