A tale of two Milibands

So Miliband has gone, you can imagine his distress as he departs into the sunset muttering, “So this is what happens? Ed gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to backbencher-ville.. No one understands, least Ed. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, I coulda been leader, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it. It was you, Ed.”

I don’t particularly give a damn that Miliband has bid au revoir to ‘front line politics’.. Apologists attempting portray Miliband as a man with integrity, the man apparently was ‘privately’ concerned about neocon politics of Bush. What is it about these ‘private doubts’ about important issues (Mister Ed had opposed the Iraq war in private….). To be honest, I have a plenty of private thoughts but there are times those private thoughts become public especially about something so grave, so fundamental like going to war. Why so private? And why bring these private doubts public now at a critical time during a leadership contest? Cynical manoeuvres? Opportunism? So why now? That Ed and David had misgivings etc. Funny how these private misgivings are in the public domain now, why not in 2005 for Mister Ed when he was trying to become an MP and why not in 2003, a crucial time for David Miliband to vocally raise these concerns in the public domain…

But no… both wait to air these “misgivings”, “doubts” and “opposition” when an election is taking place, at a safe distance of 7 years. And it stinks, because you know, deep down the bros were unhappy with the way things were going but didn’t feel able to admit these concerns. It’s not if they woulda been in isolation as there was overwhelmingly public opposition to the war.

So how can you believe what these two say? That they are too gutless to speak their minds? That they are bound and gagged by
Cabinet collective responsibility. That’s true for DM but not so for Mister Ed as in 2003 he had ample opportunity to join the anti-war movement in the States.

But what has dominated this contest is the Miliband hoopla. One thinking the crown was his for the taking but to see it snatched by ickle bro at the final furlong. Off Miliband senior went to sulk and stamp his foot as he considered oh so dramatically with painful reflection on his future while every muscle twitch was scrutinised by the media as little bro made his maiden speech (and got very irritated when Harriet Harman clapped at Mister Ed’s comments about Iraq and we know Miliband senior gets very defensive and annoyed when people dredge up Iraq).

But what does this all illustrate, a tale of two ambitious brothers vying for the same prize? For me it says a lot about the political state we are in. Miliband senior didn’t show any professionalism, it was all personal and subjective nothing about the public good. It completely smacks of narcissism, ego and vanity with it so concentrated on senior Miliband expecting that top prize, eyeing up the rostrum imaging himself making the speech as leader, seeing it all as his own personal fiefdom, the prize that was surely his….but no cruelly snatched by his ickle bro. While Miliband senior agonised about his future, well, at least he has a future while countless people in the real world (not Miliband bubble land) will be agonising about their jobs, benefits, housing and so on once the fallout has settled after the ConDems have ideologically blasted the public sector to bits come the Comprehensive Spending Review published next month.  The utter conceit of Miliband is contemptible. Taking sibling rivalry to a higher level.

Both brothers have the same identical degree (PPE) at Oxford, similar political paths, cabinet positions. Never came up into politics with aptitudes for real campaigning, activism or trade unionism. They are part of a Party that was developed and evolved through the trade union movement, through struggle and fight, yet have either of the brothers ever visited a picket line? Don’t be daft, Miliband senior certainly doesn’t like strike action and Mister Ed just cynically played for the union vote. He won’t be there anytime joining workers on a picket line.

As in the words of the Terminator, David Miliband will surely be back. Unfortunately….

So long Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis was part of that generation of actors that included Paul Newman and Jack Lemmon. And so it’s sad to read that he has died. I only read a couple of months ago his book on the making of that iconic cult film, ‘Some Like It Hot’… A kinda gossipy but fascinating insight on the making of the film and his relationship with that other iconic star, Marilyn Monroe.

Curtis made many films but the one for me which is utterly outstanding is ‘The Sweet Smell of Success’…. Sidney Falco and especially as he’s cast against type. The film with its witty, acerbic, slang-filled caustic and wise cracking dialogue fused with the cinematographic heightened chiaroscuro that gives dramatic tension and effect (classic film noir), along with a jazz fuelled soundtrack. And directed by Alexander Mackendrick (he of The Ladykillers). The film exposes the underbelly of media and police corruption, gossip columnists like JJ Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) control, make/break the lives from actors to politicians, his ‘gossip is gospel’ to the millions of readers. Power that he wields aided and abetted by his apprentice, Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis). Just how far will Sidney go to impress/please his master? And how far will this Faustian pact go with the media style Mephistopheles at the helm?

The best way to sum this film up is by film critic, Pauline Kael, who described the film as ‘a sweet slice of perversity, a study of dollar and power worship’….

15 films

Madam Miaow tagged me regarding this. Fifteen films you’ve seen that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. It took me longer that 15 mins

1. Snow White – first film I believe I ever saw at the cinema with my mother. What I do vaguely recall is wandering about the cinema as I got bored, couldn’t keep still. Don’t remember anything about the film.
2. Grease – first film I saw at the cinema I actually remember, I was around 8 or 9 when I saw it. It was ‘the film’ to see ‘78/79 really enjoyed it, loved the songs and it’s kinda iconic and kitch.
3. Psycho – it is such an iconic & powerful film, the infamous shower scene filmed in black and white which adds potency along with the psychologically disturbing shrillness and screeching of the string instruments composed by Hitchcock favourite, Bernard Hermann, building up to a crashing crescendo the tempo descending and then silence with the only noise of the shower and running water. The scene is part of horror history along with being ingrained in movie going collective consciousness.
4. The Apartment – I love this Wilder film, the sharp and wisecracking script (Wilder and I.A.L Diamond), the wonderful bittersweet relationship between Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) and C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon),
5. If – well, I had a crush on Malcolm McDowell, other than that I have seen this film many times, the cinematography, the direction, the actors and also the spirit of the time. Great.
6. Night of the Hunter - primarily due to the “painterly style” of the late and great cinematographer Stanley Cortez and a shame that Charles Laughton never directed again). it is a kinda modern Grim fairy tale, and Robert Mitchum is scary bad.
7. Camille Claudel – film I saw in the very late 1980s at the local indie Brighton cinema. It’s a powerful portrayal of an artist reduced to muse/mistress of Rodin as opposed to being seen as a sculptor in her own right. Isabelle Adjani is stunning and powerful in the role as Claudel.
8. Memento – a real concentrate – hard – as – this – is – not – a- linear narrative, clever neo-noir style film. Great start to the noughties and it starred Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity from The Matrix)
9. Harry un ami qui vous veut du bien (Harry, he’s here to help) – another brilliant piece of neo-noir and psychological twisty thriller Inventive script and Sergi López as Harry…. excellent as the chameleon-like charmer.
10. Donnie Darko - honest and sensitive account of mental distress, alienation and the impact of heavy-duty meds while functioning in the world. I could relate to the “mad world” of Donnie Darko.
11. Spoorloos (The Vanishing) – I never ever saw the ending coming. The original is so superior to the rotten Hollywood remake (same director though). Twisty unnerving chiller of a film.
12. The Matrix - breaking new ground. So fasten your seat belt cos Kansas is going bye-bye for this  rollar coaster sci-fi action-adventure ride, slick, fun, engaging storytelling, innovative, smart, original and creative (Wachowski Brothers inspired use of bullet time)…and cool soundtrack! Shame about the sequels………
13. Battle of Algiers – it is one of most powerful political films I have ever seen. Also the film heavily influenced political cinema.
14. Election - the wonderful satire on student politics which introduced the world to ….the iconic Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), scarily ambitious while her teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) plotting her downfall…..Splendid…and have to say one of my favourite films of the ’90s.
15. Anything by Michael Haneke -just because…..

That’s all folks! And dammit I forgot the Marx Brothers. Spent a many evening/early morning medicated up to my eyeballs in my late teens watching  them. Good memories.

New Labour was part of the problem

It’s a strange thing, isn’t it, when politicians of all stripes aided and abetted by the right-wing populist press attack welfare benefits with the usual flair of the language of blame, vilification, stigmatisation and scapegoating. But what is so noticeable is how little they know about the benefits system, but hey who needs facts and evidence when you blame the “benefits scroungers” for sapping the welfare state.

Andrew Marr, while interviewing Mister Ed, showed just how dense and unintelligent the bourgeois commentator is… Question to Mister Ed about the numbers of people on “Invalidity Benefit…or whatever it’s called now”… Mister Ed nodded sagely and came back with, “Incapacity Benefit”…. No, No, No.. and NO… It’s called Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Then Mister Ed commented about the great thing James Purnell did with the benefits system (Note to Mister Ed: it was Purnell who brought in ESA) along with describing some people who supposedly milk the system as “malingerers”…

I also today read Yvette Cooper’s speech at Labour Party conference. She followed in the path of James Purnell her predecessor. Cooper  followed the ideology of neoliberalism, her voting record never ever deviated from the NL line. Today in her speech she said this, Conference this is the Britain David Cameron and Nick Clegg want to build. Hopes betrayed. Ambitions abandoned. Young people left to sink or swim. Unless you can afford to pay yourself. This is what the Big Society really means.

It kinda leaves in tear in your eye, doesn’t it.. Hopes and  dreams dashed and destroyed by the ConDems. It’s obvious reality with what will happen to people’s lives wreck by this government. But the reason I get facetious and narked by Yvette Cooper because she was part of the problem when it comes to destroying dreams.

Consider this said by Cooper on ‘extra help to mums who lose their jobs in the recession’ as part of its efforts to end child poverty (summer 2009):

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.

Millions of working class people face being forced to work part-time on minimum wage due to processes started under NL. “Flexible New Deal’” enforcers have their own cushy number arm twisting people into jointing an army of working poor. 16 or 20 hours each week on £5.80 will not lift you out of poverty even with tax credits.

With the cuts to Housing Benefit for private tenants and for people on JSA for any length of time the working poor will be forced out of their homes. Working class people will no longer be able to look to having their own secure home as a reward for working hard. Back to two or more families crammed into one home. The boomerang generation will grow old in their parents homes.

This as well from Cooper towards the end of her speech: And throughout our history – from the Jarrow marches to the New Deal – we have fought for jobs.

How dare she include the Jarrow marchers in the same sentence as the New Deal. The New Deal was an attack on the working class through coercion and sanctions. Jarrow marchers wanted proper jobs with dignity.

Remember, it was James Purnell and Yvette Cooper who started these hideous attacks on welfare, the ConDems are continuing at a turbocharged rate.

More Autumn photography

Some more Autumn photos. Again, it features that much photographed heron.

It’s about representation….

I was mulling over this post, for me it is not so much about age but more about experience in politics and the labour movement. When I first got involved in politics there were prospective counsellors, as an example, who had various different occupations, many worked in the public sector, many were active trade unionists. Now up and coming MPs have had occupations that include  policy analysts, journalists/advisers, researchers, lobbyists. I mean, the Labour Party PPCs at the last election all looked like they were contestants for The Apprentice!

Only 4% overall of the new intake of MPs were from a working class background. Moreover, only 9% of the current 256 Labour MPs could be described as coming from the working classes.  Over a third of all MPs went to a fee paying school; the national average is only 7%.

So much for working class representation. So much for representing women and Black people. No wonder the terms of debate are always on the terms of the established interests. We do not have MP’s who have been stuck on minimum wage jobs or who do not have the money and never will have to buy a decent home. They have never shared our insecurities. They have not been on the receiving end of neoliberalism.  At most they can go back a generation or two to get to ancestors who had to duck and dive to live and to get a crust to eat but then look at the politics of those previous generations Mister Ed….

Labour Party NEC results

Also from Union Futures

Btw I voted for Christine Shawcroft and Susan Press. Congratulations to Christine and sorry to Susan.

Labour Party NEC election results

Elected

Ken Livingstone – 88,235

Oona King – 64,004

Ann Black – 59,200

Ellie Reeves – 45,481

Christine Shawcroft – 44,338

Luke Akehurst – 30,825

Not Elected:

Johanna Baxter – 30,653

Peter Willsman – 29,009

Peter Wheeler – 28,752

Deborah Gardiner – 27,531

Sam Tarry – 27,166

Shaukat Ali – 21,881

Peter Kenyon – 18,650

Sofi Taylor – 18,557

Susan Press – 15,465

Rajwant Singh Sidhu – 13,252

Narinder Singh Matharoo – 13,060

Kevin Bennett – 12,976

John Wiseman – 10,999

Julian Ware-Lane – 7,722

Support Elane Heffernan -Disabled staff have the right to work

From Union Futures blog

Please see below information and send emails supporting Elane to Newham  PCT (NHS Newham) Melanie.Walker@newhampct.nhs.uk
and the London Borough of Newham LBN simon.galczynski@newham.gov.uk
and cc messages to letelanework@yahoo.co.uk

Attached is a petition for people to sign – if you could print it off get signatures from your workplace/contacts and get it back to us that would be great.

Thanks
Mj

Disabled staff have the right to work

End The Victimisation of union activist Elane Heffernan

I am writing to ask that NHS Newham and LBN immediately provide UNISON activist Elane Heffernan with the same working conditions enjoyed by her team mate and allow her to work with her team mate where she can see patients and use her disability adapted equipment. This is necessary so that she can attend work without sickness absence and run the well respected Migrant Advice & Advocacy Service. I also ask that her employer Newham Council stop forcing her to work in conditions that cause severe pain and exacerbate her disability

Since returning to the MAAP project from a period of secondment to the UNISON office at the council, Elane has been placed in such bad working conditions that she has been signed off sick repeatedly—making her unavailable to service users and union members and at risk of being sacked for sickness absence.

I am aware that Elane has complained on a number of occasions to LBN about harassment when carrying out her union duties—most notably in July 2008 when the council refused to take any action about a striker breaker driving his car at Elane at high speed and only narrowly missing her. I am also aware that on returning from secondment to the union, emails between the PCT manager and the council’s HR refer to special preparations for sickness absence meetings because of her union role.

I am disappointed that Elane has had to fight for so long to get adaptions and at present often has to see patients at a coffee table–which is not suitable for the shoulder and neck problems she has had since an accident at work in 2006.

I am especially concerned that Elane was placed on “gardening leave” and accused of misconduct after complaining that her manager had issued her with instructions not to use her disability adapted equipment and to work instead with pen and paper at improperly adapted desks when seeing patients.

I understand that since Elane has been reinstated she is  forced to work in isolation in conditions that are extremely difficult—and fear this will affect her health or force her resignation, which would mean a 50% cut in the service provided to the vulnerable patients and residents now served by the MAAP project. Such a cut is not acceptable.

Elane’s frequent absences from work due to the worsening of her  disability robs council workers of an effective rep and damages the MAAP service on which some of the most vulnerable people in Newham rely.

We demand that this victimisation ends and NHS Newham and the council take seriously their commitment to equality and the rights of disabled workers and reinstate Elane to her team office where adapted equipment can function and to the full duties from which she was suspended in December 2009.

I understand that both NHS Newham and LBN have policies that should enable and support workers with disabilities and I believe that the treatment Elane has suffered since 2008 is not in keeping with those policies—in particular with the social model of disability that NHS Newham has rightly espoused as the standard for its staff.

Yours truly

Hello, I’m Mister Ed

So Mister Ed won... by a very slim 1.3% against his torture colluding big brother.

Though it can be said that MPs/MEPs and ordinary LP members are apparently happy to overlook Miliband the elder’s warmongering and torture cover-ups as that’s where he won in the specific sections.

Interviewed by Andrew Marr this morning Mister Ed still came across as defensive and worried that his own shadow might become politically embarrassing in front of the cameras. Some acceptance that NL did not always get it right was about as far as he allowed himself to go. At the end of the interview in relation to Tony Bliar and Peter Mandelson he stressed that his door was open for such characters and that they had “wisdom” (well it could be said if you can get away with invading another country and end up a seriously rich man as a result of being a public servant then there is something about you…more criminal cunning than wisdom though).

On the prospect of the cuts and resistance to the people forced into strikes to defend their jobs and services against the ideologically inspired cuts of the ConDems can expect nothing from Mister Ed. His “strikes must be a last resort” and “sign of desperation” urging of both sides to get round and sort things out through negotiations suggest strongly that Mr Ed will continue the non-support for justified industrial action that he showed during the Vestas dispute (strikes are a sign of determination btw Mister Ed). There was no sense of outrage at what is about to happen to people. No pointing out how such a policy is proving counter-productive in the Republic of Ireland. If you are unwilling to directly support struggles at least attack the intellectual basis of the ConDem attack on public services.

The establishment seem quite upset that the leader of the Labour Party is not quite as tame as they would like. Given how tame Mr Ed is what would they be happy with? Someone who stuck to denouncing the Left? Somebody seriously relaxed about the filthy rich? Somebody foaming at the mouth to attack Iran?

Over the years “realism” has made the labour movement happy to accept so little. We should be organising to take much much more.

See also:

Luna 17

Madam Miaow

Liam M.

Tower Hamlets Labour Party and the Labour NEC…

I received this email from Labour Briefing regarding Tower Hamlets Labour Party selection for Mayor being overturned by the Labour NEC. The LP NEC never learns, does it? Imposing candidates, control freakery and lack of democracy. And for what reasons? Where’s the evidence? What the hell is going on?

From past Briefings you will have read about Tower Hamlets Labour Party members selecting Cllr Lutfur Rahman as Labour’s candidate for directly elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets (the first elections for this post, introduced after a referendum in May, take place on 21st October).  That selection took place on 4th September.

The Labour Party NEC has today OVERTURNED that selection and imposed a different candidate.  They did so because some members had put in complaints about the selection process.  The NEC gave Lutfur Rahman no notice of having received complaints, and no chance to reply.

The NEC has imposed Cllr Helal Uddin Abbas as their candidate for the election.  Abbas received 117 first preference votes (Lutfur had received 394) and was in third place after the last round of counting.

The NEC is using bureaucratic means (unsubstantiated complaints, trumped up complaints) to overturn party members’ selected candidate and to impose a stooge candidate.  This will in any event backfire: Lutfur is so popular in the community that any imposed Labour candidate will not win.  (This is the Borough where Oona King lost to George Galloway, and another Regional favourite – former Council Leader Michael Keith – has lost three times.)  The racism in the NEC decision will also have a negative effect on local politics.

For more information/background Simon has some very interesting posts on this here, here, here along with a report from that specific NEC meeting from Christine Shawcroft.