What Comes Next ?

Introduction From 85 Years Ago

This is the introduction to the H.G.Wells book.

What Are We to Do with Our Lives?

Published: Watts & Co 1935

‘ The world is undertaking immense changes. Never before have the conditions of life changed so swiftly and enormously as they have changed for mankind in the last fifty year.’

Though in environmental terms it is more like the last 15 month to 5 years.

While in many ways we are now going through a major set of changes which will impact upon us all over the next 50 day and thus in to the future.

What next ?

Over the last 15 days it has been the case of us all asking: –

What Next?

In many ways we have all been very surprised upon how things are changing.

Yet for all the observations we make about just what is happening to us all right now, many of the pundits predictions upon economic, political, social, and ecological issues, are still based upon what has happened in the past.

Never the less there are a number of key indicators which worth looking at:-

– Changes in Housing provision,

– The stock Market and Wider Economy

– Changes in Food Production and Provision.

– An ending to the use of Nukiller Power and Extreme Energy,

– Public and Private Transport.

– How we all socialise from now onwards.

Spycops – A Set of Continuing Emotional & Other Issues

Living in the past.

There is something I’ve observed many a time, and which I engage upon once in a while.

The old comrades getting together, and talking about our previous campaigns:

– What went wrong with them

– What went right with them

– Who was involved in them

and

– All the funny things which happened while they were going on.

These discussions can be very enjoyable to participant in, but only once in a while.

There are just too many new projects / new campaigns which I want to spend my life engaged upon.

& yet

An exercise in secrecy.

As many of you will know I am a Core Participant [ CP ] in the Undercover Policing Inquiry. At the end of January the following piece about the Undercover Policing Inquiry was published on the Campaign Against Police Surveillance website.

UCPI FAQ: The Spycops Public Inquiry

What really gets me is that so much information is being withheld on what the spycops did to me and many other activists.

The inquiry is withholding as much information about the various spycops as it can get away with.

At the same time the inquiry has put a legal restriction order on revealing both the cover and real names of most of these spycops.

Then eventually when we will get our individual SDS files, a very high percentage of what is in them will be redacted.

Many more years.

A lot of my old friends & comrades are now dead.

Thus it is going to be very difficult to know the extent they were spied upon.

Then there are all those individuals who I worked with in various groups or organisations over the years, and which I’ve now lost contact with.

That’s something which happens to us all.

While I am still in regular contact with others who live a long way from me,

but am unable to see on a regular basis.

Shock.

Discovering about the activities of the SDS goes way beyond shocking.

This is no surprise when you consider the feelings of surprise, anger, betrayal, and emotional distress which comes with the discovery of becoming a spycop victim.

Thus in many ways the whole process leaves me feeling very isolated,

and with little energy spare for more high stress activities.

Come the year 2026

I’ll be around 76 by the time the inquiry report is published.

Is it any wonder the whole thing leaves me with a great feeling of sadness?

Though I also feel it to be a process of mourning without mourning.

Other Complications.

There is another aspect to this which also complicates this for me.

Working to stop the nukiller power issue does take a lot of my time,

and involves a lot of effort.

If I were to disengage from this work for a while it might give me a rest,

but with so few activists, and so much which needs to be done, this is not the time to ease off for a while.

Thus I am going to keep working on this issue.

What ever else, most of the inquiry hearings dealing with the aspects of the time frame which concerns me the most will be completed by some time next year,

and I should of received the redacted SDS files about my activities.

Until that is over I’m going to be very over-stretched indeed.

Living in the past.

I knew Bob Robinson as a supposed friend and comrade in the mid 1980s.

This summer it will be nine years since I learnt he was a spycop with the real name of Dr Robert Lambert.

That is why I am a CP in the spycops public inquiry.

I Don’t want to spend my twilight years trying to discover just what political and emotional damage Bob and the rest of the SDS did while undercover.

& Yet

It is important to know just what the various spycops got up to. Not knowing is emotionally distressing to everyone who is a spycop victim.

For me it is very important to state all of the above, and keep working away on these various issues.

& Yet

It does come with a high emotional cost.

Extracts From The Book – Poverty and Ecological Disaster. A Post Brexit Study

The following book extracts are taken from the most renowned academic study of the UK during the first half of the 21st^nd century.

Poverty and ecological disaster.

A study of life in Britain during the post Brexit years .

Published by the CLO University press.

The Peak district School.

2052.

Chapter 1

The Brexit disaster.

‘ As predicted the state of the UK rapidly declined with the introduction of Brexit.

The dysfunctional desires of the rabid right wing Tory government were no more than a delusional set of nightmare policies.

After Brexit the UK continued its rapid economic decline.

In the poorest areas of the country begging for food on the street increased at an alarming rate. This was not helped by the fact that most of the population no longer had the income to be able to donate to all the food banks which had rapidly increased by the 2^nd decade of the century.

The social and economic effects of the withdrawal of all the EU regional funding to some of the poorest areas of Europe was increasingly noticeable as the years went by.’

Chapter 16

Eduction and Illiteracy.

‘Unlike the rest the rest of Europe, British government public spending on education plummeted.

Thus by 2038 the official school leaving age dropped to 14. That was the same as it had been a century before.

The rate of public library closures continued.

Most alarming of all the rate of functional illiteracy in the country rose from 1 in 7, to 90 in 100 of the population.

Thus the rate of unemployment rose, as fewer and fewer of the population became qualified or skilled workers.’

‘The effects upon higher education became profound. This was especially so after the universities of Cambridge, London, and Oxford were forced to merge and become the CLO university.’

Chapter 22

The Toxic Legacy.

‘ One of the most alarming aspects of the period was that all the nukiller plants became engulfed by rising tides, as did many of the radioactive and toxic waste dumps. The government stated that dealing with this was a priority, but there was no money left in the exchequer to solve it.

Thus the UK government had to declare a national emergency, but it was just too late to solve all these problems.

Thousands died of starvation and exposure to all the radioactive and toxic waste.’

‘ Finally, in 2042 the country became such an ecological disaster area, that the UK government begged the EU to become a European dependency, as it was totally incapable of becoming a full EU member state.’

– – –

Postscript.

December 2019

All of the above could happen: –

If we don’t take Action Now !

Recruit And Rough Sleeper.

A week just like any other week.

Monday –

Today the army was out recruiting on Church Street in Liverpool. They had a table in front of a van, with various small arms on display.

This was under a gazebo which read Royal Irish Regiment and ‘Relish your inner warrior‘.

On the other side of the pedestrian street was a rough sleeper with his begging bowl, and a cardboard sign which read Ex Solider followed by his service number.

One does not need to comment upon this.

Just observe.

Thursday –

Both the same display and rough sleeper were to be seen again today.

Nothing changes.

Friday –

The Army recruiters have gone, but the Rough Sleeping Ex Solder is still there.

70 Marks 51

I was never one of those people who is a party person, as I get more joy from Visiting Museums, Art Galleries, and Self education. In any case my thinking goes that it is more important to engage in active campaigning right now, Thus I’m ignoring the advice I’ve had to party this weekend.

Tomorrow [ November 3rd ] I will be 70.

It will also be 51 years since I became an activists. That was on a sit down demonstration against the Vietnam war.

Though if any of you want to mark this day and bring a smile to my face, then you can do so by making a donation to the Close Capenhurst Campaign

Having A Pop.

I never understood just why many people keep having a pop at the BBC, but not the so called ‘independent broadcasters’, which keep churning out Kapitalist propaganda in order to persuade us to purchase all sorts of ideologically and ecologically unsound items.

That is why I only ever listen to BBC Radio 4.

Yet that said –

It is very perturbing that the BBC does broadcast such programmes as On Your Farm & The Kitchen Cabinet, both of which describe the farming, slaughtering, cooking, and eating of our fellow creatures.

Now a few protests to stop these programmes being produced would be very welcome indeed.

Campaigning For Failure.

A Few Observations

Aim for revolution and you will achieve some reforms.

Aim for reforms and nothing will fundamentally change,

Engage in a tactical non-violence, as opposed to a Principled Nonviolence, and we will not achieve a total Nonviolent Social Revolution.

What Needs Doing.

In order to achieve any fundamental social change, or ecological improvements, we must: –

Make sure all our actions are consistent as Ends and means.

Engage in joined-up-Campaigning.

I hate to Say this.

Extinction Rebellion are not engaged upon campaigning against Nukiller Power, or actively promoting Veganism.

This failure to do so will mean that their aim of stopping climate change will not be achieved.

If Extinction Rebellion does not change this policy of blocking such important issues, then all radically realistic environmentalists will need to create a new campaigning body which will do so.

A Few Thoughts About This Coming Month

What might happen if —

– Boris, the unelected british prime monster, was to ask for an extension to Article 50, but it will only be agreed to by our fellow Europeans on the condition that there is another referendum ?

– The Brexit disaster happens, and there is a highly popular demand for the uk to reapply to become a part of the EU once more ?

– It is discovered that the police view the rabid right wing to be so dangerous, that they have embedded spycops in the Tory, UKIP, and Brexit political parties ?

Now – Think on — — — —

Practical Examples of Joined-Up-Campaigning – Health, Land, Waste, & Sea Ecology.

Much of good campaigning is like joined-up thinking, or rather playing a game of consequences in advance.

As I keep say:- Take the overview, but keep an eye on the details.

A Healthcare ban which has resulted in dire consequences.

The change in the UK law which bans smoking indoors has been universally welcomed, but it has and is causing an environmental crisis.

This is because smoking is now done outdoors in the street, where instead of cigarettes stubbed out in ashtrays, they are thrown out on the ground. At which point they are blown along the street, landing up in the drains, road sides, rivers, and the sea.

Cigarette stubs contain a lot of toxic chemicals, and are Not biodegradable.

While children see many more people smoking outdoors or on the streets, which in turn normalises how they view this activity.

At the same time there are many more individuals vapping , that is using E cigarettes, which results in a growth in the number of people suffering from popcorn lung disease.

What is also forgotten is that these e cigarettes are not easy to recycle, and there are no facilities in most places to do so.

Thus we have a number of inter-related health and environmental problems which effect us all.

What might be done about these problems?

The obvious answer to me is much more health education, and measures to prevent people smoking, but it goes way beyond that.

What we should be doing is promoting health campaigns which show the environmental damage which smoking results in.

It is very much a case of health care workers and environmental activists together to solve these problems.

While on a local level this must mean Local Heath Trusts working in co-operation with the local waste authorities.

Yet all these problems will not be solved unless there is much more help extended to another group in society – Rough Sleepers.

From Motto To Joined-Up-Campaigning.

Motto

The motto used to be: – Another Day – Another Crisis.

That is how it used to be – Singular.

Now we keep having to deal with a lot more crisis issues on a daily basis.

So the new motto should be :- Another Day – Another Set of Crisis.

CRISIS

Anyone who is both very well informed and politically involved will know that there are so many immediate / need to sort out / must be dealt with now /crisis to deal with, that it would take a long while to list them all.

So what we can, or should do, is just concentrate upon those few issues were our efforts will make a big difference, while also doing what we can to support other campaigns.

To do anything else will just result in us all suffering from burnout.

That’s why I’m much more inclined to attend small scale protests which very few people will attend, as opposed to joining in any large scale marches or protests. Though I do occasionally participate in them.

Joined-Up-Campaigning

One of the books which has been most influential in the development my political thinking and world view is Ends and Means by Aldus Huxley.

This is a quote from the work: –

“Good ends, as I have frequently to point out, can be achieved only by the employment of appropriate means. The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced.”

To which I will add that we should not view in isolation, but look and work upon it in terms of what else needs doing.

This is what I refer to as Joined-Up-Campaigning.

I will be writing more on this over the coming months.