Ode to Corbyn

Life Under Corbyn

If our next Prime Minister’s Corbyn,
A wise and weathered man,
Unlike the reform party,
Mr Corbyn has a plan.

He’ll build decent social housing,
An end to bad landlords, at last,
The damp we have to suffer,
Will become a thing of the past.

He’ll renationalise our industries,
And our household bills will drop,
Neoliberal profiteering,
Under Corbyn, it will stop.

A million jobs created,
Decent terms and conditions for all,
End of tory zero hours contracts,
We’ll all stand proud and tall.

Our services are in crisis,
But migration isn’t to blame,
It’s decades of underfunding,
And that sadly, will never change.

Immigrants will be welcomed here,
To live and work and play,
Well revigorise the migrant impact fund,
We’ll be happy for them to stay.

Now Corbyn, he’s a brave old soul,
But he doesn’t want a war,
To kill innocent people for money,
That, we should all abhor.

The banks who caused the crisis,
Will be reigned in, just you see,
And those tax avoiding leeches,
Will learn sharing and not greed.

We are a land of true compassion,
We love and care, not hate,
This is what it means to be British,
This is what makes Britain ‘Great’.

So Corbyn is very electable,
Don’t put you faith in the press,
For all they have to offer is,
Their vested interest.

The press is owned by billionaires,
And taxes they don’t pay,
Which is why they denounce Corbyn,
To stop him making change.

This life could be reality,
Vote any one else is a sin,
So next you visit the ballot box,
Ensure you vote for Corbyn.

The Death of Neoliberalism - Part 2

One can't help but notice that there has been some political shenanigans going on of late.
Tory, Labour or Ukip? The posturing, the argument, it has all been great fun and yes, maybe a little boisterous. But what is it that is actually at stake here? What battle is really being fought here?

The fight isn’t just between political parties this time, its for a change in the economic model. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher introduced a new kind of economic model to the people of Britain, the economics of neoliberalism. It is this very economic model that ‘leaves people behind’. In 1997, when Tony Blair became prime minister, he rejected socialism and adopted neoliberalism as his favoured economic model. So the labour party were no longer socialists but had become neoliberals. Every election since then, irrespective of a tory or labour win at the ballot box, neo-liberalism in one form or another, always won and for almost 40 years, those left behind have struggled to survive. Forgotten by both the Tories and New Labour, it isn’t difficult to understand the distrust in the political establishment.

There is an easy way to separate neo-liberalism from socialism. Neoliberals want the wealth and power of the people handed over to the private sector, our NHS, railways, utility companies. Its a kind of ‘corporate communism’ which has been evolving for decades where business as opposed to the state own everything, but its still basically communism.
Socialism wants wealth and power handed over to the people so as everyone benefits, not contracted out to the private sector, where profits are kept as personal wealth in private bank accounts, instead of being re-invested into our services.
This is the real battle that is going on, the fight to wrestle the wealth and power once rightfully owned by the British people and taken piece by valuable piece, by successive neoliberal governments, to hand back to the British people so as they alone, not corporations, will be the architects or their own future.

As there are neoliberals and socialists within the Labour party, this also explains why the party is split. This isn’t a battle over a weak leader, but a battle for the very soul of the Labour Party, is the Labour Party neoliberal or socialist? When the Labour Party fielded a true socialist candidate for leader of the Labour Party in 2015, socialists around the country woke up and flocked to the party. Now the membership is made up primarily of true socialists. This is also why the Labour Party cannot depose Corbyn, because he has the overwhelming backing of, the membership. All the neoliberal element of the Labour Party can hope to achieve is to erode the membership support for Corbyn enough to launch yet another leadership challenge. It seems that the job of the socialist Labour members is to stay united, stay strong and stay members. The main danger for the Socialist labour party is that as time goes on, the membership who joined to support Corbyn as leader may feel their job is finished. Lapsing membership is one of the great threats to Corbyns leadership, especially if they are not allowed vote in leadership elections, without being party members for 6 months.

These same splits are evident, within the tory party who have their own internal (but suppressed from public view) battles between capitalism and neoliberalism, but you’d be lucky to find it documented though. Ken Clarke though strikes a lonely figure as one of the last remnants of a true tory conservative.

As for the future, neoliberalism has almost finished draining the last drop of capitalism from the Tory party. With capitalism being a close cousin of neoliberalism, it wasn’t too difficult for capitalism to be overwhelmed and subdued. The return of Socialism to the Labour Party has created a powerful defence against neoliberalism, and over the next 3 years, those defences will be continually tested for weaknesses. The weapons deployed by neoliberals run along the lines of leadership challenges, false accusations (trot infiltrations, unelectable etc) demonising the membership and of course, fake news which is happily delivered by the main stream media in the hope that they can create enough lethargy to divide Corbyns support base.
It seems to me that the battle for the next general election isn’t in 2020, its now. Neoliberalism does not want to face socialism in a fair fight, it would much rather face itself as it has done for he last 38 years. Neoliberal tory, or neoliberal Labour, it matters little. But neoliberal versus Socialism? that is a battle that neoliberalism knows that it can't win and therefore has to kill off socialism before the next general election.   

While neoliberalism has just elected its first president in the States, in the UK neoliberalism is in retreat and fighting for its very survival. If socialism wins in 2020, neoliberalism in the UK will be forced back into obscurity and the Tories will have to create more left leaning policies in order to just survive.
All 'socialism' has to do to win, is stay united, stay strong and retain the membership.

State Pension Strategy - Giving people the right to retire at a time of their choosing

State Pension Equality Strategy
It is clear that there exists an imbalance of equality with the State Pension.
This suggestion will aim to eradicate the gender inequality inherent within the state pension retirement ages, and also provide the flexibility for people to retire on a state pension at a time of their choosing and not that of the governments.
Another advantage of this policy idea is that, as more people will have the opportunity to take retirement earlier, then presumably, an equal amount to jobs will become available in the jobs markets. This will also be of significant advantage to British business as those retiring have usually reached the top of their pay scales and will be replaced by people entering employment at the bottom, which could make significant savings for businesses, which in turn could be used to invest in workforce education.
The government pension scheme will operate in a similar way to Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) in that, if you are lucky enough to be able to afford to retire earlier, you will take a slightly reduced pension. This would enable those who have saved for retirement to be able to afford to retire earlier, and those that haven’t, may have to work longer, but once arriving at their chosen retirement age, will receive a larger weekly pension.
The scheme would apply to all people equally irrespective of gender.
Here are some numbers based on a life expectancy of 80 years of age and a maximum state pension of £120 per week. These figures are just for illustration.
If we base the pension on a weekly income of £120 per week for someone retiring at 65 and with a 15 year life expectancy, they would have a total pension pot of £93,600 based over a 15 year period. So their weekly pension would be £120pw.
However, someone retiring at 60 with a 20 year life expectancy would receive the same pension pot of £93,600, but their pension is based on being in receipt of it for 5 years longer, they would receive a weekly pension of £90pw. Over a 20 year period or average life expectancy, the pensions would achieve parity whilst giving people the flexibility to retire at a time of their choosing.
The calculations of pension are easily adjusted to compensate for changes in life expectancy and age of retirement. Pension can be calculated to be taken at any time throughout the year providing the opportunity to take retirement on any day of ones choosing between the ages of 60 and the day one chooses to retire.

The Death of Neo Liberalism

Have you ever wondered why there is so much negativity and hatred towards the left these days? The thing that has struck me so powerfully is the unprecedented level that the vitriol has reached. Why?

For too long the labour party has been edging ever closer to the right, which has kept capitalism as an economic plan, thriving. But the problem with capitalism is that it is an insatiable beast which will ultimately run out of the 'assets' on which it needs to feed. The last great store of wealth in the UK are the assets owned by the tax payer. Under the Conservatives neo-liberal economy, many of the assets we owned, the utility companies, railways and royal mail have already succumbed and we now bear witness to the 'fire sale' of the most profitable sections of oir last publicly funded assets. The police service, the NHS suffering increased costs to run and a degraded service to the public because sections of them are disappearing fast into private sector ownership. All of which provides woefull value for the tax payer. Social housing is an excellent example of dreadful value for the tax payer, we are now in the ridiculous position where it would be cheaper to buy the unemployed a home, than to rent one for them. Instead of the tax payer building an asset portfolio of hundreds of thousands of good quality homes, our taxes are wasted on private landlords, with no prospect of a return on the taxes we pay. This is what neo-liberalism is, it believes that all assets should be owned privately, not by governments. They achieve this by getting business friendly politicians into power. Once there, they can then start stripping the people of their assets until the tax payer has has nothing left. Most people know this as privatisation.

The new threat from the left for once, isn't just rhetoric, there lies behind it a very real plan. Jeremy Corbyn will create the structure for it, but it is ordinary people like you and me, who will benefit from it by building the infrastructure. Capitalism has effectively strangled creativity and entrepeneurialism, it has made it very hard for new innovations to be realised. Jeremy Corbyns policies will set this creativity free to impact on our lives in a million different ways. Technologies will be created to challenge and surpass existing industry, where decent pay and working conditions will become a standard. What will be created is truly 'trickle up' economics. It could even prove to be a 'tsunami up' economy. An economy that provides wealth for everyone, not driven and reliant on markets or shareholders. An economy of inherent strength, that has no need to slash thousands of jobs because of a dip in profit. And the thing that is petrifying the neo liberal conservatives the most is, that we now know how to do it.

It was John McDonald who inspired these thoughts, who in response to the Queens speech said:

"Labour rejects the failed and cruel austerity programme adopted by this government. Instead, working in partnership with businesses, entrepreneurs and workers, Labour would create an entrepreneurial state to support innovation, create wealth and drive growth. And we would share the proceeds of that growth fairly.

By investing in our economy Labour would lay the foundations of a new society that is radically fairer, more equal and more democratic. An alternative based upon a prosperous economy which is economically sound, environmentally sustainable and where that prosperity is shared by all"

I do not know if I'm using the right terminology, but I've called this 'Social Capitalism', maybe its just socialism. Where business is a tool used for the betterment of everyone, not for the enrichment of individuals. Within this society there would be no room for tax avoiders,  their existance wouldn't be tolerated. Reclaiming taxes would be much less of a problem than it is today, because a corporations survival would depend on it. It's not opposed to people building personal wealth, so there is a place for true, honest capitalism, which takes people with it, instead of leaving them behind. Corbyns policies are inclusive enough to appeal to many on the right, however, the days of the tax payer funded money tree will be consigned to history.

If this is Corbyns plan, then it is not surprising that there is so much opposition to him, so much desperate need to rid government of him because Corbyns vision is the only solution to reversing inequality and provide a fair economy for the benefit of everyone. There is so much creativity, innovation and entrepeneurialism just waiting to burst through that would be prevented from doing so, under our traditional parties. This is a vision that can does not depend on EU membership of, but all the more important to realise now that we are 'out'.

To allow the right to win now would be to deny the British people the opportunity to enjoy a country of social and economic justice.

I think therefore, going back to my opening paragraph, the manifestation of hatred and vitriol against the left can only be explained as the manifestation of fear, and judging by its levels, it must be rife within the neo-liberal community. A fear not only that neo-liberalism is in its death throws, but that there is something very real emerging, to seal its fate. The dream, that generations of people have been fighting for in social and economic justice is within touching distance and for the first time, we will no longer have to settle for scraps from the masters table. This time it's different, it feels real, this time its not rhetoric, this time we really do know how to achieve it. This is why, the bile that has been spewed by the main stream media about Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters has achieved nothing except for the opposite it was intended to. This time we have the vision, we have the talent, we have the support and most importantly, we have the leadership to guide us there.