The Trap.

Programme synopsises one, two.

Like Charlie Booker sez:

His programmes unfold like a series of revelations; watching one is like having all your slumbering suspicions about the world - suspicions so dormant you didn't even realise they were suspicions - confirmed and explained for the very first time.

Only in my case they've been far from slumbering suspicions. Last night's show confirmed for me what it was I so loathe about right-wing Tories, Thatcherism and it's bastard love-child New Labour. In a nutshell -what I hate about them is that they have a nasty brutish, black or white, primitive view of people and how they work and worse - much, much worse is that they (socially) engineer the very circumstances that only encourage those traits.

(Actually it's not just Right-wingers, extreme left-wingers and religious fundamentalists share a similar world view.)

Over the past couple of decades me and my friends have seen how society in Britain has changed - we saw the generation behind us and had a term for them: "Thatcher's Children". Under New Labour - it's only worsened - a few new ingredients have been added: spin, image control, presentation. Superficiality and Orwellian-style newspeak. That's where a lot of public money has disappeared into. Prettier open-plan offices, glossy brochures, suits etc. It's like 'American Psycho' has taken over the running of the country.

Of course the problem is - what can we do about it? Politicians (of whatever party) are now completely useless - nowadays they're complete puppets who just do what big corporations tell them to do - and in return make endless pointless speeches, publish glossy reports and set-out ever ridiculous targets in the service sector which no one can possibly fulfill-especially as they get starved of money. (just for now I'll ignore the stuff about the illegal occupation of foreign countries. Although that could be said to be done in the interests of Big (Oil) Business.) Big business itself is completely out of control. Trade Unions have become a irrelevance (thanks for that Thatcher). New Labour's biggest legacy seems set for setting us up for a surveillance-ridden Big Brother style police state. (There's that nasty brutish black and white view of how people work again).

How do we get out of this mess?