A Remembrance of Things Past

Once you pass the big six-o you can no longer pretend to be young. In your fifties, you can just about get away with thinking you could go clubbing, even though you never do. It's not just creaking joints that bring about this situation - its change. Things have really changed since you were young, and you have changed. Even though you probably have a mobile phone and use social media things have moved on - Facebook is for boring grown-ups - not the youth of today. For my part, I use Facebook and Twitter, though I loathe the former, but can't be bothered to also use any more social media apps. The gap between you and youth is growing, and it will get wider as time goes on. Their lives, as they develop, will be very different to yours - that's progress - allegedly.

I began to muse about this during the latest episode of my never-ending quest to clear 'stuff' out of the garage - something I suspect many people will be doing for years to come and that will affect children who haven't been born yet - because the only real solution to this problem is not to have a garage. Whilst sorting through stuff I found a box that contained a number of old letters I'd kept dating back to the early eighties. They were all love-letters from ex-girlfriends and I found them very moving. What struck me about them, apart from the passion, was their length and the relative amount of effort involved. Does anybody do that anymore? Does anyone send long passionate emails to their girlfriends or boyfriends? It's possible but I doubt it - we live in the soundbite age of the text and the Tweet.

I think the letter is something from the past, something we are all, young and old, missing and all the poorer for not receiving. I remember the anticipation of receiving a letter, of hearing the clank of the letterbox as the postie made his early morning delivery (you had two posts a day then) and going to pick up the post. Was there a personal letter for me amongst the brown envelopes? Was it from her? Then sitting down to read and digest the letter's contents - it was good, it moved me. And all the better because it was handwritten, and someone had taken the trouble to craft it. It was personal and had a kind of warmth that can never be reproduced in digital communication.

While I'm on the subject of good things we have lost due to 'progress' I need to put in a word for the vinyl record. For people of my generation, your album collection wasn't just a shelf full of records - it spoke about who you were and what you were into. Your record collection was one of your most treasured possessions and something you happily humped around from student flats to shared houses along with your stereo. Now you can have digital devices that store thousands of tracks, create playlists, and listen to virtually any music for free on Spotify, but it's just not the same.

Listening to an album was a ritual, finding the one you wanted, hauling it out, looking at the cover art, lovingly sliding it out of its sleeve, putting it on the deck and then listening to that satisfying clunk as the needle hit the record. Then, sitting down to listen to the music. Listening was a rewarding activity and the music was not just something in the background when you were talking to others or doing the washing up. And the best bit is the fact that the analogue sound quality is superior to digital - warmth, once again.

There is hope for vinyl, sales are increasing, but will we ever see the revival of the letter? We are missing out, but does it matter? Yes, it does.

The US Empire has always been a stain on the world, Now Trump has exposed it.

Another day, another week, another Trump shit show. Recently, there was the Davos debacle. Trump highlighted his obvious decline by blabbering nonsense, talking about Iceland instead of Greenland. This is only to be expected. He also introduced his so-called 'Board of Peace' which includes war criminals Putin, Blair and Netanyahu, all of whom should be in The Hague. This Board of Criminals has been set up to 'legitimize' the destruction of what's left of the Palestinian community in Gaza, and its transformation into the new Dubai for the super-rich, as well as lining Trump's pockets. 

People and Western politicians have been shocked by Trump's ranting about expanding the US Empire with the kidnapping of Maduro from Venezuela, and talk of taking over Greenland, Cuba, Mexico, and anywhere else he fancies controlling. Trump knows that Europe is weak and has relied on the US led NATO for its security for far too long. It's high time that Europe was prepared to defend itself without the Americans. Of course, NATO was a Cold War alliance which should have been disbanded after the collapse of the USSR, but it was maintained to solidify US hegemony.

The US Empire is nothing new, it's just that the rest of the West has turned a blind eye to it since WWII. The Monroe Doctrine, articulated by President James Monroe in 1832 asserted America's control over all the Americas including South America, it's very own backyard. 

Trump's Gaza

The rules-based order was always BS!

In the USA, ICE are roaming Minnesota abducting and murdering citizens with impunity, including Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Thousands of Americans have come together to resist, but the Democrats continue their spineless opposition to paedophile Trump's crimes.

Trumps latest fascist power grab, no doubt designed to rig the mid-terms, is the SAVE Act. It's a voter suppression bill which requires citizens, to provide specific ID to be able to vote, including passports and birth certificates. Many Americans don't have the correct ID. Only 51% of American have passports and birth certificates must have the persons current name. This obviously discriminates against women. This is all shades of the Handmaids Tale, a prescient dystopian book by Margaret Atwood published 50 years ago. The fascist American right want women to be disempowered child bearers (white women, obviously), cooking, washing and bearing numerous kids - just like the good old days. 

The problem with the USA is that, given the pathetic state of the democratic 'opposition' - who are also in the pockets of corporations and oligarchs - it's difficult to see where change is going to come from. And, of course, Trump is a real threat to the wider world. Things in the UK aren't much better with Starmer bending the knee to Trump and mimicking Reform's racism. More of that in my next post.

In 2026, lets all be human

You may not know it, but we are in the fight of our lives. In the USA, UK and Europe, the far right are gaining ground. Trump is already, effectively, a dictator. Empty vessel Starmer is in the pockets of corporations and private equity. All the Western nations, with a few exceptions, are complicit in the Gaza genocide. Now, we wake up in 2026 to see the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife in an illegal attack on Venezuela by Donald Trump. The media, what was left of it, is controlled by oligarchs

So what has happened to humanity? What have we become as humans? Why are some of us voting for and supporting racist, grifting scum like Nigel Farage? How did we get here?

Well, none of this is new. We have lived through many centuries of war, oppression, empire and genocide, with a ruling class dictation the outcomes. I wrote about the toxicity of Western culture in this post  - racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, lavery, empire and settler colonialism have been rife for many centuries.

In the later 20th century, after WWII, with rising equality and prosperity, we thought all this had changed for the better. I was lucky enough to grow up in this time when we thought that things could only get better. They are getting worse.

As I have said many times on this blog, all we can do is work together, resist, and organise to bring about real, positive change. This needs to happen from the grassroots upwards. The people need to take control. No more fake 'democracy' and domination by corporations and oligarchs. We need to foster empathy and humanity, supporting our brothers and sisters. This may seem like a daunting task, but we can make it happen! 

Hats off to Mamdani

Some good news for a change!  Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist Democrat candidate, has been elected Mayor of New York. It's a ray of light in the current darkness which engulfs the globe. He ran a positive campaign and connected with millions of voters in New York and across the country. He is a Muslim who expressed solidarity with Jewish residents, LGBTQ+ people and condemned what Israel has been doing i Gaza. Not only that, but he promised free public transport and lower rents. I wish him the best and hope he succeeds. 

Of course, he will come under attack and the right are already launching ridiculous smears. It's all fairly predictable. He will introduce Sharia law, blah, blah etc. Oh! And all the multimillionaires are going to quit New York - as if that was a bad thing. They should go to Mars with Eloon.

In the UK, Zack Polanski is giving people hope with a similar approach to Mamdani, engaging with voters and pushing policies - like tax the rich - which are rattling the right-wing press and establishment. Green Party membership is booming, and they are rising in the polls, with one poll putting them ahead of Starver's Labour.

Right-wing press in a panic about Polanski and the Green surge.

With a general election four years away, it's far too early to tell how this will pan out, but we have to have hope and organise together to build a better future for all. Solidarity! ✊✊✊

We need to talk about government spending and why there is plenty of money

Almost every day we see articles in the media about the lack of money governments have, and how things like nationalisation of the railways are 'unaffordable'. Then there's that famous 'there is no money' note left by Liam Byrne when Labour left government in 2010. So now we know - there is no money - right?

Wrong actually! There is plenty of money, and to understand why we have to look at how government spending actually works. One of the first obstacles we find is that we have always been told that governments tax and spend. This is something you will frequently hear politicians saying. And so we believe that government spending is paid for out of our taxes. But this isn't true, it's not how governments operate. What they actually do is spend and tax. They spend money into the economy and then tax that money as it circulates around the economy. Government spending is not dependent on tax receipts.

How did we get to thinking it was? Becuase we have been lead to believe that government budgets are like household budgets but they're not. Everyone knows about household budgets. You earn income and you spend that on food, clothes, the mortgage and so on. If you spend too much you go into debt. Government budgets aren't like household budgets they are very different.

Reeves from accounts. Doesn't understand how the economy works.

Firstly, a sovereign government with its own currency - like the UK with its pound - can create as much money as it wants - out of thin air. A recent example of this in the UK was quantitative easing or QE. The Bank of England created £435 billion of new money. How did it do that? A BoE official sat at a laptop and typed the money into an account. In fact, commercial banks do exactly the same thing when they issue loans. Money is created as debt by these banks because they are licensed to be able to do so by our government.

Furthermore, when a government spends money it gets most of that money returned to it in taxes. A simple example would be the government spends £100 and gets £80 back in taxes. This is called the 'fiscal multiplier'. Now you can begin to see why government budgets are not like household budgets because a government can create money and most of the money it spends is returned to it in taxes.

Its worth mentioning deficits at this stage. If a government spends more than it 'earns' (in taxes and other income) it will have a deficit. But this is a good thing. Why? Because if the government - public sector - has a deficit then the private sector - businesses and people - will have a surplus - which is good for us. Government surpluses mean private sector deficits and that is bad - for us. For a fuller explanation see this video by David Graeber.

The UK economy is struggling and growth in the last quarter was 0.1%. We may be heading into a recession. So what can the government do? The government needs to invest in the UK and here is one example of how it could:

1. Give public sector workers a decent pay rise - say 10% in one year (they are about 15% poorer than they were in 2010 because of an ongoing pay cap)

2. Some of that money - about 30% - will be returned immediately to the government through income taxes

3. most of the rest of the pay rise will be spent by public sector workers and will end up returning to the government in tax because it is taxed as is circulates around the economy. The pay rise will largely pay for itself.

That spending will boost businesses and the UK economy. One of the main reasons why the high street is failing is not internet shopping but the simple fact that millions have no money to spend.

This is a win-win situation which will boost public sector worker morale and wellbeing and help to lift the UK out of the hole it is in. The question has to be - why aren't the government doing this? I have no doubt there are many MPs who don't understand how government budgets work but the main reason is the poisonous ideology of neoliberalism and blind faith in the 'free' market.

Note: if you want to read more about this I recommend 'The Joy of Tax' by Richard J Murphy.

Welcome to Britain - the new Weimar Republic.

 Living in the 2020s UK is a bit like living in the 1920s Germany. While a labour government continues imposing austerity, underfunding healthcare and it's attacks on the poor and disabled, the far right, headed by uber grifters Farage and Tommeh Robinson are mobilising a significant chunk of the population.

100,000 'protestors were estimated to have attended Tommeh's London 'demo' on the 13th September. Predictably, there was violence as right wing thugs attacked the police.

"The police force said its officers faced “unacceptable violence” from some of the protestors and that four of them sustained serious injuries, among them broken teeth, a possible broken nose, a concussion, a prolapsed disc and a head injury." - see link above.

So, instead of Hitler, we've got Farage and Musk boosting fascism and a weak Labour government unable to resist, and pandering to racists.

What has this got to do with Weimar Germany? After WWI, Germany was on its knees, bankrupt and broken. In Berlin, because of war casualties, 70% of the population were women. Inflation was rampant, and people were desperate. We know what happened next. Along came the strongman Hitler, scapegoating the Jews and promising to make Germany great again. Hitler seized power after the weak centrists, led by Hindenburg, made him Chancellor. Sound familiar? If you want to know more, I really recommend you watch the German TV drama KaDeWe. I also recommend you read Before the Deluge by Otto Friedrich. Could something like that happen here? It could.

We are now in a similar place in the UK with 'strongman' Farage offering to 'save us from immigrants and weak opposition from Starmer's Labour which is boosting the far right, and selling off the UK to foreign corporations like BlackRock. WE are entering a very dark period in our history.

Before The Deluge by Otto Friedrich

Of course, in the fightback against the drift to fascism in the UK none of this is helped by the fact that 90% of the UK newspaper market is controlled by three right-wing companies: DMG (Daily Mail et al.), News UK (Murdoch), and Reach (the Mirror and Express). This also translates to a huge share (~40%) of online reach.

To bring about real change, and stop the drift to fascism, we need to try to connect with Reform voters who have fallen for all the media propaganda about 'small boats'. This is a crucial point. It's no good just dismissing Farage supporters as far-right. Some are, of course, but many have fallen for the 'comin' over 'ere 'an takin our jobs' propaganda.

The left needs to engage with the many who have fallen for this MSM BS. One person who is fighting back, using the right approach and making waves is Zack Polanski. Watch this video in which Zack nails it, out in the community, engaging with Reform supporters. We need much more of this approach. See here.

Join the Green Party or Your Party and fight back!

Economic democracy: building the future, a better world for all

If you've read previous posts on this blog, you'll know that I've been blogging about how we build a form of socialism that will work for the 21st century. In order for socialism to succeed, it's vital to create a viable economic alternative to capitalism. I've also looked at how a socialist government could drive lasting change in our society. Here I want to further explore two key requirements for building socialism. They are: 

1. capitalism cannot be replaced politically, it must be overcome economically 

2. socialism must empower individuals and social groups to take control of their own lives and communities. The key to this control is economic control. 

Real power is economic power. If socialists want to transform society, they must gain economic power. Simply winning political power in elections is not enough. Historically, socialist and social democratic governments have been able to use the power of the state to ameliorate the excesses of capitalism without ever shaking its grip on society. 

Real power has always remained with those who own the means of production. The traditional socialist answer to this has been to put the means of production in the hands of the state, thus ending the power of capitalists to dominate society. 

This didn't work in the Soviet Union - why? Because it didn't fulfil the requirement in 2. above. People weren't empowered economically. They swapped a capitalist employer for a state employer without ever gaining real economic control over their own lives. They lacked the incentive and power to create real wealth for themselves and the communities they lived in. To gain economic power, socialists need to start creating wealth, and by wealth I don't just mean money - I mean strong, vibrant, healthy communities without poverty of any kind. Workers create all the world's wealth. Marx's development of the idea of surplus value in Das Kapital enabled socialists to understand how capitalists expropriate that wealth for themselves, leaving the crumbs from the cake of wealth creation for the rest of us. 

To gain economic power, socialists must enable workers to create wealth and keep it for themselves, and their communities. How can workers do this without becoming capitalists? The answer is mutualism. There is nothing new about this. Robert Owen advocated this 150 years ago. In the UK there are 7000 successful co-operatives with a turnover of £40 billion. 

This may be small beer compared to the whole economy, but it has the potential to grow. Co-operatives are socialism in action. They are democratically controlled enterprises in which the workers own the means of production. They create wealth for workers and communities instead of for capitalists. Co-operatives tend to have a greater success rate when started up than capitalist companies. Some socialists feel uncomfortable with the notion of making profits and commercialism of any kind, but these organisations can be not-for-profit if they choose. What is key is how the profits are used.

Profits made can be used to make co-operatives grow and benefit communities. Commercialism does not have to be of the rapacious, dehumanising capitalist variety. One of the historical weaknesses of socialism is that it has failed to meet the aspiration of people to improve their material condition. Co-operatives allow workers to do just that without the need for capitalism. Co-operatives are social enterprises. They can be not-for-profit or explicitly for community benefit. The key is that workers have control over their own economic destiny, and are able to improve their own and their community's well-being. 

The beauty of this is that we can do it now. There is no need to wait for a general election or a socialist government. If you want to help to bring about socialism, go out and start up a co-op. Demonstrate that we can create wealth democratically and equitably without the need for capitalism. Co-operatives completely undermine many of the arguments of the right - that socialism doesn't reward individuals or encourage enterprise, and can't create wealth.

Essential reading for anyone who wants to know about economic Democracy and what is happening now.

Of course, cooperatives aren't just about businesses they are about housing, which should and could be controlled by the people who live in them - not grifting landlords. And of course it goes further than this. Communities should have control of public spaces, community centres, allotments, energy, water, schools and public transport. 

Every successful co-op diminishes capitalism. I'm not suggesting that we don't need socialist parties, or trade unions, or that we shouldn't be trying to create a socialist state. But doing those two things without creating a viable, productive, inclusive economic alternative to capitalism won't bring about a socialist society. Maybe we should be talking about a communitarian society? Oh, and it's crucial that Your Party adopts this approach and builds economic democracy.

Your Party - can it work? Yes it can!

Here we go! The age-old problem of the left - factionalism and rows about differences - many of them petty but destructive. Will this doom Corbyn and Sultanas new party? It could, but there is no reason why it should, not if the structure laid out in this excellent article from JC is followed. He says -

"One of the biggest mistakes we can make is thinking we must choose between parliament and our communities as battlegrounds for change. We want to build power everywhere. That is how you transform a moment into a movement that grows for generations to come. That is how we can take on the establishment, inside and outside parliament, to win a better society for us all"

And he is right. He's always said the party must be led from the grassroots, a bottom up party. This is the only way to build a truly democratic party, and it can be done if we fight for it.

As you would expect, there hasn't even been a founding conference and already, predictably, rows are breaking out. Participate in the party conference, make your voices heard, promote the values and policies you want. Then you can decide if you want to remain in it. Don't squabble and bitch about it beforehand!

This is what we all want! 

Here are some of the values and policies the party must have:

* Anti-Zionist and cease all support for Israel

* Pro-LGBTQ+ rights with explicit support for trans people

* Bringing public services - including water energy, schools, prisons NHS etc back into public control

* End the right to buy and build council houses

* Increase the minimum wage

* Tax the rich

* Kick out BlackRock and private equity

* End Freeports and SEZs

* Put the climate crisis at the top of the agenda - Green New Deal

* abolish the House of Lords

* Introduce PR and citizen's assemblies

I could go on, but I'm sure if you want you real change, you will agree, support and fight for these policies. So stay involved, stay positive and work for real change! 

Sultana and Corbyn? This is a time for action and optimism.

So, in recent news, Zara Sultana, after being suspended for a year by Starmer's Labour, announced that she was quitting Labour after 14 years and forming a new party with Jeremy Corbyn. This was greeted with enthusiasm by many on the left, including me. I wish her luck, and believe she has the ability to succeed. You can find her website, Team Zara, here. The last time I looked, over 60,000 people had signed up.

I have to say I'm very pleased about this. The news cheered me up, and, if it is the kind of party Corbyn has spoken about - community based, bottom up democratic politics - then I think it will work very well.

Of course, as you would expect, they've been attacked from the right with Camilla Tominey describing the party as 'sinister' which is as hilarious as you would expect 😂

Zara gives an update on how her site is going

Predicably there have been some moans from the left, and there's been talk about behind the scenes' infighting. Sadly, there's always been scope for this on the left, but I don't take this too seriously, and it's up to us to make it work. If they stick to Corbyn's plan, I think all will go well. So.... let's go for it! Onwards and upwards! Have you signed up yet?

The West is finished - forever.

Very many of us, around the world, have been utterly horrified by the ongoing slaughter, in Gaza, a genocide. We sit and watch while the mass destruction of schools and hospitals is livestreamed on social media. Then we have the western MSM, which deliberately paints a false picture of events and still tries to portray the Israelis as victims. The BBC has been particularly biased, as this recent report reveals.

Now we have a war Between Israel and Iran, supported by the USA, UK and it's western allies. This follows Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. Now, the USA has bombed Iran. The 'excuse'? Weapons of mass destruction, which Iran doesn't have. Heard that before somewhere? The key point here is that the West is complicit in all these war crimes, it has the blood of the Palestinians on its hands, and it will never wash off.

Starmer and Trump at the G7.

One of the key difficulties here, is the fact that we have grown up seeing the West as part of the 'rules based order' and upholding international law. The truth is, they have only done this when it suits their American overlords. Now, with Gaza, the mask is off, and it can never be replaced. It's hard to believe that so many western governments could have failed so abjectly, but this has been in the pipeline for decades - Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, the list goes on and on. The West is done, finished, and the horror continues!

The Trump/Musk fiasco

So, Trump and Musk have finally fallen out. Was it to be expected? I would say almost certainly. Two narcissistic psychos with massive egos. The row erupted after Musk criticised Trump's Big Beautiful Bill. Of course, the row isn't going to stop them still causing massive damage to the USA and it's people. The horror story continues.

Could they get back together? That is possible if it suits their needs and greed, but damage has been done with Musk raising Trump and the Epstein files on Twitter, calling for his impeachment, and Trump threatening to cancel Musks contracts. Trump's mate Bannon has called for Musk to be deported as an illegal alien. The fun goes on!

I found this excellent meme on Bluesky, but was unable to find out who made it. Happy to give credit.

What next? Who knows? Putin will be laughing for sure. But let's hope they continue to tear one another apart and enjoy it while we can 😂

The death of the Labour party

In 1999, I joined the Green Party. Why? I've always been a socialist and I always voted Labour, when I bothered to vote. By then, I had seen through Tony Blair. While the media and Labour supporters were still fawning over Emperor Blair, I could see he had no clothes, I was that little boy. People have conveniently forgotten that New Labour was cruel to benefit claimants, built very little housing, and was in hoc to the corporations - a neoliberal party. Blair managed to lose about 5 million votes, the BNP blossomed, but he was worshipped by the party - and still is.

Blairism has mutated in Starmerism, an even crueller and more vacuous version, in the pockets of Palantir and BlackRock, who btw are buying up the UK, soon we won't own any of our own country. I'm sure you're aware of the vicious cuts to PIP and the refusal to lift the two child benefit cap. If you don't know about freeports and SEZs you need to find out. Starmer is taking the UK down the drain via corporate fiefdoms. 

And then, of course, there is his support for the atrocious ongoing support for the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians. 

Many people are now disillusioned with Labour. Starmer promised 'change' and has given us more of the same - on steroids. Labour have plummeted in the polls and Reform, led by uber grifter Farage, are on the rise. The local elections are on Thursday and Reform are ahead in some polls. They could win the by-election in Helsby and Runcorn. 

People were getting really angry after 14 years of Tory government, hence Labour's bizarre landslide in 2024. Now, they are even angrier. Where do they turn? Not to the Tories. Some will go for the Fib Dems. What are the other options? Basically Reform or the Greens, though independents might have a chance.

Part of the key to this is the rotten and corrupt system of government we've had in the UK for decades with politicians in the pockets of corporations, and a FPTP electoral system which doesn't deliver democracy. We still have a House of Lords, FFS! 

All we can do is buckle up, organise and work to get Greens elected. They have the best policies and are doing well in some polls. We don't have a credible alternative left party. At this rate, I may have to rejoin the Greens! *

*I left when Corbyn became Labour leader, as we all know he was sabotaged by the MSM and the political establishment.

We were meant to live together, capitalism has destroyed that.

Guess what? Humans are social animals. We are made that way. We need the company of others to survive and to thrive. This does not mean just family, or friends, it means being part of a real community. That is where we should be based, But we aren't. As I wrote in a previous post here, the nuclear family in the west has divided us up into little boxes, neatly packaged, to divide us and serve the purposes of capitalism.

How many people live on my street. I would guess about 500. How many do I know? About 10 or so. How many are friends? Half a dozen. Why? Is it because I'm not sociable? I don't think so. I would guess that most people in the street are the same. They may know others because they are neighbours or because they meet at the school gates, or possibly the pub. But that's about it. Most people's visitors are family and friends, not locals.

This affects all of us, but we are so used to it, we hardly notice. Being separated into nuclear family units is good for neoliberal capitalism. As Margaret Thatcher said, "there is no such thing as society". Although it has been argued that this was taken out of context, there can be no doubt that the 'atomisation' of individuals suits those that exploit us. It weakens our agency as a collective. Real change has happened when we have come together, as in the solidarity and work of the Suffragettes, for example. Individualism, lauded by some, makes us weaker and easier to use and manipulate. 

A suffragette being arrested.

If you look at indigenous communities, they are collective. People work together and live together in a group. That is how we evolved and how we were made. That is how we should be living, but separation is so ingrained it will be difficult to bring about real change. However, there is nothing to stop us trying to build stronger communities by becoming active in community groups, with solidarity and mutual aid. The way the world is going, we are really going to need this.

Trump epitomises the psychosis of neoliberal late stage capitalism

Where are we now? It's hard to keep up. This is only a brief summary. Trump has been president for less than a month and in true Steve Bannon style has 'flooded the zone with shit' using an avalanche of executive orders, most of which appear to be illegal and have been challenged.

His benefactor and right-hand man billionaire Musk, working through DOGE, seems to have access to all government departs with his team of kids and is 'stealing' data and making crazy cuts. It seems they want to scrap the department of education, defund USAID, libraries, forests, healthcare (National Institutes of Health), ban books, attack POC and trans people whilst ensuring that hundreds of millions of dollars go into the pockets of Musk and Trumps billionaire pals.

Then we've got RFK, the vaccine conspiracy theory lunatic who appears to want to damage and destroy the lives of millions of Americans, and Hesgeth, the whisky quaffing defence secretary whose main priority, apart from booze is renaming US bases and removing any traces of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) from the US military - something which is being implemented in all US government departments.

The of course, we have the tariffs threat. First Canada and Mexico, and now, he appears to be going after the UK, China and the EU. He may have backed down on the first two 'victims' but he's already damaged the US economy as Canadians are boycotting US products.

Trump's fake ceasefire in Gaza may have brought some relief to the Palestinians trapped there, but it will be temporary. Trump and Netanyahu want the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, expelling the Palestinians and turning it into some kind of luxury resort. This won't happen, and the horror of the Gaza genocide will continue.

This is a photo posted by Trump recently on social media

This week we have witnessed the black farce of the Munich Security Conference. JD Vance chumming up with the AFD and criticising free speech in the UK. Hesgeth talking BS while drinking whisky. Now, we have Trump selling out Ukraine to Putin and demanding all of their mineral resources.

It's not that much better in the UK. Starmer and Reeves think they are going to get growth by bowing down to oligarchs and corporations, selling off UK assets, and funding oil companies that are destroying the planet. They're boosting defence spending whilst cutting overseas aid, and allowing Ofgem to rip off energy customers with another hike in energy bills in April.

May people are depressed by the rank state of affairs we find ourselves in. The only thing we can do is get ourselves organised and fight back. It's going to be a long, uphill struggle, but we have no other choice. 

The New Chartists - We need a Charter for real change in the UK.

We need real change in the UK, and we need it very soon. But how do we bring it about? Millions of Brits are pissed off. They are struggling to pay the rent, mortgage, energy bills and put food on the table. While Musk rants about Farage and Tommeh, Trump steps into the Whitehouse, and genocidal Kid Starver freezes pensioners and cuts benefits for the disabled more, and more people are suffering.

Our political system, and democracy is broken, our economy is broken, our country is broken, and the 'change' Starmer promised is simply the same old shit we have had to put up with for the past 14 years. It's not just the working classes who are suffering, so are the middle class and the petit bourgeoisie. Graduates are struggling in low paid jobs. The country is ripe for a peaceful revolution.

I'm not convinced we need a new political party, but we definitely need a people's movement for change. We need real democracy - direct democracy - in which our citizens can all participate. Furthermore, we know that this can work because it's already been tried through citizens assemblies.

Recently, I found this article by Peter Garbutt, an old GP comrade of mine. He explains how the system can work and bring about the changes we need in a dying society and planet, where we must work to avoid climate collapse.

He says: 

"Here’s how it would work. First, a political party would be formed with the specific and explicit aim of introducing government by citizens assemblies – selected by sortition, much like juries are at present – and introducing UBI. It’s extremely difficult for new parties to make headway in our system. It’s usually a lack of money or a lack of media coverage that’s the problem."

And:  

"By the end of the party’s term, the system of governance by citizens’ assemblies would be up and running. The party’s final act would be to adopt the constitution and abolish political parties, including itself."

I'm not sure if we need a political party to bring about the changes we need, but the support of a political party would be important. As for UBI that is a separate issue not covered in the post.

The Great Chartists meeting on Kennington Common in 1848

So many people are disillusioned with our 'democracy' and political parties that the biggest group we have is none voters. I think a people's movement, let's just call it the New Chartists, could produce the momentum for the change we need. So let's work together a draw up a new charter of our demands for the changes we need. The demand must include citizens assemblies with the power to make decisions locally and nationally, and a written constitution.

Millions, on the left and centre, are disillusioned with the state of the UK and our 'democratic' system. Only the right are enthused because they sense a chance to seize power. Let's grasp this opportunity to thwart them and bring about real positive change! What other choice do we have?