What’s wrong with a slimmer BBC?
Calls in favour of reducing the cost of running the BBC by 25% haven’t gone down well. Facebook campaigns are being set up and accusations are being flung that the cuts are “politically motivated” to butter up the Tories.
In short, the sceptics argue that weakening the BBC will be a gift to its private competitors and a blow to public services on both radio and television.
I am totally in favour of the BBC. I think a competitive state-owned TV is sacrosanct and whoever thinks the BBC should be dismantled and/or privatised is purely driven by rampant ideology.
However, the current cost of a TV licence is £142.50. In 2000, it was just £104. In ten years, an increase of around 36% – without anyone asking licence payers if they agreed with the way the corporation expanded.
continue reading… »
Sunny: going away for a month
Hello all!
I’m heading to South East Asia tonight, with a plan to backpack around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Burma.
No blogging or checking email for me in the meantime.
Don Paskini will be looking after LC while I’m away, please don’t harass him too much. Other bloggers will also try and help him (I hope!)
I’ll be back at the end of March.
Why do so many teenagers get pregnant?
And so we come to the third and final part of my triptych of commentaries on teenage pregnancy, in which we’ll look afresh at the national picture and at:
a) why Labour’s efforts to reduce the number teenage pregnancies by half between 1999 and 2009 proved to be a failure, regardless of what Alex (at Labour List) would like to think and why, in fact, it was never going to be a success; and
b) why social conservatives have nothing at all to crow about here, and are no more likely to succeed in cutting conception rates amongst teenagers than Labour.
To quickly recap the story so far, what we’ve found it that within England there is a strong link between conception, birth and abortion rates for women under 20 and local patterns of socio-economic deprivation.
By looking at data from the EU, we’ve also found regional patterns in Europe that correspond to local patterns in England, with trends in teenage pregnancy rates in areas of low socio-economic deprivation most closely resembling those in Scandinavia, while areas of high socio-economic deprivation show trends that most closely match the Baltic states and other parts of Eastern Europe.
So it seems that the economy is driving teenage pregnancy rates..?
Yes… and no. continue reading… »
BBC 6 Music and Asian Network: why a hideously white middle-aged man cares
Two radio stations I have never listened to in my life are about to get the chop. Being the sort of bloke former BBC boss Greg Dyke famously describes as ‘hideously white’, and pushing 50 to boot, the suits at Broadcasting House probably assume that I couldn’t less.
Yet somehow the death sentences pronounced on BBC 6 Music and Asian Network strike me as something of a dealbreaker. The whole idea of the BBC is that it offers the nation a package deal. We pay for the lot, irrespective of the parts we choose to take up.
In its way, Britain’s state broadcaster is a standing rebuke to free market fundamentalism. No wonder Murdoch and the Tories hate it.
Its very existence represents implicit recognition that private sector provision necessarily gravitates towards mass market pap, rather than intelligent programming. That’s why Mastermind doesn’t run on Men & Motors.
Libdems outline vision on race inequality
Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone MP has today outlined a vision of how to tackle race inequality in the UK.
In a paper published by the Runnymede Trust, Featherstone criticizes the Government for poor management of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and calls for ‘Representative Action’ to tackle discrimination.
The Equalities Spokesperson also challenges the Government to tackle the over-representation of the black population on the DNA database and the disproportionate number of black men stopped and searched by the police.
In the context of the rise of the far-right, Featherstone argues that since 9/11 a “culture of fear’ has been created around the Muslim community which has been exploited by the BNP.
To help tackle inequality, Featherstone calls for the introduction of a ‘name blank’ application policy to remove bias in the process of deciding job applications.
She also calls for those discriminated against to be represented as a group by trade unions or the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Today’s paper includes critiques by academics Dr Clare Alexander and Dr Harry Goulbourne, and is the second in a series of essays to be written by senior politicians on race equality as part of the ‘Runnymede Platform’ series.
A paper by Conservative front bencher Dominic Grieve QC MP on Conservatism and community cohesion was published in January, and essays by senior Labour and SNP politicians will be published shortly.
Commenting on her paper, Lynne Featherstone said:
Equality is of paramount importance and I welcome the opportunity of launching ‘Race, Equality and the Liberal Democrats’. I would like to thank Runnymede Trust for providing this opportunity.
Today’s paper is the second in the series following the publication of ‘Conservatism and Community Cohesion’ by senior Conservative Dominic Grieve QC MP. Essays by the Labour Party and the SNP will be published shortly.
From a press release
The contradiction inherent to right-wing blogs
Sunny has been running a series of posts on where he wants to take Liberal Conspiracy [part 1, part 2 and part 3]. What has piqued my interest is the response this sort of action draws from the rightwing blogosphere.
Mr Eugenides commented very even handedly on Sunny’s last piece and I think it is worth responding.
He says: (this is an extract):
Tory blogs have tried to emulate the campaigning style of online leftwing campaigns – #Kerryout, for example – and by and large we don’t do it very well. I myself have taken part in some campaigns – for the Gurkhas, Iraqi interpreters, free speech online – and it’s noticeable that many of them have been organised and pushed from the left – I have sometimes been, if not the token Tory, then at least one of a relative few.
I’m sure there’s a thesis to be written on this somewhere down the line, but I think the bottom line is this; that while a small part of me wishes you luck (and another, much larger part, hopes that all attempts to “destroy the right” end in ignominious failure), I can’t help thinking that a loosely-focused left-wing blog is going to have difficulty making an impact in our politics because – unlike Conservative Home – LC doesn’t represent a recognisable consituency that politicians need to pander to.
First of all, I think there is a constituency Liberal Conspiracy can tap into, and one which has been abandoned since 1997.
continue reading… »
Michael Foot (1913-2010)
“Foot arrived in the High Street, on what was his 70th anniversary of joining the Labour party, pushing a Zimmer frame that doubled as a seat. When supporters came up to meet him he took his glasses off and tipped his head to one side to listen. At 92 years old he was as articulate as ever.”
“Looking at literature from the BNP that had been circulated locally, he said. ‘They are a disgrace to this country. We had a similar problem with Mosley in the East End. They came in and tried to steam up hatred on racial grounds. Labour led the opposition to Mosley then, and they will do it today with the BNP. People have to vote Labour to stop this.”
The Observer, Sunday May 1st 2005
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On behalf of everyone associated with Lib Con, we’d like to express our condolences of Michael’s family and friends.
Political bloggers writing on music? Won’t happen!
Heaven is Whenever has been set up by Neil Robertson (with help from Bella Gerens and Left Outside) as an escape for political bloggers where we want everyone – regardless of party or ideology – to write about the music they enjoy; favourite albums, overlooked artists, memorable gigs or cherished experiences.
We are in the midst of an election campaign which would try the patience of a saint. Though blogging is necessarily combative one of its joys is the space it creates to interact with opposing points of view.
continue reading… »
Boris refuses to release identity of Fund donors
In December last year Barclays Bank pledged to give £1 million to London Mayor Boris Johnson’s ‘Fund for London’, staggered over four years.
The Fund aims to “help London’s disadvantaged children towards better jobs”, according to its website.
Now the Mayor is coming under pressure to reveal the source of a seven-figure donation to the Fund.
While Boris is required to declare all donations to his political campaign, the same does not apply to the Mayor’s Fund.
So when the Libdem Assembly Member asked last year whether he would declare all donations to the Mayor’s Fund over £1,000, Boris declined.
He gave the reason as:
Among other things, naming donors might give rise to the suggestion that certain individuals expect something in return for their donations. For this reason, I have agreed that I should not be informed of the names of the individual donors.
Adam Bienkov at Tory Troll, who’s done the research on this, points out that Boris has also previously refused to release more general details about the fund’s supporters or funding partners.
Why? We were under the impression the Boris administration was all for transparency and accountability? Why not publish the details of the donors?
It now turns out that Boris “is aware” of the identity of who donated the seven-figure-sum, even though he said earlier this knowledge might jeopardise his impartiality.
Adam adds:
Boris has repeatedly described the Mayor’s Fund as an “independent non-political” charity.
However, far from being independent, it is actually based on the third floor of City Hall itself and has the Mayor as the sole patron.
And while he argues that “listing out individual donations might adversely impact on the level of donations” this does not alter the fact that the current set up is open to abuse.
What happened to that transparency Boris?
Let’s not deny it: Libdems are closer to Labour than Tory voters
Nick Clegg and the Libdem leadership have insisted on a policy of ‘equidistance’ from both main parties; putting forward various policy demands as a price for their support in any kind of deal.
While this might seem like good politicking it actually leaves the party vulnerable to ‘love-bombing’ from both sides.
But polling shows that the Libdem leadership are dangerously out of sync with the sentiment of Liberal Democrat voters.
The latest YouGov poll illustrated how the attitudes of Labour / Libdem voters tend to have more in common than Conservative / Libdems voters.
Liberal Democrat voters tend to prefer leading Labour politicians compared to Conservative ones.
continue reading… »
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» What do we want from the BBC?
» The coming crisis of Conservatism
» Others should follow the Cooperative in boycotting Israeli settlement goods
» What’s the point of these justifications for the ongoing war in Afghanistan?
» The alternative: why Greece should NOT abandon the Euro
» For Cameron, looking weak is a bigger problem than being unpopular
» Most women don’t need counselling before abortion, shows study
» With Caroline Lucas stepping down, how the Greens need to change
» Advertising Standards Authority vs Archbishop Cranmer
» The far left versus the far right: French election part deux
» Our mental health services are a mess; can Labour change it?
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