Why town planning is a gender issue

This study makes fascinating reading about town planning and gender. Some of the issues had not occurred to me but when thinking about it make logical sense.

Research conducted by Gemma Burgess at the University of Cambridge has shown that local authorities are failing women, even with the introduction of the Gender Equality Duty over a year ago. It is interesting research that examines the ways women are left out when it comes to town planning, urban regeneration and public space and how it is orientated towards men. And this indeed has an impact on women’s lives:

For example, women often have to travel from home to drop the children off at school, then go to work, then do the shopping before returning. Men, by contrast, tend to travel from home to work and back. If schools and shopping outlets are located far away from most people’s places of work, therefore, women’s working opportunities become much more restricted.

A town’s infrastructure will have an impact on social and economic lives of women, an example being that women are more likely to use public transport and this will inevitably impact on how they get around, how they interact. Therefore it is vital to have good transport.

The issue of gender and good practice in relationship to LA’s has been patchy, some councils are taking it seriously (Lewisham, for example). the research also found hostility and a severe lack of interest when it came to gender equality and planning policies. Seems like training and educating not just council workers but management about the importance of these issues is paramount.

But the lack of gender awareness and how town planning is predicated towards men reflects the society we live in. And there has to be a radical transformation in which that women can participate on an equal basis instead of being factored out, rendered invisible and alienated from the planning equation.

Hat tip: Thanks to David Ellis who brought this study to my attention

Linder and Hannah Hoch: dissecting gender stereotypes

Hannah Höch’s Das schöne Mädchen (The Beautiful Girl, 1919-1920)

Hannah Hoch was probably the only woman artist active in the Dada movement. Her medium was photomontage where she depicted the contradictory and faceless roles of being a woman in the Weimar republic (along with the sexism she experienced).

The constricting pressures due to patriarchal norms and the expectations placed on women.

Linder, Pretty Girl Series, 1977 

Over 50 years later, the feminist punk artist Linder, is making similar statements as Hoch about commodification, patriarchy and the sexual division of labour.

Mr Brown bangs the drum…..

David Miliband has been shit-stirring about the Russia and Georgia conflict in the Ukraine and now Gordon Brown is ratcheting up the Cold War part deux.

Hard statements from these two but what really is underlying is the politics of powerlessness. The west is so used to dictating the terms but on this occasion they can’t.

Both Miliband and his boss must know about the US/Israel stirring up in Georgia before the start of the recent war.

BTW if a state uses heavy weapons on civilian areas of a part of it’s territory occupied by an ethnic minority lose any right to continue to count that areas part of it’s territory?

Georgia proved itself to be a state that will use terror to enforce it’s control of non-georgian populations.

Miliband’s recent sabre rattling over the Ukraine is now magnified by Brown’s attack on Russia.

One gets the feeling that British politicians are a bit like a kid in a playground who is used to his elder sibling being able to beat up all the other kids. When there is suddenly someone who big brother cannot deal with the world becomes a much scarier place.

The British establishment are so used to being able to hide behind the United States that they find it difficult to digest the news that the US is much less able to deal with Russia and probably has much less national interest in energy security in relation to Russia compared with Europe. European countries are of course increasingly dependent on Russian gas and oil.

Russia of course treats its smaller neighbours with contempt and frequently with extreme brutality. But this is all defensive. Liam Mac Uaid points out that the dynamics behind Russian foreign policy are completely different from the dynamics behind western imperialism. Russia is not out to suck the life-blood out of other countries. The main threat to the world is still the western need to do this and the violent policies that the west will use to get at the spoil.

The treatment of BP by the Russian state over the Sakhalin project must also rankle with the Brown and Miliband. Imagine being a NL minister, craven before the smallest private company, having to meet with executives from Britain’s most powerful corporation when you have failed to prevent that company’s property “rights” being destroyed by a foreign government.

The underlying theme to relations between Russia and the West, indeed between the West and anywhere else is the lack of control of events by western powers is likely to increase as hydrocarbons run out and no politician will confront the need to conserve energy. Energy profligacy is hard wired both into western politics and western society.

The underlying theme of western political leadership is the steady advance of neo-conservatism. Despite some recent dissent by France and Germany, Sarkozy and Merkel are much closer to the neo-conservatism than Chirac and Schröder. Berlusconi is reestablished in Italy and McCain looks good for the US.

Look forward to a lot more war.

Economy at an all time low..? No sh*t, Darling….

Where NL is going....

I mean, most of us were predicting that things can only get worse as we watched the economy staggering and faltering towards the precipice. There’s nothing bold or united or best about a “boom and bust” economic agenda. Ah, the memories that Brown will cherish where the genius chancellor took credit for the boom part of the cycle. Best when we are Labour! Now a dim and distant memory and it doesn’t take clairvoyancy to predict that the bust cycle would drag the economy into a downturn.

And now Darling is facing up to the consequences (??!!) of a society based on debt. The economy is at it’s worse in 60 years and will get worse (“more profound and long-lasting”). Capitalism, globally, is in a crisis and it’s the working class who are paying for neo-liberalism.

Why is Darling saying this now? Is he, perchance, trying to be honest….? Though he only says the cabinet is “partly to blame”. Funnily enough he’s worked out the electorate are “pissed off”… The other thing that is startling is that Darling hadn’t worked out how serious the credit crunch would be. And damn right that this will have a profound impact on people, especially if the prediction of 2m workers losing their jobs by Xmas is correct.

Also, as we have seen with the publication of the YouGov poll commissioned by the TUC, 3m workers don’t believe they’ll be in a job this time next year (and certainly, on a personal level, include myself in that equation).

No mention in the interview about anything substantial about, you know, er…policies except there won’t be any “chopping and changing” at the upper echelons. Just more guff and Machiavellian hints about “reshuffles” as it is all about protecting the PM even if it means Labour, the economy and the whole caboodle crashes over that precipice.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you, Darling

Who cares for the carers..?

This is the amount a carer is likely to receive from the state, £50.55 (Carers’ Allowance) and if you qualify for income support then, altogether, you will receive the princely sum of £88. And to qualify for all these benefits you have to be a carer for 35 hours per wk.

No wonder the state is saving an estimated £87 billion a year hence the report from the Work and Pensions Select Committee (‘Valuing and Supporting Carers’) that also states that carers are under enormous pressure especially if they have had to give up a job to care for a relative.  Their income drops immeasurably. Carers’ work long hours, lose confidence and find their skills become rusty over time.

The report recommends that there should be two distinctive ‘tiers’ of support offering – income replacement support for carers unable to work, or working only part-time; and compensation for the additional costs of caring for all carers in intensive caring roles.

Terry Rooney (Chair of the Committee, who, btw, supported the Freud Review!) argues

Sustaining the ability of carers to provide the care and support they give to others is of critical importance. The DWP must support adults who become carers during their working lives to combine work and care and enable those who wish to return to paid work when caring ends or changes to do so; must ensure that in caring for family members, young carers are not disadvantaged in accessing opportunities for education, training and employment; and needs to provide adequate financial support for those who provide care when of working age, either by compensating them for the extra costs of caring, or, if they need to give up work to care, through adequate income replacement and pension protection mechanisms.

The cynical would of course forgive you for saying that there looks to have been a degree of electoral calculation. Imagine a Tory election campaign having to tell a chunk of voters that the tax cuts for the rich are going to be funded by their Carers Allowance being cut back. The charitable might say that NL are finally cottoning on what a social democratic government should be up to

We’re all goin’ on the rock ‘n roll

Where the economy is heading.....

Now to add a bit cheer….

This should be hummed along to the tune of “We’re all going on a Summer Holiday” and the rock ‘n roll, if you didn’t know, is rhyming slang for dole….

We’re all goin’ on the rock ‘n roll

No more money for a year or two

We’re all goin’ on the rock ‘n roll

It’s a nightmare coming true

I used to have a Beemer

and a gold necklace too

I have seen Human Resources and they say who’s for the chop? It’s you!!!!!

Repeat chorus ad nauseam

Insecurities of employment

It seems that 3.3m workers (13% of the workforce) aren’t confident they’ll be in a job in a year’s time according to a YouGov poll commissioned by the TUC. Though workers in London feel pretty confident they will still be in a job, while those in low paid jobs feel, unsurprisingly, more insecure than better paid jobs.

These are precarious and worrying times. Rising debt, unemployment, food prices, increased repossessions and so on. Capitalism is in crisis and it is the working class who are paying a very high price for Gordon Brown’s “boom and bust” economics.

Welfare benefits system has been constantly eroded over the past 20 years but with NL’s neo-liberal agenda at full throttle the attacks on welfare benefits have intensified and now dominated by sanctions and penalties thus punishing the poor. So gawd knows what will happen when many people lose their jobs and there’s a recession…..

I know all about those insecurities as there is a very good possibility that I lose my job very soon. Mine is based not so much on economic uncertainty but government policy. NL’s desperation for making a quick buck. Lord Carter of Coles and Vera Baird between them have started to decimate legal aid and we are seeing the startling results of advice falling by the wayside.

The sum total for me is that the knock on effects of the Carter review on legal aid has had a heavy impact on my job. We are seeing the destruction of the advice sector and voluntary sector overall due to many factors such as lack of funding, which gives management an excuse to attack pay and conditions (Shelter is a case in point where workers went on strike). And many in the advice sector are in very precarious situations as they cannot cope with the changes to the LSC contract due to the Carter recommendations.

And so… on a personal level it is demoralising and depressing especially as a trade union rep where you are desperately trying to fight the proposals on behalf of your members but despondency and inertia can be overwhelming as these are going to grim times. That’s why for me, as a socialist, solidarity is vital.

I suspect Gordon Brown will be scouring the job pages in 18mths time……

Btw: the picture is of Shelter workers marching on the May Day demo ’08

More doom and gloom….

According to figures reported today, it is harder now to be a first time buyer as mortgage lenders want an average deposit of £40,000 (and that will probably deter poorly paid workers from thinking of buying), mortgage lending is down 65% on last year and people with sub-prime mortgages are falling behind with repayments. And the number of repossessions of homes where mortgages are with Northern Rock are sky rocketing.

The housing bubble has well and truly burst, increase unemployment, spiralling debt, more financial insecurity…and a recession. What will Gordon Brown do as he staggers from one crisis to another..other than bury his head in concrete and say everything is fine?

Doubts about Titan prisons

Further woes for NL especially Jack Straw’s Orwellian Ministry of (In)Justice as a report by the The National Council of Independent Monitoring Boards has severe doubts about the Titan prisons proposals.

“Most of our boards favour smaller units and have negative experience of large establishments and clustering of prisons to achieve efficiency, but at the cost of effective rehabilitation.”

And the Ministry’s reply: “They will represent value for money for the taxpayer and best support the chances of cutting reoffending by building in facilities aimed at rehabilitation.”

Yeah right, these places are indeed warehouses that will further act as social dustbins for the powerless in this society but on a bigger scale where it will be about pack ‘em in, stack ‘em high!! And of course, with the private sector involved it will be about making a profit off the backs of misery.

Brown under trade union pressure…??

Well I don’t usually look at rags like the Torygraph but this interested me. It seems like my union, Unite, is getting fed-up at bailing out NL from the financial mire. And documents shown to the Torygraph give Brown an ultimatum demanding changes at the highest level.

It seems as well that Unite (and before merger) donated £11m to NL. So I wonder if bureaucrats like Simpson and Woodley are getting hot under the collar. Now with a recession ever looming, inflation high, and public sector pay increases at paltry levels along with very pissed off workers….I can see why.

Brown took no notice of the demands from trade unions at Warwick (I mean, Jon Hutton is still in his post…..) the other week so why should he listen now…even if Chris Grayling is, laughably, saying that the unions are “now putting a gun to Brown’s head”… As if! Oh, and even Baroness Jay is getting in on the act describing Brown as an electoral liability.

Majority of Labour’s funding comes from the unions and I bet Brown wishes that was not the case. And of course, I am cynical of the motives of these trade union bureaucrats but the trade union bureaucracy plays a contradictory role. So we wait and see what pressure can be exerted on NL.