Vote for a society that aims towards utopia

cobryn

This isn’t some wishy-washy bullshit I’m going to put you through here. Utopia is unreachable. Duh. But hear me out.

I’m a centrist. I tried really hard not to put too much weight on one side. Really. I did. But here’s how I see it. Disagree with me, please.

To “survive” Brexit we need a strong leader. To succeed economically we need to make sure our big business and big finance stays in this country. We are a serviced based economy. There are no mines, hardly any car manufacturers and even less run-of-the-mill factories. How do we make sure that our service industry stays put in light of damning Brexit conclusions? Well, if we’re jumping to these conclusions—which are that the industry will even leave at all—then the only sure-fire way of guaranteeing the success of our financial sector is to reduce corporation tax. Even Theresa May’s hard-line corporation tax cut might not save our economy.

I can’t see a way in which Corbyn will be able to tackle these issues. The Labour Party’s policies are based on tax increases. His tax plans are to increase the tax on the ultra-rich—but what if the ultra-rich just…leave? It’s hard not to assume that tax-dodging elites, including the mammoth Amazon, Google and Facebook clans, will not just up and bugger off, resulting in a huge gap in taxable income but also a deficit in thousands of jobs. How does the Labour Party sell their policies to these giants? I love Corbyn and his party, his policies are fantastic, brilliant, awe-inspiring, but they’re based on faith in the integrity, honour and compassion of mankind.

I have very little faith. In light of Brexit, I’m not sure if this is the right time for the progressive Labour party to take control. I fear that if they were to come into power and the country ultimately faces rising inflation, lowering wages and a loss of jobs, Labour and Corbyn will be blamed for failures of the Conservatives and David Cameron. It’s not a blow I want the progressive thought of the Corbyn’s Labour party to take. It might damn the thinking for ever in the hearts and minds of the politically forgotten. Don’t forget the mainstream media will spend the next forty years blaming everything on Corbyn and his balmy ideas of taxing the rich. It plays right into their slimy fingers.

However, that being said, this is the 21st century. We’re not the British Empire anymore. This fixation on remaining a global power means less and less in a world where everything, and everyone, is interconnected. Wouldn’t we be better off aiming for a better, fairer society? Shouldn’t we put people first – not businesses? Does the rot at the heart of society lie in these corporations, or in the fact that we ignore the most needy and forget the most hopeless?

We are currently presented with a choice. An actual, proper choice. On one hand we’ve got the insane yet inspiring Jeremy Corbyn and on the other hand May and her global elite of soul-sucking assholes. The Labour Party aims to establish a better society for everyone, working from the ground up so that no one is forgotten or left behind. The Conservative Party will, always will, put the needs of the wealthiest first and foremost. The rich will take one look at Corbyn’s taxes and leave the country: his plans of using their money to fund his admirable schemes will be scuppered, and who knows where that’ll leave us, but at least we’ll be trying to do the good thing. Theresa May will keep the money here, at least, she’ll try to, and we’ll have to tell our children we helped the planet towards its increasingly inevitable doom.

The question remains: so what if these bastard companies and the mega-rich leave? The answer is…the rich are leaving? So what? Get lost!

Look at this smorgasbord of filth:

  • BP (oil, gas)
  • Rio Tinto Group (diversified metals, mining)
  • GlaxoSmithKline (pharmaceuticals)
  • British American Tobacco (tobacco)
  • AstraZeneca (pharmaceuticals)
  • SABMiller (beverages)

These are the top “international trade players” for the UK. Oil? Tobacco? Mining?

We’re proud to associate ourselves with these degenerative businesses?

A Conservative government doesn’t just confirm the existence of these sinister global corporations, cesspits of human rights abuses, climate damage and tax avoidance, it encourages their growth.

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Instead of bending to the whims of the powerful few who control these corporations, why don’t we try and build a society based on equality? 

We can barely afford the aircraft carriers—let alone the planes to put on them—that make up the remains of our once magnificent navy (this isn’t patriotism, it really was awesome at one point.) Corbyn said it perfectly: why don’t we stop talking about having wars all the time? Why don’t make we make concerted efforts to prevent war before it’s even considered? We are a global nation—we are a global people. Everybody talks to everybody. Just yesterday I had a broken conversation with a Russian about what we both had for dinner. As global transport becomes more and more efficient (think Musk’s hyperloop) what reason do ordinary human beings have to fight one another if not because of the pressures of global capitalism?

Wars are the beast of global corporations, the exact sort of corporations we should damn, break up, dilute, crush, change. We should not let these corporations dictate the movements and decisions of governments. A vote for May and the Conservative Party is a vote for a continuation of this norm. When asked if Corbyn would assist a NATO ally if it was attacked, he couldn’t answer. Why should he have to answer that vague and incendiary question? Turkey is a NATO ally and they are bombing innocent Kurds. I won’t get into all this. It’s relevant, but not relevant enough to spend the next forty-seven hours trying to figure out that shit-fest. The method of preventing these conflicts is not the sending of soldiers to foreign soils, the heart of preventing these conflicts is to educate, share, communicate and fight against the powers that would encourage warfare.

Consider for a moment: our biggest role in the world, now we’ve left the EU and our buddies the Germans and French (ha!) won’t listen to us anymore, is our intelligence agency. We’ve got some cracking “spies” hanging about, and ears everywhere, even in your microwave. So far our intelligence agency has done its job in protecting us and sharing its information with our allies. Inasmuch, our armed forces have reduced, our navy has crumbled and our air force isn’t what it once was. To that I say: so what? So what if we don’t have nuclear weapons? What difference does that make when the world’s most powerful nations have enough nuclear weapons to knock the Earth out of its orbit around the Sun? This is not a vanity game. We don’t need anymore dick flapping on the planet. Fuck the nuclear weapons! Feed the poor, educate the uneducated, house the homeless! Prevention of war should start from the ground up, not the other way round. Fuck the nukes!

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Apart from that…most of our money pours out of a corrupt financial system, all of the benefits of which are focused on very specific areas of the South of England and small islands in the Pacific. (Did you know that some train lines in the north of England have been waiting up to thirty years for an upgrade? They’re getting one soon, apparently. And that the millions of pounds invested in Liverpool was actually Government money redirected by the evil EU?) We hanker after foreign investment from even more corrupt companies from Singapore, China and the Middle East. We sell arms to Saudi Arabia! (May’s idea.) The once brilliantly diverse and exciting city of London has slowly become a homogeneous lump of tourist-traps and Pret a Mangers.

We’ve sold our culture, society and identity off to the highest bidder. In voting to the leave the EU, we’ve damned ourselves to insignificance. We’ve got little to offer the planet except drone strikes and Victorian sponge. Get this: excluding the drone strikes part, I’m fine with that.

You know why? We might have something new to offer!

Jeremy Corbyn might be the dullest person to run for Prime Minister—well, ever. His policies are far-fetched, they stink of a socialist system which has been poorly applied decade after decade, and they’re based on the assumption that human beings aren’t assholes who will take any chance to do as little as they possibly can. He’s not charismatic, charming or compelling. His party and cabinet are so-so at best—I’m looking at you Diane. He’s no Bernie Sanders. He’s indifferent when it comes to military action and nuclear weapons.

To that I say—so what?

We have a choice. A clear, defined choice, between progressive thought and stale continuum. We’ve shot ourselves in the foot with the whole Brexit thing, our country is going to suffer—so why not suffer with compassion? We’ve a choice between ideals based on a fairer society that aims towards something verging on revolutionary, or the ideals based on making sure the rich remain rich. We have a choice. That’s important in itself!

Consider the French elections.

The French, the poor, poor French, had the choice of voting between an almost-fascist nepotist and a neo-liberal banker. What a choice! Macron has promised France everything. Let me reiterate. Macron has promised everyone in France everything. (The last time the UK had a leader like that, he went to war with Iraq and crippled the economy by letting his doughy Chancellor spend all the damn money.) From the violence on this year’s May Day protest in Paris, it seems that when Macron inevitably fails to fulfill his promises—we all know by now that a millionaire banker will do little to help the politically ostracized—France will devolve into civil war.

I’m sensationalising. Sort of. There’s something to say for the celebratory atmosphere in Le Pen’s camp following the election. The National Front know there time is yet to come. You can’t expect to present the people with the same old, same old, and not expect some sort of reaction in years to come. At least in America the people were blessed by the Second Coming of the God Emperor, twice removed. Trump. He’s different (well, he’s very rich and totally corrupt, so not too different I suppose) and will hopefully press the whole country towards a more progressive agenda next election.

Just remember, Macron was one of the main players in trying to push through the controversial Worker’s Act.

I don’t see this ending well.

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I’ve got respect for the French. On the spoiled ballots, which there were thousands of, the voters had a long old rant. An essay worth of reasons why they were spoiling their ballot. There’s a real difference here between UK voters and the French. In this country, the young people don’t even vote, let alone turn up to write an essay on their ballot. 64% of young people voted in the Brexit referendum. 90% of over 65s voted. 90%!

How are we meant to compete with the nostalgic political incompetency of the old? What do they care about snooping laws? It’s not their messages that May’s scary witch fingers are going to peruse. Do the old read about the successes of marijuana legalisation in Colorado and think, gee, what a good idea? Do they read the Daily Mail articles about the collapse of the NHS and say, those bloody money-hungry Tories?

Of course they fucking don’t!

They’ve got their pensions. They had their houses, a car, a competitive mortgage and decent rights and wages that matched inflation at the age of 22.

Oh wait. Theresa May’s new policy proposal suggests that more old people will have to pay for their own care in the home.

What? Cant anyone see the horrible shit the Conservatives will do to this country?

We’re faced with rising inflation and falling wages, and we’re to be guided through these times by a ineffectual politician who answers every question with platitudes and hates foxes? Strong and stable. Strong and stable. STRONG AND STABLE. A politician who favours the richest and the most corrupt members of society? Has anyone investigated May’s record as a politician? She’s completely useless, and always has been! She fluked her way into Downing Street and is now, somehow, going to possibly win a massive majority? What is going on? 

Call me a moaning millennial, you short-sighted morons. We’re the future of this country, and as far as I can see, we’re doomed unless we conform to the mindset of those we speak out against.

Look, I know I’m preaching to the converted.

I want a fairer society, a better education system, a long-lasting, useful NHS and fair treatment of our public sector staff. I want higher taxes for the rich and I want that money to go towards education and social housing—affordable housing will do. I know that you want that, too.

If Corbyn’s ideas are not realised now, then it’s only a matter of time. If the Conservatives take another four years of our lives then the disparity between rich and poor will only grow. I’m going to sound Red, but it’s only so long before someone, somewhere, says, hang on a second? Why can’t I feed my kids whilst that fat-cat banker has a bonus every year which is more than I’ll earn in a lifetime?

Do not listen to May’s “party of the people” lies.

May is the bitch of billionaires. Do not let them decide the future of this country.

Most importantly: Vote. Make the choice.


Listen to me ramble about other things.

Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” and the everlasting story of our kind

Overwhelming news for overwhelming times: the media is failing us

Forget Trump’s America, let’s talk about China, and how they’ll both clash in the Superpower’s playground of sand

9 thoughts on “Vote for a society that aims towards utopia

  1. Whoa, Harry, tell us how you really feel! All kidding aside, thank you for sharing this here, even if as an American my focus has been understandably elsewhere. Inasmuch as I am aware of the issues you detail, I am 100% with you. I’ll tell you what is starting to trouble my sleep, in part because we have BBC World on low volume on the radio all night: the threat of North Korea. Because I’m hearing they are probably behind the recent computer virus I shall not name, successfully launched a ballistic missile, and are supposedly being cozied up to by Russia after China has curtailed trade. Yikes!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Couldn’t hold it in anymore! Haha. North Korean is a strange spanner in the works, inasmuch as it’s a completely isolated and volatile element in an otherwise (relatively stable) table of global politics.

      We’re currently living through the most peaceful period in the history of mankind – it might not always seems like it, though.

      I hope North Korea doesn’t mess it all up.

      Thanks for the comment!

      Like

  2. Pol Pot May wants to take Britain back to the year zero and she must not be allowed to consign so many people to a little Britain future. The world is a huge complex interconnected place, the last thing the UK needs is to get smaller and sadder. Good post.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Thanks Cathy, I’ve got great hope in future generations. Unfortunately, just today I saw the headline of the Daily Mail, which read:

      “Finally, a PM that isn’t afraid to be honest to you.”

      What? Are we talking about the same PM!?

      When I see headlines like that I start to feel awful…

      Good luck and thanks for the comment!

      Liked by 2 people

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