I haven't (couldn't) count the number of words written about Brexit!
Would I want to add to them?
Yes and No!
Yes because there is always something to say, something to add, No because too much has been said already.
But I want to add something new (at least I hope that it is new).
If Brexit was a howl of rage, a protest, a rejection of austerity and all that goes with it including benefits sanctions, food banks and the sneering of politicians who have inherited fortunes and who wear suits that cost more than the average person has to live on for a year, then it is the howl of rage that we must hear.
Tragically the current post democracy election for the new leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, elected by some 330 MP's and 150, 000 Conservative Party members, (there's democracy for you), is likely to lead to even more right wing policies being put in place as society moves back to the mid Fifties.
Given the current state of play in the Labour Party with the MP's positioning themselves to the right of the Leadership and passing votes of no confidence in his leadership, despite the enormous respect for his leadership being demonstrated by the rapidly increasing membership and Momentum it is hard to see where the opposition will come from.
Maybe, as some commentators have observed, we will see the emergence of a new party of the left, or possibly we might see a new progressive alliance emerging drawing together Labour, Liberals, SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru to begin to challenge and face down the right wing, Brexit focused Conservative Party.
Whatever happens next I am campaigning for one thing, a fairer distribution of the wealth of society, an end to to Welfare (although not the welfare state) and the introduction of a universal basic income.
I am not alone in this campaign, Pope Francis is on board and so is Martin Luther King!
The facts speak for themselves as wages fall, employment falls, more people are displaced from work by robots, by technology, by artificial intelligence so the welfare response with benefits sanctioned and the disabled victimised and the food bank queues lengthening, so the remuneration of Chief Executives, Non Executive Directors and those at the top of the food chain, increase exponentially.
The current scandal exposed by the collapse of BHS is simply a case in point.
As Nissan increases its technological capacity so the Qashqai (Cash Cow?) will increasingly not be built by skilled hands but by robots programmed not only to work more quickly, more unrelentingly but to do so at lower cost than their human predecessors.
I am pretty sure that in Hartlepool the result of the referendum was a protest against the alienation felt by so many people who have suffered from de-industrialisation and new technology.
The tragedy is that Europe was the fall guy.
In Sunderland maybe it was simply that as someone once commented to me when the Nissan Factory was being built, people in the North East can't live in paper houses.
I entered a Haiku Competition as part of a Japanese Week sponsored by Nissan in Sunderland, their was to be Kite Flying, Origami, Tea Ceremonies and a Haiku Competition.
My Haiku was:
Fuji on Wearside
The sound of one hand clapping
Greets the first Nissan
I heard nothing and contacted the festival office for information, Oh, they said we had one entry and it was so bad we didn't run the competition.
Now post Brexit of course a new Haiku is called for:
Post Referendum
The sound of one hand clapping
Nissan move to Ruhr
So if we are to move to a post welfare society in which all can share in common wealth as it is created, whether in financial services, in technological innovation, through internet shopping, file sharing or in whatever unimagined ways will come in the rapidly accelerating future of things we need to find a new way of embracing change, celebrating our common wealth and sharing it equitably.
So a Universal Basic Income is what we need.
Somehow we need to get it onto societies agenda.
The details have been worked through by others better qualified than me, it is being tried in Finland, it was the subject of a referendum in Switzerland, it is not Rocket Science, so much of the Welfare Budget simply subsidises low paying employers and zero hours contracts.
Too much of the common wealth disappears through tax efficient schemes.
But the essential principle is expressed by Pope Francis, essentially, the best way to help the poor is to give them the cash.
In other words every citizen from the age of 18 should receive a basic income sufficient to allow them to House, Feed and Clothe themselves.
Such an income allows people to live with dignity, it allows people to adjust their working lives accordingly, to raise their families, to seek work that interests them and to share in the common wealth that they and the society of which they are a part has successfully created.
Would I want to add to them?
Yes and No!
Yes because there is always something to say, something to add, No because too much has been said already.
But I want to add something new (at least I hope that it is new).
If Brexit was a howl of rage, a protest, a rejection of austerity and all that goes with it including benefits sanctions, food banks and the sneering of politicians who have inherited fortunes and who wear suits that cost more than the average person has to live on for a year, then it is the howl of rage that we must hear.
Tragically the current post democracy election for the new leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, elected by some 330 MP's and 150, 000 Conservative Party members, (there's democracy for you), is likely to lead to even more right wing policies being put in place as society moves back to the mid Fifties.
Given the current state of play in the Labour Party with the MP's positioning themselves to the right of the Leadership and passing votes of no confidence in his leadership, despite the enormous respect for his leadership being demonstrated by the rapidly increasing membership and Momentum it is hard to see where the opposition will come from.
Maybe, as some commentators have observed, we will see the emergence of a new party of the left, or possibly we might see a new progressive alliance emerging drawing together Labour, Liberals, SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru to begin to challenge and face down the right wing, Brexit focused Conservative Party.
Whatever happens next I am campaigning for one thing, a fairer distribution of the wealth of society, an end to to Welfare (although not the welfare state) and the introduction of a universal basic income.
I am not alone in this campaign, Pope Francis is on board and so is Martin Luther King!
The facts speak for themselves as wages fall, employment falls, more people are displaced from work by robots, by technology, by artificial intelligence so the welfare response with benefits sanctioned and the disabled victimised and the food bank queues lengthening, so the remuneration of Chief Executives, Non Executive Directors and those at the top of the food chain, increase exponentially.
The current scandal exposed by the collapse of BHS is simply a case in point.
As Nissan increases its technological capacity so the Qashqai (Cash Cow?) will increasingly not be built by skilled hands but by robots programmed not only to work more quickly, more unrelentingly but to do so at lower cost than their human predecessors.
I am pretty sure that in Hartlepool the result of the referendum was a protest against the alienation felt by so many people who have suffered from de-industrialisation and new technology.
The tragedy is that Europe was the fall guy.
In Sunderland maybe it was simply that as someone once commented to me when the Nissan Factory was being built, people in the North East can't live in paper houses.
I entered a Haiku Competition as part of a Japanese Week sponsored by Nissan in Sunderland, their was to be Kite Flying, Origami, Tea Ceremonies and a Haiku Competition.
My Haiku was:
Fuji on Wearside
The sound of one hand clapping
Greets the first Nissan
I heard nothing and contacted the festival office for information, Oh, they said we had one entry and it was so bad we didn't run the competition.
Now post Brexit of course a new Haiku is called for:
Post Referendum
The sound of one hand clapping
Nissan move to Ruhr
So if we are to move to a post welfare society in which all can share in common wealth as it is created, whether in financial services, in technological innovation, through internet shopping, file sharing or in whatever unimagined ways will come in the rapidly accelerating future of things we need to find a new way of embracing change, celebrating our common wealth and sharing it equitably.
So a Universal Basic Income is what we need.
Somehow we need to get it onto societies agenda.
The details have been worked through by others better qualified than me, it is being tried in Finland, it was the subject of a referendum in Switzerland, it is not Rocket Science, so much of the Welfare Budget simply subsidises low paying employers and zero hours contracts.
Too much of the common wealth disappears through tax efficient schemes.
But the essential principle is expressed by Pope Francis, essentially, the best way to help the poor is to give them the cash.
In other words every citizen from the age of 18 should receive a basic income sufficient to allow them to House, Feed and Clothe themselves.
Such an income allows people to live with dignity, it allows people to adjust their working lives accordingly, to raise their families, to seek work that interests them and to share in the common wealth that they and the society of which they are a part has successfully created.
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