Tag Archives: Take Back Power

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/

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.

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.

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.

Self Propelled

Self propelled adventures through life; blogging on cycling, touring, micro-adventures, general shenanigans, and environmental news