Tony Benn speaking at the LRC AGM

Here is a video of Tony Benn speaking at the LRC AGM yesterday, apologies for the quality and wobbliness of it. Experimentation and all that!

LRC AGM: opening speech by John McDonnell

Attended the LRC AGM yesterday. I decided to video some of the speeches instead of taking photos as just wanted to experience with that medium. So it’s DIY shaky videoing (not too Blair Witch Project!) you can see the more professional live stream on the LRC website.

And yesterday Ed Miliband spoke to the Fabian Society (you can see the speech here). Compare that speech to John McDonnell’s. Miliband’s is very, very disappointing and defunct of any radicalism, just the usual establishment friendly guff.

Anyway, just wanted to say great to meet Ben Sellers, Paul Cotterill, shame I missed Tim Flatman. Saw also Marshajane, Jon Rogers, Owen Jones, Comrade Raincoat and Simon.

Is this the end of the road for the LibDems?

…… I really truly hope so

Well done to the many comrades who stayed up to some ungodly hour to watch the result of the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. I got up at 3:30am this morning, saw the result, quietly cheered (don’t want to disturb the neighbours) and went back to bed.

Below are the figures.

• Labour: 14,718 (42.1%)
• Lib Dems: 11,160 (31.9%)
• Conservatives: 4,481 (12.8%)
• UKIP: 2,029 (5.8%)
• BNP: 1,560 (4.5%)
• Green Party: 530 (1.5%)
• Monster Raving Loony Party: 145 (0.4%)
• English Democrats: 144 (0.4%)
• Pirate Party: 96 (0.2%)
• Bus Pass Elvis Party: 67 (0.1%)

Will the result further the meltdown of the Tories in yellow, they have dropped to 7% and may plummet further into the political gutter? Let’s hope so…. here’s to the further demise of those can’t-keep-a-promise Tories in yellow. I salute your cowardice, your weakness and your indefatigability in doing the other Tories bidding, ditching your policies and making people really loathe you. As Britney Spears once sang, “You’re toxic”…. Indeed..

Nice work for 8 months! Keep it up and you may completely implode!!

LRC calls for NEC inquiry into Jack Straw’s comments

Press release from the LRC about Jack Straw

The LRC condemns the statement made by Labour MP Jack Straw that “there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men… who target vulnerable young white girls … who they think are easy meat”.

We call on the Labour leadership and the whole labour movement to disown Straw’s disgraceful comments. We also call on the NEC to open an inquiry into whether Straw should be allowed to continue as a Labour MP and party member.

It is obvious that the crimes committed by these men were heinous, but the fact is there is no statistical evidence to support Jack Straw’s statements.

Straw has clearly failed to examine all the evidence, which would contradict his assertions. He also used incredibly provocative language in doing so, which made his statement all the more inflammatory.

To make matters worse, his comments were made in the run-up to the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, following the despatching of Phil Woolas – whose own racist comments brought shame upon the Labour Party, and which were condemned by the LRC and many others.

It is deeply problematic that there appears to be an acceptance of casual racism in the Parliamentary Labour Party – where Woolas was defended. There has also been little condemnation by the PLP of Jack Straw’s comments.

While it is important that politicians are able to address controversial issues, this should be based on facts and rational debate, not prejudice and hyperbole.

There is of course a more important need to tackle the underlying issue of violence against women. This requires significant cultural and political change in all communities.

We call on all labour movement bodies to support our call for the NEC to investigate Jack Straw’s comments to determine whether he has brought the Party into disrepute.

 

A history of the madhouse

I was watching a potted history of the Victorian asylums during the postwar period on BBC 4 last night. The treatment of people with mental distress was an exercise in barbarism, violence and abuse. People institutionalised and left to rot in these places of horror. Certainly, the ‘madhouse’ was indeed a dumping ground for people whose behaviour was considered transgressive, women, for example, who had sex outside wedlock, had a child outside wedlock were accused of of “moral inadequacy” and sent to the asylum. If a woman didn’t behave within the patriarchal norms then it was the madhouse for her.

During the 1950s, there had been transformations in medical science such as the invention of ECT in 1938, psychiatric medication, and along with brain surgery. Coma inducing insulin therapy soon fell out of favour with the advent of psychoactive drugs. Meds such as benzodiazepines (such as Valium), antipsychotics (Chlorpromazine), and so on… a more apt description being chemical coshes. Also, the Mental Health Act  came into existence in 1959. The other thing that was becoming popular in asylums was the introduction of occupational therapy.

The fascinating yet depressing and moving part of this programme on BBC4 were the interviews with people locked up in these madhouses. One woman interviewed recalls speaking out about the treatment she was receiving, she got angry, the next thing she knew she was on the receiving end of ECT. She, understandably, is still angry about this today. It becomes more clear that the asylums weren’t about supporting people but about abuse and punishment. It was also a place for carrying out new invasive brain surgery, and psychiatric users were the ideal lab rats to experiment on. One woman, during the early 1970s, was encouraged to have surgery on her brain, the reality being that part of her brain was burnt away (the hospital made a documentary of this procedure and it’s distressing and harrowing to watch). The woman said that after the operation she was “zombified for 4 years”… She eventually picked her life up (no thanks to the psych system) but still feel angry that this form of experimental surgery was carried out on her (“more violence inflicted on me”) . The belief was that it would “cure” her mental distress instead it turned her into an automaton.

Many people who experienced insulin therapy, ECT, chemical coshes and brain surgery all loathed their experiences and that it didn’t make any difference to them except worsen their lives. One woman who was on massive dosages of various psychoactive drugs maintained that she became “awake and alive” once she came off the pills. Psychiatry has a tendency to render you powerless. Psychoactive medication may have seen originally as a miracle, the manufacturing of a cure without resorting to shock treatment. But they had devastating side-effects. Tardive dyskinesia meaning slow repetitive body movements, physical rigidity, many assumed that was how people with mental distress behaved in that slow shuffle manner when really it was side-effects from massive dosages of antipsychotics drugs. Valium was highly addictive (“mother’s little helper). Lithium also had awful side-effects. These methods of getting people out of the psych system by prescribing high dosage meds only caused more distress and addiction in the suburban setting. My own mother was addictive for many years on Valium, when a more enlightened GP reduced her intake it freaked her out. I also have had experience of a cocktail of antipsychotics, tricyclic antidepressants (Amitriptyline) and benzos (Temazepam) as a teenager. Indeed I felt dumb and rather dead inside, I felt like an automaton, a zombie, my brain felt addled, like cotton wool. I was 18, yet felt I had aged massively over night, I too shuffled, staring transfixed into space and I was completely pliable and passive. All my defiance and will had been anesthetised. I still feel angry with the psych system for doing this to me.

During my time as a patient in a day hospital, I met other people who had been on these meds significantly longer than me and many seemed institutionalised. I remember the man in his 50s coming back from ECT, he would look confused and befuddled yet upset. One woman told me that the shrink told her that if he couldn’t find a suitable drug for her then it was time for ECT. “Not bloody likely”… was her reply. When I first got involved in mental health advocacy, I ‘shadowed’ two advocates in the mother and baby unit, the women in there were experiencing post-natal depression. This was 15 years ago but the image still etched in my mind. Many of the women just sat there staring into space, not a flicker of emotion or anything. One woman was passed her baby, yet her response was utterly automaton, she was so detached from reality and confused while I watched holding her baby. Another woman asked me to read me her postcard from her family, she was adamant that she could read but with everything being so confusing she couldn’t grasp the words in front of her. The advocate asked her how many applications of ECT she had that week, she got confused, frustrated and upset that she couldn’t remember. I was told by both of the advocates that the unit’s policy was to either recommend ECT if the woman was breastfeeding her baby or psychoactive drugs if the woman was bottle feeding. In other words, fry the brains or chemical coshes…. The other hospital some miles away had a more enlightened approach to post-natal depression unlike the old fashion Victorian style nightmare oppressive regime in that psych hospital. Like I said those images of those women have never left me, they horrified me.

And as was shown on this BBC4 programme during the political upsurge of the sixties this also impacted on psychiatric thinking, along came the anti-psychiatry movement with Thomas, Szasz. Laing and Cooper (it has to be said that they paid little attention to gender). This fed into the burgeoning user movement (which deserves a series in itself) with self-definition, user involvement, campaigning to shift the medical model paradigm, fighting to be treated with respect. Being seen as whole people as opposed to be viewed as a combination of symptoms and labels. This was also important during the time of community care, especially  with the backlash, whipped up by tabloid frenzy, that former psych patients are ticking violent time bombs all mad, bad and dangerous to know, the demonisation and vilification of mental distress (also the ignorance shown by employers when it comes to mental health). Oh, and Nimbyism. One in four people may experience mental distress but it is still hidden with the fear of stigmatisation and facing the ignorance.  I remember telling a surprised looking neighbour once that I had been through the psych system. Her reply was, “But you don’t look like someone with mental health problems”… What does someone look exactly like….?!

The asylum system was a cruel, violent, barbaric and dehumanising regime. People enduring cruel and torturous treatments. They were the social dustbins were individuals were sent to and I sincerely hope that they will be relegated to the dustbin of history but with the Dickensian style plans from the ConDems I feel there might be a revisit to the grim Victorian inventions of the madhouse.

Sack the bosses not the workers

More evidence that the Bullingdon boys coalition hate the workers as the latest wheeze is to attack workers’ rights. Britain’s employment laws are pretty basic already and Cameron’s proposals will weaken them further.Basically it means an employer can arbitrarily dismiss a worker without reason, fit you up with no accountability and bosses able to get away with it.

A Whitehall source said: “The thrust of the initiative is that to persuade companies to hire people we need to make it easier to fire those workers who aren’t up to the job, so there is less risk in taking on new people, especially the young.”

The TUC is planning mass protests against Government cuts in the spring and the “employers’ charter” could further antagonise the unions. Mr Cameron said yesterday that he would not be “pushed around” by the unions.

Here’s an idea, workers shouldn’t be bloody pushed around by the bosses! This is a green (blue?) light to every bullying boss to sack anybody who answers back or is not over the moon to work for peanuts in poor working conditions. If you missed that someone cannot do their job within a year perhaps management is not really your thing? Remember at present a worker can be sacked on a whim after say 10 months. The law is hardly onerous on bosses: if the sacking is fair then yes they can sack you. At present all that is prohibited is that they must think before screwing up someones life (so long as the person has worked for them for more than a year.

This on the day that the Government refused to curb bankers’ bonus payouts in any form at all. Boss man he walk off with all the money…

Randoms from yesterday’s wander

Labour Briefing AGM

It aint half racist BBC!

I emailed a complaint to the BBC regarding the piss-poor racist “comedy”  Come Fly With Me. This is their reply:

Dear Ms WHITTLE

Thanks for contacting us regarding ‘Come Fly With Me’ broadcast on the 25 December 2010.

We understand you felt the programme was offensive.

‘Come Fly With Me’ is a post watershed comedy series which depicts life in a typical international airport.

The characters are exaggerated for comedic effect and none of the humour is derived from their ethnic background or racial characteristics. Make-up is used to bring these characters to life and there is no intention to be either offensive or racist. Indeed many of the sketches are taken to such an extreme level that it’s clear they have no grounding in reality.

Matt and David’s humour is well known to audiences and viewers who watch their programmes know what to expect. Nonetheless great care has been taken to ensure viewers are aware of the nature of the show’s content, all of which adheres to BBC Editorial Guidelines.

We would like to assure you that we have registered your comments on our audience log. This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC, and also their senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.

Thanks again for contacting us.

Kind Regards

BBC Audience Services

 

So strangely the BBC believes the so-called comedy “depicts life in a typical international airport”…. Really? Racist stereotypes exist in a typical international airport? That really takes the piss! Well, I suppose they exist in Walliams/Lucas’s puerile, pathetic, pitiful and contemptible narrow minded middle class minds. Their “comedy” is just an excuse to sneer and create offensive racist and anti-working class stereotypes. Indeed talking of excuses…. the response from the BBC is pathetic and defends the indefensible (The characters are exaggerated for comedic effect and none of the humour is derived from their ethnic background or racial characteristics).

Interesting….BBC Editorial Guidelines… Now, these guidelines have a section called Harm and Offence (an excerpt)

We aim to reflect the world as it is, including all aspects of the human experience and the realities of the natural world. But we balance our right to broadcast innovative and challenging content with our responsibility to protect the vulnerable from harm and avoid unjustifiable offence.

In my books, this comes under “unjustifiable offence”. Not once did the response from the BBC mention ‘blacking up’… Vile programmes like “Come Fly With Me” take me back to the bad old days of the 1970s, growing up watching racist bilge like The Black and White Minstrels Show, It Ain Half Hot Mum, Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson to name but a few.

I mistakenly thought with a more politicised and conscious understanding of anti-racism borne out of struggles and liberation movements there would be a backlash against the use of ‘blacking up’ and resorting to racist stereotypes. But boy, was I wrong. The BBC wilfully capitulates and backs up offensive programming with little care or thought to the very people they are oppressing. Though the BBC are going through a defensive period exposing their own knee jerk reactions to their shoddy and offensive storylines. Second series? I bloody hope not!

Just finally on the insensitivity and stupidity of the BBC….Eastenders is a case in point…. indeed they had a chance of a storyline which examined cot death sensitively without the necessity to seek more sensationalism and insult by depicting the women replacing her dead baby with a live and healthy one. They had a chance yet blew it spectacularly.  And they wonder why people who have experienced cot deaths are angry and distressed. Sensationalism plus the premature anticipation of increased viewing figures takes over from the necessity in creating sensitivity and actual awareness of the subject. Soap operas are a good vehicle to portray issues that affect ordinary people, which can create awareness and understanding, but in a responsible fashion. The arrogance of the BBC knows no bounds.

A wander around St James’s Park

I like St James’s Park. Last time I was in that vicinity was during the student demonstration on the 9th December where I photographed a group of pelicans sunning themselves by the lake. I went back today to see the pelicans but alas they weren’t around.

Anyway, there were other birds and wildfowl to compensate …. also there were lots of chubby looking collective of squirrels stalking people hoping they were carrying nuts (they have no fear of humans). Seems as well there are a number of people belonging to the squirrel fan club as the number of nuts being offered to the bushy tailed rodents was enormous and rather remiss I left a bag of monkey nuts at home…. some unhappy squirrels