2024 thoughts and prospects

I was recently contacted by Critical Mass, asking for my opinions about a few things. They're contacting all their readers, I'm not special. I wrote a reply to their questions, so here it is:

• What would you say have been the political highlights of the past year?
• And what, in your opinion, have been the low lights?

And, looking ahead:

• What, if anything, gives you hope for 2025?
• And what fears do you have?

The highlight for me was finally seeing the back of the tories, but not for the reasons you might think. The terms left and right originally come from seating arrangements in the French parliament centuries ago. The thing everyone forgets is both groups were still in the same building and ultimately part of the same ruling class, the discussion was about how to rule, not whether they should be ruling in the first place. The obvious fact that, if anything, the tories' replacement is worse brings the whole concept of left and right into sharp focus. We are being sold en masse to Blackrock because they put 50p in the meter so Labour could run its campaign, US healthcare "providers" (i.e. denyers - see the recent assassination) are circling what remains of the NHS in full capitalist vulture mode and Streeting is actively participating in its destruction, simpering his way to healthcare armageddon. The demonstrable bankruptcy of the status quo establishment view has never been clearer. The left party being part of that status quo is obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes that work, far more so than when they were the nominal opposition.

The main lowlight for me is what's happening in Gaza. It's the acid test for whether people stand with humanity or not. It has exposed the venality and vacuity of the small L liberal parties and their supporters like no other issue. It's also made the media lie machine even more obvious to people who possess even a modicum of critical thinking - the money they're spending, the constant barrage of lies, is phenomenal. Yet still people are able to see through it, even what little we are allowed to see of the unmitigated horror being visited on the Palestinians makes it obvious. It's also very easy to demonstrate to people who are willing to listen that this is a racist, colonialist endeavour and help them educate themselves about what those words mean and how it links back to what's happening here.

I do have a lot of hope for 2025, I think that there is now space to start building some movements that are resistance in more than name, particularly as they can't attach themselves to the left party because it's obviously something that is going to actively work against them, and indeed they are the people attacking us. We need to be very careful not to be seduced by the arrant nonsense of rallying with the Labour left, the horse has been flogged to death, let it die. The NHS may be gone in the legal sense, but the spirit that built it is still there and when you do street stalls or march for the NHS you realise how deep a place it has in the hearts of British people. I believe we can really struggle to keep it running and available to all, building this will throw up methods, ideas and people we don't even know yet.

I've already alluded to the fears I have. Selling us to Blackrock is a terrifying prospect. For example, there's a plant in Garston, Liverpool. The stuff being processed there could cause a massive explosion that might devastate South Liverpool, parts of Wirral, and Cheshire. The idea of less health and safety than the already risible amount the tories have left in place, with even less corporate accountability, is very worrying. I'm also fairly sure that this isn't isolated to one place in the post-capitalist hellscape Reeves seems to be bent on creating and other zones will have similar threats to life and limb being quietly ushered in.

I was also really alarmed at the recent earners or learners nonsense from Reeves. The sick, disabled, retired, carers, and the unemployed are going to have a cold winter and no-one to speak for them in parliament, except maybe a handful of Green MPs. When you combine this with the recent relaxing of the rules around euthanasia it's very chilling. Despite the words of the old poem the nazis didn't start with the socialists, they actually started with the sick and disabled. Labour are not going to resolve the NHS or Social Care crises, pleading poverty because they won't tax the wealthy. Euthanasia after immiserating people into wanting do die is much cheaper. I worked in software for hospitals many years ago, one of the accountants joked that the most efficient hospital was one that people checked into and died immediately. Reeves isn't joking.