BEATS OF LOVE 

161. Penetration by Iggy and the Stooges 

WHAT'S STRIKING about Farage's polling is that only a third of his own supporters think he's racist and will abolish our NHS.

Two-thirds must be very gullible. Predictably, his week started with a humongous lie about what we'll save addressing the Boriswave by attacking legal migrants and nothing about what we'll lose, namely our collective soul. 

His own vanity and fear of Boris Johnson has led to another droll Trumpian flagship announcement. Assuming we'll want a system that's no kinder to us Brits, but far, far harsher to everybody else. So harsh that we'll just let folk die outside hospitals so we won't have to queue as long. So harsh that we'll happily work alongside folk who see no future, just the prospect of deportation. 

Farage, ever the political charlatan, now shares some semblance of punk rock's ideology in that he seeks to destroy things. Where punk sought to expose truths, he seeks to conceal them. Seeking to destroy integration to conceal the truth that there is more that unites us than divides. Seeking to destroy our human rights to conceal the truth that they protect us more than threaten. And seeking to destroy our NHS to conceal the truth that we need it more than it needs us.

It's ironic that many old punk rockers see Farage's phoney rebellion as authentic and somehow anti-establishment, ironic, and deeply troubling. 

BEATS OF LOVE 

160. When Will it End by Honey Cone

LAYING OFF 500 people one day and inciting nearly 150,000 protesters to act in defence of their country, the next, takes a special psycho. A country not under attack and not even his. 

Elon Musk, that special psycho loves choreographing the very folk, his politics have laid to waste. A logical move for folk was to turn toward a party intent on redistributing wealth, but polarizing social media has eroded our shared reality. 

In this age, with its overemphasis on societal irony, social media doesn't challenge opinion. Its algorithms instead create echo chambers which simply reinforce existing belief. Conditioning users who are now adept at rebuking Corbyn while failing to explain what Thatcher ever did for the traditional working class. They are armed with simple, repetitive quotes to defend the billionaires, but can't explain how less inequality creates happier societies. They have also adapted to deflect criticism, dismissing comparisons to Nazi Germany, but cannot explain away their ever rising anger. 

An anger that strips folk of their individuality, which has its roots in aggressive violence and not victimhood. It's more pitiful still watching labour politicians too scared of losing votes to extol the many virtues found in multi-racial, multi-faith Britain. Instead, giving legitimacy to wholly unremarkable figures like Tommy Robinson. Instead, apologists for this huge, ever growing loveless grievance narrative that stokes this rising anger. 

A narrative that reads like the bleakest of slogans. A narrative manufactured and bankrolled by psychopaths who think nothing of laying 500 people off. Absolutely nothing.