Category: Politics

From small acorns do mighty oaks grow

Exeter (my city), Devon (my county) and the rest of the UK (my country) held elections yesterday and many of the results have been announced today.

I voted for the green party where I live and I am very pleased to say that a green party councillor called Amy Sparling won the local ward on my council so Exeter City council and St Davids ward where I live now has two elected green party councillors.

It would be awesome if one day Exeter could send a green party elected official to our parliament in London to represent the people of Exeter, who knows what might happen in the future!

So I have just put on my green party of the USA T-shirt this evening, which I bought during one of the lockdowns last year while they were campaigning for the USA Presidential election, though it could have got here by plane so not sure how environmentally friendly my purchases method of transport was!

I also joined the green party in the UK last year and had some help from the other Green Party Councillor regarding an investigation into chopping down hedges along the rail track by my house during the bird nesting season in a spring 2020 lockdown. Although it was all said to be legitimate cutting of greenery by network rail by the wildlife crime officer which I could not really argue with in the end I was grateful to my local green party councillor also for checking out the legality of the cuttings being done and that really won over my support to the local green party even more than it already was.

I have already been really interested in politics from an early age and studied politics at university (although not staying there long enough to get a degree). I struggle to understand why so many people say politics is irrelevant to them or that it does not matter who you vote for their all as bad as each other.

I person in work said I quote that I had not heard before which is ‘if you don’t do politics, politics will do you’. I think that is an excellent phrase in which never was a truer word spoken.

The Beatles – Sea of Green
Sting – Englishman in New York

All people should be treated equally

The following definitions of democracy are commonly understood and accepted

Government by the people especially: rule of the majority

A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.

All that sounds very straight forward and who would argue against that well if you watched any TV in the UK or picked up a so called News Paper then you might have been under the misimpression that we have a one state controlled media promoted through TV and written publications all singing from the same hymn sheet.

A picture of the UK has been attempted to be painted this week of  a county full of royalist worshipping citizens whom need to be reminded every 15 minutes through news bulletins, and documentary dramas that we have a monarchy they are very wise and superior to us mere mortals, intellectually, spiritually and genetically. There will be no talk of the future of the monarchy in anyway of whether we want, need or even should have one moving forward. If you are not crying at your TV because someone you have never met and never loved has died, then there is something wrong with you. It’s all quite an odd state of reality really.

The British Royal Family is deeply part of the political fabric even though the monarch is claimed to be above politics is still a deeply political position. The head of the machine of the states is our monarch and the tentacles of the state and our poorly unevenly handed media went into overdrive in the last week showing just how important to the system the promotion of the status quo is within the UK and chance of change or how such changes might take place in order to make our unwritten constitution and the construction of how our state works and to whom it works for are very remote.

Are we merely born into a system where the blood line of a head of state is more important than the blood line of any and all other citizens born with in it? If the answer to this question is absolutely yes, then this system is very much archaic and needs much needed reform which may never come.

We have a house of lords with some peers appointed from state supporters (none elected though the ballet box and some life long peers). They are responsible for keeping an eye on our political laws and ensuring due process is undertaking in parliament.

There are many who ridicule democratic due diligence, process and democratic political power. The reasons for these are often complicated and not easy to understand or even see. But most notably if you are not in favour of democratic due diligence, process or democratic political power it is because you have an invested interest and already receive power from an alternative form of government within which the ordinary man or woman does not have such power or privilege from.   

Van Williams – Revolution featuring First Aid Kit

Your Coronavirus Pandemic 1 Year on

On 11th March 2020 the world health organisation announced that COVID-19 could be characterized as a pandemic and that a pandemic was not a word to be used lightly.

The early stages of the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns were hard on many people, in different ways, unemployment, families trying to live, work and study under one roof or individuals having to rely on themselves and draw on their own resilience resources to adapt and absorb the enormity of the situation. There were also many other challenges severely affected the mental well-being of many people around the world and yet here we are, a year on.

It’s a tough subject to write about and one which we are all effected by on daily basis in our own uniquely uncomfortable way. It’s possible to feel both guilt for the good things that have happened as well as joy or remorse for the bad things that have happened and yet relief for the bad things that have not happened too, all in one blink of an eye on a reflection of range emotions and issues.

I do also wonder what would have happened politically, socially and environmentally to our streets, towns, cities, countries and planet had no pandemic occurred and life had continued to race on at its break neck speed into potential oblivion.

It feels like the brakes have been put on a runaway train of consumer capitalism that was our everyday race for life and although consumer capitalism is still very much our way of life and affords us to live, can we now appreciate what we have a little more and aspire to protect and value the sanctity of life in a new found appreciation of what we have and what we hold dear to us. Essential workers can finally feel that well for want of a better word they are essential to the fabric of human life and society.

Who would have thought 12 months ago that to stack a shelf in grocers store was a means to help feed a nation. If I had my way I would give all essential workers and minimum waged workers a huge pay increase not as a thank you but as an acknowledgment to the role they play in a society and economy. This would enable workers to be able to afford to keep an adequate roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. The money that the low paid earn is ploughed straight back into the economy because unlike the wealthy they don’t have the luxury of saving wealth you simply spend to live.

You could tax pollutants such as fossil fuels like they were industries equivalents to humans smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol. You could also create a new digital economy type of VAT where everything bought online had a Digital value deducted tax. It would cause prices to increase but if people are earning more this would still balance out.

Well look at that not been in a pub or had a drink of alcohol for what must be over 3 months and still getting drunk on ideas and trying to put the world to rights. Roll on the open of those bars again so I can go in and start to have a conversation about ideas like this and pretend it is because I am drunk again!   

Massive Attack – Teardrop

If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well

Or Money for nothing and contracts millions given to friends and party donors for free.

I normally don’t get my news from Facebook but today a meme was doing the rounds about the lack of news on an important story.

Matt Hancock the UK Health Minister has been found guilty of not disclosing NHS contracts to the UK public. Now at first you might think well he had a lot of other stuff to do, with say saving the population and all that. But the more you dig into the news (or lack of news item the worse it gets).

The Government unlawfully failed to publish details of billions of pounds’ worth of coronavirus-related contracts, the High Court has ruled.

There looks to be a battle at the heart of government to not give money to local councils and health services for fear of waste and not trusting them to do the jobs they are they are there to do. Or for fear of them doing such a good job they might end up asking for even more money or powedr and control.

Prior to the pandemic we have been force fed for many years the lie that spending money on public health, local government and public service should be cut back, year on year for it is never affordable or practical to spend money on others and not really needed and civilisation itself might even collapse and our capitalist way of life grind to a halt if we try in any way what so ever to fairly fund government services with tax payers money.

Then a real crisis comes along in the shape of the pandemic, which results in a very real scenario of civilisations being put to the test and grinding to a halt and suddenly were all bloody socialist regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, spending money as a left-winger, centralists or even right-winger on life saving society enhancing services and treatments is now seen as a normal way to do  business..

Dyslexic diabetic

So since last Thursday that is what I can be boxed off and defined simply as a dyslexic diabetic and to be honest I have been called worse.

I really wanted to put something down on here but at the same time I wanted to absorb the new diagnosis of being a diabetic first and begin to try to understand more on what that definitional and diagnosis now means to me. I have been being tested for it for years and kept on coming back as negative and not having it but blood suger levels slowly increasing year after year and I knew my time would come. My brother had it and so did my Grandfather. My mum has it and so does my Grandmother.

The mental health medication I take also increases my chance of putting on weight and developing diabetes and it seems lockdown and my desire and ability to increase the amount of cakes I have been eating also increased hugely my chance of being diagnoses with diabetes this year, plus the sedentary lifestyle with working at home more and just not having many places to go or reasons to go to them, my chances of getting diabetes this year along with my blood sugar levels just sky rocketed up, up and away.  

It was like I was playing Russian roulette with a gun that had as many bullets in it as it had chambers to fire them out from.

Prior to the diagnosis I really was kidding myself that my health was ok, my diet was ok and my lack of exercise would change. I still don’t know if I am kidding myself but I am trying to get my head around this and make changes that will enhance my health. I have been for so long focused and dedicated to looking after my mental health, holding down a job and keeping a roof over my head that I really did feel there was not much time left to look after my physical health or pretty much do anything else and I am still not sure if this is true now.

So now I have had a wakeup call and if I want to have a good quality of life, I do have to make some lifelong changes to my diet and improve my physical health. I’m pissed off this has happened I see life like a big beautiful, messy and  complicated picture that paints a thousand words or life like a potential journey to a thousand places in a thousand worlds.

world keeps on a spinning

When some new negative words or views are added to my already complicated llfe bubble, one of those words being diabetes and the second being diagnosis it just feels like what was already a struggle to live as a life just got a little harder and it sucks right now.   

First Aid Kit – Silver Lining

Although I am already feeling much better now than when I had first heard the what felt like inevitable news and am beginning to get my head around it now somewhat more and implement some positive changes for myself.

I have signed up to get advice, be educated by and taught more about diabetes by a diabetes mentor of sorts, through our lovely National Health Service and I have stated keeping a photo diary of everything I eat and drink now for the diabetes dietician to mull over and tell me what I am doing right or wrong.

What a refreshing change

Woodpecker Cider – Advert Ducks UK

I have just watch a new US press briefing at the White House with Dr Anthony Fauci now working for President Joe Biden and although the Covid-19 crisis is severe and will likely get worse before it gets better. One refreshing ray of sunshine in this briefing is that the US administration and Dr Falci have a plan and are very much up for this battle.

Dr Anthony Fauci

With day after day and bleak report after bleak report it can sometimes feel that nothing is changing and you just don’t know when something is going to change, but back in the beating heart of western democracy and the free world, there are people with plans who will hopefully greatly assist in the battle against covid-19, against the damage to the global economy and against the competing crisis of also battling climate change and saving or reestablishing our wilderness areas.

Heather Smal – Proud

Mr President it really does feel like the USA has once again rejoined the battle to try and save this world from itself.

Fact or Fiction, Truth or lies?

Does Trump have an angel or a devil resting on his shouder- well sadly your view of him might only be shaped by the TV channel you watch or the newspaper you read. It seems free thinking and an ability to interpret truth from lies or fact from fiction are dying arts, well for now anyway.

For many mere mortals living is hard & life is not easy, so when someone is put into a position of power to have a chance of make our lives better, less dangerous or fairer. You hope that they will have the strength of will and ability to do so. But if they make things harder, cost more lives or even sow seeds of doubt into the very systems they were elected to up hold then I tend to judge them harshly. If they make matters worse than prior to when they took up the power of leadership that they had craved then they have surely failed on any measure of what makes them a good leader.

Donald Trump stated on January 6, 2021 in a speech on the Ellipse outside the White House:

“We won. We won in a landslide. This was a landslide.”

  • A crowd of President Donald Trump’s supporters later stormed the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, wearing and waving Trump-branded paraphernalia and flags as they sought to overturn the election.
  • There is no credible evidence that the crowd was infiltrated or led by antifa activists in disguise. Specific individuals held up online as antifa activists turned out to be Trump supporters.
  • Trump had encouraged his supporters to come to Washington to protest the election. He spoke at a rally hours before the violence erupted and urged those in attendance to march to Congress.

It takes a certain type of leader to have the balls or to be completely incompetence in order to state or preach information that they know not to be true to their supporters knowing that the consequences of what they do will hurt and potential incite violence and bloodshed.

Trump and his minions have continued to do this on such a regular basis that his supporters must not know if they are coming or going. When the people of the land and the courts and political institutions all unanimously agree that Trump has lost the election and Trump has ZERO evidence to the contrary that does not stop him bleating to his supports that he won and it’s all a hoax. What kind of delusion or lack of principles motivates a man to do this?

He damages his countries own political stability and this has also cost many lives. Historians will have a fiercely negative reading of Trump as they learn more of the consequences of what he has done and continue to interpret his so called facts to fiction and truths to lies.  

There is nothing good about Trump, there is nothing theologicaly Christian in his views. Those that perceive him to be some kind of angelic political messiah really need to have a great deal of facts checked and lies revealed to them.

Trump should bare the burden and responsibility of the lies and fiction that he has created about himself, his policies and his lack of principles.

Florence + The Machine – Shake It Out

Trump Supporters are coming to town

Trump supporters are coming to town, Tump supporters are coming to town

You’d better watch out you’d better not run’ I’m telling you why.

Trump supporters are coming to town, Trump supporters are coming to town.

Trump supporters are coming to town.

Their making a list and checking it twice, there goner find out who votes for Trump or allegedly stealing their rights.

Trump supporters are coming to town oh yea

You’d better not vote, you’d better not be elected, you’d better not follow the rule of law I’m telling you why, Trumps crazy supporters are coming to Capitol Hill.

Trumps time is done, for his chickens have come home to roost.

A truly disgusting day of many disgusting days in the time of Donald Dead Duck President Trump

What is your view?

With over 70 million people in the USA believing in and voting for Trump while the rest of the world looked to Biden with both hope of a new road and feared for another 4 years of Trump this is perhaps a time to not only be looking at what decided the election result but why people vote the way they do.

Amy Winehouse – Rehab

With that in mind I would like to try and conduct a little international political survey asking people what matters to you when you vote. I am genuinely interested in what makes people tick and what issues are high up on your agenda?

The Gospel According to Trump

Can the USA be a free democratic nation or its President the leader of the free world if its commander in chief can’t even accept he lost an election? He still boasts on Twitter to his adoring fans and voters that he won and they cheated. He does this without producing a shred of evidence for his unstable view points.

It was the right that won it – that’s what Donald Trump would have you believe anyhow.  Sometimes there seems nothing worse in life or politics than a sore loser. Well it turns out there is something worse in a democratic state than a sore loser and that’s an American President that after defeat in an election is still convinced he has won. The amount of people that do not condemn his delusional bubble is just shameful and says a lot about American politics and where it is currently at or has come to.

You know something is broken in the world or in a country when good people vote for bad men and let’s be clear Trump is a very bad man, in deeds as well as words. The US President’s actions have exacerbated the pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people in the United States, rolled back environmental and public-health regulations and undermined science and scientific institutions. Just because a President sees a quick buck in relaxing laws designed to protect you and your fellow citizens which then might result in more short term profits for big business you should in no way be fooled into thinking that those stock and shares profits are for your benefit.

Over the past eight months, the president of the United States has lied about the dangers posed by the coronavirus and undermined efforts to contain it; he even admitted in an interview to purposefully misrepresenting the viral threat early in the pandemic. Trump has belittled masks and social-distancing requirements while encouraging people to protest against lockdown rules aimed at stopping disease transmission. His administration has undermined, suppressed and censored government scientists working to study the virus and reduce its harm.

When Trump became ill with Covid-19 he had no problems with injecting himself with the most up to date cures known to man. He went on to inject himself with using cells derived from an abortion. There are many in the states that think he is some kind of saviour of the Christian right and king of conception laws, upholder of anti-abortion rights. Stopping people having medical care (of any type come life saving treatment for babies or restrictions on abortion rights for pregnant women).  All of his medical policies are not in any way enacting some kind of greater wisdom or strongly held principled view they are purely cost cutting exercises lapped up by republicans as moral decisions.

Song – Who would Jesus Bomb – By David Rovics

I really struggle to wonder what the right hand side of the American electorate really want out of a leader. Say for example all abortions were banned overnight or all immigrants no longer aloud to step one foot in your land. What would the medical, societal and legal consequences be. Would women be locked up for wanting abortions or would thousands of children be placed in orphanages or even sold to the highest bidder. What kind of future would these families or lack of family units have, how does that make it in any way morally the right thing to do?