The left matters: Who else is shouting against an unstable, unrepresentative and unjust Britain?

Living in the 21^st Century, in the political environment that we as a global civility are faced with, I would like to engage all who are viewing this post with my perceptions that what ‘we’ (the ‘we’ in this instance are; all those who are committed to left wing politics or those who wish to engage or are sceptical of the debates on the left of the political spectrum) are faced with is a world which is unstable, unrepresentative and unjust:

The world is unstable, Unrepresentative and unjust on many levels. Here I set out a few categories highlighting the major concerns or flaws I see.  

The Environment

As inhabitants if this planet we are at the whim of its climate, whether it is through global warming, ecological catastrophes induced by humans i.e. the BP oil spill, volcanic eruptions, large scale flooding, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, or even our dependency on non-renewable energies.

Economics

The constant peaks and troughs of financial markets on cyclical basis throughout the history of the capitalist economy, no one is unaware of the devastating effects the financial meltdown of 2008 had, is still going through, and will no doubt continue to experience. The current most worrying event happening in the global economy is the surge in food prices around the world; India, Ecuador and Honduras are the latest economies to have experienced the sharp rise in price of their respective staple foods; Onions and Red Beans.

All this in conjunction with the corrupt practice of monopolising businesses such as BskyB, and Microsoft, corrupt banks, and corrupt individuals who are supported through this decrepit system. A whistle blower Rudolf Elmer has today announced that he has given the details of the endemic failures of the world of finance. The results, when released by Wikileaks, I am sure, will not surprise anyone.  

Politics

(Although I strongly adhere to Marx’s analysis that politics and economics being totally interrelated it serves better in this instance to give critiques of the two within two separate categories) 

Politics is at the whim of the market. Today we see Authoritarian capitalism flourishing in Asia (Asian capitalism). It was once assumed that when a state achieves capitalism then democracy will either already be in place or that it will follow suit soon thereafter. What Asia is demonstrating is that such an assumption could not be further from the truth. Asia is the only remaining Region where capitalism is flourishing and where states are advancing on scales never seen in the west.

What this means for democracy in the West is that we are, in order to keep pace and face with our Asian ‘rivals’, rapidly seeing a reduction in social liberties (I speak here from what I know...UK reforms) in legal aid, a massive reduction in statee welfare, 5,000,000 people are now on a housing list, the list is only going to grow. Scrapping of Education Maintenance Allowance, a trebling of University tuition fees to become the most expensive public universities in the world!

Democracy and the UK

Democracy also, cannot go without a mention. The UK claims to be democratic and in the general meaning of the term it is, we have marginally opposing political parties, although the Liberal-Democrats and conservatives have shown us an example of how quickly  political parties will ditch their ideals at the expense of the accumulation of power.  

However true democracy is not a system which is dominated by two front benches where the Conservative, Lib-Dems, and Labour MPs went to Oxford together, to study the same course; Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

OK so you might say that people who do this course are suited to lead the ‘country’, I am more sceptical. I think they are careerist politicians in it for themselves and people like them, who happen to be the rich and upper middle classes. This is not democracy it is certainly not representative of the people.

Representations

Some people say (a classic fox news line) that we have never had things so good, what do we have to complain about? In comparison to those who have revolted in Tunisia during the past week had things far worse living under authoritarian dictatorship, in Iran political dissidents live in constant fear of their lives, in parts of Africa and parts of South America poverty is endemic on scales far removed from the conditions we in the West occupy. This may be the case, but it does not mean that when the state within which we live here in the UK should merely accept the erosion of our civil liberties and welfare reforms, both of which have paved the way towards the relative lives of the workers of the UK.

Poverty is on the increase, unemployment is on the increase, homelessness is on the increase, restrictions of the poor in education is about to be implemented in the scrapping of the EMAs. This government is introducing measures which favour the rich and condemn the poor. The decision to increase VAT burdens the poor on the grounds of their total income, although it can be argued that the rich will pay a larger sum on the VAT, due to the fact that they spend more, it damages the lives of the poorer earner far more than those who can afford the hike.

Inheritance

But we have this massive deficit and it needs reducing, what else do you propose?! This is the most annoying turn of phrase to come out of the Con-Dem coalition I’ve heard since the financial meltdown phrase “in this current economic climate” (as if it’s going to pass over like it’s a bad weather day. Classic example of the liberal agenda that oh its only a few corrupt individuals or a particular political party causing the problems in the world... ill be Superman, Spiderman, banana man... for a while and solve this problem.

This will not do Cameron, Clegg, or anyone else who believes that twaddle. The financial problems may have been inherited but they come from a system which is corrupt and would have facilitated for such a deficit, under the Conservatives.

So the deficit must be reduced quickly and sharply! For arguments sake lets suggest this is necessary. Put the inherited deficit onto the shoulders of those who had nothing to do with irresponsible lending, and put it onto those fools who spent too much, duped into the spending by a false sense of security projected by the government and the banks, the upper-lower middle class and the poor. The rich the only true beneficiaries of the increase in wealth over the past two decades, the ones who have the money which caused the crash and chose to literally take their shares and run, regardless of the impact upon the workers, no need to tax them or reduce their earnings. Let’s kick those who are down, whilst they are down. Let those poor bastards know the true meaning of inheritance! (I am only assuming what goes on in people’s minds)       

Make of the above what you will, perhaps, typically an unfocused mixed eclectic array of a bunch of issues which don’t matter and which no ramblings of a lefty will solve. But people need to wake up and realise that the picture concocted above is unstable, unrepresentative and, unjust.