The past couple of years in politics has been very interesting, Brexit, Trump, the rise of Alt-Left and Alt-Right; whatever they are.
It’s not only in the UK, it’s all over the world. Of course, there are lots of reason for it all, plenty of fingers being pointed, people taking to the streets and the voices getting louder and louder. Blame is passed from one to another and social media platforms are getting nastier and nastier. It does seem that we are living in troubled times, that people are not happy.
Reality is, the whole feeling of discombobulation is with many of us and is not going away; for me, I think it is a bit deeper than that. I think the whole system of economics, of Government and of capitalism is not working like it was expected to work.
Sure, Marx made the point that capitalism would end up eating itself or at least being replaced by socialism – something that has not really worked anywhere in the world.
As the inhabitants of planet earth, and looking back in time, you’ll soon notice that things are not what they seem, nor are they actually getting better.
Capitalism, the free market, consumerism, poor Government, abuse of the planet and of its people are a constant, just look around. Environmental disasters, political disasters, corporations tell Government how much tax they will pay – It is all a bit messy.
And then, if we look at the promises made by various elected parties over the years you would have heard some or all of the following.
Healthcare for all
Free education
Housing
A free press
Work
A legal framework that works for all
Policing
Local Government
Mental health
Social Security issues
Environmental issues
Just about all of these promises have been broken or torn up. But speak to those who lived through the fifties, sixties, seventies or whenever and you’ll note those same things continue to come up, continue to be conversations. Time and time again we hear the same points being raised. In 2018 as they were in 1959 or 1979 or 1989. Nothing it seems has changed, and the expectation is that nothing will change.
I don’t have any answers to these questions at the moment. But I know that many people are becoming restless and that the situation we are in at the moment can’t continue.
When you start to drill down on some of these issues; it all gets a little worse.
Student Loans – which pay for higher education have interest charged on them at around 12 times the current rate at which Government can borrow.
Interestingly enough, there are a good number of organisations making statements to suggest that the UK university network is taking on students that would not normally be bright enough to attend uni.
Housing – despite record levels of immigration we have seen the lowest level of house building since the 1930’s. The government has been fully aware that the population is growing, year on year the figures are produced by the Office of National Statistics yet no increase in housebuilding has yet been really started. It gets worse – Government then rolls out a taxpayer funded scheme that inflates house prices even more.
Despite record level of crime, local Police Authorities are still cutting staff. It’s possible to find more and more officers to monitor Twitter and Facebook content but street crime seems far too hard to deal with.
Given that it’s 2018 and just about all of the above issues have been important and in some way or another raised in every manifesto since the second world war and despite that the fact that we are a nation that is pretty wealthy in the scheme of things – none of this it seems can be sorted.
We are indeed a nation that has seen successive Governments come and go. Still, none of the issues that were deemed important enough to be put out as manifesto promises year on year have been dealt with.
The biggest issue of them all, the environment is still where we were in the 1980’s. Since then, we’ve seen insect and bird populations plummet and water companies drain our watercourses, despite having record rainfall.
We can’t keep chucking our crap into landfill, carving big chunks out of the environment and putting rubbish in our seas – without it coming back to bite us on the bum. A point in time that is rapidly approaching.
Sure I am saying that we all need to consume less, manage our money and our lives better. We also need to eat less meat – it’s so bad for the environment. Then work out how to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, look after our health and the health of those around us. Oh and exercise more, watch less TV and sort out the political situation here in the UK. Do these thing first and then encourage others around the world. Basically, give more care to the things will be important and less to those that won’t.
Until next time.
Richard
Links
Election Promises
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32350493
Karl Marx
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/21/creditcrunch-globaleconomy
House Building
https://fullfact.org/economy/house-building-england/
RSPB Bird Declines
Landfill Stats
https://friendsoftheearth.uk/natural-resources/all-you-need-know-about-waste-and-recycling