While class deference is most apparent at times of crisis, it is also at its most vulnerable to public opinion

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic the cultural mechanisms for maintaining class deference have been at their most apparent in years. While we are told that we are all in this together, time and again the behaviour and the subtle subtexts of the pronouncements of the 1% demonstrate that their true world view is not as egalitarian as they like to pretend. Not only do the rules for the 99% not apply to the…

Continue ReadingWhile class deference is most apparent at times of crisis, it is also at its most vulnerable to public opinion

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…

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

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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Undercover agents of the state are infiltrating the left

In 1947 in Marseilles the dockers went out on strike and were quickly followed by other workers around the country coming out in solidarity. The newly formed CIA, eager to take advantage of the vacuums of authority that had been left around the world in the aftermath of WWII, sent a Psychological Operations team out to France to crush any and all socialist dissent. Undercover agents of the state began arming, training, funding and guiding…

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Climate change denial and the political power of oral sex

So Dominic Cummings, De Pfeffel Johnson’s key adviser, sacked Claire O’Neill from leading the UN climate talks later this year in Glasgow as President of COP26. In response O’Neill told the Today programme that De Pfeffel Johnson had admitted to her that he didn’t get climate change. For some this has proved to be a shocking allegation, but for others it is a welcome clarification of what they already knew. It is important to remember.…

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Democratic socialism and yet another pointless parliamentary pantomime

In what can only be described as a political ‘ground-hog day’, we once again find the radical left being herded back into the cul-de-sac that is the pointless parliamentary pantomime that we have been stuck in for the last five years. I would like to think that we have simply forgotten that the strength of the people is in our collective and ongoing action. But if I am being honest, I don’t think it is…

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Electoral dysfunction and the climate emergency: a failure to perform with the world watching

2019 will for many be remembered as the year that a sixteen year old grabbed the global mainstream media by the shoulders and screamed ‘climate emergency’ in to its face. Unfortunately, I feel it is important to highlight one of the key obstacles potentially standing in the way of Greta and the millions of other activists fighting the architects of this existential catastrophe that we are all facing. That obstacle is the illusion of democratic…

Continue ReadingElectoral dysfunction and the climate emergency: a failure to perform with the world watching