Inspired by Ivan Horrocks:
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There’s got to be suitable description for a social order where politics decides who gets what, when, how and why. The name for this ism based on commonality currently escapes me but I’ll probably recall it later after education classes.
Naughty (the ism & commonality).
Framing is all. We are back in the land of (for all): a good eduction, fairly priced energy, comfortable homes, accessible health care etc etc. Such common “goods” are usually best provided collectively. The neo-lib experiment of the past 45 years has shown that “markets” can’t & don’t. Which leaves the state. Using “ism” to describe what the state does is +/- making a big stick, painting a red mark on ones forehead, giving the stick to the right-whinge/neo-libs and asking them to hit you on the red mark – hard.
Idle curiosity sometimes draws me to search the names that accompany certain types of post here.
Today’s search for Julius Striker returned no direct hit but instead redirected automatically to this unsavoury character…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Streicher
Of course innocent coincidences do sometimes occur.
Let’s start with the needs of the poorest, the disabled, the broken and the vulnerable first, basically those of us who have been hit with a big heavy shitty iron studded stick for over 40 years. When the poor and ordinary workers have money, we stimulate the economy, go into supermarkets, coffee bars, hairdressers, buy luxury goods, travel, pay bills etc etc which then creates jobs and further economic growth. Then we have better paying jobs which allows people to save, plan for the future, get education, buy things and so on.
The rich hoarding money is the very opposite of this. Full stop.
Nationalised necessities are necessary. Look at Thames Water for that.
Here’s my own story to underline this. I have worked on and off, losing jobs through various ill health diagnosed as CFS/Fibromyalgia. My wife is a legal migrant. Note the word ‘legal’. To get into the UK we have to pay for a spousal visa which costs £10,000! Equally, her biometric card comes with NRPF which means ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’. When she got a job half of my Universal Credit was taken off me and our council tax went up by 5 times, so we are almost back to square one financially. I am also on Pip. Without the Pip we would be in serious financial straits.
Now, in some kind of symbolic way, what is happening to us is happening to the nation. Bear with me. Even if that sounds like nonsense, I am extremely angry that there is no social mobility or light at the end of the tunnel for us and millions like us, yet royals, billionaires and millionaires, CEOs and big corporations wax fatter and fatter at the same time. Is there a correlation? Of course there is!
If the wealthy, those named above and the political establishment and establishment do not make a sea change to address these dreadful injustices, I believe we are sooner or later heading towards societal breakdown and perhaps civil disturbances not seen before, in the UK, US, Australia and across the West.
Neoliberalism is dead and its toxic ghost needs exorcising before it eats everything.
Incidentally, and somewhat beside the point, the French government wrote into law that any leftover food in big supermarkets should be donated to the poor and hungry. Isn’t it about time we did the same throughout the UK?
The grim determination of Starmer et al to ‘out nasty’ and ‘out Tory’ the vileness and evil of the Tories is becoming incredibly disappointing and depressing. If they don’t start to rescind the worst of the present policies we may start to louder about land reform, price controls of necessities, a percentage of GDP being mandatory for infrastructure, welfare and not for palace dwellers.
I do hope some of these posts start to impress on the right people the importance of our concerns.
My first thought on seeing the question was this depiction of George Osborne being baffled by nurses trying to explain to him the primary purpose of a hospital.
https://www.facebook.com/NZNursesOrganisation/photos/this-uk-meme-is-doing-the-rounds-on-the-net-it-feels-a-bit-too-close-for-comfort/404965212961454/?_rdr