tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50309629673731401782024-02-08T06:05:25.045+00:00A Curious OrangePutting the world to rights, one tea-saturated ramble at a time.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-82082152886742512432017-05-18T21:39:00.001+01:002017-05-19T12:36:29.245+01:00Fell on Black Days<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 2014, <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/depression-in-21st-century.html" target="_blank">Robin Williams</a> died from suicide by hanging. Growing up watching his movies, laughing until I hurt, building so much of my sense of humour around his jokes and many personas, his death hit me hard. He was supposed to be the happiest person on the planet; a man who brought untold joy to millions of people across the world, of all ages. But privately, he was in pain, and one day that pain became too much for him to bear. The public outpourings of grief were many and varied, and for a short time, we talked about depression and suicide more openly, honestly, and healthily. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Since then, many other notable and influential public figures have died. Some had tremendous influence over formative years in my life, and like Robin Williams, their passings hurt me profoundly. The world continues without them, the sun rises and sets, rain falls, flowers grow, time passes, and people fade from tangible existence into fond but sad memories. Some might say it’s silly to feel so afflicted by the death of someone famous, but I challenge anyone to get from one end of life to the other without feeling moved when someone they admire passes away. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Art is a perilously undervalued resource, generally by people who are not artists themselves. Film, music, literature, theatre, poetry, paintings and more capture that essence of life that is lost in the daily grind. It’s where we romanticise otherwise mundane tasks, how we communicate abstract experiences like falling in love, what we use to expose our feelings when verbalising them is impossible. It can express extremes of emotion that frighten us - lust, fear, anger, sadness - and help us heal when those feelings cause harm to us and those around us. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve lain in bed or on the floor, feeling confused and overwhelmed by life, listening to music that enveloped me, protecting me from being overcome by those feelings, and offering clarity where my own words were inadequate. That music and the artists who produced it became important to me as dear friends; confidantes in whom I could put my absolute trust and with whom I could be unashamedly myself, never needing to hold back on whatever I was feeling in those moments. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The immense healing power I found there helped me through some of the darkest times in my life, reclaiming my sense of self and confidence to carry on facing the world one day after another. That’s something that is overlooked when we talk about depression and suicide - it doesn’t go away. If you experience depression and suicidal tendencies at a young age, it leaves a long-lasting mark on your mental health - a sort of muscle memory, but for your brain. Recently, I learned that the term for this is “passive suicidal ideation” - distinct from active suicidal ideation, in that you don’t consciously wish to die, but will still find that suicidal thoughts will pop up, out of nowhere. Just as you might casually realise you quite fancy a certain sort of biscuit, I will suddenly realise that I’d like to not be alive, and then the moment passes and I resume whatever I was doing. Perhaps I will be in the shower, midway through shampooing my hair and mentally setting out my tasks for the day, when I pause and fleetingly consider how much I would like to simply stop existing, before recommencing the ritual of lather, rinse, repeat. Reluctantly, I have come to accept that this is part of my spectrum of thoughts processes now and that I don’t need to be alarmed by it as long as I pay careful attention to my general state of being.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At 9 o’clock this morning, I picked up my phone to read a news alert reporting the sudden death of Chris Cornell, and I won't pretend that I was anything less than devastated. As many people who were teenagers in the 1990s, his music had played a significant role in my formative years, and Soundgarden had been one of the bands I immersed myself in, letting the music wash over me, his iconic gutteral howl cleansing me of the disarray of feelings that had overwhelmed me in that moment, while the grunge-meets-blues tempo and haunting guitar riffs soothed my distressed soul. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Throughout today, I have revisited those albums, cautiously allowing myself to remember how and why they mattered so much to me as a teenager, reveling in the time that has passed since, and the occasions too numerous to count where I’ve listened to the same music for the sheer enjoyment of its sound. Heartache tempered with immense gratitude at having been alive at the same time as such a phenomenal artist has taken those of us with a similar relationship to his music on a painful, cathartic journey today. And as new broke later in the day that his death had been ruled suicide by hanging, a deep and profound sadness gripped me somewhere deep inside my chest. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When an artist you admire passes away, you mourn for the skill they will never again share with the world. Chris Cornell was a breathtaking musician, unparalleled vocalist, and groundbreaking songwriter, but beyond that, there are untold people tonight who are mourning not just for the music, but for the way it touched, or even saved their lives, and for the fact that we couldn’t repay that debt. Because we know those moments, where the world is too big, too dark, too scary - where you can’t bear it for another day, hour, or minute. We know the absolute anguish that smothers you, the blackness that consumes you. Losing someone who saved you without ever meeting you or saying a word directly to you, and losing them to the thing that you’ll always be fighting, breaks your heart.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5fOcRUmQScI74i3Fo_FBo3FEbFyTtTX9n4Kjg2mnijYpIGzVGITtLWVFEGma-r21A_HXiLttS6ZxTMQ6pxZubaqBsTeXtvkxJ_-KHUG1loALLBVL8qUfkqNIQIxMgGpt_F-meBLMbfHU/s1600/chris-cornell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5fOcRUmQScI74i3Fo_FBo3FEbFyTtTX9n4Kjg2mnijYpIGzVGITtLWVFEGma-r21A_HXiLttS6ZxTMQ6pxZubaqBsTeXtvkxJ_-KHUG1loALLBVL8qUfkqNIQIxMgGpt_F-meBLMbfHU/s320/chris-cornell.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris Cornell, 1964 - 2017</td></tr>
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<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Samaritans <b>(116 123)</b> operates a 24-hour service available every day of the year. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Childline <b>(0800 1111)</b> runs a helpline for children and young people in the UK. Calls are free and the number won't show up on your phone bill.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">PAPYRUS <b>(0800 068 41 41)</b> is a voluntary organisation supporting teenagers and young adults who are feeling suicidal.</span></li>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-13806262633440522372016-03-16T13:43:00.000+00:002016-03-16T13:43:44.728+00:00Happy "Screw the Poor" Day, everyone!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Welcome to Budget Day, or as we've come to know it - the day where the government announce the new and innovative ways they've concoted to ruin lives and run this country into the ground.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In ten months of Tory government, plus five years under the
Coalition, we’ve witnessed a comprehensive, ruthless, unrelenting attack on
disabled people, low earners, unemployed people, families, elderly people, migrants,
hospitals, schools, unions, civil rights, and the very fabric of democracy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We were told that this was all necessary, and that our
country’s fragile economy would be shored up as a result of all these
cost-cutting measures. This should go down in history as one of the biggest LIES
ever told by a government to its people. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Here's a handful of truths instead:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Disability</u></b></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Over <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35476904" target="_blank">14,000 disabled people have lost their mobility cars</a>
through switching from DLA to PIP</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">18,000 people lost vital assistance when the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30374254" target="_blank">IndependentLiving Fund</a> was closed last year</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The government used a loophole to reject calls from the
House of Lords for an impact assessment before voting through a further <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/esa-wrag-disability-benefit-cut-disabled-mps-vote-tories-iain-duncan-smith-a6918556.html" target="_blank">£30 aweek cut to Employment Support Allowance (ESA)</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Proposed further cuts to PIP will see <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/13/cuts-will-see-200000-disabled-people-lose-3000-a-year" target="_blank">200,000 disabledpeople lose £3000</a> a year</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The government admits that at least <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34074557" target="_blank">2000 people have died</a>
following Work Capability Assessments, though campaigners say the true figure
is much higher.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34838539" target="_blank">WCAs have also been linked</a> to 279,000 new cases of mental
health problems, and 725,000 new prescriptions for anti-depressants.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/library/by-date/briefing-on-how-cuts-are-targeted.html" target="_blank">Disabled people have been hit up to 19 times harder byausterity cuts.</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">While demand for mental health services has soared by 20% in
the last five years, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/david-cameron-has-created-a-mental-health-crisis-that-cant-be-solved-with-1-billion-worth-of-funding-a6807631.html" target="_blank">funding has been cut by 8% in real terms</a>.</span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtNuJJo9GkT6cxfuWgFWkzNvt09pkX7sYMYrfmjWx1Z6L6tvP7xXwVv8xrqNHwAmOGgUNG1hZsxGRDpiEyguaDYuYrfmwZF_rYlG7P940GdGCjc7qtSlfazwXaUYIVv4PaHInPooo23M/s1600/350-how-cuts-are-targeted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtNuJJo9GkT6cxfuWgFWkzNvt09pkX7sYMYrfmjWx1Z6L6tvP7xXwVv8xrqNHwAmOGgUNG1hZsxGRDpiEyguaDYuYrfmwZF_rYlG7P940GdGCjc7qtSlfazwXaUYIVv4PaHInPooo23M/s400/350-how-cuts-are-targeted.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: Centre for Welfare Reform</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Housing and homelessness:</u></b></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The average house price is now over <a href="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-3303771/Average-cost-UK-property-exceeds-10-times-average-wage.html" target="_blank">TEN</a> times a person’s income, and in London NINETEEN times the average salary.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Of the NINE MILLION private renters in the UK, <a href="http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns_/why_we_campaign/improving_private_renting" target="_blank">one-third ofprivately rented homes fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">More than 50,000 families are recorded as homeless every
year, with over <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35121260" target="_blank">103,000 children recorded as homeless for Christmas 2015</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A third of homeless people are made so <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27940701" target="_blank">because of a privatetenancy ending</a>, and being unable to afford to find another home – this figure
has <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/more-people-are-being-made-homeless-because-landlords-take-away-their-home-10515341.html" target="_blank">trebled under David Cameron, from 11% in 2009</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Tories rejected an <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/12/tories-reject-move-to-ensure-rented-homes-fit-for-human-habitation" target="_blank">amendment to the Housing and PlanningBill</a>, which would see landlords required to ensure that homes are fit for
habitation.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The CAB estimates that over 700,000 families are living in privately
rented homes that are unfit for habitation, with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/oct/17/private-landlords-rent-homes-dont-meet-legal-standards-report" target="_blank">landlords taking in £5.6bn in rent </a>for those properties.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Over <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/11/homeless-families-out-of-area-temporary-accommodation-rent-housing-benefit-cap-shelter" target="_blank">15,000 homeless families</a> have been put into emergency
B&B accommodation in a different local authority – sometimes an hour and a
half’s travelling time away from children’s schools.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Research by letting agents Your Move and Reeds Rains showed
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/apr/24/private-tenants-facing-highest-rent-increases-in-more-than-18-months" target="_blank">rents in England and Wales had increased by 15% since May 2010</a>, or 3.6% beyond inflation.</span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIiQxs2eSUWTFRqzdhFsNQpZyFyiy2Ql9ivnhr6rqedNNuoZZquCvoZ2rKHBuMJp-bRZMn-oBKMIfK8UxQqDeZmlSCm7hpaDhv2c8bvoN2ycHSKxaQhWNHQxCxVVzJPaRCipDGH_dASjg/s1600/stream_img.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIiQxs2eSUWTFRqzdhFsNQpZyFyiy2Ql9ivnhr6rqedNNuoZZquCvoZ2rKHBuMJp-bRZMn-oBKMIfK8UxQqDeZmlSCm7hpaDhv2c8bvoN2ycHSKxaQhWNHQxCxVVzJPaRCipDGH_dASjg/s400/stream_img.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: Shelter via ITV</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Education and Teaching</u></b></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The government has announced that by 2020, a<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35814215" target="_blank">ll schools willhave converted to academy status.</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Overwhelming evidence has shown that <a href="http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2016/03/forcing-schools-to-become-academies-will-mean-more-inadequate-schools-and-worse-results" target="_blank">academies are more thantwice as likely to become “inadequate”</a> in Ofsted terms than schools under Local
Authority control, and up to TWELVE times as likely to remain “inadequate”
rather than improve.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Teachers report working on <a href="http://tdtrust.org/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-teacher-workload-survey-2" target="_blank">average 59 hours a week</a>, only 1/3
of which is spent on teaching. The rest is spent on planning, administration,
and management.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The number of teachers leaving the profession has <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/feb/10/teachers-are-leaving-as-government-falls-short-on-recruitment-nao-finds" target="_blank">risen by11%</a> over the past 3 years, and 75% of those leave <b>before</b> retirement.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://fullfact.org/education/relentless-workload-forcing-teachers-leave-lower-paid-jobs/" target="_blank">Workload came top (61%)</a> in reasons given by teachers who
were thinking of leaving the profession in a recent YouGov survey for the
National Union of Teachers, closely followed by seeking a better work-life
balance (57%).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">55% of 338 school leaders surveyed by the Association of
School and College Leaders have reported a<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35730625" target="_blank"> large rise in pupils with anxietyand stress</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The NSPCC reported that the number of young people in
Britain seeking counselling over exam stress has <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/14/calls-to-childline-over-exam-stress-break-records" target="_blank">increased by 200% in recentyears</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 2013-14 <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/14/calls-to-childline-over-exam-stress-break-records" target="_blank">ChildLine said it received more than 34,000approaches </a>from young people over school worries such as revision, workloads,
problems with teachers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The “Prevent” agenda has been <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/23/prevent-counter-terrorism-strategy-schools-demonising-muslim-children" target="_blank">branded toxic</a> and criticised
for exacerbating Islamophobia, as families report feeling threatened with
having their children removed.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Some Further Education staff have experienced a <a href="https://www.unison.org.uk/news/press-release/2016/02/staff-to-strike-in-further-education-colleges-on-24-february/" target="_blank">real-termspay cut of 17%</a> after years of below-inflation rises and pay freezes.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://feweek.co.uk/2015/03/25/government-cuts-could-decimate-adult-education-by-2020-aoc-warns/" target="_blank">Spending for adult education</a> has been slashed by 25%, with a
loss of over a million adult learners so far.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-announces-funding-for-english-classes-six-months-after-45-million-cuts-a6819656.html" target="_blank">£45million has been cut from ESOL</a> (English for Speakers of
Other Languages) classes, affecting 16,000 places.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/government-plans-to-axe-maintenance-grants-for-poorest-students-without-commons-vote-and-debate-a6811786.html" target="_blank">University maintenance grants for the UK’s poorest studentswere scrapped</a> without a Commons vote, after a legislation committee with just
17 MPs present took the decision.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The poorest students will now graduate with an average
<a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/uks-poorest-students-be-slapped-53000-bill-university-education-under-tory-reforms-1511737" target="_blank">£53,000 debt</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Around <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/22/unpaid-student-loans-funding-crisis_n_5012484.html" target="_blank">45% of student loans will never be paid off</a>, creating
a financial time bomb for future years.</span></li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUC "Britain Needs A Payrise" demonstration, October 2014. Credit: <span class="irc_ho" dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #7d7d7d; cursor: pointer; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-right: -2px; overflow: hidden; padding-right: 2px; text-decoration: none; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><a class="_ZR irc_hol i3724" data-noload="" data-ved="0ahUKEwjIpv7Rn8XLAhWD1xQKHS-iChMQjB0IBg" href="http://www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/thousands-joined-national-pay-protest-saturday" jsaction="mousedown:irc.rl;keydown:irc.rlk" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #7d7d7d; cursor: pointer; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" wrc_done="true">www.civilserviceworld.com</a><br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So I originally started writing this as a shouty Facebook post to summarise a few key terrible things the Tories have subjected us to since getting their claws back into government in 2010, and what horrors may unfold as the 2016/17 Budget is announced today. I've had to stop, partially because the list is now SO long - and I've barely scratched the surface, and certainly haven't analysed the impact on people's lives - but mostly because it's thoroughly demoralising to actually try and pull together a comprehensive overview of just how bad this government is. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I haven't even touched on what they've done to the NHS, the conditions endured by migrants and refugees, our failure to address our role in climate change, human rights, civil rights, and so many other areas that the Tories are continually wrecking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We were sold the austerity package as the only hope of stabilishing our economy in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008/9. We were told there was no alternative, that we were all in this together. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Well as the richest 1000 families saw their <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/26/recession-rich-britains-wealthiest-double-net-worth-since-crisis" target="_blank">personal wealth double</a> since the recession, while the net wealth of the poorest 20% has <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britains-divided-decade-the-rich-are-64-richer-than-before-the-recession-while-the-poor-are-57-10097038.html" target="_blank">decreased by 57%</a>, I don't feel very TOGETHER. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">With more and more devastating cuts wreaked on the most vulnerable sectors of our society, written into legislation by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9290520/Exclusive-Cabinet-is-worth-70million.html" target="_blank">millionaire MPs</a> who have personal stakes in <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/selling-nhs-profit-full-list-4646154" target="_blank">private companies now holding contracts for the NHS</a>, have massive <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/jan/14/mp-landlords-number-risen-quarter-last-parliament-housing-bill" target="_blank">property portfolios</a> for private rental, and make a <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/selling-nhs-profit-full-list-4646154" target="_blank">fortune from lobbying groups</a> - I don't feel very TOGETHER. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Countries such as Iceland, who were also hit by the recession, have <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/three-charts-that-show-icelands-economy-recovered-after-it-imprisoned-bankers-and-let-banks-go-bust-10309503.html" target="_blank">gotten their economy back on track</a> by letting the banks go bust instead of bailing them out, investing in public services and jailing the bankers who caused the economic crisis. Meanwhile, our d<a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/austerity-is-con.html" target="_blank">eficit hasn't even been halved</a>, when Osborne claimed he would have eradicated it by 2015, and we have created more new debt since 2010 than every Labour government in UK history <i>combined. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There was always an alternative. Austerity is a lie, and we continue to be conned by it. Eleven-million voters were conned by their promises in 2015, and now the remaining fifty-five million people in the UK are paying the price. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Every single petition that calls on the government to reverse or halt another devastating decision under the banner of austerity, every last demonstration and protest, every piece of alternative media that exposes their lies - every small and seemingly inconsequential thing we do chips away at their facade. By getting organised, mobilising into a united front, and keeping up the pressure on them, we stand a small chance of making a difference. And if not, I'm sure as hell not going to let them get away quietly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This seems like a logical place to plug the next People's Assembly demonstration. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/hhje" target="_blank">April 16th, central London - March for Health, Homes, Jobs, and Education.</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-9902133159327854262015-07-13T17:30:00.000+01:002015-07-13T17:41:56.268+01:00Lumps and bumps, aches and pains, and never enough spoons.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A little over 2 years ago, I wrote my <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/fibromyalgia-innit.html" target="_blank">first blog post</a> about having fibromyalgia. It's a pretty miserable condition, not least because it's completely invisible, so there's a lot of explaining to people about why you can't walk far, or why you need to lie down for a while because you stood up too quickly. For the most part, people are patient, understanding, curious and good natured about it. But it is still exhausting to explain it, and to some degree I still feel a bit embarrassed about not being able to keep up with my peers over the simplest of things, like going for a nice walk somewhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I first wrote about my illness, I was a stay-at-home mum to four children, the youngest of whom was just over a year old. Since then I've taken up voluntary work with the Green Party, which I absolutely love and in many ways has given my mental health a huge boost by giving me a sense of purpose. The flip side is that it's also shown me just how much being ill limits my capability to function. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This weekend, I was invited to a training weekend at the Eden Project in Cornwall. Workshops (one delivered by me, eep!), discussion groups, a picnic on the beach and glamping - so much fun, and always wonderful to meet new people with the same outlook on life as me. I even met someone else with fibromyalgia! We had a great time comparing symptoms and having a whinge about everything. Unfortunately I didn't do a great job of taking care of myself, and when it came time for me to go home on Sunday morning, I already knew I would be paying for the exertion of the weekend for quite a while. Sitting on the tube, waiting to get off the train to change at Oxford Circus station, I realised I was bordering on having a panic attack, purely because I realised that my arms and shoulders were so weak and bruised from carrying my bag the few hundred metres I'd had to walk through train stations already that I wasn't sure I could walk any further.<br /><br />I try not to be a complainer. I try to be upbeat and positive. But I also really value honesty, and I think conditions like fibromyalgia need people to talk about them more - not just to spread awareness of their existence, but also to challenge societal structures that currently inhibit people with conditions like mine from being able to fulfil life goals as an able-bodied person would do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The temption is always to downplay the pain. When people ask "are you ok?", most of the time they don't want the honest answer of "<i>well actually, I feel sick and bloated, my hips are screaming at me, my legs are bruised from sitting on a chair, my peripheral vision has gone blurry, my chest hurts so much that breathing is a real challenge, and I need to sleep like you wouldn't believe!". </i>And so I smile, tell them I feel good and carry on with acting out the part of someone who doesn't want to curl up and cry. Facebook is a particularly tempting playground for painting a picture of everything being amazing. I can be lying in bed, whimpering in pain, unable to sit up for more than a few minutes, but if I post a joke or a funny cat picture on Facebook, I can at least persuade people that I'm ok and I don't want or need their sympathy.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgciaT5eDxNbweV_yhl-bE1pVOO2ZGt2RTxbuGT7dKbMQaJR04zdjdKcaE6LS6wN3jVTD6iak5-kjt2CJ9OpDgGNelyp5N8ZpPTkckkskJSx8fkNaKVsZ0ciWkclfR0ILJ32hejihfUytw/s1600/15915459.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgciaT5eDxNbweV_yhl-bE1pVOO2ZGt2RTxbuGT7dKbMQaJR04zdjdKcaE6LS6wN3jVTD6iak5-kjt2CJ9OpDgGNelyp5N8ZpPTkckkskJSx8fkNaKVsZ0ciWkclfR0ILJ32hejihfUytw/s200/15915459.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I want to go back to paid employment sometime soon. I want a stimulating and fulfilling job! I'd really like that to be linked to the Green Party, because I've been passionately pouring my limited energy into it for a year now and feel I have so much more I want to give! But... the fact I need to accept is that my health is so unpredictable that I will make a terrible employee. Some mornings I wake up and can't move, can't talk. Some days, just the ten minute round trip for the school run is enough to end up with me lying on the sofa, dizzy and struggling to breathe. Some days, my legs will bruise and swell up just because I've sat on a wooden bench instead of a squishy sofa.<br /><br />The reality of leaving the house early <i>every morning, </i>travelling to work, then sitting in an office and being productive for several hours, then travelling back home - this is something that I can't kid myself that I'm capable of doing in any reliable capacity. A day here and there, ok. Sounds good. I've had some trips into London to the Green Party office for training days and meetings, and it's been good. <b>I've then had to spend at least 2 days in bed to recuperate. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I like to use the Spoon Theory analogy to explain to people why small, everyday tasks take on a whole new level of challenge when you have a condition like fibromyalgia. You can read more about it <a href="http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/" target="_blank"><i>here</i> </a>- and please do. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I've spoken to some people with disabilities who say that we view all this upside down - that in fact it's not the individual who is disabled, but society. People have different capabilities that may manifest in anatomical differences, mental health differences, or in "invisible" conditions, such as mine. These are only DISabilities because society is exclusionary - starting with our language and our societal outlook towards anybody whose capacity for economic productivity is below optimal. We ascribe value to people according to how much work they can put in versus how much they take out, so someone with any form of condition that changes that balance is treated as lesser than someone in optimum health.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I want to go back to paid employment, but would any employer be prepared to take me on, knowing that I may be off sick a lot? Or that I may need to work from home? Or that I may not be as efficient as someone who doesn't need to lie down every hour or so? How can we change things to make employment and wider society more aware of the needs of people with disabilities, and more receptive to meeting those needs without making a big song and dance about it? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My dream job would be as a member of Parliament - but the demands and rigour of the campaign trail when I stood as a candidate in this year's election wiped me out. The job itself involves long hours, lots of stress and lots of travelling. Do I know that I could be a good representative for people in my constituency, given my health and limitations? Why should I be excluded from pursuing this role because of those issues? Currently job-share MPs are not permitted, as my colleagues discovered <a href="http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/election-2015-two-disabled-activists-barred-from-job-sharing-mp-bids/" target="_blank">when they attempted to be nominated as jobshare parliamentary candidates and were refused.</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's taken a long time for me to come to terms with the fact that fibromyalgia has this big an effect on my life, and that this means I am a person with a disability. Actually taking the time to permit myself to identify as disabled has been very empowering, which I didn't think it would be. I thought that identifying as disabled would be admitting a weakness, because that's how we treat people who aren't able-bodied. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So as usual I feel tired, sick and am aching all over, and the energy it's taken me to fight off several panic attacks today means I can barely keep my eyes open now. But I also feel determined to be part of a movement to change the way we interact with people with disabilities, and to make our society more accessible, more aware, and more inclusive. Watch this space...</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-47972150080441698422015-05-09T16:24:00.003+01:002015-05-09T16:59:47.926+01:00On the campaign for electoral reform: "I didn't vote for these cuts".<div style="text-align: center;">
"Two very different ideas are usually confounded under the name democracy. The pure idea of democracy, according to its definition, is the government of the whole people by the whole people, equally represented. Democracy as commonly conceived and hitherto practised is the government of the whole people by a mere majority of the people, exclusively represented. The former is synonymous with the equality of all citizens; the latter, strangely confounded with it, is a government of privilege, in favour of the numerical majority, who alone possess practically any voice in the State. This is the inevitable consequence of the manner in which the votes are now taken, to the complete disfranchisement of minorities." </div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The 2015 general election... I'm still struggling to find words that really convey how I'm feeling, having watched with increasing despondency as the results rolled in and the Conservative seats went up and up. None of the opinion polls from the past few months indicated that we were headed for a Conservative majority, and there is a definite mood of pure dread at what the election result will mean for vulnerable people who have already borne 5 years of devastating austerity measures. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There are some messages of hope, however. Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, was re-elected with a massively increased majority. All over the UK, the Greens' share of the vote has surged upwards, with us coming second in more seats than ever before and sending a clear message to the establishment that people are not happy with the status quo and that the First Past the Post voting system needs to go. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Tories may have a majority this time, but it is a much smaller majority than the last government, with 331 seats compared to the 363 seats that made up the Coalition Government which formed after the 2010 election (306 Conservative, 57 Liberal Democrats). When you factor in the enormous increase in the presence of the SNP, who now have 56 MPs (up from their previous number of 6), a different picture of parliament emerges. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There is now a much stronger - much needed - anti-austerity presence in parliament than ever before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It is an indictment of our outdated voting system that we once again have a Prime Minister and a government controlled by a party whom two-thirds of voters <i>didn't </i>elect. If we include the number of people who didn't vote at all, the Conservative vote share drops <i><span style="font-size: large;">to less than a quarter</span></i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More than 75% of registered UK voters didn't vote for a Conservative MP, and yet because of the First Past the Post system, 100% of people living in the UK will have to live under Conservative policies. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Realising that little point has gone some way to restoring my faith in British people rather a lot, having spent a reasonable amount of the past couple of days wondering how on earth so many could vote for a party who have overseen such horrendous consequences of the austerity agenda, and an abject failure to have achieved their own goal of reducing national debt and eradicating the budget deficit in the process. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0t8TptiDUQlb0UmfrES3IyZo3zhEkl2MAhPinSEg9ri7IMPUq5cw5YB-gQNP0NRMXjQ7zrwaYAO9CmPCsHtKCEAb0pAvGVouKbk6f-0bBWHDfc-JaX0Wt1SnLrJITINjZM30uT17Ucc4/s1600/20140621_103737.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0t8TptiDUQlb0UmfrES3IyZo3zhEkl2MAhPinSEg9ri7IMPUq5cw5YB-gQNP0NRMXjQ7zrwaYAO9CmPCsHtKCEAb0pAvGVouKbk6f-0bBWHDfc-JaX0Wt1SnLrJITINjZM30uT17Ucc4/s400/20140621_103737.jpg" width="365" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On my way to the People's Assembly "No More Austerity" demo, June 2014</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To briefly address those who may counter by saying that the call for electoral reform is because lefties are sore losers, I'd just like to point out that moving away from First Past the Post is something supported by a vast range of parties, and that the biggest gains would potentially be for UKIP - a far-right party! In actual fact, a move towards a more representative voting system would benefit everyone in the country. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Whilst I may abhor UKIP's exploitation of xenophobia and discrimination against migrants to further their anti-EU agenda, the fact is that people vote for them. In fact, almost 4million people voted for them this Thursday, but the FPtP system yielded just one UKIP MP. Furthermore, because MPs are only permitted to respond to issues from people living in their own constituency, it is only the 19,642 people living in Clacton who voted for Douglas Carswell who will be directly represented in parliament. Likewise, while the Green Party secured over 1million votes, only the 22,871 who elected Caroline Lucas as MP for Brighton Pavilion will be able to contact her, while the remaining </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1,134,742 Green voters in England and Wales are effectively left unrepresented. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5b3ztDUyPBsfAfaH0BxuFiQM1_iOB4va5e6ONk-0Lf6gQIikxLB4lmhOoTaE4l-Vn2KD9cl0hcg8KB8ft9w3tGBrGE0b8aa2FhphteCw6pCZ2IEsiLVj94wnDYdxHZiTEfBKAUkCxBfY/s1600/AAV+fair+votes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5b3ztDUyPBsfAfaH0BxuFiQM1_iOB4va5e6ONk-0Lf6gQIikxLB4lmhOoTaE4l-Vn2KD9cl0hcg8KB8ft9w3tGBrGE0b8aa2FhphteCw6pCZ2IEsiLVj94wnDYdxHZiTEfBKAUkCxBfY/s400/AAV+fair+votes.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Another-Angry-Voice/185180654855189?fref=ts" target="_blank">Another Angry Voice on Facebook</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">An electoral system which leaves 98% of voters with no representation in parliament for their preferred party is simply not fit for purpose, and people all over the UK are waking up to this fact. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So how do we change things? Moving to a system of proportional representation (PR) would be one step, because it broadens the pool from which votes are counted so instead of electing one MP per constituency, seats in parliament would be drawn from a much larger pool and allocated according to shares of the overall vote. Depending on how this is organised, this would mean that votes in Brighton are counted alongside votes in Sunderland and that no voter is left unrepresented in the way they are now. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If we pooled all the votes from the UK and allocated the 650 seats in Parliament using the D'Hondt method of PR (as is used in the European elections), the make-up of the House of Commons would look like this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If we pool all the votes across the nation to allocate seats, how do we then decide which candidates actually take up those seats? Without constituency MPs (which isn't compatible with PR), how do we ensure that there is a strong link between voters, local government and their representatives in Westminster? There's a few different ways of doing this:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">by country - group the votes together for Scotland, then England, then Wales and then Northern Ireland, and allocate seats accordingly</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">by region - as in the European elections - </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">East Midlands, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">East of England, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">London</span>, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">North East England</span>, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">North West England</span>, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">South East England</span>, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">South West England</span>, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">West Midlands</span>, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yorkshire andthe Humber</span>, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Scotland</span>, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Wales, and </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Northern Ireland</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">by merging the current 650 constituencies into fewer but much larger constituencies</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Each of these methods would require another step to decide which candidates takes up the seats won; the European elections use party lists, where the parties decide in advance a list of preference for the candidates, and seats are allocated in that order. This has many criticisms, not least that it should be down to the people to decide who their candidate is rather than being pre-selected by the party. Another Angry Voice author, Thomas Clark, has summed this up and suggested an alternative in his blog <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/fair-votes-now.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When you change how MPs are elected, inevitably the local link to parliament is compromised. It is incredibly important for accountability and democracy that people feel that government is accessible, however, and so a move towards PR would have to go hand in hand with changes to how district, borough and town councils work. The most logical way to do this, would be to expand councils - have more councillors, devolve more power to councils and give them much more funding. Decisions should be made at the most local level possible, and that is something that the Coalition really undermined. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My ideal electoral system would have fewer MPs, all elected by a form of PR; much more power and funding for local councils, with more councillors elected; reform of the role of MPs so they work more closely with councils to create a better flow between Westminster and local government; reform of how parliament operates, with the Prime Minister elected by MPs instead of automatically going to the leader of the party with most seats. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If we can achieve this, and combine it with other steps such as capping donations to political parties, closer regulation of election spending, and establishing an independent regulatory body for press ethics, we could create a political system which is much fairer, more democratic, much more accessible - and actually represents the vast spectrum of political views across the nation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All of this is possible. It's not a dream. Campaigning for proportional representation is one way that we can fight for the politics we deserve, but there are many other ways we can work together in the next 5 years against whatever nightmares the Conservatives plan to unleash. There will be demonstrations aplenty, community groups in need of volunteers, petitions to send to Westminster, social media to spread the word - and political parties you can join <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<i>*coff* </i><a href="http://join.greenparty.org.uk/">join.greenparty.org.uk</a> <i>*coff*</i>).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We've had a day to feel glum about the election outcome. Now it's time to dust ourselves off, prop one another up and get out there to fight. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Remember, 75% of adults in the UK <b>didn't </b>vote Conservative.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Actually we'd probably have even more because nobody would have to vote tactically!</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-56474335028657759902015-03-28T14:45:00.002+00:002015-03-28T14:51:41.862+00:00My night of sleeping rough.<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Bear with me if this post is a little rambly. I've not long come home from a night on a sponsored "sleep out" with fellow volunteers from the <a href="http://www.winternightsheltermk.com/">Winter Night Shelter MK</a> - a homeless shelter in Milton Keynes that operates from December to March, offering overnight accomodation, food and company to homeless men and women in the city.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After the project closed for the year earlier this month, one of the team leaders arranged for some of us to spend a night sleeping rough, being sponsored by friends and family, in order to raise money for the shelter to run next winter, and also as an expression of solidarity with MK's rising homeless population.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Incidentally, here is my</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://www.charitychoice.co.uk/fundraiser/samanthapancheri/my-events">sponsorship page</a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> if you'd like to send some pennies our way!)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thirty volunteers from the project met by the Jaipur restaurant in Central Milton Keynes. The restaurant owner had kindly agreed to let us use a piece of land next door, and also to use the restaurant's toilets until they closed just after midnight! After a health and safety briefing, we settled down to lay out our mats/cardboard/groundsheets/deck chairs and get ready to face a night outdoors. Most were confident that we wouldn't be getting any sleep at all - and with a very jovial festival-like atmosphere in the air, we didn't really mind that thought. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiysbGnfDIfKMWjvvnGqFFOe2kYqzpT5PH_tpZJ9cgyispxOftOlcYsmzna-zs-lAOOawhdtwG54i4BxgafaywXbQa2zr65TKRytCjGw8u4u7wuwwrWl72iLWsIc9VWaVc5czpn0ih7hmk/s1600/20150327_234353.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiysbGnfDIfKMWjvvnGqFFOe2kYqzpT5PH_tpZJ9cgyispxOftOlcYsmzna-zs-lAOOawhdtwG54i4BxgafaywXbQa2zr65TKRytCjGw8u4u7wuwwrWl72iLWsIc9VWaVc5czpn0ih7hmk/s1600/20150327_234353.jpg" height="320" width="179" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Mayor of Milton Keynes, Derek Eastman, came along at 11pm to wish us well and take lots of photos, and the owner from Jaipur joined him to offer a donation of £300 to the fundraiser. Even more welcome than that was the several bags of poppadums that the staff then brought out for us! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As it was nearing midnight when the restaurant staff and the Mayor left us to it, I decided to try and settle down for the night. I had prepared myself for intense cold, so was wearing 2 pairs of trousers, 2 pairs of socks, 3 tops, a coat, hat and 2 scarves. I was just about warm enough! I zipped myself into my sleeping bag, put my headphones in and turned the music up just loud enough to drown out the traffic and chatter. About 20 minutes later, it started raining! We had previously agreed that if the forecast rain did present itself, we would relocate to a nearby underpass* for the rest of the night, and so we did just that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">*if you don't live in Milton Keynes, an underpass probably means something totally different to you. I had no idea what one was when I moved here, but it's essentially a short subway that is used to traverse the multitude of main roads around MK rather than using pedestrian crossings. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Making the switch from grass to concrete wasn't welcome, but blessedly the "military grade" (ooh-er) roll mat I had bought turned out to be a worthwhile investment and provided brilliant cushioning from the paving slabs - <i>and</i> I figured out how to use my rucksack as a pillow. Attempt #2 at sleeping proved more successful and although I was cold and uncomfortable, it wasn't too bad. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Around 3am, I woke again <span style="font-size: x-small;">(sleeping on the ground when you have arthritis in your hips is a very achey experience!) </span>and realised that most of the volunteers were sleeping. I was at the very end of my group, and suddenly a feeling of insecurity came over me. I felt vulnerable and exposed. Safety hadn't really been an enormous concern while I was preparing for the event as I knew there would be a big group of us, and the police were very supportive. But actually being there, in the small hours of the morning, with most people asleep and utterly exposed to the world - that was <i>frightening</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I started thinking about how people who sleep like this because they have no choice must feel. That anxiety, that intense feeling of vulnerability and isolation - it floored me, and I knew that I would be up and on my way home at 6am, ready for a nice cup of tea and to probably write a blog post about my experience. People who are genuinely homeless have no such thing to look forward to. Everything is an uncertainty. Your safety for the immediate future, your next meal, how people will treat you when they see you, whether you will ever have a warm, stable home again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Through volunteering with the shelter I met at least 60 people who had been homeless for varying lengths of time. Their stories were incredible and very grounding - yet no two were the same, and very few involved instances of substance abuse, which is so often the stereotype attributed to homeless people. We were encouraged, as volunteers, to not invest too much emotion in what we were doing. Our purpose was to be there for the night, to provide company, food and somewhere warm and safe to sleep for the night - and so I tried not to dwell too much on what these men and women must have endured while sleeping on the streets. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You can't participate in a sleep-out like I did last night without that changing. I had the tiniest taste of what it might feel like to be that exposed and vulnerable, and it frightened me. Now that I'm home, comfy and warm again with a huge cup of tea, I am angry. I am so angry that homelessness is on the rise all over the country. I am angry that we have endured a government that, for five years, has demonised the very people I and countless others have spent months volunteering to help. I am furious that the system, which already let too many people slip through the net, has been squeezed and cut to punitive levels, so much so that people are dying as a direct result of welfare cuts and benefit sanctions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At 5am today, the sun started to rise and we congratulated ourselves on having made it through the night, packed up our sleeping bags and mats and made our ways home. So far the sleep-out has raised £2500 towards helping the Winter Night Shelter operate again from December, and we hope to see more donations come in over the next few days. I hope that reading my rambling brain-fart account of last night might prompt you to <a href="http://www.charitychoice.co.uk/fundraiser/samanthapancheri/my-events"><span style="font-size: large;">send a few pounds our way</span></a> and help the increasing number of people with nowhere to live in Milton Keynes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A few notes:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">WNSMK opened in 2010 and has run every year since</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It is staffed by a small group of coordinators, plus aroudn 350 volunteers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A different church in MK gives its space to the shelter each night of the week</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This year, 58 of the 66 guests we've had have been moved on into long term accomodation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Since 2010, the WNSMK has helped more than 150 homeless people from MK into stable housing</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Demand is increasing; since 2010 the YMCA has gone from turning away 30 people a month to 55. </span></li>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-2226923225061549542015-02-24T19:33:00.004+00:002015-02-25T06:43:54.025+00:00Home, Sweet Home.<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wow, I started writing this AGES ago, but after our housing policy made the news today, it seemed worth getting back to this!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Following on from <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/immigration-is-good-thing-so-there.html">my earlier post</a> exploring why immigration is not to blame for the UK's woes, this piece will elaborate on the housing crisis, with which many of us will be personally familiar.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There are currently <a href="http://www.emptyhomes.com/statistics/"><b>more than 610,000</b> empty homes in England</a> alone. Estimates including Wales & Northern Ireland push this up to more like 835,000. Why are they empty? Most are privately owned as second homes and registered with the council (for council tax purposes) as empty. Some were intended to be rented out but have fallen into disrepair. Some are flats located within (above or behind) and owned by shops. There are even some which were intended to be part of new developments built by investors but were then abandoned before completion! </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In 2013, </span><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-rents-lettings-and-tenancies" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">government data</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> recorded <b>1.8million people</b> on social housing waiting lists in England. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Looking at these two pieces of information, should we not be more than a little irked that the government aren't doing MORE to turn these empty houses into functioning homes to alleviate the housing crisis?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Moreover, in the past 30 years <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/newsheadlines/25-million-council-houses-sold-off-6762229.html">2.5million council houses have been sold</a> through the Right to Buy scheme for up to 47% less than their market value. Now while the idea of enabling council tenants to secure ownership of their homes <i>sounds</i> like a great idea, bear in mind that this enormous amount of social housing has not been replenished by the government, and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants">2013 data</a> shows that only 1.7million council properties remain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This idea of owning your home being the norm was very much a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2013/apr/17/margaret-thatcher-legacy-housing-crisis">Thatcher-era</a> way of thinking, and that legacy has expanded to the extent now that houses are a commodity for investment, not just a home to live in. According to the <a href="http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/media/press/4037">Council of Mortgage Lenders</a>, "buy-to-let" mortgages accounted for almost 12% of mortgage lending in August 2014 alone. The Private Rental Sector (PRS) now accounts for some 13% of housing in the UK, with plenty of problems to go with it:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No security. Tenancies are frequently 6 - 12 months long, with no guarantee of renewal and a landlord's ability to end the contract with 2 months notice.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Uncapped letting agents' fees. The average fees for an agent are £350 every time you move house. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Deposits with no guarantee you'll see the money again. Six weeks rent is the norm for a security deposit, intended as as a safeguard against any damage to the property. This is paid in advance of moving in and returned (if you're lucky!) after you move out. If you're moving from one rented property to another, you need to come up with the deposit AND first month's rent in advance before receiving your previous deposit refund.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Extortionate rent. Competition and government subsidies through housing benefit have allowed rents to soar. An "affordable" 4 bedroom flat in London now requires an annual salary of £100k. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Homelessness from the private sector is on the increase, accounting for 11% of those acccepted as 'homeless' in 2009, as families find themselves with a terminated contract yet unable to either find or afford a new tenancy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So what do we do? How do we fix this? The government's social housing budget is <a href="http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2015-02-05-Greens-promise-to-build-500-000-new-social-housing-homes">currently just £1.5bn</a>, nowhere near enough to address the 1.8 million people long waiting list. We need a serious commitment to ending Right to Buy and building sufficient social housing homes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Earlier this month, the Green Party announced a manifesto commitment to build 500,000 social housing homes over the course of the next parliament if elected to government, as well as ending the Right to Buy scheme and implementing additional policies such as rent caps for the private rental sector and ending "revenge evictions" for tenants. The full details will be released with the manifesto next month, but I wanted to take a closure look at the announcement to build half a million social homes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First question - <i>how in the devil do you intend to afford this? What will it cost?</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Simple answer: 500,000 homes costing £60,000 each to build over five years = £30 billion over the course of the five year parliament. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How to do this? Gradually, of course. We know the government's current social housing budget is an insufficient £1.5bn, so we increase this gradually each year until the annual social housing budget in 2020 reaches £9billion/pa.<br /><br /><i>Why do you have to do it slowly? Where does the money come from?</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As with our other policies such as zero university tuition fees, reinstating EMA for college students, investing in the NHS, bringing the railways into public ownership - the money comes from overhauling the tax system. It takes time to bring that money into the public purse, so we stagger the spending accordingly.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The shortfall from tax avoidance and evasion is currently around the £100billion mark. We have already </span><a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2015/02/13/greens-throw-support-behind-tax-dodging-bill/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">pledged our commitment to a Tax Dodging Bill</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> that would clamp down on this and bring significant sums of money into the economy. Let's estimate, for now, that we could reliably set this figure at £25billion (a very conservative fraction of the actual amount that should be paid but isn't). </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A wealth tax of 1% on the assets of those with a personal wealth of over £3million pounds would bring in <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/07/29/green-party-calls-for-a-wealth-tax/">at least £22billion </a>over the course of a five year parliament.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Scrapping Trident would save <a href="http://www.cnduk.org/campaigns/no-to-trident">£100billion</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Scrapping HS2 would save <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/04/29/jean-lambert-mep-hs2-is-a-white-elephant-and-should-be-scrapped/">more than £40billion</a> </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">That's not even the full picture of changes we would implement, and already we've saved or generated an additional<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><b> £187 BILLION</b></span> for the UK economy. That £30billion cost of building half a million social homes doesn't look so scary now, does it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Let's also remember the hidden costs of <u><b>not</b></u> having enough social housing: housing benefit makes up <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/04/housing-benefit-driving-up-uk-welfare-costs-labour">14% of welfare spending </a>at the moment, and as most of it is paid to working people on low wages living in private rented accomodation, that money disappears straight into the hands of private landlords. Additionally, h</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">omelessness is estimated to cost the government <a href="http://www.homeless.org.uk/facts/understanding-homelessness/impact-of-homelessness">£1billion every year</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">By building enough social homes for people on low incomes to live, we not only take a huge step towards redressing the coalition government's legacy of soaring inequality, but we also begin to create a more sustainable society. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Building these homes is a very sensible move. It works financially and it works morally. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-28600845721646771222015-01-28T12:18:00.000+00:002015-01-28T16:09:55.863+00:00Out with the old, in with the Green.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's election season, yaaaaay! Ok, so maybe I'm in a minority of very excited people but this year is going to be like nothing we've seen before. We have an election being contested by TWO parties who've never before been considered big players, alongside the three usual suspects of Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Now, I'm really not a fan of UKIP but I do have to concede that anything that shakes up our political landscape and gets people talking is very interesting indeed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you've read my blog before, you've probably gathered that I'm a huge supporter of the Green Party - so much so that I'm a paid up member and candidate for the next election! I'm passionate about their policies and frankly relieved to see <i>someone </i>in British politics genuinely fighting for the wellbeing of ordinary and vulnerable people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We've seriously raised our profile in the past year, with membership quadrupling in England and Wales (we hit 50,000 members yesterday!) and our polling figures taking us past the Lib Dems, into our highest ever consistent figures. Naturally, with that comes closer scrutiny of our policies and a reasonable amount of hysterical press coverage. That's fine. We know our policies are amazing and we're only too happy to be given the right of reply to defend them. Maybe we need to work on our media strategy a bit, but hey! we're not career politicians with armies of Malcolm Tucker spin doctors telling us how to make bad things sound good. We are a group of devoted, compassionate people who have compiled a set of policies that we have every faith in working for the common good. We don't need spin. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Unlike the other parties, our policies are freely available on our website for anyone to read. We don't hide them away until we can find ways to dress them up. It's all there. In some ways, that's making life harder for us because many of our policies require a huge break away from how society is currently structed, and if you take them out of context, they look a bit... well... bananas. We <i>could</i> just take the policy site offline and, as the other parties do, only tell you what we stand for on our own terms, through cleverly constructed press releases and snappy soundbites, but we'd rather maintain a feature I'm personally very proud of - our transparency and honesty. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I spend a lot of time talking to people about politics and why they should want to vote for us. The main objections I hear are that <i>"politicians are all the same"</i> and <i>"power corrupts, even if you get into government with the best of intentions. Just look at the Lib Dems!</i>".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is where I feel we need to make much more noise about a very specific area of policy regarding governmental and electoral reform. We talk about changing the face of British politics, but I don't think many people realise how much we mean that!</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>PA451 Central Government currently revolves around the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, with the role of Parliament greatly diminished. The most important reform needed to redress this imbalance is the move to proportional representation. This will help to bring an end to the traditional dominance of two political parties in Britain. The central Parliament (House of Commons), elected under the AMS system (see PA305), will be far more representative of the diversity of opinion within the UK. There will be far less chance of an overall Parliamentary majority for one party, and, even without further reform, the resulting necessity for coalition governments would make governments and Prime Ministers much more accountable to Parliament.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>PA455 A First Minister would also be elected by the central Parliament as a whole, who would be responsible for chairing a committee, the Coordination Committee, of all the convenors of parliamentary committees. This body would be responsible for coordinating the work of the different committees, and for dealing with matters that affect them all, such as the allocation of public expenditure. The First Minister would act as Head of Government, in particular in dealings with other states. The central Parliament would also elect, as at present, an apolitical Speaker, who would act as Head of State (see PA600c).</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and of course!</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>PA307 UK political parties will be funded by the State. Such political funding will be calculated and administered on a regional basis, and funds allocated in proportion to the number of votes cast in the region in the last round of proportional representation elections held across the entire region. Parties would need to exceed a threshold of 3% of the vote to become eligible for this funding.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I know, I know. Your brain has now melted and you just want to go and eat marshmallows. The meaning of all this is actually really simple - we make politics straightforward and actually properly democratic. No more lobbying and influence by large corporations, because political parties will be funded by the state, not from being bankrolled. No more embarrassingly cringe-worthy Prime Minister's Questions, because parliament will be a cooperative and representative body, that actually reflects what the people of Britain think and feel. No more feeling that your vote is wasted or that you have to tactically back the lesser of two evils - everyone's vote counts because everyone can vote for what they believe in. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">THAT is how a government should be formed. I think this also says a lot about Green Party credibility. We're not power-hungry. We're not after the ministerial cars and the prestige of getting to say "we're in charge". A Green government would actually redistribute that power so that no one political party holds a disproportionate amount of control. The Prime Minister would be replaced by someone democratically elected by the whole parliament, not just whoever happens to have been leading the party with the most votes at election time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is huge. And it's brilliant. It suits everyone, even people who don't share our love of renewable energy or hold the same views on reforming the justice system. Everybody gets represented this way. I said before that I don't like UKIP but that doesn't mean there's no room for a Eurosceptic party to represent the beliefs of British people who don't like being in the EU. Anything that keeps debate open, that keeps questioning and challenging the status quo is a good thing. We're a brilliantly diverse country, and that is as true of our political beliefs as it is anything. If we want to see that taken heed of in the way the country is run, we have to fight to change an archaic and corrupted system, and replace it with something we can be proud of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you want to read more of our policies, go to policy.greenparty.org.uk or wait for our manifesto to be published in March. OR find out who your local candidates are and email them and ask to meet up!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-30118890310388921272014-10-26T21:16:00.003+00:002014-10-26T22:23:01.452+00:00Immigration is a good thing. So there.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's a contentious topic and one fueled with misconceptions and outright lies from certain corners of the media and political sphere. The general public are worried, no doubt due to politicians using words like <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/26/immigration-eu-michael-fallon_n_6049112.html?1414326900">"under siege"</a> to describe the changing population of the UK. UKIP would have us believe that Britain is set to become a distant memory, while Eastern European migrants take over and we all start speaking Polish or Romanian or Bulgarian, or some mangled mixture of all three - but crucially with no trace of Engerlish remaining.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_p06PZLg8_llsjtLoeppDtlHQW6Ss5oC3Wtc-paQcus2PKNdhe-gxnq-Poi5czVmo4pP6GbryV0rMStm6EXghBto9UZowVWGBQfG1BOJ20kGveIYjTr9tZbKSi74idP3YQIv0voEAsVs/s1600/UKIP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_p06PZLg8_llsjtLoeppDtlHQW6Ss5oC3Wtc-paQcus2PKNdhe-gxnq-Poi5czVmo4pP6GbryV0rMStm6EXghBto9UZowVWGBQfG1BOJ20kGveIYjTr9tZbKSi74idP3YQIv0voEAsVs/s1600/UKIP.jpg" height="235" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm being hyperbolic, of course, and I don't mean to come across as flippant. When you do start to research the facts and figures behind UKIP's claims, you quickly realise how absurdly laughable they are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">What stops them being seen for the joke they are, sadly, is the tacit endorsement of their fallacious claims by the Labour and Conservative parties, who have responded to their rise in support NOT by deconstructing their rhetoric and promoting a more accurate picture to the electorate, but instead by competing in a race to the bottom on who can come out with the most hardline policy on immigration.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">What IS the real picture of immigration then? What does the population of the UK truly look like at the moment? I talk to people a lot about this issue, and the same themes come up again and again. People <i>believe </i>that there are more and more non-UK born families across the country. People <i>believe</i> that British workers are being sidelined for employment in favour of lower-paid migrant workers. People <i>believe</i> that migrant families are prioritised for social housing and that the housing shortage is due to increased demand from non-UK born households. People really believe that the strain on the NHS is down to demand from "health tourism" and a higher than ever immigrant population. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Where have all these beliefs come from? When I go out, for example, to collect my children from school, there's a definite mix of nationalities and ethnicity, but still an overwhelming majority of white British families. When I go out shopping, I see the same thing. Yes, there is diversity, but it's nothing like the "swamping" that some would have us believe. </span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I've said before that this anti-immigration rhetoric forms part of a wider smokescreen designed to keep the electorate enraged about a total non-issue while the genuinely damaging problem - i.e. the carefully cultivated wealth inequality - goes unchallenged. While we waste time debating immigration issues, we are not talking about the economic crisis, or how the <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/george-osborne-failure-public-trust.html">UK is in more debt now</a> than before the coalition government took control; we are not talking about about how the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/10965052/Bank-for-International-Settlements-fears-fresh-Lehman-crisis-from-worldwide-debt-surge.html">European economy is MORE fragile</a> now than in 2007; we are not asking where the <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10664372/RBS-has-lost-all-the-46bn-pumped-in-by-the-taxpayer.html">£46billion</a></span> taxpayers' bailout given to RBS has gone; we are not throwing every fibre of our being into <a href="http://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/health-care/key-issues/fighting-cuts-and-privatisation-in-the-nhs/home/">protecting our NHS from privatisation</a>, or even into understanding what privatisation means; we are not vilifying the government for the callous welfare reforms that have seen over <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/15/food-banks-used-by-one-million-brits_n_5152005.html">1million people turn to foodbanks</a>, and incalculable <a href="http://www.freecriticalthinking.org/daily-pickings/374-atos-disability-assessment-death-toll">numbers of disabled people die within weeks of having their lifeline benefits stopped</a>. </span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There are genuine problems with the UK at the moment; real issues that must be addressed. But immigration is nothing, <i>nothing </i>like the thumping great threat that UKIP, the Conservatives and the rest would have you believe.</span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Let's take a look at some numbers.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">University College London, in collaboration with the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, last year published a paper titled <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/european-institute/highlights/2013-14/immigration">"The Fiscal Effects of Immigration to the UK"</a>. Their research uncovered some astonishing findings:</span></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The net fiscal balance of overall immigration to the UK between 2001 and 2011 amounts to a <span style="font-size: large;">positive net contribution of about £25 billion.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Recent immigrants are </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">45% less likely </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">to receive state benefits or tax credits than UK-born citizens.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">By sharing the cost of fixed public expenditures (such as defence), which account for 23% of total public expenditure, <span style="font-size: large;">immigrants reduce the financial burden</span> of these fixed public obligations for natives.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Is your mind blown? Mine isn't, because I had suspected for some time that immigration is not only positive for the UK, but actually necessary for our economic survival. <i>"Now then", </i>I hear you murmur<i>, "if this is all true, why don't the government just admit it?"</i>. Well that is a very good question, and I wish I knew the definitive answer. You don't need to look very hard for evidence that the government are not only aware, but actively trying to conceal the real picture of immigration to the UK - earlier this year, they came under fire for <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/838de446-7d2f-11e3-a579-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2qSKEe5TI">blocking the publication of a report</a> which would have blown open all their reasoning for tightening up EU migration!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>"But there ARE more of them!!"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yes. Yes there are more "of them" than there were last year, and the year before that. Specifically, net migration (that is, the total number of people coming into the UK minus the number of those leaving) for the year ending March 2014 was 243,000 compared to 175,000 in the previous 12 months.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>"That's a huge jump! Bloody Farage is right!!"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hold your horses! Never take numbers out of context. Let's look at the bigger picture...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Total immigration in the year up to December 2010 was 575,000, while in the year up to December 2012, it fell to 497,000. As emigration <i>from</i> the UK has hovered between 316,000 and 350,000 per year, a clearer picture starts to emerge. In terms of population percentage, the net migration figures are not fluctuating all that much - certainly not enough to justify the outrage meted out by the noisy right-wingers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here's a little graph for you:</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOfINCZ-mkEX9PzHSHurMced-CJ44RNDpQGq0QL3EeGdQ2dKAi1LPIGxyaRKa0rnwkxSWl0Y5N0Dvib9nc6UZIHhAKcCqitJHaKjxs2ApuDNKy21fQp8thGaqaxjdTnkWsU5_2rIff1b4/s1600/Net+migration.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOfINCZ-mkEX9PzHSHurMced-CJ44RNDpQGq0QL3EeGdQ2dKAi1LPIGxyaRKa0rnwkxSWl0Y5N0Dvib9nc6UZIHhAKcCqitJHaKjxs2ApuDNKy21fQp8thGaqaxjdTnkWsU5_2rIff1b4/s1600/Net+migration.png" height="342" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I didn't make this. I'm not THAT much of a spreadsheet whizz. This came from the Office for National Statistics, August 2014 report on migration.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's right there in black and white (and green and blue and pink). The picture of immigration in and out of the UK over the last decade<span style="font-size: large;"> <u>really</u></span> hasn't changed all that much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So back to these problems facing the UK today; the housing crisis, the strain on the NHS, low-paid jobs. I'm going to elaborate on each of these topics in subsequent posts, but let me just say that not one of these problems is caused by immigration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Housing</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The housing crisis in the UK is a mess. Briefly, between the government selling off 2.5million council houses through the Thatcherite "Right to Buy" scheme and not replenishing the stock with new builds, we now have <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-rents-lettings-and-tenancies">1.7million people</a> on council house waiting lists across England alone with nowhere to put them. Alongside that, soaring house prices and mortgage rates have been exacerbated by the rise in houses being used as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2013/apr/17/margaret-thatcher-legacy-housing-crisis">commodities for investment</a> rather than homes, making it more difficult than ever for first time buyers to afford a home. Meanwhile the private rental sector has exploded, now accounting for more than 13% of housing across the UK but with soaring rent, no long term security for tenants and the <a href="http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/Private%20Rented%20Sector%20Briefing.pdf">ever-increasing instances of homelessness</a> caused by tenants finding themselves at the end of one tenancy but unable to afford the myriad fees of another.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Without private rent caps, the immediate introduction of more social housing and a drastic overhaul of the definition of "affordable housing", the housing crisis will not get any better. Immigration has not caused this, the government's appalling mismanagement has. Capping or reducing immigration will not alleviate it. Only sensible, proactive intervention from the government will. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>NHS</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The coalition government's attack on the NHS is scandalous. The model, very simply, works like this: slash the budgets --> services decline --> "outsourcing" is heralded as the knight in shining armour --> wham! We have sleepwalked into a privatised health care system.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmlSYu8MhE-tUb6Qces5he3wBR2oTGKE513VDjsgs1Wa26ihSZFXWz6lC6JaDvTXUhEMhbXUB_zgLf63Uj1zb_Zfh3qWZws7f6o0VfUgPFXGgV7ESGOOVhlKwWlCpgtvDA19V2gKfAJCM/s1600/Cameron+NHS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmlSYu8MhE-tUb6Qces5he3wBR2oTGKE513VDjsgs1Wa26ihSZFXWz6lC6JaDvTXUhEMhbXUB_zgLf63Uj1zb_Zfh3qWZws7f6o0VfUgPFXGgV7ESGOOVhlKwWlCpgtvDA19V2gKfAJCM/s1600/Cameron+NHS.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/12-things-tories-nhs.html">Another Angry Voice</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Do you remember David Cameron's pledge to not expose the NHS to pointless restructing? I do. And yet the abysmal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Social_Care_Act_2012">Health and Social Care Act (2012)</a> has brought about the biggest top-down reorganisation of the NHS in living history, not to mention removing between £60-£80billion of funding from the now-abolished Primary Care Trusts and giving it instead to Clinical Commissioning Groups, who are a prime source of entry for private companies to gain health provider contracts. Crucially, this move was not in the Conservative or Liberal Democrats' manifesto, so the public never had the opportunity to vote against such massive changes to the functioning of the NHS.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I will blog in more detail about the true cause of the NHS crisis, but you can read more here for now: <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/12-things-tories-nhs.html">Twelve Things You Should Know About the Tories and the NHS</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once again, waiting time for GP appointments, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/11184912/The-list-of-66-AandE-and-maternity-units-being-hit-by-cuts.html">hospital closures and downgrading</a>, waiting lists for treatment - none of it has been caused by immigration. ALL of it has been caused by massive government budget cuts. Capping immigration will not relieve the situation; only reversing privatisation and investing back into our hospitals and health services can restore the NHS to its rightful state. Incidentally, did you know that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/26/nhs-foreign-nationals-immigration-health-service">26% of NHS doctors are non-UK born?</a> Our lives, quite literally, have depended on immigration.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Employment</b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And we roundly return to the "dey terk er jerbs!!" argument. Anecdotally, I've heard this a thousand times over. British workers are turned away while the jobs are given to migrant workers who will accept a lower wage.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Firstly, this is largely a myth. In the few instances where this has happened, why does the migrant worker shoulder the blame instead of the unscrupulous and exploitative employer? Why aren't we stamping our feet and demanding the immediate implementation of a Living Wage for all employees, regardless of their country of origin? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back to the myth-busting. There is a 52 page government-commissioned report from the Migration Advisory Committee which you can read for yourself <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/333084/MAC-_Migrants_in_low-skilled_work_Summary_2014.pdf">here</a>. </span>Briefly, the report found that the impact on wages from the flow of migrant workers was minimal, and there was only a weak - <u>but not causal</u> - correlation between the two. It also identified that there are specific areas of the country where migrant communities are more concentrated and so the <b style="text-decoration: underline;">perception</b> of the impact of immigration will obviously be skewed. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Plainly, there is no evidence to support claims that migrant workers are harmful to British employment prospects. Where exploitation by employers occurs, this must be dealt with by enforcing existing legislation about pay and introducing a Living Wage for all workers in the UK. Immigration in and out of itself, has not driven down wages. Capping immigration will not result in a pay rise for UK-born workers. Only decisive action by the government to recognise the current massive pay gap and support employers to pay proper wages can relieve this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Considering that this will rank amonst one of my more epic blog posts, I really only have scratched the surface of the massive and intricate topic of immigration. I haven't even begun to talk about asylum seekers, illegal immigration, or the actual practicalities of any kind of immigration cap, but if I try now my fingers will fall off, and if you have to read more of my opinions, I suspect your eyes will mutiny.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I hope that I have successfully unravelled some of the commonly held myths around immigration and at the very least prompted you to question some of the claims made by the likes of UKIP and the Conservatives. I leave you with this image from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Another-Angry-Voice/185180654855189?fref=ts">Another Angry Voice</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Telegraph: <a href="https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/eu-migration-essential-healthy-economy-200827579.html">"EU migration is essential for a healthy economy"</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Office for National Statistics (including all Quarterly Migration Reports): <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=International+Migration">International Migration</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Keith Taylor MEP in The New Statesman: <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/10/mep-i-m-ashamed-our-governments-stance-immigration">"I'm ashamed of our government's stance on immigration"</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Crisis Policy Briefing: <a href="http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/Private%20Rented%20Sector%20Briefing.pdf">Housing - the Private Rented Sector</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Migration Advisory Committee: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/333084/MAC-_Migrants_in_low-skilled_work_Summary_2014.pdf">Migrants in Low Skilled Work</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-67491035092104798402014-10-13T14:06:00.002+01:002014-10-26T21:51:53.321+00:00Tories. Tories EVERYWHERE.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUqsWVEFOmmGO7WXZt-NAEr139l5P_AhZ8HvfrM6Eg0WxfZSiznS1v0p7JB7g3877N31ulJiKlpKdFHco1U7rFzAmYFWD-ghocj_9X58Y4L0vQuTu9J8EN3Q7JANvMIR3tB1UyOzj14E/s1600/Tories+everywhere.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUqsWVEFOmmGO7WXZt-NAEr139l5P_AhZ8HvfrM6Eg0WxfZSiznS1v0p7JB7g3877N31ulJiKlpKdFHco1U7rFzAmYFWD-ghocj_9X58Y4L0vQuTu9J8EN3Q7JANvMIR3tB1UyOzj14E/s1600/Tories+everywhere.png" height="215" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Irritated; annoyed; exasperated; vexed; irked; raging; maddened; incensed; splenetic. Just some of the words one could use to describe my current mood after reading that the Green Party will be omitted from the upcoming pre-election televised debates while Nigel Farage has been welcome with open arms. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pffffft.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With over 20,000 members in England & Wales alone - an increase of 45% this year! - three elected MEPs, a peer in the House of Lords, London Assembly member AND an elected MP, not to mention polling level with the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party are hardly marginal. Neither are we a single issue party focusing only on environmental issues, though securing media coverage for our social justice policies is no mean feat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and UKIP are all different sides of the same coin. The same old establishment faces, totally disconnected from ordinary people and the reality of life in the UK today, with policies engineered to satisfy wealthy party donors. Tories in blue, <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/what-is-point-of-labour.html">Tories in red</a>, <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/liberal-democrats-compassion-welfare.html">Tories in yellow</a> and <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/12-tory-ukip-defectors.html">Tories in purple</a>. They might have different party names, but there's barely any distinguishing between them anymore. For the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 to schedule debates between the four white male wealthy party leaders and to leave out the Green Party's female leader - the only mainstream voice of the left - demonstrates precisely what an uphill battle we face if we want to relieve government of its <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/07/tory-mp-brian-binley-admits-at-party-we-are-all-totally-corrupt-4177120/">corrupted self-serving infestation</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's not just about telling people what our policies are. How can we expect the public to back something like the Citizen's Income without first unravelling all the myths about modern day poverty and the welfare state? How do we realistically expect them to trust us about our immigration policy while they're being force-fed a inflated figures and biased analysis of the current state of things? People are backing UKIP because they feel that is the party who reflect their needs, but those needs are based on the pervasive manipulation of the truth spread by right-wing governments and a sock-puppeted mainstream media. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For the sake of democracy, we have to fight to have political parties represented fairly in the media - and I don't just mean the Green Party; I'm talking about the SNP and Plaid Cymru too. How much of UKIP's success can be attributed to the media love-in from the past year and the resulting self-fulfilling prophecy?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I would like to set a challenge for the British media; swap the Greens and UKIP round in your level of exposure. Spend the next 7 months talking about the Green Party as frequently and fervently as you have UKIP, and give the kippers the same flimsy coverage the Greens have had. Let's see what impact THAT makes on the election, eh? If media coverage hasn't influenced election outcomes, as you've insisted, you have nothing to lose and UKIP's "success" will continue unabated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For the rest of us, there are numerous petitions floating round about the media and the Green Party. Sign as many of them as you can; let's keep up the pressure and demand some decent coverage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">38 degrees petition: <a href="https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/invite-all-small-parties-to-join-the-election-television-debates?bucket=fb">Invite all small parties to join the election television debates</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Change. org petition: <a href="http://www.change.org/p/itv-invite-natalie-bennett-leader-of-the-green-party-to-join-the-general-election-debates?utm_campaign=new_signature&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt#share">Invite Natalie Bennett to join the General Election debates</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">38 degrees petition: <a href="https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/bbc-news-stop-this-media-blackout-of-the-green-party?bucket&source=facebook-share-button&time=1409583178">BBC News: Stop the media blackout of the Green Party</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">BBC Complaints online: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/">http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/</a></span><br />
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<i>N.B. The initial publication of this post contained the phrase "limp-wristed", which I have now edited out. I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused and will take greater care in future to avoid using such insensitive wording.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-70514680615245024002014-10-03T09:45:00.002+01:002014-10-03T10:04:55.036+01:00Big Brother is Watching You<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself--anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face...; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime..." - </i>George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This week, my reactions to the news have been brought to you by the letters W, T, F. The period after the Conservative Party conference was never going to be anything other than stressful, as numerous plots to make our lives ever more miserable were gleefully unfurled while Iain Duncan Smith literally fist-pumped the air with joy:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSeOdUdpzJvuXVALG29WuNqZHpPpLSU6mKNfaOaLt_3AGJeenAniYFdXuoVNBT57j_JlGOLgqadKcVdr3gyWqTaaq2-et_06E5EX2pY7NxioXZyZM2748fROscoWAA1iDVBpRbDHU8qkc/s1600/AAV+IDS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSeOdUdpzJvuXVALG29WuNqZHpPpLSU6mKNfaOaLt_3AGJeenAniYFdXuoVNBT57j_JlGOLgqadKcVdr3gyWqTaaq2-et_06E5EX2pY7NxioXZyZM2748fROscoWAA1iDVBpRbDHU8qkc/s1600/AAV+IDS.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Another-Angry-Voice/185180654855189?fref=ts">Another Angry Voice</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If there's a Tory I dislike even more than Iain Duncan Smith, however, it's Theresa May. They're all reprehensible, morally-bankrupt filth in my honest opinion, but May's unwavering assault on human rights legislation just cranks up my loathing another notch. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A year ago, I read her </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/sep/30/conservitives-scrap-human-rights-act" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">pledge to withdraw the UK</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which came just a couple of weeks after the country was outraged at the </span><a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-day-human-rights-went-out-window.html" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">detention of David Miranda</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> under spurious interpretation of the Terrorism Act (2000). To be detained for nine hours, prohibited from accessing legal representation, compelled to answer all questions asked of you and having your personal effects confiscated - <i>when you have done nothing wrong </i>and given no indication of wrongdoing - surely constitutes a breach of human rights. Yet the incident was ruled lawful by the Home Office, and now the Tories want to bring in yet more legislation that systematically dismantles our basic expectations of human rights, under the banner of "fighting extremism and terrorism".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It sounds a noble cause. Nobody likes terrorists. Extremism, as we've seen with ISIS/ISIL and Al Qaeda, is very dangerous indeed. But we are fools if we believe that this is the extent of the Tories' interpretation of extremism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Just three months ago, news broke that Green Party members, Jenny Jones (Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb) - and Councillor Ian Driver, had been <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/15/green-party-peer-put-on-database-of-extremists-by-police">added to a database of "domestic extremists"</a> despite neither having a criminal record. Along with thousands of other political activists, their right to lawful protest had been reclassified as "extremism" and used to justify the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/oct/25/police-surveillance-protest-domestic-extremism">storage of personal details and photographs</a> on secret police databases around the country. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One of my earliest blog series looked at Human Rights and Human Wrongs, in which I explored (at length!) the logic behind my view that we must always observe the basic human rights of everyone, even the most abhorrent criminals. You can read parts <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/human-rights-and-human-wrongs.html">one</a>, <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/human-rights-and-human-wrongs-part-deux.html">two </a>and <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/human-rights-and-human-wrongs-part.html">three </a>here (get comfy first). Essentially, human rights are absolute and inalienable; one does not "earn" them, nor can one have them revoked. That philosophy is fundamental to protecting the human rights of me, you and every other ordinary nice person. The minute we start deconstructing the human rights of people deemed to be unworthy of them, we are on a very slippery slope which threatens anyone with a predilection to challenge the status-quo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If Baroness Jenny Jones can be labelled a "domestic extremist" for her political activity, so can I and so can you. My husband jokes that if I'm not on some CIA watchlist by now, he'd be very surprised, but there may well be an element of truth in that. After all the definitions of extremism, and the legislation that criminalises them, are constructed by the people whose interests are best served by censoring dissent and preserving the social state which keeps them in government. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have also heard this week that Theresa May plans to implement <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/30/theresa-may-extremism-disruption-orders">"Extremist Disruption Orders</a>", which will see people banned from speaking at public events, taking part in protests, having to submit to the police in advance any publication on the web, social media or in print, and having social media closely monitored. This is not limited to those preaching hate or radicalising young Muslims; David Cameron has said that this will look at "the full spectrum of extremism" and those who threaten to "overthrow democracy". I would be intrigued to hear more of Cameron's definition of democracy, given that he acts as Prime Minister in a country where two-thirds of voters voted for someone else. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The past five years of Tory governance have seen inequality increase, child poverty go through the roof, untold numbers of suicides in the wake of callous benefit sanctions and ATOS "work capability" assessment, UK debt increase, NHS services privatised, social services cut, care homes closed - the list goes on and on and on. If you are anything other than wealthy in the UK right now, life is pretty scary and set to get much worse if the Tories are re-elected next May. I consider it my moral duty to devote time and energy into getting them out of government and fighting for a decent standard of life for everyone in the UK. Theresa May and David Cameron would probably call me a domestic extremist for that view and for my role in countless campaigns to overthrow the Tories, which puts people like me right in the firing line for all this anti-human rights rhetoric. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Do not trust that this policy is simply about fighting terrorism in the form of violent aggressors. It is very much about enshrining the right of politicians to censor those who would speak out against their war on the poor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.hrw.org/">Human Rights Watch</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.liberty80.org/"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Liberty - Protecting civil liberties; protecting human rights.</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Guardian: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/01/cameron-pledge-scrap-human-rights-act-civil-rights-groups">Cameron's pledge to scrap Human Rights Act angers Civil Rights groups</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Politics.co.uk: <a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2014/09/30/could-theresa-may-s-extremism-asbo-ban-the-socialist-workers">Could Theresa May's "extremism ASBO" ban the Socialist Workers Party?</a></span><br />
Vox Political: <a href="http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2014/10/03/apocalypse-soon-the-conservatives-reveal-their-real-plans-for-human-rights-uk-human-rights-blog/">Apocalypse soon: The Conservatives reveal their real plans for human rights</a><br />
UK Human Rights Blog: <a href="http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2014/09/22/the-monstering-of-human-rights/">The Monstering of Human Rights</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-24433436193257755522014-09-19T12:20:00.001+01:002014-09-19T12:31:48.943+01:00The times, they are a-cha-aangin'....<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Earlier this morning, I was idly daydreaming about what the future may hold for me. I wrote a blog post two years ago agonising over what I would do <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/when-i-grow-up.html">"When I Grow Up"</a>, articulating my anxiety at what a career gap would do to my employment prospects and how I felt at odds with my role as a stay at home mother. It suddenly dawned on me that since joining the Green Party, that anxiety has vanished. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The time I commit to the party now is entirely voluntary, but the experience I'm gaining and the skills I'm polishing have given me a sense of empowerment that I thought I'd lost. Politics is traditionally thought of as male-dominated territory - not just male, but white, upper class, able-bodied, public-school educated males. What could an ordinary working class* woman hope to achieve? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">*delusions of grandeur and a predilection for reading The Guardian notwithstanding!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shahrar Ali's rousing <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/09/12/deputy-leader-shahrar-ali-speech-to-conference-(full-text)/">speech</a> at Green Party Conference earlier this month spoke of the "Politics of Imagination" and challenged us all to take ownership of ineqality within the party and outwards, in wider society.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> <i>"You don't have to be a woman to fight patriarchy, to want to reassure a voter on the doorstep, no she doesn’t have to wait for her husband before talking politics with you. You only need to be Green.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>You don't have to be black to want to rail against racial prejudice or persecution. You only need to be Green.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>You don't have to be gay to want to march alongside PRIDE. You only need to be Green."</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I know I don't speak for all women when I say this; I know that women with a disability, gay women, transgender women, and women of colour experience complex layers of intersecting oppression that I cannot claim to understand - but today I realised what an awesome sense of pride I feel in belonging to a political party in which <i>my </i>gender will never be a barrier to <i>my </i>ambition.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Green Party's <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/people/natalie-bennett.html">leader </a>is a woman, as is our <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/people/caroline-lucas-mp.html">MP</a>, our <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/people/jenny-jones.html">peer </a>in the House of Lords, two of our three <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/elections.html">MEPs </a>and one of our <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/people/deputy-leader-amelia-womack.html">deputy leaders</a>. Six amazing, inspirational women.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am greatly encouraged that the Green Party is THE future of politics, and represents a truly progressive outlook where equality is the automatic starting point for all people, not just a dream. The people I have had the privilege of meeting and working with so far have restored my faith in humanity and shown that there <u>is</u> a chance for my generation to break away from the oppressive, nasty, divisive narrative that has pervaded politics so far. It is time for the government to stop being the playground for white privileged males and to become representative of our beautiful, colourful, diverse nation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As today's news is dominated by Scotland's referendum decision to remain part of the United Kingdom, there is a fast-paced undercurrent that sees how people are beginning to reengage with politics and bring democracy home. It is time for us to harness that current and turn it into a tidal wave. It is time to rejuvenate British politics and I am exhilarated to play my part.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic3-xyPqJcMfWqfQTDIVlyY26DOtBCFnvB1Y-5xflMtkMlFICq_nE7ikbFTQJ5drewjPhFDglF1VNRmToZ_ASKwBe449ZbgAFi-ZwSfRZhPfJifMlDoHUR_XWigH3kTrCCeqdBOQwK5J0/s1600/IMG_2816.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic3-xyPqJcMfWqfQTDIVlyY26DOtBCFnvB1Y-5xflMtkMlFICq_nE7ikbFTQJ5drewjPhFDglF1VNRmToZ_ASKwBe449ZbgAFi-ZwSfRZhPfJifMlDoHUR_XWigH3kTrCCeqdBOQwK5J0/s1600/IMG_2816.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yours truly with Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-49606284252661097722014-09-17T11:35:00.001+01:002014-09-17T13:36:21.117+01:00Old Hatred, New Victims: When recycling is a bad idea.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We've just passed the 13th anniversary of "9/11". I vividly remember September 11th, 2001. I was 17 years old and sitting in my A-level English Literature class on the second day of term. A friend's phone beeped with a text message saying there had been a nasty plane crash in New York and it was all over the news. The class soon finished and we idly made our ways home. I went to chat to my mum, who was watching the news in horror just as the second plane hit the towers and we remained fixated on the television for most of that afternoon as the events unfurled.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I felt something change that day. There was something in the air that was new and yet familiar at the same time. The suspicion, mistrust and, ultimately, hatred of a group of people sharing a religion - in this case Islam - that I'd so recently studied in its historical forms with regard to anti-Jewish propaganda in Nazi Germany. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm not the first person to highlight parallels between modern Islamophobia and Nazi propaganda. This article <a href="http://middleclassdub.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/islamophobia-and-antisemitism-same.html">"Same message, different minority"</a> succinctly compares statements from self-titled "anti-jihad" writer, Robert Spencer, and Der Stürmer editor (1923 - 1945), Julius Streicher. Similarly, you may be surprised by the results of <a href="http://www.judaism-islam.com/quiz-modern-islamophobia-or-nazi-anti-semitism/">this quiz</a>, which invites you to differentiate between anti-Semitic statements from Nazi Germany, and modern anti-Islam rhetoric.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The similarities are bloodcurdlingly abundant. The manipulation and misrepresentation of the truth is as pervasive today as it was 70 years ago, only this time it's directed at Muslims, not Jews. Then, it fed into pro-Aryan sentiment at a time when Germany was recovering from the First World War and national morale was bruised and vulnerable. Adolf Hiter exploited this and coaxed enough support for his heinous ambition to start a war with devastating consequences, not least for the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust. Today we see Islam conflated with extremism and terrorism, with degrading stereotypes flung around mainstream media with casual abandon, while far-right neo-fascist groups such as the "English Defence League", "Britain First", and the BNP declare themselves the line of defence against a perceived Islamic invasion of the UK.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm not a conspiracy-theorist. I'm satisfied that it's more likely than not that Neil Armstrong really did walk on the moon in 1969. I don't believe in chemtrails. I don't buy into theories that 9/11 was orchestrated by the American government. But if you ask me whether I believe that Islamophobia is a carefully constructed political agenda to justify the so-called "war on terror" that is systematically dismantling the Middle East in pursuit of its oil-rich land - then yes. Yes I believe this is true.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Do you remember the "45 minute" claim from the September 24th 2002 dossier used to strengthen the cause for invasion of Iraq? How we were urged to believe that Saddam Hussein had been stockpiling weapons of mass destruction which could target British soil in under an hour? Do you also remember that these alleged WMDs were <i>never </i>found, and that the UK government had to admit that the 45 minute claim was untrue; that there was no stockpile of weapons. That we invaded a country, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24547256">killed over 400,000 people</a> and left a legacy of chaos for which we should be eternally ashamed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>'Ahh, but Al Qaeda! Terrorists must be stopped!'</i> What do you say to the revelation that there was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5328592.stm">NO evidence</a> for an Al Qaeda presence in Iraq before 2003? Even more so, that the rise of the latest group, ISIS, can be directly traced back to the abominable bungling of the 2003 Iraq war by the UK and US governments? And for the cherry atop the proverbial cake, the allegations that the US government has in fact been <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/republic-senator-rand-paul-accuses-us-arming-isis-terrorists-1453714">arming and funding ISIS</a> by supporting its allies in Syria, just as <a href="http://antiwar.com/blog/2013/08/26/us-supported-iraqs-use-of-chemical-weapons-even-as-it-inches-to-war-with-syria-on-lesser-allegations/">they aided Saddam Hussein</a> in the 1980s.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Let's just take a step back from this mess for a moment, and come back to what this means for ordinary people at home. I remember studying anti-semitism in Nazi Germany during high school history lessons. I vividly recall everybody in the room feeling horrified and bewildered by the force of the propaganda that proliferated the era. We watched documentaries about Kristalnacht and the concentration camps that frequently reduced us to tears. And time and time again we asked HOW and WHY the ordinary people of 1930s Germany could have tolerated such vile besmirching of so many people just because they were Jewish. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights was established soon after the second world war, with the ultimate aim of ensuring that the atrocities visited upon the Jews could never be repeated, that we as a global community learn from the horrors of our history and commit ourselves to never allowing it to repeat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And yet here we are. Western governments are demonstrably complicit in the rise of organisations such as ISIS, meanwhile the threat they pose is used to justify military action in the Middle East and domestic tension is aggravated by an undeniably Islamophobic mainstream media. In short, if you make people afraid, you make them malleable and open to manipulation. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3qSEMe80HO7Lzdi6F_69nKobYjyJZfdddJAhFgsAw9w-1iTKbt-tNcvR6gQnFno1Gq2uiJXMONV1CNpZMVOolav6kZIvNjtfDdH-w5PF_EOXli2dVXP1coKafatVZJ7LUCuFXeyC_z5E/s1600/UK+tabloid+islamophobia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3qSEMe80HO7Lzdi6F_69nKobYjyJZfdddJAhFgsAw9w-1iTKbt-tNcvR6gQnFno1Gq2uiJXMONV1CNpZMVOolav6kZIvNjtfDdH-w5PF_EOXli2dVXP1coKafatVZJ7LUCuFXeyC_z5E/s1600/UK+tabloid+islamophobia.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The surge in support for groups such as Britain First is symptomatic of a nation whipped up into fear, anger and hatred. There is nothing patriotic or defensive about these groups, despite what they claim. Islamophobic attacks are on the rise in the UK and US, with attacks against Muslims in America having <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/steve-rose/911-racism-islamophobia_b_3908411.html">increased 1700%</a> in the year after 9/11, and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10804880/Islamophobia-People-grab-our-veils-call-us-terrorists-and-want-us-dead-What-its-really-like-to-be-a-Muslim-woman-in-Britain.html">British Muslims experiencing violence</a> and abuse every single day. Political figures such as Lord Christopher Monkton, former deputy leader of UKIP, spout such diatribe as: <i><a href="http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/ukip/former-ukip-deputy-leader-calls-for-sections-of-koran-to-be-banned-4000">“Nearly all acts of terrorism perpetrated throughout the world in the past quarter of a century were carried out by Muslims in the name of Allah”.</a> </i>and newspapers continue to publish exaggerated and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/the-shameful-islamophobia-at-the-heart-of-britains-press-861096.html">plainly untrue stories</a> to perpetuate the propaganda of hatred towards Islam. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, there is a beacon of light - something that didn't exist in Nazi Germany, or even in any useful form around the events of 9/11. Social media has burst onto the scene and given a platform to anyone who wishes to be heard. Whilst that has been exploited by far right hate groups, it also gives the oxygen of publicity to those who see past the red herring of Islamophobia and are frenetically urging the world to reject the scapegoating of Islam, to look beyond what the newspapers tell us to think, and to expose the corrupted workings of governments whose vested interests are in the financial gains to be made from war in the Middle East. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There is SO much information out there, so many ways to scratch beneath the surface of the information endorsed by governments and to question their agendas. We have the opportunity now to stand strong and refuse to be manipulated, to stop history repeating itself. Education and respect are the antidote to bigotry and ignorance. For every misinformed, hate-filled piece of literature, there exists a counterpart. Let's make the most of the internet and keep looking for the truth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I urge you to look at the links in this post - especially the <a href="http://www.judaism-islam.com/quiz-modern-islamophobia-or-nazi-anti-semitism/">quiz</a> about Nazi propaganda and modern Islamophobia. They're a starting point for understanding the role of Islamophobia in the UK today.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-48265537718305599762014-08-28T12:26:00.001+01:002014-08-28T12:35:25.093+01:00Uncomfortable truths<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I love learning new stuff. There are few things more exciting than adding a new topic to my (probably relatively limited!) repertoire of Things I Know About The Universe. Sometimes though, I learn a thing I don't like; something that makes me reevaluate my place in the world and how I contribute to it. This month has shown me one such occasion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At the beginning of August, I attended a training day with the Green Party's "Young Greens", including a workshop on "Intersectionality". It was a new word to me and I regret to admit that I spent the first few minutes fidgeting in my seat, feeling like I was back in an A level sociology lecture. In brief, intersectionality relates to different systems of oppression and the way they overlap to form complex compounds of prejudice. We have a tendency to treat sexism, racism, homophobia, disablism etc. as distinct and isolated streams of intolerance and neglect to consider the individuals whose lives are impacted by one or more of these. You can find support systems for gay people, disabled people, ethnic minorities - but where is the inclusive, all-encompassing support for the gay, black, disabled person?</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_ZJ3cIOCdWDOaVbpj2wYU5vrc0lmgZBmaHaIY_nckK03yfXfAGaysLkM110mMSUuJtF00zJB8UVqSbKWWq5IkQE2CKVKoNlAXx0bo1E9HDq6_XK3LeW6TbtaWbVu3Pw0uP8soN14VsE/s1600/Intersectionality.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_ZJ3cIOCdWDOaVbpj2wYU5vrc0lmgZBmaHaIY_nckK03yfXfAGaysLkM110mMSUuJtF00zJB8UVqSbKWWq5IkQE2CKVKoNlAXx0bo1E9HDq6_XK3LeW6TbtaWbVu3Pw0uP8soN14VsE/s1600/Intersectionality.png" height="264" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A seriously over-simplified diagram <br />
of interlocking systems of oppression.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It sounds so straightforward, that it's almost ridiculous to have to point out that someone can be a victim of multiple systems of oppression and that we should all endeavour to see the overlaps and not separate them out into neat compartments that we know how to handle.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm as guilty of this as anyone. Last year I wrote a blog post about Miley Cyrus and <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/miley-cyrus-and-accidental-racism.html"><i>that </i>VMA performance.</a> It was the first time I'd really had to consider that traditional feminism sidelines non-white women, and so I wrote about the insidiously racist undertones contained within the aforementioned dance routine. Reading it back now, I could kick myself for falling into the trap of separating out sexism and racism. The two, in this case, are tightly interconnected. And I missed that.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Why did I miss that? Why did I fail to see the gap in traditional feminism that applies to women of colour? Because <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED355141.pdf#page=43">"white privilege"</a></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Those two words made me squirm in my seat during the workshop and frequently since. In very basic terms, being white gives you an immediate advantage in every single area of life whilst simultaneously conditioning you to not <b>see </b>the privilege. Does that make sense? I'm a white British female. I've been in situations where I've felt self-conscious about my gender, some where I've been hyper-aware of my nationality. Never once have I felt that the colour of my skin might be an issue to someone or might affect my chance of getting a job, renting a house, being looked at strangely on public transport, called names in the street. I can look at newspapers, television programmes and movies and see my culture represented without giving it a second thought. THAT is the essence of white privilege. The fact that someone else had to explain that it even exists is itself indicative of the widespread normalisation of white privilege.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We don't tend to think of racism in these terms. It's easier to frame it as negative actions towards someone else based on their ethnicity, when in actual fact white privilege is the foundation upon which racism is built. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I've been trying to get my head around this for a few weeks, and I'm still not sure I understand it. Too many times, I've felt very defensive and upset, wanted to shut down the computer, dismiss white privilege and carry on feeling that I work far too hard to promote tolerance and social harmony to ever justify being called a tool of oppression. Do you know why it would be easy for me to do that? WHITE PRIVILEGE. Because I am white, I can - if I choose - look away from the problem and pretend it doesn't exist. I have that power because my life is not negatively impacted by the colour of my skin; I don't even have to give it a second thought. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Something happened this week that reinforced my determination to educate myself properly on issues of race and racism. I saw a post on Facebook which had prompted a debate that eventually turned nasty and saw one person call the other "mayo face" and later "mayo brigade". I've never heard that insult before, so I googled it and learned that it is a slur used against white people. I felt an instant hollow in my chest and could have cried. Here was someone dismissing one person's entire opinion with a nasty jibe about skin colour. I felt angry, sad, humiliated - and it hadn't even been directed at me. Just a couple of words on a screen, but they ate away at me for days. It dawned on me quickly that this can't be far from what people from ethnic minorities feel <i>All The Time</i>. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At what stage in their childhood did they learn that people will give them grief for no reason other than their skin is darker? What must it be like to go into a shop, browse the newspapers and see nobody who looks like you? How do you manage the frustration at being sidelined for jobs because of the colour of your skin? Even more - how do you refrain from shouting and screaming at everyone who tries to say that racism isn't an issue these days?? Because oh, god. IT IS. It so is. And this is an every day reality for people who aren't white. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How I felt after that one isolated incident doesn't even begin to compare to prejudice experienced by non-white people, but it gave me a fleeting insight. So the next time I want to write something about feminism, I am determined to not imagine that whatever I experience as a white female could be the same as that of a black woman. I don't know nearly enough about intersectionality and how to apply it to my life, so educating myself is my goal. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you've read this and feel as I initially did - defensive, annoyed and like I'm talking out of my backside - I invite you to consider that it is your position of privilege which allows you to feel this way. We cannot begin to unravel the labyrinth of prejudice until we all accept that being white and/or male and/or straight and/or able-bodied, etc. affords us certain perks that we teach ourselves to see as an automatic right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Further reading:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Explaining privilege to a broke white person:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://occupywallstreet.net/story/explaining-white-privilege-broke-white-person">http://occupywallstreet.net/story/explaining-white-privilege-broke-white-person</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html">http://amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kimberle Crenshaw, Mapping the Margins:</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-39416035819163104522014-08-12T12:13:00.006+01:002014-08-12T13:07:40.914+01:00Depression in the 21st Century<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life is harsh and cruel. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Says he feels all alone in a threatening world. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go see him. That should pick you up." </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Man bursts into tears. Says, "But doctor... I am Pagliacci." </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>- 'Watchmen' (2009)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The outpouring of grief on social media when a celebrity dies is a curious phenomenon. I often see this public display of grief derided because we didn't "know" the deceased person personally, or criticised for masking the daily deaths of countless ordinary people. Sometimes the tide can turn when the circumstances surrounding the death turn out to involve substance abuse, and I've seen those conversations turn very nasty indeed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Today I woke up to the news that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/11/robin-williams-found-dead-suicide">Robin Williams has died</a>, from apparent suicide at the age of 63. Facebook, Twitter and myriad social networking sites are full of grief-ridden posts and videos of fans' favourite moments from his career. In amongst that, I've seen at least half a dozen comments along the lines of <i>"so what, suicide affects hundreds of people every day and that doesn't take over the internet". </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's a pretty shitty attitude to take in the wake of someone's high profile death, but I can't argue with the fact stated there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The World Health Organisation estimates that <a href="http://www.befrienders.org/suicide-statistics">1 million people</a> die from suicide every year. That figure has risen by 60% in the last 45 years - some of which may be down to the way deaths are recorded, but doubtless there has been a significant increase in the incidence of suicide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This number translates to approximately one death around the world every 40 seconds. In England alone, someone dies from suicide every 2 hours, and at least 10 times that number make an attempt on their lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Suicide and depression are not intrinsically linked, but according to the <a href="http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/S/suicide/">Mental Health Foundation</a>, at least 90% of suicide victims suffer from a psychiatric disorder at the time of their death. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is said that Robin Williams was suffering with severe depression at the time of his death and had been seeking treatment. His death is no more or less tragic than the hundreds of thousands of people who have taken their lives this year already, but his celebrity status and the sadness expressed by so many on social media could give us all a golden opportunity to talk about mental health and break down some of the most damaging and cruel myths surrounding it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I would like to take a moment to highlight why I haven't used the common phrase "committed suicide" here. This is how people commonly discuss the act of taking one's own life. We don't talk about any other manner of illness-related death like this. It <i>is </i>how we talk about murder, and other crime. You can commit murder, assault, robbery. By saying that someone who has died from suicide "committed" it, we place their death in the framework of a deviant act that they have enacted against themselves. It is that archaic notion that suicide is a sin, a conscious, deliberate, selfish and indulgent choice made by someone to end their lives. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Let me tell you now, that this is not how suicide happens. It is not how depression works.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I posted on Facebook today about Robin Williams, I described depression as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wurzelspammage/posts/10154489697945271?comment_id=10154489943395271&offset=0&total_comments=2&notif_t=share_comment">"an enveloping darkness".</a> It is all-consuming. It is heavy and it hurts. There is no logic or reason to how it develops and controls your life. It is indiscriminate and does not care if you're male or female, white or black, rich or poor, privileged or oppressed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Robin Williams was known as one of the funniest men on the silver screen. I grew up watching his films and laughing until my ribs hurt every time. And yet he carried this dark secret for so many years, and so do thousands upon thousands of people around the world. Right now, there are probably people in your life battling just to get through the day. Maybe they're open about it, maybe they bury it and try to act out the part of a normal functioning person. But it will be there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Buzzfeed published a list of "<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexisnedd/things-nobody-tells-you-about-being-depressed?bffb">21 Things Nobody Tells You About Depression</a>", and while the use of cutesy gifs to illustrate this is questionable, the points made are pretty accurate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We don't talk about mental health very well in this country. People get awkward and embarrassed about it - and often, <u>too</u> often, people are downright ignorant and cruel. I've lost track of how many times I've heard phrases such as <span style="font-size: large;">"pull yourself together", "try to focus on the positives", "just try harder", "get a grip"</span> - all in response to people talking about depression. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It is not a "really sad feeling". It's not that rational! It's an invisible disease and because of that, people so often dismiss it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was 13 years old when depression found me. At 14, I took an overdose of prescription tablets and ended up under the care of a psychiatrist. Over the next few years, I was up and down. Mostly functioning well enough - I got through my GCSEs and A levels with good grades, went to university for a year. But it was always there in the background, always messing with my judgment and self-esteem, influencing decisions that I now look back on and think "what the actual hell?!". At 19, it took a stronger hold. I left my job and spent roughly 2 months unable to leave my flat - actually, mostly unable to leave my sofa. My then-boyfriend would go to work and suggest that maybe I could try to vacuum and wash the dishes. He would come home 9 hours later and I would be in the same spot, having forgotten to eat or wash, not having been able to do a thing around the house. It sounds like idleness, but there are no words to explain why I couldn't do things. I <span style="font-size: large;">couldn't</span>. That's it. I would try, but after two hours of trying and failing to get up and walk to the kitchen, I would give up and slump even further into a black hole of hopelessness and loneliness.<br /><br />The world looked physically different to me, almost as if my entire surroundings had a black vignette effect. People would talk to me and their voices would echo around my head, the words entering my brain but meaning nothing. And I would nod and smile and say words back to them, but my mind was far away, screaming and howling that I just needed to fade away. The panic that set in when I tried to push myself harder to do things was absolutely crippling. I could get as far as getting dressed, shoes and coat on, but then I would find myself curled up in a ball against the front door, hyperventilating with my heart pounding through my chest and limbs shaking at the very thought of stepping outside. And there were numerous days when it got too much, when I couldn't see a way out, when I felt I was just not meant for this world and I needed to get out. And on those days, I would collect together all the pills I had amassed over time, lay them out on my bed, fill a large glass with water and wait for the moment when it felt right to take them all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I don't remember how or why my life changed and the cloud lifted. But at some point, the days where I could function outnumbered the days when I could not. I went back to work, and my life carried on. Life has thrown me plenty of shitstorms since then, but blessedly the enveloping darkness has stayed in the background and I've carried on functioning. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The myth is that you can recover from depression. That's not how it works. Like an addiction, it doesn't ever go away. You learn to manage it, sometimes with medication, sometimes with other coping strategies, but it is always there. It will always be a part of me and I will always be aware that it could take over my life again. I manage this by talking to my husband very openly, and he does his best to understand. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For others, the fight was too much. For the one million people a year who take their own lives, the next day, hour, minute was too hard. It is not a selfish or indulgent whim. It is an act of purest, agonising desperation. And we can only begin to halt that by breaking down the pervasive ignorance surrounding mental illness and suicide, by abandoning judgment, educating ourselves and reaching out to those around us who are suffering with it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, take a moment today to change something for people with depression. Donate to a mental health charity, offer up your time to someone you know with depression, challenge your own perceptions of the illness and ask yourself what you can do to make a potentially life-saving difference to someone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Feel sad for Robin Williams and his family, and also for everyone worldwide who is a victim of this awful, intangible disease.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mental Health Foundation: <a href="http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/">http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Samaritans: <a href="http://www.samaritans.org/">http://www.samaritans.org/</a> 08457 90 90 90 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mind, mental health charity: <a href="http://www.mind.org.uk/">http://www.mind.org.uk/</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-78766288718063805152014-08-04T15:08:00.000+01:002014-08-04T18:25:11.897+01:00Palestine<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A post about Palestine had to happen some time. I haven't been ignoring this stream of atrocities; I just haven't been able to gather the will to write something coherent and intelligent about it. I've shared stuff on Facebook and Twitter from people far more knowledgeable than myself, spoken with friends at length about our shared horror, joined the solidarity campaigns, signed petitions and written to my MP. And still the death toll rises, the UK & US governments trot out the faux-diplomatic subtly pro-Israel speeches, and an end to the violence feels as far away as ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Today is August 4th, and from the figures I can find, the death toll in Gaza stands at <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/04/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-conflict.html?_r=0#">1,822</a>, the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians, children in particular. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have seen countless heart-wrenching images of dead children over the last few weeks. While the temptation to look away is strong, I feel it is my duty to <i>see </i>these losses, to share in my miniscule, feeble way, the anguish of their parents. I will not hide my head in the sand and get on with my cosy Western life, pretending that there aren't innocent people being killed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Violence of this nature is, of course, not restricted to Palestine. The Israeli government is not the only authority to exact terrible murderous atrocities against innocents. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Sudan, Nigeria, and more - all of these countries are experiencing ongoing violence and conflict, with untold numbers of civilian deaths and injuries. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What makes Gaza stand out, for me, is the UK's role in creating and sustaining the oppression of the Palestinian people. I shan't attempt to outline the history here, but I do urge you to look into it if you don't already know the background. In short, the Palestinians have been systematically marginalised and oppressed over the last 60 years, and broadly speaking, much of the responsibility for that rests on the shoulders of the British and American governments, both historically and currently. Today Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, called for an urgent arms embargo on Israel, and highlighted that since <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/04/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-conflict.html?_r=0#">2010 Britain has sold £42million worth of military equipment to Israel</a>. Just a few days ago, after condemning the shelling of a UN school in Gaza, the US government <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/americas/13130-us-restocks-israels-weapons-supplies">opened up their Israel-based weapons store to the Israeli forces</a> and yesterday, news broke that<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/congress-backs-225m-bill-to-replenish-israels-iron-dome-missile-defense/"> congress has pledged $225million</a> to replenish Israel's missile stocks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, the <span style="font-size: large;">people </span>of Gaza - the targets for all this weaponry supplied, largely, by Britain and America - cannot escape. They are literally walled in, and even their shelters in the forms of schools and hospitals are increasingly falling victim to shelling attacks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The pretext for this month-long wave of attacks from Israel - the "collective punishment" meted out as retribution for the kidnapping and murders of three Israeli teenagers - has <b>quietly </b>been exposed as <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/hamas-didnt-kidnap-the-israeli-teens-after-all.html">not in fact the work of Hamas, but a lone cell.</a> But has the violence abated? No. It escalates daily. And people die by the hundreds.<br /><br />I saw a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.kent.5201/posts/457499274387206">post </a>on Facebook that made for an interesting analogy:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Let's stop "other-ising" the people in Gaza for the moment, shall we. Let's imagine that these are fellow human beings, in a beyond desperate state with not so much as a hint of a light at the end of the tunnel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There are small things that each of us can do that, collectively, may make just enough of a difference to force the UK government to change its course of action (or lack thereof). There are petitions and open letters to sign, email templates to send to your local MP, charities you can support, marches and demonstrations to join - and you can carry on witnessing and acknowledging that the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza is real and gut-wrenchingly unfair. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To the people of Gaza: I see your pain and suffering. I see the destruction of your homes, hospitals, schools and livelihoods. I will not turn my eyes away from the obliterated streets lined with torn bodies and pretend you are not there. I see you. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some useful links:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Palestine Solidarity Campaign: <a href="http://www.palestinecampaign.org/">http://www.palestinecampaign.org/</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Open letter to David Cameron: <a href="http://act.palestinecampaign.org/petition/23">http://act.palestinecampaign.org/petition/23</a></span></div>
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Petition to UK government to end the conflict: <a href="http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/67165">http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/67165</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-23615210499021617712014-07-09T18:36:00.000+01:002014-07-09T21:29:41.573+01:00Bye-bye, BBC!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Don't get too excited; they're not going anywhere. I, however, have finally cancelled my Sky tv subscription and will be removing the cables and boxes from my house so that I am no longer legally obliged to pay for a television licence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's a tiny victory; one family's middle-fingered salute to the BBC in the face of their recent appallingly <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/bbc-biased-broadcasting-corporation.html">biased news coverage</a> and censorship by omission of key events. While I can't exactly imagine mournful howls echoing through BBC HQ, I do feel much happier knowing that I am no longer contributing to the public funding of a body which has failed miserably in its supposed endeavour to produce fair, impartial and balanced news coverage. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Luckily, as it turns out, you don't need a tv licence to watch Netflix, Amazon Instant Video or blu-rays and DVDs. Ha. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-19363362611534235352014-06-30T11:40:00.000+01:002014-07-09T21:30:01.915+01:00The peasants are revolting. <br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the push of a button?... What do they do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting for a new shipment of tributes to roll in and die for their entertainment. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I look up and find Cinna's eyes trained on mine. "How despicable we must seem to you" he says."</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">- The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dystopia is my favourite genre of book, having begun my love affair with it whilst reading George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" as an A level English Literature student. The latter remains my all-time favourite book to this day. I recently read "The Hunger Games" trilogy and was struck by what an interesting analogy it makes for modern politics - not so much the whole annual fight to the death, but in the narrative about the enormous and self-perpetuating divide between the wealthy privileged elite who reside in "the Capitol" and the poverty-stricken "Districts" that surround it. In a post-revolution society where the state emerged victorious over the rebelling masses, the President of "Panem" expends an enormous amount of money and effort to maintain a discourse that keeps the poor in their place and reminds them that, not only are they eternally subservient to the state, but that they should be grateful for their meagre and miserable existence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That same narrative is insidiously working its way through contemporary UK politics, via the construct of the "benefits scrounger", whom the right-wing would have you believe is hungrily devouring government resources, refusing to work and forever seeking ways to cheat and manipulate the welfare system. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It would be laughable if it wasn't so pervasive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">While the government are eager for us to believe that benefits claimants look like the cartoon below, the truth is that, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/deprivation-britain-major-new-survey-reveals-that-poverty-is-getting-worse--even-among-working-families-9547039.html">according to two recent studies</a>, <i>and </i>the government's own <a href="http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/year_spending_2013UKbn_12bc1n_40#ukgs302">expenditure data</a>, a fraction of benefits are paid to the unemployed while the majority tops up the incomes of working families who face poverty in spite of having at least one full time earner per household.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This widespread rhetoric serves but one purpose. It gives the voting public a scapegoat at which to direct their umbrage and creates a smokescreen for the far more damaging tax avoidance and mishandling of finances by the wealthiest. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">From "The Socialist Paper", May 2013</span></td></tr>
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Even taking the more conservative (pardon the pun) HMRC estimate of £30billion unpaid tax, when this is compared to the figures of benefits fraud and overpayment (£2.6billion combined), the latter is absolutely dwarfed. </div>
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Why is this not reflected in the commentary offered up by mainstream politics? Four out of five of the main parties repeat this same narrative of "cracking down" on welfare, urging benefits claimants "back into work", making austerity cuts because they are vital for economic recovery. I'm trying so, so hard not to swear here, but it is plain to see that it's all bulltwang. Whose interests are served by this? Why the wealthy minority, of course. If you tell a big enough lie and tell it often enough, you can get away with it. Orwell called it <a href="http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-doublethink.htm">Doublethink</a>, and in this case that lie enables the self-serving, pocket-lining toffs to continue voting for parties whose policies have caused the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-poorest-pay-the-price-for-austerity-workers-face-biggest-fall-in-living-standards-since-victorian-era-8991842.html">biggest decline in living standards since the Victorian age</a>.</div>
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Since getting more actively involved with politics, I've had the opportunity to talk to politicians from all around the political sphere. What has absolutely fascinated and horrified me in equal measure, is how earnestly the right wing believe their own discourse about the undeserving poor. Their outlook is what I call a Top-Down perspective; that is, that they approach social issues from a higher socio-economic position of wealth and status and see that as the benchmark to which all lower status people should aspire. If you're poor, you simply work harder to amass more wealth and get yourself out of that situation. And if you continue to be poor, it's only because you're not trying hard enough, for which you only have yourself to blame. Dependence on the state for handouts to support you is unacceptable, and they really, really believe that this breeds a calculated and deliberate ethos of choosing to rely on benefits rather than earning your own keep. </div>
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It's an outlook which is so far removed from the human element of life in the UK, you could be forgiven for thinking that these people live on the moon.</div>
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What this perspective also fails to accommodate, is that for capitalism to work, there needs to be a workforce supporting the bottom of the pyramid. As a wise friend recently put it:</div>
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<i>"It doesn't wash to say that everyone has the opportunity to "better" himself, to pull himself up by his bootstraps and become successful and affluent. That cannot work. Capitalism REQUIRES a menial and manual working class to man production. If we all bettered ourselves, the owners of the factories and businesses would be f***ed."</i><br />
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That makes perfect sense, yes?<br />
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We need doctors to look after our health; without people willing to put the time and effort into training as doctors, disease would be rife and the life expectancy and quality of life for all would suffer.<br />
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We also need bin men and street sweepers; without them willing to venture out daily in all weather conditions, carting away the bags of dirty, smelly rubbish from all our households, disease would be rife, and the life expectancy and quality of life for all would suffer.<br />
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According to the <a href="https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/refusecollector.aspx">National Careers Service</a> website, the starting salary for a Refuse Collector is £15,000pa, rising to £19,000pa for drivers. Let's just put that into perspective with findings from the <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/minimum-income-standard-2014">Joseph Rowntree Foundation</a>:<br />
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There it is, plain and simple. A refuse collector with two children could not earn enough to afford the <b>minimum acceptable</b> standard of living - not a <b>comfortable </b>standard, just the minimum. This is the sort of person who would then need to claim the likes of housing benefit and tax credits to top up their wages in order to meet the cost of living. THIS is the sort of person the government simultaneously harms with cuts to welfare and denigrates with the "benefit scrounger" rhetoric.<br />
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Let's look at a handful of other examples:<br />
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<li>A <a href="https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/foodprocessingworker.aspx">'Food processing worker</a>' could earn between £12,000 and £16,000. </li>
<li>A <a href="https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/salesassistant.aspx">retail sales assistant</a> can expect a salary between £11,000 and £15,000</li>
<li><a href="https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/callcentreoperator.aspx">Call centre operators</a> average between £13,500 and £16,000 salary, possibly progressing to £18,000 with experience</li>
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Even as a single person, someone earning the bottom end of any of those salary ranges could not afford the minimum standard of living, which the JRF say would require earnings of £16,300 a year.<br />
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This is not an issue of laziness. This is not simply solved by humiliating low-paid workers, calling them workshy and telling them to get better jobs. We NEED people in these jobs, and we should ensure that those workers are able to afford not a "minimum" standard of living, but a good one.<br />
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Austerity cuts are not working. The government's attack on the poor is morally abhorrent and will achieve nothing to improve the UK economy.<br />
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I haven't even touched upon unemployment and the despicable sanctions placed on benefits by the Job Centre. That requires a post of its very own, as does the topic of immigration, disability, and the role of the mainstream media in perpetuating myths regarding all of these areas.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-14096469274042792772014-06-22T11:27:00.003+01:002014-07-09T21:30:23.309+01:00The People's Assembly "No More Austerity" demonstration.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yesterday, June 21st 2014,<i> fifty-thousand people</i> marched through London as part of The People's Assembly march against austerity cuts to public services and welfare imposed by the coalition government. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Along with other members of Milton Keynes Green Party, I joined them alongside representatives from organisations such as National Union of Teachers, Unison, Fire Brigades Union, Socialist Workers Party, Left Unity, RMT, and many, many others. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me with other MK Young Greens members, getting ready to march to Westminster<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Chorusing chants such as "No ifs; No buts; No public sector cuts!", "Hey - ho, Michael Gove has got to GO", "They say CUT BACK, we say FIGHT BACK", the crowd set off from outside BBC headquarters on Portland Place and walked along Regent Street, through Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square, and then down Whitehall to the Houses of Parliament, stopping briefly outside Downing Street to call "Con-Dems OUT!". Passers-by took photos, cheered us on and some walked along side us. Cars driving by tooted their horns to show their support too. </span></div>
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When the march had concluded at Parliament Square, speakers took to the podium to talk about the issues that had driven us all to take part in this demonstration. While the few media outlets who have covered the day's events chose to focus on Russell Brand's speech, there were many others worthy of attention. This from Caroline Lucas, for example:</div>
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If I learned anything from the day, it was that the number of people disgusted with the government's financial tactics over the past few years is higher than I dared to imagine. It is an anger that has united many and varied groups and organisations in the UK, all of whom demand an end to the demonisation of the poor, the exploitation of the vulnerable, the contempt for public sector workers, and the greed of the corporate elite and their government allies. </div>
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This was not a standalone action. There are strikes to come, <a href="http://www.tuc.org.uk/about-tuc/britain-needs-pay-rise-%E2%80%93-tuc-mass-demonstration-autumn">further demonstrations</a> later this year and a committed campaign from <a href="http://www.greenparty.org.uk/">The Green Party</a> - who are the only mainstream political party with a <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/values/">manifesto</a> that promises fair and equal treatment for all, regardless of wealth or status. </div>
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The BBC and most mainstream media outlets elected not to give even a whisper of coverage to yesterday's demonstration. While I'm not surprised by the likes of the Daily Mail or Telegraph failing to bother with it, we should all be dismayed that the BBC, who claim to be a politically impartial news source and who are publicly funded by the licence fee - are clearly operating a right-wing, pro-coalition government agenda by covering up the people's endeavour to make heard their objections. </div>
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Social media is a powerful tool, and many others like myself are trying to raise public awareness of yesterday's action and forthcoming events. Wherever you see a photo, blog or lesser-known news story about the demonstration, please share it and keep on sharing it. We don't have the luxury of mass media on our side to tell those who are sitting at home - frightened and desperate because they're suffering due to savage austerity measures - that there <u>are</u> people out there fighting for them, trying to stop an already dreadful situation from being made worse. We can only give a voice to the voiceless if we come together and don't stop telling the world that enough is enough and that things must change. </div>
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</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-34127716749415221842014-06-18T10:41:00.000+01:002014-07-09T21:30:38.042+01:00Enough is Enough<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don't actually know where to start today. The content of this post should probably come under several different topics, but in my head right now it's all part of a big spectrum of Stuff I Think Is Just Wrong. Forgive me if the following stream of consciousness is a little jumbled. </div>
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There's a <a href="http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/national_demo_21_june" target="_blank">protest </a>in three days' time, called by the <a href="http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/" target="_blank">People's Assembly</a>, against the coalition government's programme of austerity cuts to public services and benefits. I'm going, as are several of my peers, because I want to join my voice to those who are trying - really <i>trying </i>- to change people's lives for the better and protect vital public services like the education system, the NHS, trade unions, etc. from budget cuts and frankly insane changes to legislation which erode the quality of life and basic civil rights of ordinary folk like you and me. </div>
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I have been urging everyone I know to join and support this demonstration; to show those in power that the voices of the many condemn the actions of the elite few. If ever there was a period in history where the ordinary people had the means to consolidate their collective anger at the government and pressure them to alter their course of action, it is now. We have the internet right at our fingertips to spread information and arrange demonstrations all over the country. We don't NEED to rely on corporate-controlled mainstream media to tell us what's happening in the world and whose fault it is. We COULD go out there and get the real information for ourselves, free from any elite bias or right-wing political influence. </div>
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So why don't we? Why is electoral turnout at an all time low? In the recent local and European elections, national average turnout was 35%. More than half the eligible electorate didn't even bother to vote. Even in general elections, turnout averages around 65% - so one third of voters just abstain. I hear the "well I'm not voting because all politicians are the same" logic and want to bang my head into the wall. </div>
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Political apathy enables things like this to happen:</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmaMTClQuUhl0jPBbSOwa5tfkRjGkMzLTGsUfIs9PzOU5Zpvr2XLHDAiy78CovapHD3L7KEkyGdaSL04TJNpuoc-NbdtGzSg5_-zg00DlU2821oDSMJSXmR5YFvaEGL2NasUlXMDM8qr0/s1600/TurnoutAAV.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmaMTClQuUhl0jPBbSOwa5tfkRjGkMzLTGsUfIs9PzOU5Zpvr2XLHDAiy78CovapHD3L7KEkyGdaSL04TJNpuoc-NbdtGzSg5_-zg00DlU2821oDSMJSXmR5YFvaEGL2NasUlXMDM8qr0/s1600/TurnoutAAV.png" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Another Angry Voice</a></td></tr>
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Industrial action is a necessary tool for employees of public services to demand fair pay and treatment. This legislation undermines that fundamental right, and is proposed by politicians whose election is not representative of what the public actually want <i>because </i>hardly anyone turned out out to vote for or against them. That is how people like this get into power and damaging legislation is passed. The point at which we start to get angry about it is too late. </div>
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Here's another one for you. You may or may not be aware of the creation of "Summary Care Records", that is, an electronic copy of your medical records which is stored on a central database and - crucially - available to third parties. Confidentiality? Nope, not anymore. Did you know you could opt-out of this? The deadline has since passed, and one major criticism of the database system is the inability to delete a record once created and viewed, so it is absolutely, irrevocably too late now. We were ALL supposed to receive an opt-out form in the post, ensuring that every one of us could make the choice as to whether or not to be included in the scheme. Did you get a form? I didn't. I had never even heard of such a form until last night. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfqxRbBcLA9mWRN3cXhOGgrsV4OlDcKrR1O0PIdHcUS7AM3rVQsMtd6bNcN8mecI2GFvvezVKDcXLeIt7NDzksm-mxbGnOlSCKsHB85-ts-xwfT3ZlrHY6NLTjB9hUaXQ4HrzGHaqNlvM/s1600/NHS+secrets.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfqxRbBcLA9mWRN3cXhOGgrsV4OlDcKrR1O0PIdHcUS7AM3rVQsMtd6bNcN8mecI2GFvvezVKDcXLeIt7NDzksm-mxbGnOlSCKsHB85-ts-xwfT3ZlrHY6NLTjB9hUaXQ4HrzGHaqNlvM/s1600/NHS+secrets.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Information taken from <a href="https://medconfidential.org/how-to-opt-out/">medconfidental.org</a></td></tr>
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There is still an opt-out form which you can download, fill in and send to your GP but in all honesty I don't know what possible efficacy it could have: <a href="http://www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/optout/optout.pdf">http://www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/optout/optout.pdf</a></div>
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One final thing I learned today that made me sick to my stomach:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ9fTbOq8qOjYT52aQE3l2P6vy_lJy8u_bUOr5BNVQkIVYOb6VhwOeFy-ncAafp7u7zSlOjnpPeDU8dnRim3pCh-DDJVls-QbGhxZwit5w-MVtr-eziDX4wFpAnU3A9L7VSDGjWGpaA_0/s1600/DWP+visit.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ9fTbOq8qOjYT52aQE3l2P6vy_lJy8u_bUOr5BNVQkIVYOb6VhwOeFy-ncAafp7u7zSlOjnpPeDU8dnRim3pCh-DDJVls-QbGhxZwit5w-MVtr-eziDX4wFpAnU3A9L7VSDGjWGpaA_0/s1600/DWP+visit.png" height="640" width="474" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Information from the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/dwp-visit">DWP</a></td></tr>
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Wait - what??? So someone from the DWP can just turn up - unannounced - to a person's home, and demand to see personal documents and financial information? What exactly happens if that person refuses to divulge said information, y'know, because they value their right to privacy? Why exactly does someone from the DWP need an <b>hour </b>to check through all this information? And before you tell me it's to prevent benefit fraud, let me remind you that fraud comprises <span style="font-size: large;">0.7%</span> of benefit claims, meaning that <span style="font-size: large;">more than 99%</span> of claims are legitimate. What does this really achieve then? Well it fulfills the government's agenda of dehumanising benefit claimants and reminding them that they have forfeited the right to autonomy because they had the temerity to claim benefits. Let me also point out here that a minority of benefits are paid to the unemployed; most go to working families and pensioners. Actually - just read my blog post on this very issue: <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/so-this-morning-i-flicked-on-to-bbc.html">"Oh Mr.Cameron"</a> </div>
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How does this all relate to Saturday's protest then? It is all about getting active. I can sit in my armchair, write ranty blog posts about stuff I think is Wrong, but it doesn't <i>achieve </i>anything. It might get some more information out there and express solidarity with other people feeling the same way I do, but it doesn't <i>change</i> anything. You can sit in your armchair, read my ranty blogs and feel just as frustrated as I do - but it doesn't change anything. </div>
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As long as people are apathetic about voting in elections and actions against unfair and discriminatory legislation, the privileged minority who make up our government will continue to implement austerity cuts and regulations which further erode our basic rights and quality of life. It won't change until our attitude to action does. </div>
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I will end with one final plea to engage with those who are trying to change things for the better. Come along to the demonstration on Saturday. Make it known that the government's current course of action is unacceptable - forcing people out of their homes, causing soaring rates of suicide and depression, decimating the very institutions on which British life is founded. Enough is enough. There IS another way.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-77498144692129521202014-06-03T11:49:00.002+01:002014-07-09T21:30:56.478+01:00BBC - Biased Broadcasting Corporation?<div style="text-align: justify;">
Political bias in the media is nothing new, and I'm not even the first person<i> this week</i> to suggest that the BBC are as susceptible to it as any tabloid or broadsheet newspaper. An <a href="https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/bbc-news-stop-this-media-blackout-of-the-green-party" target="_blank">online petition</a> currently boasting over 40,000 signatures condemning the BBC's failure to adequately cover the Green Party's successes in the recent elections, coupled with some <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/30/bbc-complaints-ukip-election-coverage-bias" target="_blank">1200 complaints</a> regarding the matter made directly to the BBC have certainly put the issue into the public domain.</div>
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I have to confess that, perhaps naively, I feel really let down by the BBC over this. In my youth, I looked to the BBC for fair, factual, concise and impartial reporting of current events. Everyone <i>knows </i>that the Daily Mail is the go-to paper for sensationalist right-wing <strike>gibberish</strike> articles. Likewise, the Guardian has a reputation for being lefty and having a distinct whiff of muesli and yoghurt about it. But the BBC.... they were <b>supposed </b>to be the ones firmly on the fence, carefully presenting the facts without any intentional swing to one political side or the other. Even the staff's identity cards proclaim that first and foremost, they are to strive to be independent, impartial and honest!</div>
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Historically, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC" target="_blank">criticism of the BBC</a> has been that of a liberal-left nature - in fact, as recently as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/editorial_standards/impartiality/breadth_opinion.html" target="_blank">July 2013</a>, senior Trust members stated that they felt issues relating to immigration and the EU had been represented with a definite liberal bias, and prior to that a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/18_06_07impartialitybbc.pdf" target="_blank">2007 report on Safeguarding Impartiality</a> again focused on steering away from any left-wing tendencies towards a more central position. </div>
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Well. In the wake of the 2014 UK local and European elections, I can definitely say I fail to observe any trace of liberal lefty influence. </div>
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A crude example of this; a quick visit to the BBC News home page to type "UKIP" into the search box returned 897 news article results from the last 6 months (3rd December 2013 to 3rd June 2014). Repeating the same search for the Green Party yielded just 247 results.</div>
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Impartial? What?</div>
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Taking the media-wide coverage of UKIP's "success" at the recent elections at face value, one could superficially justify this by saying that UKIP have done So Very Well and really have caused a political earthquake... Only, they haven't. </div>
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UKIP still have no MPs (granted, this may yet change at the next general election). Nevertheless, they still don't have overall control of a single council in England, Wales or Scotland. Having 163 councillors up and down the country is much less impressive once you break that down into there being only 1 or 2 in the vast majority of towns and cities. They have not even established ground as the official opposition in any area, whereas the <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/05/24/local-elections-the-surge-is-on!-green-party-gain-ground-across-britain/" target="_blank">Green Party are now the opposition in Solihull, Liverpool, Islington, Lewisham and Norwich</a>. Couple this with the Green Party's presence of 162 councillors across 56 councils, and it becomes immediately apparent that the much more established role of the Green Party at least equals the newly gained territory of UKIP. What earthquake?</div>
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But WHERE is the BBC coverage of this? </div>
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Looking at the specific <a href="http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/guidelines/editorialguidelines/pdfs/2014_eur_loc_electionpublishedgdlinesdraft27114.pdf" target="_blank">guidelines</a> drafted for the 2014 elections by the BBC Editorial Guidelines board, there should have been:</div>
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<b> "impartial and independent reporting of the </b></div>
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<b>campaign, giving <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3;">fair coverage, rigorous scrutiny and due weight</span> </span>to the </b></div>
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<b>policies and campaigns of <span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-size: large;">all parties</span></span> and candidates."</b></div>
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Please excuse me while I laugh until I cry. </div>
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Stepping away from the BBC News website for a moment, I was dismayed to see Nigel Farage on the Andrew Marr show this Sunday, enjoying a very pleasant chat with the host. A little bit of banter, some gentle teasing about whether or not Farage will challenge Nick Clegg for his Sheffield constituency in the general election next year - not a trace of the usual roasting given to prominent politicians on this programme. With Andrew Marr's help, Farage came across in a very good light indeed. "What a pleasant bloke. I'd like to go for a pint with him." choruses the mindset of the electorate. The conspicuous lack of a manifesto for the European elections <i>should </i>have been a red flag to all and should have been subject to "rigorous scrutiny". Instead, we may as well have been watching a popular quiz show for all the camaraderie displayed within.</div>
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Even Question Time has fallen into this trap, having welcomed Nigel Farage no less than 16 times since 2009, while Natalie Bennett and former-Green Party leader (and current MP) Caroline Lucas total half that number of appearances between them. Once again, UKIP have no MPs but the Green Party do. </div>
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No, accusations of pro-UKIP, anti-Green media bias are not exclusive to the BBC. But the other media outlets are not publicly funded by a licence fee, and the BBC's own charter and specific guidelines explicitly pledge to deliver bias-free reporting. Consequently, I hold them more accountable for the obvious - and it <i>is </i>obvious - right-wing slant to the recent election coverage. </div>
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Should they have ignored Farage and UKIP altogether? No, because that wouldn't be "fair coverage" or "due weight" either. But to have completely sidelined the Green Party by lumping in results with the "Other" category, by giving ten minute interviews with defeated Liberal Democrat members immediately after the Green Party pushed them into fourth place in the European elections, by publishing daily articles on the antics of UKIP candidates, members and supporters and thus keeping UKIP more on the population's radar than any other party - that has wholly and entirely deviated from their own guidelines. </div>
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I strongly suspect that a "rigorous scrutiny" of the BBC's election coverage guidelines compared to the actual output from the past two months would demonstrate a gross deviance and generate many more than the current 1200 complaints on the matter. In an age where two-thirds of the eligible electorate didn't even bother to show up and vote, the role of news media in communicating the policies and values of each and every party cannot be underestimated. As a publicly funded body, the BBC owes its readers and viewers a truthful representation of who will offer them what, and not some circus act propaganda for who will, inevitably, turn out to be a very dangerous party with some very dangerous ideas. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-70074551565795029542014-05-13T19:23:00.002+01:002014-07-09T21:31:19.446+01:00Why I'm voting Green on May 22nd, and you should too. <div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Fear leads to anger. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Anger leads to hate. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hate leads to suffering...</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">- Master Yoda</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">That's right, I am prefacing a political blog post with a quote from Star Wars. Read on, and this will all make perfect sense. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Today I received a message from a dear friend asking <i>"Tell me, why not UKIP? and why Green?".</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">With 9 days until the local and European elections, this is a question I'm sure many people are asking. Satisfaction with the traditional three main parties is at an all time low, and the new kid on the block - UK Independence Party - has experienced a meteoric rise to infamy as a result. Newspapers have reported ever-increasing support for them in the form of "protest votes" against the existing government and the as-yet unforgiven Labour party. You could be forgiven for thinking that they had proposed a set of policies that would make millionaires of us all, bring about world peace and end global poverty. The truth could not be much further from this. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Before I continue, I would like to say that I have refrained from writing any UKIP-bashing posts for the simple reason that there is already a plethora of literature that neatly summarises why they are a party largely consisting of </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10015155/Am-I-a-misogynist-Ukip-politician-answers-critics-with-female-photo-gallery.html" style="font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">misogynists</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/26/ukip-founder-alan-sked-morally-dodgy_n_2190987.html" style="font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">xenophobes</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10813779/Ukips-choice-of-a-homophobe-in-a-by-election-tells-you-all-you-need-to-know.html" style="font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">homophobes </a><span style="font-weight: normal;">and generally quite unpleasant people. They have most recently been labelled as fascists, the response to which was a call from </span>three<span style="font-weight: normal;"> senior UKIP MEPs to have <a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/05/13/ukip-arrest-people-who-call-us-fascists" target="_blank">everyone naming them so arrested</a>. So much for free speech...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Why are they so bloody popular then? WHY have polls suggested that <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1259558/ukip-set-for-comfortable-win-in-euro-elections" target="_blank">more people will vote for UKIP</a> than any other party, despite <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/04/most-believe-ukip-contains-racists-poll" target="_blank">acknowledging that their views are racist</a>, amongst other things??</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">That my friend asked me to explain how and why to choose between two such fundamentally different parties illustrates the crossroads at which many voters currently find themselves. This isn't like choosing whether to have jam or peanut butter on your toast for breakfast. UKIP and the Green Party could not be any less alike. There is quite literally no crossover in their policies, their core values or the personal philosophies of their members. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Those among us who no longer have any faith in the Conservatives, Labour or the Liberal Democrats are crying out for a legitimate alternative to bring about BIG changes that truly mirror what the people want, and what is actually good for the country. UKIP have capitalised on this through the very powerful medium of <i>fear, </i>specifically that which is directed at the contentious issue of immigration. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fear is a powerful tool. <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/big-bad-benefit-bashing-bandwagon.html" target="_blank">The Conservatives have utilised it</a> well in the last four years, constructing a rhetoric that maligns the low-wage earners, non-earners and disabled. While benefits are slashed, sanctions imposed, and lives quite honestly torn apart, the neo-Dickension construct of the "<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/27/rich-poor-deserving-undeserving" target="_blank">undeserving poor</a>" has thrived and kept the public's attention focused on <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/so-this-morning-i-flicked-on-to-bbc.html" target="_blank">blaming 'benefit scroungers</a>' for the UK's financial woes. In a similar vein, UKIP's primary focus is on immigration as the root cause of the UK's problems and they have wasted no time stirring up plenty of fear around it. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.952941); font-weight: normal;">They speak of "uncontrolled immigration" coming from the EU, and cite themselves as the only way to "Return power to the UK" by leaving the EU and effectively closing the UK's borders. There's a whole lot of hate there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.952941); font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><i>Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.952941); font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">So then. Why are the Green Party a more viable alternative? <u>Why </u>would having more Green MEPs, more local Green councillors and, following next year's general election, a Green Party government (dream big, people!) be better for the UK? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.952941); font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Because their message is one of <i>HOPE</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Politics should work for the benefit of all, not just those who shout the loudest or have the deepest pockets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We believe in “The Common Good”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It takes a great leap of faith to vote for a message of hope, for a party that seeks to embrace unity through diversity. It is far easier to buy into the negativity that UKIP and the Conservatives spread and to accept their scapegoating of the poor and vulnerable. But for a <i>real </i>change, to have a political system that has the interests of all areas of society at its heart, and not just the ones with the power and money to influence those in office, the only party with a legitimate claim to offer this, is the Green Party. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">For further reading, please look at the Green Party's European manifesto: <a href="http://greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/European%20Manifesto%202014.pdf" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And for a really rather amusing summary of why the Green Party's policy on the EU is a hundred times more promising than the other parties, have a watch of this</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span></span></div>
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May 22nd. Vote Green.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">(It seems the gremlins are interfering with my video posting as well as text formatting, so if you can't see the video above - it is there, honest! - here is a nice link to youtube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDsV8YumePk" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDsV8YumePk</a>)</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-29128714000160666082014-02-28T10:38:00.002+00:002014-07-09T21:31:38.200+01:00I'm going on an adventure!<div style="text-align: justify;">
A lentil-y sort of adventure anyway... I have decided to become vegan. It's been on my mind for a while since my mum became vegan last year, and this week I decided to take the plunge and just go for it. I was vegetarian for many years before getting pregnant with my eldest son (whereupon a violent aversion to cheese led me to start eating chicken and then gradually pretty much anything!) so I'm not a complete novice at avoiding particular food. </div>
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Why vegan and not just vegetarian again then? That's the question I've been going over for some time. I spend a lot of time writing about, ranting about and worrying about <i>human </i>rights and the plethora of infringements we witness on a global daily basis. It struck me as just plain bizarre that I don't worry about animal welfare in the same outspoken way. It's not that I don't care; I do. It just hasn't gotten me as worked up as the stuff I've written about people. And I cannot, for the life of me, explain why. The more I pondered this, the more I realised that I've suppressed my feelings on the meat, poultry and dairy industry because, selfishly, I really like the way it all tastes. </div>
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Unlike many vegans I've met, this is not a spiritual matter for me. I do not have an ideological problem with eating meat. Having studied human evolution, I am satisfied that our bodies are intended for the digestion of meat and that we are supposed - biologically speaking - to be omnivorous, as many animals are. I have always maintained that I would only eat meat if I knew that I would be prepared to kill an animal myself. It seems immensely disrespectful otherwise to say "Well I'll eat this piece of flesh, but only if I can distance myself from the fact that it once belonged to a living, breathing creature". No, you have to accept where your food comes from and take ownership of what you're eating. </div>
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For the past decade, that way of thinking has enabled me to push aside the guilt I felt through eating meat. I managed to bypass the farming and industrial element of meat production in my thought process, but <i>now </i>I realise that is where my issue lies.</div>
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It's no secret that the meat, poultry and dairy industries are brutal. There is a wealth of evidence to demonstrate that the animals in this process are not happy or comfortable. They are not treated with dignity, respect and compassion. While I don't have a problem with eating meat per se, I do take real issue with mistreating another living creature in the name of making meat, eggs and dairy more cheaply available to the masses. </div>
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Why not just eat organic meat and free range eggs then? Because I don't trust them. The "free range" label on egg boxes is misleading. The hens who lay those eggs are not merrily meandering round a nice lush field, laying when they want to in nice, comfortable coops. In order to qualify for the "free range" label, it is only necessary for the hens to have access to outdoor space for a portion of the day. They may well never actually GO outside, because they're too scared or unwell. I'm not going to get graphic about this or post any of the emotive imagery or video on the matter, but if you really want to learn more, the internet has a vast array of footage. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Vegan-Dummies-Alexandra-Jamieson/dp/0470522143/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393584326&sr=1-1&keywords=living+vegan+for+dummies" target="_blank">Living Vegan for Dummies</a></td></tr>
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This is going to be a huge adjustment for me, basically because there is nothing I love more on a Sunday morning than a bacon, egg and cheese toastie. I've bought a 'Veganism for Dummies' book to ease myself into this lifestyle and already identified many recipes that my husband and I cook together which can be easily tweaked and made vegan-friendly. Fortunately for me, he's very supportive (although he did sulk briefly when I asked him to leave the fish sauce out of the Thai curry paste he was making). </div>
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With any luck, I'll have lots of stuff to<strike> bore you with</strike> post as I learn more. Wish me luck!<br />
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Indulge me; I do like a bit of alliteration...</div>
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British television's flavour of the month seems to be poverty porn - we've seen a multitude of programming dedicated to the so-called "benefits culture", purporting to present a factual analysis of life in the UK's welfare state but in reality feeding the spiraling right-wing propaganda that demonises the poor and maligns the vulnerable. </div>
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I couldn't bring myself to watch very much of it. At most, I managed a cursory glance to establish the level of rage it would induce. For the most part, I apprehensively scanned over social media to watch the reaction of the general public to the smorgasbord of poor people circus acts that was paraded in front of them. Regrettably, the internet didn't disappoint and a plethora of "get a job", "lazy scroungers" blah blah blah, commentary poured forth.</div>
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I'm not going to rant about precisely why these programmes are both ludicrous and obscene. Many others* have already done a far more eloquent job than I could in recent weeks. I would like to organise my personal feelings on why this whole topic bothers me so much.</div>
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On one point - and one alone - I believe David Cameron and I share common ground. There IS something very wrong with the mentality of modern Britain. However, where he lays this at the feet of those at the bottom of the social food chain, the feckless and lazy, I believe we all have a part to play. This is not simply a problem of work ethic, of wanting "something for nothing". There is a massive clash of ideals in today's Britain and we are seeing more of the consequences of that each day. </div>
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I remember sitting in an A level Sociology lecture, discussing issues of "Class" and learning how various social theorists distinguished one class from another. The notion of 'gratification' came up, and it was neatly imparted that the Working Class value instant gratification above delayed gratification; that short term gain is more appealing than working hard now for something that takes longer to come to fruition. The latter is the preserve of the Middle and Upper Classes, which of course explains social mobility - or the lack thereof - and why the poor stay poor and the rich get richer. It didn't make sense to me then, and even less so now. I was reminded of this recently, however, whilst on my soap box about the credit industry and personal debt. </div>
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This is where I place much of the blame (for want of a better word) for the alleged crisis we face today. </div>
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Ok, so that's a somewhat simplistic overview. I don't <i>just </i>hold the credit industry responsible. Rather, it represents the worst of the disposable, materialistic, instant-gratification based society we have become. We want the shiniest things NOW. We don't want to spend months or years saving up first. Why should we?? We can buy the damn thing immediately, and worry about paying for it some other time. You don't even have to be well off to do this - in fact, you don't even need a great track record for managing to pay for all the things you bought NOW (but neglected to pay for LATER). With an abundance of "poor credit lending options" there's the option to pay a premium and STILL have the shiniest of the shiny things. Because commodities matter. Advertising tells us incessantly that gadgets and gizmos are no longer the playthings of the wealthy, but more vital tools for the everyman and woman. </div>
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Who, right now, is reading this blog on a smartphone or a home computer? Do many of you have your flatscreen tv on in the background too? Are you sitting comfortably on your 0% interest sofa? These things are NECESSARY, if you believe the advertisers - and it's pretty hard to ignore them (unless you're my mum and choose not to own a television at all!). </div>
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We have very quickly constructed a society in which things matter more than people. And that is massively incongruous with the reemerging Victorian rhetoric of the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/27/rich-poor-deserving-undeserving" target="_blank">deserving and the undeserving poor</a>, to which it runs parallel. </div>
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Briefly, the current economic climate is <a href="http://acuriousorange.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/so-this-morning-i-flicked-on-to-bbc.html" target="_blank">not the fault of low wage earners</a> or those out of work altogether, despite what the mass media and the Tories would have you believe. The poor and vulnerable make a neat scapegoat precisely because they lack the means or power to speak up against the propaganda which ostracises them. Yes, benefit cheats and career claimants exist - in a negligible minority. Where there is a system, someone will play it. Fraudsters and confidence tricksters have always existed, and I suspect will always exist. They are not limited to a particular socio-economic class or faction of society. </div>
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If we must beat our chests and shout about those who play the benefits system, let us also apply the same to the large corporations and wealthy individuals who fiddle the tax system; to the members of parliament who exploit loopholes in expenses legislation; to the workplaces who subtly discriminate against minority employees. In fact, let's take this down to the micro-level and vent spleen at everyone who ever ducked a library fine for a late book; who boarded a bus or train without a ticket; who squished their salad down inside the medium-sized plastic tub in Sainsburys to avoid paying for a large. </div>
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Where there is a system, someone will play it. This is not new. It's not right either, but let's not allow ourselves to be duped into believing that there exists sufficient manipulation of the welfare state to explain away every financial difficulty the UK faces today. It's simply not true. More than 99% of those claiming benefits - and let's again remind ourselves that many of those people ARE working - have no nefarious agenda. They are just people trying to get from one end of the month to the other with bills paid, a roof over their heads and food on the table. </div>
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Whenever I read a comment about a benefit claimant with a flat screen television or the latest model smartphone, I want to bang my head into the wall. Which discourse do we favour then? The one which tells us we all NEED shiny gadgets and makes them readily available to anyone and everyone, regardless of employment status or the contents of your bank account? Or the one which reduces those on incomes too low to meet the ever rising cost of living to a less than human state, and views them as mere leeches on the fine, upstanding<i> "hard working" </i>earners? The two cannot exist together, and until we accept that and begin to deconstruct them, we will never move beyond the selfish and resentful circle in which we are collectively currently trapped. </div>
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<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fxoXWyoRdP4SQUTYUvX3xW3vDcA9-SdecScO21bPF6176PS0kCbab2SGvlVqF1Ws2xDXGNRfUHc5-4QgZnFWgnjZk93K9HE92bIbStXb1hdpXMxhz9MCwRUeGuqBbdpme2P-5eTyg3Y/s200/bang-head-here.jpg" /></div>
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<b>*Further reading:</b></div>
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Ragged-Skirted Philanthropist: http://raggedskirt.blogspot.co.uk/</div>
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Buddhuu: http://www.buddhuu.com/</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-27837344137757440822014-01-11T11:46:00.000+00:002014-01-11T11:46:02.031+00:00Happy New Year (eventually!)Once again, it has been far too long since I had the time to write a post and there are dozens of topics racing round my head at the moment. Seeing as we have a whole new year to get our teeth into, I would like to say something about my hopes and thoughts for 2014.<br />
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Though it may seem twee, I do like a good New Year's Resolution and have made a few of my own. Firstly, I need to get my driving license. Milton Keynes is not the sort of place you can easily get by without a car, not least because public transport here is appallingly unreliable and hideously expensive. Secondly, I am determined to finally shift the excess 2... ok, 3.. FINE 4 stone in weight that I'm currently lugging around. Yes, I know. I've blogged at least once about body imagery and basically sticking two fingers up at a society that demands women conform to a certain size in order to be considered attractive, BUT my desire to lose weight is not about being attractive. Alright, if I'm going to be entirely honest, maybe there is an element in there of wanting to feel pretty but for the most part, this is a health issue. As I've previously blogged before, I have fibromyalgia which leaves me feeling pretty wrecked 99% of the time. Every morning I wake up and every bit of me hurts, I feel nauseous, headachey and as exhausted as though I hadn't slept in days. It's not unlike feeling epically, <i>permanently</i>, hungover. My doctor has told me off about my weight a few times and really believes that shifting the flab will alleviate my symptoms. It's worth a go, hey!<br />
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Here's the problem I have; it's not as though I haven't tried to lose weight before. In fact, I've spent almost the entirety of my twenties feeling self-conscious and frumpy, wanting to slim down, trying all sorts of diets and fads, and yet I suspect I'm currently bigger than ever before. This is not even slightly uncommon, and I think I've finally realised why. Typically, I'll buy low fat or fat free options wherever possible; diet coke, fat free yoghurt, light soft cheese, lean beef mince, and so on. That's the healthy option, right? Apparently not! All this stuff might be low in fat but instead it's packed full of sugar, salt and artificial flavourings to restore the taste that is lost by taking out the fat. It wasn't until people on the weight loss section of Mumsnet pointed out that fat (in food) doesn't make you fat that I started to actually think about what I've been eating and why I haven't been losing weight. I felt pretty shocked and in all honesty quite stupid. It's prompted me to start <b>really </b>reading the nutritional information on the food I buy and I've completely stopped buying anything marketed as fat free or low fat. Just to illustrate the point, I used to love the Activia fruit yoghurts BUT one teeny 125g pot contains<b> over 16g</b> of sugar. Right then, I thought. I'll go for plain yoghurt instead. Comparing the labels of the low fat and full fat options, it seems that where the full fat option has 5.1g of sugar per 100g, the fat free has a staggering 8.9g! I'm completely appalled and kicking myself for years of trying and trying to slim down, really believing that I was choosing the right foods and all the time I couldn't have been more wrong.<br />
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I'm not going to go down the path of waxing lyrical about one method of weight loss over another. Everyone's metabolism and personal tastes are different and the key is really in understanding your body and what works for you on both a physical and an emotional level. I envy people for whom food is nothing more than sustenance, but for me and many like me, my relationship with eating is very emotional and not in a good way. So my goal - or more accurately, my hope - for 2014 is to change my relationship with food, ditch the sugar addiction and eat proper, real food where I KNOW what's in it and where it has come from.<br />
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Perhaps the next time the topic of childhood obesity comes up, we could all take a moment to think about what we really know about the food we eat and how we really understand what our bodies do with fat, protein, sugar, etc. I'm a reasonably intelligent woman and I got it horribly wrong. It's not really that much of a surprise that we have an obesity epidemic on our hands when we can't trust the labels on the food we buy, particularly when that food is presented to us as the norm over buying masses of fresh ingredients to prepare each and every meal ourselves from scratch.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5030962967373140178.post-30213837367839937782013-11-13T16:42:00.000+00:002014-07-09T21:34:38.708+01:00Money, money, money<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><i>For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. - Timothy, 6:10</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">It's not often that I look to the Bible for gems of wisdom, but I find this particular extract ubiquitously true. I've often heard it paraphrased as "money is the root of all evil", but I think that misses out a crucial human element. Currency in itself is neither evil nor benevolent; but the pursuit of wealth, the ease with which we exploit fellow humans in a bid to maximise profit and reduce expenditure certainly forms the foundation of pretty much every worldly evil I can think of that we visit upon one another. I've pondered this one for a while and I cannot think of one single atrocity that cannot be traced back to money. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">Periodically, I struggle with writing about humanity. I find myself drawn into existential crises, unable to justify why we spend so much of our lives worrying about things that really - in the grand scheme of things - just do not matter. I watch the news and despair at how unkind we are to each other, whether that's one person committing a violent crime against another, entire governments carrying out appalling attacks on their own citizens, or deeply ingrained social attitudes about immigration, benefit claimants, drug abusers, obesity, mental illness, etc. It alarms me even more when I put this into the grander context of civilisation and realise that we are pretty much living in a golden age of compassion, by historical standards at least. There is not a single period in history that springs to mind where human beings were habitually kind to one another and endeavoured to improve the lives of their fellow men and women for no reason other than that they could. Instead our history books are overflowing with records of war, torture, oppression, slavery, bigotry and murder. Yes, this is all punctuated with notable examples of philanthropy, but the fact remains that the instances of People Being Nice To Each Other are comparatively few and far between.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">In essence, human beings, as a species, are not very nice. And that's before we get anywhere near how we treat animals and our planet. This is only dealing with how we behave towards each other. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">It all comes back to money and the acquisition of wealth. I've posted before about global corporations exploiting the poor and doing an astonishingly good job of covering it up, because they have the means to do so. Global industry is so rife with this sort of behaviour, that it's very difficult to buy "necessary" products that are 100% ethically sound. I do not wish to perpetuate the exploitation of my fellow man but the likelihood that my clothes, furniture, mod-cons and food were all manufactured by companies endeavouring to ensure that every member of staff at every level of production was properly paid, well treated and happy is slim to none. Why? Because business need to make profits. Bigger profits than their competitors. Oh, and they need to keep the costs for the end user at the lowest possible so they don't lose customers to competing companies, so profits can't come from hiking up the prices at that end. The profit margin has to be struck between minimising the cost of production and offering a attractive price to the masses. The company who can come up with a way to strike that balance will be a ground breaker indeed!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">Business isn't the only culprit. Socially, we (at least in the developed world and specifically, for the purpose of this rant post, the UK) are greedy and invest far too much emotion in the value of Stuff. I read a fantastic piece a few days ago about the audacity of poor people daring to own shiny things (here) and it really brought home to me how ludicrously cyclical the whole thing is. Appearing to be well off is important, even if you're flat broke, so we have credit options for those without the actual cash to buy the latest commodities and endless upgrades to quickly outdate the latest shiny thing for those who do have this kind of disposable income. Oh, but be careful not to flash your non-existent cash too much or you risk incurring the wrath of... well... of people who think they have the right to pass judgment on whether you fall under the banner of the "deserving poor" or the "undeserving poor".</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">It's all changing at the moment. It used to be ok to be poor; there was a reasonably decent welfare system to stop you from hitting rock bottom and a bearable stigma to claiming from it legitimately. Then something happened, a sea change came upon us and now we face an extraordinary conundrum where even middle of the road earners cannot afford to own or rent their homes, pay their bills AND put food on the table without an income top-up from the state but our newspapers and social media chatter are filled with extreme and inflated examples of the workshy fiddling the system to fund a decadent and frivolous lifestyle. If this was your only source of information, you could be forgiven for thinking all poor people are scheming and manipulative, plotting their next move to extract cash from the hard-working wealthy upper class, all while the poor fatigued government endeavour to instil some manner of work ethic into the nation. Yes, Mr. Cameron, I'm looking at you again. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's not even ok to be disabled anymore. Just in case you were wondering... I have always believed that you can judge how civilised a country is by how they treat the vulnerable and the deviant. Our deviants are probably not doing too badly, compared to the rest of the world. We don't have capital punishment anymore, we don't (officially) carry out or endorse torture. There are massive gaps in the efficacy of our justice system, but I'll take it over that of the USA or China, thank you very much. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our vulnerable, however, are not faring so well. Thanks to New Labour's moves to reduce the number of Disability Living Allowance claimants - and let's not forget, for all that I loathe about the Conservative party, it was New Labour who brought in ATOS - even the life-limitingly unwell are targets. Got cancer? Well you can still sit in a chair and type, right? You over there - missing three limbs? Pfft! That one remaining arm could stack shelves! Mental illness? What's that?! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Medical assessments of a person's fitness for work are being carried out by people with no medical background. Consequently, people who are utterly unemployable are told that their disability benefits are to stop and they must <i>try </i>to find someone who will give them a job and then hope to God that they can actually turn up to work every day and fulfil the requirements of that job without either being fired for unreliability or dropping dead from the stress and strain. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Why are we doing this to people? Because the government need to save money and reduce what they're spending. Never mind the fact that benefits make up a TINY fraction of their annual expenditure - in fact, in the last fiscal year, more was paid out in interest on national debt than on unemployment benefits. Poor people make an easy scapegoat because we don't have the means to fight back. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once again, it's all about money. WHY do we accept it? The government have constructed a very helpful rhetoric, demonising those with the temerity to be poor and we are buying into it. Those who fight back are quickly dismissed as bleeding heart lefty liberals. Well I know where I would much rather align myself.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I fully intend to post again about this issue, hopefully in a less ranty capacity. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this thought:</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09976902188181000222noreply@blogger.com0