Cameron unveils plans to privatise… nearly everything
David Cameron has written an article for the Daily Telegraph today, which the paper has promoted as a news story.
The paper reports that Cameron “promises public sector revolution” by ending the “state’s monopoly” over public sector work. It looks to me like, on paper at least, the privatisation of pretty much every public service except national defence. Even policing and the fire service!
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Manc airport trial against climate activists begins
In May 2010, 17 campaigners took direct action at Manchester Airport, temporarily shutting it down.
They did this to stop some of the 5 million tonnes of carbon emissions produced annually by the airport and in opposition to plans to destroy local homes in order to expand the World Freight Centre.
Six of the climate protesters involved who breached airside security at Manchester Airport are to go on trial at Trafford Magistrates Court from today, Monday 21st February.
They will plead not guilty to the charge of aggravated trespass, after they formed a human circle around the wheel of a Monarch Airline jet last May 2010. The trial begins ten years after Manchester Airport opened their second runway in February 2001, following some of the largest environmental protests of the 1990s.
The defendants will argue that they acted to try and prevent death and serious injury by attempting to stop emissions from the Airport.
During the trial, which is expected to last three to four days – the defence will call expert witnesses including Professor Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall Centre and experts on health and the effects of climate change.
People from across Manchester have pledged to take direct action to stop the expansion plans, and the threatened homes in Manchester have been ‘twinned’ with the village of Sipson which which would have been demolished to make way for the Heathrow expansion.
Witnesses for the defence at the trial will include a local Lib Dem Councillor and John McDonnell, the Labour MP for the Heathrow area. Supporters from the ‘Manchester Airport on Trial’ group will gather outside court on the first morning (9am on Monday 21st February) with a large paper aeroplane.
Kerry Williams from the ‘Manchester Airport on Trial’ group said,
Manchester Airport said 50,000 jobs would be created with the second runway, which failed to materialise. Ten years after its opening, the aviation industry continues to overstate its economic importance whilst avoiding paying taxes and creating more emissions and more noise. It’s time to put a stop to the industry’s special treatment.
The defendants have received a number of statements of support from national politicians, journalists, lawyers, organisations and individuals including Zac Goldsmith MP, Caroline Lucas MP and John Sauven, director of Greenpeace.
From a press release
New Bob Marley cover song attacks Tory cuts
Singer Adynkrah sends us this track, which delivers an attack on the government’s cuts.
She says its a British version of the Bob Marley classic Redemption song.
She told us:
I am a recent graduate concerned by the current state of our country/ economy (aren’t we all!). However, rather than smash windows at Millbank and attack the royal convey, (unfortunately leading to the branding of all disgruntled students as anarchists) I decided to write a song. Please have a listen, I’m sure you will love it! And help to spread this refreshingly satirical take on British politics around the world.
Have a listen.
Progressive London: lots of agreement and speeches, but where’s the strategy?
I enjoyed yesterday’s Progressive London; I was able to make some points in a session, meet interesting people I’ve talked to on this blog or on Twitter, hear a few interesting speeches.
Call me a “strategy hawk” if you will, but am I the only one tired of events where most speeches just preach to the converted? This, I felt, was the main problem with Progressive London.
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People battle hard to save council services across the country
At the start of last week, I was surprised by what I felt was a relatively quiet national political and press response to the battles that were raging at council meetings as people protested about council cuts.
The BBC spoke to me about using some of my stuff for segments on cuts last week, and there have been stories here and there on protests.
Nonetheless, I think the depth of the conflicts at council meetings deserves a lot more reporting – saturation, even. I’d also like to see public outrage at local service cuts championed publicly by Eds Miliband and Balls. Daily. Hourly, even.
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How UKuncut took over Barclays… with an impromptu comedy club
Yesterday, activists organised through UKuncut staged sit-ins at two major branches of Barclays Bank in central London.
Watch the video below to see how UKuncut turned Barclays into an impromptu comedy club. Chris Coltrane was compering, while Josie Long entertained the activists.
About 60 demonstrators from the group UK Uncut entered a branch on Tottenham Court Road and another 50 protested in the street at Piccadilly Circus.
Campaigners said they wanted to turn the buildings into a library.
It was revealed yesterday that Barclays paid only 1% corporation tax on pre tax profits of 11.6 billion pounds in 2009.
Labour MP Chuka Umunna, launched a scathing attack on the banking system yesterday, saying: “I think people are going to be very angry about this and I think we don’t want to destroy the banks by any stretch of the imagination. But we do want them to make a fair contribution to the mess they created.”
How does ideology frame media reporting on climate change?
contribution by Bárbara Mendes Jorge
Climate change is no longer a mere “scientific” concern of temperature rises or adaptation, but also an economical, political and cultural issue. The media, the medium in which most people get information on climate change from, can choose, or are forced, to frame it in one or all of the above ways.
Whilst the above seems obvious, what did not seem so clear to me when I decided to analyse reporting on climate change for my MSc dissertation, was how the right-wing and left-wing media differ in the way they report on climate change.
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William Hague’s bizarre letter to No2AV camp
William Hague sent out this bizarre letter to No2AV supporters. (via @debsalini)
It is riddled with so many inaccuracies its difficult to know where to start.
* * * * * *
Dear [name],
Without your help, Britain’s traditional voting system could be ditched for something that is unfair, expensive and allows candidates that finish third to win elections.
On May 5th, there’s a n…ationwide referendum on whether to replace the system of First Past the Post with the ‘Alternative Vote’ – or AV. The Liberal Democrats demanded this referendum as part of the Coalition agreement – but the Conservative Party are actively campaigning for a ‘No’ vote. Here’s why:
* AV is unfair. With First Past the Post, everybody gets one vote. But under AV, supporters of extreme parties like the BNP would get their vote counted many times, while other people’s vote would only be counted once.
* AV doesn’t work. Rather than the candidate with the most votes winning, the person who finishes third could be declared the winner.
* AV is expensive. Calculating the results is a long, complicated process, which would cost the taxpayer millions.
* No-one wants AV. Even the ‘Yes’ campaigners don’t actually want AV – they see it as a convenient stepping stone to yet more changes to how we vote.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
1. Go to the No to AV website and sign up to receive emails
2. Ask your local Conservative Association how you can help their campaign against AV
3. Join the NO to AV group on Facebook or follow them on Twitter
4. Forward this email on to 5 friends.
* * * * * * * * *
Interestingly, he doesn’t repeat the discredited £250m cost claim in his email. Probably a wise move.
Should we be discussing suicide in the debate over cuts?
contribution by Sue Marsh
Laura is 29 years old. Until a few years ago, she was a vet, just qualified and looking forward to her future. She was engaged to Paul and they were planning their wedding.
She lived a pretty “normal” life, in a “normal” home and enjoyed walking holidays and playing “cool auntie” with her young nieces and nephews.
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NUS hits back at ‘leaked memo’ claim
The National Union of Students president Aaron Porter has today hit out at claims made by the Times yesterday over its alleged “leaked memo”.
In a statement to Liberal Conspiracy, he said the memo had been available on the NUS’ website for over a week and was not hidden at all.
He also rejected the claim that he called the rise in tuition fees “progressive”, as the Times article implied.
No amount of window-dressing can detract from the fact that high fees that will put off poorer students, he said.
As I said in open letters to Nick Clegg in November and December of last year there is no sense in a progressive payment system if the overall outcomes are regressive and include the socially regressive step of removing the vast majority of funding for teaching at universities.
The structure of the repayment system is such that those that earn the very least after they graduate will pay less than those who go on to earn the most. But regardless of this element, all but the richest students who can pay their fees upfront, will end up owing more when they graduate than they do now.
A confusing and underfunded system of bursaries fee waivers and scholarships and a system that allows those from richer backgrounds to avoid taking on the debt in the first place mean that the changes voted through by MPs in December are a leap backwards for university funding.
The NUS has decided to take a more pragmatic approach in opposing the rise in tuition fees.
The union says it is accepted by everyone that there will be an 80% cut to direct government teaching grants, enabled by a huge 40% cut to government funding of universities overall.
The system is baffling, chaotic and short sighted – so our advice to students’ unions is to secure the maximum clarity and value from the fees their university will set.
He said this advice was being interpreted by the media as accepting what the government was doing – which was not the case.
Both universities and their students have been put between a rock and a hard place, having to decide between investing in the student experience and keeping prices down. If the government had not gone down the untested and hugely risky path of just leaving it for the market to resolve, we could now look at the issue properly and constructively. Either way it is now future students who face the toughest choices.
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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
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» Laziness levels in Britain getting lazier, wails government
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