Afghanistan voices
I have just started work on a short desk-study on Afghanistan, after a break from the country of almost two years.
Yesterday brought the British death toll there to 300, prompting a series of, not particularly insightful soul-searching articles in the media. The problem with most mainstream media reporting is that the news is entirely driven by western perceptions of the ‘problem’, which is at best simplistic and often quite crudely propagandist.
I thought that I would instead just post a few links over the next few days to recent reports produced by organisations that I have found credible and reliable in the past.
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What Jack of Kent did for the Gary McKinnon case
Thanks to recent posts on Gary McKinnon by the blogger Jack of Kent (David Allen Green), we have a far more nuanced understanding of the Gary McKinnon extradition case than we would have if we’d only listened to the mainstream media.
JoK mentioned that reporting on the case often left the public confused as to what the actual allegations consisted of.
The mess of artists and musicians, like Pink Floyd, who came out in support can be forgiven for their slapdash reasoning, but the following is the reasoning of Jane Asher, president for the National Autistic Society.
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Are we coming to an end of economic growth?
Further to an earlier post on my blog, is there another similarity between now and the 1970s – that the causes of rapid economic growth in previous years are fading away?
I mean, one reason why growth slowed in the 1970s was that a couple of the impetuses behind fast non-inflationary growth in the 50s and 60s – post-war rebuilding and the spread of some big technical advances – became weaker.
Similarly, four possible forces behind economic growth since the mid-80s might also now be fading:
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The Labour left’s response to Tory cuts hits the wrong target
There are two narratives in play right now. First is the Labour party’s response to Tory cuts is summed up by Alistair Darling as an “ideological war against the public sector”.
The second is the view that these Tory cuts will harm Tories in the long term and will shift public opinion against them.
I’m not convinced that this knee-jerk reaction against cuts will shift public opinion against the Tories. Look at what the polls are saying.
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LC Blog Nation: discussions & speakers
This has been posted to the Blog Nation page today.
Blog Nation 2010 – ‘WHERE DOES THE LEFT GO FROM HERE?’
| Location | : central London venue |
| Date | : Saturday, 26th June |
| Time | : 10:30am to 4pm |
| Cost | : free, but you have to register: blognation@liberalconspiracy.org |
Programme of Events
10:30am: Registration and tea
11am – 1pm: Coming battles and how we prepare for them
- Is abortion coming back on the agenda? – Kate Smurthwaite (Abortion Rights)
- How do we fight spending cuts? – Clifford Singer (Other TPA)
- Way forward on Climate change – Leo (Climatesock blog)
- Immigration: where now? – Anthony Painter (Demos)
- Violence against Women – Amnesty UK
- Challenges for the left – Rick Muir (ippr)
Format yet to be finalised
1:15pm – 2:30pm: Can the left work better together? And how?
Introduction by James Graham, Social Liberal Forum
Panel: John McDonnell MP, Dr Evan Harris, Rowenna Davis (journalist), Alex Smith (LabourList)
Format: Audience reaction after the introduction, and then back to the panel and the audience again.
2:30pm – 2:45pm: grab your lunch!
2:45pm – 3:55pm: Upcoming projects and future direction
Political email list – Sian Berry
Bloggers cooperative – Political Scrapbook
Mobilising via email – David Babbs / 38 Degrees
What now on electoral reform? – Andy May
2:45pm – 3:55pm: Breakout room debates
Room 1 – London Mayoral elections roundtable: what’s the strategy to win?
With London Assembly members, London Labour team and bloggers / writers
Room 2 – Give your own pitch: Anyone can present an idea or talk about their project for 5 minutes.
3:55pm: Summary
Please note: This agenda is still subject to change
——————————————————-
Aims of the Event
- Bring together bloggers, journalists, campaigners and activists from the broad left.
- Focus on strategy rather than open-ended debate
- Meet people
Books!
Bring books that you’d like to give away; share the knowledge and wealth.
Net access and laptops
There will be access to free wifi but due to insurance reasons, you will not be able to plug in your laptop.
——————————————————-
Thoughts, comments and suggestions welcome.
Right-wingers guns for Chris Huhne
The Tory right is in full attack-mode against Chris Huhne today over the fact that he dared to have an affair.
The Daily Mail screams: The minister for hypocrisy: Top LibDem who dumped wife of 26years when affair with PR girl was exposed shamelessly played on family values at election.
Which amounts to one leaflet where he says he loves his family.
The newspaper also has another story: Chris Huhne’s bisexual lover: Life and very different loves of the PR girl in Doc Martens
And then there’s the inevitable rant by Melanie Phillips: The shine’s coming off the Lib Dems faster than a guardsman’s boot in a farmyard
True, the Lib Dems have explicitly refused to support the values of marriage, extolling instead ‘lifestyle choice’ – otherwise known as the right to personal irresponsibility.
Yet only four days ago, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg – who once modestly confided he had slept with ‘no more than 30′ women – was forced to support David Cameron’s pro-marriage agenda when he wrote: ‘I know from my own life that a happy marriage and healthy children matter more than anything else . . . When marriages and relationships break down, a child’s whole world can collapse too. Strong, stable and loving families are the cornerstone of a happy childhood.’
Oh dear. Just when Clegg had dumped yet another Lib Dem shibboleth, he was left with his trousers round his ankles. It seems the philandering Huhne had kept his leader in the dark, too.
In any event, the argument that politicians shouldn’t be judged by their private lives really is a turkey.
Of course, Chris Huhne is not going anywhere. The big news today will be Osborne and his planned cuts.
But the gusto with which the Tory right is willing the coalition to fall is breathtaking.
A reply to Kate
Kate,
This is a classic standoff between feminists. The old guard in your corner, and the new guard in mine.
At the very least, unlike many women of my generation, I call myself a feminist. I know a Labour PPC who told me she “isn’t a feminist, because I believe in equality”.
In my piece, I wrote about what I saw as some personal and generational failings in an otherwise very easy ride in life. This is not to say I haven’t experienced sexism.
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The problem with trying to define ‘Englishness’
So the Campaign for English Parliament have made a bit of news by stopping sales of t-shirts supporting ‘Anyone But England’. I think it’s ludicrous and political correctness gone mad.
Not only that, the CEP are following a dangerous and highly illiberal path.
Back in 2005 when I was passionately arguing against the Sikh play Behzti being shut down, because some Sikh extremists were angry, I was invited to a radio discussion.
Sitting next to me were some Sikh ‘human rights group’ who said, with a straight face, that they wanted to see the playwright Gurpreet Bhatti (herself a Sikh) put on trial for ‘inciting racial ahtred against Sikhs’. I laughed at them.
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Women – hear me roar
Right. Frothing a bit here, people.
Liberal Conspiracy – a site I generally love with a passion – has managed to find yet another educated, well-off woman to write a ‘women are victims and sad fannies’ piece.
I can’t tell you how furious this stupendously male vision of the female state makes me.
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Oona: I want a London-wide school bus system
London Mayor contender Oona King has called for a city-wide bus system to serve schools, saying it would ease congestion and help poorer residents.
Oona King is running against Ken Livingstone to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor.
In an article for Tribune magazine published this week, she said that the school run causes 20% of London’s congestion.
We need a school bus system across the city. This is something I will make happen. Forget about the old arguments about the bendy bus and the Routemaster. The future is school buses. And I shall be the Mayor to deliver them.
She also said she would promise better night buses to outer London.
If you live 10 or 15 miles out you have just as much a right to an easy bus ride home late at night as those living in zones one or two. And I want to make cycling easier, with bike lane superhighways and a quadrupling of parking places for bikes.
Last week at a Labour Party meeting in Ilford North she also she would “consider” building on green belt land in order to ease housing shortage.
But that policy was immediately criticised by Ken Livingstone, who said he wanted to protect London’s existing green spaces and would concentrate house-building on ‘brownfield’ land.
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» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
» How Scotland Yard monitors prying bloggers and journalists
» When disabled people want to work – employers can hold the back
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» Why country-by-country reporting matters to our wellbeing
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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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