George Osborne's budget

On Wednesday the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced the Conservative budget for the coming financial year, and I am saddened by it, but not shocked, given how the Conservatives have proved themselves to be over the last five years. There were protests in London, Bristol and in other parts of the UK, and unfortunately on this occasion I was unable to attend any.

I'm not going to summarise the complete speech (it's here if anyone would like to take a look) but I have to say there was very little that I actively agreed with. Rather a lot of it made me feel quite nauseous, and there were a few things that I didn't understand fully and I would rather not comment on, but from experience I daresay will not in time prompt me to leap in the air with happiness.

There is far too much that I have something to say about to go into detail about on one blog, so I'm going to focus particularly on the impact that the new budget is likely to have on young people. The proposals that have been put forward include the following:

• Young people will not be included in the new compulsory living wage, which only people aged 25 and up will be eligible for.
• Under-21s will not be eligible for housing benefit.
• Education maintenance grants are being replaced by loans.
• Jobseekers' allowance is being replaced by a youth obligation scheme (commonly referred to as 'earn or learn') which requires young people to be in paid employment or education, despite the fact that the situation with tuition fees and grants makes it harder for those from less well-off backgrounds to attend University, and paid employment being hard to come by. (Osborne says that young people will be supported in finding apprenticeships, traineeships and the like, but I think that realistically this 'support' will most likely take the form of ultimatums and threats from Job Centres, in exactly the same way that it has done in recent times.)
• Families who have more than two children will not be eligible for child benefit for the third one and onwards.
• Tuition fees could potentially rise even further (admittedly I do n't recall seeing that in the budget itself, but I have read about it in other news sources and it would not surprise me one iota. And even if this one turns out to be false, the way that tuition fees are at the moment is problematic enough without adding more fuel to the fire.)

This article from the New Statesman highlights things to a greater extent, not just for young people but for many other vulnerable groups negatively affected by these proposals.

Being a young person myself, it would be easy to look at this situation very emotively, but I am going to take a step back from that and try to view this in as objective and rational a standpoint as I can. Not even taking into account the lack of empathy that this shows, it seems to me that if the aim is to reduce the deficit, this is not a very good way of doing so. It is such a cliche to say that 'young people are the future', but to me is does seem patently obvious that if we want to invest in securing our economy and sustaining our planet for subsequent generations, it would be quite a good idea to start with the generations that are taking that up. I suppose you could argue that these proposals will not hit every young person hard - the children of rich people will do very well out of it! And I daresay will go on to be the people in power, thus continuing this catch-22 situation that we find ourselves in.

I feel strongly that there has to be a better way to do this. I'm no economist (in fact I have issues with dyscalculia) but I would argue that it has been proven over quite a long period of time that a low-tax society simply does not work. In the aftermath of World War II, Britain had high taxes as a result of having to bail out the USA, and we managed to create a great welfare system and the NHS. In this day and age, I can't see how our recession is any different to what was going on in the 1940s, except that we seem to be completely incompetent in doing anything about it, and to be honest I question whether those in power are even trying. After all, they personally do not seem to have been damaged very much at all, and given the additional fact that our Conservative Government do not seem especially committed to protecting our climate and keeping Planet Earth liveable on for humans, I am drawn to no other conclusion but that they are focussed on themselves living an enjoyable lifestyle in the here and now, without any consideration either for how others live nor for anyone who occupies this planet after they have left it.

I myself happen to be in quite a fortunate position. I'm young enough to still be part of the generation that I refer to, but I'm old enough that I've just about missed out on most of the worst parts of it (I'm from a reasonably well-off household (which is not the same as being rich, I'm still eligible for grants), I went to sixth form before EMA was scrapped, I'm already at University with my grant without having to worry about loans, I know what I want to do with my life... What can I say, I'm lucky enough that I've been dealt a good hand in this life, which I try very hard not to take for granted. There is a wonderful article by Polly Toynbee that perfectly describes the unfortunate situation of a young man named Perry (I'm not sure if that is his actual name or a pseudonym for the article). These articles are depressing, and I think it would be very easy for me to mentally brush over that sort of thing and just focus on myself. I cannot justify that to myself morally, and I think that it is important for us to remember those less fortunate, and to extend a hand of friendship.

There are a lot of very informative articles on what is happening in this country and the world, which I read, and they normally depress me. My blog aims to be slightly different, in that I try to offer words of hope and encouragement as well. I'm a complete idealist, but I do still feel positive about making a progressive difference out there. I suppose that is why I write - you can write to depress yourself, or you can write naively to convince yourself, but I try to strike a balance there, to keep in mind everything that is going on and then work with what I have to change it.

As I mentioned, I was unable to attend the demonstrations on Wednesday, but I was told from someone who was there that noisemaking devices were confiscated as the protest was illegal because Westminster had not approved it (this is another foolish catch-22 situation - if Westminster needs to approve protest, what is the point of protest?) As far as I am aware, the next demonstration is in October, but if anything comes up sooner I will write about it on here, or if I have the time and cause to organise one myself, I shall.

Thanks for reading, further updates soon.

UPDATE: Since publishing this, a friend and occasional colleague of mine clarified to me that the tuition fee rise comes from allowing them to rise with inflation, not a direct rise. This was something that admittedly had passed me by at the time I read the budget.

The 20 June protest

It is now nine days since the protest on 20 June, and in true George style, I'm shamefully only just getting around to writing about it. There are two reasons for this - one is that despite finishing Uni, I've been backed up with two new creative projects that I've been devoting much of my time to. The other is that a lot of my time at the protest was spent talking to people and finding out about things, and I wasn't sure how much I actually had to say about it, so I've admittedly been procrastinating slightly. Nevertheless, I always write about days of action that I have attended, and write about it I shall.

We started out at the Bank of England on Threadneedle Street at midday on Saturday 20 June, and when I arrived I was excited to find a very large turnout. I'd hoped to meet up with my colleague Aaron whilst I was there, but it turned out that we didn't see each other - whilst that was a shame, it was of course in the long run a good thing, as you want there to be enough people that you can't find people you know! I did meet some very pleasant people there though - I spent around half an hour talking to a very pleasant and informed gentleman by the name of Phil, who told me a great deal about the history of our political system, and discussed some of the finer points of the most powerful figures in Britain today, such as Rupert Murdoch and Jacob Rothschild. There was also an open microphone - I stepped up and spoke for a little while about how I was very pleased to see so many people arriving, but that I hoped that we would not give up after this demonstration, as the pressure needs to be kept up if any social change at all is to be made. (More on that later.)

We walked, we marched, we chanted and I made some new friends. Many people seemed to enjoy the chants that I initiated ('Two! Four! Six! Eight! Tory cuts are very great! Great meaning 'large' or 'immense', we use it in the pejorative sense!' Anyone who watches The Simpsons will recognise that) and it was generally a very pleasant afternoon. After about an hour, I got talking to a couple of very pleasant ladies who are involved with creating political art - this is of course what I do with theatre, so there was a natural bond there. At this point, not very much happened that I am able to write about, because we stopped for a snack and lost the demonstration and we spent the next several hours talking to one another and debating political points - which was beneficial for me, but not very worthy of discussion within a blog.

Eventually, we did catch up with the demonstration, but I felt that it was drawing to a natural conclusion anyway. I talked to a few people, made some more useful contacts, heard speeches in Parliament Square by Jeremy Corbyn and Russell Brand, and then I went home.

It may seem that this isn't very worthy of writing about, and indeed this is certainly not the best blog I've ever written. Why am I writing it? Well, firstly because on an emotional level it is useful as an activist to keep a regular log of the work I have done, and secondly because I think that my experiences may still be useful for anyone keeping track of these things. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that this demonstration was far more effective than the last one I blogged about. But as I said earlier, this is not enough. No political movement in history has been successful if the people involved quit early enough. As I have said before, I believe that this is where things went wrong with tuition fees. So here is the next event that I encourage people to attend if they can:

Protest: Osborne's Emergency Budget - #EndAusterityNow

George Osborne is going to announce a new emergency budget on 8 July, and you can bet that it will not favour anyone but the super-powerful. So it is very important that the pressure is kept up. It is on a Wednesday, so I realise that it will be difficult for some people to be there. I myself am not sure yet if I will be able to go, but I will if I can.

That's almost the end of this blog, and I apologise for writing it so late. I will just close on one important piece of good news - Lancashire said no to fracking! George is a happy bunny about that.

Saving the Human Rights Act

There is a lot to talk about, and it is sometimes hard to know exactly where to start. So yesterday, I decided to ask my friend and occasional colleague Joe Young (of the Joeverwhelming blog, which I highly recommend) to suggest to me what my next blog should be about. He suggested the Human Rights Act, and I have decided to take up that suggestion, as I respect Joe's judgement and this was one of the things I was intending to write about anyway.

The Human Rights Act is actually fairly recent; it was created in 1998 and came into effect in 2000, so it is one of the younger pieces of legislation in the UK, but it is one of the most essential, and also one of the most relied upon. It protects numerous things which are fundamental to a democratic society, such as the right to a fair trial, protection from torture, the right to liberty and security, freedom of speech and numerous other things (the full legislation can be found here). As a political activist, I naturally hold many of these things dear, as the consequences for myself and those I work with could be very severe if we started to dismantle this legislation. However, it is a piece of legislation that everyone could rely upon at some time, regardless of how involved one is in social change.

The occasions on which this Act has been used in court are too numerous to mention in one blog, but many can be found if anyone cares to use a search engine. However, whilst researching for this blog I did find one prime example:





The Government proposes replacing the Human Rights Act with a 'British Bill of Rights'. The proposed reasons for this centre around the suggestion that our Human Rights Act is vulnerable to the European Courts overriding British law (in actuality, there is a clause in the Human Rights Act concerning foreign powers interfering with our laws). It is my opinion that this is a smokescreen for abolishing the rights that have been fought for for centuries, and I will state firmly that this is not on. I'm not aware of precisely what the contents of this British Bill of Rights will be, but I have no doubt that it will not be as effective a protection for individuals as what we currently have.

There are some more positive ways of looking at this. Contrary to popular belief, the abolition of the Human Rights Act was not mentioned in the Queen's Speech when she opened Parliament (the British Bill of Rights was mentioned, but nothing about the Human Rights Act). Labour have been very vocal against this happening, and there is a very active 38 Degrees petition for the Human Rights Act to be saved, or at the very least for a referendum to be held on the matter. In recent weeks, the Government seems to have stopped advocating for its abolition quite as vocally - I have no doubt that it is still on the cards, but it seems to be on more of a slow lane now, which is encouraging. The pressure must not be taken off, however.

The subject of a referendum is a tricky one. I would rather have a referendum than it being abolished without one; however, I would not welcome a referendum because I simply do not believe that we need one. I feel that if we had one, the political rhetoric that would be spun may be enough to convince enough people to vote in favour of abolishing the Human Rights Act. I realise that there are some clauses in it which some people object to (I recall a video by John Bird, of Big Issue fame, a few years ago complaining about it being used in the favour of murderers, for example). Personally I am in favour of all of these sections being applied to everyone non-exclusively, but that is a moot point. To anyone who has any concerns such as these, I will ask only this: In what world does concern about criminals being treated better than they deserve outweigh the need for people who have done nothing wrong to be treated fairly? How is it reasonable that we place our rights in the hands of a Government that has proven on numerous occasions that it does not care about ordinary people, simply because there are some issues that a few people have with certain sections? I actually believe in ethical treatment being applied across the board to everyone, including to those who have committed horrific crimes, but even if I did not believe that, I would not be able to shake off the idea of how foolish this course of action would be in dealing with it.

Thanks for reading. Please sign the petition if you have not already done so, and hopefully together we can beat this attack on our freedoms.

I shall close by once again shamelessly plugging the National Austerity Demonstration this weekend. The link I shared is to the one that I am going to in London, but there are others happening around the country for anyone unable to get there. If you are able, please attend and do your bit!

The most poorly-organised protest I have ever been to

I'm going to talk about the most poorly-organised protest I have ever been to. It was so poorly-organised that I feel that this has rubbed off on me, as the demonstration itself was around two weeks ago and I am only just getting to writing about it now. (No, that's a joke - there are two reasons that I've been slightly lacking in this blog over the last few weeks. One is that I have been extraordinarily busy with Uni, and the other is that I knew that my next blog would be about this protest, and it was so depressing that I kept putting off writing about it. Stupid, I know. But I've now finished Uni, so I shall probably be able to make up for the last few weeks by updating quite a lot this week. Keep your eyes peeled!)

Perhaps in the title of this I should have referred to 'protests' (in the plural) because it actually took the form of three, and this was the biggest mistake of all which created a domino effect on everything else that went on that day. There were three protests in London, all at the same time, all within a mile of one another, focussing on slightly different things but generally based around the same principles - i.e. anti-austerity, anti-privitisation, pro-human rights, pro-socialism, pro-electoral reform etc. When I arrived in London, I met up with some colleagues that I had met on the previous demonstration, plus a couple of new people. We had agreed to attend the demonstration focussing on securing the Human Rights Act, but when we arrived, it became evident for several reasons that it wasn't for us.

The first thing that immediately turned my group off was that it seemed to be largely Liberal Democrat focussed. Now this actually didn't bother me that much, as I give the Lib Dems a little bit more credit than most left-wingers do, but the people I was with really did not want to be associated in this way. Also, the speeches being made were not very good, in all honesty - they weren't engaging people at all and the information given wasn't especially accurate. But the main reason that I was turned off from it was just that it didn't seem like we were achieving anything - the demonstration was very small, we were standing in a corner of the road with no one paying any attention to us. So we stayed for about half an hour, gave a couple of media interviews and then left for Westminster Bridge.

By the time we got there, however, the people there had already given up, as there was absolutely nothing going on. So with heavy hearts, we trudged over to the National Gallery. This was the only demonstration that seemed to be going anywhere, as we picketed the gallery protesting against privatisation for a while - it had clearly been successful, but was coming to a natural conclusion when we got there (I did get to see part of a speech by Kate Smurthwaite though, and I think she speaks very well, so that was a highlight!) Overall though, politically speaking it was a waste of a day, as by around 3pm all of the demonstrations were over. I stayed in London for a bit longer and it became a bit more of a social occasion getting to know my fellow protesters, which I enjoyed but it was not what I was there for.

I don't know how it was that three similar protests were organised in the same city, on the same day, so close to one another without combining all three. If all three had been combined, I think that there would have been a high chance of having a really successful day, but as it was, the people were spread so thin that I felt that little was achieved - with the possible exception of the National Gallery, but I arrived too late to really comment on that one. I'm annoyed about this, as I felt that this movement has lost a little bit of momentum. However, it is not over yet. This Saturday (20 June) is the big anti-austerity protest in London, which is expected to be big. As for what will happen after that, I'm not sure yet - I intend there to be more of these, and if no one seems to be doing anything, perhaps I shall organise it myself. I certainly have enough political contacts to be able to do that. In the meantime, let's focus on what is happening this Saturday.

Here is the Facebook event page. Please come everyone!

National Demo ANTI AUSTERITY NOW!

Thank you to everyone who was at the demonstration two weeks ago, and apologies that it has taken me this long to write about it. As I mentioned earlier, I now have a lot more free time, so I intend to write quite a bit between now and Saturday's demonstration, which I will be attending. Watch this space!

Being a leftie

Am I a leftie? I'm not sure. I suppose when you weigh up all my political views I probably am, although I personally prefer not to identify myself politically or any other way. I prefer to agree with the principles of political or social philosophies, such as socialism for example, rather than to say 'I am a socialist', because I think at the end of the day it all comes down to what you believe and how you act on that, rather than what you consider yourself to be. However, when it comes down to it, the vast majority of my political views tend to be very left-wing.

The thing that has really interested me the more invested in political debate I get is how much the word 'leftie' is accepted to be an insult. There have been times that I have heard some quite disparaging remarks made against 'pseudo-intellectual jumped up lefties', and in that context being a so-called leftie is apparently something to be ashamed of. I don't think I have ever heard the same kind of terminology used against right-wingers. Don't get me wrong, there is enough insult on that side as well, but that tends to be more on the side of 'selfish, capitalist, greedy' etc. I have rarely heard anyone insulted just for being right-wing. It may be that people whose views are more left-wing are just more open to others' opinions, and there probably is an element of truth in that, but I don't think that this is the only reason. In my experience, there is just as much lack of tolerance of the other side between people that I generally agree with as there is with those that I don't, and I try to neutralise this as much as I can, because I believe that it is only with reasoned debate that people will take on board the viewpoints of others.

It would seem that being left-wing is something to be ashamed of. Why is this? From what I can make out, the basis of left-wing politics is that it supports social equality and egalitarianism, whereas right-wing politics sees some forms of social inequality as, if not desirable, as least inevitable. I actually agree that some forms of inequality are pretty inevitable, as I don't think that our species has progressed enough to get beyond that, but I also think that it is really important to take a step back, examine the way that our society is run and at least attempt to iron out those inequalities where possible. With regards to the country and the society in which I live in the moment, these inequalities mean the rising levels of homelessness, the harsh economic situations that many are in and the suggestion that we are 'all in this together', when all evidence points to the fact that those in privileged positions really have not been hit very hard at all - quite the contrary, in fact.

I feel that a reason that 'leftie' is commonly used as an insult is due to a lack of understanding of what left-wing politics is actually about. This is hardly surprising, given that we have not had a truly left-wing Government since long before this blogger was even born and people are naturally afraid of what they haven't personally experienced. It's very easy to say that left-wingers are too idealist and that their principles sound cushy but wouldn't work in practice. This is a fair criticism, but I don't see what the evidence is for that. I have never really experienced left-wing politics in action, but from what I have seen from history going in with the intention to improve the quality of life for people has generally worked. In the aftermath of the Second World War, for example, this country was in a huge amount of debt to various others, but efforts were made to secure our position and to improve the quality of life for our citizens. It was at this time that the NHS was set up. We admittedly have more citizens to improve the quality of life for today, but in this day and age is it really so impossible to make things better? To be honest, I'm not in a position to call it. I haven't studied the philosophies in depth, and I think that even those who have probably can't say with any degree of accuracy whether this would work. The fact is that no one knows because no one has even tried. I think that social inequality is something that needs to be worked towards, and even if all of our dreams are not fulfilled (and I doubt they will be, as I think things tend to work a lot better in theory) there would still be more people in an advantageous situation, and therefore our society would still be more fair and desirable than it is today.

In my last blog, I talked about the Radical Left General Assembly in London, which took place last Thursday. I really wanted to go, but in the end it was just too much hassle with everything else that I have to do. However, there is a video of it, which I strongly encourage anyone reading this blog to take a look at. (It's an hour long, so if you're in a hurry don't do it right now, but at least bookmark it for later.) The first five minutes are a little chaotic, but I think that there are so many fantastically valid points raised. I wish that I could have attended, but c'est la vie:

General Assembly video

After viewing this, I really want to go to the next one, which is on Saturday. I'm not sure if I shall be able to, as I'm producing a play for Uni which is taking up a lot of my time, and I need to have enough space in my life for these things. I shall look into it though. I think it's really important to have an action plan right now, as the social change movement must not fizzle out. Please attend if you can, it's super-important!

Radical Left General Assembly (II)

That will be it from me for now - hopefully there will be another update at the weekend.

The revolution is here - Part 2

I attended an awesome demonstration in London yesterday, which will hopefully be the first of many. As I expected, much has been suggested from various media sources, and there are a lot of rumours flying around about what went on. I'm going to start off by responding to some of these, and clarifying whether they are true or false.

Rumour 1: The demonstration was very violent.
False. The demonstration started outside Westminster Abbey at 3pm, and moved through London. For the next three and a half hours, it was entirely peaceful. At around half-past six in the evening when the protest wasn't far from wrapping up anyway, there was a small amount of confrontation between the demonstrators and the police. I left when this started and stood outside the police cordon for a while with some friends, still demonstrating but in a group of three that was clearly peaceful and educating the masses. There were seventeen arrests - when you put that into perspective against the thousands of people who were there, this really is not a lot, and besides we don't know what happened after the arrests. Some of the people may never have been charged, or even if they were guilty of something may have been entirely provoked. As a participant, I can safely say that the vast majority of the demonstration was extremely peaceful, and for the most part everyone behaved amicably.

Rumour 2: A war memorial was defaced.
True. Someone spray-painted the words 'Tory scum' on a memorial dedicated to the women of the Second World War. I'll most likely never learn the identity of the person who did this, but whoever it was seriously harmed our cause and our reputation. Today when I've been debating this, this is the first thing that people bring up against me and what I stand for. It means nothing in the grand scheme of things. The actions of one person on the spur of the moment have no reflection whatsoever on the mindset or attitude of everyone else. I have actually heard it said that this was a plain-clothed police officer attempting to harm the cause on purpose - I don't know if there is anything in that, but it's what they do say. Personally I don't find the suggestion that implausible because it's the sort of thing they can do, but it's all irrelevant anyway. Someone was stupid, let's forget about it and focus on the issues that we're actually fighting for. As a matter of fact, I wasn't even aware that it had happened until after I got home and saw it reported.

Rumour 3: The protesters were complaining about a Government that has been democratically elected.
False. This Government was not democratically elected, not properly. The majority of people did not vote for the Conservative Party. One of the key reasons for this protest was electoral reform - we demand a system that allows the opinions of those whose first choice is outvoted to still count, and is not outrageously biased in favour of bigger parties. The other reason I'm protesting is the numerous unfair policies which the Conservative Party have introduced, and continue to introduce - I'm worried about the next five years, and I want to do what I can to minimise the amount of suffering they entail. That means getting involved right now as soon as they have been elected. Besides these things, I don't have an issue with the Conservative Party on principle; if David Cameron woke up tomorrow and decided to listen to what I'm asking of him, I shall happily take back everything bad I've ever said about him - after I've come round after my dead faint, of course.

Rumour 4: There were around 100 - 150 people there.
False. There were thousands - I initially thought around 3,000, though a friend of mine said it was more like 1,500. What can I say, I don't have an actual statistic and I may have exaggerated things myself! Far more than the mainstream media suggested anyway.

Rumour 5: There was some very aggressive chanting.
True and false. The chants at demonstrations can be quite unpleasant at times. There are some that I refrain from joining in, such as the one involving burning the Tories and Liberal Democrats on a bonfire, which I really do not believe is called for. I also tend to avoid being actively provocative towards the police - if I disagree with how the police are conducting themselves I will call them out on it, but there are some who say some quite nasty things before that has happened. I do realise that anger manifests itself in many different ways and I'm understanding of people who initiate this sort of thing, but I don't think it's the most effective tool. Although I occasionally engage in fun songs like 'You can shove the Tories up your arse' (sung to the tune of 'She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes') I try to focus more on chants that are relevant to the issues at hand, such as 'Unemployment and inflation were not caused by immigration! Bullshit! Come off it! The enemy is profit!' (Which actually doesn't sound like much of a chant written on the page, but if you say it out loud it's poetic.) When confronted by the police, there was a point that we chanted, 'You're sexy! You're cute! Take off your riot suit!' I love that - it's not too confrontational, it's a bit more playful and humorous. It's on a case-by-case basis - the chanting can get confrontational, but the best way to respond to it is just to lead by example.

These are all the rumours that I can think of to clarify just now. Generally, I was really happy with how yesterday went. We did a lot of marching, a lot of chanting, some decent levels of debate and I felt that everyone I spoke to was pleasant and really motivated to make a change. I left with a couple of friends at around 6.30 when things started kicking off between the police and the protesters, and managed to escape before the kettling began. We stopped outside the police cordon, near enough to still be involved but far enough away that we were a separate group. Call us a mini-demonstration of three. In this time, we talked to passers-by, educating them about what we were doing and listening to their opinions. There was even a time when a group of Spanish schoolchildren passed, and their teacher asked us to talk about what we were doing, so we taught a class! It was a genuinely really rewarding experience - it was one of the most enjoyable pieces of activism I have ever done, I feel like we made a lot more progress than we would have had we stayed inside the kettle.

I stand by what I said in the last blog about 'The revolution is here' - if things continue like they were yesterday, I think we will be a very strong movement indeed (not that we aren't already). We must be careful though - I feel that many campaigns seem strong for a while, and then people lose interest. This is what happened with tuition fees and I was so disappointed when people stopped protesting about that, because it seemed to be going really well and I thought we were making progress. I stand by the thought that we would have won that one if we'd been a little more persistent.

Here is the next event:
Radical Left General Assembly

I most likely won't be able to attend this one as it's in the middle of the week and I have University commitments, but I will be there if I possibly can, and if I can't I shall help virtually via online media. Anyone who is able to attend, I strongly advise to get there.

Thank you to all of the people at the demo yesterday, with particular mention to Maia, who I hung around with most of the day, and to Aaron and Laura, who joined me on our protest of three at the end. I think we did really well, and I look forward to the next one.

The revolution is most definitely here... more from George soon!

The revolution is here - Part 1

'You live in the future, and the future is here. It's bright. It's now.' Regina Spektor

Today was Day 1 of the next five years under the Conservative Government - not something I or anyone who will take anything from this blog is looking forward to. I honestly am greatly surprised by the results of the election. I've heard it suggested that this was a rigged vote, and that is something that I've considered, but I feel as though right now there are more important things to worry about than potential falsifications in a thoroughly inefficient electoral system in the first place.

It probably isn't necessary to make any comments about why I have concerns about the Conservatives remaining in power, but for the sake of form I will anyway - I have fundamental concerns about the state that our public services will be in by 2020 (the NHS is the one that everyone talks about and I am extremely scared about what will happen to that as well, but we must make sure that the other public services, such as education and welfare, do not fall by the wayside on our agendas); I am concerned about TTIP going through; I want to remain a part of the EU; the social inequality, including homelessness is something that I have become increasingly aware of over the last few years; and perhaps most importantly, I am concerned about our impact on this planet. I have to say that environmental issues are the thing that concerns me the most out of all of them, because I think that if we cannot keep this planet sustainable for our species, all of the rest of the issues become slightly irrelevant. Having said that, this does not take anything from my passion about sorting out all the rest of these things. What I have mentioned is just the tip of the iceberg, and I will debate my reasons behind all of these things at a later time, but that is not what this blog is for.

The way I see it, at this point each of us needs to make a choice. We can complain, sit around, watch the news over our cups of tea and wait until 2020 (at which point all of the unhelpful rhetoric that surrounded this election will be back) or we can get off our backsides, leave our homes and make the next five years as bearable as they possibly can be. I choose the second option. The coalition was elected when I was 16, and shortly afterwards at the age of 17 I started joining in with demonstrations, set up this blog and declared myself a political activist. Five years on, and I feel that I have been quite successful in this role. There are of course campaigns where my side didn't win, or that I have gone about things in a way that I wouldn't today, but at the same time I have learned a lot myself, become a better debater, met some fantastic political contacts and gained skills which can only be put to better use. In short, whilst I'm very proud of everything I've done so far, I have the potential to achieve far more in the next five years than I have in the five years that I have already been a part of this game. And this is important, because if we're going to get any further with this we need a revolution.

I have felt for a while now, almost as with the foreshadowing in a book, that the revolution is not far off. Friends have said to me, 'The revolution is coming, isn't it?' and I've thought about it and said, 'Yes, I think so.' Of course, there are other friends who don't believe that at all, and I've had to think a lot about whether I actually believe in the revolution, or if I am merely trying to convince myself of that. In honestly it fluctuates between the two a lot, but this week with the election I've been thinking about this a lot, and have come to the conclusion that whilst I believe in the revolution, none of us have any right to want one if we do not each intend individually to be the one who makes it happen. Whilst I'm disheartened, angry and above all concerned about my future and the futures of everyone around me, there is also an optimism and positivity there. From now on, I am going to turn my efforts to create social change up to a new level, and when I have reached that, I'll take it to a new level after that. I encourage everyone to join me on this - it's all very well to say that one person can't make a difference, but it is my belief that in a community, each person is as important as the community at large, and together we are responsible for this.

I was going to title this 'The revolution is coming', but as I was writing this I realise that that is inaccurate. The revolution isn't coming, it's already here. Every time I log onto social media, I can see my friends full of passion and anger, furious about the results of the election and ready to do something to sort this out. I don't think that passion ever left, it just lay dormant for a while. It is now the responsibility of each of us to keep those that we know ready and enthused to continue this revolution. Note the quote that I put at the top of this: it's from a song called Machine, and it always reminds me that there is no point waiting for the future. This is the future.

But I'm not just here to write encouraging words that ultimately have little meaning. I've been annoyed with myself over the last few years for being so sporadic with this blog. It really is not helpful to anyone, and for the foreseeable future I do very much intend to write about as many things that I have been doing and things that are upcoming that I physically can. Here is the first instalment:

F*CK THE TORY GOVERNMENT - NO TO ALL CUTS - YES TO REAL DEMOCRACY

All of the information is on the Facebook event, but in short, it's in London at Tory HQ tomorrow afternoon, and involves placards, protest and demands - just what we love. I intend to go myself; I only learned of it today, but if I don't go, I'm not going to do anything but sit around and feel sorry for myself all weekend, and there's no upside to that at all. Unless you have a hugely important prior commitment or another very good reason, I expect to see you there!

This is Part 1 - there will be a second part over the weekend, talking about my more general thoughts about this election, and also how the demonstration went.

Who knows, maybe we can create the next Golden Age...