Wednesday 29 July 2015

Small Fry, Big Pond

In this global world we live in there are two power houses who between them control, manipulate and set the agenda for all the other Nations. They are of course China and USofA, except China is just getting into its stride and poor USofA is running out of puff and can now only bluster, pretending it still is in its prime. There are other potentials in the wings watching the drift and looking where the most advantage can be achieved by forming alliances, Russia, Middle East and the rest of Asia. And then there is Europe. Of all the those waiting in the wings Europe has the most potential to step into the vacuum left by USofA's loss of virility, if only it could sort itself out.

Europe needs a dynamic and cohesive core that sets aside trivial national interests and effectively works together for the greater good. That is the promise, a promise yet to materialise. It really doesn't help to have UKplc whingeing on the sidelines for ever moaning about being in, or wanting out, or being in but only partially in with an opt out clause. The powerhouse core with an industrial commercial muscle behind it is clearly France, Germany and England. Not diminishing the contributions of the other allied countries but that is where the EU strength lies, these three nations.

It totally beggars belief that any sane person can seriously contemplate UKplc trading as a sole Nation could stand up to the rest of the World and seek to amend or change trading terms. Even if, with a miracle wand, suddenly all the associated Commonwealth Nations fell into line we still would be a trading irrelevance. With out any power to influence we would be totally subservient to what the other world powers decide are the standards and terms of trade, a total capitulation. That is not my UKplc history. We have a long commercial and industrial history that should be key and influential in setting world agendas. But not if we speak alone, only if we are in step and in tune with our close European partners. A true meld of our strengths.

To work together in harmony, willing to surrender local interests for the common good requires trust. Trust can only be fully founded within societies that have common, similar, parallel cultural and moral codes. Where the word expressed can be confidently taken to mean what it says and not to be confounded by some off the wall interpretation germinated in another different set of cultural values. Unless black is black or white is white or truth is truth only then can trust flourish. I feel that bond with Germany, we share of lot of European history, I share that bond with France we fought against each other or together many times, I feel a bond with the Netherlands. I recognise a lot of common similarities with Italy, Spain, Sweden, reaching out further I begin to get uneasy, too many cultural differences and response at variance with my expectations to feel truly comfortable. By the time we get to Estonia, Croatia, Latvia or even Cyprus I am saying, whoa, I have absolutely no idea where their priorities are, their approach to integrity or commitment, where their deep instinctive loyalties lie. I don't know them and therefore cannot understand them as societies, irrespective of whether they fall under some label called Western Europe. This then is the issue I have with the EU.

The founding aim to re-unite Western Europe all under one umbrella is laudable. Fine as a loose trading partnership, a forum for reaching agreement on unity and support. But tied in to one united monetary and legislative system, no several steps too far. We need a two tiered EU. The core of tightly bonded nations, willing and able to surrender their individual pasts and work cohesively together. When they get their act together only then to expand, cautiously, brining in a new partner at a time. This is the EU vision I can support, a vision where UKplc has to be committed and in. A EU where the referendum is irrelevant, the only alternative to commercial suicide and where xenophobia just does not arise.




















Wednesday 6 May 2015

Not that lone voice

I have been going on about how the Political Parties have subverted democracy to their own power cause. See: The Political No Vote, Political Wilderness, Living a Now Life. I choose not to select a Party and if I am not able to Vote for a person to represent me, me not their party, or am not able to vote for None of the Above then I will not Vote. In parallel I object to being reduced to making the illiterates mark of an 'X' to signify my choices. In this day and age we are capable of expressing and uniting on a far wider and complex range of thoughts, opinions and agreements. An 'X' says nothing. Going on about it but apprehensive, was I unrealistic, too idealistic, too remote from the nitty gritty of every day, just an oddball with a soap box.

Turns out, thanks to, of all publications, the New Scientist - We the People (see also A Vote for Change) that I am not alone! Across the democratic world there are thousands of people with similar thoughts all looking to find better ways of applying democracy in practice. People with very similar ideas actually trying out and trailing alternative ways of enabling the everyman to contribute to a consensus view. Vindication! With Facebook and Google claiming to know before I do where my interest lie why oh why have they not promoted these other organisations onto my news feeds? Surely it cannot be that no advertising income is being generated by peoples democracy? So join in the discussion, you and I are not alone, there is a movement out there of like mind people. We just need to connect with them.

Tuesday 28 April 2015

Nothing to Live For

When each day drearily unfolds exactly as the last day, unremittingly, never changing, the same lack of options, the self same lack of certainty of food, lack of warmth, lack of change of clothes, life is miserable. When you cannot afford to be with friends, or worse old friends shun you, because you are not able to keep up with their exploits, then life is deeply despondent. When you mooch around waiting for those endless minutes to pass, you see and watch from outside all those other people, people just like you but better off, able to have nice things to use, able to mix and buy stuff with or for each other, able to have friends and make plans together. Without it life is worthless, there is nothing to live for. For why? You never had their chances, maybe a stable home, progress to higher education, opportunity to prove you can do better the next person, someone to confirm that you are doing okay or any combination of some or all of the above if nothing more extreme.

The one missing ingredient above all else is, hope. With hope that makes tomorrow a possibility. Without hope life is not worth living. If life is not worth living any other options becomes attractive even addictive. To shoplift, steal, joyride or just wreck whatever. Gain some local pride or notoriety and join a gang to graffiti your presence in the world and intimidate those not of your group. Or surrender to terrorism, get swept up in a cult where you at last have recognition and cadre amongst your own kind. A chance to gain hope even though in a hopeless endgame!

Hope requires so little yet can surmount so much. A helping hand, even that is more than needed, just a chance to change some small aspect of tomorrow is a starting point. A point from when hope can at last flicker back into being and with care can be fanned into a strong desire. Yet we, all of us, that have, have to give so there can be hope. A sustainable hope that is not extinguished by the very next stumble. With hope we can save all those around us, living amongst, that have lost the will to live. We just need to get back to a fair and equitable life style where everyone of us can hope to succeed. Where success does not depend on your pocket, or your families wealth or connections but simply on your ability and willingness to try. Now that gives me hope

Monday 6 April 2015

Being Accountable

Let me clarify. I do not believe in free enterprise. Our human desires and the consequences of achieving those desires requires to be tempered, we each have to exercise restraint. Or have restraint imposed on us. Neither do I believe in some centralised state control, equality for all. We are all too varied in our needs, access to resources and aspirations. No, what I been flogging over many of these blogs is the need to get back to belonging to a community. A caring community that is accountable and responsible to those that relate to it. A community that is meaningful and able to better the quality of life for each of us that belong to it. In this globalised world we exist within, this matrix society, we may belong to a duplicity of communities with varying degrees of weak to very strong bonds. Our membership maybe often be transitory but in key communities membership is non-cancellable, it is lifelong. Our life has to governed by the communities we bond with, with the obligations, responsibilities and expectations that their membership entails. You cannot be honourable and a freebooter. Holding your head up amongst your peers seems to be a core value requisite in each of us as members of a civilised society. Whichever way you frame it, membership has its price but also returns in kind.

Tythings I knew of as a word. I have just finished a book where, for the first time, I encountered an explanation where the full significance dawned. A tything was a medieval unit of ten households where the heads of house looked out for each other head of house and was held to account for any misdoings by anyone within that tything. Not just his own household but anyone properly tied to the group. A collective reprimand for any one individuals failings but also a caring supportive framework for each group member. An automatic support response, regardless of status, wealth or worthiness, just dependant on degree of need.

In arriving at a new definition of community, relevant to our century, we too could do with a tything concept. A core group we are responsible and accountable too. A group of peers bound by familiar circumstances and backgrounds. Able to relate, respond and reprimand as the occasion demands without judgement or censure. Membership where the group can achieve far beyond that of any one individual and can reach out and be significant in a much wider network of like minded groups. That is beginning to sound like a community structure where we can have a voice, a voice that counts, a voice that is tempered by consensus, a voice able to give as well as receive, a voice that can rebuked if too extreme. No room here for smug pleasure seeking self-satisfaction and gratification. Time to stand up and be counted.

Monday 30 March 2015

Above all else, profit rules

The government has decreed that pension annuities can be cashed in. With stagnation in shares, next to nothing in interest rates where is this money released to go? Why, to buy houses to rent of course. It just so happens the developers have been given more or less carte blanche to build on any green belt, common, SSSI reserve, public open space or good agricultural field they choose. Just happens that first time buyers can no longer afford to buy the houses for sale. So the retired generation, using their pension  funds are snapping up, at highly preferential government incentives, any house for sale to rent out, to these first time home couples. UKplc economic 'recovery' is founded on building more houses. More houses means more furnishing, more white goods selling more means everyone feels better and jobs are generated to build the houses in the first place then all the goods needed to fill them. So simple! All boxes ticked, no one can possibly complain and everyone is happy. UKplc is all fired up.

Except it is not that simple. Another super container ship leaves China to restock all those emptying shelves. What we do not have is a resurgence in UKplc manufacturing for a world wide market. Worse still, to raise the money to buy the houses for rent requires new 'private' loans to be taken out, increasing our national indebtedness. Interest on those loans requires even more spending on stuff to pay the interest to keep the wheels turning. This then is the economic miracle that UKplc recovery is based on. Increase loans taken out so you can spend more. Developers are only in it for profit, profits come from quick turn round on easy green sites, take objectors out of the sequence and they can are performing miracles. House are shooting up all around the wealthier parts of UKplc. Towns are expanding at unprecedented rates just not necessarily houses to suit the homes needed nor necessarily in the right places.

Once apon a time UKplc used to have a vision, a view for a future and how to reorganise and arrange itself. How best to look after all its people and how to foster communities and encourage production. All swept aside. Now the only deciding factor is profit. Where can you make most profit and more quickly? These are the new ground rules that determine the future that we will pass on to our next generations. Scant else to pass on to them as all the inherited wealth we were given custodianship off has or will be sold off. National Park for sale, Stately Home for sale, Crown Estates for sale, national collections for sale. Any takers? You can name your own terms! This is not some Orwellian nightmare. This is reality, here and now.

Saturday 21 March 2015

going forward

Just read a lengthy wordy article. Inequality at a dead end. Setting out yet again the case for the damage being done by the growing economic inequality. Then, significantly moving on to assess whether or how the existing institutions could bring about the changes necessary. The conclusion was they could not, we are doomed to stalemate, there is too much invested into the status quo. However it then when on to explore the new ways that people are coming together to tackle one aspect or another of the impact of inequality. Hurrah.

Far from claiming to have any solutions, what my blogs over these years have been grappling with is, seeking out suggestions for alternate ways that we can work together. Smack on trend. Not solutions but indications of where and how. Looking back over my blogs you will see that I have been exploring different ways to raise finance, different ways to benefit and protect our resource, finding a different relationship to big corporation but most of all how we can come together to look after ourselves, locally driven, not imposed by a central authoritarian government.

This exploration in an age where we are all (largely) self-centred, seeking instant gratification and indifferent to the wider social needs. Yet despite this, I do believe, we do have to rediscover a new community connection, relevant to the 21C, where we can come together as a caring community and forge solutions meaningful to us.

To find those new solutions means having the courage to join the debate, exchanging views, sharing experiences. learning from each other and slowly working out answers together. United we can own the world. Silent or as individuals, we are at the buffers, going nowhere. So your view is............

Monday 2 March 2015

Trust v Control

Control is by far away the easiest option. Lay down your parameters, set up monitoring systems and then apply punitive measures on selected defaulters. In principle. In practice entirely a different matter. Parameters have to hit a broadband of human activity which, because it is human and we are all unique, has to cover a wide range nuances. Being human each of us will challenge the parameter as to why it does not apply to us because our own circumstance is different. As individuals we need to be differentiated from the crowd. By claiming that difference we assert our distinction from the crowd we are lumped into. Monitoring has to find that fine line between being too overt, thrusting control too upfront, challenging all comers to defy it or so covert as to be missed, encouraging mass defiance. Then punitive measures have to be applied to carefully selected defaulters, too broad a sweep and the administrative systems are overloaded, to few key representative defaulters and too many other defaulters will consider they have immunity. Being inventive and creative humans, long used to labouring under the choke of authority, we too apply our skills to evade, avoid, confuse, misrepresent or dissemble, anything other than just accept to being controlled by that parameter.

Trust is entirely another matter. Just a broad parameter is all that is needed then each person interprets it application to them within their own framework of experience. All those nuances reflecting individual difference are no longer needed. Maybe an occasional dialogue, indicating some extreme of interpretation, might have to be initiated to remove common misplace understandings. The beauty of trust is that each person does their own self-monitoring but there is the downside. Being people most will comply scrupulously, some will get away will as little restraint as they dare and a few will flout and exploit any apparent laxity. Any overt monitoring will quickly be seen as confounding the trust. If you are going to be checking up then there is no point in my restraint. Come on, lets see how far we can push this. Equally if abuse is too wide spread then dissatisfaction rapidly sets in. "Look they are all getting away with it why should I bother" become the norm of the day. So there has to be covert monitoring to pick out those most public and extreme abuses. Engage in dialogue and it can become almost self-policing. Complaints will readily identify where and almost inevitably the who of the more troubling abuses. Then it is either a matter of corrective dialogue or punitive measures to make a public example of non-compliers. Rather than over-loading the administration with large numbers of defaulters to be processed, all that is needed is a showtrial which has wide spread circulation picking out a blatant defaulter receiving just and equitable punishment.

In the end we do have choices, we do all decide which type of society we want to live in. Either by silent submission or by the clarity of our voiced wishes. What is your choice? Monitors at each and every street corner with ever more draconian rules or a relaxed society able to live with itself and adapt to change?

Tuesday 6 January 2015

Halting Inequality growth

At last there is now widespread discussion about the growing inequality gap and the social evils that come along in its trail. These messages are beginning to heard but what is missing are practical suggestions of what we can do tomorrow that will start to reverse the trend. This is the discussion that we now urgently need. In past blogs I have indicated several different ways in which our Economy has to change to better cope with today's pressures and social needs. Such change can be seismic, takes a while to gain critical mass, turn minds around, set aside trusted answer and face the new. What we need right now are immediate steps that work within the accepted norms. Here are my offerings. Things that could be done right away, that will make a tangible difference and whose impact will be felt within months not decades.

Housing is the new South Sea bubble, sucking in all the loose change cause that is the only market that is sure to produce dividends. Not just homegrown goldminers but gold seekers from around the world, House are bought to capitalise on it and matters not if they stand empty.

Step 1. All domestic property whose address is not recorded on an Electoral Register and cannot prove a minimum six month protected tenancy is taxed at an exorbitant  rate.

Our commercial core is being manipulated to provide instant profit to satisfy the demands of the investing institutions solely looking to todays deal. We have to break away and restore a longterm strategy back into our commercial core. Individuals are much more likely to take a long view and not the micro-second shifts in share values.

Step 2. Shareholder voting rights removed from Institutional hands. Votes only accepted from verified individuals, proxy voting disallowed.

Our economics have been distorted out of all recognition. Illusionary money made out of gambles on financial outturns is just lunacy, a fictional charade but unfortunately one that is self-perpetuating. It can never be a basis for building a countries future. We have to restore common-sense, investment in people and workplaces does matter.

Step 3. Sliding scale corporate tax introduced. Enterprises able to prove investment in building and equipment and people granted lowest rates with longterm write-off whilst those making money out of gambling on financial outturns paying a crippling high rate with no set-offs.

There are a lot of social injustices that have to rectified but as a first step we have to set a limit. How extreme, how polarised can we afford our country to be, between those that have nothing, not even hope and those who have everything plus the control that wealth brings?  

Step 4. A penalising high personal tax for any individual claiming residency in this country whose combined income or control of assets exceeds say 1:50 of that of the lowest paid.  

So here is my challenge to all you Electoral Candidates out there, come up with a better scheme to stop this iniquitous inequality.