Keep It Dense, Keep It Futile, Yeah?

Almost everyone in any well developed and industrialised nation is familiar with the concept of parliamentary party democracy, a system whereby you vote to elect a local candidate from your preferred political party to sit in parliament as a representative of your constituency every five years or so. Some countries do this a little differently, the US for example, but the basic concept is the same. In most countries with this system, a handful of political parties become minor players in the system whilst two dominate. Vote counting systems play a major role in the formation of parliaments, such as first past the post (FPTP) which often results in a two-party system whilst variants of proportional representation (PR) often result in parliamentary coalitions of minor parties which form a government. Although the party or parties in power might change each election cycle, the limitations of liberal democracy itself play a huge role in who can come to power and what they can do whilst in

I'd just like to make clear this blog's stance on freedom of speech. I do this with full awareness that I may be contradicting positions I may have held in older posts but I do so with the understanding that we all grow, change and shift our positions as we become better acquainted with them through our examined experience of them. Detractors may say I'm being hypocritical, I say I've at least learnt something. First off, it's an unfortunate consequence of the natural intersection of politics and class that some working class people may ally themselves with fascism, conservatism or even just plain capitalism. As socialists we must realise that we hold no special monopoly on the working class and that it'd be arrogant to presume to do so. Ultimately, the struggle for freedom of speech comes down to the same class antagonisms that have existed for centuries - a monopoly of control by the bourgeoisie against the working peoples. I fully believe in the right to free

In the article linked below is an open letter from multiple UK manufacturers of PPE to the government https://medium.com/@change.orgUK/open-letter-to-uk-government-do-you-want-our-ppe-or-not-fce832e6e37a In England, most goods are bulk-purchased centrally and distributed to providers by NHS Supply Chain, which was established in 2016. Previously most goods were bought locally by hospitals and other health providers, but a government review found large inefficiencies as organisations paid variable prices for the same product.  However, the source market for these goods are often sourced from international markets, national and local suppliers are ignored. So much for our patriotic, UK business loving Tory government, right?  The Institute for Government has identified several issues with procurement as it currently operates: The UK’s national pandemic stockpile was designed to respond to an outbreak of pandemic influenza (a less infectious and virulent disease), but it was not prepared

Linked below is an article that is honestly and genuinely heartbreaking to read. Within it are the stories of some of the hard working people who lost their lives in a single day to Covid-19. Please read the article first before carrying on here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52463735 These are real, everyday people. They cared, they got angry, they loved and they cried. They were mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, and everything else. They were cleaners, nurses, doctors, carers, community leaders and tragically even mothers to be. They might have been Tory voters, UKippers, socialists, communists, anarchists liberals or anything in between - a countless and diverse intersectional array of all aspects of life. They were all just like you and I, in many ways. Yet they've all been subjected to the grotesque, unsubstantiated and unscientific whims of a party with a leader who has a head full of vain-glorious dreck and a cabinet with a disturbing lack of a conscience, som