When Chancellor John Healey, gave his pre-budget speech on 7 September, he said delivery of the government agenda was going to be hinged on "growth".
Immediately questions were raised: will taxes go up? What about the pension triple-lock? Where will the money come from for the NHS, or to raise up the one million "NEETs""? Etc., etc...
One has to wonder why Healey opened himself to all of this predictable noise. Especially since the "actual" budget will only be revealed on 28 October! Or was it "to manage expectations", given he knows that the government's cupboard is bare, in the context of a clapped-out world capitalist economy!?
The optimism of the smiling Healey certainly seemed displaced. Although it's hardly his fault that Jaguar Land Rover refuses to make its transition to electric vehicles (and Al) without attacking the jobs of 4,000 workers - just so shareholders can maintain their profits from these over-priced vehicles - which, predictably, aren't selling too well...
We know who is to blame!
But it's not just the Chancellor's false optimism which is a problem: his default position - like the rest of the establishment's political class (from right to "left"!) - is to promote a false reality, otherwise known simply, as "lying"!
Economic growth is a hope - and as the church would add, "a prayer"... given capitalism's chronic crisis worldwide. The cost of living is soaring in every country. It's worse in the poor countries where it's leading to malnutrition and starvation.
So no, this government can't offer much public expenditure and certainly not without squeezing the rich extra-hard. Will it? That hedge-fund billionaire Chris Rokos, who just fled to Greece to avoid his tax bill (last year it was £330m!) seems to think so!
Of course, the capitalist class is determined to keep its grip on its crisis-ridden system and ensure that governments are prepared to "do the necessary" to keep obsolete capitalism going.
It's no co-incidence that we're seeing history begin to repeat itself a la 1930s, with the scapegoating of "the other"; in this case, promoting hatred against "illegal migrants" and more generally, against Muslims.
Apparently, devastating Gaza and killing 73,000 Palestinian men, women and children (and injuring over 100,000) wasn't enough. The Iranians were next. And now the Israeli army is helping Jewish settlers occupy yet more Palestinian land on the West Bank. Yes - and just listen to the raised British voices,condemning Burnham's and Miliband's hesitant and mild attempt to sanction those same settlers!
Of course, claiming that they jeopardise a "two state solution" for the Palestinians, when this was already unviable, just makes Ed Miliband look even more inept. Against this, the Palestinians have long-since put forward a plan for sharing collectively the same soil and rights as the Israeli people.
And for all the rest of us on this finite planet earth, this applies too! The idea of defending divisions and boundaries ("we must control our borders" say all the politicians!), is becoming more and more obsolete. Unless we rub them all out and decide to share collectively all available resources how on earth (!) can we all survive into the future?
Boats? no, let's stop capitalism!
The "the men in black" down in Dover (and some residents in Portsmouth) - say "stop the boats". Actually, they're just echoing the words of almost all of the politicians - even if they don't put it quite the same way. As if stopping immigration is any kind of solution to the deep crisis in the capitalist system!
And it's worth saying that in fact there are no longer "safe and legal routes" for potential migrant workers from the war-torn regions of Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Iran - the list goes on - to get to Britain, where they may have the possibility of life, full stop - let alone a better life!
These guys in the balaclavas are witting or unwitting, tools - used and abused by the likes of Farage, France's Bardella and le Pen, the AfD leaders in Germany - etc - every country has them now. They even have their counterparts in the struggling countries of Africa. They want to turn back the clock to a non- existent, fantasised, bygone era.
By now, we are at a point in the evolution of society on this climate-change-ridden earth where imposing borders and boundaries is retrogressive. All resources quite obviously need to be shared among all peoples. Anyway, the system of separate national, competing capitalisms only leads to conflict. The obvious solution is to replace capitalism with a different economic system which is based on production for human need, not profit, and which is planned and organised accordingly.
Of course! And "there's the rub", as Shakespeare's Hamlet said. Because it won't happen without a revolution, which spreads worldwide. And only the working classes of this world have the means and the unselfish interest in making this happen... So, let's get to it!