Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 5:29 pm. 0 comments
What is a First Secretary of State? Why does someone unelected get to be it? And head up a new super-department the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills? Doesn’t Gordon get we want more democracy because the greater concentration of power in fewer hands makes it seem like we’re getting less.
Besides Gordon can’t actually watch The Apprentice otherwise it would be Margaret Mountford and Nick Hewer fasttracked into government, not just Sir Alan.
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 7:44 am. 0 comments
Tomorrow’s Local and European elections take place under a dark cloud of pessimism and apathy. If this is 21st century politics it looks far too much like old 20th century politics for anyone think the politics of renewal exist here.. If people do care it is about the moral culpability of career politicians who have been creaming as much as they can from the taxpayer then shrouding themselves in the so called legitimacy of The Rules, ones they invented and oversee themselves that is.
Politics has become a career not a civic duty, and government has become an end not a means.
The prospect is the lowest turnout ever. This is sad as it is a civic duty on the part of those governed to participate in democracy. We cannot mourn it’s loss if we too fail to play our part. Westminster will become more insular, not less if we turn our back and fail to insist on openness and scrutiny.
So please vote. It is not much but the only direct intervention we we can make until our political system is reformed. If you are truly disgusted and shamed by out current politics then say so. Go and vote and spoil your ballot. Scrawl across it your particular grievance like “I would like to vote but don’t trust any of you”, “I will vote Labour again when you keep your Manifesto commitment on political reform” or “I will vote again when you agree to serve your communities before yourselves”, whatever as long as you register your choice even if it is a non-choice. If parliament is broken then spoil your vote don’t just descend into apathy.
The fear is into this vacuum the politics of hatred and homogeneity could creep in. That we take our frustrations out on those different to us. Already the British Nationalist Party are mowing people’s lawns, making them cups of tea, putting a civilized veneer on their violence and prejudice and effectively wrapping the anxieties and grievances of ordinary people in their slippery and dangerous mythmaking narratives of folklore, homelands and indigenous British people.
In case you are wondering indigenous means those descended from the first Ice Age settlers (good look if you can prove that one) or the early European settlers aka kindred spirits such as the Celts, Anglo Saxons, Danes and Norse. It is therefire true that the BNP welcome ethnic mixed, the transformative dynamism of immigration and the cultural diversity of these island people over the Millennia. Welcome that is as long as it’s frozen in time and stopped thousands if years ago. If you want to vote for a truly reactionary party, one who is nostalgic for the brutal and violent cauldron of thousands of years past then here it is. If you love corporal and capital punishment then their manifesto has something for you. Technically they should be called the Briton National Party because their idea of Britishness is ancient not modern. Instead of working together anyone who is not a Briton can GET OUT and go back to where they came from. We’ll pay you to go. Their myths will appeal to many but scratch the surface and the hatred at their core would literally set us back millennia.
Safe to say their shouty politics of us vs THEM doesn’t appeal to me. Their success is partly due to the fact that at least they have an ideology and principles however repugnant they may be as a vision of our collective future. Contrast this with the tired parties that occupy our councils and parliaments with their principles triangulated to death as they cling to power by focus group, targetting an ever narrower band of swing voters.
The Conservatives have attempted ever PR trick in the book to airbrush their image but they are still the party of Every Man for Himself rather than the one for all and all for one of collective, democratic empowerment. They will always champion the accumulation of wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands rather than redistribution for the public good and our collective well being.
The Liberal Democrats are still trying to refind themselves and what it is they stand for. They are good mediators but apart from Vince Cable, still haven’t hit the mainstream. The are the ultimate focus group.
I’ve voted Labour all my life as has my family for generations but not this time. I’m glad my grandma us not alive to see their betrayal if ordinary people. For every progressive policy iniative they have introduced it has been undone by their pursuit of power, control and avarice. They must be congratulated for the mammoth task of refinancing public services after years of under investment, but their abandonment of core principles and their subjection to the mantra that public = bad and private = good will mean their legacy is likely to be bureaucracy and inequality rather than the implementation of a progressive vision. If we are to progress and succeed as nations, communities, nrighbourhoods, families, individuals, as the human race we need something more radical and inspiring than this old dichotomy, without resorting to extremism.
Pockets of change are not enough for the flag bearer of collective politics. I’ve totally lost faith with this generation of Labour and cannot predict how long it will take Labour to renew, indeed if it has the courage to to so. If ever there was a moment to articulate a better way in my lifetime, child of Thatcher that I am, this was it. Instead all we got was a band aid for the status quo.
http://thinkagainvotegreen.org.uk
So I’m voting Green. They dare to have principles and a philosophical basis. They dare to dream that a better world is possible and it can be sustainable and inclusive. They stand for fairness, integrity, a definition of wealth that’s broader than economics and the sustainability of this environment that we all must share. These are values that I believe in and want to support.
http://policy.thegreenparty.org.uk
The Green vision may be derided by some as too utopian but I would rather invest my vote in the politics of hope and aspitation than the politics of prejudice or resignation.
Posted 11 months, 1 week ago at 9:14 am. 0 comments
So today my day may mainly consist of monitoring activities going on in London as the most powerful people in the world descend for the G20 summit, and laughing at April Fools jokes. Hopefully I won’t get these things confused but given they are both risible it’s possible. Oh and writing a presentation on our use of Equella as a repository tool.
The Guardian are live blogging events – to add to their OBO and relaity TV live blog collection – REALITY!!
They seem up for a bit of angry protesting. Get the sense the media really hope there will be some anger, real ANGER. Well there is but I actually hope that the people who turn up on the streets will be doing less protesting and more pointing out there is another way.
There IS such a thing as society…be proud, be part of it.
Support the coalition of unions and NGOs who are campaigning on Jobs, Justice and Climate and put people first.
Still you know however many people turn up and make their point peacefully or even indulge in a bit of carnival, – that traditional social safety valve of bacchanalia and the masses usurping their masters – the slightest bit of anarchy and violence is going to be what makes the headlines. It’s not really about the summit which is generally expected to be at best a fudged compromise, a minor staging post on the road to …. recovery? renewal? It’s not about the grassroots labour and social movements that are gradually building a consensus and movement to challenge both free market fundamentalism and centralised statism to forge a genuine democratic third way.
Far more salacious is to hope for a pitched battle between the angry, the anarchist and the buttoned down bankers hoping nobody notices them dressed in chinos and polo shirts rather than suits.
Away from the politics this is my favourite fool so far…
Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink | Media | The Guardian
