Why the right doesn’t understand racism by Sunny H

Time magazine Catherine Mayer wrote a front-page piece this week about the rise of the far-right across Europe. Tim Montgomerie over at ConservativeHome takes issue with the section of the article that asks whether political parties should, “Steal their nationalist thunder by taking tough lines on issues such as immigration? This smacks of capitulation to the very ideas critics seek to defeat.”

He says:

I do think part of any anti-BNP strategy means addressing popular concerns about immigration, access to housing and championing people’s patriotic instincts… while ALWAYS attacking their racism.

There are two ways in which the right, and Tim Montgomerie, misunderstands racism. Firstly, a lot of BNP propaganda and attempts to whip up local concerns on issues such as housing and transport is based on lies.

The right-wing strategy seems to be to use the media to whip up paranoia about immigration (”Gypsies are taking all your GP appointments!!”, “The Poles are taking over”) and other issues, and then follow through with those policies in the name of addressing popular concern.
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Time: Europe turns far-right by Newswire

This week’s Time Magazine has an extensive front-page feature by Catherine Mayer on the turn to the far-right in Europe.

The article looks at how the neo-fascists should be dealt with:

For those who believe that this would be a catastrophe, the urgent question is how best to contain the surge. Deny far-right leaders the oxygen of publicity? Tricky — they have a democratic mandate. Confront them? That risks casting them as martyrs, victims who tell unpalatable truths. Expose the racism that often underlies professions of patriotism? Well, yes, but that assumes voters choose far-right parties in ignorance of their views, rather than because they strike a chord. Steal their nationalist thunder by taking tough lines on issues such as immigration? This smacks of capitulation to the very ideas critics seek to defeat.

The article looks at four parties — the BNP, France’s Front National (FN), Hungary’s Jobbik and Geert Wilders’ Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom, PVV).

Geeert Wilders recently unveiled a fascistic ten point plan to save the west. In the UK Douglas Murray of the Centre for Social Cohesion has always been a big supporter.

The Time magazine article goes on to ask:

Just how powerful might the far right become? Such parties are now in a position to influence European legislation, though most advocate withdrawal from the European Union. Addressing a Jobbik rally last year, the BNP’s Griffin invoked the memory of Hungary’s 1956 revolution, suppressed by Stalinist troops. “Where is the power hunger and the corruption of the Soviet kleptocracy now? … It is in Brussels,” he said. “The European Union is a threat to all the free peoples of Europe.”

Read it in full here.

Govt failing on sex discrimination by Newswire

According to women’s and human rights groups, the UK Government is failing its international obligations to women.

There are still women in this country who are unable to access a place of safety when escaping a violent relationship. These women have no choice but to return to violent partners or become destitute.

This dire situation is one example of how the government has missed compulsory targets set by the international bill of rights for women, known as CEDAW (UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women).

Last July, the UK Government was assessed by the CEDAW Committee on their track record on gender equality, and was found wanting. As a result, the government is required to report to the Committee this month; twelve months on rather than the standard four year reporting cycle.

Hannana Siddiqui, joint coordinator of campaigning group and women’s refuge Southall Black Sisters, says: “There are women who are in this country legally, yet who are not able to access a safe place when escaping gender-based violence because of the conditions that apply to their immigration status that do not allow access to public funds. They continue to face a stark choice: destitution or more violence?”

Sheila Coates, director of South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre, attended the UK Government’s examination by the CEDAW committee in July 2008.

She says: “This is the last day of July 2009, and we are yet to see evidence of a ‘one year on’ report. Every day of government inactivity means a worsening crisis in many women’s lives”.

In the one year on report, the government is required to include information on how it has ‘incorporated all provisions of the Convention’ into the Single Equality Bill, announced by Harriet Harman in June 2008. However, to date no measures have been taken by the government to incorporate the Convention into domestic law.

The CEDAW committee has also expressed concern over funding to the women’s voluntary sector in the UK and have requested that the government report on this.

Signatories:
1. Amnesty International UK
2. Ballybean Women’s Centre
3. Breast Cancer UK
4. British Institute of Human Rights
5. Engender
6. Equality Now
7. Fawcett Society
8. FORWARD
9. National Alliance of Women’s Organisations
10. Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform
11. Older Women’s Network of Europe
12. Oxfam
13. Rights of Women
14. South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre
15. Southall Black Sisters
16. Sparkhill Asian Women’s Association
17. UNIFEM
18. Welsh Women’s Aid
19. Welsh Women’s National Commission
20. WOMANKIND Worldwide
21. Women Acting in Today’s Society
22. Women Asylum Seekers Together
23. Women in Prison
24. Women’s Networking Hub
25. Women’s Resource Centre

Right-wing lies on tax by Newswire

Tax in this country is regressive.

The best off have the best tax deal.

They also willingly use the system.

Inequality has risen in the UK. The tax system has encouraged that as it has shifted to indirect taxes.

UK indirect taxes are horribly regressive.

There are the conclusions Richard Murphy derives from a detailed analysis of tax injustice in the UK.

No sense in extraditing Gary McKinnon by Paul Sagar

Today Gary McKinnon failed in his attempt to avoid extradition to the US where he could face a sentence of up to 60 years.

Last week Labour MP Andrew MacKinlay resigned after his party voted for McKinnon to be extradited. One of just 10 Labour MPs to vote against the Government, MacKinlay said: “I was really frustrated by the vote last week. Many of my colleagues had expressed their sympathy for Gary McKinnon. But when the crunch came, they just went tribal and followed the diktats of the party.”

A Glasgow-born systems administration, in 2001 and 2002 McKinnon hacked into 97 US military and NASA computers, which the American authorities claim resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage, and left 300 computers unusable.

But McKinnon hacked the US computers because he was looking for evidence of UFOs. As well as being a self-confessed “nerd”, McKinnon has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. Simon Baron-Cohen, professor of developmental psychology at Cambridge University has described McKinnon’s condition as making him incapable of understanding normal social behaviour, helping to explain why he committed his crime.

That the Government voted to extradite McKinnon is not only depressing in itself: it illustrates fundamental problems with the present administration. After all, why on earth are our esteemed leaders in favour of extradition?
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We’re missing Green opportunities by Neil Robertson

It’s clear that Vestas, the company faced with a long-running sit in, acted with contempt towards its workers: the practically non-existent dialogue, the transparent attempt to starve them out, the delivery of termination letters with the workers’ one hot meal, the shoddy paperwork filed to have them evicted, and the laughable charge from their legal team that there was a fear the protests could get ‘heated’ or violent.

Equally, whilst Ed Miliband has handled the matter better than one might’ve expected, the charge that his government has lacked leadership on this can’t be ignored.

Whether the option is nationalisation or, more preferably, a kind of decentralised, locally-run operation, there is a case for the government to facilitate some kind of deal to save the factory.

But I’d now like to leave the particulars of Vestas’ closure to one side and try to consider the case from a national perspective.
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Allowing the right to die by Septicisle

There’s more than a certain irony in the law lords finally doing the decent thing and ruling in favour of Debbie Purdy’s right to know under what circumstances her husband might be prosecuted were he to accompany her to Dignitas in Switzerland to die.

Less than a month ago the House of Lords rejected the latest attempt to change the law, to allow relatives to accompany a person with terminal illness to places like Dignitas without the threat of prosecution, by a majority of 53.

All this though is still skirting around the issue.
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Clegg: I want a TV debate too by Newswire

The leader of the Libdems Nick Clegg today also calls for a television debate between party leaders. He said it would “reinvigorate political debate”.

Writing in the Independent newspaper today he says:

It seems the Prime Minister is the only person left in the country who thinks there shouldn’t be a televised debate between party leaders at the next general election.

It would be an opportunity for transparency, to reinvigorate political debate, and to put party manifestos and leaders up against one another in a fair competition.

Gordon Brown says there’s no need for debates because we have Prime Minister’s Questions. But, despite nearly always descending into farce and name-calling, at PMQs, opposition leaders can only ask questions about government policy. In a proper debate, each leader would be able to question both the other parties’ policies as well as championing his own.

Our politics is marred by profound unfairness. Big donations mean far too much is decided by which party has the biggest coffers. A televised debate would go some way to correcting that.

A debate wouldn’t advantage a party; it would advantage the people. It would be the voters’ opportunity to see the leaders competing to be Prime Minister promoting their policies and answering difficult questions about how they’d change the country.

It would bring in a wider audience than leaders could reach otherwise, giving more people the opportunity to make up their own minds based on the facts.

If Gordon Brown believed in the Labour party and his own record, he would be champing at the bit to hold this debate. I’m eager because I want people to know about Liberal Democrat policies, and I want the opportunity to explain why Labour and the Conservatives would take us in the wrong direction. Labour’s time is up, and the Conservatives think it’s automatically their turn, but I think in these difficult times we need to do something altogether different.

It increasingly looks like Gordon Brown will agree to a television debate.

The issue has rapidly degenerated into tit-for-tat accusations between political parties.

ID card misses out Union Jack by Sunny H

The union flag has been left off the final design for the British national identity card unveiled today in order to respect the “identity rights” of Irish nationals living in Northern Ireland – reports the Guardian.

It has deliberately avoided the use of flags, including that of the European Union, which features on British driving licences, on the new ID card in an effort to reflect all the nations of the United Kingdom.

The Tories have pledged to scrap the scheme if they get into power.

Read more at the Guardian…

Watch: Iraq inquiry launched by Newswire

Alan Duncan MP evades expenses questions by Newswire

Alan Duncan, the Conservative MP who is supposed to oversee the party’s policy on expenses, claimed £127,658 under the second home allowance and almost £5000 on gardening expenses.

Alan made his millions in the oil industry before he became an MP working for the decidedly unethical Vitol, a company that dealt with apartheid South Africa, did business with Serbian war criminals and was mixed up in the oil-for-food scandal.

Up until a few weeks ago Alan also held a position at Arawak Energy an exploration company owned by Vitol where he earned £35,000 for 20 days work a year.

The mischief-makers from Don’t Panic Magazine take a trip to Westminster and meet with Alan Duncan MP using a secret camera. There, they have drinks and talk about his second jobs and MPs expenses.

See what happens next…

How important is ‘civility’ in society? by Neil Robertson

Last week I looked at the Conservative crusade against the ‘broken society’, and pondered why that campaign had found resonance where John Major’s ‘back to basics’ had failed. Responding to that post, Joe Hallgarten linked to this report from the Young Foundation which explores whether a renaissance of civility could help us shrug off this societal gloom.

Earlier, I discussed the Rowntree Foundation’s publication on ‘social evils‘, which reported that the public believed the modern age had made us more selfish & individualistic, less honest & compassionate.

As with the report on social evils, defining what does and does not constitute ‘civility’ is difficult because we don’t all interpret each other’s behaviours in the same way. Likewise, there’s no research method available which could tell us whether we’re being more or less civil to each other; the only thing we can measure is whether people feel they experience civility, and even then you’re relying on the subjectivity of human experience. It’s simply impossible to measure this kind of thing objectively.
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How to write a good political leaflet by Don Paskini

David Semple and Cath Arakelian are both critical of the quality of Labour’s leaflets in the Norwich North by-election. There is a link to some of the leaflets here.

Writing good leaflets is actually quite difficult, and I have seen many horrendous ones produced by the central party and local activists alike. So to kick off a discussion, here are some thoughts about what makes for a good leaflet:
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Website re-design by Sunny H

As you can tell, LC’s had a face-lift. To be sure, there are loads of things to be ironed out. But it’s a complicated setup so I really need to work on it live. You may be wondering why it’s so cluttered too.

That’s because I’m thinking a bit ahead. I’ll be focusing a lot more on news stories and linking to other blogs that are running interesting pieces of news.

I’ll also be adding sub-blogs to the site which will focus on specific topics (such as Westminster, activism etc). I needed to create space for that too. The site is expanding and will eventually feature lots more content, but all that needs to be rolled out gradually.

In the meantime, if you have any comments or spot any issues please let me know below or by email.

Vestas protestors keep fighting on by Newswire

From politics.co.uk

Legal confusion handed a stay of execution to protestors at the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight, as debate rages about whether the government should step in.

The sit-in protest at Vestas’ soon-to-close factory in the Isle of Wight could have been forced to an end by a court order this morning.

But attempts by the factory’s management to secure an injunction at Newport county court ended in farce as the judge rejected their request.

More on this page…

Watch: Birther controversy carries on by Newswire

The American media campaign group Media Matters has launched a website against Lou Dobbs.

Watch: Cameron wants TV debate with Brown by Newswire

Watch: Controversy on TV over Obama’s “racism” by Newswire

Tory lead increases to 18pts by Newswire

The Conservatives have widened their lead to 18pts according to a new Comres Poll.

Out in the Independent tomorrow, it will be the largest ever difference between the Conservative Party and New Labour in decades.

According to UK Polling Report this is an inevitable outcome following the recent media coverage:

This is the first poll since the Norwich North by-election, and there’s a significant increase in Conservative support. This isn’t unusual, by-elections do often give the winning party a boost in national polls because of media coverage of them being “winners” – a “halo effect”.

The full details of the poll will be on the Indy website here.

Jewish leaders attack Tories by Newswire

Jewish leaders across Europe have condemned Tory leader David Cameron for his alliances across Europe.

The story, running as an exclusive in this week’s New Statesman magazine, states that prominent leaders led by the Chief Rabbi of Poland are calling on Cameron to reconsider his party’s links.

According to a press release:

- In tomorrow’s New Statesman, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, tells James Macintyre: “It is clear that Mr Kaminski was a member of the NOP, a group that is openly far right and neo-Nazi. Anyone who would want to align himself with a person who was an active member of NOP and the Committee to Defend the Good Name of Jedwabne, which was established to deny historical facts of the massacre at Jedwabne, needs to understand with what and by whom he is being represented.”

- Also in Poland, Rafal Pankowski of ‘Never Again’, the anti-racist organisation, said: “Kaminski is a person with an extreme right background and to have him of all people as chairman of the group that legitimises far right tendancies across Europe – this is somewhat ironic for a leader like Cameron who opposed the BNP for example domestically to allow this person with a very clear far-right background to lead in Europe. I would call on David Cameron to sever links with Michal Kaminski.”

- In Paris, the European Jewish Congress says: “We remain extremely vigilant. We have communicated [our concerns about] this to the president of the EPP [Wilfried Martens] and the new elected parliament president [Jerzy Buzek, the former Polish prime minister].” Of politicians such as Kaminsky, the spokesperson said: “We know them to make racist comments even in Parliamentary gatherings. We are alarmed at the fact that they are given a venue to be outspoken.” And he called for British Jews to express their concerns to the Conservative party. “I would call on the British Jewish community to contact David Cameron over this.”

– And in London, Rabbi Barry Marcus of the Central Synagogue, tells Macintyre: “Any politician of any political party should have the moral courage to clearly distance themselves from those who espouse and promote anti Semitism, racism or any attitude that fosters intolerance.

More on the story on NewStatesman.com