The System Is Rigged - And It’s Getting Worse
Austerity, division, stolen rights, and a political machine built by the rich, for the rich
Something has gone catastrophically wrong. In the decades after the Second World War there was at least a sense of progress. Housing, wages, healthcare, education, none of it was perfect to be fair, but lives were improving. People could actually believe tomorrow might be better than today.
That belief is long gone. We now live in an age of austerity, privatisation and manufactured decline. Communities have been hollowed out, wages have flat lined, and whole industries have been run into the ground. Racism and division are dressed up as ‘common sense’ politics while rights are stripped away. Instead of hope, we are given scapegoats, someone to point the finger at, the wrong someone. Instead of solidarity, we are told to fight one another.
The Normalisation of the Unthinkable
Things once unthinkable are now spoken about openly, even in Parliament. Women’s rights are being stripped across the world. Our ability to effectively protest has been torn away from us. Racism is sharpened into a weapon by the ultra-wealthy who know that if ordinary people unite against them, their time is up. So they encourage us to blame migrants, to blame refugees, to blame anyone except those who have hoarded wealth and power.
We are even forced to debate mass deportations, and our media is helping them do it. Driving millions from the country would devastate the economy, cost billions, and could very well collapse the NHS. Yet these ideas are given legitimacy because they suit the agenda of the powerful and they generate clicks for the news websites. It is not normal, and we cannot treat it as normal.
The Union is Crumbling
At the same time, Britain clings to a union that is visibly falling apart. Scotland continues to push towards independence, driven by the recognition that Westminster cannot and will not deliver the kind of society its people demand. In Northern Ireland, demographics and politics shift year by year, pulling it closer to reunification with the Republic. And in Wales, long dismissed as quiet and compliant, there is a growing realisation that the promises of devolution were crumbs, not real power.
Westminster offers us nothing but poverty, neglect and control. The so-called ‘union’ has never been a partnership of equals. It has always been about London holding the reins, draining the wealth of the nations while pretending we should be grateful for our share of scraps. The truth is simple: the United Kingdom is not a family of nations. It is a cage, and more of us are beginning to see the bars.
The Farage Effect
And then there is Nigel Farage. A man who has been described as a coward and a rabble-rouser, who toys with racism while avoiding responsibility for the violence it fuels. He wraps himself in the language of patriotism and working-class struggle, yet nothing in his life connects him to the struggles of ordinary people. He is a multi-millionaire with European citizenship, married to an immigrant, born into privilege.
Farage’s trick is simple: he redirects anger away from the rich and towards the powerless. He tells us migrants are to blame for low wages while ignoring the bosses who exploit workers. He points at refugees, claiming they cause strain on the NHS while cheering on the governments that have underfunded it for decades. He feeds despair into division, and division into power for the far right.
And this is why Farage matters. Not because he has answers, he has none. But because he is a lightning rod for a broken system. He pretends to be anti-establishment, yet he props it up by keeping the blame anywhere but where it actually belongs. Farage is not a threat to the powerful. He is their most useful weapon.
The Theft of ‘Socialism’
Even our own language has been stolen. ‘Socialism’ has been gutted by the Labour Party, hollowed out by neo-liberals until it is little more than a branding exercise. Too many on the left have allowed the word to be softened and stripped of its teeth.
But socialism is not about managing capitalism with kinder words. It is about power: who has it, who doesn’t, and how we take it back. If we want a progressive future, we must reclaim socialism for what it really is a politics of transformation, built for people not profit.
A Broken Democracy
I am sick of pretending that the system we live under is a fair democracy. A politics where billionaires own the media, corporations bankroll parties, and the voices of ordinary people are ignored is not democracy. It is theatre. We are told to vote every few years and then sit quietly while nothing changes.
This is exactly why Reform is on the rise. People have watched Labour and the Conservatives swap power without delivering real change, and that frustration is being weaponised by the far-right. Reform thrives on the hopelessness that grows when whole communities vote and find their lives no different, year after year.
And when we ask for change, we are told it is ‘unrealistic.’ Public ownership is ‘unaffordable.’ And ending poverty is too ‘utopian.’ Yet mass deportations and endless wars are treated as sensible, serious ideas. The game is rigged, and it is rigged for the rich.
The Real Danger - Free Market Capitalism
The truth, to me at least, is clear. Free market capitalism is not just unfair, it is killing us. It has poisoned our politics, stripped our communities, wrecked the environment and left us in permanent crisis. It is the reason wages stagnate, rents rise, public services crumble, and hate festers.
We cannot tinker at the edges. We need socialism in practice. Public ownership of energy, housing and transport. Redistribution of wealth and power. International solidarity instead of war and division.
How Far Are We Willing To Go?
The system will not give us socialism willingly. The rich will not hand over their wealth. The powerful will not surrender their grip. History shows us rights are never gifted from above. They are fought for and won from below.
So we have to ask ourselves: how far are we willing to go? How far are we willing to push for a world built on justice, solidarity and freedom? Because if democracy continues to be bent and broken in service of the rich, then we cannot rule out going further.
We deserve a future worth living in. And if the system cannot give it to us, then perhaps it is the system that must go.