Posts filed under 'its all politics'
Here’s real people power for you. Yesterday in the debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament we voted in favour of a maximum wage, a cap on bank bonuses and renationalisation of the railways. And, no, I wasn’t dreaming.
Admittedly we probably did not represent a typical cross section of the British voting public. This Festival of Politics audience came to hear Annie Lennox, Mark Thomas and Martin Bell talk about Power of the People and how people can influence political decisions. So perhaps we were just a self-selecting bunch of lefties.
But for a few moments there was a heady feeling of power. Mark Thomas claimed this as evidence that most ordinary people do care about politics and maybe he should know as he has toured the country collecting policies for the People’s Manifesto . He was amazed by a popular obsession with dog shit but encouraged by overwhelming support for progressive ideas like a maximum wage (probably not something that appears in George Osborne’s spending cuts consultation) which would ensure that no-one earned more than ten times the minimum wage. If only…
Doorway to the Education Centre where the News Group starts at 10.30 am on Saturday
So my second trip to the Festival of Politics felt like an hour very well-spent. Not least because I am about to take part in an event at the Scottish Parliament myself. On Saturday 21st August the last day of FestofPol, Leith Open Space and the activitist theatre group ACTive Inquiry will present the News Group, a drama workshop exploring topical issues.
Like Open Space events the News Group begins and ends with a circular discussion and yesterday as the three panellists answered questions from their semi-circular audience Mark Thomas commented on the seating arrangement in the debating chamber, deliberately less confrontational than Westminster’s layout. “It doesn’t feel like a parliament at all” he said and it wasn’t meant to be an insult.
Just imagine if politicians, seated in a circle, were spared the whip. Martin Bell claimed we would not have invaded Iraq if politicians had been free to vote as they believed.
Come the revolution we will have free-thinking, free-speaking elected representatives. And of course there will be a maximum wage, no bonuses for bankers owned by the people, and we will travel on national railways that efficiently connect our country from north to south, east to west. It’s all in the People’s Manifesto!
August 19th, 2010
Job schemes for the young have taken the first big hit in George Osborne’s deficit reduction cuts. It’s dogma over common sense
Another gorgeous day. I haven’t switched on the radio yet because I can’t quite bear to hear what less than gorgeous George is doing to the economic climate of the country. Is this going to be a fair budget. Or even a sane budget. Is it hell.
Since early morning the sun has been beaming into the back garden. On days like this Edinburgh could be much further south. But there’s an eery feeling in the air that the chancellor will deepen his freeze on the future of the young today.
On Saturday I had a reminder why Edinburgh feels such a long way from Westminster. Scotland truly is a different country when it comes to politics.
Rory Bremner has changed the tone of dinner party debates for ever ( I find it hard to rant with a glass in my hand without hearing myself sound unnervingly like Pauline McLynn and John Bird is right beside me). Even so, the evening’s conversation about the pending cuts perhaps indicates why the LibDems lost so many Edinburgh seats in the last general election. And why there is only one Tory MP in Scotland.
Of the teachers, lawyers, third sector employees, journalists, business men and social workers, most of the people in the room were probably among the UK’s higher paid earners ( bearing in mind if you are earning more than £45,000 per year you are in the top ten per cent) and whatever Osborne may say its the lower paid that will be worst hit today.
Not one person round the table had voted Tory. Only one poor soul had voted LibDem and he was mighty disillusioned – “I doubt if the LibDems will still be around to vote for in five years time.” The rest of us – however reluctantly – voted Labour and for a slower (though still recklessly fast) reduction of the national debt.
Let’s put that another way. Not one person in the room had voted for the unnecessary cuts George Osborne is about to inflict on the UK.
I wander round the garden, deadheading summer blooms disconsolately. A mile or so down the road I know of voluntary organisations who could give Osborne a short sharp lesson in belt tightening – they are running marathons, recycling phones and generally working all hours to raise money rather than reduce services.
Further south turkeys seem to be voting for Christmas. Today’s Guardian reports a poll showing 59% cautiously support the idea of cuts. David Blanchflower’s blog provides cautionary sanity. Blanchflower was the only member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee who foresaw the credit crunch and disagreed with the policy of the rest of the MPC. It looks horribly as if he will be able to say I told you so once again.
June 22nd, 2010
Not many people saw it, but last night was a good night for community action. While would-be leaders dominated the television screen, a political drama was quietly unfolding in a Leith community centre which confounds all those fears of immigrants.
Members of Swietlica at the first performance of Change, a play timed to coincide with the election campaign. Picture by Kasia Raszewska
This is where campaigning politicians ought to be. Here’s community spirit in action in the Fort Community Wing where the Polish drop-in club, Swietlica, works tirelessly to bring people together – celebrating Christmas and St Andrews Night, fundraising for good causes, and sometimes throwing parties just for the fun of it.
So it wasn’t surprising that Swietlica hosted the first production of a brave new drama by the Leith community activist theatre group, ACTive Inquiry. Change is a political play (that’s political with a small p) exploring what change means and how we can make it happen. This is deliberately timed to coincide with the election campaign.
And it wasn’t surprising that the small audience representing Scottish, Polish, Indian and English communities wholeheartedly entered into the spirit of a form of theatre which demands audience participation. Elsewhere, across the UK, the media was doing its best to stir up ill-informed fear and resentment of strangers, feeding on Gordon Brown’s unscripted reactions to Gillian Duffy’s East European question. Inside a small Edinburgh primary school, some of those strangers were showing just why Leith is possibly the most vibrant and interesting part of Scotland’s capital.
The play ended with a competition for a project to change real life for the better. And the clear winners of a small cash prize to make it happen were Maria and Marek for an idea that costs almost nothing to put into action. The other two ideas were good too: a leaflet campaign to promote a club for single mothers and a public event to excite support for pedestrianising The Shore in Leith. And they could still happen. But on an old fashioned show of hands most votes went to the smiles.
Smiling Leith simply asks everyone to smile three times a day to a complete stranger. 
Try it, urged a smiling Maria and Marek, it can make you and someone else feel happier. “I don’t mean a grin,” adds Maria, “I mean a smile from the heart.” (They won £50 towards a poster campaign to make it happen).
I got home just in time to catch the end of the leaders’ debate. It seemed more contrived and controlled than ever. Perhaps saddest of all, not one of them seem able to risk speaking from the heart to acknowledge the great benefits of immigration. Maybe we should invite Mrs Duffy to meet the wonderful volunteers of Swietlica. And watch a performance of Change by ACTive Inquiry. (see more on Leith Open Space)
Audience participation: Mridu, Marek and Marcin (standing) accept a challenge to change the course of events in the play.
April 30th, 2010
Update March 26: Tesco is coming to Broughton, what will happen to local shops? See Broughton awaits Tesco Express
Can we stop Tesco dominating the landscape? I feel strongly that we can and must. But we will need to be quick. Letters to protest against yet another Tesco store in the Broughton area have to reach the council’s head of planning by 20 March. That’s just over a week to raise a campaign against wanton destruction of local character and independence.
Why on earth would we need another Tesco store in this area? There is already the Tesco supermarket at Canonmills and a Tesco Metro in Leith. But Britain’s biggest trade guzzler (Tesco reports pre-tax profits of £1.45bn) has swooped on the opportunity of Reid Furniture store closing in Picardy Place.
That’s a death threat to the diversity of local shops that give Broughton a real buzz and a true sense of place: Crombie’s one of the best butchers in Edinburgh, Mr Fishy, the Deli, and many small, friendly corner shops.
But we don’t have to let it happen. A campaign is already growing. On his way to the station this morning Ray was handed a flyer by the young man serving him in the newsagent. He emailed it to me from the train and said get blogging.
Our vigilant local newsletter, Spurtle, is also urging local residents to write to the council. According to the Spurtle message on the excellent new EH7 Noticeboard.
Tesco’s have applied for planning permission at 8 Picardy Place (Ref. 09/00385/FUL). They are intending the installation of a ’shopfront to Picardy Place, plant louvres to Broughton St Lane, and interior fitout’ on 3 floors. The target determination date is 17 April 2009 so letters of objection will have to be sent in SOON.
Spurtle editor, Alan McIntosh, says they will not lead a campaign against Tesco but they will report (and therefore support) one and they have already alerted local city councillors, MPs and MSPs.
It’s not going to be easy. Tesco does not need to apply for change of use to open their store. But when people unite to combine well-informed argument with political weight they can stop the behemoth retailer in its tracks. A good cause for Greener Leith maybe?
The point about architectural heritage is worth making. We could campaign to develop Picardy Place so that it is a handsome gateway to the city centre. Better options for the old furniture store would be a new arts centre. Or how about a whole foods organic indoor market which would complement rather than compete with local shops?
Take a look at Whole Foods in Chicago for an example of style, substance and retailing success. Now, isn’t this an opportunity for Real Foods (crammed with good stuff but cramped) to expand into 21st century credit-crunch, climate change reality? Tesco should have no future in this environment.
[PS added 13 March: In response to the point made by Tony Leach I have removed my original opening sentence, referring to 'Tesco outrage' although I am still outraged at this real threat to the viability of our local independent shops. I will certainly write to MP MSPS and councillors using measured reasoning]
March 11th, 2009
Come the revolution
Who said this: “Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credit, until their debt becomes unbearable…
…The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of the banks, which will have to be nationalized. The State will then have to step in to save the banks which will eventually lead to communism.”
I thought I was being clever basing a quick blog on this quote attributed to Karl Marx in 1867.
” Have you said where it comes from? “ says Ray peering over my shoulder. At first I think he’s afraid I will name the unlikely source who sent the quote in an email. But no, he’s being historically accurate. Which is a pity because now I find a Google-load of bloggers have used it already and my quick joke becomes a long trawl through all sorts of left, right and plain cranky websites who quote it without question (as indeed, I was going to). Das Kapital is claimed to be the context.
Some sceptics, however, pasted it into Snopes, the hoax busting website, whose contributors cast convincing doubt on the authenticity of the source. Uncle Karl would not have used a word like technology, they suggest. And some of these sages have even read Das Kapital.
Authentic or not. The interesting thing is how eagerly this quote is being circulated with undisguised glee by business suits and folk who generally like (as they put it) to trouser a bonus or two. What do you suppose that means?
Pictures from Szorbopark, resting ground for rusting Soviet heros. Set for a come back?
March 6th, 2009
Are human rights at risk? Inside today’s Guardian Jack Straw argues that Britain is the asylum seekers’ country of choice because people still have more rights and protection here than anywhere else. Oh yes? On the front page of the paper there is another article which gives a clue as to why tomorrow’s Convention on Modern Liberty is sold out in London.
A lot of UK citizens take a different view to Jack Straw. The convention is also happening in cities across the country, including Glasgow, with video streaming as speaker after speaker explains why they are involved. And you can take part online. So though I am late registering this event it is not too late to listen to powerful arguments put by the likes of Helena Kennedy, Shami Chakrabarti. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Vince Cable, Timothy Garton Ash…the impressive list goes on and on.
And never too late to care, though if we don’t pay attention to what is happening now it may be too late to stop very stupid legislation. That Guardian front page story is about Jacquie Smith’s determination to store DNA samples of innocent people for future use. Add to that the Government’s stubborn pledge to carry on with the extraordinary expense of creating a mega database for a national ID card. (Why it makes Fred’s pension look positively cheap.)
“as if Paine, Voltaire and Mill had never existed…”
The Human Rights Act is not an easy read (I wimped out and went for the BBC extract rather than the official site), it attracts the same kind of misinformed scorn, and accumulates almost as many myths, as health and safety regulations. But we should guard with our lives rights to privacy, freedom from torture, freedom from forced labour, freedom of assembly…
So even if it’s too late to go to London you can log on from 9.45 am to the excellent website made by my mate Rob Sharp (here’s the page with the days programme) – and while you are at it read his blog and another view on the arrogance of politicians, many of them lawyers, who assume that we citizens cannot understand such difficult concepts as liberty.
Lets show em. For in Britain as things stand now we are all guilty until proved innocent. While I think of it, dear Jacqui, you must remind me to cc you into every email I send, especially on 15 June. This is one Facebook group worth joining I am so pleased to discover there are so many like minds. As Rob says we are not afraid. Or at least, I think, not nearly as afraid as you claim we are, so stop trying to ‘protect’ us by nibbling away at our rights.
February 27th, 2009