This week: Starmer is repeating Biden’s mistakes; an update on my writing; The Spike-related links; and the inspirational “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33”.
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If Nigel Farage becomes the next Prime Minister, it will be entirely Keir Starmer’s fault.
Despite the fact the electorate spoke clearly they did not want any more of the Tories, Starmer has seemingly decided it was only their ineptitude and corruption we didn’t like, and actually we wanted to keep their policies.
He is very, very wrong.
In first and third places of voter priorities ahead of the 2024 general election were “the cost of living” and “the economy in general”. Labour claim they’re being fiscally responsible after the mess left by the Tories, but they have completely missed the point.
Most people are fed up of struggling. Many have been kidded by the right wing machine to think illegal immigrants are getting all the money, stealing people’s jobs, jumping the queue for houses.
These lies do not stand up to scrutiny. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for benefits. They can’t legally be employed.
I’ve referenced this report by the Equality Trust before, but this paragraph hasn’t lost any impact:
By 2023, the richest 50 families in the UK held more wealth than half of the UK population, comprising 34.1 million people. If the wealth of the super rich continues to grow at the rate it has been, by 2035, the wealth of the richest 200 families will be larger than the whole UK GDP.
They also reported on a 1000% increase in billionaire wealth between 1990 and 2022.
That’s not a typo, that is one thousand percent.
Between 2020 and 2022 alone, billionaire wealth increased by almost £150bn… whilst food bank usage continues to increase, 3.9m children are living in poverty and 6.7 million households struggle to heat their homes.
Split that £150bn between the 6.7 million struggling to pay their energy bills, and that’s another £22,388 each, over just two years.
How much difference did that £150bn make to the lives of the billionaires? Negligable.
How much difference could it have made to the lives of the poorest? It would be life-altering.
People voted for Trump, twice, as a protest. They feel the “system” is rigged against them and they want to bring it down. They’re not wrong in that desire, but Trump is a false idol. He somehow convinced them he was one of them, when in fact he’s one of the elites who’s been stealing from them for years.
Joe Biden knew what was obvious to many of us – that Trump is dangerous – and he put his faith in the system to protect everyone from the wannabe-dictator.
But neither he nor Kamala Harris could sell that because the system is broken.
Since Trump and Musk took power and began dismantling the government, there’s been a groundswell of support for Bernie Sanders, a previous Democratic Party presidential candidate who has been telling everyone for years that the political system is rife with corruption and that inequality is out of control.
The right paint him as an extremist for believing no-one should be sipping champagne on their $50m yacht whilst millions are living paycheque to paycheque.
He’s not an extremist. He is the anti-establishment, anti-corruption campaigner Trump claims to be.
The press in the UK is mostly right wing, and it seems Starmer is trying to appease them by being Tory-lite. Mo Salah has spent more time on the left wing than he has. But this will never work because he isn’t a Tory. The likes of the Daily Mail and the Daily Express will never support him, no matter how much he panders to them.
Starmer cannot win the press. He’s already losing the people.
He can’t bank on the anti-Trump sentiment that recently defeated the right wing in Canada and Australia. Farage is famously a Trump sycophant but it (somehow) isn’t hurting his results at the moment.
Starmer’s only hope to avoid an historic defeat in the next general election is to pivot hard and at the very least make it look like he’s trying to change the system that’s currently designed to take from the poor to give to the rich.
Will he?
progress_report
This week, I resumed work on the series bible for The Spike. After a couple of days, I realised the way I’d set it up wasn’t great, and that I was making it awkward for myself to find the information later.
That’s when I decided to scrap it and start all over again.
I’ve designed a spreadsheet that I can plug the information into and I think it should work nicely. I’ve gone through the prologue of Volume 1 and added everything that is or could be relevant. Hopefully it won’t take too long as it isn’t the most fun writing-related task, but it is necessary (see last week’s blog for why).
status.vol2
The Spike Volume 2 will contain three separate books from the perspective of seven characters.
Draft 2 is complete!
I’ll go through my revision plan in a future blog.
The ultimate aim is to have Volume 2 finished by the end of 2025 for publication early 2026.
connecting_links
The Spike is set in our world, incorporating real events; the links below are relevant to the themes and overarching storyline, and may or may not provide clues to the direction of the series.
I do not necessarily agree with or endorse any of the views within.
Sea bass in space: why fish farms on the moon may be closer than you think
UK experiments to reflect sunlight one step closer
‘It cannot provide nuance’: UK experts warn AI therapy chatbots are not safe
weekly_inspiration
Every week I share something that’s inspired my creativity.
This week, I’ve been playing one of the early game of the year contenders. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is stunning in almost every way.
I won’t go into details here because I’m considering writing a full piece once I’ve finished it, but I do want to give special mention to the hybrid combat system: it’s turn-based with timed button presses to dodge or counter. It works fantastically and should be copied far and wide. The first X-COM clone that can incorporate this and make it work will be huge.
What’s inspired you this week? Please share in the comments.
See you next week.
Arrowmaker Books 