The whole of Westminster is drenched in sleaze and scandal. The entire establishment is being brought into disrepute. As the class divide grows, bourgeois ‘democracy’ itself is coming under question. We say: throw out this capitalist cesspit!
By hook or by crook, it seems like the Tories are doing everything they can to erode what little trust the public may have previously held in Parliament and the institutions of bourgeois democracy in Britain.
From fines over partygate, to super-rich Rishi the tax-dodging chancellor; and from horny Tories caught red-faced in the Commons, to convictions of paedophilia; not to mention numerous revelations of sexual misconduct and misogyny by MPs – all of this within the space of a month or so!
To top it all off, we have the sickening sight of Boris Johnson, the King of Corruption, hypocritically taking the moral high ground, as he attempts to deflect from his own crimes by handing out pious criticisms of these fellow degenerates.
All the sleaze and gross misconduct in the Tories comes straight from the top. The whole party is rotten from the head down.
The actions and behaviour of this unaccountable cabal in Westminster has become so out-of-hand in recent times, it almost beggars belief. We shouldn’t be surprised, however. These scoundrels are only as corrupt and putrid as the system they uphold and represent.
Stench and sleaze
To be fair, such outrages are not just limited to the Tory Party. According to recent reports, as many as 56 MPs are said to be under investigation for sexual misconduct – almost 1-in-10.
At the same time, we now have an almost-farcical situation in which the leaders of both main political parties – one, the Prime Minister; the other, the former Director of Public Prosecutions – are under investigation by the police for potentially breaking the law during the pandemic.
But the stench is not just limited to Parliament. Each-and-every pillar of the British establishment is being shaken by scandals and corruption.
The Metropolitan police, for example, has been proven to be institutionally racist and sexist. The Royal Family, meanwhile, have been rocked by the allegations against Prince Andrew, amongst others.
All the while, workers in Britain are facing the biggest cost-of-living crisis in decades.
Them and us
This sharp contrast between the lives of ordinary people, and those who claim to represent them, is certainly not going unnoticed.
The scandalous behaviour of those at the top of society is contributing to a massive rejection of the establishment, sowing seeds of deep distrust in Britain’s political representatives, and in the entire ‘democratic’ system.
A recent report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), in association with the Observer, has revealed a dramatic loss of trust amongst young adults towards bourgeois democracy in the UK, with as many as “four in five people in Britain [saying that] politicians poorly understand their lives”. And who can blame them?
As energy bills surge, for example, millions are being plunged into fuel poverty. Meanwhile, energy monopolies such as Shell and BP have recently announced record profits. Yet the Prime Minister has fiercely defended this ruthless profiteering, stating categorically that he will take no action to aid working-class households through this crisis.
No wonder that just 6% of UK voters believe their views have any real influence over the decisions taken by government ministers. By contrast, more than four times as many (25%) believe that major party donors are able to shape policy. This is followed by business groups and corporations (16%), newspapers and the media (13%), and lobbyists and pressure groups (12%).
Polarisation and volatility
It is not just recent events that have chipped away at the public’s faith in ‘democracy’. This is a process that has been in motion for some time, especially amongst younger generations.
Confidence in the British establishment has been in steady decline since the 1950s. Voter turnout in the UK has been consistently below the average across advanced capitalist countries in every general election since 1951.
And not only do we see low voter turnouts, but according to the IPPR report: “The 2010, 2015, and 2017 general elections had the highest ever levels of voter switching.”
This is a reflection of the deep political polarisation and volatility in society – itself a symptom of the deep crisis of British capitalism. It is, says the IPPR, “evidence of a ‘protest’ against the democratic status quo”; another sign of the stormy period that we have entered.
Class divide
The IPPR goes on to warn that a failure to tackle the root causes of this discontent will result in the foundations of liberal democracy being jeopardised.
This is true. As the capitalist system continues its decay and decline, with its representatives continuing to follow this same downward trajectory, the consciousness of workers and youth will become increasingly radicalised. At a certain point, this will express itself in revolutionary explosions.
As with the rest of the world, British society is on increasingly choppy waters. Inflation, cuts, attacks on living standards are exposing evermore the growing class divide between them and us.
And this, in turn, is stripping back the establishment’s mask, revealing the ugly face of capitalism and its defenders for all to see. Let us do away with these monsters – and fight to ditch their rotten system!
