My morning Tweets. Since these need to be read in order I have arranged them in the correct order of posting, from top-down:
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
It has crossed my mind that is the hoi polloi, or the common man and woman in the street who is going to have to learn learn to live with Covid-19 – not the establishment, who seem to be able to get tested and move around as they please.
The consequences of what I see as establishment insouciance are potentially too appalling to consider – like out of some dystopian sci-fi novel or whatever.
I hope that it has clicked in the heads of our population who are too easily swayed by populism that the economy comes first and not people. And not just ‘the economy’ – the work and spending and services (etc.,) that takes place but also economy in the sense that politicians are too economical with the truth and the money at their disposal to do anything to really help us who put them there!
Meanwhile, discussions with neighbours reveal we are still having incidents of dangerous disorder with stabbings and mass brawls reported in our Shire. One incident reported a load of ‘revellers’ smashing their glass bottles into the river at a well known beauty spot known for taking children/families paddling.
I think 10 years of extremely harsh austerity, added to too many years accepting unemployment as a legitimate way to control inflation plus hate speech born of populism has to me at least brutalised my people – too many are a salty and spoiling for a fight and running into the arms of unreason.
C4 news last night interviewed a Polish gay male couple who were mourning the child they could now never adopt and one of them rather eloquently said that the recent election there had left Poland split forever by hate speech as he saw it, the country would never ever really be united again he felt. What is so different here? Nothing I think.
So now we can see perhaps that this is how the Right and those at the top of the wealth ladder have dealt with post 2008 in the West at least – they have simply divided and conquered, over egged identity politics and national exceptionalism in order to divide and conquer.
But make no mistake, something ugly has been unleashed in our country is lurking out there, something really ugly. It’s been turned on by some of the most reckless politicians I’ve ever seen in my life and I think that the only thing that will turn it off – slowly I might add – is MMT and a Courageous State.
But I have to say that if that happened, I’d want retribution I’m afraid against those who have perpetrated austerity, populism, fascism and whilst I’m at it, those too who have in the pursuit of personal profit been willing to sell our country’s wealth and security down the river.
Right now the only thing that can possibly help is every political organisation and pressure group opposed to the destruction of this country by the Tories to unite. That means forgoing any traditional party politics, or single issue campaign, until the sociopaths in charge are defeated. There would be 2 conditions/objectives: Remove the Tories by any legal means, and establish proportional representation.
Really, this should have happened before the last election, maybe its too late. I don’t know. But doing anything else is just twiddling thumbs while our social fabric is shredded, poverty and deprivation surges, our environment loses its last chance to be saved from ruin…
I am/have been a Green Party member, a Labour Party member, an active member of Extinction Rebellion, and an increasingly stressed and despairing armchair warrior. While the Tories march on and all that is against them is divided nothing good will be allowed to happen in this country. They must be stopped. I don’t know if it’s possible but surely only such a coalition has any chance of bringing justice and hope back to this country.
Can the hubris, embedded power structures and internal divisions be overcome to make this happen? We are in ‘unprecedented’ times so maybe this is the one shot we have to bring enough consensus on board. I would be happy to put all my available energy into helping this come about.
As an armchair expert, I understand that it is likely that mutations of this virus will become prevalent – possibly a virus that is less immediately harmful and more able to affect younger people.
All the while, Johnson and Gove cannot make their minds up on what happens a week on Friday.
As to what sort of country we will become – my guess is that we will be more like USA with increased inequality – think 1950s British cars – small and underpowered versions of the American gas guzzlers. Or perhaps more accurately, expect to see run down trailer parks – we have a so called holiday park locally that is basically budget permanent housing under the guise of ‘holiday lodges’.
Save us from the Ford Anglia and Vauxhall Vector economy
All good. I’m afraid I’m not confident that the government will rise to this challenge.
But (and I say this as a Labour party member!) I’m even less confident that Labour, as it now led, would.
You’ve seemed very reluctant to criticise Starmer. Perhaps you are still hoping for an “in”, for your ideas if not personally, so you don’t want to alienate. I don’t know.
But while there is the opportunity (and need!) to set out a new agenda, Labour seems intent on only trying to revive the status quo ante. It supports. It will comment constructively. It is very reluctant to criticise. It is only commitment it seems is to timidity, to having no new ideas, and with that to backtracking on what goodish ideas it once had. It’s difficult to see the GND for example lasting long as things stand.
You tweeted a week or so back about people in having no new ideas to make things better, and dedicating themselves only to preventing those who do have ideas from doing so. Is this not Labour? And is this not a real worry?
I am not in the Labour Party
You do realise that, don’t you?
And I am frustrated at Labour effectively saying nothing right now
All I have said is that I understand why politically they are doing that – and politically ist makes sense, but not to activists
Yes, I know you are not a member, but also that you have had connections in the past. I think you also have some informal connections with the Greens.
Glad you are frustrated too. I’ve heard Paul Mason similarly suggest its good politics. I’m not convinced. I think unless to start to present another vision, offer a different set of values, and stop praising with faint damns, you will allow the Tory narrative to become engrained. Look what happened when Labour failed to push back on the idea in 2010 that Labour had tanked the economy. It found itself embracing austerity.
It is good politics
It’s actually very good politics indeed – look at the poll ratings
What most people want and what activists want are not the same thing
Actually the polls aren’t good. We’ve got the worst Covid position in Europe and from memory the last I saw Labour were still 10% behind.
As for most people, most people probably aspire to balance budgets. It doesn’t mean you have to accept that as the basis of your economic policy. And if you want to change anything you can’t. I think you would agree.
Depending on which poll you look at
As for your second para, I have not a clue what you are trying to say
But, if you think we can change nothing why are you wasting your time commenting?
I didn’t think I was being particularly abstruse, but happy to explain.
You said what most people want and what activists want are not the same thing, rather implying, I thought, that good politics was following the former and ignoring the latter.
My point was you don’t have to accept what most people want. In fact persuasion is allowed.
I could go further. Just accepting what people think they want is not good politics. It is perhaps even the end of politics.
So it’s not me who thinks we can change nothing. I want to hold onto the hope that we can.
The problem would be a Labour party that 1) thinks it can’t change anything, and 2) doesn’t want to change anything anyway.
Hope this is clearer.
It’s clear you’re wrong
In a democracy a politician has to consider what the electorate want
You appear uninterested in that
And that’s typical left absurdity that consigns it to oblivion for good
Nothing stops you having your policy discussions
Politicians who want to be elected have to bide their time
If you don’t get that I’d quit politics now. You’re not doing it
And I recall why you got banned last time…..let’s call it irrelevant left wing time wasting
That’s your first warning
This blog is not your sandpit
It might be a good idea for disillusioned folk in England to look at Scotland for ideas just now. Despite a tsunami of hatred from all the other major UK parties, a press and media that hates them and wants them brought down and eliminated by any means, fair or foul, despite a Tory government that is actually threatening the existence of the Scottish parliament altogether, and stripping it of its powers …the SNP government continues to calmly get on with the day job.
No party can achieve all its aims overnight, especially when the opposition is so powerful, but you can’t fault them for sticking to their principles and doing what they can to make ordinary people’s lives better. It’s why we’ve got hope, in Scotland, that maybe is lacking elsewhere. We have good leadership here.
I know these kinds of people exist in England as well. So maybe work to get them elected, and get enough of them elected to make a change of direction possible? Follow Bernie Sander’s lead in the USA …his main thrust of campaigning has been to get like-minded people elected to all tiers of government. They even have a name: Berniecrats. He recognises that change happens from the ground up, not the other way around.
When I first joined the SNP back in 1990, we were a minority party, dismissable, easily overridden. Now, for more than a decade, we have been the party in government in Scotland AND have had the lion’s share of MPs at Westminster. And consequently–despite the horrendous media battle against us from all sides, including supposedly within the ‘indy’ movement–we’ve made a change for the people who live in Scotland. We’ve mitigated Tory oppression when we can. We’ve offered opportunities to minorities and young people to get established in life, while safeguarding the sick and the elderly. We resolutely oppose Brexit and all the harm it is going to do, as well as has already done. And the result has been a significant increase in support for Scotland’s independence.
Change happens from the ground up. The people in power will not easily relinquish it, so that’s not where you start.
Thanks Jan