It is a sad, tragic even, reflection of our society when school children asking for nothing more than access to education are charged at by policemen on horseback.
This article in the New statesmen puts it better than I.
Saturday 27 November 2010
Saturday 20 November 2010
The future's bleak. The future's Tory.
Education for The few. Justice for the few. And another party at least in principle of the centre left veers awfully rightwards. The Lib-Dems have gone the way of Labour.
The wave of ideologically driven Tory cuts sever off the possibility of a decent education for all except those able to swallow debts of up to 30K. Most graduates even now struggle well into their 20s, if not their 30s, with the current debt burden. The escalation of this burden will kill off the principle of education for all, and the future of ideas, in the process. If you see yourself as middle class now be sure, if the con-dems get their way, your children won't. Perhaps this is why the MET let the students storm Tory HQ. Or more likely it was the prospect of deep slashes in police budgets and the inevitable frontline lay offs that'll follow (no matter how many printers different police forces end up sharing). If you think the streets aren't safe now, just wait. If in 1997 things could only get better the message of 2010/11 is things can only get worse.
The scariest thing about this government is how subtly they lay into the remaining principles that make this island a tolerable place to exist. Education for all being one. Equality before the law being another.
The proposed cuts in legal aid are hardly grabbing the headlines in the same way that cuts in child benefit did. However these changes in funding will do more than threaten small law firms. They will fundamntelly erode human rights as outlined by the EU.
Once these cuts to legal aid kick in the application of civil law will be determined by one's ability to pay, which harldy seems inmpartial by anyone's understanding. For example, Mrs Jones has recently left her husband. She lost her job a year before, and the resulting financial stress led to a deterioration of her relationship and she is worried for her children's safety. She will no longer have the support of legal aid to assist her in clarifying her marital status. If we assume that Mrs Jones is from a country outside the EU, she could be faced with deportation, and separation from her children who were born here. But she will not be entitled to legal aid in support of her case. Even if you are fired unjustly, and left jobless, and unable to claim full benefits because you were fired, then don't expect assitance from the state to contest the case.
So just a few months in to a new government and we see already the undermining of the welfare state, access to education effectively denied, the back door privatisation of the NHS, and justice for the rich alone. Soon it will be like the class struggles of the 20th century never happened and we'll exist in a future dreamed up by a delirious reader of the Daily Mail or Norman Tebbit with a fever, that has skipped straight out of the Victorian era, only with flashing lights, mobile phones, and the distraction of Sky TV.
In Wales, privy council decision permitting, we will soon have the chance to vote agisnt this, and to install a parliament based on the values of the people, not the preserve of the elite, the dozen or so millionaires who now form the backbone of the executive and that sit in cabinet.
Bring it on.
The wave of ideologically driven Tory cuts sever off the possibility of a decent education for all except those able to swallow debts of up to 30K. Most graduates even now struggle well into their 20s, if not their 30s, with the current debt burden. The escalation of this burden will kill off the principle of education for all, and the future of ideas, in the process. If you see yourself as middle class now be sure, if the con-dems get their way, your children won't. Perhaps this is why the MET let the students storm Tory HQ. Or more likely it was the prospect of deep slashes in police budgets and the inevitable frontline lay offs that'll follow (no matter how many printers different police forces end up sharing). If you think the streets aren't safe now, just wait. If in 1997 things could only get better the message of 2010/11 is things can only get worse.
The scariest thing about this government is how subtly they lay into the remaining principles that make this island a tolerable place to exist. Education for all being one. Equality before the law being another.
The proposed cuts in legal aid are hardly grabbing the headlines in the same way that cuts in child benefit did. However these changes in funding will do more than threaten small law firms. They will fundamntelly erode human rights as outlined by the EU.
'Equality before the law’ means first and foremost that the law should apply to all persons in an equal and consistent manner. For the law to be applied in an impartial manner."
Once these cuts to legal aid kick in the application of civil law will be determined by one's ability to pay, which harldy seems inmpartial by anyone's understanding. For example, Mrs Jones has recently left her husband. She lost her job a year before, and the resulting financial stress led to a deterioration of her relationship and she is worried for her children's safety. She will no longer have the support of legal aid to assist her in clarifying her marital status. If we assume that Mrs Jones is from a country outside the EU, she could be faced with deportation, and separation from her children who were born here. But she will not be entitled to legal aid in support of her case. Even if you are fired unjustly, and left jobless, and unable to claim full benefits because you were fired, then don't expect assitance from the state to contest the case.
So just a few months in to a new government and we see already the undermining of the welfare state, access to education effectively denied, the back door privatisation of the NHS, and justice for the rich alone. Soon it will be like the class struggles of the 20th century never happened and we'll exist in a future dreamed up by a delirious reader of the Daily Mail or Norman Tebbit with a fever, that has skipped straight out of the Victorian era, only with flashing lights, mobile phones, and the distraction of Sky TV.
In Wales, privy council decision permitting, we will soon have the chance to vote agisnt this, and to install a parliament based on the values of the people, not the preserve of the elite, the dozen or so millionaires who now form the backbone of the executive and that sit in cabinet.
Bring it on.
Saturday 30 October 2010
Big Society- Big Spin.
This is an important time for Wales, and let no-one tell you any different. The problem lies in the fact that we have a Con-Dem government set on cutting what it can from public expenditure, and selling off the rest. While my statements about the Passport Service, for example, are at this point speculative we can be certain that DEFRAs decision to sell off what it can of England's forests. At least in Wales, under a Plaid rural affairs minister, we have opted to keep Forestry Commission land in public ownership.
This will be the the first of many proposed state sell-offs under the Con-Dem government. I'm not sure exactly what a Big Society is but the only thing worse than Big Government is an unregulated private sector. It seems to me that Cameron's vaunted, and taunted, Big Society is the worst kind of spin- disguising slap dash spending cuts and privatisation, the ransacking of communities and the foundations on which they are built, in the name of profit- brushed off and over in the name of 'public consultation' and 'people power'. It is the shame of the Labour Party that MPs in safe seats would not consider a rainbow coalition to keep the Tories out. And we can see now how both Labour and the Lib Dems are more than prepared to say one thing in government and another in power. Say what you like about the Tories but at least you can always expect the worst of them.
Over the next few months the people of Wales will have the historic opportunity to establish their own parliament. The Assembly has been a success in many respects but there is far too much un-devolved and left in the hands of the likes of Blair, Cameron, Brown, and Osborne. With a proper parliament we can insulate ourselves against the worst, and build a nation in stark contrast to that of the the current Conservative and Lib Dem government.
On a separate but essential note I'd like to express my solidarity with 10,000 workers facing lock out in the Rhondda.
This will be the the first of many proposed state sell-offs under the Con-Dem government. I'm not sure exactly what a Big Society is but the only thing worse than Big Government is an unregulated private sector. It seems to me that Cameron's vaunted, and taunted, Big Society is the worst kind of spin- disguising slap dash spending cuts and privatisation, the ransacking of communities and the foundations on which they are built, in the name of profit- brushed off and over in the name of 'public consultation' and 'people power'. It is the shame of the Labour Party that MPs in safe seats would not consider a rainbow coalition to keep the Tories out. And we can see now how both Labour and the Lib Dems are more than prepared to say one thing in government and another in power. Say what you like about the Tories but at least you can always expect the worst of them.
Over the next few months the people of Wales will have the historic opportunity to establish their own parliament. The Assembly has been a success in many respects but there is far too much un-devolved and left in the hands of the likes of Blair, Cameron, Brown, and Osborne. With a proper parliament we can insulate ourselves against the worst, and build a nation in stark contrast to that of the the current Conservative and Lib Dem government.
On a separate but essential note I'd like to express my solidarity with 10,000 workers facing lock out in the Rhondda.
Saturday 23 October 2010
The future of the passport service?
Anyone with even a passing interest in Welsh and Newport affairs would have heard already at the planned closure/jobs decimation at the Newport passport office, but the issue could well have resonance for all those worried at how the current Con-Dem administration plan to overhaul/ruin our public services.
The civil service, no doubt inspired by self interested analysts (hired by new labour) in the business consultancy community, have determined that there is 'spare capacity' in the passport system. 'Spare capacity' is a very ambiguous word to use in the context of a public service and it neatly disguises the fact that the UK'S Identity and Passport Service is profit making.
Plaid Cymru of course supports the PCS and other trade unions in their battle to prevent the planned closures.
Given that the service is performing well, with just a perceived bit of slack in the system, what is the motivation behind the passport office closures? Tighten this slack and it may well prove impossible to get an emergency passport given the waiting list and demand in the existing offices. It is difficult to be conclusive of course without access to government documents. Rest assured that there is a comprehensive Freedom Of Information Request being made to this extent. What is clear however is that public sector cuts are not the only aspect of Tory DNA. They are driven too by the desire to privatize and push public profit into the hands of shareholders. It may well, therefore, only be a coincidence that Sarah Rapson the current CEO of the Identity and Passport Service was once a senior manager for American Express- the company that runs an emergency lost passport service in partnership with the UK government.
I, for one, look forward to the Home Office denying there are any plans whatsoever in privatizing any aspect of the UK's passport service.
The civil service, no doubt inspired by self interested analysts (hired by new labour) in the business consultancy community, have determined that there is 'spare capacity' in the passport system. 'Spare capacity' is a very ambiguous word to use in the context of a public service and it neatly disguises the fact that the UK'S Identity and Passport Service is profit making.
Plaid Cymru of course supports the PCS and other trade unions in their battle to prevent the planned closures.
Given that the service is performing well, with just a perceived bit of slack in the system, what is the motivation behind the passport office closures? Tighten this slack and it may well prove impossible to get an emergency passport given the waiting list and demand in the existing offices. It is difficult to be conclusive of course without access to government documents. Rest assured that there is a comprehensive Freedom Of Information Request being made to this extent. What is clear however is that public sector cuts are not the only aspect of Tory DNA. They are driven too by the desire to privatize and push public profit into the hands of shareholders. It may well, therefore, only be a coincidence that Sarah Rapson the current CEO of the Identity and Passport Service was once a senior manager for American Express- the company that runs an emergency lost passport service in partnership with the UK government.
I, for one, look forward to the Home Office denying there are any plans whatsoever in privatizing any aspect of the UK's passport service.
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