Two questions about fire.

For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t want anyone’s house to be burnt down.

But I know I’m not the only person watching the destruction in the hills of California who is asking a simple question. Why are these fires daily news, when similar ones burn daily into the lives and futures of so many millions around the world? Millions who have no means to rectify and replace the damage being done to their lives?

The loss of the artefacts and memories in an established home  in which lives have been lived and children raised is devastating – even though it’s probable that many of those worst affected will, literally, be able to rebuild their physical surroundings.   But building the mansion on the hill begs another set of questions – about regulation and communal protection and keeping an eye on the greater good when it comes to environmental control.

There’s a link between these two fire-related questions.

In a few days’ time, the man-baby will bounce his windy way into office. Advised on all sides by those wedded to notions of American  primacy, along with a baked-in commitment to deregulation in a free market, there will be little room for addressing the measured, thoughtful, long-term solutions required to address a burning world.

Trump’s government will follow in Biden’s footsteps and continue to supply arms and applaud the efforts of Netanyahu as he spreads fire in Gaza and, increasingly, beyond. It will continue to sneer at and denigrate those who warn of the heating world, even as its citizens – usually the poorest of them – suffer lives that are shredded as a result.

There will be commitment to violent intervention against the weak; there is a promise of more environmental degradation in pursuit of fossil fuels; there is a determination to demonise and deride those with knowledge and expertise – and all of this underpinned by an alarming set of promises to liberate criminals and imprison critics.

And just in case that wasn’t enough, the richest – and yet the stupidest – man in the world will be bellowing and blowing supportive lies around the globe at top volume.

All of which might be enough to convince us that we’re already in the handcart dragging us to damnation. And if all we did was to simply consume and hand-wring over these awful circumstances, that would be the dreadful fate we deserve. Such passivity is what the Trumps and the Musks depend on.

It’s the time of year when new fitness regimes are still being clung to. So here are the three easy steps in the political equivalent of a couch-to -10k to combat any creeping helplessness.

First, tell our own government to stop arming Israel: do so on one of the many demonstrations or by the old-fashioned MP lobbying process. Better still, support the widespread boycott of Israeli goods. Point out to anyone who hasn’t been paying attention for the last twenty years that hanging on to the coat tails of the US’s imperial and military ambitions doesn’t end well.

Second, when fires, wind and flooding charge into people’s lives, make sure that it’s the wider picture of the man-made disaster of the heating world that is central to the conversation. The bigger picture is the only picture.

And finally, just come away from the cesspit that is X. As we say about all show-offs and blowhards – just don’t encourage them.

Don’t sit still and do nothing. It’ll make you slower and fatter and an easier target.

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This blog has been quiet for a while as I’ve been doing extensive research, both here and in Jamaica, about the life and times of Oswald Grey, the last Black man hanged in the UK in 1962. I’ll be bringing out a new book later in the year as a follow-up to Brutish Necessity – so watch this space!