Watch: I Read Some Marx (And I liked it)
via Stroppy blog
Rising prosperity cuts crime, not putting more people in prison
There is a particularly insidious strain within the Labour party, heavily influenced by small-c conservatism, that parrots right-wing-nuttery views on social issues. They are usually against immigration (Frank Field), would love to give police lots of powers (Charles Clarke, Blunkett), and happy to call for the ‘lock em up’ approach to prisons (Alan Johnson, Jack Straw).
It has gotten to a stage where, last night on BBC Question Time, Iain Duncan Smith sounded vastly more coherent and intelligent on prison reform than Alan Johnson. Even though, I think, it’s a strategic ploy.
The New Labour and Tory-right approach is summed up in two ways: (1) banging up people in prison works (crime fell under Labour); (2) it’s cheaper than having them roam about in society. But both are wrong approaches.
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‘England lost footy thanks to PC gone mad’
Say hello to Mike Buckingham. He is a columnist at the South Wales Argus.
He is also a bigot who, in his latest rant blames “multiculturalism” and our “lack of identity” as responsible for losing to Germany in the World Cup.
His column this week isn’t online (wonder why) but Angry Mob blog has some excerpts:
HAD I not been minus four at the time I would have been for Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement before the last war.
The reason Germany thrashed England in the World Cup is that it is a better-organised society and one united around the idea of itself as a Northern European country with values which are superior to anybody else’s.
A northern European country with superior values eh? What values specifically is he referring to?
This is where we were before multiculturalism fatally undermined England and its sense of identity and self-belief, and will as surely do the same to Wales.
Ah right, “multiculturalism” is to blame. Apparently it undermines our self-belief. This is why William Jermain Defoe scored and Wayne Rooney couldn’t.
Bucking goes on to say:
The Germans, in football as in all else, pick the best people for the job.
In Britain we pick the least worst, unless they happen to belong to an approved-of minority in which case we settle for the truly useless.
And we’re at his main point: England lost because there’s too much political correctness and giving jobs to black people who don’t deserve it.
The fact that Germany also had black and Turkish players in their team is completely ignored. Why let little facts like that get in the way when you’re looking for a scapegoat?
You can also read his other rants in the past on Haiti at Angry Mob.
I’m surprised he hasn’t been snapped by up the Daily Express already as a columnist.
Niall Ferguson and the history curriculum
What schoolboy could fail to be entertained by tales of how Edward II died after having a red hot poker stuck up his arse, and why Britain went to war with Spain because some bloke had his ear cut off?
History was by some distance my favourite subject at school. I could probably still draw a plan of the Battle of Crecy from memory, and thanks to a mnemonic, I can to this day recite the names of all 44 kings, queens and Lord Protectors in order of reign.
It seems intuitively obvious that the teaching of the discipline at secondary school level should start with the Neolithic era in the first form and gradually culminate in the postwar social democratic settlement and the Thatcher years, prior to whatever it is kids get to take instead of O-levels these days.
Boris criticised for ban on Democracy Village
Index on Censorship magazine is calling upon the new government and mayor of London to re-affirm the right to protest in Parliament Square.
With police planning to remove the “Democracy Village” protests in Parliament Square tomorrow after campaigners lost a legal battle with the mayor of London, Index is concerned that a precedent will be maintained that prohibits any form of overnight protest.
Index is also concerned that the police will remove long-term protester Brian Haw, who has maintained his vigil for 3,294 days since June 2001.
At the state opening of Parliament on 25 May, Brian Haw was arrested, hardly an auspicious start for a new government that has committed to a “Great Repeal Bill” of illiberal legislation.
It is calling upon politicians to make it clear that the right to protest in Parliament Square is a “non-negotiable” right for the British people and that the legislation that restricts protest there is repealed.
John Kampfner, chief executive of Index on Censorship said:
The right to protest in Parliament Square is non-negotiable. Whilst there may be long-term consequences in letting the ‘Democracy Village’ stay, it is the duty of politicians to maintain the right to free expression and assembly, and then deal with associated public order issues. The new government has an opportunity to repeal the previous administration’s authoritarian legislation prohibiting protest around Westminster.
From a press release
Phil Woolas’ seat now in serious trouble
A few weeks ago we asked if Labour MP Phil Woolas was about to lose his seat over allegations made in campaign literature that his Libdem opponent took issue with.
His Libdem opponent Mr Elwyn Watkins says that leaflets falsely portrayed him as a politician courting votes from militant Muslims. He also says he considers the material libellous.
Phil Woolas beat his opponent by only 103 votes (14,186 vs 14,083).
Watkins decided to challenge the results in court. Amazingly, the BBC’s Arif Ansari reports that a hearing is now “inevitable”.
Labour sources were initially suggesting that a court hearing was unlikely. The party now accepts it is inevitable.
This is pretty extraordinary stuff. The last time an election result was challenged on the basis of corrupt practices was back in 1911. It was successful.
This does not bode well for Woolas.
According to Ansari, Elwyn Watkins must prove the allegations were made and that they were false.
Phil Woolas must also either prove the allegations were correct, or that he had reasonable grounds for believing them.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer person.
Philip Hollobone and the (il)logic of the burka debate
I’m yet to be convinced that the burka is anything other than a symbol of deep rooted oppression, and even if worn by a free woman in a free country, is still an expression of a patriarchal notion that frankly ought to have stayed in the dark ages where it belongs.
However, a Tory MP has represented to me the reason why appeals to banning it is cowardice and reactionary in many cases.
As the BBC described it:
Philip Hollobone has put forward parliamentary legislation to regulate the use of “certain facial coverings” in public. … “We are never going to get along with having a fully integrated society if a substantial minority insist on concealing their identity from everyone else.”
Tory predictions of job growth have “no hope in hell”
After yesterday’s Guardian front-page of massive job losses, the government treasury team spent the whole day furiously spinning that under their plans nearly 2 million jobs would be created as this austerity reinvigorated the private sector.
And what are those predictions based on what?
In fact a fact-check by Channel 4 yesterday found that the government’s projections require a “big leap of faith” – which is putting it mildly. Expect that number to be revised down drastically over the coming months and years.
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