Fedcap Fails

Today was the day I had what I had assumed would be my latest Work Focused Interview. I don't think it was however. Instead, and to cut a long story short, Fedcap Employment, who had failed to respond to 4 messages, decided to contact the DWP over 'concerns' I had withdrawn from their scheme. I have already discussed that scheme, suffice to say that a combination of it being lacking, the advisers failing to connect, and the pandemic situation, wer ebehind my decision to quit.

This has annoyed me. Not least of all because, in my view, this is a breach of trust. I asked them, at least twice at the outset, whether or not, if I chose to quit, there would be consequences. I don't know what they told the DWP and the caller did 'assure' me that I wasn't in any trouble. But we all know how they operate. Anything that can look bad can be a problem. I was told that, having self referred, that it was my decision and there would be no consequences. However they since chose to ignore all communication and go to the DWP. If they were genuinely concerned (as opposed to concerns over their funding, which does come from the DWP) they should have replied to one of the four messages I set. I know they received at least one of them because it was to cancel what would have been my last appointment. Given that they didn't call me for that appointment they must have read the email. But they didn't respond.

This is frustrating. Trust is the most important aspect in all of this. If you don't feel that you can trust these organisations, when they are ostensibly there to help, then how can they help? We all know the DWP isn't even a neutral organisation. It doesn't have people's best interests at heart. While there may be many well intentioned staff, the overall timbre of the organisation is to ensure people get as little as possible. That's just how they operate. We all know this. Therefore anything that can mark your card is problematic. But wht does it say about a duty of care that one of their customer support partners ignores messages and goes behind the customer's back? That's obviously what happened. They made no effort to contact me, but, perhaps concerned abotu payments generated by my presence as a client, went to the DWP instead. As if the DWP is set up to properly help people in distress (if that was their concern). I don't buy it.

I remain happy to work with organisations like this going forward. Something I have always said and have always proven; after all it wasn't the DWP that referred me to Fedcap. I did that myself. However I will be guarded in the future. These organisations have to earn my trust. I do not provide that simply because they think they deserve it because of who they are and what they do. Too often that is abused. Especially when the climate for the unemployed is such that it won't be the claimant that's trusted, it will be the organisation. By quitting the course you are seen, in the context of this dreadful striver/skiver dichotomy, as being lazy. We all know the consequence once that's how they see you.

Of course the concern now is that, if that wasn't a proper Work Focused Interview, I could get a letter tomorrow telling me I've got another call. No thanks.

Cranks On Parade

 Some people argue that the anti science conspiracy crank marches are a voice for the poverty stricken working class. The same bullshit was said about Brexit. I don't believe it's true now anymore than it was then. The people marching yesterday were doing so against a backdrop of a worsening situation globally; tens of thousands dying in India while the ignorant have their day out. They insult masked shoppers on Oxford Street demanding of others what they refuse to tolerate themselves. It's pitiful.

While I don't want to engage in class division, I doubt many of these (I'm guessing, I wasn't there and don't intend to be) aren't the working poor. They are people travelling down to London, enjoying a nice meal outside a cafe in the sunshine, while going on to regurgitate their Facebook provided bigotry. Fash lurk in the background.

In conclusion I'm not going to support this kind of fucking arrant stupidity. These people are dangerous. That's all there is to it. Probably petit bourgeois at best. I'm sure there are many working poor/working class who do share in their ignorance. They need to be reached. But they can't be coddled.

It's pretty obvious that, behind the scenes, there are nefarious interests at work here. Aside from the usual post Pizzagate/Qanon crankery. How else do you explain how some b actor bozo running for London Mayor? Who is paying for his campaign and his double decker bus? What does he do to support his endless appearances at these nonsense events? Is he actually doing any acting work right now? It's not like he's dressed in rags bumming change in Covent Garden while ranting about the Great Reset.

Make no mistake these people are dangerous. That is the most important fact. I have every sympathy with confused working class people. God knows we're in a period of the most intense gaslighting, and tryin to make sense of it all is a Herculean effort. But that cannot be an excuse for this toxicity. When you have high profile political wannabes saying, and I fucking quote, "healthy people don't need vaccinations", you have a problem. The rest of the world is dying. We're in the eye of the storm (potentially - who knows what the next few months will bring). This isn't over until it's over everywhere.

Like Brexit we should have rejected this narrative. It's anti working class: it's divisive conspiracy rubbish peddled by bigots and cranks.

Bad Cop, Bad Cop

So while our government of spoilt truth twisting brats continues to behave as such, a victim of racist policing is sent down in the States.

I have no doubt Derek Chauvin is guilty. He publicly murdered a man by stepping on his neck for ten minutes. What I mean is that somewhere along the line it didn't occur to him that was a killing move. It didn't occur because at no point in his training or any aspect of the institution of policing in America (and beyond) was he told that doing such a thing could kill. Not only that but the institution bred out of him, as it does every cop, the possibility to question that tactic. So he did it because that's what cops do. It just also happens to be a racially motivated act. So yes, Derek Chauvin is a racially motivated murderer. The tragedy for him is that he doesn't understand this.

Therefore nothing will change and Chauvin will be a sacrificial lamb to ease tensions. But the fundamental problem that causes those tensions to exist, the racist capitalist American cultural hegemony, will remain. Certainly Biden won't do anything. In fact, while I reject the ageist politics his opponents used against him during the election, I have no doubt he is, ultimately, a fossil. He speaks with no fire, no passion. He's just another rich old white dude.

Is that fair? probably not. Is it nice? Probably not. It is true, though. 

The police exists to protect the laws that protect capitalism. They have the monopoly on force to do this. Racism feeds into this because of long standing ignorance and the structural inequalities that exist betwen communities of colour (including white, the dominant). George Floyd was pronounced guilty straight away. The only way the cops can deal with him is to sit on his neck. It is more important to them to subdue him than stand up and let him breathe. Of course he's going to complain he can't breathe, because that's what all guilty people would say. It's no different than saying I'm innocent! Yeah, of course you are. Except he is, because nothing he was alleged to have done warranted his murder, yet the conditioning that American cops receive prevented any other outcome.

If you want change, then not only do the cops need defunding, but the whole institution they exist to protect needs to go. Remove the need for them. They don't exist to fight crime, except on a very trivial level. If that were actually true then they'd need to go just because they suck at fighting it.

Summer Beckons

And so at last the seasons turn. The weather grows warm, inexorably so. Finally is time to put winter behind us. For a time. It will come again, that is unavoidable. Perhaps too another wave of the pandemic. It will, in some form, always be with us. Our government is not interested in adopting a zero covid strategy, and thus neither is the world. We shall limp through this crisis with the benefit of only time. There will be no support. If another wave happens, as is distinctly possible, I think the country might explode. 

Meanwhile the summer beckons. At worst this will be a brief respite, if things get worse subsequently. I guess it all depends how quickly they open everything up. Believing that we can open everything up however is a fool's errand. The presence of the virus clearly indicates that, somewhere along the line, there is a limit. One that is not commensurate with what the government would like, and no amount of profiteering will change that. You can't buy off a virus.

Maybe the vaccine will help. It's bound to, in some form. But it is uncharted science. A first attempt at a reaction to a novel virus. We have no idea how long the vaccine will be effective. So far it doesn't appear to be aversely affecting people. If, as is likely, boosters are required, perhaps every autumn/winter, how long will it take to administer those to the population? It will take, at least, the best part of six months, to give everyone their first treatment. We don't even know if that will induce herd immunity. 

There are variants to consider. There will always be variants. This virus is too prevalent in the world for that to be avoided. So many unknowns. What we do know is that international travel will trump virus safety. Government can pay lip service to border controls, ironically, but it's meaningless if they don't actually enforce them. This virus only requires a few people to be super spreaders. It doesn't need a large regular cohort moving across the globe. One or two people bringing the virus can cause an outbreak. The Tories won't care though.

Bury The Past

So, today's the day we bury a racist. One less in that vile institution. It will go on, of course, there's enough money and blood in the royal family to keep it going for decades still. Way past the point reform is required. It cannot be reformed; an affront to democracy and the lives of ordinary people. Everyone else, that is. Those not lucky enough to be born with blue blood.

The many will fawn over their television screens, abasing themselves before these gaudy clowns. Ready to forgive them their endless indiscretions and perverse dysfunction. They are not servants, we are. Yet somehow that is how they have been rehabilitated. The commoners led to believe they are serving us, with their untold privilege and wealth. Sure, they may have to greet a few dignitaries, but that's nothing compared to never having to worry about where your next meal is going to come from, or if the economy around you forces you into poverty.

What a sick society this is. Everywhere. All around us. The story about deaths in detention, home office persecution and institutional racism leading to fatality pales in comparison to the funerary arrangements of a wealthy old man who died at a ripe old age of natural causes. As if he was somehow taken from us, his immortal breath stolen by cruel father time. This is the most natural thing in the world, while state murder in the guise of xenophobia is relegated to a by line. Something is very wrong. There are even fears a new variant, the 'double mutant' virus from India, could wreak havoc with our recovery from covid, but that doesn't get top billing. Instead the press comments that the nation observed a minute's silence. I certainly didn't. Why should I? Ridiculous.

We should have used this period as an opportunity for change. While I certainly don't enjoy pandemics, I don't want to go back to normal either. What is that? Continued state oppression, corruption, toxic masculinity, divide and rule, strivers and skivers etc. All these toxic narratives that should be excised, like draining a boil. I suppose the nature of this crisis, precluding people meeting properly, makes that difficult. As things begin to open, people yearn for the comfort of familiarity, and the familiarity of comfort. Now we step into another period of enforced austerity, belt tightening, and all the commensurate misery. With even less of an opposition. It's down to us. 

Observer Effect

Received a letter from the DWP a couple of days ago; I have another Work Focused Interview. Another pointless phone call - and fortunately it is via telephone - in the midst of this crisis. Again I have no idea what they think we can discuss and even less of a desire to talk to them. I don't want their help, I don't like the company they keep. 

Last time they recommended that I work with Fedcap Employment. I tried that, it proved to be a complete waste of time. I have no doubt that, were the DWP to ask them (though it has nothing to do with them since I self referred), they would say I wasn't cooperative. Or some such bullshit. It's how these organisations operate, sadly. Since I cut ties with them it of course looks bad on my part. I guess we'll find out how that goes. If they ask me what I've been doing I'll either tell them about it or I won't. Either way isn't going to go well for me. It's ridiculous that this is how it goes, but that's the nature of our relationship. It's toxic. It counts for nothing that I self referred, attended every appointment (admittedly that wasn't hard) and engaged with them, telling them what I wanted to do. But again, it counts for nothing because it falls outside of the perception of what's acceptable. Despite having a growing portfolio of credible work, the notion of wanting to do music is treated as a childish fantasy. Like wanting to race cars or ride the rodeo.

This is how a first world country treats people out of work. There's a whole raft of possibilities. They have money. This government can squander billions on nonsense and dodgy deals to inflate the wealth of the already wealthy. But when it comes to even sparing a few quid to help people without realise a few simple dreams, crickets. There's no guarantee I'm going to make a living off of the music I write. The odds make that unlikely, but there's as good a chance for me as anyone else. The tragedy is the observer effect, after a fashion. The idea that the outcome is affected by the observation. In this case, if the DWP/state does nothing to help when, essentially, it could, then it's just causing the outcome of failure. Consequently that's used as a stick to beat the subject, often leading to curtailment of the already meagre support they do offer. It's this paucity of imagination on the part of the state that bothers me the most. I'm not doing nothing, I could just use some real support. Help promoting what I'm doing, giving it a platform, etc. A few quid for better gear wouldn't go amiss but it's not vital. After all we live in a world where tech gets replaced and discarded all the time. The government, for instance, drags its heels to provide locked down kids with laptops so they can participate in distanced learning, when there are thousands of computers that get recycled or just thrown out by offices and business nationwide after being upgraded. Using those solves not just the problem of provision, but of dealing with waste. How backward we are.

Went into Bristol earlier. Needed some stuff. The bus was rammed on the way in. People sat with masks around their chins chatting. People constantly pulling them down to do so. They seem to think it's ok as long as you pay lip service to the notion of wearing a mask, but not actually wearing one. It's hopeless. I feel like I'm the only sane one in the room, so to speak, and I want to tell these people off. That would end up with me getting laughed at or worse. That's what gaslighting feels like and this government has had a year to normalise the necessary job of wearing a mask.

The city was very busy. It felt more like a traditional Saturday afternoon. Honestly they should have waited until after the school holidays before opening everything up. People everywhere. I thought it would be nice to go out, into town, for the first time this year. But instead it was exhausting. I got what I needed and came home. I don't want to be doing that on a regular basis. I will not be remotely surprised if this leads to a rise in the virus.

Week of Madness

And as the weather turns from crap to slightly less crap we enter a week of insanity. Just when you think this sick society cannot get any worse we have a week until the funeral for an old establishment racist during which the gaslighting has reached new heights. Meanwhile our government, which now has to rank among the most corrupt in the developed world, is embroiled in another scandal. The former PM, Cameron the pigfucker, has been caught with a scheme that fiddles the pensions of nurses. Or something. I don't even pretend to understand it. It's like looking directly at the sun; the sheer weight of their unending unapologetic greed. It's not even as if he needs the money. The irony is that, if it were someone who did, like Arthur Fowler, they'd have no chance. Cameron on the other hand will receive, at best, a slight telling off. Once again, the only real crime for these scum is in getting caught. We, the plebs, aren't meant to know about their indiscretions.

Meanwhile Northern Ireland burns. A tinderbox of austerity incompetence and sectarianism. The Tories have had no interest in keeping things under control. No interest in the well being of the people over there. Endless austerity and anti social policies threaten to violently tear the lid off the peace process. A hard won effort they treat with nothing short of contempt. It certianly won't impress the skeleton in chief at the Whitehouse.

Still none of this matters to the great British public. Easily swayed by shop windows they will flock back like desperate starved magpies spending like there's no tomorrow. Just as the system wants. Dnce to its toxic tune. Spend what you have, borrow for what you don't. That will be the message. Capitalism is nothing if not myopic. If you're in debt by Christmas, who cares - at least you'll be alive. Unless you aren't because Covid hasn't gone away yet,. How quickly we forget.

An Old Man Died

An old man dies of natural causes.

This isn't news.

He's a member of an unjustifiable institution upon whose existence every social crime rests. It's unearned privilege props up institutional prejudice and social division. What else can excuse the abhorrent notion of chasing animals through streets on horses, terrifying local communities, trespassing on land, assaulting opposition, and smearing the blood of those animals, having torn them apart, on their faces. That's what orcs in Mordor do ffs.

No, because of the perceived virtue of this man's blood we have to put the nation on hold while many of it's occupants, including those struggling to get by, twist themselves up in emotional knots. This man grieved no one jot when your loved ones died. Yet, despite never having known this guy, we are expected to abase ourselves, further demonstrating our pitiful place in this sick society to our so called betters.

Wall to wall coverage of the very ordinary death of a very old human replaces reason. A good day to bury bad news, and it certainly will.

Are we that infantile as a species, still? Why on earth do we submit this: it must be out of a sense of reassurance. The same thing that religion provides. A framework of irrational certainty in a vast universe where things happen we don't understand endlessly threatening the perceived order. Philip was neither a good nor evil man, like most people he was a product of his society. A product of the institution. Of course he said (plenty or) racist things. That's what these ignorant overstuffed inbred caricatures do. That's why it needs to stop. I've no desire to gloat over a man's passing, but I'm sure as shit not going to lionise him in a vast telethonic eulogy; a contest of grief that makes the state enforced lamentations of the Kim Jon dictator dynasty seem reasonable. By all means feel sad if, for some reason, you feel the monarchy validates part of your existence, but please examine why that is. Philip and the rest of them, with his wife soon to follow I'm sure, are not public servants, they do not engage in any real 'duty'. It's a lifestyle of unimagined wealth and if that means having to talk to some annoying colonial or shake hands with a nativeperson then oh dear.

The best way to mourn the passing of a 99 year old who lived with none of the cares for existential security you or I have is to consign this ridiculous anachronism to the permanent dustbin of history. Let it remain in a museum for the children of tomorrow to point at with all the wisdom we can give them. 

Bugged

Today I'm feeling ill. Achy. I don't think it's covid. Or if it is don't worry, we're separated by pixels. But these aren't covid symptoms. I had this a few months ago, and again at the start of last year. I don't really understand how, while wearing masks, social distancing, and washing hands at the door of each shop, I still get a bug. I guess it just goes to show how easy it is to pick these things up - and that would include Covid.

In fact I'm feeling incredibly miserable. So far throughout this pandemic I have endured. I have not lost my shit nor my mind, but I'd be lying if I said it hadn't taken a toll. I suspect I'm not alone. In fact I think this psychic cost is going to be apparent in the coming months, particularly if we all experience another lockdown. The government has many chickens that are yet to return to roost. They have failed in their duty of care. So much more even on a mundane level they could have done, but didn't. Now I'm feeling a distinct lack of possibilities and opportunities at this time. I hope this passes with whatever malady I'm experiencing, but there is a lingering and gnawing emptiness and it scares me.

This situation isn't going to change much over the coming months, though perhaps I'll be wrong. The virus is here. All it needs is breathing room. As things are flung open by a government caring only about the profit they risk giving the virus oxygen. They will never understand and, should cases start rising again, they will respond slowly and disastrously. The only approach is to go for zero covd with proper test and trace systems and the funding for self isolation because if we have to live with this virus, people are going to be needing the care and support this government doesn't have a clue about and isn't interested in providing. 

There is no moving forward without addressing the toll all this has taken, but the Tories have long since stopped caring about mental health support. Look around, where is it? Nothing here. Services got cut. My own recent experience with Fedcap employment, who claim to offer mental health support, ended in dismal failure. I have still yet to hear back from them after asking them to call it quits. I didn't want to have to do that, but what choice is left if you can't even communicate? Again, this is a company that claims to offer mental health support. We are isolated and alone, we are not waving but drowning

I Know What You Covid This Summer

The fundamental flaw of the government's 'response' to covid is simply ignoring the need to support people. This will ever be their undoing. It's ironic that Mogg can tweet how he thinks it's not cricket for firms to practice 'fire and rehire' policies. But he won't vote to support people, or to not starve children. Is he cynical or stupid? More likely it is the ignorance born of privilege, patriotism, and class propaganda. A massive blind spot that isn't explained away through moral failing or simple wealth. It is why we must dismantle the class system, before it kills (more of) us.

There is an article in the Guardian reporting on modelling done by the Sage scientists. They say that imminent changes, the opening of shops and, sigh, gyms (zoos and museums offend me less), are highly unlikely to cause a problem. However they do say that, come summer, with the totality of changes planned we will see a significant and serious third wave. Of course this is speculative. The tragedy of the anti lockdown thinking is that it dismisses the only tool we have in a novel pandemic: modelling. We can't know how a novel virus will affect the population without letting it run rampant, and we can't do that. It's disingenuous and stupid. But the reality is this is what happened last year; in the end too much was flung open while the virus was still present. It's likely to be present, somewhere somehow, come the Summer. They aren't terribly optimistic about the efficacy of herd immunity, the effect of nationwide mass vaccination. This all boils down to my first point: our government is simply unwilling to do what is necessary to address this crisis.

Still at least the weather will be nice....hopefully. Right now it's April and freezing cold. I knew it would be. We aren't so lucky as to have two nice Spring seasons consecutively. Besides we've fucked the environment and so these weather patterns, polar air coming further south, will be the norm. Well done us.

Finally, has there been a day gone by, since he flounced out like a child, where Piers fucking Morgan has not been milking it publicly? Now he's been interviewed by, sigh, Tucker Carlson. The fascist's friend. No doubt warmly received to further this tired trope about cancel culture. This whole thing is just disgusting. As if Morgan is the victim when he chose to walk out after a colleague, a person of colour, called him out on his bullshit. They don't like it up 'em! Alex wasn't rude to him, didn't 'disrespect' him, though Morgan isn't the least deserving of any, but now he's the bad guy? That's racism, rigt there.

Long Drop

The weather threatens winter again. Why am I not surprised? We had a pleasant, in terms of weather, April last year, could it really be so again? Next week is set to be wind chilltastic. Freezing time again. Honestly, it's exhausting. 

A week later the shops will be opening up again. Roused from their slumber by the desperate state of capitalism. We have done well to reduce the cases of covid, but it's always going to be with us. The question is how much can we open before a new wave begins. If it does, how long before the government takes action? A subsequent wave, like the others, will likely take on an impetus of its own before those idiots do what's necessary. But the time they do it they'll be forced to take the action they procrastinated on anyway. It's lose lose.

What does this retail resurgence mean for society, gong forward? I fully expect the shops to be rammed when things open again. People are foolish, they will vomit forth demanding to be able to go anywhere and do anything. We know that if you give people a little, they will seek to take as much as they can, pushing the boundary of what is safe.

My concern is the lack of support going forward. People will be expected to work, expected to shop, and expected to behave as normal. As if an entire year of death and disaster hadn't happened. By all means keep washing your hands and wearing your mask, but don't expect any help if transitioning back to what they deem as normal will be made easier. Help, specifically of the financial kind, will be withdrawn as quickly as possible. Best grab hold of those bootstraps folks, it's going to be a long drop.

Solidarity with those protesting today. However....don't be a dick. Smashing yoru way into the cop shop isn't going to achieve anything. You'll likely have the cops harass you for the rest of your life in exchange for, well what exactly? Protest has to be smart, it has to be productive. I don't care if that means torching vans - or not, as the case may be - I care that the Tories are oppressing us and that we have to stop it.

Meanwhile the Racist Government Remains Racist

Look, I'll be glad when this madness ends, but this is going to require a healthy transition. Something born of this nightmare has been born inside my subconscious. Even though I've not had it as bad as many (too many) others the pandemic - or rather our society's failed reaction to it - has had an effect. It isn't about the virus as much as it's about how our state and our systems have abandoned us. Even though I am not at the front of the queue, so to speak, and shouldn't be, it'd be wrong to say I could have used some help. But not even the DWP's services are up to snuff. That's not surprising really. There's so much the government could have done for so many of us. Even just little things that would have made all the difference, but they couldn't even pay the full wages of people already getting the lowest wage (and lower). What does that say about the millionaires that have have taken control of our lives and our resources. Remember, they are meant to be servants. Not custodians or keepers; it's not their money after all.

Money they have spent to produce a report intended solely to reassure their new friends (chumps?) in the Red Wall. Don't worry, says our paid advisers, we aren't racist, and therefore neither are you. Not like that nasty Jeremy Corbyn - and by extension everyone else that's on the left! The authors of this questionable bullshit are already prejudiced against the notion of institutional racism. But you can't disagree with them because their BAME, but you can't use BAME because it's bad or something. By the way, don't play identity politics!

The gaslighting never, fucking, ends. This is so obviously a whitewash (pun...intended?). A complete dismissal of the lived experience of people of colour, particularly working class people of colour. Since the Tories reject any kind of class based analysis - while using it to wage class war - they can easily dismiss this. All suitably reinforced by a willing press, all too eager to seize on this bullshit. Of course had the outcome been different (which never would have happened) the papers would have cried foul and said it was all the work of commies, or something. It's just endless exhausting gaslighting.