Start The Weak

If anything gets me angry, it's powerful people throwing their weight around against powerless people.

Take the American Judge who tried to get $54m compensation when a small Korean-run dry-cleaners lost his trousers for a couple of days.

On a larger scale we have the French mirage jets bombing starving, persecuted tribesmen in the Central African Republic.

And of course the Caroline Dunsmore case . Not Caroline Dunsmore herself, who was abused hereself and mentally retarded - I consider her to be a victim. My anger is with her bullying husband Billy King and the gang of sleaze-bags who took advantage of the girls.

Within those stories is a clue to why I am a socialist. "The Market", much beloved of conservatives, would not have prevented any of the above situations.

You need a muscular government with (among others) :-

* Legal Aid so that the rich don't always win in court
* Generous Foreign Aid programmes
* Social Services - yes, it's unfashionable, but the Dunsmore case isn't the only no-brainer where a visit from any social worker with a pulse would have saved so much suffering.

The ideal would be for the weak to gang together and beat the juice out of the strong. Well, this was the basis of the Trade Union movement and the origin of the barely-recognisable Labour party currently abusing its power in Iraq and at home.