Purnell’s silly plan for alcoholics
I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear a new government proposal for reform of the welfare state, I have to pause for a moment and ask: is this a policy or a headline? For example, when Hazel Blears announced that ‘hit squads’ armed with rubber gloves would be banging on parents’ doors to make sure their kids are ready for school, just about every observer – and probably Blears herself – knew it wasn’t going to happen, but made for a nice headline.
So when James Purnell promises/threatens to make unemployed alcoholics seek treatment or lose their benefits, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask whether this story falls into the same category.
continue reading… »
From Hillsborough to Bishopsgate – how policing has changed
In 1992, when I was at a boarding school in Africa, one of my teachers was a remarkable, quiet, and thoughtful man in his late 30s: let’s call him Mr. Albert. He’d been a career policeman in the north of England until he’d recently been driven to leave the Force, and (indeed) England entirely. That summer, a young Scouser came to join the staff at the school for some months. He was a burly, loud-laughing lad and a hell of a footballer: let’s call him Robert. They were the only two young single men teaching at the school so they were allocated a flat together within the staff housing system.
I came upon Robert sitting under a tree crying. I was young enough that it hit me very hard; adults don’t usually do that without a good reason, but he wouldn’t talk to me. I went to find his room-mate to ask what was wrong and he was crying too. They had just had a conversation in which they realised that Robert had lost a toe and two friends at Hillsborough and Albert had been part of the thin blue line.
continue reading… »
Top Stories & Blog Review – Thursday 16th April
Nationwide
£5,000 sweetener to launch electric car revolution
Housing overcrowding ‘will soar’
MP attacks ‘SAS-style’ tactics used by police
What could be in the 2009 Budget
International
World’s biggest democratic poll begins
Women protesting at ‘pro-rape’ law attacked by men
Deals help China expands in Latin America
Iran says it plans new Nuclear offer
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Andrew Hickey
Chris at Stumbling And Mumbling talks about a new paper on confirmation bias which shows that sometimes it can be rational to behave stupidly, and shows how this behaviour contributed to the current economic problems.
Chris Applegate at qwghlm talks about the similarities between the Hillsborough disaster and the Ian Tomlinson case, and what both say about policing.
Sarah Ismail has a post on recent comments by the NASUWT about special needs schooling.
Alix at Liberal Democrat Voice talks about how while people are making a load of fuss about trivial nonsense involving bloggers, 114 people were arrested for the ‘crime’ of planning a protest. Alix’s other post yesterday, on Clegg and Huhne is also worth a read.
Charlotte Gore is furious at the people who want the government to keep house prices up, thus reinflating the bubble that just burst.
Septicisle finds the claims about planned terror attacks that prompted the raids last week deeply unconvincing.
The Daily Quail looks at press reaction to police brutality.
And finally PostModern Barney has a list of uncomfortable plot summaries – my favourites: “GREEN LANTERN: Policeman beats up his girlfriend” and “BATMAN: Wealthy man assaults the mentally ill”.Or browse through previous Netcasts
Tea parties and high taxes
It’s difficult to be anything but derisive when discussing people like Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity – presenters on USA’s Fox News. Recently these guys have been on television to claim that not only are people right to talk about their taxes being too high, but that by organising ‘tea parties’ in major cities to protest such taxes, they are generating the sort of economic activity that will save America. A large chunk of the tea parties took place yesterday and are specifically aimed at the spending plans of the Obama administration.
Or are they? Fox News and right-wing talk radio hosts have been agitating for something like this for months now. It shouldn’t surprise us that people are willing to get out and protest about high taxes. In fact, it should encourage the Left – because we don’t have a problem with low taxes…for the working class.
But as far as I can see, this is not an argument being made in the US. Liberal commentators like Keith Olbermann have been very swift to denounce the protests as hypocritical, or astroturf groups or whatever.
continue reading… »
Top Stories – 16th April 2009
Nationwide
£5,000 sweetener to launch electric car revolution
Housing overcrowding ‘will soar’
MP attacks ‘SAS-style’ tactics used by police
What could be in the 2009 Budget
International
World’s biggest democratic poll begins
Women protesting at ‘pro-rape’ law attacked by men
Deals help China expands in Latin America
Iran says it plans new Nuclear offer
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / coming later
Rightwing response to police brutality
In a rare example of agreement on an issue – I fully agree with what Graeme Archer has said on CentreRight about the latest incident, and earlier ones. He writes a list of recommendations I’d endorse and I believe should be pushed by all fair-minded people on the matter.
Update: Graeme responds below (caught by spam filter earlier)
Police ‘action and tactics’ investigated
The IPCC have sent us this press release today.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is to independently investigate the incident connected to the G20 demonstrations involving a sergeant of the Metropolitan Police Service Territorial Support Group apparently striking a woman.
continue reading… »
Nick Cohen: Waiting for the Etonians – a review
About 25,000 died in Dresden. About 300,000 were incinerated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The body count from the war-exacerbated Afghan famine will exceed the Dresden total and may be as high as Hiroshima and Nagasaki . . . When those who care about the skeletons which will be found in Afghanistan wonder how it was that America and Britain could begin bombing at the moment when the aid agencies needed to pile food in, the answer will be that the Pentagon expected an easy war.
Nick Cohen The Observer, Sunday 28 October 2001
The Taliban is being beaten on the battlefield, but while losing militarily it may be winning politically with the help of the strangest ally in the history of warfare: health and safety regulations. Anecdotes abound of how fear of breaching the Foreign Office and Department of International Development’s ‘duty of care’ is making reconstruction next to impossible. . . . ‘People like the Pashto find our behaviour craven and despise us for it ‘
Nick Cohen, The Observer, Sunday November 11, 2007
The problem with publishing a book of cut-and-paste newspaper articles is that the ones you choose to leave out are likely to be judged as significant as those you include. Cohen’s critics often accuse him of inconsistency, yet some striking similar themes run through his writing.
continue reading… »
Tories have terrible housing ideas
I’ve just read the Conservative Party’s Green Paper on Housing. Housing policy is a vitally important issue, affecting the lives of millions of people. It is arguably nearly as important an issue as one politician sending an e-mail to another politician with gossip about some other politicians. The Paper is also quite stunningly awful.
The green paper says that we need to build more houses. It then lists a range of policies designed to reduce the number of houses which will be built. Councils will no longer be required to build a certain number of houses (because this is central targets and is bad), it will be easier for councils to prevent developments (e.g. by designating land as green belt or stopping eco-towns), and opponents of housing developments will have more opportunities to try to stop housing developments in their backyard.
continue reading… »
Top Stories & Blog Review – Wednesday 15th April
Nationwide
Real IRA threaten new campaign on Britain
Appalling treatment of detainees laid bare
DNA pioneer: drop innocent from database
How Nordic countries celebrate young lives
International
Taleban leader risks his life to seek peace
North Korea ejects U.N. monitors
Somali pirates hijack 4 more ships
Germany bans genetically modified corn
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Lee Griffin
Jo Christie-Smith brands Labour as bullies with their recent “no benefits for Alcoholics” re-announcement.
The Freedom Bill website alerts us to a poll that shows a majority of people now against the database state.
Charlotte Gore thinks that the Lib Dem’s should definitely not be cosying up to anyone come election time, be your own boss!
Himmelgarten Cafe echos my sentiments on arbitrary detention and release of people, and how media portrayal only gives the authorities more power
Bad Conscience wonders why Labour must persist in banging their head against a red topped wall.
Innerbrat thinks we can all live in harmony with our views, as long as we accept people see prejudice where others do not.
Next Left discusses the legitimacy of direct action as a protest tool.
And on a more pop culture theme, Robert Sharp will probably be putting money on Susan Boyle. If you like this entry you can browse through previous Netcasts
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
|
32 Comments 34 Comments 62 Comments 18 Comments 15 Comments 25 Comments 38 Comments 7 Comments 64 Comments 11 Comments |
|
LATEST COMMENTS » So Much For Subtlety posted on Does Priti Patel MP care for human rights? » So Much For Subtlety posted on Does Priti Patel MP care for human rights? » Staffordshire UNISON posted on Even by economic standards Hester's £1m bonus is unworthy » Silvio posted on New Compass paper opens up Red/Green ties » Leon Wolfeson posted on To win London, Ken Livingstone has to step outside his comfort zone » So Much For Subtlety posted on Diane Abbott resigns from abortion panel » Leon Wolfeson posted on Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest? » Leon Wolfeson posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Chaise Guevara posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Brett RB posted on PCC admits: Richard Littlejohn is a bullshitter » Chaise Guevara posted on Diane Abbott resigns from abortion panel » Chaise Guevara posted on Diane Abbott resigns from abortion panel » Cylux posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Alice posted on Diane Abbott resigns from abortion panel » Alice posted on Diane Abbott resigns from abortion panel |
