Many Labour Party supporters are disappointed and dispirited at the way its government is managing the system. They didn’t expect benefit cuts, ramped up anti-migrant measures and promises of no tax increases for the wealthy. As usual, any principles Labour professes when out of office go out the window once they win power and are faced with the need to keep the anarchic system of capitalism afloat.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Trying to run a system based on trade, wages, profit, and the unpredictable market is bound to leave you flailing. It needs to be replaced by a moneyless, frontierless society of free access – socialism. But the Labour Party never has been and never can be an instrument for that.

Capitalism seems to have descended from tragedy into farce. Trump climbs down yet again from adolescent posturing and cuts the China tariff by 115%. Qatar soothes and flatters him with a free 747 ‘flying palace’ for his presidential toy cupboard.

In a craven sop to Reform UK, Labour plans to ‘get tough’ on legal migration, despite its known advantages for the economy, and a looming demographic crisis. Who needs facts and statistics when scapegoats are easier? Starmer and co are pandering to populist dog whistles.

Elsewhere, autocrats offer peace with one hand and lob missiles with the other.

The deaths pile up while the profits roll in, and the rich celebrate with cocktails on their floating palaces.

A synthesis of a large number of biological studies has shown that humans are responsible for high levels of biodiversity loss (Guardian 26 March).

This decline is driven by a number of factors, namely habitat change, direct exploitation of resources, climate change, invasive species and pollution. This includes use of pesticides, for example.

A Professor of Ecology noted that many species have key roles, such as pollination and seed dispersal. They need larger populations and genetic diversity so they can continue to evolve and perform their functions that keep the ecosystem going.

Of course it is capitalism, with its profit motive and drive to expand, that is responsible for such degradation.

It may seem astonishing, but Victorian diseases such as scabies are affecting more and more people in Britain (Guardian, 3 April).

Doctors are also seeing more patients with illnesses directly related to poverty, whether due to poor-quality housing or inadequate nutrition. Also hypothermia, caused by not being able to heat their homes.

One consultant from Merseyside spoke of patients whose heath conditions ‘are worsened by damp and cold housing, where respiratory illnesses become chronic conditions’, and added that ‘We see the impact of food insecurity, where poor nutrition contributes to long-term health complications.’

So capitalism contributes to poor health and shorter life expectancy for many workers, as well as being the cause of poverty and war.