Category: Articles

Freedom of anonymity is not freedom of speech, yet it serves all the wrong purposes for it to be seen as the same thing

A few days ago, I watched Emily Atack’s BBC Documentary about online abuse. Through all of the inappropriate, to unpalatable, to offensive, to harmful, to absolutely wrong stories and anecdotes that Emily and those she spoke to revealed, it was the words of one of the male respondents in a discussion group that spoke loudest. When asked why men do it, he replied; because they can.

Whilst the behaviour of anyone who causes the kind of mental distress and fear that so many clearly are, needs to be punished appropriately, my real concern is that punishment or focusing upon it as the effect that it is, rather than the real gate opener or cause to this problem, means that the focus is being pushed further and further away from the real issue – which is being avoided, because our politicians don’t want to upset their friends, or attempt to deal with any issue they believe likely will show them in a negative light.

The inability of our entire political class to be the public representatives that they regularly insist they are and that we should all be able to expect them to be, is mind blowing.

Throw a virus they know nothing about into the mix and they can bring life to a standstill in moments. Ask them to take the necessary steps to legislate the removal of the biggest cause of online threats to individuals, and its more than their ‘job’ is worth.

With things as they are today, the failure of the issue of online anonymity and the role it plays in online abuse to gain any real traction, probably means that there are a significant number of online abusers already on a pathway to carrying out much more serious crimes against others.

They will also arguably do massive but avoidable damage to themselves – all because the will and respect for the responsibility to the public they represent isn’t there on the part of legislators (MPs) who could solve this all very quickly.

Indeed, all they would need do would be to make it law for everyone using any kind of social media platform to be registered with an independent body – even if they then continue to publish and communicate under some kind of assumed name.

Yes, that independent body would need to be independent of a system of government that is increasingly displaying dystopian overtures. But it would also need to be independent of the Tech companies, who through their collaboration with the establishment and silent banning of dissenting voices, have already shown that they cannot act with integrity in any matter where they would be self-policed.

Freedom of speech is about the content of words, not who spoke them. Yet in this current climate, the terms freedom of speech and freedom of anonymity have become alarmingly interchangeable when they don’t in any way relate to the same thing.

The failure of the establishment to recognise and regulate to reduce unrecorded anonymity to its absolute minimum literally means that the parallel universe which is the internet and world of apps is a place where behaviour that would already be punishable in the ‘real world’ is being exploited by people online, who believe they have impunity against punishment for doing the same things.

With a disintegrating public sector, court system and police service, surely making it clear that everyone is simple to identify, and potentially has to abide by a code of conduct, even if they are overtly anonymous, would mean that abuse would almost disappear overnight. Meanwhile, those who genuinely need anonymity, would still be able to speak freely – as in any free speaking society, it is only right and fair that they should?

Freedom of Anonymity 7Feb23 PDF_Vers1_13Jan26Download

This Economic Collapse: We are watching greed destroy lives and the real world around us in the forlorn hope that this dying world order and their system based on money will be saved

Before anything else, it’s important to understand that whilst the decisions taken by Prime Minister Liz Truss and her Chancellor represent nothing less than doubling down on the very same stupidity that brought us to where we are now, the chaos they have caused is not itself responsible for the bigger system collapse that is underway.

Like most things in the public realm today, it just serves someone’s self-interest and an agenda that doesn’t help anyone else, for it to be made to look that way.

No, this blog is not an apology for Liz Truss and the ridiculous nature of her first 3 weeks in No. 10. But as I wrote before the disastrous ’mini budget’ last week, there remains a chance that Truss will do a massive u turn on everything, and for anyone with just a little humanity, who cares about where this is all going, this surely must be a shared hope.

So much hides in plain sight in this money obsessed world. Smoke and mirrors and sleight of hand are at work everywhere. And as usual, even when everything is turning to chaos, neither the media nor the majority of people are even considering, let alone asking the questions about all that is happening, as we all really should.

For instance, how is it possible or how can it be that the £Pound can go into free fall and push the British economy to the edge of an economic crash, just because financial traders and people working in money and the markets lose their nerve or start placing bets on what will happen to our currency next?

There is little to be gained by exploring this massively dangerous anomaly here. Other than to state clearly, that this is perhaps the best demonstration of where power in this money-based order lies. And that the meaningful influence and real responsibility for life and living does not lie with the people who we might think.

Begin to consider just how this situation rolls out across almost everything and every part of life. You will soon have other questions in your mind about how every part of life could have reached a point where we all exist at the whim of just a handful of people who have no care for anything out of their own sight.

Out of sight, out of mind, really is dictating the quality, content and realities of millions of people, their lives and their life experience. Not ethically, consciously or considerately. But in yet more ways that money – for just these greedy few – can be made.

No politician within the system that we have now will stand up to or do anything that will inhibit, restrain or redirect the activities of these interests. Not least of all because those running, managing and operating what are basically scams have the power to destroy economies and currencies in a moment; But because of our politician’s slavish devotion to this same money-based order, that all of their careers and futures – no matter their party – have been formed.

The financial, economic and currency system that we have today may well have worked well for the majority of people, IF there had been a sizeable and unavoidable chunk of ethical practices, morality and basic humanity involved and maintained from the very start.

Sadly, not only have principles and consideration of the consequences of every decision – over many points removed – never been present, the whole system and everything it touches has become infected, dehumanised and even less caring about what happens to anyone and everyone else. All as the flaws of the system have evolved and spread to everything since the Gold Standard was abandoned in 1971.

This is NOT the only way things can be.

This is NOT how things should be.

This is NOT how anything needs to be.

There is regrettably an element of truth in the thinking that nothing or no part of this can be changed, at least for the time being. Simply because the continuation of any part of this system, where people invested in it remain in control, means they will only allow and consider change which solidifies their position or will further advantage them in some way.

However, the collapse that these interests are trying to prevent with the very same tools they used to create it, cannot itself be controlled.

The people in charge, whether it’s elites, bankers or politicians, are in fact a very long way from having any sensible or rational ideas about how they can save their dying world order.

That’s why we have wars, pipelines being blown up and ridiculous suggestions being made without a hint of irony that growth for ‘the haves’ is the only way that hunger, poverty and shortages for ‘the have-nots’ can be solved.

Not only those awake to the whole money lie, but the majority who now know that something has gone very wrong, will soon have the opportunity to choose a very different way.

This choice will come when this money-based system has broken and collapsed to the point that it stops working and its very functionality no longer makes any logical sense to people who can no longer be taken in by the con.

There is a lot of pain ahead that people should never have had to be exposed to. Indeed, it was never necessary that any of them should.

It has just been greed, selfishness and the absence of care and consideration for our fellow man that has brought us to the place that we are now, and that we must now face in the weeks, months and years ahead.

By continuing, choosing to continue, agreeing to, taking part in or supporting any of the establishment ideas and tribal thinking that currently exists and will be pumped out at us as the situation becomes critical, it will be made very easy for us to believe that in the hands of the establishment and the dying world order, things can only get better – or at the very least, back to where and how we’ve always known them to be.

However, the system is and has for a very long time been broken beyond repair.

That’s why this system and the old world order is really dying.

The broken bricks and the carcass of this system and its governance can only be used effectively by those who wish for greed and the control of others to continue, by bolting everything that already exists together even more tightly – which will mean increasing amounts and very intrusive measures of control over what is left of ‘free life’.

Only those who believe they have something to gain by further enslaving people other than themselves will genuinely want to keep the money-based focus for everything going. And there are still a lot of them about.

The alternative is to build a new system and to create a new way of doing everything that is beneficial and fair to all. To quite literally raise a real phoenix from what doesn’t necessarily need to be ashes and build something much better and equitable for all, from the grassroots up.

Next week, I will publish my new book From Here to There Through Now. There I will go into much greater detail about what is really happening now, and how we can make the best of the situation, how we can survive and thrive as the transition takes place, and then step off and place the right building blocks working together in our communities as we recreate a people-centric world and remove all of the rot and disease that is rampant within the current system that our new world will replace.

#FromHeretoThereThroughNow #TheBasicLivingStandard #LevellingLevel

This Economic Collapse 30Sep22 PDF_Vers1_5Jan26Download

We cannot win by fighting politicians over issues that are only important to us. We must fight them on the ground that’s important to them too

In the UK yesterday, protestors took to the motorway network to create a protest ‘go slow’, by deliberately blocking two lanes of three lane motorways with vehicles that are only travelling at fifteen miles per hour.

The protest itself was overtly against the cost of fuel duty, which makes up a disproportionate percentage of the rising cost of vehicle fuel – which most of us will agree is now completely out of control.

Whilst many and probably the majority of us sympathise with the reasoning and motivation of the protest, it is clear from the comments from people who have had their ‘normal’ days disrupted by the action, that not everyone has bought in to this particular action plan.

Indeed, in terms of any kind of protest, blockade or strike amongst what we can now expect will become a steadily increasing  number of events involving direct action to demonstrate discontent to politicians and the government, the point that these actions not only divide, but can actually polarise what would have previously been support – all to the benefit of the government and those who are responsible for the problems – is being regrettably missed.

The truth is that the majority of people know that the system is not only broken. They also know that everything our politicians, the elites and the establishment does is now wrong.

The problem that those of us who have woken to the point where we are no longer ‘bought in’ to the system have today, is that for the majority of those who actually know they are being hurt by what’s happening and how it is already directly affecting them and their lives, the system still feels like it is working for them. As such, for that majority, the benefits of acquiescing at this moment in time, still appear to outweigh the cost.

That a point in time will come when for the majority this is no longer the case is now inevitable. It is not a case of if, but when. But that when could still be a very long time.

We are doing ourselves no favours in the meantime, by failing to box clever and fight the politicians in a way and on ground that is important to them and in ways that they have no way to ignore or to deliberately misunderstand.

The introduction of Price controls on foods, goods and services may become essential as this cost-of-living crisis develops. We would be fools to rule out rationing becoming necessary too

Yes, it does feel a bit like being the voice of doom and gloom as I write and produce videos about all the things that are going on and talk about what we can realistically expect as being likely to happen next.

The point is, that if someone like me can see what is happening and what is likely to happen next, the people we have elected as MPs have absolutely no excuse not to do so too.

In fact, our public representatives should be well ahead of the curve in both their horizon scanning and thinking than most.

Regrettably, they are not.

To be fair, the complexity of the growing problems and how each and every one of them interacts with the others is mind bogglingly scary to say the least.

Yet it is the culture of ‘let’s always take the easy option’ that exists, top to bottom within the British Political System, that has made the difficulties that are only just starting for us, significantly worse.

There are many people in this Country today who cannot afford to feed themselves, home themselves, clothe themselves, transport themselves or function normally in any way on the wages or income they have, without debt or benefits – or what is really a subsidy from the Government and therefore everyone else in some way.

Prices of the foods, goods and services that provide the basic essentials for life are spiraling out of control. Living at the standard we are experiencing even today, will soon become unaffordable for most.

Yet the complexities I mentioned above, all come back to just one thing: That the economic system we have today has been developed to benefit the self-interests of the few. That those driving it have continued to push prices up in the pursuit of ever-growing profits for as long as our stupid politicians have printed money and kept handing it out. When instead good politicians would have faced up to reality and dealt with the problems for wider society that have been caused by that same greedy few.

The Covid Pandemic has caused stupid politicians and greedy business and financial leaders to overplay their hand.

In fact, the inflationary spiral they have created together is now out of reach of any form of control they possess. Indeed, the only actions our weak-minded politicians have to address the issues are only serving to make the whole problem worse.

Events, or a coming chronology of them – which will have been caused by so many different profit-driven people with influence behaving in the same way, will combine to make basic food unaffordable where it is available. It will be absent from the supermarket and shop shelves where it would otherwise be not.

Food riots, as the system collapses and the old order makes way for a new one that will work for all will settle the mind of many. Especially the politicians that we have for the time that their waning power remains.

Greed, hoarding and any kind of self-driven prioritisation will have to go out of the window.

That will mean supermarket rationing as we experienced during the early Lockdowns. There will be an immediate need for Government to step in and fix prices along the entire food and essential goods supply chain, so that nobody can use this time of crisis to profit off the backs of us all.

Some of the more economically minded will baulk at the idea of any kind of price fixing, price regulation or price controls, because of its non-capitalist and non-market-friendly nature.

But the reality is that the epoch of easy money and making massive profits by exploiting the many to benefit the already bloated few, is now reaching its end.

A new system will emerge that will be fair to all. But it will not resemble anything that we’ve seen or experienced before.

As we walk the pathway to get there, it will be necessary to ensure that what we still have available – which will plenty for all of us without the influence or intervention of ongoing greed – will be made available fairly to all.

Money as we know it is likely to become only one of many different ways to make payment as change takes place. And it is therefore just as likely that rationing of the essentials that are available will also be necessary for everyone.

The times ahead may prove to be painful. But it’s the future which is possible for everyone once the change has been completed that we should look forward to.

The opportunities for a fair and just way of living, where everyone and everything matters are not just a pipe dream. They really exist and are there for us all.

After the pain, we have much happier times in store.

From Here to There Through Now | Full Text
The Local Economy & Governance System | Online Text
The Basic Living Standard Explained

The NHS is broken because every Government (and the EU) have added their own fix. If we don’t have leaders big enough to tackle all that needs to be done very soon, it will no longer exist

Perhaps the greatest travesty of modern politics is the overwhelming desire that our political class have to keep interfering with the management of services which are paid for out of the public purse.

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that’s exactly what we elect politicians to do. But we don’t elect them to do that. It’s just what they want us to think.

Overall strategy of public services and how they are paid for is the domain of politicians. Operational management and day-to-day decision making are the preserve of those best suited to address the need or the problem. Operational management is not and should never have become a political choice.

The NHS is in serious trouble today. Not just because of the Covid Pandemic – which has had a big role to play. But because the whole organisation and framework has been a political football for much of the time that it has existed – simply because cynical, self-serving politicians have identified that it is easy for them to use the NHS to big themselves up and ‘win’ votes that way.

On the left, the Labour Party keeps shouting about privatisation. Yet the kind of privatisation that exists has come as a systemic response to the burden of employment rights and unaffordable working conditions that they and their love of EU rules so idealistically but impractically imposed.

On the right, a penchant for throwing money at all problems because there is neither the motivation or principle at work to tackle uncomfortable challenges head on (in case they result in a loss of votes) has meant that the Tories have just poured petrol onto a fire of increasing problems, making the greed and profiteering that drive staffing agencies and contractors legitimate. The most obvious result being that NHS staff don’t get paid as they should, whilst their contemporary temporaries cost more than the organisation or the public purse can normally afford.

It doesn’t stop there. The NHS, like all public sector organisations has become highly protectionist in nature, leaving staff to devalue the use of common sense and stick to the most basic requirements of their job descriptions in a way that would resemble the most effective type of superglue.

Passing the buck to someone whose specific job it is to do anything outside this Public Sector framework is commonplace. And when that doesn’t work, a new job is created, taking even more money away from the frontline and meaning that jobs that were once done by frontline staff or by their immediate managers may have now evolved into multiples of backroom staff or contractors in addition to that one original post.

To be fair to the left, there is no argument that can easily be made to justify the presence of private interests in the provision of public services that are paid for by the public purse. However, the stranglehold that the rights lobby, public sector pensions (and the damage that Gordon Brown did in 1997) and devices such as the EU Working Time Directive have made, make it feel much easier for those obsessed with avoiding difficult management decisions to avoid employing staff directly in a convoluted process that ends up looking like privatisation by choice.

The rich irony is that the NHS is on a precipice, but could be saved from going over, if we had leadership from government and politicians not obsessed with easy options and avoiding all risk to themselves and their position.

We need a Government that is ready to take on the many different agendas that are not patient centric right across the NHS, and replace self-centred thinking with prioritising what’s best for the patient and in the best interests of the public at large.

Otherwise, we could very quickly find ourselves in a place where healthcare provision either becomes tiered in its availability or becomes only accessible at a variety of levels based on ability to pay.

Once this happens, the NHS will be a service that will neither be universal nor public, because it is not something that we can all afford.

The NHS is Broken 2Aug21 PDF_Vers1_3Feb26Download