A response to Owen Jones

Unless you've been living under an apolitical rock for the past few days, you will have heard about the infamous blog post written by fellow left-winger Owen Jones (if you haven't read it, I suggest giving it a quick read or this post may be a little bit confusing). I'm a big, big fan of Owen and have had the pleasure of meeting him and engaging him in conversation on Twitter a few times, he is someone who I have the utmost respect for. In concordance with this view, I also agree with a lot of the points he addressed in his blog post. There are questions that need to be answered in order to reassure people that they can trust Labour.

Owen makes the assumption that Corbyn will definitely win and that a snap election is very likely, this is how he defends the timing of his blog post. Indeed, it is looking extremely likely that Corbyn will win the leadership again but having voted for the losing team in the 2015 General Election and the EU Referendum, I have learned we should not become complacent.  I think he made a mistake in targeting his questions at Corbyn supporters, I understand why he did as he believes a Corbyn win is near inevitable, but I think he underestimated the influence he has. I think a more apt blog title would've been 'questions all Labour members need to answer' or something akin to that, aiming the post at Corbyn supporters makes it look on the outset like he endorses Smith - I don't believe he does as he reiterates time and time again his investment in the left's future, but I think he made it way too easy for the right to exploit this, even if unintentionally. I don't believe you should blindly support anything ever, which is why I support Owen's right to critique the left's current strategy, and I think he is right in saying that any criticisms he has would've been exploited by the right regardless of the time. However, I think addressing those concerns now when there are people being taken in by Smith could prove to be disastrous. I also think Owen's assumption that a snap election is very likely is a little bit naive, I think the PLP will only support a snap election if Jeremy wins this leadership again because they know Labour is likely to lose and then they'll definitely be able to oust Jeremy and the left. I have no doubts that the PLP would prefer a Tory government over a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn (as eloquently said by Tony Blair..).

Anyway, criticisms of the post aside. I think now what the left need to do is answer the questions Owen has put forward, if we can't answer these questions, we will never be able to bring anyone back to the left. Instead of hurling abuse at Owen for being an establishment stooge, a Blairite, a traitor, or whatever word takes your fancy, let's just answer the questions. We can't afford to let the right trip us up on any of these issues.

Questions and answers:

1. How can the disastrous polling be turned around?
Before answering this, I think we need to look at why the polling has been so disastrous in the first place. I acknowledge that Labour were lagging behind a little bit pre-coup but post-coup Labour has really taken a beating in the polls, shifting the blame for Brexit onto Jeremy united anti-Corbyn Remain voters, and the resignations in the Shadow Cabinet on top of the 172 MPs supporting a vote of no confidence in Corbyn re-ignited the fear of Labour being unelectable because a divided party does not inspire people or win elections. In addition to all of this, we are in post-Brexit limbo. Once Article 50 is triggered and the British public realise what Brexit will actually mean for the UK, they will no longer back the Tories. Furthermore, Brexit brought about a whole array of divisions amongst Tories - rehashing this debate will divide them further, and as I aforementioned a divided party does not inspire people or win elections.

In regards to turning the disastrous polling around, the trick is to refine Labour's political motives, which Jeremy has already seemed to be doing as he announced his 10 pledges today. Then from here, to publicise them. Once CLP meetings are allowed again, more canvassing and phone banks can be organised to make sure the general public are aware of these pledges.

2. Where is the clear vision?
I believe the clear vision is to try and restore faith in the apathetic and disillusioned by not being a standard career politician basing a campaign on sophistry. This could be shown in various ways, for example Jeremy has said that all Labour MPs may undergo the re-selection process in the run-up to the next election, this is evidence of democratising the party in the process of ousting corrupt MPs and it shows the importance of the Labour Party members, the importance of people, in Corbyn's movement.

3. How are the policies significantly different from the last general election? 
There are some overlapping policies, such as the banning of zero-hour contracts and a pledge to remove the bedroom tax. However, to suggest that Jeremy shares Ed Miliband's centre-left ideology is an outright lie. Ed Miliband wanted to clamp down on immigration (perhaps this was an attempt of political point scoring against UKIP), Miliband failed to offer a real alternative to austerity (he did the talk of claiming he was an anti-austerity candidate, he just failed to suggest many policies besides the Mansion tax that would help in achieving this), he abstained on Iain Duncan Smith's retroactive workfare legislation, he also appointed Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer who supported an austerity-lite agenda, austerity-lite is not a real alternative to austerity.

This is where Jeremy offers change. Jeremy has not prioritised immigration as an issue, why? Because it's not anywhere near as big an issue as the Tories would have you believe. The Tories have managed to convince people to direct their anger over unemployment and housing at the immigrants rather than where it should be directed, the top. Jeremy has time and time again reiterated that he is anti-austerity, for example, he has stated that he doesn't want to cut public expenditure. You can trust that Jeremy wouldn't whip MPs into abstaining on Tory legislations, for example Jeremy Corbyn voted against the 2016 Welfare Reform and Work Bill (whereas Owen Smith did not, funny that..), you can also trust that Jeremy Corbyn wouldn't appoint a Blairite type as his Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer - John McDonnell shares Corbyn's anti-austerity agenda, you can check his voting record.

4. What’s the media strategy? 
I agree with Owen's point here that the media is never going to support a left-wing anti-establishment candidate. However, I like Another Angry Voice's suggestion that we should mobilise Labour members in a letter-writing campaign to the BBC - they are publicly owned, they should represent the public. I also agree with Owen's point that social media is very useful, and people with bigger platforms should make use of them by outwardly supporting Corbyn.

5. What’s the strategy to win over the over-44s? 
Owen mentioned that Corbyn had said he would fight for respect for older people, he would deal with pensioner poverty, and social care, but this was the first he had heard of it. What we need to do with these ideas is publicise them, we have so many members, if we all went canvassing and took part in phone banks we could get these ideas out there. It may even be worth getting Labour members to do talks at Retirement homes to publicise these ideas.

6. What’s the strategy to win over Scotland? 
It is my view that we lost Scotland because Labour weren't offering a genuine alternative to austerity, whereas the SNP were. If we offer a genuine alternative to austerity and distance ourselves from the Tories as much as possible, we may be able to win them back. That being said, I acknowledge this will not be an easy feat as Scotland were taken for granted for years with Blairism.

7. What’s the strategy to win over Conservative voters? 
I want to say right off the bat that this should not be our priority. We do not need a move to 'radical centrism', if we make winning over the centre ground and the Tories one of our priorities, we will fall into the same patterns as Blair and Brown (it also didn't work too well for Clegg if my memory serves me well). However, 52% of Tories in this YouGov poll support renationalisation of energy and the rails which suggests that there is a unifying goal here that we can capitalise on and publicise without sacrificing the integrity and values of the Labour Party under Jeremy.

8. How would we deal with people’s concerns about immigration?
This is a question that I've thought about many times before and found it hard to reach a solid conclusion, mostly because any talk about immigration in the mainstream media seems to be based on fearmongering and lies and I think in order to address concerns about immigration, it is vital to bring this to people's attention and point out that the Tories have deliberately placed the blame on immigrants to direct the blame from the top - it's no more than a convenient scapegoat. Tory cuts have meant that poorer areas with a population increase due to migrant inflow have been under a lot of stress, and as Owen said Corbyn has spoken about reinstating the Migrant Impacts Fund. This may be a reasonable way to tackle the 'problem of immigration'.

It is also necessary to point out that if immigration is 'the problem', immigration increased massively under the Tories (the largest spike in net migration in British history) so the Tories have failed to address these concerns anyway, it definitely wasn't helped with David Cameron removing the Migrant Impacts Fund.

9. How can Labour’s mass membership be mobilised?
Canvassing, leafleting and phone banks are very popular ways of gaining support. However, we haven't massively had anything to come together for and focus on. The mayoral election brought together a lot of members and we had a Labour victory! If an election is called, we will have something to prove to  both the PLP and the voters and the mass membership would be mobilised. Furthermore, it's very difficult to mobilise yourselves when CLP meetings have been banned so as of recently it has been very difficult to organise any sort of action.

Conclusion

Owen did raise some very important questions, and they are the type of questions Corbyn supporters will be asked when canvassing, when doing phone banks, or when going door-to-door. Instead of hurling abuse at Owen for writing the blog post, I think we should do our best to answer the questions and address his concerns. All it does is make the left look weak if we can't address these concerns. I think it's clear if you read the blog post that Owen is not anti-Corbyn, I do wish he would be more forward in saying that he supports Corbyn though as, afterall, this vote is a binary choice and by not outwardly endorsing Corbyn, it looks as if he is supporting Smith and I do not believe this is the case.

Owen, who are you supporting in this election? This is very important, I think the future of the left is heavily dependent on this election, and I think you should make it clear who you are backing given how influential you are.

A very British coup

It's not even been a week since the results of the EU Referendum were announced, but in just a few short days the UK has descended into chaos. Pie Minister David Cameron announced his resignation shortly after the results were announced, then the internal divisions in the Labour Party sank to the lowest point in a very long time and it was announced that a motion of a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn was to be raised at the PLP meeting, then Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn was sacked for stating he didn't think Corbyn was up to being leader, following this the shadow cabinet lost a further 19 members, and the most recent news: 172 Labour MPs have voted in favour of the motion of no confidence in Corbyn. To be blunt, the political world is a complete shambles at the moment. I have already briefly spoken about the internal divisions in the Labour Party, but I wanted to discuss the electorate's relationship with Labour and the problems that arise from a two-party state like the UK.

The argument that we've been hearing for the past year since Jeremy Corbyn came onto the scene are along the lines of "elections are won on the centre ground" so "Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable" - but is that so? If elections are won on the centre ground, can anyone explain why the Lib Dems are yet to have won a single election? Or why Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband didn't manage to become Prime Minister? There are obviously other factors affecting election results, I'm not here to dispute that, but centrist politics are extremely damaging and a key component in creating political apathy and disillusionment.

When the two main parties are offering similar policies, we become shallow and fickle in choosing who we want to represent our country, we buy into the image, the appearance, the charisma of the candidate. This isn't true of all voters of course - for example, I can't imagine a scenario where I would vote Tory because it is my personal view that it is wrong to victimise poorer people, but we all have our priorities, maybe that's just crazy commie Bess speaking. It's the swing voters who can make or break the election result, and when it's hard to distinct between the two main parties because their policies are so similar, you're more likely to be captivated by the charisma. In addition, the apathetic belief that "all politicians are the same" is a direct result of centrism taking over in politics, why would you believe that politicians are offering you something new when realistically they're not because they share a lot of the same policies?

Centrism results in a cynical electorate because it is clear that the politicians are saying what they think the electorate wants to hear, they are making promises to the people but then when they get into power they try and pull away from centrist policies and implement the ones they genuinely believe in. Translation: they lie to get voted in and then don't come through on their promises, this results in people losing faith in politicians and becoming disillusioned. If you're disillusioned and apathetic, why would you vote? Why would you vote when "they're all the same"? This is why turnout is quite low, why would you vote when you feel like your vote doesn't matter? If the EU Referendum showed us anything, it's that we're in dire need of electoral reform - the turnout was about 20% higher than in the last General Election, people vote when they believe their vote matters and will make a difference.

In addition to this, the UK is essentially a two-party state. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's true, that's why parties like the Greens and UKIP only have one seat each whilst Labour and the Conservatives hold most of the others (unless you're in Scotland, in which case SNP are a pretty viable option). This means when we vote, you essentially have to make the choice between Labour and Tory. It is a lesser of two evils situation generally. My MP, for example, voted to introduce tuition fees and to bomb Syria just to give a couple of examples. I don't really feel adequately represented by him, but I would rather a Labour MP than a Tory MP which was why he got my vote. I would put money on the fact that most of the electorate vote in a similar way, my constituency represents that we don't support the Tories but it can't really be taken much further than that in this scenario. It it for this reason that the PLP are not truly representative of the electorate, 172 MPs in the PLP supported a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn and the New Labour sect of the party are using this as evidence that Corbyn has lost the support of the electorate. This is ignoring the fact that Corbyn was never insanely popular with the the PLP to begin with - he needed 35 nominations from the PLP to get onto the ballot paper for the leadership election and he only just got in with 36, but when you compare that to the actual leadership election where he won with nearly 60% which is a landslide, it's obvious that he's more popular with the electorate. For this reason, we cannot honestly state that the MPs are representative of the electorate and we cannot let this coup damage our support of Corbyn. Those who resigned are not worthy of the position they had, I mean every single one who resigned voted in support of or abstained from voting on the 2015 Welfare Bill which resulted in the poor and disabled paying for £12 billion more in cuts - are these the people who represent us?

The media and the right-wingers will have us believe that Corbyn is unelectable, but so many of us voted him in against all the odds, against all the Blairites and the Tories. We have to call into question why the media and the right-wingers are quite so opposed to Corbyn, the attack on him is very extreme in comparison to other party leaders. As Another Angry Voice pointed out, this is exactly the sort of response you would expect when a candidate is as anti-establishment as Corbyn is. I will continue to stick by Corbyn, and I hope you do so too. Do not succumb to the propaganda, remember we are the electorate and we have the power.

A vote of confidence for Corbyn

7am. The full results of the EU referendum were announced and, frankly speaking, the country went into panic. Angry Facebook posts right, left, and centre, abuse being hurled from both the Brexiteers and the Bremainers, all of this with the odd meme in between.

I am not going to continue to sit here and complain about the results, I've done enough of that. We need to act fast and organise, we need to make use of our frustration and mobilise, it has been an eventful day and that just goes to show how quickly we must act before the situation worsens.

I'll keep this brief. The Lexiteers and the Bremainers alike must unite under a shared goal of ousting the Tories. As we have learned from the past few elections, elections are not won on the centre ground (just ask the Lib Dems) and Jeremy Corbyn is realistically the only strongly left-wing candidate, he is the only one offering a new kind of politics. We need to remember in the leadership elections, he managed to win back those who had defected to UKIP, he managed to inspire the apathetic and disillusioned which is a great, great feat, let's not forget he won with a landslide! Ever since Corbyn became leader, the internal divisions in the Labour Party have become increasingly clear, to the point where a certain former Labour Party leader essentially endorsed the Tories over Corbyn. As Corbyn was backing Remain, the vote to leave is a point against him, and it's one that the Blairites in the party are cynically capitalising on to attack Jeremy. The Leave campaign was based upon mendacity, it capitalised on people's fears about immigration as well as people's fears about the NHS facing further cuts just to name a couple, it became a campaign based upon hatred and deep seated hostility. Jeremy's campaign during the campaign was spot on, defending free movement and holding the Tories accountable for the damage they have done and used the EU as a scapegoat for. To oust him now would be disastrous for the future of the Labour Party, we need to unite under our shared goal of defeating the Tories. Instead of widening the divisions in the Labour Party, we need to remember who the real enemy is.

This is where you come in. There has been a proposal for a vote of no confidence for Corbyn to be brought up in PLP, if you do not want a Tory government, if you do not want a continuation of fear, lies, and institutionalised oppression, we cannot let this go ahead. What we can do is e-mail our local Labour MPs as fast as we can urging them not to comply. If you want to find the contact details for your local MP, you can go to this website - you must act fast, we must mobilise ourselves. Below is the e-mail I sent to my local MP, feel free to use it as a template.

"Dear Gareth,
Like 48% of the voters in the referendum, I'm incredibly unhappy that Leave won. However, I am even more unhappy that it is being used cynically to attack Jeremy Corbyn. The Leave campaign was based upon mendacity, it capitalised on people's fears about immigration as well as people's fears about the NHS facing further cuts just to name a couple, it became a campaign based upon hatred and deep seated hostility. Jeremy's campaign during the campaign was spot on, defending free movement and holding the Tories accountable for the damage they have done and used the EU as a scapegoat for. I'm writing to you to help stop this very damaging vote of no confidence in Jeremy, and I would like your assurance that you'll vote against the motion in the PLP. Jeremy Corbyn won a landslide in the Leadership election, so many people joined the Labour Party solely to vote for him, he inspired the apathetic and disillusioned which is a great, great feat and it would be foolish to forget that. To oust him now would be disastrous for the future of the Labour Party, we need to unite under our shared goal of defeating the Tories. Instead of widening the divisions in our own Party, we need to remember who the real enemy is.
Kind regards,
Bess Oates"

Solidarity to you all, let's organise ourselves gang - change can happen. As the Style Council once said, "you don't have to take this crap, you don't have to sit back and relax, you can actually try changing it, I know we've always been taught to rely upon those in authority but you never know until you try how things just might be if we came together so strongly"...

The problem with Defeatism

I've seen too many people on my Facebook feed posting about how it's a waste of time to vote because the outcome of the EU referendum has been predetermined by a higher power, it's apathetic, it's defeatist, and it's one of the biggest problems regarding political discourse.

Defeatism in politics is very, very dangerous and all it does is help to maintain the conservative status quo. If you have the mentality that "one vote never made a difference" and that the higher powers are going to ignore the real outcome of the referendum because they've predetermined whether or not we're leaving, the message you're presenting is "things are a bit crap as they are, but I'm not going to do anything to try to make it better because it's not worth my time", you are accepting and essentially justifying injustice and inequality because you don't think it's worth your time because you don't think things can or will change - can you imagine how many inequalities would be able to continue if every protest group and every campaigner shared that mentality? The world we live in would be a very different, even darker place - it may not be quite as relevant in the case of the EU, but defeatism itself is a problem that needs to be defeated (pun intended).

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am very empathic towards those who are apathetic when it comes to politics and it's very easy to get into this defeatist mentality, but what you need to do is take the anger and resentment you hold against the status quo and use that to fight for a better tomorrow (ew cringe but I'm going somewhere with this). Tony Benn believed that there are two prerequisites for social change: "the burning flame of anger at injustice, and the burning flame of hope at a better world". I believe that defeatism encompasses that anger and upset at the way things are currently, but you're going to have a hard time bringing about social change if the only thing you are doing is sharing posts on Facebook.

Long story short, you think the outcome of the referendum has been predetermined? Fine, you can hold that belief, but you should still vote in the chance that it's not. Sitting on a fence is not progressive, so it saddens me to see people who claim to be radical and anti-establishment sitting back and doing nothing and essentially aiding conservative agenda. Also, FYI, you can be anti-establishment and a voter, the two things are not mutually exclusive.

If you haven't registered to vote in the referendum, this is probably just me screaming into the void but defeatism is a poison and I'd like to see a lot less of it from the left. If you did register, I hope you all go out and vote (cough cough remain).

The importance of voting

Political participation is one of our most valuable human rights, but it is one that 7.5 million people in the UK are not utilising as they're not registered to vote in the upcoming EU referendum. We are socialised with this belief that one vote never made a difference, but if all of the people who believed that (like the 34% of registered voters in 2015 who didn't vote and that's not even including the people who didn't register), it could and would swing the vote.

I completely understand why political apathy is at an all time high, especially amongst the youth. The political discourse that's often presented to us is overcomplicated and saturated with buzzwords, it confuses people and I wholeheartedly believe this is deliberate, it is done in the hope that the generally more open-minded, empathic youth don't get invested in politics and so we develop a cognitive dissonance so we feel disconnected from the issues that are being discussed. This tactic is used specifically to maintain the conservative status quo - we all joke about it being old, white men in government but the situation is as it stands because they are trying to keep the youth from getting interested. Youths tend to care about people, and this directly conflicts with conservative ideology. Long story short, it's dangerous for Tories to standardise political education in schools because if the youths became engaged in politics and all voted, the right would crumble.

For true, representative democracy (I'm not arguing that First Past the Post is representative, but I digress) 100% political participation is ideal. If you don't feel like any of the options available to you represent your political beliefs, you can spoil your ballot which is in itself a political statement but do not under any means just abstain from voting. As Owen Jones often says "we are standing on the shoulders of giants" - from the Chartists, to the Suffragettes, people have been fighting for our vote, fighting for democracy, for centuries. If you don't vote, you are actively dismissing and discrediting everything these people fought for. We cannot allow ourselves to be marginalised, our voice matters and political participation is a right we should protect at all costs.

The deadline for registering to vote in the EU Referendum is the 7th June - you can register here, it only takes about 2 minutes at most and the outcome of this referendum will affect youths most.

The Tony Blair issue

Tony Blair - also known as former Prime Minister and leader of the Labour party, the man responsible for Blairism and New Labour, and one of the biggest red Tories out there. I try not to talk about Tony Blair if it can be avoided, I think ultimately the involvement of Tony Blair in current political affairs is counter-productive - let me explain. Tony Blair is not representative of the Labour Party or at the very least, he is not representative of what the Labour Party is now in 2016. We are moving past the times of New Labour and Blairism ('bout time) and entering the age of Corbynism, Labour are becoming reconnected with the grassroots movement, the links with the trade unions and socialist parties, that they began with.

The issue being that Tony Blair continues to make public statements about the status of the Labour Party and his opinion is still widely listened to and respected by people, the words he says still make an impact because of the position of power he once had. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if he was productively supporting the party he claims to be backing, but all Blair seemingly does when making statements about the Labour Party is complain that they've moved too far to the left since he left government which does nothing but undermine the party. When someone with that amount of political influence makes sweeping statements like it would be a 'very dangerous experiment' if Jeremy Corbyn's Labour with its 'populist policy-making' got into power, it is an outright endorsement for the Conservatives, they can and they will capitalise on the fact that a so-called Labour supporter (and not just any so-called Labour supporter but the one who just so happened to be Prime Minister for 10 years) isn't even supporting Labour under its current leadership, and that to me sounds much more dangerous an experiment than the idea of a Corbynite government.

Not only do Blair's statements endorse the far right, they also reignite support for New Labour which divides not just the members of the party but also members of the public. Division in the Labour party is feeding right into the hands of the Tories and we cannot afford to give them fodder in political discourse. It is vital that the Labour party are united under the common goal of defeating the Tories, and that cannot happen when red Tories are bringing down the party from the inside. What's being presented from that is that Labour's internal politics are not consistent, why would anyone vote for a party that can't unite and inspire their own members let alone the general population? Outside of the party, members of the public are reminded of New Labour and it's possible that they could defect to Tory because Blair is essentially saying that if Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party gets into power, it would be disastrous. It's blatant that Blair is telling us to vote for an alternative, and in this two-party state realistically the only alternative is Conservative. If members of the public who support New Labour take on board what Blair is saying, we may have possibly lost a huge chunk of Labour support - I repeat, we cannot afford to do that.

Another issue with Blair chipping in on these issues is that a lot of people don't respect his opinion and may completely disagree with him - myself included! This is a problem though, because if miraculously Blair does stop bitching about Jeremy Corbyn and gets behind Labour before 2020, this could be a negative endorsement for Labour and could result in people abstaining from voting. Jeremy Corbyn's tagline when running for leader was that he was advocating 'a new kind of politics' and a move away from centrist* Blairite policies. If Jeremy Corbyn is advertising a non-Blairite style of government and he is endorsed by the biggest Blairite there is, Blair, I somehow doubt that many people will be convinced that Labour are going to act any differently to how they have when they have previously been in power. Tony Blair's input in this discussion is not remotely helpful for the left, and Labour has and always will be fundamentally at its core a left wing party, so if Blair cares as much as he claims about the future of Labour, he would do the admirable thing and stop publicly making statements about Labour. It's counter-productive and Tony Blair should no longer have access to this public platform.

On a final note - Tony, if you want to talk about a 'very dangerous experiment', do you want to talk Iraq?

*BLAIRISM IS NOT CENTRIST IN THE SLIGHTEST. LET'S BE REAL. 

The problem with eggs

Since going vegan about a year ago, I've had a lot of different comments from my peers. I've obviously heard the generic "bUT HOW CAN YOU LIVE WITHOUT CHEESE??!!11" but I've also heard from some of my vegetarian friends "I understand giving up meat and dairy, but why eggs?" so the time has come for me to explain what exactly the problem with eggs is.

*queue the militant veganism*

A common misunderstanding regarding the egg industry is that it doesn't result in death like, obviously, the meat industry does. However, contrary to popular belief, the egg industry is intertwined with the meat industry - it still results in the mass death of animals. Only female chickens can produce eggs rendering male chickens as useless and they are either grinded up, or, even more sadistically, put into plastic bags and left to suffocate to death. They aren't even used for meat after this point because chicks don't have much muscle and it wouldn't be profitable to raise them as 'broilers' or 'fryers' so their lives are deemed useless right from the off and for this, they're killed. This is just the beginning.

Conditions in egg factory farms are abysmal. Chickens are kept in cages made of wire mesh which are layered on top of each other, which means faeces fall from the upper tiers to the chickens down below. This results in ill health for chickens. Secondly, chickens have to endure extremely uncomfortable conditions as the cages are usually very overcrowded - a cage which is roughly 16-18 inches has to hold up to 6 chickens which all have an average wingspan of 32 inches, go figure. This stresses them out to the point that the average super layer hen has an average laying span which is over 15 years shorter than hens that produce eggs naturally. When egg production slows down with hens in egg factorys, they're then slaughtered for meat. These hens are bred into a life of exhaustion, stress, and ill health and then murdered when they have nothing left to offer because their bodies have been exploited for human consumption. 

Some may argue that buying organic or free range eggs avoids these cruel methods of production, and this myth has been widespread because the industry capitalises on the guilt of the ordinary person. However, 'free range' is merely a marketing term. In order for a brand to be able to use the label 'free range' they need to allow their chickens to have access to outdoor areas but there is no specification of how long the chickens must spend outside or how much space the chickens should be given outside. Free range egg farms may be marginally better than factory farming, in the same way that a sh*t with a sprinkle on it is better than your bog standard sh*t, but at the end of the day it's still a sh*t. Hens in free range egg farms are often confined to mud-filled pens or crowded sheds, so there are still the issues of overcrowding and illness. The issue is still present, it's just been relocated so they can stamp 'free range' on their eggs and Middle Class Mary can feel good about herself. 

The white paper: what you need to know and why you should be angry

In 2010, there was public outcry over the tripling of tuition fees by the Con-Dem government. 6 years later, we're under a completely Conservative government and the higher education White Paper has been published - if you thought £9000 a year was bad, it's about to get a whole lot worse.

Photograph: Stephanie Kalber/Demotix/Corbis

The White Paper allows 'inflationary increases in tuition fees for institutions that meet basic standards in 2017-18', and this is 'ahead of the introduction of differentiated caps in 2019-20'. This means that by 2018, some Universities will be able to charge more per year than others and by 2020, Universities that score highly in terms of teaching quality will be able to raise their fees to whatever they like. The discourse used makes it seem on the surface like the Universities that offer the best education will be rewarded, but really it's a neoliberal restructuring of the higher education system to benefit the elite and exclude those from poorer backgrounds. On top of the fact that maintenance grants have been scrapped, it isn't hard to see that this is is a purely ideological tactic. The way it's heading, someone from a poorer background would have to take out an extortionate loan to go to one of these 'better Universities' and when they come out the other side, they'll have a bomb of a loan to repay. Whilst they may come out with a degree from a prestigious University and be more likely to get a job, it is still unfair when you remember that those from richer backgrounds will be able to get the same degree from the same prestigious University, and be able to get Mummy and Daddy to pay it back and that's only if they take out the loan initially which people from richer backgrounds don't always have to do because they've got the dolla in the first place. 

This all plays into the Conservative's ideological warfare, it is the principle at hand that the Conservatives are only fighting for the privileged few. Just a few months ago, George Osbourne announced his budget which directly targeted the disabled. A few years back, Iain Duncan Smith introduced the Bedroom tax which directly targeted the poor. The Conservatives are slowly culling off the groups that don't affect them, it's reinforcing hierarchy, it's reinforcing inequality, it's neoliberalism at its worst and it is wholly unacceptable.

The rebrand

I've been absent from my blog for a few months and even when I was posting on here, I still wasn't posting regularly. I've been getting a bit bogged down with Uni deadlines and general socialising, and I've also wanted to change the direction my blog was going in. I said a while ago, I just wanted to talk about whatever the hell I want but I've still been feeling a little bit boxed in in what I can talk about, so I felt a rebrand was necessary.

What I like to talk about is politics, whether that be feminism (it's always about feminism) or the dipshittery of the Tories. I know not many people follow me on here for that, but I have really lost interest in beauty and fashion. I hardly ever go on Bloglovin' these days because that's basically all the content that was in front of me, I've only really kept updated with a handful of blogs. All I tend to read is articles because politics is what interests me more than anything. Don't get me wrong, I still love wearing makeup and I love shopping but I just wasn't feeling inspired to write about lipsticks anymore.

Enter 'one frank female'. Thanks for sticking with me over the past few years. If there are any political/feministy blogs you like to read, please comment down below with them as I'd really love to follow some!

15 songs y'all should listen to by The Smiths

The Smiths defined an era in the 80s, they created a musical safe haven for the awkward, the shy, and the socially aware. Iconic guitar riffs, basslines, racing drums, combined with poetic, melancholic, sarcastic lyrics - The Smiths are one of a kind.

The Smiths are one of my favourite bands - it was inevitable, I grew up with parents who are dedicated members of the Moz army. One of my friends when discussing me recently said I "don't go more than 5 seconds without thinking about Morrissey". This post has been in my drafts for a while because it's been ridiculously hard to decide what songs by The Smiths I would recommend to a newbie, but a lot of people have told me over the past year that they want to get into The Smiths and don't know where to begin, so consider this your starter pack..

DISCLAIMER: The song meanings I am talking about are my interpretations, if you interpret them differently obviously that's fine - Morrissey was often very ambiguous in his lyrics!

I say y'all over text to sound cool and casual, but IRL I'm not much of a y'all person - sorry to destroy your perceptions of me.

THIS CHARMING MAN {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}
This song has so much going for it, right from the iconic introductory riff. This song is about a whole range of things. The most obvious theme being making a sexual debut (to use Laci Green's term) with an older man, but I think there's a lot more meaning to this song besides from sex. I think this song is also about wanting to start living and stop overthinking everything - like the line"why ponder life's complexities when the leather runs smooth on the passenger's seat?" sums up the song for me, and it's about the protagonist trying to enjoy life and live in the moment rather than over thinking.

THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT {THE QUEEN IS DEAD - 1986}
This is one of the first songs by The Smiths I ever heard (I think the first that I actually paid attention to was The Queen is Dead which I'm gonna talk about down below) and it was actually played at my parents' wedding - I obviously wasn't there to witness that but my Mum was about 6 months pregnant with me so y'know I was listening to The Smiths before I was born, so it's got that emotional significance for me. I wholeheartedly think this is one of the greatest love songs of all time (right up there with Something by The Beatles or The Luckiest by Ben Folds). I just think the lyrics are bloody brilliant - "if a double decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die, and if a ten tonne truck kills the both of us, to die by your side, well the pleasure, the privilege is mine". I think the song's just about that honeymoon phase in love (I'm making it sound like I've experienced it but nah #foreveralone) and not wanting to be separated from your significant other because like all the feels.

HEAVEN KNOWS I'M MISERABLE NOW {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}
This song also has a pretty iconic intro, I think the combination of chords Johnny Marr uses are just so satisfying to listen to and I quite like the bassline too (although, the best bassline in any song by The Smiths is hands down Barbarism Begins at Home - it's so good that there's a performance where Johnny Marr stops playing guitar to listen to it and dance with Morrissey). It's a sarcastic song about depression and not finding joy in anything anymore except for 'in the haze of a drunken hour' and the protagonist doesn't leave the house and questions their friendships and relationships with people. What I love about The Smiths and Morrissey's solo work, is that the songs tackle serious issues regarding mental health but in a relatable way with a catchy melody which I think is rare to find in music. Usually songs that are about depression are . . . depressing (great use of vocabulary, Bess) but The Smiths make songs about depression relatable to those suffering with it but the song's not slow or dull or boring like other songs on the issue, they're still enjoyable songs which I think is quite a rare thing to find.

THE QUEEN IS DEAD (TAKE ME BACK TO DEAR OLD BLIGHTY) {THE QUEEN IS DEAD - 1986}
Now this was the song that got me into The Smiths. To be honest, this entire album was the start of the obsession with The Smiths. I first heard this song on my Dad's Jubilee playlist, we're not a pro-royal family at all and we went away for the jubilee weekend a few years ago so Dad made a playlist to listen to on the car journey, and this was on there (along with God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols, obviously). This song is just epic. I hate that word because I think it got thrown around a lot to describe anything in 2012 but that's the only word I can think of to accurately describe this song. This song is essentially an anti-monarch anthem. It illustrates how the Queen symbolised national unity during World War I (that's why there's a war song in the introduction) and how the Queen is seen as a Mother in the UK, but how the whole system is archaic because the Royals are out of touch and don't care about the things that don't affect them. Simply put, this song is Morrissey calling for a revolution. I repeat, this song is epic.

PANIC {LOUDER THAN BOMBS - 1987}
This song was written around the time of the Chernobyl disaster because apparently Radio 1 DJ Steve Wright reported the Chernobyl disaster and then went right into playing Wham! which is obviously quite inappropriate, and the song doesn't have anything to do with people's lives. Marr said in a 1987 interview with NME: "'Panic' came about at the time of Chernobyl . . . The story about this shocking disaster comes to an end and then, immediately, we're off into Wham!'s 'I'm Your Man'. I remember actually saying 'what the fuck has this got to do with peoples' lives?' We hear about Chernobyl, then, seconds later, we're expected to be jumping around to 'I'm Your Man'." To me, this song is about not relating to mainstream music (because I'm such a hipster) because the songs that are constantly played in the UK top 40 or in the clubs don't say anything to me about my life. This song got me through High School when all my friends were listening to One Direction and I was the weird kid listening to the Pope of mope.

I WANT THE ONE I CAN'T HAVE {MEAT IS MURDER - 1985}
This song on a basic level is about wanting to be with someone but you can't for whatever reason. Morrissey often made his lyrics character ambiguous so they can be interpreted in so many different ways, for example a lot of people think specifically this is about a gay person being in love with someone who's not come out as gay. Simply put, it's about being driven insane because you can't be with the one that you want.

THE HEADMASTER RITUAL {MEAT IS MURDER - 1985}
There was a time when this was my favourite song by The Smiths, and it's definitely one that I rarely skip when it comes up on my shuffle. As with all of the songs by The Smiths, I love the guitar part - I think Johnny Marr is the best guitarist in the world, I love the combination of chords in this song with the riff, it's pretty darn splendid. This song, to me, is about school in the 60s/70s where school really was quite brutal regarding the whole physical abuse thing, but I also think there's a bit of a fish out of water story going on in the song like I imagine all the kids in their uniforms accepting the education system the way it is and one kid seeing the clear flaws with it and wanting to break away ("I want to go home, I don't want to stay"). I used to listen to this song first thing when I was leaving school on a Friday afternoon, it's just really satisfying to go home for the weekend and listen to a song which basically shuns school. Also, Morrissey's yodelling is on point.

I KNOW IT'S OVER {THE QUEEN IS DEAD - 1986}
I never used to be a massive fan of this song, in fact alongside Some Girls are Bigger Than Others it was one I always skipped when listening to The Queen is Dead album but I decided to give it a proper listen when my Mum said she preferred this song to This Charming Man - I still think that was quite a sweeping statement and not one I agree with, but it is now one of my faves. This song is the classic tale of unrequited love, in this case with someone who had never really experienced love and is now in a state of sadness and despair to the point where they feel dead ('Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head') and they're trying to go about their lives as usual ('It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to cry, it takes guts to be gentle and kind').

HOW SOON IS NOW {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}

Using two guitars, multiple reverb amplifiers, tremolo, syncopation, and a glass slider, Johnny Marr successfully created one of the most iconic song introductions of all time in this song. This song is about being shy ('I am the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar') and feeling unloveable ('I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does'), so much so that you're giving up hope that you'll ever find anyone. This song to me is biographical and one that I think most self-conscious, shy people will be able to relate to - this one is for us, guys.

SHEILA TAKE A BOW {LOUDER THAN BOMBS - 1987}
This song is one for those feeling the bitter winds of teenage angst and an anthem for non-conforming. 'How can someone so young sing words so sad?' suggests that the protagonist isn't satisfied with their average life and they want to break free, they want to grow up and find someone who loves them rather than being in education and trapped by their suburban family life.

WILLIAM, IT WAS REALLY NOTHING {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}
This song is about being pressured into marriage, the protagonist is trying to convince their friend not to get married for the sake of it because we only have one life, so why rush into marriage? I also think it's about feeling trapped in "a humdrum town" and wanting to escape and live life beyond the expectations and norms of your hometown.

HAND IN GLOVE {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}
This song is about being in love and having this common egocentric view that your love is the best one out there. It's quite melodramatic and almost teenage-like especially with lines like "no I really don't know and I really don't care". It's also got a bit of a harmonica solo at the beginning at the end of the song and I always appreciate a bit of harmonica (I'm into 50s rock'n'roll, how could I not be?) as well as a nice riff throughout the song.

NOWHERE FAST {MEAT IS MURDER - 1985}
This song is an attack on consumerism and how we have new products thrown in our faces constantly, and this is all but bread and circuses to distract us from inequality. The rise of consumerism has resulted in the average Joe's morale being weakened, to the point where the protagonist doesn't care whether they live or die ("when I'm lying in my bed, I think about life and I think about death, and neither one particularly appeals to me").

BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN {THE QUEEN IS DEAD - 1986}
This song is about speaking out of place or saying too much, it seems like it's autobiographical seeming as Morrissey has a tendency to say very bold statements and annoy a lot of people. The constant references to Joan of Arc make this evident because she was burned at the stake for saying what she believed, and Morrissey is jokingly comparing himself to her.

PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES {THE SMITHS - 1984}
It's the music over the lyrics that makes this song for me. I love the syncopation and the bassline in this. I believe the song is about someone pressuring the protagonist into sexual relations and not wanting to reciprocate which may be autobiographical as Morrissey identified as asexual at this time.



What's your favourite song by The Smiths/Morrissey?

My picture-heavy bullet journal set-up

A while ago I read a post from Lily Pebbles in which she said she had started a bullet journal, and since then I did a whole load of research on what it was and how to make one of your own, and for a while I didn't want to make one because I'm the sort of person who starts journals and planners and never carries on with them, but I think this time will be different..

The notebook I am using is an A5 squared Moleskine, which is was bloody expensive but I absolutely adore it and organising my life was something I wanted to invest in. I did have to research first whether Moleskine was vegan as I thought it was literally mole's skin, but I assure you it's not - I'm sure everyone else knew that but I'm stupid.

Firstly, I have an index - this is the core to the bullet journal, numbering your pages so you can refer back to them.

Following that, I have a key - again, another key (forgive the pun) to the bullet journal so you can clearly see what everything you've written means. I've also put a few post-it notes here so I can easily access some if I'm on the go and want to make a little note - I like using post-it notes to write little notes to myself that aren't important enough to make tasks out of but something I need to see.

After that, I have a page dedicated to questioning authority, the great thing about the bullet journal is you can be as creative as you want and just have filler pages like that where you can just do what you want, and I just happened to have some sheep stickers so it's nice to flick past that everyday and be reminded to question authority.

Then, I have a few lists I want to complete of 'albums to listen to before you die', 'books everyone should read', and 'greatest films of all time' because whilst I think I'm fairly cultural in terms of the art world, I definitely feel I should explore more and it's nice to have an easy to find list to refer to.

Next, I have about 30 pages with pictures of me and my friends, because I tend to forget I have friends and that people actually don't mind spending time with me sometimes, so I like having photos of me with them so if I do get into that bad headspace, I can try and dismiss it. Continuing with that theme, I have a page with a couple of photos of my family, and also a page dedicated to Owen Jones and when I met him, and when he tweeted me afterwards, because both of those events really made my life if not my 2016 at least.

After that is a double page spread dedicated to my favourite film of all time - Harold and Maude. There are so many amazing quotes in this film, and I'm not putting this at all lightly but this film has saved my life on multiple occasions. A lot of people put a page of inspirational quotes in their bullet journals, but I cringe when I see things like 'you can do it!' so I think this is as close as I'll ever get with that.

Finally, we get onto the actual organising kinda bit. So I've only been doing this since the beginning of March, but I have a rapid log page for March so I can put a few events and tasks in that need to get done that month, then I have daily spreads (at the moment, it seems to be 2/3 on a page because I keep migrating tasks - I am getting there with the organising promise!).

That is my bullet journal as it stands currently, I feel like this definitely won't last me the year but I'm loving doing it at the moment so I will probably continue it and buy another Moleskine once this one finishes! If you want to see more updates, I'm probably going to do these on my Tumblr which you can follow here.

Why Angela Davis is my political fave

For as long as I can remember, I have been proud to call myself a feminist. My Mum's a devout feminist and has never told me to afraid of the word 'feminism'. That being said, until the past year or two, I didn't feel wholeheartedly connected to the issues mainstream (white) feminism talks about.

Of course, I knew things like 'free the nipple' and letting girls wear short skirts and show their shoulders in school without being sexualised by male teachers were important issues, but I didn't feel like this mainstream feminism was particularly useful when it came to other forms of oppression. I didn't feel like this feminism was inclusive of other intersections, it became more and more obvious to me that this type of feminism didn't really fight for those who are oppressed because of their race or those who are oppressed because of their class. Becoming invested in 'SJW Twitter' definitely helped here and opened my eyes to the reality of white feminism and to the prospect of intersectional feminism. In short, white feminism is a branch of feminism focused on the struggles of primarily white and privileged women, this is basically liberal feminism which is centered around western ideals and liberalism doesn't really help the movement on a mass scale (but that's a topic for a different time). Intersectional feminism is a branch of feminism that encompasses all intersections because it claims that oppressive institutions are all intertwined, so the obvious one is sexism, but it also takes into account racism, classism, transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, ableism - you name an oppressive -ism and intersectional feminism is against that.

This is a picture of one of the walls in my Uni house - me and my housemate Megan adore Angela and wanted to order a poster of her, and then we received two in the post (at no extra charge) so we have two posters right next to each other, yep we cool.

So how does Angela Davis come into this? Angela Davis is one of the most famous intersectional feminists there are, just a month ago she said in an interview that feminism involves 'embracing but moving beyond gender'. In the 1960s, Angela Davis was a member of the Black Panthers, leader of the Communist Party in the USA, as well as being a member of the Che-Lumumba Club which was the all-black branch of the Communist Party. Being a part of groups like these meant she was not silent on classism or racism. She was (and still is) outspoken about classism and racism in the Suffrage movement, which we're told liberated all women when actually WOC were exploited by white women to push forward the movement. She's also spoken out about sexism in the Civil Rights movement and other socialist movements which resulted in the oppression of women being pushed to the sideline. Angela Davis also emphasizes the importance of women's rights being looked at globally in order for women to form 'a united, multiracial, antimonopoly women’s movement in order to aid oppressed women throughout the world'. 

I largely base my feminism on the likes of people like Angela Davis, people who are unapologetically anti-Capitalist (for a while, I was scared to say that I agreed with a lot of communist/anarchist ideals because you automatically get shunned as a fascist apologist - again, this is another topic for another blog post) and people who include POC, most importantly black people (again, colourism - different topic that I shan't go into detail about now), and encompass all of these issues into their feminism - this is the basis of my feminism, and as it is Women's History Month, I'd like to thank Angela Davis for being a big figure in helping me further my feminism, so thank you Angela - you tha real MVP.

Coconut oil - more than just a meme?

If you've been on the internet long enough, I'm sure you will have seen the coconut oil memes (exhibit A) but does coconut oil deserve the holy grail title it's been given? I take my memes seriously and have had coconut oil recommended for my type of hair for a long time so I thought I'd buy a £2.50 tub from Aldi just to give it a go (mans isn't going to spend £10 on a tub, all about that Aldi life).

The verdict is... it's pretty darn good! The first time I used it, though, I made the mistake of using it as my conditioner in the shower which in turn made my hair very crispy the day after, after a few of days of ridiculous crispiness it did go down and was just soft and textured, but I thought I'd mention this as something to bear in mind. I now put it on before washing my hair so I let it sink in a bit and then remove it with shampoo, then condition as usual, and this means my hair is textured and soft by the next day. I also like to use coconut oil to give my hair more volume by rubbing it in at the roots and teasing my hair a bit with my fingers.

So it works pretty well on my hair, but I had also heard it worked as a good makeup remover so I thought I'd test this out too, and I have to say, again, it works really well! It dissolves the makeup and then I wipe it off with a cotton pad, and if I'm feeling lazy I'll just leave my face after that because the oil residue does enough to moisturise my face, but otherwise I'll go and carry on with my makeup routine and do another couple of cleanses. I quite like this because it means I'm not really using chemicals or parabens or any of that nasty stuff on my skin and I think it's good to give your skin a break from all of that once in a while. Furthermore, since using coconut oil when removing my eye makeup, I've noticed my eyelashes have grown quite a lot. I'm not sure whether it's just coincidence but they just seem to be growing a lot faster than they used to, which is a plus.

Overall, coconut oil is definitely worth the hype in my opinion, and I only tried out a couple of its uses. I probably wouldn't go for the expensive tubs though when it's so inexpensive in Aldi, but each to their own!

Have you tried coconut oil?

Self-care, no cringe included

I usually take self-care tips with a pinch of salt, I know using a bath bomb isn't going to magically make me feel joyful and emerge with a newfound respect and appreciation for life. To me, at the core of it, self care is doing the stuff you should be doing anyway but you may have forgotten to do it while your mind is feeling dark and foggy. For me, this means taking a shower, taking the rubbish out of my room, changing my clothes, brushing my teeth, etc. etc. etc. - all very basic things, but when I'm in a dark spot these everyday, mundane tasks become near to impossible and it takes a lot of effort for me to do them.

The past couple of weeks for me have been quite focused on self-care, the past few weeks have been busy and eventful, and not necessarily stressful but they have left me feeling a bit overwhelmed and trapped. So I did a big tidy of my room, I changed my bed sheets, I've been trying to eat throughout the day, I've tried drinking more water, I've been more organised with my Uni work, and to top off everything I went for a long walk by myself with my music and The Hunger Games (finally finished reading it, found a really lovely spot overlooking Brighton with a pond and everythang), and I'm not feeling overwhelmed with everything anymore, I'm at a good point where everything's chilled and I feel in control.

I'm not sure what point I wanted to put across here, but I think self care is important and I hope you're all taking care of yourself. Whether it be the basic things that you may be finding difficult to do, or whether it be the cutesy Tumblr-esque self care things (which I appreciate too, I'm not at all dismissing those methods!). I know I've never made self-care a priority, but it has majorly improved my mental health recently taking myself more into consideration so I just wanted to remind you all to take good care of yourselves in a non-patronising, non-cringey kind of way. Take it easy, you've got this.

Iain Duncan Smith doesn't deserve a pat on the back

On the 18th March, Iain Duncan Smith resigned from his post as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in the Conservative Party resulting in cries of joy from lefties like myself, but whilst I can relish this moment, I have some opinions. I have seen all over my Twitter timeline and Facebook feed  that Iain Duncan Smith is a good person because he 'stuck to his principles' and resigned his post as he believed that George Osbourne's budget which victimised the disabled was, in his words, 'a compromise too far'. I gots some problems with this, so I'm going to dissect what his little letter said and explain why it is BS.

He opened with:

"I am incredibly proud of the welfare reforms that the Government has delivered over the last five years."

Really, Iain? You're going to say you're 'incredibly proud' of introducing Universal Credit which forces all low paid employees into desperate competition for casual work? You're 'incredibly proud' of the Bedroom Tax which charges the poor if they're given social housing with 'more rooms than they require', despite the fact that there is also a lack of social housing so tenants really don't have much choice in where they live so it's essentially arbitrarily charging the poor, you're proud of that, are you?

"Those reforms have helped to generate record rates of employment and in particular a substantial reduction in workless households."

Hm, are these jobs on zero hour contracts? Y'know those contracts whereby the employer has no obligation to offer work to the employees so the employee can't be certain they'll earn enough money to get through the week? Oh yeah, great job (pun not intended).

"I truly believe that we have made changes that will greatly improve the life chances of the most disadvantaged people in this country and increase their opportunities to thrive."

Is this some sort of sick joke? Just last week, Iain Duncan Smith was in full support of reducing the Employment and Support Allowance meaning that claimants would receive £30 less a week. Claimants include hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people, such as sufferers of cancer, Parkinson's disease and mental illness - I mean, I could be wrong, these people are pretty disadvantaged and it seems like you're taking away what little opportunity they have to thrive, Iain, but that could just be me. 

"Together, we've made enormous strides towards building a system of social security that gets the balance right between state-help and self-help."

The Tories don't promote state-help, the concept of self-help is fundamental to Conservative ideology - so basically, every man for himself. This is why continually the Tories allow big businesses and bankers to avoid paying their taxes. This is why Iain Duncan Smith, like other Tory MPs, gets away with claiming expenses to buy a £39 breakfast, talk about scroungers, eh? The Tories literally take money from the poor to give other rich people like themselves tax cuts - the reverse Robin Hood effect.

"I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self-imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest."

Austerity is distinctly political and has been shown not to do much good economically (for a contemporary example, Greece was forced to adhere to strict austerity measures and this resulted in a deeper recession, mass unemployment, the widening of budget deficits, and a rise in debt levels). Austerity is purely ideological warfare used to target the poor and the vulnerable, it's used to restructure the state in a way that benefits the privileged leaving the poor fighting for scraps. However, I don't believe Iain Duncan Smith is against austerity like he seems to be suggesting. Let's not forget that he voted against raising welfare benefits, he voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods to those who can't work because of illness or disability, he voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits, he voted against spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people who've been unemployed for a long time, he voted against a banker's bonus tax, he voted against the mansion tax, he voted for reducing corporation tax, he voted for raising tuition fees, and he voted for academy schools - Iain Duncan Smith is not anti-austerity.

"You should be very proud of what this government has done on deficit reduction, corporate competitiveness, education reforms and devolution of power."

Okay right, George Osbourne inherited a debt of £1 trillion. By May 2015, the debt was £1.5 trillion. I'm going to really dumb this down for any conservatives reading, but £1.5 trillion is a bigger number than £1 trillion, have you got that? I know I'll end up just complaining about Capitalism with this claim of improved corporate competitiveness, but I'm just going to say is corporate competitiveness a good thing? Or is it just this capitalist mantra that greed and selfishness should be promoted? The education reforms like academisation of schools has done nothing but divide teachers' unions, pit schools against each other, and generally lower standards of education. For example, academy schools are given more money depending on how many pupils they have which results in overcrowded classrooms and a generally much poorer educational experience. Speaking as someone who went to a High School that became an academy, I did notice the teachers were generally a lot less happier, so much so that nearly the entire science department at my school left! Lastly, devolution of power is not a good thing, this is a neoliberal tactic to bow out of accountability. By devolving powers, the government can easily deny responsibility when they're faced with a backlash - basically, it's their get out of jail free card. So, no Iain, I'm not proud of what this government has done regarding the areas you've mentioned (I'm not proud of anything they've done to be frank, I'm not sure if you can tell) and I don't think you, or anyone else, should be proud either.

Let's talk about the EU

OKAY, so important political stuff here - PLEASE do not click away if you are from the UK and especially if you're eligible to vote this year (if you're not, y'know the EU is still interesting stuff). Even if you know you're voting to leave or stay in the EU in the upcoming referendum, if you can't say why pleaaaaase either watch the video or check out any of the resources because it's really bugging me that people have made a snap decision and don't know why because this is one of the biggest things to happen to the UK in a long, long time, okay?


TOPICS MENTIONED:

• Reintroducing full powers back to Westminster
• EU is a drain on the British Economy
• EU is undemocratic and unaccountable
• 'British Identity' and Economy
• Immigration
• Trade
• New World Order
• Tuition Fees
• TTIP 

RESOURCES:

• Should the left leave the EU? | Owen Jones talks...
• The European Union, Greek austerity and microwave safety | Owen Jones talks back
• TTIP - Why we have to stop the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership | Owen Jones talks...
• What is the English identity? | Owen Jones talks...
• EU referendum timeline: What will happen when?
• DebateWise - the UK should leave the EU (I based my main points on this link)
• WriteToThem - select MEP if you want to write to your representative on TTIP, but this website is helpful anyway to talk to your constituency's MP as well
• Prevent review - I am going to do a whole video on Prevent but this is where they state what 'fundamental British values' are
• The Truth About Cameron, Immigration & Our Media: Russell Brand The Trews (E172)
• Nigel Farage: It is 'bonkers' to stay in the European Union - just included this for an opposing view okay I hate Nigel Farage 

I hope you found this remotely useful, I just feel like a lot of people don't know what they're doing in the referendum and it's coming up this year, we don't have time to sit back and pretend it's not happening.

Cruelty-free current skincare routine

This is a bit of a cop-out of a post, because it's a video. I much prefer to dedicate detailed blog posts to products I'm really loving and would wholeheartedly recommend, but I wouldn't necessarily wholeheartedly recommend every product in my current skincare routine, so I thought I'd do a video of it and talk you through what I'm using at the moment. If I ever do really love something though, you'll know, trust me, I'll probably talk about it on here at length.



MORNING ROUTINE

• Superdrug Clearly Youthful Cream Cleanse
• Boots Essentials Cucumber Moisturising Cream 
• Superdrug Simply Pure Hydrating Serum
• Superdrug Vitamin E Eye Cream

EVENING ROUTINE

• Superdrug Simply Pure Micellar Water
• Superdrug Vitamin E Dual Phase Cleansing Oil
• Superdrug Simply Pure Calming Cleanser
• Boots Essentials Cucumber Facial Toner
• Boots Essentials Cucumber Moisturising Cream
• Superdrug Simply Pure Hydrating Serum
• Superdrug Vitamin E Eye Cream

I also didn't mention this in the video, but my lip balm of choice is Carmex Original. However, even though I do really like this one and would recommend it, I am on the lookout for a new one so if you are aware of one that doesn't test on animals (and if possible, is vegan) I would much appreciate!

What are your favourite skincare products?

So I'm back on YouTube...

Sometime in December I decided to make all of the videos on my YouTube channel unlisted and take an official (I had been on an unofficial hiatus since about September) hiatus because I just wasn't enjoying it anymore, and I didn't really enjoy the content that I had previously put out there. I was also very aware of the fact that practically everyone I knew from my Sixth Form (including some teachers) knew about my YouTube channel, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I didn't really mind people I knew watching it because they were pretty nice and supportive about it. It was more that I felt like I had put a bigger filter on what I could say (like I went from talking openly and honestly about my anxiety in one vlog to more or less just talking about beauty because I didn't want to talk about anything like that with people who I knew might call me up on it) and all these filters left me feeling very boxed in, and like the ISFP I am, I don't like being boxed in.

So, I decided to create a new channel, a fresh start. A channel where I feel like I can just dump anything I like without feeling like I can only talk about a mascara that I'm liking at the minute. To get the channel up and running, I've decided to partake in VEDIF (which is 'vlog every day in February') - I don't think it's the most common daily vlogging thang but I wanted to just create lots of content to get back into filming, and I thought daily vlogging for a month would be the best way to do that.

Day 1 of VEDIF is a 25 Facts About Me video, if you feel like watching it, you can do so down below. If not, no worries, I'm not planning on leaving my blog anytime soon so there should still be fairly regular content up on here, I just missed YouTube is all.

Eating vegan at Nandos

Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to do anymore series on my blog, this is not a series, this is not something I'll do often like I'm a student I don't eat out that much, but I know some people are interested in what vegans can actually eat besides 'rabbit food' (heck, don't get me started) so I thought if I ate out I would do a post on what I can eat, even if you're not vegan like if you want to go for the less fatty option or whatevs.

We went out for one of my housemates' birthday, she's not from the UK and her town doesn't have a Nandos so it was nice to share her first cheeky Nandos experience. So Nandos, a chicken restaurant, they don't specifically cater to vegans, it takes a bit of substitution. On this particular visit, I had to say 'no dairy' about 5 times to the server and explain what dairy was, no I'm not joking (wish I was, that was irritating), the guy serving me then asked if chilli sauce had dairy in it and I was just like bruh wyd but the message did get through and I got a veggie wrap sans yoghurt with peri peri chips which was delish. As far as I know, all of the Peri Peri sauces are vegans so you still get the peri peri sauce on the veggie wraps - I got a hot one because if you're going to Nandos, you've got to do it right, and I got Savanna Cider and water to go with it (vegan cider can be sometimes be hard to find in restaurants, so I like that Nandos do a vegan one).

Side note: all of the veggie meals in Nandos can be made vegan as long as you ask them to remove mayo/yoghurt/cheese - the key to eating vegan when you're in a restaurant is substitution.

What's your peri peri sauce of choice when you go to Nandos?