Write your own news

This week has once again demonstrated how much of an agenda there is in the media. Only a matter of days in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party and the press has stepped up the misinformation that it was forking out during the leadership campaign. This was identified by another article on this blog on 16^th September.

We need to make a change in how we consume the news and current affairs and we need to write our own news.

Another Angry Voice - click image for link to article

What’s good about this week’s spin?

In some ways I think the spin this week has been useful because normally the slant of the right wing media is hard to identify. Thomas G Clark has dedicated a whole section of his phenomenal blog ‘Another Angry Voice’ to Political Myth Busting. AAV digs directly at the myths that are pedalled out by the right wing media. There are lies in there that many of us just take for granted as true which are skillfully dissected, for example;

·         The “maxed out national credit card” fallacy; through which we have all been made to think, incorrectly, of the national economy like a household budget

·         The spending cuts vs tax increases false dichotomy; in which we are told that the only two options available are to either have cuts in spending or rises in taxes

·         The unpatriotic left fallacy; as it says, it is something we have seen directed at Corbyn and his new Shadow Chancellor this week

So this week it has been refreshing if only in the sense that the spin and propaganda has been so obvious. Even Tory supporters, maybe even Mr Cameron himself, must have cringed at the anti-Corbyn video that the Tory press office put out at the beginning of the week. This video, if you didn’t catch it before it was taken down for copyright infringement, heavily edited to be made grainy, black and white with eerie music, stated that the new Labour leader was a threat to national security and had referred to Osama Bin Laden’s death as a tragedy.

Only it is not quite what he said.

I agree completely with Corbyn, and I think most people would ; that Bin Laden’s death actually was a tragedy. I remember TV footage of Americans celebrating in the street because Bin Laden had been assassinated and felt very uneasy. Cheering in the street about anyone’s death can’t be right. Although we might feel that revenge is sweet and certainly many of us wanted Bin Laden to pay for what he had done; should you have a death sentence without a trial? Dispense with public accountability? This is why we have established the systems we have in society; it is part of why we are proud to be British. You can’t just kill people; you can’t do to someone the act that you have condemned them for.

It is glaringly obvious that the media is swamped by right-wing bias. We have begun to ask “hang on a minute, whilst I look at this grainy horror spin-off rubbish, what am I missing?”

Well whilst we were listening to the various reports about how Corbyn had “snubbed the Queen” by not singing the national anthem, we were not paying attention as the government voted through £4.4bn in cuts to tax credits; a loss of around £1,300 to the poorest, working families even after any other measures like an increase in minimum wage.

What a kick to working people in Britain. Hang on! Didn’t the Tories say that Labour were now a threat to working people? That’s weird.

Write your own news!

It has been clear for some time that we need to find alternative sources of news, or at the very least, multiple sources of the news. But also, we need to create and participate in our own news.

This blog is not about supporting Jeremy Corbyn, but I wanted to use his treatment this week, which is the same that Green Party suffers often when it is thrown in to the media’s eye, to highlight the point. Also, Corbyn’s success highlights the importance of social media which Corbyn’s campaign team used to their enormous advantage creating an alternative narrative to the one put out by the mainstream press of the “radical left wing rebel”. For Corbyn’s team, social media and online campaigns got out the message that they wanted to get out. This is much like the success we saw with the #GreenSurge .

So take to facebook, litter your friends newsfeeds with things you care about, ‘hashtag’ the crap out of everything you hold dear on twitter, comment on and challenge ridiculous propaganda posts, write a blog, step out on a protest march, attend a Calais refugee coffee morning, change someone’s mind over the water cooler at work, read different newspapers.

What follows is not non-bias news or blog; it is simply what I would call an alternative to the mainstream narrative. But given that none of the following are bankrolled by billionaires who also happen to be mates with the Tory Prime Minister, they certainly feel more authentic. Try some of these and please suggest your own in the comments section;

Stroud Against the Cuts http://stroudagainstcuts.co.uk/

Another Angry Voice http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/

Molly Scott Cato MEP http://mollymep.org.uk/

Vox Political https://mikesivier.wordpress.com/

Community R4C (alternative to the incinerator at Javelin Park, Gloucestershire) http://communityr4c.com/

The Void https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/

The Green Benches http://www.greenbenchesuk.com/

Thank you to the 124 progressives

The bill which will see disgraceful cuts to welfare has been passed in its first reading in the House of Commons.

Yesterday I wrote about the need for progressives to work together and the simmering resistance against neoliberal, austerity is building. Unfortunately, we have now discovered that the parliamentary Labour Party on the whole are not progressive and are not prepared to stand up for the young, poor or vulnerable. Having said that, the 48 Labour MPs who boldly opposed the party whip are to commended for doing so.

Of particular note was the Labour MP, John McDonnell who explained;

"I would swim through vomit to vote against this bill and listening to some of the nauseating speeches tonight I think we might have to. Poverty in my constituency is not a lifestyle choice, it is imposed upon people.We hear lots about how high the welfare bill is, let's understand why that's the case.The housing benefit bill is so high because for generations we've failed to build council houses, we've failed to control rents, we've done nothing about the 300,000 properties that stand empty in this country."

I wanted to write this quick post for my part to say thank you to the 124 MPs who agree with Mr McDonnell and did oppose this atrocious bill. We now have a clear idea of who the progressives are in parliament and can see from which ranks we could see productive, positive alliances growing.

Who was in the 124 progressive MPs yesterday?

48 Labour MPs

55 SNP

8 Liberal Democrats

6 DUP

3 Plaid Cymru

3 SDLP

1 Green

1 UUP

You can find out how your MP voted at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

A simmering resistance, a building movement

What a couple of weeks it has been. Even by Tory standards the weather of late has been very Tory. First we had the budget designed to make poor people poorer and rich people richer. Then we had the attempt to repeal the fox hunting ban by the back door; fox hunting is a blood sport which is the reserve of deranged elitists. Finally we have had the announcement of legislation to permanently alter the way trade unions operate and set back workers rights by around 100 years.

In addition to this George Osborne decided to basically ignore the issue of climate change in his budget, gave greater fiscal support oil companies and sort to incentivise ‘fracking’ whilst at the same time hampering the green energy movement by absurdly removing the Climate Change Levy exemption from renewable electricity.

To get a flavour of what our own local Tory is fighting for on some of the points briefly mentioned above;

In our Stroud District -   Neil Carmichael MP has voted;

 against paying higher benefits for people unable to work through illness or disability,

in favour of bedroom tax,

against benefits rising to meet cost of living,

 in favour of a reduction in welfare spending,

against a scheme to create guaranteed jobs for young people who been long term unemployed,

against a tax on bankers bonuses

against a mansion tax

in favour of reducing corporation tax

Neil Carmichael MP has stated that he will vote in favour of fox hunting.

                                 Neil Carmichael MP has a poor voting record when it comes to the environment.

                                               

When I sit down to write these blogs I want to be positive and constructive. But I am, like many of you I am sure, finding it hard to be positive right now. My MP is essentially the very antithesis of what I believe in and my government even more so.

Every morning when I come down to my kitchen and make a cup of tea, I switch on the radio as my preferred method of getting the news as I get my baby ready for the day or get ready for work. Increasingly though I am finding that my finger hovers over the preset button for Radio 4 and is tending to tap the Planet Rock preset as I say to myself ‘do you know what? I just don’t want to know today’. Of course this could just be that I am getting fed up with the today programme!

Progressives must work together

Before the budget was announced I attended a meeting of Stroud Against the Cuts. Stroud Against the Cuts brings together progressive groups from across Stroud and Gloucestershire who, despite whatever other differences, are united in their opposition to austerity.

When the election result was announced in May Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavillion, said the following;

“…we must move forward today. While the campaign for electoral reform gathers momentum, those of us wanting to see a fairer, more compassionate and progressive politics must find new ways of working together, a new way to do politics – and put that in to practice now”

Caroline Lucas MP

This is the thing that gives me hope now; the simmering resistance that is turning in to a movement. It is a movement that questions this neoliberal austerity ideology and outright calls for something different, something more hopeful, something less damning.

It is no longer just a utopian fantasy but something eminent economists such Tim Jackson have put in to sound theory. We can create a world in which we redefine prosperity away from our ability to consume goods and amass economic wealth. We can redefine prosperity in terms of happiness, wellbeing and living within the means of this planet that we call home. We don’t have another one to fall back on after all.

The Labour Party

Following Osborne’s despicable budget it is time for the Labour Party to stand up and truly be the main opposition party. Not just opposition for the sake of it no; but because the very fabric of what makes our society great is at risk. Childhoods, retirements, working lives, already desperate lives are at risk.

I hope that the Labour Party will reach out and grasp the hand of Caroline Lucas, and will also stand up to the offer put forward by the 20 year SNP MP, Mhairi Black (youngest MP in 300 years) in her, already very famous, inspirational maiden speech;

“Now, yes we will have political differences, yes in other parliaments we may be opposing parties, but within this chamber we are not. No matter how much I may wish it, the SNP is not the sole opposition to this Government, but nor is the Labour party. It is together with all the parties on these benches that we must form an opposition, and in order to be affective we must oppose not abstain. So I reach out a genuine hand of friendship which I can only hope will be taken. Let us come together, let us be that opposition, let us be that signpost of a better society. Ultimately people are needing a voice, people are needing help, let’s give them it.”

Read the transcript here

See the speech in full here

It appears now that scores of Labour MPs are set to join Caroline Lucas in opposing the welfare cuts proposed by the Tories. It is shame that Labour MPs have to do this in defiance of the Labour leadership, but it their true opposition and defence of those who need it most is very welcome all the same.

Progressives must work together, form an opposition both locally and nationally and not allow this government to continue to ideologically dismantle all that makes our country great. The situation is already so very desperate and there has only been a Conservative majority government in power for 2 months. Imagine the horror of a Tory party unopposed for 5 years… if you dare.

Burning issues in local politics

By Gerald Hartley

There are many reasons to oppose burning of waste - it destroys materials that will become in short supply and could be recycled, and they aren't efficient in how they use the heat. Financially incinerators are a gamble - the facilities require long term contracts which cannot then allow a flexible response to likely changes in waste creation. The alternatives are now favoured by government and the EU which also wants to ban incinerators from burning anything that can be recycled. You might think the Labour Party would have a principled opposition to them by now.

Despite all of this, Worcestershire County Council is going to build an incinerator at Hartlebury. The National Audit Office says it wants to examine the financial deal. Two Green Party county councillors proposed a motion to get it stopped. Here is the Labour Party response.

Labour Councillor Richard Udall, chairman of WCC's scrutiny board, said: "I totally oppose this motion because I think it's unnecessary. If we thought this was needed, we'd have found time. It's been scrutinised for over 15 years, other options have been looked at and rejected, and this motion is designed to pander to a few protesters."

There are real concerns over the health impact of air pollution, and the World Health Authority recognises its contribution to causing cancer. We should be wary of any proposal to put more pollution into the atmosphere. The refusal to consider the dangers of incineration or to look at realistic alternatives, is appalling.

 

Councillor Peter Mc-Donald, Labour group leader, said: "We need this incinerator up and running as quickly possible - we are running out of landfill space and the taxes on it are going up and up."

The evidence is that government taxes on landfilling have worked so well that the UK has met all its EU targets. In a couple of years the UK will have more alternatives to landfill than it needs. Some of that overcapacity will be recycling via MBT plants, but sadly, incineration will also play a big part.

Tory Councillor John Campion said: "He (Cllr Udall) is spot on - it's almost like they haven't got the answer they wanted, so they have decided to come back and ask again. So there we have it. Another Tory/Labour agreement to ignore the local community, do a deal with big business and to hell with the environment, public health and future generations. So hurrah for the Greens for asking again. Mainstream politicians seem to have forgotten that the point of democracy is public service, not serving the few at the expense of the majority.

 

(Photo "Fire" by Federico Stevanin via http://www.freedigitalphotos.net )