Economist trashes Tory ‘broken Britain’ narrative
This week’s issue of The Economist comprehensively debunks the Conservative “broken Britain” narrative by pointing out that the statistics do not match the rhetoric.
A leader in the weekly magazine says:
It would be idiotic to claim that Britain is perfect. The vomitous binge-drinking mainly by the young, the drug abuse and teenage pregnancy that are still higher than in most west European countries and the large proportion of single-parent families all tell a tale. But the story of broad decline is simply untrue.
Stepping back from the glare of the latest appalling tale, it is clear that by most measures things have been getting better for a good decade and a half. In suggesting that the rot runs right through society, the Tories fail to pinpoint the areas where genuine crises persist. The broken-Britain myth is worse than scaremongering—it glosses over those who need help most.
…
In attempting to convince voters that society has suffered a comprehensive breakdown (and pandering to his own party’s right wing), Mr Cameron has been guided towards social policies that are designed to heal the entire country, rather than help the relatively few who need it. His proposed tax break for married couples and gay civil-partners is an example. It does nothing for workless households. It would help only 11% of the 4m British children in poverty, while handing bonuses to plenty of well-off people. That would be a bad idea at any time; in a period when the state must tighten its belt it is an extraordinary proposal.
A longer evidence-based article rubbishes the scaremongering peddled by the Conservatives on various fronts.
It covers issues such as crime, teenage pregnancy, the health of children, drinking, smoking and other indicators, and concludes by saying:
The evidence supporting the existence of a “broken society” is thin indeed: all the more reason to focus on those who languish outside mainstream society altogether.
This week shadow home secretary Chris Grayling was comprehensively debunked by BBC reporting when he said that crime had risen massively under New Labout.
Even the UK Statistics Authority’s Sir Michael Scholar had to step in, and his own colleague Iain Duncan Smith said using the statistics in such a way was “profoundly misleading”.
Behind the BBC poll on climate change
contribution by Climate Sock
Another week, another shonky poll? On Friday the BBC reported their new survey, which they claimed showed a clear drop in the number of people who believe in climate change or that it’s man-made.
After the BBC’s inaccurate coverage of a climate poll last year, I was ready for this to be another bit of mis-reporting ripe for a take-down.
Yet in both the poll and the way the BBC described the numbers, there’s little to fault: their data do indeed suggest that belief in man-made climate change has fallen since November.
But I’m not convinced that the UEA emails or the glacier controversy were behind these changes, or that the changes in levels of belief are inherently interesting or important.
continue reading… »
The rise of Labour’s new class
If you trawl Liverpool FC’s unofficial fan forums, it won’t be long before you stumble upon a long thread lamenting the lack of scousers in the squad. Has the city’s talent pool really drained so badly that it’s producing players who aren’t even fit for the subs bench?
You can see shades of this frustration in the backlash over Luciana Berger’s selection as Labour’s candidate for Liverpool Wavertree. Ms Berger is hardly at fault for being young, for harbouring a desire for public service or for possessing qualities which have made her appealing to London’s Labour hierarchy. She may, indeed, prove to be an excellent MP.
But what I read in the exasperated responses to her selection is a refrain I’ve heard many times in & around the Shankly Gates: was there not a single person, in a city of over 400,000 people, who could’ve done as good a job? The city expects an Emlyn Hughes or a Jamie Carragher – someone who, at some level, can understand & relate to the culture & traditions of the people they serve.
continue reading… »
We need to drop the ‘tick-box’ approach to equality
contribution by Simon Fanshawe & Danny Sriskandarajah
Last week we published a report through ippr suggesting that we really did need to catch up in our approach to identity and how we foster diversity and tackle inequality.
Our central point was to question the belief that our identities any longer fit neatly into ‘tick boxes’ or that equality issues fit neatly into ‘strands’. Doing this produces a simplistic and sometimes false picture of disadvantage.
It runs the risk of patronising those in the previously disadvantaged groups who do not feel that their aspirations and achievements are any longer foreshortened by the mere fact of being black or disabled or gay or whatever.
And, worse than that, an approach to equalities that is based solely on ‘minorities’ risks excluding further those in the broader population who already feel that they are not being listened to. It is not so difficult to join the dots from this kind of political approach to one of the reasons why people vote BNP.
continue reading… »
“Stalinist” Tories to control candidate Tweets
We were told the strength of the Conservative Party’s online presence was its “independence”. It was because CCHQ did not impose a “Stalinist” control of the message and seek to “regulate” what candidates did or said that thousand flowers were allowed to bloom.
The Tories were independent in their thought and actions, we were told, and that’s what made them a vibrant force online.
David Cameron has ordered his party’s candidates to submit their online utterances for vetting.
The strict edict issued to every Tory candidate across the country covers updates on social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as Internet blogs and websites.
The move aims to cut the number of gaffes in the run-up to the General Election when would-be MPs will face intense scrutiny.
A sudden rush to embrace “Stalinist control” and “regulation”? Surely Tories will not stand for this? Erm, the top Tory blogs seem to be rather silent on the matter.
The Daily Mail carries on to say:
In fact, relatively few Tory MPs use Twitter regularly.
One, Andrew Rosindell, has left his 314 Twitter followers just one message since signing up 12 months ago with the words: ‘Andrew is excited to have joined Twitter’.
Perhaps that was a step too far.
Coming after the attempt by CCHQ to herd Tory bloggers into a unified message, it seems their Stalinist tactics seem to be working quite well.
Update: And the repercussions have already begun:
@BevaniteEllie: Has this passed CCHQ fact check?? Is it really tea time? RT @LouiseBagshawe …am exhausted and it’s only tea time!
@gift_of_the_fab: @BevaniteEllie Officially Tory PPCs are not allowed to be tired or exhausted; they should always be bright, chirpy, chipper
First US ‘Tea Party’ conv. celebrates racist lunacy
On February 4th the American right-wing Tea Party movement had its first Convention. The headlining act? Sarah Palin – the woman that many right-wingers in the US and UK were warning was a formidable political force and had to be taken seriously.
So what happened at the convention?
Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman from Denver in Colorado who ran for president in 2008, devoted most of his opening speech on Thursday night to illegal immigration. He said the fabric of US society had been eroded by the “cult of multiculturalism”, “Islamification”, and large numbers of immigrants who did not want to be Americans.
In his most incendiary comment, he invoked the segregationist methods of the southern states, saying that Obama had been elected because “we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country”. Southern segregationist states used to prevent black people having the vote by setting them restrictively difficult qualification tests, a historical allusion lost on few of the delegates present.
Watch the video
Sunder Katwala at Next Left points out why Tancredo mentioned literacy tests:
Literacy tests were made illegal in the 1965 Voting Rights Act after being one of the key measures used to systematically disenfranchise black voters in the US South.
But remember:
Barack Obama won 67.4 million votes to 58.4 million for Republican John McCain.
Exit polls show he led among voters of every level of education.
We wonder if Conservatives in the UK, who previously played down racism amongst the Tea Party movement and generally amongst Republicans, will acknowledge or even distance themselves from the wingnuts.
The Times also reported in horror, though sister-station Fox News was a key promoter of the Tea Party convention:
One featured speaker, a “Patriot Pastor” named Rick Scarborough, told The Times that he was not against legal immigrants “but God has ordained that you are not a nation if you don’t have borders”. Standing next to a pile of books entitled Liberalism Kills Kids, he added: “If this country becomes 30 per cent Hispanic we will no longer be America. We don’t want to become like the UK where in places you have Sharia.
Update: According to the Washington Independent, a Tom Tancredo staffer pleaded guilty last year to hitting a woman after calling her a ‘nigger’. He was allowed to keep his job.
(via @LDNCalling)
Why lefties should question the role of the state
contribution by Luis Enrique
Sensible people may disagree, but they ought to agree on this
The appropriate role of government in the economy is a fundamental question, and one that should excite the interest of LC readers. In the interminable blog war between libertarians and statists, there are two polarized positions that all sensible people should disavow.
1. Government activity is generally undesirable (on one side)
2. Government programs with laudable goals should be supported (on the other)
These extreme views are paraphrased from this blog post, which was itself inspired by this blog post, in which a couple of libertarians try to persuade their fellow libertarians to embrace government.
continue reading… »
People’s Peers? You’ve got to be kidding!
If proof were ever needed of the utter political bankruptcy of the current system of appointing new members to the House of Lords, then this BBC report is it:
Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson nominated as ‘people’s peer’
Paralympic gold medalist Tanni Grey-Thompson is set to become a “people’s peer” after a recommendation from the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
We can skip the next couple of paragraphs, which are just the usual puff about Grey-Thompson’s personal achievments, and move straight on to the punchline:
She will be one of four new non-party-political peers recommended to the Prime Minister by the commission.
The others are Design Council chair and former Whitehall mandarin Sir Michael Bichard, Royal Opera House chief executive and former BBC journalist Tony Hall, and eminent surgeon Professor Ajay Kakkar.
So, our other three ‘people’s peers’ are:-
- A career civil servant and Companion of the Order of the Bath.
- The Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House who’s role and achievements at the BBC are being woefully underplayed to give him a bit of the common touch.
Hall was not just a BBC journalist. He’s a former editor of the Nine O’Clock News, Director of News and Current Affairs Television, Director of News and, in 1999, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the job of Director General. Not uncoincidentally, the achievements section of his CV includes both the launch of Radio 5 Live and, somewhat more relevantly, the launch of BBC Parliament.
As for Professor Ajay Kakkar, my first reaction was ‘who?’, but on looking him up, he’s:-
Professor and Chairman of the Centre for Surgical Sciences at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary College University of London. Surgeon St Bartholomews Hospital and The Royal London Hospital and Director-Designate Thrombosis Research Institute, London, UK.
Its an impressive looking CV and it appears to come (although its not mentioned) with the obligatory Harley Street practice.
In all, this sheds a bit of interesting light on the appointments process undertaken by the House of Lord Appointments Commission.
On this evidence that appears one of picking a name that people will have heard of, for the sake of a nice headline, and then shoving three other well-stuffed members of the establishment in the behind in the hope that no one will notice just how obvious a piece of utter bullshit this whole ‘people’s peers’ business has been from start to finish.
BNP employ Neo Nazi activist at City Hall
Meet Tess Culnane, former National Front candidate, long-time Neo Nazi, anti head lice campaigner and the new employee of BNP London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook.
Culnane is the latest and most extreme member of the BNP to be employed at the Greater London Authority, since Barnbrook was elected in 2008.
His other appointments have included Simon Darby (now suspended) Emma Colgate, Rod Gordon, Chris Roberts and Tony Avery. All have been, or remain members of the BNP.
Revealed: MEP praises French attack on Greenpeace that killed activist – updated
Godfrey Bloom is a UK Independence Party MEP from Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire. He is a fervent climate change denier and has made speeches at the EU Parliament stating global warming isn’t happening and dismissing the idea of Co2 as a pollutant. Bloom also records videos for his own YouTube account.
Recently he made a video (below) standing in front of a Greenpeace boat. He starts off by calling it a “fascist boat”, funded by “ridiculous middle-class, middle-aged people spouting junk science”.
He goes on to say:
This is a huge stunt for middle class people to have a little bit of a float around the world. The whole thing is a sham, the whole thing is ridiculous.
He then concludes the short video with:
And I don’t often say anything good about the French but one thing I can say – well done the French for sinking one of these things. Vive Le France!
There’s only one incident he could be referring to: the French intelligence services sinking of the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior in 1985 which killed a photographer and injured others.
Bloom is praising an incident that killed an innocent person and led to the resignation of the French Defence Minister.
Not long after he made the video, it vanished from Youtube. But a Libcon reader who had seen it in horror passed it to us. Here, we publish it for the first time.
continue reading… »
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