Kakistocracy XXIII:Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.

"Misogyny is, of course, absolutely wrong whether it's a man against a woman or a woman against man" - Dominic Raab

Last Friday, Sir David Amess - the MP for Southend West, was brutally murdered at his constituency surgery in a Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea. A terrible, horrific, and inhumane tragedy and one that made me think about what words I use when critiquing the government, politicians, and people I disagree with in general.

I've said things, and thought things, I should not have done and I regret that. I would have found Amess' views on most things (not least religion, abortion, Brexit, and the death penalty) to be almost the exact opposite of mine (strangely enough, we'd have probably agreed on fox hunting). In fact, I would have found many of them abhorrent. But that doesn't mean he was evil or vile and it certainly doesn't justify his brutal murder.

Or violence of any kind. That's where the line is for me. Violence or incitement to violence. A physical attack on someone for opposing your viewpoint is a threat to all of us and it's a threat to democracy. I would respect Amess', and anybody else's, right to hold these views, to state them in public, and to be elected to public office on the back of them and then work to turn those opinions into law.

I would also, however, respect the right of anybody who wishes to disagree, strongly, with them. I would like to think Amess would be questioned on his views which, of course, he no longer can be. Others, in the Tory party and particularly in this administration, however can be and I will continue to do so. 

Perhaps I will mind my language a little more and I will certainly not incite violence but if leading ministers don't even know what words mean, simple words like 'misogyny', then we really have to hold them to account as best we can and, for me, that is in this series of blogs. Now, remarkably but somehow predictably, in its twenty-third edition.

If there are people, like Raab - the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Justice, in cabinet who don't even know what misogyny is then how can we expect them to put laws in place that prevent it? Is it likely that someone who doesn't even know the meaning of everyday words will have a firm grasp on governance or even, quite importantly at the moment, basic economics?

Recent visits to my local shops have seen row after row of empty shelves, pigs are being slaughtered before they can go to abattoirs to be slaughtered, and motorists are queuing up outside garage forecourts to panic buy petrol. To any sane person, and by any sane metric, this would look like a government that has lost its grip, a government whose careless Brexit has spun, as predicted by millions, completely out of control.

It looks, quite frankly, that Project Fear was simply Project Truth. Something that Boris Johnson, now - finally, admits is the case. He's now claiming that Brexit would always involve some 'teething problems' and that is what we're seeing. That'd odd because I quite distinctly remember David Davis claiming "that there would be no downside to Brexit, only a considerable upside" and Michael Gove boasting that "the day after we leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want".

Johnson, Davis, and Gove are all known liars so the fact people chose to believe them on a matter of such importance speaks a lot about the way they have gaslit the British public. In ten days it will be twenty-two years since my brother Steven, aged 22, died. Not long before he died he passed his HGV test. A few weeks ago my mum received a letter addressed to him.

From the government. They wanted to know if he'd be interested in resuming his career as an HGV driver as there is, as we all know, currently a shortage. It seems the current government line on lorry driving is they'd rather not get Poles over here to drive our lorries when there are dead people in our own country who can do the job.

I suspect he'll be told he's fit for work next. This deeply insensitive and hurtful level of incompetence is, sadly, not even a surprise. It's what we have come to expect of this government. A government who, at their recent conference in Manchester, paraded failures as successes and a government who almost worship at the altar of King Boris. A government that, to me, looks very much like a cult.

One where every criticism of it seems only to make it stronger. A government where the culture secretary Nadine Dorries (and those four words in a row will never ever look right) can complain of nepotism at the BBC despite employing two of her daughters in her office at a cost, to the tax payer, of around £80k per annum.

Labour's conference in Brighton, correctly - they're in opposition, didn't dominate the news anywhere near as much as the Tory backslapping orgy but at least they spoke, for the most part, sense and formulated some policies (though they need to really tackle the Tories on their lies, their sleaze, their cronyism, their corruption, and their poor governance) but with much of the country still in the grip of the Johnson cult, it looks like a long time and perhaps a new leader, Andy Burnham cuts through the crap - I'd like to see him take over, before any of those policies have any chance of being implemented.

Which is depressing beyond belief - and means that I will probably be writing many more of these Kakistocracy blogs. At least it's not the only thing I do. For the most part, the rest of my life has been pretty good (except not being able to buy things I want and need in my local shops). I've chatted on the phone to Mum, Dad, Shep, Vicki, Adam, Ben, and Bec and even though I had to cancel a TADS walk from Merstham to Croydon through Happy Valley and Farthing Downs I had a lovely weekend shooting the shit, as well as eating curry and pizza and visiting the National Gallery, over a few drinks with Adam and Teresa.

We even went to see Rob run the London Marathon. It was his first ever marathon and he did it in an astonishingly brilliant three hours and thirty-eight minutes. We took him, Naomi, Maya, and Zachary to the Royal Festival Hall for a coffee afterwards and he didn't even look tired. It made me wonder what level my running would be now at if I'd stuck at it. 

I went to see a couple of films at the cinema (Rose Plays Julie at Rich Mix and Gagarine at the Art Deco Rio in Dalston) and attended exhibitions at Tate Modern (Sophie Taeuber-Arp) and Dulwich Picture Gallery (Helen Frankenthaler) as well as an online event about the social behaviour of humans and (some) animals and another about why mathematics should be taught as a humanity.

I also curated, and led, another London by Foot walk from Strawberry Hill to Acton (something which gave me an enormous sense of pride) and had a lovely weekend in North Wales with Michelle and Evie that included take away vegan Chinese food, waterfalls, lakes, pumpkin picking, a maize maze, a trip across the border for Thai food in Chester, and a visit to Plas Madoc swimming pool where Evie went on the big slide on her own for the very first time.

A very proud moment for all of us. Her reading skills have come on in leaps and bounds too and I even felt, as she read me a bizarre story about Rupert and Paddington being kidnapped in Switzerland, that she is close to overtaking some adults I know with her reading ability. She's already way ahead of Dominic Raab in her understanding of words. 

But if you think that the UK is best served by a government that empowers people with less intellect, and less intellectual curiosity, than a five year old it seems likely that you've got the government, and the empty shelves, you deserve. You probably still call Raab's boss by his nickname, Boris, as if he's your friend. He's not and if you haven't grasped that yet maybe you never will. Unfortunately it's not just you who will suffer because of that.