Labour to attack Wonga, are they missing the real issue?

Ed Miliband is pledging for the next labour government to ban pay day loan adverts and Wonga in particular from advertising during children’s television programmes. I think Ed again misses the point he does not address the reasons as to why people desperate families have to reach for such cowboys as the likes of Wonga. The pay day loan company who claim to be no nonsense and easy to access who charge crazy interest rates on their loans force people into worse situations than they were in before all in the name of desperation. Whilst its welcome labour have recognised the problem which is pay day loans and the likes of Wonga I fear that what it is suggesting a ban on this will simply force people into more criminal methods to get money to pay off a outstanding bill or something so simple as feeding their family. I am not arguing in favor of Wonga here but simply banning the adverts does not tackle the problem of low pay, high cost of living and much more besides. Labours answer to allot of things these days is banning things and regulating markets it all feels a bit top down and state heavy. This may be their new direction who knows but for many meddling in their business will be too much to stomach from a party who attacked our civil liberties beyond imagination during their last time in office. For me its capitalism which is the huge elephant in the room which the labour party and Ed Miliband will not confront. They will not as they are in service to the market and the system. They may give lip service as they have done to the so called "cost of living" yet their public sector pay freeze intention to be harder on those on benefits than the Tories and so much more do little to convince many I would suggest. Many people will not vote labour ever again and with good reason. People realise that they are no alternative to Tories only a watered down slightly nicer version which let’s be honest hardly enthuses you to go out and put a cross next to your labour candidates name. People need far more than bans on pay day loan companies the rot of capitalism has gone far deeper into people’s lives. Labour is barely scratching the surface. Real radical action is needed and labour will not bring it about I can assure you.

Say no a snoopers charter defend our civil liberties

After the Woolwich terrorist attack the government and others including London Mayor Boris Johnson have revisited plans for a so called snoopers charter to track every email, website skype chat you make and so on and to make a record of this. All in the so called national interest. Now where have we heard this before? We must defend our civil liberties all be them quite limited after the last labour government had a right good go at them but what there is left must be defended and protected in any way we can. The Tories seem intent on getting this bill through parliament now and Ed Miliband and his merry men of capitalist supporters on the front bench’s of the labour party appear happy to support David Cameron in a clear sign of how a future labour government will play out protecting the interests of British capitalism of course as they always have done. The bill, allowing the monitoring of all UK citizens' internet use, was dropped after a split in the coalition. But Lord Howard said David Cameron had "to act in the national interest" following the Woolwich murder. Labour leader Ed Miliband has said that "if he [the PM] wants a communications bill, we'll help him get it through". Mr Miliband told the Commons earlier this month that if Mr Cameron was being forced to drop certain policies because of "people behind him" - his own backbenchers - then Labour would step in. 'Who's contacting who' The Communications Data Bill would have given police and security services access, without a warrant, to details of all online communication in the UK - such as the time, duration, originator and recipient, and the location of the device from which it was made. It would also give access to all Britons' web browsing history and details of messages sent on social media. The police would have to get a warrant from the home secretary to be able to access the actual content of conversations and messages Home Secretary Theresa May is very keen on giving the police and intelligence agencies more power to access details of online communications where necessary. There is no such thing as a trade union of former home secretaries. But on this issue, it sounds as though there is. Labour's Lord Reid and Alan Johnson and the Conservative Lord Howard all agree with her. In short, their argument is we have seen the classified files and the spooks need this power. Critics - including most Liberal Democrats - accuse them of going native and backing a "snoopers charter". As a socialist I always uphold the democratic right for all individuals to communicate and talk about whatever they like without a government or organisation snooping on their discussions it is hugely anti democratic and lays a dangerous settlement in my view. I mean how far do we go with this? We say ok to this and next everything we do, write or read is monitored. Is that really where we want to go?