Why Labour needs to get a grip on immigration
There was an intersting article on multiculturalism in the Guardian today by David Miliband. He endorses a report by the Searchlight Educational Trust into race, multiculturalism and identity. In a letter to the paper I stated that he is not strictly correct when he says that the third of the population who class themselves as ambivalent on the issue of multiculturalism identify with Labour. A more accurate description would be used to identify with Labour as it was this group, predominantly the working class, that deserted the party in droves at the last election. READ MORE
Monbiot comes out fighting
On Wednesday night I joined about a hundred people at Warwick Arts Centre for the opening night of “Gentleman” George Monbiot’s Left Hook tour. I wrote the event up for the Guardian. His central contention was that the Conservatives are opposed to big government simply because state spending means transferring money from the rich to the poor. To do this they have exploited the current economic crisis to undertake a massive programme of deregulation and the withdrawal of state funding. The key to achieving this? “Strike hard and fast in the first six to nine months before people wake up to what is happening.” This, he concluded, is exactly what we are now seeing in the UK with a programme of cuts much faster and deeper than the deficit demands.
What volunteering do you do?
With the relaunch again of the Big Society its worth asking yourself the question what volunteering do I do? Well if you’re Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister and the man charged with making all the cuts to the public sector, the answer is um, er I go to church and thats an unfair question. Check out his highly embarrassing interview with the BBCs Eddie Mair below. Now the Daily Telegraph is questioning whether he is the right person to be speaking on the Big Society which they rightly point out has enough problems as it is. And for the record in case you’re interested Francis I help run a community football project in Stratford-Upon-Avon working with disadvantaged young people in conjunction with, you’ve guessed it, my local church.
Private forestry comes out of the woodwork
Want to know who will really benefit from the big forestry sell off? Well a good starting point would be to look at who has benefitted so far from timber sales in 2011, put on hold today by the government. You can check out the winners yourself here. One undoubted winner is Tilhill forestry, the UKs leading forestry and timber production company, with a turnover in excess of £100 million. In fact of the 3 lots of forestry put on sale to date none have gone to community groups or charities. Included in the lots is land in Sherwood Forest, the New Forest and the Forest of Dean. Could it be that rather than wanting to put in place more safeguards on access and biodiversity, the real reason the government decided to put the sale on hold is they didn’t want to be selling off our forests to private companies at such a politically sensitive time?
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