Turning on the tv to find Nigel Farage spewing his idiotic bile is not a good way to start the day. Perhaps it has something to do with my cerebral palsy, but whenever I see him or someone of his worthless ilk appear on the screen, I cannot help but fly into a rage. What he says is so blatantly wrong, so bereft of any intellectual foundation, that it even pisses me off that he is even allowed on the box, as it gives him a credibility he does not deserve. When you look at what the man actually says, despite his attempts to pretend otherwise, his views merely boil down to xenophobia: his arguments about renegotiating britain’s international trade deals on our own terms simply do not hold water, for a Britain outside of the EU would be bypassed and ignored by America, India and china. The real reason why this moron wants to quit the European union is he does not like the level of immigration coming from Europe: pure, unthinking xenophobia, ultimately leading to the isolation and the ruin of the UK.

All this went through my mind as I drank my first coffee this morning. I had got up late and, ironically, had been in quite a good mood. Lyn has a gig tonight at a local bar which I am looking forward to, and last night I headed to bed having just found out that David Attenborough’s next TV Program, Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild will be broadcast on bbc two on November the sixteenth. There is nothing like knowing an ever-present source of benign authority and comfort in one’s life is about to return to put one’s mind at ease. I’m sure I’m not alone in this: for most of us, Attenborough has been on our TV sets all our lives, and he seems to hold a unique position in our culture. We can depend on him for the facts, rely on him as a sort of universal father or grandfather figure.

It strikes me that such a concept juxtaposes quite starkly with events elsewhere. Attenborough, rather like the queen, I suppose, or even James Bond, is kind of cultural constant amid uncertainty and discord. America goes to the polls on Tuesday, and I’m frankly shit scared of Romney becoming elected. The last thing the world needs is another george bush; the last thing America needs is for the progress obama made towards a fairer society to be undone. In a way, Romney and farage are the same: they both share the same far-right politics; they both share the same kind of selfish stupidity which more and more people, on both sides of the Atlantic, are becoming infected with. Such people ignore reality, distort the statistics; and when the truth is pointed out to them, they accuse their opponents of bias and distortion (this is exactly what happened in the Farage interview, and it had me shouting abuse at the telly). How such bigots an think they have any right to hold office is beyond me, yet they seem to think they do, and that their ignorant rantings represent a truth the rest of us are too stupid to see. It is their arrogance I cannot abide; their belief in the automatic superiority of their views, their culture. Having such people in power is the last thing we need, yet increasing numbers of people are allowing themselves to be conned by them.

I suppose, given the current economic situation, this has to be expected, and yet I despair at how people can abandon liberal tolerant values for the selfish circular logic of the right. How can people be fooled by the dissembling of people like farage, Romney, and indeed CaMoron? Given their hatred for the wealthfare state it is clear that such men don’t give a damn whether we disabled people live or die, as long as they can lower taxes. They see legislation to lower carbon emissions as inconvenient to their interests and therefore try to deny the reality of climate change. They have utterly simplistic views on crime and punishment. They are afraid of any other kind of people, be they gay, disabled, black, transsexual or whatever. Were we to encounter such an ignoramus in any other walk of life, we would either ignore or pity them, so why are their views becoming mainstream? Why are fools like farage regularly getting airtime when he spews such baseless hate? I find it all very frightening, and it is no wonder that I find comfort in such ever-present figures as Michael palin and David Attenborough if, when I change the TV channel, I find bigots like Farage spewing such hatred, denying almost everything I hold dear, and indeed trying to threaten my future with my fiancee because he does not like paying taxes toward the wealthfare state. I suppose some could call such retreats childish, and I agree: trying to ignore reality by watching television is no answer.

But at least it serves to remind me that there is still truth and beauty in the world, even if the lies of the political right are becoming scarily poular.

Mind you, I suppose the best thing is simply to turn the tv off altogether and go hug Lyn!