Gordon Brown attacks unemployed young people

Just when I was starting to feel sorry for floundering Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he decides to woo conservative support by hitting out at an easy target; unemployed young people who don't want to take the first low-paid job or training place that comes.

If they refuse a job offer or training place after a year, they will not get benefits.

If the financial insititutions of this country had been better regulated, the job market would not be in the sorry state it was today. The man responsible for financial regulation in this country between 1997 and 2007 was Gordon Brown.

Young people who have been out of work for more than a year may end up out of work again years down the line if they take a low-paid retail job in somewhere like Burger King.

What happens if the retail market changes and Burger King sheds thousands of jobs? How will they progress from this job to building a career?

As for training places, who knows what they will be in? Will there be enough?

Pat Regan, author of Dirty Politics, commented on the London Evening Standard's comment section: "My son and several of his friends come into the age range in question. They have been desperately seeking work well below their qualifications for many months and have even been refused basic work at McDonald’s and other stores as there are no places available."

Also, why does this only apply to those under 25? Is this because younger people are more likely to be stereotyped as criminals?

I believe that this will cause a rise in crime as those who have lost Job Seekers Allowance need to find another way to get money. This comes at a time when frontline police funding may be cut while the expensive identity card scheme will stay.

Today's terrible report on the recession, which is now thought to have started in April 2008, shows how pitiful the state of financial regulation and financial politics is in Britain.

I doubt Labour will win the July 23 election in Norwich North, or the general election for that matter.

Of course, the Conservatives will also use the unemployed as an easy target for the next ten years.

How many of either front bench have struggled to find a job during a recession?

How many have spent the day looking for jobs online and filling out application forms?

How many understand the stigma in the rapid tabloids and the bile that passes for mainstream comedy?

How many have proposed teaching interview skills and CV writing as part of Personal Health and Social Education at every secondary school?

How many have lived on £60 a week?

None.

As the Specials sang in their apt recession hit Ghost Town "Government leaving the youth on the shelf."

Where are the Right To Work marches for 2009? What is the way out of the worst unemployment crisis since the 1930's?

Sometimes, although I disagree strongly with his views on the Middle East conflict, and the European Union, not to mention the role of communism, I wish Tony Benn was Prime Minister, with Dennis Skinner as the Work and Pensions Secretary.

At least, unlike Gordon Brown, Yvette Cooper, David Cameron and Theresa May, they cares about the unemployed.

Television news' latest device to obtain viewers: Unfunny stunts

Just been watching Channel Four News' report on the rather half-hearted fudge on identity cards by new Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who seems determined to waste money on this foolish scheme.

For some reason, Gary Gibbon's report was introduced by Jon Snow with a graphic of Gibbon's face inside an identity card.

After a serious and interesting report on the decision to make identity cards voluntary, cut back to studio and bizarre Gary Gibbon/identity card graphic, with Jon Snow saying "Gary Gibbon, with his own identity card, there."

I remember a few weeks' ago a news report, which I think was also by Channel Four, commentating on Gordon Brown as a lame duck prime minister.

For some reason, footage of a yellow plastic duck had to be shot, with the duck caught by the reporter at the end of the piece.

Television news needs viewers, especially advertising-supporter commerical channels.

Are they relying on the easy option to chase viewers in this multi-channel and Web 2.0 age, or is it a sad indictment of today's generations that they need stupid gimmicks to be lured into the news?

I fear it is the latter.

One must cut back in a recession...Queen wants more money

Astonishing news from The Times today that Her Majesty the Queen wants more money from the struggling British taxpayer via the civil list.

While the Royal Family provide employment for many people, one has to cutback just like the millions of hard-working British people. Perhaps less grace and favour homes for former staff would be one way.

Funny how many of the angry pro-monarchist comments in the Times are from people who aren't paying for this increase.

I love the way they also cite the bonuses the bankers recieved as being larger, as if people were fully in support of them.

Here is the most charming comment, from Roger in Hurely,Oxfordshire.

"If we pay for obese single mothers who spew partly chewed burgers into their babies' mouths, we can definitely give Betty Windsor a payrise. She is far more deserving than all the drunken, drugged, promiscuous filth receiving benefit."

What a nice man. Maybe he should write for the Daily Mail. Isn't calling the Queen "Betty Windsor" disrepectful? Maybe Roger will end up spitting partly chewed burgers at babies, in a slippery slope kind of way.

An ICM Research opinion poll released this weekend found that 62% of people want details of the royal family’s public spending to be fully available. I feel this would greatly aid the debate.

I understand that the Crown Estate makes a profit, but this does not mean that we need to give the Queen more money.

There are people more deserving, unless you follow the thinking of Roger from Hurley, Oxfordshire, that all people recieving benefit are "drunken, drugged, promiscuous filth." Makes a Jobcentre plus queue seem like Hogarth's "Gin Lane".

Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit by James Scurlock (A Must Read)

Today's Observer brings the news that ministers have finally proposed steps to crack down on loan sharks and unsolicited credit card cheques.

Judging by James Scurlock's incredible Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit, as well as the number of adverts I see in the media for credit cards with stupidly high annual percentage rates (APRs).

The higher the APR on a credit card, the more interest is applied to your borrowing, and the more money you need to pay back at the end.

Many people do not understand this. I would love to go into schools and universites and ask people what APR means on a credit card advert. How many would know?

Scurlock has travelled across America to meet the victims and villians of easy credit.

This book will anger you when you read about those who pretend to advise those in dept but end up costing them more money, as well as those prepared to promote easy credit, such as Chris Barrett and Luke McCabe, who offered themselves as "human billboards" to FirstUSA.

High-limit credit cards have also been issued to American troops. One solider, Staff Major Sheila Bryan, ended up in jail after charging non-military items to her card.

The history of the credit industry, including the roles of Dan Hock, who helped rollout the BankAmericard and Walter Wriston, who developed the credit card further at Citibank, is also covered.

Those who have suffered from the power of the credit industry include Lynn Stavert from Cape Cod, having to hold weekly garage sales to raise over $75,000, Doris Gohman, who was accidentaly marked as deceased by credit companies who regused to change this rating, and Katherine Brown, a mentally retarded woman who was put on a preferred customer list despite being unemployed.

With MasterCard Teenie Beanie Babies and a board games teaching girls age 3 and up how to use a charge card, easy credit seems to be part of American and British culture. And haven't those chicken come home to roost!

Better regulation of the credit industry is needed. Today's news was a tiny step in the right direction. Our materialistic culture, which now includes a mobile phone for four year olds, needs to be tackled.

Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit is one of the most interesting, distrubing and important books I have read in months. After reading, you won't be tempted to sign up for a credit card!

Londoners can pick up copies in Bookcase, across the road from St Pancreas rail station, for £2.

James Scurlock has also made a film called Maxed Out covering easy credit and the social problems it causes. It has its own fan site.

Anne and Alan Keene's constituency house occupied

UK Indymedia reports that the constituency house of Labour MP's Anne and Alan Keene in Brentford, Hounslow has been occupied by people opposed to the house having been left empty for a year, as well as the couple's expense claims.

More here.

Big Issue and 38 Degrees demand an end to repossessions during the recession

The most recent Big Issue (number 852) has a good article by Daisy Greenwell on people made homeless by repossessions.

Sadly I can't link to it as the article is only in the printed magazine, but you can support the campaign by the Big Issue and 38 Degrees for Gordon Brown to freeze repossessions during the recession.

You can add your name to the Stop Repossessions petition by texting "repo" to 60123 or by filling in the petition online here.

Thirteen Iranian journalists detained by Iranian authorities

Amnesty International has reminded me how difficult it is to be a journalist in Iran.

They report that among those detained by the Iranian authorities were thirteen journalists, including Mahsa Amrabad from the Etemad-e Mellinewspaper, Abdolreza Tajik, editor of the weekly magazine Farhikhtegan and Mojtaba Pourmohsen, editor of the newspaper Gilan-e Emrooz.

You can see the full list, which includes foreign journalists, here.

Amnesty International calls for people to contact Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei or Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Head of the Judiciary, and appeal for the thirteen journalists to be freed.

Those Indymedia contributors who support Iran should explain why so many journalists are being detained.

Even Socialist Worker and Joan Baez get it. You can see a Youtube video of Joan Baez singing We Shall Overcome for the people of Iran, inclding a verse in Farsi, below. Via Harry's Place.



Here is an interesting leftist blog supporting the people of Iran.

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass...

Good news from the Highways Agency that many road schemes planned will need to be canceled due to their costs.

I hate the way people assume that building more roads will reduce congestion. All it does is encourage more people to use cars instead of public transport.

If our bus and train services were cheaper and more reliable, we wouldn't have congestion on our roads. Yet New Labour wants as many car and motorcycle drivers as possible so it can make money from taxes.

Sadly, nothing will be changing soon on our appalling public transport network run by fat cats. In London, we also have the added problem that Transport for London, which run the London Underground, are confused about their role.

Maybe Tfl could concentrate on running a decent tube service instead of trying to rival a museum.

The day a press release was posted on the Tfl site promoting the fact that Art on the on the Underground, London Underground's art programme, won an award, myself and scores of other passengers were experiencing problems getting home after a signal failure at Victoria, meaning the Victoria Line was suspended between Brixton and Warren Street, with severe delays on the rest of the line.

Cat Stevens' song Where Do The Children Play is a fantastic attack on the folly of modern planning:

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorryloads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems you can't get off.

Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Philosophical announcements on the Piccadilly Line?

Transport for London want drivers on the Piccadilly line to use philosophical announcements when talking to passengers, to make travelling more "enjoyable".

Ironically, I first discovered this when communting home from Victoria to Walthamstow Central.

I don't understand why Transport for London think they have some kind of cultural responsibilty. No other transport system does.

I didn't see any kind of promotion of the South-West on the train I took from Egham to Waterloo station, neither did I see any on the Eurostar to Belgium in May.

Given the high prices most Londoners pay to use the tube each day, I hope that no money is being spent on this kind of drivel that could be used to provide a fast, pleasent, reliable transport service.

I can see people becoming bored of these announcements quickly, unlike those displayed on tube station service information boards.

I don't want to hear philosophical announcements when travelling home. I want to only hear what I need to know to get home.

For example, it would be nice if it was announced whether the Victoria Line train standing at the platform was going to Seven Sisters or Walthamstow Central. There appears to be only two boards displaying this on the Kings Cross northbound Victoria Line platform.

It would also be nice to only be told once to take my luggage home and that the northbound Victoria Line train is terminating at Walthamstow Central tube station, unlike tonight when we were told this a number of times.

Transport for London should stick to running a transport service and let people such as Alfie Boyd and Claire Boyle of Choose What You Read come up with cultural ideas. Choose What You Read is a far better idea than philosophical annoucements.

Besides, if London Underground really wanted to encourage people to think for themselves, they could consider how many people get their news from the moronic free papers distributed around the network.

You can take part in Choose What You Read outside Liverpool Street, Waterloo, Westminster, Euston and Paddington stations on 6 July.

Back from ISEAL Annual General Meeting at Royal Holloway, University of London

Got back yesterday evening from the ISEAL Annual General Meeting at Royal Holloway, University of London in Egham, Surrey.

We had three useful and productive days with our members.

I took photographs of the plenaries* and workshop sessions on Monday and Tuesday, and oversaw the recording of plenaries and certain sessions. I also helped out with logistics and oversaw a quiz before Tuesday's dinner.

On Wednesday, I co-presented two workshops on Building Online Communities. This was the first time I had done such a thing at a conference, and it gave me some useful pointers for carrying out future events.

Royal Holloway has a beautiful campus. Of particular note is the Founders Building, the original building of Royal Holloway College when it was founded in 1879 by Thomas Holloway.

We were lucky enough to eat a lovely three course meal in the Portrait Gallery, which contains a collection of Victorian paintings.

The food was lovely and the organisation was fantastic. A worthwhile few days.


*A plenary is a session attended by all members.

Strike Night on More4 last night: A reminder of how the Tories are bad for Britain

Much of this blog has been attacking the Labour Party, as after all they are the ones in power, although I have also been highly critical of Tory mayor Boris Johnson.

However, I rewatched Strike: When Britain Went To War, shown as part of Strike Night on More4, as well as a bit of Ken Loach's Whose Site Are You On, showing poems and songs from the 1984 miners' strike.

While the former had a patronising and rather simplistic narration, and the pop songs were not necessary, it was a useful introduction for those unaware of the miners' strike of 1984. Ken Loach's film was moving and revealing, worth a look.

Both documentaries showed me how destructive the Tories were during their last period of government.

In fact, I can only think of one good policy that they had; the regeneration of the Docklands in East London and the construction of the Docklands Light Railway in 1981.

While I don't support the attacks on working miners such as those alleged by Union of Democratic Mineworkers founder Neil Greatrex in last night's documentary, I'm firmly on the side of the strikers.

During the strike, miners were fighting not just their working colleagues and the police, but the press, PR consultants and a powerful government.

The strike didn't just destroy the lives of miners, it led to destruction of whole mining communities.

Some argue that the coal industry is a contributor to climate change, which is true. So why not switch to renewable energy and offer jobs to the coal miners first of all? Thatcher didn't care about the environment unless it could give her votes.

In the excellent Marching To The Fault Line, Francis Beckett and David Hencke point out that we now import coal from abroad, with only six pits in the whole of Britain.

One has to ask if David Cameron, former special advisor to Pinochet supporter Norman Lamont on Black Wednesday, will be more like Margaret Thatcher or a Ted Heath/John Major figure. Rapid decline or slow decline? 1979 or 1970? I predict he will be more of a Ted Heath figure, but maybe I'm being too positive.

I also predict that the Tories will cut the BBC licence fee dramatically when they get into power. The right hate the BBC. Even Sir Alan Sugar continuing to present The Apprentice while being in government has provoked howls of fury.

Boris Johnson will become a maverick thorn in David Cameron's side, but will be tolerated as the two men have similar policies and views, unlike Ken Livingstone and Tony Blair.

In 1983, a Labour MP named Neil Kinnock delivered a powerful attack on Thatcherism, stating "I warn you that you will have pain–when healing and relief depend upon payment.I warn you that you will have ignorance–when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right." You can read the full text here.

Will we be hearing the same about David Cameron? Will we have the equivalent of the Miners' Strike four or five years down the line?

Then again, anti trade union laws have neutered the power of the unions. Only the oil workers' strike poses the potential to disrupt the operations of Britain.

While there is a potential for another Tube strike in London, which management are trying to avoid, three day strikes are not a significant enough threat to the business and political interests in London to cause policy changes amongst Transport for London.

I would be interested to know how many of today's schoolchildren, who all seem to have MP3 players and be increasingly hyperactive, know about the Miners' Strike outside of former mining communities. I reckon not very many.

In 1984, tens of thousands of heroes defied the threat of mass unemployment and fought for their jobs. They understood community and the need for employment, two parts of life the Tories didn't in the eighties and pretend to only now.

Today, in another time of mass unemployment, the media tell us what heroes to fete, before destroying them like they did with Susan Boyle. At least More4 tried to educate people on some people worthy of attention and respect, even if it was on Saturday night when most people don't watch television.

If you are interested in viewing Strike: When Britain Went To War, check out 4 on Demand, Channel 4's watch again service.

I won't be voting for Labour or the Tories at the next General Election. I implore you not to either.

Adam Bienkov's Tory Troll blog gives you a taste of how a Tory Mayor of London, as well as the Tory Mayor of Barnet Brian Coleman, behaves.

Labour MP for Bolesover, Dennis Skinner, is a rare exception and a real working class hero.

Manchester Evening News on the hypocrisy of James Purnell and other DWP ministers

The Manchester Evening News has published a nice little interactive map which allows Manchester residents to find out what expenses their MP claimed.

Manchester boroughs are colour-coded by party, and one can hover the mouse over the map for relevant MP and area. Clicking on each area brings up a report on the MP's expense claims.

The MP for Stalybridge and Hyde is former Work and Pensions secretary James Purnell. Last December, James Purnell proposed charging interest on crisis loans made to the elderly and unemployed.

You'd think someone who wanted to make money out of the destitude would be keen to keep his expenses as low as possible. Maybe a pencil and a cup for his office.

Sadly not. James Purnell is reported to have claimed for over £1,000 of advertising at Stalybridge Celtic's football ground and £1,897.63 distributing 17,000 leaflets in Dukinfield, Hyde and Mossley.

He also seems to have a problem finding cheap stationary, claiming £34.98 for a stapler.

As I posted yesterday, the Department of Work and Pension won't even fund taxis to the hospital when local bus services to the hospital do not run after 6pm (a scandel and a demonstration of how bus services should not be deregulated), according to letter writter Anne Plumb, also from Manchester.

However, the minister in charge of the Department of Work and Pensions for eighteen months was happy to claim thousands for promoting himself.

The Department of Work and Pensions is also keen to crack down on those who commit benefit fraud. Unpleasent posters appear all over Britain with a model inside a red circle,, saying "But...doesn't make me a criminal."

Yet the minister in charge of the Department of Work and Pensions for eighteen months did not pay capital gains tax (CGT) on the sale of his second home.

Gary Vaux,head of money advice at Hertfordshire Council, has written an excellent article for the Community Care website where he reports on other Department of Work and Pensions ministers such as Kitty Usher, who claimed for interior work on her second home including plumbing and ceiling decorations, as well as Tory shadow work and pensions spokesperson James Clappison, who claimed for flowers for his second home, part of his 24 strong property portfolio.

James Purnell's blacked out claims for the past three years are linked as PDF's here.

One law for the rich and one law for the poor: Guardian letters page on the Department of Work and Pensions

Saw this disturbing letter in today's Guardian:

O that the Department of Work and Pensions was like the MPs' expenses office (MPs' expenses 19 June). Earlier this year my husband was critically ill in hospital for two months. No sooner had I notified the DWP he had died than I received a letter apologising for contacting me at this time, but pointing out that his disabled living allowance should have been stopped after my husband had been in hospital for four weeks and the law now required me to repay £341. Also in the post was a stark letter stating a related loss of entitlement to invalid care allowance. The ICA was only a nominal entitlement - I am over 60 - but it did open the door to a carer's premium and minimum income guarantee. Fair? It may be except that my disabled husband was not having all his needs met in hospital, so family and others tried to be with him as much as possible.

I was with him almost every night. This meant taxi fares, as the bus service from our town to the hospital does not run after 6pm, and only bus fares can be claimed. There is no negotiating with the DWP! Technically, MPs may not be wrong in the claims they made, but they make the stringent laws that applied to me and others in my situation. And most of us will not be receiving salaries like MPs. The DWP retired me from an ICA payment at 60, but even if I had been receiving it, it's an insulting £45 for a minimum of 35 hours a weeks supporting a disabled person. No minimum wage here, let alone luxuries. Politically and morally MPs are in the wrong, yet I haven't heard a single MP say so. One law for the rich ...
Anne Plumb
Manchester

Why have the media not covered how the Department of Work and Pensions treats people? Perhaps it is because they are too busy churning out soft stories on Sir Alan Sugar and the Tories or the new cricket song.

The big debate at the moment is around the rise of online media and public service broadcasting. There also needs to be a debate on the kind of stories the media cover.

Homophobia in Mexico: The case of Agustín Estrada Negrete

Today is Gay Pride in Mexico City, and Article 19 has reminded me of the homophobia in that country.

Agustín Estrada Negrete, director of the special needs school Centro de Atención Multiple, was forced to take a leave of absence in 2008 after newspaper pictures of him at a demonstration on the International Day against Homophobia in 2007 were published.

When he returned to work in 2009, he was told that he would have to keep his sexuality hidden or he would no longer be allowed to work at the special needs school.

Last month, Negrete and his lawyer Jaime Genaro López Vela were detained and beaten after his supporters protested at not being allowed into the Office of the Public Prosecutor where Negrete was stating his case.

On this day of celebrating homosexuality, Article 19, together with CENCOS (Centro Nacional de Comunicación Social AC) and Agenda LGBT, calls on the Governor of the State of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, to investigate the detention of Negrete and his lawyer and to ensure Negrete is reinstated at the Centro de Atención Multiple.

Last year, the local government of Mexico City ran a clever and funny campaign against homophobia.

In other news, a law to equalise the age of consent for gay men in Gibraltar was defeated. The bill itself was accused of using offensive terms for gay people by Gibraltan equality group GGR.

Better news from Chennai in India, which is holding its first Rainbow parade, supporting gay rights, on 28 June.

Twelve European countries sign information access treaty

The Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, the world's first treaty on access to information, has been signed by twelve countries.

The treaty, which establishes a right to request any official document held by a public authority within the limits of national security and commerical interests, can be read here.

While Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia, and Sweden signed, countries including Germany, France and Britain who were present at the negotiation did not.

Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info, commented "Responding to civil society concerns about the treaty, they argued that a minimum-standard Convention would attract more signatures. Why then have they not signed?"

Once the treaty has been ratified by ten states, the Convention will become law. Slovenia has already included ratifiation in its legislative programme, according to Article 19.

Internet collective Anonymous help Iranian anti government protestors

The Internet collective Anonymous, who have been fantastic at exposing the Church of Scientology, are now turning their attention to aiding Iranians opposed to their repressive government.

Anonymous Iran, which offers advice to Iranian dissidents, can be found here.

Those inside Iran concerned about their visits to the site being recorded can use the anonymous proxy service Tor.

Quoting the site's slogan, "Even if a ballot is silenced, the voice behind it cannot be."

Torrent site The Pirate Bay has renamed itself The Persian Bay and is linking to Anonymous Iran.

According to vnunet, blogger Austin Heap is also helping Iranians to post safely on the demonstrations.

Google Translate has also been released in Persian. Franz Och, Principal Scientist claims "We feel that launching Persian is particularly important now, given ongoing events in Iran."

After today's speech by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranians demonstrating against their regime need all the help they can get.

Get involved here.

Three candidates for House of Commons Speaker offer their manifestos

Writing in today's Times, three candidates for the post of Speaker of the House of Commons, Parmjit Dhanda, Sir Alan Haselhurst and Sir Patrick Cormack, offer their manifestos.

It is a great shame that only three candidates have done so. As well as providing an overview of why they want to be speaker, it allows people to find about more about the person themselves.

Despite having read all three Speaker manifestos, I am still backing Ann Widdecombe for Speaker. I hope she wins.

Although I disagree with many of her views, in particular those on homosexuality, the post of Speaker is not affected to a large degree by the person's viewpoints.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 's Photoshopped supporters

An interesting exposee of Photoshop being used to pretend Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's supporters are more numerous than in reality.

Meanwhile, silent protests are occuring in Iran, but does this mean, as Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein argues, that the neoconservatives were right?

Over on UK Indymedia, there are some ludricrous comments on the situation. My favourite is this one "To be honest, if the same happened in the UK, I would be expecting tanks on the streets and massacres by now."

School of Oriental and African studies protest over detained cleaning staff

The director's office at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London has been occupied by students protesting the detention of nine cleaning staff by immigration authorities.

The staff were arrested on 12 June while attending a meeting was called by contractor ISS Cleaning, during which around 45 immigration officials carried out a raid.

According to those campaigning for the staff's release, the detained cleaners are all members of Unison, and recently went on strike to protest the sacking of cleaner and union activist Jose Stalin Bermudez.

Five have been deported, while three remain in Britain. It is not clear what happened to the ninth.

Demands by those occupying the director's office include:

*for the directorate to request the secretary of state to release the detainees and to prevent the deportation of the four cleaners in detention in the United Kingdom,

*to hold accountable SOAS managers who co-operated with immigration officals during the raid,

*to respect the right for trade unions to organise.

The Home Office told the BBC that all the cleaners were illegial immigrants. A spokeswoman said: "Nine individuals were encountered working illegally on 12 June.Five individuals were subsequently removed from the United Kingdom and three remain in custody pending removal. We will not tolerate illegal working."

Graham Dyer, lecturer in Economics of Developing Countries and SOAS branch chair of lecturers’ union UCU, said: "It is a disgrace that SOAS management saw fit to use a seat of learning to intimidate migrant workers. This is their underhand revenge and we will do all we can to stop migrant workers paying the price."

A Facebook group has also been set up by those campaigning for the cleaners to be released.

I support Ann Widdecombe for Commons Speaker

Not that I get a say, but I feel Ann Widdecombe would be the best choice for Commons Speaker.

She's articulate, independent and doesn't stand for nonsense. She also has a respect for Parliamentry tradition and, to the best of my knowledge, didn't make dodgy expense claims.

Having someone like Margaret Beckett or John Bercow as speaker would be an insult to what is left of British democracy.

Iain Dale believes Sir Alan Haselhurst will be the next speaker. I have no view myself as of the frontrunner, but I do hope Ann Widdecome wins.

We'll find out after the June 22 vote!

Five rules for advertising a room on Gumtree

Tommorow I will hopefully be moving to a new house in Walthamstow, North East London, near Queen's Road Rail Overground station, and within a short walk of Walthamstow Central underground station at the northern end of the lovely Victoria line.

It has taken me several weeks to find a room. One of the reasons for this, aside from the price/scuzziness ratio of North London and the fact I work full time, is the pathetic quality of housing adverts online.

May I suggest to anyone advertising a house or room to rent on the popular online marketplace Gumtree, that you follow these five simple rules.

1. Post pictures of the room itself, not just the communal areas.
2. Don't write all in capitals like a spam email.
3. Don't just write a sentence and then "call me, phone number" at the end.
4. Don't pretend a flat is near Angel when it is in Upper Holloway. Be honest!
5. Try and get the "Date Available" right.

Then people might actually come and look at the room, and not simply think you are a muppet.

In other news, our office is moving to the Wenlock Basin in Angel, and I went to look round for the first time last Tuesday. We are near a lovely canal and two nice charity shops, perfect for a lunch hour dash. Angel is on the Northern Line of London Underground.

Ambulance blocker gets suspended sentence

So another person committs a vile act and escapes with a stupidly light punishment.

Annika Avery from Leicestershire walked away grinning with a five-month suspended prison sentence, a three year driving ban and a twelve month supervision order after blocking an ambulance with its emergency lights on.

Inside a paramedic was trying to give CPR, a delicate any tricky procedure.

The person recieving CPR died, although it was ruled that Annika Avery had not directly caused death.

Why would a person would do such a thing? Why was she not banned from driving for life, or given a harsher sentence?

It is getting more difficult to be liberal in today's world.

I sometimes feel like my blog posts on this topic resemble the half-witted postings of some contributors to The Sun's bulletin board, or a column from the Daily Mail.

However, when I read some of the stories of anti-social behaviour, I become conservative in my views on law and order.

Perhaps if our popular culture wasn't currently so mean and spiteful, Britain might produce nicer people.

The case of Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle is a case in point. People were told by the press to love her and then told to hate her.

Private Eye records how newspaper columnists changed their mind when they couldn't milk a certain angle.

One could flee to the broadsheets: except that both the Observer and the Guardian seem to regard Britain's Got Talent as news.

It is hard for parents to teach children to respect others when the media preaches such an unpleasent message.

As for journalists who try to make a difference, the state and popular culture often stop them. Take the case of Suzanne Breen, northern editor of the Sunday Tribune as highlighted by Roy Greenslade.

A point on the London Underground strikes

Many commentators seem to think that most of the RMT strikers are London Underground tube drivers. In fact, 80% of tube drivers are represented by ASLEF, which is not on strike. Most of the strikers are station staff.

Not that it makes a lot of difference,but good to get things right.

Anyway, I'm apparently a member of the smug middle class, because I read the Guardian. Middle class I am, but not smug!

I envy people like Tanya Gold who only have to worry about trivial things like wedding lists!

If you think I am smug and wanted to deflate me like the big balloon a woman was carrying through Angel tube station on Tuesday, you could point out that only one strike is taking place on the Underground system.

Anyway, it's been a chaotic day.

Best Wikipedia entry

Was reading Wikipedia last night and clicked through to a summary of Brixton, south London, where I have never been.

One sentence in the article, on murals in Brixton, made me smile:

"After the riots in 1981 a series of murals was funded by the council, although there is no evidence to show that colourfully painted walls have any direct correlation to the level of violence within a community."

I very much doubt there will be a study produced about the link between murals and violence in the community.

If you do want to go on a Brixton Mural Walk, you can see a Google Map here.

Doncaster's English Democrat mayor cuts Pride funding

Pinknews.co.uk reports that the new Mayor of Doncaster Peter Davies has decided to cut funding for the annual Pride event.

The event is however still going ahead on August 16,

Davies has commented "My policy on gays and lesbians is very simple.

"I don't think councils should be spending money on them parading through town advertising their sexuality."

Sounds like Peter Davies does not like public displays of homosexuality, although he also says "I have nothing whatsoever against gays and lesbians, what they do in their private lives is absolutely fine."

If he had said "Doncaster council is struggling to fund public services, so we need to cut Pride funding", then it wouldn't be so bad.

However, this seems like a rather sad way to stop people standing up to homophobia, which is endemic across Britain.

According to the BBC, this action is part of Peter Davies' pledge to "fight political correctness".

This fits in with the English Democrats' policies, which could have been written by Richard Littlejohn. Their site says "It is time common sense prevailed. The various quangos promoting political correctness should be closed and those laws promoting political correctness repealed. We want English freedoms and values, not multiculturalism."

Which quangos promote political correctness? Why is multiculturalism unEnglish when England culture has been heavily influenced by immigrants?

The only reference I can find on the site about homosexuality is a statement by a member called Guy Leven-Torres on why he joined the English Democrats. "Not now of course as they investigate, persecute and prosecute offences that only ten years ago, would have been ridiculed- like making religious jokes, or about homosexuals, or ethnic minorities like the ‘Irish’ who are actually Caucasians like the English."

Doncaster Pride told the BBC that the event bought 6,000 visitors to the town over the last two years, boosting tourism and loyal employment.

This year, the event will have Abba tribute band Abba Revival and Tina Cousins performing, and there will be a Walk of Unity from near Waterdale to the Market place.

I do however support the proposed cuts on translation functions for non-English speakers in Doncaster, as the town does not recieve a lot of international visitors. However, there should be greater funding for English classes to make up for this.

The particular problems that older gay,lesbian and bisexual people face are also worth reading.

Why not attend Doncaster Pride this year on August 16, even if just to prove to the new mayor that a celebration of gay pride is worth having?

London Underground strike has started

The Central and the District Line now have severe delays, the Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan Lines are part suspended and the Victoria,Circle, Bakerloo and Waterloo and City lines are suspended. It looks like the lines are slowly closing down one by one.

Why is the Journey Planner on the front page of the Transport for London website updated at 7:55pm but the one on the "Service Update Now" page not updated since 6:58pm? It is not impressive.

I left earlier than usual, at 5:30pm, and although the Central Line platform was slightly more crowded than normal, the main crowding occured around the National Rail platforms, where a police officer was deployed to keep order.

I am working at home until Friday morning, when services should start getting back to normal (meaning semi-regular delays rather than a whole network closedown).

There were problems on the Circle and District lines this morning when I went to view our new office at the Wenlock near Angel tube station on the Northern Line.

Transport for London says it has laid on 100 extra buses, staff are distributing maps outside London Underground stations, and on Wednesday and Thursday morning from 08:00-10:30, taxi drivers will operate a fixed-fare, shared taxi service for central London destinations at these railway stations: Waterloo, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Marylebone, Paddington and Euston. There is also the option of cycling.

The Congestion Charge will not be waived during the strike. Is this a good thing? I am horrified by the number of people living in London who drive into work, but wonder if people should be able to apply for an exemption during the strike.

A more interesting development is that people can show their Oyster Cards at National Rail stations in Greater London. Why can't all National Rail stations in Greater London accept Oyster cards?

My position on the strike is one of cautious support, given that Transport for London decided to make 1,000 people redundant during the middle of a recession rather than when jobs were slightly easier to find.

If you do suppport the tube strike, you can find more information here.

What happens after this strike?

Real IRA leader McKevitt responsble for Omagh bombing

Some bad news for Irish Republican Army apologists.

Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt has been found responsible for the awful Omagh bombing, while killed twenty nine innocent people and two unborn babies.

According to Mr Justice Morgan, "those involved in the planning, preparation, planting and detonation of the bomb recognised the likelihood of serious injury or death from its detonation but decided to take that risk."

Vincent Kearney, Northern Ireland Home Affairs correspondent, says that neither Michael McKevitt nor Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly, who were also found liable for the attack, have the means to pay back their victims.


Although I am going to sound like the Daily Mail here, it is a real shame they cannot be made to work for the rest of the lives to pay back the victims, although McKevitt and Daly are currently in prison.

I understand forgiveness, but I also believe we still need justice.

It has taken eleven years for this verdict.

PS: Just had a look at the IRA Facebook Causes page. Seems it was someone named Robert Hanley who left the informed_irish comment on my post, but he said he did it in December 2008, whereas I only saw the post in February 2009. Not sure what was going on there.

Here are some typical comments from the page:

im an IRISH AMERICAN. I have always followed the polotics and beliefs of our beloved MOTHER LAND of IRELAND. I will do anything that is in my power to help and support the release and the freedom of IRELAND from the british rule. Please fill me in on anything i can do from here.

Im British but I totally support the IRA, not all of us Brits are Tyrants, just the system and the government.

I should add that I don't think there is anything wrong with supporting independence for Northern Ireland, indeed I have a lot of sympathy for this view. But there is a huge gap between this and supporting the murderous Irish Republican Army.

Why are Facebook happy for people to use their website to raise funds for such vile people? They have rightly removed anti-Semitic groups, so why not an IRA cause?

One of those weeks: European Elections 2009

Well the past few weeks haven't been great for me, and neither have the results of the European Elections.

I joked to a friend of mine that the Guardian's headline should have been "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear."

Firstly, the Eurosceptics are doing well.The Tories gained the most votes on a eurosceptic manifesto, while the United Kingdom Independence Party came second, in front of Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

I agree that a lot of the decisions made at European level are wrong, but the same is true of a lot of decisions made at Westminster.

The European Union is also undemocratic, but what is needed here is people prepared to become MEP's and force change from the inside.

I do not believe that withdrawing from the EU will help, especially at a time when European countries need to work together to solve the financial crisis.

Leaving Europe will only push us further into the alleged special relationship between us and America.

Secondly, the British National Party gained two MEP's, Nick Griffin and the less well known Andrew Brons, despite having a lower share of the vote than in 2004.

The rise of the far right was repeated across Europe. In Hungary, the nationalist party Jobbik won 3 seats with almost 15% of the vote, while in Austria and Slovakia far right parties also made big gains.

Thirdly, Britain is being governed by a party preoccupied with in fighting. It is not good for the country when cabinet ministers are engaged in a costly power battle and the prime minister is clinging on.

A leadership election needs to be fought within the Labour Party so once and for all people have a strong leader.

During the farcical leadership election of 2007, I was sceptical about people's faith in Gordon Brown. I now feel sorry for him. I didn't agree with many of his actions as Chancellor under Tony Blair, or many of his actions now, but he isn't totally immoral, just incompetent.

Here's a lesson for the Labour Party: when you have someone ready to take over, put up a competent challenger from inside the cabinet so it is a real victory. Don't leave it to people like Michael Meacher to offer a democratic challenge.

So to cheer us all up, here is an interesting blog on the Euro elections by an observer in Northern Ireland.

Now the way forward is often hard to see.

Just like washing your hair or tidying yourself up can make one feel a bit better, I think back to 1945, forty one years before I was born, and remember that after a world war the British people voted for one of the greatest governments this country has seen.

Although they saddled us with Trident, they built schools and hospitals and gave ordinary people rights.

We need to find a way of keeping the good aspects of 2009: better racial and sexual equality, less class divisions, while getting rid of the materialism, corruption and social decay that sees young children carry weapons and the media cover our minds with celebrity stories.

One way is to do your bit and refuse to become interested in something because it is popular culture.

Don't just buy something because it was reviewed in the Metro (the publication that has done more to make British culture banal than any other) or wear something because a footballer has.

Develop your own interests and your personality and social conscience will then improve.

Sometimes, when I'm commuting into work, I look around at all the people shoving Metro's against others' backs and I have a vision of zombies crowded onto the tube, each holding a Metro and dressed in designer clothes.

When they get home, they sit on news sites leaving moronic comments as satirised in Private Eye's excellent "From the Messageboards" column, while the latest Home Box Office DVD blares out from the 55 inch television glued to a plastic trophy.

And while the zombies mill around, Britain's first British National Party prime minister, the former National Front chairman and MEP Andrew Brons, gazes out over a once proud land.

I don't want this to happen. We need to rebuilt British society, starting with ourselves.

As a caveat, I should also add that I don't think leaving comments on a news site is a bad thing, simply that moronic ones are not clever.

And I would also add that Speak Your Branes can sometimes be rather less neutral than is good.

Book Review: The T&G Story A History of the Transport and General Workers Union 1922-2007

Got some good books out from Leytonstone library two weeks ago, one of which was a history of the Transport and General Workers Union, which became Unite in 2007.

Written by Stop The War Coalition chair Andrew Murray, the book is a comprehensive if opionated examination of the trade union's history.

It covers both the major industrial events of the past century, including the 1984 miners' strike and the imposition of "In Place of Strife" by Barbara Castle, and internal union politics.

The formation of the TGWU is also interesting, and the factual content is well referenced.

You can obtain a copy from Lawrence and Wishart.

ISP Pricewert LLC links severed after spam allegations

BBC News reports that American ISP Pricewert LLC has had its net links severed after allegations it was behind the distribution of spam and illegal pornography.

This company is also known as 3fn.net and APS Telecom.

Much of the spam I recieve seems to be from Burkina Faso and asking for money, although I have noticed a lot of spam I recieve at work is related to porn.

Section 28-style law proposed for Lithuania

One reason not to vote for the Tories is their attempt to introduce Section 28, which in the late eighties in order to shore up the bigot vote.

The law stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship."

The right wing press loved it. Gay teenagers and anyone who had brain did not.

PinkNews.co.uk reports that the Lithuanian Parliament will introduce a similar law to ban the discussion of homosexuality in schools.

However, there is some good news from Knox County in Tennessee, North America, where a block on educational homsexual websites may finally be removed after the American Civil Liberties Union began legal proceedings in April.

Perhaps if some people in Tennessee were better educated about homsexuality, there wouldn't be these kind of violent attacks.

Why are people so opposed to discussions of homosexuality? Are they concerned that children may grow up with ideas that differ from them? Some parents seem to believe that school should only teach the same ideas that they have.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas described his country as one of the most homophobic in the European Union last year.

Gay activists were banned from displaying the rainbow flag twice in 2007, and in the capital Vilnius Pride marches are banned, according to Pink News.co.uk.

I suggest that people write to the British Ambassador to Lithuania Simon Butt at be-vilniusATbritain.lt or the Prime Minister of Lithuania Andrius Kubilius at Andrius.KublulusATlrvk.lt (using an @ instead of AT, I had to use AT to avoid their addresses recieving spam emails).

Tell them that Lithuania has nothing to fear from homosexuality and that this backward law just makes them look daft.

Peter Tatchell and Caroline Lucas honoured at Observer Ethical Awards

The fantastic Peter Tatchell has been named Campaigner of the Year at the Observer Ethicial Awards, which took place last night at Kensington Roof Gardens.

Caroline Lucas of the Green Party was named Politician of the year, while The Stockbridge Junior Rangers from the Stockbridge Estate in Liverpool won an award for looking after Lomeshaye Marsh nature reserve .

The full list of awards can be seen here.

Harry's Place on Peter Tatchell's award.

Big changes in Greenland politics: Suimut Party lose power after thirty years

For the first time in 30 years, the Suimut Party no longer rule Greenland.

The opposition Inuit Ataqatigiit (Eskimo Brotherhood) party won yesterday's election and 14 out of 31 seats, drastically increasing its vote from 26.5% in 2005 to 43.7%, Reuters reports.

According to IceNews, both the Suimut Party and Inuit Ataqatigiit favour independece from Denmark, but the Suimut Party desires it at a faster pace.

Last year, Greenlanders voted for self-governance, and will control its mineral and oil resources, as well as Greenlandic becoming the official language, when a self-rule bill comes into effect on June 21.

Greenland is the world's biggest island, with 57,000 resident there, but it is not often covered in the British media, which prefer rewriting press releases intended to promote a particular company or

Linked is more information about Greenland.

Helpfully, Greenland's Sermitsiaq newspaper also has an English language newsletter, with an article on political parties.

European elections tommorow on June 4

So tommorow marks the day when people across Europe. go to the polls, unless, like me, you have a postal vote or you follow Antifa.

Unlike in Brussels, where I was last week, there aren't many posters for candidates, which I find disappointing. All I have seen is huge billboards for the Christian Party.

If you are voting, and you live in London, I urge you to vote for Jean Lambert MEP of the Green Party. Principled, decent and down to earth, she was kind enough to aid me with my dissertation last year.

Someone who has time for a masters journalism student is worth voting for, in my book, and her stance on Gaza is relativly peaceful, calling for a two state solution.

I voted for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections and for one Liberal Democrat and one Green candidate in our local elections.

I'm starting to regret that after reading in Private Eye about their donor Alpha Healthcare recieving a no-star inspection rating at its Bromson Hill and Regents Court homes for the elderly, despite a slight improvement in the latter's rating this year.

British society treats its old people very badly, and unless the Liberal Democrats return the £435,000 donation I'm considering not voting for the party any longer. I'll probably vote Green or Interpendent Working Class Action instead(the latter at a local level, despite the fact I'm not working class they have reasonable policies).

I predict Labour will do very badly. They will be third at least, with the Tories on top (urgh). I really hope that the party implodes between now and 2010!

As for Jury Team, I'm not convinced they will make a breakthrough. They need more time for people to know of their existance.

The British National Party will pick up support, but many people will be aware of how disgusting they really are, including a recent picket of Manchester Cathedral and vile allegations against Archbishops. They won't get far.

I can't see any special coverage this week devoted to the results. I assume it is at the weekend.

The fallout will be immense. These could be the most important European elections for Britain since 1979.

And as for those in Antifa who urge you not to vote, read this blog about the BNP in North East London, and watch this video by the excellent Don't Panic, who planted flowers in the shape of a pound sign in vile Alan Duncan's garden, and then remember the slogan from Labour in 2001:

Get out and vote. Or they get in.