Thoughts For The Day

My head is spinning

This weekend I’ll be busy filling out all the General Election nomination paperwork. It ain’t pretty. Nor is my face. Both will be ragged by Monday, but needs must.

---

How Can You Help?

• Join the Green Party if you haven’t already! 🙂 If you’re in Scotland, there’s also the Scottish Greens. And if you’re in another country, there will be a version local to you.

• If you are in North West Wales then put your details in the form at the bottom of this page, and your local party will keep you informed.

• You can also donate to the North West Wales Green Party directly.

• Follow me on Facebook and share my posts.

• We may set up a crowdfunder for my election candidacy. If we do, I’ll write about it here (make sure you’ve subscribed: button below). Standing for election is costly, and we don’t have billionaires and right-wing lobbyists bribing (I mean, funding) us.

• Vote Green! I was pleased to see praise for my party in this piece today: At this election, could we just not vote for neoliberalism, please? which says Green leader Zack Polansk is one of the few politicians the author can respect. The piece captures many of my thoughts. I was so sick of red and blue that I decided to stand as a Green Party MP. I don’t want to be an MP, but I do want people to have the opportunity of voting for someone who opposes war crimes and genocide and inequality. And if elected, I would stand up for justice and good lives and a hopeful future, one hundred per cent.

---

Glowing In The Dark

The other day I wrote Tick Tick Boom, about the Conservatives pushing for more nuclear power stations.

Someone asked me what I thought about cases where there was a desperation for jobs in a region, and there was a hope that nuclear could provide it. Would I support nuclear then? What are my thoughts?

Well, it was easy to answer. I’m completely opposed to dirty nuclear, and all the deadly waste that can never be safely dealt with. I even recorded a rap song about it the other day, which is also rather explicit about Conservative party failings. Here’s one (Bowdlerised) section addressed to Alister Jack who wants more nuclear power stations.

You wanna build a nuclear power plant in Scotland? **** off!
Remember when Chapelcross caught fire and blew off?
It was in your own county, you’re supposed to represent,
Don’t know Jack about your history, and where radiation went.

I’ll tell you what’s nuclear, my words to your face,
Supposed MP, total ****** disgrace.
Y’want a legacy like Chernobyl? Well you’re winnin that race.
Thankfully you’ll be gone soon, but leave a bad taste.

In brief, we need renewables, with local micro generation for local use, funds for setting it up, and fair compensation feed-in tariffs for generated electricity from electricity companies (not the pittance they pay). Did you know that at present private electricity companies charge you about 24.50p/kWh for electricity, but only pay 4p or less for electricity provided by local generation? As ever, the broken system has been twisted to make the wealthy shareholders even richer.

The locals should own and benefit from the energy they produce, not big private companies.

Let’s get jobs to these places, by all means, but for good things, not for awful things. Startups, tourism with good public transport, rewilding, renewable industries, solar on most buildings, local independent businesses. We can have more imagination and find better ways than existing on the scraps thrown to us by big money.

At the end of the day, we can’t win everyone over. When we take any stance, we attract those who match our views, turn away others, and maybe convince the third group we are aiming at. It’s better to be principled (a rarity amongst politicians) than water down what we stand for, and what’s needed to make a better world for all.

---

Money

There’s a cost of living crisis. The rich who manufactured it and benefit from it don’t care. I already mentioned how electricity companies charge us more and more, whilst paying out billions in profits to wealthy shareholders. Basic necessities of life should be provided by the state, nationalised, and the profits ploughed back into the nation.

Likewise for water. That was brought to home in this wonderful satirical piece:

• Neoliberalism says "things are going brilliantly" as tap water becomes undrinkable

Universal Basic Income would also alleviate economic woes, along with removing loopholes that let the mega rich and multinational corporations get away with paying no tax.

The current levels of inequality are a disgrace. A 1% annual wealth tax on net assets over £10 million, the richest 0.4% of the population, could raise almost £10 billion a year for essential services. All over the UK families are struggling through a cost of living crisis, while councils in England are declaring bankruptcy and essential services face their 14th year of cutbacks. Meanwhile 350 people now own more than £795 billion.

• Sunday Times Rich List: Rishi Sunak leapfrogs King Charles in latest rankings. “The overall wealth of the 350 richest in the list is greater than the gross domestic product of Poland.”

---

Justice Abroad

The money spent on interfering with and attacking other countries could be better spent here, in our own country. For example, why are we supplying weapons to Israel that we know are being used for genocide, and continue to support a state that has stolen land from, and oppressed, Palestinians for 75 years? Why are we sending soldiers over there and risking their lives to defend an oppressor, rather than working for peace and correcting mistakes from the past? Why are governments wasting millions on stamping out free speech and stifling opposition to war crimes?

The tide is turning. Ireland, Norway and Spain will all recognise the Palestinian state, something the US and UK have refused to do (because we took the land from the Palestinians to create the colony of Israel; if we admit that, then there’s pressure on us to rectify our wrongs). I’m really proud of my brothers and sisters in Ireland, Norway and Spain. Israeli politicians are spitting their dummies out and have removed ambassadors from those countries as a result. No loss. And no doubt the political bribery of officials by the likes of AIPAC will also not be offered there, so it’s a double win!

We’re seeing resistance in other ways, such as social media users blocking celebrities over Israel’s war crimes. These things give me hope. It will be a long struggle to find a future where countries work together rather than fight each other, but it is vital if there is ever to be peace and co-operation, and for humans to deal with the other problems that we face as a species.

Okay, that’s a lot of thoughts for the weekend. My brain never shuts down.

Promoted by Karl Drinkwater (Green Party) at The Gate, Keppoch Street, Cardiff CF24 3JW.
Disclaimer.