December 2022

‘Mass delusion’ is among the many labels that have been attached to Donald Trump’s rule and the support for him by tens of millions of Americans. But what about the delusion that affects the vast majority of the world’s population? They believe it’s natural and inevitable that millions should suffer grinding poverty while the 56,000 wealthiest people on the planet own assets three times as large as those of the poorest half of humanity combined .

There’s nothing natural/inevitable about this at all. We can fix it but only if that majority comes together to set up a system of common ownership and voluntary cooperation with free access to the abundant goods and services the world could provide..

Grimly facing drought, hosepipe bans, wildfires and yet another heatwave? You won’t be comforted to know that ‘greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level and ocean heat content all reached record highs in 2025’ (phys.org). European rivers are at record lows. The US has had its hottest July on record, as has the Sahel, Central America, France and Spain. And don’t stock up your freezer with ice cream because you could soon be facing rolling energy blackouts.

It’s not all bad news though. Water company bosses are still getting bonuses, oil companies are cashing in like never before, and tech stocks are going stratospheric.

Still think capitalism is humanity’s best hope? We say it’s time to consider the alternative.

Infantino’s “shabby, opaque, backroom deal” apparently prepared in secret with private capital is ditched after UEFA and others statement that “demonstrated to FIFA’s President that football is not for sale”.

Hang on!! Football was sold long ago and is increasingly organised to suit pay-to-view media. This explains why fans of EPL and EFL teams now ‘benefit’ from league matches on any day from Friday to Tuesday at kick-off times to suit the TV schedules (and bugger the away fans!). This is also why the mis-named Champions League has so much group-stage dross (similarly for the Copa Libertadores) to plug so many mid-week gaps.

Sadly, the sport I love is now just an interlude between ads for bookies.

You might expect that a walking trail called the Severn Way would largely be alongside the river from which it takes its name. But in fact most of the section between Shrewsbury and Telford is not along the river at all.

This is just one illustration of the extent to which there is a lack of public access to river banks in England. In almost three quarters of cases, there is no right of way within a hundred metres of the river, with most reservoirs and lakes also being off-limits.

Private ownership of land drastically restricts people’s ability to enjoy the countryside (not just rivers) and seek some relief from the recent heatwaves.