Twelve political tenets I hold true as a human being

1. The equality of every human from birth whatever their race, creed, belief or orientation. The wholescale scapegoating of people because of their colour, beliefs or origins remains one of the biggest vices of Western society.

2. The scrapping of Trident and all nuclear weapons as the greatest evil ever devised by mankind. The argument of self-defence and nuclear deterrent was always obscene and corrupt. It is now bankrupt since the end of the Cold War. European countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy and Spain have never felt the need to use a nuclear deterrent argument to arms themselves. The £100 billion budgeted for Trident replacement would clear our national deficit and be used for the greater common good.

3. International neutrality. The end of military intervention in other countries’ affairs and a curtailing of the British military services to a simple defence force. Once a man or woman takes up a gun and salary to kill other people they give up the right to be regarded as a human being. The Help For Heroes charity is one of the worst kinds of military propaganda foisted upon us in the past decade.

4. A Europe without borders or nation states. Whilst I support the campaign for Scottish and Welsh independence from the UK, in the longer term – as an international socialist – I look forward to a continent where small regions and countries are self-governing without nation states.

5. The abolition of the monarchy and British aristocracy and a replacement of the House of Lords with an elected second chamber. It is an insidious part of British society that from birth we are taught to bow and curtsy to the rich and aristocratic simply due to their birthright. The monarchy and aristocracy are a poisonous legacy of the middle-ages where those with military power conquered countries and rewarded their robber barons with privileges which set them apart from the rest.

6. The restoration of Palestine and freedom for the Palestinian people from the murder and corruption of Zionist Israel. Since 1947 Israel has been a cancerous sore on the Middle East and the world as a whole. We allowed post World War II Zionist Jews to steal the land of the Palestinian people, rename the land Israel, arm itself with nuclear weapons and become the neighbourhood bully of all Middle East affairs. It must end.

7. An extended welfare system to care and protect the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. It’s simple really: our welfare safety net needs to be strengthened and not weakened for the elderly, the young, the homeless, the poor and the unemployed.

8. A national house building programme with greater investment in council housing and shared housing initiatives with a return to rent control. And no return to Right to Buy which over the past 30 years has led to widespread homelessness and a housing crisis which impairs the poor to a decent home and equal chances.

9. The abolition of public schools, academies and the grammar school system. A free comprehensive education system for all children under a new school building and improvement programme. The likes of Eton, Westminster, Harrow and Cheltenham Ladies College underpin the worst excesses and causes of inequality in Britain today. We must work towards the best free education and opportunity for all children.

10. Protection and extension of the NHS with an end to private enterprise initiatives. This requires huge investment in buildings, resources, doctors, nurses and ancillary staff and an end to NHS consultants’ private health care work. Goodbye Harley Street!

11. An International Human Rights Act to underpin our legal system and protect basic freedoms. A strengthening of human rights across the world in a charter agreed by all countries and underpinned by the United Nations.

12. A ban on fox hunting, hare coursing, badger baiting and deer stalking and all forms of blood sports. If this had been Golden Retriever hunting, Yorkshire Terrier coursing or Grey Persian Cat baiting everyone would be up in arms. But the pink gin swilling toffs deem it their right to hunt, kill and terrorise wild animals they regard as fair game. No they are not!

In Search of Social Justice

LAST month’s General Election was a profound moment in British society and will change this country for a generation and beyond.

And I fear deeply for our collective futures.

On one hand I am delighted for my friends in Scotland, not for any reasons of independence but because they elected 56 MPs dedicated to social justice, welfare, investment and non-nuclear proliferation.

And the first indication are that under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon these new MPs are the real thing ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxDTasNcc2A )

But, I was equally appalled by the election of a UK government compiled of self-seeking rich Tory elitists who care more about their mansions and banking friends than about people.

And their shopping list for change is truly terrifying.

Over the next few years this is unshackled Conservative government will:

• Rip up the Human Rights Act, which underpins our legal system and protects all our basic freedoms and those of persecuted minorities.
• Spend £100billion on replacing Trident with new nuclear weapons, which at the push of a button could wipe out millions of lives and pollute our planet for tens of thousands of years.
• Make £12.8billion of cuts to welfare, leaving the poorest, the oldest and the weakest in our society facing the bleakest of futures. In turn this will ensure the need for a food bank in every town and extend child poverty ensuring suffering and a loss of opportunity for millions.
• Begin a phased end to council housing, thus pushing up rents in the private sector and making families homeless. Once again – as under Thatcher – we will see a surge in rough sleeping and begging.
• Will enact tougher sanctions on migrants, involve the UK in further illegal wars in the Middle East and trigger an increase in racism and Islamophobia.
• Back a return of the barbaric blood sports of fox hunting and deer coursing. If pandering to pink gin swilling toffs allowing them to tear defenseless animals to pieces is a sign of our society, I am ashamed.
• Extend zero hours contracts, thus massaging the unemployment figures and leaving thousands of the poorest people without any job security.
• Legislate for more private schools which will imbed the class system even deeper in our society, rather focus on improving our state schooling system.
• Escalate and accelerate the privatisation of the NHS, so medical care will depend on wealth and power rather than need.
• Then redraw constituency boundaries so these same corrupt capitalist elitists stay in power for another 20 more years.

I can’t help but wonder what’s happening to my country, my world and my companions. The Labour Party, who should be standing and campaigning against all this, have failed again and again to do so and the electorate saw through Miliband and his Tory Lite manifesto.

New Labour (or whatever they like to be called these days) even joined in with attacking the poorest, instead of the real culprits: the rich and the bankers who ruined the economy while lining their own pockets. Now our trade unions are distancing themselves from Labour in disgust. No one should have to choose between heating and eating, no one should have to pay for their healthcare or education – and everyone should have a roof over their head. It’s that simple. And neither have we learned the lessons of Iraq or Afghanistan. Once again we are hanging onto the coat hem of the USA in taking an aggressive stance against Russian involvement in the Crimea, while supporting a fascist Ukraine. We don’t need thousands more deaths of innocent people by any military posturing or worse still involvement. https://seagullnic.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/all-he-believes-are-his-eyes-and-his-eyes-they-just-tell-him-lies-2/ and in another post: https://seagullnic.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/youre-the-one-that-reached-me-youre-the-one-that-i-admired/

I have lost confidence with any major political party in this country to provide social and just government and turn back the cruel tide of capitalist politics. Last year I sadly found myself agreeing with Russell Brand that either we need a bloodless revolution to change the status quo or I remain sitting on my backside and give in to nihilism. Or is there another option? Is there a realistic left wing alternative? Also last year I joined Left Unity in an attempt to change things, and 12 months later I don’t regret that decision.

But the Left is too splintered and divided to succeed electorally.

Class War, The Communist Party, TUSC, The Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Action, 38 Degrees, UK Uncut, Respect, The Alliance for Green Socialism, The Socialist Labour Party, The Workers Revolutionary Party and even the Greens and many Labour Party members spend far too much time attacking each other over Trotskyite revisionism, personalities or tactics rather than uniting to defeat the greed and corruption of capitalism.

The 500,000 people who spontaneously attended the mass demonstration in London last weekend is an indication of the shared anger about the Conservative election victory and their manifesto of horror.

People are crying out for an alternative and they need it now.

The true Left must begin now to unify around a leader or leadership we can all trust, organise and start the fightback, or we all wave farewell to hope for a fairer and better future.