Hitchens: England got a honest politician, deal with it!

[hinduwoman]

Seems that the new labour leader in UK Jeremy Corbyn refused to sing God save the Queen since he is a republican and atheist. The media frenzy over this dastardly act got so bad that Hitchens who loathes him came to his defence --

We say we want politicians who are open and honest. And then, when we get one, we angrily pelt him with slime until he cringes to the mob, starts hiding his real views, and hires a spin doctor just like the others


I think our wonderful laws and constitution thrive because of this difference. Nobody is right all the time. A fierce and principled opposition stops a fat, complacent government from making stupid mistakes.


And I might add, these freedoms were what the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots saved when they won the Battle of Britain. Some of them may have been unsure about the Monarchy, if they’d had time to think about it. And I wonder how many of the soldiers who slogged doggedly through the Western Desert, Burma, Italy and Normandy were a bit Left-wing, too.
The world’s full of countries where you have to salute the leader and sing the party song in public. This isn’t one of them, so to hell with all the superpatriots who condemned Jeremy Corbyn for not singing God Save The Queen.
What are they patriotic for, exactly, if not the freedom to dissent, the crown of all our liberties and our greatest achievement?


So don’t let me hear you complaining again that our leaders are too smooth and obsessed with their images

And do you really think that the Blairite smoothies, who pretended to be patriots and monarchists, really were? Do you prefer liars to honest men?

So how long do you think this honest politician would last?

 

[BH]

What does it say about us as a society to think you have ot have evil and crooked people run everything to get everything done? What you are basically saying is that evil trumps good and we are in error who believe in practicing ethics, law, and so forth.

 

[fromderinside]

Damn. Hitchens was mentioned. I thought for a moment there's been another resurrection, this time an atheist.

 

[Sarpedon]

While I admire his consistency, I really don't see much of a practical difference between a republic and a constitutional monarchy where the monarch is a mere figurehead. I can't imagine getting worked up over it.

 

[TSwizzle]

Lol, Corbyn just hired a spin doctor. Not any spin doctor but Seumus Milne. Of the Guardian no less. Who's father was general director of the BBC. Laugh ? I nearly paid the license fee !!

 

[arkirk]

What does it say about us as a society to think you have ot have evil and crooked people run everything to get everything done? What you are basically saying is that evil trumps good and we are in error who believe in practicing ethics, law, and so forth.

It appears in our country and many others in the world that there is a kind of belief in the irony of corrupt politicians doing things best. That is exactly as the corrupt politicians would have it. The belief is false on its face, but we still have people accepting George W. Bush, international war criminal for a second term. We still have drone user Obama for our president and some actually listen to him moralizing. It is truly a spooky place with all this type of thing going on. Trump can call mexicans rapists and thieves and not get run out of town...no...instead get improved ratings. When a society abandons humanistic values, you get one like the one under which we are living today. The question is how to bring humanistic values to the front of our consciousness and make them determining factors in our national policies. Sanders' campaign is the closest thing to that I have seen, though actually the Green platform in the last election was better in terms of being square with humanistic values. Whenever a candidate writes off a significant portion of society, he is playing the Hitler game...granted his scale may not approach totality, but the direction of his policy is the same.