I was sat in a youth hostel on the Isle of Skye with John Lennon, Bruce Lee, Jim Morrison and Mr Blobby discussing how ridiculous conspiracy theories actually were. “Of course, i never shot JFK!” said Mr B “…. that was the lizard people.” It had been a long drive….

One of my favourite conspiracy theory’s is the one where immigrants both take all our jobs and take all our unemployment benefits. A remarkable feat of planning. But of course, these ‘theories’ planted in peoples heads are just designed to scapegoat people, point fingers and fill gaps left by the collapse of real investigative journalism in the face of the rise of instant gratification social media.  A 5-minute video is much easier to watch , be taken in by and believe, rather than a double page spread in a broadsheet newspaper which might have taken weeks to investigate the actual facts.

Algorithms

And of course, the 5 minute ‘I knew it!’ version is just shaped by algorithms and AI to fit right into the loophole in your head that needed that little bit of proof (ie-none) that you were right all along. Fluoridation of the water system is indeed turning all the frogs gay and Paul McCartney did die in 1968. I mean, would he have written ‘Mull of Kintyre’?? Yes!!   The difficulty now is you can’t blame Kier Starmer anymore.

Sometimes there are elements of plausibility…Is the Earth flat? I mean, I’ve been to Lowestoft and it looked like it might be.

We reached Inverness. This kind faced old lady asked sadly if she could borrow some of my milk. Of course you can sweet kindly old lady, have a sit down and share my cornflakes too. “There’s only 2 states in America not run by the Moslems now you know” What? No, no, no I’ve just got up! Ok, I calmly explained, “This is that ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory which falsely claims that Muslim populations are executing a coordinated, demographic, or political takeover of the USA, but  there is no factual, statistical, or political basis for this theory which is universally rejected by political scientists, sociologists, and demographic researchers everywhere!”

I looked at her. She scowled “Well, you can prove anything with facts!” before leaving in a huff. With my milk.

Conspiracy

There’s a kind of, let’s say, ‘Reformy’ tendency that is easy meat for these simple solutions. That explains their leap in popularity and election to office. They think they know why things are wrong and they just need someone to say they were right.. The trouble is they’ve taken a tumble of late. The secret conspiracy of the elites with all the money, all the backhanders and all the powers, doesn’t stand up to that much scrutiny after Nigel Farage received his ‘gift’ of £5m, for what we still aren’t sure.

Across the country people have been voting Reform(ers) into office but many of them upon getting elected, are suddenly finding in many cases actually things aren’t so bad, there is a system and it works, councillors aren’t a secret cabal of people controlled from Woke HQ to amass wealth power and prestige but instead anyone can be a councillor and the institutions and parties we have were really just created over centuries because they work and that’s democracy. We’ve hit peak Reform at about 25% and it’s dropping.

But what IS right is people who make decisions need to be scrutinised. At Bridgwater Town Council we’ve set up a Forum system so people can take part in the discussions and decisions every step of the way. But broadly across local government it didn’t help that David Cameron abolished the audit commission that shone the spotlight into the nooks and crannies of our locallest democracy.

Cosmic

Somerset was baking with an unexpected heatwave. Scotland was drowning in a torrential rainstorm. Record temperatures were taken in London. Net ‘stupid’ Zero was looking less stupid.

In Glastonbury when wi-fi was introduced they invented anti ’wi-fry’ hats. Then again, well before the cosmic revolution of the 1960s the legend was that under the Tor King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table lay waiting to return when England was next in danger. Two world wars and Margaret Thatcher and we still haven’t seen them…..

I got into my minibus to head for Oban. A canny Canadian with a careful composure and a clean-cut aspect asked me for a lift. Of course. He settled in. “The Moon landings never happened you know…Stanley Kubrick filmed them for an episode of ….”

It was a long walk to Oban. Not for me. I had a minibus.