I might appear to be angry of late. The reason is that I am.
I am incandescent with Labour and its callous indifference to people.
I am frightened by Starmer's refusal to condemn fascists in the US government.
Starmer's support for the genocide being pursued by the government of Israel is unforgivable.
I am profoundly troubled by the collapse of democracy and the rule of law in the USA.
I know that demcracy only hangs on here in the UK by a thread.
I am livid that the Bank of England still treats the people of this country with contempt by imposing utterly unnecessary interest rates on them so that wealth can flow upwards to those already privileged in society.
And always and almost everywhere, I see almost wholly inadequate responses to all this from the supposed left-of-centre think tanks and political parties and their tame media, all of them so incapacitated by their neoliberal bias, failure of empathy, and elite concerns that they have not a clue between them as to what to do about any of this.
So, yes, I am angry and less inclined than ever to suffer fools gladly.
And what would you expect me to be? Is anyone happy right now?
What is more, if I wasn't angry, do you really think I would keep writing about all these things, day in and day out?
It's precisely because I know we can do better that I do keep writing.
We could have a politics of care when we now have a politics of indifference.
We could manage the economy to ensure everyone flourished instead of balancing the books whilst ensuring only the wealthy prosper.
We could choose peace - and resolve the issues that the world faces.
We could choose the rule of law and democracy.
We could do these things. But we don't.
Why not be angry?
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Will we see the revival of The Angry Brigade?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Angry_Brigade
Mr Boxall, very good question. In the mid-1990s I read (prob in Guardian) that MI5 expected the next terorist threat to be from the middle class – due to declining living standards etc.
This did not happen and instead terrorism due to USA actions in the middle-east and Afghanistan rose to prominance. Conveniently this faciliated the emergence of UK authoritariansim & endless laws that have eroded the ability of Uk serfs to protest against gov.
With the UK & middle class serfs now seeing declines in living standards, & with no end in sight – given the gradual takeover of the UK by USM(ango) and the neolibtards, it is possible that violence will erupt. That said, B.Liar the warmonger, made sure that UK serfs were completely disarmed (e.g. it is an offense to carry a blade that locks and which is more than 3 inches long btw – Plods get very excited about this). As Machievelli observed half a millenia ago: there is no equality between the armed and unarmed. UK state is armed to the teeth and quite happy to use these arms on its serfs (as the long list of extra judicial killings by the police shows).
“ As Machievelli observed half a millenia ago: there is no equality between the armed and unarmed”.
I assume this is in the Prince. Do you know what chapter?
What would Machiavelli said about the USA where the ‘serfs’ are armed?
The question is whether the Lib Dems or Greens are willing to get behind such policies publicly to help give them a voice.
If not, then it’s time for a new political party.
To ‘educate’ the Greens and LibDems requires a group of people to go out to talk and also to publicise a better approach. That needs funding, not huge but not easy to acquire and sustain. The folk who donate to the present think tanks don’t seem interested in real change.
The funding for both those parties is precarious as far as I can see and they would be reluctant to risk losing it.
We way we finance politics needs drastic reform.
The billionaire owned media needs reform.
And as we often say, so does the electoral system.
But I think the potential for a paradigm shift is there. I can’t see where it will come from but I do remember the 1980s when communist control of eastern Europe seemed set to continue for decades. Ten years later it had all been swept away.
It’s not a case of the Lib Dems and Greens getting together with common policies it’s whether those swanning around in their aircraft carrier sized SUV’S saying look at me and what I’ve got would vote for them, which of course they won’t.
In the meantime people at the bottom of the food chain won’t vote at all because they have lost all confidence in politics and politicians. Hence the status quo will remain and our children’s and grandchildren’s future looks very bleak under a Trump/Putin/Musk regime.
You say “people at the bottom of the food chain won’t vote” That’s largely because they can’t. They are unlikely to have passports or driving licences. We are told there’s a free route to getting photoID, so one can vote. This route is set up to be time-consuming and difficult, and the “free” bit only applies to the last stage. Who’s going to bother spending 2-3 days jumping through bureaucratic hoops, when their vote will probably make little difference to the outcome? So a number of citizens, estimated at somewhere between 2 millinon and 8 million, are disenfranchised.
Agreed
Labour hates democracy
Brian, we vote green and we now have for various reasons a very large SUV. Mainly because my wife is a dog nut and we have, currently, 3 of them, 2 of them large. We always drive in Eco mode which keeps it’s fuel consumption in the middle 30s (still poor I know). So not everyone with a large SUV is a right wing voter.
Your second paragraph however may well be correct.
There needs to be a coherent alternative to what we are being given. It may well have to come from the bottom. The leaders too. You are right to say too many don’t vote. They won’t without something to vote for. It’s why Richard’s blog and other sources, like Gary Stevenson’s, are so important.
Now is the time to campaign hard for the greens, I know you fairly strongly disagree with their economic policies, but honestly is there anything better out there? Labour seem intent on shooting themselves in both feet, the Tories are pretty much a bad joke, Reform no better than a bunch of drunk oiks, Lib-Dems seem to be wearing an invisibility cloak most of the time.
If not now when?? What have we got to loose?
The Greens offer no solution
Their obsession with identity politics just proves they have no time for the real big issues
Inequality matters, but not to them right now.
The Green Party are working hard pushing the message that austerity is unnecessary, the rich must pay. That Labour have totally lost the plot, That equality matters. That swingeing cuts to overseas budgets is utterly wrong. That climate change, loss of biodiversity are existential emergencies, That homelessness is evil and unessesay and a political choice. That the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank is a stain on us all. That neo-liberal economics is the source of this insanity. That investment in public services and the enviroment is the altenative to the insanity of ‘the growth agenda. (I could go on).
The Green Party exists in a toxic political environment, and without the resources of the other parties,. As a result we struggle to get ourself heard. Four Green MPs, two members of the House of Lords, asking the right questions.s
In spite of the barriers we are making progress, but its all too slow. 60,000 members, hundreds of councillors and local members doing the donkey work of door knocking and responding to the needs of people in our neighbourhoods.
We desperately need people with time and energy to help put their anger and energy to good use.
I find this blog an inspiration. Thank you Richard and all the regular commenteers. I could never have dreamed there was such a wealth of sound knoledge and intellect.
Thanks
I suspect that there won’t be many of your regular readers and viewers who don’t share your anger, Richard. And good. I know in this household we do, and across many of my friends.
I’m not a natural optimist but I’ll offer these few thoughts by way of some possible ‘bright lights’ for the future.
The extreme right in Hungary and Serbia are in deep trouble. I doubt either will survive the year.
In Romania the constitutional court banned the pro Russia (and Russian supported) candidate from even contesting the Presidential election.
In Ukraine Zelensyy’s popularity has increased dramatically since Trump and Vance put on the show of humiliating him in at the White House (despite Vance claiming it wasn’t planned but Trump now stating it was). As of the weekend he was on 70% or there abouts – up from 53%.
By the anniversary of Starmer’s victory in the UK election there will be no hiding from the fact that their approach to government and the economy has failed, and that despite following a right wing playbook that falls somewhere between Trump and Cameron/Osborne unless they change direction they are doomed. Labour MP’s will need to grow some balls by the end of the year and do something about it (and I’ve avoided mentioning the local elections which will be a disaster in terms of turn out and results).
The schism between Europe and the US will be complete – and good riddance. It’s time countries that support democracy – even in flawed forms – stand side by side.
By mid year Trumpism will be exposed as an utter failure – economically, socially, and politically. And at that point Americans will have to chose whether they become a Fascist state, or are prepared to take drastic measures to protect their country. Sadly, that may lead to violence, but I suspect only on a limited a scale, because millions of Americans who voted for Trump will have seen him and his minions for what they are: charlatans, fraudster, liar and thieves. Mass protests will do the rest (with mass arrests, etc).
Trump’s failure will expose to the world the fakery, falsehoods and abject failures built into authoritarian popularism. It will die as a result.
But sadly, I don’t think there’ll be peace in Ukraine – although perhaps temporarily. Nor do I think the disaster that is Israel and Gaza will be resolved. Sorry to finish on a negative note.
Thanks. Ivan
Totally with you Richard.
Utterly incandescent.
I personally hope *not* for a new Angry Brigade, as violence to combat violence doesn’t work for me.
Nor me
Mr Gibson, any possibility of noticeable change in the UK will be met with a gradually escalating response by a range of orgs. Corbyn is a case in point. The anti-semitisim charge against him was only ever a pretext. Had that not worked, there would have been an escalation. We can speculate what that might have been. Let’s say he had won in 2017, you can be sure that chaos would have ensued as various “players” sought to re-establish “normal service”. Meaningful change (e.g. making most people’s lives better) in the UK is almost impossible to achieve. Richard’s blog has been going for many years. It is mostly resonant with good ideas/good sense implementable stuff. Have the politicos listened? Nope. Do they even understand, nope. Do they want change. Nope.
I sense that we are apporoaching a tipping point. The trigger is likely to be Scotland leaving the UK.
Thank you Richard for your anger. You are able to articulate my anger and that helps.
I join you in your anger Richard. Your list could easily be extended – the obvious one is “I am extremely angry governments and the UN talk about a climate change emergency, and we increasingly see evidence of climate change, yet very little substantial response is happening. In fact governments are rolling back net-zero efforts which will leave us and future generations with dire consequences”
This is relevant to resisting the gov & an extension of my other posts:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/19/climate-activist-experience-jail-prison-uk
The judge has stopped him taking part in what passes for political process in the UK.
extract: “I’m going to be released with extraordinarily broad licence conditions, …. I won’t be able to attend meetings of the Labour party, or post anything to do with protesting on my social media………..freedom of assembly and expression is protected by the European convention on human rights.”
As he notes – failure to comply means back in jail. The judge in sentencing broke the ECHR. The gov’ is now in a position such that any action that substively disrupts things can result in a substantive jail sentence (in monstrously over crowded jails). Welcome to authoritarian, neolibtard UK. Be as angry as you want – but be very careful how you express that anger.
One day I suspect they will come for me.
I have no hope in labour. They display the worst kind of purple politics. Not of a soft liberal, moderate kind. This version is nasty and brutish like Boris Johnson. They would sell their grandmother and afterwards make jokes about it on tv. They care more about satisfying the ego of the US president than serving the public.
While Merz certainly has conservative views that I don’t agree with, at least he is prepared to defend fact from fiction. Without our leaders doing that, our democracies die.
Yes. I am *ing incandescent too. And my conclusion is, in the words of the much-missed Scott Hutchinson, “while I am alive I will make tiny changes to earth”. That’s all we can do. That’s what you are doing, and that’s what, in my very different way, I am doing. We have to keep on because if everyone did that we would have world peace and justice.
So cheering you on from the sidelines.
Thanks Max
Go well
Revisiting my ‘Angry Brigade’ comment
1. We are already seeing an erosion in law enforcement, and
2. Inevitably poverty leads to crime in various ways, but now there is
Putin.
The evidence suggests we may be in a ‘Warm’ war with Russian sponsored ‘disruption’ We have already seen sabotage and it is likley that Russian influence may behind a lot more.
Imagine the combination of Russian backing at the same time as a growing proportion are poor and disaffected, clearly you wont get ‘bombs’ but you can get hacking, drugs, smuggling etc – take your picks
Clearly Benefits wont ‘cure’ it but they are a good start in the defence against a ‘warm’ war.
PS watch your blood pressure!
Monitored by my wife and always ridiculously low, apparently. I have no chronic conditions. I know my good fortune.
John Lydon:
‘Anger is an energy’.
‘Nuff said.
You use anger to be creative – the Taxing Wealth Report, The Courageous State, The Joy of Tax.
I’m angry, which is why I joined the public sector and why I’m going to get some fucking affordable housing built (at 80% market rents!!!!!!!!!!!!).
And so what if no one gives a damn?
As a sentient being, how else can you live with yourself? Or look at yourself in the mirror? Or atone for something?
So it goes.
Agreed
Go well
PSG -have you ever looked at building groups of Tiny Homes round a community hub for singletons wanted to live a low-impact life?
Thank you, Richard, for all you do to help and to educate us. I’ve learned so much from you and the other folks who post here. I’m truly grateful to you all! Best wishes from surprisingly sunny Liverpool… I guess it’s prob as sunny as the rest of UK, but recently it seems to have been grey and/or raining most of the time!
It was a lovely afternoon here. I had a coffee out – next to the Cathedral
We all get angry – I have 3 (main) mottos – one is ‘that everyone has a temper, it is the inability to control it that causes trouble’ – and I am sure that when you get angry, you can control your temper. The second is ‘friendly persuasion is OK but nastiness gets better results’. Thirdly, care about other people. They may come after quite a few of us – I certainly am an outspoken northerner. So many people agree with what you state and represent, I certainly do and thank you.
Thanks
Personally I think 90% of the public have been angry for quite a while and, now they see the same ol’ same ol’ from Labour, they are getting even angrier. This being compounded by the fact that they don’t really understand why
Mr Slade: “This being compounded by the fact that they don’t really understand why ”
…….forgive me – but I rather suspect that they realise that things are increasingly shitty & feel powerless to change the shittyness. It is the powerlessness – “voting makes no difference” that upsets people. I think. Which of course leaves space for charlatans.
You’re right. It’s the feeling of powerlessness
More people need to be angry. And keep speaking out and pushing for change. One plus point for 2025 is that communications are far better than they were in the 1930s.
I’m angry too, but things like this give me heart:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/19/its-beautiful-dont-you-think-the-urban-miners-unearthing-treasure-in-belgiums-homes-and-garages
It’s such a relief to see it all written down.
Every day some new atrocious, non socialist obscene plan comes out of No 10 via Morgan M Sweeney and it is more than frustrating that people are just taking it without a murmur.
So it’s very refreshing to hear everyone’s reflection of your anger. We all share it.