Category: Gordon Liddle

Can you drive an HGV or pick fruit?

… and global warming: Blah, blah, blah!

Zombie Apocalypse, 3rd October 2021

By Gordon Liddle

‘I asked him what food was grown for. He answered, ‘Well, to eat of course!’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘it’s grown for profit.”

Well, the Labour conference went well. The Starmeroids have gone home to prepare for government. Said no-one ever. The conference was weird, police everywhere, even in the conference hall, never seen before.

Bussed in goons and clappers for the leader’s speech, abuse for those not clapping, it was very North Korea. And the speech itself. ‘Me, me, me, I, I, I, me, me, did you know my dad was a toolmaker?’ And the killer, ‘the beauty of work, working families, work, work, work.’ Roughly translated it meant ‘not scroungers!’ The beauty of work, where have we heard it before, ‘Schönheit der Arbeit!’ We are almost at Arbeit Macht Frei! Remember the headlines that Corbyn was going to reopen the extermination camps?

85% of people hate their jobs

This Calvinistic proclamation of the work narrative when most people (surveyed recently at 85%) hate their jobs and work to survive, is completely against all the evidence that we need to work less to tackle global warming and environmental collapse. From birth we have been fed a lie that hard work pays, and this has been carried through our whole education system to the very highest levels of academia. Bullshit jobs abound and those who we feted as key workers during a pandemic, will be shat upon from a great height as soon as it is over.

To top off the week, Sir Rodney Woodentop then goes on to write the headliner article in this week’s Sun. A big fuck you to Liverpool

The whole direction is so New Labour and so last century it just proves Sir Rodney Woodentop is no political genius, rather a stooge to disaster Capitalism and an establishment instrument. His speech even sent my pet rock to sleep. It was so bad I’ve put a copy of it in the polytunnel to ripen the late tomatoes. The heavy police presence is a clue to his defence of the indefensible Cressida Dick, and an insult to those women murdered by serving police officers. To top off the week, he then goes on to write the headliner article in this week’s Sun. A big fuck you to Liverpool.

The image of conference was of course his wooden walk to the building completely blanking the young lady who wanted to know if he supported a Green New Deal. For God’s sake, all he had to do was stop and chat for a few seconds. Instead, he looked like a pre-programmed robot waddling across the concourse. Imagine Corbyn doing that? He would have been mobbed and engulfed in a selfie deluge. Huge error. He will never inspire. Dead man walking. We will never see the Forde Report.

No wonder Spaffer doesn’t like interviews and prefers the inside of a fridge.

            Today we have the Tories in conference, started with Spaffer on the Marr show. I spotted at least eight outright lies in the interview, with even Marr calling him out on them. No wonder he doesn’t like interviews and prefers the inside of a fridge. He blamed a supply problem for the petrol situation, then a labour problem, then the fact the economy was growing so fast we had run out of fuel. Wages were the metric we need to judge him on, not cancer or life expectancy, just as wages once again are dipping below inflation. I wonder what the new slogan will finish off the conference, ‘Build back better since we trashed it over the last decade?’ ‘Save Christmas! Buy Polish Turkeys!’ As each member is ushered into the hall, they will be handed a little piece of paper asking ‘can you drive an HGV, or pick fruit? Petrol tanker? I had to drive around four different builders’ merchants on Thursday to finally find on that had a bag of cement in stock. The yard lad laughingly joked he could supply me with a bag of drugs instead as it is cheaper and easier to get hold of. Timber prices are still rocketing as are most things, and shelves are getting emptier in the supermarkets. I can’t wait for Spaffer’s big speech; expect a word salad spattered with bad jokes and P G Woodhouse levels of buffoonery and bad hair. I can’t wait for our current crop of politicians are relegated to sad skidmarks of history.

Legal aid has all but disappeared, allowing only the rich and corporations to take a claim through a court

            Meanwhile the Tories assault on our paper-thin democracy carries on. Almost half the courts have been closed as the assault on the Judiciary is bringing the system to its knees. Legal aid has all but disappeared, allowing only the rich and corporations to take a claim through a court, and, at the same time, allowing them to stifle debate and smothering real journalism, particularly from the left viewpoint, with expensive libel and other spurious claims. Abused, sued and closed down, just as we desperately need new media outlets. The court system will be backlogged up for years, whilst at the same time the new Police Bill will bring heavy jail terms in for even the mildest of protest. Imagine if suffragettes had sat quietly, filled in a form & ‘gone through the proper process’ instead of heckling, and more?

The Tories will stifle debate and smother real journalism, particularly from the left viewpoint, with expensive libel and other spurious claims

            I had a conversation on Messenger with a friend the other day which underlined this.

P-         ‘You know, as individuals we are all pretty dumb, even the cleverest of us. What they are scared of is influence and collective action. So long as we stay isolated or obscure, it doesn’t matter what we say or think, so long as we don’t intend to do something destructive like anarchists, or close the M25.’

Me-     ‘Just reading a passage about pre-emptive policing, which has a lot about data mining and algorithms. Indeed, Facebook knows a lot more about us than MI5 but I suspect they all collaborate. We would be very easy to ‘switch off’ in times of emergency. It seems to be happening more and more. It was also very noticeable that, although Labour have been live-streaming the conference on YouTube, they ‘switched off’ the Palestine debate. Sir Rodney knows exactly what he is doing.’

Facebook knows a lot more about us than MI5

P-         ‘Yes. It really is problematic. Facebook is the modern telephone. Imagine a state that listens in to your conversations and then decides to remove the telephone service when it disagrees with what you say or how you say it. Liberals ask for us to be polite when we speak. What they really want to do is add noise to communication. And the use of AI means there is no sensitivity at all to irony or wit or double entendre. The machine is horrifyingly literal. The moderators aggressive, underpaid, badly educated, exploited denizens of the lower middle class. When we try to use Facebook as a distribution mechanism for news, comment and art then, unless we pay, we are flagged up as fake news and supressed by algorithms. The main aim of all the police interference in little activists’ groups is to keep them small and irrelevant. We are a left-wing cultural magazine etc. Why is it that there are none of them on the national scene that have any impact? that’s not a coincidence.

            Remember, Social Media is not your friend. In times of struggle or emergency it will be used against you or simply removed. I’ve lost count of the amount of Facebook bans I have had for the mildest of alleged ‘offences!’ There are lots of conversations, particularly amongst the left on Twitter at the moment about vaccine passports. Personally I think they would be a waste of time as you can carry the virus whether you have been vaxed or not, and many interlink with vaccine deniers and other conspiracy theorists, but these same people are highly visible on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms, platforms which know exactly what you are thinking or doing and have every piece of information that could possibly be available about you, even to what favourite food and what you wear. And what you think. Technological advance can lead to monsters.

Remember, Social Media is not your friend. In times of struggle or emergency it will be used against you or simply removed.

            Our son paid a visit from France last week and told us how comfortable his bed was as the watch type thing on his wrist told him how much sleep he’d had, how much was REM etc, his heart rate and breathing. I find it interesting, but also a little creepy. Imagine in a few years’ time, as the technology advances,

‘you had 4 hours deep sleep, 2 hours REM. You broke wind at 2.30 am. Your sleeping partner coughed and turned over at 3.00.am. You had a semi erotic dream at 4.00.am. Your sleeping partner also had a small erotic dream at 4.30am, not involving you!’

It gets very personal. You can buy WiFi fridges, which monitor your milk and remind you, if you are out of butter! WiFi washing machines. Imagine, you get a message on your phone from the washing machine which tells you,

‘I tried to clean your underpants, but they were disgusting so I’ve ordered you seven new pair from Next. Oh, and by the way, that shirt was so loud I’ve sent it down the pipe!’

            We seem to me accelerating along the technological path without any conversation whether or not it is desirable. We also get wingnuts who see it all as a mix of conspiracy theories, ‘5G brought us Covid,’ etc. Btw, I think 5G should have had a more intense research as there is ample circumstantial evidence of a possible influence on insect behaviour, a part of our ecosystems suffering terrible shocks. Although the 5G waves are the same frequency as your microwave oven, between 30 and 300 GHz, this bandwidth hasn’t been used for communication. Although these waves are very low energy, they will be particularly intense in urban environments, and area already subject to heavy insect loss. We shall see. Anyway, 5G definitely does not connect with the microchip placed in the vaccine by Bill Gates. That’s just dumb.

5G definitely does not connect with the microchip placed in the vaccine by Bill Gates. That’s just dumb.

Whilst everything is falling apart here in the UK, particularly in Engerland, the rest of the world is having glitches. The drought in Brazil has resulted in a huge harvest failure, which didn’t really make the news here, as climate change and ecological collapse rarely does. In Brazil the economic failures of Bolsonaro are coming home to roost and, in the upcoming elections next year, he looks either to be ousted or stay by a coup with the army. Either way things are looking bad and the rape of the rainforest continues.

Power shortages in China have left factories in the dark as, whilst they bounce back from the closedowns caused by the pandemic, their production uptick uses huge amounts of extra energy, from new supply not yet in place. Supply chains around the world are being strained as Capitalism gave a huge embrace of just in time supply. Slack in the system is seen as waste, so there is no built-in slack for an emergency or any deviation from the model. The cost of transporting containers has gone up 250% in the last year and supply shortages look set to be the norm as the US in particular goes on a federal backed spending boom.

as Capitalism gave a huge embrace of just in time supply. Slack in the system is seen as waste, so there is no built-in slack for an emergency or any deviation from the model.

As Biden struggles to meet his election commitments, there is always the shadow of Trump in the background, girding his base and making the GOP his alone. Unless he has a burger induced coronary in the next couple of years, and unless Biden is much better that I anticipate, he will be back in the saddle soon, and the risk of a civil war in the US will become very real. Capitalism is eating itself and the planet. And us. I had a conversation with a young man we know this week. I asked him what food was grown for. He answered, ‘well to eat of course!’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘it’s grown for profit.‘ Whilst food banks proliferate all over the country, we still throw almost half of excess food away. Unless you understand this basic truth, we cannot fight this system.

unless Biden is much better that I anticipate, Trump will be back in the saddle soon, and the risk of a civil war in the US will become very real.

            Meanwhile, against the backdrop of a preliminary meeting of the UN regarding the upcoming COP26 summit, a young woman gives the attending delegates both barrels. Blah, blah, blah. ‘You are all words, but your words mean nothing! Nothing is being done and things are getting worse!’ She is correct. Nothing is being done. We are slipping into the abyss. But don’t worry, Boris is levelling up! Keep washing your hands, this isn’t over yet.

Gordon Liddle, photo by Joan

Gordon Liddle was born 1956, Horden, County Durham, United Kingdom Married, lives and works at his Derbyshire studio. BA Hons, Sheffield Psalter Lane Art College Gordon has had numerous positions and travelled extensively through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Africa and Europe, with particular interests in religion, democracy, politics, economics, MMT, and culture. The results of these studies form the basis of the series of works now under way. Numerous works bought by private collectors #Madonna Victorian Mood Bought by Andrew Cavendish the 11th Duke of Devonshire is owned by the Chatsworth Collection. ‘Celestial Teapot’ was exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London for one week in 2013, 4 days at Art Basel in 2014. Currently working on Gaia, The Sixth Extinction Series, of paintings, woodcuts and hopefully etchings soon. Also writing two books and a book of poems and rants. Gordon is on Twitter @sutongirotcip and his website is pictorignotus.com 

A letter from a revolutionary eco-socialist in pain.

It’s been a very bad month for blue tits, for the poor and for me!

By Gordon Liddle

Zombie Apocalypse, 18th Sept 2021

Blue Tits tend to have only one brood per year. They feed their young on caterpillars and have to gauge when these are freely available to choose when to lay their eggs. If they get it wrong, the brood will starve, or they will only be able to feed one chick. Either way, the risks to getting it wrong are huge. Add in climate change and Insect Armageddon, and the risks just got a lot worse. This year must have been a bad one, as our quota of Blue Tits in the garden at this time of year is a lot less than those of last year. We have had a rubbish summer with ridiculous weather events, flooding and basically crap weather. Our tomatoes are late, the potatoes got blight and our onions are not worth lifting. On the swing side we have our largest ever apple crop and the late carrots seem to be doing OK. But all is not right in the garden. As the Blue Tits have shown, the insects are leaving us.

On the political front our Selfservative government goes from bad to worse. Whilst the Zombie Apocalypse grinds on and into another wave, they seem to blindly stagger from one bad policy decision to another. As the rich have managed to storm ahead and are making the biggest fortunes in history, the poor and sick are being punished for simply being. In the current dystopia here in the UK, the poor are marginalised and lined up for a punishment beating to allow a narrative to exist that we have somehow to ‘pay for the pandemic’, or that ‘we are all in it together’ and the punishment is part of ‘levelling up!’ They are about to remove the £20 uplift for UC at a time of rising prices for basics, food, electricity, rents, and the only thing the minister in charge can mutter is that they can easily make it up by working a couple of hours extra per week. Disregarding the fact this is a lie, as the average worker will have to put in about seven to nine hours to make up the loss due to the way the credits are worked, many are already working at two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water. On top of that, the Chancellor has decided the poorest will contribute the most with new tax rises via National Insurance. At a time when prices are rising and the economy is struggling, it makes no sense to take money out of the economy, but they seem determined to do so. Fiscal responsibility is the key phrase sung by Sunak, the jug eared idiot with the crocodile smile, as he hurls more key workers onto the bonfire of poverty and despair. One could think of his as an economic illiterate until one understands the conscious cruelty of these decisions.

As the rich have managed to storm ahead and are making the biggest fortunes in history, the poor and sick are being punished for simply being.

Don’t forget, the government is not just taxing the poor with these new NI taxes (10% rise), it is gaslighting us as well. It could easily order the Bank of England to buy some government issued bonds. There was no need to tax at all for social care, nor for funding the NHS. The debt is rolled on and sometime in the future will be cancelled. But to do this, it would undermine the absolute message that we can’t ‘afford’ the public services that we need. There are a lot of rich people who control the politicians and the government with the argument that there is no ‘Magic Money Tree!’ This debt narrative is why we are having this NI increase of ten percent now. It is criminally and consciously cruel on those most in need and will for instance, instantly give nurses, and health care ‘essential’ workers a pay cut. The real purpose of this chance is to ring fence the wealthy and allow them to pass on their inheritance to their children. In essence, it, as Richard Murphy has pointed out, transfers money from the poor to the wealthy. This should be an open goal for Labour, but Sir Rodney Woodentop is too busy purging socialists and left-wing Jews out of the Party. During this zombie apocalypse, the rich have seen their wealth grow by 35% whist foodbank usage has risen 33%. This latest poll tax type is just another insult to ordinary workers. The Unions should be calling for a general strike, but I suppose we will just roll over and remember when we were affronted when a politician called for communist broadband during the election.’ Maybe we deserve these bastards?

During this zombie apocalypse, the rich have seen their wealth grow by 35% whist foodbank usage has risen 33%.

The NHS is struggling, and the new wave of infections is going to put it under more pressure, perhaps terminal. Ten years of engineered decline by the Tories, waiting lists becoming longer and longer, even before the pandemic, has put it in a terrible state. Capita, Serco, Interserve and other parasites of the public purse have thrived, sucking billions out of the economy and making their shareholders rich, whilst the Tories are chopping off the limbs of our treasured NHS. The steady drip, drip, drip, of recent comments in the media of how the service is failing is meant to leave us with a bad taste in our mouths, a desire for a new shiny, efficient, privatised health care system, to allow their American and Corporate Healthcare Companies to ride to the rescue, an all-insurance new health service, that will eviscerate and other the poor, disabled and chronically sick. On top of this the disinformation and conspiracy theories about the virus are still rife and complicating vaccination take-up, particularly in the US, where, according to Fox News and others, people are sticking keys to their foreheads and pushing their swollen gonads around in wheelbarrows.

Capita, Serco, Interserve and other parasites of the public purse have thrived, sucking billions out of the economy and making their shareholders rich, whilst the Tories are chopping off the limbs of our treasured NHS.

The recent cabinet reshuffle has been in the news for the last couple of days, as one incompetent minister is shown the door only for another equally incompetent one to come in, one of which has the claim to fame of having eaten an Ostrich anus on live TV. It makes the news cycle excited for a few days, but it will make no discernible difference to any of us. One has to understand that the current PM is not interested in governance, nor in any real policy decisions. He wants to be in power. There will be no levelling up, to do so would upset his base. If the North were to be given a helping hand, it would be at the expense of the South, and they wouldn’t contemplate that. Shops are running out of products due to the shortage of HGV drivers and broken supply chains from Brexit. Will they do anything meaningful? Don’t be ridiculous. Just more gaslighting and lies. Our client journalists are all over the front pages spouting nonsense about bringing back Imperial weights and measures now we are free from the ‘shackles’ of the EU, with the great British pint crown back on our beer glasses. Meanwhile, due to the lack of foresight, or as it should be called, criminal negligence, the water industry cannot obtain the chemicals needed to treat our water and sewage, the results of which are huge measures of sewage and waste being pumped into almost every river in England at extraordinary rates, poisoning our rivers and fish, killing the vegetation and wildlife. Another example, if one were needed, of privatisation of public commons and basic life necessaries for private profit. Capitalism is literally poisoning our waters. Fines by a toothless watchdog are just passed off an ‘industry expenses’, a small price to pay for huge renumeration for the executives and shareholders.

the water industry cannot obtain the chemicals needed to treat our water and sewage, the results of which are huge measures of sewage and waste being pumped into almost every river in England

Meanwhile, we are hurling toward the COP26 Earth Summit in November. Over the last fortnight I have been suffering from a back injury that has left me in great pain and the resulting take-up of painkillers has made my sleepy and out of kilter. Taking a couple of Tramadol last week as the pain got really bad led to me hallucinating. It was like a very bad LSD trip. It was very depressing and very visual and more frightening that I was awake the whole time, the scenes visualising on the back of my eyelids like an arthouse film. The one thing I realised is that I have for months been suffering from what Srecko Horvat calls Post Apocalypse Melancholy. And I’m not talking about the pandemic.

I’m talking the actual Apocalypse, of which this past two years has been a highlighted symptom. My Christian friend is convinced we are nearing the end times, and to him the Apocalypse is the Revelation, the revealing of a new world, where those which are chosen are saved. The Apocalypse, as Horvat explains, is to them a great revealing, something to be welcomed, a transformation, a release. But it isn’t. My friend is deluded. He bought into a simple story, from more ignorant times, where an understanding of the biosphere was in its infancy, from which we have barely matured. The Apocalypse is extinction. The end of everything. The end of humanity, of human experience, of culture, language, of the arts, architecture, science, of love and shared empathy, of understanding of nature, of our place in it.

The Apocalypse is extinction. The end of everything. The end of humanity, of human experience, of culture, language, of the arts, architecture, science, of love and shared empathy, of understanding of nature, of our place in it.

The only ‘revelation’ I have experienced over the last few years, as I have researched a manifesto (and failed in real terms), is that we are in a very bad place. I am already mourning from the Post Apocalypse. Not only are our ‘leaders’ psychopaths and sociopaths, almost to a man (and they are mainly men), but that they believe that permanent growth invasive and extractive Capitalism is the only game in town. No other approach to how we live within our system is allowed nor contemplated. The controllers of Capitalism decided, some time ago, and with absolute certainty, that they were just going to endure and allow the impacts of climate change and ecological collapse for the following reasons. Firstly, they cannot and will not contemplate the taming or elimination of a system that has made them extremely wealthy and powerful. Secondly, they are psychologically unable to contemplate any other system that allows empathy and understanding, or even love of the natural world to displace their idea that we are ‘above’ nature, and we have to rule. That we are somehow unique and not part of the ecological cascades that make up life on earth, and possibly elsewhere. To tame is and conquer it like any other colony in the name of their Imperialism is ingrained into their being. Thirdly, they believe no-one will challenge this system as we have become too weak and subjugated ourselves to their dominance, and thus, as we go over the cliff with them, we are partly to blame for being so dumb and subservient. I this they are correct.

Not only are our ‘leaders’ psychopaths and sociopaths, almost to a man (and they are mainly men), but that they believe that permanent growth invasive and extractive Capitalism is the only game in town.

Only this week our government here in the UK decided to strip out the environmental portion (which met the very soft Paris Climate Change provisions) from a Trade Deal with Australia to make it easier to agree, but in the same week the US, Australia and the UK agree a pact to confront by force if necessary, the alleged threat of China. To supply new Nuclear submarines to Australia and make it the new base for a second Cold War. To my knowledge China has never invaded another country in recent times, and, since being co-opted into the Capitalist system, has acted as the World Factory for goods, then using the wealth created, has lifted its people out of poverty and is now using such wealth to trade and invest in other countries. I make no great case for the Leadership of China, authoritarian that it is, but, comparing China to the US or past Imperial Britain, Belgium or Germany, they look positively innocent. The determination of the US to provoke a conflict with someone, as it’s Empire fades is as Thucydides laid out. Possibly the end game will end with China after a practice on Iran.

And it is not just the right that are laying the paving to the Apocalypse, the left too has capitulated. Many believe they can tweak Capitalism into a less destructive model, or they can control it better and with magnanimity. They can’t. At the Labour conference here in the UK, the leadership has stopped a motion to discuss Climate Change, and instead has committed itself to purging what remains of the left as the number one priority for the Party. Anyone left in Labour who believes it can be a part of the future is delusional or has taken the same painkillers that sent me hallucinating last week. It’s over. It is part of the problem, not part of a solution. In the US, we saw this week that great left firebrand AOC turning up for an establishment evet wearing an expensive evening dress with ‘Tax The Rich’ on the back. It made me sick. This virtue signalling was accepted at the evening even directly because the establishment see her as no threat whatsoever. A jolly good joke and a good titter among the thieves and crooks at the event. Meanwhile, outside, a real demonstrator was arrested for being an actual threat. As AOC capitulated in full view of the media, the protester outside, out of view, was the real deal, not a sell-out. 

At the Labour conference here in the UK, the leadership has stopped a motion to discuss Climate Change, and instead has committed itself to purging what remains of the left as the number one priority for the Party.

Over the last year as I have researched for a realistic Green New Deal, one of the things I have realised is that it cannot be done by the rich North. Their proposals involve more of the same, or a reliance in technology, tweaks to Capitalism, more appropriation of the poor South, more colonialism and more theft of resources. The Green New Deal has to be one which allows Indigenous Peoples to have an equal say, has to involve the relief of debt and has to involve Land Back, decolonialisation. It also has to allow them to catch up, real CO2 relief for them, they didn’t do this tragedy, we did. It isn’t their eating of meat which has denuded soils and aquifers. It wasn’t their farming practices that has destroyed the earth, it was ours. It isn’t them playing with nuclear annihilation, it is us. I have also realised I am no longer just a socialist. Our democracies are a sham. I am now a revolutionary eco-socialist. The fight back is outside our democratic systems. I’ve seen the Apocalypse. It’s here already. There is no going back to normal. That time has passed.

Gordon Liddle in the Yemen in the 1990s

Gordon Liddle was born 1956, Horden, County Durham, United Kingdom Married, lives and works at his Derbyshire studio. BA Hons, Sheffield Psalter Lane Art College Gordon has had numerous positions and travelled extensively through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Africa and Europe, with particular interests in religion, democracy, politics, economics, MMT, and culture. The results of these studies form the basis of the series of works now under way. Numerous works bought by private collectors #Madonna Victorian Mood Bought by Andrew Cavendish the 11th Duke of Devonshire is owned by the Chatsworth Collection. ‘Celestial Teapot’ was exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London for one week in 2013, 4 days at Art Basel in 2014. Currently working on Gaia, The Sixth Extinction Series, of paintings, woodcuts and hopefully etchings soon. Also writing two books and a book of poems and rants. Gordon is on Twitter @sutongirotcip and his website is pictorignotus.com 

Capitalism is what happens when the psychopaths and gangsters are running the neighbourhood. Our only chance is to wrestle the wheel from them.

… and create a National Forest the length and breadth of the UK.

Zombie Apocalypse, 16th Aug 2021

by Gordon Liddle

Time to pause. Stop. Time to take stock. We are drifting toward war and ecological collapse like drunks seeking the next open bar. Staggering along, bouncing off lampposts and cars, desperate for the next drink to avoid reality. And the reality isn’t pretty.

            It’s been quite a week hasn’t it? IPCC report all doom and gloom, quickly whisked off the front pages of every newspaper, Ken Loach removed from the Labour Party, along with thousands of other socialists, as Sir Rodney Woodentop continues the purges, and the end game in Afghanistan, which we all new was coming. Apparently, some journalists and politicians are shocked at the events unfolding, which is quite a thing. Where have they been for the last twenty years and what were they thinking was going to be the result? These are well paid, supposedly intelligent and well read, what goes on in their heads? To be a journalist in the West and specifically in the US and UK it seems the only qualification is to turn up, don’t write anything untoward or probing, keep your head down and recycle the double speak handed to you by your line manager. Astonishing.

‘Spaffer’ Johnson in Morrisons

Brexit, the gift that keeps on giving, has, together with the zombies, left us short of lorry drivers, according to the press. This is bullshit. Our government has made the UK a place where any ‘forinners’ aren’t welcome, so ‘forrin’ drivers have stayed away. Many companies in the EU can’t be bothered with all the red tape which is now involved to export goods to the UK, so they gave up exporting here, so no return drivers to take goods back to the EU. On top of that the UK government classed lorry drivers as ‘unskilled’ so no free movement of drivers from abroad to keep driving here. Add to this that drivers have been leaving the profession for years because the pay and conditions are dire, and you have the perfect storm. You don’t become a heavy goods vehicle driver overnight, and the training is expensive, so this is a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s what happens when you have a government of idiots. So, we have the armed forces stepping in to deliver goods to supermarkets. Join the army and meet people, in Morrison’s warehouse. The Queens Own Broccoli Regiment step forward please!

Join the army and meet people, in Morrison’s warehouse. The Queens Own Broccoli Regiment step forward please!

            The Dark Knight has been continuing his purge of the Labour Party, an extra shove as conference draws near. You are five time more likely to be purged for antisemitism if you are a Jewish member than a non-Jewish member. Let that sink in. This week was the turn of the world-renowned film director and humanitarian Ken Loach. Apparently, he was in a group proscribed by Labour and refused to disassociate himself from the others and wouldn’t name them to save himself. The director of Cathy Come Home and I Daniel Blake is now outside the Party again whilst Islamophobes and downright racists adorn the PLP and Labour councillors across the country. Remember, this man, Sir Rodney Woodentop, pledged to unite the Party and follow on from the 2019 manifesto commitments. He lied. From the very start he was a plant, an establishment shill brought in to make Labour a toothless lapdog of the established order.

You are five time more likely to be purged for antisemitism if you are a Jewish member than a non-Jewish member. Let that sink in.

Remember rent-a-gob James O’ Brien muttering into his mike that ‘any other leader and Labour would be twenty points ahead in the polls?’ Well, they certainly aren’t that, with the worst Tory government in living memory. Whoever does the promotions for his utterances online is also an idiot, which we saw this week with him coming up with the line that he could sanction the killing of an Alpaca. That made all the wrong headlines. Who was he trying to recruit to vote Labour? Harold Shipman? The Dark Knight is destroying Labour as a political force and destroying the Party into the bargain. He is an utter disgrace, and what’s worse, as we desperately need an alternative government to take up the challenge of global warming and ecological collapse, he is wasting the time of the only Party in the UK at least of making the case for drastic changes, and for that most of all I shall never forgive him. His screech back to Blairite neoliberalism in the face of what is looking on the horizon is unforgiveable. I expect it from the Tories, we all know their indifference to suffering and ecology, but the glimmer of hope we had under Labour’s GND manifesto commitments at least offered that, hope. Now we probably have another term of Tories in power, with all the time wasting on reform that entails, and that to me is Labour’s biggest crime.

Remember rent-a-gob James O’ Brien muttering into his mike that ‘any other leader and Labour would be twenty points ahead in the polls?’

            The IPCC report came and went this last week. Although the report is of course conservative in its approach, not surprising as it has to accommodate many governments and bodies who are to say the least rather sceptical, it was still a damning citation of where we have allowed ourselves to drift. The situation is dire. The horse hasn’t quite bolted yet, but the stable door is wide open, and the groom is asleep on the job. Ten million acres are burning out of control across Siberia as I write this. Italy, Turkey and other parts of Europe are still ablaze, meanwhile billionaires are talking about putting billboards into space and opening up space tours. It’s madness. Starting from the base point of reference that all our political leaders and corporate billionaires are for the most part psychopaths, it wasn’t long before they trotted out the usual platitudes in response to the report. Biden gave a presser in which he waxed lyrical about the $1 Trillion GND package he was getting through the House and then, just at the end, the Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced in reply to a press question that she ‘had made it clear to OPEC countries that she expected them to increase oil production to reduce the cost of fuel to boost the economy.’ This on top of Biden giving another 2000 fracking and drilling permits on Federal Land as well as confirming the Line 3 Tar Sands pipeline. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

Capitalism is literally burning all our planetary resources to accumulate vast sums of wealth for a very few people and we are just observers.

Capitalism is literally burning all our planetary resources to accumulate vast sums of wealth for a very few people and we are just observers. When people ask me, what is the biggest driver of global warming and ecological collapse I am always temped to mutter, ‘it’s the economy, stupid!’ Our so called ‘leaders’ are like gangsters, they move into the neighbourhood, give all sorts of false promises, then, in no time at all they are running criminal rackets and demanding protection money. The real time gangsters are no different but at least they are honest, the don’t pretend to be anything but gangsters. The Tories have made themselves, their hedge fund and big Pharma buddy’s colossal amounts of money from this pandemic, whilst the rest of us have to get by, prices rising across the board from food to building supplies. And yet we do nothing. More people are vexed about Abi and Dale being chucked out of Love Island.

The Tories have made themselves, their hedge fund and big Pharma buddy’s colossal amounts of money from this pandemic, whilst the rest of us have to get by

            By this weekend of course, the media had moved on from the upcoming Extinction Event and had the Premiership football to tout, as well as other mind-numbing bits of trivia to keep the ignorant occupied.  The BBC had even de-listed the IPCC report from its hot news list. Then we had the debacle in Afghanistan.

Saigon 1975, Kabul 2021

           

Knowing the oncoming storm of troop departure and chaos that would follow, the PM and Foreign Secretary, as well as the rest of the Cabinet went on their holidays. As events followed their logical course during the week and then this weekend, our government was conspicuously missing in action. Twenty years, where the end result was always inevitable and still, they couldn’t prepare to leave in an orderly manner, nor protect the hundreds of thousands of women and children who, along with anyone who participated with the occupying forces, will be subject to the most horrifying crimes. Only weeks ago, Spaffer went before Parliament and said, ‘there was no military route to power for the Taliban!’ Either he was badly advised by intelligence services that don’t deserve the title or he was lying again. Either way the ordinary people of the area are the ones to suffer once again. Both Biden and Johnson should resign but we know that leaders don’t do honour anymore.

Only weeks ago, Spaffer went before Parliament and said, ‘there was no military route to power for the Taliban!’

As the rest of the World looks on in shock, we are resigned to the fact that our government will do all it can to stop refugees from Afghanistan from reaching our shores. The Mail and Telegraph, Sun and Express will be soon pumping our more bile about migrants in the Channel and scroungers coming here to get free hotel stay and access to our health service (if it still exists by then). All over social media we had pictures of thousands on the runway in Kabul trying to board planes, even as they were taking off, falling helplessly to their deaths as they gained height. Shocking.

            This is what happens when the psychopaths and gangsters are running the neighbourhood. Our only chance is to wrestle the wheel from them.  Then pause! Stop and think.

Let’s plan a route away from the suicidal path we are on.

Start with some very obvious things, immediately cut to a four-day week.

Stop promoting the consuming of endless rubbish.

Start taxing the commons and make companies place a deposit before mining to cover the costs of reparations when they have finished.

Write off the debt of the Global South so they can prepare for the coming ecological onslaught that they had no part in engineering.

Ban tax havens and then tax billionaires till they squeal.

Nationalise all water Companies and Power Companies and Grids.

Pay a decent state pension so oldies can actually retire instead of taking jobs which younger people could do, the money is a multiplier and just goes straight back into the economy.

Close all Public (private) Schools and educate our citizens properly (it will never happen whilst the elite can opt out).

Promote the arts, sciences, things that make life worth living.

Teach kids ecology and how to have a social relationship with the natural world, let them do some gardening, kids actually love it.

Start rewilding parts of the UK, we could start with Grouse Moors. Upland sheep farmers could be made countryside stewards with the same subsidies we give them to allow sheep to keep the uplands denuded of trees and wild areas.

Create a National Forest the length and breadth of the UK.

Ban all external funding for MP’s and remove the House of Lords replacing it with a people’s assembly.

Ban deep sea trawling, remove our nuclear weapons, we don’t need them.

Set up a doughnut economy with doughnut cities.

Link executive pay to the pay of the lowest worker in the organisation.

The list of what we could do is endless, it just needs vision. Draw up a Marshal type plan to work with other governments toward a common goal, which is now, survival.

We cannot afford Capitalism anymore. Until we realise that, we are heading to oblivion. The upcoming COP26 will be lots of hot air and happy clapping, then Biden will go home and announce more drilling, Putin will start to mine in Siberia and the Chinese will still be our offshore factory churning out more tat, whilst Bolsanaro lays waste to the Amazon. You know they will. Then as the power of the US wanes, and that of China grows, the receding power will want to start a war. Possibly a little trial run with Iran first but then inevitable with China. And it will be the last one. The gangsters are insane. It’s time to change them

            On Sunday, Joan and I went for a walk along a local nature trail. In the hour and a half walk we saw only four butterflies, a few bees and a couple of hoverflies. Hardly any birds and no mammals. It is a dessert. We are already in deep, deep shit. Keep washing your hands.

Gordon Liddle was born 1956, Horden, County Durham, United Kingdom Married, lives and works at his Derbyshire studio. BA Hons, Sheffield Psalter Lane Art College Gordon has had numerous positions and travelled extensively through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Africa and Europe, with particular interests in religion, democracy, politics, economics, MMT, and culture. The results of these studies form the basis of the series of works now under way. Numerous works bought by private collectors #Madonna Victorian Mood Bought by Andrew Cavendish the 11th Duke of Devonshire is owned by the Chatsworth Collection. ‘Celestial Teapot’ was exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London for one week in 2013, 4 days at Art Basel in 2014. Currently working on Gaia, The Sixth Extinction Series, of paintings, woodcuts and hopefully etchings soon. Also writing two books and a book of poems and rants. Gordon is on Twitter @sutongirotcip and his website is pictorignotus.com 

What will it take for the British to reach a tipping point and realise they are being shafted by this bunch of Eton inbreds?

…and ban plastic grass!

Zombie Apocalypse, 05th Aug 2021

By Gordon Liddle

As miserable weather continues with more miserable weather, the crop from the garden is poor this year. Polytunnel is miles behind last year and even the potatoes outside have been poor. If we had to survive on what we grow we would have had to put in a lot more effort than we did this year. Growing organically, it is hard to keep ahead of weeds, pests and fungi but at least we get to see the animals and insects thrive.  Or do we. There have been a lot less butterflies, hoverfly’s, bees, wasps and generally most insects this year, even though I know they are somewhere as out bird and bat population here seem to be fine. The empty snail shell around the Thrush anvil is proof to that. However, we are a small hotspot in an area of farmlands and gardens that poison everything and anything in sight, and the residues wash down to us, killing plants and wildlife in no small quantities. These poisons are readily available in all supermarkets and garden shops and it’s time to ban them all. Oh, and whilst we are at banning stuff, can we also ban plastic grass. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to cover acres of gardens in a plastic carpet which degrades and ends up as micro particles in the rivers and oceans should be taken out and tarred and feathered. I bet it was someone linked to the oil industry, ‘what other shit can we make from the oil, oh I know, plastic grass!’

Oh, and whilst we are at banning stuff, can we also ban plastic grass.

So instead of intensive gardening I have been working in the studio, trying to bring on a painting I started about seven years ago, part of the Sixth Extinction Series, a painting which involves a lot of animals and a few figures, including a child. We used our grandchild for the figure and there is an old saying, never work with children or animals, for good reason. Trying to pose a cute granddaughter and not make it look cute chocolate box is almost impossible, but the weight of the rest of the painting which includes a hanging scene should temper the cute bit. Now if the animals and Gaia (metaphor only, no teleological link) decided to hang a few humans for destroying the planet then you would think there would be quite a list of possibilities to step up to the scaffold (or in this case to be lifted up off the ground by a snake). The list is endless and getting longer by the day, but I finally decided on one of the most evil men I could think of but you will have to guess whom until the painting is finished. I will give you a clue, he has probably financed more global warming and ecological collapse denial and obfuscation groups and think tanks than any other man on the planet, and yet most people have never heard of him. And no, he isn’t, as far as I know, building a spaceship.

Trying to pose a cute granddaughter and not make it look cute chocolate box is almost impossible

So, apparently the Olympics are going on, more bread and circuses to distract the gullible whilst the world burns. I was so uninterested I did some synchronised strimming over the weekend to tidy up the meadow. I feel sorry for the athletes as a severe lack of crowds and the risks of catching the virus are high and it seems to have affected the performances of some, and, like the football did, brought out the racist hoards to mock and abuse black athletes. I have watched Simone Biles’s floor routine in slow motion, and it is incredible, she seems to defy gravity and the laws of physics at the end. No wonder a bout of the ‘twisty’s’ is so hard on her. Without total focus and spacial awareness, it would have been downright dangerous for her to attempt it. She’ll get another chance.

We have slid very far down the slippery slope.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, our politicians and journalists are carrying on as normal. The politicians ramp up the fraud, corruption and downright theft and the media cover up the lies by omission, disinformation and untruths to keep their cosy positions and access all areas. It stinks. Using burner phones is all the rage apparently so as to hand contracts to their pals whilst being untraceable and hands off. There are no depths to which this government will stoop as they know they will get away with it and the press pack will move on by the next morning, the public will shrug their shoulders and the next deal can be lined up by Friday. New laws are being rushed through Parliament to give protesters ten years in the jug for protesting, fourteen years in prison for journalists who embarrass the State and actually do their fecking job, bringing out the truth. Holding power to account. We have a bill on the statute book which allows police to secretly abduct, torture, rape and murder political dissidents. This isn’t Belarus we are talking about, or even America, this in Britain in 2021. We have Assange being held as a political prisoner in Belmarsh for bringing war crimes to light. This week Craig Murray was sent down for a year for reporting a trial. A trial where the alleged perpetrator was found not guilty. The State will brook no dissent. You have been warned. Protesters who protested against the crime bill have just been jailed for three years for protesting the Bill. We have slid very far down the slippery slope.

We have Assange being held as a political prisoner in Belmarsh for bringing war crimes to light.

Last year we had ‘eat out to die out’ but it seems this year, as Brexit hits home, we will have ‘eat nowt as the shops and restaurants are empty!’ The Chimps got their Brexit ‘Done’, but they can’t have the tea party as there is absolutely f—k all to put on the table. The big lie of glorious Britain is being cruelly exposed, and it will be interesting to see how the experiment progresses as the shops and supply chains start to crumble and the food is rotting in the fields because we don’t have any lorry drivers. Will people wake up? Most will be whinging about the weather and wondering if they can party or top up their tan, whilst the nurses and health staff are once again fighting to deal with trauma in ICU’s, as the Tories utterly fail once again to deal with this crisis. 257 deaths in the last 48 hours. Hundreds of thousand with long covid. What will it take for the British to reach a tipping point and realise they are being shafted by his bunch of Eton inbreeds? Whilst the Zombie Apocalypse rages, the world burns and the supply chains dissolve, our glorious leader is suggesting hi-viz chain gangs for prisoners and teaching Latin in all schools. I can imagine a chain gang of artists and intellectuals, dissidents of all types, led by Craig Murray, digging for chicken nuggets in the wastelands of Chipping Norton, singing old negro slave songs and asking for a break, ‘wiping off here bass, wiping off!’ Or in Latin, ‘accipies confractus’ (apologies for my Latin, it’s a bit rusty, just like my pitchfork).

What will it take for the British to reach a tipping point and realise they are being shafted by his bunch of Eton inbreeds?

Meanwhile Farage has declared war on the RNLA for saving migrants in the channel. Apparently, it would be better for them to drown than for the RNLI to be a’ taxi service by taking them to shore.’ Known locally as the C-nt in Kent, Farage seems to have endless time to get out to sea in a boat and fetishize sinking dinghies and their desperate occupants like some old twat watching a snuff movie. Who pays for all this propaganda and hate? He seems to be doing very well out of it all, although the fishermen and farmers he spent a decade ’defending’ seem to have been dropped in the doo-doo. Never mentions them now. Brexit is so yesterday.

He is taking the piss out of the Red Wall and they will suck it up because ‘Boris is a bit of a lad, and his hair, chortle.’ The English are dumber than paint.

Sir Rodney Woodentop has said he is about to relaunch his leadership campaign in the autumn, for the umpteenth time, and is desperately scrambling around for ideas, whilst inviting rich Corporate funders to come up with some cash to help him think. Having squandered the £27 Million Corbyn left as funds, and purged any real socialist and non-Zionist Jews from the Party, he has to resort to the begging bowl. To oil the corporate wheels, he is to model his version of Nu Nu Labour on Nu Labour and rehabilitate Blair’s ideas as a starting point. So, expect more wars, tough on the causes of crime, cutting the workshy of their benefits and PFI to finance the Green New Deal which he has downgraded from the 2019 manifesto commitment of £250 billion to £30 billion. That should just about cover the cost of a new app once the corruption team have used their burner phones to give it to their mates. Don’t think the PLP are any less corrupt than the Tories. Other than a few very quiet socialist cowards you could swap the lot with the Tories and not notice much difference. We get the government we deserve. Spaffer mocks the miners claiming she who can’t be named did it to stop using coal because of climate change. No mention of then importing coal from Columbia and elsewhere using child slave labour. He is taking the piss out of the Red Wall and they will suck it up because ‘Boris is a bit of a lad, and his hair, chortle.’ The English are dumber than paint.

Eight separate teams of scientists are reporting the Gulf Stream is near to collapse

Meanwhile, the forests across the Arctic, Siberia, Turkey, Greece, Canada and the US are burning brightly. In Athens last night a close friend of Yannis Varoufakis died in his room, of smoke inhalation. Whole villages have burnt to the ground in Turkey. Eight separate teams of scientists are reporting the Gulf Stream is near to collapse, with catastrophic results for huge swathes of ocean and landmass ecosystems. Our PM’s big idea this week is to ‘wash your plates before putting them in the dishwasher!’ Yup, that’s going to stop the Gulf Stream from imploding.

These people are psychopaths. We can see the tsunami coming, the warning bells have been ringing for decades, but they aren’t listening.

Cop26 is approaching. The great and good will gather in Glasgow to decide humanity’s next steps. Nothing will happen. They will argue and pose, strut about what type of fire extinguisher is the most cost effective as the house is burning down. The Oligarchs and their influential Think Tanks and media puppets will heave out loads of copy saying, ‘it’s too late now, we can’t stop it, we need to adapt,’ The Doomster message is all they have left because the argument of the deniers is lost. Because they still think things can carry on as normal. Their ‘normal. Neoliberal Consumer Capitalism. They can neither conceive nor permit any other version of civilisation that does not revolve around greed, free taking and consuming (burning) of the commons, and free reign to destroy any eco-system on the planet for profit. They will mumble about carbon offsetting and other ridiculous ‘cures’ which is like a family head cooking a big dinner for himself (this is a very male problem btw) and telling the rest of the family they can share a carrot. Ignoring the fact that two of these carbon offset forests burned to the ground last week these ideas are just perpetuating more of the same. These people are psychopaths. We can see the tsunami coming, the warning bells have been ringing for decades, but they aren’t listening. We are tying our hands behind our backs for a rich elite to carry on plundering the planet. Extinction Rebellion will wave a few flags outside and maybe block an underpass or a public square, and The Greens (middle class liberals in wellies) will mutter about losing their lattes or a particular mammal or butterfly they like, but the plunder will carry on regardless. If you look at the earth from the space station, there are no border lines drawn on the landscape, there is just this beautiful blue planet awash with a myriad of species. Yet our governments cannot agree a plan for those species. The more you know, the more you understand what is happening, the greater the rage. Are we really not going to fight these bastards and fight for a life worthy of what we could call a morally just civilisation? Do we condemn entire species to a grim future and risk everything because of lethargy and ignorance? Because we lacked vision? Because we couldn’t be bothered? The left is fractured, atomised, almost imperceptible in the States, even the ‘Squad’ are limp liberals and Imperialists. I am convinced the only way through this battle is ecological based socialism. No ‘free market’ is going to coagulate around a ‘Manhattan type’ project to buckle down and tackle the upcoming storm. It will take coordinated multi-State co-operation to do so. A war footing no less.

Keep washing your hands.

Gordon Liddle was born 1956, Horden, County Durham, United Kingdom Married, lives and works at his Derbyshire studio. BA Hons, Sheffield Psalter Lane Art College Gordon has had numerous positions and travelled extensively through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Africa and Europe, with particular interests in religion, democracy, politics, economics, MMT, and culture. The results of these studies form the basis of the series of works now under way. Numerous works bought by private collectors #Madonna Victorian Mood Bought by Andrew Cavendish the 11th Duke of Devonshire is owned by the Chatsworth Collection. ‘Celestial Teapot’ was exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London for one week in 2013, 4 days at Art Basel in 2014. Currently working on Gaia, The Sixth Extinction Series, of paintings, woodcuts and hopefully etchings soon. Also writing two books and a book of poems and rants. Gordon is on Twitter @sutongirotcip and his website is pictorignotus.com 

Tick tock, tick tock . . .

. . . says the Doomsday clock

Zombie Apocalypse, 25 th July 2021

By Gordon Liddle

It looks as though the scientists who run the Doomsday Clock will be shaving another second off it sometime soon. The world is slowly going mad. Après Moi, Le Deluge. So, Parliament has broken up for the summer recess. I have no doubt many on the Tory benches and probably quite a few on the Labour side, will now be off on expenses paid jollies to their donor’s villas and yachts, or else spending a little time with their families instead of the secretary or staffer (we all know who you are!), setting aside the heavy weight of office and chilling. Because, after all, we aren’t in the middle of the Zombie Apocalypse, the NHS isn’t creaking, and the supermarkets aren’t suffering shortages. Nothing to see here, go home and chillax. Oh, and just before leaving, Williamson the fireplace salesman announced funding cuts of up to 50% for art and design courses because of course, we don’t want people wasting their time on these trivialities when they could be training to become a cog in the capitalist treadmill. Cultural suicide. So, ‘we are off on our hols, toodle pip, fend for yourselves till we get back!’

Tick tock, tick tock!


The Media have at last noticed supply chains and deliveries have slowed since Brexit and, due to a combination of reasons; the supermarkets are running out of ‘stuff’ in their aisles. The government have invented a new word to cover the embarrassment of Brexit losses and have given it the cosy name ‘pingdemic’, partly to cover their incompetence and partly because the British public are gullible idiots, used to a diet of simple buzz words and short slogans. It’s really weird that the rest of Europe, who have the same virus (brewed in the UK, cheers Spaffer) and who are not running low in their supermarkets, don’t have the same problem. That’s because it has nothing to do with the virus and everything to do with Brexit and wages.

All the excitement and enthusiasm generated by Corbyn has been allowed to run into the dry ground.

Even before this crisis hit, lorry drivers were leaving due to time away from home and crap wages. Our EU migrants filled the void, as they do with short-term farm labour and fruit picking etc. but now, they have all gone home, leaving our fruit and veg rotting in the fields as it can’t be picked and, even if it could there is no-one to transport it for processing or delivery. What a result. So, faced with this crisis what does the government do? They ‘allow’ lorry drivers to work longer hours. Not more pay, or better conditions? Oh no, they have to sit in that forty-tonne juggernaut for longer, making them more tired and frankly putting their lives and the public at risk. Now we have to sit and wait for the first sleep induced, child crushing pile up and the inevitable crucifying of the unfortunate driver. You know it’s coming.

Tick tock, tick tock.


Meanwhile, Sir Rodney Woodentop has busied himself by proscribing more and more left wingers (socialists) and left-wing groups from Labour, whilst meantime bankrupting the Party into the bargain. While Labour wallows well below the Tory Party in the polls, despite the Tories laying waste to the economy, allowing grannie to die in her own fluids and pursuing herd immunity by allowing all our children to catch it, Rodney doesn’t seem capable of putting two ideas together to take the fight to the Tories. As members leave Labour in their thousands and now some Unions are looking to break from Labour, he seems to have locked himself in that Blairite Westmonster bubble, content with sitting in the corner with his hands over his ears chanting ‘La, La, La!’ It’s embarrassing how feeble the Labour Party is now. All the excitement and enthusiasm generated by Corbyn has been allowed to run into the dry ground.

A brief period when the Party was fertile with ideas and youthful energy has become a moribund, desperate B Team for the Tories. No-one can convince me Rodney wasn’t a plant. He has broken the Party and spaffed the money away. Imaging how the electorate will judge him if the Tory press ever turn on him.

‘How are you going to run the economy when you couldn’t even look after the finances of your own Party?’

This week he took to sacking a load of staff from Party HQ and replacing some with temps from an agency. When did fire and rehire become policy? He then did a puff piece for Newsnight with Laura K in which the ‘guest’ hand-picked normal ‘working class voters’ at and asked him a few mild questioned. One hadn’t even heard of him. Big impact there Rodney, really making a name for yourself. Big smiles from Laura K who could barely hide her contempt when interviewing Corbyn, and he ended the interview with something about not wanting to sit in a warm bath. It was excruciating to watch. His days are numbered, it can’t come soon enough.

Tick tock, tick tock.

Yesterday we had the Freedumb demo in London, as well as a coordinated echo in afew other cities across Europe and the US. All the usual suspects were there, David Icke,Piers Corbyn, Kate Semirami, Mike Steele (with an e) and others, etc. Also there was KatieHopkins, fresh from her expulsion from Australia (I mean, how bad do you have to be to getexpelled by the Aussies?) although large parts of the crowd had to turn their backs and look back at her through a mirror to stop themselves from turning to stone. And yes, there was a large crowd, Trump flags here and there. They have slipped from protesting about lockdown (which barely existed) to now protesting about the vaccines as well as 5G and LED’s. I kid you not.

I mean, how bad do you have to be to get
expelled by the Aussies?

Mark Steele ranted on about 5G and LEDs as being so dangerous your streetlamp outside your house is going to kill you, whist simultaneously standing in front of a giant LED screen which could be seen from space. Batshit crazy. Big applause from the crowd, dying to hear the main act. Next was the Covidiot Barbie, Kate Semirani, whose own son came on BBC radio4 this morning to say she was in fact, batshit crazy. Kate ranted on and on about how the vaccine was going to kill thousands of us and we should be having a Nuremberg style trial after which we would be hanging doctors and nurses, none of whom heard this condemnation firsthand, as most were ether exhausted resting at home or manning the pumps in the busy ICU’s up and down the country.

Kate, who was an actual nurse until she was struck off last year for being batshit crazy, has built up quite a following and seems tobe at every demo and public opportunity of late. I’m sure she’ll make an appearance on GBnews soon, probably interviewed by Farage if he takes time off from boat spotting in Kent. Idon’t understand how she gets so worked up about the vaccine, as, judging by the pictures on her social media pages, she’s obviously no stranger to the needle as she looks as if she’s had enough Botox to stop the oncoming plague of rats.

David Icke, who came on stage to a hero’s welcome and left them all singing Karaoke, with lizards.

Then came Piers of course, listing the great dangers that face humanity, the great climate change lie, the vaccine danger, the fact the virus is only a mild flue, a hoax propagated by Bill Gates and George Soros, and of course 5G. Which lead up to the rock star himself, David Icke, who came on stage to a hero’s welcome and left them all singing Karaoke, with lizards. Great entertainment but with the added potential for violence.


Now it is all very well to laugh at these people, but it would be a mistake. Fake news is the ocean the lies and disinformation swim within, slithering like eels in the Sargasso Sea. Too slippy and elegantly pulsating to grab and identify. The MSM amplify and codify the message to suit those in power who own them and Facebook and other social media platforms spread it like a mycelium. These people are channelled funds from well-heeled and dangerous disaster capitalists, such as Charles Koch and others, to ferment disorder and distraction to hide their real agenda, which is rampant resource extraction and accumulating wealth.

The virus sweeping the planet and doing the real damage is not the Saars/covid one, it is Capitalism.

They will stop at nothing, even the destruction of the planet in their quest for more wealth and assets. They are psychopaths and some how, they have to be stopped. The virus sweeping the planet and doing the real damage is not the Saars/covid one, it is Capitalism. Eventually the current virus will be brought to heel, despite the best efforts of the idiots in governments, but the real virus is still at large, destroying ecosystems, toppling mountains for new mines, poisoning the oceans and depleting the stocks of insects and micro creatures that feed whole ecosystems, including humanity.


The problem is, as Frederick Jameson said, ‘it is easier to imaging the end of the world than the end of capitalism!’ The people who run our systems and who feel born to rule, entitled to power, they actually believe this is the end point of history, that all roads lead to where we are now and that Capitalism is the destination of humanity, the culmination of all our previous history and cultures. It may be viewed as slightly imperfect by liberal critics, but it is the best we have and there is no alternative. There is an omerta code among our elites that will not let business as usual be disrupted at any cost, even at the cost of the earth itself. Any alternatives are quickly stamped out.

Greta Thunberg keeps reminding us to ‘mind the gap’ between the words and actions of our
political class. The gap is widening.

Biden himself, an alleged liberal, will keep that punishing blockade on Cuba, keep bombing Somalis, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, will let his CIA format coups in any Latin American country which does not toe the line, which does not allow US corporations to go in and plunder the commons, will support Bolsonaro to extract the last log from the last tree in the Amazon and turn it into wasteland. They do not see the point of any dialectic with Nature. Any understanding that does not square with their inalienable belief that Nature is a free resource to be used and dumped as garbage and pollution cannot be contemplated.

But they are wrong. Whilst we could have a dialectic with the natural world, we are choosing to treat it like a slave, to be used freely until it dies. But Nature is not our slave, and it certainly does not need us. The bear will shit in the woods whether we are there to see it or not. Greta Thunberg keeps reminding us to ‘mind the gap’ between the words and actions of our political class. The gap is widening. As the floods continue across the EU and India, and the wildfires consume huge areas of Siberia and the North West of the United States and Canada, we will have to brace for what is still to come as we miss every chance to slow down or stop the destruction.


The demo’s are just one example to show the depth of the poison that is being drip fed into our civilisation. It will inevitably lead to violence as a somnabulant population is suddenly awakened by the jolt of catastrophic events heading our way very soon. Hopefully the disappearance of a Twix and a pot noodle from our supermarket shelves will open a few more eyes but the depth of ignorance in society is deeply distressing. It isn’t going to end well. We need those in power turfed out as soon as possible. Those who purport to govern are not fit for purpose, they never were. Quite how we do it I am not sure, but the tinderbox is getting dryer and could ignite at any time. We will be losing a few more seconds off that clock very soon.


Tick tock, tick tock…………….

Gordon Liddle, artist and poet

Gordon Liddle was born 1956, Horden, County Durham, United Kingdom Married, lives and works at his Derbyshire studio. BA Hons, Sheffield Psalter Lane Art College Gordon has had numerous positions and travelled extensively through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Africa and Europe, with particular interests in religion, democracy, politics, economics, MMT, and culture. The results of these studies form the basis of the series of works now under way. Numerous works bought by private collectors #Madonna Victorian Mood Bought by Andrew Cavendish the 11th Duke of Devonshire is owned by the Chatsworth Collection. ‘Celestial Teapot’ was exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London for one week in 2013, 4 days at Art Basel in 2014. Currently working on Gaia, The Sixth Extinction Series, of paintings, woodcuts and hopefully etchings soon. Also writing two books and a book of poems and rants. Gordon is on Twitter @sutongirotcip and his website is pictorignotus.com 

We need a war against Capitalism.

Capitalism has declared war on the planet, on you!

Zombie Apocalypse 13th July 2021

By Gordon Liddle

Well, the football is over, and the drunk yobs have left Leicester Square and the young heroes have gone back to being abused on social media and by right-wing MPs including ministers and some journalists. The only good thing to come out of it is the backlash in support of these boys, from their team-mates to the manager and across social media from thousands of fans, including many who never have or will watch football. Some racist brain-dead idiot defaces a mural in Manchester and the local community turn out in droves to cover it with love and affection. There is something good coming out of something very dark. Even the poison dripping from the PM and Pritti Patel has been turned back against them. So, things can change. And very quickly once a meme starts to run. So, this offers us a little hope, among all the gloom of what is happening today. Remember that.

Some racist brain-dead idiot defaces a mural in Manchester and the local community turn out in droves to cover it with love and affection

I don’t mean this just with regard to the Saars/covid ongoing clusterfuck here in the UK and some other parts of the world. The world is watching the giant petri dish that is the UK where our government, having messed up virtually every aspect of this crisis are now set to do it again. Having started with the idea of herd immunity at the beginning of the pandemic, we are back there with a vengeance. It isn’t surprising that a government of eugenicists with an extreme right wing ideological bent are willing to gamble on herd immunity via infection rather than herd immunity by vaccination (not to mention denying vaccines to the Global South). So, we open up on the 19th, (we’ve already crammed 65,000. people into football stadiums), slow down vaccinations and make children exempt, sit back and watch what happens, as if we’d just placed a bet on the horses. Which way will it go? How fast? Do we win or do we incubate the next variant? Winner takes all. What japes. We are led by psychopaths.

The world is watching the giant petri dish that is the UK where our government, having messed up virtually every aspect of this crisis are now set to do it again.

Meanwhile, the planet is burning. Since China was co-opted into global Capitalism the fire has got immeasurably worse and the system propelling the flames is regarded as almost sacrosanct by all our politician’s world leaders and corporations. They cannot conceive of a challenge to Global, Fossil Fuel based, Predatory and Accumulative Capitalism. The very thing that is pouring fuel on the fire in the first instance. The very being of Capitalism, that of expansion orientated and accumulation driven juggernaut, is driving a rift between humanity and the natural world.

landscape water industry mountain
Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

Marx understood this, he called it an ecological rift. Sustainability in relation to the earth as a requirement of production was very much part of his theory but one that Capitalism is compelled to violate. It is rooted in the alienation of the metabolic relationship to nature.  For Marx, production was a means of expanding needs and powers but at all times it was subject to the material limits imposed by nature. For Capitalists, nature is a vast store of free commons to be exploited at no cost to capital and the exchange does not stop there as the pollution and destruction in the other direction, is also cost free. We see it every day. Here in the UK the water companies pollute our river, streams and seas and the rare fines or hand sanctions are just absorbed as business costs and the looting goes on, accumulating more wealth to the few at the cost of the earth itself. Capitalism is not capable of self-sufficiency. If you challenge this hegemony you are painted by their media and propaganda teams as a crack or worse still, a terrorist.

The very being of Capitalism, that of expansion orientated and accumulation driven juggernaut, is driving a rift between humanity and the natural world.

In our postmodern paradigm our philosophers see things as the end of history or in relativism and we have been deluged with fantasy and fairy tales of our relationship to the planet and nature. But, contrary to this, as Marx understood, reality exists to which science is the stumbling path to try and learn about it. Yes, we do have a social relationship with nature, but this is materialistic, not constructivist. We have a dialectic with nature, but we can’t wish the problem away or pretend global warming and ecological collapse is a human construct of our imagination and not the very real materialist result of our actions.

woman in blue jacket holding white and black i am happy to be happy print paper
Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

Whilst the governments give us bread and circuses, the planet is dying. Since the first meetings of concerned bodies, we have just added fuel to the fire, emissions, ecological destruction, pollution and looting has accelerated. I haven’t heard one single politician or corporate leader fully understand or even mention the Jevons Paradox. That, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, as we made more and more efficient machines, the need for more and more power has risen, and the use of fossil fuels has increased. First, we started with timber, then as we moved to coal and more efficient engines, the use of timber increased. When we added oil and gas, both timber use and coal use increased all adding fuel to the growing fire. As we add wind turbines and LED’s, batteries and solar panels, all are consuming more and more oil, coal, gas and timber, as well as other minerals, adding to the flames.

I haven’t heard one single politician or corporate leader fully understand or even mention the Jevons Paradox.

Mines are taking the tops off mountains, destroying plateaux, strip clearing old growth forests and deserts, causing untold death and destruction to indigenous peoples, and mining operations are turning soil to poison, rivers to sewers, and oceans to acrid voids devoid of life. Countries are destabilised for access to their resources and coups enacted to get to the hidden gold, or in this case, copper and lithium. It is said as a joke that the US for instance is an oil and mining company with an army, as was the old East India Company during Britain’s days of Empire. It is still a truth. Capitalism is not a balanced exchange. The bounty is pumped or drilled out of the earth and transported to the core with nothing flowing the other way.

air air pollution climate change dawn
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

In 1850s our Western soils were so denuded we scoured the earth for Guano to supplement the degradation, destroying islands and coastal communities in the process as well as the nesting sites and ecosystems of the bird populations; and in at least one case causing a war (between Chile and Peru for Imperial access to more guano). Now we use oil and nitrates from the air itself, all of which are ebbing out of the soils into waterways and then to poison the oceans themselves. Another planet boundary broken. We are building a pyre to humanity and we are determined to carry every other living thing with us to it. Meanwhile our oligarchs build their yachts and dream and enact holiday trips to the edge of space whilst avoiding tax and driving their workers into indentured slavery.

We are building a pyre to humanity and we are determined to carry every other living thing with us to it.

At this stage, one has to take a personal decision. Do I become a passive observer, or do I resist?  An active rejectionist? Every one of us has this same dilemma but not many realise this yet. The Corporate and Oligarchy owned media is blurring your vision, filling the airwaves with doubt and misinformation. Chomsky once said we face three threats, nuclear, ecological and deliberate misinformation, and the third could bring on the other two. One the one hand they have spent decades telling us Global Warming is not real, and even changing the naming of it to ‘Climate Change’ as is sounds less threatening, and more recently they are saying it is too late to tackle it and we will just have to adapt. Let the fire rage, we can move to our shelters and it will all be OK. We can move to Mars, or the moon, but the accumulation and rape of the planet by Capitalism must keep going, whatever the cost.

Chomsky once said we face three threats, nuclear, ecological and deliberate misinformation, and the third could bring on the other two.

Never forget, the people peddling these lies are psychopaths. About 800 people died across the Pacific Northwest during the heat wave last week, a number that will probably still go up as officials examine medical records and statistics in the coming weeks and months. The peak temperature was 121.3 degrees Fahrenheit on June 29 in Lytton, British Columbia. After setting heat records for Canada on three consecutive days, the town was mostly destroyed by a wildfire driven by hot winds in the dried-out forests nearby. Oregon Washington and Canada were severely hit.

people street earth sign
Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

If we link Saars/covid to ecological deaths, possibly caused by our kettling of nature into smaller and smaller untouched ecosystems, we lost about ten million people last year to the flames of the pyre. These figures will grow exponentially over the next few decades. And when people are under threat, they do what they have done for centuries when threatened by war or famine, they migrate, they become refugees. In the UK and the States, new laws are brought into being to address the issues of refugees and migrants, and here in the UK new laws to stop dissent are in Parliament as I write this.

Forty-four officers into an art studio to arrest a group of charity artists. Not a terrorist bomb in sight.

Last week forty-four police officers broke into and entered a cooperative art studio to confiscate a sculpture the Home Secretary didn’t like. Forty-four officers into an art studio to arrest a group of charity artists. Not a terrorist bomb in sight. You can see where this is going so what are you going to do? Kids are striking for climate; they understand it’s their future at stake. Greta Thunberg has issued warning after warning, but it is still misinterpreted. She knows full well what will happen. It will end in violence. Despite all the XR protests and happy clappy sit down moments reclaiming public squares and dancing in front of Parliaments, the politicians will ignore it and the Fossil Corporations will carry on as normal. Eventually something will snap. There will be distractions, already Biden is talking up a war with either China or Iran, but eventually the flow of peoples from unliveable or resource drained communities will be unstoppable. And then? Do we machine gun them in the Med, as has been suggested by one of our psychopaths already? Do we sink the boats? Build walls? If they come, how do we feed them and us? Do you see the problem?

eventually the flow of peoples from unliveable or resource drained communities will be unstoppable. And then? Do we machine gun them in the Med

Where do you stand? I refuse to believe we simply give up, give in to the doomsters who say nothing can be done, it’s too late, we will have to just ‘adapt!’ Just remember, as we have seen during this pandemic, the government can move like lightning. Remember how posh frock companies suddenly turned their hands to making masks and PPE equipment at the government’s bidding? How whisky and gin manufacturers were able to switch production to create alcoholic gels to fight viral spreading, how engineering companies suddenly started making ventilators? Almost as if the government was on a war footing.  It’s time to fight back, any way you can. Violence will start soon. Then you will be forced to pick a side.

whisky and gin manufacturers were able to switch production to create alcoholic gels to fight viral spreading

If attacks on fossil fuel fire making plants start, the backlash from the established elite will be ferocious. You will hear these desperate activists being called terrorists. A threat to civilisation. Not the fossil fuel corporations of course, the ones piling fuel on the pyre. They will be the innocent party, the ones being ‘terrorised!’ Don’t believe this for a second. Bright Greens think we can persuade corporations to change their ways, that governments can be persuaded to move to stop the ecocide, that a few technological tweaks will change the outcomes, but they are deluded.

Capitalism has declared war on the planet, on you! We need a war against Capitalism. We need the government(s) to change sides and make peace with nature. A wartime pact. Comrades to a shared goal. If we don’t, we will not survive. It is a simple and as horrifying as that. The pyre is building, much conflagration is now inevitable, built into the system, but the final catastrophic burn can still be stopped.

Time to pick a side. Are you ready?

Gordon Liddle, artist and poet

Gordon Liddle was born 1956, Horden, County Durham, United Kingdom Married, lives and works at his Derbyshire studio. BA Hons, Sheffield Psalter Lane Art College Gordon has had numerous positions and travelled extensively through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Africa and Europe, with particular interests in religion, democracy, politics, economics, MMT, and culture. The results of these studies form the basis of the series of works now under way. Numerous works bought by private collectors #Madonna Victorian Mood Bought by Andrew Cavendish the 11th Duke of Devonshire is owned by the Chatsworth Collection. ‘Celestial Teapot’ was exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London for one week in 2013, 4 days at Art Basel in 2014. Currently working on Gaia, The Sixth Extinction Series, of paintings, woodcuts and hopefully etchings soon. Also writing two books and a book of poems and rants. Gordon is on Twitter @sutongirotcip and his website is pictorignotus.com 

Cannibal Capitalism ends up by eating itself

Rosa Luxemburg said: ‘There is socialism, or there is barbarism.’

By Gordon Liddle

We live on the only Paradise humans will ever know. It reduces down to one strike and you’re out. Life here is as far as we know the only life there is. We haven’t even begun to understand it. We have barely begun to understand, we don’t understand it, yet we are at ad hock war with every other life form, organic or inorganic, the very mix that sustains us, driven by greed and ignorance. I suggest we turn our gaze to those who rule and subdue us. They are the enemy at the gates.

            People often see my stuff and ask me why I’m painting about it. Why not just do some portraits, or maybe a nice landscape or whatever. Why the need to paint about an Extinction event. Isn’t it a bit ‘depressing?’ Well yes, it is. And it’s getting more depressing by the day. And I don’t just paint or make art about it, I write about it as well as forming poetry about it. That and politics, which is almost the same thing. And of course, Capitalism, Consumer Industrial Capitalism, which is at the heart of everything bad.

I suggest we turn our gaze to those who rule and subdue us. They are the enemy at the gates.

It is as basic as this, at this moment in time we are losing the race to survive as a species on a viable planet, and we are condemning our fellow passengers on this pale blue dot into the bargain. And they don’t deserve to share our fate. We categorise them as biomass, mainly to be exploited but not as family members, which they all are.

We have just witnessed the great and good gather for this year’s photo-op at the G7 summit, at which our glorious leaders, well some of them, pontificated on climate change, ecological collapse, intra-country relationships, trade deals, coming disputes and wars and who is an ally to whom.

Oh, and they discussed the Zombie Apocalypse and their failure to open-source vaccines to those countries who can’t afford it. Biden then tripped off to NATO to gird members loins and determination in the upcoming war against China. Nothing changed. Nothing happened to lower fossil fuel use, nothing changed to stop resource extraction which is fuelling ecological collapse, and nothing happen to protect or even acknowledge our fellow non-humans.

Here in the UK, Spaffer was hoping to use the meetings to stage Brexit Britain, open for business, but instead looked and sounded more like the drunk uncle at the party. Truly embarrassing and more so as we see the Spaffer variant (entirely down to him and his desperation for an Indian Trade deal) starting to take us into a third wave.

Here in the UK, Spaffer Johnson was hoping to use the meetings to stage Brexit Britain, open for business, but instead looked and sounded more like the drunk uncle at the party.

Idiocy doesn’t even cover it. Now, after seeing how our leaders handled Saars/covid, imagine how badly they are going to handle the future of this planet. They put the economy first time and time again at the cost of lives and they will do exactly the same with the planet. Nothing will stop consumer capitalism. It remains sacrosanct to this civilisation.

            They keep talking about a Green New Deal, Building Back Better, and whatever slogan is dreamt up this week, and how new Green Tech is going to alleviate climate change and ecological drift, and create clean jobs and a more equal society, but as every day passes the assault on the planet gathers pace. Ever since man became agrarian and started clearing forests to plough, the assault has been relentless, then turbocharged by the Industrial Revolution. First by burning wood, the coal and now oil.

Monocrops have denuded the soil itself. The very existence of a monocrop is a direct attack on the planet. Every other creature in that cultured landscape is deliberately killed to allow one species to dominate. A teaspoon of healthy soil can have a billion creatures within it, each interacting with each other. Imagine how many in an acre, how many interactions.

A teaspoon of healthy soil can have a billion creatures within it, each interacting with each other.

And we think only humans can have a society. Our civilisation is in thrall to subduing the planet, to skin it alive, remove mountains by mining, remove topsoil by monocrops and ploughing, denude the oceans of fish and feedstocks, break every ecological cascade until it is too weak to survive. 

The Greens themselves are ensconced in the nonsense of building more wind turbines, more solar panels, more dams. None of this reduced the use of fossil fuels as all the technologies rely on those fuels for their existence. Every new green technology is a product of our industrial society and none are compatible with saving the planet. They all want to save civilisation and yet, at the moment, it is this very civilisation that if the destructive force.

Each dam constructed for supplying power to logging and mining conglomerations destroys the river it sits on, destroying the ecosystem beneath and above it and belching methane for decades. Each solar panel means huge mining operations for silicon.

They all want to save civilisation and yet, at the moment, it is this very civilisation that is the destructive force.

For batteries, the great hope or so we are told for energy storage, we need Lithium and other toxic materials, usually at the expense of local indigenous peoples who are either subjugated as slaves to man the mines or ethnically cleansed from the land to allow operations to continue. Each mine pollutes the land and local water supplies, and each mine pushes further species into extinction.

Detail from Gordon Liddle’s extinction series

Each new industrial breakthrough needs more power and more chemicals, and more minerals and so more and more fossil fuels are needed, not less. Refining ore requires huge amounts of water, acids and other toxic chemicals to break down the ore, denuding and polluting aquifers, rivers, soil and other reserves.

Silicon for instance produces about four times the amount gained in waste alone. Usually this is dumped on hapless locals as an externality. To collect the waste and treat it takes a huge amount more energy and so more fuel burning. The desperate race for Lithium has the United States government undermining political groups in Latin America to organise coups to allow their corporations access for mining.

The indigenous peoples in the wild parts of these countries are not worth the worry. The capitalist industrial machine has to be fed at all costs to keep the profits coming to the few. The Liberal Greens new idol with his space exploits and battery driven cars Elon Musk even Tweeted his approval of the coup attempt? ‘We will coup whoever we want!’ And this man is our Green hope? Gtf!

Elon Musk even Tweeted his approval of the coup attempt? ‘We will coup whoever we want!’ And this man is our Green hope?!

Our big tech billionaires are convinced we will be mining asteroids and colonising (yes, they really do use that word) other planets in the near future, setting up groups to live on Mars and then beyond. The arrogance, the hubris of these billionaires is simply staggering. These people who have accumulated so much wealth from other people’s labour are ruthless psychopaths. We have no chance of living on Mars, or anywhere else apart from Earth.

Humans are of this planet. We evolved over millions of years to the conditions here. Our blood flow, the rate out hearts pump, the way our brain works, all evolved within a very specific gravitational pull which is not represented on any other planet we know of. We would become very sick very soon if we even managed to make the passage there.

The first thing an astronaut gets in space is a headache, then during long term stays on the ISS they have to do a repeat daily of very specific exercised and they still come back with damaged bones and severely depleted muscle mass. The only thing we can send to distant planets are robots and signals.

There will be no long-term human expansion to another planet. Let’s nail that lie now.

We are turning the planet into products. To make new ‘Green’ energy (it is no such thing), we need more mines, more destruction and more slaves, be they human or machines, and these machines need more power to make more stuff.

Each ‘new Green product makes more and more pollution and takes more from the planet than it gives back; and each big step forward kills more and more of our non-human companions. Can you see the pattern yet? Oh, and each new ‘Green’ advance is fuelled by more and more fossil fuels and needs more and more plastic and chemicals therein.

Greens (I don’t even have to talk about the psychopaths on the right, the corporations and their stooges in governments the world over), want to preserve our ‘way of life’ not the planet. They want carbon taxes, more industrial fixes, more tinkering with market mechanisms, which, ironically puts them in lockstep with climate change deniers and fascists running the conglomerates. They at least understand that to save the planet needs transforming the very fabric of our civilisation, and they cannot contemplate anything else as an alternative. They cannot (neither can the Greens) contemplate de-growth. An end to industrial consumer consumerism.

Humans are of this planet. We evolved over millions of years to the conditions here.

More energy needs more machines, and more machines need more materials and even more energy in an exponential cycle of destruction. We need a socialist ecologically driven new paradigm which encompasses the basic needs of everyone on the planet, be they human or non-human. Capitalism ends up eating itself, as Marx fully understood. And as another great socialist Red Rosa remarked, there is Socialism or Barbarism. Our non-human friends are also our comrades. Whatever we do we have to protect them as if we were protecting our own families.

            I was chatting to an evangelical friend of mine recently. He has his views on life the universe and everything and is planning for the next life, for those who will be ‘saved on the Arc!’ I suggested that even by the literature in his very own much revered book, we were thrown out of Paradise by God for transgressing His laws.

We have then gone on to trash this planet and you are suggesting He is going to lead us into another one. What is it? Three times lucky?

Gordon Liddle in his studio

Gordon Liddle was born 1956, Horden, County Durham, United Kingdom Married, lives and works at his Derbyshire studio. BA Hons, Sheffield Psalter Lane Art College Gordon has had numerous positions and travelled extensively through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Africa and Europe, with particular interests in religion, democracy, politics, economics, MMT, and culture. The results of these studies form the basis of the series of works now under way. Numerous works bought by private collectors #Madonna Victorian Mood Bought by Andrew Cavendish the 11th Duke of Devonshire is owned by the Chatsworth Collection. ‘Celestial Teapot’ was exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London for one week in 2013, 4 days at Art Basel in 2014. Currently working on Gaia, The Sixth Extinction Series, of paintings, woodcuts and hopefully etchings soon. Also writing two books and a book of poems and rants. Gordon is on Twitter @sutongirotcip and his website is pictorignotus.com 

The right to protest is under attack by Priti Patel …

… and Twitter and Facebook are ready to silence us.

By Gordon Liddle

Twitter is not your friend. Facebook is not your friend. Social media organisations are, for the most part, corporate monopolies. If ever the time arises when the great unwashed try and organise to save themselves, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google will abandon us and side with the establishment, or with the fascists. We are almost at that stage. I’m losing count of the times I get suspended on Twitter and on Facebook. Someone dislikes your opinion or political outlook and dobs you in on some spurious claim and the next minute you are facing a social media ban.

I’m losing count of the times I get suspended on Twitter and on Facebook.

Sometimes it is the algorithm itself which concludes that you are in breach of the ‘code’ of the platform. Certain words trigger a reaction, as can particular phrases. The route to appeal is usually limited to a few clicks which, quite often, don’t lead to re-instatement. They may even lengthen the ban. Trying to place satire on Facebook for instance, particularly if strong language is part of the spoof or situation, can result in a ban. Artificial Intelligence doesn’t understand parody. Quoting a phrase out of context to illustrate an absurdity can also result in a sanction. Sometimes bans are an inevitable consequence of trying to stop abuse, bullying, lies and rampant racism, but they can throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Then there are the codes of individual groups, particularly on Facebook. Many have a list of things not to do within the group and if you join the group. Well, you agreed not to infringe those rules. However, Facebook itself can override the group rules and impose its own restrictions once again.

if Trump was banned for lying, why is the Tory Party still allowed to Tweet?

Now this is probably a good thing in the round as, obviously, a group which has been set up by a psychopaths intending to burn down a school is obviously a group that should have an intervention. However, the fact they can see all of our interactions even in closed groups is a worry.
 

Recently, after being removed from office, Trump was also kicked off Twitter. His obvious string of false claims and lies became too much for the platform. I think this was wrong. I prefer the position which says that sunlight is the best disinfectant. At least on Twitter Trump could be seen in broad daylight; exposed, ridiculed and fact-checked.

At least on Twitter Trump could be seen in broad daylight; exposed, ridiculed and fact-checked.

But if Trump was banned for lying, why is the Tory Party allowed to Tweet? The GOP? The NRA? Why are the Tufton Street propaganda fraudsters allowed to publish at will? Johnson and his present set of cronies have been proved to be inveterate liars and grifters, yet the platforms are awash with their falsehoods and conceits. Where is the line drawn and by whom?


This year has seen the Tories completely mishandle the pandemic. Boris Johnson’s failure to deal with the Covid crisis has lead to over a 120 thousand deaths in the UK. What did they do wrong? The mistakes they made were partly the result of blind dogma, partly the result of inexperience, and partly the consequence of the intentional running down the NHS and other tools of the state over a period of many years. Their failure was also, obviously, partly because of the nakedly fraudulent way the Conservative government doled out contracts worth vast amounts of public funds. The contracts went to incompetent cronies. All this, the Conservatives did under the cover of the pandemic. The Conservatives have acted so with seeming impunity, without fear that mainstream journalists will challenge these actions seriously and take them to task.

Boris Johnson’s failure to deal with the Covid crisis has lead to over a 120 thousand deaths in the UK.

In 1947 The Mont Perelin Society laid the foundations of the fight back against societies that prioritised social justice and welfare. Hayek’s book ‘The Road to Serfdom’, was the clarion call for right wing economists to become the only narrative of corporations and politicians, becoming what we now call neoliberalism.

The only welfare that was conceivable, according to these think tanks, became welfare for the rich. They would fight a rear-guard action against social democracy for decades to help make this economic philosophy the dominant one. The resulting, huge, expansion of unregulated financial capital led to radical shifts in the markets, turbo charged under Reagan and Thatcher. The rich became even more parasitical in the UK; they are rentiers of assets and capital instead of long-term investments and trade. There is more and more speculation.

The rich became even more parasitical in the UK

Meanwhile the drive against wages, and wage suppression, was further amplified by globalisation, whilst the gains we took for granted in the UK have were slowly undermined and debased. In the USA, rampant capitalism and built-in racism were part of the system from the start; US citizens never reached the heady days of free at the point of service health care that has long existed in the UK.

Nowadays, corporations spend hundreds of millions on setting up think tanks and propaganda units masquerading as benevolent charities. These churn out an endless spiel of Randian style philosophy that lionises billionaires. Huge sums of money and influence are now regularly brought to bear to lobby and persuade.

A key target of these right wing think tanks is the repeal of any improvements to welfare standards and life conditions for the many and the reduction of taxes on corporations. These corporate propaganda units consistently undermine confidence in good governance and erode compliance with State institutions by pushing forward populism and demagoguery as a solution: the strongman, to ‘save us from socialism’ and take back control. Make America Great Again. Get Brexit done.

corporate propaganda units consistently undermine confidence in good governance

The tsunami of corporate, black money funding the propaganda war is overwhelming. Where does this leave us? While dark funding promotes Farage and Tommy Robinson, politicians like Jeremy Corbyn, who act according to their conscience are smeared, lied about and ultimately destroyed. Journalists who investigate and provide an honest analysis are ignored and attempts made to immediately silence them. The access of journlists of integrity to news events is removed and they have to strike out on their own on social media platforms. But honest journalists can easily be blocked from YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and removed from being fetched up by Google search algorithms.

There is a lot to protest about. There is a lot to say. But this week an important line was crossed by our government. The Tories, encouraged, perhaps, by the success of their larceny, and despite the trail of graves, grief and misery they have laid behind them, have decided to attack the right to protest itself.

We are about to have the right to decide to protest removed.

We are about to have the right to decide to protest removed. No groups will be allowed to protest without state, or rather police, consent. On top of that, Roma people and and Travellers in general may have their vehicles removed if they are not sited in pre-determined areas. But be in no doubt, this measure will be popular with the public who support Boris, who are constantly fed tropes by the right-wing press about the Roma community. We know where this all leads. .

The new protest and criminal changes laws are being rushed through the House in the middle of legitimate protests made by women after the death of Sarah Everard. We saw the shameful scenes of burley police men forcibly arresting young women who were protesting male violence and murder.


If we cannot protest in huge numbers, if we cannot protest to disrupt, as Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter have done, what alternative ways are there to protest? What options are they leaving us with: a rolling protest: a general strike, civil disobedience, a riot? Who will be the first of us to land in jail? Hearing Patel wants to change the rules on local elections to get rid of proportional representation in local government and introduce first past the post, I wanted to register my opposition. But I have a dilemma. You will soon have the same dilemma as I do. Twitter and Facebook are ready to silence me.


And how do I communicate our opposition? As I stated before: Twitter is not your friend. Facebook is not your friend. They are on the other side. Already on Twitter, many left voices are being muted or removed. It takes weeks sometimes to fight to get them back and some don’t ever come back.

We have been groomed into a false belief that Facebook and Twitter are benign, simple communication tools for us all to enjoy, but the minute the Tory government faces real opposition Twitter and Facebook will tighten their censorship and control. They may well even be removed. These media organisations know what we are thinking and planning, and they know about everyone you communicate with and they share that information with the Tory government.

Gordon Liddle was born 1956, Horden, County Durham, United Kingdom Married, lives and works at his Derbyshire studio. BA Hons, Sheffield Psalter Lane Art College Gordon has had numerous positions and travelled extensively through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Africa and Europe, with particular interests in religion, democracy, politics, economics, MMT, and culture. The results of these studies form the basis of the series of works now under way. Numerous works bought by private collectors #Madonna Victorian Mood Bought by Andrew Cavendish the 11th Duke of Devonshire is owned by the Chatsworth Collection. ‘Celestial Teapot’ was exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London for one week in 2013, 4 days at Art Basel in 2014. Currently working on Gaia, The Sixth Extinction Series, of paintings, woodcuts and hopefully etchings soon. Also writing two books and a book of poems and rants. Gordon is on Twitter @sutongirotcip and his website is pictorignotus.com 

Poem of the Month: The Gallower

By Gordon Liddle

My Grandfather’s nickname was The Gallower (pit pony). First day down the pit at 14, working miles out under the North Sea in a 22inch seam with a wheeled tub tied to his leg. Lost part of an ear in a tunnel collapse. I used to help him with his allotment and he taught me gardening. He was as hard as nails. Made my Aunt (his daughter) cry.

My grandfather on his first day down the pit, with his father

The Gallower

Nana at the dolly bashing it with vim

steam in the kitchen          stewing beef in the range fire banked,         warming 

the stoneware hot water bottles

                        ready for the night

Black lead and scrubbing soap stone on the front step coal in the ‘hole   delivered      once a month.

                        A miner’s due

Geraniums on the windowsill

            Scarlet red flowering          or lemon scented white plastic cups speared with

            cuttings for next year

Blackclocks on the floor

            Nana hates the little buggers scuttling across the carpet  but they don’t squash,            they crack                and when chucked on the embers                          they sizzle and pop

The whole house revolves around 

                                    the fire in that grate

            Grandad’s meat and gravy                      warming in the cast oven heated by the coal                                      that same black gold  

                                    that he spent a lifetime digging out

                                                deep from under 

                                                            the North Sea

Same meal   every day,  meat and gravy,   

                        dipped with brown bread

served            on a stool by his chair

                                                that chair,

                                     no-one else allowed sitting there

Then a pipe              after the meal         walnut plug tobacco,                      cut with a penknife from the chunk

rolled in hands blue scarred        the miners tattoo                           and smoked with big blue wisps

washed down, 

                        with a glass of Old Navy Rum

If I was sat near as a child he’d reach to a jar on the mantelpiece  and I’d get one of his treats        ‘Here you are ‘buggerlugs,            a black bullet to suck.

                                    This’ll keep it shut for five minutes’.

He’ll be home soon, hour or so              but      for now he’s down the allotment                  sucking on his pipe

Granddad growing rhubarb

                                    by the compost heap

dibbing cabbages and leeks,       each leek      with a bottomless jam jar rammed in the soil                  for watering             and feeding                

                                                                        direct to the roots

                                                  the only way to grow prize vegetables

Tomatoes on benches in the greenhouse

            armpit shoots                                  rubbed off every time he passes

pinched out with a grime engraved finger and thumb

That greenhouse  a greenhouse like no other

a collection of coloured old doors and glass

            blue   green             red                  paint peeling           yet,                   to me,            as a child

                                                                        a cathedral

the stained glass windows

             as evocative as

                        those in Durham 

or the rose window at York Minster

When I wanted to be alone I’d visit the allotment

            take the key from under the brick

and sit on the bench in the greenhouse  basking in the heat

of what I thought was the tropics         imbibing the scents of his labour

                        My Grandad

A proud man,

conscious of his place

 a pitman through circumstance  not          from choice.

Proud of the graft he’d given to the pit

proud of that record

                        9th May, 1930

                        six thousand, seven hundred and fifty eight tonnes  mined

             in one day   from Horden pit     a  record that stood for thirty years              in a pit eventually closed 

                                                                        by a grocers daughter

He never missed a shift even after        on one occasion     buried  under a roof collapse

dug out by his marra’s

                        missing part an ear                                    and with a wound to his leg                                  that suppurated for twenty years after

Deaf from the constant noise of the pit that left him separated from us all

                        but still defiant,       

his pride

                                    took a blow when

             a few years before he expected

   the pit made him redundant     and from that day

he never walked by that street again

So,      after the work down the garden           a slow stroll home via the comrades club 

                                    for six or seven pints

and some crack about leeks

and how it’s bloody obvious that digging in straw 

                                                            helps the ‘taters

If talk comes round to the pit

             Granddad up and leaves

carrier bag full of greens

            for nana and the kids

When I was young, the door never had a key, nor even a lock.             

ten years after the grocers daughters betrayal, mine was closed, my visit 

            revealed a lock

                        a burglar alarm and grills on the windows

A community destroyed

            and                 a confused old man

The things that linger most to me

                        of the both of them

are the smells they left behind

            Walnut plug tobacco         and fresh picked tomatoes

Nana’s piny smelling of flour and baking

                                    rock buns and stotty cakes

The smoke from the fire  fresh greens and stewing meat rice pudding with carnation milk

                        thick skin on top                             with a touch of nutmeg

                                                and scented geraniums

Gorden Liddle

Gordon Liddle was born 1956, Horden, County Durham, United Kingdom Married, lives and works at his Derbyshire studio. BA Hons, Sheffield Psalter Lane Art College Gordon has had numerous positions and travelled extensively through the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Yemen, Lebanon, Bahrain, Africa and Europe, with particular interests in religion, democracy, politics, economics, MMT, and culture. The results of these studies form the basis of the series of works now under way. Numerous works bought by private collectors #Madonna Victorian Mood Bought by Andrew Cavendish the 11th Duke of Devonshire is owned by the Chatsworth Collection. ‘Celestial Teapot’ was exhibited at La Galleria Pall Mall in London for one week in 2013, 4 days at Art Basel in 2014. Currently working on Gaia, The Sixth Extinction Series, of paintings, woodcuts and hopefully etchings soon. Also writing two books and a book of poems and rants. Gordon is on Twitter @sutongirotcip and his website is pictorignotus.com 

Gordon as a young man in the Yemen

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