Turkish Delight

An aide to the Turkish Prime Minister is photographed kicking a protester at the scene of the recent mine disaster and we all 'tut tut' and harrumph at these foreigners.  The press tells us how this incident encapsulates ordinary Turks' complaints of their ruling classes sense of entitlement and utter contempt for ordinary people.  'Thank God that sort of thing couldn't happen here," is the implied thought behind all the reports and commentary on the situation in Turkey.  Yet isn't that exactly the situation we have here in the UK?  Cameron and Osborne might not go around physically assaulting the poor, but their policies - clearly designed to 'punish' people for being poor, disabled or otherwise disadvantaged - do much the same job.  But people here just stand by whilst our over-privileged leaders systematically dismantle the welfare state, handing over 'service delivery' to dodgy private firms run by their friends who are interested only in pocketing tax-payers' money rather than providing services.  Services intended to provide for the public good have been transformed into vehicles for maximising private profits.

There's another aspect of Turkish politics which is mirrored here in the UK: the establishment's characterisation of any form of dissent or protest as somehow unpatriotic, or even treasonous.  Just look at the reactions of both the political establishment and the right-wing press to The Guardian's publication of the Edward Snowden revelations if you don't believe me. To be fair, this isn't unique to the current crop of Tory bastards - it started in earnest under New Labour, when anyone questioning the legitimacy of the 'War on Terror' was instantly vilified.  Just look at the treatment the BBC received for exposing the 'dodgy dossier' for what it was: lies.  Then there's the issue of censorship in Turkey.  Remember how we all gasped in horror when the Turkish government started blocking Twitter because they didn't like ordinary citizens using it to criticise them?  Well, Cameron's obsession with blocking internet pornography from Britain's homes isn't a million miles from the same sort of thing.  We criticise China for its 'Great Firewall of China', but want to implement the same thing here, (using, ironically, the self same Chinese firms involved in setting up the original).  So, next time we start wringing our hands in despair at the despotic goings-on in what we'd like to categorise as an 'inferior' country with a shaky grasp of freedom and democracy, we really need to take a long hard look at ourselves.