Jacqui Smith: sorry doesn’t seem the hardest word afterall

Especially if you don’t have to pay the money back……………..

Ms Smith said thanked the committee for its report and said she wanted to “apologise unreservedly to the House as I have already done so to my constituents”.

“This claim should never have been made and the committee notes I paid it back as soon as possible,” she said.

“The commissioner and committee acknowledge the London home is indeed a home… and the report makes clear I sought and received written advice from the parliamentary written authorities.”

Ms Smith added that she spent more nights in London than in Redditch in three of the four years in question; owns only one home; and has never ‘flipped’ designation of her main home.

“There is no evidence the taxpayer would be any worse off on the basis of my decision,” she said.

“But I accept I should have used my discretion to change my main home designation.

“I accept the conclusions [of the report] and therefore apologise to the House, and say sorry too to my constituents, who remain my number one priority.

“For too long this has overshadowed the work I do for them.”

See Jacqui apologising ‘unreservedly’ ….

The Left: part 2

I was having a discussion with David Semple in the comments box regrading this post. And I discovered this article via Marxsite and it kinda connects with the debate we were having over democratic centralism.

Davis refers to the American Left but the same general point can be applied to the UK.

Even if you say that the whole legacy of Leninism was a historical disaster, you’re still faced with exactly the same questions posed in Lenin’s What Is To Be Done. That is, the need to create some organization of organizers that provides a framework for young people willing to make extraordinary sacrifices and dedicate their lives solely to the fight of the poor and the working class. The need organize a cadre of people able to exchange and generalize and coordinate experiences across the struggle so that some kind of genuinely left agenda–which means a pro-working class agenda–becomes possible.

The Bolshevik Party may not be the only route to this. The anarchists in Barcelona did a pretty good job in a different way of bringing together and coordinating a relentless struggle for their principles and the principles of the working class.

But the question is inescapable. You have to talk about this question. You have to talk about the creation of organizations. I’m not arguing to revive the little red book or the thoughts of Leon Trotsky, but we need organizations that can allow such dedication to exist.

Such organizations always existed in some critical tension with the inherent possibilities of sectarianism, dogmatism, the lack of democracy. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Bay Area attracted an enormous number of people–at least by my reference point of San Diego–who dedicated themselves to the left. There was an enormous amount of hard work, and they had very bruising, and sometimes shattering, experiences.

I think that Davis is onto something here. We do need organisations that mean that political involvement is meaningful. At the moment individual action is like emptying  the ocean with a teaspoon. Action through a traditional democratic centralist organisation is like emptying out the Atlantic with a bucket: it may seem more effective until you look at things in the perspective of the size of the task. There is the same question but with nine decades of data on democratic centralism since the first workers’ government there needs to be a different answer.

Fiendish Frightfest upon us soon….

You’d think I would scribble something legible on a post-it note or circle the relevant day/month on my calendar. But no…I forgot and now the tickets are sold-out. Oh damnation! Why am I berating myself? Tis the month of Frightfest. I missed many of the screenings last year as majority of the films were shown at odd times (middle of the day for instance…and no bunking off work!)

 I like horror, always have probably always will…I liked being scared stupid.. and checking behind the sofa to see what is lurking there (usually dust , old newspapers, magazines, books and DVDs… aka the untidy poltergeisty ghoul) and this year’s Frightfest is slap bang on All Hallows’ Eve. A witchy ghoulfest of tricks and treats.

I see they are showing the new cult low budget film, Paranormal Activity which was shot entirely on a camcorder costing around $11,000 to make and now grossing $7.1 million in sales in the States. The release date in the UK is apparently 27^th November 2009.

Other than spine a-tinglin’ atmospheric movie with shaky camera effects reminisce of Blair witchery there’s zombies galore, ‘if you go into the woods today’ you are sure to stumble upon ….mutant cannibal eating folk, futuristic vampires and a world dominated by viral infected ghouls. Something for everyone this Frightfest, yes there are movies for everyone’s demonic tastes. Chills, thrills and spills of the screamfest kind.

Personally, I don’t mind gross-out films like the next person but sometimes I do wish for some half decent narrative, characterisation and plot…ok chuck in a bucket full of gore but not to resort to the usual gore for gore’s sake being used as a distraction ‘cos there aint any story or as a hole filler for the lame script.

Ahhh, bring back Roger Corman and resurrect Vincent Price from the dead……(cue cackling over-the-top laughter).

The 16bn asset sell-off

It is like a game of Monopoly with Gordon Brown about to put the family silver in hock. There he is scratching his head wondering what to sell-off from the public treasure chest to ease the debt.

The plan is to sell a “portfolio of non-financial assets” held by Whitehall and local authorities over two years.

In a speech on the economy, the prime minister outlined sales which may raise £3bn, including the Tote, Dartford crossing and the student loan book.

Again, to reiterate a previous point, why doesn’t Gordon Brown get the money back off the banks…. I mean, which bunch of rapacious ba..s..t…  sorry..individuals will be taking on the student loan book?

Oh, and speaking about alternatives, how’s about this politickers?

An Alternative Vision for the Welfare State

Date Mon, 19 Oct 2009
Time to from 11:00 to 16:30
Location TUC, Congress House
 
The 2009 TUC Poverty Conference, hosted by the network of TUC-recognised Unemployed Workers’ Centres. After a generation of fighting changes for the worse, we will be discussing the what changes would we like to see?