Equal marriage and its political implications

On Sunday the first "gay marriages" were held in the UK. I prefer to use the term equal marriage as really that is what they are and should be known as. Marriage is a right or at least should be to have legal and equal rights as everyone else seems something so obvious to me that I can’t believe we have waited till now for this. But as we know Britain is a fairly conservative nation with its governments bowing to pressure from religious and faith groups into holding back moves to bring in equal marriage into law. So at last LGBT people can marry who they like and I do hope this is just the start of greater things for this community. It’s a well over due matter and the fact a Tory lead government has been the one to bring it in shows how far to the right the labour party has moved as it couldn’t bring this about in its 13 years of government. Ok we had civil partnerships but this was a half way house to what many in the LGBT community really wanted full legal and equal rights for all. I know a lot of people in the conservative party voted against this putting out such wooly reasons why this shouldn’t be law. The reasoning was hugely offensive and discriminatory and showed the Tories for the out of touch backward looking party at least on its back bench's anyhow. Whether David Cameron truly believes in equality for LGBT people I am not sure but certainly he has to be credited with bravery for taking on many in his own party to get this important law through in the commons and beyond. So well done to all who have been fighting hard for this for a very long time let’s hope this can be just the start of the LGBT revolution. Solidarity

Socialism will be accessible for all

As a disabled person a person who has been registered blind now for a number of years I know how difficult life can be. Life is not accessible to us and is a constant struggle. This post isn’t meant as a blind person rant or an I cant cope an I need help kind of post but I would like to say that we as disabled people face incredible challenges day in day out. Many disabled people do not work as either they can’t or work is simply not practical for them. It’s not as the right wing media would have you believe we can live an easier life on benefits as I can tell you right now living on benefits is no life at all. Even as a disabled person with incapacity benefit as it used to be known its no walk in the park ok I used to get £210 every two weeks but that for me just got me by the price of living now would mean that would just about cover my expenses to get to the shops, buy my weekly shop, pay for taxi’s, pay for any doctors or hospital appointments which disabled people often have to attend to receive treatment or medicine and your looking at the bulk of that money being spent. Not just spent but reinvested into the wider economy we use taxi’s we are contributing to a hard working taxi drivers living, we attend a hospital we are providing in a round about way a doctor or nurse a job and a living if not a great one. So in a way life is not a breeze for us I work 2 days a week part time but many do not and this is through no fault of their own it can be for many many different reasons which I cant go into here but each person has their own difficulties and challenges they overcome everyday. Just getting out of bed each day is an achievement for some and that should be recognised. I think personally and many socialists share this view that capitalism has no time for disabled people as the reemploy factory situation showed if disabled members of society can’t work like other workers, i.e. for awful wages with poor conditions being driven into the ground they are no good to them. They have no problem with throwing disabled workers on to the scrap heap if it means their profit margins are looking healthy. You may think I’m giving the rich, the capitalists a hard time and in a way you’d be right, but it’s not without reason. Pushing disabled people and the poorest in society some of the most vunerable people in society into harsh conditions and poverty type conditions is not something to be proud of. If this is all in the name of the pursuit for profit I wish to be counted out. I feel under capitalism we will never achieve equality why do we still have to fight for a living wage, why do we have to fight for our dignity as disabled people? Under socialism there will be choice, more choice but not for the price of exploitation but of the bettering of society, Choice under capitalism means the driving down of workers wages and conditions and the choice of the gutter under socialism people will be free to decide if they wish to work and help better society or help in other ways. Apples I phone is a big step forward under capitalism for the first time blind people can buy a phone with a screen reader which helps us use a mainstream phone with no extra cost or software for the first time. This is ground breaking but this is all too rare under capitalism and the price is huge. In a socialist society this will be standard when products for society are produced the thought that blind or disabled people may be using them will not be a after thought but fundamental in the production process of all products, transportation, housing, living conditions and everything you can possibly think of. The fact that the drive for profit will be gone for good will allow society to plan production and the economy to meet the true needs of the people not just the few but for everyone, disabled or not.

Workers today earning far less than 30 years ago

A recent findings by Union news Uk and the TUC. have shown some stark figures of how pay for workers is going backwards for many workers. While pay for the top 10% zooms ahead.
Workers today are taking home less than workers did 30 years ago, according to a new report published today by the TUC.

The finding is published in the latest TUC Touchstone Extra pamphlet All In this Together? which looks at how the recession and ongoing economic weakness has had an impact on different parts of the workforce.

All in this Together?, written by author and academic Stewart Lansley, documents the scale of the real terms pay cuts and downgraded terms and conditions that employees are facing, and warns that UK workers are at risk of a near-permanent lowering in the pattern and nature of their working conditions, with disastrous potential consequences for our future economic health.

The report shows that earnings took a sharp hit during the recession – dropping from an average increase of 4.2 per cent in 2007 to just 1.7 per cent in 2009 – and there has been no post-crash rebound. In September 2011, nearly two years on from the end of the recession, 99 per cent of pay deals were below RPI inflation – the measure most commonly used in setting pay.

At the same time the pay gap between executives and their staff has continued to widen, the report shows. While in 2000 the ratio of FTSE 100 top executive to typical employee pay stood at 47:1, by 2011 it had risen to 102:1.

But while poor earnings growth and increasing earnings inequality has been well-publicised in recent years, All in this Together? also shows that the UK’s total wage pool has been shrinking for more than three decades.

In 1978, the total UK wage bill represented 58 per cent of GDP. By 2011 this ‘wage-output’ ratio had dropped to 53.8 per cent. The 4.2 per cent fall in wages as a share of national output means that UK workers took home £60bn less in 2011 than if the wage-output ratio had stayed at 1978 levels. Cumulative wage losses over the last three decades are approximately £1.3 trillion.

The falling share of wages as a proportion of national output has contributed to the rising household debt, plastered over in good times by a housing boom and easy access to credit, that helped to cause the recent financial crash, says the TUC.

The falling wage share has been particularly acute for those on low and middle incomes. The wages of the poorest fifth of workers in 2011 are 43 per cent lower than they would have been if the wage share had not fallen since 1978 and the distribution of earnings had not been skewed towards higher earners. Workers on middle incomes have experienced a 36 per cent wage loss, while the richest fifth of earners have had a wage loss of just six per cent.

The only group of workers immune from the UK’s shrinking wage pool have been top execs who have weathered the recession and stock market falls to receive median pay increases of 10 per cent in 2010 and 17 per cent in 2011.


This has been something we marxists have known all along that despite teh so called boom years in the 2000's average wages for the lowest paid workers stayed the same and in some cases went backwards. The gap between rich and poor widened even in the boom times. So while many got on and improved their situation many didnt and this is down to the fact capitalism and its blind drive for profit crushed workers wages to increase their profits at the top. More millionaires than ever before as a result.

The gap between rich and poor is a social issue too the wider the gap the more social issues we face of deprevation, riots and crime all increases. They are not the only reasons but have a hell of a lot to do with it.

Workers wouldnt be so angry if they had had a bit more of the share of the wealth but the slogans of the 99% and the 1% could not be clearer today in showing the social and economic gap in wealth in society.

Capitalism exists on the basis of wage labour without wage labour it could not exist so could tackling the wage gap be a bridging demand to a more equal society ending the use of boss's in place of workers committees being paid no more than a average skilled worker. Being subject to immediate recall if a vote of no confidence is held up

It is shown a more equal society is one where the wage gap is smaller a society where there is no gap is what i'd want to see one day, fairness for all not just some.

Time to Defend abortion rights again

Shona McCulloch, Brighton Socialist Party
The 1967 Abortion Act legalised abortion in Britain and went a long way in freeing working class women from dangerous and often deadly 'backstreet' abortion techniques - but not in Northern Ireland where the act has never been implemented.

The 1967 Act, combined with other advances such as the introduction of the contraceptive pill, was a huge step forward for women, giving them some control over their own fertility for the first time. Unfortunately, just like all other victories won under capitalism, we have to fight to maintain them.

Recent weeks have seen an escalation of reactionary attacks on the gains won by women during the last century. The most visible of these has been the avalanche of deeply offensive rape-victim-blaming, with some politicians and police falling over each other to suggest that women (and even children) who have experienced sexual abuse were somehow 'asking for it'.

These same politicians, most notably reactionary Tory MP Nadine Dorries, have also been plotting policies to roll back the clock on women's rights. For example, Dorries is pushing for abstinence education for girls in schools and abortion rights are again under attack.

The Con-Dems' new Sex and Relationship Advisory council includes groups, some religious, which advocate abstinence-only sex education, are explicitly anti-choice, and discriminate against Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) people and single parents.

The new council includes the anti-choice group Life, which opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest. Notable in its exclusion from the council is the highly reputable British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPas), an independent organisation which provides both counselling (after which, 20% of women decide against termination) and abortion services.

In an attempt to destroy women's access to services like BPAS, Dorries has teamed up with Labour MP Frank Field and proposed an amendment to the government's now infamous Health and Social Care Bill (itself intended to tear up and privatise the NHS).

The proposals will make counselling compulsory rather than elective for any woman seeking a termination and also ensure that no provider of abortion services can provide counselling services.

This is an attempt to subject women to forced counselling from anti-choice organisations like Life before being granted access to abortion services. Right wing politicians have tried to justify the move as supposedly ensuring that no "conflict of interest" arose - this from a government who invited McDonalds and PepsiCo to advise on nutrition!

The Department of Health has recently issued an ambiguous statement implying that the Con-Dems may try to implement these anti-choice measures without a vote, stating "we do not believe it is necessary to set out this requirement in primary legislation". We must not stand for these attacks, even if a majority of MPs vote for them.

Unhindered access to abortion, free at the point of delivery, is a basic freedom for women which must be defended. However, freedom of choice depends in all cases on the material conditions an individual finds themselves in.

Even if we defeat Dorries and Field and secure free access to abortion, a woman in Britain today may not feel free to carry a pregnancy to term as she sees the NHS, pregnancy and child benefit, EMA, welfare, schools, jobs, housing and access to higher education being cut back viciously.

The choice over when and whether to have children will only be truly free when everyone can be confident that they and their children have secure access to a good standard of living and when high quality, evidence-based sex and relationships education is given from a young age.

To enable women to have a real choice in when and whether to have children we demand:
No cuts; scrap the Health and Social Care bill
Free abortion on request; end the need for two doctors' agreement
For a fully funded, democratically controlled National Health Service, no privatisation
Access to free fertility treatment on the NHS for all those who need it
Public ownership of the pharmaceutical industry
Access to free, safe contraception including emergency contraception; a reversal of the cuts in family planning services and a massive investment into sympathetic youth advisory centres
Improved sex education in all schools
Information campaigns on contraception
A decent living minimum wage and investment in job creation
A network of publicly funded, good quality, flexible childcare facilities
Maternity and child benefit to reflect the real cost of pregnancy, childbirth and bringing up a child
The right to adequate parental leave
A massive increase in spending on housing, education and other public services
A democratically run socialist society, planned to meet social needs rather than the profits of a few

Education for the mass's not just the ruling class's

We are always learning from the day we are born till the day we die. Life is all about learning and learning well.

SO when the coalition government decided to treble student university tuitian fees thinking that the universities charging 9 thousand pounds would be the exception not the rule we all thought here we go again.

Today we find ourselves in the situation of nearly every university in the Uk charging 9 grand a year for its courses. This is due to the fact they have to charge the top rate to cover the gap in funding that has been cut from the higher education budget.

For myself who has spent a lot of time in education and still involved to a extent whilst i'm doing my open university course in social sciences i can appreciate how important a education is to people.

I could really understand the students anger last year on the demo's planned by the NUS who's handling of it all was pretty slow and sluggish in my view. But they had huge demo's with students putting the lib dems who they thought represented them sold out their pledges to vote for raising of tuitian fees.

No wonder so many students feel let down by this political class. The people like Nick Clegg and Vince cable and Simon Hughes should be ashamed of their actions. Worse is Simon hughes who obstained and couldnt even vote agianst the bill how spineless. It still must be very raw in the youth of todays minds and many students minds too.

I personall feel all education should be free for all. The price that a country spends on investing in its youth and students it will reap in the long run. Take Cuba for example where education is totally free there is a lot of very intelligent people who come out of Cuba and are very talented.

I do feel if the balance of the economy was adressed and wealth was redistributed fairly under a socialist society that education would be able to be free and peoples education would be deamed a very important asset to a country and its people. After all your skilled workforce is only as good as they are due to the education they have recieved i believe.

Another thing which i feel is totally unfair is private schools in this country. The likes of Eton where alot of the current tory party have progressed through is full of filthy rich kids and they are so isolated from the rest of society no wonder they grow up not understanding the way the rest of us live. So i do hope and think that if we ever do change our society and the economic power is shifted and distributed a lot more fairly then private schools will be abolished and made a thing of the past.

Private schools encourage elitism and are bad for society as they produce a them and us feeling which is not a fair way of thinking.

The fact that many private school are able to register themselves as charities and recieve charitable funding is just plain wrong in my opinion. The reason why so many who go to private school go on to do so well is that they are already half way there. Attending a school like Eton is that leg up that working class kids do not get. Working class students can still make it to the top dont get me wrong but we are seeing a far narrower market now which is increasingly being filled with privately educated people from a rich affluant background.

This is not a tory own issue most of the labour front bench in the House of Commons have been privately educated so a party taht was always rooted in the working class have been infiltrated by a political elite from a middle to upper class background.

As the title of this blogpost suggests i want to see education for the mass's not just the ruling class's. I want to see a good comprehensive schooling system where there is opputunities for working class kids to succeed. I think this can happen by abolishing private schools and making things a fair level playing field for all .

As at the end of the day i feel we have to be moving towards educating people to better society nnot like today where the sole purpose of education is to prepare you for work which is fair enough but it is to bring them through to make more money and become a part of the capitalist system sadly. I think in older life more people learn for their own enjoyment and to further their knowledge but when your younger it is all about working hard to get better grades to earn more and more money. It is still a money drive education system which under a socialist society would work in the opposite direction. Where you would learn for yourself but also to better society and for others too.

Nick Clegg last week was doing a speech on social mobility but untill the balance of power and wealth isnt just concentrated just with a select few at the top social mobility will continue to be a struggle for working class children. It is quite hypocritical of Clegg though to be lecturing us on social mobility when it was his party who campaigned against the rise in tuitian fees yet when in government with the tories went against all that and also cvoting to scrap the vital EMA grant which helped many working class students obtain expensive books and school equiptment aswell as ensuring they could afford to get to and from school. So how he feels that he is now in the position to lecture us on social mobility i will never know.

The pro's and con's to BBC's comic relief

So it is the time of year again where every celebrity with a record out in the charts or a new book to sell gets their ugly mug in front of the camara fora bit of publicity for waht is a good cause ultimatly.

Call my cynical in my not so old age but have we lost the meaning of things like Comic Relief and Children in need ? The format which hasnt changed for years focus's on certain parts of the world where people are dying or have problems getting by be that through disease or extreme povety.

As a socialist i need not remind people that the povety in the 3rd world as the capitalists like to call it even though we all do live in the same world even though you wouldnt know it sometimes. is all down to the obsurd system we live under called capitalism .

As Mahat Magandi rightly said we have enough on this planet for everyones need but not enough for everybody's greed. This is perfectly put i feel and strikes a chord with me and i hope you to. For years the western nations run charity projects like this there are so many from Oxfam to Children in Need even those that aim to cure crippling diseases like AIDS in Africa. The thing that gets me when i watch television charity fundraisers like this is how ridiculous our world is when we clearly do have the wealth and the means to abolish 3rd world povety by re addressing the balance of economic power handing the wealth to the many not the few but we never do.

People cry about how bad povety is yet capitalism still rules the way sadly. The only way we can eradicate povety in the world is by bringing abotu a socialist change a internationalisation of socialism which is not just a single socialist state which you might say Cuba is today socialism, for it to florish there must be a international solidarity feel to socialism this is where the CWI
Committee for a Workers' International
http://www.socialistworld.net/

comes about linking up socialism with lots of countries around the worlda nd spreading its word.

But going back to my original point showsl ike Comic Relief although highlighting the good work done by campaigners tryign to deal with povety it will only ever go so far. Our pledges of donations to these causes will only go so far it is a systematic change that needs to come about. Letting these countries play their part in the worlda and not having the West's trade restrictions holding them back.

I applaud every effort shows like Comic Relief make but we must remember to go further we must call for bigger change than just bigger donations.

In support of the strikes in Egypt

Egypt's ruling military council says it will not tolerate any more strikes which disrupt the country's economy.

State television carried a statement in which the military said strikers would be "confronted".

Egypt's huge public sector has been hit by stoppages by groups including policemen and factory workers.

The army statement came at the end of a day in which millions of Egyptians had celebrated the victory of their revolution one week ago.

Cairo's Tahrir Square was again at the centre of events, with an estimated two million people gathering there to celebrate the removal of Hosni Mubarak and to pay tribute to the 365 people who died in the uprising.

The demonstration was also intended as a show of strength - a reminder to the current military rulers to keep their promise of a swift transition to democracy

By evening, the gathering had become a huge party, with music, singing, dancing, fireworks and food.

But the military statement struck a more sober tone.

Economic damage

The weeks of protests had already damaged the country's economy, with banks, offices and shops frequently closed, and the tourism sector badly affected.

Workers, inspired by the political protests, have also been staging strikes to demand better pay and conditions.

The military statement pointed to "some sectors that have... organised stoppages and protests, disrupting (economic) interests, halting the wheels of production and creating difficult economic conditions that could lead to the deterioration of the nation's economy."

"They will be confronted and legal steps will be taken against them to protect the security of the nation and citizens," the statement threatened.


I would just like to say i support the strikes in Egypt and the military now are sending out a worrying tone to their messages. Clamping down on strikes and campaigns for better working rights and conditions is not something that should be shut out without any further thought.

As you may or may not know i'm a pro union person belonging to one of the biggest trades unions in Britain today, Unite and i feel that union rightsand rightst o strike should always be protected.

There is still a element of protesters who still feel their demands have not been met by this military group in temporary charge in Egypt and i dont blame them for carrying on striking to get what they want. All this talk of them damaging the economy is a little like blackmail to get them to pipe down and accept what they have. Why should they ? they deserve better than what they have. The actions of workers in striking and taking over factories in Egypt has been simply inspirational that the workers have dared to fight back against the rulers there. I do hope they can hold out and be rewarded for their brave efforts there.
As at the end of the day waht workers gain now generationsof workers will benifit from in the long run. If you dont make a stand now you never will.

The alternative march TUC 26th of march should be accessable

As many of you who read this blog know i am disabled being visually impaired and as this little piece below outlines we are under heavy attack from this horribly right wing coalition governemnt trying to take apart the welfar state in the name of deficit reduction. It is a complete lie and is an political ideaology so please read this piece below i had forwarded to me today about making this TUC march in central london on the 26th of March accessable to all concerned.

the TUC have agreed to all coaches dropping people off at Wembley on March 26th. For anyone on a low income this will add £8 to the cost of getting to central London, there are also a number of access issues not only for anyone with a mobility impairment. I am sure for those with MH or ND or visual impairments having to crush onto a very limited range of transport with up to 2 million other people will present a problem too.

Please contact bbarber@tuc.org.uk and complain about TUC agreeing to people, especially disabled people, being dumped at Wembley in this way.

here is DPAC's email fyi
Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) believe it is imperative that disabled and older people are afforded the opportunity to support the TUC ‘March for the Alternative’ demonstration on 26 March in central London. At the latest count it was found that disabled people were facing fourteen separate attacks against our lives and living standards as a result of the Coalition government’s policies. What we are witnessing is our human rights, supposedly guaranteed under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, being violated by regressive and draconian cuts to benefit and care funding. Increasing numbers of disabled people are being driven to contemplate suicide; with others actually going the whole way. Members of our community are living in daily terror that they will become further scapegoated, demonised and subjected to hate crime violence.

Against this backdrop DPAC demand the right to be fully included in this march and rally as our non-disabled peers would take for granted. As it currently stand the initial planning for the March is creating unnecessary disabling barriers which will both exclude and marginalise disabled people’s ability to participate. So far however the TUC have not responded to any requests from us for support for accessible transport to attend the march and now we have been told that the TUC have agreed (for anyone who can access coaches) that the coach dropping off point will be at Wembley or some other outlying part of London.

As I am sure you are aware the London underground system is one of the least accessible in the world, only one wheelchair is allowed on each bus at any one time, and disabled people cannot afford to pay extra travel costs from an outlying suburb to reach the centre of London. To agree to this as a dropping off point will therefore exclude us from exercising our right to protest.

It is possible to park in central London without bringing London to a grinding halt. When 2 million marched against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, coaches were parked all around Hyde Park and there were no major problems with people arriving or departing from this historic demonstration. Further we are certain that there must be at least 500 or more tourist coaches entering London on any day which does not seem to cause any traffic problems at all.

We have also asked TUC to organise with the police for us to have a static protest in central London for those unable to march but so far have had no response regarding this. We were able to do this very successfully with forward planning at the Tory Party conference protest in Birmingham.

Further we would wish to be kept updated with details of where the march will be going so that we can check its accessibility for our members with a range of impairments.

Both disabled Trade Unionists and other disabled people who attended The People’s Convention last Saturday asked conference to support a motion that the TUC march would be fully inclusive to all disabled people and that all of the required reasonable adjustments would be put in place by yourselves to fully include all of us.

We are willing to work with you to ensure that our full inclusion can be achieved and to assist you in any way practicable. We look forward to your response which we will pass onto our members.

Why i'm in favour of prisoner votes

I've been thinking about this issue for a while and i've made up my mind.

I am in favour of giving votes to prisoners in the United Kingdom. I feel that voting is a right not a privillage to people. However bad your crime you have committed and some are terrible i can assure you that having the right to vote should not be taken away from you.

It has no affect on your punishment of serving time at her majesty's pleasure but what it does do is give you a voice. I'm a big advocate of human rights and this i feel is one. For years we campaigned for votes and a democractic society. Now we have it we must not abuse it.

Especially with women who have only been legally allowed to vote since about 1928. This is something we must treasure and uphold in this country.

In many countries such as newly over thrown Egypt many men and women still dont get to vote.

Ok i may not think that voting in Great Britian today may change things dramatically with both Labour and the Conservatives supporting capitailism, something i'm strongly against if you were not aware but as a left winger i do feel that prisoner votes are essential and enabling prisoners to vote can be made part of their overall rehabilitation back into the wider society.

I do recognise there are various forms of crime and each case may be assessed individually still but on the whole i dont think this will harm prisoners or society as a whole and this group of votes is just waiting for a proper left wing political party to grasp hold of and run with. It is as they say there for the taking.

As i've taken a while to come to this decision as it is quite a big issue. I am throwing it out there for everyone who radsthis blog to comment on if you please. I'd be interested to read your views.
I think this goes beyonda purely left wing stance in many ways, it stands as a fairness for all. Something of which as a socialist i am truely in support of. As a classless society i'd loveto see fairness for all in terms of crime and punishment too. Giving prisoners the right to vote is not devalueing why they are in prison in the first place, often for very serious crimes but the right to vote should not play a part in that juditial process at all in my opinion. It is a right, a human right which must never be taken away from a truely democratic society.

sadly underneath here is the Guardian report about the result of the vote in the house of commons last week on the matter of prisoner votes. The article below goes in to various detail about rights of people and various MP's views on votes for prisoners and also the EU's iinvolvement in British politics today. Interesting little piece.

MPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of maintaining a blanket ban preventing prisoners from voting, strengthening the government's hand as it seeks to water down a ruling from the European court of human rights.

Ministers will start drawing up a compromise proposal after MPs voted by 234 to 22, a majority of 212, in favour of a cross-party motion that said parliament should decide on such an important issue.

The motion called for the retention of the status quo in which all prisoners, except those on remand or imprisoned for contempt or default, are barred from voting. Under one option being examined by ministers – who were expecting the strong vote – judges would be given discretion to decide which prisoners could vote.

The non-binding vote prompted Eurosceptics to call on the government to consider withdrawing from the court. Blair Gibbs, of the Policy Exchange thinktank, said: "Now is the opportunity to go to the root of this problem which is the expansionist Strasbourg court. The UK government should use prisoner votes to reassert its authority over Strasbourg, and if necessary, prepare to leave the court's jurisdiction if it cannot be reformed."

The vote came at the end of a lengthy debate in which MPs lined up to condemn a court ruling that called for the lifting of the blanket ban. David Cameron, who gave Tory backbenchers a free vote, invited MPs to deliver a clear signal of their opposition to the ruling by supporting a cross-party motion tabled by Jack Straw and David Davis.

Davis, the former Tory leadership contender, told MPs: "The general point is very clear in this country – that is that it takes a pretty serious crime to get yourself sent to prison. And as a result you have broken the contract with society to such a serious extent that you have lost all of those rights – your liberty and your right to vote.

"So it is not unjust. Every citizen knows the same level of crime which costs them their liberty, costs them their vote. What the court calls blanket rule I call uniform justice."

Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, told MPs that a constructive debate could lead to a more flexible stance in Strasbourg. The court judgment, made in October 2005, had been made in part because parliament had not held a substantive debate on the ban, introduced in 1870. Britain proposed granting the vote to prisoners jailed for less than four years, though judges would have discretion to remove this right.

Grieve said: "While, of course, members of the House are entitled to express their disagreement with the judgment of the European court – and indeed I have done so myself – the fact that we may be in disagreement doesn't in itself solve the problem.

"In order for the views of this House to be helpful, we need to demonstrate that we are engaging with the concerns of the court and also that we are not just expressing a series of frustrations – although I have to say I have felt rather angry on this issue in recent years. We do have to see whether by a dialogue about what the house considers to be proper and reasonable in respect of prisoner voting we can ensure that we bring our weight to bear as a legislature in terms of the development of the jurisprudence of the court. That gives us the best possible chance of winning the challenges which may then occur thereafter."

The attorney general warned Eurosceptics that Britain would be acting "tyranically" and in breach of the rule of law if it defied rulings from the court. Grieve issued the warning after Claire Perry, a Tory backbencher, asked what mechanism existed to enforce the will of the court.

The attorney general said there was no mechanism, but added: "So one needs to be a little bit careful about this.

"The principles on which United Kingdom governments have always operated is that if there are international obligations which confer a power on the court and the court orders compensation, we will honour those international obligations. It is our duty to do so because without it we diminish our own status in terms of our respect for international law as much as for domestic law. It is a bit of a red herring to suggest that just because it can't be enforced that it is a justification for ignoring something. That would be a fairly momentous change in UK practice."

Britain had to comply with the court's judgments, said Grieve, because it signed up to the European convention on human rights, which provides the legal basis for the court. It underpins the Council of Europe, the continent's human rights watchdog, which has 47 members.

Labour's former home secretary, Jack Straw, denied that the Human Rights Act he introduced was to blame.

"The tension, the conflict, which we have to resolve today can in no sense be laid at the door of the Human Rights Act nor indeed, in my judgment, at the plain text of the convention. Rather, the problem has arisen because of the judicial activism by the court in Strasbourg widening their role, not only beyond anything anticipated in the founding treaties, but also not anticipated by the subsequent active consent of all the state parties, including the UK."


Denis MacShane, Labour's former Europe minister, defended the Strasbourg court. "I believe that peoples of other regions of the world – Africa, Asia, South America – would die to have an ECHR to tell their government what to do," he said. "Populist illiberalism is the new politics of much of the continent. It's a shame to see it arrive in the Commons – I hope our country does not tear up the treaty or quit the Council of Europe."

Juliet Lyon of the Prison Reform Trust said the vote did not express the view of the Commons as nearly two-thirds had not backed the ban. Ministers were allowed to abstain, though their aides were free to vote for the motion. "In a free vote, 234 MPs chose to hang on to the 19th century punishment of civic death enshrined in the 1870 Forfeiture Act," Lyon said. "22 MPs voted against the motion. This means just over one third of the total number of MPs in the House of Commons voted to retain the ban.

"Although the vote is not legally binding on the government, the message it sends to prisoners and people working in the prison service is a poor one. The outdated ban on prisoners voting has no place in a modern prison system, which is about rehabilitation and respect for the rule of law."

disabled people join TUC march against the cuts, march 26th, join us

please pass on this information to others



DISABLED PEOPLE AGAINST CUTS



Join us to protest on March 26th, London.



The main TUC march will assemble at Victoria Embankment, 11am to march to a rally in Hyde Park. We are still finalising arrangements of where we can meet beforehand and about a static protest for those unable to march to Hyde Park.



Disabled people are facing continuing attacks against their lives, living standards and basic human rights to live independently from almost every conceivable quarter and it is time for us to fight back against these cuts. Many disabled people are living in fear on a daily basis not knowing when or if their benefits and care funding will be slashed and whether they will be left to rot in their own homes without the support they need to live any sort of meaningful life.



These savage spending cuts damage not only our lives, but our public services, and threaten economic recovery. They're dangerous, unfair and unnecessary.



There are fair alternatives - a Robin Hood tax on the banks, end tax evasion, policies for jobs and green growth, scrap Trident replacement.

We're going to march to tell the government we demand “Rights not Charity” and to show we are not easy victims of their cuts even though they may think we are.



For information about transport to the march (some trains may be accessible) go to www.righttowork.org Transport information will be regularly updated here.



To join our events page

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=122497767819841&index=1



For more information email linda_burnip@yahoo.co.uk , ( underscore) 0771 492 7533, or mail@dpac.uk.net

Only 10 more days to campaign to keep the DLA benifit

As the days draw ever closer to febuary the 14th, Whilst most people look forward to this day for Valentines day many of disabled people across the country including myself will be on tender hooks worried to death that the government will vote to scrap the disability living allowance. We only have 10 days left to lobby our Mp's whilst i myself dont hold out much hope of this being voted down i do want to get the message out there that it is important to a lot of people and does need saving.

take a look at this thread on this page here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/messageboards/NF2322273?thread=8034533
It explains a lot and highlights a excellent campaign from the broken of britain to protect the disability living allowance. The governments replacement will b ea personal independance payment which will be more strict and therefore making it harder for borderline disabled people to claim for this.

For the government who promised that the weakest and the most vunrable in our society would be protected it is a absolute outrage that they are being allowed to get away with these attacks on our disabled population. So where is our beloved opposition when it matters and we need them to defend the voice-less ? ? no where to be seen. As the reality is the labour government of the last 13 years was the ones who started the raids and attacks on the disabled. They were starting to cut disability benifits even whilst still in government. I'm not one of these people who see's what they did through rose tinted spectecles i have to live through it and are being affected by these cuts and so called reforms.

So i hope as many of yo who do read this blog and those who dont can lobby your MP to urge them to vote to keep the DLA. I dont hold out much hope myself as DLA in the large part is not a very well known benifit to the majority of people and due to that fact the ignorance of most people they will cut it with no thought spared.

Take a well known policy change the trebling of student university tuitian fees a month or so ago that was hugely popular movement and protests were formed and even that got voted through, all be it narrowly. So what chance does a little benifit that only the disabled benifit from have of surviving these vicious government cuts ?

Despite this i do hope it can be saved or at least protected and Labour and the lib dems who stand for fairness and for the vunrable in society can find their backbone on this vote in the commons on 14th of feb.

To many the DLA is a lifeline. It enables them to get to the local shops by taxi and get out of their house rather than being house bound. It is a benifit which enables people to gain some of their independance back. It may not be perfect and i'm sure many do claim it wrongly that could be looked at. But a major reform of it is not nessesary in my view.

So once again it is the poorest and the most vunrable in society are left picking up the bill for the rich bankers mistakes. Where the government has over spent on illegal wars and other such needless matters. When their money runs out in the capitailist system they dont turn to each other at the top for a bail out they turn on the poor and working class who have little say in anything anyway.

If Mp's vote to scrap this including my own MP they can rule themselves out of me ever voting and supporting them again. But then again i'm sure they wont care as they dont have to face the difficulties disabled people have to face on a daily basis.

As a excellent placard spelled out at a recent disability protest i attended in LOndon said, If you want my benifits you can have my disability. Too right, if money is taht important to them they'd happily take it off those who need it most, It clearly shows how broke the capitailist system is. Lets expose them for who they really are.

Is democracy really the way forward ?

Let me start by saying i am all for democracy and think it is a good thing, but my point with this post is to ask is it right we try and inflict our version of it on other countries and continents around the world ?

We see over the last week or so in Egypt a huge uprising on the streets of Egypt fighting back against their oppressive governments. I applaud their efforts to rid themselves of a leader who has a too strong grip on the country.

But democracy this idealistic system we seem to talk like it is the holy grail of living your life. Is it compatable for everyone around the world ? Could it not be modified to allow people a greater say. As lets be honest what we call democracy is not a real democracy is it ?

The real working people of this country dont really have a say

Ok we have a vote we can cast every 5 years or so but what does that get us, a elected bureaucrat who sits in parliament telling us waht to do. If we try to lobby our MP's which i have tried before we get a set of templated waffle of what their party line is. These Mp's claim they know about the people, in reality they havent a clue. SO this lovely thing we call democracy starts to look more of a farce the deeper you look into it.

On the face of it compared to a dictatorship it is certainly a better system but as far as giving people ordinary people on the street a true voice it still fails as far as i can see. I'm not against democracy at all i just feel that this form of it suits our ruling class and the capitalist system the best and so the leaders of the world will continue to promote it as it tightens their grip on the worlds finances. So i wonder if democracy could be reformed for want of a better word. Looked into and allowing the people to have more control of the wealth of a country and the power. Rather than it being held all at the top by a elite few who we democratically elect could we not give them less power or give more power to the people as cliche as that sounds.

When America and Britain invaded Iraq to over throw Saddam Hussain it was being touted in the name of democracy, giving freedom back to the people. Although this was true to a degree it will only allow the chance for another leader of similar nature to cease power in this country. Is it not the case that some nations are not ready for democracy to be forced upon them ? Should they not come to that decision by themselves rather than western nations thinking oh your people have no say lets invade you and give you democracy without stopping to think if this is good for them or will lead to a eventual better place for people to live. Giving a country democracy when it hasnt had it before can be a risky thing and i think the west should be warey of appearing as teh policeman of the world looking out for countries and meddling in their internal business. Afterall we wouldnt like it if other countries tried to inflict a way of life on us so why do we do it to others in the name of fairness and freedom.

Are MP's and polititians more out of touch more than ever ?

I blogged some time ago regarding how polititians these days resemble more career and professional MP's with few standing for any real cause. Well i would love to add more to that theory.

With times getting harder and harder for the ordinary person on the streets. More and more people loosing jobs and finding things getting more expensive. I really dont think most polititians really have a clue waht life is like outside of their cosy Westminister village.

How many real ordinary working people in parliament ? most of the MP's in the commons have had a good education and come from affluent backgrounds and are somewhat out of touch with real life.


Even the Labour party of which i am a member of seem to have lost their way. The big reason they lost so many votes in recent elections i feel was down to them loosing trust with the working class vote.

Who can blame them really the last labour government seemed more interested in bailing out the banks, which i accept seemed a nessesary evil sadly in the end than reconnecting with its core support.

The middle england vote appeared to stick with labour in the 2010 general election but we lost millions of votes to our core support.

With the tories living in a bubble and having more millionaires in the cabinet than not how can we expect polititians to understand our concerns. Quite frankly most dont.

So i really do think there needs to be a big over haul of our people who make decisions in this country. With the house of lords being undemocractic in my eyes with no one in there being elected instead nominated for a life time peerage i really feel the whole political system needs looking at and seeing where we can improve thingst o get the everyday person on the streets voice heard.

As we have seen over recent weeks protests and demonstrations have taken place even back in the early part of this decade protests against th invasion of Iraq by up to a million in central london seems to have done little to prevent governemnt carrying out their wishes anyway.

When will we be fully represented by the people who make these decisions, instead of representing themselves when will they realise the voters and the general public at large matter more and their voices should never be ignored for personal political gain.

I think with this growing movement which relies on no polititian and is student lead with help from the unions will become a increasing force over the next year. Is the time now coming for a new political party/movement for the workers and the working class in this country as many feel especially Labour their true identity has been clouded by political power.

I really think labour should try and get back to its root as a workers party representing workers rights and defending the poor and vunrable this is what made them who they were but is sadly not waht they are any longer. They are lacking a clear direction and motivation about who they really represent and stand for.

This could be very risky with a government with the media heavily on its side afraid to upset the apple cart in fear of cuts to themselves are rushing through this ideaological push of cuts cuts and more cuts.



This is not waht the country voted in and it is not what the country should be getting. It is iresponsible and unfair on many who will be suffering as a result of these cuts. Even Labours cuts could not have garunteed to have been fair to all they couldnt even garuntee to ring fence the NHS out of cuts. For a party who created the NHS just after the war to not stand by a great organisation by the NHS when a lot of people across the country rely on it is not a very clever move. Moves like this which resulted in a backlash at the ballot box for labour, something they must turn around and soon.

Coalition breaking pledge for access to work for disabled people

http://www.bhfederation.org.uk/federation-news/item/1010-government-backs-out-of-access-to-work-pledge.html

This article illustrates another broken promise from the coalition government. yes they are coming thick and fast now but this latest one shows that they will only provide a letter you can print off to your potential future employers to garuntee the money will be there to make reasonable adjustments and support aids to help you work.

Just a letter ? will this really assure possible employers that disabled people should be worth takign a risk with employing by just reading a letter which from waht i can gather will only say that this person is eligable to claim for support for access to work.
For me access to work is a life saver and helps me out a lot, with taxi costs for getting to and from work as bus's are far too infrequent. They have also helped me gain training for my screen reader technology which enables me to work as like any other worker.

They have also provided other support in forms of aids to help me adapt to a working environment.

I just think during times of cutst o jobs and difficulty gaining work. Helping and encouraging disabled people into work will go a long way to securing a lot of disabled peoples futures.

So i believe access to work is a great idea and should be protected and expanded if possible. I think it should even be extended to before you gain work to help disabled people apply for jobs. Pledging money to help people with money to get to job interviews and other such events that helps you gain work are all things this government and Labour as an opposition should be encouraged.

Reforming the house of lords

This has been a bug bear of mine for a while. I am leaning against the whole idea of a house of unelected lords who seem to enjoy a very cushty life. Yes i have used a only fools and horses word in my blog for the first time, get in lol. but seriously i am very disillusioned with the role the house of lords plays in todays law making and politics as a whole.
The representivies in that particular house are all unelected which i personally think is a disgrace. Peers can be nominated by their political party so no doubt the government of that time will have a greater say of who goes in for them and naturally there will be more from their side than the opposition. So my first question to you is how democractically fair are they ? If the government get a majority of their peers into the lords and knowing waht decisions the lords pass each session i am not sure this is the fairest idea.

I think major reform is needed for the house of lords. Particularly in the way we elect them and what their actual role is in politics in this day and age.
We rarely find out who the members of the lords are as theya re mostly not that well known. I find this a bit worrrying that the second most powerful group of people in this country are not well known.


I think the whole process of who gets elected to this house and their role in government needs to be examined. For the esense of fairness at least. I know they are a old and traditional group of people but should we not look at them and their role in todays world ?

I myself as a young voter and a young political person find it hard to understand their role and why government couldnt get on better without them ? maybe i'm just nieve on the role of the lords but i am yet to be convinced they are a democractic force to e reckoned with. Maybe if we knew more about them and what they really stood for we would understand them better.

But i do think reform is needed and a proper debate is there to be had on their role in todays world.

Can labour achieve gender balance in the next parliament ?

Well over the weekend i was reading a interview with the Labour party leader Ed miliband and his thoughts of achieving gender equality balance under his leadership.

I thought i should blog on this. I ask you is this possible ? i personally think this is doable. Since the last election labour has gained a lot of female members and i've made friends with a lot of politically engaged women now. It is great to see. But one thing is having new female members of the party and anotehr thing to transforming them into good labour female MP's.

It is tricky but i do hope labour can be seen as the home for women in politics with a fair chance of making the shortlists of being a parliamentary candidate.

Hariot Harman has done wonders in this area at raising the profile of women in the party. I do also think unions especially ones affiliated with labour and the labour movement could do more to encourage women to join a union and gain positions of power within their union.

I am all for equality as you amy all well know but i think labour and the unions need to go further to help this.

It is the start of what i feel is the reallignment of the working class's. Helping other parts of society feel properly represented. This will eventually include women, men, Lesbians, gay and transexual people, disabled and any other group of people i may have messed out if i have i apologise. I just want labour to rediscover itself as being a party for all. a fair chance for all to make it in politics. A fair chance for everyones views to be heard whatever background you are from.

the liberal democrats in the coalition

Hello and welcome to another blog post. This post may sound like a bit of a attak on the liberals and i'm sorry if you ar a supporter of such, i'd love to take you up on a debate about your principles and the future of your party.

From waht seems to me a lot of liberal voters and supporters are blinded by power and the chance to get their beloved party into government.

The main question i want to ask you from this post is, is it all worth it ?

I really do believe despite waht the liberals say they have well and truely sold themselves out to the conservatives.
I recieved a responce to my email to Simon Hughes MP earlier and he was saying why he thinks this budget is liberal and fair. well i'm sorry simon i think you are sorely mistaken, is a rise in VAT a good thing for all, is it fair to all ? no it isnt it is a regressive tax which hits the poorer in our society the hardest.They can blame labour all they want but at the end of the day these are just excuses shooting over your shoulder at the last government to make the public feel its right what you are doing. In reality the polls suggest the liberals have taken a right battering. In some polls it shows them with just 13 points and labour just 2 points behind the tories.

As labour are the only party truely national with seats and major representation in all parts of the United Kingdom i think they are right to stand by their principles and be the true party for fairness.

Yes we made a few mistakes here and there but the recession was caused by the banks and them lending too much which people couldnt pay back. There was a credit crunch and they had no idea how to get out of it so ended up coming to the government to ask for help.

Like any good government they tried to help as much as they can to avoid a complete collapse of the banking sector. So in affect the bankers are the luckiest proportion of people i stil think. Even today they are still giving eachother ridiculous bonus's even though it is frowned on now.

Vince cables idea of the carrot and the stick approach of threatening the banks to start lending again is just complete foolishness in my view. The banks have no confidence and feel that they are treading on egg shells all the time with customers. Untill they can see the econemy starting to grow again and people starting to spend its no use Vice having a pop at them over not spending when they are being heavily scrutinised.

In my view it was the banks that got us into this situation in the first place so should be the ones who should foot the majority of the bill for getting us out of this mess. It was not labours fault or Gordon browns fault at all as leading tories would have yuo believe. they only tried to remedy the problem. This is a global crisis started in America and swept around the globe, You simply cant pin all of this mess on labour and Gordon brown i'm sorry i rather think Gordon did a excellent job despite what people say, we could have been in a far worse position if he hadnt done waht he had done. Even today he still regrets not spotting the signs sooner but who in say 2005 could have seen this coming ? i know i certainly couldnt.

So please dont believe the tories old mantra that we are just as bad as greece and all this scare mongering tactics, which in my view is a very dirty ugly form of politics, to scare your electorat into voting you in to get these barbaric cuts through. If the lib dems have any form of principles left inside their weak wet souls i suggest they try harder and work closer with labour on certain things, i know this may upset the coalition apple cart slightly but would they rather stand up for true fairness and progressive futures in this country or hang on to their limo's and fancy job titles in the government where in my view they shouldnt even be with just 52 seats it still doesnt seem right to me.