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At last a little truth and reality is beginning to emerge from a long period where politicans have treated those who elect them as fools to be gulled with lies and impossible promises, while always careful to feather their own nests. For decades they have become increasingly ignorant and philistine, caring for little other than being leected and living an easy, privileged life. Never having learned much history, treating economics as doctrinal religion and with no general culture or interest in knowledge, they have become the worst body of parliamentary rulers for centuries. At least the new coalition is telling us that our descent into debt and chaos must be regulated as far as possible. It is only thinking of those with enough income to survive a period of increasing austerity, ignoring the plight of those without jobs or even a legal right to live here, and giving no thought to the strong possibility of revolution because that is not part of the British tradition.

They talk of coming out of recesssion and returning to prosperity, but that is an impossibility for the foreseeable future. The world is turning uglier as it runs out of food, water and energy, as wars and tribal massacres increase, as religious, national, tribal and cultural hostilities are whipped up by demagogues and often the local press, but all the while the world population is still growing. Here and there things might get slightly better and some problems might be reduced through technology and regulation, but there will never be a return to the artificial and illusionary apparent prosperity of the beginning of the century. What the government still cannot accept, although some of them must know it, is that the only humane and right thing to do is to create a culture of sharing and equality, while simultaneously training a new class of highly educated, responsible people to run things properly at a modest reward. This needs a new thinking that accepts a national incomes policy, where individual spendability is not more than one to fifteen, achieved through taxation, a reduction of purchasable items to what is necessary to a basic civilised life, an end to corporate activity with the break up into smaller and manageable units to industry and commerce, a limitation of unecessary imports, probably a return to rationing. This might seem unthinkable now, but it will not be in another year or two as the outside world gets worse.

Basic thinking must look at the cause of theings. Our human nature is only part of animal nature, which is tribal, instinctive, greedy, competitive and anti-social. Our love of sport is tribal and based on that animal nature. The alternative is civilisation, which should be cooperative living, sharing, based on the desire for knowledge and human betterment through altruism and the growth of wisdom and intelligence which comes about through the thinking which the arts and human creativity bring about. Frivolity, fanatacism, rivalry, refusal of education - are products of the first, with the fundamentalist hatred of everything different from what one knows, its manifestation, while the second - the production of civlised thinking - is seriousness, generosity, appreciation, understranding and involvement in the mind, the arts, science and knowledge, together with a natural curiosity that looks to meaning and causes.

If a revolution is to come, it is up to us to make it one of the mind and civilisation, and not of violence, hatred, and bloodshed. If politicians do not, or cannot help us to face the reality of today, then we as individuals must do it without them.

John Calder 23/6/10

AND NOW...REALITY

     The UK election  is over. The bombast is past. Now, not only Britain, but most of the world is facing a future that will become ever more difficult even in the richer countries, and catastrophic in the poorer. While politicians, most of whom are profoundly ignorant about the realities of the world and the period they live in, will will continue to make statements about 'recovery', 'back to propserity', etc. -- thinking people and the few public voices that are honest as well as aware will have to come to terms with the single choice that lies before us: either accept a long regime of austerity, that will include rationing of the essential things we need to live, or, sink into a new dark age where hunger, thirst, famine, anarchy and tribal warfare will be the norm.

     We are certainly going to run out of oil and gas. There are other forms of energy available. but they must be expensively cultivated and shared equably. Over the planet as a whole, food and water, especially the latter, will become scarce and need to be shared -- which means rationing. There is no room for vulture capitalism in this. Whatever name it takes on, some form of socialism must eventually take over. It does not have to be corrupt and run by uncaring bureaucrats as has been so often in the past, but unless real education causes people to think and act responsibly to their environment -- instead of being led by a corrupt press and the demagogues of the moment. We must expect the worst. Compassion, understanding of reality, willingness to do without and to share, are the qualities we need now.

    We must start taking Malthus seriously. That considerable nineteenth century thinker, like many before and after him, realised that the world is finite and can only support a certain number of people on any kind of level. The current world population is well over double that number. Either by some chemical means, or through surgery, must individuals learn that they have no right in the society of the future to have more than one child per couple. The population must come down to two milliard (or two American Billion) and stay there.

     Look at 1950: the war was over, but wartime shortages remained. Taxation for the super-rich went up to 97.5 percent.  The difference in spending power after taxation was roughly one to fifteen. Today it is many thousands to one. It should go back to the 1950 level and tax-avoidance can be eradicated by taxing the individual where his income arises, not by not by where he chooses to live. You cannot make a fortune by activities in the tax havens. It is a disgrace in a country that calls itself democratic, Lord Ashcroft shoudl be able to finance the successful Tory election while contributing nothing to the country that he partially rules and is given totally undeserved honours.

A Conservative  government can be expected to turn back to the old class divisions and dominance by the rich. The Liberal-Democrat element in the coalition,  which may continue for some time -- as the need to avoid anarchy, revolution, total collapse of the economy is paramount -- may hold it back. We have learned more about Clegg in the last month than ever before, and while his good points are not those likely to appeal to the right-wing press, they certainly appeal to me. Also Vince Cable, a voice of reason and intelligence, is in the cabinet -- so there is some hope!

The moment to fact reality has arrived. We must understand the situation, the impossibility of going back, and above all be willing to accept a future where sacrifice, fair shares and self-control can still make a more civilised, if not more affluent than first anticipated future possible.  

John Calder 15/5/10 

Bring Down the Party System

Politics have always been corrupt, although there have been corrupt, although there have been historical periods when a few individuals have brought up the moral and intellectual tone. One think of Burke, Disraeli, Parnell, Nye Bevan and a few others, often defying their party to say what had to be said. It is the party system that is corrupt and always will be, because all that matters there, is automatic unquestioning obedience to the leader who can distribute patronage, favours, wealth and promotion to eminence and fame.

Now, surprisingly, because of one successful television appearance, where Nick Clegg outshone the other two party leaders, the party system has a chance of being overturned. The sudden rise in credibility of the Lib-dems, that overnight increased their support according to the poll by 50%, means that three parties are now almost equal in public support and there is a reasonable chance that in the last few days the Lib-Dems could emerge with the largest popular vote, even if, because of our perverse electoral system, they have less seats than that vote would justify.

What we are looking for at is a probable reform of the voting system to some form of proportional representation. It is not impossible that Clegg may find himself at the head of a government, where the most able elected MPs from different parties are able to work together to form a national assembly that gives space and opportunities to the national parties, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish, as well as to individuals from the major parties, which may now start to decline. The role of the press, dominated by oligarchs with their own agendas, would also be much reduced. None of this is certain, but there are chances for a better democratic system.

What we will see when the election is over is a reality when everyone up to now has dismissed, ignored or lied about. We are not coming out of recession, but about to sink into the depths of a long-lasting and very painful depression. This will mean long dole queues, real hunger and homelessness, and brutal repression of all protest activities, that is, if we try to maintain the present laissez-faire attitudes of the last forty years. The alternative, which is the only fair and civilised attitude that can gradually make things better, is to return to poat-war austerity, creating Keynsian principles, a jobs-for-all economy under nationalised industries and projects, bringing back a culture of rented accommodation in publically-built housing and with taxation levels that reduces individual spending to about one to fifteen. This means bringing back the Old Labour Clause Four, renationalising everything that was once in public ownership, breaking up the big companies that are now so badly and irresponsibly run into smaller units, some private, some public, but above all putting high employment above profit considerations. Tight regulation should control all financial institutions. Take-overs should only be allowed in extreme cases and never foreign ones.

 Education should be expanded, both to create responsible, honest and able managers of all institutions and to further cultural knowledge and interests so that the acquisitions of what can be put into the mind becomes desirable and what us in the pocket is irrelevant, because taxation will make everyone roughly equal. That is how things were in 1950s when post-war society, although pilloried by those who had lost a privileged affluence, was humane and people learned to share, cooperate and cultivate their minds. The arts, never mentioned today by politicians, made life seem rich to those who were open to them. Nye Bevan, who gave us the National Health Service, also backed the Arts. If rationing must come back then let it! What we can avoid is hunger and homelessness with a caring government of honest and able MPs drawn from different parties. At present there are too many. Three hundred is more than we need. The Scottish Parliament meets during the day and that makes it impossible for members to hold down another job, as so many do in London. That is why the British Parliament meets in the evening, so that so many can earn money, sometimes large amount, in the day. In the evenings most of them sit around gossiping until the whips come and tell them to vote, often with no idea or interest in what they are voting for. MPs by ordinary standards are well-paid. They have no need to earn more. The incentive to enter politics should be a desire to improve society, not to become rich.

The voters have a chance to change the system. It could be for the worst or for the better. There are hard times ahead. We must prepare for them and develop a sense of reality and as willingness to sacrifice a period of illusionary, debt-ridden affluence based on great inequalities, and crime hidden by corrupt accountants, for one with fair shares, full employment, greater accountants and a future that with care can gradually get better if we can control our tribal and animal natures. Otherwise we shall return to a new version of the dark ages.

John Calder 03/05/2010

Freefall’ by Joseph Stiglitz

Every so often a book comes along of such importance that everyone who cares about the world we live in, and the state of modern society as it affects our lives and well-being, should read. Such a one is ‘Freefall’ by the Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who prior to becoming an academic was Chief Economist at the World Bank.

This is important new book not only gives the lie to all the nonsense that is being spouted in Britain prior to election-day, but makes it clear that not only is a return to the supposed but illusionary prosperity of recent decades impossible, but that we are only at the beginning of a long and painful depression that only strong and well-informed government might eventually bring to an end, and to do this it must return to all the regulations of banking and financial interests that have been sabotaged and abandoned over the last few years. Deregulation is the principal cause of all our problems: it has allowed massive theft of tax money, the building of dishonest edifices  for as long as those responsible could enrich themselves at public expense, and a massive transfer of the savings and security of those at the bottom of society to those at the top.

Although Stiglitz is writing primarily about America, his words apply equally to Britain and much of Europe where de-regulated banking, a housing boom based on sharp practise and irresponsible lending, has led to millions losing their homes, an educational future for their children, and a comfortable retirement. The cronyism between those in power such ads the two George Bushes, Blair and Brown and those in a position to control the economy  such as Allan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke in America, and the top officials of the Bank of England has led to the biggest banks, and some industries such as General Motors being bailed out by tax-payers money, much of which went to pay large bonuses and increase salaries to those responsible for the losses, even while they were continuing. American public money was taken out personally by nine lenders to the tune of $33 billion out of the $175 billion put in by the American government and one million apiece went to five thousand bank employees. This money was to cover $100 billion in losses. In addition dividends were paid to shareholders although there were only losses. During this time millions had lost homes, jobs and everything else in a country that had little social or medical security and where ignorance about economic affairs or anything much else was the general condition. Obama has changed nothing effective. He has his own cronies, sometimes the same as with Bush. The bail-outs for failure have continued.

Much of the Toxic loss on sub-prime mortgages has been exported to other countries, as well as the consequences of deregulation, which is why we have a deepening depression here, which will soon effect everyone once the election is over. Our national debt will poison life for decades ahead, and the services we have taken for granted for many years such as health, education, travel, cheap food etc will quickly diminish. Not a single politician, and they cannot all be so stupid as not to know the truth, dares speak out, not even Vince Cable, the most intelligent of them. But it must all come out eventually, and hopefully we will have to change society totally to what it was immediately after the war, boring, simple, but equal, with rationing, tight controls and regulation over nearly everything.

Stiglitz’s book suffers from having no index. He offers some hope for reform through our coming to our senses, knowing that civilisation will cease if we do not. Although he must end his analysis with some hope, one senses that he does not believe that there is much.

John Calder 19/04/2010 

The Coming Election and Parliamentary Reform 

Laissez Faire Equals Let Fail

The short reign of Gordon Brown will come to an end on the 6^th of May, and looking back, there can be no question of it having been anything other than a disaster. Following in the misguided footsteps of Tony Blair, who simply continued the Thatcherite policy of deregulating as much as possible in order to let rampant greed and civic irresponsibility go wherever it wanted, Gordon Brown swallowed the old line that if things appear to be going well, then they will continue to go on for ever, thereby ignoring all history that, as everyone with common sense knows, says that what goes up in the air must sooner or later fall down.

Regulations, that enabled the British economy to slowly recover after 1945, making life slightly better until the sixties, year by year, was based on a humane socialism that enabled those with talent to be upwardly mobile, for life to be not that different between the manual wage-earner and the office-orientated salaried workers in terms of spendable income, and for even the cultural differences to be reduced. For two and sixpence (one-eighth of a pound) you could go to the opera and the ballet at the Royal Opera House, where the amphitheatre was filled with twenty-year olds. Three hundred pounds a year was considered a reasonable salary or wage. Much worked for nationalised enterprises for a reasonable salary or wage. Nationalised enterprises and the private ones were run on similar lines, profits being moderate and much of them going back into reserves, enabling progressive growth to give more employment, rather than enriching managers and pushing up share prices through increased dividends. High taxation on bigger incomes and excess property made greed difficult and unfashionable.

How that has changed: admittedly there were some who took too much advantage of the welfare state, those with large families and some aggressive trade unions, which was the principal cause of the right-wing backlash, but then things got out of control, society became feral, tribal and ugly. Greed has become not only commonplace, but is considered “good”. And then regulation, which is really the rule of law to create a civilised society in which it is possible for nearly everyone to have a reasonable happy and fulfilling life, was discarded by both Tory and New Labour governments, leading inevitably to the present economic chaos, which is only just beginning to be felt. There are many more Enron and Lehmann Brothers type bankruptcies on the way.

Gordon Brown with his enormous scattering of public money to bail out banks that go on behaving as irresponsibly as before, has ensured at least another twenty years of depression, as well as the virtual disappearance of public services, health, education, protected childhood, comfortable old age, stimulation of our creative faculties through culture, and much else. Unemployment is the key factor, and that is set to rise to levels that will probably lead to revolution and whatever follows it; almost certainly dictatorship. Our participation in disastrous foreign wars, that we will certainly lose, is the second factor for which Gordon Brown is at least partly responsible. But the third one is the lack of any government initiative to stop take-overs by either foreign or local power-hungry and greedy corporations. Each take-over leads to more unemployment. The French government on several occasions has stepped in to stop take-overs in the national interest. Why don’t we do the same? It does not matter whther it is corruption, stupidity or simply ignorance that lies behind the government’s immobility; it is wrong and will ensure that the depression deepens and gets worse.

The polls change daily and no-one can predict what parliament will look like in two months time. Hopefully the party system will be in disarray, and individuals with some common-sense and responsible instincts will be able to sway things and perhaps even start a reform movement, rather than a party. One thing is certain, we are all going to have to learn to live on a much simpler and lower level. That might not be bad if we become good neighbours, willing to share, be tolerant and sociable and begin to cultivate our intellects, and not our greed.

John Calder 22/3/10

Past, Present and Future

Anyone with a serious interest in history knows that there is no such thing as steady progress. There are times when things go forward and life improves, but always there is a counter-force that comes along, stops the advance and pushes human progress back. The golden age of fifth century Athens (BC) ended with the Persian wars, civil wars and then the growth of the Roman Empire, which itself was brought down partly by invasions from Germany and the East and its own internal upsets, but mainly by the rise of Christianity, anti-intellectual and anti-progressive, it always tended to support royal tyranny which was meant to reflect heavenly tyranny.

Global capitalism, supported by a right-wing media and public relations industry, has given us a bubble of illusionary prosperity in certain parts of the world, based on credit, high debt-levels, and a culture of general belief that things could only get better in the future. Although the bubble has now burst, the same media & PR industries are trying to persuade us that the last two years are a blip that will soon pass, no thought is given, except by a very few willing to face reality, to the real situation, which is the following.

The planet has a growing population that it cannot sustain.  At the same time we are running out of what we need most, water, oxygen created by large forests, oil, gas and other finite products that give us energy, heat, means of travel and products we have come to take for granted, and many other things. Yet we never seem to run out weapons with which to kill. In Malthusian terms there are those who see the destruction of much of the overpopulated world as a good thing. Nothing seems to be able to stop nationalistic, ideological, religious, civil and other wars which international institutions such as the UN seem unable to control. In addition to this there are natural disasters and adverse weather conditions such as those that we have already seen this year in Haiti, Madeira and Chile, for which very little is done in advance in preparation. Some have become very rich by bringing down essential regulation, through fraud, and by taking advantage of the extreme complications of the modern stock market, financial systems and global interconnections that now have made the world ungovernable.

Democracy, which only works in a few places where there is a high level of general education, a single observed culture that includes an acceptance of law and order, governmental regulation and tolerance of difference, is no longer valid. A proper government has to be willing to treat all of its citizens equally, eliminate poverty, ignorance, illiteracy and find ways of creating and maintaining full employment, raising the living standard of teachers, nurses, civic employees and others who do essential work but are undervalued, as well as taxing heavily those who are overpaid or have too much property. The level that should be the norm, after taxation, in terms of available spending money, should be one to fifteen, and no gap should be wider than that. Of course, no government at present has the courage to even think of such a future, but just wait! Extreme violence, even revolution is on the horizon, and the many disasters that will surely arrive this year and thereafter will make such a re-orientation of society not only feasible but likely.  When unemployment rises above ten percent and it may soon go to double that or more, then the disorders will start and no-one can predict the future after that.

Sacrifice is what it has to come and it should start at the top. If there is no viable government, then we will have mob rule. History tells us what that can lead to. Things are not going to get better. Be prepared for sacrifice and even welcome it if it leads the way to a fairer society.

John Calder 12/03/2010

The Meaning of Capitalism

Adam smith in The Wealth of Nations described capitalism as a method of creating wealth through the use of innovation and invention, which in practise became mass production replacing handicraft and home industry. It also led to driving whole populations off the land and into factories and led to mass unemployment, which made brutal exploitation easy, so that those who understood what they were doing could become rich at the expense of society as a whole.

This was not always the case. Many businesses and industries were run on socially acceptable lines with the wealth being created shared between those who created it in a reasonable manner. Karl Marx, who understood all aspects of capitalism, described the surplus wealth by labour not going to those who created it as a form of theft, and the purpose of socialism was to return that wealth to be shared, not to end mass production. But primitive capitalism, although it made the clever, the greedy and the unscrupulous rich, could still be controlled by legislation and laws which limited the worst excesses. This, however, is not the case with Global capitalism which, because it is international, can move its activities from one part of the world to another, be above the laws and open to every form of corruption and chicanery.

It is now clear that no regime is able to govern properly or even understand what it is doing or could do. The capitalist world is on the verge of collapse and the bland reassurances we are daily given that prosperity is about to return has no basis of understanding or probability about it. So let us look at reality for once.

First of all, it is time for each nation state to cut its international links. International trade in terms of exchange of goods can continue, but a stop must be made to international ownership. No firm, enterprise, industry or financial institution should by law be allowed to own a company of any size or nature in another country. Also there must be stop to takeovers in the same nation state if the company taken over is still viable. Take-overs should be by the state alone, and I would like to see everything that was once in public ownership re-nationalised. At the same time we must realise that there is a great shortage of competent and honest managers. Margaret Thatcher bears the greatest responsibility for this: she downgraded honesty, encouraged greed and encouraged a way of thinking that made such disasters as Barings Bank, Enron, Madoff and Northern Rock inevitable. Other similar disastersare undoubtedly yet to be discovered.  Big companies should be broken up into viable smaller ones, small enough for their workings to be understood by those who manage them. New Labour politicians are also partly to blame for the shortage of competent and honest managers. We have no institutions like the French to pick the brightest from schools and give them specialist training. We are told that would be ‘elitist’. We put no premium on ability, only on cunning.

Smaller enterprises give more employment. At present whenever one enterprise takes over another, the first thing that happens is that as many employees as possible are made redundant to increase profit and to help pay for the purchase. The biggest responsibility of government- and this is realised in socialist regimes of all types- is to create employment for all its citizens. In France, for instance, I can name communities with left-wing local councils that sometimes create many more jobs than are needed in order to clean streets, plant flowers, look after playgrounds etc, in order to ensure that no-one goes hungry or unsheltered and that there is no excuse for crime. Taxes, of course, are higher than elsewhere, but social services, education, health and general amenity are on a level that the British could not imagine. If France shares many of current financial woes of Britain it is because there are too many areas that were deregulated by returning right-wing regimes.

In short, it is only by a reasoned local protectionism that recovery might eventually be achieved and it will not be in the short term. In the meantime we can expect unemployment to rise dramatically, violence and lawlessness to increase, crime to escalate and our standard of living to go back the thirties. We are already engaged in highly dangerous smaller wars which could easily lead to a world one. No party has the ability to govern sensibly and most of them are too frightened to make any decision at all, knowing that strict regulation is necessary, but unable to face unpopular consequences. Democracy is on the way out, largely because the electorate is disgusted with the system and those they have elected and partly because it is too badly informed about what has to be done and about the future in general.

To sum up: laws are needed to reduce the size of companies, stop take-overs, all foreign investment and, above all, to start renationalisation. This mean reforming our educational system to produce a new generation of reasonably paid managers, creating a society of culture and not crime, raising taxation and disallowing tax exile. One to fifteen should be the difference of spendable income. No more global capitalism. We should withdraw all troops from other countries. All this not only can be done, it must be done. The alternative is revolution of the ugliest type, world wars, total anarchy, and possibly the end of the human race.

John Calder 02/03.2010

Faith, History and Fraud

Ever since the human mind began to ask itself the kind of question that animals never ask, such as ‘where do we come from?’, ‘why are we here?’,  or 'where are we going?’ there have been some willing to provide answers, usually to get an advantage. So a priesthood developed to give answers, prophets and preachers, and to them we owe thousands of years of cruel and bloody wars and conflicts that have made life intolerable for a majority of those alive at any one time. There seems to be a need to have faith in something, a religion, a patriotism, a fashion, a cause or a means of making money.

Recent years have seen some big frauds, some past ones such as the South Sea Bubble or Darien Expedition many have started with some credibility, but man’s natural ineptness has turned them into disasters. There have always been plausible fraudsters, but we never learn from past misfortunes. Always behind them is someone who thinks he is clever, and when things go wrong uses his cleverness to devise a fraud to cover up in the desperate hope that his luck will change. So it was with Barings bank, with Madoff and Enron. The play 'Enron' has now been running for almost a year and is packing London theatres. Will this stop people having faith in some new scheme which comes along which is just as bad? No, of course not! We never learn.

In the play, two young men in love with their own cleverness, employed by a company that is basically incompetent and losing money but unwilling to admit it, devise a scheme that urges its ignorant employees to ruin their own futures by gambling on the company. Even when it all collapses they still think they are clever and have pulled out themselves. But a ruined security guard says it all: ‘You’re just a crook’.

What concerns me is not so much the crooks- such is humanity, there will always be bad apples- but that those who have faith in such enterprises and schemes have nothing to back up of that faith. When it comes to the capitalist world of stocks and shares, and investment in general, one should never put a penny into anything that you do not understand. A small company that you work for, where you know how and why it works, what it does, who its customers are and where the future looks as good as the present, especially if you know its finances are sound and money is put in reserves every year for the future, rather than taken to overpay management, that might do for you. Something that has a temporary glamour that everyone else is investing in for no reason other than to join the swarm, is where you should be distrustful.

But then there are all the other faiths: the tribal ones that tell you to hate what is different, the nationalist ones that tell you your country is always right, that terrorism is what others do, that your God is the only true one...and all the other faiths and beliefs that separate one lot of people from another are all wrong or evil and worthy of destruction...No, you should reject them all. We should teach our children to trust only their own considered thought out judgement, and then only after looking at all the possibilities on offer. Doubt is good, and it should lead to careful reasoning. Blind faith is the root of evil.

We live in a world where it is as important to be tactful as well as to be able to think. The only way to shake a blind faith that is dangerous is to listen, question and sometimes point out the extremes which that faith points towards. That may make the other person draw back, re-examine what they are saying and perhaps begin to doubt. Never be too sure of yourself. We can all be wrong!

John Calder 12/2/2010

THE POLITICIANS WE NEED: HOW TO GET THEM

There are three basic types of elected politicians. First, there are those who are hungry for power, not that much unlike those who seize it somehow, either by leading a revolution, a coup d’etat if they are in a position to affect one, or by turning a successful election into a dictatorship. Dictatorship is in any case what the power-seekers want and the present government is behaving more and more like one through its increased police powers, constant acts of censorship, and decisions taken that effect everyone without in any way seeking public approval. The latter include going twice into unprovoked war, giving massive amounts of tax-payers money to bail out friends in banks and industries that have failed because of incompetence, and decisions affecting schools, the Health Service and whole sections of the population such as immigrants, again without consultation. The government is willing to negotiate with some of the most corrupt regimes in the world and to let massive corrupt practises go by unheeded and unpunished, such as the recent BAE Systems scandal.

The Government has put off a general election as long as it can, but within two months there must be one, unless some new emergency is dreamed up to bring in legislation putting it off, not an impossible scenario. Dissatisfaction and contempt with politicians is so widespread that it is impossible to guess how many people will vote, but it will certainly be a low poll. But I am now going to suggest what I would like to see in this election.

Before that however, let me mention the other two types of politicians other than power-seekers. There are those who see it as a career with opportunities for making money and the prospect of a good pension at the end. They, of course, are the ones who have been causing the recent scandal by feathering their nests with the assurance that secrecy, much defended by Ex-speaker Martin, would protect them. But the third category consists of people who have genuine desire to improve society and the world generally, who of course need to be able to have the basic necessities of life, but for whom money, comfort and luxury-living are unimportant. Such men and women, admittedly with the advantage of an education behind them and some family money, tended to produce the great statesman of the past, the Burkes, Cannings, Disraelis and Gladstones. But at least they respected what so few of the today’s politicians don’t- a high culture that only a good education with wealth of knowledge behind it can provide a sense of history, of what has led to a better society in the past, and a compassion for those who need it. Being in parliament should be a privilege that requires action. It should not be a cushy job that encourages laziness.

The salary of a firt-time M.P should be £20,000 a year. He should have free second-class travel to London from his constituency, and a room and bathroom in a special building able to houseall non-London Members of Parliament (there are several new buildings within easy walking distance of the House that could be taken over. They should be required to be in the Chamber for at least two hours a day instead of sitting around all the time in the lounges, smoking rooms, bars and tea-rooms gossiping, and to take part as often as possible in the public debates. In addition there should be frequent lectures for MPs on subjects of which they are ignorant by suitable lecturers on topics of national concern. Food is in any case heavily subsidised in the various eating-places, and the salaries should enable them to eat at these places. Outside jobs and all payments for them should be banned. They should be entitled to certain discounts for subsidised concert halls, theatres etc so that they will know where public money is going and the quality it pays for. Such visits can also raise their general culture. Sittings should be during normal business hours, not at night. Fact finding trips should be in groups, paid for, but on a modest scale.

On re-election for a second term the salary should go up by50%. Thereafter by a higher figure, agreed by parliament but subject to voters approval by being put in a brackets after the name of the ballot paper with an additional box requiring a tick or another figure in (to be averaged out if re-elected.) I could think of other changes, that I think that will do for now!

 John Calder 07/02/10

Thoughts on Deserts

Calgacus, the first recorded leader of the early Scottish Picts, who resisted the first Roman invasions, is quoted by Tacitus as saying: ‘They Make a Desert and they call it Peace.' How true that is today. We with the Americans are among the worst offender in our futile and ultimately doomed attempts to impose an alien culture which we hypocritically call democracy on other parts of the world of which we have no significant understanding, currently Iraq and Afghanistan, although in living memory it includes other places, especially those that once formed the British empire and still does the American one.

But I can think of many other deserts, often the result of misconceived and ignorant planning. Take the British educational system: as class-ridden as it ever was. The arts and any concept of cultural climate has been systematically ruled out of the society in which most children grow up. The arts and intellectual activity in general, which is the motor that drives civilisation and positive endeavour forward, are not taught because a government, as stupid, uneducated and philistine as any we have ever had, sees no point in having a civilised population, throwing words like ‘elitist' at any effort to bring up the general level of education. Fashion and celebrity are the key words by which an ugly alliance of corrupt and incompetent politicians and greedy commercial interests (call them ‘Global Capitalism) replace any culture that might encourage intelligence and a life-style that from the early renaissance showed promise of one day achieving some kind of Utopia. Among the major European countries we are the only one where not only is philosophy not taught as a core subject, but neither is history, geography or the humanities generally. Everyone is trained to sit behind a computer screen and become a robot using a robot, a slave to a technology which has provided enormous new opportunities to the criminal mind, fuelled anti-social and very ugly sexual perversions, augmented unemployment by replacing people with machinery, much of it very fallible, and in general has created a cultural climate of dishonesty, confusion about the necessities of life, increased chances of war and especially of intolerance racial and ideological conflict, and the admiration of greed and misplaced power.

This January has shown another nature imposing a desert of cold and snow in a world where we cannot even agree and cooperate to slow down climate change, while in the southern hemisphere a different desert is growing, of waterless sand and earth, foodless tracts of baking ground, and soon the great underground lakes of oil, which finance many tyrannies, may start to run out, although there is a good chance that a number of Revolutions, most of them Jihadist religious ones, will occur before that.

Much of the world is becoming a man-made desert, increasingly overpopulated with no chance of any regime doing anything to reverse what is happening. Then there is the economic situation. The culture of greed that gave us Madoff, Conrad Black, Fred Goodwin and so many other crooks, some of them staying within the law, but all taking advantage of a gullible and easily deceived public that invests out of a blind faith just as thoughtlessly as it goes to churches or mosques, has been temporarily rescued and encouraged to continue by politicians, corrupted by money, honours or ‘Old-Boy' networks. These politicians have no idea of the consequences of their actions or of the folly of the scale of their handouts. They will however have to face retribution and disgrace, and in the very near future, both for the deserts they have created by starting wars, and the economic deserts from which we may never recover. Unfortunately, less so in those countries that have trained an elite to run most things with some competence, the destruction of real education, which means a system that can enable the bulk of the population to understand its own society and culture and to think with confidence, has made recovery highly unlikely, especially in English speaking countries.

In Darwinian terms, we have failed to advance our species, and probably are headed towards a third world war, which may destroy us all. Recent archaeological discoveries show us that high civilisations have existed before our own recorded history, and they have disappeared. So may we. There will only be a desert left, such as is described in the last lines of Lucky's speech in ‘Waiting for Godot'. Beckett was always prophetic about human destiny. 

John Calder 11/01/09

Wanted: Some New Ideas....

As 2009 approaches its dismal end and the next British General election looms ever nearer, the political parties are groping desperately for some new ideas and failing to find any. Even Vince Cable, the most articulate and believable member of the House of Commons, and one of the few certain to be there when the election is over, is saying little that is new.

The situation is desperate. Land areas are shrinking as the sea rises and becomes ever more acidic and polluted, but the world population, with ever more tribal and civil wars killing millions, goes on increasing in a world running out of food, water and sources of energy. We are hopelessly engaged in an ideological struggle in Afghanistan from which we will ultimately have to withdraw in humiliation, having strengthened all the forces of fundamentalist and primitive religion and nationalism that we think we are fighting, while politicians lie, cover-up the past disasters they have created, deny everything so incompetently that no one believes a word they utter, and certainly not the impossible promises of what they think they can do in the future. The lack of ability to run anything or to cope with crisis, or to come up with solutions is obvious to everyone. So here are a few ideas!

First of all we need to create new jobs. Many of them have little appeal except to the most desperate, which in the main means the poorest immigrants. Some require no skill, only willingness to carry out a simple routine. Why, in return for allowing three days a week of something interesting, such as being taught to teach, manage something or just acquire knowledge of a subject (anything from playing the piano, growing vegetables or building and repairing something), paid for of course, should one not for the other two days do something unpopular, such as clearing offices, delivering post or domestic work in a hospital, school or institution, all for the same weekly salary paid by the state. Above all we need to train people to run things, to know things, and to be able to advise those who have never been taught to look after themselves and their community with common sense, honesty, a sense of responsibility and an altruistic attitude. Self-advantage to the detriment of others is something we must learn to eliminate from our lives and natures- if this seems something like a Christian message, so much the better.  All religions, whether one believes them or not, have some good principles. The Sermon on the Mount of Jesus, like many of his other sayings, was really a quotation from Hillel, a Jewish philosopher a generation older. Good ethics is the only possible basis for civilisation, which will only come into existence when we are willing to abandon Thatcherite global capitalism, which enslaves most people in a fashion-celebrity-commercial culture for the benefit of a ruthlessly wealthy few. Now that the bubble of debt-based illusory prosperity has collapsed, we can dream up a different society. Many of the Banks have now in reality been nationalised. The rest should be as well, and the world of finance brought under proper and ethical controls. This means looking again at Keynes, who advocated in times such as ours in declaring a moratorium on old debts for an indefinite period and financing a new fund to make things work. If this means rationing and national incomes policy, decided by the national treasury, then why not?

A whole generation of young people, whether in higher education or not, are in trouble, with income support not arriving or jobs not available. Capitalism has much of the blame. The first thing a company does when it takes over another one is to reduce the staff as much as possible. A new attitude is necessary: jobs are more important than profit.

My new idea is a simple one, that would benefit everyone, but it needs a state-owned bank to carry it out. It is that every citizen should be entitled draw on such a state owned bank over the course of their lifetime up to 100,000 starting at the age of eighteen, a small amount in youth to finance study where possible, or to back a sensible enterprise. This would require a large number of monitors or advisors, and this would need to bring a new profession into existence. Everyone from the age of eighteen should be supervised by two such monitors, one trained to watch financial progress and the other life-style, that is to say to encourage suitable interests according to taste, ability and special interests, to encourage cultural development and good citizenship in general. Perhaps the biggest single problem of life in the more advanced societies is the level of boredom, lack of opportunities, disinterest in ideas, culture and social communications, and general expectation of anything to make life other than drudgery and hopelessness. The Class system is one cause of this. The indifference and general ignorance of those in authority is another. But the creation of an educated class of monitors, each responsible for the well-being and financial and life-style wellbeing of perhaps as many individuals as a physician normally is, would be the answer to most of our crime, stupid mistakes and wrong decisions. Of course it would not work perfectly: nothing ever does! But it could create a revolution in our culture, bring unemployment to an end, and make life better in every way.

This is a brief outline of what is possible. The objections will come from special interest groups, but perhaps a few might think about it and a dialogue may begin. Everything has to start somewhere!

John Calder 14/12/09

On the opening day of he great international conference in Copenhagen, over fifty of the world's leading newspapers jointly published a single editorial, emphasizing that this important event must not be allowed to fail. Interestingly, only one American newspaper, in Miami, Florida, was among them: New York, Chicago, L.A. etc. had obviously declined to join the consensus, an ominous signal of the American unwillingness to face reality or to confront the disasters that are now facing us.

There is everywhere and new awareness, except in the countries that either cannot conceive of losing the life-style they have enjoyed for decades or have just entered a new affluence such as China, which is still uncertain which way it wants to go. International careful planning to make a single world economy and level of existence is of course the answer, but is it possible?

The title of this blog comes from Sir Robert Grieve, a few years ago the Chairman of Scotland's Highlands and Islands Development Board, an idealistic and competent administrator, who died before he could write a book with that title. It was during the Thatcher period when everything was being deregulated and market forces were allowed to do what they wanted, while all the carefully planned structure of the welfare state, from its employment-giving industries and services to its advanced education and culture was dismantled, one by one. The result we no have to live with.

Can man plan? Only with a consensus of awareness, a willingness to share and accept sacrifice, to dismiss differences of class, race, religion, nationality and historical enmity and prejudice, and by bringing about a fundamental change in human nature, can this happen. It is so unlikely that I am probably wasting my time in writing these words, but the survival of this planet and the human life on it -- and there are those from Greek philosophers to Schopenhauer and Beckett who have considered the end of humanity not necessarily a bad thing -- depends on our accepting a totally planned and regulated world if intelligent life is to continue and perhaps, with time, get better.

One thing is certain: life is about to get much worse for everyone, even for the bankers whose incompetence and greed is partly responsible for what is happening. Once Christmas, that dismal festival of unreality and forgetfullness, is over, we will see change in our daily living. More will be unemployed, more will go hungry and many will die of it, more will get ill and find no care or cure, more will be homeless, crime will rise and the conditions described by Disraeli, Dickens and Marx will again be normal. Many of the technical advances that have been taken for granted will disappear, excpet for a very few, carefully hidden out of sight and protected by private armies. We must, through general protest and demonstration -- in some places it will be revolution -- bring back planning and equal shares or else succumb to anarchy or dictatorship. The latter is more likely, but one can never predict how public protest will go. But doing nothing is not an option.

We can neither look to the past, nor to old idealistic philosophies and social programmes, not even to the old names for things, because they have been discredited by misuse. I would offer 'communityism' as the best word for a civilised future; everything else will lead to some form of military dictatorship, which is already the case where we have blunderingly interfered in places we do not understand, such as Iraq, Aghanistan and may soon do in Iran and elsewhere.

The next fortnight has the world riveted on Copenhagen. Can man plan? It has to start there, otherwise we are doomed.

  John Calder 7/12/09