Recent Articles

Why gay-only venues should have the right to exist

contribution by Kaite Welsh

In the wake of a case that seemed to sound the death knell for homophobia, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found a new target. Despite no formal complaints, the Commission is investigating potential discrimination – from gay-only venues.

But is that really a big deal? Now that gay people are enjoying an unprecedented amount of tolerance, why stay in the ghetto even if it is fabulous?
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Is the second Gaza Flotilla really worth all the money being raised?

contribution by Danny Williams

As the anniversary of last year’s Freedom Flotilla debacle quickly nears, flotilla promoters have announced that a second flotilla will attempt to break Israel’s siege of Gaza this May.

Organizers are hoping to send at least 20 ships toward the Gaza coast. But isn’t it time to question the logic of throwing more money into this PR abyss – the organizers themselves concede this is about raising awareness and not humanitarian aid – when Gaza cries out for medicine and food?
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Compass opens up to other parties

Compass announced today the results of its Opening Out Ballot, in which said that 68% of its members have voted in favour of constitutional amendments.

This ends the rulings that restrict membership to those already in Labour or entitled to be so.

Neal Lawson, Chair of Compass said of the result:

From today anyone who shares our vision of the good society can join Compass. Labour, Greens, Liberal Democrats and people of no party.

“The vote signals a big step toward a new politics. What matters is what people believe and what they will do about their beliefs – not what party card they hold or if they have one at all. Tens of thousands of people want a world that is more equal, sustainable and democratic. Now Compass can play an even bigger role in the creation of that world.

“Of course Labour remains the biggest and most important party in this progressive movement for change. Compass will maintain a special relationship with Labour and Ed Miliband who we gave overwhelming backing to. But Compass will exert more influence on Labour and be more capable of building and sustaining a wider alliance if we get everyone involved in the process of making the economy the servant of society.

The Compass Management Committee retrains the right to ballot Labour members and supporters in Compass on internal Labour issues.

The full results of the ballot are as follows: YES = 354, NO =163, ABSTAIN =3.
In percentage terms this equals YES = 68%, NO =31%, ABSTAIN =1%. A margin of 2:1 in votes was required to pass the amendment.

From a press release

Why we should resist not implement Tory cuts

contribution by Andrew Fisher

The Tory-led coalition government is making massive and unnecessary cuts that threaten the future of the welfare state. On this much the left is united.

The divisions come about tactics of resistance. The main division among anti-cuts activists at the moment is how councils, particularly Labour councils, should respond to the cuts.

Some believe that Labour councils should be supported in making cuts, because they will make them more fairly than any other party. Don Paskini recently wrote: “I would be furious if our Labour councillors took the advice of the Labour Representation Committee and other lefties and refused to set a budget.”
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Watch: Glenn Beck on UKuncut and USuncut

Activists from UK Uncut will stage nationwide protests against the Royal Bank of Scotland to confront the government’s failure to make the banks pay for the financial crisis, this Saturday.

Across the Atlantic, the recently formed US Uncut will hold their first day of action, with 50 protests planned against the Bank of America, including one on the tropical island of Hawaii.

Protesters will stage ‘bail-ins’ in more than 35 towns and cities across the UK, including Tunbridge Wells, Ashby de la Zouche, Colchester, Southport and Dundee. They plan to transform high street branches of RBS and Natwest into services that are threatened by the cuts including classrooms, libraries, care for the elderly, creches, a bus stop and homeless shelters.

In the US, activists inspired by UK Uncut are targeting Bank of America over charges that it pays less tax than the average American household. US Uncut has amassed over 7000 followers on Facebook even before its first day of action.

via @MissEllieMae

Conservatives created the NHS ‘bureaucracy’ they are now attacking

contribution by Jon Taylor

The Tories talk a lot about how the public sector has become bloated, according to them, it has become ‘weighed down by bureaucracy’.

But is Tory policy not responsible, at least in part, for creating the bureaucratic system we see before us today? I think it’s about time the left started to challenge the notion that bureaucracy is solely a left-wing phenomenon. It’s not.
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Snow joke: GDP shrinks more than expected

Fresh from the Office of National Statistics:

UK gross domestic product (GDP) in volume terms decreased by 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010, revised down from a decrease of 0.5 per cent published in January.

This was not due exclusively to snow either, although it clearly had an impact:

The disruption caused by the bad weather is likely to have contributed approximately 0.5 percentage points of the 0.6% decline, that is, if there had been no disruption, GDP would be showing a slight fall.

In the face of depressed demand, and a still weakened economy the Tories desperately need a Plan B.

Sunny adds: This is significant also because Tories expected the -0.5% figure to be quite conservative. But its worse than expected now.

Update: Ed Balls has sent out a statement saying:

These are disappointing figures which confirm that the recovery stalled and the economy contracted at the end of last year, even once the effects of the snow have been taken into account.

Of course we should always treat one quarter’s figures with caution, but it is not cautious for the Treasury to plough on regardless. George Osborne was complacent in declaring before Christmas that he had saved the economy and secured the recovery. And he is being complacent now in refusing to accept that his choice to cut too deep and too fast is holding back our economy and putting jobs at risk.

2011 should be the year when the British economy grows strongly and the recovery is secured. Yet the early signs are that the Tory-led Government’s reckless decision to abandon Labour’s plan to halve the deficit over four years has seen the economy take a turn for the worse. We now face the worst of all worlds – unemployment and inflation both rising, growth stalled and consumer confidence collapsed. And this is before the Government’s extreme fiscal tightening really starts to bite.

The Chancellor appears to be in denial. It is simply not credible for George Osborne to casually dismiss these figures once again and blame the wrong kind of snow rather than the wrong kind of economic policy. If the economy does not grow strongly this year – and make up the ground we lost at the end of 2010 – the Chancellor will have failed his first major test. He should change course before it’s too late.

How Cameron’s Big Society 3.0 (corporate welfare edition) could be checked

The Big Society started off with the idea that people would run services for themselves. When it became clear that this wasn’t going to work, Big Society 2.0 was about promoting charities and social action.

When it became clear many of these “Big Society” charities were being wiped out by the cuts, and were very ungratefully complaining about government cuts, Big Society 3.0 was born.

But this is the worst idea of them all.
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Police use pepper spray on Cambridge students

Two students were brutally arrested today after a demonstration after police followed them on to King’s College property.

Despite being repeatedly told by college authorities that they had no permission to be on the grounds, the Police used pepper spray and manhandled the protesters, say students who took the video.

Watch

‘Free Councils’ will increase inequality across the country

contribution by Dan McCurry

It seems Vince Cable has begun his political-fight back following his damaging “nuclear” remarks by proving that he can be more right-wing than the Tories. Today in the Guardian: “Free councils to keep bulk of cash raised through business rates. Richer boroughs will no longer see income from their businesses going to subsidise poorer parts of the country.”

A government minister said, “They will be free councils, and the idea is that they have a real incentive for the first time to encourage business in their locality.”

However this takes no account of the natural tendency for cities to develop separate business and residential areas, with workers commuting between the two.
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