SPGB Snippets: Pivotal moment for Burnham? (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website 

October 8, 2026

Westminster watchers were glued to the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, and none more so than new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, after a Conference speech laying out his ‘vision’ of undoing 40 years of Thatcherite privatisation and ‘wrong turns’.

Will he call a snap general election to secure a popular mandate for this vision? The Tories are nowhere, the far-right divided and mired in scandal, and the Greens have arguably damaged their prospects by passing a resolution that Zionism is racist.

Thrilling stuff, if you like domestic soap operas. But capitalism will continue regardless, just as socialists continue working for its abolition. Because only then will anything really change.

Blogger's update:

Sagal Abdi-Wali won the Holborn and St Pancras bye-election for the Labour Party, defeating the Green Party leader Zack Polanski. It was Keir Starmer's old seat. George Galloway finished 7th with 314 votes. (1.1%)

SPGB Snippets: The punishment of Christa Pike (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website 

October 3, 2026

A dark abyss of cruelty lies behind capitalism’s glitzy facade. Christa Pike spent 31 years on Death Row for murder while lawyers launched appeal after appeal. The trial jury were never told about Pike’s hideous childhood: ‘Pike was physically and sexually abused by several of her mother’s husbands and boyfriends, and raped several times, once when she was 11 and again aged 17. Later, it was discovered that she was repeatedly raped as a toddler by her grandmother’s boyfriend.’

Unmoved, Tennessee’s governor, and the Supreme Court, refused to stop the execution. But the lethal injections failed, leaving Pike with possible brain damage. Her endless punishment is just one story in a trail of broken lives left by a world obsessed with money, power and bloody revenge.

SPGB Snippets: Odd world, isn’t it? (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website 

October 1, 2026

Nowadays, an accumulator (a single bet on, e.g, 5 horse races) has a cash-out option. If the first 2 nags win, a gambler with nagging doubts about the remaining selections can cancel the bet and take the current winnings. Rational, no?

Rational too is the capitalist with nagging doubts about future elections who cashes out some of the wealth gifted by the workers to bet on politicians who, if the electoral gamble comes off, will doubtless ‘work’ tirelessly to defend donors’ sectional interests. To do that, they will also have to act in the interests of the owning class generally by defending the biggest accumulator of them all – the profit system. (see also October’s editorial)

SPGB Snippets: Vote for World Socialism (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

September 23, 2026

There will be a lot of noise about the Holborn and St. Pancras by election – Labour and the Greens competing over who can be trusted to handle the cost of living crisis. Neither, though, will address the root cause of the crisis, that society is run on behalf of those who own the land and factories.

Until these are brought into common ownership, there will be poverty and unemployment, as this is how the owners get us to work for them. Our aim is to get this message out through the noise. You can help punch through the noise by getting people to write World Socialism across their ballot paper.

Get in touch with us to find out other ways you can help.

SPGB Snippets: Who is in control? (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website 

September 16, 2026

Balaclavaed men attended anti-migrant protests in Dover and Portsmouth claiming to be “patriots” taking back control from a “globalist, Marxist-communist, anti-Christian group that has ruled us for too long”.

Marxist-communists advocating global socialism and opposed to religious superstition would be an accurate description of our party, but to think we have somehow been in control shows confused thinking. Those in control of society are the capitalists, and governments are compelled to prioritise the needs of this asset-owning, profit-taking minority.

Our members are part of the working class majority. The only ‘power’ we have is to express our views and opinions. We condemn global capitalism (the cause of homelessness, poverty etc) while those on the far-right condemn those merely trying to escape from some of its consequences.

SPGB Snippets: Poverty in families (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website 

September 9, 2026

A recent study showed that nearly half of parents are struggling financially after having a baby.

In some cases this has even led to them watering down baby formula milk in order to save money. This can be really serious for an infant, as it may result in growth problems and developmental delays. Baby banks supply clothes, nappies and baby wipes to parents, but get few donations of baby milk.

This is what life can be like for some of the poorest workers under capitalism: essential items such as baby formula can barely be afforded. A society that results in this level of poverty needs to be replaced by one where meeting human need is the priority.

SPGB Snippets: Hold the tears (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

September 2, 2026

So Starmer is about to resign as an MP. This will allow him to follow the plan he set out after he resigned as PM, i.e.:

“I will now focus on other things and that will be international affairs including defence, security, trade and technology in a fast-changing world.”

A cynic might translate this as:

“I shall reap the dividend of eleven short years in parliament by selling the tiny remnants of my soul to defence corporations, multinationals, big tech, bankers and investors. A quick message to all of you who have worked 40 odd years to gain a pitiful pension to last you through your uncomfortable final years, it appears you joined the wrong pension scheme. So long suckers”

SPGB Snippets: Himalayan flash floods (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

August 27, 2026

With record summer heatwaves and ‘weather whiplash’ events, global warming is fast becoming normalised. Now shocking video has emerged of unsurvivable flash floods in Nepal and Tibet, probably caused by a melting Himalayan glacier. Geologists have been warning about this for years, and there have been similar previous floods.

The death toll continues to rise as the water recedes. Rescue work is underway as local villagers scramble to help survivors, and aid workers pour in from elsewhere. But in the boardrooms of the world’s corporate powerhouses, eyes do not move from the bottom line figures. Nothing matters except profit, even while capitalism heats the planet and melts glaciers.

Until we abolish this inhumane system, these human tragedies will continue.

SPGB Snippets: Poverty in families (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

 

August 27, 2026

A recent study showed that nearly half of parents are struggling financially after having a baby.

In some cases this has even led to them watering down baby formula milk in order to save money. This can be really serious for an infant, as it may result in growth problems and developmental delays. Baby banks supply clothes, nappies and baby wipes to parents, but get few donations of baby milk.

This is what life can be like for some of the poorest workers under capitalism: essential items such as baby formula can barely be afforded. A society that results in this level of poverty needs to be replaced by one where meeting human need is the priority.

SPGB Snippets: Mass Delusion? (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

August 21, 2026

‘Mass delusion’ is among the many labels that have been attached to Donald Trump’s rule and the support for him by tens of millions of Americans. But what about the delusion that affects the vast majority of the world’s population? They believe it’s natural and inevitable that millions should suffer grinding poverty while the 56,000 wealthiest people on the planet own assets three times as large as those of the poorest half of humanity combined .

There’s nothing natural/inevitable about this at all. We can fix it but only if that majority comes together to set up a system of common ownership and voluntary cooperation with free access to the abundant goods and services the world could provide..

SPGB Snippets: Keep out of the water (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

July 30, 2026

You might expect that a walking trail called the Severn Way would largely be alongside the river from which it takes its name. But in fact most of the section between Shrewsbury and Telford is not along the river at all.

This is just one illustration of the extent to which there is a lack of public access to river banks in England. In almost three quarters of cases, there is no right of way within a hundred metres of the river, with most reservoirs and lakes also being off-limits.

Private ownership of land drastically restricts people’s ability to enjoy the countryside (not just rivers) and seek some relief from the recent heatwaves.

SPGB Snippets: Rough reality (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website 

July 26, 2026

Andy Burnham pledged ‘to finally end long-term rough sleeping across the UK’. He previously aimed to prevent rough sleeping in Manchester by 2020, and in 2019 the Conservative Party manifesto committed to ending ‘the blight of rough sleeping’. Instead, in 2025 the number of people estimated to sleep rough on a single night in England was the highest recorded, at nearly 4,800.

Rough sleeping is not just about housing. Rough sleepers are among the most marginalised and victimised in capitalist society. Support services, however ‘well-funded’, can only ever offer limited palliatives as they are working within a system that pushes people into homelessness – why previous attempts to end rough sleeping have failed, despite Burnham’s ambition.

SPGB Snippets: Football: beautiful or ugly? (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website 

July 22, 2026

Can we separate the skills of the beautiful game from the ugliness of the money machine that drives it and the rivalries and nationalism it thrives on? Should we regard the emotional investment of fans as people being brought together or a reminder of how alienated they are from their own lives and capabilities. Is it, as one commentator stated, people being sold ‘meaningless thrills to patch over the pain’?

Whatever the case, in the society of voluntary cooperative work and free access to goods and services that socialists look forward to, appreciation of the talents of others – including footballers – will still exist, but side by side with each person having the time and space to cultivate their own talents and capabilities.

SPGB Snippets: Ann Widdecombe (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

July 15, 2026

Red faces in the Socialist Workers Party after their tweet on X in response to the death of Widdecombe was ‘Hooray, she’s dead’, followed by immediate deletion as furore swept the media. Some even confused the SWP with us.

So we should point out that, while we oppose capitalism and all its works, and urge the world’s people to establish a post-capitalist society of democratic common ownership, we have no truck with the SWP’s infantile reaction to the death (probably murder) of a pro-capitalist politician, however detestable that person’s opinions.

Capitalism is a worldwide system of private property and market trading, which can only be replaced at a worldwide scale by a conscious and informed majority, not by targeting individuals.

SPGB Snippets: Whoever has will be given more (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

July 8, 2026

A report on wealth inequality graphically illustrates the class divide in 2026.

Apparently, the 56,000 wealthiest adults on the planet – who could fit inside a single football stadium – own three times as much wealth as the poorest 2.8 billion adults (add their families, that’s HALF of humanity).

Those 56,000 must have really worked their arses off…

Just kidding! That wealth has been sucked from the world’s working class and, as Marx predicted in Capital, the nature of capitalist economics has resulted in increasing concentration of real wealth.

The report’s suggestion? Higher taxes for the rich and spend more on education (!!). In other words, tinker around at the edges and leave the cause of the problem alone. Sad or what?

SPGB Snippets: Sleeping on the street (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

July 1, 2026

The government has just repealed the Vagrancy Act of 1824, which made rough sleeping a crime. There are about a million empty homes in England alone with more than a quarter of them empty for more than six months. So there is absolutely no need for anyone to sleep rough.

In London, there are over 47.000 homes that have been empty for more than six months, enough to house the estimated 13,000 people sleeping rough there each year, and the 200,000 living in temporary accommodation.

In this supposedly relatively wealthy country, the possibility of providing decent homes for everyone is perfectly feasible, but capitalism’s profit motive prevents it from happening.

SPGB Snippets: The merry-go-round (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

 

June 24, 2026 

So Keir Starmer has resigned and Andy Burnham is likely to take over. Will it make any difference? It probably will to Labour’s standing with the electorate. For most people, perception of a leader’s personality seems, unfortunately, to be the key element in what passes for political thinking.

But will a new leader be able to do anything different to resolve the problems of the crisis-ridden system we live under? The answer to this has to be a resounding no. There will only be any difference to speak of when we decide collectively to scrap that system and replace it with an entirely different one that uses the abundant resources that already exist to satisfy all our needs the world over.

SPGB Snippets: The Chinese Dream (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

June 17, 2026

Workers in China are feeling jaded nowadays. After Tiananmen Square, Deng Xiaoping stopped pretending China was ‘communist’ and pulled the capitalist stops out. In 1980 home ownership was 20%. Today it’s 96%. So a success, right? But wait. 10% own over 70% of wealth (Economist – paywall).

The ‘entrepreneurial’ generation were ‘faced with open roads, you could go far even on a three-wheeled cart’. Now ‘the roads are jammed, and… the [wealthy heirs] can take helicopters’. Seeing nil prospects for success, today’s young people are ‘lying flat’ instead. ‘They think that effort is no longer rewarded… and that the keys to success are connections and being born rich.’

Welcome to our world. Capitalism is pretty dismal for workers, and utopia is only for the rich.

SPGB Snippets: Watch out Makerfield, you’re about to be conned again! (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

June 10, 2026

In the coming UK parliamentary by-election in Makerfield, apart from the two confessed jokers, candidates will all be putting out the same message:

‘Trust me, I have a plan that’s guaranteed to make life better for you’

Some will add a rider that there will be challenges ahead, there’ll be sweat and tears, but in the long run it’ll come right.

The plans will differ slightly, of course, but they will all have this in common – they’ll ignore the inescapable reality of the capitalist system, in which the profits of the minority will always take precedence over any other considerations, precedence over any of the needs or desires of working-class voters.

SPGB Snippets: Looking forward to retirement? (2026)

From the Socialist Party of Great Britain website

June 3, 2026

Workers toil not just to live, eat and raise a family, but also to prepare for retirement by building a pension pot. However, recent reports from the Pensions Commission have argued that fifteen million people in the UK are not saving nearly enough to have a secure retirement, even by the miserly standards of capitalism.

Nearly half of working-age adults are not saving into a pension at all, with just 4% of ‘self-employed’ workers doing so. Future retirees may well be worse off than today’s.

Not only does capitalism dominate people’s working lives, the pressures of daily life also make it much harder to get ready to live comfortably after their days of toil and exploitation are over.