I wonder what Mrs Cameron is buying Mr Cameron for Christmas?
I imagine that they have enjoyed reading How to Spend It together, planning what kind of presents would impress their friends in Oxfordshire or on Boxing day at Chequers.
Given his recent gruelling schedule I imagine ear plugs and a face mask to enable him to nap as he flies around the world, would be a good present.
Alternately a phrase book so he can say NO in twenty seven languages or, perhaps a dedicated iphone so that he can stay in in touch with the Chancellor, that would be useful when the Triple A rating is reduced to Alpha Minus and they need to call the Samaritans!
David Lammy's book on the riots makes interesting reading.
Whilst it is not polemical its analysis is insightful and has the benefit of being based on personal experience, you get the feeling that he was there. It also, usefully, positions him as the future Barack Obama of Tottenham when he makes his bid as the next leader of the Labour Party.
The analysis is good but the prescription, as is so often the case is weak, not every gang member or young hoodie or single parent family wants a key worker sitting at the kitchen table offering guidance.
They just want a share of the profits.
Essentially Lammy is looking carefully to find that ephemeral thing, good capitalism, in which workers can feel that they have a stake.
And in doing so he quite properly castigates the bankers for privatising profit and socialising their losses, they kept the profits for themselves and were then bailed out by the taxpayer, who has been encouraged by this dreadful con dem coalition to think of the people on benefits as their enemy rather than those who award themselves enormous bonuses or who year on year manage to avoid paying their taxes.
My father was a Bus Driver in Manchester, he didn't get a bonus other than the pride he took in his work and he paid his taxes.
As a public servant he was essential to the effective running of the urban infrastructure. He got people to work on time and he got them home again. Reading Lammy's book put me in touch with why people could take pride in being 'working class'.
Their wages represented a share of the profits.
His analysis of the impact of Council House sales by Mrs Thatcher is also accurate, it was the underlying cause of the ghettoisation of the unemployed and the constant reinforcing of the development of estates where generations of unemployed live increasingly dependant on benefits because they have been refused a share of the profits.
Lammy touches on the John Lewis Partnership which is certainly a better model than Lehman Brothers, but what he seems to have missed, although I haven't quite finished the book yet, so it might be in there, is the good old, old fashioned Co-op, where as a member I both own the business and have a share in the profits.
Mutualisation is not an old fashioned gimmick in fact it is a thoroughly modern concept and points us to a better and more co-operative relationship between all sections of society.
And it is urgently needed now because we are quite probably seeing the death throes of the Capitalist Dinosaur.
It's clearly broke and needs to be fixed, radically fixed.
To be radical means to get to the roots of things and to re-examine them.
2012 is the International Year of Co-operation. It offers an opportunity to get to the roots of how a society can be managed for the good of all its Citizens and put new systems into effect that mean that we all, not just the bankers amongst us, receive a share of the profits.
So I hope that Mrs Cameron finds something simple for Mr Cameron to enjoy during the Christmas recess, I suggest two tickets to Manchester and visit to the Co-operative Museum in Rochdale.
Cheaper than a visit to the Leonardo Exhibition at the Tate and on the way home they can share the profits with a nice bottle of co-operative wine on the train..
I imagine that they have enjoyed reading How to Spend It together, planning what kind of presents would impress their friends in Oxfordshire or on Boxing day at Chequers.
Given his recent gruelling schedule I imagine ear plugs and a face mask to enable him to nap as he flies around the world, would be a good present.
Alternately a phrase book so he can say NO in twenty seven languages or, perhaps a dedicated iphone so that he can stay in in touch with the Chancellor, that would be useful when the Triple A rating is reduced to Alpha Minus and they need to call the Samaritans!
David Lammy's book on the riots makes interesting reading.
Whilst it is not polemical its analysis is insightful and has the benefit of being based on personal experience, you get the feeling that he was there. It also, usefully, positions him as the future Barack Obama of Tottenham when he makes his bid as the next leader of the Labour Party.
The analysis is good but the prescription, as is so often the case is weak, not every gang member or young hoodie or single parent family wants a key worker sitting at the kitchen table offering guidance.
They just want a share of the profits.
Essentially Lammy is looking carefully to find that ephemeral thing, good capitalism, in which workers can feel that they have a stake.
And in doing so he quite properly castigates the bankers for privatising profit and socialising their losses, they kept the profits for themselves and were then bailed out by the taxpayer, who has been encouraged by this dreadful con dem coalition to think of the people on benefits as their enemy rather than those who award themselves enormous bonuses or who year on year manage to avoid paying their taxes.
My father was a Bus Driver in Manchester, he didn't get a bonus other than the pride he took in his work and he paid his taxes.
As a public servant he was essential to the effective running of the urban infrastructure. He got people to work on time and he got them home again. Reading Lammy's book put me in touch with why people could take pride in being 'working class'.
Their wages represented a share of the profits.
His analysis of the impact of Council House sales by Mrs Thatcher is also accurate, it was the underlying cause of the ghettoisation of the unemployed and the constant reinforcing of the development of estates where generations of unemployed live increasingly dependant on benefits because they have been refused a share of the profits.
Lammy touches on the John Lewis Partnership which is certainly a better model than Lehman Brothers, but what he seems to have missed, although I haven't quite finished the book yet, so it might be in there, is the good old, old fashioned Co-op, where as a member I both own the business and have a share in the profits.
Mutualisation is not an old fashioned gimmick in fact it is a thoroughly modern concept and points us to a better and more co-operative relationship between all sections of society.
And it is urgently needed now because we are quite probably seeing the death throes of the Capitalist Dinosaur.
It's clearly broke and needs to be fixed, radically fixed.
To be radical means to get to the roots of things and to re-examine them.
2012 is the International Year of Co-operation. It offers an opportunity to get to the roots of how a society can be managed for the good of all its Citizens and put new systems into effect that mean that we all, not just the bankers amongst us, receive a share of the profits.
So I hope that Mrs Cameron finds something simple for Mr Cameron to enjoy during the Christmas recess, I suggest two tickets to Manchester and visit to the Co-operative Museum in Rochdale.
Cheaper than a visit to the Leonardo Exhibition at the Tate and on the way home they can share the profits with a nice bottle of co-operative wine on the train..
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