Tories play ‘class war’ card on top 1%
Ed Miliband’s interview with the Independent yesterday provoked an angry reaction from Conservative blogger Tim Montgomerie.
Ed Miliband said:
David Cameron really is doing a terrific job of looking after the vested interests, the privileged, the powerful and the wealthiest one per cent. It’s the other 99 per cent who feel desperately let down.
David Cameron doesn’t get it. It is not in his DNA. It is not what drives him in his politics. Working for a more responsible, fairer capitalism is not what gets him up in the morning. Even he would be hard pressed to claim it was his raison d’etre.
To which Montgomerie responded by playing the ‘class war’ card.
Hey – I’m all for Tories defending the interests of the top 1% class. Go ahead Tim!
The next day, without any irony whatsoever, Montgomerie explains how Conservatives will win their next majority:
The biggest barrier between the Conservative Party and floating voters is the sense – polled by Lord Ashcroft – that we are a party for the haves rather than the have nots.
…
We are still, however, seen as too close to the wealthy and big business.
Now, why would voters think the Tories are only for the wealthy and big business? Answers on a postcard… preferably to ConservativeHome.
Why the Met’s deployment of rubber bullets is very worrying
Though the tactic of kettling was devised under former Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone’s term, and used before recent student demonstrations (notably as a means of keeping EDL thugs from clashing with counter protests), it was still a shock the first time I saw it being used on young people, who were visibly scared and certainly no threat.
On more than one occasion I have seen tensions rise, not before, but as a consequence of, the tactic of kettling.
It was my opinion at the time that police were using kettling as a way of putting young people off protesting.
continue reading… »
Daily Mail admits its ‘Winterval’ story untrue
This admission by the Daily Mail today is simply… staggering.
After years of perpetuating the myth, the Daily Mail issues this correction:
We stated in an article on 26 September that Christmas has been renamed in various places Winterval.
Winterval was the collective name for a season of public events, both religious and secular, which took place in Birmingham in 1997 and 1998.
We are happy to make clear that Winterval did not rename or replace Christmas.
via @MinorityThought
The Winterval myth has in fact become the stuff of legends, and Daily Mail columnists have repeated it for years without fact-checking.
After over ten years of fact-checking, most famously by Oliver Burkeman at the Guardian, the Daily Mail finally admits the Winterval story wasn’t true.
Update: Blogger Kevin Arscott brilliantly de-constructed the history of the Winterval myth last year.
Update 2: Tabloid Watch has the background.
Why the BBC’s John Humphrys is wrong about Greeks
contribution by James Meadway
A fresh arrival in austerity-stricken Athens over the weekend, the Today programme’s John Humphries joined the ranks of IMF inspectors and faceless ECB technocrats currently descending on Greece.
Unlucky Greece. In a series of interviews, Greeks are told they were “foolish”. Their pensions are “staggeringly generous”. Greece “spent too much for too long”.
This is drivel.
continue reading… »
Youth unemployment up in 97% of UK
Youth unemployment has increased in 97% of local authority areas in the UK in the last 12 months, according to a TUC analysis published today, ahead of the latest official unemployment statistics out next week on Wednesday.
With the prospect of youth unemployment hitting the one million mark when the Office for National Statistics released the latest figures next week, the TUC reveals that the number of young people aged between 18 and 24 unable to find work in the UK has increased in 196 of 202 local authorities since September 2010.
The TUC believes this illustrates that the government’s current approach to youth joblessness and the economy is not working.
The only six UK local authorities where youth unemployment has stalled in the last year are Hillingdon, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames, Reading and – the only authority not in the south east – Warwickshire.
From September 2007 to September 2011, the number of young people unable to find work at least doubled in a third of local authorities (32%).
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
Young people need particular help to make sure they don’t spend long periods out of employment or education. We need a proper replacement for the Future Jobs Fund, new measures to support the creation of more apprenticeships and a government commitment that no unemployed young person will spend more than six months out of employment or high quality training.
The Chancellor’s plan A has already sent unemployment to a 17-year high. Our young people, and our whole country, urgently need a plan B to get people back into work and the economy back on its feet.
The TUC analysis is available here.
From a press release
The Adam Smith Institute’s dishonesty on Robinhood tax
contribution by Owen Tudor
It’s often said that Adam Smith would turn in his grave if he knew what was argued in his name, and the latest Adam Smith Institute attack on the Robin Hood Tax would certainly be enough to make his skeleton blush crimson.
In just eight pages it manages to be confused, exaggerated, dishonest and illogical, and if that’s the best the ASI can come up with their (already anonymous, which must save some blushes) funders should be asking for the money back.
continue reading… »
The two big challenges for #occupyLSX and the Labour party
How should the Labour left and the broader left respond to Ed Miliband’s call to take seriously the aims and sentiments behind #occupyLSX?
Owen Jones says it represents a “victory” for #olsx – a sentiment I mostly sympathise with.
Some, including Graham Linehan on Twitter, said the call didn’t go far enough, while others accused him of trying to co-opt the movement. These reactions were entirely expected too.
But by far the most worrying reaction for me was the triumphalism and hubris of some, who dismissed the offer as the start of the collapse of the existing order.
continue reading… »
Is our intervention in Libya already back-firing in our faces?
I was never a supporter of the West’s military intervention in Libya. All I could think of were ulterior motives: oil, defence contracts, geo-political influence in such a vital and unstable part of the world.
Also, why help Libya but not other countries rising up against tyranny?
The Economist wrote that not intervening everywhere was no reason not to intervene somewhere. I accepted this as a plausible argument, but still found myself against intervention.
continue reading… »
Graph: How the 1% have prospered, not the rest
This graph, by the Resolution Foundation, backs up the point #occupyLSX have been making, and is endorsed by Ed Miliband today – while the richest 1% have prospered in the UK for the last 30 years the poorest have not seen their incomes grow.
The system is rigged; the economy is broken – and even some Conservatives are reluctantly starting to admit it. When will the media and the rest of the political class?
How the left could take up the case of ‘economic democracy’
contribution by Jon Stone
Peter Tatchell argues over at Compass that the Left, and Labour, should make economic democracy its new focus. I agree.
In this post I’m going to flesh out some reasons why this is a good idea.
The failure of regulation
The regulatory system takes the idea that firms will want to do bad things that harm society, and tries to solve it by developing a set of external rules to govern their actions.
continue reading… »
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» Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote
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» Violence in the office
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» The world is entering the third phase of the crisis, warns ILO
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