Sunday 30 November 2008

Grown Up!

Things I've done this weekend for which I could be regarded as middle aged:

1. Baked
2. Listened to Joni Mitchell
3. Ironed
4. Been to a school Christmas Fair
5. Hob-nobbed with parents while buying raffle ticket for prizes such as Baileys liqueur and Imperial Leather.
5. Been to an Art gallery
6. Cleaned the flat

This has to stop! Only three weeks to go until the Christmas break. Before that, party season is here, woo. This should reset the balance:

1. Advent house party on Canal Street
2. NQT night out
3. Manchester lash
4. School Xmas party
5. History/Geography party
6. Collette party
7. Christmas dinner at Alan Towers.

Right, off to go running, otherwise I will be the size of a house!!

Tuesday 25 November 2008

Where's the compassion?

I recognise that this is fast becoming a 'bash the Tories' blog, however...

The Shadow Health Secretary says that a recession has its good points because people are forced to drink and smoke less.

Yes but,

They also lose their jobs,
have their homes repossessed,
find it difficult to feed their kids,
have a greater chance of developing mental disorders,
can't refuel their car,
can't get a mortgage...

The list goes on.

Are we to be surprised? This is a government that wants tax and spending cuts when people need help most. The 'invisible hand', takes fags out of people's mouths, it's government's duty to put money back in their pockets - without sounding like a Pinko, we know that unfettered capitalism has a tendency of shitting on people.

Fin.

Monday 24 November 2008

Reflections on the PBR

If pre-budget reports generate this type of interest then god knows what will happen with next spring's budget. Will set 3 PSHE (year 8) bring it up in lesson; will my most challenging pupils question the government's fiscal stimulus?

Apart from being a rather amusing euphemism, the 'fiscal stimulus' announced by Darling today (no 'Blackadder' jokes please) and the whole PBR are significant on any number of levels.

Of course, we're in the middle of the gravest financial crisis since the end of the Second World War (when Mr. Keynes went to Washington and the country was nearly declared bankrupt). However, that said, the proposals outlined today are very interesting in ideological terms and have ensured that the battle lines are well and truly laid for the next General Election (whenever that may be).

Ideologically the most striking element of the report is the creation of a new 45% tax bracket for those earning over £150,000. For 11 years in power, New Labour has been reluctant to use Old Labour ideas re: the redistribution of wealth. Blair and co. have followed Thatcher's mantra on that one - you work hard, your earn your wage and you deserve to keep it. However, what Darling has done today is introduce some old fashioned socialism - the taxes of the rich will be redistributed to the less well off. This token gesture will do little to alleviate the inequalities of welath that have developed over the past three Labour governments. Politically, however, the Chancellor may have found the golden bullet for victory at the next Election. Old reds will, of course, say that he had hitherto failed to see the wood for the trees...either way the left is winning the argument hands down.

Most analyists agree that today Darling has taken a huge gamble. For the first time in years there is clear blue water between the two major parties. They differ on traditional policies of tax and spend and will present two very different manifestos to the public in 2009/10. The Chancellor will be praying that his prediction for an upturn in the economy (supposedly next year) actually happens, otherwise George Osborne will be sending out the bills.

The Tories have reverted to old fiscal conservative ideas - a major threat to Cameron's compassionate conservative public relations bandwagon (Est. 2005). The trouble is, conservatives can't bring themselves to stomach the projected levels of public debt that Labour plans will have generated by 2010. They have therefore shrunk from standing 'shoulder to shoulder' with the government and Brown now derides them as being perhaps the only major political party in the world which opposes the bail out plan offered by himself and other western governments. The Tories' big problem is that they fail to recognise that it isn't necessarily a disaster to run a deficit-based economy (even if those deficits, admittedly, are projected to reach £100 bn). Yes, long term, this will mean an increase in taxes - however, the Tories fail to see short term problems (that's why they're called the nasty party) - help the poor now, in part by a redistribution of wealth, allow everyone to get rich again and the economy to improve and then pay for it when 'the sun is shining' (with measured tax increases, rather than a 'bombshell' - that's old fashioned scarmongering and playing politics...)

If you think about it - 'social progress' or whatever you want to call it, requires considerable debt. You need to spend more so people will become 'better producers' and economic growth results. If you spend roughly the same amount in as you receive in tax receipts then there is a very clear danger of stagnation. Where's the incentive for growth? This is the very essence of progressive politics.

Was Brown too easy with the cash last year and the year before when the sun was shining? Maybe. That doesn't mean that present difficulties are not being solved in a sensible way.

Hurrah for socialism - back on the agenda!

Wednesday 19 November 2008

B.loody N.asty P.arty

The publication of a membership list for the BNP raises fundamental questions for civil liberties. Leader Nick Griffin has a point when he says that the banning of becoming a member of a political party is a restriction of freedoms. True, liberty is the freedom to do as you please as long as it does not infringe upon the liberty of others. This raises two issues:

1. Membership of the BNP does, in many cases, cause an infringement of the liberty of others. The party, despite what Griffin says, is not an interest group for a particular group of people (white 'British'). Rather, it incites racial hatred towards other Britons, thus infringing their liberty.

2. Teachers, doctors, lawyers and soldiers have a responsiblity towards those they work for. There is a conflict of interest if you are in the BNP and a bobbie on the beat round Oldham.

The police is right to vet applicants for membership of far right parties. I will argue for free speech for such groups for ever and ever. However, in this case, their membership needs curtailing.

Saturday 15 November 2008

Misc

Music I've been enjoying recently:

1. 'The White Album' - The Beatles
2. 'Only by the Night' - Kings of Leon
3. 'Oracular Spectacular' - MGMT
4. 'Intimacy' - Bloc Party
5. 'We are beautiful. We are doomed' - Los Campesinos

I've also seen a few films recently that deserve a mention:

1. 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' - A strange concept in that it's probably the first children's film about the Holocaust. Not quite as powerful as I would have expected, although the end cannot be faulted.

2. 'Quantum of Solace' - Let's just say that I was satisfied. This wasn't as good as Casino Royale. What made that film special was perhaps the poker game in the middle - it gave it some gravitas and anchored the film's various set pieces. Quantum, by contrast, seemed like one continuous action scene. I liked the development of Bond's character and disagree with those who moan that he doesn't seem to be having any fun. However, Bond does need to go back to basics somewhat next time. This means bringing in Moneypenny, and Q!

3. 'Goodbye Lenin' - A fantastic film about a German man who deludes his socialist mother into thinking that the GDR stills exists even though the Wall has come down while she was in a coma.

4. 'Come and See' - Part psychological horrer - part horror film from Belarus. Made in 1985, this is an extremely distubing film about the Holocaust.

Books - currently reading Marquez's 'Solitude' but I'm not giving it the attention it deserves. This is not the kind of book you can read for 10 minutes each night...

Ciao :)

Thursday 6 November 2008

Good 'ol BO

Like most people, I went into work yesterday with a spring in my step...Like most people I can safely assume that history was made on the 4th November and that date will go down in the record books (along with 9/11, perhaps?) as the two defining moments of the early 21st century. Hyperbole does not exist under these circumstances.

"Sir, did that Barack Banana person win last night?"
"Yes, Amy"

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a small lump in my throat as Barack Obama accepted victory. Cool, calm, collected - his words chosen carefully, measured, every-inch the statesman. Obama's oratory is inspiring, the way he uses his words harks back to Dr. King and Kennedy.

In my opinion he shares another, potentially devestating characteristic with these chaps - he's a target for assassination. Bush was never going to get popped. Right wing extremists would have seen him as no more that a namby-pamby politician slipping too far towards the so-called 'left' for their liking. Obama represents change - the last young Democrat promising that had his head shot off whilst travelling in an open top car in Dallas, Texas.

When he gave his speech, Obama appeared behind bullet proof glass for the first time - I should hope it won't be the last. Two neo-Nazi skinheads were convicted last week for a plot to assassinate the President-Elect. He will have to tread carefully, for all that is required for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing..

Tuesday 4 November 2008

The day of reckoning

My Sixth Form questioned my sanity today when I plowed on with our work on representative democracy. What was I doing when the most important and hotly contested elections was taking place 'across the pond'? I must admit that I was easily diverted onto tangents as the pupils asked me all sorts of questions about the election taking place today. The truth is that (and this is no understatement), today is potentially not the most important day in recent political history, but AMERICAN history (all US history is 'recent'). The point is simple; America stands on the cusp of electing a black man as president. I repeat; AMERICA STANDS ON THE CUSP OF ELECTING A BLACK MAN AS PRESIDENT. This is the same country where, 40 years ago, a black man could not wander round the deep South without fear of being lynched. A place where, as a black man or woman, you couldn't sit on the same seat, drink in the same bar, piss in the same toilet (!!) as a white man or woman as little as forty years ago.

The 'separate but equal' doctrine was the most deplorable addition to the US statute book in the country's short history. In WW2, black and white men fought in separate regiments. It's 40 years since King made his speech and to be honest, with the weight of all this history, it seems almost unbelievable, almost too early, for America to be electing a black president.

But here we are. I make no apologies for being excited. This isn't anorak, politics geek stuff. This is progress, a giant leap forward on the road towards equality. IF Obama is elected, everyone will be able to say where they were the day America elected its first black president. And for a country that has slipped into the shadows of criminality and misgovernment over the last 8 years, it will seem even more like a new beginning. One thing that three years of uni study of American history/politics taught me is that America, for all its plusses, has a not particularly admirable history when it comes to intolerance - from immigrants, to negroes, to communists - all have fallen victim to conservatives and reactionaries who form the backbone of the much divided American body-politic. Thankfully, the side that I agree with now appears to be in the ascendant and should elect a man who, like FDR and JFK before him, will signal change for America.

True, he will face a mammoth task, what with the financial crisis and the weight of expectation. I personally feel that he'll have to watch his own back too - he's probably going to be an even bigger assassination target than Bush - the latter didn't particularly rile the skinheads - Obama is their worst nightmare. His name sounds like Osama and his middle name is Hussein for god's sake!

Anyway, all in all I'm happy - go Obama, go!