THE western world’s leading pseudo democracy is entering the final days of its race to the bottom. On one side is a candidate so steeped in the mire of the establishment and associated with more suspect dealings then your average futures market 'barrow boy' and on the other a candidate openly exploiting all the fears that have been planted by successive western regimes in order to cloak their true controlling capitalist agenda. What hope have we left?

With either of these two power hungry individuals at the helm, the dis-United States ship is heading for the rocks. The aftermath of which will destabilise the whole of the world. In short, the prospects for future conflict draw a whole lot closer.

The bizarre aspect to this is that politicians have not truly been in charge for generations and have been mere mouthpieces for the financial sector and the big corporations. As they are the ones who finance the political campaigns that they chose, not us, who and what are the priorities set by the bought and compliant mouthpieces in the supposed democracies of America and the western world?

It might be concluded, therefore, that war and destabilising the world markets suit their agenda, much like the 'Halliburton' approach to Iraq.

Here, they succeeded in contributing to first the destruction of Iraq, then its rebuilding at the cost to the American tax payer of many billions but, more importantly, the lives and livelihoods of millions of Iraqis. If you research who, from the American political elite, was connected to, and benefited from, Halliburton at the time you may (or may not) be shocked.

What’s that got to do with sleepy old Wiltshire, you may ask. Surely the local paper should only be concerned with local issues like dog poo and real ale festivals. How can such macro political issues affect our cosseted Conservative county, with our landed gentry, fox hunting and ancient monuments?

Well, the sad fact is that, in amongst all the superficial beauty and per capita wealth, we as a collective community are having our quality of life eroded in order that the ruling classes can preserve theirs.

Homelessness in our small market towns is becoming the norm, food banks are making nearly as many transactions as their high street counterparts, who ironically caused the need for food banks in the first place. Heroin has a firm hold and is becoming increasingly common in our communities which, when you consider that 80 or so per cent of the drug comes from Afghanistan, you may wonder, with Allied troops occupying Afghanistan for many years, that the least they could have done was to destroy the annual poppy crop, whist simultaneously allowing the growers to develop new food crops to replace their lost income.

It makes one think of Marx’s adage “religion is the opiate of the people (a way to make them docile and less likely to stand up against the exploiting ruling classes). Now that most intelligent people dismiss organised religion for what it is (another way to control and tax the misled masses by preaching about sharing and caring for the poor whist living in palaces surrounded by gold) the modern day maxim is “opium is the opiate of the masses" and occupation of Afghanistan was to conserve and protect the one resource that was more valuable than oil.

As Wiltshire has not only the largest military training area in England but all manner of military operating from it, the effect and potential threat to the county will be greatly increased. Therefore, when the witless wonders in Washington wish for war, the wonderful world of Wiltshire will wobble.