Category: Issues

Pension Crisis

While a lot of fuss is being made about the winter fuel payment being snatched away from pensioners, and the triple lock, there is something which is not being considered.

For those of us who are of the Real Generation Rent, the most important issue to consider is rent inflation.

That is why pension increases should be based upon yearly rent inflation.

Meanwhile the 25% reduction in council tax needs rethinking as it discriminates again single pensioners.

Long term it should be viewed in relationship to the ongoing housing crisis, and the curtailment of social care/ social housing options for older people.

Barrow BAE Town.

A report by Philip Gilligan

The shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness has a central role in the production of Britain’s so-called ‘nuclear deterrent’, producing the submarines which carry the nuclear missiles and nuclear warheads.

The previous class of Vanguard nuclear submarines were produced here and the new Dreadnought submarines designed to carry the new Trident D-5 missiles will also be built here. Barrow is the major town and administrative centre of the Westmorland and Furness unitary authority where I live and is very much dominated by BAE Systems. The dockyard and associated buildings physically dominate the centre of town, and BAE is by far the largest local employer and the first port-of-call for anyone seeking reasonably paid employment outside the public sector. The company has at least 10,000 direct employees in the town and plans to recruit 1000 new apprentices at the shipyard in 2024. This, in an authority which has 20 areas ranked by the Office of National Statistics as being amongst the 10% most deprived areas in England. BAE Systems publicises its sponsorship of community activities with young people, charitable organisations and activities that make a positive social or economic contribution to local communities.

Local politicians (Conservative and Labour) and many trade unions compete to show their support for Trident and submarine building, uniting in 2022 in The Keep Our Future Afloat Campaign (KOFAC) focused on ‘influencing defence procurement policy’ to ‘enable Barrow shipyard and its supplier base to sustain a core workload’. The group is led by the Unite and GMB trade unions, and includes both local councils and BAE Systems and its suppliers. Campaigning for nuclear disarmament and cancellation of the Trident programme in such a context is inevitably challenging.

There are Barrovians who recognise the absurdity of the so-called ‘nuclear deterrent’ and reject the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, and they express support whenever we hold a vigils or protests in the town, but many see opposition to the Trident nuclear weapons programme as tantamount to campaigning for economic disaster for the town.

It is, therefore, essential that our campaigning emphasises the necessity and possibilities for new and different economic investment in the town, for diversification and the redeployment of skills and workers in more socially useful and sustainable industries, and this, in turn, requires effective campaigning for policies which would produce the investment needed. A Government committed to nuclear disarmament and an effective national defence diversification agency would provide the essential foundation for such policies to become a meaningful reality.

Philip Gilligan is a long time member of CND and an activist in Lancaster CND.

Conservative Socialists

Conservative Socialists.

For many people being critical of socialist parties, and in particular of the trade unions, means one is accused on being a conservative, or worse still a Daily Mail reader.

This is not the case.

The Socialist parties Auto response.

Criticise any of the socialist parties or the trade unions and one will land up engaged in a series of pointless arguments.

That is despite the fact that one may be putting forward an Ecological, Pacifist, and Anarchist set of ideas.

Cuba

There is an auto response to anyone who is critical of the Cuban Dictatorship,and that is to accuse one of being a Daily Mail reader which has happened to me.That is despite the way in which the first act of the Cuban communists upon grabbing power was to jail every anarchist in the country. While there is conscription in the country, and no right to any legal form of conscientious objection.

What I dream about is the creation of a Campaign Against the Cuban Dictatorship.

How the Trade Unions are one of the greatest problems we have to deal with.

Unite

Unite the trade union union which should always be refereed to as the National Union of Plutonium Workers and Weapon Manufacturers.

That sums up the main problem we have with them.

The GMB

This in another trade union with members working in the Nukiller power industry.

For example: – at the URENCO plant at Capenhurst.

Unison

When I did belong to a trade union it was NALGO, that then turned in to Unison.

Yet in all that time there was no real attempt to tackle to low pay of library and information workers which is much lower than that of many otherworkers.In point of fact it blocked many of the grass-root campaigns to rectify this problem.

The railway Unions

The continuing series of strikes which the railway unions are engaged upon has had serious social and environmental consequences.

Not only has it prevented many of us getting to social and political events.

Many events have had to be cancelled or were much smaller as a result of it all.

Another effect has been that it has had a damaging effect upon our transportclean up campaigning, as some individuals continue to use extreme energy petrol and diesel personal vehicles.

The wrong kind of payment.

What is also perturbing is the way that many people continue to use cash for making payments.

That is despite the fact that bank notes contain animal fat.

The use of these notes also means the continued use of securithug vans swanning around our city streets, pavement parking, and causing yet more pollution.

The very same people who use cash also refuse to use self checkouts in the shops, and thus the need for any people to continue doing totally needless work.

Dealing with them all.

Dealing with conservative socialists is one of the most frustration tasks we all have to deal with.

Not doing so will prevent us from achieving any real social change.

Badges For Social Change

Badges For A Better World

For some while now I have been using the following expressions which sum up many of my political thoughts and ideas.

Now I am thinking it would be good to have some badges with these as slogans.

Beer Not Bombs !

Pull Down the Motorways !

Dole Not Coal !

Campaign Against the Cuban Dictatorship.

I’m a Pragmatic Anarcho Pacifist.

I’m a Law Abiding Anarchist.

2 Feet Good !  4 Wheels Bad !

Campaign Against the National Union of Weapons Manufacturers and Plutonium Workers

Build more Railways and Canals.

Support All Russian and Ukrainian Conscientious Objectors.

Becoming Vegan is an Ecological and Political Act.

Stop Noise Pollution – Silence All Musak in shops !

Pedestrians First !

Less Roads and More Footpaths.

Shrink the suburbs !

Plant More Forests

Create Fruit Orchards in the Inner Cities.

Nukiller Power?  – No Thanks ! 

Social Needs & Financial Reforms

Here is the Highest Educational Problem

The figure I keep quoting is 1in 7 of the population in Brexitland are functionally illiterate.

Yet while millions of pounds are pouring in to the universities, next to no money is being spent to solve this problem.

It is possible to find books in public libraries to solve the adult literacy issue, but there is no one to do the teaching.

I’ve always thought that university students should do such teaching as part payment for their education loans.

Though given the concerns which exist about the literary skills of some students, such a scheme should be set up with a formal teaching course to go with it.

Here is the Financial Problem

There’s talk right now of raising council tax by 5%.

Yet that is double what any individual that is part of a couple would have to pay.

Thus single individuals would pay 100% more than any two people in the same place.

Even with the 25% single person reduction it is still a much higher amount than individuals in a shared property pay.

That is not social justice or making an equitable contribution to local services.

It is also an unfair fiscal load upon all single pensioners.

Meanwhile all students are exempt from paying council tax. Yet keep in mind many pensioners left school at either 15 or 16, and never got the chance to go to university.

Thus the council tax system needs to be abolished, and a modified version of a local poll tax introduced in order to lift the present inequitable system.

I don’t expect a lot of people who campaigned against the poll tax to like this idea, but we do need to abolish the totally inequitable and unjust council tax system.

The Disastrous History of Brexitland.

The Final Ongoing Chapter

The middle and last part of 2022 was a time of uncertainties, economic mess, and major political swings. Yet none of the major ecological, educational, or social issues where being addressed.

Much of this uncertainty was caused by an unstable Rabid Right Wing government which was economically illiterate. While those were in it had no understanding of science, and technologically.

Thus they had no concept of the major social, ecological, and economic damage which they were causing.

All they were concerned with was helping to make the rich much richer, and ways in which they might keep themselves in power.

Still the Rabid Right Wingers managed to stay in power, even when they kept changing their policies by the day.

As one well known commentator said at the time: –

‘ They make it all up as they go along.’

While another one stated that there was no point in reporting, or ever reading, any government policy announcements, as they all changed by the hour.

Then the Expected Unexpected happened, and the Dance of Death changed in to a continual internal battle and debate about just who might command Brexitland.

Thus the economic decline, social poverty, and environmental mess was ignored.

Only when the environmental damage had reached way beyond crisis point did the rabid right wing Brexitland government start to notice it, even though activists had been predicting these problems for many decades.

Recent Observation, Notes, Stats, & Observations

Numbers

Many of my political and social observations come from a lot of background reading, and looking at statistics.

Farming

There are a couple of things which farmers have been complaining a lot about of late. They are the rising prices of fuel and nitrates.

While a lot of them are also moaning about the prices they are getting for what they are selling to the supermarkets.

All of which leaves me thinking that we might soon be finding organic crops becoming much cheaper to grow than that which is produced by intensive chemical spraying.

Statistical Pointers To Better Understanding.

Of course some problems which prevent our better understanding of the world come from other factors.

Take for example the main form of colour blindness which is Red / Green.

While 1 in 12 men suffer from colour blindness, only 1 in 200 women do so.

Then there are the 1 in 7 of the adult population which are to a greater of lesser extent functionally illiterate.

So a lot more thought needs to be given as to how to improve public signs and how they are written.

Not understanding the numbers

It is also no use complaining about falling standards of scientific understanding, while the lever of adult numeracy is so very high.

Just take a look at the following reports-

Almost half of the UK lacks basic financial literacy

and

One-in-three adults in England and Northern Ireland cannot work out the correct change from a shopping trip, according to new research from UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and University of Cambridge.

No Receipt – No Record – No Ability to keep an eye on financial issues

Of course it does not help individuals to budget their spending, if they throw away or never pick up their receipts for their purchases, ( a trend which seems to be increasing ). This means they can not see their pattern of spending over the year.

Then comes the question of inflation, low wages, low salary increases, and pensions which are so low that many older individuals are living in dire poverty.

Thus aside from the number of food banks increasing, we also have a situation in which many individuals are asking whether they should turn on their heating during winter, or eat that day.

The same can be said of politicians and planners who are incapable of looking at any long term effects of current public spending or the effects it will have.

Eat or Freeze

While the Rabid Right Wing Tory Government of Brexitland has just no idea of what this means, as many of them are millionaires.

Is it any wonder that many of us think that living in Brexitland equates to living within a shambolic and dystopian version of a Neo-fascist Kafkaland.

More Notes From Dystopian Brexitland.

The longer we live with the shambolic dystopian reality of Brexitland, the more the reality of ruined lives feels like normal.Not that it is normal in any way, as the rabid right wing Tory government stumbles from crisis to crisis, as they dream of making a misplaced view of the past the new reality.

While the scandal of partygate continues, with members of parliament now worried about one of the government party MPs watching porno in the legislature.

While the minster for the Nineteenth Century remains unable to understand any form of contemporary realty.

While none of the multimillionaire government ministers are able to comprehend the effects of any financial cuts upon the most vunerable members of society.

While we still have many people campaigning for better university education, but blind to the reality of 1 in 7 of the adult population who are to a greater or lesser extent functionly illiterate.

But here is the best part of the situation…All those bright ideas which are being put forward as solutions to the current economic crisis, are the very ones which will cause much more pollution, result in a greater health crisis, and mean a lot more money being spent in order to clean it all up.

But let’s not worry about that they say.

Let’s just agonize about what is on television, and the activities of that most dysfunctional of families – The Royals.

Could it be that breathing in the highly polluted air has effected so many people that they are too ill to worry about it all?

Cynical and sarcastic I might be about the current and ongoing crisis, but that just hides the underlying worry which I have about it all.

Something has got to change very soon.

Think Now In Order To Act Now

No Matter What Your Main Concerns Might Be

No campaigning can be effective in isolation.

That is why we need to think in terms of Joined-up-campaigning.

Joined-up-campaigning requires doing a lot of joined-up-thinking,

It requires having lots of imagination.

It means being able to be very pragmatic, yet very consistent in terms of Ends and Means.

Then applying all of this in the way we act and live our lives.

Never has it been more important to act and think this way.

Land Use & A Vegan World In The Making

On January 26th I Reached 48Plus3.

That is 51 years since turning Vegetarian, and three since becoming Vegan.

Over the last decade I have penned a number of pieces which are on my blog about aspects being vegan, land use, and related issues.

At some stage I should write about all the related issues which I keep banging on about.

They are: –

Using more of the countryside to create forests.

Creating Urban orchards.

Using more urban space of the creation of allotments and for greenhouses.

Producing food at the point of use which can be done by putting up greenhouses on the land at the side of supermarkets which are currently wasted as parking lots.

All of which will link in to a sustainable urban transport system.

Then create vegan food production projects which will negate the need for so many food banks.

But most of all: –

Shrink The Suburbs !