My Twitter account got its 190,000th follower sometime this morning:
That is 10,000 new followers in 18 days.
And for the cynics, why does this matter? It's because this blog is about changing the world for the better in the interests of those less well-off. The more people are interested, the more likely it is that might happen. That's why it matters.
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‘Changing the world’!
Could someone please tell Labour leader Sheer Harmer (sic) that that’s what it’s all about as that numpty has just refused a party discussion or vote even on PR it seems:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/24/keir-starmer-defies-call-for-changes-to-first-past-the-post-voting-system
Labour? Stick a fork in their bum – they’re done.
Oh, dear. Why am I not surprised. What a jackas*. Why does he seem to be so obtuse?
But look at this!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/25/maurice-glasman-blue-labour-book-interview
Is he still around? Best ignored, and I suspect he will be
It’s his last statement that hits home for me:
“If you look at Labour, as a historical tradition, from its inception to round about … let’s say 1992, you would say that Labour had a greater commitment to the participation of the state in the economy; that it had a particular interest in representing the interests of working-class people, and you would say it had an equal interest in improving the lives of poor communities. All these themes have returned front and centre of our politics:
“Take Mick Lynch and the rail strikes. Labour should be recognising the excellence of the organising of the RMT; recognising that it is absolutely the case that workers’ living standards should not be sacrificed for the profits of privatised owners. Strikes are an extremely important tool for the labour movement and this was a very good one. When Mick Lynch went on television and said: ‘Look at the returns to labour. Look at the returns to capital. Look at what’s been going on for 30 years. We get screwed and they get richer…’, people said ‘Yeah, he’s right.’ Labour needs to seize this moment. It needs to be itself. Be itself.”
It’s almost as if Glasman is suggesting that the uneasy acceptance of the markets within Labour is technically over and a more traditionally sceptical approach – challenging the market primacy as it fails us once more – could offer Labour a huge opportunity.
That is quite a turnaround in my book – it can be seen as some sort of challenge to the prevailing orthodoxy.
This about sums it all up for me:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/25/liz-truss-keir-starmer-electoral-reform-voting-system
Good article
Starmer is begining to have the same aura of irrelevance that the Scottish branch office had more than a decade ago.
Because even the unions have changed their tune on FPTP, he knows that it would be carrried at Conference and rather than ride a winning tiger he’d rather cling to the nag he’s been habituated to regard as his side’s inevitable safe bet. He is beyond saving – and only the madness of the Brexitanian asset strippers opposite him can give ‘his’ party any hope. Their problem – as was the case in Scotland – is that there is no certainty that buggins will be given a turn at all. A Brexit electorate in England so dim and perpetualy lied to by the Britnat media may – especially when freshly redivided into reassigned constituency boundaries and subject to voter suppression overseen by a politicised Electoral Comission – still hang on to the devils they have got into the habit of, God help us all, trusting!
Not just for Scotland – but for the chance of shaking the politics of England so seismically that a real consciousness of the danger in which that country stands – the only hope for the future is Scottish Independence in Europe, hard border and all.
Excellent news! I joined the Labour party fairly late in life, and have come to realise that political parties are a desert for reasoning or new ideas. Your 190k are an indication that you are starting to make a difference. Only when you have convinced enough people outside the political parties, will the parties start to listen to you.
Maybe
Onwards and upwards to quarter of a million.
Craig
Maybe….
That’s good news, Richard—your new 10,000 Twitter followers—in a period where most news has been bad—awful—horrendous. Well done. I don’t do Twitter, but lots of people do.
Even if a few of these new followers turn out to be trolls, at least it demonstrates that you are making headway. Trolls don’t bother harassing people who are not making an impact. You obviously are.
This newest mess caused by Truss/Kwarteng and the dregs of Boris (aided and abetted by wet noodle Starmer) may just be the point where things begin to change for good. Because of the widespread impact these measures are going to have on nearly everybody in the UK, folks are going to be desperate and angry. We need somebody like yourself being seen and heard, to get things heading in the right direction.
What a shame Mick Lynch—or someone like him, with compassion, clear vision, the ability to articulate that vision, and the charisma and leadership backbone to tackle the enemy without flinching—isn’t in the running for Labour party leader, eh? Now THAT would signal a change of direction. And give people in England a party and a leader to actually vote FOR.
There was some Tory think-wank this morning on the radio prattling on about reducing public sector pension commitments.
I agree that compared to other workers we PS folk have it a lot better (wages are 25% down since 2010 BTW), even if what we have now is an average of our income in work and not a final salary pension anymore (thank you Gordon & Tony) but the paucity here of the ‘thinking’ is what so defies belief.
If those commitments are revoked, then you are of course losing money in the economy at the same time as you say that you want to go for growth?!!
How can you go for growth whilst cutting income? Unless you want another credit bubble or unless you want to grow the economy from its base of badly redistributed wealth, relying high level ‘investment returns’ rather than other economic metrics.
2 + 2 does not equal 5.
PSR above SAYS “How can you go for growth whilst cutting income? Unless you want another credit bubble or unless you want to grow the economy from its base of badly redistributed wealth, relying high level ‘investment returns’ rather than other economic metrics.
sums it up
see Eco-Fit – real return via cost-saving – suggest extra incentives for the working poor still renting
thanks for the comment
Michael Glasman seems to make some relevant points in the post PSR copied up and in other areas of his article , confused as to why you think he is ” best ignored ” Richard ?
I never trusted Blue Labour
I still think it a neoliberal cover
Hi Richard
Congrats
Can attention be turned to the commercially-created bank money and the Tweak I have suggested alternative to yours, to what might be called a charge on commercially-made high-street money or Mortgage money? Rather than what Bank of England- creates and as you say some gets written off, deficits etc.
To enable thorough Enveloping
i was disappointed to hear both Reeves and Angela Rainer on the radio spouting old economics drivel straight off the Conservative hymsheet on *Today* programme, about skills and technology. No meat on their bones policywise.When all we have to do is Ultra-Insulate to get £40bn per year of real benefit into the economy widescale (at 1 million homes and buildngs) and such eco-fit work programme will last 30 yr. £1.2 trillion at todays prices over the period
RECENT PROGRESS on Heat Stores [but our under each building has ‘no extraction cost’ as *Carbon Trust* responded] is
Swedish-style Sand Battery/Banks. A Recent research success but could be improved BY MORE DIRECT STORAGE. That is, Better still could be Focus to fund “enveloping with heat-stores”, gentle warmth upwards. To start with:on cutting gas use/cost for the “working poor ” those in landlord accommodation (often the worst) and maybe for the “retired older folk.” Storing summer-collected roof heat directly under existing buildings and “envelope” with much better insulation. Currently eaves and floor losses are not being attended to! Retro-fits are “piecemeal.”
So Why Not ’20-Year money’ at Fixed-rate 1.5% with a one-third return for green and public purposes (the 0.5%) as a way of *starting off* the suggested credit creation charge (CCC)?” Typical principal sum £40k each. As Bill Powell (rtd, now in Cambridge) said “CCC has some of the feartures of a land tax” if applied more widely to Property-Price Money. If ring-fenced couldn’t it make a huge difference to keeping house prices down and public reveues up?. And “the great advantage of heat-storage deep under floors is it operates at a low temperature” at no extraction cost. So Modifed Ground Source and complete eco-fit at £40k?
Best Regards,
Ian G
I am not sure this fits this thread