Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

I actually see a lot of reasons to be hopeful. I find people to be by and large kind, caring, generous and collaborative when given even the smallest chance to be so. Sure you can find daily examples of selfishness, venality, prejudice and even violent behaviour in any community but, except in rare cases, it's not chronic, it's not endemic. It certainly isn't part of who we are as a nation at heart. Though I barely see nationality as being relevant.

We are consistently fed bad information (primarily via medias owned externally) and that bad information is endlessly amplified and re-amplified in the echo chambers and silos of social media. We need to get off our screens and into the world. The joy shown by Corbyn's supporters (and maybe your SNP folks) is I think a little less about what he believes in detail and maybe a bit more to do with the simple pleasure of joining arms with other people in a public space for something bigger and more hopeful than our own private concerns and obsessions and a bit more meaningful than a rendition of Wonderwall, Angels, We Are The (Fucking) Champions or The Finest Football Team The World Has Ever Seen.

The Thatcher thing is something of a puppet show. We over-fixate on her and Blair et al. I know I do. Our biggest problem is consumption and growth and the bombardment of images and messages stimulating the consumption that the charge for growth demands. That's a way bigger problem than what colour rosettes or flags the current bunch of sociopaths who lead happen to be wearing and carrying. The most frightening thing about Cameron is that he has no ideology to speak of and does not care who knows it. He just wants to take the ship of growth forward in the same old direction, billowing out black smoke while wearing the captain's hat. I don't see austerity as ideological I see it as a result of a developmental disorder in politics and the concept of state governance as a whole. Anything and anyone is dispensable in the pursuit of growth. It's the poor and vulnerable who are getting it first because that is the "logical" place for a technocrat to start. For Cameron this is all a sideshow but with free market economics being at the heart of the status quo (for all major parties) he wont touch those particular levers any more than he is going to touch land reform. The wearing of the hat is the most important thing by far.

Speaking of the pleasure of joining arms I really liked this piece. Don't agree with all of it but the core idea speaks to me ...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/15/leftwing-evangelical-christianity-corbyn