Category: Issues

Badges For Social Change

Badges For A Better World

For some while now I have been using the following expressions which sum up many of my political thoughts and ideas.

Now I am thinking it would be good to have some badges with these as slogans.

Beer Not Bombs !

Pull Down the Motorways !

Dole Not Coal !

Campaign Against the Cuban Dictatorship.

I’m a Pragmatic Anarcho Pacifist.

I’m a Law Abiding Anarchist.

2 Feet Good !  4 Wheels Bad !

Campaign Against the National Union of Weapons Manufacturers and Plutonium Workers

Build more Railways and Canals.

Support All Russian and Ukrainian Conscientious Objectors.

Becoming Vegan is an Ecological and Political Act.

Stop Noise Pollution – Silence All Musak in shops !

Pedestrians First !

Less Roads and More Footpaths.

Shrink the suburbs !

Plant More Forests

Create Fruit Orchards in the Inner Cities.

Nukiller Power?  – No Thanks ! 

Social Needs & Financial Reforms

Here is the Highest Educational Problem

The figure I keep quoting is 1in 7 of the population in Brexitland are functionally illiterate.

Yet while millions of pounds are pouring in to the universities, next to no money is being spent to solve this problem.

It is possible to find books in public libraries to solve the adult literacy issue, but there is no one to do the teaching.

I’ve always thought that university students should do such teaching as part payment for their education loans.

Though given the concerns which exist about the literary skills of some students, such a scheme should be set up with a formal teaching course to go with it.

Here is the Financial Problem

There’s talk right now of raising council tax by 5%.

Yet that is double what any individual that is part of a couple would have to pay.

Thus single individuals would pay 100% more than any two people in the same place.

Even with the 25% single person reduction it is still a much higher amount than individuals in a shared property pay.

That is not social justice or making an equitable contribution to local services.

It is also an unfair fiscal load upon all single pensioners.

Meanwhile all students are exempt from paying council tax. Yet keep in mind many pensioners left school at either 15 or 16, and never got the chance to go to university.

Thus the council tax system needs to be abolished, and a modified version of a local poll tax introduced in order to lift the present inequitable system.

I don’t expect a lot of people who campaigned against the poll tax to like this idea, but we do need to abolish the totally inequitable and unjust council tax system.

The Disastrous History of Brexitland.

The Final Ongoing Chapter

The middle and last part of 2022 was a time of uncertainties, economic mess, and major political swings. Yet none of the major ecological, educational, or social issues where being addressed.

Much of this uncertainty was caused by an unstable Rabid Right Wing government which was economically illiterate. While those were in it had no understanding of science, and technologically.

Thus they had no concept of the major social, ecological, and economic damage which they were causing.

All they were concerned with was helping to make the rich much richer, and ways in which they might keep themselves in power.

Still the Rabid Right Wingers managed to stay in power, even when they kept changing their policies by the day.

As one well known commentator said at the time: –

‘ They make it all up as they go along.’

While another one stated that there was no point in reporting, or ever reading, any government policy announcements, as they all changed by the hour.

Then the Expected Unexpected happened, and the Dance of Death changed in to a continual internal battle and debate about just who might command Brexitland.

Thus the economic decline, social poverty, and environmental mess was ignored.

Only when the environmental damage had reached way beyond crisis point did the rabid right wing Brexitland government start to notice it, even though activists had been predicting these problems for many decades.

Recent Observation, Notes, Stats, & Observations

Numbers

Many of my political and social observations come from a lot of background reading, and looking at statistics.

Farming

There are a couple of things which farmers have been complaining a lot about of late. They are the rising prices of fuel and nitrates.

While a lot of them are also moaning about the prices they are getting for what they are selling to the supermarkets.

All of which leaves me thinking that we might soon be finding organic crops becoming much cheaper to grow than that which is produced by intensive chemical spraying.

Statistical Pointers To Better Understanding.

Of course some problems which prevent our better understanding of the world come from other factors.

Take for example the main form of colour blindness which is Red / Green.

While 1 in 12 men suffer from colour blindness, only 1 in 200 women do so.

Then there are the 1 in 7 of the adult population which are to a greater of lesser extent functionally illiterate.

So a lot more thought needs to be given as to how to improve public signs and how they are written.

Not understanding the numbers

It is also no use complaining about falling standards of scientific understanding, while the lever of adult numeracy is so very high.

Just take a look at the following reports-

Almost half of the UK lacks basic financial literacy

and

One-in-three adults in England and Northern Ireland cannot work out the correct change from a shopping trip, according to new research from UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and University of Cambridge.

No Receipt – No Record – No Ability to keep an eye on financial issues

Of course it does not help individuals to budget their spending, if they throw away or never pick up their receipts for their purchases, ( a trend which seems to be increasing ). This means they can not see their pattern of spending over the year.

Then comes the question of inflation, low wages, low salary increases, and pensions which are so low that many older individuals are living in dire poverty.

Thus aside from the number of food banks increasing, we also have a situation in which many individuals are asking whether they should turn on their heating during winter, or eat that day.

The same can be said of politicians and planners who are incapable of looking at any long term effects of current public spending or the effects it will have.

Eat or Freeze

While the Rabid Right Wing Tory Government of Brexitland has just no idea of what this means, as many of them are millionaires.

Is it any wonder that many of us think that living in Brexitland equates to living within a shambolic and dystopian version of a Neo-fascist Kafkaland.

More Notes From Dystopian Brexitland.

The longer we live with the shambolic dystopian reality of Brexitland, the more the reality of ruined lives feels like normal.Not that it is normal in any way, as the rabid right wing Tory government stumbles from crisis to crisis, as they dream of making a misplaced view of the past the new reality.

While the scandal of partygate continues, with members of parliament now worried about one of the government party MPs watching porno in the legislature.

While the minster for the Nineteenth Century remains unable to understand any form of contemporary realty.

While none of the multimillionaire government ministers are able to comprehend the effects of any financial cuts upon the most vunerable members of society.

While we still have many people campaigning for better university education, but blind to the reality of 1 in 7 of the adult population who are to a greater or lesser extent functionly illiterate.

But here is the best part of the situation…All those bright ideas which are being put forward as solutions to the current economic crisis, are the very ones which will cause much more pollution, result in a greater health crisis, and mean a lot more money being spent in order to clean it all up.

But let’s not worry about that they say.

Let’s just agonize about what is on television, and the activities of that most dysfunctional of families – The Royals.

Could it be that breathing in the highly polluted air has effected so many people that they are too ill to worry about it all?

Cynical and sarcastic I might be about the current and ongoing crisis, but that just hides the underlying worry which I have about it all.

Something has got to change very soon.

Think Now In Order To Act Now

No Matter What Your Main Concerns Might Be

No campaigning can be effective in isolation.

That is why we need to think in terms of Joined-up-campaigning.

Joined-up-campaigning requires doing a lot of joined-up-thinking,

It requires having lots of imagination.

It means being able to be very pragmatic, yet very consistent in terms of Ends and Means.

Then applying all of this in the way we act and live our lives.

Never has it been more important to act and think this way.

Land Use & A Vegan World In The Making

On January 26th I Reached 48Plus3.

That is 51 years since turning Vegetarian, and three since becoming Vegan.

Over the last decade I have penned a number of pieces which are on my blog about aspects being vegan, land use, and related issues.

At some stage I should write about all the related issues which I keep banging on about.

They are: –

Using more of the countryside to create forests.

Creating Urban orchards.

Using more urban space of the creation of allotments and for greenhouses.

Producing food at the point of use which can be done by putting up greenhouses on the land at the side of supermarkets which are currently wasted as parking lots.

All of which will link in to a sustainable urban transport system.

Then create vegan food production projects which will negate the need for so many food banks.

But most of all: –

Shrink The Suburbs !

Over The Last Few Months

I’ve been meaning to do an update about just what I have been doing of late, but not been able to do so until now.

So here goes ….

During the year I was interviewed for the 5CaleRoad project.

A part of the interview is now to be found here

The full interview will be archived at the Bishopsgate Institute.

I did spent some time working upon the Liverpool anti arms fare campaign,

as well as the more long term Anti nukiller power campaigning work, even though it is still very difficult to get any protest events organised.

I’ve also been dealing with some of the ongoing spycop issues.

Talking of which it looks like I will be an octogenarian by the time the spycops public inquiry is completed.

Aside from that I have managed some day trips of late to such exciting places at Wigan, Chester, Preston, and Wrexham.

I also got to the Manchester Anarchist Book fare, and the protest march about the Tory Party conference which took place in the town during September.

Just like a lot of other people I do hope it will be possible to do much more over the coming months.

Here’s Hoping.

Liverpool Arms Fair Protests

An Arms Fair on Liverpool City Council Premises.

In June 2014 Clarion Events hosted the annual UDT [Underwater Defence Technology] exhibition at the Liverpool City Council owned Arena and Convention Centre.

There was a small protest outside the event which I was involved in organising.

Here it might be noted that the UDT events take place at different venues each year.

After protests about the UDT event in Glasgow during 2018, the Glasgow City Council decreed that it would no longer support arms fairs in any of the premises it owns.

The Arms Fair Postponed

During 2020 it become known that another arms fair would be taking place at the Arena in Liverpool.

This was the Clarion Events organised AOC Europe 2021 (previously Electronic Warfare Europe) arms fair.

AOC [The Association of Old Crows] is ‘an organisation for individuals who have common interests in Electronic Warfare ‘.

Due to Lockdown this event was postponed.

Following on from an outcry about this event, Mayor Joe Anderson stated that he and the Council would develop a policy to prevent such events taking place in Liverpool in the future. Unfortunately he was unable to pursue this policy, as shortly afterwards a scandal about the way the City Council operated resulted in him resigning his post, while a police investigation in to this matter continues.

Then with the ending of lockdown it was announced that the Electronic Arms Fair would go ahead in October 2021.

Protests during 2021

What happened next was that the Merseyside Pensioners Association

organised a series of lobbying pickets and demonstrations both outside various Council meetings and at the Town Hall.

That culminated with a national Protest March which attracted several thousand people, and finally a rally in the city centre.

Here it might also be noted that a large number of the City Councillors signed a statement calling for the arms fair to be cancelled.

With the announcement that the arms fair would go ahead, the musical group Massive Attack cancelled a concert at the venue in protest.

Yet despite all of these protests the Liverpool City Mayor Joanne Anderson said there was nothing she could or would do to have the arms fair cancelled.

On the day that the Arms Fair started there was a large demonstration outside the Arena.

Campaigning for an ethical policy

There is now a campaign calling for the City Council to instigate an ethical policy, and to change the articles of association of the Arena company in order to prevent any further arms fairs happening in the future.

The next AOC Europe is scheduled to take place in Montpellier, France during May 10th to 12th 2022

Observe And Take Action.

Have You noticed ?

We are now living in a Dystopian nightmare where image is everything, but reality is hard to see.

Time flows in different ways while the booze flows.

For politicians who get drunk on their own self delusions the long term effects of this kind of thinking are very heady stuff, but we all have to suffer from the results.

While we all buy in to some form of referral to brand names, or Kapitalist propaganda, as it is constantly thrown at us via the ‘Mass Media’.

Paid to act for.

Anyone who lives within Brexitland will be very familiar with how politicians are making a nice living as advisers or sit on the board of various companies.

That is on top of the previous Cash for Question scandal of a few years ago, which should be classified with what is otherwise colloquially know as ‘Rent in Kind’.

None of these observations are in anyway new.

Only one thing is new about it all, is just how many of these scandals have, or rather are, coming to light within such a short period of time.

In a just or more egalitarian society all of this would be regarded as absolutely shocking, but the citizens of Brexitland are well used to learning such things about elected politicians.

It all flows in to us developing a very high appreciation of hard bitten satirical humour.

Where our attention should really be focused upon.

Meanwhile in the real world, and away from the Westminster Village, there are other more important issues to deal with. All of which I keep repeating time and time and time and time again.

What is now becoming really obvious is the way in which Greenwash exasperates many of the problems we have.

Moving from extreme energy [ petrol and diesel personal vehicles to battery powered ones is not going to solve the urban mess, or encourage people to walk more.

Neither is spending tax payers money on an infrastructure to support them going to help finance all the tram and train networks which we so desperately need.

While the idea which is currently being flogged that Nukiller power is the solution to stopping climate change can only be described as ill founded.

Nukiller power is a cause of global warming.

Yet again it is a case of not properly focusing upon both the issues and realistic solutions.