Britain becoming more liberal
The 26th British Social Attitudes Survey has just been published, and has some interesting findings.
They show strong support for liberal social values, a decline in support for redistribution and traditional left-wing economic intervention to help the worse off, and overwhelming opposition to spending cuts in health and education.
It has prompted a mixture of gloating about how Britain is shifting to the right and whining about evil librulses not “tolerating” homophobia from our friends in the conservative movement, so let’s have a look at what it really says:
On social attitudes, Britain is becoming more liberal, except for when it comes to drugs:
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The Church Taliban get their way again
contribution by Bob Piper
When Tony Blair and his small band of ‘New’ Labour modernisers swept into power in 1997 they had all sorts of wild and wonderful plans for Britain. In one area though, Tone and the Gang were decidedly conservative in their promises.
Despite all the pledges to ‘modernise’ Britain, our democracy was still going to contain an outdated and illogical second chamber. The ‘modernisation’ of the House of Lords was simply going to remove the rights of hereditary Peers. That was it.
All the rest of the stuff on the House of Lords was the usual Blairite flim-flam about having a wide-ranging review of possible further change.
And so it came to pass, that 12 years later, an attempt to introduce measures to prevent the Church discriminating against gay and transsexual people in employment floundered in the wake of opposition from the Christian Taliban and old duffers appointed on the basis of political patronage and grace and favour appointments.
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How important is class for the Left?
In responding to John Denham’s speech last week on class, Chris Dillow said this on his blog:
…how could anyone have ever thought that class wasn’t important, or that race and disadvantage were the same?
To cut a long and tragi-comic story short, I fear the answer originates in the Left’s reaction against orthodox Marxism in the 1980s. Inspired in part by Hobsbawm’s essay, the Forward March of Labour Halted? (pdf), many on the Left gave up on the idea of the working class as a revolutionary force, and looked instead to what they called “new social movements”: women, blacks and gays (yes – to many the three were somehow homogenous!)
He then goes on to list three disastrous effects it’s had: a privileging of identity politics over class; the belief that government should get involved in everything; giving us a target-driven bureaucratized public sector which is plundered by “consultants”.
While I share concerns about the second and third issues, I want to discuss the first one. What frustrates me about Chris Dillow’s post is that while many on the Left instinctively support identity politics: they don’t seem to know why, or the thinking behind it.
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Shock! Global poverty and inequality falling
contribution by Nick Cowen
Via Tom Palmer and Marginal Revolution, we learn that global poverty is falling, is doing so fast, and much more so than previously expected. Equality is increasing as a consequence.
This is very cheering news, and it means far more for so many people in the world than all the news stories about bad laws, rapacious corporations, and even attacks on civil liberties. The story probably has countless more implications for human prosperity than climate change.
Yet while this is a moment of celebration for anyone who can appreciate that slowly but surely more people are having the opportunity to pursue their own happiness, news of this sort receives a rather muted response in all sides of the MSM.
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Joking about rape isn’t funny
I disagreed with a whole heap of stuff in Ellie Levenson’s “The Noughtie Girl’s Guide to Feminism” when it came out last year (see my Mswoman comments under this CiF piece for specific examples).
But apart from her odious assertion that “we do women an injustice when we say that rape is the worst thing that can happen to a woman. It is, after all, just a penis.” top of the list was her claim, repeated in the Independent, that in some contexts so-called rape ‘jokes’ can not only be deemed to be acceptable, but they can also in fact be funny.
Because they’re not. Ever. They never have been and they never will be. They’re not funny when Ricky Gervais tells them, and they’re not funny when a Tory Councillor tells them either.
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How can Rod Liddle be stopped becoming Indy editor?
Since the Guardian revealed on Friday afternoon that Rod Liddle was seen as Alexander Lebedev’s main choice as editor, there has been a flurry of emails and tweets in horror.
It’s not absolutely certain Lebedev will take over the Indy, and neither is it certain Liddle will be appointed. But more than one writer/journalist at the newspaper has been in touch with me saying it is a serious prospect and they are very worried.
A Facebook group entitled ‘If Rod Liddle becomes editor of The Independent, I will not buy it again‘ has started – and accumulated over 1,400 followers in a short space of time. I tweeted the same on Friday – I’d never buy it again nor link to it if Liddle becomes editor.
The Indy is Britain’s only other progressive/liberal/left newspaper. Rod Liddle is the anti-thesis of all that (quotes by Liddle at the end).
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Why do we need to wish them well?
One story I didn’t get a chance to add my tuppenceworth to, over the vacation, was the news that Iris Robinson MP is to step down from her parliamentary position as a result of, “an ongoing battle with severe depression” (BBC). Robinson is a DUP member, wife of the current leader of that party, and is probably most famous in British politics for her hateful remarks about homosexuality.
What interested me about this story was the outpouring of well-wishes from Iris Robinson’s colleagues at Stormont and Westminster. Danny Kennedy, David Ford, Shaun Woodward, Nigel Dodds and others have held forth on their wishes for a speedy recovery and/or admiration for Robinson as a “dedicated” parliamentarian. I’m curious as to how honest they are each being.
It is rather expected that, when someone from the opposition is ill or suffers a bereavement, you wish them well. But how many of these wishes are genuine? I certainly don’t wish Iris Robinson well; I’d happily see the entire DUP dropkicked into the Atlantic Ocean. Indeed were she gay, and not such a vigorous gay-basher, there’d probably be some obscure Free Presbyterian Minister claiming her ill-health was vengeance sent by God.
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More thoughts on a ‘class war’
A couple more thoughts on class war following on from yesterday’s post.
Sunny picked up the tenor of my argument about how 21st century appeals to privilege and minority interests is neither a disastrous retreat to 1970s antagonisms nor the suicidal doom-and-gloom message that New Labour dinosaurs claim. Yet he seems insistent on labelling the overall strategy one of “class war”.
To be fair to Sunny, he does say that this is intended merely as shorthand, holding his nose and agreeing with Ed Ball’s on this matter. But even then, I’m suspicious of using the term even as shorthand in strategy-debate. For terms have a tendency to stick. Especially when a predominantly right-wing media has already shown itself desirous of squawking about the “class war” label.
And there’s (at least) two more reasons why “class war” is an unwise use of language, on top of yesterday’s list.
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Happy anniversary Nick Clegg?
Nick Clegg celebrated his second anniversary as Liberal Democrat leader on the 18th of December. It was an occasion barely marked in the wider press which is probably a little strange given recent opinion polls have at least pointed to the possibility of a hung-parliament and thus increased Clegg’s potential relevance as a kingmaker.
So, what state does the third party find itself in?
In the polls the Liberal Democrats are hovering around the 20% mark but that barely tells the story of a year that has seen some problems most notably over our ‘narrative’ and policy wrangles like the one over tuition fees which brought Clegg into direct conflict with the leading policy making body; the Federal Policy Committee.
It was a conflict that Clegg lost eventually although he did win the concession that fees will be ‘phased-out’ over 6 years.
Clegg’s ambition is outlined in his pamphlet The Liberal Moment in which he argues the time is neigh for the Lib Dems to overtake Labour. However, in my experience there is no evidence that this collapse is anything more than cyclical disillusionment with a government that has been in power for a long time.
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Tory plans for personal tax breaks are regressive
contribution by Thomas Byrne
Recently outlined proposals by Tories to allow women who do not work to transfer their personal tax allowance to their husband are extremely flawed.
I agree with the principle being put forward by Iain Duncan Smith, but the means are wrong. Marriage tax breaks are much more important for the poor, yet this policy benefits the rich. And instead of changing tax boundaries, it’s tinkering with a system of complex allowances.
It is unlikely that people who can’t afford accountants will even know about this, let alone know how to transfer their personal allowance across.
Lets work out the maximum saving. This will be where one partner earns just under £50k and the other doesn’t work. Its £2414.
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The supposed criminality of black people
There’s a paradox raised by the reaction to “Rod” Liddle’s mostly incorrect claim that “the overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community.”
The paradox is this. When it comes to tax, the right are keen to stress that people respond to incentives. And yet when it comes to crime they seem coy about incentives, and prefer to talk about “multiculturalism“ or genes.
The paradox is especially strong because economic theory is much clearer on the link between poverty and crime than between tax rates and tax revenue.
This is because in the case of taxes, the income and substitution effects work in opposite ways. The substitution effect causes people to prefer leisure over work when taxes rise, whilst the income effect causes them to want to work more to recoup lost income. However, with crime the two work in the same direction. The income effect causes a poor person to turn to crime to raise money, whilst the substitution effect means the unemployed have more time with which to commit crime, and lower penalties – no danger of losing one‘s job – for doing so.
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Immigration: the scandal of child detentions
When Labour’s best political boast is now more or less that they won’t be as brutal as the Conservatives will, it’s well worth remembering how the government treats some of the most vulnerable in society.
Not content with having expanded the prison population to such an extent that as soon as a new wing or establishment is built it is almost immediately filled, it also seems hell-bent on continuing with the detention of those whose only crime is to be the children of asylum seekers who have had their application for refugee status rejected.
Not that the government itself has the guts to be personally responsible for their detention. Probably the most notorious detention centre in the country, Yarl’s Wood in Bedfordshire, is run by SERCO.
In the last report on Yarl’s Wood, the chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers noted (PDF) while Yarl’s Wood should seek to improve the “plight of children” who were being held in the centre, they were “ultimately issues” for the UK Border Agency.
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Right-wing notions of ‘middle-class’
The pre-budget report has triggered an entirely predictable swirl of reactions from the usual suspects. According to Andrew Porter in the Telegraph, “middle classes [are] to be hit hard”, echoing Tory criticism that Labour’s pre-budget report is tantamount to none other than “class war”.
The Daily Mail calls it “Clobbering the middle earners”, adding elsewhere that “Darling vows to hammer middle classes”.
So let’s look at what those warped minds think the middle classes are and let’s see what this looming “hammering” may consist of.
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Ugandan Discussions get a new meaning in the US
Rachel Maddow is one of the sharpest political commentators/interviewers working anywhere in the US media. She’s also a lesbian.
Richard A Cohen is ‘one of America’s leading practitioners of conversion therapy’ (i.e. psychological de-gayification for profit) and a member of Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church (aka ‘the Moonies’). He used to be gay and purports to be able to cure people of their gayness.
Below, in two parts, is a video in which Maddow interviews Cohen – guess which one gets politely chewed into tiny kibbles and spat out…
Class war quiz
By Andrew R
Looks like the battlelines are being drawn. If you’re not sure which side of the barricades you belong on, a short fill-in-the-blanks quiz based on the latest Mel Philips piece should help you decide. Simply replace the blank with one of the following: A – Working; B – Upper; C – Middle:
It is the ________ class whose children are discriminated against by the rigging of university admissions against candidates from high-achieving schools.
It is _______-class aspirations for their children which have been attacked by the war of attrition waged against grammar and independent schools.
It is the _______ class whose ethic of professionalism – whether in medicine, education, the law or other disciplines – has been under sustained attack by government interference in order to snuff out the independence of mind and spirit which is one of the principal sources of ________-class robustness.
How you scored:
Mostly As – don’t take the piss.
Mostly Bs – well done, comrade. You gut the last banker, I’ll hang the last Master of Fox Hounds.
Mostly Cs – Bad luck. If you can’t already smoke a cigarette blindfold, I’d start getting some practice in.
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I am an unlikely class warrior
Here’s what I don’t get.
When I talk to serious people in badly cut suits, they are unanimous in their opinions. “Oooh, the deficit is troubling”. They say, grimacing in fiscal sympathy. “It’s all very serious” they add, stroking their chins in deficit based peturbation. “Sacrifices must be made” all concur, gazing steely eyed towards a future of budget balances and restraint.
You know what? I agree with them.
I sit alongside, in my own badly cut suit, grimacing and chin stroking and gazing sternly at the dissolute world with the best of them. I nod along solemnly when, to quote Benedict Brogan, we hear the regular call for a “politics, not of them and us, but of “we” “.
But I have to respond, “Who exactly is this “we”?”
Because when it comes to asking people who have done very well out of prosperity and asset growth to contribute towards last and this years current economic rescue operation, I’m all for it. Go right ahead, I say.
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Copenhagen does not go far enough
There has been a lot of critical reaction to James Hansen’s modest and reasonable callfor a junking of the current Copenhagen negotiations in favour of something else that would actually effectually address the climate emergency that we now face.
Most of those reacting negatively to this key intervention from the leading voice of contemporary policy-engaged climate-science don’t appear to ‘get’ the very good reasons why James Hansen of NASA has said that a mediocre agreement at Copenhagen – which is all that we could possibly get now – would be worse than no agreement at all.
The ’solutions’ on offer at Copenhagen are almost exclusively based around carbon offsets and carbon trading. These would make no meaningful contribution toward tackling the climate crisis for all sorts of reasons (a superb inventory of why can be found at The Corner House, but most crucially because they would mean that, just like with Kyoto, there is no ‘hard’ cap on total emissions.
A carbon trading system that allows offsets against emissions that allegedly would have happened without the system being in place, even if it works, offers no guarantee at all that overall emissions will fall, let alone fall at the rate that they need to fall at if we are to have a chance of keeping the world to within 2 degrees of over-heat.
Thus it may in one important respect be serendipitous that the Copenhagen talks seem in any case likely to fail.
The CRU hack at the University of East Anglia may even have a silver lining.
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The public sector rich list
The TaxPayers’ Alliance released its annual Public Sector Rich List today, always a sure-fire hit with the media. Among the statistics highlighted by the TPA – and quoted enthusiastically by journalists – are:
There are 8 people in the public sector who earn more than £1 million a year, compared with 4 people last year.
There are 35 people in the public sector earning above £500,000 a year compared with 21 last year.
There are 120 people earning above £250,000 a year compared with 88 last year.
Which is odd, because, in the small print beneath these statements, the TPA says the real reason for the increases is that it has surveyed more staff – by investigating more quangos and making more Freedom of Information requests. “The figures are therefore not directly comparable with previous editions of the Rich List,” the TPA cautions.
So why compare them then? And if it is going to compare them, why not be consistent and include inconvenient data, such as:
The average total remuneration of those included on the list is almost £225,990 per annum, compared with £240,000 per annum last year. Excluding staff in the newly nationalised banks, this year’s average is £209,151 – down 13% on last year.
Removing the nationalised bankers also brings the number of Rich List members earning more than £1 million a year down from 8 to 2 – ie half last year’s number, despite the larger survey group. Surely a cause for both TaxPayers’ Alliances to rejoice!
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The ‘horrors’ of inheritance tax
David Blackburn in the Spectator explains the horrors of inheritance tax:
Take one example: a family friend, who was a career soldier rising to the rank of Colour Sergeant, retired to a two-up two-down in suburban Essex and lived off a combination of state and service pensions for 27 years. He died in 2006 and his estate yielded £84,000 in inheritance tax.
The deduction means that a maximum of 3 of his 4 grandchildren will enjoy the opportunities that a private education can offer; he had intended all four to do so, among other things, such as enabling his children to move up the property ladder.
I’m assuming this is the worst example of the iniquities of inheritance tax that Blackburn is aware of.
So the consequences are:
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Women advised: stay sober to avoid rape
Thinking of getting merry this Christmas? Think again, if you’re a girl. According to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), women who don’t want to be raped have a responsibility not to get drunk.
A new campaign, launched on Monday, aims to deter “potential victims” from drinking too much – implying once again that women are to blame for rape. Dave Whatton, ACPO lead on rape, explained that “A large proportion of reported rape cases feature alcohol as a factor. Ultimately we want to prevent rape from occurring in the first place, by arming potential victims with key advice on how to keep themselves safe.”
The campaign, which also contains advice aimed at potential rapists, encourages women to “let your hair down, not your guard down”. News associations across the country, including Reuters, Associated Newspapers and the BBC, have predictably honed in on the message that women have a responsibility to protect themselves from rape by staying sober. This may be news to potential rapists, but most women do not need to be told how to protect themselves from rape.
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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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