LIFE will ensure that any constituency, local area, or region that organises itself to for a new local government will receive direct control of their allocated budgets for WellFair, and the right to set their own migration levels.
Category: Democracy
The General Election in May will be the last “feel good” election in the UK for a considerable time. This year the politicians are fighting to reassure people that their delusions of sustainability are in fact possible, and that they each have the most assured path to that illusion.
Who will soothe us to sleep with the sweetest lullaby?
We are living unsustainably. That means it cannot be sustained, it will not carry on, that there is an end to much of what we take for granted today. This is not just an ecological-environmental fact, this is a financial-economic and a human-social fact. To believe otherwise requires an almost super-human capacity for self deception.
After the next financial crisis, and the break down of “middle class” expectations, it will seem incredible that we did not see it coming. Unprecedented levels of financial debt, never balanced budgets, massively unbalanced trade, and millions of humans consigned to the margins of society: these are well known and completely visible facts about our society. We are living in a house of cards, and this house will fall before the following general election.
The UK’s general election could be tame compared to what happens in Europe in the coming half-decade, where populist movements from the left and right will dis-integrate what we currently call the EU into a shadow of its current state. (Of course there’s also the very real possibility that the UK will break up or leave the EU after this election.) A combination of pressures related to energy, trade, immigration, solvency, and demographics will transform the cozy into the crazy.
Shifting trade and monetary winds around the world will make much of the current debt loads obviously unsustainable in the coming five years. Economic growth will not regain it’s pre-Crisis levels, and combined with generalised deflation, the debts of all but the most secure will crumble into default. There is not enough safety on earth to provide havens for the all the liquid cash in the world, and it is too late to regulate the flow of capital or shore up the weak.
By the next time the UK goes to a general election we will have double or treble the unemployment, a hole in the budget the size of the NHS that we cannot fund through more borrowing, and the reality, that is already obvious now, will have become inescapable.
So enjoy this little charade through May. Worry about the little things, and agree not to discuss the bigger things. Latch on to the good news, and ignore the facts. This will be your last chance to do so, and seeing as pretty much everyone is on board with the story, you may as well enjoy the ride.
It’s no wonder nothing fundamental ever changes in this country, it seems that we have completely forgotten how to do it. This year’s referendum in Scotland, and the ensuing Smith Commission mess, has only served to reinforce the image of our political process as a principle-free game for a disconnected elite. That image is well-deserved, and founded on scientific observation.
The Smith Commission highlights the enormous democratic deficit we face: a bunch of politicians get together behind closed doors to negotiate amongst themselves what they think should be devolved from national responsibility to one regional parliament. They are effectively rewriting our constitution in a few hastily arranged secret meetings, and without consultation. What will be offered has not been reviewed by the electorate, let alone selected by them. Any notion that the settlement will have been democratically endorsed will be stretching the truth into dangerous realms of delusion.
Across the industrialised world we face a set of problems, that are destined to be the problems of all people across the whole world.
The affordability of the social-democratic State is in question, particularly in a low growth and resource constrained world. The inevitable time constraints on resolving this issue means that if it is not solved with progressive ideas, it will be resolved otherwise – most likely with a collapse into chaos, followed by an authoritarian (likely right wing) response.
Demographic and environmental pressures only serve to compress the urgency of this challenge.
There is malaise foot, people sense it, and without sensible alternatives they will increasingly gravitate to the simplest and most self-protective options that are available. This political malaise has a short horizon, even if any one of a dozen potential powder-kegs does not go off to shorten it further (a debt crisis in next 3 years being the most likely).
Living life, private or public, off debt is an instinctively unstable position, and we are all aware of our deep financial, social, and environmental debt – for which we have no repayment plan. Individuals in this situation commonly, and understandably, abscond, turn criminal, and rage against the system. For individuals in a decent society we have the rule of law to provide a way out of such situations, for whole societies there is no such rail to lean against. This is the story of the evolution of human societies, and the unfit pass into history.
Without the appearance of a practical, credible and safe path forward, today’s advanced societies are pressing into a breach left open by the failure of both centre-left and centre-right politics to apprehend the dire need for such a path.
In an excellent collection of essays the Policy Network has collected together for their “Making Progressive Politics Work” publication, we found the following comments by various authors in support for the fundamental principles that LIFE’s policies are based on.
It may not feel like it right now, but we are in desperate straits, and in need of radical change if we are to maintain the society that we have built over the last 300 years.
Britons deserve the right to choose a proper solution at the next general election, and that is why we have formed the LIFE Party.
Slashing at our social fabric, or paying ourselves more, cannot be the only two alternatives on offer in the nation that used democracy and freedom to spawn the greatest advances in human accomplishment. In a time where balance is so desperately needed, between man and planet and between ambition and compassion, simply loading one side of the scales is a betrayal of our proud history and our potential future.
The generation with the jobs, the ‘final salary’ pensions, the mutual fund accounts, the second homes and the cheap driver’s insurance. The free bus pass, the winter heating allowance and the holiday in the sun. The reason why music and art is still dominated by the 60s, 70s and 80s. And, most importantly, the slavish obedience of cow-towing politicians.
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They are the “Fuck you. I got mine.” generation, and they are driving our societies, our economies and our environment into the abyss on their way out. They are not evil, they are just careless. As far as they are concerned they worked hard for what’ve got, they fought the good fight, played the game, and made their way up the ladder, just like they were supposed to.
But just being a survivor is not the summit of human achievement. Realising that you are part of a circle, that you stand on the shoulders of those who came before you, and that you must shoulder those who come after you, those are the true virtues. Humility, care and service are the hallmarks of a truly great generation.
It’s your responsibility, the responsibility of those who are not blinded by their own struggles, to take the reins from those that are. We must assume the mantle that our great-grandparents gave us: the power of democracy to control the direction and destiny of our society.
Only passive acceptance is holding you back, a natural deference to those that are older and should know better. The FU.IGM generation is a minority. The world belongs to those who are under 45 today, and everywhere you are the majority. You don’t need a bus to get to the polling booth, you don’t need permission to register to vote, and you have every right to reclaim what is rightfully yours.
Take control.
Vote.
Your vote can change the world, starting in 2015.
Love. LIFE. Vote.
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Categories
Broken democracy in Westminster
We are trying to run a modern country with an old and out-dated democratic system.
The principle of local representatives being sent to Westminster may have been appropriate in 1850 but it is outrageously ineffective today. MPs come mainly from party lists, they do a marginal job of representing their local constituents in national parliament, and they do a disastrously useless job of providing oversight and debate on national policies.
This report from the committee responsible for the effectiveness of government tells the story.
LIFE will restore Britain’s great democracy, and give the people effective local and national representation.
UK LIFE 
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