I spent the week before the Christmas week in Malaga in Southern Spain. Malaga is that city that many sun-seekers jet into via low-cost airlines or charter jets and normally vacate as quickly as possible to make their way to Torremolinos or Benidorm or Marbs. But it’s a lovely city in its own right. The skyline from Malagueta beach is spoiled somewhat by the port at one end and the cement works at the other. But the city itself, especially the old town, has its own particular charms. Less workaday than Barcelona and with much better winter weather than Madrid, Malaga is a magnet for pre-Christmas shoppers, diners and schmoozers. And, this year, it was thronging with people - many eager to see the evening Christmas light shows on Larios Street or to attend the Christmas concerts at Teatro Cervantes.
And, speaking of Larios, Malaga has the added advantage of serving up wonderful G&Ts in beach-side and port-side bars where it’s possible to get some idea of how much the waiter likes you by how long he holds the inverted bottle of Larios gin aloft drenching huge ice-cubes in big bowl glasses. More than 6 seconds and he likes you (or thinks you're good for a big tip).
But Malaga, this trip, felt very different to the cities I visited on my last trip to Spain in August 2021. That trip was a quick hiking expedition to the Cabo de Gata - the coastal nature reserve near the City of Almeria. Almeria is known, primarily, for its close proximity to one of the most expansive green-house regions of Europe. Literally thousands of hectares of plastic covered land is dedicated to growing salad vegetables. The Cabo de Gata sits uneasily on the edge of this environmental eyesore, just about far enough away to quite forget the ugliness of intensive horticulture and the pollution of corporatist polythene.
When I visited then, Spain was still in the grip of the collective Covid paranoia and the masked were much in evidence. Children, in particular, were masked on the instructions of their parents - such was the fear narrative being peddled by all Western governments that those without symptoms - especially children - were especially vicious spreaders of disease. It was one of the most evil aspects of Covid™ response. And the sight of young children trooping behind unmasked parents - even outside in the sunshine - made no sense to me then, or now.
Thankfully, that particular manifestation of Covid nonsense has disappeared from view. Just like here there are still one or two plague-pedants who strut around in I95s and douse themselves in hand sanitiser before engaging or eating. But they’re few and far between. In the last couple of years our return to relative normalcy has also seen a palpable rise in awareness of the fact that governments lie, and lie systematically. The question is, for how long have governments, and the powers that be, been doing this?
Government lying, of course, is to produce an outcome. Over the last three years things have, though, changed to some extent in that it appears that government lying is coordinated across governments. With Covid we had the falling down dead people videos in China. Followed by the weird tik tok videos of semi-redundant healthcare workers dance routines in deserted hospitals. Then the relentless reporting of deaths (within 14 days of a positive Covid test). Then the jab for burgers campaigns (or national variants). This systemised programme of government mind-bending propaganda was repeated on loop across the West. Nations and leaders that refused to toe the line were vilified by the “international community” - whatever that is. Probably the World Economic Forum.
But, despite this, there’s a growing appreciation that these bizarre, Eurovision-style kitsch fear campaigns were obvious lies. And that politicians are liars. Systemic, pocket-lining, evil thugs of self-aggrandising liars.
And the lying has not been confined to Covid paranoia. Boris Johnson, our former Actor-PM, was dispatched to Kiev to give assurances that we’d give Ukraine all the guns and bombs they needed to resist ‘invading’ Russia.
Russia was portrayed by the media as all-bad. And Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s Actor-President, with his little camo uniforms, as messianic.
A blind man on a proverbial galloping horse could see through this infantile nonsense. But now, at the end of 2023, we’re on the verge of capitulation by Ukraine - whose army has been decimated by a vastly superior fighting machine. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost - and most are Ukrainian.
Then in October we were asked (told) to believe that the border guards and electronic surveillance systems of the most heavily guarded land border in the world was essentially switched off for hours on end while a rapacious HAMAS terrorist group paraglided into Israel. An associated over-the-top media campaign was mounted to convince us just how terrorist, super-terrorist, HAMAS is. How babies were beheaded. How women were raped and murdered. We were shown photos of incinerated cars in car-parks. And these things were used as justification for carpet-bombing Gaza.
In Northern Ireland, during the worst years of the troubles, gunmen repeatedly engaged in what became a de facto programme of ethnic cleansing - by murdering off-duty part-time soldiers or RUC officers or prison officers living in rural cottages close to the Northern side of Northern Ireland’s border with the Republic. The insurgents, post-shooting or booby-trapping, quickly made their way back south, across the border to relative safety. The Israeli response to the October 7 events is analogous to the British government carpet-bombing Dublin in response to IRA insurgency. Clearly that never happened.
Lies become triggers for war when they receive the mass-media treatment. Lies beget lies. Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
But 2024 is the year when the process of democracy will allow the people to use their voices. In both America and the United Kingdom we’ll see general elections that will install a new President and a new Prime Minister. The two nations that led the media war against the people of the West for the last few years (and that have spawned most of the corporations that hold the purse-strings) are about to be recalibrated. The presidential battle in America is bringing to the public attention the degree of corporatist manipulation that has been going on. Robert Kennedy Jr’s campaign, while flawed, is at least on-message when it comes to big pharma corruption. Trump’s campaign, and associated legal actions, have shown the extent and depth of the establishment’s string-pulling of the electoral process and the media narrative. And Vivek Ramaswamy has been increasingly effective at highlighting the shady nature of corporate America and the role of the corporatist mob. It’s questionable to what extent the Democratic Party can survive the onslaught.
As for the UK, despite there being little choice between the globalist shills of Conservatives and Labour, and the likely turnout being awful, the UK government will have to fall into line with the realpolitik defined by America. The dollar and the pound are under existential threat caused by money printing, profligate public spending and inflation caused by both. A public sector reckoning is coming. And a deep recession/depression. But, human resilience and common sense will keep us from careering into the abyss.
The lying has to stop. This last year I have begun questioning some of the narratives that we have all, unquestioningly, based our knowledge and understanding upon. Can we say with certainty that 9/11 wasn’t an inside job, a trigger for war? Who, really, was responsible for the murder of JFK and Robert Kennedy? How much did our government cover up sex crimes committed by the establishment to suppress the inevitable civil unrest that would have resulted had people known the truth?
Because, if it is the case that the governments of the West truly do use lies and propaganda to manipulate us, and to encourage people to kill people, how can we survive as a species? What will be the alternative to democracy?
But, as I stood with the throngs of people in Larios Street in Malaga, just a few weeks ago, and a rather cheesy version of Feliz Navidad boomed across the sound system, I felt an elation that I haven’t felt for a few years. It might have been something to do with the G&Ts. But I think it was more than that. People, generally, may be gullible, fearful and easily manipulated. But they want what is best for themselves and their families. And, it may take a while, and they may have incorrectly assumed that their governments were doing their best for them, but it will happen.
2024 will be the year of recalibration. The people - ordinary, spending, loving and believing - will start pushing the social tectonic plate back to where it belongs.
I’m very grateful to everyone who has subscribed to my substack during the last year. And I’m especially grateful to the few paying subscribers - it really does encourage me to write when I know a few people will actually pay a few quid. Much appreciated and have a wonderful 2024 each and all of my Substack community.