Send a letter to the EU!

Copy of message sent to a friend.

Hello,

Not an easy subject to write about particularly with all the emotion and self interest attached to the UK’s interest in the EU. No need to reply and sorry to be a bit direct on occasions.

In a way, I was rather hoping that you did not mention the EU because it is not one of the simplest organisations to analyse. I do not expect you to agree, but I hope you will take a few minutes to write this offering and then perhaps we can agree to disagree. I am not expecting a full response, so no sweat.

The European Union has acted as an uncompromising vehicle of neoliberalism, both economically, in its forced imposition of austerity on Greece and several other member states, and institutionally, in its downgrading of the Democractic process. The situation in Catalonia and even the recent position on Venezuela has perhaps complicated any analysis, but outlines the EUs reactionary politics.

Meanwhile, the free movement of EU citizens across its internal borders has been accompanied by the increasing militarisation of its frontier. Those trying to reach the continent die in the thousands in the Mediterranean, or are forcibly removed to an increasingly authoritarian Turkey, in which they are often denied any possibility of refugee status. The role of the EU in the Middle East can hardly be called progressive. Even the progressive legislation and there has been some, as always been at a cost to Democracy. Does it not concern you that the right in the Labour Party, the tax dodging bosses and the bosses of the establishment and the rigged system are queueing with the remainers.

But what may seem a simple choice for the Left is complicated by the current political situation. This referendum was demanded by the Right and has been dominated by the Right, highlighting the degree of disunity on the left which can be rectified and should not be a reason for supporting the bosses union which is in deep crisis. The EU still has its own austerity measures and quantitative easing is still a tool, enabling the rich in acquire more wealth at the expense of most others. Both this country, the EU and the USA are economically and politically bankrupt owing trillions. One day a true international movement will be built uniting us all in both the EU and the world. In the meantime, plenty to do to bring about changes to support the environment and all those left behind. With a Socialist Government we should not be restricted by the EU and be free to legislate for even better laws than the EU has offered. This should give hope for a future where we are not manipulated and live in harmony and on an international basis.

This country is certainly run down economically, but the alternative as you see it, to getting into bed with the USA as been saught by the EU and we should not forget TTIP. We need a socialist alternative and only the struggle and Solidarity of the people can achieve this. Even the legal and protective forms of EU legislation we can legislate for and we should be more confident in achieving our goals. We built the NHS when we were broke and we built it with vigour, optimism and determination. Ye of little faith! Britains, neoliberal austerity is a mainly a home-grown product. As a result, the EU is popularly imagined not as the imposer of reactionary economics, but as an imposition on the sovereignty of a British state which could otherwise control its borders and keep out immigrants. This is clearly nonsense.

The immediate beneficiaries of the Leave vote have been the Tory right, the far-right UKIP and even more unsavory and openly racist forces. Migrants feel under threat, and rightly so the Left seems stuck between remaining within an institution authentically to our aims, and gambling that we can turn the period of crisis which would undoubtedly follow after leaving into a system for the many and not the few. We clearly should not be stuck like this and have a clearer perspective for the people who are already sick of the biased media and eststablment daily bombardment of innacurrencies and so often very blatant array, of a tissue of lies.

If this gamble is seen as too great, what does it say about the self-confidence, organisational capacity, and political horizons of the British left? Then Cold War factors come into play, in a sense France and West Germany were less inclined to threaten each other because both were directed against an external enemy in the shape of the Soviet regime. That now seems to have returned.

As this last point suggests, the United States was not in any sense opposed to or threatened by the EEC, indeed it saw western european integration as a necessary institutional compliment to NATO.

This point is important, as you seem to argue that the EU is a block against US interests; but while it is true that the major EU states compete economically with the United States, and that they do not always politically agree such as over Yugoslavia or Ukraine, they are united in the same imperialist alliance and against us all.

Given these origins it is scarcely surprising that the EU reproduces internally the structured unevenness of the capitalist system, in which the dominant members, namely Germany and some way behind, France, determine the fate of the weaker members.

This has been most obvious in the case of Greece, but also in those of Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and even Italy who are moving to the right.

However, uneven though it is internally, the EU presents a unified face to the global south outside Europe, both economically, since it both dumps food exports there and blocks imports in return, and geopolitically, in the shape of the fortress Europe it presents to refugees and other migrants. Import controls that Trump seems to love and hate with his trade wars. Sound familiar!
It might be argued that these aspects of the EU could be subject to reform, but the mechanisms by which this could take place are never made clear and are so bureaucratic.
The dominant bodies in the EU are either unelected, like the Central Bank or the Commission, or like the Council, consist of government leaders from the member states, who are elected by their own voters, but not by those of the EU as a whole, even though they are making decisions which affect it.
The parliament, as is well known, cannot initiate legislation on its own behalf, but simply ratify or at best amend initiatives from the Commission.
In a way, the entire setup was invented by the right, in which he argued for an EU-type body which would be run primarily by bureaucrats, so that interfering voters, and by extension politicians, would be unable to make demands threatening to the market order, and that economic policy would be governed by a set of unbreakable rules, constitutive of what we now call neoliberalism. Sound familiar?
What happens if Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party wins the next election and then finds that its path to reform is blocked by the EU, do you at that point say,  sorry we didn’t mention this before, but the EU is actually a regime for imposing neoliberal austerity which we should maybe think about leaving? Why would anyone listen to us then? The situation would be worse.
Rather than relying on the EU, the Left needs to unite around a program of defense for migrants, whatever their status economic migrant, refugee, or asylum seekers which attempts to: one, end all restrictions on immigration, irrespective of EU membership; two, extend full rights of British citizenship to all migrants; three, unionise the workers, native and migrant, in the precarious sectors where the latter are most concentrated and close down the detention centres and establish new rights.

I think there is a very deep pessimism in your message which perhaps suggests matters about the prospects for socialism, and a belief that we have to restore capitalism to health before we can even think about moving beyond it.
The problem is that The problem is that capitalism isn’t going to be restored to health at least not to the kind of health it enjoyed in the West during the postwar so called boom.

This may well seem like a protracted response to your message, but it is only part of the analysis. I have tried to offer some alternatives to your gloom and despondency.  Sorry, but do cheer up and have hope. Although, I appreciate it is a difficult one to sell on the doorstep when canvassing.

Again given up waiting for the snow, but I will send you the photos of my dogs and I hope we do not fall out over the EU and interconnected matters.  I will just hope that we can agree to disagree. Do look after yourself. Ivor

As I post the political establishment struggle about to almost disregard the referendum result. The impact on the economy will be huge.

Ivor Timson.                February 2019

Economics in Crisis!

Success for the anti-austerity movement!

​New hope as anti- austerity parties gather momentum!​

​The continuing crisis ​and slump​ is still not over, but at least we are now told that we have ​slight improvements.​​ But​ do we?​

And​ at what cost, Zero hour contracts, many part employed and the richest simply get richer. ​The bedroom tax, the nightmare for disability claimants are just examples, to prove we are not ”all in it together”. ​We know the cuts by the coalition are for right wing ideological reasons alone. They care only for their own interests. And how many of us are, or indeed feel better off?

​Austerity does not work and simply enables the rich to become richer​. But the fightback is now beginning with the victory of Syriza in Greece and the Spanish demonstrations. And other counties are poised to follow.

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This present system has made many desperate attempts to continue, but of those that stand out in the past century, it has to be quantitative easing, wars and almost zero interest rates; which have become the most desperate.​

In all this time, the real​ problems​ have​ eaten more than £12 trillion in public funds. It has been at the root of practically every major political argument in this country, and it affects every aspect of the way we live our lives. In fact, you will certainly see the consequences of this deep rooted problem unfold across the cities, towns and villages of Britain. No one will escape the fallout and pensioners and those vulnerable are likely to be the most affected. Our system needs to be repaired and much more than that, we need to search for alternatives and a new system.​ And as I type, new cuts are being planned for after our General Election​ and even more money is being printed in Europe.

The next phase in this crisis could threaten our very way of life. We know that printing mountains of money can only end in disaster. And, unlike most of the presenters on TV and in the mainstream press, some analysts understand what ​is​ really occurring, but it is in ​their own​ interests to deceive ​us.​

Together with tiny interest rates and fictitious capital it could again end in disaster. ​But the Bankers who were partly responsible for this crisis have no answers other than austerity. More desperate attempts to resolve matters. They avoid the interest rate dilemma and fictitious capital problems.​ And we still hang on to 0.5 percentage interest rate, as the fear of an increase causes trepidation, ​unclear signals and bungled and contradictory statements from the Bank of England.

That means the most important trend of the next twenty years is almost certainly rising interest rates, as I have now argued for years.​​Please do not misunderstand, I am not advocating an increase, but the present system needs to raise the rate, as I have previously explained. We are now facing an unprecedented crisis. As interest rates rise, our record ‘debts and interest’ will become impossible to bear. And at precisely the same time, we need to fund our services such as the NHS. Only a new model can achieve all this together with a fair economic and political system.

​We need to start real debates around the country, to prepare for a new and non speculative system and this is very possible and in the interests of us all. The dithering Bank of England have no answers and continue with their desperate ramblings about interest rates.​

The mainstream parties have failed.

There really are alternatives to austerity and our current system which is designed to protect the interests of the rich.

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Join us in the forthcoming campaigns around the world. We can make a difference and bring about real changes. Perhaps we need a new anti- austerity party in the UK?

Social Systems and Corruption

We now know, thanks to Edward Snowden that GCHQ knowingly perpetrated a mass surveillance programme for which there was no adequate legal authorisation and then sought to stifle any public debate which might generate a challenge under privacy laws.

GCHQ used a clandestine security electronic surveillance programme called Tempora to gain access to large amounts of internet users’ personal data. This is quite frankly appalling on it own. The main telecoms companies lied in response to the Tempora revelations by declaring they simply complied with the law, when in fact they far exceeded what the law provided for.

We now know that the Home Office and GCHQ campaigned to reject the use of intercepts as evidence and not as they said at the time, because of the risk to national security, but because it would expose how far they had gone beyond the law, including accessing communications networks abroad. The governance of Britain’s power institutions has all but collapsed as indeed George Orwell predicted. The ineffective intelligence and security committee should be swept away and replaced by a powerful select committee responsible to Parliament and the people.

But all is not lost a powerful movement is devolpoing lead by Students and the Pensioner movement. What a contrast, but united with ordinary people a force to be reckoned with.

We have all had enough of corruption and lies and a social system that simply does not work.

Spys and our NHS!

Over fifty thousand marched and joined the rally at Manchester on the 29th September 2013 in support of the NHS. Many of the Pensioners Convention members were in attendance, in what the Police described as the largest march seen in Manchester.

The demonstration aimed to highlight the impact of government policies on jobs and spending across the health service, as well as the “rapid selloff” of the most lucrative parts of the NHS to private healthcare companies.

They were in Manchester to protest against the privatisation of the NHS by the Tories and their Lib Dem partners. The growing mood of resistance was fully in evidence. The march wound through the streets for three hours. At its head was public-service Union Unison, a contingent which was itself thousands strong. A huge display of strength was shown by people of all ages. Following the march union leaders were due to address a rally alongside appearances by musicians.

Still lot’s more to say on spying including the news that British intelligence agencies have successfully cracked much of the online encryption relied upon by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their personal data, online transactions and emails, according to top-secret documents revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden.  And as I type, the UK is trying to block minor reforms of protection by the European Union. Again very frightening, but some organisations are working on solving the problem in our interests. More soon.

No return to the 1930’s!

Six years since the near collapse of the global financial system, we continue to face an economic and social crisis. Trillions of dollars have been poured into the private banks to stave off disaster and the result has been to transfer their debts onto the books of national governments causing an immense debt crisis. The response of governments, has been to adopt extreme and far reaching austerity policies. In this way, they have sought to make the poor pay for the current crisis whilst attempting to deal with the systemic crisis of the capitalism system by reverting to the form it achieved in the 1930s, without social policies. This meant for example, a visit to the doctor was often unaffordable. Recently discussions around these very topics have just been aired in the UK. Many of the less well of in our society are having to face the burden of this continuing crisis. Universal benefits for pensioners are also being threatened.

Let’s make the future demonstrations and meetings this year the largest ever. Our voice must be heard and acted upon.

And now we have the spectre of the so called ‘green shoots’ but it is only achieved by a pretentious economy, with it’s artificially low interests rates and the continuous printing of money. And there are interconnections with my recent surveillance article and I intend to expand upon this in my next post.

Surveillance needed on the Government and Banks!

CCTV on almost every corner, cameras that record car number-plates and electronic payment and communication systems that record information stored in vast databases.

Together with all this, we face the prospect of a cashless, chequeless society, in which the mobile phone alone will be used as the mechanism of payment for goods.This will mean our every purchase will be monitored. And what will be done to address the serious concerns of the older person and the vulnerable?

And please don’t forget the ID Information revealed by whistle blower Edward Snowden about the PRISM spy programme, which used data from giant internet companies, such as Google and Facebook. This programme apparently carried out mass surveillance of people outside the US and we now have further evidence about the warrantless spying on civilians by the US government and others.

We are so near the big brother state. And our Government is still in denial and is now even considering plans which would lose the UK public £7 billion in flogging off our publicly-owned bank, RBS, on the cheap. We paid to bail it out back in 2007. But surely should now be deciding how to make best use of this huge public asset and a serious option should be to keep this Bank and take over or keep all the other banks under democratic control.

Many of us are getting angry and for starters, perhaps we should recognise that surveillance of the Government and Banks is becoming a real demand, as they both got us into this mess; with a little help from a system in chaos.

These are even more sinister and symbolic developments. Welcome to our so called democratic and free new world.

Bedoom tax and our system!

This looming crisis is related to the financial crisis of 2007, but it will be infinitely more dangerous. Outgoing Bank of England Governor ‘have a good guess’ Mervyn King- Economist- has urged successor Mark Carney not to spell out how long interest rates will remain low when he takes charge. The low interest rates have as I previously argued creates a false economy, but a economy that can be changed.

The very trillianaires, the tax avoiders, Bankers and speculators which some argue apparently are not the cause of the chaos , always refuse to care and put profits first and people have been way down in there priority list. But apart from these abhorrent groups, interest rates have been at the root of practically every major political argument in this country, and it affects every aspect of the way we live our lives.

Interest rates affect most of us either directly or indirectly. In fact, you will certainly see the consequences of this deep rooted problem unfold across the cities, towns and villages of Britain. No one will escape the fallout and pensioners and those vulnerable are likely to be the most affected. Our system needs to be repaired and much more than that we need to find alternative ways of living and a new system.

The same financial problems that have been tracked from bank to bank, from company to company for more than at least six years, have now found their way into the heart of our financial system which is in disarray. The next phase in this crisis could threaten our very way of life. We know that printing mountains of money – quantitative easing- can only end in disaster. And, unlike most of the presenters on TV and in the mainstream press, some analysts understand what’s really going on, but it is their interests to deceive us.

Of course, the most important part of this situation is not what is happening, but rather what we can do about it. In other words, will you be prepared when this crisis becomes a national emergency, as can easily be predicted. I fear that most people will not know what to do if banks fold and they are unable to withdraw their savings. They won’t know what to do if the stock exchange suspends trading. They will feel powerless, if their pension income dries up or if their home loses 70% of its value. We need to prepare and commence discussions in all our communities. We really do need alternatives to the current mainstream parties, who have made it difficult for others to challenge. Most seem corrupt, but we seem to accept it.

If the NHS is sold off and benefits are partially scrapped, the confusion will turn into rage and huge campaigns. By the next general election in 2015, our national debt is estimated to stand at almost £1.4 trillion. It’s clear: our public finances are in an enormous mess. And to some extent, some politicians will admit it. But add in our financial, personal and private debt and an even darker picture emerges. But more cuts will not solve all this.

Compared to the size of our economy, Britain is now one of the most heavily indebted countries in the Western world. That’s official. Our total debts stand at more than six times of what our entire economy is worth. Proportionally, that’s more debt than Italy, Portugal, Spain and almost twice as much debt as Greece. Those are four countries already in the throes of financial crisis. We’re the odd one out because we haven’t collapsed as yet. But things can’t stay that way for long.

The only countries that have more debt than us are Japan, where the economy has stagnated for 20 years and the stock market has crashed by 75% and Ireland, where the housing market has crashed 50%, and the government has been forced to accept a bailout. It could be said that India bucks these trends, unless you examine the underlying criteria.

That means the most important trend of the next twenty years is almost certainly rising interest rates and the way it affects us all and even those living in a world of denial.

We’re now facing an unprecedented crisis. As interest rates rise, our record debts will become impossible to bear. And what will happen to all those that purchased on a buy to let basis. When these events unfold, very few people will have any idea how to respond. Most will see any assets they have worked all their life begin to lose value, rapidly.

It won’t matter if you have £2,000 in the bank or £500,000. It won’t matter if you own a five bedroom house in Surrey or a one bedroom flat in Chelsea or costed into the bedroom dreadful tax fiasco. This crisis will lay waste to the wealth of anyone who isn’t prepared for it. And prepare we must- profits should not come first!

It’s essential we all prepare for these events. We can’t rely on mainstream commentators to help us. We need to start real debates around the country, to prepare for a new and non speculative system. We can really achieve this, so lets start the debate now.

The stakes are high. No crocodile tears!

The stakes are very high. Climate change is accelerating, inequality is at historic levels, unemployment is rampant and many countries are bankrupt. The financial industry continues to teeter on the brink of collapse, threatening the entire global economy. And despite all this our political system has proved incapable of effecting the structural transformations necessary to bring about real change. The time is right for a new approach, a new progressive system and a new economy. Having more of the same failed medicine is clearly never going to work. We cannot simply shed crocodile tears.

The plan that I have consistently argued, begins with the recognition that a huge amount of people around the  country understand that the system is broken, and that we must work to replace it with something different. Many of these epeople are already campaigning through blogs and social networking and some are now beginning to work in their local communities to bring about change; whilst others campaign at meetings. Others are just waiting for an opportunity, which we must provide. My hope is to bring these people of all ages together with other progressive organisations to build a movement to propel us all towards a new economy. We can achieve a sustainable and fair economy and our blogs can act as a catalyst for change. We cannot continue in a state of denial- our future world and today’s environment is at stake.

Say No to Privatisation!

The government’s obsession with forcing competition in the NHS continues despite continuing opposition from all walks of life. Huge petitions have been organised and I am pleased the organisation I support helped in this process.

NHS clinical commissioners interim president Dr Michael Dixon, who helped draft the Health and Social Care Act, expressed dismay at section 75 regulations that will force competition in the NHS and give rights to private companies.

Dr Dixon warned GPs risk taking “their eye off the ball” and getting “bogged down” in whether or not they are being competitive.

Dr Dixon also pointed out that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) may have to defend expensive legal claims from private companies for not having put services out to tender.

“It is going to make everyone watch their back and a whole industry of people who challenge things back and forth as to whether they have been sufficiently competitive or not, and opens the window to providers to challenge the CCGs,” he said.

A rethink of section 75 has now been announced, but we must all keep up the pressure on our politicians and Government to abandon these proposals in their entirety. Say no to privatisation and please continue to defend our very precious National Health Service. Please at least do your bit and sign a petition. We have little time. Thanks.