Ugandan Discussions get a new meaning in the US
Rachel Maddow is one of the sharpest political commentators/interviewers working anywhere in the US media. She’s also a lesbian.
Richard A Cohen is ‘one of America’s leading practitioners of conversion therapy’ (i.e. psychological de-gayification for profit) and a member of Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church (aka ‘the Moonies’). He used to be gay and purports to be able to cure people of their gayness.
Below, in two parts, is a video in which Maddow interviews Cohen – guess which one gets politely chewed into tiny kibbles and spat out…
The most bigoted candidate in Britain?
If you were at all under the impression that Nick Griffin is the most viscerally unpleasant and bigoted individual to have yet announced his intention to stand for election to parliament at the next general election then think again and allow me to introduce you to Richard Carvath, the self styled ‘independent PPC’ (i.e. nutter with £500 to burn) for the new constituency of Salford and Eccles, which Hazel Blears is due to contest.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Carvath may have been, at one point, a member of the Conservative Party, but was expelled early in 2008 for being ‘too right-wing’ for even the Tories to tolerate (see Arthur Allen’s comment on this post) and it’s because of an appallingly bigoted attack on the Tories newly selected candidate for Salford and Eccles, Matthew Sephton, that Carvath has come to my attention. Sephton is, it appears, gay and makes no secret of his sexuality, all of which has prompted Carvath to comment on his selection, on his own blog, in the following, utterly reprehensible terms:
[UPDATE - Cllr Iain Lindley (Conservative PPC for Worsley and South Eccles) has cleared up the question of Carvath's membership of the Tories by confirming that he did apply for membership of the party in 2008 but his application was refused]
As a rival [and pro-heterosexual!] candidate I welcome Matthew to the contest for Salford and Eccles.
Matthew’s own blog is heavy with pro homosexual pervert content: see here, here and here…
…
I very much doubt that the vast majority of the Salford and Eccles electorate will want to be represented by a prominent homosexual activist – and one who neither lives nor works in the constituency.
If the sole choice on offer was between Sephton and Carvath then I think even I’d vote Tory.
Watch: Naomi Klein critical of ‘Hopenhagen’
An excellent interview with writer Naomi Klein on how the deal making at ‘Hopenhagen’ is unlikely to solve the problems we face.
[via Random Blowe]
Labour isn’t radical enough on the economy
The Pre-Budget Report yesterday was, at best, a muddle that won’t do much to shift voter perceptions about the supposed difference between Labour and the Tories.
Keep in mind that most voters won’t pay any attention to the PBR, let alone sit there and discuss its ramifications like much of the media and blogosphere has done.
Some people may notice the increase in the starting point for NI contributions, others may smile at the sight of bankers squealing on television about the decision to tax their bonuses.
And yet for a government that constantly claims there are clear dividing lines between them and the Tories on the economy – it has constantly failed to outline them in stark terms.
continue reading… »
France to tax bankers’ bonuses too
France will follow the UK’s lead and impose a new super-tax on bonuses paid to its country’s bankers, it was reported today.
According to Les Echos, the French government will introduce legislation imposing a 50% tax on all bank bonuses over €27,000 (£24,400).
The move would see France and Britain maintain a united front in the fight against excessive pay in the financial sector, and could calm fears that City firms could flee the UK.
The two country’s leaders also made a public gesture of solidarity today, by calling for a global tax on bankers’ bonuses this year. Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy said world leaders must impose tougher limits on remuneration in the financial sector.
Dave still doesn’t know what he’s doing
Why isn’t Dave a banker? The Times reports his City in my blood pride at his banking heritage:
David Cameron attempted the balancing act yesterday of wooing the world’s most powerful bankers while assuring Middle England that he would not give that most hated profession too easy a time.Speaking to a gathering of top financiers, the Conservative leader told them: “My father was a stockbroker, my grandfather was a stockbroker, my great-grandfather was a stockbroker.” The City, he assured them, was in his blood. Those present, who included Bob Diamond, president of Barclays, and Richard Gnodde, the co-chief executive of Goldman Sachs in London, purred their approval.
The Times report suggests it was an exercise in characteristic Cameron ambiguity, and not one which did much to answer the same newspaper’s challenge yesterday – “David Cameron has yet to answer a basic question: what does he stand for?”
continue reading… »
Class war quiz
Looks like the battlelines are being drawn. If you’re not sure which side of the barricades you belong on, a short fill-in-the-blanks quiz based on the latest Mel Philips piece should help you decide. Simply replace the blank with one of the following: A – Working; B – Upper; C – Middle:
It is the ________ class whose children are discriminated against by the rigging of university admissions against candidates from high-achieving schools.
It is _______-class aspirations for their children which have been attacked by the war of attrition waged against grammar and independent schools.
It is the _______ class whose ethic of professionalism – whether in medicine, education, the law or other disciplines – has been under sustained attack by government interference in order to snuff out the independence of mind and spirit which is one of the principal sources of ________-class robustness.
How you scored:
Mostly As – don’t take the piss.
Mostly Bs – well done, comrade. You gut the last banker, I’ll hang the last Master of Fox Hounds.
Mostly Cs – Bad luck. If you can’t already smoke a cigarette blindfold, I’d start getting some practice in.
continue reading… »
How could the PCC reform? Your suggestions needed
Sunny has highlighted that the Press Complaints Commission is carrying out its annual review of the Editors’ Code.
Given the low key nature of the review, and the fact that the new PCC chair Baroness Buscombe has made it clear she doesn’t see any overall crisis in the media’s standards, the best chance for change I think comes from one or two specific, narrow and well worded suggestions which are supported by a large number of people.
There certainly are some much bigger issues that should be at stake – but this isn’t a process likely to resolve those.
So what changes might it be sensible to suggest? My favourite is to lobby for a change so that in future newspapers have to properly acknowledge the source of stories lifted from others, most notably blogs.
continue reading… »
Join our live discussion of the Pre-Budget report
Liberal Conspiracy have teamed up with LabourList, Left Foot Forward and the TUC to host a joint, live discussion of the Chancellor’s Pre-Budget Report.
There is speculation the government may introduce a transactions levy and / or introduce a year-long Windfall tax on banker’s bonuses. The TUC’s Brendan Barber yesterday set out three tasks he needs to pull off.
Update: The discussion is now over
Football factory?
This is the third in a series of interviews (the others are here) with people in West Lancashire who are low paid, and/or rely on public services.
Today: Joe Nelson, the longtime chair of the large and thriving Skelmersdale junior football league. He’s lived in Skelmersdale his whole life and is still working, in his 70s. Nelson sees football as an important means of keeping Skem kids off the street. It’s also a potential route into the big time – Everton and Liverpool scouts regularly stop by, although Nelson doesn’t care for that.
Excerpt:
“Noticeable too is the number of tiny footballers playing to a spectacular standard of finish. Parents on the sideline at one game watch as one little kid, who is standing a good few yards out from goal, curls a near-perfect free kick towards the top left hand corner of the net. The ball sort of hangs in the air, then drops like a falcon. Amazingly, the ginger haired boy in goal is equal to this flightpath. He launches himself into the air, sails towards the ball on a straight anti-gravity horizontal, and swats the ball clear with both hands.”
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» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
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» Why work “reforms” in Spain are a warning for workers across Europe
» Five things you need to know about the NHS bill
» Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier. More Racist.
» Laziness levels in Britain getting lazier, wails government
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