How to help the homeless
Guest post by Cllr Patrick Murray
Ten years ago, at the age of 19, I was homeless. I had been suffering from depression for several years and my life was really on a downward spiral. I lost count of how many colleges I walked away from and jobs I messed up. I had been in hospital at the age of 17, on an adult ward. I had lived in a halfway house. Nothing had worked. So when I got discharged from the hospital I was in, after an argument with one of the doctors, I didn’t have many options. I turned up at the door of the homeless shelter for young people in Oxford and stayed there.
What I saw on the streets were a lot of people who had been repeatedly let down by society and the state. People who had been discharged from the care system with nowhere to go. People who had left the army and been unable to cope with civilian life, to give two examples.
Some of the faces I see on Oxford’s streets now are recognisable from my time. They’re a lot older, and they disappear for stretches at a time, but they’re still around. They’ve fallen through the cracks in our system so many times by now. I’ll be honest – I feel guilty that I got out and somehow they didn’t. So why did I get lucky? continue reading… »
Britain’s first green city
Arguably, Stoke is already England’s greenest city on the grounds that there isn’t much industry left, or that much employment of any other kind. Still, nowt wrong with making a virtue out of necessity:
This evening, in St Margaret Ward Roman Catholic high school, Stoke-on-Trent is set to become the first city to sign up to the 10:10 pledge to cut its carbon emissions by 10% during 2010…
… Out in the cavernous main hall, waiting for the bingo to start, members Dave Athersmith and Julie Hulme agree: “We car-share to come here. We’ve all got to do our bit, haven’t we?” John Clowes, a retired ceramic tilemaker of 76 (”There’s tiles of mine in the Houses of Parliament”) has just had his loft insulated, and turns everything off at the mains at night. “It’s the young people you need to worry about,” he says. “Those electronic games. What happened to a kickaround in the street?” (In two days in Stoke, by the way, I met only three people prepared to dismiss climate change as a notion cooked up by a control-crazed government (or as one local put it, “absolute bollocks”). Most confessed to at least some concern.)
It’s conventional wisdom that the stout yeomen of the working classes will have no truck with all this environmental nonsense: conventional wisdom, that is, amongst rightwing or otherwise anti-crusty middle class types. continue reading… »
Climate change and Cumbria’s floods
Imagine, if you please, a kettle. The empirically-minded may wish to actually fetch one and 3/4 fill it with water. Examine the water in this imaginary (or actual, for the science geeks) kettle. It’s pretty much stationary. Now turn the kettle on and watch very carefully. You will quite quickly notice that the system becomes less predictable, less stable, more active and wilder, as the heat in the system increases.
If you increase the temperature far enough, your system will change radically and comprehensively (all the water will change state and leave the system through the cracks) leaving you with a barren, parched shell of what was once a nice cup of tea in potentia.
This is the image you should have in your mind when you hear an Environment Agency spokesmen using words like “unprecedented”.
The Second, Law, of Thermo, Dynamics.
The flooding in Cumbria is not quite Hurricane Katrina, but then we’re not in a hurricane belt. For Britain, even a Britain recently flooded a number of times in different areas, this has been a pretty wet week. Most specifically over a foot of actual rain fell on the Lake District and south-western Scotland [1] over the last 24 hours alone.
continue reading… »
The Left, the Right and Advertising
There are two adverts currently doing the rounds that really get on my nerves.
The first is for Clover, or Utterly Butterly, or one of those other butter-substitute spread things. You’ll have seen it, the posters are everywhere. They have a picture of some twit in a van holding a crumpet, and the words “Now With 70% Less Fat*” emblazoned in giant letters above him.
The things is, if you follow the asterisk and read the tiny print at the bottom of the poster, you will see that it says “When compared to ordinary butter”. I don’t think you’d be a fool for assuming that the claim of a 70% reduction related to the fat content of the same product but as formerly produced, not to ordinary butter generally. But then, you’d be wrong. Personally, I think this is misleading to the point of near-absurdity.
The other advert (or series of adverts) that irritates me is the T-Mobile “what would you do with free texts for life?” nonsense. Specifically, I’m annoyed by the bloke who is allegedly starting a “superband” now that he’s got free texts for life. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m fairly sure that what was stopping him from forming a superband was never the cost of sending inane chatter to people he knew (he’d surely have heard of Twitter already).
The whole T-Mobile advertising campaign is simply daft. Right? Then again, T-Mobile must have done extensive market and advertising research before ploughing huge sums of money into this campaign. So they must think it will work. Which leads me to wonder: are people really so stupid that this sort of campaign, rather than causing them to scoff at the ridiculous premise, will instead encourage them to switch phone companies?
Perhaps many people are that dumb. Or perhaps advertising makes them that way. That and the cold, cynical manipulation of Simon Cowell et al.
continue reading… »
The Truth about Immigration
When New Labour’s election strategists sat down to look over the results of the 2005 general election, in which the party lost more seats than they expected, they quickly came to two very clear conclusions.
One was that middle-class opposition to the war in Iraq had spawned a protest vote from which the Liberal Democrats had been the main beneficiaries and had cost them a number of marginal seat. The other was that working class antipathy towards immigration was costing the party votes in its traditional heartlands.
Six weeks later, the government joined the race to the bottom on immigration in earnest with the publication of a new Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill, which become law in 2006, restricting the right of appeal against refusal of entry that had previously been afforded to students, dependants and visitors to only human rights and discrimination grounds and imposing fines on employers who employ migrant workers who lack the necessary paperwork, i.e. entry clearance, leave to remain and/or a work permit.
The Conservatives may have spawned the mantra that ‘it’s not racist to talk about immigration’ but it was New Labour who gave it legitimacy.
continue reading… »
These are The Tories at Ground Zero
There’s a revelatory short post at the Adam Smith Institute yesterday. Here’s the most salient part:
You will never streamline the public sector by Treasury ministers bullying departments over money. Instead, you need a complete review of what government does, what it has to do, what it can do better, and what can be done better by other people and by the public. All departments need to buy into that, and it needs a reform, not a finance minister in charge if everyone is going to trust the process and be a part of it. After all, the process may find that spending in some areas should be increased, even if other departments are found to be doing a lot of pointless stuff.
In other words, the influential Adam Smith Institute wants to see an immediate post-election push towards savage public spending reductions in every single government department.
In one respect, of course, none of this is new. We know that the Conservative will cut public services, even if they are not as explicit as the Adam Smith Institute about the range of cuts.
continue reading… »
God’s work: Goldman Sachs vs Church of England
When it comes to deciding the will of God, who you gonna call: Goldman Sachs chief exec Lloyd Blankfein, or archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams?
I only ask because both of these men have recently offered their verdicts on the forces of Mammon, with the £41m a year Big Swinging Dick getting his retaliation in first, in the shape of a recent interview with the Sunday Times.
Blankfein knows full well that ‘people are pissed off, mad, and bent out of shape’ at the profession which brought the world close to economic collapse, and disarmingly adds: ‘I know I could slit my wrists and people would cheer.’
So how does he justify not doing the business with the razor blade? He comes up with a wisecrack, of course, arguing that investment bankers deserve unlimited bonuses because they are ‘doing God’s work’. Heck, I must have missed that week at Sunday school, although I remember vague injunctions about camels, eyes of needles, money changers in the temple, and such like.
continue reading… »
Can Greeks lead the way for the left?
Where in Europe has the left has made a popular breakthrough, has a chance of making a real difference, even if in highly adverse circumstances, and has a policy that combines openness, democracy and sustainability? The answer is in Greece, but is the British left capable of taking any notice?
After twelve years in power there has been a sorry reversion to post-45 parochialism, except that an obsession with America has replaced the Empire as if singing the international meant dancing to the tune of the White House.
Of course, one reason for this is that social democracy is in ruins across much of the continent of its birth. But George Papandreou’s PASOK party, having just last month gaining a surprising absolute majority, is different.
It is working to adopt a form of progressive government that combines green development, democratic openness and international reconciliation. How does New Labour measure up when seen in this modest comparative light? It is a painful question.
continue reading… »
We need a million affordable homes
Most people are aware that waiting lists for council homes have hit an all-time high. Trouble is, courtesy of industrial-scale tabloid bombardment, most people would probably blame immigration and single mothers. The reality, however, is different.
Here’s the facts. It is true that the queues are dramatic. The crisis brought a massive increase in repossessions (65,000 homes this year and 45,000 in 2008). At the start of 2009, 200,000 extra families (not people, families), were added to already long queues: 1,8 million families are waiting their turn as opposed to 1.6m in 2008.
Yet how many people are aware that there are one million fewer homes available for rent from councils and housing associations than in 1979?
continue reading… »
Financial solutions to the financial crisis
contribution by Riz Din
How should the left respond to the financial crisis? Here are some issues to think about.
Clarity and Transparency
The complete hotch-potch of initiatives earlier in the year pointed to a government scrambling about in the dark. Now, at least, policy measures seem centered on the key prongs of fiscal stimulus, a gigantic asset protection scheme and quantitative easing. However, significant uncertainties remain and the lack of transparency suggests the public may be being hoodwinked at a very basic level.
Let’s take the example of the government’s asset protection scheme, an insurance programme that has so far agreed to underwrite losses on over £600 billion of toxic debt from RBS and Lloyds alone. If the economy stages a sudden recovery the solution could cost the taxpayer almost nothing, but if things go completely belly up it could well be ‘game over’ for the public finances.
Either way, the government surely has a figure for expected losses in mind that it is not revealing, or has it just written hundreds of billions of insurance without understanding the risks involved (can you hear the scary ringing echoes of AIG?). Is the outlook not foggy enough that we must add our own smoke to the mix with unnecessary obfuscation?
continue reading… »
Britons want: to reform, regulate and redistribute
Thanks to tim f for drawing our attention to this recent BBC / GlobeScan poll. The top findings…
1. Most British people (57%) think that the problems associated with free market capitalism can be addressed through regulation and reform; however, 19 per cent think that capitalism is fatally flawed, and only 13% think that it works well as it is.
2. Four in ten (40%) believe that the government should play more of an active role in owning or controlling major industries, 31 per cent believe that the government should play a less active role, and 23 per cent believe that it should continue to play the same role it does now.
3. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents say the government should do more to distribute wealth more evenly, while 20% say it should maintain its current level of involvement and only 10% say that it should do less.
4. A majority (56%) favour increased government regulation of businesses, compared to 23% who favour the status quo and 16% who favour less regulation.
More information, including comparisons with 26 other countries, can be found here.
Where is the left’s new economic map?
contribution by Adam Lent
Imagine this scenario. You’re driving to a vital meeting in a part of the world you’ve never visited before. The roads are winding and there are lots of unexpected turns. So you are relying very heavily on your map of the area, which begins to appear increasingly divorced from reality. Bu in the absence of anything better you plough on.
You only realise quite how bad the map is a few minutes later when you and your car end up bonnet first in a ditch. In disgust and anger you decide to tear up the map. It is then you notice the thing was printed forty years ago.
Those with a pathological inability to analyse a situation might believe that they just need to stick to the map even more closely. Most of would probably chuck it and look for a more up-to-date map.
Long metaphor but this pretty well summarises where we are on economic policy at the moment. The old neo-liberal economic paradigm has clearly dumped us into the mother of all economic ditches.
For groups like the Taxpayers Alliance and increasingly the Conservative Party, the problem originates not with the paradigm but because we drifted too far away from it.
continue reading… »
Population growth: Are you pro-cancer?
It is documented that the human condition is generally compassionate and generous. Ask a person for their seat in a subway (where there is no predefined right to a seat) and half the time they’ll give it to you, even if you give no reason.
However put in to the mix a sense of ownership and expectation for ones own outcome and we become much more selfish. Jump the queue and expect evil stares, the odd comment, and the person you’ve cut in front of to get abusive.
This is the problem with population growth in the UK. When trying to find something to blame there really is a simple choice in front of you.
You either put your gaze on those that have just as much right to be in the position you are, or those you perceive are “jumping the queue”; this is why the stance of anti-immigration is the natural position for a population to take when faced with problems caused by population growth.
continue reading… »
Immigration and next-door neighbours
The house next to mine is up for rent. But I have no say over who the tenant should be. Is this right?
I’m prompted to ask by Martin Wolf’s argument for immigration controls.
He points out that immigrants add to congestion. But if next door is rented out to a three-car family, I’ll suffer from extra congestion. Why do supporters of immigration controls think I should have no say over this, and yet should be able to control the numbers of people moving into areas I never visit?
Wolf goes on:
Diversity brings social benefits. But it also brings costs. These costs arise from declining trust and erosion of a sense of shared values. Such costs are likely to be particularly high when immigrants congregate in communities that reject some values of the wider community, not least over the role of women in society.
Now, leave aside the dog whistle he’s blowing here.
continue reading… »
Who pays for Primark’s high profits?
contribution by Jesse Lerner-Kinglake
British companies have been battered by the financial crisis. Yet Primark, one of Britain’s largest retailers, continues to thrive. Fuelled by the retailer’s impressive sales growth of 7%, AB Foods, the group which owns Primark, yesterday announced £655 million in yearly earnings. The future looks bright for the high street chain.
How is it that Primark has been able to post lucrative profits while the rest of the country plunges deeper into recession?
The answer lies in its business dealings with overseas suppliers. To obtain cheap garments as cheaply as possible for sale in the UK, companies like Primark squeeze suppliers in developing countries. The net result of this practice, however, is a vicious race to the bottom in which overseas workers are hit the hardest.
The conditions facing men and women in factories making clothes for top high street brands are simply scandalous. According to original research carried out by War on Want, garment workers in sweatshops across Bangladesh earn as little as 7p an hour and face up to 80-hour weeks. Abuse at the hands of factory owners is endemic, with women workers particularly at risk.
continue reading… »
Be scared, be very scared
The busier you are, the faster time passes. So right now it feels to me like we’re hurtling towards the day David Cameron will be in Number 10. And i’m increasingly scared.
I’m scared because of the Conservative’s rhetoric on economic policy. Tory grassroots have already launched an attack on the Financial Times (that renowned bastion of worker solidarity) for allegedly being biased against Cameron and Osborne.
But it’s not just the FT that’s sounding alarm bells about Conservative economic rhetoric.
Think tank Centre:Forum last week released a report on Tory economic proposals. Despite having many political differences with CF, over the past few months I’ve come to respect their economic output – and in particular, their chief economist Giles Wilkes – a great deal.
I’ve not had time to read the “Slash and Growth?” report yet, but I have read part of the conclusion posted on Free Thinking Economist:
continue reading… »
Prof. Nutt: Death by a bar chart
News update: Two govt advisors have now resigned in protest. Others considering the same ‘en masse’
* * * * * *
I don’t suppose there are many dignified ways of being sacked by your employer, but ‘Death By Bar Chart’ must be one of the least savoury ways to go. In his lecture to the Centre for Crime & Justice Studies, Professor David Nutt included this rather inconvenient illustration of the level of harm caused by a range of dangerous substances:
As you can see, Nutt’s table had alcohol and tobacco ranked as more harmful than a whole host of intoxicants, including cannabis, LSD and ecstacy. From this little illustration, a sprawl of tabloid stories was spawned and the government’s chief adviser on drugs had unconsciously secured his own sacking.
Given his stormy relationship with the Home Office, the sacking itself had an eye-rolling inevitability to it, but when you read the careful, methodical and rather unremarkable content of Nutt’s lecture, you’re really left wondering what all the bloody fuss was about.
continue reading… »
Carrot and sticks: getting people back to work
The digested DWP evaluation of Provider-led Pathways to Work:
What worked well:
• finding provider staff pleasant and helpful;
• feeling that the environment within provider premises was hospitable, and a
more inviting place than Jobcentre Plus;
• meeting needs, where people felt the support received was beneficial and
appropriate;
• challenging people to think differently about their employment prospects;
• contributing to people’s progress and movements into work, by providing
encouragement, financial support and access to other helpful provision.
What didn’t work well:
• the way that provider staff are incentivised to focus on people who are considered
job ready and leave those furthest from work inadequately supported, because
of the way providers are contracted to deliver job outcomes and are paid
according to the number achieved;
continue reading… »
Don’t believe your eyes
Two different comments on different subjects reveal a common error in thinking about social affairs.
First, in response to my claim that much of the gender pay gap is due to women having children, Toto says: “you didn't consult any childless women before writing this, did you?” You’re damn right, I didn’t.
Second, a commenter on a post by DK says:
Both commenters make the same mistake – they think we can trust the evidence of our own eyes. We can’t.
continue reading… »
They hate our prosperity
The Legatum Prosperity Index is a free market think tank which ranks 104 countries according to nine different measures of prosperity.
There are some predictable results – four of the top five countries are in Scandinavia, and Zimbabwe is last, just behind Sudan. But it is interesting to see what they say about the UK.
The Daily Mail writes on a daily basis about a UK where business is stifled by regulation, the economy is burdened by a bloated public sector, we are run by a corrupt politicial elite, terrorists and violent criminals menace the law abiding public, the traditional family is under assault, ancient freedoms have been taken away, our universities teach ‘mickey mouse degrees’ and our health service is inefficient.
The research suggests that every single one of these are right-wing myths.
continue reading… »
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
» 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?
|
25 Comments 66 Comments 20 Comments 12 Comments 10 Comments 18 Comments 4 Comments 25 Comments 49 Comments 31 Comments |
|
LATEST COMMENTS » Nick posted on Why don't MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours? » Bob B posted on Complete tits » Nick posted on Complete tits » Mike Killingworth posted on Complete tits » Mr S. Pill posted on Complete tits » Nick Cohen is a Tory posted on Complete tits » Nick Cohen is a Tory posted on Complete tits » Matt Munro posted on Why I'm defending Ed Balls over immigration » Kate Belgrave posted on Complete tits » Kate Belgrave posted on Complete tits » Nick Cohen is a Tory posted on Obama is right to slam BP - and why capitalists should too » Thomas Hobbes posted on The Daily Mail and "Bongo bongoland" » Matt Munro posted on Complete tits » Matt Munro posted on Complete tits » Lee Griffin posted on Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed? |
