A simple desultory Philippic

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

I write now because I suppose that the events of the last few weeks have reached a plateau. We have been helpless bystanders watching the slow car crash that is the end of Labour, and like the Roman Empire, it has imploded for pretty much the same reasons; it has over-extended itself fiscally, it has colonised the political narrative to the detriment of those of other political pursuasions and world views who would, quite reasonably, be expected to show tacit allegiance - had they felt that this was a project with noble aspirations - and it has fallen sway to those who are in government but not in power. The final years of the Roman Empire were characterised by marriages of convenience and assassinations. Brown hangs on merely, with an instinct for survival and nothing more.

The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.

Much has bee made of the emergence of the BNP, after they gained two seats in the European elections. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that there is something deeply disingenuous about the way members of main stream parties are queueing up to posture and pose and rant about how terrible this is - as if the BNP has somehow crept up on them and delivered a surprise knock-out. This of course, is not true. Everyone has seen it coming because everyone realises that the issues that the BNP campaigned on are being ignored by those we have elected to protect our country.

True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.

What of our present leaders? Well, for a start, not a lot of them have the benefit of a public mandate. I think of Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson and others, who are there by virtue of their own Machiavellian mendacity, and not, the ballot box. Hypocritical then, for them to scream "anti-democracy" when the hoi-polloi show disdain for the low moan spectacular of MPs who are leaving in disgrace because of their over enthusiastic use of expenses.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

Of the all the interviews on College Green and all the commentators with their agendas flying high, none have mentioned what I think is the reason UKIP did so well. We were denied a referendum on the EU treaty, that is why they did so well. It is not rocket science to figure that a party that campaigns on leaving the EC is the focus of the majority in this country who wish to do just that, but were lied to and fobbed off. The pundits would prefer to go with the "protest" vote line. Well, I voted UKIP and although, yes it was a protest, I genuinely feel cheated about the promised referendum that never was about my freedom to determine my future.

A word finally about the SNP. They have consolidated their power base beyond the stated expectations of the SNP leadership. I shall return to the fold at the next election and support them. In a year's time, Labour will be irrelevant in Scotland and those, like Tom Harris, now fully understand how serious that is.

Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.

Tom was one of the few who had the guts to stand up and say the truth to the face of the Prime Minister. Sadly, he is isolated and now has the mark of Cain, along with the other suspects. Instead of being the agent of change, he, like others with his convictions, will be swept away in the ugly last grasp of power.

(All quotations: Marcus Tullius Cicero. The irony of Cicero is that he believed in the Republic that finally and brutally disposed of him)

"The politicians of his time, he believed, were corrupt and no longer possessed the virtuous character that had been the main attribute of Romans in the earlier days of Roman history. This loss of virtue was, he believed, the cause of the Republic's difficulties." http://www.iep.utm.edu/c/cicero.htm