Republic to protest at Queen’s Jubilee
Campaign group Republic has announced details of “the biggest and boldest anti-monarchy protest in modern times” at the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant next year.
The protest will be held on the afternoon of Sunday June 3 when a flotilla of up to a thousand boats, headed by the Queen and senior politicians, will travel along the Thames from Putney to Tower Bridge. The protest will greet the flotilla as it passes through central London.
A new website – www.jubileeprotest.org.uk – will keep supporters up-to-date with the plans.
Republic spokesperson Graham Smith said:
The Pageant goes to the heart of what’s wrong with the monarchy. It’s an enforced celebration of hereditary power, and all the problems that spring from it. We’re going to make sure that on the jubilee weekend, the republican movement will be impossible to ignore. This will be the biggest and boldest anti-monarchy protest in modern times.
Over a quarter of Britons want the monarchy abolished and that’s only going to grow as Charles gets closer to the throne. The jubilee gives us a unique opportunity to promote the positive republican alternative and build a stronger movement for change. We expect our numbers to swell and our profile to increase during the jubilee, just as they did after the royal wedding.
Additional demonstrations will be held outside the BBC jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace on June 4 and the service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral on June 5.
From a press release
The PCC wants to regulate blogs, and make us pay for it
The new PCC chairman Lord Hunt has told journalist David Hencke in an interview: “At the moment, it is like the Wild West out there. We need to appoint a sheriff.”
That’s right – he’s referring to bloggers. His plan is to invite political bloggers to volunteer for regulation by the PCC’s replacement. Blogs who promise to abide by the new code will get a ‘kitemark’ of approval.
The PCC will be replaced with a body more independent of newspapers, David Hencke is told, and plans will be presented to the Leveson Inquiry.
continue reading… »
How the BBC mangled Diabetes statistics to lay blame on the NHS
There is something a bit odd about the shock news released today that people who have a serious (but controllable) medical condition are not expected to live as long as people without it.
The BBC are reporting the news as if no one has ever been aware of it, but I came to the conclusion a year ago that the BBC have an agenda to broadcast as many articles as possible that puts the NHS in a poor light.
Let’s look at what the BBC are saying.
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Social housing and the myth of ‘inherited’ tenancies
The past few months have seen an upsurge of interest in social housing- but for all the wrong reasons.
One example that has had the Tories and right-wing media frothing at the mouth is the need to get rid of ‘lifetime’ tenancies, so that Councils can re-allocate properties on a regular basis, moving on tenants who are ‘under-occupying’.
continue reading… »
Watch: Jon Stewart rips boycott of Muslim show
An American reality show called American Muslim has attracted controversy in the United States after ‘Florida Family Association’ complained because the show did not depict images of violent fundamentalist Muslims. No, seriously.
And so, the hardware store Lowe’s decided to pull ads from the show. Last night, comedian Jon Stewart covered the whole controversy.
Watch
Tory Council policies leads to highest homelessness in UK
New research by charity Shelter has found that Hammersmith and Fulham has one of the highest rates of households at risk of eviction in the whole of the country.
Shelter’s eviction risk monitor, which looks at the rate of possession claims served against homeowners, private renters and people in social housing, highlights the huge problems that spiralling housing costs and squeezed incomes are causing families in Hammersmith and Fulham.
The research is a damning indictment of a council that has failed to deal with the housing crisis, refusing to build more social housing and choosing instead to sell off scarce assets to private landlords for undervalue.
The housing benefit cap will only serve to exacerbate the problem as our economy slides back into recession.
The safety net that would keep families in their homes as unemployment continues to rise is being taken away.
Why Labour can no longer afford to get closer to Europe
Whether David Cameron sold out the rest of Britain’s economic interests to save the City is an academic debate, and soon to be an irrelevant one.
The howls of anger at his decision from the left, and the business community, miss the point: this was an entirely political decision and most Britons dislike the EU enough to give him the benefit of doubt.
That means Labour’s criticisms are as futile as calls for the party to work with the Libdems and make the pro-European case.
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Surprised? Austerity worsens Greek economy
Reuters reports today:
Greece’s budget deficit continued to widen in November as an austerity-fuelled recession cancelled out much of the extra revenues the government was hoping to raise through emergency taxes, data showed on Tuesday.
Well knock me down with a feather!
I’m shocked that imposing harsh austerity on Greece is depressing the economy and raising its debt levels rather than helping it stabilise!
IT’s not like we haven’t been predicting this endlessly on LC.
The economy is expected to shrink by 5.5% over 2011. Tax revenues have shrunk by 3.1% over the year.
One official told Reuters:
If current spending and revenue trends continue, the deficit will be at about 10 percent of GDP and not at about 9 percent.
No doubt the response from the right will be to call for even more austerity, in the magical belief this will expand tax revenues.
Bizarre: More Libdems for EU veto than not
More Lib Dem voters think Cameron was right to use the veto (he didn’t, technically) at the EU summit than against, by 47% to 36%.
That was the bizarre findings of a YouGov poll on the issue, which also found that Labour voters were evenly split (38% for, 39% against). Conservative voters were overwhelmingly for: 87% to 3%.
That said, claims by Labour and Libdems leadership that the veto will harm Britain’s interest seems to have resonated.
31% think it was a bad decision for Britain, 24% good. 45% neither or don’t know. (20% think Cameron had no choice, hence the discrepancy).
51% thought the veto decreased British influence in Europe, and 63% thought it leaves Britain isolated from other EU countries.
But even if voters think the summit’s outcome had drawbacks, they’re blaming EU leaders for that, not Cameron.
Government slashes benefits for disabled children; press doesn’t notice
Last night, the House of Lords failed to support an amendment put down by Tanni Grey-Thompson, the most successful paralympian of all time, to protect the benefits of disabled children once Universal Credit is introduced.
You can read more here but effectively, under universal credit, all but the most profoundly disabled children will only get half as much support.
Child Tax Credit additions for disabled children will fall from £52.21 per week to £25.95 per week – a loss of £1366 per year, or £20,000 over the course of a childhood.
continue reading… »
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» Five things you need to know about the NHS bill
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