With the multiple TV channels that all televisions have these days, it is really difficult to find anything but multiple shit TV shows featuring a load of distractionary dross.

Most of the interesting dramas or topical productions are hidden away largely unadvertised, ‘Frankie Boyle’s New World Order’ and ‘The Handmaids Tale’ being two recent examples.

The argument is that broadcasters are only producing what the public wants but if we lived in a world where there are no other options other than Fosters lager and McDonalds burgers, they would soon be regarded as the best; in fact I have actually heard someone say that they go to a certain pub because they do a ‘great pint of Fosters’.

There is no such thing as a great pint of Fosters, it comes from the same factory and tastes of nothing, whether you come from Aberdeen or Penzance.

So anyway, at 10:00 PM last night, after watching the conclusion of ‘Top of the Lake’ we were doing our obligatory Saturday night red wine, channel flicking, when we came across a TV play called ‘Why it’s Kicking Off Everywhere’.

Paul Mason in Why Its Kicking Off Everywhere 

Now, I must warn you, the acting is not the stuff of Oscars but that is not the point. The play was written and performed by Paul Mason, the former economics editor at the BBC and Channell 4 and was a kind of layman’s version how we went from the optimism of the Arab uprisings in 2011 to Donald Trump in 2017.

As someone who has always had a fascination with Modern History, I have often written or bleated on about the parallel between the current geopolitical situation and that of the 1930’s. In particular, if you have studied that period, is the similarity with regards to a desire for populism and authoritanarism brought on by economic collapse.

All around the world there are people being imprisoned for independent thoughts, blogs like this one, newspaper articles or YouTube videos. To assume that scenaro is impossible in Western Europe or an isolated Britain is the worst form of complacency.

When, essentially for economic reasons, the masses become scared, they crave for strong leadership and tougher state control and always, without fail, they end up regretting what they wished for. Despite what you may believe, the majority of German people didn’t think National Socialism would end in the gas chamber and the allied obliteration of their nation that followed.

The British, by tradition, have stood up to those who crave for mastery and where Mussolini, Hitler and Franco succeeded, at least for a while, Moseley fell into the abyss, with the bottles, sticks and fists of Londoners raining down on him.

We need to be careful another of his kind doesn’t sneak through the back door whilst we are watching ‘Love Island’ or ‘X Factor’ whilst sipping a can of Fosters and eating a Big Mac meal.

Watch ‘Why it is Kicking Off Everywhere’ by clicking here.

* For those of you who think I am a miserable bastard, shortly after this play, I watched something called ‘White Gold’ a sitcom about 1980’s double glazing reps. If you were around in this era, it is a good laugh.