Category Archives: Self Propelled 2026

Are We the Baddies? Gaza, Power, and Complicity

Warning: this blog post contains images and descriptions some people may find upsetting – not just pensioners holding provocative cardboard signs, but also reports involving a child allegedly tortured by Israeli forces.

Yesterday 19 people were arrested for holding signs saying “I oppose genocide, and support Palestine Action”, outside New Scotland Yard in London. The MET police made the arrests despite the High Court ruling the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was unlawful, and ordering the proscription be quashed.

I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action. — Protestors outside Scotland Yard 28 March 2026

Our Government is appealing against the High Court decision, meaning the proscription may stay in place for many more months pending a decision.

Meanwhile, the people of Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and many other areas of the Middle East continue to suffer and die at the hands of Israel and the United States. The Labour Government and many politicians from other parties are complicit in this, in the genocide in Gaza, in Israel’s colonialist expansionist policies, in the bombing and shooting, the starvation, rape, torture and countless human rights abuses and war crimes. The Palestinian people continue to suffer and die, whilst we continue to supply arms and intelligence to the State of Israel.

A few days ago, Jawad Abu Nassar, a 22 month old toddler, was returned to his family allegedly bearing the marks of torture – as reported by Sky News and other news outlets (https://news.sky.com/story/gaza-toddler-released-from-israeli-custody-with-suspected-torture-wounds-13525011). Israeli soldiers allegedly burnt him with cigarettes and inserted a sharp object into his leg, when they took his father into custody accusing him of being a Hamas operative. Whether the father was a Hamas operative or not, the torture of anyone, especially young children is abhorrent and a war crime.

Jawad Abu Nassar retured to his family bearing marks of torture — Jawad Abu Nassar returned to his family

Since the horrific atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th, which can in no way be excused, the State of Israel has murdered an estimated 20,000 children in Gaza according to various sources. Two days ago Unicef reported 121 children have been killed in Lebanon since Israel invaded, with another 370,000 children displaced. These are just the figures for children.

Bodies of murdered Palestinians, including children, in Gaza. Source: ABC News

Meanwhile, in Iran, an alleged American missile hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school killing at least 168 people, including about 110 children according to Iranian officials and early reports. The girls’ school was hit by a Tomahawk missile, according to military experts. At time of writing this remains under investigation, but if the US did bomb this school, after using AI to identify targets, then it must constitute a war crime.

A handout picture released by the Iranian foreign media department of graves getting dug for the victims of a strike on an elementary school.Credit...Iranian Foreign Media Department, via Reuters — A handout picture released by the Iranian foreign media department of graves getting dug for the victims of a strike on an elementary school.Credit…Iranian Foreign Media Department, via Reuters

Since 07 Oct 2023 over 1500 healthcare workers, that’s doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff, have been killed in Gaza, according to UN and humanitarian reporting. They are still being killed, detained and in some cases allegedly tortured by the IDF. On 23 March the Guardian reported the killing of a volunteer ambulance driver, Abed Elrahman Hamdouna, a father of seven. Since the alleged ceasefire in October 2025 at least 677 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF, and a further 1,800 injured, with Israeli strikes continuing to average around 10 strikes a day, and continuing to shrink the territory Palestinians are allowed in.

Abed Elrahman Hamdouna, a volunteer ambulance driver in northern Gaza, killed in a drone strike

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/mar/23/gaza-ceasefire-paramedic-father-killed-civilian-death-toll

This is not a ceasefire. This is the continuing destruction of Gaza. The systemic eradication of Palestinian lives, culture, infrastructure, history and way of life. This is what many experts, legal scholars and human rights organisations have described as genocide, and it is now the subject of international legal proceedings..

Reporters are not safe either. Israel very nearly killed a British Journalist, Steve Sweeney, and his camera man in southern Lebanon a couple of weeks ago. He was reporting on the displacement of over 1 million people due to the Israel invasion, bombing, and drone attacks. He claims the IDF are trying to silence any journalists reporting Israeli war crimes.

Israel was successful in killing three journalists, one of whom they state, with no evidence, was a member of Hezbollah. Ali Shoeib, a well known reporter, was killed in the town of Jezzine alongside reporter Fatima Ftouni and her brother, cameraman Mohamed Ftouni. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists 129 journalists were killed in 2025, a record high. Israel is responsible for two-thirds of these deaths.

Fatima Ftouni and her brother Mohamed Ftouni, killed in an Israeli Strike — Fatima Ftouni and her brother Mohamed Ftouni

Meanwhile, in the West Bank Israeli settlers continue to illegally take Palestinian land, burn their farms and olive groves, to intimidate and murder families. One family, travelling in their car in the town of Tammun were shot at by Israeli forces. The mother, father and two of their children were killed. Two other children survived with minor injuries and no doubt life long trauma. Palestinians report that settler violence is increasing, with more homes being burnt and people killed, whilst soldiers do nothing or actively support settlers. The BBC recently reported on the increasing violence:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c747x00m83vo

The stealing of land from Palestinians, the continuous harassment and murder, is illegal under international law and has been equated to ethnic cleansing. International Genocide scholars have largely agreed what is happening in Gaza equates to genocide. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, and Yoav Galllant, the Minister for Defence, for war crimes including using starvation as a weapon, and the crimes against humanity of murder and persecution.

Many Jewish people around the world are appalled at what the State of Israel is doing, and yet, calling it out, criticising the regime, gets you labelled as being anti-semitic. The conflation of anti-semitism with being against the what the State of Israel is doing to Palestinians, and now Lebanese and Iranian civilians, is a problem. One should be able to criticise a government for war crimes, for genocide, without being labelled a racist or anti-semite.

The issue appears to stem from zionism, the Oxford dictionary definition for which I’ve included below:

1) a movement for (originally) the re-establishment of a Jewish nation in Palestine and (now) the development and protection of Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.

Zionism seems to have morphed from what was originally a valid objective for a Jewish State, into an ideology that now refuses to accept any criticism, and countenances the murder of innocent men, women and children and the theft of their land. From the very beginning the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 by colonial powers was fraught with peril, as it had to involve taking land from Palestinians.

Given historical events and the persecution and murder of Jewish people for centuries it is little wonder that many Israelis feel threatened, however to react with ever increasing levels of violence, and to commit genocide, cannot, in my opinion, be excused. And to criticise their actions in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran is not, in my opinion, anti-semitic. It has been argued that Israel’s actions have increased anti-semitism globally, with more Jewish people being persecuted as a result. Any true anti-semitism, as with any forms of racism, is completely unacceptable and should be called out and resisted at all times. However, are we seeing the classic case of the horrifically abused becoming the abuser, and as a result the endless cycle of violence in the Middle East will continue?

At the Green Party conference this weekend Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist and activist, raised a motion to class zionism as racism. Due to the actions of a minority taking part in the online conference the motion did not have time for discussion, despite a heart-wrenching speech from Lubna – filibustering and protocols I don’t understand meant this important issue was sidelined.

I am writing this from the comfort of my kitchen, acutely aware of my privilege as a white middle-class male in one of the richest and safest countries in the world. Yet even in the UK we are at risk of being dragged further into conflicts in the Middle East, as Starmer seeks to placate the child-like Trump and his urges. Our right to protest continues to be eroded by this Labour government, as they carry on where the Tories left off making it more and more difficult to protest against genocide without being arrested. And the Palestinians continue to suffer and die, forced into massive tent camps in Gaza which are regularly flooded or afflicted by dust storms – some children, those that have survived to date, may not remember it ever being any different.

Dust storm hits tent camp in Gaza, source Ibrahim A Qudeih

There is resistance, from ordinary people like the 19 who were arrested for holding signs opposing genocide outside New Scotland Yard, from the Green Party and other politicians with morals such as Clive Lewis. Around 500,000 people are reported to have marched in London this weekend versus the far right and supporting Palestines right to exist. People around the world, including in the US are demanding change and an end to war and the killing – No Kings rallies across the US this weekend saw around 8 million people protesting versus Trump.

“Trump wants to rule over us as a tyrant. But this is America, and power belongs to the people – not to wannabe kings or their billionaire cronies,” organisers said.

No Kings rally in US - Source: BBC — No Kings rally in US – Source: BBC

Groups like Draw a Smile are raising funds to buy food and supplies for children in the camps in Gaza, working with IIbrahim A Qudeih and his family to bring much needed relief, and a bit of hope and joy. Please consider donating to Draw A Smile via the links below, and following them on social media:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569809867457
Go Fund Me – https://www.gofundme.com/f/7nryrd-draw-a-smile

As I sit here, I wonder how Starmer and his cabinet can continue to support Israel and the US in what they are doing – and have done – in Gaza. I want to know why our foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, thinks it’s right to continue supplying arms and intelligence, and to allow the use of UK bases for actions that result in civilian deaths.

I know Labour and other political parties receive donations from individuals and groups who support Israel. But where is the line? When did they lose their sense of right and wrong? Why do they think it is acceptable to support a regime accused of killing and mistreating children?

I do not excuse the actions of Hamas, nor the Iranian regime, nor any group responsible for violence against civilians. But holding your enemies to account is easy. Holding your allies to account is what actually matters.

I thought Israel was supposed to be better than that. An ally. A “civilised” country.

But then again, perhaps that’s the point.

There’s a famous sketch where two soldiers slowly realise something is wrong. They look at their uniforms, their symbols – the skulls – and one of them finally asks:

“Are we the baddies?”

It’s funny because it’s absurd.
It’s uncomfortable because it isn’t.

Because no one ever thinks they are the villain.
Not governments. Not armies. Not the people who support them.

And yet here we are.

So maybe the question isn’t rhetorical anymore.

Are we?

If you want to join the resistance, check out these pages:

Lift the Ban – https://actionnetwork.org/forms/everyone-day-lift-the-ban-april-11th-2026/

Defend our Juries – https://defendourjuries.net/

Take Back Power: https://takebackpower.net/

The Walk Into A&E That Might Have Saved My Life

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Ten days ago, on a chilly Sunday evening, I stood outside the doors of Norfolk & Norwich A&E trying to decide whether to go in or not.

That decision may well have saved me from a heart attack.

My chest had been hurting again, but I’ve only just turned 50 and consider myself fairly fit, walking several kilometres most days. Maybe it was just indigestion, or even just in my head. Still, the symptoms had been getting worse for a while and I was on the list for a referral to cardiology, so I took the plunge and walked in.

From the moment I stepped through those doors, I was treated quickly and thoroughly. The reception staff in A&E gave me an ECG immediately and took my blood pressure. I’ve had high blood pressure for several years and take medication for it, though it was within normal parameters that evening. After being checked in and given a wristband I was directed to Ambulatory Majors, where they deal with serious but non-life-threatening conditions requiring same-day assessment, treatment and diagnosis. At that point I was still hoping I’d be checked over and sent home.

What followed, into the early hours of Monday morning, were blood tests, a chest X-ray, and a CT scan the following afternoon. The contrast dye they use really does make you feel like you’ve wet yourself. I’d never had a CT scan before; it was very Star Trek. I’m fairly sure at one point they reversed the polarity of the neutron flow or vented the plasma ducts.

I also had an echocardiogram to check my heart valves and rule out the frighteningly named “dissected aorta” – thankfully all clear.

Portable heart rate monitor - all good — Portable heart rate monitor – all good

Possible causes for my aching chest were gradually being ruled out, but due to my medical history they weren’t taking any chances. I had a catheter ablation several years ago to fix a tachycardia, which is where your heart rate suddenly increases for no apparent reason. Back then my heart rate would shoot up to well over 120 beats per minute even when I wasn’t doing anything. When they fixed that – by burning out a dodgy nerve pathway – they also discovered I have a bicuspid aortic valve. These aren’t that uncommon, but they can wear out more quickly. Fortunately these days they can replace them, which is pretty groovy.

Hospitals can be tedious places, with little in the way of privacy and a lottery when it comes to ward mates. I must admit to thinking at one point, after getting no real sleep on Monday night and very little on Tuesday night due to a disruptive patient, that if I wasn’t ill before I was admitted I would be by the time I left. I’m also pretty sure everything in hospitals is designed to beep, often seemingly at random.

About to go for a angiogram, dubious hair

Finally, on Wednesday afternoon I had an angiogram. The doctors found that my Left Anterior Descending artery, often nicknamed the ‘widow-maker’ when severely blocked, had significantly narrowed, somewhere between 75% to 95%. That was a bit scary.

During the angiogram they inserted a stent to restore blood flow. This involves inflating a tiny balloon inside the artery, pressing a metal mesh stent into place. The stent acts like permanent scaffolding to keep the artery open. Seeing the before-and-after images was startling, as was the overwhelming sense of relief.

Throughout my stay I was treated with courtesy, patience and good humour by an incredibly professional, hardworking and kind group of staff from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities. I don’t think our NHS could function without international workers filling roles across the board. The level of care was outstanding.

I even enjoyed the food (the jelly and ice cream in particular took me straight back to childhood). Behind the scenes you could see just how hard the staff work, often covering 12-and-a-half-hour shifts. I suspect the only way they get through it is by supporting one another with camaraderie, kindness and care.

Hospital food can be quite beige, and orange. Salmon crumble was nice.

I want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone at the N&N – from those first moments in A&E to being handed my discharge papers and medication. And thank you as well to the friends who came to pick me up.

The NHS is not broken. It is full of skilled, compassionate people doing extraordinary work under pressure. What it needs is proper support and funding, and leadership that understands its value. It definitely doesn’t need to be further privatised. We’ve already seen what that has done to other essential services like water companies. And an insurance-based model would exclude many people who need care, as we see in the United States.

I got home last Wednesday night, and I’m now a week into recovery. I went back to hospital on Monday because my chest was hurting again, which apparently can happen. Sometimes it can even feel worse than before a stent is inserted because the artery has been stretched and the stent is settling into the vessel wall as it heals.

It’s getting better, though it still aches and twinges. I’m trying to get out for a short, slow walk every day – which is pleasant now that the weather is improving and the blackthorn blossom is out.

Finally, if your chest is hurting — don’t ignore it. Get it checked.

I was lucky. I avoided a heart attack this time. Others on the ward were not so fortunate and now face life with permanent heart damage.

If something doesn’t feel right, go and get help. It might save your life.

Rage Is a Rational Response

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It’s February, and I’m still consumed by rage – with a generous side-order of despair – at our direction of travel. Are we really this stupid? Are we genuinely going to let a tiny proportion of the world’s population completely screw the rest of us over?

Last week I wrote about the government report on the risks of ecosystem collapse to national security. The report was finally released in January, but accusations abound, including from The Times, that this is not the full version. Some of the most worrying conclusions, particularly around food supply chains and geopolitical instability, appear to have been quietly redacted. Hardly in the public interest. And, as mentioned last week, all very Don’t Look Up.

I also wrote a letter to several regional newspapers on the subject, which was published today in the heady heights of the Sunderland Echo.

It’s also appeared in the Eastern Daily Press, Derby Telegraph, Leicester Mercury, and a few others – and, unlike the government report, it hasn’t been redacted. For some reason the Daily Mail hasn’t picked it up yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

Our excessive lifestyles are driving global heating. Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, and the climate and nature crises are accelerating, catalysed by feedback loops that are pushing us over, towards – or dangerously close to – irreversible tipping points. When I say “our excessive lifestyles”, I mostly mean the richest 1% of the global population, who are responsible for a grotesquely disproportionate share of emissions and pollution. According to Oxfam, they emit as much as the poorest 66% — around five billion people.

And even within that 1%, things get worse. A tiny subset – the top 0.1% – is responsible for a massive share of those emissions again, thanks to private jets, yachts, multiple mansions, and lifestyles so carbon-intensive they should probably come with a health warning for the planet.

In other words, a microscopic number of people are wrecking the climate for everyone else.

Group	Approx % of Global Population	Approx % of Global Emissions
Bottom 99%	~99%	~(~84% total, much of it very low per person)
Top 1%	~1%	~16–17% total emissions (Oxfam International)
Top 0.1% (subset of 1%)	~0.1%	A very large share of that 16% — maybe several % of total emissions just from this tiny slice (per high-emitting daily footprints) (Oxfam International)
Top ultra-rich / Billionaires	<<0.1%	Extremely high emissions share per capita (data vary) (Oxfam America)

What makes this even more obscene is that while countries like the UK are somewhat insulated from the worst impacts of climate breakdown, it’s poorer countries that are already bearing the brunt: floods, fires, crop failures, heatwaves, and displacement. I say “somewhat insulated” deliberately. We’ve already felt the impacts here over the past few years, and they’re accelerating.

If the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) slows down and stops, as recent research warns it might, the UK will experience far colder conditions alongside extreme weather, making food production incredibly difficult. This is not something we should be sitting comfortably about. It could happen within our lifetimes.

So yes, a small percentage of the world’s elite – the super-rich who control the media, politics, economies, and militaries – are conning us. For years they tried to hide it. Corporations shifted responsibility onto individuals: BP invented the personal carbon footprint calculator; airlines peddled dubious offsetting schemes. But now many of the conmen aren’t even pretending anymore, openly lusting for more power and levels of wealth I can’t even comprehend.

Trump openly told us Venezuela is “about the oil”. An increasingly likely conflict with Iran would be too. Greenland? Rare earth minerals. Netanyahu and Trump have both fantasised about turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” – built on the blood, bones, and bodies of Palestinians, thousands of them children. It’s immoral. It’s grotesque.

We’re in the middle of a pandemic, but not COVID, Ebola, or anything biological in the usual sense. This one often presents as a middle-aged or elderly white man with obscene wealth and a messiah complex. A tiny clique with so much money and influence they can bend even well-meaning politicians to their will through donations, threats, blackmail, litigation, and lies.

You see it constantly with oil and gas giants. Their lobbyists meet ministers hundreds of times a year – a level of access completely unavailable to ordinary people. And that access isn’t accidental: it’s transactional.

It’s not just oil and gas. It’s billionaire media barons like Murdoch, pulling the public’s strings while extracting enormous political power. No UK government in recent history has been elected without Murdoch’s blessing. It’s arms manufacturers profiting from wars they often help create through political and media influence. And behind it all sit the financiers and investment firms, funding corruption, death, division, and lies – all to keep shareholder payouts flowing and the illusion alive that they’re “on our side”.

They’re not.

Epstein is one of the most flagrant examples of how far this rot goes. How deep does the abuse run? How far does the money trail stretch? Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been outed. Peter Mandelson has been exposed for accepting money and handing over state secrets. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Richard Branson, Steve Bannon, Howard Lutnick, Larry Summers, Brett Ratner, Ehud Barak — all appear in the files, with more names emerging all the time.

Epstein’s links to Putin, the Kremlin, and other authoritarian regimes are well documented. And then there’s Trump – already a convicted sex offender – whose Department of Justice has redacted anything remotely incriminating about him. Yet he’s corrupted the US political system to enrich himself while his ~~brown shirts~~ ICE agents round up and deport thousands, or shoot and kill innocent US citizens.

I’m not saying everyone named in the Epstein files is guilty of a crime. Some will be innocent. But there is a common thread: wealth, power, and overwhelmingly white men. And it’s telling that the only person imprisoned for what Epstein enabled is a woman – Ghislaine Maxwell – while powerful men hide behind redactions. Meanwhile, victims’ names and images are dumped online.

This isn’t justice. It’s a parody of it.

The corrupt, immoral patriarchy rules. A small cabal of the super-rich manipulates political, economic, and social systems to maintain power, controlling much of the media and warping public perception via algorithms and social platforms. The introduction of Palantir will make this worse, but that’s a topic for another day.

In the UK we now live in a surveillance state, with increasingly repressive anti-protest laws, restrictions on freedom of speech, and even the right to trial by jury – enshrined in Magna Carta – under threat. Can we really make the changes needed to safeguard liberty, wellbeing, and democracy in the face of climate breakdown, resource wars, economic collapse, and rising fascism and authoritarianism?

I see no hope in the traditional parties. Labour has reneged on promise after promise and looks set to lose badly next time around. The Conservatives have learned nothing and are racing Reform to the far right. Reform, despite its “anti-establishment” cosplay, is stuffed with millionaire MPs who broke the country, most of them ex-Tories, and now want to privatise what remains — including the NHS.

I do feel hope with the Green Party – of which I’m a member and a District Councillor. Membership is growing. Good, honest candidates are winning. Hannah Spencer stands a strong chance in the Gorton and Denton by-election. Parliamentary gains don’t feel impossible anymore. Coalition power doesn’t feel impossible. Nothing does, not with Labour and the Conservatives floundering and Reform slowly being found out.

But will it be enough?

Will it take back power from billionaires, patriarchy, and the men pulling global strings? Will it stop fascism, protect children, dismantle elite abuse networks? I don’t think it will, not on its own. The systems are too entrenched, too corrupt. Any new party entering power risks being absorbed, neutralised, or corrupted by Westminster and the global elite.

These systems aren’t reformable. They’re fundamentally broken.

Which leaves one conclusion.

We need a revolution – preferably a peaceful one, because history shows violent revolutions rarely deliver lasting justice.

Revolution is the only way to make the radical changes required for a survivable, fair, and just future: tackling the climate and nature crises, redistributing wealth, ending wars of greed, dismantling elite impunity and stopping the rise of fascism. You can already see it beginning: resistance campaigns, mutual aid, community organising, people growing food, fixing things, giving time, showing kindness under adversity.

Resistance is alive. But oppression and repression are fighting back, and the sparks of revolution must be fanned – through non-violent direct action, communication, campaigning, and community – if they are to survive and grow into a blaze that not even the billionaires can extinguish 🔥

If you want to see one example, look at https://takebackpower.net/. There are many others. And yes, consider joining the Green Party. We’ll need its people, ideas, and values for whatever comes next.

That’s all for today.

Simple, really.

We just need a revolution. ✊

For some light relief here are two pictures of Budge, the Norwich Cathedral cat who I like to visit, and one of Gideon, who runs my house. Who do you think is the most dignified?

Don’t Look Up: When the Government Finally Admits the Planet Is Breaking

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The Government has finally published a report it previously suppressed, calmly explaining that biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse pose a direct threat to national security. Which is nice of them. Always good to know when the house is on fire, even if the alarm only goes off after the roof has already collapsed.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-security-assessment-on-global-biodiversity-loss-ecosystem-collapse-and-national-security

The report itself is actually quite readable. That’s part of what makes it so disturbing. It doesn’t scream. It doesn’t rant. It doesn’t glue itself to the road or throw soup at a painting. It just politely lays out, in civil-service prose, how the life-support systems of the planet are failing, and how that might be a bit of a problem for economies, borders, food supplies, public health, and, you know, civilisation.

Critical ecosystems are at risk of collapsing

If anything, it feels conservative, which is fairly typical of government or scientific reports on the climate and nature crises. Multiple critical ecosystems – coral reefs, boreal forests, major mountain systems like the Himalayas – are expected to collapse soon. Not in 2100. Not for our grandchildren to worry about. Soon soon. Others, including the Amazon rainforest, the Congo Basin and mangrove systems, are likely to follow. Dominoes, but with forests and oceans instead of plastic rectangles.

Meanwhile, atmospheric CO₂ has reached 428 parts per million, and the line on the graph is still curving upward. That single number underpins a whole cascade of consequences: climate breakdown, ecosystem collapse, floods, fires, crop failures, water stress, resource conflicts, mass migration, disease outbreaks, and increasing parts of the planet becoming uninhabitable. From there, social instability and collapse aren’t radical ideas — they’re logical outcomes.

Much of this is already happening, of course, especially in poorer countries that did the least to cause the problem and are least able to adapt. But don’t worry – I’m sure the market will fix it. Any day now.

What’s particularly maddening is that this isn’t some unsolvable mystery. There is no missing equation. No magical technology yet to be invented by a mega-corporation keen to make an even more obscene profit. We already know what to do.

We could fly less. Eat less meat. Scale up renewable energy at speed — the way China is doing while we argue about whether onshore wind or solar is “a bit unsightly”. We could rewild vast areas of land instead of treating nature like a decorative afterthought. We could protect rivers, lakes and oceans – which might help if water companies weren’t allowed to behave like extraction businesses with a sewage fetish. Public ownership, anyone?

We could grow more food locally. Insulate our homes properly. Use public transport that actually works. Stop pouring obscene amounts of energy into data centres and AI so that a chatbot can write slightly worse emails than a human already can. None of this is revolutionary. It’s just unfashionable — and it directly contradicts the Government’s growth mantra.

There will be no growth, of money or nature, on a planet stricken by floods, fires and water shortages, or on one with finite resources that will inevitably run out, despite billionaires’ protestations to the contrary. It’s all a bit King Cnut — in fact, with a little rearrangement, that surname could apply to many world leaders and tech bros.

History remembers King Cnut kindly; he was making a point — today’s leaders genuinely expect the tide to obey.

What really blocks progress isn’t technology — it’s power. Decisions about the future of the planet are still overwhelmingly made by a small group of ageing men, many of them white, some of them inexplicably orange, who will be comfortably dead before the worst consequences arrive. They continue to gamble everyone else’s future while telling us to be realistic. At times, I genuinely wonder whether Trump’s plan is simply to burn everything down, unable to tolerate the idea of a world continuing without him.

And here’s the thing: if we fail to act, the consequences won’t land on some distant, hypothetical generation. They’re already landing. They will fall hardest on our children – many of whom may never grow old enough to reach our age, let alone retire.

But don’t worry. The plan still seems to be: carry on, extract more, emit more, suppress awkward reports, and hope no one joins the dots.

Don’t look up.

Time, unfortunately, is.

Take Back Power – join the Resistance.

The Trio of Tyranny

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I just listened to Trump justify the US invasion of Venezuela, and the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. To give him credit, at least he didn’t bother hiding his intentions: stealing the largest remaining proven oil reserves in the world. He stood there, flanked by sycophants Hegseth and Rubio, and brazenly told the world how the US will run the country “until such a time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”

I don’t know how true the accusations are that Maduro is involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, embezzlement, and election fraud. It seems entirely possible there’s a case to be made. But is it really right for “Team America: World Police” to invade another sovereign nation, kidnap its elected leader and their spouse, and kill an unknown number of Venezuelan soldiers – and possibly civilians – in the process?

I wrote this in my blog the other day:

“Fight the narcissistic, misogynist, arrogant old white men who have clawed their way to the top of the fetid political pile, treating truth, human lives, welfare, and civil rights as expendable commodities — traded for votes or simply discarded as democracy and the right to protest are eroded.”

The US actions against Venezuela — the power-gaming, the enormous armada sitting off the Caribbean coast, the overwhelming military might, including supposedly unrivalled “American Warriors” from the Department of “War” — are a very clear signal of US foreign policy going forward. And Trump isn’t even pretending otherwise. He wants to boast about it, wrapping naked imperialism in hollow words like “Peace, Liberty and Justice” — three concepts I’m not convinced he understands at all.

Referring to Venezuela, Trump said::

“Run the country til such a time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”

And referring to other dictators – or, more accurately, any foreign leader he and his administration don’t like – he added:

“What happened to Maduro can happen to them”

Trump has just seized control of the world’s largest remaining proven oil reserves and openly stated he’s sending in US oil companies to manage them — securing vast new fossil fuel supplies and obscene amounts of cash for Chevron and friends. We can’t afford to burn the oil we already have; the climate crisis is spiralling out of control. But of course, Trump doesn’t believe in that. It’s all a hoax, apparently.

He also made it very clear that the US is:

“Ready to stage second and much larger attack if needed.”

So yes — the gloves are well and truly off. If they were ever on to begin with. He’s not even trying to disguise the threats of violence anymore.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu continues slaughtering Palestinians and stealing their land, despite an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Putin continues his illegal invasion of Ukraine, with a similar ICC warrant hanging over him. At what point do we stop pretending this is normal? Are we living in some dystopian fever dream? Who, exactly, are the real criminals here?

Wanted, the Trio of Tyranny - Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, for war crimes, corruption, election fraud. — Wanted – The Trio of Tyranny

I could have limited the poster to Trump alongside Hegseth and Rubio. But it feels more honest to include his international war-criminal allies: Netanyahu and Putin. What a tight little club of ageing, authoritarian strongmen. Xi Jinping could arguably be added too, but somehow his crimes feel almost restrained by comparison. The patriarchy is alive and well.

It seems Team America: World Police is here to stay – with US foreign policy openly embracing the right to take whatever it wants, from whoever it wants, whenever it wants. The question is whether Europe will finally find the backbone to stand up to Trump, or whether we’ll continue playing the role of obedient lickspittles and sycophants.

“America, fuck yeah,

Comin′ again to save the motherfuckin’ day, yeah,

America, fuck yeah,

Freedom is the only way, yeah”

And of course, none of this would be possible without the loyal supporting cast: the allies who nod gravely, issue “deeply concerned” statements, and then quietly sign the arms deals anyway. The UK and Europe will huff, puff, and clutch their pearls – right up until Washington snaps its fingers, at which point we’ll rediscover the ancient art of obedience. It’ll all be waved away as “pragmatism”, “security interests”, or the timeless classic “we had no choice”. History, however, has an annoying habit of remembering who spoke out – and who smiled politely while the bombs fell.