Belly,

"Progressivism" was coined in the 1890s by liberals and social activists and was agressively pursued in Europe post WW2, and was associated with high taxation/redistribution, and state owned and run industries.

This of course came to a crashing halt in the 70s and 80s as state owned industries slid into bankruptcy and high earning individuals fled tax rates of up to 90%

As a result "progressivism" is now associated with trying to wind the clock back to failed economic model, mixed in with political correctness /censorship and identity politics

SM aware and extremely thankful they existed, those times started building a better more caring world
And we needed it back then
As we will again as profit and growth blinds us to the fact both lead to very real trouble
Overpopulation, overexploitation of resources and all that brings
Just imagine aq Trump world, one free to hate whole races and faiths
One that puts rich countries trade interests before fairness
A horror world that seems to invite war as a result of closed trade

Belly,

While I can understand some nostalgia for the old days, they cannot be relived. Globalisation and international competition will shred any organisation that is not lean and mean.

Capitalism has meant that there is money to indulge the environmentalists and to improve and make industry more efficient and less wasteful.

I do however miss the short skirts of the 60s

Belly, "Progressives" is a misnomer. They are really regressives who
would like to go back to any socialist style of government.
I think the modern world, ie post 19th century, will be very wary of
any party that advocates full on socialism.
I thought that the Labour party had learnt that lesson, but I think
the left needs to look at the loss of support in most countries and
the collapse of countries like Venezuela. Most other countries
that were socialist did not collapse they just ended up going nowhere.
The main exception of course is China but it has become a sort of
Raw capitalist run by a dictatorship that owns the country that rents
industrial space to favourites.

Bazz/Shadow Minister not much doubt I am one of those progressives /regressives you speak of
But Socialist? unlikely
See I [like you] lived in the time of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,And see enough to know China is planning war
Trump brought about such terms used as insult
But he is the worst enemy of free trade this world has ever seen
Too he is the best mate China, North Korea, and Russia could have
His very existence weakens forever the western alliance

Belly you do fall for all the cliches don't you.

Free trade is an elitist trap that much of the free world has fallen for. If anyone is the enemy of the masses, it is the free trade merchants, & the useful idiots who have fallen for it.

Have you ever given a single thought to the ultimate result of free trade? Yes we are half way there, It means giving up industrial production in countries like Australia, & importing everything, as we now do.

Not as disastrous for us, provided we sit on the likes of Paul, & keep our mining going full bore, but without mining we become the poor beggar state of the South Pacific.

We no longer make anything, all the Ship, railway rolling stock, mining equipment, even cars & agricultural equipment manufacture all gone along with electrical appliances, TVs & even radios. Hell I even buy half my hobby stuff direct from Hong Kong, & the rest is imported from China by local distributors. Cut us off from Asia, & in 2 weeks, we run out of transport fuel, a month & we have rioting in the streets.

No one needs to invade us to defeat us, just stop our imports for a month & we are crippled into surrender.

Close our mining, & with only agricultural exports, we wouldn't have enough foreign exchange to buy our fuels. This once proud self sufficient nation is becoming nothing but a consumer of Asian goods

Free trade is the weapon of the ultra rich you hate so much, to subjugate us all, & you are helping them. How naïve can you get? I can't think of anything more stupid than hating the one member of the ultra rich who just might, [& only might], be on your side.