Once, long ago, I was street homeless. I did have a family home I could have probably gone back to, but at the time I didn’t feel able to. I’ve also stayed in short-term housing and a refuge. I’ve also, strangely enough, considered being a landlord. When I look at the housing crisis in this country, and around the world, along with mental health crisis, drug crisis, the crisis in the NHS, the prison system and the biodiversity and climate change crisis, I keep thinking all these problems stem from one root cause. It is capitalism on steroids, where profit is seen as a god that is more important than people or planet, that is what needs to change.
We need to start appreciating the natural world we depend on, and working together to save it, and provide a decent life for everyone on the planet. We have the know-how, we have the money, we just need to start spending it wisely for the benefit of all, not the ludicrous luxury of a few. To take just one example, our government wants to spend £205 billion on new nuclear weapons, that money could be spent on building three million affordable homes, creating new jobs in construction. For too long capitalism has been focused on what is politically possible, I think mother nature is just beginning to show us what we really need to be working on.
Kate Taylor
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