Tag: Politics

The Contemporary Politicians Dilemma

You’ve just been elected as an MP and your political group or party holds the majority of Seats in Parliament.

Your group or party now has power over everything. Can change anything. Can be anything. Can do everything that you all promised the people who voted for you when you were successfully elected, just the other day.

In the briefings and within the advice that was never available to you and your political colleagues before the election took place, you are told very clearly, that everything the last government was actually doing, no matter what they were saying publicly, was the only way that they were able to keep government and the public sector running.

The alternative was that the economy, quickly followed by the government and then all public services would simply collapse.

As you catch your breath, you realise that all the things that have been hurting people, whether it was the cost-of-living crisis, inflation, house building, immigration, the benefits crisis or many other of the other social issues you have promised to tackle are all connected to the economy.

You now understand that everything in The System relates to money and specifically to ‘growth’ and the GDP that sits behind it in some way.

People of all kinds, all ages and all backgrounds are struggling.

You saw it only too well as you campaigned before the election was held. Pain and suffering was lurking in just about every direction that you looked.

You are told that you can keep the economy running. Just as long as you keep finding credible reasons to spend.

‘Credible’ reasons are what you need to build and maintain the narrative that justifies the reason to borrow and print money. So that ‘growth’ hides all of the problems, and the money you have created keeps flowing in all the directions that The System demands that it should.

However, there is a cost.

The cost of ‘keeping the economy going’ will be that you cannot step back or away from any policy that already exists, no matter how you sell it to the public.

This will mean there will need to be a growing number of people within the population and reasons to spend on all the goods and services that they will need, so that you can justify spending more and more of that created money, and that money can keep being passed between all the different parts of the economy that provide goods and services to meet the basic needs of people.

This is the way that the problem and more importantly the size of that problem, can continue to be hidden from view.

You know what you promised. You know what you said.

You were going to be ‘The difference’, ‘The change’ and you are now faced with making things worse instead.

The question you now ask yourself; ‘Is it better just to keep managing things, in a state of ongoing but ‘managed decline’, or do you do the right thing and deliver on your promises, knowing that the immediate after effect is likely to be a complete ‘System Collapse’, that is probably now inevitable, but could be delayed if you ‘keep the plates spinning’ instead?

What would you do, if this was you…?

The Contemporary Politicians Dilemma PDF_Vers1_5Sep25Download

The reality of today’s Minimum Wage: The baseline of our Economic Crisis

The biggest elephant in this economic room and probably the reason why Kier Starmer was falling over himself over the use of the term and definition of ‘working people’, is there is a growing underclass of the population who cannot earn enough money to pay for the basic essentials that they need to live each week or month.

The ‘Minimum Wage’ – even at the £12.21 it is expected to reach in April 2025, will not meet the basic cost of living.

The Minimum Wage is not enough for a single person, living alone, to be able to meet all of their basic or essential needs and expenses, without having financial help, receiving benefits of some kind, getting support from a charity like a Food Bank, or by going into debt.

In October 2023, I calculated that the real hourly rate that a single person would need to receive for a 40-hour working week would be £14.00 per hour – and that figure will certainly have grown in the year that has passed since.

The Politicians who do know and understand this – and please be under no illusion that those at Cabinet Level really should know what it really costs to live, also know that if they were to openly and publicly recognise that the National Minimum Wage isn’t anywhere near enough for a single adult who is living alone to live on, they would then be required to act.

Acting would require an immediate uplift of the Minimum Wage to a figure that is today likely to be around £15.00 per hour.

However, whilst the truth that this economic model can only make some rich by making many poor cannot be ignored, the imposition of a genuine Minimum Wage overnight would have immediate knock-on effects for everything and effectively bring the entire economy to a halt. For no better reason than the economic model that we currently have can only exist and function by exploiting people in this way.

When asked, most people who understand how business and money works will recognise that there is something very wrong with the way this economic model works. But will inevitably return to the response ‘It’s just the way it is’ and ‘Nothing can be done about it’.

This false position of inevitability or that it is impossible to change would be fine, were it not the fact that the people taking this position are typically not those being affected by it.

Will Farmers advocates, membership representatives and activists make Inheritance Tax the hill that the future of U.K. Food Security dies on?

Uncomfortable to read as it may be, the well-known membership and advocacy organisations that supposedly enjoy ‘real’ influence on government and the other layers of ‘The Food Chain Onion’, and purportedly represent their members interests before anything else, are actually just players in an establishment game.

The officers and leaders amongst them value the access or relationships that they have with government departments, politicians and representatives above everything and to a level where they will not do anything that will risk those relationships.

When the wishes of the advocacy and membership organisations are aligned with what the government of the time is doing, we can be sure that industry representatives will walk away with what appear to be some great wins.

Just as they will appear to do so when the aims aren’t aligned and the politicians will make some sort of concession so that they can misrepresent and link to other issues that they will not rescind on.

This may regrettably yet prove to be the case with Inheritance Tax and linking it to UK Food Security. Just so that a narrative can be created that the UK Food Security issue has been solved with the intent that it heaps together all the issues Politicians and Government Departments don’t want to deal with, and builds the spurious narrative that ‘The Food Security problem is now solved’.

Although we can all be sure that representatives of these Organisations make very reasoned representations to those they meet and communicate with, they also take any reassurances and promises they obtain at face value.

They regrettably fall back on the way of thinking that ‘It’s just the way it is’ and that it is better and more beneficial to be ‘in the tent’ than to do anything that would risk their position, and might stop them from being allowed back in. As many smaller less well known organisations will have tried to their cost.

Advocacy isn’t working and isn’t going to work, because you cannot reason with those who are unreasonable

In many cases without even understanding why they are being unreasonable, our politicians and the officers and public sector representatives that surround them only see reason in doing and pursuing the public policies and actions that they believe to be best for everyone, whilst actually only doing what’s best for them.

Populist ‘activism’ and their current approaches

In the case of activist ‘organisation’ No Farmers No Food, whose yellow branding with the black silhouette tractor is capturing support, they are certainly well-meaning and led by good intention.

However, like the advocacy and membership organisations that are in The Food Chain mix, they are also missing the point that the best people to solve the problem aren’t the same ones that caused it.

And the problem we are all facing is much bigger than lots of talking and protesting about whatever gets traction in the media and appears to stick.

The priority of UK Politics today simply isn’t UK Farming and Food Security

In respect of Government and the Politicians we are dealing with, the faces and the branding might have changed in July. But the motives and the direction that drives them is very much the same as those who were in Power before.

As I write and publish in November 2024, there is nobody and no political movement or party out there in the Public realm that has the ability, system-wide understanding or the properly reasoned intent to tackle and change any of the problems we face, when the next General Election in the UK comes. Whether its within months OR in 5 years’ time.

This is a very serious problem for us all.

Understanding Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future –Everything You Need to Know
The Local Economy & Governance System | Online Text
The need for a collaborative approach to UK Farming PDF_Vers1_25Mar25Download
Food From Farms Guaranteed_PDF_Vers2_13Mar25Download
Farmers Advocates and IHT 18Nov24 PDF_Vers1_26Nov25Download

Why UK Food Security depends on supporting UK Farmers

The seemingly constant talk about the Farmers’ Protest March that is being held in London on Tuesday 19th March certainly appears to have captured many of our thoughts.

The Farmers Inheritance Tax changes that were introduced in the 2024 Budget in October are certainly set to have a BIG impact upon UK Farming as we know it.

But whilst it’s easy to argue that Farmers should be subject to the same taxes as everyone else, we must all remember that we need at least 2x healthy meals a day to survive, and that Food and our access to it is therefore just as important as the air that we breathe and the water that we drink.

Food Production and UK Farms that are supplying fresh, nutritious, Locally Produced Food are as such a Public Good.

Their existence is essential for this reason and there must be support for Farmers – just like all different kinds of businesses have that are focused only on profit – so that they can stay that way.

The change in the Budget tells us that Politicians don’t see the future role of our Farms that way.

So, it is important that all of us – whether we are Consumers, Farmers or both – understand what is really going on across the UK Food Chain that is making Politicians believe that the direction of Food Production and UK Food Security is not only safe, but also good for everyone and fundamentally OK.

The link below will take you to the full online text of Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future, which is also a Free to Download PDF and an e-book for Kindle (£1.99 in the UK from Amazon) which runs through the complexity and layers of The Food Chain, and the truths that are hidden in plain sight, from our everyday view.

There’s a lot to consider, no matter what we already know or the particular or perhaps ‘informed’ perspectives that we all have. So please do find the time if you can to have a look through, as you are likely to have a lot more questions of your own about why we are not giving priority to UK Food Production and the importance of Our Farms when you do.

Thank you for your interest and support.

#food #FoodSecurity #FarmersProtest #farmers #farming #foodchain

To download a FREE PDF Copy of Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future, Please CLICK HERE. Alternatively, if you would like to download the Book for Kindle at £1.99 (UK Price), please follow the link through to Amazon that follows immediately below:

The last thing we need is a Farmers Revolt. But the U.K. DOES need a Farmer-led Food Chain Revolution, ASAP

With the Farmer’s March planned for this coming Tuesday, talk of all sorts of militancy and acts of rebellion from our Farmer’s have added to the chorus, with postulations and threats suggesting that a ‘Farmer Revolt’ could be on the way that will bring everything to a standstill, if the Farm Inheritance Tax changes aren’t overturned and the Farmers are seen to have got their way.

As covered in my blog yesterday, there really is no question that the Policy should be overturned. Because it will do damage to UK Farms, Farming and UK Food Security that we may very soon find ourselves unable to repair or restore to the correct place.

However, threatening or even talking up a ‘Revolt’ of any kind, could easily lead to consequences that nobody who is emotionally entrenched in this debate will have in mind. And they will certainly not expect.

It is vital we understand that Farmers are not dealing with real Leaders in our Government. These ‘politicians’ are not going to respond in ways that reflect anything other than who they are, why they are there and what they see as being the most important considerations for them – No matter how grounded the alternative and logic of the pro-Farming arguments levelled against them and their policies might be.

The culturally conditioned deference that we have for people because of job titles, roles, celebrity or even the number of people who follow, like and subscribe to them on social media, means that we automatically apply credibility to whatever they do.

We do so, without realising that we do so because we believe that they act, behave and approach everything in the same way we are, or that we believe we would do so, if we should find ourselves in exactly the same position as they are.

This ‘understanding’ works brilliantly until we disagree. But then we fall into the trap of believing and applying the same rationality for how they will behave, if we find ourselves on what we perceive to be the opposite side, whatever the reason might be.

There is much more to everything that this Government and the Government before it has done, is doing and will continue to do, if the political classes continue unhindered as things currently suggest that they will be.

The Budget move and the very clear statement made this week by former Blair Advisor John McTernan speaks Labour’s truth for the future they see for UK Farming.

The actions and words during the 2024 Budget and all of the interviews and messaging that has followed since, tell us that this really is the direction of travel that is ‘baked in’ for this Government.

It means these people really see no value in UK Farming as it is right now. Even though they may not be sharing what they anticipate the future of UK Food Production will be.

One thing we can be sure of however, is that our politicians are very smallminded and fearful. No matter what the drivers behind all of this really are.

If anyone genuinely believes that militancy and obstructive action will yield anything other than direct impact to anyone and everything effected on the days of the events themselves in this climate, they really should re-read the room.

Small, minded politicians are led by their own fears in everything they do. Cause they a big public problem that makes bad headlines for them and they will not hesitate to use every power at their disposal to end even the remotest possibility that Farmers could act this way or do the same to them again.

Its not communism or even the stupidity of incompetent politicians within the Political Party in power that led to this. WE keep electing people as public representatives who are fundamentally just the same.

They are coin-operated, do not understand what they are even supposed to be doing and will always look to whoever is complaining about what they are doing as the ideal direction to apportion blame.

However, even MORE importantly than the incompetence of our politicians; there are 39 days until Christmas – or less than 6 weeks.

For better or worse, the Supermarket aisles are filled up with everything for what has sadly become an annual 3-month festival of consumerism that the British Public have now bought into.

The last thing that Farmers should contemplate doing this week is deliberately leveraging themselves into the middle of this equation, pissing off precisely all of the people they most need to be aligned with.

The Food Revolution we do need is one that places Food Production right back at the heart of Our Local Communities. With Farmers leading and playing their part from the very front.

The destinies of Our Farmers, Our Communities and Our People are intricately entwined. Because of just how important Food is to each of us for survival and the role at the centre of life that Food plays, that we have been deliberately encouraged to overlook or forget.

We must not allow the establishment to diminish the role of UK Food Security any further. Irrespective of whether the reason for all they have done is just stupidity or maligned intent.

However, we also need to be clear that for as long as we have the same kinds of People running the Country, speaking with the same voices and influencing people just because of the platforms they have, they and only they remain the ones who legitimately get to set and control the national agenda. No matter how damaging to all of us it really is.

They will continue to do so, until an agenda that legitimately sits outside of their control exists and grows to benefit all of us and take their place.

The need for a collaborative approach to UK Farming PDF_Vers1_25Mar25Download
Food From Farms Guaranteed_PDF_Vers2_13Mar25Download