While Britain’s 2024 general election, which saw the erstwhile opposition Labour Party winning with a landslide majority (quite a contrast with 2019 general election), may be over many may be asking why the general public keeps alternating between the usual two parties every 10-15 years, even when this time, genocide-supporting Labour -- often dubbed as “Tory light” -- had so little to offer and whose current leader is ridden with controversial decisions and U-turns?
The problem with fellow Brits is that majority of the commoners, and even among the so-called learned literati intelligentsia, can often be gullible enough to allow the billionaires’ media control to shape their mind psychology. This has been partly possible because, like common gullible Americans, common Englishmen and the wider British community have little concern over war crime-ridden, genocidal, colonialist-minded, white supremacist foreign policy implemented by their respective governments.
They pay no heed to those foreign policies -- a pastime luxury for the billionaires and defence-security establishments in the global geopolitical chessboard -- without realizing that what goes on in our fellow electorates’ names in backing genocides, land annexations, illegal occupation, and natural resource appropriation overseas at the expense of faraway Palestinian or African peoples, directly affects the local issues here.
The resulting domestic issues can be in terms of illegal migration or refugee crisis as a consequence of foreign wars or meddling overseas, rise of foreign militants’ backlash in the form of reactionary-terrorism at home and the wider west, rising living costs from costly illegal wars that may even cause strikes or riots at home, and worst of all, decline of the overall benchmark of the nation’s moral compass.
If the ruling class can take pleasure in backing colonialist-Zionists or billionaire commodity giants or arms manufacturers’ crimes against humanity, they can do the same with the British lives at home. The reckless, corrupt, fatal government policies during Covid 2019-20 showed some-if-not-all aspects of that.
The unelected billionaire-owned British media’s involvement in aiding and abetting vote-rigging became clear when the entire British media were out on Labour leader Keir Starmer’s predecessor Jeremy Corbyn’s era of leadership during the UK’s 2019 general election. With the Israel’s Zionist lobby at the time being in full motion to smear Corbyn by weaponizing anti-Arab, anti-Muslim racist antisemitism concerns, and resorting to the Palestinian-bashing antisemitism-smear tool weapon, it was at that time that the same media supported the lying, corrupt, bigoted, narcissists of the former ruling Conservative Party’s Boris-Gove-Hancock. And the worse part? Even then the British military smeared Jeremy Corbyn by allowing the military brass’ armed personnel to mock Jeremy Corbyn and use as a picture target to practice shooting skills.
Now UK’s Labour Party leader and newly elected PM Keir Starmer -- who is a proven serial liar that allowed or used corrupt practices to propel him to power and who is de facto bought under the grips of foreign genocidal state Israel lobbyists -- has accepted to make these same corrupt gutter press media and the Anglo-American deep state security state establishments as his idol deity to worship. Hence this time the media, even the hard right wing media, decided to paint Keir Starmer in a sympathetic, benefit-of-doubt treatment.
The ‘first past the post’ voting system, as opposed to the ‘proportional representation’ voting system, has always been preferred by the British establishment
Let’s not forget the controversial Labour Together, a think tank founded by dark-money, played a key role in appeasing the establishment is led by none other than Josh Simons who is known for backstabbing his former boss and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and is an anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab racist/Islamophobe -- by virtue of being a Zionist -- who once even made a disparaging anti-Scottish innuendo comment about migrants by using disparaging remarks against the migrant handlers.
Furthermore, while swiftly discriminating against Muslim or ethnic minority Labour MP candidates like Faiza Shaheen, who remained deeply attached to their constituencies, the Labour Party under Keir Starmer has instead been proactive in parachuting racist, Islamophobic, white supremacist candidates like Luke Akehurst, in safe Labour seats bearing little connection with the imposed candidates.
In other words, what the above shows is that the establishment -- ie “The House” -- always wins. Here, “The House” is the duopoly system of the same pro-establishment’s preferred one-party, neoliberal, so-called centrist state.
The “first past the post” voting system, as opposed to the “proportional representation” voting system, has always been preferred by the British establishment to ensure the so-called one-party state’s duopoly system remains in place thus ensuring the house always wins.
Anything that risks falling outside the duopoly (or duopoly-cum-triopoly’s so-called coalition governments) is best managed by the colonialist legacy of “divide and rule” and vote-splitting strategies by launching or encouraging pseudo-independent candidates or offshoot smaller parties to stand in general elections.
Similar case also applies to US when socialist democrat Bernie Sanders was about to lead the Democrats as presidential nominee, a very articulate and well-spoken man, yet the Democrats decided to give sympathetic coverage to illegal Iraq war-supporting, genocide-backing corrupt email scandal-ridden Hillary Clinton and later to a lesser articulate, dementia-suspect Biden.
As American Black civil rights leader Malcolm X once said, “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
As for the Tories, they need a break to digest and enjoy the post-rule hangover from the wealth and assets they amassed, recharge their batteries and relaunch their next come-back. As for the public, let them enjoy being hypnotized once again with the illusion of democracy in action under the rigged duopoly-led establishment’s one-party system, with the usual two alternating parties speaking from both sides of the mouth.
Ismail Y Syed is a research scholar on Arabic and Middle Eastern politics, runs a strategic consultancy “ISC Compliance” on Middle East, Arab affairs, and South Asian affairs, and is a fellow at the Muslim Institute, London. He can be followed on X (formerly Twitter) @IsmailYSyed
