Compare and contrast: Labour v Tories
The above graph shows the percentages of quarterly growth since the Tories assumed power in May 2010.
The Tories inherited 1.1% growth in Q2 from Labour, but in the last 9 months very little real growth has occurred. The economy has ground to a near shuddering halt.
Above, using the Q2 2010 and Q2 2011 I plot a) The momentum that Gordon Brown had the UK economy heading in, compared to b) the direction that David Cameron now gdp traveling in.
Clearly the economy has dropped a couple of gears since fiscal austerity packages have been commenced.
Remember the Greek Eurozone crisis occurred throughout Q2 2010 and Labour still delivered 1.1% growth so ignore Tory excuses that blame foreign affairs.
And that brings me to the great British choice.
By going too far, too fast, too soon the Tories are delivering growth that amounts to very little.
In fact in real terms (considering wage freezes and inflation) this practical stagnation. But look how different things could have been.
Had Labour’s economic strategy of stimulus and delayed spending cuts been implemented, the UK economy would be performing much better.
The ‘madness’ of terrorism and other offensive terms
contribution by Nicky Clark
Without the slightest medical evidence to back up the claims the medical status of the Norwegian killer has been firmly established in all of our minds. He is depending or you choice of national newspaper, rolling news channel or twitter feed either a “Lunatic”, “nutter”, “psychopath”. “madman”, “deranged” or “unhinged”.
For the moment these terms are as wrong as they are offensive. If it transpires that Anders Breivik does in fact have a diagnosis then they will simply be offensive terms.
continue reading… »
Palestinian children routinely jailed for throwing stones, report finds
contribution by Libby Powell
In an Israeli military detention centre in January 2011, an interrogator addressed a boy. Blindfolded and bound, 16-year-old Malek would later remember the words: “My name’s Abu Ahmad and I’ll give you five minutes to think and then confess to throwing stones.”
In the West Bank, stones are everywhere.
They litter the pale, rocky slopes on which Palestinian villages and Israeli settlements perch, side by side. Children, too, are everywhere. They make up over half of Palestine’s population and suffer the same realities and frustrations of conflict as the adults.
continue reading… »
What are people like Melanie Phillips calling for then?
Melanie Phillips and the gaggle of paranoids that make up the internet’s nutty ‘Counter-Jihad’ movement are loudly insisting that they don’t advocate acts of violence or terrorism.
For now, let’s assume that’s true and move on from there.
What, exactly, do they imagine it is that they are advocating?
continue reading… »
Amy Winehouse’s phone was also hacked
The deceased singer Amy Winehouse’s phone was repeatedly hacked in recent years, a reporter claimed last night.
Tabloid reporters hacked into her phone to obtain details of her stays in rehab and when she was expected to arrive at clinics, so photographers could be in place.
Charles Lavery, a former investigative journalist at Scotland’s Sunday Mail reported that her brother was also a victim.
His phone and personal data was mined for potential stories.
A source told Lavery:
Take a look at the acres of coverage of her getting out of taxicabs and walking into rehab. Or walking out of rehab into cabs. How did that happen? Or the details of her time in rehab, her private life. A lot of the time some people close to her sold the info, but her data was accessed on a routine, wholesale basis.
And not just by one newspaper group, by most of them.
A lot of showbiz journalists started covering tracks with the news of her death.
Lavery reported last night that details from Winehouse’s phone were either sold or used to photograph her after treatment.
He also told NME mag that he confirmed the phone-hacking details soon after her death.
Anders Breivik wasn’t a “lone wolf”, he was part of a movement
Right-wing pundits are now very keen to tell us that the Norwegian terror attacks were not caused by right-wing anti-multicultural ideology.
The fact that Anders Breivik quoted Daily Mail articles in his manifesto and forged links with the same anti-immigration groups lauded by our tabloid press is apparently neither here nor there.
He was just a lone nutter okay? And besides, if it wasn’t for multiculturalism, then there wouldn’t have been a problem there in the first place.
continue reading… »
The famine in Somali is no natural disaster
When we see dying Somalis, it is all too easy to see a natural disaster. But droughts are more frequent because oil executives demand the right to carry on exploring and extracting and to keep our society addicted to burning.
Without the level of carbon we have pumped into the atmosphere, we would have neither the frequency nor the scale of droughts we see today.
But the drought is only one factor. It has arrived in the middle of a perfect storm for Somalia, with very high global food prices and very weak government.
continue reading… »
Oslo terrorist cited Melanie Phillips in his manifesto
As we reported yesterday, the Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik published a 1,500 page manifesto online that warned of “Islamic colonisation” of Western Europe.
He introduced the manifesto by writing that it “presents advanced ideological, practical, tactical, organisational and rhetorical solutions and strategies for all patriotic-minded individuals/movements”.
The manifesto also has this quote on Page 361:
Our culture is now deep into uncharted territory. Generations of family disintegration in turn are unravelling the fundamentals of civilised human behaviour. Committed fathers are crucial to their children’s emotional development. As a result of the incalculable irresponsibility of our elites, however, fathers have been seen for the past three decades as expendable and disposable. Lone parenthood stopped being a source of shame and turned instead into a woman’s inalienable right.
The state has provided more and more inducements to women – through child benefit, council flats and other welfare provision – to have children without committed fathers. This has produced generations of women-only households, where emotionally needy girls so often become hopelessly inadequate mothers who abuse and neglect their own children – who, in turn, perpetuate the destructive pattern. This is culturally nothing less than suicidal.
The above quote is not Breivik, but rather the Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips.
After the quote, he adds:
I sometimes wonder whether the modern West, and Western Europe in particular, should be dubbed the Fatherless Civilisation. Fathers have been turned into a caricature and there is a striking demonisation of traditional male values. Any person attempting to enforce rules and authority, a traditional male preserve, is seen as a Fascist and ridiculed, starting with God the Father. We end up with a society of vague fathers who can be replaced at the whim of the mothers at any given moment. Even the mothers have largely abdicated, leaving the upbringing of children to schools, kindergartens and television. In fashion and lifestyle, mothers imitate their daughters, not vice versa.
Another article by Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail on immigration (safe link) is quoted in its entirety in the manifesto.
But there is no suggestion that his actions were inspired by Melanie Phillips, nor am I making that claim.
Breivik also quoted an article by presenter Jeremy Clarkson on the flag of St George, which says: “This is the only country in the world where the national flag is deemed offensive.”
Breivik is due to make his appearance in court today, where he is expected to plead not-guilty and ‘explain’ his actions.
Will tomorrow be the day people start to question Osborne’s competence?
Tomorrow today we find out how badly the UK economy has been doing for the past 3 months. It is important because it may also be the day politicos wake up and realise our economy is in deep trouble and George Osborne has little idea how to revive it.
By most predictions it will be a bad figure for the Chancellor: ranging from negative growth (massive disaster) to around 0.8% growth (still a disaster). As Ed Balls pointed out yesterday, Osborne needs 0.8% just to hit his targets (and bring the deficit down).
Let’s be clear about this: many of us on the left warned a year ago the Chancellor’s austerity strategy would not work. A year later, the evidence is mounting up against him.
Lansley admits unions were right on pensions
The Telegraph today has an extraordinary leak from health secretary Andrew Lansley.
The letter essentially echoes what Labour, and especially the unions, have been saying about changes to pensions.
According to the Telegraph:
He said: “The paper…assumes that public sector workers, many of whom are women, will work a 48 year career [to get a full pension].
“In the NHS currently, the average full time career for those taking a pension is only 18 years and it seems unrealistic to suggest that pension scheme design should be based on the assumption that a predominantly female workforce would need to work full time 48 year careers in future to receive a full pension. It is also difficult to see how this meets our commitment to maintain gold standard pensions.”
In the five-page letter, Mr Lansley criticises other parts of the proposed reforms – drawn up following a report for the Government compiled by former Labour minister Lord Hutton – for being particularly unfair to NHS workers.
Many health workers already pay more for their pensions than civil servants or other Government employees.
“We face a real risk, if we push too hard, of industrial action involving staff groups delivering key public services,” he said.
“There is also the risk that lower paid staff in particular will simply opt out, leaving HMT [HM Treasury] with reduced receipts in the short term while still having to pay for past pension promises.
Wonder how the government’s own claims will stand up now. This is a big bomb in the midst of the government’s push to destroy public pensions.
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