Thursday 8 June 2017

#VoteLabour

If Jeremy Corbyn wins today and I really hope he does, we will have to fight to get his policies implemented. Those dark forces backing the Tories will do their utmost to ensure that they get their way despite losing the election. A Labour win would be a massive victory for our side, but it is only the first step. We will need to keep up the pressure.
If Corbyn loses, then our task is much harder. Theresa May will wield the knife on our health and welfare and will continue to slash our public services. We will fight her and her backers.
Corbyn's campaign has been magnificent. It has touched millions of people and sparked something I have never seen in my lifetime. It has given us hope and a feeling that, yes we can change things for the better.
Whatever the outcome, I think what is needed is that we try to harness the hope and build on what  Jeremy has been saying. The problems we face are problems people all around the planet have to face. They are not problems just we in Britain face, they are International problems. We need some kind of International Corbynism. I call it International Socialism. We have to fight for that.

Monday 15 May 2017

The problem is Profit

The current valuations for oil gas and coal fossil fuel companies, are based on the denial of climate science. This science is accepted by the overwhelming majority of climate scientists.
When it dawns on most people that the science is right and the valuation of these companies becomes based on reality, not on fake news, their value will drop. Possibly, or more likely probably, to zero. It is time for all public sector organisations to divest now from fossil fuels if they want to avoid losses on investments.

The Ransom software that recently knocked out IT systems in the NHS and in organisations across the world can only really succeed because Microsoft already holds us all to ransom. If they provided the source code for their systems, then operating systems like Windows XP could be supported well beyond the date that Microsoft decides to abandon them. Patches could be applied automatically at  virtually zero cost making the recent attack impossible. The software wheel does not have to be continually reinvented. Windows XP worked perfectly well for most people and organisations before 2014 when Microsoft decided to make its (much inferior) Windows replacement its primary OS. The operating systems that replaced XP are not significantly better for consumers. Actually arguably they are worse as they include profit maximisation efforts like iTunes and the like which are designed to bring in more revenue, not to enhance the functionality of the systems.