The Tory wins…

So the Tory won in Norwich North. No surprise there, but certainly an own goal committed by Gordon Brown getting rid of a popular MP like Ian Gibson. I agree with Susan Press on this especially the point about how the constituency Labour Party supported Gibson (the Chair resigned as well, and seems like many LP activists refused to canvass for imposed LP candidate Chris Ostrowski, who, apparently has swine flu…….!!) and so did Hazel Blears have the ‘support’ of her CLP yet….. the LP NEC decided to refuse Gibson the right to run again at the next election hence his decision to quit now…hence the by-election… But Blears is in the clear….

So to me it looks distinctly like double-standards, why has Blears got away with being allowed to stand again at the next election while Gibson was stopped? When it comes to the expenses scandal …. Blears was up to her neck in it… yet the NEC made an example, a sacrifice more like, of Ian Gibson. What he did regarding his expenses wasn’t exactly clever but there was far far worse behaviour (yes, Hazel….I mean you!)

Why not Blears and/or the others (including ministers) who have seemingly got away with their pilfering and flipping?? Instead the NEC made a couple of examples just to show willing and as Susan argues (asking the question if Labour loses the by-election):

…then maybe it is time for Labour activists to mount a campaign questioning why a Labour rebel was singled out for the slaughter- and why others remain in office.

Quite!!

Btw there was an excellent article regarding Norwich North and Ian Gibson in the latest Labour Brieifing (sub only).

Oh, and ….

Craig Murray (Put an Honest Man into Parliament): 953

The joy of Blackpool….

So I am off to Blackpool (well sorta kinda near Blackpool) mid next week not for fun but for work. Fun/work never the twain shall meet….

Anyways knowing me..so efficient… left it all at the last minute, and deliberating whether to travel same day or stay over the night before. Decisions, decisions, decisions…quandary…

And I don’t know Blackpool well at all. Actually the last time I stayed in Blackpool was either for NUS conference or LPYS conference… and that must be 20-odd years ago. Ahh, the memories of storming the Winter Gardens… No, sorry, that definitely was a fantasy from my misspent idealistic Trot youth….

Ok, back to the present. I don’t think I have ever ever ever stayed in a nice hotel in Blackpool (and i have travelled wide and far in this country mainly due to politicking/work and have stayed in some gawd forsaken dives but also comfortable nice places… one being in Retford…Yes, Retford. ‘Where that…’ I hear you cry .

Even as a kid we stayed in boarding houses in Blackpool which seemed suspended in time and space …circa 1950s. So my expectations are low and maybe dissing Blackpool unnecessarily as the place coulda heaved itself into the 21st century, and I don’t want to offend anyone in cyber land who likes Blackpool and has fond memories.

Mine, I think, are repressed out of the trauma of a Trot youth …. writing articles, producing leaflets through the night, no sleep, listening to other comrades shag the night away, producing leaflets, writing articles, no sleep, listening to comrades shag the night away (‘Oi, keep it down, some of us are producing leaflets’!!… mutter… no dedication…mutter..mutter…to the revolutionary cause…enjoying themselves…mutter…. bourgeois…mutter…b’stards….).

Yes, now, where was I…? (Snap out of it Harpy!) None of that now thankfully, no producing leaflets, papers, selling papers, no  discussing political positions/stances/orientations/interventions on various important resolutions and bloody caucuses either…

So to cut a long story short…. if anyone knows of an half decent hotel in Blackpool then…prayer..do tell. And if anyone has any good positive experiences of Blackpool… well, keep them to yourself… (only joking…do tell)

Wicker Man

Watching the Wicker Man (made in 1973) on television. Have seen this film countless times yet it still unnerves me. It is not scary in the traditional sense of a horror movie but it is still scary and very unsettling nevertheless, and surreal, including the folk music. Shame the film did badly when originally released (also, 20 mins of the film was removed though, thankfully, later restored),  a storyline ahead of its time though cult horror, ‘King of the B’s', Roger Corman show the originality and Wicker Man was shown on a double-bill in the States with that other cult classic, Don’t Look Now.

The original storyline creates a tension between organised Christianity with Paganism, furthermore the virginal Sergeant Howie (the excellent Edward Woodward) is depicted as close minded, sexually repressed and rigid in his thinking. This pitted against a much more open dynamic as represented by Summerisle, a journey for Howie that takes him as well into his own psyche, which becomes fractured and fragmented because he desperately clings to these rigid and fixed certainties.

Frankly, the remake of the Wicker Man was an appalling embarassment, utterly misogynistic.

PCS union on Vestas

PCS statement on Vestas – Chris Baugh (assistant general secretary)

The government has just announced plans to create 400,000 green jobs over the next 5 years and a huge expansion of renewable energy – yet it seems unwilling to step in to save 600 jobs at Vestas, the only wind turbine plant in England threatened with closure at the end of July. This shows the government’s double standards and that their so-called ‘low carbon transition plan’ is empty rhetoric.

PCS fully supports the workers at Vestas who are fighting to save their jobs. We call on the government to intervene to save the plant in the interests of the Vestas workers, the regional economy on the Isle of Wight, the future of the renewables industry in the UK and to show that it is serious about meeting the UK’s climate change commitments.

We are encouraging our members and branches to support the workers at Vestas by sending messages of solidarity and support.

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/resources/green_workplaces/campaigns.cfm

Capitalism gives you the flu and makes a profit curing you!

Well, it looks like someone is making a healthy profit on the backs of illness and misery….

Yes, swine flu….is making a financial killing for GlaxoSmithKline yet they downplaying this… I mean, they don’t want to look exploitative now, do they?!! What’s also laughable is that swine flu came about due to de-regulation, globalisation, neoliberalism and the continuing industrialisation of farming:

This has been a transition, in essence, from old-fashioned pig pens to vast excremental hells, unprecedented in nature, containing tens, even hundreds of thousands of animals with weakened immune systems, suffocating in heat and manure, while exchanging pathogens at blinding velocity with their fellow inmates and pathetic progenies.

 Indeed capitalism gives you the flu and makes a massive profit curing you!

Vestas protest

So a crowd of us ended up outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change tonight to protest about the Vestas occupation. I didn’t stay for that long. Andy Hewitt from the Green Party read solidarity greetings from Hugo Blanco.

From Campaign Against Climate Change there’s a Save Vestas meeting on Friday night, 24 July @ ULU, 6pm

Speakers include:

Seamus Milne – journalist

Chris Baugh - PCS assistant general secretary PCS

Jonathan Neale – Campaign Against Climate Change

A Vestas worker, Greenpeace

Yvette Cooper: it’s about chasing the dream….

Hark! What noise is that in yonder distance?

It is Yvette Cooper announcing her new big idea….about ‘extra help to mums who lose their jobs in the recession’ as part of its efforts to end child poverty.

Every child should get a fair start in life, every child should have the chance to get on, to develop their potential, to chase their dreams. We believe in equality of opportunity for children as they grow. Children get left behind for years to come if their family gets left behind today.

Over a hundred thousand children could be lifted out of poverty if more second parents were able to work as their children get older. That is why it is so important to provide the help and support for parents who lose their jobs too.

Chase their dream…? What Hollywood schmultz has Yvette Cooper been watching…?

I mean, even if you chase the dream and catch it…knowing NL they will privatise it.

Oh, here we go again…with NL’s interpretation of ‘fairness’, ‘support’ and ‘equality’….. Especially considering that the gap between rich/poor has been ever widening under NL.

Nothing about the underlying root causes of poverty just a few superficial scratches to the surface….

Rights and responsibilities: ‘rather one sided’….

This quote from the SSAC (Social Security Advisory Committee) regarding their new paper, Rights and Responsibilities in the Social Security System makes me want resort to bleedin sarcasm….

The concept of a contract can imply an agreement between equal partners. However, it would be difficult to argue in relation to the social security system that both parties have equal power and/or voice in shaping the nature and terms of the contract.

One sided? You don’t say!!

Again, I will be leisurely perusing this report this evening to see if anything sensible and/or half decent is recommended….. Can but hope…

Policing at Kingsnorth report published

The report regarding the policing of the ‘Climate Camp for Change’ at Kingsnorth between 3-9 August 2008 has been published.  It was conducted by Assistant Chief Constable Andy Holt, South Yorkshire Police.

Chief Constable Michael Fuller said:

I also recognise the report identifies several areas for learning. While many of the recommendations made to us have already been adopted in the intervening twelve months, there is still work to be done either within Kent or in conjunction with other forces or agencies. On that basis I have asked Assistant Chief Constable Andy Adams, who is relatively new to the force, to lead on ensuring all recommendations are properly addressed. This process will be overseen by the Kent Police Authority.

Another uncritical report….. now there’s a surprise. I will spend my evening perusing this great work of literature…..

Vestas workers under siege

Support the Vestas workers in occupation who are under siege by the cops and under constant pressure. And now this:

The occupying workers have told the BBC that management yesterday gave them a deadline of 22:30 to walk out of the factory and keep their redundancy pay, otherwise they would be sacked.

You can find ways of showing support and solidarity by looking at the website.

Also:

DEMONSTRATE in London (protest called by Campaign Against Climate Change)

Wednesday 22nd July , 6.00 pm, outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change, No 3 Whitehall Place
(off Whitehall, Charing Cross tube).

- Ring up the police to complain about the infringement of civil liberties in the handling of the Vestas occupation, the office involved is number 3606, and the officer in charge appears to be number 3115.

John McDonnell has tabled an EDM (1925) regarding Vestas

That this House expresses its concern that, at the very time when the Government is launching its drive for developing renewable energy sources in the UK, the Vestas company, specialising in renewable energy plant, is shedding 600 jobs and is closing; and calls on the Government to intervene as a matter of urgency to ensure the future of the Vestas operation and the protection of jobs.

John McDonnell (Chair of the LRC):  It is critical that we build solidarity with this vitally important campaign. These workers are at the forefront of the struggle to save their jobs and our planet.