Tag: politics

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Vote Them Out

Well . . . .

I’ve spent time jumping on and off of Twitter over the last little while. I’m fascinated to try and find out what’s going on with the world and this country but it all horrifies me so totally I have decided to try and ignore it. I can’t do much about any of the utter desperation and shit that this country is being put through by the last twelve years of tory rule, so I’ve decided to try to make sure I can look after myself and those I care about. If you are watching the news over the recent weeks following the utter thickness bullshit of a PM and you still choose to vote tory then you are a dick.

We shouldn’t be raising interest rates to stop inflation. The inflation isn’t caused by people spending money. It’s caused by energy shortages and greedy corporations. Raising interest rates will harm the poorest and those who have no money to spend. Funny that a tory government gave the Bank Of England the power to control interest rates along with the duty to control inflation because then all the blame goes onto the BoE.

We shouldn’t be taxing rich people less to “encourage growth”. We should be taxing rich people more and passing that to those who are struggling. We shouldn’t be borrowing money to give direct to the privatised companies to subsidise energy bills. We should be taxing those companies to give money to the poor. The money being borrowed is going to be paid back by tax payers in the future. So we are taking money from tax payers in the future to subsidise the profits of companies and shareholders. This is a classic tory move.

Also, most of our energy companies are owned by foreign states. France, Germany and The Netherlands own most of our energy companies via their STATE OWNED energy companies. Fuck this government and the tories of the 80s for selling off utilities owned by the people. What an utter failure of an experiment this style of capitalism has been.

We can wait until the next general election and we can vote for whichever candidate has the best possibility of kicking out the incumbent tory. This is the fucking least we can do. The experiments in greed that have been running since the 80s both here and in the USA have failed utterly. We need a tightly regulated capitalism, we need state owned utilities. We need state owned mass transit. If, after the next general election there is a single tory MP then I will be ashamed of this country [more than I currently am].

Personally I think we are due a revolution. A change. A republic. New rules. New systems. A style of government that thinks about the future and the poor. Perhaps we have universal basic income? Perhaps we move away from individual transit to mass transit. Perhaps we move to sustainable high density housing. We need to change the world and we can do that by being trailblazers in a world that will survive. Let’s be clear, our current systems are going to cause pain and death and wars in less than 50 years.

The problem is that this country is full of people too tied to the rules. Just look at the fawning over the royal family when the queen died. What a fucking disgrace. Such reverence being paid to an institution built on greed, slavery and theft. The power came from enslaving other countries and stealing their preciousness. It’s hard to explain this to people because they don’t want to listen. We can’t discuss these things because the entire state is build around the Crown. We’ve been like this for over a thousand years. Fuck this country.

So, vote the fuckers out.

Although I’d prefer to be in the streets shouting “viva la revolution”.

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Inheritance

I’m currently waiting for a new webcam to be delivered. It was meant to be with me on Friday and it’s now Sunday. I guess that’s not so bad really but I’m used to knowing when things will arrive and normally the estimated date of delivery is spot on, I think that’s why I’m feeling disappointed at the moment. The webcam I currently have is actually pretty good, I bought it a looong time ago for Skype calls to Spain and never used it that much, it lived in a box. It’s only over the last little while that it’s been attached to the computer and working ok. I think it was 720p as I know I bought a good model originally.

Current webcam model

I’m a bit of a brand whore and certain brands I like while others I avoid. Maybe I’m a bit of a marketeers dream but I would like to say that I only buy things when I need them, but that’s rubbish. I don’t need a new webcam even if I am going to be upskilling my YouTube presence. There’s an old webpage where I discuss or show which brands and companies I like, click here, looking at it, there have been a few changes but not that many. For instance, I would still buy a Logitech steering wheel rather than move over to Thrustmaster.

Current Set Up - Soon To Change
Current Set Up – Soon To Change

So, I’ve been thinking a lot about our current brand of politician and how society is made. I don’t think my conclusions are fully justified and I recently had a chat with the Penguin just to get some counter-argument to my thoughts and ideas. I’m not the greatest at setting out reasons even though I can become quite convinced with my conclusions. Obviously I think the Universal Basic Income is a great idea I think it would go some to help those who are struggling. I think my main thought process starts with a – let’s be nice to people – approach and looks at society from that.

This communication is about getting money. Specifically getting money from your parents or someone else who “leaves” their money for you. The idea that when you die your possessions and money get moved over to members of your family seems wrong to me, when looking from a particular point of view. I believe that there are too many people who think it is their right and correct place to be in power or leading when in fact they are just shit at those jobs. I see it all the time in society and professionally. One of the main things that contributes to this overbuild sense of purpose is the idea that people are born to a particular station or place in society. These sorts of thoughts are what private schools create as does wealth and a sense of family destiny. All of these things annoy the fuck out of me. I do wonder that these annoy me because I grew up with very little and when my parents die I will only inherit my father’s debt, they don’t own any property. I won’t get a Brucey-Bonus to help me pay off any of the money I owe. I will be just me working to pay for the things I own.

There was a study which looked at the richest people in Florence, Italy, and compared them to who was the richest SIX hundred years ago. Something like ninety percent of the families were the same families from 600 years ago. Having wealth generally creates wealth and stops others in society from gaining their own independence. This idea of a ruling class is screwing this country, and others, over. Now, before I get on to the idea of removing our monarchy and such institutions I will try and discuss the main thesis in this communication.

I think I’m coming around to the idea that people are allowed to inherit a maximum amount, let’s say thirty grand, and all the rest goes to the state. Now, hopefully we would have a state that can spend the money in a decent way for the better of society rather than the shambles we currently have in charge of this country.

Let’s suppose your mother built up a successful business and has made a ton of money. Good for her. Now, when she dies, that business becomes owned by the state. Any property your family had goes into state ownership and if you want it then you have to earn the money to buy it back. How do you get the money? Do it yourself you lazy fuck. It wasn’t your idea to build that business. It wasn’t your effort. You have had a privileged start to life because you aren’t poor. Go and build your own things.

I’m not sure how any of this would work legally. I’m not even sure how I can persuade other people about this. There is a massive instinct in humans to look after the tribe and make sure that everyone in the tribe does well. We want our things to continue after we are dead and the best way to manage this is to let our family, our DNA, run these things. To have this work well we would have to spend a large amount of time persuading everyone that it is for the best of all. The problem with that is that people are mostly selfish and for good biological reasons. But, selfishness doesn’t go with running a fair society and looking after the people. It’s why to current government is in power.

If you want to be rich and build your own business then that’s great. Go ahead and do it. Measure your success by the size of your property portfolio. Lord it over all the little people as you go about in your chauffeur driven Jag. But, once you die it all gets given back to the state. You made yourself rich off the backs of people you used and in the end everyone starts again from the same place. I guess I think this is a way to level the playing field even though it’s not that thought out.

tldr: you aren’t allowed to pass on anything you have once you die.

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Manifesto

This is communication 1666 including the album reviews and I’ve been starting recent rants with a list of things that happened in that year in England. I’m choosing England because that’s where I live and that The Act Of The Union hadn’t happened yet, maybe one day I’ll be writing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but not at the moment. In 1666 the royals returned to London as the plague subsided, the English won a victory against the Dutch in the war, the English also pillaged and destroyed loads of Dutch stuff at Terschelling. The Great Fire Of London happened. Newton split light using a prism, invents the cat flap and does more mathematics along with Leibniz.

While out running yesterday I became quite angry while thinking about what to keep writing within this site and decided I would try to list it all. I was trying to work out what things the state should provide its citizens. I’ve been trying to work with a general philosophy that the state while benefiting from its citizens should also do its best for those citizens. A bit like the biblical Golden Rule. My version of it is just to be nice. If you can’t be nice then don’t do or say anything. Also applicable is the rule “don’t be a dick”.

A lot of the following are things I think should be done. Some of them I don’t have very good arguments for I just think they are the correct thing to do. Some of these are surely controversial to some of you and I don’t care. It’s what I think.

Health

It seems rather obvious that if you want the best out of your citizens then you have health care that is free at the point of use. You also wouldn’t systematically aim to destroy that. Yes, I know that ultimately there has to be choices about where the money is spent and there needs to be a particular value placed on life, but a healthcare system is one of the main priorities for a state.

Education

If you want your state to be productive and to be good at things then you need education that is free at source. Where this free ends I think is after first degree level. People with degrees will eventually add so much back to the economy that it makes long term sense to offer this education as a right. Not everyone with a degree will use that particular degree but if you invest in the people they will return that in large quantities.

Slightly controversial I guess but I would remove all private schools. They breed class differences, they maintain the class system we live with in this country. If impossible to remove them I would remove their charitable status.

Transport

There should be much more public transport that is cheap at point of use. We must reduce reliance on fossil fuels. We need to slowly change society to undo the reliance on personal transport. The state should own and run all railways, buses and other forms of mass transport. There should be no more roads built. Goods should be moved by train, people should be moved by train, there need to be good links for all places to trains. I’m not convinced that the airline industry should be such. Given how fragile it is and the damage it does I think we need to slow this world down. And I fucking love aircraft. I just don’t think it’s a justified industry. I would provide massive investment to clean, green sea faring technologies. Things might take longer to get to places, but it would be better for all.

Utilities

If you need it to live then I think it should be state owned and run. So, water, electricity, gas [needs to be reduced], and, not controversially, broadband, should all be state run. It is insane that our power generation companies are owned by foreign governments, EDF etc. It’s amusing that EDF is known as EDF in this country but it is mostly French state owned. In the run for quick cash from the 1980s onwards we have allowed other governments and states to profit from the necessities of life in this country. Hilarious. We need massive investment into green power generation technologies so we can then sell them to the world. We need to be a leader in the world in reducing the effects of anthropogenic climate change but I fear we won’t ever be that because of the short termism of our current system.

Support

It seems clear that the state while asking of its people should also provide for those people. We should be looking after those who need support and help. We should be providing for those who can’t afford it. We should be an altruistic society. We should be willing to help those who struggle. I dare mention Universal Basic Income, but I do think that is the way forward. There is this idea that poor people are lazy and if they just got a job then they would be able to get out of poverty. Well, if you’ve ever read a book or listened to non-political experts about this you would know that is utter bollocks. Yes, some might be lazy and want to live on state handouts, but good luck to them I say. If you help people and want to do good for them they will return that. Fucking basic ain’t it?

Tax

Given the rest of this I’m probably going to surprise you all. I have come to think that removing the top tax rate in this country would be a good thing. I do not have any numbers to back this up just a feeling. Those who earn little need to pay less tax, we know that is the best thing, it makes sense. However, I’m not sure we should have a tax rate above the current 20% tax rate. I do think that many people who earn in the higher tax band are reluctant to pay that higher tax, it’s probably seen as “unfair”. I think they might have a point. I’d be tempted to remove that tax band but at the same time I would aggressively pursue people who still did their best to “minimise” their tax bill. If you want to be a part of our society then you fucking pay your dues. I do think that a flat 20% rate would go to improve tax payment by nearly everyone. I would also force through a way of paying tax in the country where your money is made. This is harder but the current system that allows companies and individuals to move money off-shore is utter bollocks. Pay your fucking taxes. There shouldn’t be billionaires. How grotesque. It’s seen as acceptable because everyone who dreams of being a billionaire would want to be in that position. It’s the “dream”. Fuck That Shit. If you think having 1,000 million is acceptable but 100 million isn’t then you are fucked.

Industry

We need to invest in our people and education. This will ultimately mean we improve our society and improve the “things we make”. We need to be aiming for what we can do for the world in twenty years. Some of this can come from guided research but we improve through having intellectual curiosity. It is impossible to know what area of research will provide what we need in the future. We must have a policy of academic curiosity. We must provide the environment where research can take place.

So, all of this is going to cost a lot. But it needs the investment now to provide the returns in twenty years. We need to start the cycle of investment and providing for our people so that we get the returns later. Once we start this cycle we can continue it with ease. We should be world leaders in all technologies and we should have a society where people want to live and feel safe and be supported. We should be looking after each other. We should be willing to accept smaller individual wealth at the upper end to the better of everyone. All of this seems quite clear to me. If there are other things I think about over the next while I may add them below:

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Not Fitting In

I guess this is a follow up to my choices communication last week. I finished that by saying that I expect to wake up sad at what this country is. I do believe it’s worse than that. I went to bed last Thursday, the day of the General Election, not really thinking about what the next day could bring but hoping for change. When I woke up I looked:

I am not pro-Labour. But I had hoped they would win. Because I care about people and do not want the conservatives leading this country for the next five years. I am not a member of the Labour party, I am a member of the Green party. The Green party has policies that closely match my own ideas about governance and the future of this planet. Next closest would be either the Lib Dems or Labour. The Lib Dems are damaged after being in a coalition with the tories and also electing a religious nut as their leader.

I do think that I feel depressed at what I see is a selfish choice by the country. I do not trust Boris, I have never liked the tories. I have never agreed with what they have done. I didn’t particularly agree with Blair and New Labour but at least they spent money and then saved the economic place of this country. The tories then forced austerity onto this country and the life expectancy shows that. The poor are going to suffer because people are selfish.

I do not feel as though I am part of this country. I do not stand with the beliefs that have arisen from this election. This country has in reality, it turns out, always been a bit racists and a very entrenched in its views of class and society. The country seems to believe that poor people are poor because they deserve it or did something wrong. That isn’t the case.

It’s quite telling that the first thing I did Friday morning was think about where in the world I can live, somewhere I feel my views are shared by those around me. Somewhere tolerant. Somewhere I could feel at home. I’ve never really felt comfortable with the retrospective jingoistic bullshit that this country falls for all the time. God, what a country of assholes.

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The Truth

It’s wrong to lie.

It’s your honour.

These are both slightly different ways of saying the same thing I think. We expect people to be honourable and largely I think that means that actions should match the words that people say. We expect people to essentially tell the truth, to speak words which are not false.

I’d considered this a lot over my life. What is “honour”? What does it mean to be honourable? How can we measure this aspect of life? I spent quite a while thinking about it from a religious point of view. People have died for what they say they believe. People have been tortured and not rescinded their stated views about which god or set of beliefs is theirs.

I don’t entirely understand that. I think that is because I have a level of un-belief beyond most. I don’t believe that god is real and therefore it doesn’t matter what you say about it. It doesn’t matter what magic spell you whisper before you go to bed, none of it will do a thing. If I was required to, I would lie about my belief to continue living, but ultimately I know that doesn’t matter. St. Peter isn’t going to be waiting for me to tell me I fucked up by lying about my belief.

However, we expect people to be honourable. We expect people to tell the truth. If we are to accept what people are then we need that level of trust that we see them how they really are. Which means the truth.

If you want to be in a relationship, whether friendship or romantic, then it’s likely there needs to be truth for the relationship to be trustworthy. For partner A to rely on B a level of trust needs to be developed, this requires actions to match up with words that are said [I think I’ve just sold the religion issue I mentioned earlier, I have to relationship with religion or god and so don’t care].

How can you trust someone who constantly lies or rebuts you with little lies?

[An aside on little lies – we all make little lies. Lying is a very early trait of humans that is learnt. People are remarkably good a lying. It’s why it’s hard to tell if someone is lying or not. NEWS ALERT – LIE DETECTORS DON’T WORK.]

So, lying. Little lies are things that make life a little more comfortable and seem to have few side effects. We use these constantly as people to make our lives a little easier each day. It’s easy. It’s learnt behaviour.

Proper lies are a different matter. How can you trust a person who lies about things that matter?

[Another aside – “things that matter” is a continuum and and the level of consequence will be different for different people.]

You can’t develop trust if someone lies about what they said or what their actions were or what happened. Without trust you don’t have a relationship. These had been my thoughts until about three years ago. I’d been bemused by the idea of honour because I thought about it mostly framed within the religion question.

So let’s talk about politicians.

We now have world leaders who lie. Blatantly.

We have always expected politicians to be slimy bastards. We have always know that politicians or other people in power are expected to do things and then try to explain what they did in the slipperiest terms so that the “spin” is that they look good. We have always expected politicians to not lie. I don’t think we expected them to tell the truth all the time but we don’t expect them to lie. We expect them to squirm their way around the issues and leave the question unanswered while they sit in the knowledge that they “got away with that one”.

We have always a vague level of honour amongst politicians that at least they wouldn’t outright lie. They might skirt the issue but, when pressed, they would be “honourable”. That’s why in the past politicians would resign straight away from their government post if they were caught lying. They would understand that the measure of trust has been reduced to zero with those lies. They would resign as a politician though, of course not, they’d still be selected by their local party because people are stupid.

Then you get tow main things in the western world.

TRUMP

BREXIT

The vote for Brexit was based on lies and influence from foreign agents. Even when caught out politicians like Gove and Johnson just carry on. They haven’t resigned. They haven’t apologised for the lies they told. They are still in their jobs and still in power. The level of trust between the public and those politicians and politicians in general has been eroded because of the lies told and still being told by the pro-Brexit groups.

Trump lies. All the time. Demonstrably. He’s also a racist, white supremacist. However, he lies. Constantly. How can there be a level of trust with this man? It doesn’t matter what he says because he’s lying or doubling down and his actions don’t match his words. There is still a massive industry of news in the USA and the world that hangs on his every word because of his position of power in the world. Yet, he lies. There can be no trust.

The way to hurt Trump the most would be to remove the press corps from him. To remove him entirely from the news cycle, except for Fox news I guess, that would hurt the narcissistic orange man-baby.

What’s worse is that his approval ratings are STILL HOVERING AT ABOUT 40%. It’s clear that some of the public don’t care about what he says or that he’s lying. They just know he’s “their man”. Fuck This Shit.

Also, those local party selection committees, for Gove and Johnson and all the others who have blatantly lied, they keep electing those lying arses to represent their constituency in parliament. Those people are selfish fuckers but I think I shall leave my derision for them for another day.

It’s only when things mess up that you realise just how good things were for you I think. I don’t think the Blair/Obama governments were perfect but it is quite clear that they were better than the world leaders we have today. Man, this world is depressing at the moment.

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Where Do We Go?

I consider myself a liberal. On most matters. On some I am a capitalist and some I am socialist. But mostly liberal. Here are my personal headlines:

  • I am anti-Brexit and all it stands for
  • I am for state ownership of utilities
  • I am for state ownership of large infrastructure; railways, airports
  • I am anti-nuclear weapons, while being pro-standard forces
  • I am anti-monarchy
  • I am pro-LGBTQI
  • I am pro-gay marriage
  • I am pro-abortion
  • I am pro-helping people out with benefits
  • I am pro-everybody paying their fair share
  • I am not a progressive tax person
  • I am pro-free education
  • I am pro-keeping religion out of government and education
  • I am pro-being nice to people

I like to consider that my personal policies largely come from the idea of “being nice to people” and treating them well. This arises from having empathy.

What I find myself asking is where do I go? I used to believe that this country was largely like most of my views. I used to feel that my views weren’t extreme. It turns out that the recent events have forced me to come around to the idea that I am an outlier. This country has voted to LEAVE the EU. The politicians have right royally fucked that up since. I could rant and moan about that for a long time.

This country has voted made the Tories the largest party in parliament. A bunch of fucking horrible people who clearly work for their own interests. My distaste for their policies has only grown over the last six years. Virtually everything they do I despise. Withdraw from a HUMAN RIGHTS convention?? Who the fuck wants to do that???

And now they jump into bed with the prostitute that is the DUP, a bunch of rabid religious fucknuts. Fuck this government. They do NOT stand for anything I believe or for decency.

I am angry. I am lost.

This country didn’t really have me in the first place, which I will explain another time, but it has lost me now. I don’t really want to be here. I want to live somewhere where people care and want to do good for each other. I have no idea where that is, perhaps, if you know you could tell me?

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Minor Break

I had a minor melt down on Twitter last night. Everything had got to me.

And then:

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It’s A Concern

This is just a tiny communication to get over in a basic way my concern about the next four years with Trump as president of the USA. I’m going to quote the current POTUS, it is part of his response to being asked about being black and how he manages that when talking to people:

My general theory is that if I was clear in my own mind about who I was; comfortable in my own skin; and had clarity about the way in which race continues to be this powerful factor in so many elements of our lives, but that it is not the only factor in so many aspects of our lives; that we have by no means overcome the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow and colonialism and racism, but that the progress we’ve made has been real and extraordinary; if I’m communicating my genuine belief that those who are not subject to racism can sometimes have blind spots or lack appreciation of what it feels to be on the receiving end of that — but that doesn’t mean that they’re not open to learning and caring about equality and justice — and that I can win them over, because there is goodness in the majority of people; I always felt that if I really knew that and I just communicated it as clearly as I could, that I’d be okay.

Now compare that with PEOTUS response to a question about saying he would lock up Hillary Clinton:

Well, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to think about it. Um, I feel that I want to focus on jobs, I want to focus on healthcare, I want to focus on the border and immigration and doing a really great immigration bill. We want to have a great immigration bill. And I want to focus on all of these other things that we’ve been talking about.

And also what he said when asked about what the Bushes said when they called:

Well, it was very interesting. I got a call from Father Bush, who is a wonderful man. And he just said, “Congratulations. It was an amazing campaign.” And then I got a call from George and he said– “Congratulations. It was great.”  And, you know, look, it’s– it’s a tough situation. I went to war with Jeb. And Jeb’s a nice guy, but it was a nasty campaign. It was a nasty campaign. And, I mean, I’m disappointed in one thing. He signed a pledge and I don’t know how you sign a pledge and then you don’t honor it. It was a rough primary. It’s a rough primary. Although I think the general was probably just as tough. Probably as a combination, it was the roughest ever.

I fear for the English language and I fear for the world.

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Apologies And Why They Annoy Me

I’m fed up with people, mostly MPs apologising for their dim-witted ill-informed opinions/behaviour. I taken some clips from the BBC website. Here they are:

apologise6

apologise5

apologise4

apologise3

apologise2

apologise1

So, these people feel that they did wrong and believe that apologising means it’s all ok. I think the recent spate of politicians apologising just shows how bad our representatives are [I’ve no evidence that apologies are becoming more frequent, just I am noticing it more]. If you do something wrong while in the position of public office, then fuck off and resign. Grow some balls. Become a better person.

If someone says something that they later regret [because it affects their position of power] then we should embrace what they say and use it to inform debate and discussion. I want sincere apologies and education. I want reformed behaviour. How do you show you are truly sorry? You reform.

An MP plays Candy Crush during a meeting. Why? What is wrong with his job/meeting/attention span? After our representatives are caught out they should use this as an opportunity to explain themselves, not run and hide behind an apology. The media should use this as a chance to inform and educate.

Tory Peer says the poor can’t cook. She apologises because that’s easier and quickly forgotten rather than explaining her comments and having an informed debate about why she said that. Is there a reason she believes this? Perhaps we should educate her and the rest of society. This gaff should have been used as a tool for informing people what is really going on in society and facing up to our collective responsibilities. Informed, evidence based discussion is how we change people’s minds. Apologising is the easy way out.

This tweet caused no end of trouble for the MP. I don’t understand why. She tweeted a picture of a house from Rochester. It looked pretty standard to me. She apologised. That was easy. What we didn’t have was a debate, an informed discussion about what that picture meant. We didn’t use this tweet as a opportunity to educate and inform people. The mass media used “outrage” to force an apology rather than look into the deeper social issues. We shouldn’t pretend that houses like this don’t exist, we should work at getting everyone involved in our society.

My message here is that I want people to stop apologising for things they say or do. It’s easy to apologise. It’s easy to stand up and say sorry. What is harder is admitting you have biased or poor views of the reality and then trying to change future behaviour and inform and educate people.

“I deeply regret posting that naked picture of my cock on twitter and apologise for any offence caused” – a poor apology.

“I wish to inform you that I am a bigoted old man who lusts after young women. I thought that posting a picture of my cock would encourage women to want me back. I realise that I am the product of a mostly misogynistic world where women are treated like property and I will now work tirelessly to educate people and to improve the balance of the sexes within our patriarchal inherently sexist society. I have joined the following organisations and will form a political committee with powers to adjust laws  and highlight the injustices we have in our society.” – this man would get my vote.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this. I’m annoyed by people apologising and thinking it’s all forgotten. I want apologies and then a CHANGE in behaviour. I want reformation. I want education of the issues. I don’t want these issues just dismissed with a simple apology.

I think this communication, as rambling as it is, goes with another to come. It will be titled OUTRAGE.

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Animals In Sport

This communication is going to be a little different. This entire website contains a lot of stuff written by me, most of it is pretty dull. I’m not really sure of my motivation but it’s something to do and it makes me feel modern even though I’ve been writing web pages since 1995 [Imperial College Student Union web site].

Over the last year or so I have been thinking about horse racing and whether it is morally justifiable to allow this to happen. I have slowly come to the conclusion that there is NO moral justification for humans to use animals in sport.

I dislike the idea that we, as a species, put ourselves on top of horses and then race them as hard as possible around a track and that it is then broadcast for people to watch as sport. I do realise that it is a huge industry and that many people rely on this for their livelihoods but that doesn’t get around the fact that I find it impossible to justify as a just thing. Horse racing is a hangover from a time when we were not a liberal society. I would argue that our society (esp in the UK) is largely liberal and we seek reason for doing things. I do not see any reason why we take large beings and race them against each other for the financial gain of ourselves.

Sport is for human pleasure and social cohesion so we can only use humans to help us create that. I do not see any reason why humans should be using animals for sport. I would happily sign a petition calling for the end of animals in human forms of entertainment. Sport is, essentially entertainment. It doesn’t matter who or what wins, we just use it as a distraction from the more important aspects of our lives, such as our moral duty to save this planet and ensure everyone has enough to eat and freedom to be what they want. [Deep breath] Here goes:

Animals should not be used for sport

I’m pretty sure that this also goes for greyhound racing, fishing, cock fighting etc. As I said, this topic is one that I have been thinking about gradually and so “pretty sure” means I am working through the arguments in my head and trying to decide on what is “right”. Just in case you are wondering, I do NOT need a god to help me decide what is just.

I am happy for humans to be used in sport. Having said that, we generally don’t have to “destroy” humans if they fall in a race. Yes, some sports people die for what they do and that is sad, but at least they were (hopefully) aware of the risks.

I am reasonably happy to grow animals for food. I like eating meat and poultry and fish. I am aware of the inefficiencies of us growing meat to eat and that is a problem I should think about another time. We specifically grow animals to kill and then eat. I understand that, morally, that is different from growing animals to use as ENTERTAINMENT. This does not make me an hypocrite, just in case you were thinking that. I’ll explain my rationality for you: growing and eating animals to survive as humans is ok, growing animals for entertainment is not. Whether it is justifiable to grow animals for food, given the energy constraints this world faces I shall deal with another time.

I do know that when I try to put my thoughts down in writing that I struggle a little to get my ideas across. This is because writing is not a natural thing for me. I also haven’t spent all my time covering every aspect of this communication because I haven’t got the time. What you are reading here is the condensed version, putting my argument as simply as possible and trying to justify it. If you have problems with what I say, I don’t care. Perhaps you will start to think about this and work out what your arguments are.

Posted on

Just Wrong

Maps eh? This is the picture of a wall chart by Michelin (the French company but for their English cousins). It is a Van Der Grinten projection with changes made by Michelin. I’m not sure it’s ethical to change a map projection but they did.

This map makes Great Britain look the same size as France. The real multiplier is that France is 2.2 times the size of the UK, let alone GB.
Spain is really twice as big as Great Britain.
Although it’s not on this picture Kenya looks about the same size as GB but is in fact 2.4 times bigger.

What have Michelin done? They’ve made it appear that Great Britain is larger than it is really. Oh dear. Perhaps we should all watch the

Somebody’s Going to Emergency, Somebody’s Going to Jail

episode of the West Wing. It will explain it all, I assure you.

20131114-124101.jpg

By the way, the last time I saw this episode of the West Wing was summer 2013 in Keswick while I was visiting penguin.

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