Out of left Field 2
Media
Where do we get our information? Increasingly people are turning their backs on the mainstream. Why? Several reasons but the main one is because they don’t believe they are receiving the truth. 24 hour coverage equates to 15 minute bulletins repeated all day and all night. The other reason is that the UK doesn’t have a free media as it is controlled by vested interest. Feed the electorate what you want them to know and they will vote how you want them to vote. This is the simple reason why there can’t be a European referendum or for that matter a referendum on anything, there just can’t be a balance debate, because the UK media has it stitched up. (e.g. PR voting) It then becomes important to look to other sources, internet, and foreign news channels. It’s good to find out what the rest of the world thinks about what’s going on. Two of the most refreshing commentators at present are; Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, on More Four (in a 2009 poll Stewart, a satirical comedian, was voted the most trusted man in the US) and Max Keiser on RTs Keiser report, Max is a breath of fresh air, hyperbole at its best. If you haven’t already, check them out.
Bankers
Why are people like the Greeks being blamed for this crisis? Didn’t the nations bail out the ‘too big to fail’ and now the nations are paying again and the ‘Banksters’ seem to have got away with it. Where are we going with the LIBOR debacle? The person in the street, with a loan or mortgage, does not seem to appreciate how much they have been taken for over the years. I have a couple of questions; firstly in respect of how much this continues to cost all of us how is it that it has so quickly disappeared from the news channels and newspapers? Secondly why is it that there have been no arrests? The population seem to think that it is important the Coalition bring about real changes to the financial markets but with 23 Millionaires in the Cabinet and a banker in Number 11, will it happen?
Debt and Sustainability
I would like for someone to tell me why it is that the people who didn’t cause the problem are being blamed and punished for it. For example public sector workers are asked to work longer, pay less and eventually get less from their pensions because we are told they cost us £5 billion a year when the bank/city bailout cost £1.35 trillion! The unemployed, homeless, disabled and foreigners have all been attacked. The media manipulates the truth to encourage reasonable people to resent the lazy and workshy. The balance sheet shows us that the entire unemployment and benefits budget of £86 billion is significantly less than the £100 billion stolen from the nation by the tax fraud, evasion and avoidance of the rich and business. We appear to have taken our eye of the ball. It is essential that ecological systems are repaired; environmental issues must be given greater importance. Most of us agree that installing solar-voltaic cells on the roof is an excellent, if for most of us expensive, home improvement. The Government subsidy was an essential and longsighted investment so it seems illogical to slash the subsidy just when it was beginning to impact positively on the development.
Stock Market
As I understand it the Stock market is a place where someone could take any spare cash they might have, obviously understanding the risks, invest in the world’s companies and expect some return. In turn a company could go to the Stock Market and in exchange for a ‘share’ of the company it would be able to raise capital to use to develop new products, goods and/or services. Obviously this isn’t what is going on. Even the Economist magazine, according to a recent article, doesn’t seem to believe the Stock Market is fit for purpose anymore. The way that the commodity markets are being misused is not just criminal but is immoral. Too many commodities, from energy like oil to food such as wheat are having their prices manipulated upwards to benefit only the speculators. Hard working families around the world are suffering while the top 1% benefit. Who will step in and correct this mass institutionalised theft? Another real concern is the use of computers taking over on the trading floor. 85% of all trades around the word are now thought to be controlled by artificial electronic brains. It might sound a little Sci-Fi but isn’t it wrong when the future welfare of over 7 billion people is at the whim of artificial intelligence?
Occupy
The Occupy movement was an example again of an effective media blackout following the initial frenzy of interest earlier in the year. In particular the camp outside St Paul’s in London threw up some interesting and important issues. The poster displayed that did find itself on the TV news around Easter, ‘what would Jesus Do?’ Well we know what Jesus did to the bankers in the New Testament temple; he threw over their money tables and chased them out. Wasn’t this the only recorded time the Son of God lost his temper?
Jubilee
This religious theme leads us nicely to another theme of 2012, the Jubilee. My reading of the Old Testament makes me think that Jubilee was set up as a time to cancel debts, every 7 years, indeed slaves were set free and society had a default setting to start again. Doesn’t Easter revolve around forgiveness and a fresh start? Generations ago people understood that the free market could not be left to run out of control, it is unsustainable. Bringing it up to date isn’t the Bible saying no one should be endlessly making vast profits from the rest of us. Other religions include similar teaching against ‘usury’.
Democracy
What do we think about a democracy with an unelected head of state and unelected second chamber of its parliament? The monarchy question is separate, but it is important that our democracy be brought up to date especially when we seem to like to lecture large parts of the world on the democratic process. The time is right to complete the task, electing only a proportion every 15 years is a very poor substitute and will only favour the ruling elite and vested interest, not the majority. Shouldn’t the second elected chamber have a strong, antagonistic impact on the first and be elected regularly on proportional grounds?
Hung Parliaments
It would have been a better option for the Liberal Democrats to allow the Tories to form a minority government in 2010, in this way the rest of the parties could have supported those measures that were seen to be in the national interest and voted down the machinations of the right that have caused so much damage to the economy, NHS and schools. It is obvious that the right have used this ‘financial crises’ to attack the welfare state and public sector in the mistaken belief that private is best. The speed at which they have done this has been breath taking although should surprise no one as they have been planning this for years and of course they are worried the Lib Dems will pull the plug at any time. I include the letter I wrote to 50 of the 57 Lib Dem MPs, I received 6 replies;
14th December 2010
I realise that you are not my MP but I believe I need to write this letter to you. Many people I know are concerned about the future of the Liberal Democrat Party. Serious errors of judgement have been made in supporting a Tory agenda which has more to do with right wing ideology than fair and effective government. It would have been better for everyone if the Tories had been allowed to form a minority government; they would have been enabled to show their true colours without the Liberal Democrats being so badly damaged.
It was very important to vote against a threefold increase in student fees but there are many other unfair and damaging measures. When will the people who got us into this financial situation begin to make remuneration? Why is your party not actively promoting the Robin Hood Tax? We are not all in it together when the distance between rich and poor continues to increase. Putting a stop to the tide of redundancies envisaged for 2011 would be a forward thinking policy. The debt the UK was left with in 1945 wasn’t fully paid back for 60 years, in fact only recently in the last few years; we should have a more sensible approach to this deficit. Liberal Democrat leaders seem to justify their support as being for the national good, you will be aware of a more cynical interpretation of your party’s lurch to the right and that is to attain 5 seats around the cabinet table.
People voted Liberal Democrat to keep the Tories out; the Liberal Democrats must remove themselves from this unwanted alliance if they wish to survive the next election and an excellent opportunity would be as a result of being undermined by their ‘partners’ over the PR referendum next May. Many friends tell me they don’t bother to vote because their vote doesn’t count. I am sure you have heard lots of people say the same; you know that change to the electoral system is essential. Whilst this change is due, it is far from guaranteed, ask yourself, is the devastation being caused by the Tory government a price worth paying?
Public Sector
We should not underestimate the effects of this Coalition and the responsibility of blame that sits at the feet of each member of the Lib Dem party as at conference their members seem impotent. The resultant mismanagement is legion; £22 billion has been saved from the RPI to CPI pension change alone, has it been recycled into the funds? no just into the treasury, GP’s are leaving the profession as a result of the NHS changes which is an horrendous loss of expertise to the nation, the police force is being decimated with officers being ‘forced’ to ‘retire’ rather than be made redundant, and the negative impact of the Secretary of State for education on schools has been devastating as he seeks to recreate the schools of his childhood. There is no evidence that Academies or Free Schools will improve education, there is evidence that it will have a negative impact on conditions for teachers. There is no evidence that scrapping the GCSE will increase standards but the removal and undermining of the position of Vocational Courses will disenfranchise and demotivate many students.
MAY 1979
The fateful decision was made on that day in early May 1979 and the UK electorate made the mistake of allowing the accountants to take over the running of the country. Venture Capitalists and an ever increasing drive to cut costs, which is a code for ‘remove workers’, and increase profits. But for who? Who has benefited from the privatisation of the utilities such as gas and water? Certainly not the customer. Who has benefited from the privatisation of British rail? Certainly not the commuter. Faceless Multinationals are making vast profits from what belonged to all of us but was taken. The insidious and dark side to this is that the nation is controlled not so much by a dictator but by a dictating idea, an idea that isn’t sustainable but is incredibly wasteful of resources and people. If you hear someone say that profit comes first before people then you are listening to an idiot. Of course another serious problem is that so many of us have bought into the lies and see nothing wrong with the system until the wheels come of our little corner of it. We were told ’there is no more society’ when our make-up is ‘no man is an island’.
Capitalism or Feudalism?
The right is championed by several groups, one of which is the Taxpayers Alliance; with all the tax avoidance that is going on do we think any of them pay tax and if they do what do they think about the tax money wasted by Coalition decisions? Cutting tax to the rich, ‘because it wasn’t raising much’ says the Chancellor, it doesn’t matter how many times they call black white – it still looks black. All of the money being pumped into the economy should increase wages, inflation and the value of holdings in a capitalist system, however if it is draining away into the pockets of a very few people then we are running a 13th Century system. Neo-feudalism is a system where politics, finance, commerce, technology and media come together to control the masses for the benefit of a powerful minority. At this time we risk falling into a new ‘Dark Ages’ where we can do little collectively as we pay for the excesses of the few. The effective mothballing of NASA is an obvious casualty in the US and the break-up and privatisation of the NHS in the UK. We also need to admit that many of us are engaged in activities that detract from important realities.
It is important that we all wake up to what is being done, done not even in our name as this regime has no electoral mandate. As a nation we need to wake up from the politically zombie like state that we have allowed the media to null us into. Our future is in our own hands, it is our future and we need to reclaim it and make it ours again.
Let me know what you think.
