The question isn’t whether the government should lift the lock-down, it is how many of us have to die before we say enough?

On the 4th May it was reported that an internal UK government document covering their proposed plan for lifting the lock-down had been leaked. How senior members of government, and their civil service advisers had reached the conclusion that their time would be best placed on planning to lift the lock-down is very confusing for most emotionally mature people that have a basic grasp of maths for one key reason. As of the 3rd May,…

Continue ReadingThe question isn’t whether the government should lift the lock-down, it is how many of us have to die before we say enough?

The COVID-19 mortality rate is an interesting measure of government policy

In just over four months between the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in January and the 3rd May, 28,205 people have died in the UK. In that same time in South Korea, a country with a population roughly 4/5ths the size of the UK, only 250 people have died. Trying to understand just how that has come to pass is very difficult because of the lack of consistency in how governments are measuring the impact…

Continue ReadingThe COVID-19 mortality rate is an interesting measure of government policy

Government policies as the variable in the worldwide COVID-19 experiment

While nearly every country on the planet is now fighting the same virus from largely similar starting points, there will over time, be very different outcomes. For instance, less than 3 months into this worldwide disaster, we could already see that the COVID-19 per capita death rate was running at 22 for every 100,000 people in the UK, while in South Korea it was 0.45 per 100,000. Or to put that more simply, for every…

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South Korea is fast becoming the yardstick against which all other governments will be measured

In time there will be an accounting for the response of each government to the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK governments policies will be measured against the policies of other governments and the death tolls their various decisions resulted in. But we really don’t have to wait that long. We are already seeing the different outcomes of differing responses. There are two institutions principally tasked with the health and well-being of the people living in the…

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COVID-19 and the illusion of meritocratic democracy

We are logistically, culturally and intellectually unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. What I mean by that is that the model of society we have accepted, is riddled with fundamental flaws that are only now becoming apparent to the general public. One of the key problems is the illusion of meritocratic democracy on which our lives are now depending. Not least of which is the one that Thomas Paine warned of, arguing that an hereditary ruling…

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A socialist Labour party manifesto … how far we have come

So we are getting to the sharp end of 2019 general election campaign, which I would argue is the first time that we have had the actual possibility of voting in to power a socialist Labour party. And because of this I have taken the time to read the manifesto. I would have read the other two manifestos but I didn’t really see any point. Neither party, in their current guise can be trusted to…

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Conservative Party caught overacting in lead up to pantomime season

So it turns out that the British Parliament has kicked Brexit further down the road, this time under the guise of a general election. And before anyone starts squealing about who is to blame for this, remember the Conservative Party has been in power since the Brexit vote. First Cameron, then May, and then de Pfeffel Johnson. And at no point during all this time has the Conservative Party been a minority party in Parliament.…

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Prime Minister de Pfeffel Johnson and the contemptuous elite he represents

Now that we have had a little time to digest the Supreme Court’s decision on whether “Prime Minister” de Pfeffel Johnson acted illegally in his advice to the crown when asking for parliament to be suspended, and the mainstream media has been able to archive the story in the ‘lets protect the establishment by forgetting that they have been found guilty of criminal conspiracy’ filing cabinet, I thought it would be interesting to start unpicking…

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The growing recognition of socialism and socialist thought as a jumping off point.

I noticed after rereading my last post that there were still things I felt were needed to be said. I’ve mentioned previously that one of the clear benefits of the growing recognition of socialism within the mainstream political discourse is that it forces peoples true intentions out into the open. For instance, there are those who like pretending to care about other people, but when faced with the possibility of a progressive taxation system in…

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The 1% will frame our oppression as pragmatic compromise, they always do

And so the new year begins. To me, in terms of the UK, it feels like Brexit is monopolising all discussion and debate. It feels like it is consuming all of our collective intellectual oxygen and political energy. And, it is without doubt, a potentially defining moment for the political systems and process in the UK, and across Europe. And of course, it will almost undoubtedly, feed into how the political systems and process across…

Continue ReadingThe 1% will frame our oppression as pragmatic compromise, they always do