It’s Osborne who is maxing out the nation’s credit card
I have post up at False Economy on the outlook for household debt and how it is due to soar. An issue raised in Parliament yesterday by Chuka Umunna.
As I write there:
The household debt-to-income ratio (the best measure of how manageable the debt burden is) fell from 2007 until 2010. It is now forecast to start rising again. Osborne described pre-crisis household debt-to-income ratios as unsustainable – and yet the ratio is forecast to hit a new all-time high in 2015.
Sayeeda Warsi plays the race card to campaign against electoral reform
I really wish Sayeeda Warsi did not plumb to such depths. She is being wheeled out by the Conservatives to say that Alternative Voting ‘will bring in fascism‘.
Generations have been served well by the British system because fascists and extremists have consistently been excluded from Parliament.
This is really desperate stuff.
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Tories to make life easier for war criminals
Amnesty International is calling for controversial measures in a new policing bill due to be debated tomorrow (30 March) to be dropped, warning that it could lead to suspected war criminals in the UK evading justice.
The measures, contained in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill (Clause 152), will, for the first time, mean that the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions will be required before an arrest warrant can be issued for suspected war criminals and torturers present in the UK.
Under international law as well as under current UK law, those suspected of extremely grave offences like torture and war crimes can be prosecuted in the UK on the basis of “universal jurisdiction” even if their crimes were committed outside the UK, and even if they were committed by non-UK nationals.
Recently the government has argued that the system is open to “abuse” by “political groups”, claiming warrants can be obtained from magistrates on flimsy evidence.
However, the government has failed to provide any examples of magistrates issuing them in such circumstances, despite repeated requests from campaigners for the government to back up these claims. Foreign governments are known to have lobbied the UK authorities for changes to the law.
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:
At a time when it is discussing international justice and Libya, it’s unbelievable that the government is preparing to weaken the UK’s own commitment to international justice.
Clause 152 sends out the unmistakable message that the UK is soft on crime if those crimes are war crimes and torture.
It introduces dangerous delays that could mean even people suspected of the worst imaginable crimes are less likely to face arrest. Even Libyan government officials might escape justice in the UK if this lumbering arrangement is set up.
Under current law in England and Wales, as in many other countries around the world, victims of war crimes, torture and hostage-taking can mount private prosecutions against suspected perpetrators in any country, regardless of nationality or where the crime was committed, under the international rule of universal jurisdiction.
Victims need to meet a high threshold of evidence in order to obtain an arrest warrant.
From a press release
The EMA is to be replaced by Victorian style charity
contribution by Reuben Bard-Rosenberg
Begging your A Level teacher for an extension on your coursework can be an uncomfortable experience. Begging your teachers for a tenner so that you can afford the bus to school is probably somewhat more degrading. Yesterday, the education secretary, Michael Gove, announced the replacement for the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA).
The scheme will cost £180 million, a little over a quarter of what was put into the EMA. Just 12,000 students, less than one in every hundred, will qualify for a bursary. Meanwhile, 90% of the cash will go to headteachers to allocate at their discretion, to help students pay for books, food and transport. All of which makes sense when you consider the mean-spirited rhetoric with which the attack on EMA was justified.
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Evaluating the #March26 protests
In any community campaign, it’s important to find time for evaluation, particularly after a big action like the protests last Saturday. I’ve put together a simple framework, adapted from the Citizens UK community organising approach, which I would encourage anyone who is interested to think about. It is a series of simple questions, and can be applied to assessing any campaigning action, from street protests to meetings, 20 people to 500,000. continue reading… »
Adam Ramsay: in defence of posh lefties
‘Daily Mail dropped round my parents house – doing a “shock revelation” that I’m a bit posh,’ read the Tweet from Fortnum & Mason sit-in arrestee Adam Ramsay yesterday. ‘For those who’ve not met me, I’m a bit posh.’
I’ve not met him. And as the resultant hatchet job makes plain, Ramsay is indeed posh. He descends from a long line of Ramsay baronets and the family owns a small castle set in a 1,300 acre estate in East Perthshire. Excellent place for pheasant shooting, apparently.
Not too many people with titles were knocking around on the streets of two-up two-downs and council estates I grew up on, which has left me with the lifelong disadvantage of not knowing how various gradations of nobility compare with one another.
How will teaching be affected by the Big society curriculum?
contribution by Martin Paul Eve
Over the weekend, the Observer reported that the Arts and Humanities Research Council had come under pressure to divert its already scant resources into research prioritising the values of the Big Society.
There has been a lively and informed debate on both sides and it is worth bearing in mind that the so-called “Haldane Principle” is not a sacred binding constitutional document whose altar has been violated.
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Why Tax Avoidance is among the biggest issues of our generation
Over my holiday last week, I read Nick Shaxson’s book – Treasure Islands. I would go as far as saying this book is the No Logo for a new century. It’s not as well written but it’s revelatory and very important for reasons I outline below.
UKuncut, who have done more to highlight tax avoidance over the last 6 months, faced a setback on Saturday. But they shouldn’t lose faith. Tax avoidance is perhaps one of the most important economic issues of our time and they are right to focus on it.
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Greens make huge gains in Germany
The German state of Baden Wuerttemberg was run by the right wing Christian Democrats for 58 years. Last weekend, that all changed.
Boosted by their opposition to nuclear power, the German Green Party more than doubled their support, and the state is now poised to elect Germany’s first Green First Minister, governing in coalition with the Social Democrats.
The Greens also made big gains in the Rhineland Palatinate, the other state which held elections at the weekend, where they tripled their level of support and are now likely to enter a coalition led by the Social Democrats.
There is a profile of Winfried Kretschmann, the Green First Minister, here. A devout Catholic, former teacher and keen gardener who entered politics because of his love of nature, he is not a radical and was able to win over former Christian Democrat voters, particularly after the disaster in Japan strengthened popular opposition to nuclear power.
The election results was disastrous for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, and their Liberal allies – who made heavy losses in both states, and worrying for the Social Democrats, who saw their support fall to historically low levels as their supporters switched to the Greens.
Boris Johnson was for student violence before he was against it
Mayor of London Boris Johnson badly overstepped the mark yesterday, ludicrously claiming that Labour leader Ed Miliband will have been “quietly satisfied” by the violence in the capital which risked overshadowing the TUC’s March for the Alternative on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Boris can hardly be surprised to be accused of silliness and hypocrisy for a response in the lower traditions of student politics, though Shelly Asquith misses out what is surely the most hypocritical about the claim….
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