27th June 2013

It has been clear from the outset that the aim of the con-dem project is to bring the Post War Settlement to an end.

It's not even a negotiation.

It certainly was not in the manifesto of either the Liberals or the Tories.

But at the end of the spending review, as George Osborne pointed at the Communities Secretary, the aim became clear, small government if not a small communities secretary.

Although if he keeps eating those burgers, especially if he cuts down on the exercise by parking in disabled spaces so he doesn't have too far to walk to the burger bar, then George Osborne may well be weighing down the bench that his honourable friend weighs down at the other end.

One can only hope that before too long it will be the opposition benches they are weighing down.

Today's Times, of course welcomes all the cuts, the welfare caps and swallows the abuse of the statistics without so much as a hiccough.

The Guardian is rather more critical as you might expect.

But the real question surely, is, what is true about all this?

The Post War Settlement reflects the fact that thousands of British Citizens paid an enormously high price to defeat fascism and when they returned to the UK after demobilisation, they demanded more and better.

My Father told me that when he was demobilised he returned to his job at Avro's in Manchester. At the end of his first week back, on a Friday afternoon, whilst leaning on his workbench chatting to workmates that he had not seen for years and doubtless reminiscing about those who had not returned, the foreman came over and upbraided them.

Not paying you to stand about chatting.

My Fathers response was clear and immediate, I didn't spend six years fighting a war to have to put up with this and with that he left. It was only a chance meeting with a friend that resulted in him finding a job as a Bus Driver which he did for the next thirty years.

But the Settlement, the homes for heroes, the nationalisation of industry, the health service and most importantly Beveridge's welfare proposals, celebrated in Ken Loach's film, The Spirit of '45, were a recognition that working people had paid a high price for Victory and the world had changed beyond recognition.

Now people were being offered security in health, security in their homes and security in their jobs alongside a promise made by the Government that full employment was guaranteed.

Now we have exchanged security for insecurity, insecurity in health, the post-code lottery, insecurity in homes, a housing shortage, withdrawal of housing benefit and the bed room tax, insecurity in jobs, with zero hour contracts, and redundancies growing and the only promise from this administration if you can't stand on your own two feet, we're not going to support you.

And the wallpaper millionaire continues to wallpaper over the cracks.

Margaret Thatcher once argued, there is no such thing as society, that  is no longer an argument as becomes increasingly clear as the rhetoric of the con-dems builds into an assault on the poor, those without work and those reliant on benefits to survive, who will now have a week to wait before they can even claim their benefits.

Pensions, have been protected, but for how much longer will that continue?

I guess what is needed is a new Social Contract, a post crisis Settlement, but who would you trust to draft it?

Cameron and Clegg? Milliband and Balls? UKIP?

A recent survey in the Financial Times suggests that the coalition is winning the political argument as less people feel affected by the cuts than did a year ago suggesting that there is little interest in or appetite for the public debate we need.

 Maybe that will change with the latest spending review because there is no sign of austerity ending anytime soon.

22nd June 2013

What does a better world look like?

As the early Mancunian Punk Band The Tunes reflected, with an ironic nod to Superman, in the title of an early EP: Truth, Justice and The Mancunian Way.

It seems that there is little of Truth or Justice around at the present time.

In the NHS the Quality Care Commission is in jeopardy after whistle blower intervention resulted in the the Health Secretary offering to speak out on behalf of patients.

Or rather more threateningly claiming that he wanted to seen as the Michael Gove of the NHS.

The series of coups, strange comings and goings in the world of finance, with the outgoing Governor of The Bank of England being awarded the rather doubtful accolade of enjoying a Governorship of two halves and the outgoing Head of RBS appearing to not want to leave at all, leaving us all in doubt as to whether he was pushed or did he jump?

And as for Justice, well it seems that we can't afford that either and so the usual fudge of tendering and selling off to the the lowest bidder appears to suggest that the accused will face arrest, trial and if condemned subsequent internment, not at the pleasure of Her Majesty, but of the CEO of G4S.

At least it appears that the speed limit on The Mancunian Way, as well as other Motorways and Dual Carriageways, will be held at 70, apparently it is a response to the view that women drivers are uncomfortable with the proposal to raise the limit to 80.

I must admit I found that a little strange, having recently been out riding on the Harley through the highways and byways of East Cumbria, to have been overtaken  by a young lady driving a souped up skateboard with a Peugot badge, who nearly dumped both me and the Harley into a ditch leaving me if not shaken certainly not stirred.

I'm sure that she wouldn't mind having the speed limit raised, but then again knowing that you could travel legally at 80 would somehow take the pleasure from speeding and you would have to aim for ninety at least.

I had to chuckle at the news that at the recent G8 Summit, President Obama, who is first generation Irish himself, thus when he is visiting the Emerald Isle it's O'bama, insisted on calling George Osborne, Jeffrey.

Apparently confusing him with an R&B singer called Jeffrey Osborne.

Although I rather sense that the confusion arose from O'bama remembering a few of the singers' titles, not the least his 1982 hit, 'Eenie Meenie', or the 1988 song titles, 'She's On The Left', although who she might be is left open to question, it would still doubtless represent a challenge to the politically dry Chancellor who would prefer the singers other 1988 song, 'Can't Go Back on a Promise'.

Well, he promised austerity and austerity is what you've got, so don't complain.

Rehearsing the dream of a future built on Truth and Justice brings  me back to the Co-op.

Always in the business of creating a better world customers of the co-op in Cumbria are being offered a chance to buy a few extras and to donate them to the Food Bank.

It seems to me to be neither True nor Just that whilst the con-dem's continue to play their fiddles, it is on their watch that the numbers of individuals dependent on Food Banks  to feed their families continues to grow.

It is becoming a national disgrace.

So perhaps Mr Osborne, instead of downloading his namesake from iTunes, should have spent his time more usefully looking at the web-sites of The Trussel Trust or Church Action on Poverty, not to make a donation. That won't do, but to review and revise his policies which are forcing families and children into poverty.

In Brazil protests are increasing because the protesters are making a simple connection between the price of public transport and the unaffordable and increasing costs of bring the World Cup to Brazil.

Football, which has brought so much joy to individuals in Brazil and allowed so many gifted players to escape poverty and become rich in Europe, is now as the FIFA Circus prepares to roll into Town, being seen for the unaffordable junket that it is, with so many able to dip their bread into the free flowing Gravy.

Its a shame that The United Kingdom plc wasn't forced to rethink its own junketing over the past few years. This is not Ancient Rome people don't want Bread and Circuses, or Jubilees and Olympics, for many just the bread would be enough.

As Jeffrey Osborne sang with Dionne Warwick in 1989 and as George Osborne should realise, it's the Governments job, for which they were elected to, 'Take Good Care of You and Me'.

6th June 2013

So the Milliballs have entered the debate.

Austerity. Deficit Reduction. Keeping to the Osborne numbers.

Yawn.

Perhaps, as co-operators they could have offered a vision of a co-operative future?

Perhaps as Labour they could have invoked the Spirit of '45?

I wonder what a really radical manifesto might look like?

The Home Office could lead on immigration and Europe proposing a more open and integrated approach.

Welcoming, as the Bible encourages us, the stranger, who will, as immigrants to these shores have for centuries, enrich our social and community  life.

Still with the Home Office, policing should become local again, more Dixon's and fewer Jack Regan's with costs remitted back to local authorities to manage budgets.

Education could help us engage with the future by helping us to learn how to research and discover knowledge and information, as the Academy I helped to come into being in Bradford, debate could inform both pedagogy and governance.

After all true knowledge was defined by Samuel Johnson long before google, as not necessarily knowing a thing but knowing where to find out about it.

The DTI could become the DCD, aka the Department for Co-operative Development tasked by the Milliballs team with encouraging and promoting co-operative solutions across the whole industrial sector from manufacture to finance and retailing.

A co-operative Britain would be a Britain in which we all had a stake because we were all members, who knows, maybe even those who are agitating for a little England solutions might change their minds when every half year instead of paying tax, they received their divi', from the treasury, the first and continuing fruits of Co-operative UK.

Defence, well here is one strong candidate for a radical solution, Trident is enormously expensive and in the new world order, as Jack Reacher teaches us, we need a different form of defense, tanks and nuclear subs belong to the old order, now we need light, fast response teams who can be deployed in support of friends around the globe.

Indeed, the first victim of austerity should be a massive saving in the defence budget, releasing funds for ensuring that in the future we need have no fear of being nuked out of existence.

Health, by now we know full well that big is not necessarily good. So close big hospitals. Open or re-open or where they exist, use local cottage hospitals. Invest more in nursing and allow nurses to do more. GP's should operate from District Hospitals with fewer consultants and high cost specialists. Strip out the bureacracy and high cost management. In India heart surgery can be undertaken for £2000 not £200,000 with similar results and standards of care.

Agriculture, food, fisheries and all that well we needed to be reminded that we are digging a huge hole under our feet, we are encouraging the despoliation and defoliation of the earth beneath our feet. Our way of living is unsustainable over the longer term. The natural world is buckling under the weight of the demands we make for energy and in particular fossil fuels.

Again as the Bible reminds us, the Earth is the Lord's and all therein is. So those industrialists and exploiters, oil companies and energy providers need to be reminded that they are stewards not owners, the riches of the earth are not theirs for exploitation but for careful, long term nurture.

And, of course, the high point of the vision shared by the Labour leadership would be the nationalisation of the energy companies, the natural resources whether it is gas, oil or coal are a national treasure owned by us all. Properly stewarded we could all enjoy the benefits of co-operative energy into a sustainable future.

In Norway the state's direct involvement in the energy industry has brought huge benefits a strong economy and generous welfare provision. The profits instead of disappearing into the coffers of  international companies shareholders, they bring benefits to the people of Norway, through the arts, culture, welfare and personal and individual security for the citizens of Norway.

Which brings me to one final radical thought, perhaps an incoming Labour Government should be concerned to ensure that the wealth generated by Co-operative UK should be shared equally across the generations through a massive programme of house building, employment creation in the arts and care sectors as well as in manufacturing and energy.

Promising a national wage related to responsibility.

Certainly not simply echoing the rhetoric of austerity, deficit reduction and Osborne's numbers.