Animals explain why Alternative Vote better

by Sunny Hundal    
April 15, 2011 at 10:00 am

Excellent video explaining how AV works.

I post it because it makes two additional points I’ve not seen anywhere else.

First, it shows why AV is logically a better system: it kills off the ‘spoiler effect’.

That is used to illustrate how AV increases political diversity and choice.

via @SimonNRicketts

Goldstone’s ‘retraction’ over Operation Cast Lead changes nothing

by Guest    
April 15, 2011 at 9:08 am

contribution by Venetia Rainey

“If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.” With this one sentence, Richard Goldstone – respected South African lawyer, former-judge and human rights expert – instantly reopened the fierce debate over the Gaza War of 2008-09, aka Operation Cast Lead.

Israeli officials, who probably couldn’t believe their luck, called for Goldstone to make his retraction official, or at least in an international forum. Defence minister Ehud Barak even gloated that it was “unfortunate that it took Goldstone such a long time to change his mind, but it’s better late than never”. But what did Goldstone’s article actually change?
continue reading… »

Cameron, Clegg: both wrong on immigration

by Dave Osler    
April 14, 2011 at 2:55 pm

The Smethwick by-election was 47 years ago now. Not only would any Conservative candidate who campaigned on an overtly racist slogan rightly face instant expulsion, but there are even black and Asian Tory MPs. Younger readers will not believe how improbable that once would have seemed.

In short, there is no reason to imagine that David Cameron – in the news today for a keynote speech, in which he maintains that mass immigration has undermined communities – represents some kind of unreconstructed ideological throwback to the bad old days of Peter Griffiths and Enoch Powell.

continue reading… »

Don’t be fooled by Cameron and Cable’s immigration stunt

by Guest    
April 14, 2011 at 1:43 pm

contribution by Sarah Hayward

The morning’s news has been dominated by Cameron’s immigration speech and reaction to it. Particularly Vince Cable’s reaction.

There’s no doubt, that as with February’s multi-culturalism speech, the spin had much more bark than the speech had bite. Disagree with the policy I might, but it wasn’t actually an ill considered clarion call speech in the main. It was pretty deliberately thought through – like the multiculturalism speech.
continue reading… »

Why the *type* of debt Britain owes also matters

by Duncan Weldon    
April 14, 2011 at 10:45 am

When judging how sustainable the government’s debt position is, its crucially important to understand the importance of our debt maturity profile.

There’s a tendency in the UK political debate around the government finances to concentrate on one number – the annual deficit (on which measure Britain is supposedly at risk of a loss of market confidence) – and to ignore other measures such as the existing stock of debt to GDP, the interest rate charged on debt and the maturity profile of that debt, on all which Britain is in a strong relative position.
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USuncut fool Associated Press into reporting on GE paying back taxes

by Sunny Hundal    
April 14, 2011 at 10:00 am

USuncut – sister to UKuncut – yesterday pulled off an audacious stunt by fooling the world’s biggest press agency.

The Associated Press mistakenly published a story on Wednesday about General Electric that was based on a fake press release.

It said that General Electric, responding to criticism over the amount of taxes it pays, would repay a $3.2 billion tax refund for 2010 to the Treasury Department.

The fake release, which was emailed to the AP, included a GE logo and a link to a website designed to look like GE’s website.

USuncut paired up with renowned spoofers – The Yes Men – for the hoax.

The story noted GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt saying: “we want the public to know that we’ve heard them, and that we know many Americans are going through tough times. GE will therefore give our 2010 tax refund back to the public and allow the public to decide how to spend it.”

TechPresident reports:

Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal notes that part of the scam involved setting up a website just one letter off from GE’s official PR hub — GENewsCenters.com, rather than GENewsCenter.com. Good thing they took such care, because these were clearly reporters with a real eye for detail.

Associated Press apologised for not fact-checking the story and withdrew it within hours.

USuncut is now planning more actions across the US this weekend.

Watch the spoof video

GE Gives Back $3.7 Billion Tax Refund to America from Samuel Winnacker on Vimeo.

Why isn’t Labour offering a credible alternative in Northern Ireland?

by Guest    
April 14, 2011 at 9:05 am

contribution by Luke Sproule

On May 5th voters across Northern Ireland will go to the polls to elect 108 members to the Assembly for the fourth time since 1998. Without a doubt the Northern Ireland Assembly has brought great stability, peace and prosperity to the province.

Belfast is now a modern city like any other in the British Isles and the days of Army patrols and riot-filled summers are now a thing of the past. But it has also served to entrench sectarianism, due to the nature of voting along Unionist/Nationalist lines. Why isn’t Labour doing more to step in?
continue reading… »

Protest planned against Daily Mail benefits ‘lies’

by Newswire    
April 14, 2011 at 8:38 am

Disabled people, people with illnesses, parents, people on low wages and many others will protest at Daily Mail headquarters today, over their coverage of benefits claimants.

The colourful noise demonstration will demand an end to the defamation of people who need state welfare support to survive.

The protest takes place as part of the third national day of action against benefit cuts. The aim is to challenge the legitimacy of the government’s drive to move claimants off Incapacity Benefit, putting around 1600 people a day through a medical test run by private company Atos Origin.

The test has been widely discredited by the CAB, Child Poverty Action Group, and others. A damning CAB report concluded “Doctors pay more attention to the computer than the client.”

Yet the Daily Mail has been using the results of Atos Origin’s computer-based tests to mount a campaign against disabled people and people with illnesses claiming Incapacity Benefit. Their lurid claims have included “76% of those who say they’re sick can work” and “Thousands in Britain on incapacity benefit because they are too fat to work”.

Linda Burnip from Disabled People Against Cuts says:

The lies and half truths that the Daily Mail has published have resulted in an increase of hate crime attacks against disabled people. We are not prepared to sit back and allow them to continue to peddle their disgusting disablist propaganda unchallenged.

Anne Novis MBE, has issued this call to action:

Yes you, and you and you, all of you who stand by and say nothing or encourage such vicious and undeserving attacks are just as responsible for what is happening. Those who stand by and allow this are equivalent to those who stood by when disabled people and Jews were targeted by the Nazis for annihilation. Too harsh for you? Its our lives we are fighting for, our very lives, some have already killed themselves due to what is happening, many more are considering it. Will you stand by?

Protests will take place in 12 cities across the UK today, and include an online action for those not able to travel by the “Armchair Army”.

Photo opportunity: Thursday 14th April, 2.30pm at Daily Mail Headquarters,
Young Street (off Kensington High Street), London, W8 5TT

From a press release

Camden ‘smears’ over anti-Royal wedding party

by Sunny Hundal    
April 13, 2011 at 5:37 pm

The anti-monarchy group Republic today hit back at Camden council over the latter’s decision to block their bid for an anti-royal wedding party.

They say the claims were “very misleading, inaccurate and possibly defamatory” and want a full retraction from the Council.

A spokesperson for Republic said today:

Camden Council has suggested that it has “offered” Republic Lincoln’s Inn Fields as an alternative venue for the party. In fact, Camden has merely invited Republic to apply to hold the party there, which would incur upfront costs of more than £3,000. The Council has made it clear that if objections were received this application could also be vetoed.

A Camden spokesperson told The Guardian yesterday that Republic has not submitted an event management plan. In fact, we submitted an event management plan last month which was subsequently accepted by both the Council and Camden Borough Police.

The same spokesperson told The Guardian there were “significant concerns from the police about the potential for disorder”. In fact, the police have no concerns about our event and have not objected to it. This has been confirmed in writing by Camden Borough Police.

Republic also slammed Camden councillor Sue Vincent, Cabinet Member for Environment, for drawing a link between Republic’s street party and the “anarchic behaviour of the cuts march”.

They said the attempts to scare-monger were “entirely without foundation and potentially defamatory.”

There is no evidence of widespread opposition to the party as Camden has claimed. The Council has received a total of three formal objections to the party. By contrast, Republic has carried out consultation with the local community – to the satisfaction of Camden Council – which was generally very positive.

Yesterday the head of the Health and Safety Executive said:

There’s nothing in health and safety law to prevent anyone from celebrating the royal wedding – in fact, HSE encourages everyone who wants to throw a party to go right ahead. If someone tells you that you can’t have a get-together to mark the nuptials of Prince William and Kate, then challenge them. Health and safety is about looking out for any legitimate things that might spoil people’s fun on the day, not to stop people doing anything at all.

Apparently the same does not apply who don’t want to celebrate the Royal Wedding.

Fear and loathing in Britain’s rightwing press

by Dave Osler    
April 13, 2011 at 2:55 pm

I’m not quite sure how it is possible for a Leninist to move further to the left, but David Cameron has somehow achieved this rare distinction. Well, he has according to Daily Telegraph commentator Simon Heffer, anyway.

Just over two years ago, Heffer accused the then leader of the opposition of seeking to ‘sovietise capitalism out of existence’. Yet even though Cameron is now well ensconced in Number Ten, Hackney in 2011 does not bear much resemblance to Petrograd in 1917.

Workers’ councils have not sprung up all over Britain and established a de facto state of dual power. Or at least I don’t think they have, and I’m pretty sure I would have noticed if that were the case.

continue reading… »

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