People are always going on about ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing’ – but what does it mean?

Well it basically means what people believe a country should do for its citizens.

Left wing beliefs are usually progressive in nature, they look to the future, aim to support those who cannot support themselves, are idealist and believe in equality. People who are left-wing believe in taxation to redistribute opportunity and wealth – things like a national health service, and job seeker’s allowance are fundamentally left-wing ideas. They believe in equality over the freedom to fail.

Right wing beliefs value tradition, they are about equity, survival of the fittest, and they believe in economic freedom. They typically believe that business shouldn’t be regulated, and that we should all look after ourselves.

Right wing people tend believe they shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s education or health service. They believe in freedom to succeed over equality.

Left wing beliefs are usually progressive in nature, they look to the future, aim to support those who cannot support themselves, are idealist and believe in equality.

In the UK the main right-wing parties are the Conservative (or Tory) Party, and UKIP (who focus on the UK not being a part of the European Union).

They believe that if you have more money, you should get to keep it, and buy better education and health services for yourself. They believe that businesses should be less regulated, and that the more money they earn, they’ll bring more benefits to the country.

In the UK the main left-wing parties are the Labour Party and the Green Party.

They believe in making laws that protect women, ethnic minorities, and gay people against discrimination. They believe that we should tax rich people more to support people less well off, and they believe we should regulate big businesses so they serve people’s interests.

The Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) are another major party in the UK but people often argue about where they fall, politically. They have some traditionally left-wing ideas, and some right-wing ones as well.

 

Most of us in the west live in a system that makes growth an imperative; but this growth involves huge environmental threats and doesn’t improve our real well-being. To counter this we need a radical redistribution of income, within countries and between them.

Increasing incomes are not making us happier.

More important is the environmental issue: growth eats up the world’s resources and generates carbon with the inevitable and catastrophic effects on the climate.

So what is going to change with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the Labour Party?

The major challenge in the short-term is of course political.

The reality is that economic relations in the UK are becoming set in stone.

If you are a stranger to the truth here are a few facts as to why a different approach is needed.

It’s not just that the very rich no longer fall while the very poor no longer rise. It’s that the system itself is protected from risk. Through bail-outs, quantitative easing and delays in interest rate rises, speculative investment has been so well cushioned that, as financial markets are one of the last bastions of socialism left on earth.

In the UK Public services, infrastructure, the very fabric of the nation have been sold to Private Enterprise. These too are being converted into risk-free investments. Social cleansing is transforming inner London into an exclusive economic zone for property speculation.

Nor should we be surprised when governments help to negotiate, without public consent, treaties such as TTIP and CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trad Agreement, which undermine the sovereignty of both parliament and the law.

Is he going to provide effective opposition to the government and address austerity and neoliberalism as the problems, instead of whimpering about “aspiration”.

Is he going to be able to stop the conservatives squeeze themselves into the centre ground and cause the extinction of Labour in 2020.

Labour lost the last election because they failed to present a credible alternative to the government’s programme. 56% say Labour’s platform is unclear.

One thing for sure it can’t be lefte politics of envy it will have to be the politics of justice.

Labour have just realised that the public do not like the word TABLET.

If he adopts a program of building social homes he will see an electoral shift.

The biggest divides these days are cultural rather than those of class.

How can anyone in their right mind ever imagine that the Tories while in coalition with the Liberals  – who pissed away your money defending bankers’ bonuses in Brussels – have the interests of anyone other than the richest 1% at heart? There is a growing divergence between private and public sector workers and the rise in economic inequality is matched by voting trends.

Scrapping tuition fees, Trident, and nationalizing Energy, Transport, Water, are all admiral aspirations.

We all want a better lifestyle, but do our desires exacerbate global inequality? How do we know when enough is enough? The average income in the UK is around £25,000 or nearly three times the world average, and 60 times that in Afghanistan.

We have enough, but Afghanistan and  most developing countries clearly do not.  That we have enough is shown by surveys showing we – in rich countries – don’t get happier when we get richer.

In short Europe is changing right in front of our eyes. News Media Industry is all about grooming people’s attitudes and their feelings about other people and – above all – persuading people to think in a certain way.

With the influx of Refugees the EU in or out vote will be a complete fares.

Who on the left would wish to stand on the sidelines as this carve-up continues? Who would vote for anything but sweeping change?

To fail to confront this system is to collaborate with it.