Eyes in the afternoon

Election Day 2017 -( The General Election, not the local school councillor, although that would probably be more worthwhile...is this title too long?)

2017-06-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

The polls are about to close on the 2017 clusterfuck General Election (they will certainly be closed by the time that you read this) so now is a good time to make my brief analyse of the campaigns and make my predictions.

First, as I have already stated, this is a clusterfuck of an election. Called by Theresa "strong and stable" May when she thought she had a pretty much record breaking lead in the polls. She thought she could guarantee herself a full five year term, and kill of the revival of left Labour before it began. The Brexit sabotage excuse was just that, and excuse. Labour supported article 50, and the only way they were going to obstruct Brexit is if the negotiations were absurdly bad for the British. What followed was the biggest clusterfuck of a campaign in modern political history. A leader who wouldn't answer any questions and a party that was ill-prepared were the highlights of the Tory campaign. At least as far as the Tories were concerned at least.

For the rest of us the shambolic, ill thought out, badly planned, non-committal clusterfuck of a manifesto was the real cream of the Tory campaign. Never has so little thought and planning been put into the production of a manifesto. Never has a manifesto threatened to scare off the core vote of a party to quite this extent. Never has a manifesto pledge been broken before an election. But the Tories managed to backtrack on three manifesto pledges during the course of their brief campaign.

The first was the "dementia tax" debacle. The Tories decided that the best way to piss off older voters was to threaten to take away everything that they had earned during their lives. But somebody mentioned to the party leadership that pissing off all of your core voters was not a long-term survival strategy, so they gave us about turn the first - they promised to review the policy and introduce a cap on the expenses.
The second was when they decided that a pledge to build more social housing was pure madness. After all, an entire housing bubble needed to grow in order to burst with maximum damage to the economy. If they built social housing now house prices might regulate themselves to a sustainable level. That could never be allowed, so they u-turned and saved the huge housing bubble.
The final came in the days after the terrible terror attack in London. Seeing an opportunity that she thought would never come Theresa May has pledged to get rid of those pesky human rights laws that protect British citizens from a wild executive. The fact that the terror attacks would have been stopped if the authorities had the resources to act on intelligence received is meaningless. The lack of any gain in stopping atrocities irrelevant. Those pesky human rights, that she had pledged to protect only a few weeks before, could now go in the name of pretending to protect British citizens.

Suffice it to say, the Tory campaign was awful.

I have very little satirical to say about the Labour campaign, which I feel has been pretty good. It doesn't seem sporting to join the mockery of Diane Abbott, a woman who may be incompetent but has done very well for herself. The biggest stumbling block for Labour is that Jeremy Corbyn doesn't seem too keen on instigating a global apocalypse by launching a first strike. And to be fair, I am with him. Russia have missiles that would destroy the entire tiny island of the UK in one strike. Launching our outdated pea-shooters would be a total clusterfuck of an idea. Russia is a landmass that we could use our entire nuclear arsenal at without hitting a single person. David vs Goliath is all well and good, but when Goliath is that big you can't even see the fucker it is probably best to keep your head down and shuffle on.

So now is time for me to make my projections.

The Tories will win.

Probably with an increased majority. To be specific, I expect an increase for the Tories of about 20 seats, to a total of around 350 seats. A ridiculous result when you consider their campaign, but it is inevitable that 2 years of blind support from the mainstream media will have a significant effect on the result. But more on that when I can be arsed to write it.

A new direction.

2017-06-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

I have decided to resurrect this blog and dedicate it entirely to political content. The reason why is simple, politics is the most important thing I ever feel inclined to write about. Of course, there could be other disciplines that intrude, but the central theme will always be politics.

There will be a mix of original content and links to other platforms that I write on.

With that in mind, please accept this link to a short article that I wrote on hubpages, exploring why reactionary hate is the victory that Islamic terrorists want.

https://hubpages.com/politics/Hate-is-the-only-victory-Islamic-Terrorists-want

I hope you enjoy.

Hegemony in Adverts (and the wider media)

2015-04-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

The people who have witness my infrequent visits to the blogosphere may be aware of my interest in political communication and more specifically how communication aids power.

Below is a link to a short article I wrote exploring the Gramscian concept of Cultural Hegemony and how this is revealed through the use of stereotypes in adverts.

http://marklees.hubpages.com/hub/Cultural-Hegemony-Naturalising-Power

I hope you enjoy

Love reading about dark futures...

2015-03-09T07:37:00.000-07:00

,,,then read my new article on dystopian literature, listing 10 very, very different dystopian novels that all avid readers should read before they die (although one is only in there due to sheer popular pressure...see if you can guess which one it is).

http://marklees.hubpages.com/hub/Ten-Dystopian-Novels-To-Read-Before-You-Die

Hope you enjoy the read and please remember to comment on the bottom of the article with your favourite dystopian literature.

New flash fiction for you

2014-09-29T14:25:00.001-07:00

I recently posted a new flash fiction on my main writing site. Follow the link below to read the flash fiction and a few words about my process and reasons for writing the story.

Poor Little Rebel Girl.

I hope you enjoy the story. Please feel free to comment either here or at the bottom of the story to let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy.

Ian Bone Arrested

2014-09-25T08:54:00.003-07:00

Ian Bone - anarchist and former most dangerous man in Britain - was arrested last night at the latest "poor doors" protest outside One Commercial Place after the police decided that the growing campaign needed to be checked.

At the event Class War anarchists were joined by the Womens Death Brigage, unionists, the E15 mums and others sick and tired of the social apartheid taking part in London and across the globe.

Given the growing numbers at the weekly event (every Wedneday at 5.30pm) the police obviously decided to try to deter the protestors by arresting one old man with a walking stick - using a full riot van full of TSG officers to do so. They obviously don't bother reading their files, otherwise they would know that this kind of behaviour will only act as encouragement to Ian and his Class War supporters. We are obviously doing something right!!!

Apartheid In The UK

2014-08-01T04:19:00.001-07:00

It seems strange to be talking about apartheid occurring in modern Britain but the growing trend to segregate the rich and poor is exactly that.

Apartheid was first used to highlight the rather disgusting practices of racial segregation in South Africa in the period after World War 2, but the usage of the term has grown to include "Segregation on grounds other than race" (quote taken from the oxford dictionary). While the formal practice of apartheid has now ended in South Africa (although the social effects are still being felt and will be for many years to come) Britain has started to use apartheid tactics to separate the rich and poor.

Developments such as One Commercial Street in London (the address itself is an advert of what the British elite see as important) where the wealthy tenants get to enter by the front door and the poorer residents in the apartment block have to enter by a back door and use different bicycle racks etc... are nothing more than an attempt to separate the rich and the poor, people who for the most part are only different due to the fortunes of birth, and treat the poor as a subclass.

Similar apartment blocks have recently caused uproar across the pond in New York and it seems that the rich have finally found a symbol of their wealth which causes outrage amongst the 99% - the people who have to use the poor door.

To show their disgust at this practice and to display solidarity with the majority of people who are not rich enough to use the front door, the Class War Party will be holding a weekly protest at 5.30pm every Wednesday outside One Commercial Street. Anybody in London is welcome to show their disgust at this example of modern apartheid.

MP's Admit What We All Knew Anyway- "Fit For Work" Tests Unfit for Purpose

2014-07-24T11:04:00.002-07:00

A parliamentary select committee has declared that the "Fit for Work" tests introduced by Labour in 2008 and bought into infamy by the current governments attacks on the working class are unfit for purpose and the way incapacity and disability benefits are handled should be overhauled with the introduction of a new system from 2018 when the current system is due to be overhauled.

ATOS, the private sector company who handles the scheme, have already had their contract ended after concerns where raised about the quality of their work but the select committee have now admitted that the system as it stands is largely at fault and they do not believe it can be fixed.

Here is hoping that a sense of decency can prevail over the chance to make money and the obscene fit for work tests can be ended once and for all.

http://welfarenewsservice.com/disabled-fit-work-assessments-flawed-scrapped-mps/

New Class War Candidate to Take on scumbag Iain Duncan Smith

2014-07-18T09:12:00.001-07:00

Class War are pleased to have long time activist Marina Pepper on board for the 2015 general elections where she is going to be taking the fight to the Tories lead scumbag in the naked attack on the working class, Iain Duncan Smith.

IDS has been a long time incumbent of one of the Tories safest seats in Chingford, a seat that family moocher Smith has held since 1992. In 2010 over half those who voted supported IDS and his majority of 12,963 would be intimidating for most, but not for Marina Pepper.

The former model and actress has been politically active for a number of years and has appeared on television for shows about environmental activism. In 2013 she became a poster girl for the anti-fracking movement after she was pictured being manhandled from an anti-fracking protest by hired heavies.

Now she wants to stand for Class War for a chance to make a difference for the people of Chingford and the UK.

Talking to the Londoner Marina said: “Iain is the architect of all this misery and I think I’m possibly the one to give him a good spanking at the polls. What he’s done is attack the most vulnerable people in society. Most of us have been affected by illness or disability in our family life, and I happen to believe we should be looking after these people. Labour got so few votes in the constituency last time that there’s no way they’re going to pull it off, and the Liberal Democrats won’t even get out of bed for the area. But it deserves a good MP: somebody to represent everyone. That’s what anarchists do.”

Class war are representing the working class of Britain in an attempt to get raise class consciousness and to ensure that policies represent the working class and not just the ruling elite. We aim to be a genuine alternative to the stale political parties who currently dominate the landscape in the UK.

Welcome, Marina, to the revolution.

UKIP Support Predictably Waning

2014-07-15T10:44:00.002-07:00

The popular support received by the xenophobic UK Independence Party in the recent European Elections is, as predicted by all but the most rabid, starting to disappear.

The most recent polls show that support for UKIP is down to just 9%, down from 16% just one month ago. Of course, nobody expects the media to cover the decline of the quasi-fascists that Nigel Farage leads.

But for the rest of us it is time to raise our glasses that the people of the UK have decided not to carry on being blinded by the buffoons of UKIP.

More good news today, Michael Gove has been ousted from his position as Education Secretary.

Owen Jones Missing the Point

2014-07-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Owen Jones has wrote an article which derides some parts of the left for their dislike of the middle-class, Oxbridge educated socialists, using the example of an SWP article mocking the death of an Eton educated teenager and focusing on Class Wars banner which featured a picture of Jones himself with the caption "Fuck of back to Oxford".

The full article can be read here.

I am not going to discuss the SWP article here other than to say it is clearly in bad taste.

But the article itself, and Jones' criticism of Ian Bone, both reveal that Jones totally misses the point of why their is so much distrust of middle-class socialists in class struggle. Jones article focuses on the death of one rich boy and how that is used, but he ignores the thousands of deaths being caused by governments around the globe. He could have focused and drew attention to the deaths being caused by the austerity measures here in the UK, a thinly disguised attack on the working class, are pushing millions into poverty and resulting in the deaths of thousands.

Instead he draws attention to a small article that was maybe read by 5,000 people, and talks about the tragedy of one teenage privileged death. Nobody doubts his family and friends are upset by his death, but it barely compares to the tragedies and injustices being played out every day as a result of the policies of the privileged classes. He has a platform to talk about genuine tragedy and try to promote social change, and instead he diverts the debate in a manner that deflects from the real issues and seeks to prevent criticism of the middle classes.

It is this naked self-protection that causes hatred of "champagne socialists".

Class War Solidarity With Public Sector Strikes

2014-07-10T03:17:00.002-07:00

The Class War political party has pledged solidarity and support with the members of the public sector who have gone on strike today in an attempt to combat the appalling attacks to their working conditions, pay and pension schemes that the current coalition are imposing (and which Labour have already confirmed they will not reverse).

The attacks on wages and pensions for the majority of public sector is nothing short of ideologically motivated class war as the ruling class are protected from these attacks - the MP's themselves recently enjoyed an inflation busting 11% pay rise.

If you see a picket line do not cross it. And while it is inconvenient for your children to be at home, or for some services to be delayed, remember it is vital to ensure better working conditions for everybody, not just the public sector.

For more read this post by Class War parliamentary candidate Jon Biggar.

http://tradeonion.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/class-war-pledges-solidarity-with-public-sector-strikers-j10/

Donate to Class War

2014-07-07T06:47:00.001-07:00

http://www.classwarparty.org.uk

Politics in the UK is getting increasingly detached from working class reality and only one group is prepared to dirty their hands and try to change things for the better.

Class War have a long history of being at the heart of direct action against the worst excesses of the UK government, in addition to producing hard hitting political satire.

Now Class War are preparing to field candidates in the 2014 general election, swallowing back the bile that electoral politics causes to rise, to give a voice to the working class and start hitting back in the class war which those at the top have been raging for decades. Austerity is just the latest in a long series of attacks designed at increasing the power and wealth of the ruling classes.

Like all political parties Class War need funding. Not a lot, the candidates are actually going to do plenty of leg work to get the message across, but there are unavoidable costs associated with the party political system in the UK. If you want to make a donation, however small, please go to the link above.

You can also follow class war party on facebook/ rock against the rich on facebook
if you actually want to do something and get involved there is also a class war candidates support group on facebook which you can ask to join and which is driving the campaign forward across many fronts.

Cameron Backs Badger Genocide

2014-06-23T10:42:00.002-07:00

One again the ruling class have displayed that killing things takes precedent over any science or hard evidence after David Cameron insisted, agreeing with badger-killer-in-chief Owen Patterson, that the badger cull was an effective way of controlling TB in cattle, despite the abject failure of the policy in two trial area's. While stopping short of extending the trial he has committed the government to a further three years of killing badgers, despite their being no evidence that it is working and there being plenty of evidence that it is failing to kill the badgers humanely.

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Defiant-Cameron-convinced-badger-cull-right-beat/story-21275828-detail/story.html#szs4qkuoYi9iffZa.01

In neither of the area's where the cull has been trialled were the required number of badgers killed, indeed even after extending the time period by three weeks both area's still only killed an estimated 65% of the badger population against a target of 70% that experts believed were needed for the cull to make a difference. Additionally tests on the killed badgers revealed that between 6.6% and 22% of the killed badgers had taken over five minutes too die. Controversially not a single badger was tested to see if it was actually a carrier of bovine TB.

In addition to these concerns, which should be enough to put a stop to the plan, many experts believe that the cull will actually increase bovine TB in areas adjacent to the culls as badgers move away from the danger zones; further to that it is questionable whether the cull can have any effect as there are multiple other animals that carry bovine TB, including deer, sheep and cats (both domestic and wild).

Given all the evidence and reasons against the badgers cull, and the lack of effectiveness of the existing trials, there would seem to any moral being no reason at all to continue with the inhumane, ineffective and totally impotent badger cull.
Unless, of course, you just like killing things.

Labour Are Just Tory Lite - Demand the REAL Alternative

2014-06-22T23:51:00.001-07:00

A pretty accurate assessment of the People's Assembly, "Demand the Alternative" march through London on Saturday.

Demanding the Tory-lite Labour Party as an alternative to the Tories, and expecting them to end austerity when they have already admitted that not only will they not roll back the changes made during the current parliament but they also intend to make further attacks against benefits received by the under 25's, is a waste of a good march. When getting a big-haired comedian to call for a "peaceful, effortless, joyful revolution" is your big play it is hardly radical or revolutionary. Rather it panders to the ruling class, who are quite happy for us to have all the free love we want provided we keep working hard to keep them rich and powerful.

http://freedompress.org.uk/news/2014/06/22/newsflash-labour-doesnt-care-about-you/

Voting Labour is not an alternative to a continuation of neo-liberal, capitalist policies which vilify the working class. Class War is the only alternative.

http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/the-candidates/

Or find them on facebook

The People's Assembly Against Austerity - June 21st

2014-06-17T14:39:00.002-07:00

The people's assembly are marching through London on June 21st to demand an alternative to the mainstream politics, three parties (four if you count the Dark Tories of UKIP) who share the neo-liberal economic ideas which are strangling the world.
Class War, the long standing anarchist group, are standing up for the people in the next general election and they will be there at the head of the March and prominent in Parliament Square. Lets all show solidarity.

No gods. No masters.

Class War Tax Policy Backed By Leading Economics

2014-06-01T05:57:00.001-07:00

http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/thomas-picketty-backs-class-war-tax-plans/

Leading French economist Thomas Piketty has declared that the only way to combat growing inequality is to tax the rich at a rate of at least 80%. At Class War we have long been suggesting a tax rate of 95% for the super-rich, and it is great news that this policy is being endorsed by one of the worlds foremost economists, suggesting that out polices of increasing income for the poorest can indeed be paid for by progressive taxing of the rich.

Hodgson's England...Likely Squad For Brazil

2014-03-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

Roy Hodgson is a forward thinking manager who has recognised how the game is changing and is working hard to change the mentality of the England team to fit into the new world of football. With high pressing and a real focus on the transition of play between defensive and attacking it is not surprising that the two teams in the Premier League which have most embraced modern continental football are supplying the most players too his squads (Liverpool and the unfashionable Southampton).

With this in mind what will Roy Hodgson's likely squad be for the world cup of 2014? I have taken into account Hodgson's past selection strategies and put together the squad which I believe will be picked by the England manager for Rio.

Please feel free to comment on other players that could be in the mix.

http://marklees.hubpages.com/hub/A-Preview-Of-The-Probable-England-Squad-For-Brazil-2014

Paul McDonald: Book Review

2014-03-04T06:26:00.001-08:00

If you are a fan of comic novels then you will love Surviving Sting by Paul McDonald.

Set in the authors home town of Walsall in the early days of Thatcher it is a fast paced and sometimes painfully funny story of self discovery. Through the fogs of nostalgia McDonald paints a delightful picture of a dystopian estate in the home of UK leather working. The tale has love, sex, fights, a car crash and even a scorpian - what more can you ask for?

Here is my full review of the novel and an introduction to the writer.

http://marklees.hubpages.com/hub/Book-Review-Surviving-Sting-by-Paul-McDonald

Class War Candidate

2014-03-03T10:50:00.000-08:00

I am glad to announce on my blog (rather belatedly) that I will be standing as a candidate for Class Wars in the 2015 general election in the West Bromwich West ward.

While I have no illusions that I can achieve victory my decision, as an anarchist, to stand in an organised election stems from the fact that I think we need to gain an official platform to get our voice heard. While we stay outside of the system, and we do with good reason, we are denying ourselves a legitimate platform to get our arguments across and it makes it too easy for the established authorities to silence us and get mainstream media to dismiss us as cranks and hooligans.

By getting ourselves registered as a political party is gives us a platform to stir the debate. I am also hoping to raise class consciousness in an area which is predominantly working class to make people aware of how that are being exploited by a system which promotes inequality, poverty and wage slavery.

My other aim is to stand against the repugnant and offensive fascist parties in the area who managed to secure over 9% of the vote in the last general election.

We all need a little help writing.

2014-03-01T13:20:00.000-08:00

Too much going on?

There is almost nothing worse for a writer than finishing a piece of work, reading it back and then finding it is totally flat.

Luckily for me I recently wrote an article about a number of techniques which can help you improve your writing.

http://marklees.hubpages.com/hub/10-Writing-Techniques-That-Bring-Your-Words-To-Life

Fits and starts...

2013-08-28T05:09:00.002-07:00

...This blog has been running for a little over a year but this is, rather pathetically, only my thirty sixth post. I do post elsewhere and this is really meant as a quick blog for me to write with whatever is on my mind more personally or which won't fit onto the usual writing platforms I use. I may one day cross pollinate so people can see my complete works, something google author is now making much easier.

In the mean time I think it is fair to say that I have been contributing on here only in fits and starts so rather than make a commitment that I previously made to use this all the time I think I will keep this as my occasional blog and more as a way to write a little about my life and frustrations and keep other platforms for writing about deeper subjects.

Hopefully I'll see you there.

Welcome to the World Mia

2013-08-15T08:54:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to say welcome to the world Amelia Rose (Mia), who joined us one week ago today weighing in at 8lb 9oz.

I will be back to discuss the issues of old man fatherhood at a later date but we still have night feeds at the moment so I am too tired to write much.

Enjoy all.

My shortest poem ever...

2013-08-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

After the release of the second shortest poem I have ever written- The Future- I was literally inundated with demands for the shortest poem I have ever written.

Okay, for inundated with demands read several casual enquiries. But they were from people who were either genuinely interested or who could act interested better than anybody else I know. So with that in mind I will be publishing the poem in its epic entirety at the end of this post.
Before I commit the work to the tinterweb I want to give it a two-pronged introduction. I wrote the poem back in the days when I was a young pretentious teenager but I have revisited the poem as part of a much more mature, yet equally pretentious, body of work. So I will explain a little about the poem in both contexts.

When I wrote the poem it was an introductory poem for another, longer poem, and it was something I, at sixteen, thought was an amusing way of telling people that I was a totally normal teenager (I think at the time I thought I was being original- the older me can only laugh in embarrassment on behalf of younger me).

As an older man- as readers of the blog may know I recently celebrated my twenty first birthday for the fifteenth time and I have been toying with the idea of turning twenty-two- I have been working on a compendium of poems exploring inequality based on three separate issues- geographical location, age and economic background. The reasons I have focused on these will become clear when (if?) the completed works are ever published. Given how the project has grown it may now be two published works. One exploring the themes and one which is almost a discussion between protagonists.

I have recalled the original poem because I think it will help to highlight the differences between some of the characters. I won't go into that anymore here.

Without further ado may I present to you the shortest poem I have ever written:

My Bed.

My Bed. I love it.

Not my bed, but I think it creates the desired impression of what the mature me is thinking of.

Coventry Cobblers

2013-08-01T13:33:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow (Friday 3rd August) is yet another D-day for the wonderful football team that are Coventry City.

Our previous landlords ACL have made an offer to keep us at the Ricoh- a much better deal that the one that has forced us into administration and which has played a huge part in our finances pushing us down to League One from the heady heights of the Championship, yet still one which essentially prevents the club from building for the future. No option to buy the ground, no access to match day revenues- two things which the club needs to complete on an even keel with the clubs around us.

If the club agree to the deal they stay in Coventry at least for the next ten years (assuming they survive that long) and they avoid a fifteen point deduction at the start of the new season. Even better, our transfer embargo will end in twenty eight days meaning that we will be able to start signing players again on the last day of this month, giving us three days to do the transfer dealings that all of our rivals have had the entire summer to complete.

If we don't agree we are likely to end in liquidation, we will certainly be condemned to play our home games in Northampton for the next three years while the club (which is at least £65 million in debt already) look to build a new stadium in the Coventry area. We will get almost no revenue during that time but if we survive then we will have a slight chance of building a club with long term prospects. Of course we may not even be in the football league by then but at least we will have our own ground and revenues so we can start again.

There are no other alternatives on the table at the moment and neither of the above scenarios is appealing to the fans who are running a number of separate (and poorly organised) campaigns against the owners. Some of the wiser fans are also aware that ACL and the local council have each allowed avarice to play a part in the down fall of Coventry City FC.

I really don't want the club to move to Northampton but I totally understand why the new owners (who happen to be the same as the old owners, but that is a totally different thread) will refuse to sign the deal that ACL are putting on the table because without ownership of the ground they are just delaying the inevitable.

So come this time tomorrow I fully expect to be calling my beloved Sky Blues the Coventry Cobblers.

Play Up Sky Blues