Ode To Joy

Today I formally cease to be a citizen of the European Union, and this fills me with great sadnessThe arguments rage backwards and forwards on the merits of being in or out of the EU, and I am not going to rehearse them here. Time will tell. I comfort myself with the belief that that which truly unites people across international boundaries, goodwill, friendship, willingness to work for the common good, cannot be negated by a single act of folly.

And my very last act as an EU citizen is one of splendid defiance. Take it away Beethoven!

https://youtu.be/kbJcQYVtZMo

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OK, We’re Stuffed!

Do you know that projections on the economic  effects of climate change are predicted on the assumption that 87% of industry won’t be effected by it because it “takes place indoors”?? 

And this includes mining. 

Professor Steve Keen tells it likes it is: you have to engage your brain, because he explains the science, and he says, “fucking” once. As his home town is now on fire, I’m inclined to forgive him that. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/macro-n-cheese/id1453085489?i=1000462989017

Keeping Calm And Carrying On

On occasion I write a title with no idea what I'm going to say, knowing from experience that once I'm, "in the flow!" Something of interest will emerge, at least of interest TO ME.  Oh yes.

I fought alongside socialist friends for the Labour Party in last month's election, and am still saddened by the result. That we lost, is a deep wound. Fighting for the homeless, the hungry, the stranger, for redistributing wealth so that working families are raised above the poverty line, protecting workers rights and universal healthcare was important to me. I console myself with the thought that I stood with the good guys, and I have no regrets for doing so. A deeply conservative neoliberal administration has been given an unassailable majority and will take it as permission to continue the process of ripping apart the social fabric of this nation. But not with my consent. 

How then do I deal with disappointment verging on despair? To acknowledge it, and to make something of lasting significance, if possible, I suppose. 

Maybe the worst won't happen. (It won't happen to ME, at least ...) I hope not. But if catastrophe is to be avoided,  everyone of good will is going to have to step up. When you have elected  a government that will withdraw from caring for its citizens, you need to choose. Are you prepared to watch more people die from broken services and the removal of a welfare safety net, or will will put the energy you mustered for  a political fight into a humanitarian one? 

The omens are not good. 

So, "Keep Calm And Carry On"? Not there yet. I'll keep you posted. 

Election Reflection

Twitter Thread 02/01/2020

I’m taking my head out of the sand. The Labour Party in not fit for purpose. It cannot be an effective opposition while it’s ideologically riven by irreconcilable worldviews.

We on the left watched in fascinated horror, as RW Party members continually undermined Corbyn.

Just to enumerate a few examples: the leadership challenge, the amplification of antisemitism, the disgraceful treatment of left-wingers expelled from the party, the endless media appearances attacking the party leadership, and now, the insistence that people like me be purged.

And now the gleeful assertion that the left is responsible for the GE defeat, and the insistence that to become, ‘electable’ we return to the policies and mindset that led to a decline in vote share before the 2017 election, which Corbyn, to the shock of the right, halted.

I’m not going to submit to this. I’m not going to rally round Andrew Adonis, I’ll not be voting or supporting anyone who wants to take the party back to some mythical centre where we are acceptable to Murdoch, and palatable to the comfortably well-off:who will vote LDem anyway

The defining issue of our age is the impending climate catastrophe. Does anyone believe that the neoliberal free-market free-for-all that brought us to the brink of the sixth mass extinction, is capable of mitigating the effects? Conservatism and Liberalism have no solutions.

When society begins to break down, and WAKE UP PEOPLE, it WILL, who do you want deciding your grandchildren’s future? A fake-Labour ‘Trust us, we’re not really socialist, honestly... “ faction, or true socialists committed to a just society that works for all?

This coming leadership election will be one of the most important votes I have ever cast. Whichever, ‘side’ wins, be sure of one thing:,there will be no truce. There will be open warfare, and you know what, I WELCOME it. I’m tired of putting up with being vilified.

@UKLabour simply cannot go on with influential RW members constantly subverting what was a popular revolution in 2015. This was never about a man, it was a massive call for radical change.

We must vote in a socialist as our party leader. And bugger the consequences.

And finally: Modetn Monetary Theorist Bill Mitchell explaining how Labour lost the North and Midlands, and why we deserved to:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/macro-n-cheese/id1453085489?i=1000459589014