Mistake is Mistaken

The clichéd own goal, that’s a real mistake,

As is trusting a sunny day without

A rain coat, and glibly suspending doubt

While listening to a politician’s take

On almost any issue. Alongside

Lottery tickets being the route to wealth,

That inebriation’s concealed by stealth

Arriving home late at night. Try to hide,

Though, with apologies and thin regrets,

The deliberate launching of missiles

At an aid convoy, must defy the wiles

Of those who’re in command and sent the jets.

A claim to mere error is to forsake

Any real meaning of the word, mistake.

D. A.

On ‘The Westminster Hour’ (Radio 4, 31st March 2024) it was reported that extensive polling indicated the forthcoming general election could well be a Labour landslide. The Conservative Party might well be reduced to fewer than 100 MPs.

Dramatic changes of government are nothing new. 1979 saw the emergence of the Thatcher regime and all the misery that entailed. The Conservatives clung onto power, via the Major government until 1997. The emergence of New Labour was hailed as, ‘…things can only get better’.

The economic problems of 2007/8 saw the Blair/Brown governments blamed for what was another instalment of capitalisms periodic crises. 2010 brought the general election and the Tory led coalition and austerity.

That phase of administration, with its various changes of Conservative leadership seems likely to end at some point this year. Labour will again assume office promising all manner of improvements. Yet, capitalism will once more continue its profit greedy way unhindered, while services are curtailed, food banks seems to open more branches than actual banks.

The common theme since before and after 1979 is that the needs of capitalism will prevail at the expense of the electorate for as long as their Xs are placed in favour of candidates representing parties who will not, and cannot, make capitalism benefit the wider community.

Even if candidates are genuine in wishing to make their constituents better off they cannot do so. That would require a shift in wealth capitalism can’t not tolerate.

Only when the electorate collectively decide to use their votes as part of the wider process of abolishing capitalism and establishing socialism can things change.

Otherwise it will be more of the same whichever of the parties hold the majority of seats.

D. A.

The provision of school transport for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is proving to be an increasingly expensive problem for local authorities. Legally, councils must provide free transport for SEND children unable to walk to school.

At a time when councils generally are struggling financially, with some already, and others well on the way to becoming, bankrupt, the cost of SEND transport continues to rise. In 2018/19 the spending in England was £728. 2023-24 has seen a 95% rise to £1.4bn.

This reflects rapidly rising prices due to inflation along with a 40% increase in demand. The average cost per child in England is up by a third from £6,280 to £8,299. To ease the pressure on budgets, councils are having to consider reducing non-statutory service provision.

The socialist maxim, ‘from each according to ability, to each according to need’ is denied while capitalism persists. The needs of SEND children are undeniable, but as ever it is cost, and its implications, not actual need that is the determinant factor.

Government policy to reduce its own expenditure is to pass laws making local authorities liable, and then reduce funding as has been the case throughout austerity.

SEND children are not charity cases but growing individuals with their own abilities and specific needs. But, everyone has abilities and needs that will be subjected to rationing as long as money remains the determining factor.

Consider the socialist maxim, and what is required to realise a society in which it can be brought about. Then everyone’s needs can be met.

D. A.

By Royal (Dis)Appointment

The palace has issued a press release:

There is nothing to concern the nation,

Indeed the general public oblation

Has no need to hesitate, wane or cease.

Hand shaking will continue, walkabouts

Likewise, behind firmly fixed barriers

Of course. Because, no matter what occurs,

Our subjects must not begin to have doubts.

Any uncertainty about the state

Has to be ameliorated,

If fallibility’s demonstrated,

People might want to control their own fate.

Should there be any dissatisfaction,

A royal headline’s a great distraction.

D. A.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a major source of cobalt, vital for battery technology, an industry dominated by Japanese, South Korean and Chinese manufacturers. The actual mining is done by an indigenous workforce whose continuing poverty, and depredated environment, is an exemplar of capitalism at its rawest.

In her article for ‘Black Agenda Report’, Ann Garrison wrote,

‘Huge Chinese corporations so dominate Congolese cobalt mining, processing and battery manufacture that one has to ask why a communist government, however capitalist in fact, doesn’t at least somehow require more responsible sourcing of minerals processed and then advanced along the supply chain within its borders?’

Actually, Ann Garrison answers her own question by her oxymoronic linking communist and capitalist with the Chinese government. Delete ‘communist’ from her statement and she describes precisely how an avowedly capitalist government can be expected to act. It can do no other. Whatever the governing party calls itself. Profit is paramount.

D. A.  

Suff(e)rage

With votes, like fortune’s lots, having been cast,

What does the following count amount to?

Omniscient autocrats can accrue

More votes than voters, just by playing fast

And loose with democracy, for nation,

Or God, or both. With destiny fated,

Opposition can’t be tolerated;

An image is a fragile creation.

Yet, where there’s left, right and centre et al,

Parties compete with vainglorious boasts

To purloin lucrative government posts,

But won’t impinge on the rule of capital.

Whether blatant or subtle, all depends

Upon market forces and dividends.

D. A.

40 Years On

Just forty years on from the Iron Lady

Disavowing coal. Deep in the shadow

Of abundant stockpiles, the wealth below

Was to be forfeited for a shady

Deal between politics and capital,

Anathema of organised labour

Had to be vanquished, by setting neighbour

Against neighbour if at all possible,

Coalfield against coalfield, trade against trade.

Solidarity undermined, derided.

By keeping the working class divided,

The very notion of class was gainsaid.

Coal mines and the Iron Lady are long gone,

Yet nothing’s been resolved forty years on.

D. A.  

Barbarism or Socialism?

A hundred, more, gangs on Haiti shows,

Under idyllic Caribbean skies,

The true nature of raw free enterprise

Untroubled by any effective laws.

Wherever the market determines goods,

Drugs or guns or both? And then nothing stirs

Unless so willed by armed entrepreneurs

The poor look up to as their Robin Hoods.

While terror roams the streets in four by fours

The limits of government are revealed,

The power of profit’s no longer concealed,

As the powerless huddle beyond their doors.

Barbarism or Socialism? The voice

Of Red Rosa echoes still with that choice.

D. A.

Rochdale Cowboys

(Apologies to Mike Harding)

It’s not hard being a cowboy in Rochdale,

Despite what a song once suggested. Just

Look at those canvassing for the trust

Of voters, with policies bound to fail.

Labour have disowned their own candidate

For claiming the murderous Hamas attack

Israel green-lighted, so it could strike back,

Condemning Gaza to its dreadful state.

There’s an exMP who’s making a play

As representative of Old Labour,

Standing against the ‘woke’ present Labour

On behalf of UKIP, Reform UK.

With the Green off colour, the choice is sparse,

Voters might consider ending this farce.

D.A.

Clear Vision

A veil of ignorance and illusion

All too easily and widely taken,

Vision obscured or even forsaken,

Reinforcing a sense of seclusion,

Being distracted looking left or right.

With the view unsettled and unsettling,

Taking a step forwards is disturbing,

Could be wonderful, there again it might

Be safer and best to simply stay put.

Or maybe cast a glance backwards, because

There’s comfort in a scene that never was,

Better still, perhaps, keep eyes tightly shut.

Human potential remains retarded

Until and unless the veil’s discarded.

D. A.