The coming war on affordable housing
contribution by Imran Ahmed
Vincent Moss at The Sunday Mirror has revealed government plans to scrap rules insisting that new housing estates are built with a minimum density of homes and that at least 25% of homes are affordable.
This would wreck communities across Britain.
As a resident of Hammersmith this came as a particularly horrifying surprise. Cameron has been closely tracking the radical Conservative initiatives being tried out in their flagship London council, Hammersmith & Fulham.
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Frank Field’s false crusade against ‘welfare dependency’
You have to hand it to the Tories. Hiring Frank Field as ‘poverty tsar’ to do a seven month study with no implications for the ‘financial’ side of things (e.g. benefits) is a brilliant stroke.
Not only will they be able to parade in their non-partisan laurels when the report is delivered, but it’ll be tweedle-dum to Iain Duncan-Smith’s tweedle-dee.
Banging the education drum will be met with Tory plans to ‘individualise’ education provision by reintroducing credits for kids to go to private schools.
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This government has broken all its promises on spending cuts
contribution by Nigel Stanley
The pre-election promises that £6 billion worth of cuts could be easily conjured up from efficiency savings that no-one would notice, that front-line services (whatever they are) would not be hit and that the poor and vulnerable could be protected have all been broken already.
Few will mourn the General Teaching Council or ID cards but cuts to even quite modest programmes such as Every Child a Reader revealed by Nicola break all these promises.
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We wasted far too much money on feel-good schemes
contribution by Julian Harris
Almost a quarter of a million pounds of “foreign aid” was pledged to a Brazilian-style dance troupe – in Hackney, east London – in 2009.
Given the farcical sound of this scheme, it is little surprise that incoming Conservative Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell had been in power for less than a week before he slashed its funding, declaring a freeze on all similar projects.
Progressives are right to promote awareness of international issues, universal freedoms, and the benefits of development in poor countries. But this is different from a government funding domestic feel-good schemes, and paying NGOs to champion its own policies – a self-serving system which threatens to provoke a reaction against the very causes that progressives support.
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Why is everyone who drinks booze treated the same?
contribution by Planeshift
The recent discussion on the minimum price for alcohol has proven to be hilarious for a further demonstration of the sociological ignorance of Tim Worstall et al, whose approach to the issue is at best naive and at worst dangerous and actually illiberal.
This to social and health policy issues is generally to examine matters from the perspective of examining what the externalities of certain market transactions are, and then ensure the externalities are priced and paid for via a pigou tax.
In fact whenever an externality arises, the preferred solution is a tax.
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David Lammy’s backing for Ken is a double-edged sword
On Tuesday former cabinet minister David Lammy announced he was going to chair Ken Livingstone’s Mayoral campaign.
This signals two things: that Ken wants to shake up his campaign and bring in someone new who would have fresh ideas. It also means that David Lammy is positioning himself as the main Labour mayoral candidate in four years time.
I wish him well in that, but it is a double-edged sword and he should be careful of that.
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Who would you blame for Cumbria shootings?
With Britain waking up to the worst firearms tragedy since Dunblane, the predictable finger-pointing begins.
And yet the police are still trying to piece the story together. It was unclear what exactly tipped 52-year-old Derrick Bird, the killer, over the edge. Was he having financial problems? Did he have a row with his fellow taxi drivers over queue-jumping and touting?
Did he fall out with his relatives over a will?
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How Pakistan has terrorised its Ahmadi minority for decades
contribution by Sadaf Meehan
My family are Ahmadi Muslims, a small Islamic sect that was declared non-Muslim by Pakistani authorities in 1974.
This pacifist sect – one of the central tenets is never to meet violence with violence – make-up less than three per cent of the Pakistani population, yet have been described by the BBC as one of the ‘most relentlessly persecuted communities in the history of Pakistan’.
A few years ago, it was to be my first Eid in Pakistan since childhood, and I was excited. My parents, both Karachi-ites, left in 1972 and settled first in Yorkshire, where I was born, and then in Macclesfield, Cheshire, home to New Order, the Macc Lads and me, until I went off to Uni at 18.
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Harriet Harman is right to demand half the cabinet is female
Harriet Harman has called for half of Labour’s Shadow Cabinet to be women.
She’s right.
There’s no good reason why Labour’s shadow cabinet should be male dominated.
If the issue is that there aren’t enough “Brilliant/ Talented/Experienced/whatever women” that’s a fault of the system we’ve employed, not a reflection on the abilities of Labour women.
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Having a minimum price on alcohol is a crap idea
I’m glad to see the Conservative government is opposed to a minimum price law on alcohol. As I said last time this issue came up, I am opposed to such a law on the grounds that people should be allowed to drink to excess if they wish.
The issue has recently flared up because Tesco came out to support a minimum pricing system, and because NICE has subsequently also come out for a minimum price per unit of alcohol.
What few enough people noticed when Tesco came out for the law is that this view is self-interested; it will mean they no longer have to worry about cutting prices.
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Should the media temper its Cumbria murders coverage?
This was the video I was looking for earlier, made by Charlie Brooker for BBC4 Newswipe, not long after I heard about the shootings.
Isn’t there a danger similar here that excessive coverage might prompt copycat killers? I asked this earlier on Twitter and Mr_Onions replied:
I don’t think so. Our attitude to guns and our tight gun laws says different. Worst since Dunblane, though that was 14 yrs ago
I’m still not convinced. There are far too many studies that confirm this. The Guardian has a timeline of shootings (via SimonNRicketts).
Is Cameron backtracking on rape trials anonymity?
I’ve just watched Cameron’s first Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, where he said, when challenged by Harriet Harman over the proposals to grant anonymity to those accused of rape, that he “believed there was a case for it between arrest and charge.”
While I still don’t agree with the ConDem’s proposal, Cameron’s response appears to be a step back from the original “We will extend anonymity in rape cases to defendants” statement that was made a couple of weeks ago.
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Labour leaders should pledge to avoid raising student fees
Some time later this year, the Browne Review about higher education funding will report, and is expected to recommend that universities be allowed to increase the fees that they charge students.
I would be interested to know what the candidates for the Labour leadership think about this, as it presents a problem and an opportunity.
Until April 2010, it was reasonably clear what most politicians thought about this issue.
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Is Labour stitching it up for Ken Livingstone this time?
David Lammy, who was considering running for the Labour nomination for London Mayor in 2012, is instead to chair Ken Livingstone’s Mayoral campaign.
He makes the case for Ken in today’s Guardian, acknowledging that he considered whether to enter the race himself.
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LC attracted 130,000 unique visitors in May as left-wing blogs grow more broadly
I don’t make a habit of publishing our reader figures every month but I have to make an exception this time. I’m pleased to say May was the first time Liberal Conspiracy broke the 100,000 unique visitors a month mark.
The actual figure was 129,927 Absolute Unique Visitors for entire month, recording just over half a million page views (502,957). Both figures are measured by Google Analytics.
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Where will these think-tanks go from here?
ippr’s innovative co-director team Carey Oppenheim and Lisa Harker emailed the think-tanks’ friends and contacts on Thursday last week about their decision to step down in the near future:
Next week ippr begins the search for a new Director as we step down to pursue new challenges. With more than 10 years of service to ippr between us we retain great pride and affection for an organisation that continues to produce unrivalled policy research in pursuit of a more equal, democratic, sustainable world.
On the right, Centre for Social Justice executive director Phillippa Stroud has joined Iain Duncan Smith as special adviser at the Department of Work and Pensions.
I have yet to see any official announcement from Demos about Director Richard Reeves’ departing to advise Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg on political strategy.
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Time for a Berlin style airlift to end Gaza blockade?
contribution by Owen Tudor
The appalling loss of life on the Gaza aid flotilla yesterday (TUC statement here) raises many questions. Like Amnesty International and Oxfam, the TUC, ETUC and ITUC have condemned the assault launched by the Israeli military, and called for an enquiry.
But the bigger question is: what can the international community do about the Gaza blockade? Is it time for a Berlin-style airlift?
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UKIP MEPs host conference with far-right politician on Bilderberg world takeover
All of you will be aware of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). It campaigns mostly against immigration and Europe. But less attention is paid to their other views and activities.
Later today at 2:30pm a press conference / meeting is being held in Brussels to launch a book titled: ‘Bilderberg Group – Towards Creation Of One World Company Ltd‘.
The event is being hosted by two UKIP MEPs: Nigel Farage (former leader) and Godfrey Bloom. Also attending: Mario Borghezio (Italian MEP) and the book’s author Daniel Estulin.
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Israel’s biggest enemy is itself
Jesus facepalming Christ. Let’s say you were a cartoonish, Ahmadinejadesque lunatic fixated on destroying Israel.
How would you go about achieving your goal?
Well, priority number one would be to isolate the Israelis from their allies, so they have no diplomatic or military cover.
A good start would be to take actions that infuriate military partners like the Turks by killing a load of Turkish civvies, then telling them to fuck off by pretending that the civvies you killed deserved it.
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Gaza convoy killings: roadblock to the roadmap
Israel seemingly revels in brutality to a degree without current parallel among democratic nations. Time after time, its actions underline a determination to ignore the standard strictures that constrain states to use only the minimum degree of force rightly or wrongly considered consistent with legitimate national interests.
Instead, it seems willfully to rejoice in exceeding those bounds, confusing deliberate resort to repression with display of strength as it props up its self image as the toughest kid on the Middle East block.
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» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civil cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
» Is this the end for the socialist left?
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