Recent Articles

Rejecting the ‘not in my back yard’ approach to feminism

contribution by Elly

Feminist anti-sex work campaigners are busy this month. On June 17th Bristol Feminists Network announced their opposition to a license application (now at appeal stage) from a strip club in the ‘Old Market’ area of Bristol’s City Centre.

On the same day, Demand Change (run by Object and Eaves For Women), launched an ‘Action For Men’, leafleting men on the issue of criminal law regarding prostitution.

But the problem with opposing lap dancing clubs in city centres suggests a ‘not in my back yard’ approach by the feminist groups involved.
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Does Jeremy Hunt illustrate why class still matters?

Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, recently revealed his vast ignorance of British footballing history whilst managing to insult thousands:

[A]s a Minister I was incredibly encouraged by the example set by the England fans, I mean not a single arrest for a football related offensive and the terrible problems that we had in Heysel and Hillsborough in the 1980s seem now to be behind us and I think, you know, there is small grounds for encouragement there even though obviously we are very disappointed about the result.

Anybody with even a basic knowledge of English football will know that what happened at Hillsborough had absolutely nothing to do with hooliganism.

That Hunt was shadow secretary for the same office during last year’s 20th anniversary Hillsborough memorial services is an even greater indictment of his callous ignorance.

But could there be something more going on?
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Report: NHS already suffering from crisis

Redundancies, recruitment freezes and service cutbacks – these are the early signs of the impact the economic crisis is having on the UK’s health service, according to a BMA survey of doctors released on Sunday.

Launched on the eve of the BMA’s annual conference, where NHS finances are likely to dominate doctors’ debates, BMA research shows that, despite reassurances that front-line services will be protected, many NHS organisations are already taking actions which could have devastating and long-lasting consequences for the NHS.

The survey of local negotiating committee1 (LNC) chairs found:

• Around one in four respondents (24%) said redundancies were planned in their organisation. Redundancies planned are for the most part non-clinical and overwhelmingly non-medical.
• Almost two thirds of respondents (62%) said that there was a freeze on recruitment. Seventy per cent of respondents reporting a freeze indicated that it covered medical posts and 80% that it applied to nursing posts.
• Just over half (55%) of those with no explicit freeze indicated that there were unfilled vacancies.
• Nearly three quarters of respondents (72%) indicated that clinical service or infrastructure developments were being postponed for financial reasons and two in five that access to treatments or therapies was being limited.
• Just under half (45%) of responding LNCs were being consulted on cost and efficiency savings. The amount of savings being sought varied considerably around an average of just under 6%.

LNCS are BMA-linked bodies that represent medical staff in hospitals and other trusts in England, Health Boards in Scotland, NHS Trusts in Wales, and health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland.

From a press release

A left-wing narrative and plan of action against Tory cuts

This is an initial sketch of some thoughts. This is how the response to the Tory cuts, in terms of framing and action, should be.

1) Ordinary people are being forced to pay for mis-management and light regulation within the City of London. Even now, nothing is being done to address that problem.

2) These huge cuts in the public sector were largely avoidable. Why? Because the government should have waited until the recovery was a lot stronger and tax revenues had recovered, before cutting back spending growth and bringing finances to a more manageable level.
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Watch: C4′s shocking report – Met ignore rape

This was Channel 4′s main news story today, focusing on how the Met Police finally accepted that they had de-prioritised rape and paid

The Guardian reported today:

In a damning report, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) today described the police investigation into the series of attacks as a “shameful chapter” in the history of the Metropolitan police.

Kirk Reid, 45, a chef and children’s football coach, is serving a life sentence after being convicted of 27 sexual offences, including two of rape, on women on the A24 corridor and near Balham and Tooting underground stations. Police have linked him to a possible 80-100 more sexual assaults between 2001 and 2008.

The IPCC said that even though Reid had been considered a suspect as long ago as 2004, he slipped through the net because of “sustained failure by senior supervisory officers”.

Another poll: Libdems losing support to Labour

A Comres poll tonight for the Independent confirms the general trend that Libdem support has fallen sharply since they joined the Coalition government.

Backing for Nick Clegg’s party is down 5 points – outside the margin of error – to 18%. Labour is up 1 point to 31% and the Conservatives rise to 40% (+4).

It illustrates that while the Conservatives are enjoying a honeymoon with the public, Libdem supporters are less enamoured by their new political alliances.

The Comres report explicitly states:

Only 68% of people who voted Lib Dem in May would still vote Lib Dem now – however this support is more likely to go to Labour than the Conservatives.

Details of the poll can be found here.

How can the left reach out to more people?

contribution by Carmen D’Cruz

At the Liberal Conspiracy conference on Saturday, I couldn’t help but be disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm for serious engaging with the public.

Yes, we all blog, and we’re all members of the public, but we also know each other’s internet presence, and have political in-jokes, abbreviations, and preconceptions about the nature of those we might disagree with.

We were divided up into tables of about 10-15 people, covering a range of topics, and asking round my table why the Daily Mail is the most popular newspaper in the UK, no one could provide me with a suitable answer.
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Artists to protest at Tate’s BP party today

The Tate is throwing a gala event in order to celebrate 20 years of BP sponsorship later today, according to a leaked invitation seen by the campaign group Platform.

A group of artists calling themselves The Good Crude Britannia, who want Tate to cut its ties with BP, will picket tonight’s party.

They come together to speak out against oil industry sponsorship of the arts in “Licence to Spill“, a new briefing being launched by Platform last week.

Tate’s five-year sponsorship deal with BP is up for renewal in spring 2011, and sources within Tate suggest the controversial issue of BP’s sponsorship will be on the agenda for the first time at the upcoming trustees’ meeting in July.

There has been growing activism in the UK against BP’s sponsorship of arts in the UK.

Last month, Liberate Tate disrupted Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

This week, Rising Tide and Art Not Oil targeted the BP Portrait Award ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery and Greenpeace mounted an alternative exhibition to coincide with the private view.

The magazine Don’t Panic also filmed their own protest against a BP event last week (video below)

Jane Trowell of Platform said:

BP is trying to repair its tarnished reputation and buy our approval by associating itself with culturally important institutions like Tate. The financial support provided by BP creates a perception of it being a cuddly corporate entity, and aims to distract us from the devastating environmental and social impacts of its global operations.

Public outrage over the Deepwater Horizon spill is creating a moment for change. We hope that, as happened with the tobacco industry, it will soon come to be seen as socially unacceptable for cultural institutions to accept funding from Big Oil

A letter has been published in the Guardian today by artists protesting against the BP sponsorship.

Why the left will always be at a loss without vote reform

The afternoon session at Liberal Conspiracy’s excellent BlogNation event on Saturday featured many pleas for pluralism on ‘the Left’ – among Labour, Green Party, left-leaning LibDems, and others of other Parties or of none.

These pleas were welcome. But, at the same time, there was plenty of evidence of continuing tribalism lacing them: both from the platform and from some parts of the hall. Alex Smith from LabourList told us with disarming honesty of how the current attacks on the LibDems from David Miliband and others are calculated expressions of tribal self-interest.

How can the vision of a pluralist broadly co-operative politics of ‘the Left’ – central to the strategic mission of Liberal Conspiracy – actually be achieved?
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The budget illustrates why it’s time to ditch ‘progressive’

Last week’s budget should come as a slap in the face to a sleeping British left. The Con-Dems widely trailed their “progressive budget”, with Gideon Osborne himself declaring:

Everyone will pay something but the people at the bottom of the income scale will pay proportionately less than those at the top. This is a progressive Budget.

Leftist sources have predictably responded by claiming this is not progressive at all. The New Statesman here has a fairly standard example too.

But part of the problem lies in the very term “progressive”.
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