Tough on children, tough on the causes of children

In the Guardian today, a story about a possible vote winner for Gordon Brown has emerged from the party conference. The story is prefaced with the byline 'Attempt to woo Middle Britain with tough line on anti-social behaviour' and is about a return to the Blairite plan of stealing the Tory crime rhetoric.

Yet here Brown has gone further, the policy of parents of poorly behaved children having to submit to parenting classes or risk losing their benefits is plainly drafted to appeal to the traditional Tory heartland of 'Middle England.' This is evidence that the Labour party, not only want to take the rhetoric but the policies of the Tories too.

This policy, quite apart from not delving deeper into anti-social behaviour and the actual reasons behind it rather just blaming the parents, seems to be an indication that Labour are trying even harder to alienate their traditional support from the working classes and in the north in the push for middle england. The Lib Dems should be very pleased with this, yet again there is evidence of space on the centre left for a party that really does prioritise the needs of the working classes.

This is the perfect time for the Lib Dems to fill the gap on the centre left as Labour continue to slide to the right, on a collision course with the Tories. By the election you won't be able to tell them apart.

Tories and Lib Dems, a cigarette paper between

Or it seems not, after David Cameron has spent the last couple of days trying to woo Lib Dem voters and activists by claiming that there’s ‘a cigarette paper’ between the two parties, Chris Huhne on the Today programme brutally rebuffed these claims.
His discussion with Tory chairman Eric Pickles picked up on all the important points why you shouldn’t vote Conservative and why the Lib Dems are a much fairer, more progressive party. One is the fact that Tory tax cuts only benefit the rich – from his figures only 3,500 estates will be positively affected by their idea to raise the inheritance tax threshold on properties worth over £1million. Another is the fact that, despite what Cameron says, a lot of the party is institutionally racist and homophobic, as displayed by their willingness to ally with extreme right wing parties in Europe.

Also in the media, Nick Clegg has denounced the Tories as ‘the party of crime’ in the Guardian, and the attack on the Tories is beginning to get the Lib Dems some more exposure and showing that overall their policies are quite sensible and closer to Labour than the Tories. And after a poll showed that 36% of voters don’t know who he is he needs that a lot.

The fact that few people know much about him and his position on key issues may yet prove to be an advantage, as he has a lot of people who have no opinion on him available to be convinced into voting Lib Dem.


Who knows whether this will work? Only the election results will show, but if Gordon Brown manages to regain some ground too, the Lib Dems may gain enough seats for a hung parliament. Wishful thinking?

Who's the best of a bad bunch?

In the blogsphere recently there have been lots of posts about who people are voting for when the general election rolls around. Most people seem fairly sure of where their vote is going. Me? I really have no idea which party to vote for (providing the election is held after I turn 18).

Tories: Still the nasty party, nothing could make me vote Tory. Sorry Dave.

Labour: If they moved a bit further to the left they would be an automatic choice, but at the moment their handling of the financial crisis could have been better... or they could have not caused it in the first place. Also the policies section of their website just tells me what they've done so far in power not what the stand for or want to do in the future. Smacks of either arrogance or defeatism. But if I am indeed in the Ilford South constituency I will probably vote Labour as Mike Gapes seems to be doing a good job.

Lib Dems: An interesting proposition, their flagship policy of abolishing tuition fees entices me, but the prospect of it being ditched doesn't. Clegg's taxation policies seem quite left wing from what he said on the Andrew Marr show, but I can't see myself voting for them as they seem unlikely to get in.

So despite their flaws, it seems I'll be voting Labour. I just wish it was a better labour.

Foot in mouth time

Boris Johnson’s theory that the 2012 Olympics in London will inspire a new generation of sportsmen and women, apart from probably being rubbish, has brought out a great quote from the mop top tory.

“For every cynic there are thousands of budding Tom Daleys, eager to reap the benefits of the Olympic legacy with bigger better sports facilities and a huge sporting momentum.”

Right, for every one of those cynics - 57% of young people questioned in the Young Londoners Survey, who reject BoJo’s theory – there are thousands of young athletes. It seems BoJo and his team still haven’t mastered statistics

Both parties will cut - Neither should.

The Tories have embarked on another set of contradictions, criticising Gordon Brown for preparing to cut public spending, when it’s obvious that Cameron’s conservatives will cut, as they continue to delay on committing to what their public spending policies actually will be for the next election. In their economic policy section they continue to talk about tax cuts. In the middle of a recession the plan must be that these tax cuts will encourage people to start spending and borrowing again. Brilliant news, this economy of debt has collapsed, so lets re-inflate the debt bubble again in what they call “Real economic change.”

I’m no expert on economics but these tax cuts will leave an even bigger hole in the public finances and force the public spending cuts that Cameron seems to hate so much.

Any economist would tell you not to cut during a recession and Adam Lent at Liberal Conspiracy explains it a lot better than I ever could, stating that “Spending reductions cause job losses in the public sector and job losses and financial problems in the private sector (as the state’s procurement of services and products from private companies is reduced). This increases the bill to the state for unemployment benefit and also for increased spending on health, social and police services – the demand for which always rises during periods of higher unemployment.”

Spot on, neither party should be looking at wholesale cuts, Labour might be, but the Tories probably are. Which one would you want in government?

Daily Mail polls

The last refuge of the pointless question, the Daily Mail poll continues to hit new depths. A recent question asks: Should history be a compulsory subject in our schools?

What a completely vague question. History is already compulsory up to the end of KS3, which goes up to the end of Year 9. By then students should have a pretty good grasp of some important events and really, unless they choose to study it at GCSE, why should they have to continue?

It seems likely that most of this 94% have read the question and assumed that History is no longer compulsory up to any age, which is of course untrue.

What is a more useful issue to be discussed is the extent of politics taught in PSHE and Citizenship lessons, to stop the current generation being completely apathetic regarding having their say and voting.

The sad case of Iwao Hakamada

Japan is one of the few countries in the developed world where the death penalty is in use, and of the countries that do, their system is especially brutal and in contravention of basic human rights. Death row prisoners are denied visitors, not allowed to speak to other prisoners, often placed in solitary confinement, and not even allowed to look guards in the eye. This is the sort of treatment that could turn the most well adjusted person insane.

No wonder it turned Iwao Hakamada completely mad, when asked “Do you know what an execution is?” the former record breaking boxer who has been incarcerated on death row for 41 years replied “The wisdom never dies. On that kind of wisdom, this is wisdom. It never dies. There are lots of ladies in the world, lots of animals. Everyone is living and feeling something. Elephants, dragons. No way will I die … I won’t die. There’s no one who will die. Somewhere around God you can live.”

Hakamada is obviously insane, psychiatrists have described him as having “institutional psychosis and “a state of insanity.” What civilised country would murder this man? It would be morally wrong as well as in contravention of international law.

If Hakamada is executed – which can happen at a moments notice in Japan – it will be the most terrible miscarriage of justice. There are still doubts over his conviction, two of the three judges in his case convicted him, and the other resigned and became a defence brief. The evidence in the trial is flimsy, a signed confession obtained under duress from someone in a questionable mental state and clothing linked to the case which didn’t fit him.

Amnesty international are calling on the incoming government of Japan - led by the Democratic Party of Japan – to put an immediate halt to executions. They have stopped short of that, although a national debate on capital punishment has been promised.
Anyone who has read this, I urge you to show your support, and demand a retrial for Iwao Hakamada through Amnesty international here

Why I hate school assemblies

1) First day back and the head teacher decides to tell us about the brilliant GCSE and A-Level results they’ve got, conveniently missing out our AS results which were generally poor. We’re already at your school, you don’t need to impress us.

2) I would have been able to go home 1hr and 20mins earlier if we hadn’t had one.

3) Two in one day, during PSHE and afternoon registration, the sort of thing that causes gaping self-inflicting bullet wounds.

4) The head teacher always looks so self-satisfied.

5) Swelteringly hot day and we aren’t allowed to take our blazers off, equals sweating disgustingly.

6) Talking about how they “produced” the last year, they’re people not products.

7) Giving the teachers and the school almost all the credit for good results, the students worked bloody hard too!

The sad state of tabloid journalism - rubbernecking and demonising

What Amanda Platell is doing in her column about the dreadful attacks perpetrated by two young boys – however unwittingly – is the same thing she seems to be railing against, drawing conclusions about the nature of the case without the full facts.

The “apologists” she talks of are equally guilty of this, blaming society and some also painting the attackers as victims too, the tabloids are guilty of blaming their upbringing, and the Mail is cannot knowingly label them as pure evil.

None of these journalists have access to a detailed psycho-analysis of these two, none of them know the full details of their upbringing, yet journalists across the board continue to speculate on why these attacks happened.

The reporting throughout this case, especially in the Sun and slightly less to in the Mail has been despicable, the worst being the Sun’s list of how these boys attacked their victims, the gory details played out on the front page, a case of pure rubber-necking for the paper, who really play to the lowest common denominator. Phrases like “devil brothers” and “hell boys” may provide a cheap laugh, but when every story of this type is sensationalised in this way, horror stories like this lose their impact.

Even the clinical psychologist in the Sun is just speculating about how the two may have egged each other on to commit these acts, she doesn’t know why, we don’t know why and it’s possible the lawyers, parents and even the two children themselves don’t know why.

NHS Scandal is non-story

The Tories have reacted with their normal offended faces, despite the fact that under Cameron’s administration they would be making even more cuts, albeit sneakily through the back door.

In the Guardian, Conservative health spokesman, Andrew Lansley said: "Yet again, Labour ministers are failing to be straight with the British people. Andy Burnham [the secretary of state] promised to protect the NHS, but now we find out that his department has been drawing up secret plans for swingeing cuts.”

Typical party politics, criticise the other party for doing something which they’re not doing (the report wasn’t even ordered by the Department of Health) when they plan to do the same thing anyway

It’s not just those ‘pen pushers’ everyone who reads the Daily Mail hates, whose jobs would be cut, clinical staff could see their jobs disappear, when hospitals are already stretched for staff.

The Daily Mail has another shocking revelation, that:

“Patients may have to be discharged from hospital much earlier, outpatient appointments could be scaled back, and minor treatments such as varicose vein removals and tonsillectomies may be banned.”

They’ve either got some secret information that no other news source has found, or more likely they’re making it up.