Andy Searson is a teacher, Labour movement activist and working-class thinker based in South Yorkshire.
Class politics is back by necessity. A vicious ideological right wing Tory government, the fallout of a no deal Brexit and with Labour rapidly veering to the right our communities are at risk of a further decade of defunding, cuts to services and mass unemployment.
If we don’t have real community control, we’re not going to have any real socialism. Socialism is just an abstract idea if it’s not tangibly applied to our people’s everyday experiences. It’s about evolving a system and an economic practice of fair-shares equality and fair-shares access. It’s got to happen from the grass-roots up.
Any rebuilding project starts with solid foundations
It is not by chance that the right of the Labour Party disliked and undermined the community organising initiative established by Jeremy Corbyn’s team. It threatens their top-down, machine politics. Well, you can’t rebuild any wall without first building foundations. Here’s another fact, you will never rebuild the red wall from the top down.
We need to concentrate on how we get more community control of economic frameworks that retail and produce services and tangible benefits for our communities. Common sense socialism, everyday socialism or good old fashioned municipal socialism.
The need to find local leaders is paramount. Those who instinctively stand up for their community. These citizens should then be candidates in local elections. People from the grass roots to enable control of the levers of power and finance in order to use them to directly serve in the interests of their community.
Local candidates who have authenticity and are altruistic in their commitment to serve their people without financial or personal gain. Real representation. Rebuilding trust with the voting public is essential so a new generation of authentic, altruistic candidates is essential to achieve that trust.
A genuine voice for the people
We need to develop our own community media to liberate people from the constant barrage of propaganda based on Neo Liberal group think disseminated via the old mainstream media.
With the arrival of easy to access socialised media it makes this possible. Unlike previous generations we have the means by which to communicate easily and frequently with citizens both locally and more widely. It’s mostly free to access and produce. It enables micro channels that feed direct to localised issues. Be it saving a village library, maintenance of historic buildings or sharing concerns about the decimation of local services. The important factor is galvanising support, providing collectivity and organising action for change. Empowering local citizens to become actively engaged in changing and improving their own communal spaces, services and lives.
How do we build the citizen’s movement? The large communal workplaces are long gone and this has caused a major problem for Labour. The political organising andeducation has been decimated by the demolition of mining, steel and manufacturing. These communities historically provided an organising base via trade unionism and mutual struggle. We have to build a new base for the current economy and find the language for a modern age.
There are huge amounts of people already engaged in working for the common good within our communities. Unsung heroes who work tirelessly for no reward other than the feeling that they’ve achieved something positive for someone else. Local food-banks, solicitors offering free advice, advocates giving support and help to hose navigating the DWP benefits system, church groups working with needy families, homeless and downtrodden. Then there are the trade unions and other activists groups.
The sheer number of people volunteering to fill the gaps in our savagely-cut social security system and failing welfare state is huge. Nearly always these people are driven by social conscience not personal gain. They’re unwilling to walk by on the other side whilst they are suffering or people in need. They see value in the idea of working for the ‘common good.’
“A cold grey loveless thing”
The fact that charity on such a scale is now needed isn’t a shining example of the welfare state. As Mhairi Black the young Scottish MP stated in her maiden speech in the Houses of Parliament; She said, “Food banks are not part of the Welfare State. They are a symbol that the welfare state is failing.”
Clement Attlee also espoused how democratic power and the financial levers of that power can be used to the benefit of our fellow citizens. Attlee was himself formed by his experiences with working-class self-organisation in the heart of London’s East End. In 1920 he wrote “we are struck by the amazing charity of the poor to the poor, the readiness with which one poor household will take into their home and support a friend who is out of a job, and the ready response to whip round for a widow left penniless, or for similar cases of misfortune”.
Rebels with a cause
Writing about his time amongst the people of London’s East End, where he worked, Attlee recalls:
I found abundant instances of kindness and much quiet heroism in these mean streets. These people were not poor through their lack of fine qualities. The slums were not filled with the dregs of society. Not only did I have countless lessons in practical economics but there was kindled in me a warmth and affection for these people that has remained with me all my life. From this it was only a step to examining the whole basis of our social and economic system. I soon began to realise the curse of casual labour. I got to know what slum landlordism and sweating meant. I also understood why there were rebels.
It is these ‘rebels’ who we need to elevate. It is these citizens who are driven to act. To defy the odds and use self agency, mutuality and social consciousness to bring about social change for others. It is no good waiting for a messiah or leader to come along. Change needs to happen now. We must become our own agents of change. The rebels, whose agency is borne out of empathy for others, must be future community leaders.
Organisation is key. Campaigns and programs must be established to encourage people to collectivise for the common good and must be based on local issues and need.
Emotional connection is of the utmost importance to build mutuality and connectivity. Citizens will become activists to defend or build things that affect them directly or those they care about. Empathy and emotional investment is key, hence local knowledge of local issues is key.
Real change comes from people power, either via public pressure/protest or via using democratic processes to gain power. This involves political education.
To achieve democratic power, citizen groups must learn to get people to act as voter registrars. They will learn to identify council districts and these voter registrars will get all this information. Where the people are, where the communities are, where your borough and parish council seats are, etc.
Also, the knowledge about the political structure of your community is important. Identify the communicators, future leaders and future possible candidates.
Possible right now
Once power is achieved, what then? Ironically it is Eric Pickles’ Localism Bill that may provide the vehicle for localised emancipation from right wing, self serving entrenched politicians. This allows even a Parish council tax raising powers through the local precept (the Parish Council share of wider Borough Council Tax). It also allows local councils (parish, town or borough) to take back control of services which might currently be achieved through borough councils. It also allows borough councils to reshape council tax bands so those with the broadest shoulders contribute a little more to protect services for all.
This is a possibility right now. The fact that Labour councils aren’t fighting back against savage Tory cuts is sad. It’s not good enough to be a proxy for a hard right Tory government. You are attacking the services and living standards of the very people you expect to vote you into power. This is not true representation.
What if there’s no strategic community organising plan? What if there is no action to rebuild within communities?I can foresee dangers ahead if Labour continues along it’s current direction of travel. The party is at risk of a major split. Over half a million people signed up as active members during the Corbyn leadership on the basis of realising and implementing systemic change. They visualised another kind of Britain was possible.
They wanted a rebalance of power towards the many not the few. To the 99% away from the 1%. It was also a sure sign that a generation was sick of the status quo and business as usual. If that systemic change is no longer viable through the Labour Party then other routes will be found. Half a million indignant people is a very strong foundation on which to build.
Yes: united we can
In Spain Podemos now hold the balance of power in a coalition with the PSOE, Spain’s version of the British Labour Party. They are holding the more centrist/liberal PSOE to account and forcing through populist left policies. Podemos’ support is growing year on year. Why? Because they speak and govern for the many. ‘Los Indignados’ – the indignant!
Podemos’ organising saw a rapid growth in their community circles. Which in turn brought successes in local elections. Their rapid growth and success was brought about through empowering and galvanising the grass roots movements that grew out of the 2008 economic crisis.
Firstly, the Occupy movement which grew globally in opposition to a continuation of neoliberalism. As the establishment parties continued to pursue business as usual, a large movement also began to grow in Spain. Largely made up of the young, the ‘Indignados’ as they became known, joined the demand for systemic change.
After generations and decades of being told this is how things are, there is no alternative, the people were starting to learn that another world and economic system was possible. When they were told it can’t be achieved they replied ‘We Can’ in Spanish ‘Podemos.’ And, a new populist party was born – Podemos. A self empowering movement said if you will not change the system – we will!
Their own description of themselves summarises what they are about perfectly and succinctly:
Podemos was born from the conviction that change is possible and with the certainty that it would not be brought about by other political parties (least of all those which have lead us to the present situation) but rather by people who work or are looking for work on a daily basis and who legitimately demand a more prosperous and just future for themselves and their families.We have a clear idea of what our problems are (unjust and ineffective policies; institutions which are at the service of the few; corruption, inequality…) and what the solutions are – a government for the people which is responsible, reliable, independent and committed to those who wish for a better future.
We have always known that it would be difficult, but we have the support and experience of a great many people. In our country the opportunity for change has opened up. In order to achieve it we need everybody’s help, wherever we are from and whoever we have voted for in the past.
Now is the moment. Yes, we can. Podemos.
Can a break away populist party be formed from the huge, trained and eagerly engaged activist base operating within Corbyn’s Labour be possible? Some may say ‘Yes – We Can.’ It’s already been a proven success in Spain.
Extinction Rebellion: another threat
Another possible threat to Labour is the growth of Extinction Rebellion. This is a movement that has taken hold across the world. The ability to mobilise huge numbers of protestors and activists, especially amongst the young ( hundreds of thousands of teenagers engaged in the recent Climate Strikes in the UK) is a warning shot to any party that is flogging the dead horse of Neo Liberal ‘business as usual.’
Extinction Rebellion’s own demands, as well as environmental action, include ‘Climate Justice’ as well as Citizens’ Assemblies. Why is Extinction Rebellion demanding a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice? A clear explanation can be found on their website. It states:
“Extinction Rebellion believes that part of the problem is the way electoral politics works:
- Political power in the UK is in the hands of a few elected politicians. Over the last 40 years, this system has proved incapable of making the long-term decisions needed to deal with the climate and ecological emergency. Politicians simply can’t see past the next election.
- Members of parliament are lobbied by powerful corporations, seek sympathetic media coverage, and calculate their policies based on potential public reactions and opinion polls. This leaves many of them either unable or unwilling to make the bold changes necessary to address the emergency.”
The winds of change are blowing. No matter how the establishment try and distract us with divisive cultural wars or other divide and rule tactics, change is coming.
The two main UK political parties may be offering green washing or token gestures but that just won’t cut it any more. The zeitgeist is for real change and currently no political party is offering that sizeable shift in the status quo in terms of economic, climate or ecological policy that the many demand. They are all interlinked and to achieve all of the above – huge systemic change is required. A totally new approach to the economy.
As Greta Thunberg said recently at the UN summit:
People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
She continued:
We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.
Many establishment figures shrugged and dismisses this as youthful exuberance. Well, GretaThunberg is closer to the truth and the current zeitgeist than all of the detached, establishment bubble politicians.
The capitalist class and Neo Liberal politicians are never going to agree to dismantle the system that suits their lifestyle, yet it is necessary to achieve climate and ecological justice. Only Corbyn’s Labour previously offered a brave shift in policy with their Green New Deal which dealt directly with economic and climate justice. This sadly seems to be another casualty of the new leadership.
Extinction Rebellion is building a formidable activist base in every community. Like all political change, it will be forced upon the establishment by people power at local, national and international level. Change will indeed come.
Black Lives really Matter
Finally, the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement will be an important catalyst in engaging young people who are often disenfranchised from politics. Having been largely ignored by the political class, many from the BAME community have simply opted out of the political process.
The BLM movement – not ‘moment’ – is not only empowering those previously disenfranchised but is also providing them a platform to organise and actively participate in the change they demand. Local BLM groups are being established all around the UK and coalitions are being built between anti-racist activists and BLM. Community organising and participation is growing substantially even during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The struggle for racial justice shouldn’t be viewed separately from the wider class struggle for systemic economic change. As Bobby Seale, a founding member of the Black Panther Party, knew;
Those who want to obscure the struggle with ethnic differences are the ones who are aiding and maintaining the exploitation of the masses. We need unity to defeat the boss class – every strike shows that. Every workers’ banner declares: ‘Unity is strength’.
The Panther Party’s founders rooted their ideology in socialism and working class emancipation. Seale saw that the struggle for black freedom was part of a universal class struggle. The Black Lives Matter movement have learned a lot from the Panther’s effectiveness in community organising. They’ve also learned valuable lessons from Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement as well as Obama’s 2008 campaigning.
The awful recent comments from Keir Starmer, who described the Black Lives Matter movement as a ‘moment’, confirmed to many that there will not be any radical change coming from the new Labour leadership to address their concerns. This, added to the seeming refusal to act upon clear racist, anti-black behaviour amongst some at the very top of the Labour Party machine revealed in the leaked Labour report, is disheartening.
The new Labour leadership team seems to be heading back towards business as usual. It would seem there is no appetite for the radical change that the majority of people are demanding. The lack of opposition to the Tory catastrophe during the COVID-19 crisis, the move back towards neoliberal economics, the reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement and the abandonment of the Green New Deal economic plan leaves one wondering where the support for Starmer’s Labour will come from.
Political power means nothing if it is about gaining power to simply be in power! Without the will or commitment for real systemic change, more citizens will become indignant, disenfranchised and without a voice. In those circumstances, people will find their own voices and organise outside the usual main party structures.
That moment may be here sooner than we think – and it will come from the ground up.
Andy Searson from the Red Wall.
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Is it actually possible to evolve ¨a system and an economic practice of fair-shares equality and fair-shares access¨ from the ¨grass-roots up¨ within the Labour Party. Many employed in the supposedly impartial LP bureaucracy as well as the PLP are still factional and will quite deliberately sabotage Left Wing projects.
And those Left Wing projects they can’t sabotage they’ll take credit for.
Nothing is too immoral or too treacherous for people who’ve subverted democracy on the orders of war criminals to prevent a Corbyn win – so that the bullshit that “Labour can only win from the centre” will be believed by morons for another year or two.
The grassroots need to get angry enough to kick the right so hard they never get up again.
Could you elaborate David as to how the grassroots – by getting angry enough – can kick the right so hard they never get up again? And just to be clear, when you refer to the ‘right’, are you talking in terms of the right of the LP, or the right in general? Cheers
I won’t elaborate except to say that I’m past drawing distinctions between democratic and other means, or between different shades of right.
Don’t ask again.
Sorry, didn’t mean to be so brusque, meant to add “please” but slow connection’s driving me insane.
Hi Squarkbox,
I don’t suppose you will get the chance to read this. But this pretty good article is completely ruined by the unthought through idea that we can create a new progressive party. Making a comparison to Podemos in Spain is worse than ridiculous. They have a PR system in Spain which allows smaller parties to get into parliament. Britain’s system does not unless you are geographically concentrated like the SNP. That is why UKIP at its height got four million votes and no MPs.
In the last hundred years there have been 12 left breakaways from Labour including the split away of the Independent Labour Party in 1932. All of them went into oblivion.
If you don’t learn from history…
We have to stay and fight, but in a very different way from the past.
Pat Byrne
Even the so called Labour Left in the PLP were useless when needed and where are they now as Socialists are being purged under Starmer?
However, there is a focus people can turn to: https://voicebritannia.co.uk/a-conversation-with-chris-williamson-swindononsunday/
Let’s focus on practicalities. The slow boring grind of local politics is too often dismissed by left liberals as beneath them. True, results are not earth shattering and they don’t come overnight but thousands of them across the country have a collective impact.
https://www.flatpackdemocracy.co.uk/ – it says independent but I see no reason why Labour Party members can’t do it too.
Where to start?!?!
Greta. Well known as an establishment figure. Well documented too. Why would a child travel with the head of Greenpeace instead of her parents? There’s a provable link between Thunberg and business as usual.
XR.
Not aware of XRbusiness? The site went offline the day it went up. There’s also the question of them not liking anyone who challenges the core leadership/ideas (often resulting in exclusion).
Privvy Council/powers enjoyed by the monarchy.
The biggest reason this is doomed to failure is because of the power of the British deep state. Become leader of the opposition? You swear allegiance to the queen, and there’s no mention of people or country. Search for Trudeau being sworn in…
We saw what happened to Corbyn, and he took the bloody oath…
There is only one route to change, and it will never, ever happen here in the Queen’s fiefdom
There is a quaint notion that politicians and political parties hold the levers of power . They don’t . Look: at the City of London, the permanent government and the elites both in the U.K. plus overseas to find the centres of power. They employ flunkeys within the MSM, the State Broadcaster, Security services and within political parties to do their bidding. They are few but we are many. Hence why the only way they can control is through division, manipulation and ignorance.
Like.
And I have to admit that I have doubts about why Podemos are being trumpeted. If anything, they are a party in steep secular decline. They started in 2015 with 46 seats in the 350 member Cortes, and after a series of general elections they are now down to just 26. The trajectory in regional elections and in the EU parliament have followed the same downward trend. The only difference now is that they are a governing coalition member due to the impasse in numbers between the PSOE and the rest of the right. Experience tells me – as with our comrades in the Irish Labour Party and the Lb Dems here – that being the meat in the sandwich inevitable further decays tire prospects once your usefulness to the majority grouping is gone.
I assume you write in ignorance David.The Irish Labour party are no friends of mine nor anyone else on the left,they are,after supporting austerity enacted by their “partners” FG a party of the past not the future.
You show your ignorance of Irish politics,the Labour party in Ireland are the equivalent of the limp Dems and our knight led Labour party .The neo liberal establishment have been rejected and Sinn Fein will finally take their place in leading the country from neo liberal domination.at the next election.David Walsh your ignorance shames your ancestors.
Joseph, Sinn Fein are a wonderful encouragement to British leftists – and particularly to left Labourites who are (in the main) unsure what to do (stay or leave) in the knight-led centrism revival act pretending to be Labour.
Sinn Fein’s future is derived in part from its long history. Does Labour’s history (notwithstanding its request right leaning rejections of the radical) mean that socialists and left radicals should stay and fight to reclaim the party to radical working class politics, or is this delusional, a meaningless ‘apostolic connection’ where none is necessary or even relevant?
The monopolistic billionaire press and FPTP, which always favours right wing politics, cause me to favour staying in Labour and fighting for working class interests from inside our historical home, but maybe SF shows us that this is not necessary and that consistency and integrity matter much more.
NVLA, Gail Bradbury in the UK XR community has said she started a loose association with some like-minded businesses that wanted to get involved and use the logo without thinking hard enough and without referring the plan to the wider organisation or the members – when members complained she disconnected from XR Business and apologised for her mistake.
I don’t personally find her credible because of her other, rather more ‘mystical’ beliefs including LSD’s benefits to the mind – if I read she was a fan of homeopathy I wouldn’t be surprised.
That doesn’t detract from the value of XR itself though.
As far as I’m aware Greta Thunberg had nothing to do with XR Business.
Greta Thunberg has been accused of being a rich dilettante neoliberal dupe on the grounds that her family apparently aren’t poor enough – her parents are an actor and a singer as far as I know, not rich oligarchs – and she didn’t choose her parents.
I’ve read nothing about any other beliefs she may hold so she may be a god-bothering alternative medicine gull that I’d avoid like the plague, but on my slim knowledge of her so far I think all things considered she’s ‘a good thing’ and what she’s trying to achieve is worthwhile – essential even.
It’s Gail Bradbrook David, and I completely agree with her that psychedelics should be legal, and especially mushrooms – ie psilocybin – not as a means to get high, and abused, as such, but used occasionally to expand our consciousness. Think Aldous Huxley and The Doors of Perception.
And in the medical field of course to treat depression and PTSD etc:
http://internationaltimes.it/extinction-rebellion-founder-calls-for-mass-psychedelic-disobedience/
‘Psychedelics for systems change: could drugs help us save the planet?’
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/psychedelics-systems-change-could-drugs-help-us-save-planet/
Allan, there’s no doubt that LSD can inspire, but used recreationally there’s plenty of evidence of serious damage. There’ve been many examples and I’ve known a couple myself.
Yes, there are short term studies showing therapeutic benefits but I know of no long term studies that prove hallucinogens safe.
I should have guessed you were a fan of the shroom from your comments 🤪🤡😎
I had a lovely set of links for Dr.Bradbrook. sadly, my phone did its usual trick and reset itself (must start exporting bookmarks to emails)
Her career path doesn’t really match that of a molecular biologist, and many of her previous exploits are being cleaned from the web.
I’d trust her about the same as I trust Stoma.
Doesn’t even BEGIN to compare with the damage that alcohol and tobacco do, and have done. Directly AND indirectly. And they are non-addictive – psychedelics that is, and people using them don’t tend to get aggressive and belligerent and violent, as can often happen with booze. Entirely the opposite in fact..
All true Allan, but the huge damage caused by alcohol and other shit only argues that some drugs are safER, not that they’re safe.
Most things that can be abused I’ve abused to excess at one time or another but now I abstain from everything.
I choose to save what’s left of my intellect.
Absolutely spot on…conform to the establishment and you are doomed..Royalty are the fulcrum and the only way for representation is to cut off the snakes head.
Oh, right, so Greta is duping us all is she NV, and she’s REALLY on the side of Big Business? How cunning and devious of her!
Well it WOULD be if it wasn’t complete and utter poppycock nonsense!!
You’re out of your depth Allan…
If you’re the researcher you believe you are, start with Macron and BlackRock with their Climate Finance partnership.
Take a look at Plant for The Planet’s website. Pay attention to the time/date stamps and their proposals.
Consider Greta’s train ride with the boss of Greenpeace, her chaperones track record and how she was bankrolled to appear at Davos. How often have you gone to Davos Allan? Do you really believe they funded her appearance to listen about what bad people they are? Or do you believe Greta’s accusation that we are all equally as guilty?
There’s plenty there, or you can mock more and go back to your book
Oh, right, and what’s the Grand Plan? And just to be clear, so you’re saying that she IS duping all of us, and she doesn’t mean what she says and it’s ALL an act?
Anyway, perhaps you could get me started (in uncovering her dastardly plot) by giving me a link to something that exposes her – and the Establishment – for the mastermind she is. Cheers
Anyway……
‘Climate change: Siberian heatwave ‘clear evidence’ of warming’
It is well-known that the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet.
Arctic temperatures are estimated to have risen 2C since 1850 compared with 1C globally.
What impact that will have on the world’s weather is less certain.
“Looking at the geological record, we don’t think we’ve had CO2 levels as high for about five million years,” said Dr Hendry. “So we really don’t know what to expect into the future.”
“We are,” she said, “in uncharted territory”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53415297
I have explained, on multiple occasions, that if I add links, then my posts disappear. There’s enough evidence to search out multiple articles in my last post.
As for Greta. Is she aware, I don’t know. Having two autistic people in my house, I know they can be extremely smart, and extremely sharp. But I do know that what she stands for isn’t for our benefit.
Still, it proves my previous speculation. You think you’re a great researcher.
Nvla, do you know or have a theory on why your links don’t appear? It seems to be just you.
I looked at the Plant for the Planet website and apart from the fact it was begun by a nine-year-old I saw nothing relevant to your veiled accusations.
What does it say or prove about XR?
Your comments are so vague they seem like the stuff of conspiracy theory websites.
If you have something specific and credible let’s see it please?
No idea. Got fed up with asking SB to reinstate my posts, because it’s always too late then.
I’ve even tried hiding the links in regular text…
The idea that we cannot be equally as ruthless is fatal
What will it take to get a democratic socialist Labour party into power, get rid in next 12 months by winning in the NEC, Unite, GMB and Unison
Then you sit down and negotiate the departure of Quislings and Bad Actors, let them take majority of PLP and Councillors, they will be replaced at next election
Most important is who do you trust to lead us who is not a complete snowflake, none of them stand up to much scrutiny
And that’s what our generation have left the bairns
Chris Williamson and Laura Pidcock are decent enough but currently unavailable
The bairns are truly inspiring and the demographics are all in our favour
Your a fucking anti semite and a racist
I’m sorry you feel that way
NEVER AGAIN
…Your a fucking anti semite and a racist I’m sorry you feel that way
NEVER AGAIN…
Is this directed at me?
No, it’s the exchange that took place between Margaret Hodge and Jeremy that Doug often cites, and not aimed at anyone.
Systemic change
What will No Deal do to economy just as second wave hits
Can anyone point to an original thought in this article
How about legislation that can only be overturned by a referendum and only if there is consistent demand 60% plus from independent surveys, all managed by the third sector, democracy watch
Then we can protect progressive changes from cheap and nasties
Or they can protect their ‘progressive changes’ from those nasty socialists.
It’s axiomatic that today’s government’s legislation can’t tie the hands of subsequent governments.
Hands are not tied they are democratically restricted, a bar has been set to deter to vindictive and short sighted politicians
Before 1979 the post war consensus was no matter who won you governed in the best interests of the country
Twas the milk snatcher who broke the democratic contract with the electorate for the benefit of a small clique in the cheap and nasty Tory party
Get Bercow back to sort it
Safety net
What is it and how much is it for individuals and families
No one in politics can be against it,
So set it in stone an amount of money below which no one falls
Sit down and do an income and expenditure sheet for an adult and for a family of 2 adults and 2 children
Then I will tell you that it doesn’t exist anymore, you have a choice every week now, eat, heat or pay your rent you cannot do all three, the safety net no longer exists and that is not axiomatic of fucking anything I voted for or I believe anyone else did in this country
Who is going to stand up and say ‘let them starve, freeze to death or be put out on the streets
Over to you David
Pointless ranting at me, kid – nothing you wrote alters the fact that incoming Tory governments can repeal Labour legislation as we can repeal theirs.
Persuading the electorate is key – sadly the Tories own 99% of the means of persuasion.
Everything else is just whistling until we either take away that advantage or take up arms.
Off topic… Hancock just said “We don’t know yet what effect cold weather will have on coronavirus.”
If only god had arranged the solar system so that half the Earth was in winter during our summer – then we could look at other countries to see what CV will be like this winter.
Damn you, god.
Brexit, Cummings taught us there is nothing set in stone for the far right wing nuts in our unwritten constitution, ultimately it is for parliament and the courts to interpret,
Say it again, do better democracy, dismantle establishment which I think you would prefer to blood on the streets, only two kinds of revolution, peaceful and progressive
Brexit, the internal report and Covid19 means there is no hiding place anymore, we are all out in the open, some of us are in the wrong parties and too many of us are thick as pig shit
Time to shuffle the pack again
Thank you Andy Searson. A helpful, thought-provoking article.
Systemic change
Can I ask the Pantomime Dame question again, how do we get rid
Systemic change
Monarchy ends with Queenie, who is going to swear allegiance to a tampon
‘Black Lives Matter’. Really? It’s good to know that journalists from the Murdoch Media Empire all agree, just like all those
other comfortable bourgeois journalists who work in the perception industry.who suddenly claim to have found integrity. The same journalists who orchestrated a constant media campaign accusing the Labour Party & Jeremy Corbyn of anti-Semitism. Seems these guardians & protectors of our moral compass have forgotten anti-semitism & found a new bandwagon for instant comment & Neo-Liberal badge shining..
Turn on your television for a constant reminder that ‘Black Lives Matter’ on any sporting event as instruction is given by Gary Linekar on how to bend the knee’, supported by multi-millionaire Lewis Hamilton. Property developer Raheem Stirling claims that racism is rampant in football as his chum, Sol Campbell hasn’t been given.a Premier League club to manage because he’s black, unlike Lampard & Gerard.. He appears to have forgotten that Sol Campbell was given a League One Football Club to manage this season & were immediately relegated. The problem of management in the Premier League isn’t race, it is the fact that only 3 managers are British. The fact that 75% of highly paid footballers in the Premier League are from overseas. ensures that so very few young working class British kids can ever fulfill their dreams & play for the club they support. The English Premier League is globalism in action & that means that most working class families can only afford to watch their football on Sky TV., with ‘highlights’ later on BBC. A process designed to extort the maximum profit from the poorest people, as wealthy elites ensure that BLM changes nothing but ensure their own career prospects are improved.
Many people from white working class backgrounds feel alienated & once again unrepresented. Even their sport has been taken away from them. BBC DG Lord Hall of Birkenhead, in one of his closing speeches advocates ‘positive discrimination’ to rectify racism in the BBC, echoing the sentiments of Tony Blair’s mate, Greg Dyke who informed us “there are too many ugly white faces in the BBC”.
If anyone dares make comment that is critical of BLM there will be the usual suspects shining their Liberal badge, howling like Donald Sutherland in the re-make of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’. BLM is just a MSM event. Those black people living & dying in Palestine & Yemen will not benefit, just a few chosen ones who work for the BBC.
JC accused by Johnson of taking money from Russia Today. I wonder if he will repeat this accusation outside parliament?