Angry Not Apathetic, What anarchists do instead of voting

The general election is here, and once again the parties are all over us like a rash, promising that they will fix things. But you don’t have to be an anarchist to know that nothing changes, whoever gets in. This is why politicians are keen on new methods such as postal voting. Labour, Tory, Liberal Democrat, nationalist (Plaid Cymru, SNP, Sinn Fein), ‘principled’ or ‘radical’ (Green Party, or leftists in some alliance), or nationalist-racist (UKIP etc), the fundamentals of the system are the same. Whether we have the present electoral system or proportional representation, or however many people vote or don’t vote in an election or referendum, as we have just seen in Scotland, capitalism is at the driving wheel globally. As working class people, we are exploited whether we can take part in ‘free’ elections or live under an authoritarian regime. Capitalists and property owners continue to control the wealth that we create, and they protect it through the police, legal system, and military. You can’t complain Non-voters are told that, “If you don't vote you can't complain”. But voting under these circumstances is just pretending that the system we have is basically alright. It lets the winning party off the hook. The fact is, we have next to no say in the decisions that get taken by the people we elect. This is called ‘representative democracy’. Anarchists organise by ‘direct democracy’, where we can have a say in every decision, if we want to. We don’t put our power in someone else’s hands, so no one can betray us and abuse it. This really could work globally! Ask us how... Campaigning against voting A “don't vote” campaign on its own is just as much a waste of time. The same goes for a protest vote for a leftist or novelty candidate. The time and money spent campaigning could be better used fixing some of the problems we face in our lives. Protesting, whether it is spoiling a ballot paper or marching in the street, fails to offer any real challenge. So, anarchists say, vote, or don’t vote. It won’t make any difference. What is more important, is to realise that elections prop up a corrupt system and divert us from winning real change. Don’t vote, organise! We should organise with our neighbours, workmates, other people we have shared interests with, and others who don’t have the privileges that some people have. We are the experts on what we need, and on the best way to run things for the common good. We need to use direct action to achieve this. Direct action is where we solve a problem without someone else representing us. By this we mean, not just protesting and asking for change, but things like occupying, sabotaging, working to rule, refusing to pay their prices or their rent, and striking (but not waiting for union leaders to tell us when we can and can’t!). For example, when workers aren’t paid the wages owed them, rather than asking the government to give us better legal protection, we take action to force employers to pay. The Department for Work & Pensions has even named the Anarchist Federation and the Solidarity Federation among groups that are a serious threat to workfare, because we have shut down programmes. This was achieved with only a few hundred people. Imagine what could be done with thousands! Taking it back In reality, people are understandably afraid of taking the state on. But direct action doesn’t have to mean an all-out fight to defeat capitalism in one go. Anarchists do think that ultimately, there has to be a full revolution. But by confronting the system directly at any point we can start to take control. In fact, all the good things we think of as having been created by the state – free health care, free education, health & safety laws to protect us at work, housing regulations, sick pay, unemployment benefits, pensions – came about historically to put an end to organised campaigns of collective direct action that threatened their power. And where we would fail as individuals, together we can win. --- Labour and the Unions The infatuation of the trade unions with the Labour party should be nothing other than mystifying for ordinary workers. Whether it is ‘Unions Together’ or TUC voter registration drives, trade union members amongst us should feel deeply insulted at being asked to prop-up the Labour party as the best available solution. The Labour Party was set up in the early twentieth century as a political wing of the trade union movement. Despite the rose-tinted view of history, it has continually regulated workers under capitalism. It is not a case of Labour having ‘lost its way’ and needing recapturing. To echo the anarchist Rudolf Rocker, political parties and elections haven’t brought workers “a hair’s breadth closer to socialism.” The ‘Special Relationship’ The TUC and parts of the left continually present us with a picture of Labour which has nothing in common with its actual actions. They tell us that we still have a ‘special relationship’, and that despite its failings, the Labour Party stands-up best for ordinary working people. So we should support it ‘without illusions’, because it is better than the Tories. Not that you would notice! All the major parties support austerity against the working class. This is irrefutable, and Labour even says as much. What remains of the dwindling trade union movement is essentially shackled by harsh restrictive anti-union laws and a totally compliant TUC leadership. These laws tell us how to manage our affairs, seriously restrict our ability to withdraw labour, and tell us who we can and can’t expel, which means that we have to accept scabbing in our own unions. They restrict free association in a way that no other organisation can under British law and are regularly condemned by the International Labour Organisation, which is hardly a hotbed of radicalism. The only time Labour repealed anti-union laws was when its hand was forced by a mass grassroots workers movement in the 1970s. Overturning these present laws and rebuilding a militant culture around the workplace is going to require not the politics of the ballot box, but sheer will and the determination to oppose so-called ‘representatives’ in both the Labour Party and the TUC. Their class interests under capitalism are intimately linked; our interests begin and end with us. --- Free Education and the Liberal Democrats: A Student’s Perspective Living in Sheffield at the time of the last election, I saw that there was massive voter turn-out and support for the Lib Dems amongst students. A tangible optimism and excitement existed in Nick Clegg’s constituency. Personally, I spoiled my ballot paper with, ‘If voting changed anything they’d make it illegal’. However, I did wonder whether a Lib-Dem rise could contest the New Labour/Conservative stalemate of neoliberal similarity. Clegg now sports a satisfaction rating of minus-40 (Mori survey). This is well deserved. Instead of capping tuition fees he has overseen them triple to £9,000. Young people among many others who voted Lib-Dem have been left disillusioned by this, becoming disengaged from politics. What has been proven is not that young people are not interested in politics, but that politicians are not interested in young people. Debt I was lucky and only had to pay £3,000/year in fees. But I now owe the Students Loan Company £23,000. This increases by at least £30 a month due to interest, which started whilst I was still at university! I am persistently being hassled by them checking if I’m earning enough yet to start paying it back. Neo-liberalisation When I finished university I wanted to continue studying. However, funding for a social science Master’s degree is rare and most students are self-funded. I couldn’t stand the thought of incurring more debt by taking out a loan, so I gave up on the idea. I moved home and worked in a café trying to get out of my overdraft. I found out that there are no tuition fees in Sweden for EU citizens. I applied to Stockholm University and got in, paying living costs with money I’d earned in the café. I then found out I could return to the UK on an Erasmus exchange, avoiding tuition fees and even getting an EU grant! This illustrates the lengths that you have to go to if you come from a background where higher education is unaffordable. Furthermore, it has taught me that a free education is feasible, but cannot be accomplished by relying on political parties and the establishment. The neo-liberalisation of higher education has proliferated under the Coalition. Education is becoming the preserve of the upper-middle-class. Research too must now be ‘competitive’, not expressing critical, independent thought. To contest this, to strive for free education, the only way is to self-organise! The demise of the Lib-Dems has shown we cannot rely on any political party to deliver this. This is why we argue ‘Don’t Vote – Organise!’ --- “Tories on bikes”: the Green Party in power “F***ing Tories on bikes” – that’s how one Brighton bin worker describes the Green Party. As the largest party on the local council, with 23 seats at the 2011 election, Brighton is the only place in the UK where the Greens have had so much as a sniff of power. And look what they’ve done with it. Despite trumpeting a commitment to the living wage (£7.85 an hour outside London, compared to a National Minimum Wage of £6.50), they tried to impose a “pay modernisation” scheme on low-paid council workers with the support of the Conservative group on the council. It meant that refuse and recycling staff at Hollingdean depot faced a paycut of up to £4,000 a year. Acting like the worst kind of union-busting boss, the council threatened the workers that if they refused to accept the new terms, they would sack them and re-employ them ‘on a worse contract, without compensation’. Binworkers responded with a wildcat occupation of their depot, and there have been numerous strikes and wildcat stoppages since. And the attacks on the binworkers’ terms and conditions of employment continue. Litter picking Green MP, Caroline Lucas claims to have made her opposition to the proposals clear, and even said that she would “join the picket line if the Council forces a pay cut on low paid staff.” Well, we haven’t seen her on any picket lines. We did see her picking up litter during the strike of June 2013, despite a statement from the bin-workers asking people not to, because as they say, “any attempts to lessen the impact of a strike [by picking up litter] completely undermines our action.” No doubt the Greens in Brighton have made “tough choices,” with their “hands tied” by central government. So is that all there is to politics – “tough choices” and a world of perpetual disappointment when your elected representatives betray you? As anarchists, we say that the problem is not with who is in power, and how they exercise that power. The problem is political power itself. As anarchist Noam Chomsky points out, “the smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” The Greens might be on the fringes of that spectrum, but they’re still part of the party political system, established to keep us quiet. --- with thanks to Anarchist federation and their pamphlett resistance which you can read more at http://www.afed.org.uk/publications/resistance-bulletin/437-resistance-bulletin-issue-158-angry-not-apathetic-general-election-special-issue-spring-2015.html

Police and Trade Unions implicated in blacklisting scandal workers still need justice!

So new evidence has come to light in recent weeks on the disgraceful act of blacklisting workers in the construction industry mainly but no doubt it does and has gone on elsewhere too. In a Observer piece this morning “Police officers across the country supplied information on workers to a blacklist operation run by Britain's biggest construction companies, the police watchdog have told lawyers representing victims. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has informed those affected that a Scotland Yard inquiry into police collusion has identified that it is "likely that all special branches were involved in providing information" that kept certain individuals out of work. The IPCC's disclosure confirms suspicions voiced by the information commissioner's office last year that the police had been involved in providing some of the information held on the files, as revealed by this newspaper. The admission has been welcomed by campaigners for the 3,200 workers whose names were on the blacklist that was run for construction companies as "absolute evidence" of a conspiracy between the state and industry that lasted for decades. Dave Smith, an engineer who had a 36-page file under his name and was repeatedly victimised for highlighting safety hazards on sites, including the presence of asbestos, said he was delighted that the IPCC had revealed "the truth". He added: "For the past five years, when we have been saying the police were involved, we were told we were talking nonsense and it was a conspiracy theory. They wanted it to go away. Now we have the absolute evidence and this is no longer about industrial relations but is a major human rights scandal involving a conspiracy between the police and the industry." The blacklist, run by a company called the Consulting Association, funded by 40 major firms in the construction industry including Balfour Beatty and Sir Robert McAlpine, was discovered in 2009 after a raid by the information commissioner's office. Since then, the victims have fought to find out who was providing information against them. The IPCC's correspondence is regarded as a major breakthrough. However, the watchdog's disclosure has been disputed by a subsequent letter to the victims' solicitors. This was sent by a recently appointed senior investigating officer for the inquiry into the activities of undercover police officers, known as Operation Herne. In a letter, seen by the Observer, detective inspector Steve Craddock insists that the IPCC's statement is incorrect and that he has seen "no conclusive evidence" that Scotland Yard shared information with the blacklisters. The IPCC is standing by its correspondence, which it says was informed by discussions with the Metropolitan Police and that "developments since that ... are a matter for the Metropolitan Police". In response, a spokesman for Craddock said Operation Herne's investigating officer was "aware of the apparent contradiction and is looking into how that may have arisen". She added: "Operation Herne will report on the 'blacklisting' matter to the Metropolitan Police commissioner in due course." The developments come as the group fighting for justice for the blacklisted workers has received confirmation of a meeting between undercover police officers and those running the blacklist in November 2008. The information commissioner's officers have confirmed in a freedom of information response that they hold notes from a meeting between the Consulting Association and officers from the police national extremism tactical co-ordination unit, which runs undercover officers. The notes of the 2008 meeting are part of a haul of documents seized by the information commissioner's office when it discovered the existence of the secret blacklist during a raid on an office in Droitwich, Worcestershire. Sir Robert McAlpine, which was allegedly a major player in the establishment and funding of the blacklist, is currently being sued in the high court over an unlawful conspiracy to amass a database of information against thousands of people. Last week, in a dramatic twist, eight major construction companies, including Sir Robert McAlpine, announced that they would compensate some of the 3,213 workers whose names had been on a blacklist. A statement said: "The companies – Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O'Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci – all apologise for their involvement with the Consulting Association and the impact that its database may have had on any individual construction worker." Sean Curran, a solicitor representing 69 victims in the high court, said he cautiously welcomed the announcement but raised concerns over the involvement of the unions, which are also suspected of providing information to the blacklist operation in some cases. He said: "We note that there has been reference to the consultation of Ucatt and Unite in the formulation of the proposed compensation scheme. We express serious concern about the involvement of those organisations. "We have seen evidence that implicates Amicus (which evolved into Unite) and Ucatt officials in the supply of negative commentary about the suitability of their members for employment. That commentary frequently made its way onto the Consulting Association database and was no doubt one of the factors that led to denials of employment. "It is also worthy of note that those unions refused to support their members in bringing a High Court claim so that they could seek redress for the hardship that they suffered. Many of those that we represent are firm that they object to Unite or Ucatt playing any part in negotiations with the relevant companies for these reasons." Claire Windsor, solicitor for the victims in regard to the complaint over police collusion, said her clients had lost any faith in the ability of the police to investigate themselves and that the blacklist support group was now calling for a judge-led independent inquiry into blacklisting. “ Article in Observer is here http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/12/police-blacklist-construction-workers-watchdog?guni=Keyword:news-grid%20main-1%20Main%20trailblock:Editable%20trailblock%20-%20news:Position2

Capitalism is corruption

Capitalism wasn’t always like this it did play a progressive role for a time. Yet today it is hard to imagine a progressive era for this parasitical system which is more and more becoming a drag on society and our development as a human race. Corruption is everywhere we look in society now. Any falsehood of democracy is quickly fading away as bourgeois democracy crashes from crisis to crisis. In the last decade we had the expenses scandal which rocked trust in MP’s to their very foundation. The lies and deceit publically displayed by all politicians be them Labour, Tory Lib dem and now Greens who tried to pose as anti cuts and radical only to push through the cuts in Brighton City Council this year shamefully. From all parts of the establishment there is distrust and often contempt from the media to the police to our parliament and undemocratic House’s of Parliament including the unelected lords. It is no wonder society is divided with an establishment which is tearing itself apart too. With a ruling class split as explained in a previous blog post is causing a huge discourse in society where many are dies interested in politics and have good reason to be. Many think politics is not for them and it’s something that those in suits do. This is not true politics is everything and for everyone. A new workers party will have huge challenges to deal with most notably apathy and dies trust of all parties telling them they can help them. I think the point is to agree with people who tell us they hate all politicians. We do too and we are on their side one of you ordinary workers wanting to change society. Capitalism while in one of its biggest downturns possibly ever is finding it difficult to remain true to democracy. Democracy is a means to a end not a end in itself and for the ruling class is something they can do away with if need be but it is the cheapest form of control on the mass’s as the illusions of democracy hold some back from drawing the conclusions for a time. Capitalism is rooted in corruption from the labour theory of value onwards its the suction of surplus value from wage labourers that starts it all off. Corruption has grown to huge huge levels from that stage. Its time it all ends. Everywhere we look the dangers of a breakup in society is clear corruption whilst built in to the capitalist system can seep through into the labour movement and certainly this has been true in parts of the tops of the trade unions. Change needs to happen from the bottom up. Starting with the fight for the highest form of democracy at all levels starting at the bottom sweeping aside the rotten paracitical capitalist system as we go.

Opposing the Tories police cuts in Hertfordshire

Today we hear in our local newspapers that the popular choice for the Hertfordshire PCC who gained a huge mandate when he was elected with 14 % of the turnout last year is set to set to work in attacking our police force and the numbers on the streets. s By Ben Endley More than 130 police officers and staff are set to be cut in Hertfordshire as part of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s first budget. Councillor David Lloyd is proposing to freeze the budget precept for 2013/14 while making £6.3 million of spending cuts. The budget anticipates the loss of 60 police officer posts and 76 police staff posts during the next financial year. This would reduce the number of officers working in the county to 1,900 and the number of staff to 1,762. A percentage of these officer posts will be lost from crime investigation roles which is losing £350,000 from its budget, while savings will also be made in intelligence support, in the control room and through collaboration with other forces. The socialist party and TUSC in Hertfordshire condemn these cuts and urge all to add their voices to ours in opposition. As socialists we are against cuts to the police too as crime disproportionably affects working class communities we therefore oppose cuts to the police. We do not take a ultra left position that some on the left do that the police are our mortal enemy we do have serious criticisms of the police and their roles in phone hacking, breaking up picket lines and much much more injustices we do not excuse them for that but when it comes to cuts and how this will affect local communities we will oppose police cuts. When we say we’re against all cuts we have to be clear we are against police cuts too even if they show little solidarity wit anti cuts protesters and students on demonstrations. At the end of the day the polices with the army recruit largely from working class backgrounds the fact they are not allowed full trade union rights and have always up till now been paid fairly well in comparison with other public sector workers was always the ruling class’s attempt to draw them away from the working-class and more importantly the labour movement. But we do oppose these cuts by the Tories a no doubt labourPCC’s around the country will be making cuts too we oppose cuts whoever is making them. The socialist party stands for full democratic trade union rights for the police For the police to have the right to strike For the police to affiliate to the TUC and be able to have a political voice more so than the limp Police Federation which can only mummer opposition to government policies at present. Ensuring the police are democratically accountable to us the working class is a first step to drawing them nearer our position and could one day open up splits in the state but this is something much further down the line. But for now we oppose these dangerous cuts to the police service.

The crisis at the BBC- toxic level of cuts

Over the weekend and the last few days there has been a huge campaign by the government and others in the media to smear the BBC and its record. The corporation which is apparently is in deep crisis with several high ranking resignations and several more stepping aside has lead to all sorts of speculation of its future as a journalistic establishment. Now I have my criticisms of the BBC like everyone but for the most part it is a solid organisation. It doesn’t cover workers movements or strikes very fairly but I don’t expect it too it represents the interests of big business and always supports the government of the day notably a capitalist agenda. But we are in danger of missing the bigger picture here which may well be the intention to deflect the attention from child sex abuse allegations in north Wales. All the frenzy of the BBC we have rather forgotten that there have been some serious allegations made here which must be looked into. The whole fury over the Newsnight report on Lord Mcalpine and was he or wasn’t he involved in child sex abuse is really not the point in my e yes. Someone or many people were involved and Phillip Schofield and his list on this morning along with Tom Watson in the commons have something which surely they wouldn’t risk their reputations on airing in public. The police cannot be trusted in all this either and have come off quite well so far but they to need to take some blame for covering up this awful incident/s and a reopening of the original investigation is a matter of urgency. The NUJ the journalist union have released a statement which I publish below setting out where they feel things have got to and the toxic mixture of big cuts, bad management and gross incompetency. The NUJ has called for an end to cuts at the BBC, saying the Newsnight crisis is a wake-up call to an assault on frontline journalism that has cost 9,000 jobs since 2004. General secretary Michelle Stanistreet says cuts are threatening the quality of journalism not only at flagship programmes such as Newsnight, which has had its budget slashed by 50% in real terms over the past five years, but in local radio and television as well as the World Service. She said: “With fewer journalists, many employed on a casual basis, it means there is no time for that extra telephone all, no time to double-check the facts, no time to reflect properly before a programme goes out. “The current re-grading proposals could see a situation where someone can be paid the minimum of £15,000 and end up in charge of a sensitive political report, or even output a whole programme and then get blamed when it goes wrong. “It’s testament to the great journalists working at the BBC that they manage, often through sheer goodwill and professional commitment, to get the job done despite staff shortages and dwindling resources. But the pressure this puts on journalists and journalism is undeniable.” Calling on BBC chair Lord Patten to take a long hard look at what has happened, Michelle Stanistreet urged him to take on a director general who would fight for quality journalism and stop the cuts. She said: “There must be a moratorium on these cuts. This should be a wake-up call to the BBC – they need to take the opportunity to halt the assault on frontline journalism and put in place measures to shore up news and current affairs before it is too late.” The NUJ believes the backdrop to the Newsnight crisis is the remorseless cost-cutting across the BBC that started in 2004. Since then 9,000 jobs have gone, including 140 in BBC news this year alone – the eighth consecutive year of cuts. Michelle Stanistreet said: “Mark Thompson’s decision, behind closed doors, to agree to a licence fee freeze until 2017 and to take on an extra £340 million in spending commitments, including the funding of the World Service, local TV and the rollout of fast broadband, was a disaster for the BBC. “This has been compounded by the way BBC senior executives have implemented the cuts. They have chosen to cut staffing and budgets in frontline journalism; news has been particularly badly hit. Rather than hack away at the fleshy layers of management, they have chosen to cut at the sharp end and inevitably that will make it harder for quality, thorough journalism to flourish.” * NUJ members at Newsnight have asked the NUJ to make clear they are appalled at what happened, and that the overwhelming majority of those who work there had no involvement with the story, and were not consulted about it before broadcast. They are determined to go on doing their jobs and to support the BBC management in its effort to go on delivering the Corporation’s world class journalism.

Outsourcing police dogs, are there any limits to privatisation?

In Hertfordshire the latest plan to cut spending on police is this new idea to outsource police dogs and limit their use.

Whilst I’m not a huge fan of the police clearly this is significant if the police are feeling angry about cuts and are not being protected by the state. Police should have full trade union rights like other workers and have the ability to withdraw their labour like anyone else.

For a full democratic society police should be accountable to the wider public. Privatising parts of the police and outsourcing areas such as trained police dogs is just one part of this trying to undermine police officers doing their jobs.

SPECIALIST police dogs will be outsourced and handler numbers in Hertfordshire slashed under plans to cut the budget by £1.1m.
Slicing the budget by almost a third would mean police dogs for Herts, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire would be based 48 miles (77km) away from Hertford, and only be available 18 hours per day, according to a report to a police authority meeting on Friday (July 20).
The report read: "To achieve the most operationally effective unit, it is proposed that a model based upon 24 dog handlers will provide resilience, a level of flexibility and peak demand overlap. It will provide savings of approximately £1.1m (32 per cent of current budget).
"A model of 24 constables is considered the optimal number and will provide resilience both within the unit and to LPC [Local Policing Command] areas.
"Based on substantive levels of research and consultation, it is evident that the dogs unit could be reduced effectively by introducing a defined remit based upon four core areas of activity."
One Herts dog handler, who asked not to be identified, told the Mercury: "The resources are already stretched. We can’t provide any decent level of service because of the cuts that have been made. To think that we could cover three counties with 24 constables is stupid because we can’t cover two counties with 24 now.
"We’ve been kept completely in the dark and I don’t feel at all valued. This process absolutely stinks. The figures that have been looked at have been manipulated to suit.
"It’s an absolute nonsense. I hope that the police authority sees through it and sees sense."
East Herts chief inspector Gerry McDonald added: "Police dogs offer me reassurance, an ability to run faster than my officers and track people. They’re often used for drug detection and firearms recovery. It’s daily business for us.
"I’ve got a whole menu of options and police dogs are another opportunity. I don’t know what the impact will be yet but the constabulary’s not going to let me down."


with extracts from the Hertfordshire Mercury

Why are working class crimes demonised more ?

There is a part of society which is out of touch completely it is not the working class it is the MP's. It is nothing new i am well aware but working class crimes and punishments are far more excessive than MP's and teh ruling class's crimes and punishments. They simply do not fit.
For example just this week people rioting were getting jail sentances not fitting their crime. We have seen a sharp rise in politically motivated arresting and jailing of the working class. I do sense this is down to the fact we as workers are becoming more politisised and becoming more of a threat to the ruling class so the hardest line must be taken on us. This i'm afraid will not work as you can only keep the working class down for so long. There will be more of us and more angry and annoyed and frustrated at the lack of a working class representation on a mainstream scale.

In the past you used to have left wing labour MP's. Proper ones not the trendy ones you have today ones who stood up for working class people and offered an alternative to the tories and their class war on the working class. This is no more and ordinary working people are feeling cut off from society and teh world around them as they are facing increased job cuts and cuts in living standards. How can we expect MP's and labour MP's in particular when they themselves have been dabbling in the expenses tin claiming what the hell they can get their hands on. It is a break down in society that has failed us all from the top to the lower regions. This is another consequence of a greedy capitalist system which simply encourages greed and individualism.

Swansea West Labour MP, Geraint Davies, commenting on the rioting in Croydon, an area he used to represent in parliament, stated: "...it is clear what we have seen is just opportunist criminality."

He should know. In 2004-05, when Davies was MP for Croydon Central he claimed the highest expenses of any MP in the country, a staggering £176,026.

Despite Croydon being only 12 miles or a 20-minute commute from London Victoria, this included overnight cost allowance and £4,000 renovating his designated second home, a flat in Westminster.

The difference is that, unlike looting electrical goods, MPs' opportunism isn't considered criminal. It just feels that way to us, the victims.


Expense which have become the norm in the Westminster bubble of out of touch from reality careerist polititians racked up expenses totally huge amounts year on year at our expense.

A former MP jailed for expenses fraud claimed the second highest amount of parliamentary allowances last year, records have revealed.

Eric Illsley, the former Barnsley Central Labour MP, received £151,245 in 2010-11.

In January he admitted falsely claiming £14,500 of expenses between 2005 and 2008, and was jailed for 12 months, but was released in May. Illsley clung on to his parliamentary seat until nearly a month after pleading guilty.

The new figures, released by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), show Illsley's allowances claims included £38,690 in winding-up costs. They also included £3,905 for accommodation and £5,224 for travel and food.

MPs claimed a total of £70.6m in parliamentary expenses over the financial year, down from £98m in 2009-10, when the system was still operated by the Commons Fees Office.

The prime minister, David Cameron, received £106,056, almost all of which went on staffing, although he claimed £272 to cover travel and subsistence.

The records show that the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who claimed £74,357, was given a £4,000 advance on his expenses. After criticism from MPs that payments were taking too long, the Ipsa chairman, Sir Ian Kennedy, agreed last May to give some money upfront to cover office and travel costs.

The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, claimed a total of £110,878, including £13,411 to cover accommodation and £1,592 for travel and subsistence.

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, received the highest payment. His claims totalled £173,922.

Dan Jarvis, who succeeded Illsley as Labour MP for Barnsley Central following a byelection in March, had the lowest total payment. He received just £520, which covered travel and food costs.


Hundreds of MPs were ordered to repay a total of more than 1 million pounds in the wake of the expenses scandal which caused widespread anger and an overhaul of the system.

Newspaper revelations showed MPs had made claims for items ranging from toilet paper to dog food, moat cleaning and ornamental duck houses, tainting members of all major parties.

David Chaytor, 61, who had been an MP in northern England, admitted at an earlier hearing to fraudulently claiming more than 20,000 pounds in taxpayer-funded expenses.

The judge, Justice John Saunders, said Chaytor had breached the trust placed in MPs by the public and had subsequently been vilified and humiliated.

"That is an inevitable consequence for people who aspire to and achieve important public positions together with the influence which goes with those positions and who then defraud the public who elected them," he said.

"The public understandably feel cheated by what has happened."

The former Labour Party MP had claimed 22,650 pounds for rent for houses owned by himself and by his mother, and also for IT services that he had received free of change.

As a result, he was paid 18,350 pounds from the public purse, all of which he has now repaid.

Following the sentencing, Chaytor was expelled from the Labour Party, the Press Association reported.

Chaytor, who had previously denied the charges, faced a maximum of seven years in jail, but had been expected to receive a more lenient sentence because of his eventual guilty plea.

He will also have to foot the legal bill for both his defence and the costs of bringing the prosecution against him.

At the time the expenses row broke, Chaytor, apologised "unreservedly" for what he called an "unforgivable error in my accounting procedures."

Three other former MPs and two members of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of parliament, were also charged by police in relation to their expenses and are due to face trial.




So when we see people lower down the class ladder commiting crimes and thinking they can get away with it why should they think twice when they see MP's and bankers taking liberties and helping themselves to the pot having the hand and grabbing waht they can. What sort of example does this set. I would suggest all MP's and elected representitives including councillors should only take the average skilled workers wage. Just like Dave Nellist and Terry Fields did in the 80's when the yrepresented Covernty and Liverpool as Militant MP's. Not taking anymore than they needed to do their job of representing their voters who had placed trust in them to represent them and their views.

Maybe the distrust of MP's and polititians has been encouraged by the fact they are just as greedy as the bankers and in affect are no better than a banker. The media, polititians and the police are all entangled in a vicious greed bubble which they cannot escape from and to make matters worse they do not wish to. They are the have's and we are the have not's and they do not wish this to change. Be under no illusions who the real criminals in society are.

Why i feel banning the far right EDL would be a dangerous precedence to set

As i'm sure you are all well aware over the last week or so the far right and their activists have been thrown into the spotlight following the horrific murderings in Norway of young innocent teenagers and the bomb attack in Osl city centre.

There has been increased calls from the EDL to mount demonstrations and march's to stand with the person who performed these horrific actions.

Likewise many are also calling for groups like the EDL who are anti muslim and oppose islam and would be considered far right to be banned from marching and protesting.


Who are the EDL ?

The EDL has now organised around 15 principal figures loosely based around the football firms providing the most support. Not all of those involved are from a football background, and many of the men have yet to meet each other face-to-face. But they are mobilising for each other on trust, using websites including Facebook and YouTube.

The British National Party has distanced itself from the EDL, but anti-racism campaigners have named party activists they have photographed at demonstrations. They add that some demos have included people with a record of football violence.

Each demonstration has led to confrontations. But leaders like Tommy are appealing for demonstrators to avoid drink because they don't want to be written off as racist thugs.

In Birmingham last week, the BBC filmed black and white men alongside each other on EDL's lines.

So if it's not exclusively white, is it just a cover for a wider Islamophobia?

"People aren't against Islam, they aren't against anything else other than the funders of terrorism, the sworn enemies of Britain," says Tommy.

"For 10-15 years these groups have gone unchallenged in our towns and cities. Those days have gone now. We will challenge them. Wherever there are terrorists, we will be there."

Street army

Nick Lowles is the editor of Searchlight, which campaigns against far-right extremists.



Whilst i do not agree with a thing the EDL stand for or their actions at all i do feel that stifling their right to protest as much as we disagree with them and what they stand for would be undemocratic and set a dangerous level of precedence for other protests.


I could see a situation if a call to ban protests by the EDL was stretched to cover all politically motivated or any supposed politicaly motivated protests. Any that are deemed provocative in any such way would be banned.

This is not the country i'd like to live in. Whilst i do feel we should all have the right to protest which is still a very hot potato at the moment especially on the left right now with police brutality called into question on several ocasions i would not like to see riots either. A peaceful protest with banners loud noise and well mannered protest is fine i'd say but trying to stir up racial hatrid or inciting violence is something the labour movement cannot support or condone .

So i do feel going forward that peoples right to protest should be upheld and respected while respecting peoples rightto disagree and form a counter demonstration which we are happy to do on the left to offer people a alternative a working class alternative to unite us all whichever race, creed, religion or nationality you happen to be.

At the end of the day we are all workers and facing the same challenges for jobs, food, housing and living conditions so i feel we would be better placed uniting as the working class than as a nationality or a race or anything i feel it is counter productive and only turns us further against eachother, playing right into the ruling class's hands.

The worrying signs from privatising the police force

I have just found this article on the BBC's new pages and rings alarm bells to me about which way this tory lead government wants to take the state and its police force.

An Essex-based private security firm is aiming to be among the first in the UK to operate residential patrols with powers to deal with low-level crime.

BBC Inside Out East has discovered that Garde UK wants to start a 24-hour a day service covering Brentwood, with residents each paying £1 a week.

The company has been accredited by Essex Police, which means it could be granted powers to tackle anti-social behaviour, issue fixed penalty notices and confiscate alcohol.

Under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS), people can apply for accreditation to exercise limited legal powers.

Nearly 400 people from 25 organisations, including park wardens and bus inspectors, have been vetted and trained by Essex Police, but the force is yet to grant any powers to Garde UK.

'Strain on resources'

Tom Peppiatt, from Garde UK, said the firm wanted to work alongside the police to deter crime and improve community spirit.

He said: "We are not a private policing company - we are a private security company that is providing additional information and intelligence back to the police to help the system in their day-to-day routine."

The plan has been criticised by the Essex Police Federation.

Chairman Tony Rayner said: "We think policing powers should stay firmly with the police.

"If people can afford to pay £5 a week £250 a year whatever it is, then why can't they afford to pay that in additional precept to the police authority for more police officers to do it?"

But a report by Perpetuity Research and Consultancy International, which specialises in research into crime reduction and security, said while some senior police officers saw working with private security as a threat, others had embraced the idea.

Professor Martin Gill, director of Perpetuity Group, said: "I think to dismiss it too quickly is dangerous in itself, especially as we move into a new era where there are cutbacks.

"There is going to be a greater strain on police officers and they are going to have to look to different ways of policing."

"There are going to be some brave police forces that go out there and set out a different way of doing things where they find better ways of embracing resources in the community, including private security."

The full report can be seen on BBC Inside Out East and London on Monday 7 March at 1930 GMT on BBC1.


THis is quite worrying for me as we see at the same time thousands of frontline and backroom police workers and officers being removed from their jobs. We can see now with this later report where the tories plan to fill the gaps. It is clear that these private security firms will have vested interests and would have been allowed to move in with permission with the tories. You can imagine there would have been some dodgy deal done that we dont know about.

Now i'm not the greatest fan of our police in this country but i do think for teh good honest policeman or woman they deserve better than this. They do a hard job in the circumstances and i do feel sorry for them with this latest move.

Hopefully this is not a start of things to come with more and more privatisation of our public services once they have been cut.

dramatic loss of police numbers to put country at risk

Alarming figures uncovered by Labour show ranks will plunge by 10,190 by 2013 as the Tory-led Coalition's budget squeeze intensifies.

The numbers look scarey and rightly so. THis is no small feet. This is a large amount of the front line officers being made redundant or moved elsewhere. THis is worrying news i feel as we enter another decade with huge major public events like the 2012 Olympics in London and the Royal wedding to name but a few. To have this dramatic loss in officers on the streets is not only worrying to the public for their safety but the countries tourism may end up falling due to tourists not feeling as safe as perhaps they once did.

Now i'm not a huge fan of the police as it goes. Their recent record on our streets back in December at the student tuitian fees protests and back a few years to the G20 protests when poor Ian Tomlison lost his life at the hands of a police officer. At last years student protests we will remember poor Alfie Meadows who suffered bleeding on the brain due to being battered savagely over the head by a police baton.

Now this is not a rant about the police and their heavy handed tactics but just outlining my thoughts recently on them. But i do still feel despite all this that removing officers from the street wont benifit us in the long run. People like to feel safe on their streets and in their homes and this decision by this tory lead government will not help this feeling of insecurity in their own country.

I myself as a disabled person like to know there is the access of the police to protect us if i need to call upon them for any reason at all. As i am perhaps more vunrable than others in society being visually impaired i perhaps feel the police are more important to me than others.

So these cuts to police spending and front line services will be putting the country further at risk from attacks of terrorism and other such major criminal offences we hear about every day.

Even the police as they are at the moment are over stretched, when my mum tried to contact them to report a intimadation from someone else she was told no one could take her report right now as they didnt have enough units to deal with the problem. If this is how it is now, how is it going to be like after these huge policing cuts ?

Police dragging disabled man from wheelchair during student protests

From this interview with Ben brown from the BBC news http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXNJ3MZ-AUo&feature=youtu.be

this had outraged me this morning. I feel the bbc was hugely unsensitive to this poor disabled man who repeatably told the intervewer that he posed no threat to police at all yet was dragged from his wheelchair twice and his over the head by a batton. I'm frankly disgusted with our police force this morning and the bbc for reporting this badly. Shame on them. I hope poor Jody Mcintyre makes a full recovery along with ALfie Meadows who ended up in hospital within a inch of his life with bleeding on the brain due to being struck over the head with a trunchen.

There has been many blogs and articles written on this news story but i'd like to add my thoughts and feelings to this dispicable act by our nations police force of which we are supposed to have such trust and faith in to protect us. What kind of protection is this if they are going after a poor innocent disabled man who has a long term permenant disability. It is just frankly a sad state of affairs that this country has turned this way. What makes matter worse is the sheer short sightedness of the BBC interviewer- Ben brown who asks the most ridiculous questions of a man who can hardly move. Totally disregarded his disability and treated him like he was a criminal and had started the violence. Really disapointing to see the BBC turn this way as almost a extension of the governments media department now.

I used to like the BBC but any more reporting like this i am afraid i will have to find my news somewhere else.

I hope a complete inestigation is carried out into this incident and the Alfie Meadows incident and official complaints are launched and the police who did this are brought to task for this.

Myself and this blog do not condone violence and would be condeming this just as much if a police officer got hurt dont get me wrong but i se no evidence of this so will stand on the side of the poor innocent students who could not defend themselves like the police could.