Winter is coming. In more ways than one. This winter will be, politically and economically, one of the toughest in decades. It will be grim. But unlike some, I’m not heading for a survival shelter. Here’s why... theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/o…
2. Britain is in an astonishingly dark place. The rule of law seems to have broken down. While major industries and services plan to relocate because of Brexit, our governing party is engaged in endless manoeuvres around the measly careers of a few would be ministers.
3. I’m afraid the Labour Party isn’t much better. It seems to ignore both the economic perils of Brexit and major new threats of our times: dark money buying elections and online racist psy ops. Collusion between US disaster capitalists and offshore oligarchs to subvert the law
4. Caught between utopian Bennite ‘socialism in one country’ and global kleptocratic funds, the centre cannot hold. But yet... despite the rising racist attacks and stagnation of wages... mere anarchy hasn’t been loosed on the world.
5. The great historian of Hitler and Stalin, Ian Kershaw, put it best. There ARE some echoes of the 1930s at the end of the 20 teens. But so many things are different - above all nations are not militarised in the same way, and parties do not fight in the streets as they did then
6. The conflict is not so much a physical one - for territory and resources (see the stalemate in Donbas). It’s more a psychic war, for hearts and minds, and for information - because data is the new oil.
7. That’s why so much plays out on social media (and just watch everyone on the trains, pubs and streets checking their smart phones). That’s where we fight for meaning, and where we give our so much of our precious resource, our data.
8. But social media isn’t all psychometric manipulation and voter hacking. It’s also a tool for learning, forming alliances, sharing facts, arguments and organising movements like the unprecedented marches we have seen in London this year.
9. So, for all the shock of Brexit and Trump, and the egregious crimes that still go unpunished, I think they’ve woken something in a lot of people, an awareness of things we have taken for granted too long. We thought we had some kind of backstop against overwhelming corruption
10. But we don’t. The rule of law, the morality of paying your taxes, the morality of treating others decently even if they’re strangers - all these rely on us. Only we can make police or politicians enforce them. No one’s going to save us but ourselves.
11. For the first time in my life, despite some quite ‘political’ periods in the past, I now find there’s a generous spirit abroad a desire for activism and to re-engage in public life, not to just to collect private wealth or retreat into some bunker.
12. So winter IS coming. But I’m not afraid. We’ll survive it collectively. With warmth and generosity. And the narrow minded bigots, warming on hatred, really are very few in number. And soon they will come knocking on our doors, asking us to help rescue them from the storm
