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Happy New Year

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Here’s to hoping 2026 is full of more kindness, empathy, and positive change than 2025 ever managed.

Yeah. A likely fucking story. Fuck this shit.

The Labour government in the UK has been a betrayal — yes, even accounting for media bias and the usual right-wing bullshit. With a mandate that large (even if not proportionally representative), they could have done so much better. Instead, we get this hollow, managerial nothingness. So what the hell has happened to Labour? What’s happened to democracy? To the right to protest? To freedom of speech? To simply being a decent human being?

I went for a brief walk around the local church graveyard today, on my way back from the doctors — I’ve succumbed to the traditional Christmas viral cold / bronchitis combo. The gift that keeps on fucking giving.

I love Yew trees (Taxus baccata). The berries are magnificent right now — just don’t eat them. If you do, spit out the kernels very quickly, or you’ll get very sick. Possibly dead. Nature doesn’t fuck about.

Yew Trees at Salhouse Church

There are several Yews around Salhouse Church. I often wonder whether they were there before the main church was built in the 14th century. The site certainly has older origins. Maybe it was sacred long before Christianity turned up — first to the Norse who occupied East Anglia, before them the Saxons, before them the Celts, and before that the people who left those astonishing footprints on the Norfolk coast nearly a million years ago.

Who knows what kind of religion or leadership that hominid family followed. Hopefully not the same patriarchal bullshit we’re still trapped in today.

The Yews got me thinking about rebirth as the year turns. About how they grow — sending out looping branches that strike the ground, take root, and become new trees. That process repeats over centuries, meaning that over thousands of years Yews effectively walk across the landscape, if left alone. They’re said to have walked across from America when the continents were joined. Allegedly that’s where Tolkien got the idea for Ents (thanks, Bushcraft instructor Phil – check out https://www.philbrookelongbows.co.uk/).

That ties neatly to my personal motto: Keep On Keeping On.
Be like a Yew.

We have to keep trying to make things better — not just for younger generations, who are utterly screwed as things stand, but for ourselves too. And for the climate. And for other animals, plants, birds, sea life.

What’s happening to the oceans right now is devastating: coral reefs dying, overfishing continuing, grotesque bycatch, ghost nets trapping, suffocating, killing. It’s heart-breaking.

So yes — we need to fight. Non-violently, but relentlessly. Fight for everything:

Fight the far right and hateful extremism in all its poisonous forms.

Fight the oil and gas companies making obscene profits at the expense of climate stability, nature, and human lives.

Fight corrupt governments and politicians who lie, profiteer, and mostly serve themselves. There are notable exceptions — but our own government, and much of UK politics, seems firmly lodged in the corrupt category rather than the redeemable one.

Fight media companies run by billionaire owners desperate to preserve the status quo and their hoarded wealth — whether social media giants or legacy press — pulling political strings while brainwashing us with consumerist advertising and clickbait bullshit.

Fight the narcissistic, misogynist, arrogant old white men (yes, there are women too, but far fewer) 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.

Fight banks and insurance companies that prioritise mega-corporations and polluting industries over ordinary people, worshipping shareholder profit while morality gets flushed down the toilet.

Fight the ultra-rich — the billionaires — who hold more wealth and power than any individual should, often avoiding tax while amplifying extremist views from inside their tiny, self-reinforcing echo chambers.

Fight fascism. It’s rising. The warning signs are everywhere. Thanks to my GCSE history teacher — and many books about the 1920s and 30s — for making that painfully obvious. Books are good.

Fight for those worst off: people suffering under neo-colonialism or living on the front lines of climate breakdown. They are dying because of our emissions, our lifestyles, our privilege, entitlement, arrogance, and ignorance — perpetuated by media propaganda, poor education, and comfortable denial.

Fight for Palestinians still being killed in Gaza, and in the West Bank where illegal settlements continue, aid agencies and journalists are blocked, tents sit on rubble, children starve or freeze to death.

Israel is, right now, acting as a terrorist state — and our government still supports it with arms, intelligence, and foreign policy cover. It is heartening to see so many Jewish people worldwide, including within Israel, opposing these war crimes — and to see young Israelis resisting the draft. Please support the UK hunger strikers.

Fight for the people of Sudan, where genocide continues. And for people everywhere —men, women, children — being injured, raped, displaced, and killed. Men use religion as justification, or don’t bother with excuses at all, to dominate, profit, rape, and murder as climate collapse accelerates and wars over finite resources intensify.

We do have abundant resources: sun, soil, ecosystems — if we care for them. But they don’t generate exponential profit for the already-rich, so they’re ignored. They just allow us to live.

You can’t eat money.
We could eat the super-rich, but it wouldn’t be very nutritious. Or sustainable.

Fight for refugees fleeing war, climate catastrophe, and persecution — much of which we helped create. And if you don’t like refugees coming to the UK, then fight for foreign aid instead of cutting it. Cut aid, increase refugees. It’s not fucking complicated.

Fight those putting up flags to spread hate, lies, and division — marking territory for the far right. They target migrants, refugees, LGBTQ+ people, neurodivergent people, black and brown communities — anyone they can scapegoat instead of confronting those actually responsible. They’re manipulated by toxic media and lying politicians. I do wonder how many of those politicians are sponsored by Russia, the US, or both.

Fight for women’s rights — which after decades of struggle are now sliding backwards. And honestly, given the shit job men have done for the last 2,000+ years, maybe it’s time to let women run the show properly. The Abrahamic religions certainly haven’t covered themselves in glory.

Fight for the homeless, the mentally ill, disabled people abandoned by the state while funding is slashed to build obsolete aircraft carriers and weapons of mass destruction. Fuck that shit.

Fight the cult of eternal economic growth on a finite planet. Fight airport expansion. Fight the destruction of our remaining wild spaces, waterways, and seas. Fight pesticides killing insects, herbicides and fertilisers poisoning the land. Fight unnecessary new roads — we need public transport, not more cars. Fight single-use plastic; it’s just oil-industry brainwashing again. Screw Shell, BP, Exxon, Total, and the rest of them.

There is so much to fight for. So many injustices. How the hell do people just ignore it all?

Fight “the man.”
Stand up for kindness, empathy, community, and solidarity. Grow things. Get soaked in the rain and dance anyway. Play music. Just… play.

We can resist this seemingly inevitable slide toward corporate rule, billionaire oligarchy, and societal collapse—but only if we stand up and take back power.

Resist.

People love to say they wouldn’t have stood by while books were burned, neighbours interrogated, friends dragged off to camps. Well, we’re edging frighteningly close to that shit now. Peaceful protesters in the UK are already being arrested in their homes, surveilled, raided.

Democracy, free speech, and the right to protest are being stripped away across the UK and Europe—and it’s far worse elsewhere, including the US, where armed forces are deployed against citizens by a deranged, orange, wannabe strongman and his boot-licking entourage.

So what am I trying to say?

I dunno. Be like a Yew.

Keep on keeping on.
Relentless.
Sheltering.
Regenerative.
Toxic to immoral, illegitimate power.

Work with your neighbours. Trees always do.

So yeah. Happy New Year. Roll on 2026.

And for fuck’s sake—resist before it’s too late.

Or just have a snooze as it all collpases, like Gideon.

Resist or Be Ruled: The Fight for Freedom in a Fractured World

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We Are at Risk

An existential threat looms over us — one that grows stronger every day.

The world is being divided, conquered, and exploited by arrogant men — mostly, though not exclusively, old and white — and by their allies. Trump in America, Netanyahu in Israel, Putin in Russia, Orbán in Hungary, Xi Jinping in China, Lukashenko in Belarus, and Milei in Argentina to name a few. They are supported by political movements rapidly gaining power and influence: Reform in the UK, National Rally (Rassemblement National) in France, and the AfD (Alternative for Germany) in Germany.

The institutions and laws that were created after the Second World War to safeguard peace, democracy, and justice are being eroded, undermined, and dismantled — and they were built for a reason.

The Institutions Under Attack

These include the Council of Europe, of which the UK was a founding member — a leading human rights organisation.
European integration, beginning with the European Economic Community, built prosperity and trust between nations.
NATO, designed as a deterrent to aggression from Russia, China, and North Korea — though critics argue it has also been provocative.
The European Union, founded to promote peace and democracy, from which the UK was misled into withdrawing.

There are also critical human rights protections: the European Convention on Human Rights, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Convention Against Torture, the Human Rights Act, the Equality Act, and the fundamental right to peaceful protest.
Yet these cornerstones of democracy are being chipped away by successive laws restricting free speech and dissent — the very essence of a free society.

The Authoritarian Playbook

The first step for those who seek authoritarianism — and in some cases outright fascism — is clear: dismantle or discredit the institutions that oppose them. Then exploit public anger over poverty and inequality to consolidate power. The irony, of course, is that these same leaders are the ones perpetuating that poverty and inequality. They are taking us for a ride.

Trump appears intent on destabilising Europe and the United Nations, whether by design or through alignment with Putin. Both support Germany’s AfD — a direct threat to European unity and stability. Empowering the AfD is like planting dynamite beneath the foundations of peace and democracy that have protected Europe for decades.

Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. As a narcissist, he believes his actions are justified. In the U.S., he governs by emergency decree, steadily eliminating opposition. ICE agents patrol the streets, spreading fear; the National Guard is deployed to American cities under the guise of quelling “violence.” Trump describes Portland as “war-ravaged” — yet people there post pictures of peaceful parks, open cafés, and calm streets. He claims “It’s anarchy,” though he clearly has no idea what that word means.

Trump has even pardoned far-right rioters convicted of violence during the January 6th insurrection — an armed attempt to overturn a legitimate election. If you’re violent but pro-Trump, it seems that’s acceptable. If you care about honesty, equality, and justice, you’re branded as “woke.”

The enemy doesn't arrive by boat, he arrives by private jet

The Fragility of Freedom

Everything we now take for granted — our freedoms, comfort, and relative stability — could vanish in an instant. Trump is normalising military presence on American streets, perhaps laying the groundwork to declare sweeping emergency powers, suspend elections, or bypass democratic oversight. If not him, then perhaps Vance or another successor will.

Meanwhile, in Europe, governments are suppressing protest, increasing military budgets, and pandering to Trump’s ego. China grows more assertive. Russia, vast and patient, plays the long game. The world risks being carved up by the U.S. and its allies, by China and Russia, while nations in the Global South may only influence outcomes at the margins. Africa, rich in resources, remains exploited by all — Europe, China, Russia, and the U.S.

Over it all looms the climate and biodiversity crises, driving food shortages, violent weather, floods, fires, and mass migration. These may soon eclipse every political crisis — or accelerate our slide into protectionism and authoritarianism.

Choosing Courage Over Fear

The world feels increasingly frightening – and it’s okay to be afraid. What matters is how we respond to that fear.

Do we stay silent as freedom of speech and the right to protest are eroded? As citizens are arrested for demanding an end to genocide, or for calling for urgent action on the climate and nature emergencies?

Or do we stand up? Do we engage in protest and nonviolent resistance, call out hate and lies, and demand that our politicians act? Do we build a more tolerant, inclusive, and equal society — one that dares to reform the systems that no longer serve the people?

Recently, a video surfaced of a lone woman on the Norfolk coast confronting a group erecting nationalist flags. It was a small but courageous act, especially when others have been harassed or attacked for similar resistance. She refused to be a bystander. We all must do the same.

Resistance Begins with Us

We are being manipulated — by politicians, by media, by the ultra-wealthy, and by the far right’s lies and division. Patriarchy and privilege still dominate the stage. We are told what to think, who to blame, and which words are now forbidden. Migrants are scapegoated for problems created by the powerful.

We must rebuild from the ground up — stronger local communities, solidarity, and hope. Stop consuming the propaganda of our supposed leaders. Deploy hope, not hate.

Act now, before we are convinced that 2 + 2 = 5.

Courage calls to courage everywhere