This evil savagery is not Islam nor is it Islamic!

The atrocity perpetrated in Paris yesterday, is just an act of utter barbarism and the illogical actions of deranged madmen.

ISIS have now claimed responsibility for the mindless criminal acts in the centre of Paris, and I suppose it was to be expected, as this organisation has truly "lost the plot" so far as their actions are concerned.

They have deliberately set out to sicken the civilised (?) world into reacting against them, such that they can then propagandise their battle as a war against Imperialist Crusaders! 

Moderate Islam has to overcome their internal strife between Shia and Sunni versions of Islam and the west has to stop interfering and assuming that all Arabs want a form of Islam that dovetails with Western Democracy (or what the West laughingly calls Democracy)

The moral pendulum has to start swinging back soon !

Now then, I'm not asking the average reader to become a devout and practising Priest/Nun/Abbot, nor am I asking them to believe in some ethereal supreme being (God) sitting on a celestial cloud in the sky dispensing wine and honey whilst memorising each of the 7 billion souls on this earth's pecadiloes (with a view to dispatching them to either an eternity of burning in some sort of metaphoric furnace or joining him on the fluffy uplands of the everlasting sunshine and light) depending on how many times they've transgressed.

What I am asking is, that as a society we begin to regain some moral ground from the grasping, greedy and frankly obscene, vision of capitalist success that our politicians would have you believe to be some sort of Nirvana, inhabited by everyone in a well paid and valuable job.

1. Has the United Kingdom lost all sense of morality? 
2. Has the United Kingdom lost its inherent decency?
3. Has the United Kingdom lost its compassion?

The answer to all three points would seem to be a resounding YES.

The chart above verges on being obscene in the 21st century, that the 90% who feature on the lowest category are so financially disadvantaged to an almost Dickensian state of affairs.

Meanwhile, David Cameron has been accused of overseeing a “bonus bonanza” after Whitehall bureaucrats pocketed more than £90million in pay-outs last year.

Figures obtained by The Huffington Post UK show that in the year to April, 12 Government departments forked out £89.4million in bonuses to staff.

The most rewarding was the Department for Work and Pensions, which handed out £42.1million in bonuses to its staff - £38.1million of which went to Senior Civil Servants.

The figures only relate to 12 out of the 20 Government departments, meaning the total bonus figure could soar to almost £140 million if the average payout of almost £7million per department continues.

This self centred grasping former leader of the Tory Party is the man behind the controversial bedroom tax and lives rent-free in a £2million aristocratic country house… with at least FOUR spare bedrooms. Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is a tenant of the landed gentry Fremantle family. IDS married into the Fremantle family in 1982 and was given use of the mansion by his father-in-law, the 5th Baron Cottesloe, in 2001.

Food-banks, austerity across the board, swingeing cuts in benefits to the disabled, penalties of benefit cuts if the claimants fail to comply with arbitrary and oft times petty rules! This is the sort of society the Tories would have you believe is an improvement. 

There has to be another way ! Surely to God?

Cameron doesn't even know that his party are squeezing his own constituency

There's a letter {above} circulating in the Guardian article by George Monbiot from Prince Boffo, a.k.a. David "Posh Boy" Cameron to the head of Oxfordshire County Council which clearly shows that our esteemed leader hasn't got a Scooby Do about how much this government's austerity programme is affecting ordinary people! The Westminster elite and in particular this party of Eton offcuts are so out of touch with reality, there is a danger that the natives (in darkest Witney or indeed even Chipping Norton) may be revolting!

It’s worth remembering that Oxfordshire, which is run by Conservatives, is among the wealthiest counties in England, with the nation’s lowest level of unemployment. In common with every aspect of austerity, the cuts have fallen hardest on those least able to weather them: the local authorities in the rest of the country! Ergo, if it's difficult for the wealthy Oxfordshire County Council to reduce their costs and overheads, what chance of the rest of the country? 

Only the most profligate of numpties could argue against "living within your means", but where your "means" are being pegged back to 1% per annum (nurses, public sector workers if they haven't been made redundant by austerity?) as opposed to the Honourable (??) Members of Parliament miserly increase of 11%, or indeed being swingeingly cut if you're having to rely on any form of welfare subsidy by arch public enemy Iain Duncan Smith, then it really is time to rethink your party's attitude to the public finances.

It would be laughable if it were not so serious for those less fortunate individuals who don't have the benefit of a private education, a rich father or indeed have won the lottery.

20/20 vision for the 21st century from the 20th century seer

The island of Jura was the sanctuary that Orwell found after World War 2, and the place where most of his book "1984" was written. An island off the west coast of Argyllshire where the deer outnumber people by 11 to 1.

George Orwell wrote this extremely accurate vision of the future in the book based on his vision of the way society was headed.

By extrapolation the middle classes or "Outer Party" makes up 13% of the population.

The Proles or The lower classes;

"So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”

The Outer Party or middle class;

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

Remind you of any city perchance??

The Inner Party or Ruling class;

Inner Party members also have access to spacious living quarters, personal servants, private motor vehicles, and high quality food, drink and consumer goods in contrast to the low quality gin, synthetic coffee and improperly manufactured cigarettes consumed by the Outer Party and the Proles. Inner party members have access to wine, as well as real coffee, tea, sugar, milk and well-made cigarettes. Inner party neighbourhoods are kept clean and presentable, especially when compared to Prole neighbourhoods.

In the society that Orwell describes, every citizen is under constant surveillance by the authorities, mainly by  telescreens. The people are constantly reminded of this by the slogan "Big Brother is watching you": a maxim which is ubiquitously on display. In modern culture the term "Big Brother" has entered the English language as a synonym for the abuse of government power, particularly in respect to civil liberties, and very often related to close circuit television, monitoring of various other forms of media too.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose