FIRST PREDICTION COME TRUE

Well I said ENWL would feel empowered by the prospect of a Tory government for the next five years, removes the threat of renationalisation. It hasn’t taken them long and today I got a letter back to the usual belligerence to say that they are going to put their mast next my new build after all. Surprise, surprise. They will regret it. Keep watching this blog this is going to be fun.

20:20 VISION

Thoughts for 2020 more of a prediction than a vision really, but it’s a good title so I’ll keep it.

The UK is the most corrupt country in the world according to Roberto Saviano a journalist who has spent the last ten years exposing the criminal activities of the Italian Mafia. It is covert corruption and at the root of it is financial capital, and 90% of the owners of capital in London have their headquarters offshore. British Dependencies: Jersey and the Cayman Islands, are the depositories for evaded tax money and criminal capital from the UK, Europe and beyond; it can only happen because it is allowed to by the UK government. Leaving the EU will only make matters worse. Our overseas Dependencies are already complicit in banking the funds from tax evasion and other crime from those such as the Mexican drug cartels and the Russian Mafia. HSBC bank had to pay over two billion Euros in fines after admitting to laundering money from the drug cartels and Iranian companies, they were unlucky, most of the banks get away with it. But will this situation get better or worse? I think we can be fairly sure it will get worse as the very wealthy, legal and illegal, benefit from being able to evade tax while keeping their ill-gotten gains safe and members of the government benefit from backhanders.

However, I won’t be wasting a lot of my time on propaganda in future, “thank God for that”, they said. The people, having spoken in the referendum, have now spoken again, the bastards, they have made their bed and must now lie in it for the next five years. Personally, I’m all right Jack, it won’t affect me that much and my conscience is clear. The British people, actually only the English and Welsh, have slapped me in the face, as far as I am concerned they can now fuck off, I won’t be wasting my time on them, just giving those who can see it, an alternative. Like a latter day Nero I’ll fiddle while the world burns, literally.

One thing I AM concerned about is my fight with ENWL. As I told you they changed their attitude towards me from extremely aggressive to conciliatory, when they saw what I was going to say in naming and shaming them. This was for the way they have treated me and the way they have gone about the whole business. It would be good propaganda for re-nationalisation and they were trying to sell the company at the time, which I like to think I had a hand in disrupting. That threat has now almost certainly gone for the next five years and JP Morgan bank, the owners, have subsequently sold 50% of the equity to a Japanese energy company. I can only hope that Japanese companies are more ethical than British and American companies. I will be testing the waters soon when I write to the CEO of Kansai Electric Power and tell him how shamefully I have been treated by ENWL, how dishonourable are their senior management and thus his own company by association. Perhaps the people I have been dealing with will be told to commit Hara-Kiri, I will be happy to provide the knife.

I don’t think the Tories, even with a stonking majority, would dare to do away with the NHS, God I hope not, and it would be electoral suicide. What will happen is that more and more “services” within the NHS will be outsourced to private companies. They will still be “free” at the point of delivery but more of the taxpayers money will go to private companies probably American, from which the usual suspects will get backhanders. The government will then claim the NHS is unaffordable and cut services that are essential but not sexy like social care, dementia and anything the old and poor depend on.

The program of privatisation and selling off our infrastructure and essential services will continue, now without let or hindrance, despite public opinion being overwhelmingly in favour of returning them to public ownership. However, as I write this, I have just heard that Northern Rail is to be stripped of its franchise; brilliant news and long overdue. They are not the first as sometimes the corruption and inefficiency are so bad that that they cannot be overlooked (probation service) even by the Tories who are getting the backhanders, and others may follow. However, Boris has wasted no time in showing his true colours, in all fairness there was never any doubt about them. Worker’s rights, the ban on fracking, food standards and others were attacked within days of the election. Let us hope that Joe Public will at last start protesting against the all the waste, inefficiency, inflated costs and salaries inherent in privatisation. We have seen that protest works especially if it causes major disruption, the great British Public have seen that protest works. They put Boris in no 10 to do Brexit but wouldn’t it be nice if they could prevent all the other stuff that they don’t want but I won’t be holding my breath.

I hope the Tories were only elected because everyone was fed up with Brexit, or lack of it, and the Tories seemed to be the best way to get it done, but I think those who want to come out WITH a deal will be very disappointed. No doubt Boris will be more effective in dealing with the EU than any of his predecessors, but they will not give him an easy ride; a lot of water has gone under the bridge and the EU are very confident. I predict that we will leave the EU WITHOUT a deal sometime in 2020. We could have done that three years ago and saved all that time and money, not to mention enough hot air to add 2 degrees to global warming.

Which brings me to threats to the environment: the government will continue to make noises while doing as little as they possibly can to upset the status quo and their pals in big business. They have already backtracked on their promises to end fracking. Fortunately, Extinction Rebellion and other protests have at last made people aware that we are living on borrowed time, as I have been saying for a long time. So, come on guys pull your socks up, step up and start the revolution, again I won’t be holding my breath, but the genie is out of the lamp and may help to keep the government in check. I can only hope that all those who don’t care get wiped out while there is still hope for those of us who are prepared. The bosses of big companies and the rich are blinkered and can’t see that if their activities, in pursuit of profit, destroy they environment for the rest of us they will also destroy it for them. Not only are they without scruple they are also thick, again I have been saying that for a long time. The public likewise lose interest when it becomes apparent that they will have to make sacrifices themselves, they can’t accept that they are part of the problem and they blame it all on others.

Then we have the truly terrifying prospect of a trade deal with the US. They need us as partners to try and give them some credibility for their low standards and poor quality which they haven’t a hope of getting from the EU. I remember in the US going to a big warehouse type cheese shop where they advertised 97 different cheeses, there was actually one cheese, I think they call it Jack cheese with 97 different additions, none of which did anything to improve the bland taste. Compare that to all the fantastic variety of cheeses in Europe or even just the UK.

Those who think we were surrendering our sovereignty by aligning our standards with the EU will find we now have to lower our standards to align with the US, and US companies will be able to sue the British government if we don’t. US standards are considerably lower than ours in just about everything: animal welfare, nearly all meat is factory farmed in the US, and we all know about chlorinated chickens and GMO’s, they will even be able to get away with not having to state these disgusting practices on food labelling. The EU may be more bureaucratic but is the lesser of two evils by a long chalk.

Australia is burning, Asia is flooding, it gives me no pleasure to say, “I told you so”. Perhaps now that climate change is starting to have a major impact on first world countries it will be taken more seriously. Karma is coming round to bite us on the arse; Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and they export it mostly to Asia. Countries like India, China and Africa will continue to breed themselves into extinction. In a Europe without immigration the population would have been gradually falling over the last few decades to an eventually sustainable level. Unfortunately, our economic policies require continual growth, am I the only one who can see this is unsustainable? so we have to bring in more people; I have no doubt this will continue please see my comments in the Alternative Party manifesto.

Housing in the UK I imagine will continue much the same, mostly out of reach of generation rent. House prices need to come down and I would prefer that this happens by a reduction in demand rather than an increase in supply. I don’t think either will happen, probably it is in the interests of employers and their government plans to keep people renting; once they start to own their property they are on the way to being in a position where they are more independent and can pursue alternatives.

Once I have finished my property project, which I am pretty sure will be the last one, I will spend some time trying to get more people (2 million rather than 20) aware of this blog, my book and the Alternative Party. I will however devote most of my time to pleasure, I have already created an alternative life for myself and I am as prepared as I can be for whatever the future may bring. Everything I have said here is available in more detail in the Alternative Party manifesto it’s up to you now. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.