George Osborne wants to spend £500 million on nuclear war, but the real cost is much higher.

The fact that the Tories are willing to spend obscene amounts of money on something that we'll hopefully  never use,  while dismantling the welfare state and removing the economic safety net for ordinary working people, tells you exactly where their focus is.

In the run up to a vote in the house of parliament they will spin as many lies as required to convince the population that we need nuclear missiles as a deterant against 'rogue states', the 'axis of evil' or whatever they decide to call counties that don't have the same ethos as they do (the tories ethos is profit before human need, by the way).  We will be told the countries such as Iran, North Korea and even Russia, all pose a threat to 'National Security', because your fear is essential if they are to get away with spending around £60billion (that's 60 BILLION POUNDS), over the next 30 years, on a missile system. Anyone who remembers the eighties will tell you that the fear created by 'mutually assured destruction' is genuine and deeply felt. 

Will we be safe?  As long as we are meddling in the affairs of smaller states and following American foreign policy, we won't be safe, at home or abroad.  We could and should be promoting a message of peace, instead of sending messages out that we want a war. 

Personally, I think that if  countries like Switzerland, Austria, and Sweden can declare themselves neutral toward 'beligerants' then that's the way to go.  If we choose to allow our politicians to make preparations for war, then we are going to live in a country that is constantly on the brink of war.  

Don't let Osborne and the Tories get away with this; tell your local politician to vote against Trident, or you won't vote for them.

Austerity is not necessary, and in the history of humanity has never reversed a recession.

Austerity is not necessary, and in the history of humanity, has never cured a recession.  So why do we have austerity measures?  What possible reason is there for a political policy that cuts away funding on public services, health, education, housing, defence?

The answer is found in the philosophy that underpins the current government; it's caled neo-liberalism.  In the 1980s economists called Hayek and Friedmann said that it would be better for everyone if individuals were allowed to do whatever they could to make money, in effect creating an entrepraneurial society.  Political leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were keen and went all out to foster these ideals in their own countries.

For the neo-liberal ideal to work, everyone the world over must be driven to want to make profit for themselves and the founders of the idealogy insisit for this to be a possibility certain conditions must prevail:

1. lower tax rates for individuals and corporations (Coprorations and wealthy inividuals have been dodging these for decades).
2. reduced union power (government is attacking unions at present).
3.cut welfare bill (cuts to the state are happening daily now).
4.don't worry about budget deficits (under Osborne they have gone up, even though he states that austerity is going to reduce the UKs budget deficit).
5.Aggressiveley defend free markets (privatisation, TTIP).

So we have a government hatched plan, austerity, that is designed to cut the interference of the state in the individuals persuit of profit.  Wherever austerity has been tried in the world, poverty deepens and the rich get richer.  A gulf opens up between rich and poor.  A lot of bad feeling is therefore created.  Do we want Austerity?

"RBS Shares sold for £1 billion pound loss over night as tories kick-off state sell off bigger than Thacher"

Just to unpack this headline: shares in a bank that was bailed out by the British taxpayer whenit nearly went bust were sold off to wealthy bankers at knock down rates.  The upshot is that those same bankers, probably some of whom nearly bust the bank in the first place, are set to make massive profits, profits that have been subsidised by the British taxpayer.  Yet again the wealthy have screwed the working people of this nation.  Once again the 1% or so (capitalist class), with most of the wealth, have syphoned off some more of the money that has been earned by the hard work of the 99% (working class). 

These stunts are happening all the time.  This is not an isolated incident.  It is a strategy that is designed to shift wealth up to those few who already have most of it in the first instance.

What can be done?  Look, understand how they swindle and cheat, and tell everyone you meet about it.  When the 99% get wise, the 1% will face what's coming to them; having to share.   

Socialism: it's a crazy idea, but it might just work.

The establishment of a system of society based on common ownership and democratic control of the means of producing and distributing wealth by and in the interests of all.

Imagine that!  Poverty could be a thing of the past.  Of course you couldn't be a multi-billionaire, but who needs more money than can be spent in a lifetime anyway?

You could stop worrying about the damage that we are doing to the earth because we wouldn't create things, baubles and trinkets, purely for profit.

It would mean the end of having to vote for the likes of the PR men, the Tony Blair's and the David Cameron's who are just spokesmen for multi-national coperations, who in turn are just sucking all the wealth up, making us all miserable in the process and ruining the planet by their greed.  But who would miss that?  Who actually likes to see oil tankers shed millions of gallons of crude into the sea, or striking South African Coal Miners gunned down for daring to question health and safety conditions while mine owners rake in enormous profits while workers die.

Socialism: making life fair again.

first meeting with the Socialist Workers Party.

23/07/2015.  Socialist Workers Party, Friends Meeting House, Manchester 7pm.

First meeting with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).  Didn't know what to expect as growing up the media have tended to protray socialist in a negative light. Striking miners and the loony left.  But I met a group of ordinary people who just want to make the world a better place.  They do this by educating themselves, organising actions against unfairness and inhumanity and consider how to draw together others who are being abused by the capitalist system.  Education tonight concerned the current water rate protests in Ireland and linked this to the recent vote to allow gay people to get married. 

Other than attending as many protest marches and rallies against austerity and cuts to public spending, I haven't really been much of an activist.  However, be in the right place at the right time, and opportunities will arise.  Voluntees were needed to 'leaflet' workers under threat from the capitalist machine and I offered.  It's only later, after saying 'I can do that', that I consider what I might be getting myself into.  Someone isn't going to like this, me telling workers that their boss is greedy bully and that they should stand up to the boss and tell him that they are not going to take this anymore. Ah well, I believe I'm doing the right thing.  Capitalism creates poverty and inequality.  Its not fair.