BEHIND THE HYPE:
BE CAREFUL WHO YOU VOTE FOR.
The video below, URGENT MESSAGE To All British People seems pretty convincing and manages to hide its political identity behind some good old-fashioned British jingoism, as personified by that late, batty old interstellar traveller, Patrick Moore. Moore was a true British eccentric and a very entertaining character, but there’s a lot of the old ‘Colonel Blimp’ about him. Making our minds up over how we vote in the EEC Referendum on June 23rd is extremely difficult and frustrating, because from my unashamedly Socialist viewpoint, it is confusing that Cameron, Hunt and Osborne want to stay in whilst the equally obnoxious Gove and Boris Johnson and other assorted right wing band-waggoneers want out. So if your grasp on UK politics is not as strong as it might be, watching this video with its ‘sensible’ presenters and sinister undertones could well lead you to the ‘Out’ vote. Yet it makes sense to see who all these presenters are and what their beliefs and backgrounds are.
CHRISTOPHER BOOKER (left) and the others are all involved in some way with either UKIP or the ultra-right-wing Freedom Association. This organisation has been virulently anti-trade union and supported Apartheid in South Africa. Booker himself is a Climate Change nonbeliever. He also campaigned that asbestos was not harmful, and that passive smoking was not a health risk, and he believes in the same things US ‘born again’ evangelists believe - creationism and intelligent design. Yet he was one of the founders of Private Eye magazine, which gives us pause for thought. Most of the members of the Freedom Association are right wing Tories, such as
Chief Executive Simon Richards, (above) and one council member is the man who hates the BBC, culture secretary John Whittingdale. The female journalist in the film, Lindsay Jenkins, (right)
has worked for US and UK Investment banks and the Ministry of Defence. Freedom Association Director Ray Broomfield is another right wing Tory with links to Theresa May. Christopher Gill is ex-UKIP and a former Tory MP, and Trevor Colman (below) was a Police Superintendent 1962-95 and a UKIP MP until 2014. There are all sorts of suspicious right wing political links here, such as the Taxpayer’s Alliance which perfectly justify the sinister soundtrack music.
However, doomy though this all is, it still doesn’t help a political mind to settle on a decision. I can see the advantages of leaving the EU, but does this mean I’d be aligning myself with this bunch of closet brownshirts? Jeremy Corbyn wants us to stay in. So explain yourself, comrade - what do we get? One point in the film is the cumbersome size of the EEC today, and this was filmed before the idea that Turkey might come on board. And if Obama gets the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, now generally known as TTIP signed off (it’s all being discussed in secret - no democracy there, then, or Cameron’s promised ‘transparency’) we might well lose the NHS. TTIP is primarily a deal to cut tariffs and regulatory barriers to trade between the US and EU countries, making it easier for companies on both sides of the Atlantic to access each other's markets. Industries it would affect include pharmaceuticals, cars, energy, finance, chemicals, clothing and food and drink. If we try and introduce our own legislation, for example, to prevent corporations buying the NHS for privatisation, the corporate lawyers can take our government to court and we have no power of legal sanction. Is this why Health Minister Jeremy Hunt wants us to stay in the EEC? He’d get a good place on the privatised NHS Plc private board! Maybe this fact alone is enough to vote ‘out’, but I still haven’t made up my mind, although I did vote against joining in 1973.
So, enjoy the video. Eat your heart out, Hammer Films!