Half a century of wading through bullshit survived. Covering Politics, Business, Charities, Farming, Communities, Glos Rugby🍒⚪️🏉 and life. Thoughts my own
As I’ve been working my way through a short list of topics to talk about on my new YouTube channel, one that has kept popping up, as I have been wading through social media has been Gaza, or more accurately the protests that we are hearing about at Universities, and the potential impact of voting for candidates in UK Elections who are telling us that they are going to champion Gaza as a cause.
Considering just how important the subject of politics and the politicians we have representing us really is, it is very concerning to learn that candidates were elected on a platform of promising to pursue peace in Gaza and whatever troubling suggestions that go with that as a cause. Not least of all because Local Elections have absolutely zero influence on Foreign Policy (Which itself doesn’t EVER give the London government the right to dictate policy in other countries anyway).
One-issue activism of any kind completely overlooks the public service delivery and policy areas like Council Tax, Bin Collections, Schools, Roads, Planning, Licensing and a whole range of other LOCAL issues that these elections are really all about.
One step on, and many will be surprised to learn that voting for the Westminster Parliament and the Constituency MPs who sit there in a General Election is also about much, much more than Foreign Policy itself.
Foreign Policy is actually a lot more about our relationships across the world and using real leadership to influence other countries to behave and act in ways that are good for us all.
We have a growing list of problems around the world, because we haven’t been electing politicians who:
Put our needs first and
Don’t understand the consequences for us all of not building responsible relationships with other countries that genuinely put the interests of the people and the businesses in those countries before those of private interests and companies in our own.
Whilst the passion, anger and frustration of young people at University is understandable, the truth that they could easily damage their career paths, at a time when changes in tech and AI are already unnecessarily limiting the opportunities for everyone, is hard to fathom.
Real change can only come about by electing people who get the solutions to ALL of the issues that effect all of us right, each and every day.
These will be the same people and politicians who know and understand what real leadership is. Leaders who will be able to see how important it is that we don’t have relationships with other countries where the only consideration is the headlines and what potential voters are going to think when they see the next days offerings from the mainstream media.
Poor politics in the UK and across the West for far too long has aided and abetted many of the problems that are being manifested across the world today.
If we really want to change them, the best way we can start that process is to think more carefully and deliberately about the people we are electing to represent us in each and every election that we have, across the UK and in particular, when those votes are going to decide who makes the decisions about everything that happens in our communities and closer to home.
Thanks for following if you are a subscriber to my Blog and a very big welcome if you are a guest and have found me as you have been having a look on the net.
I’ve been writing blogs and publishing books for around 12 years now, since I was still sitting as a local councillor in Gloucestershire and started off writing about some of the issues that were important for my constituents near Tewkesbury. You can find these on their own Blog HERE.
As technology has moved on, anyone who writes regularly will have become increasingly aware that beyond the people who are already attuned and looking for whatever it may be that we have to offer, our potential audience is increasingly likely to prefer watching a video that shares our messages, rather than reading through our missives, no matter if it were easy for them to be found.
About 2 years ago, I picked up a DJI Mini camera to see if I could make the transition or rather expand my online offering to YouTube and video platforms beyond.
To be honest, it didn’t feel that easy and although I published a few films on another channel, it just seemed easier to keep writing – especially as my focus seemed to be driven by creating and publishing what has now become a long list of books.
Reaching the point where it felt like I have covered all the things that I didn’t originally realise that I had set out to say, I recently found myself going back and beginning to review my books.
Now any of you who self-publish and don’t have the luxury of editorial help or that second pair of eyes when you first publish will understand what a traumatic experience this can actually be! I am however comforted by the reality that anyone who is genuinely interested in the content will not be looking at grammar and long sentences – no matter how unforgiving the general inhabitants of the online universe can be!
Going through this process made me appreciate that the books are all well and good and once people want to understand the topics better – as I remain confident that in time they will, it might be time to dig out that rather cool DJI and see what a refocus of my creative and publishing efforts might make of it all now.
About a fortnight ago, I set up @TugsRamblings as a new YouTube channel and quickly got to work.
The idea being that as a rule, I will film a talk as I walk or ‘ramble’ in potentially more ways than one, and that the film will hopefully come across as if the viewer is walking alongside.
Not the easiest thing to imagine for me, when the best angle from the camera is looking down and I am 6’5”!!!
All the same grumbles quickly came back to the surface, ranging from ‘I ummmm too much’, to ‘What the hell do I do if people keep appearing and I have to stop and can’t edit the film?’ and of course, ‘Will I be able to remember all the things that I need to say?’
As I write this blog to share what I have been doing so far, I’ve just uploaded video number 14 and am hopeful that they are improving all the time.
The good thing about all of this is that video creation is a learning experience at every step of the way. I’ve already learned a lot more than I knew two weeks ago and I feel sure that my knowledge can only improve!
Please drop by and take a look. Your support with likes and subscribes would be greatly appreciated, as would any questions you might have where answers could help you or might help others in respect of the topics and issues that I generally cover.
Best wishes,
Adam ‘Tugs’ Tugwell
PS. Please find a link to my first video on @TugsRamblings below!
As both a dog walker and volunteer managing an online community picture and video journal for a local hill in Gloucestershire, one of my pet peeves is other dog owners picking up and bagging the poo from their pets, but then attaching the tied bags to a fence, tree branch or similar, or just tossing them on the ground and leaving them behind.
THERE IS NO POO BAG FAIRY!
We probably aren’t grateful enough that local council employees already empty dog bins that are often filled to overflowing.
But for some of us to then believe that our responsibility to clear up after our own pets in a public place or in the countryside stops as soon as it’s bagged and tied is as irresponsible as it is rude and inconsiderate to others and to the area.
Animals do pick these bags up and farmers have lost livestock that have eaten discarded poo bags in fields where they can reach and pick them up.
As local authorities are only likely to pick up full poo bags as part of a litter pick on the rare occasion they have the resources to make these happen, it is left to community spirited walkers to pick these bags up and walk them to the nearest bin – as the owners should have done in the first place.
Because of the way that social media works, pictures are usually the best way to make a point.
Now that we have AI image generators, I thought I would give this one a try and see what happens.
I don’t know about you, but I think picturing the myth of the poo bag fairy turned out rather well!!!
Apart from those who are in The Lords and those who believe that they will benefit from being there in the future, there are very few of us who see or believe there to be any value from having the members of our parliament that we do elect held to account by others who weren’t elected.
Yes, there are big questions that need to be answered about the quality of our MPs and the flaws in the electoral and political processes that get any of them to Westminster.
However, any improvements that can be made to our so-called democracy in the absence of complete change of the British political system have to be a good thing.
There would be no more meaningful way to make a giant step towards a better political system for the UK than replacing the Lords with a Younger Persons Parliament that allows us all to elect representatives of our younger generations to create and influence real public policy.
Time has the upper hand. But not without cost
Many of us regrettably do not recognise the distinction between the outlooks and perspectives of younger and older people, which can be generalised as being idealistic versus experiential or practical.
The upshot is that younger minds cut straight through and visualise or picture how things should be as a result of public policy. Whereas the older mind has the experience of knowing either why things are not that way already, or why it might be difficult to get there.
However, what we also may not appreciate is that experience can also make older people very cynical or open them up to forms of corruption and the pursuit of self-interest that really does stand in the way of better outcomes.
Unfortunately, idealism that is not tempered by the practical understanding that only comes with world experience in government, often leads to policy which works out badly for everyone. Because the benefit of time (experience) has to either be applied to public policy with foresight or through the passage of time and the tangible consequences working themselves through.
This truth has historically disadvantaged younger voices with simple reposts such as ‘you are young and you don’t know’, whilst tragically overlooking the fact that older decision makers have become closed down to new thinking that reflects a fresh perspective. Especially so, since today’s politicians are obsessed with changes that only benefit themselves and often only pursue these when they feel sure that the public will not notice what they have done.Even though it is inevitable that we often do.
All perspectives should be valued in creating public policy
In today’s British political system, an elected Parliament of 650 MPs (The House of Commons) is in principle held to account by an ‘upper’ chamber containing about 800 members or ‘Lords’ who are eligible to vote or work in the House of Lords.
Yet the House of Lords is an archaic institution. Based on a time when public policy or the decisions of government were made predominantly by wealthy landowners. When the wider parts of society had no say at all.
To be fair, the number of hereditary peers or lords who have seats in the lords because of who they are and who their parents were, has already been dramatically reduced.
However, the current system, where the prime minister and political parties can pretty much appoint whoever they want to become ‘life peers’ – who then hold that post until they die, means that in the seemingly rare instances where already poor government can be held to account in any way, the people doing so are just as incompetent as the elected politicians that we currently have.
Otherwise, they are even worse, because they have not had exposure to contact with any part of our democracy – even for as much as one day.
Why we need to replace The Lords
That The Lords should be disbanded should not even be a debate.
Nobody should have the right to influence decisions that effect everyone, just because they are somebody’s friend. Because they have donated money to a political party. Or basically just because of who they are.
However, what the lords could be replaced with is a big question. Not least of all because the control freak MPs sitting in Parliament today and the political parties they represent will not willingly take any steps that would knowingly lead to them giving away the power they believe they are entitled to maintain between them.
Replacing The Lords with a second elected house of national government that could genuinely help provide much clearer representation across society is where the uk should be.
Replacing The Lords and embracing the influence of Younger People
There would be no better way to create a truly forward looking system of national government, that includes a robust system of checks and balances to keep it real, than establishing a Younger People’s Parliament or lower house, sitting alongside The House of Commons, that could take on an evolved list of the responsibilities that The Lords it would replace, leaving MPs to make final decisions in public policy, as they do so today.
There would be massive benefits to us all from ensuring that our younger generations are not only being heard but are also seen to be participating in the national debate and legislative processes, each and every day.
How the Younger People’s Parliament might work
The benefits of creating a Younger People’s Parliament are likely to be greater than many would imagine. Not least of all because of the knock-on effects that it could have for the wider electoral system itself.
To illustrate the way our new Younger People’s Parliament might work in the better interests of us all and the return to a fully functioning democracy, it might work as follows:
Be open only to Young People who have already served one full term as an elected member in local government (Parish, Town, District, Borough, County, Unitary) on the day that they are elected.
Be restricted to Members being no more than 35 years old.
That members are Elected by Proportional Representation.
That no political parties be involved.
That all candidates are selected through locally held community hustings.
That 3 members or seats be elected for each parliamentary constituency (that could be divided into three age ranges?)
That there are fixed terms for each elected seat of 4 years to coincide with local civic timetable.
Other suggestions:
That the Younger People’s Parliament only nominate its choice of house leaders, speakers etc and that the electorate then vote on these options EVERY time members of the lower house are elected in that area.
Whatever you think of replacing The Lords with a Younger People’s Parliament, the truth remains that the whole of our political system is broken, is dysfunctional and ultimately needs to be changed either structurally or reinterpreted so that everyone feels engaged.
Every one of us has the right to feel we have the ability to influence decision making in government – rather than experiencing the growing feeling of mass disenfranchisement that we have now.
Young people must have a voice. Whilst idealism has to be tempered so that there are not ill-considered consequences to it, we really should be embracing every idea that can make the world better – if and when it genuinely works in the best interests of everyone and not just those who’s idea it is.
It doesn’t take much reading of today’s news and social media streams to work out that the Conservatives are now fully into clutching at straws mode when it comes to saving themselves and the forlorn hope that they will somehow find the credibility to deliver a record fifth victory in the next General Election – whenever it should come.
That a government that was elected with an 80-seat majority in December 2019 (yes – it’s actually the same one!) should have fallen so far in the polls in less than 5 years is in itself a very profound tell about the state of the conservative party today. And that’s before we consider that we are on the third Prime Minister to have welded themselves to the keys of No.10 during the time between.
To believe that their demise is all down to a poor run of leaders would be foolish of us all, for no better reason than the Tories have themselves elected as leaders (and therefore as Prime Ministers), the best that they have got.
Yes, it could be argued that the right person didn’t get the chance when they should have got there. But that itself sends just as powerful a message that tells us the Party is filled up with people who don’t work in a democratic way, or in anything like the sense we should be able to expect from an organisation that brings people together to do the best possible for the electorate.
The truth nobody will face in politics is that the days of the big beasts of politics are now long gone. The ability to look good carrying a ceremonial sword or time served as an establishment public servant in a top job are not qualifications for leading a country at any time, least of all when we are facing the uncertain and turbulent times that we are now in.
Decades of weak leadership, then awarding top jobs to politicians who are even weaker than they are, has meant that the politicians we see leading all the political parties today, keep getting even weaker leaders. Each and every time that there is a change.
Under the current system, the only way that politics can therefore change is if the political parties change themselves. And that would mean the current crop of politicians that we see in the news each day giving up their seats and walking away in the same way that we might ask turkeys to vote for Christmas.
There is a good chance that the result of the General Election will be nothing like the polls are currently suggesting. And we should all be minded that the collapse of one 80-seat majority and the numbers that underpin it in less than 5 years can also work the other way.
However, if the Tories want to be taken seriously by anyone other than themselves again, they will have to accept that it has been a long time since any of their politicians have behaved like they are genuine conservatives.
Both the public and their own membership are crying out for genuine public representation and leadership. Not more glory-chasing and media headline obsessives who believe that they are the only ones that matter and that politics is nothing more than a game.
This morning has passed milestone: I’ve recorded my first vlog for @TugsRamblings and it’s now uploaded and published too.
I bought a great little DJI camera about 18 months ago and although I’ve made a few videos and posted them on another channel, Tugs Ramblings heralds a new approach and one where I’m going to see if I can move away or expand from the approaches that I’ve taken to blogging and writing books up to now, and talk about anything that comes to mind.
Setting up blogs, social media and a YouTube channel does feel intimidating, even for me and I’m glad that the new offering is at least beginning to take shape!
Finding AI image generators has been a great help and I am still feeling amazed by what you can now produce in a matter of moments – depending on what words you enter into the computer.
I like talking whilst I’m walking and that’s why I’ve decided that calling this approach Tugs Ramblings might be a good idea!
Today’s video was about The Basic Living Standard, which is an idea or proposal that I have been writing and talking about since early 2022, and which is built around a benchmark that would ensure that every working adult, working a full week, would be paid enough to support themselves with all the basics and essentials that they need, without having to claim benefits, call upon charity, or go into debt.
You’d think it would be simple for everyone to see really, but its not. And its because its not simple for everyone to see and accept, that we can be certain that the system we have today is broken – and probably beyond repair.
Link to today’s video below. Please like, subscribe and share!
We were once free to ignore or mock the presence of voices such as Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson. We jumped on the let’s-call-it-extremism bandwagon that the mainstream narrative afforded us, regrettably at the expense of precluding different opinions that could have done us a lot of good, if we had the good sense to listen and hear them long before now.
We don’t have that luxury anymore. Anyone would be a fool to ignore the danger of some ‘new’ movement quickly being fashioned across the restless and frustrated corners of our society, that will be more than happy up step into the void that has been created by the absence of genuine political leadership for such a long time.
The decision of our politicians not to listen, rather than using public office to do whatever the hell they and their political party’s want hasn’t come without a heavy, steadily accumulating cost.
The ignorance of a brewing undercurrent of very normal people who are sick and tired of being the butt end of every public policy our politicians now deliver, whilst policies that run contrary to what would be good for everyone are relentlessly pursued, means that we may soon reach a tipping point when everyday British people will simply say ‘no more’.
Whilst it has become popular to blame racism for any view or thought which can be considered contra-narrative, the problems caused by the failure of the progressive multicultural project are only part of a much bigger, quickly growing problem.
It has become a cultural norm for politicians to engage in what is probably best called political gaslighting, where the mainstream media adeptly help them create the idea in our minds that anyone who suffers from any one of the growing injustices of our time is suffering alone and that everything is rosy for everyone else.
However, the victims of useless politicians are not alone. People are realising this in ever greater numbers and those responsible are on a fast track to being found out.
Even more of us are going to realise that the cost of living crisis, explosive inflation of the prices of the essentials and basics that everyone needs, the collapse of public services, and everything that real people believe to be wrong, but the narrative tells us is right, are definitely wrong and have been created deliberately, through someone else’s incompetence or design.
These things didn’t just happen to any of us in a way that politicians suggest. These are wrongs that weren’t unavoidable. And even the merest hint that we brought it all upon ourselves is not only unjust; it is an outright lie.
As more and more realise this, people are going to join the groups and movements that some very angry people lead, with consequences that could quickly be disastrous for us all.
Not least of all, because there isn’t currently any kind of sensible or reasoned choice that actually represents anything different to what we have already got.
Regrettably, it would take much bigger politicians than the ones we have already got, to recognise their own folly and for them all to step aside so that they can be replaced by genuine public representatives. Good politicians and leaders who genuinely understand, accept and are motivated by the reality that we elect politicians to make decisions which will have outcomes that are always in the best interests of us all.
It’s anyone’s guess how long we have got and what event or issue will prove to be the last straw.
However, change is coming. And when push comes to shove, we can only hope that Lady Luck is shining, and we have leaders available who will step in and do their best for us, rather than doing only what is best for themselves.
After a long time writing blogs, more and more e-books and a few attempts at vlog and podcast creation too, I’ve decided that its time to shake things up a little and start by changing my approach.
A new approach required looking at the images I use on posts and I finally decided that it was time to cross the rubicon this morning and see what would happen if instead of using a picture gallery online, I just stepped over the imaginary bridge and tried out image generating AI.
Being suspicious of anything that wants you to sign up or try a free offer, my digging around soon led my to Microsoft’s own version ‘Microsoft Designer’, and I have to say that I am admittedly stunned by what I have found.
I was writing a blog post or rather editing a page from a recently published book to put on my main blog this morning and wanted to see if I could illustrate the point about politicians only dealing with the effects of problems whilst ignoring the causes, and thought a ball of used band-aids or sticking plasters outside the Houses of Parliament might be just the thing. (You can see the result!)
WHAT KIND OF WIZARDRY IS THIS!!!
I confess, this shit is amazing – and the fact it’s available from Microsoft for free does bring with it some reassurance too, given that we should all be a little careful when giving away information that any sign-up requires from companies we have never heard of or don’t actually know.
The trouble is, the ‘wow’ response we are all having to using AI – in whichever form we are using it, is blowing minds everywhere, and we aren’t then giving our use of it or the implications of using it another thought.
Every societal problem that this country has, alludes to ways of being, to laws, regulations, public policies and the actions or activities of politicians who have either allowed or encouraged these problems to exist.
These problems are often just accepted as the causes of the problems that we face, in themselves.
Yet the problems that we see are in many cases only the effects of other problems and the real causes of those problems are hidden from view and treated as if they don’t even exist.
The solutions that politicians do come up with fail, because they rarely, if ever, address the real cause.
With the complexity of interconnectedness that exists between every area of public policy, the failure of politicians to address one problem because they’ve used nothing better than a sticky plaster to ‘fix’ it just leads to other problems developing, that successive parliaments and politicians then just attempt to fix in exactly the same way.
Imagine a big ball of used plasters that incompetent politicians just keep kicking down the road and you will have a good idea of what real problems mean to them.
We are in the mess that we are in now, because the effect of one problem has been addressed as if it’s the cause, leading to another problem or more effects of that problem which have then been treated the same. Meanwhile, all the time this has been happening, nobody has ever dealt with the real or root cause.
If we want things to change, we must elect public representatives who understand this and will take the risks necessary to fix all the causes of the problems that society faces – no matter who or what interests are involved, and how resistant they will be to changes that will be fair to all and ultimately benefit everyone.
This blog is based on an excerpt from Days of Ends and New Beginnings, published on Amazon for Kindle. Please click link below for more details:
What is it that is common to all the things that are happening around us?
What is it that influences everything in life without most of us even being aware?
What is it that really sits outside of us that has fooled us into living our lives in a way that has been conditioned to benefit others, whilst making us all believe that the decisions, we make have always remained our own to define?
The commonality that flows between everything and everyone in this world today is money.
Everyone and everything is connected by the creation of money, its accumulation, its worship.
Life as we know it is run by a money-based system that has conditioned us all to believe that the value of everything in life can be determined by what somebody has, where somebody lives, what somebody earns, what somebody owns.
What few of us realise is that we have all been enslaved by a money-based system. A culture that has affected us all so deeply, it has even taken over the way that we all think.
Obsessed as we are with the money-focused world, even the most intelligent of our economists and academics will not accept that the world is able to function in any other way.
Even though many have already or will quietly admit that they cannot see where the growing crisis will end, the establishment still refuses to question the belief that whatever happens next or whatever the world may look like in the future, it will continue to be money-centric.
The alternative truth that even the greenest, socialist, new-worldish of our communities cannot reconcile is that an economy doesn’t have to be all about money or even based on money for that economy to be successful, or even to exist.
Money is the lifeblood of the system we have today. Because the value of money is the only way that anything is now valued and is therefore accepted as being relevant to everything.
This is how our belief system has been encouraged to work by people who benefit from us all thinking that way.
Our beliefs shape our priorities and form the basis upon which all our assumptions and our entire value set is constructed.
Changing that value set all begins very close to home.
Firstly, it’s about the way that we think and thinking the right way.
Secondly it is then about doing everything the right way in the world outside of ourselves that we can see and interact with, without digital or remote contact.
Meaningful change will therefore be about locality and community.
Neoliberalism perpetrates the myth that egalitarian living will be achieved by letting the ‘knowing few’ running big businesses, banking, finance and the markets run riot with minimum restraint.
The biggest part of the lie is the suggestion that by allowing private interests to control everything through the removal of regulations, the creation of rules that help them, their own interpretation of any rules and the subsequent abuse of a broken legal system to enforce them, everyone and the public good will be truly well-served.
However, the truth that we are now experiencing is that by deregulating markets and financial activity to the extent that has already taken place, the power that should be in the hands of legislators and policy makers on behalf of us all, has been passed to private interests whose priority is greed, profit and not the public interest in any way.
They haven’t finished. The extension and growth of Neoliberalism is dependent upon reducing the reach and impact of government at every level.
It doesn’t matter what process is followed or becomes necessary for the Neoliberal outcome to be achieved.
Smaller government is a key Neoliberalist aim because the less government there is, the more power and influence will have been transferred into private hands.
The outcomes for the people who need good governance most of all can only get worse under the Neoliberal view of smaller government, as it will be impossible for even the status quo to be maintained.
This blog is an expcert from Days of Ends and New Beginnings, published on Amazon for Kindle, April 2024. Please click the link below for more details:
Government and politicians have willfully overlooked this truth for decades, whilst helping to remove the regulation and safety barriers that once helped to keep life for the lowest paid affordable to live.
Whilst many pour score upon the lowest paid and society’s most vulnerable and buy into the propaganda that their financial misery is somehow self-inflicted and that only they are at fault, the truth is that the prices of all the essential basics that we all need would never have escalated and reached the unstoppable highs that they have already, if the whole business and financial system hadn’t been manipulated to serve the interests of profiteering and greed.
We have all been conditioned and enslaved by money, the accumulation of material wealth and the status that goes with it.
These are the only things in this world that count. Today.
The function of every real business and organisation is to provide goods or services that support or improve the lives of people. Not to generate income. Yet the businesses that don’t do anything to support or improve the lives of people are the ones pushing up prices and making life for everyone else so hard.
This, the cost-of-living crisis and all of the UKs social problems have come into being because we have become obsessed with money as the key priority in life, rather than having values and humanity which are the benchmark of how a good life should be.
However, the world is changing, and it is changing fast. Nothing is certain in the way that we used to believe, and we are now experiencing a time of chaos and change that cannot offer any certain outcomes for any of us, unless we all embrace the need for meaningful change as a conscious and voluntary choice.
This blog is an excerpt from The Basic Living Standard, published on Amazon for Kindle, April 2024. To find out more, please follow the link below.
We can only solve the problems that society faces if we give the lowest paid the means and opportunity to earn enough to sustain themselves independently and without the need for support.
The national minimum or living wage will never achieve this, because within this broken financial system, the nearer the minimum wage gets to the true cost of living, the faster the cost of all the essentials that we all need will inflate or go up.
We need nothing less than a paradigm shift from a money-centric system to one that puts people first in every respect.
The Basic Living Standard introduces the principle of Locality Based Economics and offers the basis of a new financial system in which we can achieve financial freedom for ALL.
If you are looking for fiction, this is no story. But the snapshots, views and experiences that you are about to share will make you question much that you previously accepted as truth.
Everything you are about to read about the past, about what we are experiencing today and where the future could take us is certainly interconnected.
But the way that the world works suggests that every issue that has happened, that we are experiencing and that we will need to address in the future, sits in isolation in some way.
Until we see the relationship that exists between everything and the problems we face, then accept that we will only solve those problems by thinking differently, our future will continue to be written by interests that will never be aligned with our own.
Touching on everything that relates to the way this Country is run, from education to cryptocurrency, the true value of money, to growing food at home and rules for the internet and AI, Days of Ends and New Beginnings lifts the stone and shines light on many of the issues, motives and reasons for the problems society faces, that have until now been carefully hidden from view.
Repurposing the inevitable period of chaos and change we are now experiencing so the outcome is meaningful change that will benefit us all isn’t a certainty. But by considering what is likely to change, what positive change will look like, and how we can take steps to thrive and survive as we experience that change, the chances are that we can all become a positive influence on what our future will be.
If you are ready to embrace meaningful change, it’s time to look inside.
Forgive me if I am wrong. But I was under the impression that the run up to an election was the time for politicians to come up with the giveaways and promises that were designed to buy votes. Not turn potential voters away.
Yes, its cynical I know. But very few of us could honestly say that we expect anything from politicians of any of the political parties we know today.
Deep down, we all know, that the messages, soundbites and slogans are typically aimed at the many of us who aren’t really asking questions, in the hope that we will mindlessly walk to the Polling Station at some point in the coming months and hand our vote to politicians who really shouldn’t be anywhere near public responsibility of any kind.
However, without real alternatives, that’s exactly what the next General Election Day promises to be. The chance for us either to refuse to vote, because there’s no real public representation to vote for, or to vote for the Political Party that we currently believe is most likely to do us the least harm.
Yet Friday showed us all something different.
What we heard from the Prime Minister went way beyond the desperate words of someone leading a party that has been trusted with the responsibility of government for too long. Forlornly doing the best they can to limit the scope of the coming electoral disaster.
Rishi Sunak’s speech on Friday heralded a level of ignorance, cold-heartedness and outright hatred of others, who our politicians identify as not being the same as themselves, now being manifested in a way that we might not have seen in the UK since the Victorian era or perhaps even before.
Don’t be mistaken. The so-called attack on sick culture, those who supposedly live on benefits as a lifestyle choice and people with disabilities, whether they be physical or of the mental health kind, may indeed be a popular policy amongst those who are still earning enough to cover the unstoppable inflation of prices for every basic essential that every human being needs, to remain human.
But the number of those who have more than enough is dwindling all the time. And if they are not already, many who are already working full time jobs will soon be asking themselves how long it will be until they have to reach out to ask for benefits, charity from somewhere like a food bank, or most likely use a credit card or some other financial device like a loan and go into debt, just to pay the bills, have food on the table or sit on a winter evening with light and enough heat.
Creating the idea that nobody should take more than 12 months to get a job really would be quite an insulting suggestion – even if it were meant to be a joke.
But to suggest that the way to tackle the mental health issues that those claiming unemployment related benefits suffer is to push them into work, tells us all too clearly, either a) how ridiculously out of touch or b) how inhuman or actually evil, the people running the UK today really are.
Being in Poverty today
As someone who grew up in poverty, I experienced all the stereotypical issues that the majority of today’s politician’s actions would suggest qualifies someone like me for life’s dustbin.
Last Autumn I found myself at the end of a long journey, studying a postgraduate course in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security and visiting a local Food Bank to undertake research and relate my own experiences from childhood in the 70’s and 80’s to what those with a comparable life experience have to deal with today.
What I found was extremely sobering, when put in the context of how poverty is considered by decision makers and those who formulate public policy.
Whilst a technical awareness and therefore systematic approach to provision for the poor has existed in some way for much longer than many realise, the dynamics of poverty are continually changing. Yet ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’.
The only way that any of us and especially those who should be making provision to help those in need could do so in a way that goes beyond basic giveaways or cash handouts – as is how the benefits system really operates right now, would be to gain a direct understanding of what it is really like to be at the mercy of the welfare and benefits system today. And for as long as the problem exists, to regularly revisit and keep tangibly in touch.
Everything that government and the public sector provides through welfare and the benefits system today is focused upon dealing with the effects of the problem. Rather than doing even the slightest thing to address the causes of the actual problem itself.
Taking benefits away without addressing this will not encourage anyone to help themselves. It will just remove some of the help that is already nowhere near enough and condemn countless more to worse than anything anyone in living memory has seen before.
Being out of touch is no excuse for any politician. Least of all a British Prime Minister
The underlying message that anyone paying close attention would have understood from Sunak’s speech on Friday was This is the fault of the people who are in this situation.
They are the guilty bastards here and helping them beyond what we can get away with means we are throwing money away that we could spend on something that will help us get elected again.
That a Prime Minister of the UK could be a former banker and billionaire who has never wanted for anything and has absolutely no idea of the hell that people on the breadline experience every day, whilst politicians and the media gaslight us with messages like ‘INFLATION IS GOING DOWN’ is bad enough.
But to stand there and tell the Country that there is no excuse for not working when people cannot support themselves when they do, is frankly beyond absurd.
The problem that politicians helped create and won’t tackle. But are happy to blame on anyone else
It should be obvious to the political classes that anyone who can work and earn a wage that covers their costs without them needing to claim benefits, call upon charity or go into debt is usually happy and unlikely to cause any form of social problem for anyone else.
It should be just as obvious that when a benefits system that does everything that it can to devalue those seeking support, to the degree that claiming benefits is a cause of mental health issues for many in itself, that switching from being fully dependent upon benefits and other help, to then being dependent upon benefits, other help AND working perhaps full time, doesn’t offer a genuine incentive for anyone who is already feeling like the world is against them.
Working full time in any job that doesn’t pay the employee enough to survive independently and without support may be considered legal by today’s politicians and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
We need leaders. Not morally bankrupt politicians who see the workings of the world in purely financial terms
The majority of those on benefits today and the increasing number who are set to join them, as technology like AI takes over jobs, are all victims of the current system of governance and leadership which is wholly money-centric and facilitates a public sector that is financially and materially self-obsessed.
People and the humanity that governs real life no longer matter.
Because money has become god and an increasingly dehumanised set of values has been inserted and taken its place across our culture and within daily life.
If we remain on the pathway and the trajectory that politicians have set us upon, the levels of poverty that we are experiencing today are set to get exponentially worse.
It doesn’t need to be this way. It never should have been
Every function of business, or government and any not-for-profit organisation has benefit or service to people or human beings at its core.
The function of every action taken in the world should therefore always be with people and the benefit to humanity in mind. Rather than being the upside-down system that it has become, where everything every decision or action is based purely and unequivocally on what profit can be made or carrying out any necessary task for the absolute minimum that those in charge believe they can afford.
This is why prices, and the cost of living, are out of control. Everything else we are told is just another excuse.
The reason that politicians will not even acknowledge this, is because the blow-back or retribution that would come from the businesses and the elites that fund them, that they look up to and whom they wish to emulate or be, would be ruthlessly destructive.
Fulfilling the role that we are correct to expect of our politicians could easily lead them to being the future benefits claimant they are so happy to make it so difficult to be today.
That’s why no matter what they say, nothing they do will ever lead to meaningful change.
The Basic Living Standard
People on low wages and benefits cannot afford to survive or function independently and without help today.
Because making a profit for those who control and influence the system has become far more important than ensuring that life for everyone within the system is something that each and every one of us can afford.
Yet that is exactly the message that we can all see and hear just as soon as we begin to understand how business, money and government really work.
Facts are facts. And if we were to change, transform, reform, renew or reset the whole system, so that we put the ability of the lowest paid to support themselves independently at the heart of everything and what everyone does, rather than funneling everything towards wealth accumulation in a system that only ever works out well for the few, the problems that society faces – that the rich caused and now want to punish us all for – would quickly disappear. Along with the majority of the other issues that are causing such deep division and unrest within these very turbulent times.
Making it a legal requirement that everyone working a full working week must be paid enough to cover the costs of all essentials and basics, without the need for benefits, charity or going into debt does of course sound impossible at first glance.
But that is because the system has now reached the point where it is so skewed, the messages in every direction are screaming at us that real life is no longer something that everyone can afford and that by creating a situation where others gain, you will inadvertently create circumstances where you will be losing yourself.
However,for some to be rich doesn’t mean that others must be poor, and we now need leadership that is prepared to put the needs of humanity first. Rather than continuing to suck up to and pay homage to those who are obsessed only with the bottom line.
None of the politicians we have to choose from today are even in the room with the changes that now need to be made.
It is unlikely that they even understand the realities of what needs to be done.
It is highly regrettable that we have reached a point in human history where it has become culturally acceptable, and it is therefore considered ‘normal’, for others to be poor and that we overlook or just accept this as long as we continue to be doing alright for ourselves.
That’s how our leaders view everything today and how every one of us who isn’t being touched by the realities of the cost-of-living crisis and the explosive inflation that the elites have created but tell us in the same breath doesn’t exist, still believe.
Would it be better for us all to care about each other and enjoy the benefits of what it is to be truly human? Or spend every minute that remains of our lives building layer after layer of protection around ourselves and the fake money that only we believe in, so that everyone else exists in misery and pays a very real, but nonetheless incalculable cost for our greed?
“The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”
It’s nearly the middle of April and 2024 has been a washout. You don’t need to be a farmer to know there’s little that feels normal about the wet weather and I know I’m not alone in feeling like it’s been raining nonstop since Christmas.
Is there a conspiracy at work? Is the weather being manipulated? Is this all part of some concocted grand plan?
Well, in terms of the things we should really be worried about, getting lost in the debate over whether Mother Nature or some malevolent force is behind the growing threat of a failed harvest this summer is the only real rabbit hole there is to fall down.
Hopeful as I am for our struggling farmers, that the weather will turn around and put everything back on track, the sober way to start thinking about issues that should really be concerning anyone looking at the wider U.K. food security and production situation is to question how decision makers will frame what may soon be recognised as the 2024 harvest crisis and how they will then respond.
Of all the food security issues we are facing today, which include but are not limited to deglobalisation, climate change, retail profiteering, political ineptitude and anything that falls under the manufactured problems that need a logic defying solution too, weather should never have been the one problem that has the potential to end up making our fragile food security situation even worse.
The reality that we and our farmers face, is that a failed harvest across in 2024 will play straight into the hands of those who believe and advocate that the U.K. doesn’t need to grow its own food.
There is an unsettling belief at work within the establishment that our food supply can always be guaranteed to come from somewhere abroad, and that new technologies and factory foods – like ground up insects, lab growing and warehouse production – will solve all problems. This mindset results in the fallacious idea that there is little reason to continue pandering to farmers who can only be productive when they are a) told what to grow, and then b) are paid for doing so.
Farmers are being set up to fail
For an essential industry already in crisis and under attack from an establishment that views food security and all of the highly beneficial add ons that U.K. produced food can give British people as trivia they can do without, the ongoing storm is one that couldn’t have landed at a less helpful time.
The real risk to U.K. farmers is that government will make token gestures, but in truth do very little to help the industry in the immediate aftermath.
This is likely to lead to many more business exits for what should really be thriving farming businesses, and a situation arising quickly where the U.K. becomes perilously close to losing the ability to feed itself, even at emergency or wartime levels, using recognisable farming methods that are beneficial for everyone involved in the food chain.
Whilst there is growing unrest among farmers, a belief that the powers that be will eventually step in and save the day still regrettably persists.
It is regrettably fair to say that the misconception that government understands the risks to an already critically vulnerable food supply is easily dismissed when we consider that the equivalent of around only 54% of the food we eat is currently grown in the U.K.
Decision makers either don’t see the risk or they don’t want to see the risk. And whichever it is, the result for U.K. farmers, U.K. food production and U.K. food security is pretty much the same.
U.K. farming, the infrastructure that supports it and the legislation that facilitates it might not be anywhere near able to feed the uk population without help today.
But that doesn’t mean that it cannot. It certainly doesn’t mean that the industry shouldn’t redirect, reform and repurpose where needed, so that U.K. food sovereignty is no longer viewed as being pie in the sky.
The wide range of green, environmental, climate, food quality, nutrition, transparency and other farm and food related issues, that have different activists fighting each other for air would all be resolved by getting behind U.K. farmers and food production to refocus. U.K. agriculture will only be saved by moving away from the Globalist/EU production models to one that puts locality and traditional methods at the centre – albeit in a 21st century form.
The power for change sits within the hands of our farmers themselves and the trades that align around U.K. agriculture.
Although many still don’t see it this way, it would be wise for anyone and everyone with an interest in being able to grow or eat a regular, sustainable supply of good, healthy and nutritious food to watch carefully what the establishment does and how it responds if the realities of a 2024 harvest crisis begin to unfold.
If you lost your job and had no savings or help from loved ones to fall back on, how would you feel if you took any job you could to find that you still couldn’t afford to live?
If benefits put you in the same position, would you take the job or conclude it would be better to just ‘sign on’?
Without enough money to pay every bill, to eat, to stay warm, to travel and do everything else you need to do for yourself, would you feel good about selling yourself to a prospective employer – especially as the worry of the debt you are in starts to mount up?
These are all real questions that increasing numbers of people are asking themselves today and every day.
The real travesty is that too many others have been asking these same questions for a very long time and without the cost-of-living crisis and runaway inflation problem, had previously been hidden from our view.
Our obsession with money and the accumulation of material wealth has meant leaving increasing numbers of people behind. Whilst a broken and privately controlled money system has steadily funneled the volume and value that we believe money to have towards a progressively smaller number of ‘the few’.
We have been conditioned to believe that for us to experience material wealth, abundance and to be financially rich, that others must have the experience of being vulnerable or poor.
It is an equation that works well. Until we find that we ourselves are the ones who need the help – as many of us living in this broken system regrettably now are.
Everything wrong with society that we see whether it’s price inflation, crime, crumbling public services or out of touch politicians, are all symptomatic of the same thing:
We don’t value each person as a human being, and we don’t value every person in the same way.
The key to a better life, better future and a better world for all, is a return to values and humanity that can only be achieved by shifting the focus of everything to locality and to ensuring that every person is able to sustain themselves financially, without the need for support.
Adam Tugwell 