Happy new year.
I thought I'd offer some predictions for 2024. They are in no particular order. Many will be wrong, but thinking about what might happen never did harm.
UK economy
The UK will go into recession and may well stay there for much of the year.
The Bank of England will cut interest rates, but only by a percentage point. There will be clamour for much more.
There will be significant redundancies. Unemployment will rise.
Housing defaults will become more commonplace. House prices will fall. Loss provisions will hit bank profits.
The FTSE begins to fall.
UK politics
Hunt will offer cuts in inheritance tax in the budget.
He will promise a cut in income tax to 17% over the following five years, but not immediately.
He will get no bounce in the polls as a result.
There will be a May general election. The Tories will lose 200 seats. Labour will get 370. Other parties will do better than expected. There will be very clear signs of tactical voting. The SNP will hold most of its seats. The LibDems will win heavily in the south and south west of England, largely at cost to the Tories, but holding Labour at bay. The Greens will get three seats. The message to Labour from the electorate will be conditional. All the opposition parties, and even some Tories, immediately demand PR.
Labour's budget confirms austerity, Tory tax cuts and no additional spend on climate change. There are no tax increases on the wealthiest. Their poll ratings fall significantly.
Labour is deeply antagonistic on benefits, pay rises, support for the BBC, Scotland, migration, and support for Israel, where it stands by Netanyahu as revulsion at his policy grows.
The NHS haemorrhages staff who cannot stand the strain. Waiting lists grow. The private sector is unable to meet demand.
Schools also face unprecedented loss of staff. Labour refuses to increase funding or pay.
Local council bankruptcies increase rapidly.
Politics elsewhere
The US presidential campaign is very dirty and riven by violence. Biden wins, just. The year ends with considerable violence in that country.
Israel seeks to force the Palestinian residents of Gaza out of the country, with considerable loss of life. The international community is slow to welcome refugees and provides insufficient support to Egypt. International stress rises on the issue, as it does in Israel itself.
The war in Ukraine grinds to a stalemate.
Stress around Taiwan continues, but does not result in conflict.
Far right parties do well in elections across Europe.
Unlikely alliances are created to keep the far right out of office.
The discussion of social democratic alternatives to the far right grows.
Migration reaches record levels as people flee conflict and the impact of climate change.
Climate
2024 will be the hottest year on record.
Crops fail in many areas.
There is record flooding.
Emergency funding for afflicted areas is scarce.
Migration grows.
Domestically, heat pump and other technologies make big progress, but need more support.
The world totters on a precipice, unable to decide its future direction as mainly older white men argue that balanced budgets are more important than saving the planet.
Other stuff
There will be growing demand for alternatives.
The right will be very noisy, and will promise fascism.
There will be growing awareness on the left of the need for new ideas.
This blog will continue to be published.
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Well, at least your last precision is something to look forward to.
“This blog will continue to be published.”
The only really important prediction.
There are many things I would like to see happen, though not necessarily I’m 2024
☑️ There must be a way for the public to call a General Election when the government is so unpopular
☑️ The “First past the post” voting system must be replaced by something more democratic
☑️ The House of Lords needs replacing after some very dubious appointments
☑️ Political donations must be banned having seen the undue “influence” of private healthcare, etc
☑️ Organisations must reveal their donors. Think Tank or Stink Tank?
☑️ Government must use government phones, email and WhatsApp groups so messages are never “lost”
☑️ Previous government spending should be reviewed for accountability and legality. I’m thinking PPE and land purchase around freeports.
☑️ Companies can no longer pay dividends at the expense of pensions
☑️ After public sector workers’ pay has been returned to its earlier value, it should be linked to that of MPs
☑️ Pensions should be doubled (there are already European pensions that are more than twice ours at £2000/m)
☑️ No one should be involuntarily homeless or hungry
☑️ There should be a government job guarantee
☑️ The honours system needs to be renamed
Ian off topic (even though I like your posts) but how do you create those really great tick boxes?
Agreed
How do you do that?
Unicode: the same technology that caters for special characters, also allows for some special symbols (sometimes called emoticons). As they are unicode characters, they can be copied and pasted. So I might search for, for example:
Unicode tick marks.
Some websites specialise in grouping the characters, for example:
① https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTips/unicode-symbols.html (see the sections from “Emoticons”)
② https://symbl.cc/en/
Note that not all devices support all characters.
Thank you
A belated Happy New Year, Richard.
Agree with your ☑️ list, Ian, but I would add one more.
☑️ Press reform – such as banning non-dom owners from MSM control, and putting in place a regulator with teeth.
The Fourth Estate has a lot to answer for with regard to our current predicament.
I can see a perfect storm approaching in the UK as a result of declining living standards, rising housing costs and the activities of the conspicuously rich.
Not sure Biden will win. Still, we can hope 2024 will be better than 2023. Happy New Year.
All I would add is that ‘funny money’ from vested interests will continue to poor into British politics to record levels, stymieing new ideas and preventing the epiphany we need in our politics for real change.
Thus democracy and even Parliament will further disconnect from society and there might be consequences.
“poor into British politics”.
Now there is a serendipity on New Year’s Day, as Richard skips off for a coffee, and Clive … skips off.
Happy New Year PSR, Richard, Clive …. and everyone.
Incidentally, PSR typtos (sic!) are my speciality; don’t you start.
Covid free, my wife and I went out for a coffee
And I enjoyed it
We walked around (I mean outside) Ely Cathedral discussing Maestro, which I thought a deeply disappointing film. I could hear maybe one word in three in it. If he couldn’t get the sound right why did Bradley Cooper bother?
Guilty as charged your honour!
I knew that 6 pack of Murphy’s I brought over with me from Ireland for New Year would cause havoc somehow. It pores/poors/pours/pause/whatever well (hic).
HNY to you all.
I think this is pretty much spot on, I’ll only disagree on two points, I think the SNP will lose a good number of seats, there is still fallout from Surgon’s resignation and there may well be tactical voying against SNP as was partly the case in 2017. Secondly I agree that there will be a lot of bluster from Labour being tought on pulbic service pay, the difference with Tories is the unions which he is going to find harder to ignore and secondly to leave a good impression in 5 years time they need look like they are resolving the NHS problems etc early on; he needs to retain and attract people and that is only going to happen with the promise of better pay.
I’m delighted to hear you’re over the worst of your latest Covid experience and getting out and about again.
In response to Artie Lees’ prediction that “the SNP will lose a good number of seats, there is still fallout from Surgon’s (sic) resignation and there may well be tactical voying (sic) against SNP as was partly the case in 2017”, I agree that the generational change at the top of the SNP will complicate electoral matters for them. However there are a couple of much bigger factors that can’t be ignored:
First: Support for Independence in polls has persistently sat at around 50% for years, so, for half of the Scottish electorate, the big issue is Independence, not party politics and that is unlikely to change until independence is achieved. With both Tory and Labour parties committed to preserving the Union, I can’t see that 50% of the Scottish electorate changing their minds and voting for Westminster parties hell bent on preventing Scottish Independence. It seems far more likely that Labour will take seats from the Tories with little impact on SNP seats overall. There is the possibility that Alba could take seats from the SNP, however Alba is a fledgling party led by a “yesterday’s man” and I can’t see it being capable of conducting the complex negotiations if a future referendum were to deliver a ‘Yes’ vote.
Second: Before devolution came into being, a referendum on the concept of a Scottish Parliament showed c75% of the Scottish electorate in favour. Since then it has maintained high public approval and any attempt to terminate it would meet strong resistance which would inevitably translate into increased support for Independence. While no party has openly proposed closing Holyrood, recent actions by the Tory Gov’t have come close to suggesting it: the undermining of intra vires Holyrood legislation raises fundamental questions about the future of devolved government when legislation can so easily be overturned for political gain.
When considering Scottish politics it’s crucial to bear these factors in mind and not simply view electoral outcomes through a Westminster party-political prism
An interesting development in Scotland in recent times is the number of non party political organisations supporting – even working towards – independence. One hundred and forty two at the last count. Hard to predict where this will lead in 2024 and beyond but the direction of travel is a prosperous, more equal country with engaged citizens and principled leaders free from the constraints imposed by an unpopular unelected remote self serving government. Time to think outside the square. Happy new year. Please keep informing and inspiring your readers Richard and regular contributors. You are all very much appreciated.
Thanks
The UK infrastructure will continue to deteriorate
This has consequences
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/01/growing-proportion-of-englands-flood-defences-in-disrepair-analysis-finds
Underemployment becomes an issue, especially if some sectors of the economy where it is an issue call for more immigration
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/01/how-women-and-younger-uk-workers-are-being-hit-by-underemployment
Happy New Year.
Interesting article about flood defences.
We moved to York in 1999 and the flooding was so bad in 2000 that at one time there was only one road open out of York.
Last month the floods were again very bad in York, so bad at one time that my grannddaughter who lives there now had to find a different way to walk round to get to work. She lives on the south bank and works near the Minster, for those of you who know York.
In 2000 there was a magazine of photos that the York Press sold for £1.50 a copy, which I still have, donating some of the money to the floods relief fund.
Both my granddaughter and her boyfriend said that the floods were worse in 2000 than last year, so something must have worked.
I think it could be that there have been flood relief schemes built higher up from York, such as in Pickering and the Yorkshire Dales. York has a particular problem as the Ouse is tidal up from the Humber, so the two lots of floodwater meet in the middle.
In the 2000s there were four 1 in a 100 year events as far as flooding was concerned. In the next decade there were even more. However, the inundations seem to be less rapid, giving the people more time to react and get the defences in place.
Worrying
I lived in York from 1990 to 1994 – lovely place, but very car dependent and increasingly polluted – had to skip around the regular floods when I moved out from the Borobridge Road to Fulford Rd and they seem to have got much worse since then.
Where I live now in Derbyshire, we too have had around 4-5 one in a hundred year flood events since 2000.
Had a brother in law over for New Year who likes skiing and flying a lot complaining about the rain. He does not seem to realise that the rain is the snow and ice that is increasingly melting because of global warming in part due to hi travelling habits.
With a spring in my step on this sunny New Year’s morning I took a look at the blog….. and was brought rapidly down to earth! Best I get outdoors now.
Me too
Finally clear of Covid
I need a coffee out
Happy New Year,
Some builds in no particular order.
The evidence points to the increased risk of tipping point climate change events which will accelerate the symptoms we can already clearly see. Further dramatic ice cap melts are a high probability.
The conflict in Palestine could escalate and become regional. There isn’t a military solution to the situation in Palestine nor is there one in the Ukraine. The removal of Netanyahu and Putin are precursors to moving towards a resolution.
The UK election will be ugly and much closer than current polls indicate. I truly hope that the result is a catalyst for PR which would be a game changer.
Apropos Israel, and on similar lines – in her most recent post, Frances Coppola made some good points about the West’s (USA mainly, but also the other usual suspects) historical culpability in failing to rein Israel in re (inter alia): the illegal settlements and the treatment of the Palestinians. And the unsustainable consequences of this.
Dearie me!
I was hoping something would change the UK’s terrible situation for the better. I’m not giving up hope though.
I’m glad you will be continuing your blog.
Hard to disagree with those predictions. Unfortunately these are by no means worst-case. A Trump victory is very possible where we are facing much worse outcomes for 2024, and beyond. At some stage, voters need to wise up and see what’s in their children’s and grandchildren’s interests, not their own short-term. To make that happen, we need to continue to offer clear alternative perspectives to our (literally) burning issues. Social justice, social democracy, Just Transition, reducing inequality … but it’s hard not to despair when Labour is not offering policies that have any hope of delivering positive outcomes.
As a 60’s child, I used to read about WWII and wonder what did good people do, or not do, in the 30’s that generated and facilitated such levels of fascism. IMO we are at a similar point in history. I suggest we need to redouble our commitment to offering real values-based alternatives. Thank you Richard for this blog which is a treasure trove in that regard. To which I respectfully repeat my advocacy for UBI as one fully-affordable, groundbreaking policy.
I predict that interest in UBI will rocket as the cost of living crisis deepens in 2024, and more evidence from various UBI research projects accumulates.
I was reading a report from a British university yesterday that set out the amazing impact on health and on the NHS of introducing a UBI in the UK – even the revenue-neutral (i.e. no additional cost) proposal has revolutionary potential.
Richard has declared a preference for universal basic services/UBS over UBI in the past – and who could disagree with the notion of UBS (apart from Tories – including the red variety)? But I say, why not both?
Because UBI demands impossibly high taxes and could easily be exploited by employers
Agree with Richard re UBI, and I sat on a policy group on the topic last year. UBS is much more feasible and delivers the right outcomes.
Worth noting that UBI gets support from sections of the libertarian right. On the basis that if people have got an income they don’t need public health, housing etc as they can ‘choose’ for themselves.
Your last para is what I fear
For UBI to ‘work’ it would have to be set at a level that means no-one needs to claim housing benefit, or council tax benefit, or any kind of financial support. If it doesn’t meet those criteria it is just another type of means tested benefit with all the concomitant costs and unfairnesses we currently have. If it does meet them it will be impossibly expensive.
All UBI advocates I know also support UBS, Universal basic services. One without the other is incomplete.
But no, UBI doesn’t require “impossibly high taxes”. Our recently-published model quantified the outcome in Ireland where we proposed:
1. Replacement of existing tax credits for income earners with the proposed UBI
2. Replacement of core social welfare payments up to the value of the proposed UBI so that no welfare recipient was worse off
3. A radical claw-back mechanism that ensured that those with mid level incomes paid the UBI back in full at earning levels. Those earning higher levels paid more than they received in UBI, thereby delivering income redistribution. (Those on low incomes benefit the most).
4. Small increase in employer contributions to social insurance fund.
Our model requires no increases in standard income tax rates.
https://basicincome.ie/november-2023-conference-paper-launch/
Then it was not aUBI, and more an enhanced social security payment
Not much in your predictions that I would fundamentally disagree with.
My big reservation is in relation to America. I don’t see Biden being a candidate or else being a candidate and winning. A worsening situation in Gaza will put more strain on the Democratic Party and its ability to build a winning coalition.
As America becomes more and more mired in domestic difficulties, its ability to intervene or respond to international crises may also be impacted. And that will always pose questions for Europe and NATO.
On more parochial matters for me, I can’t see devolution returning to Northern Ireland, so no Sinn Fein First Minister. I can’t see the DUP losing enough support to make them change their current policy.
@David Jackson
Re whether Biden will run in 2024, the Republicans in the House are currently pushing to impeach Biden over Ukraine, Hunter Biden’s laptop and alleged corruption by Sleepy Joe and his son.
All of this may, or may not, be valid, but in my opinion I’d have the House impeach Genocide Joe over his shameful support for Netanyahu’s “Mad Meg” genocidal attack on Palestinians.
Further, I’d have the Senate vote to convict him, and have him removed from office. His behaviour over Israel’s murderous behaviour is both “a clear and present danger” to America’s interests, and “a high crime and misdemeanour” in contradistinction to America’s alleged values (all shown up by the Gaza massacres as shamefully wanting, and blatant hypocrisy).
Genocide Joe has, IMO, broken his oath of office, and must go. I recognise, alas, that this would result in V-P Kamala “airhead” Harris becoming POTUS – a worrying prospect, and a tragedy as America’s first female POTUS.
It’s a pity Biden didn’t choose Elizabeth Warren as Veep. Better still, the woman who SHOULD be the USA’s first female POTUS, Jill Klein of the Greens.
But we know all about that in the UK, having had Margaret “Mad Meg” Thatcher, the harrier of society, as our first female PM, instead of Barbara Castle!
There’s also the worry that Trump would flatten Harris in the GE, and Trump WILL become a dictator, if he wins again.
But Biden MUST go.
But what is the alternative Andrew?
The election will be very close IMO as Labour squander optimism and activism while the Tories stoke massive culture divisions, Reform do better than expected as a result, and Tory gerrymandering has a profound effect. Khan wins by a hairs breadth. Trump loses but USA falls into a new Civil War. Trump is assassinated by military who side with the Constitution, and suppress the rebellion.
Labour finally splits into two parties, the New Conservatives form an alliance party with Reform. Starmer institutes PR and has to reverse many policies due to having to firm alliances.
Continuing climate degradation forces massive and unpopular changes. Far right money pours into Reform/NewC climate deniers. The UK continues in profound recession.
You make me sound like an optimist!
I think that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr (RFK) is in with a chance as people fall out of favour with both Biden and Trump.
See for example: “Spoiler alert? Poll has RFK Jr. grabbing 22 percent against Biden and Trump”
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/01/spoiler-alert-rfk-jr-takes-eye-popping-22-in-poll-against-biden-trump-00124855
But he is really far right
The original Robert Kennedy would be ashamed of him
Not the impression I got based on his policies.
https://www.kennedy24.com/policies
I read reports of what he’s saying from Reich and others and do not believe that website
@John Griffin
I lose count of where I’ve posted what, essentially I’m in my anecdotage (79 next month), and so have probably posted this here before, but I agree with you about the coming GE being much closer than people believe, because of what I call the Tory Left Hook/Right Hook Strategy.
Of course = the Left Hook is “You’ve broken every pledge & u-turned on every commitment, Sir Keir. Why should we believe a word you say?”
And the Right Hook is the Tories KNOW there’s a “magic money tree”, they’ve used it (think Furlough Scheme), so turn on the funding taps, to outbid Labour. Labour continues to believe – morons as they are (as I said flat-earther economists!!) In 5 year “household budget” and fiscal rules model of the economy.
Another part of the Right Hook is to outbid Labour in policy terms, knowing Starmer is too scared to be bold and imagininative.
Or maybe he’s just too politically dim? He’s certainly a victim of what I call moronavirus, the virus that turns brains and consciences to moronic mush, as his shameful behaviour on the call for a ceasefire in Gaza has clearly demonstrated
This could easily be incorporated into the Left Hook, since the ONLY thing he’s been unwavering on is his “Zionist without qualification” declaration!!
Not much to disagree with for both Richard’s comments and those of other readers. The Gaza situation appalls me – I don’t think the South Africans (their people have memories of Israeli support for apartheid) are wrong in their view of the possibility of genocide and I don’t see Biden doing anything to stop it.
So I don’t see a very happy 2024 – though I wish all readers of this blog together with Richard and his family prosperity and (in their own lives) peace and love.
Thanks
Agreed, though one of the sad ironies is that the Jewish community in SA played a significant role in fighting apartheid, as they did supporting civil rights in the US.
And now the Israelis run an apartheid state complete with pogroms in the West Bank and officially sanctioned genocide.
“ Capital thought very carefully about how to break labor; yet there has still not yet been enough thought about what tactics will work against capital in conditions of post-Fordism, and what new language can be innovated to deal with those conditions.”
Capital Realism: Is there no alternative? Mark Fisher
For a different perspective which is about to do about it all – and what not to do – Robert Reich has some good suggestions on Substack.
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/the-new-year?r=qshi&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
He is writing about the US and Trump but his observations seem just as relevant here, as do many of his other pieces.
Agreed – but very binary and in a US context
Fir many of us our general election will be binary – but necessarily consistently so
I fear that we are not so far behind the US as we think. It’s been worryingly close economically and politically. With similar divisions over immigration and inequality. In consolation we do not have the guns or religion.
That is some consolation.
I hope enough….
Wishing a Happy New Year, Richard, to you and yours, regular contributors, and all people of goodwill who read this excellent blog, and leave it enlightened or provoked into thinking more deeply about the multiple problems which beset us.
It is my earnest wish that more of our fellow citizens wake up to the lack of vision and mendacity of our political class and the elites who it tends to favour and who’s interests it protects above all.
I concur with your predictions, but single out PR in particular. Democratic renewal is essential.
Thanks
Happy New Year Richard – and ‘keep going’!
Its a good motif – in the light of an M1 round trip London/Leeds to a ‘keep going’ veterans NY party through the floods /spray/ glare, and the demolition site / demolished infrastructure that is south central Leeds where even google maps gives up the ghost .
But you do seem rather optimistic – hope you are right.
What a bleak midwinter set of precisions [sic] – which we can only hope are not too precise!
To add to the miserable prospect of unabated neoliberalism in the UK , I had only just read Adam Tooze’s latest Chartbook “War, peace and the return of history in 2023″.
With his usual brilliant concision, Toozes places the current Middle East conflict in the historical context of Zionism, and concludes:
“… the West now faces the bankruptcy of the vision of global development on which it anchored itself in the wake of the victorious end to the Cold War in Europe. We now know that the European experience of successful integration under American leadership does not generalize. The question is how it responds to this defeat.
The risk, all too obvious in the Biden administration, is that the US faced with this shock, goes back to the future. Casting off the platitudes of the 1990s and neoliberalism, American strategists are tempted to return to the mid 20th century as their reference point, to the moment of America’s rise to globalism, to the heroic narrative of World War II and the Cold War. This is an important part of Biden’s rock-jawed commitment to Israel.
In so doing the political class of the West misunderstand not only the world as it has developed in the 80 years since, but what the West and the United States have become as well. That misrecognition is a recipe for further frustration, shock and likely for violent confrontation. It means that history will return as catastrophe rather than constructive and deliberate change. The catastrophe may start with the American electorate once again rejecting centerist Democrats in favor of Donald Trump.”
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-258-war-peace-and-the-return
Happy New Year?
Bah! Humbug!!!
Your prediction for the election is more hopeful than mine.
I (like you and many here) hope for a left of centre coalition that ends first past the post and brings in some decentralisation. The signs are not good because the SNP has imploded and the tories are beyond bad – Labour’s lead is well over the 12% swing needed to get a majority. These unlikely and unforseen gifts have reinforced Labours “only we can do it” tribalism making life difficult for those of us who want some cross party cooperation.
Ive added a link to an article about Jon Cruddas’s upcomming book, the case against Kier Starmer, that I share, is summarised as well as anywhere. The 10 pledges on which he campaigned to become leader did indeed bring all wings labour together. But in my view this was just a tactic and not rooted in anything other than a desire to win. Just imaging how hopeful things would look now if he’d stuck to them and made the case…it was never going to no to happen.
What has happened since – the pivots (u-turns) and centrailisation have revealed something else – the take over of the Labour Party by professional small c conservatives. Center left is OK but this lot want total subservience to whatever the party line is even as they backtrack. They even challenged Neal Lawson a lifelong labour member who served as a SPAD for Gordon Brown (the point here is he’s no anti-Semitic leftie). The Tories have been taken over by messianic libertarians (but thats another story). New labour is back with a vengance, fully in control of the party and committed to steady as you go (i.e. conservative) policies.
Twenty or more years ago running capitalism better and sharing some of its gains might have been (just about) acceptable (it was to me I was in a small minority then). There is also is no getting away from the fact that New Labour improved many things. It did it within the framework that “there is no alternative”, the Cold War had just been won. There was a big problem however.
Hardly any of New Labour gains have survived; the reason, simply stated, is that they were grafted onto the existing system and didn’t change anything fundamental. They could easily be reversed. As soon as there was a fiancial and banking crisis (which are cyclical) they where. What is more Labour accepted the blame for the debt incurred baling out the banks and even campaigned for austerity lite.
Since 2008 the extreme form of winner take all capitalism we have has been reveallled for what it is to anyone who cares too look. It takes a larger and larger share of the wealth that is created, it refuses to deal with climate change, or any other externalities, its is subsidised by tax breaks and in-work benefits. To keep the gravy train running it translates money into raw power dominating poiltics and subverting democracy. For sure we are not as bad as the US (where 2 aged billionaires slug it it out, with no limits on spending) but it’s bad enough here. This has been devastatingly well documented by small c conservatives like Martin Woolfe (ex editor of the FT, see for example his book The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism).
As Jon Cruddas summaries, from the perspective of a long view of Labour’s different traditions, there are no signs that Labour under Kier Starmer is rooted in a critique of inequality and redistribution. I think it’s worse, there are no signs he realises just how much the world has changed and that new thinking is needed.
Tragicaly (for us) it just isnt good enough to be a bit better manager. Things are broken and breaking down, a Labour Party that merely brings a welcome pause to the chaos and blatant corruption will, make us feel better BUT after its brief honeymoon it will run into grave difficulties. Jon Cruddas concludes a victory could trigger the end of labour.
How I wish it wasn’t so.
Never have I found it so hard to look forward to the New Year with hope.
Starmer lacks clear sense of purpose, says ex-policy chief
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/30/keir-starmer-detached-labour-party-jon-cruddas?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Cruddas is right about Starmer
A man without convictions wanting power without knowing why or what he will do with it.
I would like to see the Greens do much better than 3 seats. But their monetary policy, which (totally unrealistically) calls for something called a “National Monetary Authority” to create and control the money supply, hasn’t changed – it’s still up there on the Greens’ website. In July you reported that you and Larry Sanders had challenged Molly Scott Cato on this, and that she had listened. Keep up the pressure?
I am hoping this might be an issue at the Green’s spring conference.
But that is a hope….
One is increasingly ashamed to be an older white man.
I remember, back in the 70’s, thinking that my generation would bring great and beneficial social and political change to the world.
It brought great change, but not much actually attributable to my generation, that I can think of that was actually socially or politically beneficial. Most of the good stuff was already in train, and I rather think we have done much more to impede than to accelerate its progress.
The biggest surprise to me has always been just how much greed we brought, how contrary that greed is to the ideals I thought we held as a generation and just how much awful damage that greed has done and continues to do.
Agreed
…and the impact of the continuing pandemic?
https://x.com/tjalcovrv/status/1742245148434555261?s=20