Lions, led by donkeys
Most people are familiar with the World War One propaganda posters. There was one which pictured a father with his children on his knee. The caption underneath asked, ‘Daddy, what did YOU do during the Great War?’ and father looked rather sheepish.
As we know, the posters were, sadly, a resounding success.
Today, we face a crisis of a different sort. Certainly not comparable to the horrors of war – not yet, at least – but the most dire economic circumstances of our lifetime. Depending on whom you believe, it’s either the worst it’s been since the Great Depression or the days of austerity following the Second World War. Whichever on it is, it’s pretty bloody grim.
I can’t help thinking of those propaganda posters and imagining a similar scenario: ‘Daddy, what did you do during the credit crunch?’
And how does one answer? ‘Well son, I was a member of the progressive, liberal Left.’
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Top Stories and Blog Review – Wednesday 22nd April
Nationwide
MPs to get extra £150 a day instead of expenses
Released terrorist suspects face deportation
March sees 40% jump in house sales
Student studies affected by rising fees
International
Obama u-turn on torture culprits
Sri Lanka on brink of refugee crisis
China unveil nuclear submarines
Japanese woman sentenced to hang
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Lee Griffin
John Q Publican has a brilliant analysis on the mentality and actions of the police at protests.
Faisal Islam/Snowblog looks towards todays budget.
Chicken Yoghurt quite rightly makes it clear we are not anti-police, merely against their brutal and disproportionate actions.
Political betting.com wonders whether or not Gordon Brown will rue the decisions he’s made on expenses.
Himmelgarten Cafe on the creep of prejudice against fatties. Would it be acceptable if the same arguments were used against disabled people?
My blog has a quick comment on the release of the “terrorists” in Manchester, but more worryingly why are they being deported?
Plane stupid notes about further abuses of section 44 powers to restrict harmless photography.
And finally Science, so what? talks about the pressing issue of our beloved bees; alternatively browse through previous Netcasts
It’s time for socialists to rejoin the Labour party
Labour’s defeat in the 2010 election is a near-certainty – and it’s also clear that the defeat will come for two main reasons:
1) the economy is shafted
2) everyone hates the leadership
All the other factors being claimed as reasons for the impending defeat are a subset of the points here (indeed, arguably 1 is a subset of 2 – it’s a lot easier to excuse the government’s other failures if you aren’t being thrown out of work and having your house repossessed at the time).
And together, they lay the foundations for the defeat of the New Labour project and the resurgence of the Labour left.
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VAT should be cut even further
In 1990, tens of thousands of angry Britons protested against the Poll Tax. Their objection was simple: it is wrong to levy a flat tax on all individuals regardless of income. That a worker barely scraping together £10,000 a year should pay the same contribution as a millionaire was so manifestly wrong that men and women took to the streets – and in some cases, rioted – to voice their discontent.
Yet the Thatcher government which proposed the Poll Tax also oversaw drastic increases in another tax, one which is arguably as regressive as the Poll Tax: the Value Added Tax (VAT). The Tories knew when they increased VAT rates that it affects the poor more than the rich, deliberately employing it as an alternative to progressive taxation.
Labour’s record on VAT thus looks – compared to its record on many other things – comparatively good. The decision to reinstate a reduced rate of 5% in 2001 was arguably an act of progressive taxation. The decision to cut the standard rate last December was also a progressive move – whatever Labour’s motives for the cut.
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Police, Camera, Action
David at Minority Report offers some words of warning, regarding the slow trickle of citizen generated footage of alleged brutality at the G20 protests earlier this month:
Reconstructing events by using any number of restricted viewpoints is no replacement for vital missing facts. If I present you with a black box that contains a photo I made of a scene, I’ll happily let you make as many pin holes as you like – you will still struggle to make out whats going on. Especially if I choose the image.
Different circumstances, but I felt this way after Saddam Hussein was executed. There is a real danger in allowing snippets of grainy amateur footage to act as the definitive account of an event. The result in this case has been yet another trial by media, only this time the police seem to be on the receiving end. In reality, we have no way of knowing precisely what killed Ian Tomlinson, and the account of the Nicky Fisher assault makes me uneasy (although admittedly this feeling is entirely based on her sightly spaced-out media interviews). continue reading… »
Anti-semitism, the left and human rights
I have been meaning to respond to a couple of an article that David Toube wrote about the left and anti-Semitism in the Guardian for the last couple of months, but pressure of work prevented me. Since then he has written another piece on a similar theme at Harry’s Place and we have been treated to the bizarre spectacle of a holocaust-denier addressing a UN conference of racism – albeit with a lot of heckling and walkouts.
In his original article David made the point: ‘Although opposition to racism is now an article of faith for all mainstream political parties, the left has been the driving force in those organisations that set the antiracist agenda. There is a part of the left that is very comfortable condemning historical racism against Jews, at the hands of Nazis, back in the 1940s. It is, however, ambivalent when it comes to contemporary antisemitism: particularly when it can be “contextualised” within the Israel/Palestine conflict.’ I do not have much to say to that – other than that I agree with it and, while I would never associate with that ‘part of the left’, to which he is referring, I think that it does describe a worrying body of opinion.
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The left’s response to the financial crisis is indeed weak
Three weeks ago Soundings journal published its ebook The Crash – A View From The Left. We’ve had over 40,000 downloads from our small website, so there’s clearly interest in debating how the left can develop a post-crisis politics. Rowenna Davis recently said on Comment is Free and on Liberal Conspiracy that the ebook’s aim as “putting forward a coherent left-of-labour position” ends up being “vague and confused”.
She says our attitude toward markets is muddled because we call for more regulation but also blame “pro-market forces” and call for change within the “market system”. Are we for markets or against them? The resulting ambiguity she argues,leads to a lack of any coherent economic policy agenda.
Here’s my response.
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Alice Mahon MP: Too little too late
A guest contribution by Denis Watkins
Criticising Alice Mahon, the 71 year old MP who recently left the Labour Party, where she’s been for 50 years as a left-wing stalwart, feels like shooting a baby seal.
Principles betrayed, how could they do this to the Party I loved, expected Gordon to produce change, and so on. Faced with the sentimental banality of it all, a sob might clutch the throat of the toughest Tory.
continue reading… »
Top Stories and Blog Review Tuesday April 21st
Nationwide
Happy Birthday, Your Maj!
Speed Limits to be cut on A Roads.
Stephen Hawking very ill in Cambridge
Inside Broadmoor
International
Oxfam warns of climate diaster.
Cheney demands Obama reveal torture “success”.
Senegal gay convictions quashed.
Pirates laundering ransom money in Dubai
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
John Beacroft-Mitchell explains the new Lib Dem tax policy – or you can go to our fluffy friend for a longer explanation.
Amused Cynicism highlights research which proves that faith schools are not, in fact, better.
The World is My Country is one of many having a little giggle about TwitterFAIL.
Stephen Glenn on how the SNP are trying (somewhat ham-fistedly) to get in on this whole “smeargate” thing.
Slipscale at UK Bikers on the government’s proposed changes to the speed limits.
Alix at Lib Dem Voice highlights worrying news about the government sharing secret police surveillance information with E.ON in the run up to the Kingsnorth protests.
Redemption Blues has this week’s Britblog Roundup.
And finally John Rentoul‘s bizarre Blair fetish churns out yet more comedy gold, or if that’s too vomit-inducing for you, you can browse through previous Netcasts
Smearing is such a nasty thing to do
video by Tim Ireland
More at Bloggerheads. (and earlier at Paul Linford and Tory Troll)
Meanwhile, Staines also gets Osborne’s wife very angry.
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
» Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote
» Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest?
» To win London, Ken Livingstone has to step outside his comfort zone
» This trade agreement with India will destroy thousands of lives
» UK debt hasn’t hit £1 trillion – mostly because of QE
» The benefits of being a “burden” on society
» Today’s economic figures will simply confirm UK’s “lost decade”
» Have Labour realised the election is more than three years away?
» Violence in the office
» Want a more responsible capitalism? Reform how pensions work
» The world is entering the third phase of the crisis, warns ILO
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