Trump’s defeat in November 2026

 

Richard's Substack

Richard’s Substack

The political pendulum is beginning to swing back again from right to left.

Our job is to capture the political moment so that it does not just swing mindlessly from Right to Left, from fascism to communism, but settles into dealing with the political and economic reality of ecological and social justice.

The resounding defeat of Trump’s rabid Republicanism on the 4th November 2026 in the USA is hopefully a part of a systemic, worldwide swing against right wing extremist politics and billionaire led economics.

Behind the trouncing of Trump, the world has enjoyed at least seven defeats of right wingers in recent years:

• Austria chose a Green/Social Democrat President, Alexander Van Der Bellen, against an extreme right winger in 2016.
  
  
• Pedro Sanchez of took Spain away from the right wing austerity candidate in 2018.
  
  
• Duterte the fascist dictator lost in the Philippines in 2022.
  
  
• Victor Orban, the right wing premier of Hungary was defeated in 2026
  
  
• Lula da Silva became President of Brazil in October 2026, displacing the right wing, anti-life Bolsonaro dynasty.
  
  
• Serbia’s right wing president Aleksander Vucic was defeated by a new leaderless party led by students and well known non-politicians in September 2026.

• Here in the UK, Labour defeated the chaotic right wing Conservative Party in 2024, and in 2026, moved slightly to the left by installing Andy Burnham as Prime Minister, although they still inexplicably remain in thrall to the far right Israeli Government. 
  
  
• Meanwhile, the proto-fascist Reform UK company’s popularity is slowly but steadily falling, despite their huge donations from billionaires and platforming by the right wing BBC.
  
  
• Throughout Europe, popular demonstrations occurred in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Albania, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Serbia, Luxembourg, Lithuania and Poland, basically against the cost of living crisis, for which right wingers austerity policies is a major component.

There is no room for complacency. When Trump is gone, his billionaire funded, fascist support base will remain, and they will not concede defeat easily, although without their rotten figurehead they will fight each other like rats in a sack.

Meanwhile the task of all sensible rational politicos is to construct and communicate the case that will replace austerity, inequality and poverty with an economic and political system based on full employment in the green sector of the economy that will address both the ill health of human society and also the serious problems of the global at sustains our lives.

Victims of Terrorism Day; Poem

(Since today is the National Day to remember Victims of Terrorism, I offer this poem, and the thought that the best way we can help victims of terrorism - which is the use of violence, often lethal, against civilians - is to diminish terrorism in all its forms)

                             A ROUTINE DAY

It was a routine day 

the way to work 

marked out by sameness.

Packed up like cattle in a truck 

we’re all at pains to hide our shared humanity

like extras in a film,

strangers, obscure, unknown to anyone 

apart from family and friends 

apart from those who'd cry when we are gone,

apart from millions 

who register a slender shock

to hear what happened next.

A flash of soundless light 

changed everything, forever. 

Bad editing, a jump,

or in a dream, 

where brown and red

can shift around,

and no-one registers a thing, 

not for a second, 

not 'til the pain cuts in.

Then it was noise of fear and pain 

the bellowing of cattle 

worse than an abattoir

much worse than when we kill to eat 

goats, sheep and cows.

Why not just line us up

Go there, strip off, breathe in and die.

Why not that ordered Nazi neatness

To reach their goal?

Why tear us all apart like spoiled brats

who rip their toys and throw red paint 

to get their way?

And yet I know that I’m the lucky one

to have a heart that beats

to spite that empty space below my knees,

although each time my eyelids close

somehow the pinkness of the filtered light

conjures up    images   of tortured flesh,

just torn up flesh, 

no more no less.

Halal or hamburger,

I do not care

Whether the author of our pain

is now in heaven with a thousand virgins

or laughing in his mess with brother officers

I do not care

Or screaming in hell while demons

with exquisite pains

put him together carefully

I do not care

Or in the highest office    in the world, 

bathing in lies

drowned in hypocrisy

I do not care

You who can freely walk the streets

You do the caring.

I only want to walk again.

(c) Richard Lawson Oct 2005

CHANGING OUR NEOLIBERAL WORLD

The prevailing economic doctrine of our world is neoliberalism - the highly questionable doctrine that selfish men, competing against each other for sheer profit, without any regulation, will produce the best of all possible worlds. 

What neoliberalism has in fact produced is a world ruled by an oligarchy, where a few peoples’ wealth is measured in billions, and in one case in trillions of dollars, while vast numbers of our fellow humans are living in poverty; where ruinous war, crime, and ill health sit alongside global heating, species loss, water and air pollution, deforestation, soil loss and the ever-present threat of annihilation in a nuclear war. 

This is most definitely not the best of all possible worlds, and it is most certainly the responsibility of all right thinking people to get our Governments to regulate the oligarchy and erase neoliberalism, the doctrine that gave birth to the absurdity of privatisation.

But how do we even start to get rid of this incredibly rich and powerful oligarchy?

The longest journey must start with a single step, and for us, that step is to make sure that our democratic representatives are not for sale. This means that representatives must not receive any money whatsoever from rich people or from corporations. Representatives may only receive money from their individual constituents. In this way they are isolated from the influence of billionaires and oligarchs. 

Once Parliaments and Congresses are thus protected against bribery by the rich elite, they can start to bring the billionaires  back under democratic control, and can start to manage the oligarchs with levies and taxation, which will in itself begin to give Governments the power that they have lost over the nearly 50 years that neoliberals have been working to bring about a Small (for which read Weak) State. 

It is a big ask. But given that our present world, the world described above, is so disfunctional and so clearly ends in disaster, there is  no alternative.

REPORT ON DELIVERY OF LETTER TO ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, JULY 23rd

On Thursday 23rd July, 2pm,  seven of us gathered at short notice to deliver  of people who care about our rivers to deliver a letter to the Chair of the Environment Agency (EA) at their  Legal Services HQ in Deanery Road, Bristol BS1 5AH.

The letter starts with a summary of the case of Paul Powlesland, who is a River Guardian, an activist for and defender of,  the River Roding, a tributary of the Thames. He has found several illegal sewer outlets, told the EA about them, and they said they had no money to prosecute. He also found a tributary of the Roding totally blocked. Again the EA said they could not do it, lack of funding, so Paul hired a digger to do it. The EA threatened to prosecute him for clearing the tributary without a permit. Then, following an outcry, they withdrew their threat. 

The letter summarises the failure of EA to prosecute serious corporate polluters but its willingness to prosecute River Guardians who remove litter and blockages - a clear failure of natural justice, and a sign that the EA has become unfit for purpose in its current condition. See below for the full text.

Having delivered the letter by hand to the EA reception, we went for a nice cup of tea to discuss next moves. We decided to create a much bigger repeat some time in mid—October. We will choose a day that doesn’t clash with other demonstrations (this one clashed with a protest in Bristol against Elbit, who supply parts to Netanyahu’s war machine). The purpose of the demonstration will be to discuss the response of the EA to the letter - or the lack of response!

Watch this space for news of the demonstration, and keep an eye on Bristol 247 https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/ who may do a report on the event.

______________

23 July 2026

Alan Lovell

Chair, Environment Agency

c/o Environment Agency Legal Services

Horizon House

Deanery Road 

Bristol 

BS1 5AH

Dear Mr Lovell

An increasing number of taxpayers are concerned at the polluted state of the rivers in England, and our concern has been brought to a head by the case of Paul Powlesland, a barrister specialising in Environmental Law and a guardian of the River Roding, a tributary of the Thames. He found several illegal sewer outlets, told the EA about them, and the response was that the EA had not sufficient money to prosecute. He also found a tributary of the Roding that was totally blocked. Again the EA said they could not unblock the waterway, citing lack of funding, so Paul hired a to clear it successfully. The EA threatened that they would prosecute him for clearing a waterway without a permit. Then, following a public outcry, the threat was withdrawn. 

The failure of EA to prosecute serious corporate polluters but its willingness to prosecute River Guardians who remove litter and restore flows is a clear failure of natural justice. 

We, concerned members of the public, feel that this case indicates the need for a root and branch reassessment and review of the Environment Agency’s operation, looking at its effectiveness, its priorities, its relationship with corporate polluters, its corporate ethos, and in particular, the morale and opinions of its employees, whose professionalism is often, we feel, constrained by EA policy. 

We feel that the EA should enforce the law on environmental crimes, particularly regarding sewage & waste dumping.

We feel that the EA must have a positive duty to restore England’s rivers to a good state of health

We feel that the EA should start working with local river guardians to make both of these things happen.

Thank you for giving this matter your serious attention. 

We look forward to your timely and considered response.

Yours sincerely

Richard Lawson  (plus six co-signatories)