The Last Days of Summer 6: Eclipse

 Do you remember the good old days? Of the Work Programme, the Big Society? When austerity was the new kid on the block? We all knew it was going to be bad, it was the Tories after all (no matter what the yellowbellies might say). But there was a grim novelty to it; people got stuck in before they were worn down. Lockdown was a bit like that.

Lockdown is now a distant memory. Summer dies today. Probably the result of Dominic Cummings driving somewhere. Or Piers Corbyn spouting anti science bullshit to the tune of £10,000. Now everything is as open as it's ever going to be in the brave new covid world. Schools are the final nail in that coffin, so to speak. The last piece of the capitalist puzzle. 

The new normal stares us in the face, but society is broken and divided. There is nothing on the menu that is restorative. Covid isn't going away anytime soon. Not, in fact, until a vaccine is secured. It will pop up here and there like a pantomime villain. The children, those of us untainted by the cynical manipulations of a world gone mad, will correctly identify its position. The actors, those paid to keep their eyes closed by vested interests either class or corporate based, will refuse to look behind and thus remain ignorant.

The rest of us will pick up the pieces. In the shattered glass of society, the aftermath of material upheaval, we will see ourselves reflected back many times over. What will we find? Will we see the truth, or will we continue to allow ourselves the luxury of denial. That this rotten system, it's part time players and cursed stages, are just a cruel facade. One in which we are made to play our part all the while nursing an obvious realisation that this is not how it should be.

How long before the mask slips - literally! Before people give up on the safety measures in place currently. How many more people will be persuaded by the nonsense of racists and fantasists. Moon denying reality deniers who peddle vile tropes in the name of glib unity. Various representatives of all manner of conspiracy theories, all coalescing into one dull lumpen bigotry. A blob, amorphous and hateful, blotting out truth. 

We can't be normal anymore. The truth is out there, it's just being eclipsed by the dark side of the loon

Weekender 24: This, The New Normal

 For several weeks now we've been around 1000-1500 new cases a day. More to the lower end of that range, I think. It seems stubborn, but I think this is the settled status from here on out. Of course that could easily change, which is why continued good practice is necessary: wearing masks, etc. Now what constitutes good practice may change as our understanding evolves, but I think this is the best general advice we're going to get. The next stop on the Corona Express is going to be vaccine-town, and that could well be a very long journey. We all hope otherwise.

So here we are. It's the end of Summer. The bank holiday weekend. I see people about. The local pubs are busy, the local sports teams likewise. People are congregating to the max, within, hopefully effective, parameters. This isn't going to change. If the genie has to go back into the bottle, and it may well prove necessary, it's going to prove exceptionally difficult to achieve. Though of course as the weather changes with the seasons there will be less outdoors activity (I assume).

Schools re open this week. That will be the last great opening. We all hope it proves successful because it is a vital service for many reasons. But again health must take priority. I think, on the whole, it is inevitable spikes will appear as a result. Some schools may have to shut down again. But I suspect that the case rate will remain as it is.

I see no evidence that is going to improve. It certainly could worsen. What intervention can take place, other than a lockdown (or a cure!) to do that. We are here now; the virus has not excused itself. It's in the house and, like a bad smell, it's going to persist, percolating. It wants to spread because that's what viruses do. Whether we let it is down to whether our government will ever stop being inspired by capitalist self interest. That isn't going to happen.

So there we are. With Christmas on the horizon (a very distant horizon to be sure :D) I don't see any reason to get hopeful for a seasonal respite. No doubt the government will, in the midst of (or possibly as a distraction from) Brexit, try to gee up the plebs. Boris will utter some trite three-word slogan "cure for Christmas" - which plenty will buy into. But it can't change things. Normally the city centre is rammed over the festive period: the presence of Christmas markets (often selling European imports, like continental foods) takes up available space and people are forced to squeeze around. Shops are, needless to say, super buys. 

That can't happen. Nothing is going to change to make that possible. The government are not going to miraculously wake up, nor can they undo the nothing they've done for six months. Nothing, except handing contracts to their mates in the private sector without oversight. window shopping corruption. Don't forget this is all being used to further the demise of the NHS as well. We'll be lucky to get out of this with the shirts on our backs.

Weekender 24: Who Weren't Those Masked Men?

 Currently there is a vast festival of the misguided, the ignorant, and the cynical, in Trafalgar Square. Led by antisemitic conspiracy peddler, David Icke, they are protesting the tyranny that has allegedly followed in the wake of what they call a 'plandemic'. Another of these stupid words these people think is subversive. In truth it's language as tedious as it is awkward; like when people used to call New Labour "ZaNu LieBore". Even the Ministry of Truth would wince at the contusion of language.

Of course these people have to believe that the tide of terrible events must be planned. It's a way to make senses of the misery and confusion of it all. What is lacking however is a proper class analysis instead. Of course none of this was planned. But to them, everything is. Surely at some point they are going to have to accept otherwise. How many more 'false flag' events will there be before the actual thing they fear these events precedes ever comes to pass? It's always the same baleful narrative: they are preparing us/culling us for something. It's going to mean this or that.

But yet they ignore the reality of disaster capitalism. While the cheerfully protest the outward appearance of control - having to wear a mask to contain your own effluent for example - they ignore the capitalist response. The 'new world order' doesn't actually need to do the things they believe they are speaking out over, but just do what they normally do - profit off of it all - because they will never see that. In fact I would wager these are the same people bemoaning BLM and calling any left wing analysis 'cultural Marxism'. This terrible juxtaposition is the anthem of our times. It's the same as when Britain's heroic statues (to racists and imperialists) were defended in the name of those who fought in the war by people tattooed with swastikas. 

The cognitive dissonance should be overwhelming but they don't recognise it. Or at least they just blame it on the same 'cultural Marxists'. We are in dangerous times. It's no coincidence then that actual fascists are at this demo, predictably, going unchallenged - predictably.

I mean, if David Icke is your weather vane for truth... because of course governments want to wipe out their populations with unstable (by their nature) diseases. What could possibly benefit the economy more? It doesn't make sense. It doesn't have to. It's like newspaper headlines: they are there to soften you  up, to make you angry about something. Not to have answers. To hold contradictory views, to feel the internal pressure of doublethink and then be told where to go and who to listen to for the answers. Hint: it's not 'Comrade Corbyn'. It might be his utterly clownish brother, Piers.

That said we must be careful. These will be working class people. Like Brexit this is an expression, a chance to be heard. Misguided in the worst possible way, certainly; and, like Brexit, there will be people with vested interests and power at work. Their influence does not align with that of the working class. It's more than just a few harmless cranks. Icke certainly isn't. He cultivates a message of love and unity among people, sticking it to 'the man'. But in truth, whether he knows it or not (and I genuinely don't know), he propagates antisemitic tropes as well as the comedy sci fi moon nonsense. These are all in roads for fascists, and fascists were present today.

Right now the working class is crying out for direction. I do not care for authoritarianism and would be Lenin's need to be careful. What needs to happen must come from the working class, it must be informed which is why a class analysis is required. But ignore that and seek to manipulate it at your peril. It will only further divide and already embittered and embattled class.

Last Days of Summer 5: Time Is Running Out

Time is running out for Boris Johnson.

Not that this really helps the rest of us who will have to live with the fallout of a year of disastrous Tory misrule, pandemic or not.

Tuesday and the schools re open. It is inevitable, by virtue of simple numbers, that some will have to close prematurely due to a Covid scare. However, if this venture fails it will mean the economy will suffer even more. The Tories will not be able to bully people, as they currently are, if they have to look after their kids. Not the party of 'family values' (what a larf). Everything hinges on this.

Which is why they have done fuck all about if and take no responsibility for every fuck up thus far. Gavin Williamson remains in post simply because he very obviously knows where the bodies are buried, hence the picture of him with the whip on his desk. Career before country, as ever.

Then, the main course: Brexit.

Angela Merkel is, if I'm not mistaken, the President of the EU currently. She's washing her hands of this farce, and who can blame her. Brexit appears to be off the discussion table which means a no deal is all but inevitable. Johnson and the ERG seem to think the EU will "back down" and give us whatever it is we want. But we don't know what we want. We've spent four years talking about getting great deals and so far have achieved nothing.

And yet people support their clowning around, all performed against a backdrop of racist misdirection. They are happy to use the lives of the most desperate people on the planet to maintain power. Never forget how shameless and grasping the Tories are. All they care about is power and that is what must be taken from them, like a child playing with a plug socket.

Although in the case of the Tories I'd encourage them to lick the fuck out of their fingers and dive right in.

Our government couldn't be any more ridiculous. We have an international trade secretary who, quite frankly, is one of the most stupid people I have ever seen. No one can surely be as ignorant as Liz Truss and yet, time after time, in the media, she manages to make a complete fool of herself. Is this really the standard the Tories want to set for themselves - for us? Do they even care? I doubt it. Anyone who did would never abase themselves so desperately. She keeps saying we're going to get a great deal while contorting herself to avoid accepting responsibility for terrible decisions (such as potentially hiring Tony Abbott to sell Britain to other capitalists the world over). Four years has gotten us no deals thus far, but that will of course all change in the next few months, somehow.

We have a racist home secretary who sees nothing wrong with killing people. A nasty thicko who willingly heads the most racist department in government, desperate to make it even worse. What does she get out of all this? Is it acceptance, as a person of colour herself? That can't insulate you when you're the home secretary.

I could go on.

Last Days of Summer 4: A Brief One

Not sure what to write today. I'm in danger of repeating myself. It's pissed down all day and not much has been produced. It's getting difficult to be productive; this period seems to stretch on forever now. Normal is out the window - at least the old normal. It's becoming increasingly clear that the new normal is a grey old period. 

We're also heading, in the long term, into Winter. This is always a difficult period, for which I like to psychically gird my loins, so to speak. Now those preparations are going to need greater preparation. For this reason I need to begin more of an effort to understand paganism, perhaps build some bridges and develop a practice for, essentially, coping.

Who knows what Autumn or Winter will be like. It could be grim, or it could be more of the same. One thing is for sure, it is a period of isolation and introspection: increased mental activity in terms of the potential for intense, perhaps negative, thoughts. Winter is like diving into dark waters. It is bracing and relentless, for the period. 

And I'm afraid that is all I have today

Last Days of Summer 3: Watching It All Disappear

 What are we to make of this messed up world? What do we think when people with power gaslight and betray us? Will things ever change?

In the fullness of time things must. Technology and science will force the issue, sooner or later. Whether it be better means of production or Star Trek replicators. A decade or a thousand years. Somehwere, in the infinite cosmos of space and time, some one is reading about this period. We are nothing if not a footnote in history and we will live on longer in memory than in fact.

It's just unfortunate that our world is governed by the capricious and the cruel. Shortsighted temporal figures beholden to minuscule ideologies. Imagine whining on twitter that you can't sing a song along with a TV broadcast, but ignoring the government's dreadful handling of a global crisis.

Surely somewhere there is some spark of revolution. Sooner or later something must give. A linchpin removed that will topple this house of cards. They cannot keep throwing money at the system, greasing it with ever increasing friction. Kicking the can down the road while lecturing us on personal responsibility. We must have austerity as a punishment for their ideological opponents, when all that achieves is further misery. We are in greater debt now than we were.

Simply put, we are governed by some of the most ignorant and wilfully stupid people I've ever encountered. All beholden to their destructive ideology. This country is preparing to commit suicide. Or perhaps that should be genocide since the decision is being taken without our consent. 

In a few months the reality of Brexit will betray the intentions of those who honestly, dismally, though they were sticking two fingers up to power. I fully support the intention, but Brexit was always a pro Tory position. Unfortunately the working class were screwed either way since Capital backs remain. The only option is to reject the entire shit show and refuse to participate. 

That would have been a sight. What would the Tories have made of that, given they have been so historically divided over it. We don't accept your rotten proposition and your deceit. We want money for the NHS to come from taxation, we won't be cowed by false promises that let your austerity and privatisation off the hook. 

But we were. Now we're fixing to pay a terrible price. We will accept whatever crappy deal the US offers. They have already announced they will fleece us. They are protectionist, we are desperate, myopic and corrupt. They are digging their own graves and I cannot wait.

Last Days of Summer 2: Antisocial Media Again

Social media is extremely useful for communicating these days. It is also unbearably toxic.

Once upon a time, I believe, people that had odious fringe (hopefully) views had to feel the heat of holding those views every time they expressed them. This isn't possible on social media. You can use anonymity (which I support simply because these same people will also resort to bullying and harassment, and that one should be in control of one's information and when it gets revealed) to broadcast anything. You can sit in the privacy of your own home, where you are always free to air the stupidest nastiest shit available. Suddenly the whole world is an audience inside your room. 

It also allows people to respond to the things 'famous' people say, be they politicians, media persons, journalists or whoever. What is frustrating here is that of course they aren't going to respond. This gives lie to the idea social media and the internet is the great leveller. It isn't. These people will always, by dint of who they are, attract more people to them, have their views heard and respected more, regardless of how stupid they are, and be amplified further by those they attract. You can try to correct them if they spout nonsense, but of course they won't listen. They probably won't even read your comment. You are nothing to them. For an example...the President of the USA!

It's amazing how these people will cry the most when they aren't taken seriously, but don't ever reciprocate. There is no honest respectful discourse, and they don't intend there to be, no matter how much they complain about 'the left' or 'cancel culture'. Honestly I'm sick of it.

I'm considering erasing my social media platform. I like the format of Twitter. I do not like reading hateful rubbish from people who can spew this stuff with utter impunity, and there is no shortage of these vile people. They now fill me with such anger I cannot respond meaningfully. I want to tear their heads off. The latest examples are the gammon crybabies whining, mewling like tortured cats, because the BBC might cancel their imperialist anthem from that reactionary festival known as the Proms. 

They are all pissing their pants and threatening to cancel (irony alert!) their license fees as a result. It's utter hyperbole. As if our society should never evolve, take in new information, reconsider its values. Nope, it must forever remain in some imperialist anachronistic box. Change is bad, and checking one's privilege is akin to Hitler forcing you to speak German. I can't cope with all this. Look at what is going on in the world. Look at how the pandemic has exposed the barbaric inequality and aggression of the capitalists everywhere. The ruling class in countries bombing and starving people, killing their own citizens. Another black man is murdered in the US, but the real crime is the woke luvvies at the 'loony lefty' BBC 'banning' God Save The Queen!

If one word can sum up this entire period then it's the word gaslighting, because that's how I feel these days. If it weren't one of my only outlets and places to communicate (ha!) then I'd delete Twitter and Facebook - and don't get me started on that shithole. It's appalling racist politics aside, the whole website is intrusive and confusing. I do not like sharing personal photos, what my cat ate for dinner, or who I'm sleeping with. It took me years to get on to the site because I've never liked it. Now it's the only way I can communicate with some people, which is pathetic. I hate it. 

Last Days of Summer 1: What I Forgot To Post Yesterday!

 I have decided to shack up with the Fedcap people. I may regret this decision - they  may regret this decision!

I'm still unconvinced and I'm still apprehensive as to the consequences in terms of being obligated once signed up. Fortunately I haven't yet signed anything.

That said, I had asked what support they provide for mental health. This was the reply

"Thanks for you email … we have a community Provision Coordinator who will sign post anyone that requests specialist help"

Unfortunate, that is not what the information pamphlet they sent earlier says:

"We have a team of employability and health experts who will work with you every step of your journey to make sure that you are getting the right level of support to help you overcome your personal and work-related barriers."

and:

"one to one support from qualified health professionals"

At best they will not be providing that one to one support. The people they sign post you to (if they exist) would have to do that. This is a problem because it could end up like my experience with the Work Programme wherein the ill informed and unhelpful adviser was under the impression - somehow - that people with mental health issues would be accompanied by support workers. Moreover, in liue of the presence of such it would be assumed there were no health issues, which is of course questionable logic. This is the kind of pernicious thinking that I'm concerned about. However I see little alternative. I will just have to be mindful and refuse to sign anything without satisfying my own insecurities first.

If that isn't satisfactory for them, too bad.

But I can't help feeling the way these organisations are set up, with this 'customer led' approach, is ultimately about avoiding responsibility and victim blaming. Sure they might, hopefully, be helpful. But since it's impossible to pin them down on what they actually can do, specifically, it leaves them free to avoid responsibility for not providing a service. Instead they can just point to the 'customer' being difficult. It isn't 'being difficult' when you are constrained by the system. The service itself is already limited by the needs and means of capitalism and the dictates of the ruling class (ie the DWP). It isn't free to operate independently. It doesn't list a menu of services. It's beholden to whomever funds it. All of these elements are problematic.

Weekender 23: Antisocial Media

I'm an anarchist in that I want society to be free from and have the ability to dismantle unjustified hierarchies.

I'm a socialist because I want working people to own and determine what happens to the fruits of their labour.

I'm spiritual because I believe there is a way for us to live that keeps us in tune with the world and its elements.

And I'm writing this because social media is a toxic shit show, full of bad faith actors, terrible allies, and people who refuse to see the mistakes in their thinking. I'm sure, within that, I must be included.

Seeing the left constantly argue and divide is proving incredibly disheartening. For some reason conspiracy theories are prevalent. Part of this I think is because the left is the underdog and people need a simple 'nwe world order' style narrative in order to understand complex and hostile power relations in the world. Unfortunately some of these are toxic, particularly in relation to Syria. It's easy to believe Assad is the good guy because America is the bad guy. That is bad logic. It is entirely possible that not only are the Americans bad guys, but so are Putin and Assad. Surely one's solidarity should go to the people who wanted rid of Assad back in the Arab Spring. What they got was a civil war and a maniac dropping gas on their heads.

No, that is something people don't want to accept. Unfortunately it is a rabbit hole I can no longer entertain. In these already difficult times I find I am blocking people more and more on social media. It is simply not worth entertaining them and their poisonous views. The nature of social media means these people are shielded fromt the consequences of their views in a way that, were they spoken in front of real people, they would certainly have to think twice. 

That's what social media does. It isolates and insulates. People can sit in their bedrooms free from direct consequence. Free from the heat that comes with expressing odious views in front of right thinking people. Our media has made that possible and I don't think it is a healthy way to live. In fact most of the problems that come from dangerous views (such as Pizzagate conspiracies and the like) leads back to Facebook. The motherlode of toxicity. 

And with the likes of Facebook there is a profit motive. These platforms are neither democratic nor neutral. They are capitalist propositions run by the rich and the very powerful and they act entirely subjectively, allowing toxic performers to remain popular while those with a more positive but less popular message are swallowed up and choked out. It's abhorrent. 

This is a venomous weed that we have let grow out of control. Social media should be in the hands of the people, which brings me back to anarchism. It should be run not for profit but for the public good, the spread of healthy interaction and positive/useful - accurate - information, which brings me back to socialism. It should also help us relate to the world we live in and not offer a den of knives and lies for people to escape to in lieu of our unpleasant reality, which brings me back to spirituality.

That is all I have to offer today.

Weekender 23: Autumn Comes Now

Everybody's gone surfin'

Nope. They all wanted to, but instead have decided to cut short their vacation to return to England en masse. We're not the smartest animals are we.

Was it wise to have a foreign holiday at this time? Understandable, obviously. For working class families they will want their money's worth, probably unable (i have no idea) to get a refund due to virus majeure. However, that aside, I'm not sure it was wise to allow foreign holidays. Inevitably they promote a mass gathering of people (for the most part). But again that also hurts the working class as that kind of experience is more likely the holiday they will go for, which is fine even if that sounds snobbish. (It probably is.)

However, and once again governmental stupidity rears its ugly head, we now have the covid equivalent of shouting FIRE! in the market square. By giving the impression, imagined or actual, that certain countries are going to be quarantined people are now massing to return in order to avoid the consequences. 

This is bad for one reason: if we assume that some of these people will now have the virus (hence the call for quarantine - otherwise it'd be safe, right?) then having them avoid quarantine increases the likelihood of spreading it. That is the point of quarantine. So now they all come back early unwittingly contributing to increased proliferation of the virus.

In reality the chances may well be quite low, but as with all things Tory and covid - we just don't know!

And finally....the season's are beginning to turn. The nights draw in more noticeably, the air is fresher. Summer isn't done yet. It is still warm and pleasant, but the bite of mystery can be felt. The kiss of Autumn. It is a time of year, between two stultifying seasons with all their charms (even Winter, sometimes), I like. 

Autumn always invokes the mystery in life. The silvering of the light inspires a melancholy but also an energy to go deeper. I enjoy that. I always seek to channel that energy, but never quite manage it. The purpose: to find a spirituality that works. I do not believe in gods and devils, but in mystery. The language of tradition and ritual that connects us to the core of life: the living world. That alone is mysterious and divine enough without having to believe in the language thereof. Gods and ghosts are a metaphor, but a bit of mysticism and superstition isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as it doesn't limit you and your interactions. That's the problem with organised belief.

As Autumn - this even stranger Corona Autumn - unfolds I shall seek to make that connection.

Week of Rain 5: Probably a Weekend of Rain Too

 Oh my, how corona has exposed the failings of capitalism. The most insidious of which is how it conditions people to believe there can be no alternative. Yet there must be. We are a week away from schools reopening and are we ready? Do schools have the necessary conditions and protective equipment? I think we all know the answer.

Corona has exposed the disgusting existence of sweatshops in places like Leicester. An open secret. 

Britain's demand for cheap fuel, according to the Guardian, could be fuelling the spread of the virus in factories and homes. Workers forced to share ratty conditions in return for crap wages. But if prices rise it just means people can't afford the food. They don't buy it because it's poor quality (or poorer). They buy it because it's what they can afford. 

The answer, then, isn't to raise the prices. Instead we must look at where and how food is sourced. Food! It grows on the land, we do not and should not want for it. We only do so because of the closing off of land by the rich ruling classes historically. These are the commons, they should be for everyone. We don't need an absentee class of landlords profiting simply from ownership of a deed. This is patently ridiculous, and yet it is absolutely the norm. Now we have people working that land for a wage that cannot, increasingly, afford the produce thereof.

Capitalism digs its own grave.

Dismally I see the left engaging in infighting again on Twitter. Owen Jones, who seems to attract more shit than surely is deserved, criticised Kerry Mendoza, editor/owner of the Canary 'news' site. I say 'news' because unfortunately it's the left equivalent of the Sun. It's just clickbait and it's very frustrating because they obviously mean well. Sadly she and her site are wholly ignorant of antisemitism and continually give a platform to those useful idios on the left, the cranks that perpetuate harmful stereotypes and tropes. 

Sadly she simply doesn't engage with valid criticism. So many on the left are like this; any attempt to correct them is met with abuse and victim hood. We're on the same side ffs. She had made a comment that Owen thought trivialised the holocaust. That's not to say she's a holocaust denier or even that she intends to behave that way, but sadly that's how her comments get read. The left needs to do better because we know the right is full of bad faith actors and horrific attack dogs. Racists and scumbags who will weaponize antisemitism against their enemies. It doesn't make things better when left wingers help that process!

The left in Britain is a joke. Where is the unity and intelligence to understand these issues?

Week of Rain 4: All My Alarm Bells

 I think the best thing to do is sign up with Fedcap, even though the conversation and the pamphlet the subsequently emailed me sets off my alarm bells. At the very least it looks like I'm engaging with the service, the DWP likes that, in lieu of being able to offer anything else.

What concerns me most are the claims that they help people with health issues (specifically mental health, which I assume this also includes even if it doesn't explicitly say so). However I was told that my caseworker would not be someone with any specialist training. At best they'd have a basic awareness. The sort that every employee gets everywhere (or should). Nominally, to cover liability. That's not the same as proper experience or expertise nor is it a substitute for offering a proper specialist service. That's the problem with these 'one size fits all' services. 

They say:

"We have a team of employability and health experts who will work with you every step of your journey to make sure that you are getting the right level of support to help you overcome your personal and work-related barriers." 

I don't know what that means. I asked about health expertise and didn't hear anything about a team of experts. I was told they would have to contact another agency. I'm sure they know plenty, but there aren't that many. I know because I've looked. 

Exactly what is a health expert going to do? Is this the DWP's current fad for reconditioning people? Nudging them into believing things they shouldn't or that they aren't ready for, just to get a result? Is that what they call 'confidence building'? Is it the mawful Mindfulness approach (victim blaming, in other worlds). Are these people proper NHS staff, objective and professional? Or are they occupational therapists like the useless DWP Work Psychology team who make promises they then have to roll back on? 

They also offer support to "overcome your disability better". Now perhaps I'm just pessimistic, but that just sounds ignorant to me. Perhaps they can, hopefully they do. But I can't help looking at that and thinking it's just simplistic and smacks of a 'get over it' attitude. Magic thinking. Bootstrap mentality. Just change your attitude sonny. This is wholly ignorant.

So many questions. I don't feel good about jumping in and finding out, when perhaps it's too late, that's in fact the case. These people are certainly not going to provide a diagnostic service, how can they? 

The other issue is that, by offering a customer led service knowing what they can or do offer is very difficult. It may be that they are flexible and in depth and have a variety of services and opportunities for the diversity of people they deal with. Or it may amount to just having some computers, a printer, and some stamps to save you printing out CV's and application letters. That's not quite the same is it.

From what I can gather, Fedcap are am American charity with a fairly long history. They have come here replacing the infamous Working Links. I'm sure they are no worse, perhaps no better. I don't know what their corporate ethos is as an American company but given how much of a rampant profit hungry corporate shell the US is I'm not confident

Week of Rain 3: Another Back To Work Initiative

 Another day, another appointment, another back to work initiative. 

I'll sum it up right away: these organisations lack a class analysis. The response will be that these organisations are not built to topple governments. Moreover they aren't political. Obviously the former is true, but the latter? Notsomuch. 

The organisation this time is called Fedcap Employment. As you can see from their website it is typical of the kind. A lot of positive sounding spiel, but where is the substance? Unfortunately from my phone call this morning, I'm still unsure. It is, they claim, a customer (that word again) led service. This is either very positive or an excuse to mess people around offering nothing. Sadly my experience is that such organisations invariably become authoritarian the longer you remain with them without providing a result they can score. 

Maybe that's unfair in this case, maybe they are the exception, but I'm not encouraged. These organisations aren't really built to effect real change. They might help a school leaver get a job at a supermarket or an apprenticeship with a nail bar. But building lives and careers? 

That's not to criticise those people in supermarkets and nail bars, and it's sad to have to point that it. A sad indictment of capitalism that it's necessary to do so. I however don't want to work for ASDA nor a nail bar. You do you, as they say. I make no apology for it.

Because of the "customer led" nature of their service it becomes impossible to get any answers about how this would work. I had concerns that, if things didn't work out, I could walk away without consequence - specifically without getting into trouble with the DWP. This seemed to be a confusing question, which itself is a problem. I'm still not entirely clear what happens if I decide I don't want to continue after six months and I'm damn sure I'm not interested in going through the crap I had with Team North Somerset last time. 

In the end it's just a sales pitch. The person I spoke to was very nice. The person she said would be my "key worker" is likewise I'm sure very nice. But that doesn't really mean anything. I asked if he had any experience dealing with mental health. Beyond some perfunctory training, no. Hmnn, that is an issue. Or at least it could be. This appears not to be a specialist organisation. I don't know what he'll expect of me and my concern is that, sooner or later, within the fifteen months the scheme runs, they will want results. All these organisations do. At that point they pull the rug from beneath you and things start shifting against you, gaslighting you. I cannot go through that crap again. It's incredibly damaging.

I said I would like to think it over, and I asked if there was some more in depth information she could send me. In fairness she agreed, hopefully without thinking "yeah, that guy's a flake". Of course if that is what she thinks, that sort of proves the point.

To return to my initial summation, a class based approach is vital because only that can deal with the systemic nature of the problems people face with unemployment and society. Anything else is just a sticking plaster at best. Gaslighting and victim blaming at worst. But unfortunately the nature of these organisations and their place in society precludes the former and incentives the latter because they are not set up to effect real change, and that begins with a class analysis. Their very existence, as individual atomised institutions almost guarantees they will end up gaslighting and victim blaming, and that's the problem. How could this change? Well with that analysis you would recognise the nature of the system and, hopefully, be motivated to produce that real change. Do this by linking up with the broader labour movement and cause for class struggle. Build links with peers, collective, unionise, build a power structure to challenge the hegemony. 

Until then it's just some well meaning (and, let's be frank, not so well meaning) people that think they know best.

Week of Rain 2: Normality

 Every day seems to invite more normality. This in turn rubs up against precaution. I see plenty of traffic, people going about their business, travelling to and from work as they would normally. At the same time I'm wearing a mask because I'm heading to Tesco. I don't know how you square this. The virus isn't going anywhere, but it stubbornly seems to be refusing to proliferate further. Of course it could, hence the precaution. This reality invites cognitive dissonance. It is unsettling. 

I'm still uncool with riding a bus. Judging by the vacant seats on those that I see so are most everyone else. Not a scientific appraisal to be sure, but I'm certain buses used to be way more busy. So much so that I started carrying sanitiser int he winter because of the bugs I picked up from public transport (I assume). How will things fare this winter when those same bugs coat the surfaces and seats as normal? Can the public transport system survive without customers? I am guessing they must be in receipt of state support. 

The local little league shouty football teams have returned. Following on from the cricket. I don't really see much social distancing, but then it's probably safe, we just don't actually know for certain. Again precautions. 

I suspect by Christmas masks will be forgotten. How that bodes for Christmas shopping I do not know. The demand for seasonal 'normality' will be intense, certainly given how the high street is currently bleeding. The government will certainly want to give in to pressure and open more stuff up. 

A most unsettling period is on the horizon, at least potentially. Unfortunately it will be helmed by idiots. We can see the next phase of the planned destruction fo the NHS with the dismantling of PHE and the new project set up to replace it. My MP is the husband of the clown running it. A man who cares so much about the NHS that he's overseen the closure of his local AnE department at nights and done nothing about it. The cutting of pastoral mental health support services and done nothing about it, as well as drug addiction services. All of these have had predictable outcomes, but that doesn't matter to people like this. Their goal is simply to put public money into private hands. The revelation that he contributes to a crappy neoliberal 'think tank' is no surprise. 

His wife is Dido Harding. She's a baroness because of course she is. Responsible for the disastrous but arrogant decision to keep the Cheltenham Festival going at the rise of this crisis. Once ran Talk Talk and oversaw a massive breach of security, though according to Matt Hancock this is success. She's also been running the track and trace system which hasn't been particularly well received. No one else was interviewed. 

Yes, I can smell it too.

Week of Rain 1: After the Storm

Some good news today, oddly in the form of an unexpected brown letter. Yes, that, kind of letter. It appears my claim has been reassessed, and, in the wake of Covid, they have simply allowed my claim for ESA to continue for, I presume, another year.  That's still a big assumption, but I imagine they will cleave to their procedures where possible and, given they obviously can't (or won't) assess people in person, they aren't going to reassess my case more than they need to. I can only hope others enjoy the same good fortune. It's a strange world to wish such things, but these are strange times

I can't help wondering: would I prefer circumstances to be normal knowing that would have entailed another face to face visit. I don't really have an answer for myself. I would definitely welcome normality, though that is clearly a forlorn hope, but I can't say I'd relish another face to face. They are not a fun time. That is my evasive answer. It's not an answer. 

I see the government has u turned on the exam fiasco, hoping - probably successfully unfortunately - to rehabilitate itself. No doubt the media will expedite this process and another scandal will be dead and buried. How these scumbags get away with this is some drk alchemy. Of course this is good for the kids whose future they've ruined, but that comes down to whether this can be dealt with in time and whether universities will allow them to pick up where they left off.

My MP is John Penrose who, it appears, is willing to write and contribute to an "independent think tank" called 1828. They advocate against the NHS. In Weston super Mare, his constituency, the AnE department had to shut. I have written explicitly asking his position on the NHS. I've no doubt his reply will be the usual evasive non answer that will attempt to divert scrutiny to either what Labour did or what Corbyn would have done. Behold Corbyn's power that even in electoral death he controls the discourse. 

His wife is a Tory peer, you've heard her name, it's Dido Harding. A walking catalogue of failures: once master of internet shysters Talk Talk overseeing a data breach. She's head of the Jockey Club who managed to get the Cheltenham festival to go ahead as the virus was breaking. Now she's head of the body the government has decided should replace Public Health England for the next equally useless phase of the Track and Trace debacle. How anyone can be so in clover despite being utterly useless would ordinarily be confounding, but this is the Cummings' Conservative party here. She wasn't picked for her talents, of that you can be sure. 

And she'll be raking in the readies as a result. The whole thing stinks rotten. But then it was always going to. This will never change.

Weekender 22: Tension and Release

 I'm tired now. All the days of excess heat have now passed into rain and murk. It has pleasantly cooled down, but with that has come an almost violent suction of energy from my core. It has left me feeling somewhat drained. We had some thunder, then a bit more. But the skies are never satisfied it seems.

The exam crisis shows no signs of abating. I'm not entirely sure what the government intends to do about this. They have said they will pay for appeals, but I'm sure that will be betrayed in fine print. What are kids supposed to do now though? Those that get an appeal, and a successful one at that, will be the lucky ones. Even if they appeal, will it be resolved in time? If not what happens to these people? Hereditary peer and privileged Tory scumbag Lord Bethel just thinks they should 'hustle'. How: there is a looming labour market and social crisis because of the other disaster his government has largely created (by not responding to nor preparing for a pandemic). This is the worst time to have your education stolen from you.

Maybe it's the photo in the Guardian that doesn't do him justice, but in an article featuring comment from the interim president of the National Black Police Association, Mr Andrew George doesn't appear to be a person of colour. Perhaps I'm horribly wrong. I guess it could be argued that the skin colour of the person in that position doesn't matter, but isn't that essentially the same as the 'All Lives Matter' argument; one that, aside from being a stalking horse for racism, ignores colour rather than promotes equality. Surely they could find an actual person of colour to serve?

I think we'll leave that one there. Like I said, I'm tired.

This release of energy is commensurate with the seasonal shift; the movement from the stifling heat of summer into Autumn. There is mystery in Autumn, at least nominally - romantically. Whether this amounts to anything I don't know. Spirituality, to my mind, is simply about one's relationship with the living world. It's ebb and flow, including the movement of seasons. Summer, like Winter, becomes static, draining, tiring. When it shifts that's when there is movement, energy. Tension and release.

Speaking of which my MP is a twat who wants rid of the NHS. 

So let's put his fucking wife in charge of the track and trace system. Well done Tories. Again.

Weekender 22: Thunder Redux

Britain's school leavers have learned a valuable lesson this week, one that, sadly, will be the most important they will ever learn. Sadder still that it cannot be learned without hardship and heartache.

This, it seems, is the way of our world.

They have learned that you cannot trust the Tories and that you cannot rely on a capitalist model of education. 

When I were a lad teachers used the 'threat' of low wage/low quality (as they saw it) work as the lazy students reward. Every student was given the same Barnum statement; like an academic astrology forecast. As with horoscopes, it was horseshit designed to obfuscate a grift: the lot of the working class in this case. That statement: "does well, could try harder". If only he/she would apply themselves, they could achieve.

The reward for hard work, it seems, in modern Britain, as exposed by the virus, is still failure. Not only that but, in their misguided and demeaning wisdom, Tory grandees will tell you that you don't need an education. You just need, in the learned words of hereditary peer Lord Bethel, to hustle. 

Why do we even have an education system then?  So the working class can be properly ordered. You don't learn in schools. You are taught. Learning is a joy, a muscle to develop through boundless naturally swelling curiosity. It is passion. Schools are, by definition, prisons for the imagination, defined solely by their boundaries. That's not to say teachers neither work nor try hard. Of course they do, but they are just as constrained by a system beyond their design. I'm sure many would seek to change it, and would be among those best equipped to improve it.

Those people are also regularly denigrated. Gove called them 'the Blob'. An amorphous group of obstructionists. No wonder teaches are often regarded as lefties and Marxists (without ever explaining why such positions are problematic). I've no idea how many are, neither does Gove nor his chums in the despicable media that amplifies this class hatred. 

But this is the year of revelations, Many truths are being revealed and facades of institutional dysfunction are being dismantled and exposed. This current exam crisis is among the most pungent of all the government's - the Tories' - ideological odours. One guaranteed to stink the house out.

Some things just cannot be taught in classrooms. They leave a scar but without them you cannot grow. I am sorry that Britain's kids have had to learn this way, but I'm not sorry that the are learning it.  We can only hope they do not forgive and do not forget. 

Week of Thunder 5: Many Fronts

 Caught a strange feeling, on the way home from the local garden centre, before it rained. It has a pretty decent food shop and it's been worth using for the reduced price veg I can sometimes ofrage, near the end of its shelf life. The centre was, as it normally is, fairly busy (and almost every visitor wore a mask). It struck me that, I was, for the first time in months, in a busy shop. It felt normal.

The weather has taken a welcome breather; cool breeze and a cessation of temperature related hostilities. I felt relaxed. Autumn is on the way, a time of year I like. There is a release of energy, commensurate with what I just described. Spring and Autumn are like that, periods of change where energy shifts. One moves from the stifling heat of summer or the hibernating cold of winter. These changes are most welcome, and, because of that busy garden centre, it felt as it should.

Then it rained.

I hope that sense of fleeting normality can be reinforced in the months ahead, before winter takes hold. But there are still many challenges. Corona of course; it hasn't gone away. In fact, although some arge cogently otherwise, the rate of infection is problematic. It appears to be rising, but that could be because we have improved our testing. More restrictions are set to ease in the coming days I believe, including, at the start of next month, the new school year. We have no real idea how this is going to play out and I have, as ever, no faith in this incompetent sneering shower posing as a government.

The schools fiasco is just another in a long, dreary, line of incompetence. Not only are these Tories typically Tory - red in bank balance and claw - but they are also thick as the mince I eat for dinner. Gavin Williamson, a jumped up little salesman, commented with nary a shred of self awareness that the government didn't want kids getting above their station, to justify his complete bungling of the exams crisis. Bungling int he sense that it has inadvertently revealed the stark and belligerent class divide so prevalent in Britain. Just one more thing set to amplify with Brexit. 

It also appears that this move by the government is illegal and that, hopefully, they will have to rectify it. Automated processes apparently cannot decide people's lives this way. It's actually illegal. Of course when has the law ever stood in the way of Tory power. They are as likely to repeal or alter that law as they are to obey it and give the kids a fair shake. I don't know how that can be done bt we cannot have so transparently biased a system. 

This has been a week of thunder in more ways than one, but any fool could have predicted it wouldn't have just been a storm of climate. At the very least it demonstrates that, waiting for us all post Covid, the environment crisis remains. Ignorance will not make it go away and with temperatures as we have seen - possibly increasing further as the problem becomes more acute - everything the Tories crow about now will also exacerbate. Including migration, as people are driven out of increasingly inhospitable and desolate regions. Hoping to find new bread baskets. Is this really a time to "strike out" alone in the world? Will the EU care if migrants all make their way to Britain when we're no loner the EU's problem?

Ours is a lonely path, lead by donkeys and not tigers.

Week of Thunder 4: This Year's Stolen Future

With one bold move, lightning strikes.

The lives of kids are now smashed. One number becomes another and dreams are denied effort. The fruit of hard work is not rewarded, despite the claims to meritocracy, but instead cruelly stolen.

This is what Tories do.

For years they, ably assisted by the venomous right wing media, have been lying to people. Exams are getting easier. Kids have it easy: this is a perennial claim. The truth is that they have taken people's chances and rights away from them. Kids have it easy say the baby boomers who benefited from free education and life chances. In return they kick the ladder from beneath them. 

Now, of course in 2020 the year of fire, this has sprouted a grim harvest. Kids up and down the land now find, with no apology or, at the time of writing, hope of change, their work means nothing. This is the epitome of Tory cruelty. I sincerely hope this will not be forgotten. In fact I won't be surprised if there's a rise in (justifiable) antisocial behaviour because of this. A year of stolen dreams, oppressive incompetence, and now the absolute theft of hard work. A trait befitting capitalism (though this isn't a class reductionist analysis).

This will throw into stark relief the divisions in society. BAME kids, those already disadvantaged, will be even more kept back. Meanwhile the little darlings' of the toxic elite will know no such hardship. They, by virtue of their schooling, are already on the social fast track. Tomorrow's elites, making similar decisions.

The cliff edge looms ever closer, crumbling even more in the shock and awe of very real collapse. This world is now unrecognisable to the one that existed even a year ago. We are now nurturing a stolen generation, perhaps more. Who knows what next year's situation will be? Meanwhile, according to OfQual, the grades for public school kids (from a smaller cohort) didn't suffer in the same way.

The Tories have cemented themselves as the cruellest party in British history; this government in particular. What a spectacular and cruel thing to have done, and they cover it with naked class aggression. Not for you plebs, or the children of plebs, is a good life. Even working hard is now divorced from the reward that kept you motivated. The only thing capitalism has to offer, and it was always

a lie.

Week of Thunder 3: Stormed Out

 Yesterday was so hot I felt like I was losing my mind. Today is set to be even hotter. The weather still hasn't broken yet, but signs are positive (or negatively charged) for storms later. Mind you, they've been saying that since the weekend. Everywhere else has had storms, but of course the flaming eye of Sauron remains fixed overhead. A colossal lozenge of spiteful heat. Nature wants to actually kill me, I think.

While the temperatures reverse plummet, the economy actual plummets. Recession is back! What was that again: Labour wrecked the economy? Oh now it's the Chinese virus from China, the Chinese! Oh wait, that's Trump's excuse. What's ours? Immigrants? The poor bastards sailing over here at the whim of tide and wind, ogled at by gawping representatives of the chattering classes? Yes it must be; if we didn't have to save them we'd be millionaires I tell thee!

Well that was an interesting interlude where I spent most of the day exposed to temperatures we don't yet have numbers for precluding actually writing anything. I had to power down because my compueter was too hot to touch. Then a storm broke. It's still rumbling. Major electrical storm I think, more than smashy smashy in the clouds, though it was rumbling like my belly before breakfast.

Consequently, it's nearly 10pm. I'm dripping in sweat. Capitalism still sucks. We're in the deepest recession out of the major economies, and in our own memory. Our death toll is the highest in Eurpope. Nobody can say Boris doesn't aim big. Tell me again how wonderful our system is? Surely now is the time to ask a question:

"Can we not do better?"

Oh look, a dingy!

Week Of Thunder 2: Tuesday Called, Heatwave's Back

 Here is a disgusting Tory. Being disgusting. It's still too fucking hot.

This is Sally Ann Hart who earned infamy, and - inexplicably - a seat, during the election. People voted for her. They actually thought it ok. On top of that she demonstrates the paucity of decency among the ruling class. To then argue, fatuously and emotively of course, that Britain is a tolerant place (an appeal to emotion, not evidence, and a thought terminating cliche), is nonsense. If we cannot find people that ,at the very least, need media training to not be racist (which sounds to me more like training in how to avoid being caught out), then surely that proves the point? 

That is what we mean when we say Britain is racist/xenophobic/intolerant. We are speaking to the qualities of its leaders, captains of industry, politicians, ruling class etc.

Some quotes:

"These border crossing are illegal. It's illegal to facilitate..."

I don't think she was deliberately trying to conflate things, because I don't think she's that smart. However those are two separate propositions. One is illegal: people smuggling. The other is just people trying to reach somewhere, for various reasons (they might speak English, as opposed to any other EU language), to legally make a claim. To conflate them, which is her argument throughout, is disingenuous. What she's doing is trying to get people to think criminality is the underlying factor, which conveniently abrogates the government's responsibility as decent human souls, which is the crux of this. Decent human society helps each other out. We do not have that, as one look at twitter will demonstrate.

Her response is full of emotive "feels" based content. No arguments, nor evidence. Suddenly, and thanks largely to a sustained media effort, the British are existentially terrified that migrants, the least among us, are going to swamp Britain and do unspeakable things to our people. It's plain and simple racism: fear of the other. Of the swarthy foreigner and his debacuhed ways. It trades on a kind of chauvinism; a misogyny that implies women are vulnerable and waiting to be despoiled by Syrians and Africans. 

These are people doing what any of us would do if our homes were bombed. Who wouldn't seek refuge? Oh but why do they have to come to Britain? Some do, some don't. So what? It should be a privilege to take care of these people; to show them what it means to be kind and decent. To plant that seed of goodness and humanity in them that it may flower. That seed is in short supply these days. The milk of human kindness, as it were, has soured, curdled into nastiness. Drank bitterly.

Maybe they come here because they've (mis)heard Britain is an enlightened state. Mauybe they speak English, or have relatives. Maybe they, foolishly, believe our welfare state is benign. The right will say that it's a soft touch. This is clearly false. It's not kind to our own, refugees are entitled to nothing but a twilight zone of misery. They don't get to work, get very little money, and have to rely on charity. Something they are then attacked for, as happened recently with, again, Farage bullying a charity that helped a few. Fortunately Liverpudlians were on hand to tell him to fuck off,  but that hasn't stopped him framing it as an attack on his liberty. Liverpool hasn't banned him, nor could it.

What is bitterly ironic though is the likes of Ms Hart constantly appealing to the people traffic argument; something of a straw man, actually. She correctly identifies that there is a "market" for their miserable trade. Of course there is: it's capitalism in action. Clearly she would find that horrifying, but for the wrong reasons. It should be horrifying because it's exactly the misery capitalism creates: people exploiting others for profit. In the worst way and at their weakest ebb. How can these Conservatives be so naive or so blind? This is exactly what is supposed to happen: if you are an ardent free market capitalist then you should be applauding these enterprising people for their entrepreneurial gumption. She won't of course because, fortunately, morality wins out. Just not enough to wake her from the capitalist conservative coma.

One day eh!

Thunder Week 1: Day 1, No Thunder

 They predicted thunder and lightning, so far that hasn't happened. It's just hot and sweaty. Every year just feels warmer now, though I couldn't possibly register that with any accuracy. Are we slowly moving closer to the sun? Feels like it...

Perhaps the heat is just another day in corrupt covid Britain. Business as usual should be unusual, but that tragedy is that it isn't. Injustice is the soup of the day, served up with a helping of indifference. Our government are mean and stupid. Small people, chosen by a small man. A creepy little weirdo that thinks he thinks big. Like his bank balance. Who put him there?

Somehow he got there. Now he's the motivator for the death of our economy. He won't pay the price, he, like the rest of them, will be well insulated. When it all finally kicks off, and it will, he'll bne well out of it. like the rest of them. They'll find a nice tax haven and speculate financially on the outcome of us fighting over the scraps of food in our zombie economy. 

What passes for life these days is a struggle against the industrial scale media gaslighting we have to endure. It's a shadow of a life: unreal. A shadowplay. They keep us in the cave, away from the streets they have infected with the virus of their incompetence. Next up on the menu, the nation's children. 

There appears to be no end in sight. We are going to have to adjust, and therein lies the problem. If we adjust then where is the anger for change? The streets should be on fire. But they aren't because we are hopeless divided. The only thing that can heal the wound is it getting worse, as Brexit surely will.

Or maybe they'll make an eleventh hour deal. Squalid and secret. The details will peter out like a leaky shoe. Just as squelchy. It will be a mediocre deal and thus not one the media will throw a spotlight on. But it will succeed in leaving us somewhat less worse off than no deal; the motherlode of stupidity.

This, then is the best we can hope for, that our leaders will crash the car slightly more safely. Either way the car's a wreck. One thing's for sure, it won't be professional pub bore and tedious xenophobe, Nigel Farage, at the wheel. He'll be safe from his position as outlier. But because he's invited to comment by our biased scandalous media he gets to agitate with no responsibility. He's a ghost; a spectre created by the media and it's bigotry to haunt our collective psyche. He will never go away until there is a fundamental change. 

Let's hope that's soon.

Weekender 21: Britain is a shithole

 Year on year it's getting hotter. This year, aside from the fever, the world burns again. Hottest days coming thick and fast. Egregious weather everywhere. If you think that's going to prompt our useless leaders into action, you'd be mistaken.

They

Don't

Care.

And the media supports all of it.

There's a discussion to be had. No there isn't. That's a canard set by right wing thought leaders that want their disgraced discredit and disreputable ideas to bleed through into the public consciousness. They want a seat at the table, just so they can appear legitimate. What's the discussion? Well, at the minute, it's the deployment of the navy against a dingy full of desperate refugees. Is this what we've become? We demand France takes care of the problem after walking away from the EU structure that would have helped share the burden (so to speak).

That's not to say the EU is great on refugees with its fortress Europa mentality, btw. But for the British government to claim it's handling the situation, leaving makes no sense.

Of course nothing will be done. It's just a distraction; sabre rattling to impress the press. Make the knuckledraggers and the curtain twitchers feel good about their bigotry.

What a shitty little island we are. All set to sail alone in the world, desperate for deals with dictators. Selling arms to bomb those who then seek refuge in places like ours. Only to be treated callously. Does a dingy full of brown folk really constitute an existential threat? How fragile!

And politicians are on holiday. Really. You don't think maybe of all times that maybe  you ought to remain? Not a good look is it.

Meanwhile the clown car drives headlong to the cliff, the white cliffs of Itsallover, ready to fling our econmy over the edge and into the sea like a falling star. Goodbye to our futures.

Weekender 21: Baccarat!

Or whatever that game is Bond plays when he gambles with taxpayers money against the representatives and underlings of world villains in order to gain access. 

Or is that our government?

And so immigrants are the talk of the tabloids. The perennial media scare story; the bogeyman that will never go away. It won't. Not while capitalism exists. The problem, as it were, is existential. It us used by the media to condition people into accepting a certain set of circumstances. A nationalistic, fearful mindset. Fear of the other. Work ye hard Britons for the yellow peril/the vandals/the darkies, etc, are coming to take that which you've striven for.

Meanwhile we'l be the ones actually taking what you've earned, because that's how we make our profits. 

Is anyone else tired of this crap? Even if you thought immigration was a problem, in some form, you must consider that it is a political football. The Tories have no intention of solving it, they haven't done so in ten long painful years. Now, the tides have come in again, and the latest home office fuhrer is nailing her colours to the mast. Send in the Navy! Torpedo a dingy full of desperate refugees. Is that really the solution?

What even is the problem? Fear of the other? Some people with funny ways and strange accents are moving next door. They are different. Except they aren't; they have the same basic values and just want to live a free life. Don't you? 

With nothing in power changing and nothing being done to affect the situation nothing will change. Thus, it's a political football. It is never taken seriously. If it were we'd address, as best we can, the root of the problem. We might, I hope, stop funding the wars and arming the tyrants that cause these people to be dispossessed. We might invest in building communities. 

These are things that are incompatible with capitalism. Therefore immigration will never be 'solved' as long as capitalism exists. People will be forced out of their homes and countries - wouldn't you want to flee a warzone? Obviously yes. So why should you enjoy that privilege and no one else?

Or have we become so callous we can no longer care about people artificially separated from us despite a common humanity. The difference is just a line on a map. It means nothing. It's artificial and arbitrary.

Eat In, Tories Out 5: It's Too Damn Hot!

 Heat like a weight on my chest. As if gravity had been turned up a notch. Can't do owt about it, celestial mechanics are not my thing. Carbon in the atmosphere energising weather's anger. When it gets it now, it gets hotter. When it gets wet, it gets wetter. When the storms come...

And again they all pile on to the beaches. The least surprising outcome ever. Did they shut the beaches in anticipation? Did they heck! 

I don't know if any of these people have the Covids. Maybe - hopefully - none of them do, nor will they. But we can't know that. Transmission outdoors is much less of a risk, but you just don't know. That's the reason for the social distancing policies, consequently they have to apply equally to everyone, or not at all.

Not at all it is then. Every single one of these people, thanks to Dominic Cummings, has a credible excuse. There is nothing the government can legitimately do as a result. Sure they have the power. That's all the state has; power without legitimate authority - and legitimate authority is not a product of power.

Same with all the tradesmen types I see wandering in to the local bakery to get their pasties and sarnies. None of them wear masks. Ever. The shop doesn't challenge them. I wish it would, but can't really blame them for not. Not wishing to stereotype people, but I calls it as I sees it. It''s not the mother with the pushchair, or the elderly couple, and it ain't me. 

It's also not much to ask surely. A bit like, perhaps, fiding a different destination on a hot summer's afternoon than the beach EVERYONE is going to.

But oh well. Oh hell.

Eat In, Tories Out 4: Perambulate!

World beating. That's the name of the game. Our oaf in charge is simply saying things now. Just another vacuous statement. Get Brexit Done. Oven Ready. White Cliffs of Dover. Strawberries and Cream. It's just an appeal to some British nationalist construct. It has no intrinsic value. Just tell the plebs your system is "world beating". Clearly false. Again the gaslighting. Again the doublethink.

Actually I don't even think he cares. He just says this stuff like it was a bodily function. A thought fart. A reflex based on his self entitled aristocratic identity. The flexing of the ruling class' muscle. What they call a thought terminating cliche: a statement with no content that stops discussion. Intentional or otherwise.

They are not going to get a grip on this. They can't. They don't know how. All they know is capitalism: dodgy business as usual. We might as well put Delboy in charge, at least he was a working class lad, and we can get a cheap laugh from him falling through the bar.

I read today that Captain Colonel Major Tom, the old fella perambulating for the kind donations of the dewy eyed and the honourable but gullible, raised 30 odd million. I also read the government has pissed away three times that amount on contracts given to their mates. Crappy quality PPE produced by these companies. None of them have the capacity to meet the challenge the contract necessitates. It's just business as usual.

Money thrown down the drain. Raised by good hearted old veterans and wasted by a class of scoundrels happy to take that money in return for a clap. Let's all clap! That'll pay the wages of those facing this disease - you'd better join in! You'd better pay up. Poor old Major Colonel Captain Tom can enjoy an all too brief glimpse at the world of those in charge. A quick cuppa with the Queen, a pin on his chest, another war wound. Then it's back home and possibly into a care home. 

Keep clapping while he and others like him risk their lives in Corona infested care homes. Graves that await them while we forget them. But that's OK because we can salve our consciences and absolve ourselves of any responsibility to effect real change.

Just go for a walk around your garden.

Eat In, Tories Out 3: Are the Kids Alright?

Just went for a walk. Someone in the park, near by the swings, had dumped and proceeded to smash, the headstock of a bed frame. I have no idea why, nor why you would decide to bring such a thing to a park. I've no idea how long it's been there. Could have been dumped there today, or days earlier. I have no idea at all but I'm sensing it's the local youth.

I'm sensing a lot of misspent energy, or at least energy in need of direction, from the kids around here. I could be way off beam. When the days have been hot they have congregated at the local weir, jumping in the river off the bridge. Technically illegal, or so the signs say. I guess it's harmless enough and who can blame people for wanting a dip on a hot day during lockdown. Not sure how they'd feel about it if they learned what Lyme Disease was, but that's not my problem!

They don't seem to be cooling down though. I guess you're immortal when you're a kid. Immune to weather, foul water, and dangerous air. The younger kids, when they recovered their wits from the fear around them, probably thought this all a grand adventure. At least when they were allowed some contact with friends. I hope so, I've no wish to see them anxious. 

As I've said many times, something changed in the middle of summer. They broke the lockdown. It was organised at first; purposeful. Meaningful. That changed, I think we all know when and how. What we have at the moment is a backdrop of virus and a lot of confused people. Others are just tense, angry, even, at the mess. We all sense something isn't right (how could you not?) and we're having to deal with it independently. There is no guidance from government. How can rich millionaires, those who ignore their own rules, possibly understand? 

We have to get the schools open. That is a necessity. Not least of all because we don't want kids, especially those from the poorest communities, suffering. Unfortunately this reality is going to have to coexist with the equal reality that conditions in Britain, thanks to a mismanaged pandemic, may not allow this to happen. What a terrible choice we are left with: ruined education and tearaway kids, or virus percolating in schools and dead kids/teachers. Hopefully we won't end up like they have in Israel where, against a backdrop of flattened infection curve, they opened their schools and everything went to shit again. Perhaps there are specifics that explain why that happened to them, but given the lack of testing and tracing and the stubborn irresponsibility of government, I'm sure we'll do our best to emulate them.

Just a thought.

Eat In, Tories Out 2: Dilemma

Wednesdays used to be the night I visited with a couple of friends in a mutual domestic environment (IE a house). That is still against the rules as it comprises more than the 2 household limit. One friend invited a return to that normality. But i declined. Doing so has made me miserable. But I don't feel the time is right. However what is making me miserable is that I don't know when the time will be right. The virus is going to be in our society, somewhere lurking, for the foreseeable. I have to adapt, but that doesn't change the fact doing so is difficult and potentially hazardous.

It would be easy to throw caution to the poison winds, even against the rules. I don't want to be slavish about it, but rules are not intrinsically bad. In this case they are justified, coming from the scientific community. Not just the dreams of a ruling class oaf who wants us to doff our caps to our betters. However I live with a relative in the vulnerable category (though I suspect she won't mind). Our host has a wife that works in the care sector who also has health issues of her own. Again I assume she doesn't mind either otherwise the offer wouldn't have been made.

Everything now is suspect. Turning up in familiar surroundings has changed. The offer of a cup of tea is tense. I don't know when this ends and I am no more comfortable making that change now than I am sheltering indefinitely. There is no correct answer to this question, but for now I remain where I am. I just don't think the time is right. But I'm cautious that this, the late summer where things could turn, is as good as it gets. Who knows what will happen when the schools open or, heaven forbid, stadiums and arenas begin to fill. One thing though: I don't see pubs closing again.

This is a prison of my own making. No one can make this decision for me. I had thought about going into town. But that seems pointless. It isn't just my aforementioned trepidation, it's the nature of the shopping environment. No longer is it possible to just browse around town, mooching around, idling in the library, drinking in the ambience of the city centre. Consequently it's easier to order online, often it can be cheaper when you factor in bus costs. For that reason it's just not worth it. Even if I did, my journey would be perfunctory: get in, get out. More like a survival run in zombie apocalypse or a military exercise. Neither are appealing. 

This is the world that is. The anti lockdown contingent argue this is why we shouldn't lockdown and shouldn't have done so. But that is not the correct analysis. It is entirely possible for lockdown to be both debilitating and necessary - a bit like a vaccine. I agree, for example, schools must be open - especially to contain a growing tension in the youth enduring this crisis - but that fact doesn't make them safe.

This is the dilemma.

Eat In, Tories Out 1: Work Focused Interview

So I just had my latest Work Focused Interview (WFI). To be fair it was benign. It was the same guy I spoke to last time, the guy with PTSD (I infer) who served as a paramedic who has since, unfortunately, become institutionalised by the system he's delivering. I don't say that to be nasty; he means well. But that just makes his good-hearted ignorance of the system all the more dangerous.

That said, nothing coercive took place. Apparently they are contacting people just to make sure they are OK and that if they need help they can contact their local Jobcentre. As if! But that's the tragedy fo it all. I'm sure there are many good people or well meaning people at least within the system. However, it's the system that's the problem; it taints their efforts turning them into enemies not allies. They can't be trusted, and that's sad.

I asked him about the state of Work Capability Assessments. They are still going ahead, only not in person. The assessment centres are shut (apparently - though I'd put nothing past these people) so it's being conducted over the telephone. In some respects this is more beneficial: at least you are spared the trauma of visiting these places. However there are going to be many conditions for which distance will be an impediment. This foolishly assumes their goal is to conduct a proper assessment in the first place and we all know that doesn't happen.

I waited two years for my appointment. This is because, having presented with eye sight issues, I was told (upon sitting down in the centre with an assessor!) that a specific type of assessor had to see me. They didn't say what qualifications they required, other than "doctor". One assumes they meant a trained optician of some kind. For insurance reasons, presumably. 

How will that happen telephonically? How will I know that person is qualified? Of course how do I know the person that I finally saw were themselves appropriately qualified? I could have asked (I didn't, what was the point). At the very least I could have asked them who they were and have a face to go with the name. Over the phone I could be talking with the cleaner or the sandwich lady! You probably won't get very far querying it either. 

I guess we can only hope that, in this period, they are giving people the benefit of the doubt, but I'd say you'd have to be naive to really believe that. What else can we do though? Arguing the toss will just bring a halt to the interview, probably with a frazzled assessor, and the likelihood of your claim being closed with prejudice. But i have no idea how any kind of meaningful optical examination can be conducted over the phone; no one's eyesight is that good.

So here we are uncertainty reigns as usual. Today is the first day of the government's godawful "eat out to help out" scheme. This could only come from the mind of someone like Dominic Cummings. It's asinine and ignorant. It doesn't even cover a full meal either; half off up to a tenner. You're still paying something. But the idea is predicated on taking you out of your safe zone and into a social environment, with others. No matter how socially distant. That is antithetical to the curtailment of a virus, no matter how well intended (it isn't, it's just there to benefit Tory hospitality industry donors). Shovelling tax payer money into the pockets of people like Tim Martin. Don't mistake this for a boon. It's not. The whole thing is cynical. While it's unlikely you'll come away with corona you are more likely to do so than if you had eaten a meal at home. 

Finally the DWP secretary, Theresa Whoever (who is she?) has ruled out giving a commensurate increase to legacy benefit claimants after the DWP gave an extra few quid to Universal Credit claimants. There's no doubt that this was only given to assuage the deluge of new "customers" (hate.that.word) they knew would be claiming following the shutdown. So that at least tells me they know UC isn't fit for purpose. It's purely cynical. Like everything the Tories do.

Weekender The Big Two Zero 2!

The left in this country, perhaps in this day and age, has never been more weak and possibly divided.

That's not good.

We are living in times for which nobody prepared us. Capitalism has no answer to the global crises we face: plural. It's not just covid, though that is certainly the most prominent at present. FOr us in the UK, there is also Brexit. For the world, including Britain, post Brexit, there is the climate. The collapsing environment has not gone away, despite what the right would like to believe. This century is going to be a crucible for humanity. How much of that I will witness I do not know. I would dearly love to visit the world of a hundred years hence. But, in lieu of a TARDIS, isn't going to happen.

For now we are engaged in the biggest political struggle of generations. We are fighting over the scraps of a world collapsing before our eyes. Everything is aligned against us. It isn't just an ideologically driven hard right government that practices gaslighting and supports racism and fascism. It is the media that supports and cheers for it. A media that never existed when I was a child. Sure we had radio TV and newspapers, and even then they weren't our friends. Now we have social media, where people can spew hatred with impunity. It's much easier to spout off without evidence over social media than it would be in person. So that's what happens. There is, esseitnally, no shame.

Even the rise of independent media or citizen journalism, both great things, seem inadequate to the task at hand. Unfortuantely these often include sources that fall for all the problems the Left has. Just look at the antisemitism crisis that still cripples Labour. Though at this point I'm not sure they want to get rid of it and are content to use it to purge the left wing in the party. 

Despite the bad faith actors and despicable motives from those using antisemitism against the left, there are those who propagate the tropes and the conspiracies that enable these bad actors. This is self harm and it needs to stop. I understand why it exists: people recognise, in for example Palestinian struggle, a shared experience of victimhood under capitalist oppression. We want to be punching up. But unfortunately some, by doing so, are engaging in or repeating racist tropes. They may well not intend to or are themselves antisemitic.

Then there are the useful idiots that give the right all the ammunition they need. Those who tweet in support of racists and conspiracy cranks. Those that think Assad is a nice guy because of the presence of the imperial powers in the messy brutal Syrian civil war. USA bad (true) therefore Assad good. This is dangerous and deluded. If you think he's above dropping bombs on hospitals or gassing his own people then you are ignoring that quality of his rule that caused the uprising to begin with. Solidarity should be with the people, struggling under a dictator for self determination (as was the case with the Arab Spring). Of course the imperial powers would exploit that and we all kow why: oil. 

It's the same story with Russia. It is a country run by some of the most powerful corrupt and rich people, and they have bought London, and our government (so transparently), lock stock and barrelski. Why look for crazy conspiracies about Novichok when it was clear that Putin - a thrghouly awful human being - was behind it. Putin, like Assad, is a dictator. We knw they interfere in global politics. 

Why does the left need to hide beihnd these divisive conspiracies? It is self defeating. Given the scope of our media state and how harsh their spotlight can shine, it is foolish to present these ideas as credible and to stand by genuine antisemitism. That isn't to say the problem is not small, relative to the size of the membership, or that the party's own leadership, hating Corbyn, itself exploited the situation to make him look bad, or that the Tories/the right aren't themselves more racist and more antisemitic. The problem is the media is on their side and so won't shine that spotlight equally.

Labour is finished. It's a dead horse. I care not what Starmer does. The only future for the working class is with its own. We are many ye are few. 

Weekender the Big Two Zero!

I shoudl have baked a cake. 

Here we are almost 6 months on (that's 26 weeks). We all thought this would be over, sort of, by June. We were all prepared to do our bit, stay at home. But the Tories thought better and decided that as long as we did what they asked, they could do whatever they liked. Medical trips with infected family to castles; like a terrible zombie movie. Jockey club jaunts and gatherings; fiddling with Nome burns.

20 weeks in and my head is starting to float. Things are becoming surreal. The same old environment is both expansive, as my brain swims, and yet limiting. I haven't left this village in four months. At some point I'm going to meet Patrick McGoohan. It'll all make sense in the end, though probably not. At least I can fuck off to a public space and eat a free meal. What on earth kind of solution is that. Like offering a cigarette to the guy on death row.

In two days time it's my first Work Focused Interview Corona-style! Lucky me. I obsesses over these things. I was notified three weeks ago. You might think they could, in this difficult period, be a bit more forthcoming about the nature of this particular episode. Just to put my (and others) mind at rest. Of course not. That's not how this system operates: it relies on obfuscation and fear. That's how they can keep us in line. I have no idea what the adviser is going to want to discuss, more importantly I have no idea what can be discussed. What can they expect from me? Well that uncertainty is the question and the problem. By virtue of operating in this manner I rule out any possibility of them ever being truly helpful - compassionate and understanding (including in a trained capacity, not just in the vague sense of the word) - to the people they call.

Where will I be in another six months? These things are biannual. Presumably they, or whatever remains of the DWP after the Brexit food riots and the fallout from the Trump (he has renamed the USA and turned it into a giant golf course) - China Nuclear War. Will I receive the call direct to my Brainbug, beeping electronically inside my head. Will I be awakened by the chemical alert that that hour of foraging is at hand? Will my jailers grant me time to speak to the adviser? Perhaps. Maybe they will reconsider when the Leader remotely broadcasts at the Hour of Neo-Prayer. When his holographic avatar, replacing the disease ridden form now kept alive by Russian finance and chlorinated chicken, broadcasts the latest employment forecast. Applause is compulsory. Failure to comply docks you a weeks Wetherspoons privileges.

Maybe I dreamed that.

I don't sleep well at the moment. I wake up feeling pretty tired at some ludicrously early time. This can happen during summer. In winter it will shift and I'll wake up feeling pretty tired, only later. Dreams are more intense during this period. Like a fever of meaning desperate to be decoded thrown up by the subconscious trying to make sense of our stupid government's stupid handling of this stupid crisis. Contradictory guidelines all written to enable the country to get pissed - albeit responsibly enough that the government can blame you if you behave foolishly. According to rules they don't follow themselves.

You can see why my subconscious is having a hard time. Is yours?