Growth and all that jazz
Sorry for the break in blogging, we’re trying to up the ante this year
Probably the most pressing of all news items is the recent dismal growth figures. Over a year ago when Cameron and Osborne claimed we were “Out of the woods” and “Out of the danger zone”. How very wrong they were. With the final quarter of 2011 seeing a contraction of 0.2% this then means that in the last 15 months since Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) in October 2010, we’ve had a massive 0.3% of growth. Cameron then has the audacity to blame the recent growth figures on the Euro crisis. Well I’m sorry, the UK economy has been stagnating long before the crisis began to effect.
Cameron you said it yourself, “I take full responsibility for everything that happens in the economy.” then take responsibility and change course!
Max
AGM 2012
Now confirmed to be Wednesday 22nd February 3-5pm (unless there’s any change), every Committee position bar Fresher’s Officer and CLP Liason Officer will be up for grabs. This will be held in the Guild Council Chambers.
Everyone is encouraged to stand for any position and please feel free to contact us at committee@bulsonline.org if you have any questions. We would recommend writing a short speech to read and if anyone wants flyers or manifestos printing then send them to the BULS account and we’ll sort it. However, this is optional and we would want to reiterate that we encourage anyone to stand and get more involved! If you can’t physically make the meeting and wish to stand for a position, email us at the above email address and someone will read it out on your behalf.
Preliminary position descriptions:
Chair
The chair liases with the National Organisation of Labour Students as well as the Guild of Students. Organises events and chairs committee meetings and full member meetings. Organises speakers and writes speaker-request forms.
The Chair is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.
Vice-chair
Assists chair in organising events. Organises transport for all events necessary, eg. Trains to national events. Assumes duties of the chair if the chair is temporarily unable to carry out his or her duties or if a complaint is made against them until it is resolved.
The Vice-chair is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.
Secretary
This Secretary takes charge of the organisational side of the club and, along with other members of the committee, helps to organise events. Assumes duties of the chair if the chair and vice-chair are temporarily unable to carry out their duties or if a complaint is made against them until it is resolved. Also writes the minutes for full member meetings and committee meetings. Writes the risk assessments for events.
The Secretary is also a financial signatory on the club’s accounts.
Treasurer
Has full-responsibility for the management of accounts. Decides on levels of subsidies when appropriate. Organises fundraising and Workers Beer Company summer work.
The Treasurer is a financial signatory on the clubs accounts.
Communications Officer
Writes weekly email, to be sent to all members. Uploads member email address onto email account at start of term (with assistance if needed).
Website Editor
Has editorial responsibility over the website; http://www.bulsonline.org also jointly responsible for updating the pages on the website along with the Communications Officer.
Women’s Officer
Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Women only). The Women’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Women of the BULS ot the committee. The Women’s officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on women’s issues such as eqaulity in the workplace, maternity leave, etc.
Black and Ethnic Minorities (BEM) Officer
Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Black and Ethnic Minorities only). The BEM’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Black and Ethnic Minorities of the BULS ot the committee. The BEM’s Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on Black and Ethnic Minority issues such as rascism, equality, etc.
LGBTQ Officer
Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by LGBTQs only). The LGBTQ’s Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all LGBTQ of the BULS ot the committee. The LGBTQ Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on LGBTQ issues such as discrimination, right to marry same sex marriages, etc.
Disabled Officer
Elected in a seperate caucus (i.e. chosen by Disabled only). The Disabled Officer has the job of liaising the views and grievances of all Disabled members of the BULS ot the committee. The Disabled Officer is also encouraged to organise campaigns on Disabled issues such as discrimination, etc.
The Iron Lady gives history a good handbagging
I could have written a blog post today about the exciting announcement regarding HS2 (in my view a worthy investment), or Ed Miliband’s speech about Labour being the party “for all times, not just bad times”, but instead I thought it would be much more fun to review the Iron Lady, out now in cinemas.
It’s a terrific irony that this film is funded by the UK Arts Council and National Lottery funding, not only because the former is being slashed by the Coalition’s Thatcherite scythe, but also because it would have been a more accurate representation of recent history if they had put 49 potential scenarios in the 1980s down on as many balls, and let Camelot or Guinevere decide the rest.
Seriously – Labour hat off – this was a noble attempt at capturing the spirit of one of Britain’s most prominent prime ministers; Meryl Streep’s impersonation of The Lady Who Was Not For Turning had me once or twice shivering in my seat, with her every mannerism and facial expression noted and re-enacted, along with that deep commanding voice the PR gurus told Mrs. Thatcher to adopt. Right up to the closing scenes, it displayed her dogged determination accurately, and managed to humanize her and generate sympathy towards her when she steadfastly refused to accept that her mind was beginning to unravel. Anyone who knows anything about Alzheimer’s, what it must be like to be elderly and lonely, and the denial of grief would appreciate this side of the film.
However, this was the problem: it could have been about any old lady looking back on her life and missing her husband (although this aspect was slightly unsettling and disturbing at times). The historical dimension to the film went beyond playing with history to deliver a message and artistic licence, almost to the point where you wondered if the film had been written by Tory publicists. The focus was entirely on Thatcher’s ‘Glorious’ moments and ‘triumphs’, mostly over men, for example her selection and early life, the Falklands war and the 1979 election. There was some fleeting real footage of the miner’s strike and the poll tax riots, and the entire period 1982 to 1990 was dealt with in approximately ninety seconds. At one point, I was appalled to see a shot of her dancing with Nelson Mandela. I expected it to focus primarily on her as an individual by the title, however there was not even a passing reference to the unemployment of the period, Thatcher’s response to the emergence of AIDS, the Westland affair, section 28, the clashes with the NUJ, Ken Livingstone and Liverpool Council…
This was not a documentary, and films are supposed to paint splashes of black and white over what was in reality only differing shades of grey. Even her deepest detractors have to admit that she had some leadership qualities (albeit perhaps without much idea of compromise), that she was – is – only human and was doing what she thought was right. However members of BULS who want to see this in the cinemas soon may find themselves wincing and cringing at many stages in this film.
Happy New Year from BULS
On behalf on everyone in Birmingham University Labour Students (BULS), Happy New Year to all. We all know 2012 will be a testing year, but in the meantime enjoy the celebrations!
Max
Happy 5th Birthday BULS Blog!
5 years ago today former BULS Chair, John Richtie published the very first post on Birmingham University Labour Students’ (BULS) blog.
5 years, 992 posts, 3,940 comments, 138,862 views, 16 regular contributing authors and 3 Total Politics Blog Awards later the BULS blog has never been stronger. The BULS blog was originally set up in response to our Tory opposites in BUCF way back at the tail end of 2006. It’s now safe to say we’ve long since overtaken our rivals. BULS has also branched out onto twitter and become prominent amongst fellow Labour Student societies (and even recently Guild Council).
So here’s to another great 5 years and huge thank you to everyone who has ever contributed, commented or hell even viewed the BULS blog. Things can indeed only get better.
2012 – Will it be a Good Year for Animal Welfare?
How many of us will be making New Year’s resolutions to pay more attention to the welfare of animals we eat and the wildlife in our countryside?
On 1st January 2012, the EU-wide ban on selling eggs from battery farms will come into force. Although in other EU nations (including the land of le Coq, France), the ban will hardly be rigorously enforced because they don’t seem to care that much for EU laws and haven’t yet made the necessary alterations to farms and cages, and the new, larger ‘enriched cages’ which will be used to supply our biggest supermarkets with eggs are not exactly a massive liberation for hens, it is nevertheless a step in the right direction, and an expression in law that we should not be tolerating these cruel means of achieving ‘efficiency’ in food production.
Unfortunately, however, this change will come at the same time as renewed calls for a repeal of the Hunting Ban. On Boxing Day, the Agriculture Minister, Jim Paice, suggested as much by arguing that the act is ‘unworkable’ and difficult to enforce. Although sadly this is in many respects the case, and it would be naive to say that the ban ended the inhumane and uncivilised ‘sport’ of fox hunting completely, it is still an expression of disapproval which should remain on the statute books for ever if we are to carry on calling ourselves an ‘animal loving nation’.
The visit by long-term animal rights campaigner and shadow minister Chris Williamson to BULS last term reminded us that the fight for even the most basic animal welfare is far from over, and that 2012 can only be a good year for animal welfare if we go out and fight against the vested interests of the food industry and those who seek a return of legalised fox hunting, in government and elsewhere. Just because a law has pitfalls and loopholes, that does not mean that the fundamentals behind it are not right, and that we cannot aim to tighten it and increase the number of prosecutions in future.
2012 need not be the year that the cause of animal rights takes a giant leap backwards.
Merry Christmas from BULS
On behalf of Birmingham University Labour Students (BULS), we would like to wish you all a very enjoyable and merry Christmas regardless of party affiliation. BULS has come a long long way in 2011, let’s hope we can build upon those successes in 2012.
By Max Ramsay, BULS Vice-Chair
Angry atheist rants
As I approach my role as Vice-Chair of Birmingham University Labour Students (BULS) by keeping religion and my position in BULS totally separate. So, this post you’ll be reading from BULS member and atheist Max Ramsay, rather than BULS Vice-Chair Max Ramsay.
Today David Cameron declared “Britain is a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so” and “that the Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today.”.
Now, I’d like to point out that I respect everyone’s right to have whatever faith they so wish. But, to be quite honest, Cameron really hasn’t read much of the King James’ Bible if he believes this is the case.
Now the first point is something seemingly imported from the USA. Given that a poll in 2004 conducted by the BBC showed that 39% of the UK population did not believe in God. That’s right, today we’re anything but a Christian nation, we’re a secular nation.
You may say, “Oh, but we were founded upon Christian ideals and it has played a such a vital part in history in the last few centuries.”. Really?! If we did derive our morals and values from the bible we’d still find acceptable;
- General slaughters (I Chronicles 20:3, Judges 8:10 and Deuteronomy 3:6-7)
- Burying victims alive (Numbers 16:32-35)
- Killing unbelievers (Deuteronomy 13:5, 13:6, 13:8-9 and 13:15)
- Genocides (II Chronicles 14:9 and 14:12 and II Samuel 12:31)
- Raping (Isaiah 13:15-16)
- Slavery (Exodus 21:2-6 and 21:20-21, Leviticus 25:44-46 and 1 Peter 2:18-21)
- White supremacy (Romulus 12:1-3 and 12:19-21 and Philipians 3:18)
- Jewish Persecution (Matthew 27: 22 and 27:25, John 7:1 and 8:44, Acts 7:51-52 and 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15)
- Women’s persecution (Leviticus 15:19-21 and 18:19, Proverbs 21:19, Corinthians 11:3 and 14:34-35, Ephesians 5:22-24 and Timothy 2:12-15)
- Justify physical punishment of children (Leviticus 20:9, Psalm 127:3, Proverbs 13:24, 22:6, 22:15 and 23:12-14)
- Homophobia (Leviticus 20:13 and 18:22, Deuteronomy 23:17-18, Romans 1:24 and 1:26-27 and Corinthians 6:9-10)
- Oppose medical science (Acts 15:29, James 5:13-15 and Matthew 9:2-8)
- To justify war (Exodus 15:3, Deuteronomy 20:4 and 1 Timothy 4:18)
Now can Cameron really claim that we were founded upon these values? That we derive our morals and values from the bible? And that we’re still a Christian nation? Again, while I respect people’s right to believe this, it is quite clear that what binds us and gives us true sense of values is secular enlightened thinking.
Max
Fourth by-election on the trot
That’s right, four by-election victories on the trot. Yes, all these were in Labour held seats, but it’s important how every single one has seen a significant swing towards Labour each time. The results were as follows:
Labour – 12,639 (54.42% up by 10.79%)
Conservative – 6,436 (27.71% down by 6.32%)
Liberal Democrats – 1,364 (5.87 down by 7.87%)
UKIP – 1,276 (5.49& up by 3.45%)
This has seen a 8.6% swing from Tory to Labour, when compared to the last general election which saw a mere 4.8% swing from Labour to Tory. Yes, the turnout was very low, but what do you expect at this time of year?
Either way, great result!
Max
Going too far on multiple fronts
This isn’t exactly fresh news but it may not surprise you that the University of Birmingham have never been one for true free speech. Now it seems they’ve taken it one step too far with the recent high-court injunction banning all occupation style protests on the entirety of campus.
This is a move that has been described as “aggressive and censorious” as criticisms have been voiced by Liberty, Amnesty International, the NUS, University of Birmingham Liberal Democrat’s Chair, Will Mieville-Hawkins and the University of Birmingham’s apparently sole UKIP member, Dave Glenwright (that’s right, this s**t just got real).
Now, there are without a doubt members of BULS who don’t support the aims of many of those in occupations throughout campus. There are many more who don’t agree with methods used by those occupying (occupying a shed at North Gate, really?). But I’m sure many BULS members will oppose the University’s crack down on free speech and expression.
Putting this aside, it turns out the University of Birmingham’s Vice-Chancellor (VC), David Eastwood, has awarded himself yet another obscene pay rise from £392k to £419k a year…plus all the added bonuses (free chauffeur, house, etc). That’s right, while lecturers, cleaners and lower management staff are having a real-term cut in pay and having drastic changes to their pension plans forced upon them. It seems our VC seems it acceptable to award himself the largest VC salary in the country.
Now you may say he deserves it, which is something I got into a debate with a BUCF member around six months ago. This may or may not be true (though I personally doubt it) but if you believe the VC deserves a substantial pay rise because of the “good work he does”, then you have to apply the same rule for lower paid staff on campus. And personally I believe the cleaners, the lecturers and the lower management have also done a good job and deserve the same rewards.
So David Eastwood and University of Birmingham higher management, take a long hard think. Because this time, you’ve taken it too far.
Max
The old fetish
Friday was the day the old fetish returned. The day Cameron delved into nostalgia. And the day he set Britain at odds not only with the other 26 EU member states, but rationality itself.
What we saw on Friday was a Prime Minister with his hands tied by dogmatic backbench MPs. But not to worry, it seems Cameron had unveiled his all powerful ‘veto’. The only problem with this is that it’s not a true veto of any sorts. Negotiations will still be ongoing, the remaining 26 EU states will still formulate an agreement and Britain will not be present to have any say in the talks.
This is catastrophic failure for Cameron who has severed any attempts to help salvage the Euro which is not only in the EU’s interest but vital in Britain’s interests. In the words of a Facebook update by my own brother:
“Tory lol. Blame the economic problems on the Euro crisis, then veto the plan to save it knowing full well that the the EU will cut you out and essentially get rid of any say you have in determining the future of Europe, and by extension, Britain“
Some may call it Bulldog spirit, I’d like to call it naively dogmatic.
Max
New endangered species?
I’d like to thank Political Scrapbook for providing this in light of two new residents in Scotland. Enjoy.
Max
We hate to say we told you so
Today we saw Gideon (George Osborne) unveil his first ever Autumn Statement (last year it was a Comprehensive Spending Review) which used to be Brown and then Darling’s Pre-Budget Report, although it’s still the same thing more or less.
What we saw today was a Chancellor willing to blame everyone except himself for his own failures. Gideon may claim as much as he likes that the growing crisis in the Eurozone may have put a dent in its works, but that would just be disingenuous as it’s not at that stage to truly have an impact on a non-Eurozone country such as the UK.
But in a nutshell what we had is:
- Growth forecasts for UK economy cut 0.9% this year and 0.7% next year (And we all know you can’t truly get the deficit down without growth)
- Borrowing forecasts revised up – an extra £111bn to be borrowed over five years (This was the one thing they set about to do, this was the be all and end all test of the Coalition and they are set to fail upon it)
- Pay cap of 1% for public sector workers once two-year pay freeze ends (Which is really going to encourage consumer confidence and spending, the true engine of economic growth)
- Unemployment to rise from 8.1% this year to 8.7% next year and more public sector jobs forecast to go – 710,000 over five years (Again, nothing new there)
- Credit easing and numerous infrastructure projects (I will welcome these, but it’s rather ironic after 18 months of austerity mantra)
- January rise in regulated rail fares to be capped at 6.2%, not 8.2% (While this is certainly better but as a semi-regular rail user, this needs to be below RPI, 5%, we already have the most expensive rail fares in Europe)
- Doubling of free childcare places for deprived two-year-olds to 260,000 in England (The one true policy I’m sure we can all get behind)
- 3p fuel duty rise due in January to be delayed or frozen (Which is still entirely negated with the rise in VAT in January)
- Bank levy to be increased (Which is all very well but not when you remember this is balanced out with the cut in Corporation Tax)
So essentially, we have growth being revised down for the fourth time in 18 months and borrowing expected to be £111 billion higher in 2015.
So when Gideon said “we are out of the danger zone.” around a year ago I didn’t think we’d get around to us saying “we told you so” so soon.
Max
N30
An interesting video from Unite upon the upcoming day of strikes set for tomorrow.
Thoughts everyone?
Max
#godisgove and #torybible
#godisgove and #torybible are to hashtags on twitter which have both appeared in recent days in the wake of Michael Gove’s decision to issue a King James edition of the bible to every state school in England. Now I’m not going to get into the whole inappropriateness of this act (If you know me well enough you’d remember I’m a massive atheist, but, I like to keep my role as BULS’s Vice-Chair totally separate from religion). But here according to LabourList are the top 10 best tweets featuring those hashtags.
Enjoy:
@4harrisons - And Cameron said “let there be growth” but lo! There was no growth
@mattedbrooke – And God said, “why have you eaten from the forbidden tree?” And Adam said, “we inherited this fruit from the labour government”
@ChrisBryantMP – Faith, hope and charity – have now been abolished as they were unproductive
@politic_animal – And on the seventh day he would have liked to have rested, but the government had opted out of the Working Time Directive
@lethandrel – And the lame were made to walk and the blind to see – well, according to the new assessments ….
@johnprescott – Blessed are the coalition for they shall inherit from and blame the last government
@cllr_robbins – Blessed are the freeschoolmakers: for they shall be called the children of Gove
@MatofKilburnia – And Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt, which Gove did putteth in school dinners & lo Jamie Oliver was displeased
@GoodmotherMobbs – And the lepers were ‘cured’; as ATOS found them fit for work
@evilflea – And then He createth all of the beasts and the animals, excepteth the cat, which he did not make up.
Max
BULS goes back to its founder
It seems the case for a low pay kitemark has been widened to include co-founder and former co-Chair of BULS, Richard Angell. Richard now works as the Deputy Director of Progress and recently published a post on the national Labour Students website.
So please take a look at the case he is making.
An Englishman’s Home is… beyond his wildest dreams
For some reason, going back into the mists of time, the British people have an obsession with private home ownership, even though most of us should technically never be able to afford one without borrowing. In Continental Europe, people are far more satisfied to rent, either from private landlords or more ‘trustworthy’ institutions – maybe there is some correlation between these statistics and the lower levels of stress and dissatisfaction there compared to the UK.
Nevertheless, we are where we are, and there is no going back on the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1981 however much we might want to reverse it (indeed, many of us may actually agree with it, being as it was extremely popular with the low paid, who for the first time had a stake in their council homes and some sense of freedom, however delusional). What we have now is a housing crisis coming at the worst possible time, during a dire economic climate caused by sub-prime mortgages themselves.
Tensions over housing and its’ availability have an effect on many areas of life, including levels of antagonism towards immigrants, the environment, growth, inequality in our cities, personal debt, and of course the Daily Mail and Daily Express front pages. We need to deal with this timebomb if we are to stem a rise in far-right politics and avoid a lost generation of young people. However, worryingly this government is going about it completely the wrong way.
Not only has it made squatting illegal when there are more empty properties than there are homeless people in this country, but it has appallingly placed a cap on housing benefit, effectively pricing the poor out of our capital city and entire swathes of the country – those parts of the country which have job vacancies. The government is slashing the public sector and saddling young people who go to university with ever higher debt, meaning their chances of even being able to look forward to putting down a deposit are negligible.
What our housing market needs is a Keynesian-style investment in house building and construction; not only would this lower house prices for first-time buyers, but it would also ease tensions in the community and increase demand in the economy generally, leading to growth and the beginning of the end of the deficit that the ConDems love to remind us about so much. As a bonus, it would even lead to a return of Location Location Location to our TV screens. Gordon Brown’s plan before the proverbial shit hit the fan in 2007 was to build 3 million new homes – we need this sort of commitment now, coupled with a healthy proliferation of 1940s-inspired New Towns (hopefully better designed than the likes of Milton Keynes) and more social housing. Today’s announcement from Cameron and Clegg about guaranteeing 95% mortgages may look like a repetition of exactly what went wrong in the first place, but should not be dismissed entirely, as it is the taxpayer, not the banks, helping first-time buyers, and there is real potential for an increase in demand as a result.
However it goes nowhere near far enough. If we can’t get people to fall out of love with the owner-occupier dream, then we need to build, build, build, spending more money in the short term to get us out of the mess in the long term.
3 million, I wouldn’t rule it out
Yesterday we saw a good sign in the economy that inflation had fallen from 5.2% to 5%. We welcome it but it’s still not good enough, especially when Eurozone inflation has remained at a reasonable 3%. It seems however, this is rather irrelevant with the news released today by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) where unemployment has risen to 2.62 million from July to September.
That’s right, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer who over a year ago claimed “we were out of the woods” now had the audacity to have one of their Ministers for Work and Pensions, Chris Grayling, claim that ”What we’ve seen over the last quarter has been the real impact of the crisis in the eurozone”. That’s right, they’re blaming their old punch bag, Europe. Don’t get me wrong, the crisis in the Eurozone is severe, but it in now way at a stage to make a real impact on unemployment figures, especially in a non-Euro state.
With the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance rising to 1.6 million by 5,300. The highest number of women out of work since February 1988 at 1.09 million rising by 43,000. Youth unemployment breaking the 1 million mark at 1.02 million with a rising by 67,000 and the unemployment rate of 8.3% being the highest since 1996 and the total number of unemployed people the highest since 1994, it’s about time Cameron and Gideon took another look at their plan.
Max
Lest we forget
“…So shall we honour war?
and shall we now praise troubled men?
Or shall we remember what war is
and give true meaning
to “Never again” ?”-David Roberts
“…My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.”-Wilfred Owen
Lest we forget.
Max
A Freezing Future
So much for the government constantly pandering to the grey vote because only the elderly turn out at elections. I made my weekly phone call home earlier today to find a set of anxious parents worried about how they are going to pay the bills this winter. If it turns out to be as icy as last year’s, they are going to be in trouble, they said. The reason? Not an overspend on needless festive gifts, or even the artificial and inflated energy prices, but a Chancellor who said ‘We are all in this together.’
The Winter Fuel Allowance, introduced by Gordon Brown, has been a lifeline to pensioners in fuel poverty up and down the country, and it is now being cut from £250 to £200 for the over 60s, and from £400 to £300 for the over 80s (these are the payments for those claiming pension credit, but the picture is just as severe for the slightly better-off pensioner too). Can you imagine what the reaction would be if this percentage cut was given to MPs? Or grants for new businesses? The only similar stinging cutbacks have been given to students, with tuition fees and EMA. It is indefensible, especially at a time like this, when Britain’s elderly – who have been paying taxes all their lives – are being encouraged to stay at home rather than go into care homes because their children have to re-mortgage their homes to pay for the costs, and are being told they can be treated at home rather than in hospitals thanks to NHS cuts and privatisation, to then simultaneously force them to ration their heating to only a few hours a week.
I have neighbours who are vulnerable and in their nineties, who told me they assumed there had been a mistake in their payment, and phoned up to query this only to be told by an unsympathetic call centre drone that their payments had been slashed, and that they should have noticed this when Osborne made his budget statement back in April. Oh yes, because of course all 90-year-olds are fully aware of the nation’s fiscal and benefits arrangements at every given turn. Why was there not at least a leafleting or information campaign to warn them of this change so they could save up to pay for what should be essential, and, if I had my way, provided by the state, instead of six greedy price-fixing profiteering firms?
When I said that this was a scandal and they should protest to their MP, their attitude was one of resignation and quiet despair. They didn’t feel there was any point, as there was a deficit to be paid off and they would just have to get by.
This Con-Dem coalition never ceases to amaze me, not just at how callous they are towards the most vulnerable in our society, but also because they get away with it.
Luke
A great year for Irish Labour
Michael D Higgins and Eamon Gilmore will now go down in History as two of the Irish Labour Party’s electorally successful Politicians. It was announced today that Michael D Higgins is to be elected the 9th President of Ireland receiving almost 40% of the first preference votes. This will make him the first ever Labour Presidential Candidate to have become President without the support of from other parties.
Of course this adds to the great success Irish Labour received in the Irish General Election last May where Eamon Gilmore led Labour to its largest number of seats in the Irish Parliament ever. This meant Labour has entered its 8th time in a Coalition Government where it takes up 8 out of the 20 Cabinet posts.
On behalf of all of us in Birmingham University Labour Students (BULS) I would like to wish our sister party across the Irish Sea a huge congratulations on the results they’ve had this year. And we hope the best is yet to come.
Max
Speech for David Miliband event
The Dear Leader has requested that his speech from David Miliband’s launch for the Living Wage Campaign at the University of Birmingham from the 28th October be published:
Hello and welcome to Birmingham University Labour Students launch of the Living Wage Campaign with David Miliband. I’m Daniel and I’m Chair of Birmingham University Labour Students.
Many of us in this room are members of National Labour Students, and I hope many others are soon to become members. I believe that National Labour Students are a really important wing of the Labour Party; in mobilising for Labour at elections, hosting national events and workshops, but most importantly National Labour Students proud history of campaigning, against the extortionate rise in tuition fees, in the liberation campaigns, fighting for the rights of women, disabled students, LGBT students and BAME students, rights that other students may take for granted. And now in the Living Wage Campaign, taking place on campuses across the country in Kent, Cambridge, Leeds and Leicester, and today starting here in Birmingham.
The Living Wage is the minimum hourly rate someone has to earn to afford everyday basics like housing, food, childcare. A wage as the name suggests, that you can live on, not merely exist.
In London the current rate is £8.30 an hour. In Birmingham the current rate is £7.20. £7.20 is a target that is not only morally right, but financially achievable.
I am proud to be a member of a party who when in office introduced the National Minimum Wage. This was a huge step. The Tories said it was economically unsound. It wasn’t. The Tories said it would cost jobs. It didn’t. The same arguments are made against the Living Wage.
It is great to see in the room…
Now, I know David doesn’t need much of an introduction. David was elected to Parliament for South Shields in 2001, and in 2006 was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs where he oversaw the Climate Change Bill, before becoming the Foreign Secretary in 2007. But more important than that, Political Top Trumps gives him a ‘fanciability’ of 84.
Boys and Girls, David Miliband.
The pressure mounts
With inflation around 5%, consumer confidence falling for four months on the trot, business confidence falling to a two year low, growth flat-lining in the past 9 months and growth expectations themselves being cut, you would have thought Gideon (George) Osborne would think things could not get any worse.
Well apparently they can. It seems 100 leading economists have written into the Observer to tell Gideon to adopt a plan B. Now while letters like this have been done in the past, the difference being that this time it has an alternative outline. It’s an alternative Miliband and Balls should take head to:
- An immediate halt to cuts, to protect jobs in the public sector. (Although I wouldn’t not cut entirely, for one, I’d cut the renewal of Trident).
- A new round of quantitative easing but the money wouldn’t go to the banks. Rather to finance a “Green New Deal” to create thousands of new jobs.
- Benefit increases to put money into the pockets of those on lower and middle incomes and give a boost to spending.
- A financial transaction tax to raise funds from the City to pay for investment in transport, energy and house building. (Robin Hood Tax anyone?)
- Introduce a truly progressive tax system so that those at the bottom don’t face the greatest burden proportionately (Or simply having the rich pay their taxes will be a start)
- Introduce a tax on land value to increase revenue and reduce the possibility of another debt-fuelled housing price boom.
- Copy South Korea and China’s model of state assistance for industry by creating a British investment bank. (Something that Lord Mandelson was beginning to champion in the last year of the Labour Government)
- Invest in transport and infrastructure to create jobs, but also to encourage people out of their cars and into trains or on to bicycles
- Judge the economy not on whether there is growth in GDP, but on a new catch-all criterion that takes into account the desire for minimal unemployment, and for work-life balance, economic and social stability, and job satisfaction.
David Miliband
I’ve just got back from the double David Miliband event, and just wanted to write a report.
I thought the crowd during the first part (In Conversation with David Miliband – in the great hall) was fairly tough, there were questions about Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Guantanemo Bay. One of the best questions was “What would you say to David Eastwood about the Browne Review?” and David replied in a very diplomatic manner, ending with the comment that he didn’t think it was “all Professor Eastwood’s fault”. I for one hope that Eastwood noticed the resentment in the room and the general jibes against tuition fees and millionaires.
The second part (The Living Wage Launch with David Miliband) was more relaxed and entertaining. Luke asked a great question about solidarity with potential allies and recognising the real enemy. David replied “kicking Lib Dems is pleasure, kicking Tories is business. Politics is business”. He also highlighted the work of his “Movement for Change”, responding to comments that it seemed similar to the Big Society by stating that society is our turf, we have always been known as socialists not statists, and the Tories are only developing policies to promote society because they are terrified of being known as the “there is no such thing as society” party. I’m sure many of us can see through their Big Society strategy to a purely Thatcherite idealism, and recognise that grass roots activity and community organisation always has been and will remain a Labour policy area.
In conclusion, congratulations to the BULS members who helped to organise the talks, and I hope those who missed out come to the upcoming great events!
Suzy
Sex education malarkey
I think most of us can agree that sex education has an important role to play in public schools. But to what level of importance would you say it is?
To Conservative MP, Andrea Leadsom, it seems not very. Let’s put this into context. In England and Wales sex education is not a compulsory subject for public schools (I know for one that I personally received nothing at my High School) and that parents are allowed to “opt out” their child if the school does teach it. And you wonder why we have the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe.
Anyway, back to Andrea Leadsom. It seems she believes that parents should have to “opt in” their children to sex education classes and that current sex education books are “inappropriate”. This is while a report published by Ofsted last year pointed out that a quarter of schools in England are not providing good enough lessons about sex, relationships and health. At the same time new research in the last couple of weeks provided information that “81% of 14 to 18-year-olds said their information came from the internet, the television and their friends.” and “one in four pupils do not have any sexual and relationship education in school.“.
Now some may say that abstinence only sex education is the only sound and “moral” way forward. But when we analyse this claim, it’s quite apparent that this argument is not grounded in research and facts. The Council of Scientific Affairs states that ”Current research findings do not support the position that the abstinence-only approach to sexuality education is effective in delaying the onset of intercourse.”.
I have already done a similar post on sex education before. But the point still stands, we need more not less sex education. If we truly want to tackle STDs, teenage pregnancies and yes, even abortions (again look to my previous post and subsequent comments regarding abortions) we need sound and effective sex education with no “opt-outs” for pushy and insecure parents.
So please Leadson, could the education system have some more.
Max
That Old Chestnut
David Cameron has a nerve. Not only has he U-turned over his pledge in opposition to hold a referendum over the UK’s terms of membership of the European Union, but today he had the temerity to force Nicolas Sarkozy to back down and accept his presence at key Eurozone talks to try to deal with the Greek debt crisis on Wednesday.
Once again, only one year into the new government, a Conservative prime minister is becoming about as stable on Europe as Edwina Currie is on her feet. We all know deep down he is a staunch Euro-sceptic, so why doesn’t he have the guts to come out and be frank with the British people, and say that he would love us to turn our backs on our continental partners, but that he also loves us to lecture and patronise them on economic policy, despite the fact that UK growth is anaemic at best, and backwards at worst, thanks to his policies.
A referendum on EU membership now would of course be absurd, but having called for one in opposition, the PM should stick to his guns and create a disunited and discredited government, and do us all a favour by breaking up the coalition and triggering a general election. You can’t have your bun and eat it, and you can’t be half in, half out, of the EU – leaving the Eurozone (or more accurately, Germany) to do all the hard work and then turning up to talks this week to act as one of the key players while facing a referendum proposal at home from your own backbenchers is hypocritical and downright embarrassing for Britain.
It was Ed Miliband, incidentally, who called on Cameron to give up his trip Down Under and attend the meeting, therefore whether or not you agree that Cameron has a right to be there, it is clear that the Labour leader is ahead of the curve on this one, as he was on phone hacking and as he was at PMQs this week.
It might sound like a cheap shot from the comforts of opposition – and we all know Blair and Brown disagreed over the Euro – however it is clear that yet again the Tories are divided over Europe. Europhile or Europhobe, this is one of the few reliable constants of the European project.
In light of recent events
In light of the NHS reform bill being pushed through the House of Lords, I’d like to draw attention to what many Tories may be thinking now because of it.
Enjoy
Max
We told you so
Going to use a bit of the Brigid Jones BULS blog formula this morning.
It turns out there’s going to be the biggest drop in middle-income families incomes since the 1970s and so pushing 600,000 more children into poverty according to the IFS. This is while Gideon (George) Osborne has announced a £840 million tax break for multinationals using tax heavens while it turns out the amount of tax money lost in the FTSE 100 by tax avoidance is estimated to be £18bn. So much for the cuts being “progressive”.
To insult to misery, it turns out public sector job losses will 50% higher than originally predicted. So much for Cameron’s pre-election claim that any Minister who came to him with front-line public sector cuts would be told to go back and have a rethink.
Max
Sex is not the enemy
David Cameron is set to announce a new set of proposals for child-proofing the internet. A new opt-in scheme to be unveiled today would have internet providers blocking access to pornographic material to all but those users who request it. Clearly children, some teenagers and even adults can be shocked and upset by explicit imagery.
I don’t think we should run (seek to understand exotic acts and complex power games) before we can walk (understand a basic ideal of sex between adults who respect each other). But wouldn’t it be nice if the government were to replace one (misleading, fantasy-based) source of sex information with another (safe, inclusive) source?
The classically repressed British are living proof that ignoring sex does not make STIs or unwanted pregnancy go away. Only proper education, support networks and open adult discussion can do that.
I think we have some things to learn from our friends down under: http://www.sexparty.org.au/index.php/policies
Suzy
Election results
Apart from an amazing visit by the Shadow Policing Minister, Vernon Coaker, BULS played host to a serious of elections for various positions. And the results are as follows:
Women’s Officer-Viki Hemmingway
Fresher’s Officer-Lottie Rowling
Constituency Labour Party (CLP) Liason Officer: Ed Gilbert
Congratulations is in order and comiserations for those who ran against them. We look forward to working with this ‘New Generation’ of BULS.
Guess the caption
Enjoy
Max
Something you may have missed at the Tory Conference
Enjoy
Max
The expectation
After Gideon’s (Osborne’s) low-key and rather dull speech at the Tory Conference today where he claimed his economic plan to be working and even, dare I say it, “flexible”. I’d like to draw attention to the only aspect of Gideon’s plan that has so far proved to be “flexible”, the growth expectations by the IMF over the last 6 months or so, curtsey of LabourList:
The fact is, the CBI, the IMF and now even some Tory backbenchers and Chairs of Treasury select committees have called for a plan for growth or at least attempts to stimulate it. Like we said a few weeks ago, a temporary cut in VAT would be a huge stimulus as pointed out by the IFS.
It seems Gideon was only really to parade the the low interest rates in his speech, but with the abysmal growth over the last year or so, it seems we may have a rise in interest rates regardless if growth doesn’t pick up.
So please Gideon, think again.
Max
Vernon Coaker MP & Elections this Wednesday (5th Oct)
Good Afternoon!
Firstly, a big thanks to everyone that came to our welcome social last night. It was really good to see so many new faces! But don’t worry if you couldn’t make it as our next event is not too far away…
Just a quick message to remind you about our upcoming event this Wednesday (5th October) at 4pm in the Guild Council Chambers when Shadow Policing Minister, Vernon Coaker MP will be coming to visit us to talk. All the details can be found on the event page which is here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=239192072800446
But before the event on Wednesday, from 3pm, we will be holding by-elections to fill our available positions on the BULS committee. Lots of you expressed an interest to join the committee last night so we’ve brought these forward! See below for a list of positions up for grabs with times and locations:
3.00pm Women’s Officer Caucus (Rosa Parks Room, Guild)
3.10pm Black and Ethnic Minorities Officer Caucus (Rosa Parks Room, Guild)
3.20pm LGBTQ Officer Caucus (Rosa Parks Room, Guild)
3.30pm Freshers Officer (Guild Council Chambers)
3.40pm CLP Liaison Officer (Guild Council Chambers)
4.00pm Vernon Coaker MP (Guild Council Chambers)
If you have any questions about any of the positions, please feel free to drop us an email at:committee@bulsonline.org and we’ll be able to give you a bit more detail.
If you do want to stand, just prepare a short speech (no longer than 2 minutes) including why you feel you’d be best for that position. And just turn up on the day!
Hope to see as many of you there on Wednesday!
BULS Love
Ollie
Secretary
Priorities please
It was announced yesterday (I think) that the UK has rejected a call by the EU to implement a financial tax of a mere 0.01% on bank transactions which could raise £50 billion a year.
I’d like to draw your attention to a video posted on this blog before about the absurdity of the Coalition decision to oppose the so-called ‘robin-tax hood’.
Enjoy
Max
Welcome to a new year in BULS
A message from the Dear ‘Glorious’ Leader (A.K.A. BULS Chair), Dan Harrison to new members
Welcome to the first of many Birmingham Labour Students events. I’m Dan and I’m chair. I’d just like to say a few words on why we are lucky to be Labour students and Labour members in Birmingham.
Birmingham is red. We can play our part in keeping it red. Edgbaston, the constituency where many first years will live, is the pride of Labour at the moment, seeing Gisela Stuart returned to Parliament against all odds and against all of Ashcroft’s millions. I remember being told at 2am in the Student Union that Gisela had lost, that’s just how tight it was. We helped to win that seat. Edgbaston CLP is a brilliant case study in what makes a successful CLP. Edgbaston is offering up 3 trainee positions this year. I would really encourage anyone interested to take this up and experience first-hand what makes them tick. We will be working closely with Edgbaston’s Councillor Candidate Dennis Minnis, Honorary Member of Birmingham Labour Students in the run up to May’s council elections. Last May Dennis missed out by just 21 votes, so with us, we can win Edgbaston.
2nd Years live in Selly Oak. Selly Oak’s MP is Steve McCabe, who many of you may have met and chatted with at Freshers Fayre last Friday. Steve is a member of the Home Affairs committee and is a former Government Whip. Selly Oak is a seat for students, and in the case of Councillor Brigid Jones, by students. We will be looking to work closer with Selly Oak this year in the excellent work Steve, Brigid and the team do. Steve is also offering trainee positions, which again, I would encourage you to think about. Steve is a friend to the club, and it is our duty to be a friend back.
Slightly further afield we have Ladywood, with one of the first female Muslim MPs Shabana Mahmood. Shabana received over 50% of the vote in 2010 and has consolidated her strong support base through her work as a Shadow Home Office Minister. Shabana represents the heart of Birmingham and was a force of strength in the aftermath of the riots. Ladywood CLP is also offering volunteer positions. Again, come and have a chat if you fancy it. Incidentally, Shabana is coming to talk about her experiences on November 25th.
Birmingham also has in Erdington Mr Harriet Harman Jack Dromy, Liam Byrne, and Labour Friends of Palestine’s very own Richard Burden. Tom Watson, who shone during the phone-hacking affair is just down the road also. As I said, we in Birmingham Labour Students are spoilt.
By signing up to Birmingham Labour Students you also became a member of National Labour Students. National Labour Students are very active, be it in campaigning, most recently on the Living Wage, or during their three annual events, Political Weekend on 12/13th November in Grantham, National Council on 10/11th December at National Labour HQ in London, and at National Labour Students Conference in February. I would encourage you to come to these and meet our comrades from across the country.
We will also work alongside our friends in Birmingham Young Labour, with campaigning, guest speakers and socials. More on that to come.
So, as you may have picked up, we are a very busy, very active club. Campaigning on campus, in Birmingham and across the country. Campaigning for students, for councillors, for MPs or for Ken Livingstone. Socialising amongst ourselves, with like minded groups on campus, with Birmingham Young Labour and with National Labour Students. Learning from our guest speakers. The first of which is Vernon Coaker, Shadow Policing Minister on 5th October.
I’d love you to be as active as possible. In fact, there are positions within Birmingham Labour Students committee that are open. Freshers Officer, in charge of all things first year, LGBT, BME and Women’s Officer. We celebrate and recognise the importance of these liberation positions.
So, from me, I extend a huge welcome back to returning second and third years, and an even huger welcome to first years, the next generation of Birmingham Labour Students. Welcome. Welcome home.
By Dan Harrison, BULS Chair
Clegg is Not For Turning
Yesterday Nick Clegg made a speech to the Liberal Democrat conference which was steadfast and robust in defence of the coalition’s economic policy, despite the depressing evidence this week that the economy isn’t changing course either from its current trajectory of nowhere. He promised there would be no turning back on the cuts and auterity, however many jobs are lost and however many people struggle to make ends meet thanks to the VAT rise and inflation.
Does this sound familar? It should. For although it is right that things never completely run in parallel, it is indeed the case that history may never repeat itself, but it rhymes. It was around this stage in the political and economic cycle – at a party conference – that Margaret Thatcher made the infamous ‘Lady’s not for turning’ speech. Then the UK witnessed riots on the streets, rampant unemployment, a royal wedding, a foreign intervention and a belligerent government hell-bent on destroying the fabric of our society. I barely exaggerate. Even shoulder pads are making something of a comeback in 2011.
However, maybe now is more like 1931, with a prolonged slump looming, a currency mechanism collapsing at the same time as the US economy, a rise in far right extremism and little help for the poor and jobless.We seem to be heading for continued gloom because of the Con Dems’ obsession with cutting the deficit too far and too fast, stifling growth and productivity and making the situation worse for all of us. Although they have won welcome concessions from the Tories on some issues, on the fundamentals Nick Clegg needs to wake up and pull out of this marriage of convenience for the sake of his party in future but also for the country. Just as in 1981 and 1931, ordinary people feel that overall Britain is going in the wrong direction or is in the doldrums - the only thing that would change that elusive yet crucial feeling of a lack of confidence is investment on Keynesian terms to jump-start the economy, a fall in VAT and a slower trimming of the excess we built up saving the banks from collapse. Unfortunately though it seems the Cleggy’s not for turning.
Living Wage Campaign
We won’t be able to post a full blog for a few nights given most of us are preparing for the Societies fare tomorrow and Friday. So we’d like to quickly share National Labour Students new campaign for a Living Wage. Like the minimum wage, it’s such a small act that can achieve so so much. I’m sure most in BULS can and will support this brilliant new campaign.
Max
More Total Politics success
Yup, it keeps getting better. It turns out BULS has made it to 249th in the Top 300 Political Blogs of 2011. Again, thank you to everyone to everyone who voted for us!
We’ll be sure to keep up the good work!
Total Politics Blog Awards
You know we on the BULS site mentioned about a month back about the Total Politics Blog Awards for 2011. Well the results have been announced, and yes, you kind of guess how well we did by the badge there, but let me put this into context.
Last year the BULS blog somehow managed to sneak into the Total Politics Blog Awards for 2010 Top 100 Labour Blogs at number 90. Most other sites had sent out requests to vote for them prior to voting. We in BULS on the other hand did not even realise that we had got into the Top 100 until around 6 months after the results were announced. But this year we did push it a bit harder, and yes, I know you’re dying for the result so here it is…drum roll please:
42nd!!! That means we have moved up a whopping 48 places!!! Don’t believe it yourself, check here!
Thank-you to everyone who voted for us and we will do our best to keep the BULS blogs coming to you in the year to come and beyond!
Another despairing moment for the American right
You’d think after eight years of George W. Bush as President you would have thought the Republican party would ensure its front-runners for the 2012 Presidential bid would at the very least appear to seem to know what they are talking about. But sadly, they got Michelle Bachmann instead. Now I thought the American right (specifically the Tea Party wing) had lost most of its credibility (primarily) in regards to modern science when one of its darlings, Sarah Palin, said this:
Now, yes you may well be reeling laughter/pity for the Palin. But this has turned out to be nothing when compared to the Tea Party’s newer rising darling, Michelle Bachmann. This is the woman who wishes to close down the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regards homosexuality as a “disorder” and a “sexual difunction” and wishes to repeal all health care system legislation.
What she done now? You may ask. Well she, like Palin has delved into the realm of scientific ignorance. Bachmann claimed that the HPV vaccine, which is a well-proven preventer of cervical cancer, causes ”mental retardation” in children. Yup, you heard right, “mental retardation” in children.
Now I’m not even going to go in to the long long list of scientists and scientific institutions that lined up to show how ridiculous Bachmann’s comments are. But I will provide her with two specific facts:
- HPV, Human Papilloma Virus, or more commonly: genital warts is the most common STD worldwide and is the 2nd largest cause of female cancer (CDC).
- Investigations by the AMA, CDC, WHO, and other major health organizations have cleared the vaccine as safe. Of 23 million administered dosages, 772 (that’s .003%) reported serious effects.
A rich man’s toy
Do you know how much it costs to get from Selly Oak train station while I’m down in Birmingham for University to get back home to Chorley train station (a journey of around two and a half hours either way)? £29.25. Now this is of course bought (advance fares and all that) about a month in advance and with a student railcard which grants a third off fairs.
To cut to the chase, the UK has the most expensive rail fares in Europe with an additional 8% rise expected for next year. The UK is the only country in Europe to have a privatised rail industry. We subsidise the rail industry far more now in real terms than we did when it was nationalised. And we subsidise Virgin Rail alone £1.4 billion. Now in regards to the last point, I fail to see why Richard Branson should receive a penny of British tax payers money (not trying to sound too populistic).
Now for those who say, oh, but the quality of service is far superior to our European counterparts. Really?! For a start only yesterday Network Rail was warned on punctuality by the Office of Rail Regulation. And I have spent too many over-crowded train journeys on a Friday lunch time on a train from Birmingham New Street to Manchester Picadilly or Preston to say that the capacity is sorted.
Solution? Re-nationalise. We’ve been tampering with the system for around two decades. If it doesn’t work, move on and try something different. And I can assure you, this isn’t working.
It’s not often I agree with a Tory Minister, but Phillip Hammond is right when he says trains are now a rich man’s toy.
Max
9/11 Ten Years On, Coalition Politics and Blood Donation
9/11 – A Warning from Recent History
For someone of the age of the current crop of Labour Students, it is particularly difficult to believe that it is ten years tomorrow since the lives of millions were changed forever on September 11th, 2001. Most of us were still in primary school at the time, and it is perhaps apt that our generation – one that was constantly told we were growing up too fast – had our innocence of the world around us robbed so suddenly on that bright Tuesday morning. Hearing and seeing the images of the planes hitting the World Trade Center still transfixes all of us, and as much as we might want to look away having seen enough, we can’t quite bring ourselves to stop watching.
However it is our generation – the 9/11 generation – who will be the politicians and headline-makers of the coming years, and if anything good can come of the last decade, it is surely the lesson that those in power have a responsibility not to overreact when faced with such onslaughts. Our party’s most successful leader (in electoral terms) no doubt had good intentions, but made the grave error of marching the troops gung-ho into an unplanned and illegal war, probably creating a whole new generation of terrorists in the process, while at home him and those around him were complicit in eroding many of the freedoms we were meant to be protecting, including detention without charge and freedom from torture. If the horror of terrorism reaches us again, we must pause and assess the causes before acting. The same rule should apply for other crises, like the riots this summer.
Backbench Tories Have Nothing To Worry About
Today is the final day of the Plaid Cymru autumn conference in Llandudno, north Wales. The outgoing leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, made his final conference speech yesterday after an electoral drubbing for the nationalist party in the Welsh Assembly elections in May. Unlike in Scotland, where the SNP have been successful, he argued that coalition government in Cardiff Bay (of which Plaid was the junior party) meant Plaid’s achievements in government were smothered by Labour, and that the party was punished by voters for not claiming credit for them.
Aside from the fact that Plaid achieved very little in government in a time of economic turmoil other than a referendum with poor turnout which managed to bore even political anoraks, their experience in coalition should serve as a lesson to Westminster politics. This week Tory backbenchers, angry over law and order, Europe and abortion, moaned that the Lib Dem ‘tail’ was wagging the Tory ‘dog’ and that Nick Clegg was being given too many concessions by the Prime Minister. However come the election in 2015, the Tories will have nothing to worry about, as the voters are likely to give them sole credit for any successes – particularly if the economy picks up (not a given considering Osborne’s slash-and-burn approach) – and they will certainly not be looking to make some sort of permanent alliance with the Lib Dems, contrary to what some commentators are predicting. The coalition dog will probably have his tail docked when the voters are next given a choice.
About Bloody Time
This week the ban on gay and bisexual men giving blood for life in Britain was finally overturned (although you’d be forgiven for not noticing the leap forward because the BBC thought Strictly Come Dancing was more important on the news bulletins that night). This is a triumph that equality campaigners have been working tirelessly for for years, and at last gay men will be able to save lives and help tackle the urgent need for more donors. No more will the official policy imply that gay men cannot be trusted to practice safe sex and ‘probably have HIV’.
Although the ban was only replaced with a one-year time lag since a donor’s last encounter, it is still progress, and puts us more in line with the situation in similar countries.
Screw tax cuts to the rich. The 20% VAT should go!
Our opposites in BUCF have today signalled the call for an idea which has been floating around for a few years now. Scrapping the 50p tax rate for those earning over £150,000 a year. Now this is all very well, I think everyone can agree that governments ought to do their best to keep taxation as low as they can depending on the expenditure, but to say “Getting rid of the 50p tax is not a tax break for the rich, but a common sense policy to stimulate growth and encourage positivity in investment.” is something I’m going to have disagree with BUCF’s former-President.
Keeping interests rates low and cutting taxes for “entrepreneurs” may be all very well, but it counts for nothing if there’s no expenditure from the general population. This is what’s happening now, with the greatest squeeze on household finances for two years due to rising inflation, benefit cuts and of course the regressive rise in VAT (which heavily contributed to the rise in inflation), it is no wonder retail sales, construction and growth expectations are down.
Now of course, this post is completely leaving aside the fact that the 50% tax band will raise an additional £12.6 billion over five years according to Treasury figures . The real point of this post is why not cut VAT again instead? The IFS itself said that this was an effective stimulus for consumer spending (the real power of growth) when VAT was briefly cut to 15% in 2009.
And also, on a more simplistic note, to cut taxes for the rich, and yes millionaires as well, at a time when household incomes are being squeezed is nothing less than insulting for those struggling to pay the bills.
Max
Abortion and sex education facts
In the light of Nadine Dorries’ plans to require “independent” organisation to consult with pregnant women, I’d like to point out the true facts of abortion and sex education in the UK and across the world. These are facts that the religious “independent” organisations seem to ignore and the same for many in the so-called Conservative Christian Fellowship.
Here are some facts about abortion and sex education.
- Each year, 20 million abortions take place in unsafe conditions and as a consequence, an estimated 80,000 women die
- Late abortions are extremely rare but necessary – less than 1 per cent are carried out after 22 weeks
- Abortion is very safe in Britain and is one of the most commonly performed gynaecological procedures. Complications are extremely rare; carrying a pregnancy to term is more risky.
- Contrary to assertions by the anti-choice lobby, medical research consistently shows that women who have had an abortion have no greater risk of breast cancer than those who have not.
- One in five of all pregnancies ends in a natural abortion.
- Abortion laws in the UK are more restrictive than in almost every other European country, where abortion on request is legal in the first three months of pregnancy
- Sex education is not a compulsory module in secondary schools in England and Wales
- Studies have shown that comparisons between countries where abortion is legal and illegal that they have almost no difference in the actual level of abortions that take place, the only difference being, it’s far more dangerous in the illegal countries
- “Abstinence-only-until-marriage works.”-The Council of Scientific Affairs states that ”Current research findings do not support the position that the abstinence-only approach to sexuality education is effective in delaying the onset of intercourse.”
- “Sex education encourages students to become sexually active at younger ages.”-The World Health Organization reviewed evaluations of 47 programs in the United States and other countries. In 15 studies, sex and HIV/AIDS education neither increased nor decreased sexual activity and rates of pregnancy and STI. However, in 17 studies, HIV and/or sex education delayed the onset of sexual activity, reduced the number of sexual partners, and/or reduced unplanned pregnancy and STI rates.
- “Teaching students about contraception encourages sexual activity and increases the chance of teenage pregnancy.”-Expert panels that have studied this issue have concluded that comprehensive sex and HIV/AIDS education programs and condom availability programs do not increase sexual activity and can be effective in reducing high-risk sexual behaviors among adolescents.
- “Contraceptives fail so frequently that we should only teach teens to abstain.”-Modern contraceptives are highly effective. The percent of women experiencing pregnancy within one year ranges from 0.03 percent using Depo-Provera to nine percent using the cervical cap ( with perfect use). Even imperfect use protects women far better than does using no protection. Rates of pregnancy with imperfect use range from 0.03 percent using Depo-Provera to 21 percent using the female condom compared to 85 percent of women using no protection.
- “Contraceptives do not protect against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.”-Other than total sexual abstinence, only condoms currently provide significant protection against HIV and other STIs. That is why good programs educate students about the importance of condoms.
- “Condoms have a high failure rate.”-The National Institutes of Health (NIH) confirms that condoms are very effective in affording protection against HIV and unwanted pregnancy. The NIH also reports that laboratory studies show that condoms can afford good protection against discharge diseases, such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis.
Out of touch
Just tuned in to Woman’s hour and became outraged at views expressed by Lord Digby Jones, (formerly ‘Sir’, formerly ‘Mr’), on the subjects of education and parenting. Jones has developed a proposal of cutting benefits to all parents whose children cannot read, write, count and work a computer by age 14. He went on to say, reassuringly, that these families “will not starve, they will be given food stamps” but will be deprived of monetary benefits as they would, apparently, only be spent on “luxuries” such as cigarettes and alcohol. Stopping families’ benefits wholesale at the drop of a hat seems to be the populist policy de jour, with no concern for the serious effects such measures would have on child poverty, human rights and the development of a lawless underclass. Aside from the fact that such a proposal would hit migrants and disabled people worst, it is unrealistic and out of touch. Lord Digby Jones turns out to be the former Minister of State for UK Trade & Investment. Perhaps he should confine his opinions to his area of expertise.
I think this is symptomatic of a larger problem. While many of the casual prejudices held against Britain by my aquaintances here in Berlin are amusing, harmless and easily refudated, the stereotype of a British political system in which the monarchy and peers have far too much say is not only damaging, but seems to be turning out to be true.
As a Briton abroad I feel humiliated over Prince Andrew’s gaffes and mood swings, concerned by Prince Charles’ several inappropriate interventions, disappointed as to the lack of progress on Clegg’s House of Lords reform.
It all puts me in mind of an Oscar Wilde quote, spoken by Lord Fermor to his nephew Dorian Gray – “When I was in the Diplomatic, things were much better. But I hear they let them in now by examination. What can you expect? Examinations, sir, are pure humbug from beginning to end. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him.”
Suzy
Thanks Gideon
This is a table taken from the LabourList website. Just lets you appreciate the good work Gideon Osborne has done for this country so far.
GDP Growth over the last three quarters
Ireland and Greece’s figures haven’t been released yet, but either way, it’s not looking good.
Max
What Cameron and Boris really mean
Here’s some late night humour for you to enjoy. We all figured out what Cameron was really saying years ago, but it’s good to hear it on TV.
Max
Danger, Danger – High Voltage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-14553613
Yesterday a young man in his prime died needlessly following an incident with the police where a Taser gun was allegedly used by officers. The case has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. It would be premature for me to claim that police had been unreasonable in this case or to cast aspersions on Dale Burns, however the case has led to calls for a rethink over the use of Tasers by Amnesty International, and I echo their sentiments.
This is not the first time someone has died suspiciously not long after being subject to a Taser ‘shock’, yet still this and the previous government have both ordered their wider usage to please the ‘hang-em-and-flog-em’ brigade – no doubt they will be used more extensively as a method of crowd control following the riots. If police leaders can question politicians’ orders to use water cannon and rubber bullets where needed, citing Britain’s century-and-a-half long tradition of unarmed community policing, then why have they not criticised the authorisation of these brutal weapons? Anyone who has seen a video clip on Youtube where someone has volunteered to receive the shock treatment will tell you that it does not look pleasant.
Police officers are only human beings who can overreact like ordinary citizens, and in many public order situations can fear for their lives. However these weapons have not only been used against armed assailants but also when carrying out routine arrests on the most unthreatening of suspects, and in the US it has even been reported that sick and bored police have been ‘testing out’ their device on farm animals to pass the time. These weapons are lethal and do not discriminate between those bent on harming others and innocent bystanders caught in the wrong place at the wrong time; they do not ask questions. There are millions of people walking along Britain’s streets with heart problems – what if one of these went on a legitimate peaceful protest which turned violent and were Tasered trying to restore calm or quickly leave the scene?
Since the tragic cases of John Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson, the tuition fees protests and following the riots of this month, police are in an unenviable position where they don’t know whether they are being too harsh or too soft in the heat of the moment. Despite this, however, the monstrous Taser should have no place on our streets.
Ignorance Is Not Bliss
There’s been a tsunami wave of comment and opinion about ignorance and what to do about the riots in the last week, most of which has been speculative and, in some cases, downright prejudiced (I am of course referring to David Starkey). However what I want to shed some light on is the ignorance that I see every day surrounding disability and conditions that inflict millions of people.
I was on a bus this week where an elderly lady got on with a walking stick and was clearly unsteady on her feet. When she struggled to find her bus pass and got into bother, the bus driver continued to harass her, demanding that she either produce her card, pay or get off the bus. There was tutting and sighing from other passengers, and I even heard the word ‘drunk’ whispered by several people. It was 10.30 in the morning, and although regrettably some people do start drinking early in the day in areas like mine when they’d be better off doing something constructive, I think this woman would have had a tough job getting plastered this quickly.
The lady was not drunk as it turned out, but she had Huntington’s Disease, as another lady pointed out to me as she helped her with her heavy bags. Huntington’s Disease is an hereditary neurodegenerative disorder affecting muscle control which only begins to take effect in middle age, and leads eventually to dementia and in many cases untimely death. The bus driver in question was not a bad man, and was only in his twenties; he was probably concerned about losing his job if someone got away with not having their pass. However it struck me that this lady, who had a perfectly intelligent and coherent conversation with another passenger before she struggled off the bus, undoubtedly has to put up with this ordeal every time she leaves the house, with people commenting and assuming and speculating whenever she goes shopping or to visit relatives.
Why are we not educated about conditions such as this? Why do people with diseases or conditions that are not self-inflicted have to put up with social stigma and embarrassment every day by people who are not discriminatory, but are completely oblivious to the existence of the disease they cannot escape? It’ll never happen in the current climate of cuts, but I believe we should make our children attend compulsory awareness classes, not in school as the curriculum is already stretched, but outside, perhaps in the summer holidays, alongside first aid and financial management tutorials. Ideally it would inform people of ‘invisible’ conditions such as autism and tackle the taboos surrounding common illnesses like cancer. Perhaps then people’s lives would be less of a struggle and allowances would be made for the disabled by other members of the public. If the classes were to take place at 16 it would probably be more of a benefit for society as a whole than national service or leaving young people on the street; it may also encourage more volunteering, which will go some way towards creating a big society and boost young people’s employability at the same time.
US update
Well the GOP has seen the very first primary to secure its nomination for President in 2012. And it seems to be developing in to a three horse race between Rick Perry, the Texas governor who recently organised a prayer rally to stem America’s decline (instead of helping America by simply getting on with his job as governor and fixing the problems himself). Mitt Romney the former Governor and second choice candidate to McCain in 2008. And Michelle Bachmann the Representative who wants a Federal Ban on Gay Marriages, the phasing out of social security and Medicare, supports the teaching of creationism in schools in science lessons and refused to compromise an inch during the debt ceiling rise fiasco (this in turn played a large part in America’s credit downgrade).
Now this is where I am glad to live in a country where the likes of Gideon Osborne, David Cameron and even Tony Blair are considered right wing, each of which have nothing on the GOP Presidential hopefuls. Don’t get me wrong, this will be an interesting race, each of the front runners have their own unique strengths. Bachmann is the darling of the Tea Party and can easily whip up widespread Republican grass-root support, Romney is seasoned campaigner after running for the Republican nomination in 2008 and Perry has enormous experience as Texas governor.
Bachmann’s win in Iowa was certainly far from solid, most of the voters in the straw poll were relatively undecided as Perry’s recent arrival will mean Bachmann and Perry will battle it out for the Tea Party and right of the Republican party while Romney takes the relatively moderates.
The GOP would be wise to choose Romney as their candidate for President, as the least Tea Party like front runner he is the one truly capable of capturing the all important swing moderate voters. But with the rise of Bachmann, Palin and Beck amongst the American right, that outcome doesn’t seem certain, which is comforting news for Obama.
Max
Total Politics Blog Awards 2011
It’s that time of year again. The Total Politics Magazine is hosting it’s annual blog awards where blogs can become one of the Top 100 (or 20 if you’re lucky) blogs in the country depending on your category (Left Wing, Labour and Group for this one).
BULS last year managed to achieve (somehow and with no one realising) 90th in the top 100 Labour blogs and the only Labour Students blog to do so. This year we hope to do far better.
You can vote here and then click on the “click here to cast vote button”.
The rules are as follows:
- Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. The higher you rank a blog or author, the higher up they will appear in the aggregated results. You must enter a minimum of five names for your vote to count. If you don’t want to enter more than five, just write ‘blank’ in the remaining boxes. Every box must have some text in for the vote to be submitted successfully. They will also request a category BULS’s Labour, Left Wing and Group and you will need to submit a category for the ‘blank’ section if you have any so place any category for it.
- Only submit your vote once. If you vote more than once, it won’t be counted.
- Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents and based on UK politics are eligible.
- Anonymous votes left in the comments on the Total Politicswebsite or emailed to members of staff will not count. You must submit your vote via the survey and you must enter a valid email address when you do so.
- Do not publish a list of ten blogs on your site and try to persuade readers to vote for them. Any duplicate voting of this nature will be disallowed.
Birmingham Riots: A personal view
It seems I picked a bad week to break with my “current affairs” abstinence. I’m thoroughly sick of the news. I’m sick of the politics. I don’t care who’s on holiday and who isn’t. I don’t care who’s coming back, and who said what about who. I don’t believe that one event can make a crisis. I don’t believe that the riots are the fault of any one person, or of any one policy. They are not an argument against police funding cuts, nor against EMA cuts. They are not an excuse for pointing fingers, or for scoring points.
I despair for humanity. We may only have about sixty years left, but is there really need to accelerate it? Why? Why is that happening to my people?
Ask yourself this; why aren’t you rioting?
How alienated and desperate would you have to be to smash up your own town? How limited would your life prospects have to be for looting to be worth the risk? What if the only “legitimate” channels appear to have failed you, and your parents before you.
I argue for compassion, and for understanding. But for mere quirks of fate – the circumstances into which I was born, and those which followed – I could have been one of those rioting and looting tonight. Comfortable people don’t riot. People with decent jobs, and stable incomes, and education, and quality housing; these people do not riot. The triggers may be recent, but the root causes go back decades.
I know many, perhaps most, will disagree. So little is known for certain. So many are eager to fit narratives. Some will blame “mindless thugs”, and resort to comfortable stereotypes; where facts are bent to fit theories. These are the easy answers, the lazy unthinking reactions. Blame the troublemakers. Blame the degenerates. Blame the chav.
I have more faith in humanity than that. Maybe I’m misguided, but I would much rather be wrong than I would unnecessarily condemn. We must all of us ask ourselves “Why?”
By Chris Nash, former BULS member
Let’s keep barbarity out of the judicial system
The ‘Big Society’ has taken another step in its programme. However, this isn’t taking over local services or starting your own school, but something far far easier. E-petitions have come to the UK. There a number of funky e-petitions floating around (re-nationalise railways, legalise cannabis, remove the ban on gay blood donations, etc) and of course, ahem, less funky (referendum on leaving the EU, end mass immigration, etc). But, one really has caused a storm which briefly had the most e-signatures, restore capital punishment. Thankfully, the petition to retain the ban on capital punishment has quickly overtaken its rival (11,983 to 6,470).
This feeds into a wider issue. The fact that significant proportion of the population do want the barbaric death penalty. For one, the death penalty is a completely ineffective deterrent as famously seen between the varying states in the USA where studies have shown it makes no difference. But the idea of the death penalty has much simpler flaw. Two wrongs don’t make a right and yes, I would regard an execution as murder in itself. It is completely regardless of whether the state rubber stamps the warrant, a life has been taken by the venom of revenge.
So I please urge you to sign the e-petition supporting the ban on capital punishment, for the sake of civilisation.
Max
Why Turn Blue When Just ‘Labour’ Will Do?
As Ed Miliband gathers opinions and considers the future policy direction of the Labour party as part of the Policy Review, there has been much debate recently about whether or not to pursue ‘Blue Labour’, as proposed by the academic and Labour peer Maurice Glasman. Blue Labour, a response to ‘Red Toryism’, aims to put co-operatives and the community at the heart of the lives of ordinary British people, and is a rebuttal of New Labour’s strangling embrace of neo-liberalism, which left swathes of grassroots Labour supporters feeling alienated and ignored by the party leadership.
Glasman has a point, for throughout the history of the ‘people’s party’ there has been a split between liberals, state socialists and those who favour co-operatives and more local organisation – many Labour MPs today are also members of the Co-operative Party, and since its inception at the turn of the twentieth century the Labour movement has been associated with local organisation and mobilisation.
Martin Pugh in his 2009 book “Speak for Britain: A New History of the Labour Party” argues persuasively that the real dilemma for Labour through its history has not been attracting liberal support, but attracting hard-working but low-paid voters from the temptations of the Conservatives: many ordinary working class communities share the Tories’ patriotism; love of the armed forces (many of them have close relatives or friends serving in Afghanistan); desire for home ownership and a tough stance on law and order – why did so many vote for Margaret Thatcher in 1979, read the Daily Mail, and in a few cases drift to more extreme parties through fear of their jobs because of immigration and globalisation? Pugh stresses that when Labour came into being many voters were torn between it and the Tories because of these economic concerns, plus social beliefs like temperance or the role of the Church in schools.
Where Glasman takes the wrong path, in my view, is in his attempt to respond to Cameron’s Big Society by mimicking it and advocating a further retrenchment of the state, along with a return to a 1950s-style focus on the family, the flag, and feminism being almost unheard-of. That’s not ‘Blue Labour’, that’s just conservatism. If we as social democrats want to see equality of provision across the board, we need to expose the Big Society for what it is: a cover for cuts dreamt up by Steve Hilton when the Tories needed to be seen to be shedding the aura of Thatcherism.
If Labour is to win elections again without ditching our principles – to do so would be an insult to people like the families of those killed in Norway – we need to ‘re-connect with the grassroots,’ to use the spin-doctors jargon, by addressing, or at the very least appreciating, the legitimate concerns of the hard-working folk who keep the economy growing and keep money coming into the Exchequer. Instead of Big Society initiatives, we need to take the lead on key issues like housing, providing ample employment for deprived communities and young people generally, and not simply dismissing people’s concerns about migration and welfare dependency. That does not mean leaving the EU, saying we should only have British jobs for British workers, or undertaking humiliating fit-for-work tests like those currently going on under Iain Duncan Smith. It just means listening to those too well-off to be on benefits but on low wages, as well as staying true to proud values like tolerance. If we go some way to pointing out these worries in opposition, whilst criticising the Con-Dems’ unfair cuts, the sought-after swing voters will follow, and we may just wake up to find ourselves in government again.
Meeting terror and violence with more democracy
“We meet terror and violence with more democracy,” are the words of Eskil Pedersen, leader of the Worker’s Youth League (UAF), the youth-wing of Norway’s Labour party, the governing party and our sister party, upon leaving the island of Utoeya. Given what he and the around 200 other UAF members endured during those fateful and horrific hours on the island can only give you hope in humanity’s ability to better itself and strive for a better world.
This has been a test for the very fabric of Norway which has always prided itself upon, openness, freedom of expression, their feeling of safety, tolerance and equality. The stories and witness accounts of Breivik shooting teenagers in the tents they fled in to. Teenagers attempting to swim away from the island. And Breivik checking the bodies for signs of life of those who decided to play dead for two hours. This shows nothing less than the very worst of humanity. Breivik was fuelled by hate and intolerance for progressive politics and multiculturalism so much so to murder 95 innocent victims with a bombing in Oslo and a horrific shooting spree.
But Pedersen’s words I hope are the ones that truly endure in Norway’s darkest hour. For when presented with the worst humanity can throw at us we must always emulate the very best in our ability to do good.
Max
All things economic
Sorry for the lack of blogging in the past couple of weeks, I myself have been working almost full-time with a work-placement on the side. Anyway, I’d like to focus on two of the biggest economic updates in a news dominated by the ongoing phone hacking scandal. The up coming growth figures for Tuesday and the situation over the debt talks in the USA.
First off, who needs a plan B, right? Judging by what is being said by the likes of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) this stubbornness is not quite paying off. The GDP growth figures are mainly regarded as the be and end all test for a government’s economic credibility. To meet budget forecasts for growth this year the UK will need 0.8% of that well needed boost. What the NIESR is predicting the Office for National Statistics to actually say is that the UK has grown by a mere 0.1% with some City forecasts predicting a contraction.
Now don’t get me wrong, here in BULS we are capable of recognising that the Chancellor (Gideon) can not control every aspect of the economy. The rise in oil and food prices and the growing concern over the Eurozone crisis aren’t the greatest assets ever. In fact, the idea of austerity does have the vague potential to work, as seen in Canada in the 90s and in the UK in the 80s. But these are totally dependant upon favourable economic circumstances in neighbouring nations such as Europe and the USA. Sadly though, we currently don’t have those circumstances. We don’t have secure and confident markets in Europe and the USA and this is something Gideon totally fails to grasp. Cutting spending to reduce the deficit is all very well but once again, it’s pointless without growth to fuel this deficit reduction and with average pay rising at 2.3% and inflation at 4.2% (thank you VAT hike) this recovery is still far from certain.
Turning our attention over across the Atlantic it seems Federal government has seen a roadblock to progress because of dogged stubbornness with Republican House Speaker John Boehner walking out on a crucial debt talks with Senate leaders and the White House. Now anyone who’s studied the US governmental and political structure will always recognise that it is a system based upon compromise. With an increasingly ideologically driven Republican based House of Representatives, Obama has had to make drastic compromises in the name of reaching a deal for the good of America.
The President has already pledged to double his cuts particularly in the area of medicare which many supporters (such as myself) are completely aghast at, with $650bn of extra cuts pledged recently. Either way, this is a man who will attempt to build the bridge with his conservative law-makers. Sadly, it takes two to build a bridge and this is not what we are seeing from the Republican end of the river who refuse to raise any taxes (I thought they were rather keen on deficit reduction?). The Republicans have increasingly gone down the road of stubbornness in the past few years, but now it’s time to walk the walk as well as talk the talk as they put aside ideological differences. Sadly, given the ever increasing grip of the Tea Party, I doubt this much needed maturity will happen any time soon.
Max
The end of Murdoch’s political monopoly?…Let’s hope so
To be brutally honest, when this whole phone hacking milarky began to come out 6, 9 months ago I really couldn’t care that much. But now, truly, everything has changed. The biggest circulatory newspaper of all time is being dropped, Andy Coulson has been arrested, murder and soldier victim families phones being tapped and quite frankly, the media will never truly be the same again.
So what can we identify and salvage from this wreckage? Well first off to get you in a good mood only Ed Miliband’s finest performance as Labour leader to date by being the first to call for enquiries, the first to call for the axing of the PCC, the first to call for Rebekah Brook’s resignation and the first to demand the transfer of the BSkyB bid to the competition commission. Ultimately, this is a welcome overcoming of fear of the Murdoch empire. Too long has a US-based media tycoon dictated overarching control over Britain. Don’t get me wrong, Labour’s hands are far from clean when it came to dealing with the tycoon master, but this is a major break not just for Labour but for British Politics as one major political force cuts it’s links with the media empire it feared. Miliband despite his fine performance recently has to be careful as already a senior Miliband aid received a “very hostile” threat, not veiled at all, from a News International journalist warning: “You have made it personal about Rebekah, so we’ll make it personal about you.”.
This break for British politics is all very well but it depends on Cameron following suit, which he has so far shown to be unwilling. It is clear that Camero also fears the monopoly and is too entwined in the spider’s web of Murdoch’s empire to truly break free. It was Cameron’s decision to bring in Coulson fresh from News of the World not only in to his team while in opposition but as Director of Communications in No. 10 despite an uneasy background record and he has paid dearly for this judgement. Let’s hope Cameron can make the right decision over the BSkyB deal as this is truly the real prize in all this chaos.
For Murdoch to jettison the very paper that brought him into the British media it seems that he realised the true potential of BSkyB. Newspapers are in decline, the future is the internet and TV. Sky’ revenue is already greater than the BBC’s which combined with his remaining papers would place Murdoch beyond reach of any rival media circles and organisations. With this power he could begin to truly cripple one of Britain’s greatest institutions, the BBC. Any chance that Sky would remain a fully bias free organisation is impossible given Murdoch’s record with the Times, the Sun, the NoW and Fox News over in the USA.
We’ve made our move, it’s time for Cameron to follow suit and do the right thing and remove this poison from British politics once and for all.
Max
The civil rights movement of our time
Just a quick blog this morning, another will be done on the pension reforms, hopefully, this evening. But anyway, I’m sure you’re probably aware of New York legalising same-sex marriages. Now this is nothing less than a triumph against the forces of bigotry, especially since this had to be pushed through a Republican state Senate but also New York is the third largest American state, so you can tell this was a big target set by the gay rights movements.
You only have to look at what was being spouted out by anti-equality campaigners such as National Organisation for Marriage (NOM) to see that what they were saying was nothing less than vile. While NOM has been veiling its true views behind a smokescreen of claims about the “Government redefinition of marriage”. At the very least, their grass-roots have portrayed the movements true views upon the lines of the usual “it’s wrong and an affront to the family” and simply spouting religious lines and hatred. It’s the sad truth that the NOM is primarily made up Roman Catholics and Christian Evangelicals both of whom spout such vile and hate. And it’s always the case that the establishment, particularly the establishment of bigotry which stands in the way of true justice and equality, throughout history. And this is what is happening in the USA today.
This is why I believe gay rights is the USA’s civil rights movement of our time. But this is a massive step in the right direction and who knows, at this rate Martin Luther King’s dream may come true one day.
Max
Gove Could Learn A Lesson or Two
The papers today report that Education Secretary Michael Gove is asking school leaders to recruit members of the “wider school community” to take over the job of teachers striking on Thursday, the implication being that it is better for parents and governors to take classes for one day then see the school close. Aside from the bad logic that if the main aim is keeping the school open so as not to incovenience working parents, then there won’t be any parents available to teach Henry VIII’s six wives, this policy demonstrates the Big Society is a means of undermining unionised labour as well as a cover for cuts. The only positive thing that could come of this ludicrous suggestion is that parents who do act as supply teacher on 30th June may get some idea of just how difficult a profession teaching really is.
Further to my blog a few weeks back, “Unite Behind the Unions”, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are still pandering to the right-wing media by warning the unions that striking would be unwise and counter-productive, while Tony Blair on the BBC’s Politics Show today refused to be drawn on any domestic policy issues, except to say that the unions are small ‘c’ conservatives who should learn to ‘modernise’, whatever that means. But then Blair never pretended to be on their side.
I do not dispute the fact that pensions need to be reformed in line with the ageing population and gender equality, while many in the private sector would be dancing all the way to the bank if they had pension schemes like those of some public servants; nevertheless what is going on at present smacks of the 1980s, and the threats of changes to union legislation mooted by Gove are deeply worrying.
Birmingham University Labour Students
John Ritchie
Brigidjones
daveborland
dorameredith
bensemens
chrisblewitt
oliverjackson
maxattacks
joshualt
suzannahrobinson
kohalloran
jakelambertonline
smurphy2010
Oliver Cosentino
labourluke
bulsonline
Guardian Unlimited
