Brothers, Sisters, we don't need no fascist groove thang.

Having fallen off the wagon, I am feeling generally well disposed towards the world at the moment. Farewell road rage, and hello familiar worries. Although I do have some new worries...

The events of the last couple of weeks have been worrying me, although not in the way you might expect. It seems pretty clear that we are heading towards a recession or a depression, depending on who you listen to, and although I don't think that we will be looking at soup kitchens and Jarrow marches, I think that one of the consequences of recession hasn't been seen yet. Always after an economic downturn there seems to follow a radicalisation of politics - liberalism (with a small l) doesn't seem to sit well with a population that's worried about jobs, money and the future that's in store for our kids. *cue some sweeping generalisations* The depression of the 1930's was the manure that gave vigour to the fascist movements in many western countries, and the dole queues were rich recruiting grounds for the National Front in the early 80's. With unemployment nudging 2 million again, how long before the Daily Mail readers start looking at the economic migrants with hate-filled eyes? Immigration has been an issue for debate over the last few years, and that's when there have been plenty of jobs to go around - how will the man in the dole queue view the Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Albanians, Croatians etc when he sees them earning money that "should be his"? I can even feel the stirrings of unease inside my own guardian-reading heart. Similarly, when money is tight, who gives a toss about the environment? When times are hard, who cares what the natives are doing to each other in Matabeleland? When you can't afford to run your own country, can politicians afford to look after another country's interests? "Foreign aid? No thanks, charity begins at home." And when the west is desperately trying to keep it's populations happy, fed and employed, some countries will see this as the perfect time to press their own agenda. Even in the last week, we've seen North Korea and Iran getting more belligerent - pushing the boundaries to see what they can get away with. I'm sure that this is going to continue - what hold we had over Russia and China has gone - and Georgia, has been the result. I certainly wouldn't like to be living in Taiwan at the moment - I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are some major Chinese military "exercises" there in the next few months. As the west sees that it cannot project itself on the world through conventional force, the only deterrent left becomes the unthinkable nightmare of nuclear weapons - raising the stakes of the game to a point where you simply cannot afford to call the bluff of the muscular states. And as the west sees it's hegemony slipping away, there will be those in the wings talking about the destiny of our countries, how we shouldn't bend our knee to the upstart nations, national pride, and even *whisper it* racial purity. And as we see the rise of the right, so too will we see the left gaining strength to balance the equation - the failure of capitalism will be flag, the fight against fascism will be the cause, and China will be the shining example. Throw into the mix a racially and religiously diverse population and we are heading for shit street. Politicians have seldom been so free of ideology as they are at the moment, to a point where it is difficult to say what the different parties (in the UK at least) actually stand for. Pragmatism has been the byword for recent politics, both in terms of the policies and the self-serving agendas of the politicians themselves - but when that pragmatism encourages politicians to swim with the current of public opinion, you get a distorted and amplified view of what 's in the public mind - no matter how ugly that is.

"Hard times in old England, in old England, very hard times."