What we need for campaigning
I recently wrote about the Obama campaign’s ground operations that helped them win the election, and pointed out that many of the online techniques used by the campaign were first pioneered by US left-wing blogs.
Everyone in the UK now keeps talking about aping the Obama campaign but no one has actually done anything about it yet as far as I’ve seen. But this may soon change. So what can we do and what is required?
First, some questions need to be answered.
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Damian Green: Tory crocodile tears
Snippets of commentary from blogs on the Damian Green arrest.
Jim Bliss:
But the last people that should be replacing them are a bunch of dangerous fools who are willing to cry “Stalin” when one of their own gets questioned for a few hours and then released, but who stay silent at — and indeed support — the systematic harrassment of others. I don’t recall the Tory outcry when police kicked down a door in Forest Gate and shot an unarmed suspect. I don’t recall the tories accusing the police of ‘Stalinesque’ tactics that day. In fact, just to demonstrate how divorced these fools are from reality, how utterly self-serving in their outlook, a Tory spokesman has described Green’s arrest as “unprecedented in its heavy-handedness”.
Unprecedented? Really? What complete tossers those tories truly are.
CIC paper: Access to information
Liberal Conspiracy is publishing a series of discussions about the government’s Community Empowerment White Paper. This is a summary of the third chapter.
Chapter 3: Access to information
How can I find out information in a way I understand and can use?
Information is power say the paper, and a lack of information leads to powerlessness. Jargon can ‘alienate, confuse and frustrate citizens’ and be exclusionary. Barely half of local authority residents feel that their council keeps them very or fairly well informed about the services and benefits it provides.
The Internet is a powerful information delivery system but those without online access should not be forgotten. Information across the range of issues is being made available via the likes of NHS Choices. The government wants to support the use of new technologies.
A ‘Digital Mentor’ scheme in deprived areas will support groups to develop websites and podcasts, to use digital photography and online publishing tools. Community radio can have a unique role in working within communities.
Comments
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The great public library scandal
A couple of months ago I was doing some research into various sources of book data, and one of the things I was interested in was seeing if it was possible to hook into local library data. For example, if I was building a site that contained lots of book info, it’s easy to point to a place to buy that book online, and there are increasing ways to find things if they’re in your local bookshop (e.g. localbookshops.co.uk and LT Local). But what about seeing if it’s in your local library?
If I want to check my local library, I can use their website, but it’s not a great service, and I have to find my local library on a host of different local government sites, which use different protocols. Surely there’s a central database of this stuff? So I called up the library, and was passed around a bit, and was finally told about OCLC, the organisation that holds all catalogue records for UK libraries.
I’d come across the OCLC before in the form of WorldCat – a huge database of library holdings that, yes, does allow you to search for titles in your local library. However, its terms are quite restrictive, there’s no open API, and I didn’t use it much, preferring more free and more open services.
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CIC paper: Can British citizens become ‘active’?
Liberal Conspiracy is publishing a series of discussions about the government’s Community Empowerment White Paper. This is a summary of the second chapter.
Chapter 2: Active citizens and the value of volunteering
The government wants to “make it easier to be involved in voluntary and community activity” and proposes:
Volunteering
- Community Allowance pilots – paying people to do community work without losing benefits.
- Job Centres to help people do volunteer work.
- £2m more to support people with disabilities.
Mentoring
- Developing a strategy for extending mentoring
Citizenship
- A review of citizenship education in schools.
- a ‘Take Part local pathfinder programme’, offering information and training on being an active citizen for adults.
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Right wing confusion & bile over Baby P
More nanny state, less nanny state. From castration to welfare layabouts, how the depressing tragedy that took place behind close doors is fuelling the tabloids’ rage and anti-working class bias
In Haringey, North London, a 2-year-old child died after being tortured by his scummy parents.
The resulting blaze of finger-pointing is reminiscent of an incoherent pub talk amongst pissed-up geezers. “This beer’s fookin shite, ennit?”, says one. And the other slurs “Yeah mate, ‘know what you mean, it’s ace, love it“.
Look at this. David Cameron, the man who suckled his political milk from the tits of there-is-no-such-thing-as-society, now is making the government accountable for anything dysfunctional that may go on in our society, even if it’s behind closed doors. The high ranks of the anti-”nanny state” brigade are asking angrily where nanny was. At a guess, the implication is, if the Tories were in power, no family violence, no barbaric cruelty, would take place.
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A real horror show
Who with any sense whatsoever would be a social worker? Lambasted for taking children away unnecessarily, demonised when inevitable if horrifying mistakes are made, it must surely rank up there with opting to become a traffic warden and refereeing in the least appealing professions available.
It doesn’t help of course when politicians, as well as the media and now message board ranters are in effect baying for blood. David Cameron and Gordon Brown may not have been actively calling or in effect justifying violence against those convicted of the shocking abuse of Baby P as some have today, but their use of a dead child not as a political football, but as a political corpse, as others have already justifiably defined it, was not just unedifying, it was a shaming spectacle.
Cameron opened up reasonably enough at PMQ’s with asking the prime minister why the head of Haringey social services had been the one that had conducted the internal inquiry into what had gone wrong. This was perfectly fine, and more than valid a question to bring up.
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‘Censorship’ I don’t mind
The Independent wrote an editorial on Monday arguing that ‘Censorship is not the answer’, in response to the news that: “news outlets should be prevented by law from reporting stories the Government judges to be against national security interests.” The paper even went as far as comparing it to 42 days legislation.
Let me explain what is actually going on here. The secret service, police and Home Office are supposed to have established a protocol in publically talking about terrorism related raids and arrests. This came after criticism that various agencies were leaking information about raids to the media to further their own agenda. Anyone remember the idiotic rumours in the national press when Forest Gate raids took place? There have been more since, “terror in the skies” etc, and the alleged plot to kill a Muslim soldier. Various papers including the Telegraph and Sun have even had to pay out for calling people terrorists when they weren’t.
So the government is finally getting its act together and putting forward legislation that would stop the media from pouncing on unsubstantiated rumours based on “anonymous sources” when it relates to terrorism related threats. Given its hard to plug holes, since the press use almost anyone as a “legitimate source”, this is a sensible move. It would not only stop crazy theories, but also prevent people being accused of crimes that have yet to be proven. The system of self-regulation doesn’t work and the Press Complaints Commission is a toothless waste of space.
Surprise surprise then, that newspapers oppose any such restrictions. Newspapers sell more when terrorism is on the front page, even if a few weeks or months after the event they quietly declare on page 37 that it amounted to very little. The Indy’s attempt to compare it to 42 days is a joke. This move should be welcomed.
‘Communities in Control’ – the bloggers’ consultation begins!
A big thanks to all of you who volunteered to contribute to our series on the ‘Communities in Control’ white paper – it looks like we’re off and running!
Here’s a run-down of who’s been delegated to do what:
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Never mind about Parliament, Hazel: what about actually giving real power to real people?
Forget Hazel Blears’ ill-considered assault on ‘nihilistic’ blogging, in her speech to the Hansard Society this week: let’s consider instead her attack on politicians who live on ‘Planet Politics’:
… there is a trend towards politics being seen as a career move rather than call to public service. Increasingly we have seen a ‘transmission belt’ from university activist, MPs’ researcher, think-tank staffer, Special Adviser, to Member of Parliament, and ultimately to the front bench. Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of those jobs, but it is deeply unhealthy for our political class to be drawn from narrowing social base and range of experience.
Few people will disagree with her analysis. Indeed, ‘The Rise of the Career Politician’ (Peter Riddell, 1993) and ‘The Triumph of the Political Class’ (Peter Oborne, 1997) has been the subject of two (very different) books. Much of the hand-wringing, as ever when hands are wrung, is overwrought: a narrow political class is not a modern political phenomenon. It’s simply that the narrow class which dominates politics has changed over time. continue reading… »
Responding positively to cynicism and Hazel Blears – volunteers wanted!
There has been a concerted outcry online here, there, and everywhere about Hazel Blears’ attack on the the role of the blogging community since her speech to the Hansard Society earlier this week, but it strikes me that this exposes a massive irony in the dumbed-down manner of current political debate and it begins to take on the appearance of another headline-grabbing politician shooting themselves in the foot. How can she ever expect to foster greater engagement through the practical measures she ostensibly advocates, in her white paper ‘Communities in Control’, when she abuses and insults the contribution made by commenters and commentators in the blogosphere – aren’t we actually among the key groups of people to whom she should have made her appeal?
So what was wrong with 42-days?
The real issue with 42 days is that the Government has failed to make a convincing case for extending detention without charge by any number of days, let alone 42 – and its ‘arguments’, such as they are, are equally applicable to indefinite detention, which (strangely) isn’t on the table – yet it continues to press the issue.
Any proposal to extend this period smacks of an attempt to outflank the other parties. Opponents have been accused of “playing politics” and “trivial grandstanding” – well, six weeks detention isn’t trivial, and caring about the rights of suspects isn’t playing politics.
The argument that there are lots of mobile phones, computer disks, paperwork etc to examine seems a little specious: we know from computer analysts that the police aren’t particularly selective, that they seem to prefer fishing expeditions; also, we don’t need to hold someone while we examine their effects, and we don’t need to return this evidence after 28 or 42 days. This seems more of a question of man-hours and being more clever about searches. As for encryption, apparently you can forget about breaking decent encryption in a reasonable amount of time, so that’s equally an argument for 42 years as it is for 42 days.
Let’s not make Nazi martyrs
I’m heading to Westminster Magistrates Court this afternoon, to cover the extradition hearing of Dr Frederick Toben. The outcome is by no means certain, and has potential to affect British free expression, rendering citizens here vulnerable to prosecution in EU countries with less liberal legislation.
This will be Toben’s fourth appearance at court, and the court will be, as it has been previously, packed with a mixture of frantically scribbling hacks and a smattering of Toben’s supporters, among whom Michelle Renouf and David Irving are the most notable.
Toben has been subjected to a European Arrest Warrant issued by German authorities. One’s initial reaction to the EAW is to baulk at just how wide ranging they can be. But as Chris Huhne points out on Index on Censorship this morning, they are a valuable tool:
“The arrest warrant is extradition for the Ryanair age. If criminals can re-emerge hundreds of miles away in a different jurisdiction within hours of a crime, the state must be able to pursue offenders without the interminable bureaucracy that is such a feature of traditional extradition. But countries must be able to trust each other’s legal systems and the responsible use of the warrant, or the political support for the warrant will wither.”
As with so many legal tools, sensible, sensitive application seems the key. The EAW is not, in and of itself, a bad mechanism. But in this case, the UK authorities have been far too keen to comply with their German counterparts, and ended up stepping in to a legal minefield. We can only hope that this afternoon, we return to a sensible position.
After Pinochet, Töben should be pretty safe
Liberal – and not so liberal – opinion is falling all over itself to defend Australia-based holocaust denier Fredrick Töben, who remains under threat of deportation to Germany following his arrest at Heathrow last week.
Töben, of course, was imprisoned for nine months in Mannheim in 1999 for propagating his execrable views, and was one of the star turns at the Tehran holocaust denial conference in 2006.
This is a man who considers the claim that Nazi Germany slaughtered six million Jews to be a straightforward ‘lie’, and moreover a lie perpetuated by ‘the holocaust racketeers, the corpse peddlers and the shoah business merchants’. continue reading… »
Why socialists should vote Lib Dem.
Kate Belgrave posed this question on this very site when replying to Jennie Rigg. Kate seems to be slowly warming to the idea but nonetheless I think it is a relevant question. The first thing to note is that there are doctrinal differences between liberals and socialists; they largely arise in different attitudes to capitalism and how to deal with it. Socialists want to replace it and liberals want to promote it while protecting the most vulnerable members of society. Of course, this is a sweeping generalisation which doesn’t do nearly enough justice to the complexities of the issue but it will have to do for now.
However, if we are being entirely honest, socialists don’t really have much of a clue what to replace capitalism with anymore following the failure of social democracy and communism. This is not the place to discuss why those two things failed but it does lead us to make an important discovery; the doctrinal differences are narrower now than at any time in history. Liberals and socialists share a common interest in the preservation and protection of the lower strata of society. continue reading… »
Why Labour Voters Ought to Think Again
Yeah, I figured that headline would get the attention of some of you. Cory Doctorow has posted what it’s like to be on the sharp end of Labour’s current policies. Because I know that some of you won’t be arsed to click the link, I’m going to copy and paste.
Earlier this year, I married my British fiancée and switched my visa status from “Highly Skilled Migrant” to “Spouse.” This wasn’t optional: Jacqui Smith, the British Home Secretary, had unilaterally (and on 24 hours’ notice) changed the rules for Highly Skilled Migrants to require a university degree, sending hundreds of long-term, productive residents of the UK away (my immigration lawyers had a client who employed over 100 Britons, had fathered two British children, and was nonetheless forced to leave the country, leaving the 100 jobless). Smith took this decision over howls of protests from the House of Lords and Parliament, who repeatedly sued her to change the rule back, winning victory after victory, but Smith kept on appealing (at tax-payer expense) until the High Court finally ordered her to relent (too late for me, alas). continue reading… »
Lib Dem Party Presidency – Three to Choose From
Just to pause among all the posts about Labour at the moment: nominations closed today for the Lib Dem party presidency, and (as reported on the beeb and LDV) three candidates have gone forward to the next stage: Baroness Ros Scott, Lembit Opik, and Chandila Fernando.
Why “the left” needs new direction – part 2
I argued last week that Social Democracy needs to be re-invented. This week I show how.
Harold Wilson said that the Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing, a proposition New Labour has tested to destruction. Historically, our ethical impulses have focused on issues of poverty and inequality – or rather, on powerlessness. Empower people, we said, and all will be well. Benn, Scargill, Livingstone and others re-interpreted the ethical dimension as the promotion of the interests of particular social groups. This frame of reference led to a narrative of struggle clearly distinguishable from the Tory narrative of government. The problem with struggle is that either you win, in which case – like the A.N.C. in South Africa – you don’t know what to do next, or you lose, in which case your position is worse than your starting-point. Warlike words such as ‘fight’ and ‘struggle’ need to be dropped from our lexicon. They obscure our necessary ethical focus. continue reading… »
Why ‘the left’ needs new direction
As the Labour Party Conference kicks off this weekend, this article is the start of a series on where ‘the left’ goes from here.
I will be blogging on the subject for LibCon more regularly from now.
Social democracy was the hegemonic form of progressive politics, both in theory and practice, in this country throughout the twentieth century. It sought evolutionary change of institutions and practices rather than revolutionary disjuncture.
However, this had less to do with the political acuity of Labour in that period than with specific historic circumstances that uniquely favored it.
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The old ideologies are dead, comrades
I’ve been rather taken to task by David at Though Cowards Flinch over my comments on the left’s need for new ideas to carry us forward into the 21st century…
This lack of context renders useless Unity’s characterisation of the ideologues of modern politics as out of date. The age in years of each view is irrelevant without a discussion of their use and abuse in history, and the door is closed by Unity to a detailed discussion on the merits and demerits of each idea as an idea in itself by his list. Each idea, from Marxism to NeoConservatism is dismissed on the basis of flimsy historical evidence or anecdotes from its progenitor as though this formed a substantial argument.
To which I can only say that even though I’m not known for my brevity, there is still only so much you can do in a single blog post if its not to turn into a doctoral thesis.
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» How bad is the feline obesity crisis?
» 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 civic 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
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