Recent Articles

Why Nadine Dorries & Frank Field are being dishonest on their abortion proposals

The MPs Nadine Dorries and Frank Field have put forward three amendments to the NHS Bill, which is due to be debated when parliament returns next week.

The amendments propose that organisations such as British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and Marie Stopes be prevented from providing counselling to women who want abortions, on the basis that they have a ‘vested interest’ in encourage women to have abortions.

The biggest irony is that the amendments are attached to a bill primarily about pushing private companies (with vested interests) into the NHS, on the basis they can offer services better and cheaper.
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Why Labour’s new idea on apprenticeships should be welcomed

contribution by David Merlin-Jones

Last week, Labour announced a new scheme called ‘jobs-for-contracts’ that would compel companies seeking public sector contracts to provide apprenticeships in order to be considered.

Media coverage of the statement was muted, to say the least, and as a matter of course, the Government derided the plan and other organisations joined in the kicking. However, there are three main reasons why the policy is very sensible and deserves much more positive attention than it has received.
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Watch: Starsuckers’ Atkins on cluster bombs

In this short film for Amnesty TV,Chris Atkins, the anarchic ‘Starsuckers’ director and producer of ‘Taking Liberties’, uncovers the shameful truth about UK high street banks and their investment in banned cluster bombs.

Think you know public opinion on what caused the riots? Think again

contribution by James Morris

What caused the riots? For perhaps the first time this year, the Sun and the Guardian were in agreement – or at least their pollsters were.

The Sun’s YouGov poll asked for the ‘main cause of the riots’ and top of the list was ‘criminal behaviour’ (42%). The Guardian’s ICM poll asked the same thing and there it was again ‘criminality on the part of the rioters’ (45%).

Two polls. Two newspapers. One finding. The public must have decided. But there is something very odd about the idea that criminality caused the riots: rioting is criminal.
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Tory MP’s video on Israeli wall censored

Tory MP Alan Duncan, also an International Development minister, was forced to withdraw a video posted onto the DfID website that stated facts about the Israeli ‘security’ wall.

Standing in front of the security wall in the West Bank, Duncan stated that:

The wall is a land grab. It hasn’t just gone along the lines of the proper Israel boundary.

It’s taken in open land which actually belongs to Palestine. Israeli settlers can build what they want and then immediately get the infrastructure so that takes the water deliberately away from Palestinians here.

However, after pressure from ‘Jewish leaders’ (according to ConHome) and critical coverage in the Jewish Chronicle, he was forced to withdraw the video.

The purpose of Alan Duncan’s visit to Palestine was to pledge aid to 35,000 Palestinians, providing primary education and creating jobs.

Housing shortages don’t always have lead to tension over immigration

contribution by Nancy Kelly

On Wednesday. the Migration Observatory published a briefing on the impact of migration on the social housing system in the UK. Two days earlier, Migration Watch had also published a briefing on migrants and social housing, that raised concerns.

Despite being very different in tone, both reports agree that 90% of social housing tenancies are held by people born in the UK, and only 10% by people born outside of the UK.
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Labour’s Andy Slaughter stands against evicting riot families

Labour MP Andy Slaughter has released this statement on the plan by some local councils to evict entire families if one person was caught looting:

Iain Duncan Smith is on the lookout for evil people who, bereft of moral values, are hiding in dark corners of society. I doubt he will find any but it is an excuse to evict families from secure homes and to deduct benefits from poor families.

How punishing a household for the actions of an individual is either equitable or rational, I don’t know, but it has been repeated by politicians seeking soundbites and at a loss for real answers from Nick Clegg to Tory councillors in H&F.

Promising to evict families from council homes if a member of the family is convicted of an offence implies council tenants are more prone to criminal behaviour and that they should have a greater punishment than others committing similar crimes.

Of course, the Council has no power to evict in most cases, that is a matter for the courts and this is gesture politics, but if families are evicted and on the streets how is that going to aid social cohesion?

Indeed!
Well done on Andy Slaughter for making this case. His full article is here.

And why are so many others from Labour so shamefully silent?

Earlier, we published research conducted by the previous government backing up Slaughter’s point – evicting ‘problem families’ worsens crime and social cohesion in a local area.

There is no good excuse for any local authority, let alone a Labour one, to evict entire families out of social housing just because one person was caught looting. It is not only highly disproportionate but also counter-productive.

Revealed: how much the govt e-petitions site costs taxpayers

contribution by Andrew Tindall

After the rocky launch of the government’s new epetitions website, I started to wonder just how much was spent moving over to this system from the petitions on the old number 10 site.

In order to get this information, I shot off a freedom of information request to the cabinet office on July 28th.

Today I finally got my response.
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What yesterday’s migration statistics say about employment

contribution by Owen Tudor

Yesterday’s migration figures are understandably being seen as a further challenge to the Coalition Government’s rash pledge to bring down net immigration to under 100,000 a year.

Actually immigration is falling, but less fast than emigration, so the net figure is going up (by 21% between 2009 and 2010).

Work isn’t the key issue (of 575,000 people entering the country for the long-term, less than 20% were coming for work), and the work figures are further evidence of the continuing flatlining of the global economy.
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Met police to ban ALL marches in East London

The Metropolitan police has applied to ban all marches in some London boroughs for a period of thirty days.

The application for a ban follows intense pressure by local politicians and campaign groups such as Hope Not Hate to stop the English Defence League from marching in Tower Hamlets.

According to Dave Hill:

It will be effective from 2 September. More details of the application are promised later, including the names of the boroughs affected, one of which is undoubtedly Tower Hamlets. The application, which is highly unlikely to be turned down, applies to all marches in the boroughs concerned, including a planned counter-march against the EDL.

He points out that the ban will exclude funeral processions and marches that take place annually. But it may affect other events too.

The ban may end up applying to the planned protests against the world’s biggest arms fair on 13th September (if extended to Newham).

The SWP have also called upon people to defy the Met police ban, on account that it will stop Unite Against Fascism from holding a counter-demonstration against the static EDL event.

Update: The proposed Met police ban on marches for a month will cover Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, Islington & Waltham Forest London boroughs. It may also include the City of London, for reasons not clarified.