South West Surrey Compass

04/10/2026

Andy Burnham said this to the Labour conference last week:

"Britain has been on the wrong path for a long time. Deindustrialisation. Deregulation. Privatisation. Austerity. Brexit.
And what has it given us? A country run for vested interests. Not in the public interest. With power held in too few hands. And too many places left to drift."

I find it fascinating that he so accurately sums up causes of our problems, but then offers very little that will address them. If the country is being run for vested interests rather than the public interest, surely it is necessary to remove the influence of these vested interests from politics? That requires cutting off the money they pump in to political parties, removing their control of the media, and stopping the relentless revolving door between Whitehall and lobby groups.

If privatisation is one of the causes, then reversing it for those services such as water, rail, energy, the postal service, prisons, and probation, should be a key aim.

If austerity was a driver of immiseration and the erosion of public services, why re-introduce it under the guise of "fiscal responsibility" and accept the so-called "fiscal rules" set by previous administrations? These rules were designed to ensure the continuation of austerity and inequality.

He also mentions power being in too few hands, but how and why? Since wealth = power, the real reason is the vast level of wealth some have been allowed to accumulate and the continued operation of the wealth pump that ensures that rather than wealth trickling down, it is forced upwards. What does he intend to do to reverse the flow?

30/09/2026

Does it strike anyone else as odd that a PM with a large majority makes a speech about the changes he intends to make - but not until after the next election? Call me a cynic, but is that not just a ploy to try to get people to vote for his party? What about doing things now?

Given we are facing a financial and cost of living crisis, the threat of AI going rogue, a record El Nino & increasing climate chaos, various ongoing wars and conflicts, potential food shortages, supply chain interruptions, and a lunatic US president, among other issues, is this not a time of national crisis in which urgent actions are required?

Business as usual has dug us into this hole, and it certainly won't dig us out again. There seemed to be a glimmer of recognition of this, quickly suppressed. Instead, we are going to trundle along ineffectually for another 2-3 years, hoping that the financial 'markets' will look kindly upon whatever proposals are made. This is government by outsourcing. Decision making has been handed to a group of people whose only motivation is profit, and who take no responsibility for anything except how much money they make.

We complain about short-termism, but these people think only of the deal in front of them. They have no interest in anyone or anything beyond that. It is utterly insane, and a dereliction of duty, for our country to be governed purely to placate them.

This is like handing over military procurement to black marketeers during the war. Or instead of rationing, letting the City decide how the food is distributed, and to whom. Whatever their imagined 'expertise' these people are not possessed of the skills, experience, knowledge or understanding necessary to manage the resources of the nation for the benefit of the population. Unfortunately, neither are most of our elected representatives, it seems.

We are stuck in this impasse. The City decides what is acceptable, and remarkably, choose the policies which perpetuate the existing inequalities, the increasing affordability crisis for growing numbers of people, and the skewed distribution of resources and wealth that disadvantages so many and is the root of the political unrest we are seeing. That they are at the beneficiaries of our distorted system must be pure coincidence.

Change can only come if we break the hold of this unelected class of entitled wealth-fiddlers and replace it with government of the people, by the people, FOR the people.

19/09/2026

If you want to understand 'the economy' and in particular, where money comes from, who creates it, and who decides what it should be used for, then there are some key points to absorb.

Money is made up of
1. 3% cash (coins & notes) issued by the BoE
2. 97% digital (figures on a screen) created by
a) the government (via BoE)
b) private banks (licenced by the state)

b) is generally the larger (depending on what's going on with the economy.

Money goes through a process of creation and destruction. Banks create it when they issue loans, and it is destroyed when the loan is paid off.

The government creates it when it spends, and it is destroyed when tax is paid.

But what happens during its 'life' - i.e. whose hands it passes through, what they spend it on, what resources are used, and what the end product is (if any), are what matters.

Since banks decide who gets a loan, they have a major influence on all these life stages. More so than the government, because, in most cases, far more money is created by them than is spent by the government. If they are largely driven by short-term profit maximisation, then 'investing' in long term projects, or in small business, or in anything considered 'risky' or that lacks collateral, will mostly be avoided. This is one reason why so much of bank lending is aimed at property (mortgages). This is safe. It also explains why banks invest in fossil fuel companies, rather than creating wetlands, or rewilding.

For an in-depth explanation of private bank money, and why it represents a generally negative influence on how resources are distributed and used, this article is both readable and informative:

Here's the hard-to-get data that shows why bank money creation is so consequential

08/09/2026

Karl Polanyi, in his 1944 book, The Great Transformation, explained how the failure of governments to ensure that the economy was managed for the benefit of the majority, but instead allowed wealth to concentrate upwards to a small elite, while the rest were exploited and ignored, led directly to the rise of Fascism.

The Great Depression was a consequence of the failure to regulate finance and control inequality, and it caused massive social disruption and mass immiseration. It was preceded by a ‘gilded’ age of conspicuous consumption, extravagance and decadence in which the elite displayed their wealth, and money flowed into more and more extreme bubbles in pursuit of greater and greater gains.

We see the same patterns in 2026.

Most disturbingly, fascism is on the rise again yet our governments seem oblivious to the mistakes of a century ago and determined to repeat them. We hear the same arguments – that controlling government spending is the priority, that reducing regulation is necessary for growth, that finance must be free to move as it wishes, that taxes for the rich must be kept low, and that prosperity will trickle down to the rest from the wealthy, who are the drivers of the economy. All these arguments were used in the 1920s and 30s, and the result was disaster. Bitter experience – two world wars and the greatest depression in modern history – have proven them utterly wrong. Despite this empirical and historical evidence, governments across the Western world continue on the road to destruction.

We have had black uniformed and masked self-styled ‘patriots’ marching. We have the rise of not one but two far right political parties posing as defenders of our culture, wrapping themselves in the national flag, hostile to diversity in all its forms, and hyperbolising fears about ‘out of control’ immigration We have an openly fascist party winning elections in Germany. We have a deranged, despotic and corrupt US President, surrounded by sycophants, grifters, and authoritarian enablers. We have conflicts, trade wars and genocide taking place. There are growing numbers of countries that are either failed states, in permanent turmoil, or subject to oppressive regimes. We have politicians in the supposed leading democracies funded by the wealthiest individuals, preaching racist hatred and blaming economic problems on the poorest and the most desperate.

History is rhyming. History is rapping. History is strutting across the stage, bellowing its verse over and over in our faces and our leaders are pretending that they can’t hear.

24/08/2026

Here's the Richard Murphy infographic on Economic Gaslighting:

24/08/2026

Richard Murphy has been producing a series of infographics on the economy and political economics. He has made about 38 of them so far, on topics from "why do we need economic growth?" to "the movement of money through the economy" and "central banks", plus many others. They are worth checking out if you have any interest in how the economy operates, how economics impacts on politics, and the way that 'conventional wisdom' aka general assumptions or norms, constrain our thinking and allow us to be, effectively, gaslighted (gaslit?) by those that gain from the existing system and how it is structured.

He has three infographics specifically about gaslighting - one on political, one on economic and one on tax gaslighting. They are short and simple, but informative and easy to grasp.

Richard Murphy on developing a fairer and sustainable economy

14/08/2026

Well worth a watch. The error at the heart of Economics:

There’s a bug in the deep code of economics, and anthropology has been fighting it for over a century

10/08/2026

Compass likes to think of itself as progressive - an ambiguous term which means different things to different people. The opposite of it is, I suppose "regressive".

If progressive means wanting to create a better society, which is what Compass is about, then regressive must mean the opposite. We have several political parties that I would call regressive, and while they do not advertise their wish to make life worse for most people, the policies they advocate seem likely to do exactly that.

In the spirit of honesty, I have a few suggestions for slogans they could use:
"The Rich are inheriting the Earth. So get used to it."
"Cost of living crisis? So work harder, losers!"
"Unity in hatred".
"To the ruthless, the spoils"
"Diversity? Nein Danke!"
"Thinking is dangerous, just accept what we say."
"Stop the Clocks".
"Net Zero - not on my watch!"
"Climate change - Yes Please!"
"Reverse into the future".
"Know your place, then get back to it".
"New ideas not welcome here".
"If a job's not killing you, you must be slacking".
"Why go to Dubai when we can make a desert here?"
"Public Services are for wimps"
"Think inside the box".
"Get up and Go - No, seriously!".
"Change - just say no!".
"Advance but face backwards".
"Building a better Britain, one lynching at a time".
"The only culture is Agriculture".
"We will fight them on the beaches, we will fight them in the immigration detention centres, we will fight them in the hostels, we will fight them in the day centres and hospitals, we will never remember that it was actually about defeating fascism".

03/08/2026

Hi, I’m sure almost all of you will be aware that SWS Compass has had a storied & pioneering past - one that has earned this local group a lasting place in the hearts of our colleagues & friends leading Compass at the national level. Recent times have, however, thrown up new dynamics & some significant challenges.

So at our July meeting, we began by objectively acknowledging our recent past, also with the context of a great talk from Andy Berriman of Make Votes Matter, before turning our thoughts to setting up a vibrant new chapter for Compass in our immediate & broader area - beginning with questions of precise geography, first priorities, internal & outward communications, etc.

As Neal Lawson said in a call earlier this evening, while the real work has barely begun, Compass nationally has never had as much influence & prominence as it is enjoying right now. So this seems to be a good time to ask if you would like to take a more active role with Compass locally.

The first objective is to establish a new Steering Group that will discuss key issues & set a course for the next 12 months or so. If you are interested in being a part of this Group, we would be delighted to hear from you.

In friendship.