Elections 5th May – The fightback begins

After two weeks pounding the mean and not so mean streets of Aylesbury where District & Town Council elections take place tomorrow the fear of cutbacks to services people value is palpable, the fear voters have for their ability to earn a living and for their children’s potential being realised is obvious. For since WWII every British Government has at least held out the promise that life will be better for the next generation and their children. However this Tory led coalition is holding out no such stall – Headed up by a slick marketing man they are applying the Hershey Bar technique. We are going to give it a shiny new wrapper, make it smaller and charge you more for less. This of course applies to the new ConDem army of the disposed, workers and pensioners who actually pay tax not non-Doms or Tory Tax exiles or the powerful lobbies funded by offshore companies.

For the truth is that this strange Coalition running the UK has rewritten the rule book. Forget Election manifestos and promises – the coalition of the Conservative Party which didn’t win the election and the Lib Dems who most definitely lost the election has a totally new agenda from the one their supporters voted for, the Conservatives have abandoned conservatism and the Lib-Dems have abandoned liberalism while their leaders lead them on a mongrel course of untried, untested and unproven radical policies which nobody voted for at breakneck speed – frequently falling over themselves in the process.





In the elections tomorrow voters are urged to show Cameron and Clegg that they can't carry on with policies which have no public backing. Labour today released a document detailing the divisive policies which the Tories and Lib Dems are pursuing without a mandate: No mandate for NHS reorganisation; No mandate for police cuts; No mandate for VAT rise; No mandate for their squeeze on middle-income families; No mandate for abolishing EMAs and Future Jobs Fund or trebling tuition fees. Last year the Tories fell short of a majority in the General Election, unable to command the support of the British people for their right-wing agenda. Since then, rather than proposing reform that commands consensus, David Cameron's Tory-led Government has attempted to force through right-wing policies for which they have no mandate.



I’ve heard from so many people on the doorsteps who are deeply concerned about what this government’s plans will mean for them and for their families. People are worried - about the future of local services like schools and sure start, about how much damage the government’s ‘reforms’ will do to our NHS, about how they’ll make ends meet in retirement if they have to wait longer for their state pension. And they’re worried about what this government will mean for the next generation: £9,000 university fees, the EMA scrapped and 1 in 5 young people out of work.

Let’s send a message to the Con-Dem government that we deserve better than this:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/sendamessage

Tomorrow, voters across much of the country go to the polls to elect the people who will run their local councils and, in Wales and Scotland, the Assembly and the Parliament. Every vote for Labour tomorrow is a vote against this Tory-led government’s unfair cuts.



As Cameron, Clegg and Osborne cut from Westminster; it is those people in local councils and in the Scottish and Welsh governments who will have to pick up the pieces as their budgets are slashed. Already we’ve seen local services squeezed as local decision-makers are forced to pass on the cuts handed down from the Tories in Westminster.



By voting Labour, you can help to make sure local councillors and the Scottish and Welsh governments do everything they can to limit the damage done by these vicious Tory cuts. By voting Labour, you can help send a message to this Tory-led government that their cruel cuts are wrong, and there is a better, fairer way. Help us send this government a message, by emailing your friends and family to let them know why you think it’s important to vote Labour tomorrow.



See also;

http://www.aylesburylabour.org.uk

http://www.facebook.com/aylesburylabourparty

http://twitter.com/#!/aylesburylabour

Big Society, Small Military?

Being republican with both a big and a small R the Celtic Sage is hardly an admirer of British militarism or imperialism. How could I be given their history in Ireland and my belief that the people are sovereign – I believe in being a citizen, not a subject? There is still too much unfinished business out there from the days of Empire which indicates that “Perfidious” and “Albion” are still two words which go together. Witness the shameful dispossession of the inhabitants of Diego Garcia, the abandonment of their allies against the Japanese the brave Karen people of Burma, their ignoring of the oppression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka since independence and the shabby racist treatment of ex Ghurkha soldiers and their families. Then there were the squalid post-colonial misadventures in Kenya, Aden, Cyprus and Suez to name a few which suggest “Our Boys” as they are known in gender prejudice Tabloid Land have frequently been ill used by politicians. Then there was the Mother of all Illegal Wars, where Britain was not just unconscious of the present in Iraq but apparently also unaware of its shameful past in that country.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/britain-in-iraq.html


Nevertheless if you are not a pacifist you accept that Britain needs Armed Forces which must be properly resourced. You must also accept that there is a special compact to look after members of the Services who are prepared to die or be maimed to defend you and I - The Military Covenant. However I doesn’t recall either the Great Empire Defenders aka The Tories of the Lib Dems who form the Coalition of Opportunism which is grinding the UK back to the Stone Age tell the electors “Elect us and we’ll destroy the Army, Navy and RAF!” Nope, I never heard that before the election, did you?



No siree this was not the election platform but yet the UK’s Armed Forces are being ritually disembowelled on parade grounds around the world as we write. The Flagship of the Royal Navy Carrier Ark Royal and the entire Harrier Jet Force are being scrapped, £4 Bn of Nimrod Spy Planes (ordered by Conservative, Michael Portillo when they were in last time) will never fly and are being cut up. In the most significant changes to Britain’s defences since the post-Suez review of 1957, ministers and officials plan to scrap large parts of the Armed Forces. The Services will lose up to 16,000 personnel, hundreds of tanks, scores of fighter jets and half a dozen ships.


HMS Ark Royal has been sunk! The Flagship of the Navy she was the fifth Royal Navy ship to bear the illustrious name of Queen Elizabeth the First’s flagship which led the defeat of the Spanish Armada.


But the RAF will bear the brunt of the planned cuts. The Air Force will lose 7,000 airmen – almost one sixth of its total staff – and 295 aircraft. The cuts will leave the Force with fewer than 200 fighter planes for the first time since 1914. In addition, the Navy will lose two submarines, three amphibious ships and more than 100 senior officers, along with 2,000 sailors and marines.


Your job is OK Son!

The Army faces a 40 per cent cut to its fleet of 9,700 armoured vehicles and the loss of a 5,000-strong brigade of troops. The defence review scaled back Britain’s Armed Forces over the next decade, leaving the UK with just one operational aircraft carrier, a smaller number of surface ships and a reduction of 42,000 MoD personnel. The dismantling of three existing Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft, which were close to completion at a cost of £4.1 billion, is one of the most embarrassing outcomes of the review.


£4.1 Billion of new Nimrod surveillance aircraft which have never flown being cut up and scrapped

One amazing feature of the Demolition Coalition so far is the compliant press coverage from the Murdoch and Tory Press. When you consider the acerbic and highly personalised disinformation campaign against Labour and its entire works before the May Election the docility of the right wing press in the face of swingeing Defence cuts is both incredible and hypocritical. Remember the highly personalised campaign against former PM Gordon Brown for not supporting “Our Boys.” Now we are told he supported them too much!



Labour’s “Cool Britannia” has been replaced by the LibCon’s “Cruel Britannia.” So the casual cruelty to the Armed Forces continues with career prospects being destroyed, RAF pilots who cost £4 M each to train being sacked with only short flying hours remaining before they get their wings, 100 long serving soldiers being sacked by email, Sea, Air, Rescue being privatised one week and the process abandoned the next and experienced pilots telling David Cameron to his face that he has destroyed their careers.



We have been here before under the Conservatives. Remember saved the cost of one Navy ship they withdrew from the Falkland Islands and it cost us an entire war! The Falklands War cost 255 men, six ships (ten others suffered varying degrees of battle damage), 34 aircraft and £2.778 billion. Another Conservative triumph of economic management! This current disembowelling of the armed forces is even more perverse because it is based on two big lies. One is that we need to replace Trident, the Cold War MAD (mutually assured destruction) system which will cost £34 Bn. And never be used. The other is the lie about the HUGE budget deficit. But the government’s budget projections do not take into account the selloff of the stakes in the banks rescued in the 2008 Credit Crunch at a cost of £37 Bn. For UK PLC’s stake in these banks. The perfidious nature of George Osborne’s projections means these are not included. So the country, including the armed forces is being wrecked to keep an Election Bribe to one side for 2015.


Big Society community based Defence Partnership

It is not just the Armed Forces which are not safe in the hands of the Tory / LibDem Coalition, the whole country is at risk. David Cameron is certainly standing behind "Our Boys and Girls" - in the queue at the Job Centre!

To see what serving members of the Armed Forces think of their treatment by the Government see;

www.roguegunner.com

The Big Dumb Society

David Cameron’s Big Idea conquered up in something of a hurry before the last election is a somewhat nebulous concept called “The Big Society.” Now as far as can be told this is in line with the Tory led Coalitions attack on the State and those who depend on it. Whereas Margaret Thatcher infamously said there is no such thing as Society, her ideological love child David Cameron” has used his PR skills to rebadge this as “The Big Society.” New name, same difference. Under the guise of volunteerism and greater private sector involvement the attack on Society has begun with vigour. So the Armed Forces are being ritually disembowelled on parade grounds around the world. The Flagship of the Royal Navy Carrier Ark Royal and the entire Harrier Jet Force are being scrapped, £4 Bn of Nimrod Spy Planes (ordered by Conservative, Michael Portillo when they were in last time) will never fly and are being cut up. University fees have been tripled and the privatisation of Education has begun with wholesale approval of “Independent Schools.” As for the NHS which the ConDem Coalition said was safe its budget is being drastically cut in real terms whilst being subject to wholly unproven and untested changes which were never in ANY Election Manifesto.



And in a continuing attack on communities and learning, libraries which account for less than 5% of Local Authority budgets are being closed wholesale. Education Secretary Michael Gove attempted to say his ‘reforms’ in education would favour poorer working class families, but now watches working class kids have their local library closed without a squeak of protest. There is little more sickening than watching well heeled public school and Oxbridge graduates like Cameron and Clegg, who had endless access to books and computers, telling workers that it is necessary to close libraries, while bankers and businessmen give themselves tax free bonuses after precipitating the crisis we are in.




Marsh's Library Dublin - A public library since 1701

Protesters have held "read-ins" and storytelling sessions at dozens of libraries across the UK to campaign against planned branch closures. At one library in south London the event has turned into an all-night sit-in involving about 35 protesters. Authors Philip Pullman and Mark Haddon were among those who took part in events elsewhere. Some councils have said keeping libraries open would put services for vulnerable and elderly people at risk. More than 450 libraries and mobile services across the country are currently threatened with closure.



New Cross Library

At New Cross Library, in south-east London, protesters taking part in an earlier "read-in" resolved to occupy the library overnight. Three security guards have been brought in to stay in the library with the group. Protester James Holland, of Save New Cross Library, told the BBC people had brought meals for the protesters, who were "sitting around playing Monopoly and Connect 4 and doing plenty of reading." I think with this occupation we are going to take the libraries campaign - and the anti-cuts campaign in general - to a whole new level. We are just not going to put up with these cuts," he said.

Other events during Saturday included a rally outside Bolton's central library and a flashmob book reading at Cambridge Central Library. Musician Billy Bragg sang and delivered a speech in Dorset, where library users attempted to take out the maximum number of books to empty shelves.


New Cross Library Occupation

Comic writer Gervase Phinn sent a statement to Bawtry library in South Yorkshire, describing books as "the architecture of a civilised society". He added: "Reading is the very protein of growth in learning. We must preserve our libraries. Have they thought through the impact of their messianic message about literature on the most vulnerable in our society?”

His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman has been particularly vocal over proposals to close 20 of Oxfordshire County Council's 43 libraries. He said the impact would not be easily measured. He said: "It's a kind of inward loss, a darkening of things, a narrowing of horizons that will gradually make us a less informed, less intelligent, less aware, less useful, less imaginative, less kindly people than we might have been."


Great Smith Street Library - Closed as it was too good for the common people

We have seen libraries being easy targets before. I remember when I was first living in London going to the wonderful Library in Great Smith St. Westminster, just beside the Department for Education and nearest public library to Parliament. Part of a complex which included public baths designed to improve the lot of working people it was a “proper” library with a cavernous and comfortable reading room. The Conservative Council sold it off, replaced it with a pokey (and now little used) library shop in its own offices in Victoria and it is now The Cinnamon Club, an upmarket restaurant of the type beloved by MP’s and Bureaucrats spending somebody else’s money.






My second home when I was at school - Drumcondra Library, Dublin

In my home town of Dublin our oldest public library, Marsh’s, which opened in 1701 is still going strong including the “cages” where readers of rare books were locked in! After school I used to cycle down to Drumcondra Library where the world awaited and real human librarians could always point a young student in the right direction. Built by the City Council to a distinctive design I was delighted to see on a recent trip home it has been refurbished and modernised. Libraries are centres of adult learning, of computer access for those who can't afford their own, of vital services and support in areas of severe deprivation.

Isaac Asimov summed it up;

"My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library. For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it. Now, when I read constantly about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that the door is closing and that society has found one more way to destroy itself."

How dare the ConDems suggest that they are creating a "Big Society?" It's a complete con for public services like libraries which are not there for “profit”but for quality. Libraries are at the very heart of communities - lifelines for so many people. Asimov would turn in his grave if he knew what was happening. There is a vast list of writers who have educated themselves through using public libraries. Libraries offer so much to people- the best things in life are free- and we should preserve our marvellous heritage. British public libraries are admired worldwide, indeed The Brirish library describes itself as "The World's Library." So, if it ain't broke, why fix it?

A Hunted Man

I can’t believe James Naughtie and Andrew Marr called Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt something useful. They should be held to account. It was of course not intended. It was just a slip of the tongue; any cunning linguist could have done it.

It was a slip that would make even the Reverend Spooner blush. Yet two of the BBC's most experienced broadcasters somehow managed to change Cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt's surname into the most shocking word in the English language on live radio.

The ultimate verbal faux pas was committed first on Radio 4's Today programme by anchorman James Naughtie, while informing listeners the Culture Secretary was due on air for an interview. He said: “First up after the news we are going to be talking to Jeremy C*** — er Hunt! — the Culture Secretary about ...” At this point Mr Naughtie began struggling not to laugh, and gasped.

He had a reprieve during the hourly pips, but had to read the 8am news headlines while struggling not to burst out laughing. With his delivery ruined by gasps, pauses, squeaks and giggles, he blamed a “coughing fit”.


A Culture Secretary called Hunt

Mr Naughtie apologised later in the programme. “Some of you, we know from emails, thought it funny. Some of you were extremely offended. I am very sorry to anyone who thought it was not what they wanted to hear over their breakfast. Neither did I, needless to say.” Fortunately Mr Hunt, who heard the performance on headphones in the BBC's studio at Westminster, saw the funny side. “I nearly fell off my chair — I was laughing as much as Jim Naughtie”.

“It certainly woke me up in time for the interview. I haven't heard that since I was at school — and never before in front of two million people.” That was not the end of the episode, however. An hour later Andrew Marr referred to the incident on Start The Week on Radio 4, during a discussion on Freudian slips, and blurted out “Jeremy C***” before gasping with laughter.


Reverend William Archibald Spooner

Dr Mike Page, a reader in psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, said it was a classic Spoonerism — the verbal blunder named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), renowned for such slips while warden of New College, Oxford. (Un) fortunately, Spooner's scholarly work has not passed the test of time. Rather, he is remembered for a peculiar speech error he was wont to make: the transposition of the initial letters (sounds) of adjoining words, often with humorous results. It is to this type of speech error (slip of the tongue) that Dr. Spooner lent his name: the spoonerism. Here is a selection of those attributed to Dr. Spooner himself.

•Once Dr. Spooner raised a toast to Her Royal Highness, Queen Victoria, and proclaimed: "Three cheers for our queer old dean!"

•During World War I he reassured his students, "When our boys come home from France, we will have the hags flung out."

•On another occasion, he lionized Britain's farmers as "ye noble tons of soil."

•We learn of these speech errors from the notes of his students, which they generously shared by publishing them. They probably made most if not all of them up themselves. This one was probably a compilation of several others. Dr. Spooner is supposed to have chastised one of his students thus: "You have hissed all the mystery lectures, I saw you fight that liar behind the gymnasium, and, in short, you have tasted the whole worm."

•He is reported to have made a double screw-up upon once dropping his hat then asking: "Will nobody pat my hiccup?"

•He reportedly ended a wedding he was performing with: "It is now kisstomary to cuss the bride."


New College Oxford

Dr. Page went on to explain in his best academic manner; “In this case it is the U' in both Hunt and Culture that is to blame. Naughtie would probably have gone on the say Hulture Secretary' but he stopped in horror.” Dr Page did not think the slips revealed that BBC presenters hold the Culture Secretary, who has ordered the corporation to cut spending, in low esteem.

“Freud's theory of para-praxes is that an unconscious or concealed view may emerge inadvertently in a verbal error, but Naughtie was almost certainly a spoonerism. Marr fell victim to the white bear effect': the more he tried not to think of the word, the more he primed his brain to say it.”

In fact the real culprit, he said, was David Cameron: “If you appoint a man called Hunt to a department called Culture, it is an accident waiting to happen.” This morning's editions of the Today programme and Start The Week had still not been added to the BBC iPlayer this afternoon. The BBC said they were late to allow for editing so viewers were not offended, but they were due to be added later.


The pre-Euro Irish 10 Punt note featuring James Joyce

Maybe, given the coincidence that this spoonerism is au courant and the economic travails of Ireland it may be opportune to revive the hoary Irish Banker joke about whorey Irish Bankers based on its pre euro currency, The Punt;

Q; “Why is the Irish Pound called the Punt?”
A; “ Because it rhymes with Bank Manager.”

There again, maybe not!

Captain SKA - Liar Liar

Dark days have arrived in Britain. The coalition government and their toxic flotilla of cuts are ruthlessly hacking away jobs, damaging vulnerable lives and chipping away at the very fabric of our society. We cannot afford to stand by and let this country sail towards a future of inequality.

Fear Not! Captain SKA and his ship have arrived to fight this coalition, but more crew members are urgently required, there is strength in numbers.
Pass this video on to other potential shipmates.

Happy Sailing

Captain SKA

https://twitter.com/#!/CaptainSKA

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_164608643557642&ap=1

http://www.myspace.com/thecaptainska

Paul O Grady tells it how it is



Paul O'Grady sounds off at George Osborne and the rest of the ConDems for the cuts made to public spending on his live television show.

The Demolition Job

Gideon then

It is amazing how uncritically craven the right wing press is in the face of today’s UK Comprehensive Spending Review – A concerted ideological attack on the poor and on women. Can you imagine the hysterical headlines about “Betraying Our Boys!” If Labour had emasculated the defence Budget the way the Lib Cons have? A gaffe by Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander has revealed that half a million job losses are set to emerge in the upcoming Spending Review - a Government strategy to cut the deficit released by George Osborne today.

The coalition's austerity drive comes despite huge waves of protest across the country from working class postmen, nurses and teachers who presume their jobs are on the line. However, despite this, Chancellor, George, formerly known as Gideon Osborne will outline the 'hard road' ahead as the Government takes on one of the biggest spending cuts in the Western World. The scale of the cuts dwarfs Britain's two most recent austerity drives, after a 1976 IMF bailout and in the 1980s, under the leadership of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.


George now

Alan Johnson MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, has criticised the coalition’s Comprehensive Spending Review as a huge gamble from a government with no plan for growth and jobs.


Alan Johnson MP,Shadow Chancellor

Alan Johnson said:

“Today is the day that an abstract debate about spreadsheets and numbers turns into stark reality for people’s jobs and services. Their pensions, their prospects, their homes and their families. It is our firm belief that the rush to cut the deficit endangers the recovery and reduces the prospects for employment in the short term, and prosperity in the longer term.

“We believe we can and should sustain a more gradual reduction. Securing growth. I don’t believe that the Chancellor or the Prime Minster sufficiently understand the worries and concerns of families up and down the country. And I think those worries will have multiplied as a result of the spending review statement today.”

The full text of Alan Johnson’s speech follows:

Mr Speaker, members opposite are cheering the deepest cuts in public expenditure that have taken place in living memory. Today is the day that an abstract debate about spreadsheets and numbers turns into stark reality for people’s jobs and services.



Their pensions, their prospects. Their homes and their families.

The day that the statistics which were sitting so comfortably in the lap of the Chief Secretary yesterday, become uncomfortable reality for hundreds of thousands of families. The deficit deceivers opposite have peddled a series of myths to the British public.

The most incredible is that the biggest global economic crisis since the great depression is the fault of the previous government.

Perhaps the Chancellor will confirm three facts.

Fact one, when the global crisis hit the UK had the second lowest debt of any G7 country.

Fact two, that the last government inherited a debt interest level of 10p in every pound of tax received. And that even after a world recession, bequeathed a figure 15% lower.

Fact three, that the interest rates the UK pays on its debt have been falling since the beginning of the year.



The last CSR was in 2007, when the Chancellor was at this despatch box complaining not that we were spending too much, but that we were spending too little. He complained that we were slowing the growth in health and education expenditure. Indeed his party supported every penny of our spending plans until well after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in America set off a disastrous chain reaction around the world.

The Chancellor described his Emergency Budget in June as unavoidable and fair. It was actually unfair, as the IFS pointed out in a devastating critique within 48 hours. And it was also avoidable.

The deficit has to be paid down. But today’s reckless gamble with people’s livelihoods runs the risk of stifling the fragile recovery. The ridiculous analogy of credit card debt insults the intelligence of the British public.

If countries around the world hadn’t run up debts to sustain their economies people would not have lost their credit cards, they’d have lost their houses, their savings and their jobs. The Liberal Democrats know this. Because it’s what they argued when seeking the support of the electorate. Before the Deputy Prime Minister discovered Greece, in the period between the ballot boxes closing and the door of his ministerial car opening.



They, like us, argued that in the context of reducing the deficit, speed kills. The Chancellor repeats a list of organisations that support his swift cuts. Curiously he fails to mention the opposing views of the other nations that make up the UK – Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Perhaps that’s what he means when he describes himself as a one nation Tory.

And here’s another supportive quote.

"The measures we have taken have been commended by international bodies such as the European Central Bank, the European Commission, the IMF and the OECD. They have also won the approval of the international markets."

That was the Irish Minister of Finance last December, telling the Irish Parliament that his austerity plan was working, just four months before they slid back into recession. After months of overblown rhetoric from the Chancellor, the concerns of those watching his announcement today will be about:

• staying in work,
• staying in their homes
• and staying safe on our streets.

We are told that the expected job losses from this spending review amount to 490,000, in the public sector alone. And a Price Waterhouse Coopers report last week told us that a million jobs are at stake - because the impact on the private sector will be just as severe. Isn’t it the case that, at the same time as they throw people out of work, the government is reducing the support to help people return to the workplace?



They’ve already cancelled the Future Jobs Fund. Now, whilst the Work and Pensions Secretary tells us that the system must ensure that people are better off in work, the changes to Working Tax Credit announced today will have the opposite effect.

Reducing childcare support for working parents adds to the problem. This isn’t a strategy for jobs. It’s a recipe for unemployment.

On housing the Chancellor has announced the retreat of central government from any role in building new affordable homes. So I ask the Chancellor can he tell the House, how many jobs will be lost in the construction sectors as a result of his decision to all but end capital funding for housebuilding?

And on crime which has fallen dramatically over the last 13 years - how on earth can the government think they are in tune with people’s priorities when a substantial cut in the Home Office budget is bound to result in police officers being taken off the streets?

Spending does have to be reduced. But the frontline services on which people rely must be protected. The public do not want to see teacher numbers fall, fewer police officers on their streets, or hospitals short-staffed. So we support moves to protect schools and the NHS.

However, it seems clear that the Deputy Prime Minister has failed to meet his pledge that the pupil premium would not be funded from within the schools budget – a clear case of robbing Michael to pay Liam.

On the NHS, the small re al terms increase will be more than swallowed by the waste of £2 to £3bn on a top down reorganisation they promised in the election not to undertake.



And while we’re on the NHS, will the baseline for the Department of Health resource spending be reflected in the actual 2010/11 budget? Mr Speaker, without growth the job of getting the deficit down becomes impossible. A rising dole queue means a bigger welfare bill. And less tax coming in.

A cost of at least half a billion pounds for every 100,000 people thrown out of work by the government's approach. So to get the deficit down the starting point must be jobs, jobs, jobs. And that is the core of the difference between us and the government.

The Ministry of Justice tells us that they will see 14,000 staff go. Does he agree with the department’s assessment that the vast majority of those, 11,000, will be from the frontline?



Can he confirm that £230m of taxpayers funds have been earmarked for redundancy costs in that department alone? What is the total scale of redundancies expected across the public sector? What will the total redundancy bill be?

Thanks to the Chief Secretary we know that the Treasury has provided him with estimates. He should share them with the House. I welcome the Chancellor’s decision to revisit his plans for capital spending and support for science. The Business Secretary has rightly fought to partially protect the science budget, and to put more money into regional development.

It’s true that he had to switch overnight from opposing any graduate contribution to their education to support for unlimited fees, but such contortions are nothing new for the Rt Hon Member and his colleagues.

But given the warning signs in the UK and global economies, we believe the case for going further on infrastructure is clear.



The banks that benefit from the ending of the bonus tax, and the cut in Corporation Tax, can well afford to take more of the strain. This additional would mean that vital infrastructure projects could go ahead – keeping people in work now, and creating the environment for growth in the years to come. And we call again on the government to change their perverse decision on Sheffield Forgemasters.

It is right that the government looks for savings from the welfare bill. Where changes are fair, proportionate and encourage work we will support them as we have shown in respect of incapacity benefit, a reformed gateway for Disability Living Allowance and on up ratings. We will look at the other changes announced today.
But there is nothing fair about Child Benefit changes that leave a single earner on £45,000 losing thousands of pounds, while a family on £80,000 gets to keep every penny.

As things stand the government is looking for a bigger contribution to reducing the deficit to come from children than from the banks. That can’t be right.

Will the Chancellor confirm that his change to Child Benefit equates to a 6p increase in income tax for a single earner family on £45,000? Perhaps because of the consternation caused on this issue he has dropped plans to remove child Benefit for older children. Can he rule this our completely, or is it still under consideration?

And, while we accept that Housing Benefit should be reformed, how can anyone on the benches opposite suggest that removing 10% of the rent for a family’s home from someone who has been looking for work for 12 months is fair?

Can the Chancellor confirm that the poorest will bear a greater burden than the richest – with the middle squeezed even further? And that women are shouldering three quarters of the cuts? Does he still claim that these measures are progressive and fair?



Mr Speaker. There is an alternative to this slash and burn approach. This Spending Review is not about economic necessity, it’s about political choice. The Chancellor argues that Labour would have done nothing about the deficit. But he goes on to say that his cuts are no worse than ours. He can’t have it both ways. But he’s wrong on both counts.

The government is removing almost twice as much from departmental budgets as we think is wise, before we consider the further welfare reforms he has announced today. It is our firm belief that the rush to cut the deficit endangers the recovery and reduces the prospects for employment in the short term, and prosperity in the longer term. We believe we can and should sustain a more gradual reduction. Securing growth.

I don’t believe that the Chancellor or the Prime Minster sufficiently understand the worries and concerns of families up and down the country. And I think those worries will have multiplied as a result of the spending review statement today.

Bring on the new Battle of Britain!

Ed & David Miliband

Ed Miliband is the new Labour leader; it has been announced at a special conference in Manchester. It's official - the name of Britain's next Prime Minister who will have to rebuild the country after the half cock slash and burn decisions of the Demolition Coalition is Ed Miliband! Bring on the Battle - the sooner we tear the unprincipled LibCon coalition of opportunism apart the less lives will be destroyed! We don’t want a Britain fit for millionaires, alleged Bankers and other assorted spivs!

I must be honest; I have not been on a winning streak lately. I supported another Ed, Ed Balls for Labour Party Leader and Oonagh King as Labour Candidate for Mayor of London - Ed Miliband and Ken Livingstone respectively were the winners of the contests. Nevertheless this is the first Labour leadership election since 1994 and is a vital part of the renewal of the Labour Party and the critical stocktaking which the Party has to perform after 13 transformational years in government.

Ed will be a strong leader for our Party and lead the fight against Tory plans for cuts that will devastate our public services. He's not just a fearless leader to fight the Tories; Ed is a strong supporter of trade unions. We've reached the end of months of campaigning and, this afternoon, we start to write the next chapter of this party's and this country's history. Much is being made that Ed Miliband gained a narrow victory over his brother David due to Trade Union support. This snide campaign denigrates the democratic nature of the Labour Party and the huge sense of engagement that Party Members and affiliated Trade Unions had in the election where one third each of the votes were cast by MP’s & MEP’s and Constituency Labour Parties (Clp’s), Members and Trade Unions and Affiliates.



So for instance in my case there was a full debate at my Clp who supported David Miliband, I also cast my individual Member’s vote where I could give my preference votes to the candidates and ditto on my vote as a member of an affiliated Trade Union. Whereas my Union recommended a candidate I was free to ignore this (I did!) and all votes were returned to the Independent Electoral Reform Commission to count so the result was unimpeachable. So the mischievous accusations that Sayeeda Warsi and others are making are wrong – this was an organised and regenerative leadership campaign with over 60 joint hustings by the 5 candidates which had real debate, real involvement and real choice. The results, round by round, were;

http://www2.labour.org.uk/votes-by-round

ABBOTT, Diane 7.42 0 0 0
BALLS, Ed 11.79 13.23 16.02 0
BURNHAM, Andy 8.68 10.41 0 0
MILIBAND, David 37.78 38.89 42.72 49.35
MILIBAND, Ed 34.33 37.47 41.26 50.65

We can be proud that in every corner of Britain, people are joining the Labour Party as members and supporters and getting ready for the fight ahead. Since the May General election Labour has over 32,000 new member join.


The Labour Party Conference at G-MEX Manchester - The former Central Railway Station

Ed Miliband beat brother David by the wafer thin margin of 50.65% to 49.35% after second, third and fourth preference votes came into play. Ed Balls was third, Andy Burnham fourth and Diane Abbott last in the ballot of MPs, members and trade unionists. Mr Miliband, 40, replaces acting leader Harriet Harman in the contest triggered by the resignation of Gordon Brown.

He paid tribute to each of his fellow candidates in turn and told the conference: "Today we draw a line under this contest and move forward united as a team." The Milibands are an interesting family. Of Russian Jewish descent their philosopher father’s remains rest under the watchful eye of Karl Marx in a corner of Highgate cemetery in north London. 12 yards or so from Marx's famous statue and tomb lies a small square stone. "Writer Teacher Socialist" reads the simple inscription. Ralph Miliband was one of Britain's foremost political theoreticians, an academic of world renown. And he was proud to proclaim himself a Marxist. He often told the story of being discharged in 1945 after his wartime service in the Navy where his CO said “good luck and make sure you don’t vote Labour Miliband.” In 1945 Labour won the British General Election with a landslide.

Ralph Miliband died in 1994, a few weeks before Tony Blair took over the Labour Party. By then he could see, with great unease, both his sons embarking on careers within what soon become known as New Labour - David advising Tony Blair, and Ed in the other camp, working for Gordon Brown. Ralph Miliband was not a Marxist in the Marxist-Leninist sense. He was no fan of the Soviet dictatorships and one-party states. Nor did he believe in violent revolution to overthrow capitalism. In crude terms he was neither a Stalinist nor a Trot. Yet he was deeply sceptical about whether Parliament would ever do much to emancipate the working class. Miliband was convinced instead that progress would depend on activity outside Parliament, through trade unions and other protest groups liberating themselves through radical activity.

For more on how Communism was born in London see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/red-flag.html

In the longer term, the question is how Labour goes about renewing itself in preparation for the next election. There’ll be a second opportunity to ask the questions it could be asking now, once there’s a leader in place. There is a huge democratic deficit at the heart of British politics today. The May 2010 General Election resulted in the LibCon Coalition of the Conservative Party who didn’t win the election and the Liberal Democrats who most definitely lost the election and whose promise of changing the “Face of British Politics” turned out to be a busted flush. Since then the public has been treated to a drip, drip, drip of spending cuts and tax raises based on slash and burn policies which were never put to the electorate. It is now clear that under the guise of “fiscal responsibility” what is happening is an ideologically driven attack on State services and the whole concept of “Society.” For David Cameron’s Big Society read Bogus Society.


Tony Blair - winner of 3 General Elections

So the huge achievements of the Labour Governments which ruled a successful and prosperous Britain for 13 years are now being sneered at – Cool Britannia is being supplanted by the Demolition Coalitions Cruel Britannia.

The Demolition Coalition and the Labour Leadership Campaign has made the UK electorate realise why Labour is different. With its roots in the struggles for ordinary people’s rights by the Trade Union Movement and mutual self help by the Co-Operative Society it is set apart from the shallow opportunism of other parties and is the only political movement which can bring fairness and growth to Britain. As the outcome of the last election and the destructive experimentation of the Demolition Coalition have shown the Lib Dems were not an alternative to the overweening selfishness of the Tories. So let the New Battle of Britain commence for the hearts and minds of the British Electorate and for a society committed to fairness and opportunity.


Harriet Harman - Acting Labour Leader

Even in the 5 short months since the General Election the swing in the national mood has been remarkable with Labour without a permanent leader now level pegging in the polls and Lib Dem supporters feeling betrayed. As the events of the credit Crunch and the Banking Meltdown have shown the party which represents those who sell their honest Labour is the source of honest values in society. Let the new Battle of Britain commence with the first major engagement being the London Mayoral Election of 2012, if the Coalition of Millionaires has not been consumed by its own contradictions before then.

As Ed Miliband said to the Labour Conference in Manchester; "My responsibility is to work every hour of every day, with a united team, to get David Cameron out of Downing Street as soon as possible."



The Labour Leadership Candidates.

The Demolition Coalition

There is a huge democratic deficit at the heart of British politics today. The May 2010 General Election resulted in the LibCon Coalition of the Conservative Party who didn’t win the election and the Liberal Democrats who most definitely lost the election and whose promise of changing the “Face of British Politics” turned out to be a busted flush. Since then the public has been treated to a drip, drip, drip of spending cuts and tax raises based on slash and burn policies which were never put to the electorate. It is now clear that under the guise of “fiscal responsibility” what is happening is an ideologically driven attack on State services and the whole concept of “Society.” For David Cameron’s Big Society read Bogus Society.

Since the election the LibCon Coalition has announced so many cuts that it has been renamed the Demolition Coalition – no evidence they can (or want) to build anything but plenty of evidence they are happy to tear the house down. Non-protected departmental Budgets, everything apart from health and International Aid, are going to be cut by 25 percent on average. But Chancellor George Osborne told the House he would hope that the cuts to defence and education would be significantly less than that. The unspoken part of that is that the cuts to some other Budgets will have to be significantly bigger than that. Even then, Britain faces further tax rises even after the Coalition Government imposes deep cuts in public spending, according to a two-year study. An all-party commission has warned that taxes will have to rise to cope with the financial pressures caused by an ageing population; an increase in chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity; combating climate change; closing the gap between rich and poor; abolishing child poverty and improving skills levels in the workforce.



The coalition government's spending cuts to reduce deficit will see unemployment in the UK rise to almost 3 million over the next five years, according to a revised forecast by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). There was no prospect of real wage growth until at least 2015, and the public sector faced sharp pay cuts and job losses, which could total 725,000 by that year. The CIPD warned of a "bleak" outlook for "those individuals and communities already suffering the greatest hardship in society".

So it is not just the raving loonies that warn that the Demolition Coalition have got it wrong. That natural home of extremism, The Association of Police Superintendents has warned that the proposed cuts will lead to civil anarchy. The OECD is worrying that cuts will choke off recovery and the IMF is saying the UK has room for fiscal manoeuvre, so the Demolition Coalition’s arguments looks weaker every day.




Portcullis House

So I was very heartened last night to be in the Macmillan Room at Portcullis House in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster to meet the acting Labour Party Leader Harriet Harman and South East Labour Mp’s, Alan Whitehead, MP and John Denham, MP who represent Southampton, Andrew Smith MP for Oxford East, Fiona McTaggart MP for Slough. There is a real sense that the Labour Leadership campaign is leading to a real debate and renewal which will strengthen the Party. Over 32,000 people have joined the party since the election and disenchantment is rife among former Lib Dem supporters who voted for no VAT rise and against spending reductions.

It was good to see the inside of Portcullis House, a building which went significantly over budget and which has as its foundations, Westminster Tube Station. Portcullis House is built above the dramatic Westminster Tube Station on top of the “Box”, a vast 39m (127ft) void which was excavated underneath the old station to house the escalators, lifts and stairs to the deep-level Jubilee Line platforms, the deepest ever excavation in central London. One of the most difficult problems the engineers faced was to construct the station around the Circle and District line tracks, which continued in service throughout its construction. The tracks had to be lowered by 300mm (1 foot), an operation achieved a few millimetres at a time during the few hours each night that the system was closed. The station was by far the most complex in terms of engineering of any of those on the Jubilee line and it was the last to open, just before Christmas 1999. Nothing of the old station remains. The “box” gives you the impression you are in an Escher engraving and the spray concrete used in the “Austrian Tunnelling Method” is deliberately left exposed to demonstrate how it was constructed.






Westminster Station "The Box" under Portcullis House

The station's cavernous design, by Michael Hopkins & Partners, won it a 2001 Royal Institute of British Architects Award and earned it a place on the shortlist for the RIBA's prestigious Stirling Prize. The architects, Michael Hopkins and Partners, published their design for Portcullis House in 1993 and the existing buildings on the site were demolished in 1994. At the same time, London Underground was building the Jubilee Line Extension, including a new interchange station at Westminster tube station which occupies the same area; the two were thus designed and built as a single unit.



Inside with its dramatic atrium and its separation into Parlimentary and public areas (necessary for security reasons) Portcullis House reeks of long lasting quality and is hugely impressive. But what really impressed me was the fighting spirit of the Labour Party activists, MP’s and acting Leader Harriet Harman. With the Demolition Coalition greatly afraid of the electorates reaction to its slash and burn policies they are trying to Gerrymander the Electoral and Parliamentary systems, pushing through legislation to give Parliament a fixed five year term, postpone the Queen’s Speech (which sets out the Government’s legislative programme) and change the majority needed for a Vote of Confidence. As Harriet Harman pointed out the Labour Party is very much alive and kicking and holding the Demolition Coalition to account and the May Local elections next year will be a real moment of truth.


Acting Labour Leader Harriet Harman, a scion of the Anglo-Irish Harman-King family

One amazing feature of the Demolition Coalition so far is the compliant press coverage from the Murdoch and Tory Press. When you consider the acerbic and highly personalised disinformation campaign against Labour and its entire works before the May Election the docility of the right wing press in the face of, say swingeing Defence cuts is both incredible and hypocritical. The Demolition Coalition and the Labour Leadership Campaign has made the UK electorate realise why Labour is different. With its roots in the struggles for ordinary people’s rights by the Trade Union Movement and mutual self help by the Co-Operative Society it is set apart from the shallow opportunism of other parties and is the only political movement which can bring fairness and growth to Britain. As the outcome of the last election and the destructive experimentation of the Demolition Coalition has shown the Lib Dems were not an alternative to the overweening selfishness of the Tories.


Aaaahhhhhh ........ Nick, The Downing Street Baby