Trouble in Peckham, last night
The rioters were little more than children, carrying suitcases for stolen goods. A pharmacy smashed in with packets of prescription drugs taken. Families leaning over balconies looking down in fear.
A short loans shop smashed in. A local dress-maker raided. Fireworks – raided from a newsagents – shot at police.
What struck me first was how young the Peckham rioters were. Was this the most exciting thing that happened since school broke up?
continue reading… »
Refounding Labour: how the party needs to change
Labour councillor Rowenna Davis was one of those who submitted her suggestions to the ‘Re-founding Labour’ iniative. Here, she outlines how she thinks the party needs to change.
The first thing we need is more diversity – and I say that as a white middle class councillor in the heart of Peckham.
Labour has always been able to celebrate the fact that it has a more diverse membership and elected representative base than any other mainstream party, but it needs to do more to engage a wider range of people into politics.
continue reading… »
Reporting back from the Citizens’ Assembly
You’ve got to love London Citizens’ strategy. Stick a politician on stage in front of several thousand people, present him (and it usually was a “him”) with some wonderfully populist solutions to a bunch of devastating facts and ask, “So are you with us?”
The policies presented to the squirming politicians and business leaders at a choc-a-bloc Barbican last night were made all the more difficult to avoid because they were decided democratically. Over a thousand of London Citizens’ members were involved in developing the policies, which you can read here.
Despite some inevitable wrangling, representatives from all political parties committed to working with London Citizens on these proposals. Greg Hands said the Conservatives would introduce a cap on store card interest rates (although notably, he didn’t say what that cap would actually be) and a representative from the British Bankers Association, who was brought on stage straight after a heart-wrenching personal testimony about debt, was asked if he’d commit to help responsible lending. (He did). Stephen Timms said he’d hold a meeting with London Citizens and the OFT to discuss capping interest rates, and Andrew Altman, CEO of the Olympic Legacy Programme said he’d meeting with London Citizens quarterly to discuss their plans. (Damn I’d love to see officials’ faces when these bigwigs tell them they have to add these dates to their diaries.)
Although London Citizens does get a bit happy clappy at times, it would be pretty arrogant of the left not to think it hasn’t got a lot to learn from this movement. Besides the “stick ‘em on stage and see” tactic, I took away three other lessons:
Be prepared to risk anarchy for democracy. This organisation isn’t afraid to hand highly eccentric people the microphone, to put street dancers on stage or to ask the audience if they endorse their chair. Somehow, it works.
Don’t be afraid to work across groups. London Citizens has got representatives from mosques, unions, churches, race-based organisations and schools. Sure they don’t agree on everything, but they agree on the important stuff.
Don’t be afraid to put morality, art and emotion into politics. It doesn’t water it down – it makes it come alive.
Cameron’s speech: hollow and hypocritical
Cameron, you started your speech today saying you were a rather “uncomplicated” man. Your personal simplicity is perhaps the one part of your speech that I agreed with.
Never have I been so proud of being on the left as when I was listening to you just now. Here are just a few reasons why your simplistic agenda fails to come up to scratch:
1) Life is more complicated than “Small Government Good, Big Government Bad.” The world has moved on from such dogmatic ideology. As Obama said, it’s not the size of the state that matters – it’s what works. If you’ve ever met anyone who’s just come out of prison, been long term unemployed or a young single mum you’ll know that simply withdrawing state support doesn’t work.
To get people back into work, people need confidence, skills and training. These things are expensive. You can’t just stop investing in people and expect them to give something back. And in a recession, the state may need to pay to create jobs for people to go in to whilst the private sector gets itself back on its feet. Shrinking government now is bad economics.
continue reading… »
What about those people on the margins?
Whilst the media spotlight has been shining on the sparkling big-teethed smiles of Tories in Manchester this week, I have been living with a family in the shadows. Yasmin and her 13-year-old daughter are asylum seekers from Bangladesh.
They invited me to stay with then in their Bolton home, just ten miles away from the conference, to write about family life on the poverty line.
Life on benefits for Yasmin is not a choice; it’s a legal obligation. She is desperate to work, but like all asylum seekers who are waiting to have their claims processed, she is forbidden to do so by the Home Office.
As I write, the signs of relentless cost cutting are scattered all around me. By the kitchen sink there is a small pot of diluted washing up liquid to make it last longer. A small jug sits in the bathroom, helping to make the most of their deliberately shallow baths. She knows about efficiencies.
continue reading… »
Time to ban junk-food ads aimed at kids
Companies spend an estimated £480 million a year on advertising products that are high in sugar, fat and salt on TV alone.
The fact that they continue to do it is evidence that psychological manipulation sells. Now that the government has decided to allow product placement in the film and television industry, this problem is only going to get worse.
Childhood has become saturated with junk food advertising. Do you remember the General licking his fingers on the Kentucky Fried Chicken adverts? The sultry Cadbury’s caramel bunny batting her eyelids on purple velvet, or Tony the Frosties tiger with his bright orange They’re Grrrrrrreat! smile?
Unlike most of the cartoons kids watch, the aim of these characters isn’t to offer education or entertainment.
continue reading… »
Labour women: demonised and dismissed
Think what you will of Flint’s resignation – but don’t put your criticisms (or your photos) in gender-loaded terms. Personally I think Flint’s resignation was opportunistic, badly orchestrated and ultimately self-defeating; but I don’t think it was a “silly woman” losing her head because of oestrogen and an X chromosome.
Across the media, Flint was portrayed in starkly sexist terms. She’s “flounced out” of the cabinet in a “hissy fit”, throwing “a stiletto in the heart of government”.
continue reading… »
A different approach to the BNP?
This week the anti-BNP coalition Hope Not Hate released a video depicting Nick Griffin as Hitler leading the next Reich. A viral tool to help prevent the BNP obtaining a seat in the fast approaching European elections, the video made my mates laugh – but it made me feel uncomfortable.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m a big fan of Hope not Hate. In fact, I’m currently sitting in front of several large boxes of their leaflets to deliver around Tower Hamlets and Islington. But I’m worried about the one-sided, overly negative approach we’re taking.
continue reading… »
Why isn’t the left working with rural campaigners?
This week I interviewed Georgina Downs, a campaigner from West Sussex who is almost single-handedly leading the campaign against pesticides in the UK. Suffering from ill health brought on by what she believes was inadvertent pesticide exposure from local farms as a child, she has been fighting to strengthen pesticide regulation through the courts for the last eight years.
Her story is a natural leftist battle. It’s about the exploitation of power – government officials and agro-chemical industries are blocking adequate regulatory methods despite robust research showing the damage that pesticides can do to human health.
And it’s about justice. Last November the High Court delivered a landmark victory on Georgina’s case, ruling that the government had failed to comply with a European directive designed to protect rural residents from exposure to toxins. The government has appealed that judgement, and Georgina is now fighting another round with support only from her Dad (who does the “postie runs”) and her Mum who does the photocopying. Her inbox is full of stories from other rural dwellers suffering health problems suspected to be brought on by pesticide exposure, but the court battle leaves precious little time for her to connect with them all.
Why does she not have more support from the left?
The left has always suffered from an urban bias. But we cannot let rural fights like these go unsupported. This point is about more than just anti-pesticide and environmental campaigns, important as they are – it’s about connecting with rural causes and communities more generally. Rural poverty and isolation for example, are huge issues in this country and should be natural territory for the left – but we hardly ever mention it. For their sake and ours, leftist organisations need to start connecting with communities in the countryside. It’s time to build a rural-urban alliance.
What is the left’s approach to the financial crisis?
On Sunday I wrote an article for Comment is Free criticising left-of-Labour forces for failing to present a coherent economic agenda for change. In the wake of the financial crisis, economics is now on our side, but we are failing to make the most of it.
After it went up, I actually felt rather bad about the cif article. It’s a bit disturbing that the forces I criticise hardest tend to be the ones I most want to succeed. But it wasn’t intended to be an attack; it was meant to be a call to action. The left should have the courage to make the economic case for a fairer society because, ultimately, the argument is ours to win.
Please correct me if I’m missing something, but since the financial crisis the Fabians have produced just one leaflet on green economics possibly being the way forward and written a couple of articles on the crisis. Surely the Fabians’ fantastic network of intellectuals and resources can make a stronger, more coherent case than that? Similarly, Cruddas and Rutherford just published a new e-book in response to the crisis, but it feels vague and confused.
A fiscal stimulus could provide jobs and build public infrastructure and services for the benefit of all – helping private companies increase productivity over the longer term. Income could be raised by taxation on industries that pollute and destroy the environment – taking into account their negative externalities – and bringing in much needed revenue.
An increase in social housing would stop more risky lending and save money on the costly externalities of homeless and poverty that are now on the rise. Making the economic case gives the left credibility – we cannot afford to brush over these arguments because we are uncomfortable with market-speak.
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
» Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll
» Criticism of Obama for its own sake: a reply to Mehdi Hasan
» Do older people really need more NHS healthcare?
» There are alternatives to the reckless ‘Plan A’
» On Beecroft: it is already quite easy to sack people
» Why Cameron’s claim of 600,000 jobs created is plainly wrong
» By using age to allocate NHS funding, Lansley rewards Tory voters
» The rise in domestic violence deaths is not an “isolated” problem
» Adrian Beecroft highlights mindset of Tory right
» The US is now a model for the Eurozone to save itself
» The IMF plan to revive the economy doesn’t go far enough
|
49 Comments 94 Comments 24 Comments 59 Comments 10 Comments 26 Comments 24 Comments 69 Comments 44 Comments 25 Comments |
|
LATEST COMMENTS » jojo posted on Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll » the a&e charge nurse posted on Do older people really need more NHS healthcare? » Trooper Thompson posted on Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll » Sarah AB posted on Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll » pagar posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed' » Chaise Guevara posted on Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll » Nathan Hulse posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother » re posted on Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll » Cylux posted on Red Tory Blond: gay marriage "homophobic" » Trooper Thompson posted on Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll » Barrie J posted on Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll » Chaise Guevara posted on Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll » Chaise Guevara posted on Red Tory Blond: gay marriage "homophobic" » Chris Smith posted on BBC misrepresents gas story to help 'deniers' » Just Visiting posted on Red Tory Blond: gay marriage "homophobic" |
