tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82476157690844894012024-03-07T01:07:53.913-08:00Haringey Green Party BlogWelcome to Haringey Green Party's blog. We will publish news here about Haringey, a borough in north London, and what Haringey Greens are up to, plus some political comment. Please feel free to comment on the topics raised here. If you would like to contact us, please email mike.shaughnessy@btinternet.comMike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.comBlogger294125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-8557448355487492802015-06-27T11:03:00.000-07:002015-06-27T11:03:04.864-07:00Mike Shaughnessy Now Blogs at...<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Mike Shaughnessy is now blogging at <a href="http://londongreenleft.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">London Green Left Blog here</span></a></span>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-40750430068908371462014-03-28T11:48:00.001-07:002014-03-28T11:48:16.568-07:00This Blog Has Moved<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpwuiT0Usi4qYGGgAhoWI55rw572G5cgMAKqzkEB10KzKZzssRy47YanrIcg__CM65ih2AYEBkmHbfjPDQIWOdRCLcs62wwUGB7J9PndtTmCYpACOJ9eXcBp8XckgTge3LDsmbkaRE1Os/s1600/petals.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpwuiT0Usi4qYGGgAhoWI55rw572G5cgMAKqzkEB10KzKZzssRy47YanrIcg__CM65ih2AYEBkmHbfjPDQIWOdRCLcs62wwUGB7J9PndtTmCYpACOJ9eXcBp8XckgTge3LDsmbkaRE1Os/s1600/petals.bmp" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This Blog Has Moved to.....</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.haringeygreens.org.uk/blog">http://www.haringeygreens.org.uk/blog</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Mike</span><br />
<br />
<br />Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-90669560791193573452014-03-21T12:44:00.000-07:002014-03-21T12:44:35.697-07:00Budget 2014 Takes Doublespeak to New Depths <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHWRh-yq2O2JjAu2BjlmyI3ND9dLcXQbUhiECZUk6eWBqU7mADUOiCXh4c67ywLL0nyqNwHik1KmI0nyWPqu5yw-5jnQ1nfbYwb4Kg0HfowJ9KuzSeWS8pKMbyBLlxw3GL59QCOhYUGWI/s1600/red+box.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHWRh-yq2O2JjAu2BjlmyI3ND9dLcXQbUhiECZUk6eWBqU7mADUOiCXh4c67ywLL0nyqNwHik1KmI0nyWPqu5yw-5jnQ1nfbYwb4Kg0HfowJ9KuzSeWS8pKMbyBLlxw3GL59QCOhYUGWI/s1600/red+box.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Casual readers of the budget might wonder whether it had been written by chancellor George Osborne or George Orwell. A garden city built in a quarry and growth built on a reinflated housing bubble are hardly reassuring evidence of the economy based on "more economic security and economic resilience" that Osborne claims to be his objective.<br />
<br />
Most shockingly, the freezing of the carbon tax and the reduction in the rate of air passenger duty for long-haul flights makes it plain that the chancellor has no understanding of what resilience means, and how our failure to tackle climate change threatens it.<br />
<br />
Resilience has followed hard on the heels of that much-abused concept 'sustainability' in helping to define the key characteristics of a sustainable society. Unlike the financial system, which cracked when it came under pressure, a resilient system would be able to bounce back even in the face of unexpected challenges; unlike the railway line at Dawlish, resilient infrastructure is based on built-in redundancy that means there is always an alternative when a system comes under pressure from an unpredictable event. It is exactly this sort of resilience that has been designed out of our economy and society by years of lean management and just-in-time production systems. From computer systems to food supply chains, the globalised market-place has left us less resilient than we have ever been.<br />
<br />
So what would a budget for resilience and security actually look like? Let's start with finance. A resilient model for banking would insist on the breaking up of the consolidated megabanks so that banks were no longer 'too big to fail', and no one bank would be large enough to bring down the whole system. Mr Osborne could pop across to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and have a word with his colleague Vince Cable who operates RBS on behalf of its owners, us, the citizens of the UK. He might subtly suggest that he break it up into a system of local community banks, which could be required to actually act like banks, building supportive relationships with the local businesses that a resilient economy requires, rather than acting like casinos.<br />
<br />
While on the issue of finance, we should also tell George that his desperate attempt to reinflate the housing bubble through extending the life of Help to Buy is storing up exactly the sort of catastrophic financial collapse that put us in this economic mess. It also does nothing for those who are most in need of reasonably priced housing, since it will only support mortgages they cannot afford and encourage house prices to rise even further beyond their reach.<br />
<br />
The most fundamental cause of social insecurity in modern Britain is the failure of the housing market to provide affordable, comfortable homes to those who need them. Here the chancellor could act swiftly to bring in rent controls which would simultaneously reduce the massive amount of public money being wasted on housing benefit. He could also raise the borrowing limits on local authorities to enable them to build houses for those on their lengthy and growing waiting lists.<br />
<br />
The greatest source of insecurity we all face is the unpredictable consequences of climate change, and it is here that Osborne's words ring most hollow. Here we see clearly the government's back-tracking on this most vital issue, building on the earlier folly of reducing green levies on energy companies, now further decreasing incentives to business to reduce their carbon emissions by freezing the carbon price floor. He has learned nothing about resilience from the winter's devastating storms and floods, but the urgent need for a consistent policy on climate change is now more evident than ever.<br />
<br />
Real energy security comes from demand reduction as a result of improved energy installation in homes, combined with local generation from renewable energy sources. This government's mixed messages on renewable tariffs and taxes has undermined several proposed investments in wind generation, destroying jobs in my own home region of the South West. A higher rate of feed-in tariff limited to small-scale and community-owned electricity generation projects would be the best policy in the budget to ensure real energy security.<br />
<br />
With a budget that achieves the exact opposite of the objectives the chancellor has set himself we are all wondering what will come out of the Ministry of Truth next. A Localism Act that centralises planning perhaps; or a Big Society that cuts benefits for the poor and vulnerable?<br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="clear full">
<br /></div>
<div class="clear full">
Written by Molly Scott Cato Professor of Green Economics at Roehampton University and Green candidate in the European Elections</div>
<!-- amazon items --> <!-- amazon items --> <!-- /amazon items --> <!-- /amazon items --> <br />
First published at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/" target="_blank">The Huffington Post</a><br />
<br />
<b> Follow Molly Scott Cato on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/MollyScottCato"> www.twitter.com/MollyScottCato</a></b>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-50259986298161648352014-03-14T13:09:00.000-07:002014-03-14T13:09:00.079-07:00Tony Benn Dies Aged 88 – An Icon of the English Left<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qX-P4mx1FLU" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Very sad to hear the news that Tony Benn has died.
He had been very ill for a little while and when last I saw him in the flesh,
which was a couple of years ago, he looked very frail.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I once saw him make a speech at The Free Trade Hall of all places in
Manchester in I think 1980, and he was very powerful, electric
even and really inspiring, and I left the event feeling as though the
revolution was about to begin in the next week or so.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Times change of course, and the revolution (a peaceful one, of course)
looks further away than ever now, but Tony Benn was the only figure on the left
from the 70’s and 80’s and before that managed to keep up with the new politics of the
left, attending Left Field at the Glastonbury festival for example and he could engage
easily with the younger generations. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I thought of trying to get a video clip for this blog of Tony Benn in his prime, but in end thought it more appropriate to feature a recent
one, like the one above, because he really did adapt with the times, and could be
just as inspirational in his later years.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
He will be sadly missed by all those of a radical political persuasion,
young and old. He constantly reminded us of our power to change things, and to
never give up hope. A great man indeed. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-65074100504865187682014-03-13T13:01:00.000-07:002014-03-13T13:01:19.347-07:00Boris’ rich investors won’t build the affordable housing London needs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwt7SbtFKsP8tqs10hlC9RK0d3PeX7so5isJ31shKg70FzAR0m4NawtiesSZtYz8CL918uRELOhCQCKQWqKcgYypfWQSNiWi0Pp-nY6hjcel4BsOTtfmnyp6IcMB-Ge2xiBXO6D5h9MtQ/s1600/Boris+Johnson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwt7SbtFKsP8tqs10hlC9RK0d3PeX7so5isJ31shKg70FzAR0m4NawtiesSZtYz8CL918uRELOhCQCKQWqKcgYypfWQSNiWi0Pp-nY6hjcel4BsOTtfmnyp6IcMB-Ge2xiBXO6D5h9MtQ/s1600/Boris+Johnson.jpg" height="320" width="256" /></a></div>
<br />
Boris Johnson is heading down to Cannes this week to flog regeneration projects to investors and developers at MIPIM, the world’s largest property fair. He told the BBC he was going to “lobby key investors and developers to help double house-building, including more affordable homes”.<br />
<br />
And yet affordable housing is the last thing on their minds, and the Mayor is all too happy to wave through regeneration schemes with or without it.<br />
<br />
Take Mount Pleasant, for example. He took this decision out of the hands of the two local councils at the request of the recently-privatised Royal Mail Group, who own the site. They want to get planning permission so they can sell it on to a developer with a big mark-up.<span id="more-80890"></span><br />
<br />
In their plans, only 12 per cent of the homes would be affordable. The councils think it could be at least 50 per cent. But Boris took it off their hands before they could say no and is likely to wave it through.<br />
The Mayor has been travelling the world to sell London. His argument is quite simple: building lots of homes is the only way to solve our housing crisis, and this is the best way to achieve that.<br />
<br />
But what sort of homes? More expensive flats for rich investors, which could be left empty, or rented to insecure and overcharged tenants?<br />
<br />
What’s more, the Mayor wants to stop prices rising by building more homes, and he can only build more homes if prices are rising. Spot the flaw?<br />
<br />
I obtained copies of a brochure he took to China last autumn. One introductory page gives the game away:<br />
<blockquote>
<strong>“London has wealth preservation benefits, outstanding long term capital growth and an increasingly strong rental market.”</strong></blockquote>
The message, in plain English, is that you can make lots of money from rising house prices and rents, and we won’t tax your profits away.<br />
<br />
City Hall recently produced new research on London’s housing needs. To fix our housing problems over the next ten years it suggested we needed to build 62,000 homes a year, of which 41,000 should be affordable homes. So two thirds should be affordable homes.<br />
<br />
But the Mayor keeps signing off developments like Mount Pleasant that are a long way from providing this. At Earl’s Court, only 11 per cent will be affordable, and those will only replace homes that are being demolished to make way for the expensive flats. At the Heygate estate, 25 per cent will be affordable, but these will only replace half of the 1,023 existing council homes being demolished.<br />
<br />
The Mayor even signs off developments without any affordable housing at all, like <i>One the </i><i>Elephant</i>, which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FALhAzV9euc" target="_blank">I asked him about</a> last October.<br />
<br />
These are developments for the benefit of rich investors, leaving only crumbs for ordinary Londoners.<br />
<br />
The simple truth the Mayor needs to learn is this: going to MIPIM isn’t the answer.<br />
<br />
We need to bring in a land value tax to reduce demand from investors so that people on average incomes get a fair chance of buying their own home. For all those people stuck in the private rented sector for years to come, we need longer tenancies and rent controls modelled on success stories on the continent.<br />
<br />
And if we are going to build 41,000 affordable homes a year, we need much more investment from public, not private, purses.<br />
<br />
<em><strong>By <a href="https://twitter.com/DarrenJohnsonAM">Darren Johnson</a>, Green Party member of the London Assembly</strong></em>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-79799019542757715732014-03-11T11:52:00.001-07:002014-03-11T12:28:49.502-07:00Bob Crow died this morning aged 52 - A working class hero<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/b_fekXLzd_M" width="560"></iframe>)<br />
<br />
I was shocked today to learn that Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT union, has died suddenly.<br />
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3111">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3111">
I saw him only two nights ago, looking hale and hearty in the Barbican Centre where he was in the audience for a Cuban Solidarity concert in aid of the Miami Five [Cubans imprisoned in USA for fighting terrorism].</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3110">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3110">
Like other Greens I may not have shared the same politics all the time as Bob Crow, but that is less important than sharing his complete commitment to fight for a better society and to not only represent his trade union members and gain advances in a very hostile political environment, but also be a shining example of the need to be true to your own values against all the smears and outrages of the media and still dominant neo-liberal forces intent on running down the lives of working people.</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3085">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3085">
Unlike the BBC news today I believe that many Londoners did accept the inconveniences of the recent RMT and TSSA strikes in defence of keeping staff present in Underground stations for all our safety. He led from the front in that and rightly challenged the Mayor Boris Johnson on his U-turn from being elected on a promise to keep Underground stations properly staffed.</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3109">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3109">
Ken Livingstone has suggested that all the relentless pressure from the media organs of the right wing press that we endure may have contributed to undermining his health, no matter his own integrity and unashamed ability to fight back.</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3089">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3089">
A reminder if we needed one that the gloves are off as far as the people who wish to continue to rule us are concerned.</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3090">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3090">
Bob Crow was an unquestionably fine and honourable example of not lying down to austerity, opposing putting people out of work, and resisting the financialisation of all our lives.</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3091">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3091">
He will be missed by a great many and should be remembered as a beacon for solidarity with those in struggle.</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3091">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3091">
Written by Gordon Peters Haringey Green Party</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3091">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394562888791_3091">
The video above is from a recent appearance on BBC Question Time </div>
Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-77894629376713688432014-03-08T08:59:00.001-08:002014-03-08T08:59:41.789-08:00Council of Europe recommends more powers for English local authorities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMQWNA4L5RiF1WP5j2pfWCX3Yuf7IGvOCtW8egRkTkPE5_ktj6mCrvtn_-IT_hCrw22kZ9nd-EZZ3HfSKKyDUdBWQKhyphenhyphenEO-LXjK1zTqGpRcbiIbOQdrMKOPG-Tm9ii2j99ITu-IfWy5bg/s1600/CouncilofEurope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMQWNA4L5RiF1WP5j2pfWCX3Yuf7IGvOCtW8egRkTkPE5_ktj6mCrvtn_-IT_hCrw22kZ9nd-EZZ3HfSKKyDUdBWQKhyphenhyphenEO-LXjK1zTqGpRcbiIbOQdrMKOPG-Tm9ii2j99ITu-IfWy5bg/s1600/CouncilofEurope.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3992" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<b id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3994"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3993" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 140%;"><span style="color: white;">Councils in England should have more powers devolved to them, according to a new review into the state of local government.</span></span></b></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3984" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3991" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">The Council of Europe regularly reports on the state of local and regional democracy in the EU's member states. A delegation visited twice last year in only the second-ever review of the UK, the first taking place in 1998.<br /><br />Published today, its report ‘<a href="https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=887457" target="_blank">Local and regional democracy in the United Kingdom</a>' recommends greater devolution of powers to local government, increased tax-raising powers for councils and a fairer funding settlement for English local authorities.<br /><br />The report concludes:</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3981" style="line-height: 140%; margin-left: 24pt; margin-right: 12pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 140%;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3995" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">The ability of councils to provide "essential public services, quality health and social care and effective and adequate community services and facilities, especially to the growing number of older people" is under huge pressure following austerity measures. </span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3997" style="line-height: 140%; margin-left: 24pt; margin-right: 12pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 140%;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3996" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">It recommends devolution of powers to councils as "the ability of local authorities to discharge their responsibilities sometimes appears to be highly restricted by central government".</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3999" style="line-height: 140%; margin-left: 24pt; margin-right: 12pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 140%;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_3998" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">Despite significant funding reductions themselves, councils in Wales and Scotland are "better off financially than their English counterparts". The complex formula for distribution of central government funding produces "considerable uncertainty and effects of unequal treatment".</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4000" style="line-height: 140%; margin-left: 24pt; margin-right: 12pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 140%;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4001" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">A diversified base of local revenue is an "urgent necessity" with council tax "limited by central or devolved governments, due to the referendum obligation" while "all rates are decided by government and funding is still dominated by central government grants".</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4003" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4003" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4002" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">Sir Merrick Cockell, LGA Chairman, said:</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4004" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4005" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">"This report recognises the huge challenge facing public services with councils having to find £20 billion worth of savings by the end of this current Parliament. The LGA has highlighted the impact this will have on essential services and the Government has listened by not making an additional reduction to local government funding in 2014/15.</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4006" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4007" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">"We feel this review is a fair reflection on the current pressures facing local government. The current model for financing and running local government needs to change and adapt to today's circumstances and it is important that local and central government works together to address these issues and takes these recommendations forward.</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4009" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4008" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">"Devolution of decision-making and tax-raising powers to local areas is needed to help save money and improve services and English communities need to be given the same significant say over everything from health services to public transport as they do across the border in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4011" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4010" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">"Our European counterparts also identified the urgent need for a fair and equitable distribution of public money across the United Kingdom. The 34-year-old Barnett Formula is short-changing English communities by as much as £4.1 billion a year and a needs-based model is needed for a fairer deal.</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4012" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4013" lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">"When the delegation returns to the UK in five years, I hope these vital reforms will be in full force and local government will be looking ahead to the future with renewed hope."</span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4012" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="yiv642499219MsoNormal" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1394289528553_4012" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 140%;">This is a press release from the Local Government Association, which is a cross party grouping of local authorities, Chaired by a Tory. It shows the depth of feeling in local government about lack of funding under the ConDem government.</span></div>
Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-4210959455007707072014-03-07T11:57:00.000-08:002014-03-07T11:57:12.535-08:00Lib Dems beaten by Bus Pass Elvis Party in council by-election <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMYn5wm2SkJm_aKJSoGualgF9EBQ2uRcDMBRT52ldsuo3PtChGdv4eYuxdhgsoHEbdoyuQhEWY3xtcFe9LGV-3BjG9QxBzJ6xQ-yd6PYVAAXoWo1bJwzz_9YaBtvTvObhK0BDWfsGj3DE/s1600/NickClegg-460_794640c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMYn5wm2SkJm_aKJSoGualgF9EBQ2uRcDMBRT52ldsuo3PtChGdv4eYuxdhgsoHEbdoyuQhEWY3xtcFe9LGV-3BjG9QxBzJ6xQ-yd6PYVAAXoWo1bJwzz_9YaBtvTvObhK0BDWfsGj3DE/s1600/NickClegg-460_794640c.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
This is the result of the Clifton North, Nottingham council by-election held yesterday.<br />
<br />
Bishop - Bus Pass Elvis 67<br />
Clarke - UKIP 536<br />
Ferguson - Labour 1179<br />
Marshall - Lib Dem 56<br />
Rule - Tory 1025<br />
<br />
It would be remiss to let today pass without noting the highlight from last night's council by-elections. In Clifton North, Lib Dem candidate Tony Marshall was beaten into last place by David Laurence Bishop of the <a href="http://grumpyoldelvis.co.uk/clifton-north-bi-election/" target="_blank">Bus Pass Elvis Party</a> (Marshall received 56 votes to Bishop's 67). The party's policies include the legalisation of brothels with a 30 per cent reduction for OAPs.<br />
<br />
Bishop told the <a href="http://www.nottinghampost.com/Bus-pass-Elvis-speaks-time-beating-Lib-Dems/story-20778854-detail/story.html" target="_blank"><em>Nottingham Post</em></a> that he was now "confident" of beating the Lib Dems in the general election. He said: "I will either stand in Broxtowe or Skegness and I'm more confident of beating the Liberal Democrats than I was two days ago. It's not the best news for the Liberal Democrats. But perhaps people actually liked my policies of legalising brothels with a 30 per cent reduction for OAPs and holding an enquiry into the cost of vets fees."<br />
<br />
The Lib Dems, who have lost their deposit eight times in parliamentary by-elections since 2010, have previously been beaten by Professor Pongoo, a climate change activist who visits schools dressed as a penguin.<br />
<br />
Written by George Eaton and first published at <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/" target="_blank">The New Statesman</a>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-52097825115931617622014-03-05T15:04:00.000-08:002014-03-05T15:04:08.500-08:00It's Official: Badger Culls Were Inhumane, Ineffective and Unnecessary <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZGgn3AtelN1EFOtjiFU7t0-K6eN8SO6KFuW86kf4lamelMLCO7G43tOsYJ2Lv7YPaMauQWaUcr-FKeR1KLFbZ0jceO6jFTkN19KwsY6ANrnQXbPTOtcVMX7hQRQ3oY0T52YEE2txb6Ag/s1600/Badger.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZGgn3AtelN1EFOtjiFU7t0-K6eN8SO6KFuW86kf4lamelMLCO7G43tOsYJ2Lv7YPaMauQWaUcr-FKeR1KLFbZ0jceO6jFTkN19KwsY6ANrnQXbPTOtcVMX7hQRQ3oY0T52YEE2txb6Ag/s1600/Badger.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Last autumn, more than 1,800 badgers lost their lives in Somerset and Gloucestershire in the name of bovine tuberculosis control. From the very beginning, Humane Society International/UK and our Team Badger colleagues warned that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUzME_7Th70" target="_hplink">badgers would suffer</a> and that the cull would be ineffective. Now the government-commissioned report by independent experts, who have studied the evidence, has shown our grave concerns to be justified.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Inhumane </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
The independent report, leaked to the BBC at the end of February, shows that a significant proportion of free-shot badgers took more than five minutes to die.<br />
<br />
Additional <a href="http://www.hsi.org/news/press_releases/2014/02/foi-uk-badger-cull-request-reveals-animal-suffering-022814.html" target="_hplink">analysis of compliance monitoring reports</a> from Natural England (the statutory body responsible for issuing the licenses for badger culling) shows that, while the number of shootings they observed during the pilots was very low, nevertheless a third of those badgers were shot in the wrong part of the body such as the head or neck, some wounded animals needing to be shot a second time, in some cases after being pursued for five to ten minutes. These reports suggest that hundreds of badgers will have suffered considerably during the pilot culls.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Failure</strong><br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26369306" target="_hplink">damning conclusions of the independent report</a> are extremely important. The pilot culls were ostensibly set up to test whether the shooting of free-roaming badgers at night with shotguns and rifles would prove to be a humane, effective and safe way of reducing badger populations. <br />
<br />
From the start Defra ministers have ignored animal welfare concerns, public opposition and overwhelming scientific evidence that culling badgers wouldn't help to prevent the spread of TB among cattle. While the cull was underway, Defra revised the badger population estimates downwards and extended the culling period well beyond the initial six weeks stipulated in the licenses.<br />
<br />
The culls proved highly controversial and divisive, with members of the public turning out in force at rallies and at night in the cull zones to walk the footpaths, check the setts and provide assistance for any wounded badgers. More than 300,000 people signed Brian May's <em>Stop the Badger Cull </em>e-petition. Costs spiralled, with the total bill for each badger killed estimated to be in excess of £4,000.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Ineffective</strong><br />
<br />
Despite being given more time to kill more badgers, in the end the shooters failed to even get close to their kill target of 70%. In Gloucestershire they barely reached 40%, after shooting for more than 11 weeks. <br />
Far from helping, most scientists agree that killing a smaller proportion of badgers over a longer period of time is likely to make things worse. This is because the remaining disturbed badgers roam more widely and the prevalence of TB in the badger population increases.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Unnecessary</strong><br />
<br />
Let's not forget that culling badgers is also entirely unnecessary. <br />
In Wales, annual testing of cattle, among other measures, was reintroduced in 2008. Since then, the number of 'reactor' cattle slaughtered each year has reduced by almost a half, without a single badger being killed. In England, similar measures are slowly being introduced, and while we are a few years behind Wales, we are already seeing rates of TB in cattle reducing. <br />
<br />
In the 1960s, TB in cattle was brought under control using strict cattle testing regimes, movement restrictions and biosecurity measures. Over the intervening years these measures were slowly relaxed and abandoned altogether during cattle restocking after the BSE and Foot & Mouth Disease outbreaks of the 1990s and 2001 respectively. Reintroducing these stricter standards may be unpopular among some farmers who resist reform, but it is surely an appropriate way to bring cattle TB back under control while we await the introduction of effective cattle vaccines.<br />
<br />
The obsession among some farmers and veterinarians with badger culling must end. Badger culling is inhumane, ineffective and unnecessary. The government, the British Veterinary Association, and farmers unions must recognise that the answer to the problem of bovine TB is within the industry's own hands. They must now abandon all notions of badger culling and focus on introducing and ensuring compliance with stricter cattle measures, and promoting vaccination of both badgers and cattle.<br />
<br />
Only then will we have an effective policy we can all support.<br />
Take action to help protect badgers -- <a href="http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=104&ea.campaign.id=25493&ea.tracking.id=ukhuffpostblog" target="_hplink">Send a message to the Prime Minister: Kill the Cull, not the Badgers</a><br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<!-- amazon items --> <div class="clear full">
</div>
<!-- /amazon items --> <br /><b> Follow Mark Jones on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/hsiglobal"> www.twitter.com/hsiglobal </a></b><br />
<br />
Executive Director for animal protection organisation Humane Society International/UK<br />
<br />
First published at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mark-jones/badger-culls_b_4895329.html?utm_hp_ref=uk" target="_blank">The Huffington Post</a>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-41567947650068602232014-02-24T11:50:00.000-08:002014-02-24T14:50:56.012-08:00Haringey Lib Dems in Meltdown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_iPt4aNEHQzbLUuw7IkV2t__rBu4QyefpSxwdmX52-1o86pFmI0nb-9t72ykIcmd1BYkzVu89zJ6DdtlaMxspzWRlsvJVtiWgIj7SKknY_KG0-zo8pkHcsxQEomg61vViihMyLTy4GQ/s1600/LibDems_Losing_Here2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_iPt4aNEHQzbLUuw7IkV2t__rBu4QyefpSxwdmX52-1o86pFmI0nb-9t72ykIcmd1BYkzVu89zJ6DdtlaMxspzWRlsvJVtiWgIj7SKknY_KG0-zo8pkHcsxQEomg61vViihMyLTy4GQ/s1600/LibDems_Losing_Here2.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
As reported by the local newspaper the <a href="http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/exodus_of_lib_dem_councillors_in_west_of_haringey_confirmed_for_may_elections_1_3322307" target="_blank">Ham and High</a> almost two thirds (12 out of 21) of the Lib Dem councillors
on Haringey Council are stepping down at the <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> council elections in May.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The departing councillors rather skirt around the reasons
for taking this decision now, and the Lib Dem Group Leader cllr Richard Wilson even
suggests that this is all part of natural process. Come off it mate, I’ve never
known so many serving councillors quitting at the same time, and the reason is
plainly obvious. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Lib Dems in Haringey and much of <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>
(and the north of <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>)
are a toxic brand. People in these areas voted Lib Dem because they were
unhappy with Labour in 2010, but are horrified by the subsequent ConDem
government’s attack on the welfare state. These councillors know full well that
they are highly unlikely to retain their seats and have no doubt been making
alternative plans for some time. Rats leaving a sinking ship, you might
reasonably conclude, rather than some natural turn over of personnel. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A brief look at the <u><a href="http://haringeygreens.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/lib-dem-vote-meltdown-in-haringey.html" target="_blank">results of the GLA elections in 2012</a></u> paints the picture perfectly if you are in any
doubt about the Lib Dems prospects at this year’s local elections. Labour won
comfortably in every ward in Haringey, and in 18 of the 19 wards in the borough,
the Green party beat the Lib Dems. I said at the time, that the writing was on
the wall for Lib Dem councillors and sure enough they have just been marking
time for the last two years. Some of them have no doubt tried to do their best,
but such is the impossibility of providing good quality local public services,
whilst central government funding for local authorities is slashed, have
decided to jump rather than wait to be pushed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what of our MP and junior Coalition Government Minister,
Lynne Featherstone? Well she’s got another year to think about it, since she is not up for re election until 2015, but she is showing no sign of throwing
in the towel like fellow north London MP Lib Dem Sarah Teather (Brent central).
No, Featherstone seems to think she can win, because she is ‘personally
popular’ unlike her party. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a great myth spread around by Featherstone and her
supporters that she is a ‘good constituency MP’. We are bombarded in Hornsey
and Wood Green (Featherstone’s Parliamentary seat) with leaflets telling us
what a good constituency MP she is, a case of if you say something often enough,
people will eventually believe it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, I’m not buying it. I admit she is very good at self
publicity, but that is all. She recently tried to take credit for the halting
of plans to build a huge waste plant at <st1:street w:st="on">Pinkham Way</st1:street>, for instance, but this was
all the work of the residents in the <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">Pinkham
Way</st1:street> <st1:city w:st="on">Alliance</st1:city></st1:address>. This
is only one example of Featherstone shamelessly claiming the credit for some
achievement, when she’s done nothing but write the odd letter about it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What’s more,<a href="http://haringeygreens.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/lib-dem-equality-minister-opposes.html" target="_blank"> she is an embarrassment in Parliament </a>where she
is commonly referred to as ‘Featherhead’ by other MPs (including some in her
own party). But the main thing is, as the dozen departing Lib Dem councillors
realise, personal reputation, whether real or otherwise, is not enough to save
Lib Dem politicians. Featherstone will be unceremoniously booted out in 2015,
for the part her party has played in propping up this deeply unpopular Tory led
government. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Close the door on the way out please Lynne, but make sure it
doesn’t hit you in the face. <o:p></o:p></div>
Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-65333139867338512802014-02-21T12:23:00.000-08:002014-02-21T12:23:11.005-08:00The science is clear: global warming is real<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Of2MfjzSzG7s0Pjb2HN-v8Nfb-a6WcM6ZsgEIGrGF1r7ZwOAQbSRLu-OnZoB8AZ5dOFZpnJLERQpCp648LlnxN-2YOuHO1-Fnli5kD3mi_vbChLgAFx25t8KK06YoY7QAswoUQrtftY/s1600/climate-change_1509200c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Of2MfjzSzG7s0Pjb2HN-v8Nfb-a6WcM6ZsgEIGrGF1r7ZwOAQbSRLu-OnZoB8AZ5dOFZpnJLERQpCp648LlnxN-2YOuHO1-Fnli5kD3mi_vbChLgAFx25t8KK06YoY7QAswoUQrtftY/s1600/climate-change_1509200c.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
A new word, ‘warmist’, has entered the vocabulary of discussion about climate change. It is often intended to mock and to imply that those who promote the fact that the climate of the earth is warming are members of some weird cult. It joins another word ‘denialist’ that is applied by some to those who refuse to accept that there is a human cause of climate change and disruption.<br />
<br />
These words are unhelpful. Of course there is a fair debate to be had about the uncertainty of some of the precise details of climate prediction. But that is a far cry from the way in which extreme opponents of the conclusions of the science of climate change denigrate both the science and the scientists involved. This includes personal abuse of scientific leaders including the Met Office Chief Scientist and successive Presidents of the Royal Society.<br />
<br />
Scientists are used to argument and to debate, and indeed science proceeds by posing questions driven by scepticism and uncertainty. One of the fundamental methodologies of science is to reduce uncertainty by means of experiment and observation. However, there is a difference between robust debate and unwarranted personal attacks.<br />
<br />
Questions can be divided into 2 types, those for which there is an answer, even if we don’t know what it is, and questions for which there is no right or wrong answer and where different people will hold different views. The question of whether humans are causing climate warming is an example of the first type of a question, not the second. There is a correct factual answer. For this type of question Daniel Moynihan’s quote is apposite;<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="last-child">
…you are entitled to your own opinions but not to your own facts.</div>
</blockquote>
As with any science which aims to understand and predict the future state of a complex system, there are uncertainties in climate science. That humans are emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases on an unprecedented scale, and the fundamental physics that carbon dioxide warms the Earth’s atmosphere, are not among these uncertainties. Climate scientists may not be able to quantify the precise impacts of climate change in a specific locality in fifty years time, but they do know we are performing a very risky experiment if we carry on emitting carbon dioxide at the rate we are today.<br />
<br />
Climate change poses very serious risks, and responding to these is one of the biggest challenges facing today’s policy-makers. For this reason, there has been unprecedented rigour and global collaboration in the analysis and measurement of climate change. There is no equivalent of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in any other area of science. It is widely expected that the Panel’s <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/" rel="external">‘Fifth Assessment Report on the Physical Science Basis of Climate Change’</a>, which will be published later this month, will present even greater confidence in the evidence that the climate is warming as a result of human activities.<br />
<br />
This message may be unpalatable. The response should not be to shoot the messengers however - or to be abusive to them, which appears to be acceptable to a minority of commentators. How we respond is for all of us to determine. As John Holdren, scientific adviser to President Obama, put it in a lecture at Imperial College last year, we have 3 choices in responding to climate disruption, we can mitigate, we can adapt or we can suffer. The reality is that we shall have to do all 3. But unless we are very serious in our response, we and the other living inhabitants of the planet will suffer greatly.<br />
<br />
Jointly written by Sir Mark Walport, the current Government Chief Science Adviser, and his 3 predecessors: Sir John Beddington (2008 to 2013), Sir David King (2000 to 2007) and Lord May (1995 to 2000).Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-26666410263405878602014-02-16T08:12:00.000-08:002014-02-16T08:31:11.719-08:00The Earth Cannot Wait <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/86665330" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <a href="http://vimeo.com/86665330">The Earth Cannot Wait : Part 3</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/strikemag">STRIKE! mag</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="first">
<br /></div>
<div class="first">
The Green Party's Derek Wall (@anothergreen) on direct action, seven generation thinking and Marxist ecology:</div>
<br />
"Even an entire society and nation, or all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not the owners of the earth. The are simply its possessors, its beneficiaries and have to bequeath it in improved states to succeeding generations"<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.strikemag.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">strikemag.org</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://thepeoplesparliament.me.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">thepeoplesparliament.me.uk/</a>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-48851765375461314642014-02-13T16:02:00.000-08:002014-02-16T08:12:34.842-08:00Floods Expose Absurdity of Austerity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUj9B2_6DzEW3ODPAPtTkkGBhwVvFY2gQj0yKQp9TT_Ci4t8PGLlatI-nKrCOHNquLYP8_g5hhcdE7UCj2hFN7ou190Q6jX1gf105D4HrZxcy0PCiyutoqoRmnqVdoWWDjNabDZb3RuEk/s1600/Floods.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUj9B2_6DzEW3ODPAPtTkkGBhwVvFY2gQj0yKQp9TT_Ci4t8PGLlatI-nKrCOHNquLYP8_g5hhcdE7UCj2hFN7ou190Q6jX1gf105D4HrZxcy0PCiyutoqoRmnqVdoWWDjNabDZb3RuEk/s1600/Floods.png" /></a></div>
<br />
In the last few weeks - intensifying in recent days as the flood waters have moved closer to London - it almost seems as if politicians have only wanted to help clear some of the mud so they can pick it up and sling it at their opponents. It is difficult to hear yourself think amid this cacophony of blame, but it is worth considering what the floods and our reaction to them tell us about the state and public spending.<br />
<br />
Despite the usual spin and bluster, it is a fact that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/07/england-floods-budget-cuts" target="_hplink">spending on flood defences has been cut</a> by this government and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/10/floods-environment-agency-staff-cuts" target="_hplink">frontline Environment Agency jobs have gone</a> including, insiders say, those who worked alongside the emergency services and on flood warnings.<br />
<br />
The Conservative chair of the relevant select committee of MPs has said the floods "reinforce our concerns about cuts to the Defra budget". And the GMB on Tuesday said most of the £130million extra funding planned will be spent on capital projects and will save few, if any, of the 1,700 jobs under threat.<br />
<br />
This has been a horrible time for everyone whose home or business has been flooded and there will be no quick fixes for many families. But it is distasteful in the extreme that some on the right are preying on their misery by saying the only way to help is by cutting foreign aid that supports poverty-stricken and war-torn families around the world.<br />
<br />
This rob Peter to pay Paul mentality is nothing new, but it exposes the absurdity of those who hanker for a smaller state. The idea that "our people" - whether our country or our constituents - are more deserving than others is not only crudely selfish, it also makes no sense.<br />
<br />
Arch Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg is not waiting for "the market" to step in and pump out his constituents' homes, or drain the fields or rebuild battered walls and fences. No one in these communities is crying out for G4S or Serco to come to the rescue; they're asking for the state to help, in the form of the Environment Agency experts, the police, firefighters, local government officers and the armed forces.<br />
<br />
For the likes of the privileged, Eton and Oxford-educated Rees-Mogg, the consequences of a smaller state are perhaps becoming apparent for the first time. But elsewhere, in the real world, others are painfully aware. A report on Wednesday revealed <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/12/bedroom-tax-households-eviction-rent-arrears" target="_hplink">two-thirds of households affected by the bedroom tax are in rent arrears</a> and one in seven families face losing their homes. The National Housing Federation said its survey demonstrated the bedroom tax was "heaping misery and hardship" on already struggling families.<br />
<br />
Much has been made of what David Cameron actually meant when - in a desperate bid to claw back some political capital in the flood-hit Tory heartlands - he insisted that "money was no object" in dealing with the fallout. But the more revealing part of what he said was that "we are a wealthy country". And, as if to reinforce the point, we learned on the same day that all of a sudden there was £2.5billion available for some new fighter planes.<br />
<br />
Unions have consistently made the point that we are a wealthy country, that there is no need to force people out of their homes and to drive more people into poverty. We have also consistently warned about the real dangers of cutting public spending, and we have been consistently ignored.<br />
<br />
The floods have exposed the gossamer thin argument for austerity and the cold, cruel ideology that underlies it. The inescapable truth is that we all rely on properly funded and resourced public services - maybe not directly every minute of every day but, nonetheless, all the time, because the alternative means abandoning people when they most need our help.<br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="clear full">
</div>
<!-- amazon items --> <!-- /amazon items --> By Mark Serwotka General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union and first published at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mark-serwotka/floods-david-cameron-austerity_b_4774906.html?utm_hp_ref=uk" target="_blank">The Huffington Post</a><br />
<br />
<b> Follow Mark Serwotka on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/pcs_union"> www.twitter.com/pcs_union </a></b>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-49827879194004780242014-02-12T14:09:00.000-08:002014-02-12T17:11:18.542-08:00A Fresh Look at Our Drug Laws Is the First Step Towards a Sane, Evidence-Based Policy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiALZCfDzqvp05Fq8DSYLk4CPEoLP4l3yjInZ-pqgcebxPWf4h3oN9CHZSSBtLn_PUD3NuCUaDI-8I5h8dMI1CrEMJuYeEVUIBHmHXhxzGvYayP86A7Lod1PPYoCNOmYNSYHWa0a4bjDsw/s1600/drugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiALZCfDzqvp05Fq8DSYLk4CPEoLP4l3yjInZ-pqgcebxPWf4h3oN9CHZSSBtLn_PUD3NuCUaDI-8I5h8dMI1CrEMJuYeEVUIBHmHXhxzGvYayP86A7Lod1PPYoCNOmYNSYHWa0a4bjDsw/s1600/drugs.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
One of the most talented actors of his generation found dead in his bathroom. Over a hundred young people needing treatment after a gig in Belfast where drugs were found. Teenagers dying after a taking Ecstasy on a night out. Every day the media present us with examples of the miserable failure of the "war on drugs". Yet the government presses on with the prohibition approach, refusing to acknowledge the obvious reality that it's not working. <br />
<br />
When I was elected MP for Brighton Pavilion, the city had the highest mortality rate from drugs in the country. I wanted to find out whether doing things differently would help save lives, and was part of efforts to form a local commission to take a fresh look at the city's strategy to reduce drug-related harm. Thanks to innovative new approaches - increased training in the administration of naloxone which can prevent overdose, better data collection on drug use trends and improving services for people with a dual diagnosis - some great progress has been made. In the last few years we've seen a higher than average increase in numbers of people leaving treatment successfully.<br />
<br />
Yet national policies, part of the broader international 'war on drugs', are the main barrier to further progress. The UK still approaches drug addiction as a criminal issue first and a health issue second. As the former Chief Superintendent of Brighton and Hove Police has said: "The use of drugs is not well addressed through punitive measures. Providing people with treatment not only resolves their addiction - thereby minimising risk of overdose, drug related health issues, anti-social behaviour and dependence on the state, for example - but cuts the cost to the community by reduced offending".<br />
<br />
Those costs are enormous. In England and Wales alone, an estimated £3billion a year is spent fighting the war on drugs, to little effect. Over half of the 85,000 people in prison are thought to have serious drug problems. Rates of cannabis use by young people in Britain are amongst the highest in Europe.<br />
<br />
At the heart of the problem is the fact that our approach is being dictated by a law that's over 40 years old and is not fit for purpose. There has never been an impact assessment of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act; nor has there been a cost benefit assessment, or any attempt to compare its effectiveness in reducing the social, economic or health costs of drug misuse with alternatives. Successive governments have seemed singularly uninterested in whether whether our current prohibtion-based approach is an effective use of public money.<br />
<br />
Where alternative approaches have been adopted, the results have generally been positive. In 2001, Portugal adopted a new policy whereby drug possession was changed from a criminal offence to an administrative offence, following which there was a reduction in new HIV diagnoses and in drug-related deaths. In Switzerland, a series of new policies focusing attention on drug use from a public health perspective, led to a decline in crime rates. An investigation by Release looked at 21 jurisdictions that had adopted some form of decriminalisation of drug possession. Overwhelmingly, it found that such an approach does not lead to an increase in drug use but does improve outcomes for users - in terms of employment, relationships and likelihood of staying out of prison.<br />
<br />
As Russell Brand has argued, if "we are aware that our drug laws aren't working and that alternatives are yielding positive results, why are we not acting?" Over the past year, I've been calling on the government to carry out an independent and authoritative review of the Misuse of Drugs Act. My epetition has received over 50,000 signatures, and the figure is rising rapidly. If 100,000 people have signed by the end of this week, the issue will have to be debated and voted on by MPs.<br />
<br />
Slowly, it's starting to feel like this isn't such a hopeless cause. Even in the US, where Nixon first used the term "War on Drugs", the wind is changing - the Republican governor of Texas has stated his intention "to implement policies that start us toward a decriminalisation and keep people from going to prison and destroying their lives."<br />
<br />
And now the deputy prime minister, back from a trip to Columbia, is arguing for "a proper debate about the need for a different strategy." It's not often that I agree with Nick, but on this occasion, he's dead right. Prohibition is costing lives, as well as billions of taxpayers' money - a fresh look at our drug laws is the first step towards a sane, evidence-based policy.<br />
<br />
You can <a href="http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45969" target="_hplink">sign the epetition</a> here and <a href="https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/8572-force-mps-to-debate-drug-laws" target="_hplink">join our Thunderclap here</a><br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="clear full">
</div>
<div class="clear full">
Written by Caroline Lucas MP, Green Party</div>
<!-- amazon items --> <!-- /amazon items --> <br />
<b> Follow Caroline Lucas on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/CarolineLucas"> www.twitter.com/CarolineLucas </a></b>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-20696143503617371832014-02-11T11:41:00.002-08:002014-02-11T11:41:27.371-08:00Statement on Local Authority Cuts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhiGIWJ07CzkIFUrxKjKVfMpH5-BelcpD2ILMWWiCo_o_IDU163cmFXp0hewbtU6tLbSkRrWt5Q6X0doOgjdXSmP9ImVPKamk9w4oJzG_1uEuU81IEfjjJ0XgeFS8ZKaRy3cJGIx3jkjM/s1600/haringey-civic-centre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhiGIWJ07CzkIFUrxKjKVfMpH5-BelcpD2ILMWWiCo_o_IDU163cmFXp0hewbtU6tLbSkRrWt5Q6X0doOgjdXSmP9ImVPKamk9w4oJzG_1uEuU81IEfjjJ0XgeFS8ZKaRy3cJGIx3jkjM/s1600/haringey-civic-centre.jpg" height="206" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="yiv162652850MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<div class="yiv162652850MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Green party of England and Wales fought the 2010 general election in opposition to the savage public service cuts supported by the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. The Green party offered a different approach to reducing the country’s debts, which included making the wealthy (people and corporations) pay their fair share of tax, investing in the economy to produce sustainable growth through the Green New Deal, some cuts for example to Trident and pledging to protect public services particularly for the most vulnerable in our society.</span></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="yiv162652850MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unfortunately, we did not win the general election and so are unable to put these policies into practice, although Caroline Lucas has almost single handedly taken the opposition to the Coalition government cuts agenda. The ideologically driven shrink the state policies of the Coalition government aim to reduce public spending and turn most of the public services over to private corporations. </span></div>
<div class="yiv162652850MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Our elected representatives in local government are on the front line in the assault on public spending, with local authorities having their funding from central government cut by around a third since 2010. Councils of all political stripes are hurting and they worry about whether they will even be able to fund their statutory duties in the future. Local government is under serious threat and everyone involved in it knows this to be true, despite the blithe statements about local authorities making efficiency savings and encouraging local business growth to pay for services, trumpeted by the Coalition central government. All the easy savings and many not so easy have been made now, and a future of even more of the same is daunting.</span></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="yiv162652850MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Haringey Green Party would continue to look for better and more effective ways of doing things in Council budgets especially on energy, transport, supplies, consultancy, and agency fees, whilst avoiding cuts in services, jobs, or wages and whilst recognising the importance of all sub-contractors’ staff (as well as Council employees) being paid a London living wage. We would oppose any salaries in new appointments being over ten times the lowest full time wage.</span></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="yiv162652850MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Haringey Green party supports Green councillors who refuse to participate in or support an administration that implements any further cuts; and recognises that Green councillors may better represent the interests of their constituents by remaining in opposition at this time.</span></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="yiv162652850MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Haringey Green Party supports popular mobilisation against the cuts through demonstrations and where necessary direct action, in coordination with local, regional and national anti-cuts movements such as the People’s Assembly. HGP would welcome coordinated actions between Green and left councillors in different areas to resist cuts in services. </span></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="yiv162652850MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">HGP would welcome a national campaign for reform of local taxation and/or Council or GLA charges to make them more progressive and to capture more of the profits of developers to support local services, and would encourage and support any Green councillors elected here to pursue these aims as well as to campaign for local eco-taxes like levies on commercial packaging.</span></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="yiv162652850MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Haringey Green Party believes that Green Councillors, whenever faced with a need to make instant decisions about budgets in the Council chamber and whenever consultation with supporters and allies is not possible within the permitted time frame, should do whatever they judge to be in the best interests of the local population and consistent with Green Party policy.</span></div>
</div>
Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-9508908535591374292014-02-03T14:34:00.000-08:002014-02-03T14:34:51.276-08:00Passengers face massive disruption if Boris’s cuts to ticket offices happen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFEQ4E58V_E2jnUcX7S1vIyzp7gBIGw6oe841W_2cRr92CTZ_77XeeGTfQbRWYOUOqTJQMmdBal_UkK6gVhSe-gh_XLkXyW2v3PMhlXwHxSL_gRoeaZk5MnWvSoW4jOyErMhR1mfb188/s1600/Underground-JPEG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFEQ4E58V_E2jnUcX7S1vIyzp7gBIGw6oe841W_2cRr92CTZ_77XeeGTfQbRWYOUOqTJQMmdBal_UkK6gVhSe-gh_XLkXyW2v3PMhlXwHxSL_gRoeaZk5MnWvSoW4jOyErMhR1mfb188/s1600/Underground-JPEG.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
The Mayor of London’s proposal to close all London Underground ticket offices and cut up to 1,000 tube staff is apparently supported by 82 per cent of Londoners, according to a poll commissioned by TfL.<br />
<br />
However the question they ask in their poll doesn’t mention either the ticket office closures, or cutting a thousand staff, but TfL are now claiming public endorsement for the cuts. Polls commissioned by the unions also show overwhelming opposition from passengers to these cuts.<span id="more-79089"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Closing ticket offices which are only used by 3 per cent of people making journeys does not sound much of a problem, except when you translate that into over a 100,000 people a day who are queuing up to sort out the issues which the machines can’t help them with.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I can see some merit to the argument that we utilize new technology to make staff more accessible, but these plans combine the closures with a huge reduction in staffing. Fewer staff will be around and when they are wandering about, we may, or may not, be lucky enough to bump into them. Ticket offices in most stations provide a reassuring focus point where you know you can find someone.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The presence of a staffed office provides an invaluable source of advice and assistance to passengers, way beyond the function of merely selling tickets. Get rid of a 1000 staff and you lose that reassuring presence which helps passengers feel safer, especially if travelling after dark.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Crime and abuse sadly occur in society and tube stations are no exception. In a recent survey of disabled travellers “enhancing personal security and safety” was ranked consistently as the most important benefit that staff provide to disabled passengers. CCTV cameras can never replace staff in making passengers feel safe waiting on a dark platform at night.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As we have tragically seen in recent years, emergencies do happen on our transport network and deleting staff posts as the number of passengers flowing through stations increases is irresponsible and could lead to injury or loss of life on the expanding tube network.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This Mayor – Boris Johnson – presided over annual fare hikes above the rate of inflation every year between 2008 and 2013. During this time, the real average increase in TfL fares was 11 per cent, hitting Londoners’ pockets over and over again.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Meanwhile, he throws away vast sums of public money on a succession of vanity projects including his New Bus and his cable car. While the Mayor wants to shed staff from tube stations to save money, the additional cost for the extra staff on the back of the 600 Boris Buses is an estimated £30m a year.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
With record numbers using the tube and a massive predicted increase in passenger numbers these cuts to staffing are unnecessary, unsafe and unworkable.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
He has slashed away at our public services. Earlier this month, 10 of London’s oldest fire stations closed their doors for the last time, 14 fire engines were withdrawn and 552 firefighter jobs were axed – all victims of this Mayor’s decision to cut council tax for the average family by 7p per week to make a political point, rather than safeguard our communities.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
He has also presided over police front counter closures and is pushing for City Hall security services to be outsourced too.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Tube workers have been rightly praised, as heroes during the terrorist attacks, for making the Olympics a success and for keeping London moving. They now deserve our full support in their fight for a safe, properly staff tube.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Industrial action is a last resort and no one wants strikes, least of all tube workers who lose pay. But passengers face disruption and a worse service for years to come if these cuts take place.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This Mayor opposed the closure of 40 ticket offices by his predecessor and entered office in 2008 with a firm pledge to keep ticket offices open. He repeated his promise again in 2010. Now we see the Mayor quietly ditching his commitments and hoping nobody will notice.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I hope Londoners will see what he’s really doing and object to these dangerous cuts.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Written by Darren Johnson, Green Party London AM </div>
Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-22311360730915219092014-01-10T10:39:00.000-08:002014-01-10T10:39:02.732-08:00This perverse Mark Duggan verdict will ruin our relations with the police<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7_GfY6uWjeVvFbswsQUAD4hOS_10srOUpApQdZCbD6HJtVsodAYRhCup2KkJUsQbHfdwUp1Ilva5-0_GJYElCFwmL0f69WuTjDA01GWAnxzlJWuNdtkyhFUoJwFkG6nlRpN5QMqnFRLA/s1600/Mark-Duggan-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7_GfY6uWjeVvFbswsQUAD4hOS_10srOUpApQdZCbD6HJtVsodAYRhCup2KkJUsQbHfdwUp1Ilva5-0_GJYElCFwmL0f69WuTjDA01GWAnxzlJWuNdtkyhFUoJwFkG6nlRpN5QMqnFRLA/s1600/Mark-Duggan-.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
After hearing the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/09/mark-duggan-family-furious-lawful-killing-verdict" title="">verdict in the Mark Duggan inquest</a> I went with his family and friends to a local church in Tottenham where we tried to share a private moment before facing the media. A range of emotions was on display, but it is fair to say that stunned disbelief and anger dominated.<br />
<br />
Having attended the inquest for three months, and having heard or read all of the testimony given, this was the last verdict that I or the family was expecting. The question on everyone's lips was, how could they come up with a verdict like that? The police have been quick to herald the verdict as a vindication of their flawed operation. But they too must realise that the verdict leaves many questions still to be answered.<br />
<br />
Firstly the family is struggling to understand how the shooting of an unarmed man can still be deemed a lawful act. The "safety net" for police officers in such circumstances is that the killing is lawful if the officer has an "honestly held belief" that he or others are in imminent danger. But in this case the jury themselves stated it was their belief that Duggan had thrown the gun before being fatally shot, so where was the immediate, clear and present danger?<br />
<br />
At the inquest, V53 – the officer who fired the fatal shots – said that he definitely saw the sock-covered gun and was even able to describe seeing the barrel of the gun sticking out of the hole in the sock. He also gave this sworn testimony in the two trials of the alleged gun supplier, Kevin Hutchinson Foster. On each of these occasions he stated he was positive that Mark had the gun in his hand when he shot him the first and second time. Each time he described it as a "freeze frame" moment, adding: "This is something that you do not forget." He further justified the need for shooting Duggan twice by describing how the first shot spun Duggan around so that the gun was pointing directly at him when he shot him the second time.<br />
<br />
The jury appears to have put this evidence to one side, along with the fact that two other officers also testified on the same three occasions that they had seen the gun drawn and in Duggan's hand. It seems that the jury has delivered a verdict that neither fits the known facts nor chimes with the testimony of the independent witnesses.<br />
<br />
Further, in coming to the conclusion that Duggan had thrown the gun before or on exiting the mini-cab the jury disregarded the scientific evidence as no traces of his DNA was found on the sock or the gun although his fingerprints were found on the lid of the box that the gun was allegedly being transported in. They also appear to have disregarded the evidence of the taxi driver, who said that he had not seen Duggan open the box during the journey or once the police had forced his vehicle to stop.<br />
<br />
In fact there were no witnesses who saw the gun being thrown. A few police officers inferred that it was possible, but none of the 11 highly trained officers claimed to see Duggan making any movement that could have resembled him throwing away the firearm. Most surprisingly for the family was the jury's apparent ability to totally disregard the evidence of Witness B, the only independent witness to see the shooting. He was an extremely reluctant witness, who had to be tracked down by the coroner's team. He had filmed the aftermath of the shooting; the footage was later sold to the BBC. He has no historical links to Tottenham and no links to Duggan or his family. He was adamant that Duggan had a BlackBerry in one hand, and that both of his hands were held above head height in a gesture of surrender as he was gunned down.<br />
<br />
The family, their supporters and friends believe the jury has got the verdict terribly wrong. But then we also believe this inquest was lost long before it even began. It was lost on the evening that Duggan was slain, as immediately after the shooting the police and the Independent Police Complaints Commission began to brief the media with inaccurate and misleading information that ensured that Duggan was demonised, even before his body had turned cold. The headlines declared him a gangster who was on a mission to avenge the killing of his cousin, Kelvin Easton.<br />
<br />
However, during the inquest no evidence was offered in support of this claim. It was further alleged that he was a large-scale drugs dealer, but yet again not a shred of evidence was provided to substantiate these allegations. But that did not matter, the mud had been slung and it clearly stuck as it was designed to. Even now most people still do not realise that he was only ever convicted for two relatively minor offences – one count of cannabis possession, and one count of receiving stolen goods.<br />
<br />
So now the family is expected to put its faith in the IPCC. But few people in Tottenham, black or white, have any faith in this organisation's ability to be thorough, fair and impartial. The IPCC has faced much criticism during the inquest and the family believe that this criticism has been well-earned. During the inquest the IPCC's mishandling of the crime scene was revealed, including the fact that it gave permission for the mini-cab to be removed before investigating officers had even looked at it or had it forensically searched for evidence. It further transpired that the IPCC failed to respond to crucial independent witnesses, even those who tried to respond to their own urgent witness appeals.<br />
<br />
The IPCC has chosen not to explore the possibility that the gun was planted at the spot it was found, even though it was 7m from his body and two independent witness gave the IPCC statements – and later testified – that they had seen an officer remove a gun from the mini-cab some minutes after Duggan had been killed. But the most crucial reason why the family and local community will have no faith in the IPCC's investigation is that its lead investigator, Colin Sparrow, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/12/mark-duggan-killing-police-tottenham" title="">revealed to the inquest</a> that he knew Duggan had not fired any gun long before the IPCC began briefing the media that he had shot at police first. It is one thing for the IPCC to have made the mistake, but it still took three weeks to correct a "fact" it knew to be false; and in those intervening days Tottenham, and many other areas, burned.<br />
<br />
This verdict will have a long-lasting and negative impact on police and community relations. Tottenham's black community will not view this judgment in isolation. For us, a lack of justice has become par for the course; Duggan's name now joins those of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/aug/08/anger-tottenham-broadwater-riots-1985" title="">Cynthia Jarrett</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/celldeaths/article/0,2763,195387,00.html" title="">Joy Gardner</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/oct/03/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation" title="">Roger Sylvester</a> who have all died at the hands of the police and have not received anything that resembles justice.<br />
<br />
It feels as though we are living in a parallel universe from mainstream society – for what is seen as justice by the mainstream is experienced as an injustice by the marginalised. This perverse and contradictory verdict will only add to the sense of injustice and hopelessness that has long been felt in disadvantaged and marginalised areas such as Tottenham.<br />
<br />
Written by Stafford Scott and first published at<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/09/mark-duggan-verdict-relations-police" target="_blank"> The Guardian</a>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-25530208376893625552013-12-22T10:27:00.000-08:002013-12-22T12:31:52.874-08:00Hungry Christmas: Food Bank Use Soars <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvxm2q2D_edFHRfrDJjlqB9bCxuENfqskCHWvVl5wcr0KRC0SCMg8XJvt0ELZcyU1ltMmYNb2yCJEiMDD3-Aazjl05WL5FpPQ09oiJ23yMavarVzCEjqj3_mBOztEvc65wS5fNw-d8xPU/s1600/FoodBank.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvxm2q2D_edFHRfrDJjlqB9bCxuENfqskCHWvVl5wcr0KRC0SCMg8XJvt0ELZcyU1ltMmYNb2yCJEiMDD3-Aazjl05WL5FpPQ09oiJ23yMavarVzCEjqj3_mBOztEvc65wS5fNw-d8xPU/s1600/FoodBank.png" /></a></div>
<br />
This Christmas more people than ever will be relying on food banks in the UK. Despite the government's talk of a recovery, thousands of people across the country are going into the Christmas period with the grinding desperation of poverty and hunger hanging over them.<br />
<br />
In my report, <a href="http://issuu.com/greenkeithmep/docs/hungry_christmas_05.2__issuu_" target="_hplink">Hungry Christmas</a>, I've exposed a huge increase in the number of people relying on food banks in South East England. The region - the second richest in the UK - has seen a 60% increase in the number of people relying on emergency food handouts this year and the total number of those needing emergency food handouts is likely to hit 70,000 for the year April 2013- April 2014.<br />
<br />
These statistics are shocking enough, but behind each statistic is the story of someone who is living in the sixth largest economy in the world yet struggling to feed themselves and their family.<br />
This year I've toured my constituency visiting the food banks which are straining to keep up with rising demand. It's at these food banks that I've met people like John. <br />
<br />
He was now volunteering after receiving help from the food bank at a time in his life when he had lots of problems. By degrees he'd lost his good job, his accommodation, developed a drug habit and drifted into street drinking, until his life was in a very dark place.<br />
He told me he thought that a lack of food was the least of his worries: he could always scavenge or beg. But he realised that he eventually needed to get back to a 'normal life' and regular meals, or he would die. <br />
<br />
I also met Mary*, a single parent who just can't keep up with the expense of clothing and feeding her children, and often goes without food herself so her kids can eat. For her, the food bank was a lifeline at a time of desperation. <br />
<br />
The two major reasons people give for going to food banks are benefits problems (delays, sanctions and changes) and low incomes. There's evidence to suggest that the former has been exacerbated by the government's 'crackdown' on benefits claimants and their changes to social security. The latter reason, which explodes the myth of people being able to 'work their way out of poverty', reflects the fact that wages have stagnated in real terms for a decade now.<br />
<br />
This Christmas many of us will be giving a bit of our money to the many good causes who help those in need. But, while charity is essential for assisting the vulnerable, it's vital that we don't let ourselves slip into thinking that the poverty so many of us face is inevitable or uncurable. In twenty first century Britain nobody should have to rely on handouts to get by at Christmas time, and no government should be allowed to get away with letting this situation develop.<br />
<br />
If we are to tackle the poverty faced by so many in the UK we need to ensure that people have access to jobs which pay enough to build a life on and adequate social security protection when times are tough. <br />
<br />
Let's make sure that the good yuletide feelings don't let us forget or forgive this Government for passing on a financial crisis to the poorest in society. And let's ensure that in 2014 we say to this government loud and clear that poverty in this country is a result of their politics, and we won't stand for it anymore.<br />
<em><br /></em>
<em>*names of food bank users have been changed</em><br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="clear full">
</div>
<!-- amazon items --> <!-- /amazon items --> Keith Taylor is a Green party MEP<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> Follow Keith Taylor on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/GreenKeithMEP"> www.twitter.com/GreenKeithMEP </a></b>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-49771662976466740602013-12-08T08:54:00.002-08:002013-12-08T08:54:47.986-08:00Junior Murvin has died but the story of Police and Thieves lives on<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0JZvDKurWjc" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
<b>The Jamaican reggae singer, who died on Monday, bequeathed us an anthem whose indictment of policing still rings true</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
When <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/jul/29/racism-police-insiders-view-leroy-logan" title="">Superintendent Leroy Logan stepped down</a> as the highest-ranking African-Caribbean officer in the Met this summer, he entertained his retirement party guests with his rendition of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gofxcp2ta6A" title="">Junior Murvin's Police and Thieves</a>. The irony was not lost on myself and others present. The tune is iconic. Even among coppers. Despite its critique of the profession.<br />
<br />
Having said that, many reggae lovers will struggle to identify the song's singer, Junior Murvin, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/03/reggae-singer-junior-murvin-dies" title="">who died on Monday</a> in relative obscurity compared with the global success of his reggae anthem.<br />
<br />
The tune was the soundtrack to the Notting Hill carnival in the summer it was released, 1976. The perfect groove for a hot and sticky August bank holiday on the streets of west London. Eerily, the record had been pumping out of sound systems and shebeens in London W10 and W11 postcodes in the days and hours before the community tensions of the time erupted in an all-out battle between (predominantly) black youth and the (predominantly) white police on the streets of Ladbroke Grove. Everywhere you went for the following few weeks – parties, blues dances and even university student unions – the tune was being rinsed out like it was the pick of the pops.<br />
<br />
Every young rebel seemed to have a copy. Joe Strummer and his bandmates included. Even though John Peel had been playing Murvin for months, it was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6FZwVvS8_8" title="">the Clash's version on their debut album</a> that would turn the song into a punk anthem. Strummer told me he preferred Murvin's original. It was one of his favourite records.<br />
<br />
So too, it seemed, for anyone who had a beef with the police throughout the rest of the 70s and 80s and maybe right through to the 90s. It even charted – four years later, in 1980 – and Murvin obligingly took the militant road to Top of the Pops. The following year it was the theme to the Brixton riots and subsequently to much of the social unrest during Margaret Thatcher's premiership.<br />
<br />
Its comparison of police with thieves and any other criminals "scaring the nation" was written for the politically manipulated war zone that was Kingston, Jamaica, at the time – where you were as frightened of the constabulary as you were of the gunmen – but was subtle enough to resonate in these shores where the Dixon of Dock Green image of the obliging copper was being eroded by the image of uniformed thugs jumping out of black mariahs. What we didn't get at the time was that the "police" <em>and</em> the "thieves" were the emissaries of the politicians who ran the system.<br />
<br />
But somewhere along the way its meaning started to fade and it became a party song rather than an indictment of the forces of law and order. Somewhere along the way it became OK for an outgoing Met superintendent to spoof it.<br />
<br />
Everybody now knows, of course, that the old bill's antagonism towards black men never went away and that institutional racism is alive and well in the police force. But a new generation wasn't interested in dancing away its anger to one of the most seductive reggae songs you'll ever hear. It's too subtle for those weaned on NWA's cut-to-the-chase Fuck Tha Police.<br />
<br />
Today, when it comes to cops and daylight robbers, there are no passing "anthems". Only the monstrous anger of direct action as we witnessed in the 2011 riots, a response to the police killing of Mark Duggan. In the Tottenham area where I live and in the areas I pass through – Harlesden, Brixton, Peckham, Hackney, Moss Side and other "hoods" – nobody is chanting the "downfall of Babylon" any more. But it doesn't mean they're not still angry with the belief that the police can kill a black man in broad daylight without consequences, and at being stopped and searched many more times than their white mates, and that the whole racist system compels half of young black men to languish on the dole. They're not stupid. They know who the "police" are and they know who the "thieves" are. They get it. They're just not voicing their frustrations through a pop song.<br />
<br />
Written by Dotun Adebayo and first published at <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/04/junior-murvin-died-police-and-thieves-jamaican-reggae" target="_blank">The Guardian</a><br />
<br />
<br />Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-82810628945134640572013-12-01T10:12:00.000-08:002013-12-01T10:12:27.229-08:00Why COP 19 fell woefully short of the urgent action we need<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilLX3ZdYIB_x90N-EwqtC8dH9pS7qA2Ty8_PNz0sheyJ3enbsDYEw7b-ZHEt51cbjPx5EOBwHa3u62FnOjoIBUeZLjmKihDGzM2krGoLQeImBX4t-lUt42Aey48GJJS5jSQfLOKsnk3c/s1600/CarolineLucas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjilLX3ZdYIB_x90N-EwqtC8dH9pS7qA2Ty8_PNz0sheyJ3enbsDYEw7b-ZHEt51cbjPx5EOBwHa3u62FnOjoIBUeZLjmKihDGzM2krGoLQeImBX4t-lUt42Aey48GJJS5jSQfLOKsnk3c/s1600/CarolineLucas.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<strong>Why COP 19 fell woefully short of the urgent action we need</strong><br />
<br />
History was made at the UN climate talks last week – not by the achievement of a breakthrough in negotiations, unfortunately, but by the unprecedented walk-out by 800 civil society groups and trade unions.<br />
<br />
Citing the appalling lack of ambition and commitment manifest at the 19<sup>th</sup> yearly session of the global climate change conference, NGOs blamed the lobbying from fossil fuel companies for impeding progress at the talks. As WWF put it, “Warsaw, which should have been an important step in the just transition to a sustainable future, is on track to deliver virtually nothing. We feel that governments have given up on the process.”<br />
<br />
Their frustration was well founded. The industrialised countries like Japan and Australia used the talks to officially scale back their climate commitments, and the demands of poor countries for clarity on greater climate finance were stonewalled. At the same time, the EU’s credibility was undermined by its failure to increase its completely inadequate 20% greenhouse gas reduction target for 2020.<br />
<br />
Poignantly, the conference began on the day that Typhoon Haiyan dissipated, and in admirable solidarity with the people of his country, the lead negotiator of the Philippines fasted throughout, joined by many representatives of environmental NGOs attending the conference. Sadly, the immediate evidence of the human costs of climate change represented by Haiyan and other recent extreme weather events did not provide a catalyst for the international action desperately needed.<br />
<br />
Perhaps it was never a propitious sign that the talks were taking place in Poland, whose Government’s lack of commitment to reduce its use of fossil fuels has earned it the nickname ‘Coalland’. Just under of 90% of the country’s electricity is sourced from coal. Outrageously, representatives of the Polish Ministry of the Economy co-hosted an event with the World Coal Association in parallel with COP 19, giving lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry a valuable platform, and sending the provocative message that the ongoing cosy relationship between governments and the fossil fuel companies is perfectly compatible with efforts to reduce emissions.<br />
<br />
So what did the talks deliver by way of positive outcomes? The top-line political agreement was pretty uninspiring – nations are to “initiate or intensify domestic preparations for their intended nationally determined contributions” (rather than commitments) ideally, but not definitively by the first quarter of 2015, leaving huge wiggle room for nations to continue to procrastinate. The agreement around compensation for vulnerable countries for the loss and damage resulting from climate change was similarly weak, with no guarantees of actual compensation.<br />
<br />
There was some very limited progress: agreement on a mechanism to fund and manage forest protection projects, and a new initiative to work with the IT industry to maximise its potential to curb emissions. The world’s least developed countries announced that they had submitted detailed climate adaption plans, indicating that progress is being made on capacity building – creating the infrastructure and policies they need to support effective climate adaptation projects.<br />
<br />
But this falls woefully short of the urgent action needed. Now that no-one with any credibility seriously disputes the reality of anthropogenic climate change, the argument now goes along the lines of “What’s the point in us taking action to reduce carbon emissions when China is building four new coal-fired plants every week?” This argument must not be allowed to gain any traction. The notion that the UK or other developed nations are somehow doing too much to reduce their emissions is preposterous. The UK subsidised the fossil fuel industry to the tune of £4.3 billion in 2011. The ODI says rich nations are spending seven times more supporting coal, oil, and gas than they are on helping poorer nations address climate change.<br />
<br />
Until we tackle the undue influence of the fossil fuel industry over domestic policy here in the UK and over international talks, the world will not rise to the challenge of taking action on climate change at the pace and scale needed to secure a safe future. Over 70 organisations have called for new rules to safeguard global climate talks from fossil fuel influence, in order to give them at least a fighting chance of being able to deliver what the science and equity demand.<br />
<br />
The UK should commit to supporting such new rules by ending the undue access and influence of companies who profit from more emissions and lobby against effective action, ignoring the reality that if we are to have a good chance of keeping emissions below 2 degrees, at least four fifths of known fossil fuel reserves need to remain in the ground.<br />
<br />
In Westminster, I’ve orchestrated debates, asked questions and written letters, and yes, taken peaceful direct action, to try to persuade the Government to commit to replacing their support for fossil fuels with greater promotion of renewables and energy efficiency instead.<br />
<br />
Later this year, MPs will have an opportunity to close the loophole in the Energy Bill would allow older coal power stations to stay open and escape the emissions limit. This is the kind of action we need to pressure our representatives to take, and we don’t need to wait to COP 20 to do it.<br />
<br />
Caroline Lucas Green Party MP for Brighton PavillionMike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-85800910072229278492013-11-24T09:24:00.002-08:002013-11-24T09:24:39.039-08:00Boris, the super rich and pay inequality<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifVIUdh6mVS-kXQOWUEnabi6EaESO4HEOizNe4M2rSB3oGkCqcSFOo6m-a_UEHm5yO27J5beJm4mYlqM5gkLRCRsTJHXNHNKc3iVchiP7itl1MxPNBsOLCmdGKytDwk_7RnUUBj8bdD1E/s1600/Boris-Johnson-cycling.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifVIUdh6mVS-kXQOWUEnabi6EaESO4HEOizNe4M2rSB3oGkCqcSFOo6m-a_UEHm5yO27J5beJm4mYlqM5gkLRCRsTJHXNHNKc3iVchiP7itl1MxPNBsOLCmdGKytDwk_7RnUUBj8bdD1E/s1600/Boris-Johnson-cycling.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<em><strong><a href="http://www.london.gov.uk/profile/jenny-jones">Jenny Jones AM</a> is leader of the Green Party on the London Assembly and Green Party Mayoral candidate for 2012</strong></em><br />
<em><strong><br /></strong></em>
Nobody could be surprised by Boris Jonson's <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/10456202/We-should-be-humbly-thanking-the-super-rich-not-bashing-them.html" target="_blank">latest column</a> defending bankers and the rest of London's super-rich elite.<br />
<br />
He’s an expert in baiting the left on subjects like bankers’ pay, then switching his ground to promote the living wage. But he isn’t just a newspaper troll. He is also the Mayor of London, and he is using this position of considerable power and influence to help the elite reshape London, with real world consequences.<br />
<br />
Did you know, for example, that the only time the Mayor has travelled to Brussels in person was to lobby for the hedge funds?<br />
<br />
His advocacy of the wider financial services sector is incredibly one sided, without any consideration of their role in the wider London economy. <span id="more-76235"></span><br />
<br />
He has talked about their tax contributions, but not their tax avoidance and subsidies. He calls them the engine of our economy, but doesn’t seem too concerned that (so the <a href="http://www.neweconomics.org/" target="_blank">New Economics Foundation</a> tell me) only 6p of every pound deposited with RBS/Natwest goes into British businesses. He has lobbied against the bankers’ bonus cap, the Financial Transaction Tax and a number of other modest reforms of the banking industry.<br />
<br />
His advisors, his research, the evidence he draws on are all aligned with the needs of the elite he defends.<br />
<br />
Where does the Mayor imagine the 1 per cent make all of their money, and hold all of their wealth? What about the mis-selling scandals, the continued exploitation of workers in shakily built factories, the naked profiteering of the big six energy companies? He doesn’t want to look at the damage done by an unequal society to London’s economy and Londoner’s living standards.<br />
<br />
The 1 per cent lobby against a <a href="http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Closing_Londons_wage_gap_0.pdf" target="_blank"> mandatory living wage</a>, saying it would mean job losses, while their pay <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24983761" target="_blank"> rose 14 per cent in a year</a>. Yes, some of that extra pay will go towards their sizeable tax returns. But one result of 700,000 Londoners earning less than a living wage is a £700 million annual subsidy from taxpayers to employers. Why not cut out the taxman and share the profits more fairly in the first place?<br />
<br />
The Mayor champions a voluntary living wage, but in the same breath defends the right of employers to pay their employees poverty wages.<br />
<br />
The 1 per cent are driving up property prices in the capital, exacerbating a housing crisis that has no end in sight. London is already the most unequal city in the developed world, with the wealthiest tenth of the population amassing 273 times the wealth owned by the bottom tenth. Most wealth at the top <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGdRM3C_wjc" target="_blank"> lies in pension funds, investments and property</a>.<br />
<br />
This is bolstered by taxpayer subsidies like Help to Buy and housing benefit, policies the Mayor supports that avoid the root causes of our housing crisis and instead help ordinary people scrape by to the benefit of the 1 per cent.<br />
<br />
The Mayor is <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/boris-comes-to-the-rescue-of-the-superrich-but-not-for-those-who-need-a-home-8947546.html" target="_blank"> their champion</a>, supporting the construction of incredibly expensive tower blocks that are often build on the site of demolished council housing.<br />
<br />
What’s really infuriating is that the Mayor actually has a good news story on pay, but he doesn’t give it any attention.<br />
<br />
I’ve tracked the difference in pay between the highest and lowest paid staff in the different bodies the Mayor oversees – City Hall (the GLA), Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police Service and the London Fire Brigade. Since he became Mayor, pay has actually become slightly more equal across all bodies except TfL. This is both because top pay has slightly dropped and bottom pay has risen.<br />
<br />
I wouldn’t go so far as to say everything has been rosy in these organisations over the past five years. But I doubt the Mayor would say it has been a disaster. He just doesn’t want to look at whether he can replicate this move towards equality across London at large.<br />
<br />
Why can’t he get on and make London more equal, a place where getting a job really does pay enough to build a life on, rather than a city where more and more of us feel like we are just sweated by a global elite?<br />
<br />
First published at <a href="http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/11/boris-the-super-rich-and-pay-inequality/" target="_blank">Left Foot Forward</a>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-251235336522161522013-11-21T12:17:00.002-08:002013-11-21T12:49:34.752-08:00Extreme Weather Gives Poll Boost to the Greens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJtk6_NOwCD2XatqG6Pu3SA4WUoWmHTZGapZ__ZfUmuItVh8zci-4I9p-wxQFrhrp92q25XKNRlm6wuzo6MoETTPNPlcUvecLSZlz484mIwY16JG-0sBHQjUxa0YyqHDsalAz7sSlyoE/s1600/tornado.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJtk6_NOwCD2XatqG6Pu3SA4WUoWmHTZGapZ__ZfUmuItVh8zci-4I9p-wxQFrhrp92q25XKNRlm6wuzo6MoETTPNPlcUvecLSZlz484mIwY16JG-0sBHQjUxa0YyqHDsalAz7sSlyoE/s1600/tornado.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
As is my routine, I was flicking through the freebie London newspaper the <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/labour-lead-over-david-camerons-conservatives-climbs-to-six-points-8941963.html">Evening Standard</a> as I travelled on the underground home from work a few days back. Normally, there is not much of interest in this publication with its incessant fawning stories about the Royal Family and whatever press releases the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, has been spewing out, about what a marvellous Mayor he is. Oh and how much house prices have risen in London, is another perpetual news item. <br />
<br />
I’ve usually got through the paper in about fifteen minutes. Then a small story in the corner of one of the pages caught my eye. It was the latest opinion poll from Ipsos MORI on voting intentions. The headline was about Labour stretching its lead a little over the Tories, but further down it also mentioned that the Green party had jumped 3 points to 7% in the national poll. This is a respectable showing for the Greens (only 1 point behind the Lib Dems and UKIP, both on 8%). I’ve seen us go up and down in polls before and know that the sampling can make a big difference in our poll numbers. If more people from the south east of England are polled for instance, we will show higher than normal.<br />
<br />
But I also got to thinking if the extreme weather we have seen recently (hurricanes and cyclones in the Philippines, USA, Sardinia and England), has had some effect on people’s perceptions on climate change? Like it or not, despite our best efforts in recent years, the public still do view the Green party as a purely environmental party. I remembered a few years back, that the German Greens did particularly well in an election held just after severe flooding had hit Germany.<br />
<br />
Being a bit of a psephological junkie, I get the <a href="http://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/11/19/public-unsure-climate-change-effect/">Yougov</a> emailing alerts for their daily polling reports, and yesterday, I received what looks to confirm my suspicions. This poll shows that 38% of those surveyed think that the extreme weather we have seen around the world is caused by man made climate change. Although 39% who have a view do not believe this, these are big numbers for the Green party. If almost half of people do take the issue seriously, and as these events become more common, we should benefit electorally. Whether we will have enough time to do something about it once it starts getting really serious, is another matter of course.<br />
<br />
From what I have read the scientific evidence is not conclusive on the connection between stronger storms and warming oceans, but it does point in that direction. Atlantic hurricanes have increased both in power and frequency, coinciding with warming oceans that provide energy to these storms. In the Eastern Pacific, there have been fewer but stronger hurricanes recently. More research is needed to better understand the extent to which other factors, such as atmospheric stability and circulation, affect hurricane development.<br />
<br />
Of course, to me it is pretty much commonsense that the warmer the water sucked up into these tornados, the stronger they are likely to be. It does look like this commonsense is taking hold amongst the public at large, which during an economic recession is pretty significant, I think. Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-54850128583739082902013-11-20T10:57:00.000-08:002013-11-20T10:57:01.004-08:00The Lib Dems - Yellow by Name, Yellow by Nature <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikXzTSpIYkJPJGsLDSogNSEsK_rXbO2soru8Voo9YHQK4D-Akd1uqVvZQXWl5rRuulWQfV5vGUWYvO6WGe2doZMlQWdP3pIepVbM9JFHylElYYMdDI_G-h7WWMMkzKWt9ibA4tkRXOZ_E/s1600/lib_dem_dead_bird.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikXzTSpIYkJPJGsLDSogNSEsK_rXbO2soru8Voo9YHQK4D-Akd1uqVvZQXWl5rRuulWQfV5vGUWYvO6WGe2doZMlQWdP3pIepVbM9JFHylElYYMdDI_G-h7WWMMkzKWt9ibA4tkRXOZ_E/s320/lib_dem_dead_bird.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Confirmation that the Lib Dems are the political equivalent of something you'd rather not get on your shoes came with their <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24916026" target="_hplink">opposition to Labour's parliamentary motion against the Bedroom Tax</a> earlier this week. Apart from Tim Farron and Andrew George, Lib Dem MPs swung behind the Tories and have thus condemned the hundreds of thousands impacted by this callous, cruel, and contemptuous Tory tax throughout the country to at least two more years of misery and despair up to the next general election in 2015.<br />
<br />
The 31 Lib Dems who voted with the government were joined by a further 21 who avoided the issue by failing to vote. Making this latest betrayal even more staggering is that it came in defiance of their own party, which condemned the Bedroom Tax at their party conference in Glasgow in September.<br />
<br />
What motivates a person to go into politics fuelled not by principle but rank opportunism? What is that gets such a person out of bed in the morning? Hopefully sometime in the future psychologists will explore the mindset of your average Lib Dem MP in an attempt to understand the minds of those who embrace betrayal as a virtue rather than, as with normal people, rejecting it as a vice.<br />
<br />
Since joining with the Tories in a coalition government of the bad and mad, the Lib Dems have done politics a huge disservice, responsible for deepening people's cynicism and disdain for the political process. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YR4CseY9pk" target="_hplink">Russell Brand's recent interview with Jeremy Paxman</a>, during which he articulated this disdain as the reason why he's never voted, spoke to the huge gulf that exists between a growing constituency of people and those meant to represent them. <br />
<br />
Step forward the Liberal Democrats.<br />
<br />
At least with the Tories you know you are dealing with a party of unreconstructed class warriors. At least they make little effort to conceal their feral hatred of the poor and working people. In contradistinction, however, the Lib Dems fought the last general election on a manifesto that was broadly progressive.<br />
<br />
Recall for a moment the excitement surrounding Nick Clegg as the coming man of British politics, a breath of fresh air who in the televised debates against David Cameron and Gordon Brown emerged as a young leader with fresh ideas, 'integrity', 'honesty', and a strong sense of social justice. Indeed Clegg succeeded in inspiring thousands of people, especially young people, to campaign and vote for him. Remember his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc8i8ujDHHI" target="_hplink">pledge on tuition fees</a>? <br />
<br />
Not long after the last election a <a href="http://www.nextleft.org/2010/07/did-nick-clegg-betray-27-million-voters.html" target="_hplink">Newsnight poll of Lib Dem voters</a> recorded that 40% felt betrayed by Clegg. This translates to some 2.7 million voters. You would think it would have made uncomfortable reading for any party, yet three years on it is clear that the collective mindset of the Lib Dems is one of 'nobody likes us and we don't care'.<br />
<br />
But this is not a game. The Bedroom Tax exemplifies the worst excesses of a government intent of using an economic recession caused by the greed of the rich as a pretext for effecting the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich by slashing public spending regardless of the human or social cost. The lives of the poor and economically vulnerable matter not a whit in this process. On the contrary they have been demonised, dehumanised, and slandered under the rubric of austerity, which translates to a mass experiment in human despair.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/bedroom-tax-housing-associations-arrears-tenants" target="_hplink">According to the National Housing Federation</a> just over half of all social housing tenants had been pushed into rent arrears just weeks after the Bedroom Tax was rolled out in April. In September an investigation by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/11/bedroom-tax-should-be-axed-says-un-investigator" target="_hplink">UN special rapporteur on housing, Raquel Rolnick</a>, ended with her calling for the tax to axed on the basis that it "could be a violation of the human right to housing".<br />
<br />
For her efforts she was dismissed and derided by the Tories as a crank.<br />
<br />
The lack of affordable social housing in Britain has long been a badge of shame, reflective of the apathy of the entire political class when it comes to the needs of the poor. Here, as with too many issues, we see evidence of hardly a sliver of difference when it comes to the Tories, Lib Dems, and Labour. With thousands of families forced to rely on bed and breakfast accommodation, wherein they are crammed into one room, and with a private housing sector enjoying the fruits of exorbitant rents due to demand outstripping supply, the idea that those who happen to have an extra bedroom within the social housing sector should have their housing benefit cut or move into smaller accommodation is barbaric. <br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jan/08/uk-benefit-welfare-spending" target="_hplink">size of the housing benefit bill</a> is not the fault of tenants, it is the fault of greedy landlords charging extortionate rents. Rent control within the private rental sector in conjunction with a national housebuilding programme designed to meet the demand for social housing needs to be implemented as a matter of urgency. It is the only rational solution to the crisis. Sadly, the words rational and Tory do not belong in the same sentence. Putting it even more succinctly, men and women whose collective moral compass is stuck in the mid 19th century are about as rational as a box of frogs.<br />
<br />
The Lib Dems were given the opportunity to go some way to salvaging some political credibility this week by voting for a Labour motion against one of the most vile policies ever visited on the poor and economically disadvantaged in many a year. They chose not to and hopefully now political oblivion awaits.<br />
<br />
As the man said: "Treason doth never prosper".<br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<!-- amazon items --> <!-- amazon items --> <!-- /amazon items --> <div class="clear full">
</div>
<!-- /amazon items --> <br /><b>Written by John Wight follow him on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/johnwight1"> www.twitter.com/johnwight1 </a></b><br />
<br />
First published at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/john-wight/the-lib-dems-yellow-by-na_b_4265610.html" target="_blank">The Huffington Post</a>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-1993624578951664802013-11-16T10:32:00.000-08:002013-11-16T17:09:17.621-08:00I warned Boris that his policies would lead to more cycling deaths<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eqIhb6yt1qYmbFwcFltBi2WhOPr5cCiigjz2DENdfODk2_br7eaMEJQQfIDsc5le0l_1L4MmODYi5oe9h53w-hdQFpuBNzmUDdWLT5u_1BRkHF-yfD7Cd2PwrCzyRrW_-bs4CeJvmY0/s1600/Cyclists.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eqIhb6yt1qYmbFwcFltBi2WhOPr5cCiigjz2DENdfODk2_br7eaMEJQQfIDsc5le0l_1L4MmODYi5oe9h53w-hdQFpuBNzmUDdWLT5u_1BRkHF-yfD7Cd2PwrCzyRrW_-bs4CeJvmY0/s1600/Cyclists.png" /></a></div>
<div class="lff_share_buttons" style="left: -70px; position: absolute; top: 30px;">
</div>
<em><strong><a href="http://www.london.gov.uk/profile/jenny-jones">Jenny Jones AM</a> is leader of the Green Party on the London Assembly and Green Party Mayoral candidate for 2012</strong></em><br />
<em><strong><br /></strong></em>
Four out of five cycling deaths in the last nine days are linked to either the Mayor's red buses or to his blue paint.<br />
<br />
After almost six years of inaction on cycle safety, the rise in the number of killed and seriously injured have to be placed at the Mayor’s door. That is why this morning he started blaming the victims, rather than talking about real solutions.<br />
<br />
It is the lowest form of politics to direct attention to the mistakes that people may or may not have made as they cycled to work, or rode home to their families, in order to draw attention away from yourself.<br />
<br />
The whole point of being Mayor is that you take responsibility for creating safer roads, where individual mistakes by a cyclist, driver, motorcyclist or pedestrian do not get punished with death.<span id="more-76114"></span><br />
<br />
Boris Johnson has previous form on blaming the victims, and repeatedly refused to apologise for the wildly incorrect statistic he used to claim that the majority of deaths and injuries where down to cyclist infractions of the rules. Transport for London refused to back up his claim and the Mayor reluctantly agreed it wasn’t true, but it was a resentful, grudging conversation.<br />
<br />
The Mayor even returned to his favourite theme that London’s roads were getting safer for cyclists and he wanted me to apologise for saying they were not. The reality is that they are safer than they were twelve years ago, but they have become more dangerous since he was elected.<br />
<br />
My office have been trying to get TfL to make the post 2008 calculation on the ratio of cyclist death and serious injuries since July. We wanted them to do it so that we could avoid another spat between me and Boris over who had better statistics.<br />
<br />
Instead TfL have told us that ‘they do not regularly publish’ such figures and directed us instead to the raw data. The calculation seems easy enough so here it is:<br />
<blockquote>
<strong>In 2008, on average a cyclists could make 401,910 trips before being killed or seriously injured.</strong><br />
<strong>In 2011, the average cyclist could make 364,361 trips before being killed or seriously injured.</strong><br />
<strong>The 2012 figures will show that this trend has accelerated; I have no idea what 2013 will finally bring, but I suspect it won’t be good news.</strong></blockquote>
I have repeatedly warned Boris Johnson that his policies would lead to more death and injury. Whether it was slashing over £35m off the road safety budget, abandoning the road hierarchy which had previously made cyclist and pedestrian safety the top priority, or stopping safety improvements at junctions because they might create a traffic jam.<br />
<br />
The Mayor made mistakes and stayed firmly in denial about the consequences. He still is. For all the talk of a £900m cycle safety budget, he still believes in those comments about keeping ‘your wits about you’ and ‘there is no amount of traffic engineering that we invest in that is going to save people’s lives’.<br />
<br />
The solutions are obvious and uncomplicated. Make 20mph the default speed limit across London. Give space for cycling by taking it away from cars and lorries. Ban HGVs during commuter hours. Get rid of the major gyratories and start from scratch with the redesign of places like Bow Roundabout and Old Street. Fast track all the safety measures on the top 100 most dangerous junctions.<br />
<br />
While the Mayor is doing all of that, he could start to enforce the rules on our lawless roads, so we no longer have 62 hit and runs a week in London, or a situation where the majority of drivers with over 12 points on their licence are legally allowed to drive.<br />
<br />
First published at <a href="http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/11/warned-boris-cycling-casualties-in-london-increase/#more-76114" target="_blank">Left Foot Forward</a>Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247615769084489401.post-62591260000845156452013-11-13T11:07:00.000-08:002013-11-13T11:07:54.398-08:00Just how much media coverage does UKIP get? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuP0KSLpgzQgTYLYWwFyh4duOI3gjxnB6C08B9nS8j18mHocvKYfB5EUPQFfrhPXgpxcM4ShqeEYbn6R5Ae5slcOmBTtuvz5eqBt2dQQWNJeoQbI8PzThhZcXiCXPci9effEXWuLZFyH4/s1600/UKIPlogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuP0KSLpgzQgTYLYWwFyh4duOI3gjxnB6C08B9nS8j18mHocvKYfB5EUPQFfrhPXgpxcM4ShqeEYbn6R5Ae5slcOmBTtuvz5eqBt2dQQWNJeoQbI8PzThhZcXiCXPci9effEXWuLZFyH4/s1600/UKIPlogo.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>With 25 appearances by Nigel Farage on Question Time and more than 23,000 press mentions, UKIP is attracting historically unprecedented levels of coverage for a minor party. </b><br />
<br />
<div>
"Oh no, not Nigel again!" groaned some Question Time viewers last week as they sat down for the fourth time this year to hear the views of the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Nigel Farage has appeared on the show no less than 25 times, 15 of which have come since 2009, while in the past four years, a further six slots have gone to other Ukippers like Paul Nuttall, Diane James and Patrick O'Flynn. This means that since 2009, UKIP spokespersons have sat on the panel on 21 occasions, almost double the number for the Greens (11) and more than double the number for Respect (10). <br />
<br />
Unsurprisingly, these figures have led some to <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/06/why-nigel-farage-question-time-so-often">argue</a> that Farage receives a level of publicity that is not only disproportionate to his party’s actual strength, but also exceeds that given to other insurgents who have achieved what UKIP has not: a seat in Westminster. Some go further, suggesting that parts of the media have a vested interest in supplying UKIP with the 'oxygen of publicity' so as to pile pressure on David Cameron and trigger a rightward turn on issues like the EU, immigration and gay marriage. But of course this may all be far more straightforward: Farage is a <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/03/populist-signal-getting-louder-and-mainstream-politics-under-threat">skilled, media-trained populist</a> who contrasts sharply to an otherwise bland and robot-like political elite. It's only natural that journalists flock to an outsider who gives them good copy.<br />
<br />
But this does raise an intriguing question: exactly how prominent are Farage and UKIP in British media? As part of our forthcoming book in 2014, <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415661508/">Revolt on the Right,</a> we used a well-established database (Nexis) to track the number of times UKIP and Farage are mentioned in UK-based newspapers. This is only a small part of the book, which analyses over 100,000 voters and includes interviews with key insiders to explain UKIP’s support and what it tells us about British politics. But it is a useful, 'quick and dirty' way of measuring a party’s profile across all newspapers. It does not account for the nature of this coverage (i.e. positive or negative), and does not include radio, television or social media. But given that print media continues to set much of the agenda in British politics, it remains a valuable yardstick. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Figure 1</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<img alt="" src="http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/images/NSFigure1%20(2).jpg" style="height: 312px; width: 510px;" /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
First, in Figure 1, we track the number of citations for UKIP and Farage from 2003, when UKIP was a largely unknown fringe party with only three MEPs, to November 2013, when it had become a serious force, tipped to win the 2014 European elections. This reveals how media interest in UKIP has surged, particularly since 2012. In 2003, the party was not even mentioned 600 times; ten years later it was flagged more than 23,000 times (and only until November). Similarly, in 2003, Farage was barely visible with only 36 mentions, but 10 years later this had rocketed to over 8,000.<br />
<br />
Clearly much of this marks a response to <a href="http://nottspolitics.org/2013/06/03/polling-observatory-25-ukip-surge-but-who-do-they-hurt/" target="_blank">UKIP’s growth in the polls</a>. But whereas UKIP enjoyed record gains in 2004 and 2009, the media attention it won after these breakthroughs is dwarfed by the wave of coverage it has received in the past two years. In 2012, UKIP mentions reached a record high of over 10,000, but so far in 2013 this figure has already more than doubled again, and with two months of the year still left to run. Interest in Farage has risen even more steeply – his mentions more than doubled between 2011 and 2012, and have already quadrupled in 2013. It is likely this trend will continue into 2014, as Britain braces for European elections, and then into 2015 as journalists debate the possibility of a UKIP seat in Westminster and the possibility of a EU referendum.<br />
<br />
Figure 2<br />
<br />
<strong><img alt="" src="http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/images/NSFigure2%20(2).jpg" style="height: 312px; width: 510px;" /></strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
Second, how does this picture compare to other insurgents? Figure 2 compares UKIP’s coverage to the Greens, Respect and British National Party. From 2005 until 2009, the picture was far less rosy for Nigel and his party: they attracted less attention than the Greens and were fighting in the 'media war' to move away from the BNP. But since 2011, the party has really come into its own, rapidly moving away from other minor competitors to achieve historically unprecedented levels of coverage.<br />
<br />
Figure 3<br />
<br />
<strong><img alt="" src="http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/images/NSFigure3.jpg" style="height: 312px; width: 510px;" /></strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
It is a similar picture in Figure 3, which compares Farage‘s profile to that of Caroline Lucas, George Galloway and Nick Griffin. Until 2012, Farage was often eclipsed by Griffin and Galloway (though never Lucas). We can see how Galloway gains profile during the 2005 campaign and then after his by-election victory in Bradford in 2012, while Griffin peaks during his European breakthrough in 2009. Interestingly, Lucas does not attract an equivalent spike in coverage following her breakthrough into Westminster. In fact, in comparison she is nowhere to be seen. Yet since 2012, Farage has rocketed onto a new level, leaving behind other smaller party leaders who <em>have</em> managed to win representation in Westminster. Journalists clearly are not shaped by electoral reality.<br />
<br />
We can also put this into a broader context. While his party is now regularly polling ahead of the Liberal Democrats, Farage, at least in terms of media profile, remains some way behind Nick Clegg, unsurprising given that the latter is in government and the Deputy Prime Minister. So far in 2013, Farage has been mentioned almost 9,000 times compared to almost 20,000 citations for Clegg. But he is closing the gap.<br />
<br />
Figure 4<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/images/NSFigure4%20(2).jpg" style="height: 312px; width: 510px;" /><br />
<br />
This brings us to our final point concerning the nature of UKIP’s coverage. As Figure 4 shows, UKIP is not only attracting historically unprecedented levels of interest, it is also now beginning to broaden out its 'media attack'. In previous years, the party was most often mentioned alongside the EU, which is unsurprising given its goals. But since 2011, the number of articles that mention UKIP alongside immigration has risen sharply, representing around 40% of its total coverage in 2013.<br />
<br />
This is not coincidental but reflects UKIP’s change of strategy since 2011, which we detail in the book. It is the first piece of evidence that UKIP are entrenching themselves at the centre of Britain’s ongoing debate over immigration and its effects, which given the approaching debate over migration from Bulgaria and Romania, and the fact that public concerns over immigration remain high, also looks set to continue. UKIP’s plan to expand its eurosceptic origins by targeting immigration is yielding dividends, as is Farage’s more aggressive media strategy. In interviews with us, those close to Farage often voiced anxiety about the impact of a relentless schedule on their leader’s health. Some complained how he often gives his personal number to journalists, and refuses to 'switch off'. The strategy may well be wearing Farage down, but it is also producing results. Whether his party can sustain this interest, and ensure it is strictly for positive reasons, remains to be seen.<br />
<em><br /></em>
<em>Matthew Goodwin is Associate Professor at the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, and Associate Fellow at Chatham House. <a href="https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ" target="_blank">@GoodwinMJ</a></em><br />
<em><br /></em>
<em>Robert Ford is a politics lecturer at the University of Manchester. <a href="https://twitter.com/robfordmancs" target="_blank">@robfordmancs</a></em><br />
<br />
First published at <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/11/just-how-much-media-coverage-does-ukip-get" target="_blank">The New Statesman</a></div>
Mike Shaughnessyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16796480031110991460noreply@blogger.com0