In an interesting post about political party loyalties, Notes From a Small Bedroom writes about people having a sort of tribal loyalty to their political party. I certainly feel that way about Labour. Not to Blair, nor to his hand-picked Cabinet, but to the Party. It is the only political party with organic links to the organised working class in the trade union movement. As someone who has spent his life in industrial relations and trade unions, those are my roots. The analogy you make with football teams is a good one. Some people do switch from Manchester United, to Chelsea, to Liverpool, to whatever team is winning. Those who support one team, and are wedded to that team through history, family, culture and tradition, don’t do that and they have contempt for the ‘glory hunters’ who do.

In that sense, most political activists I would guess are attached to their party by tradition, through their families, their background, their culture… their class! I know it probably doesn’t make sense to those that don’t have those ties, in the same way the average non-football supporter doesn’t understand what the fuss is all about.

In supporting your party in this way there is, of course, always the danger of blind loyalty, my party right or wrong. Or as Notes From a Small Bedroom puts it, the “essentially bizarre idea that you can campaign against bad policies, but should still support the party proposing them, because your party winning outweighs all other considerations.” Personally, I don’t feel that way. I have no difficulty criticising a Labour Government if I think it is doing something wrong, and I have done so over a number of years. I opposed Wilson on support for LBJ in Vietnam, Callaghan for the Commonwealth Immigration Act (the forerunner of much of the pernicious immigration legislation we have suffered since) and the Blair Government for over reliance on Tory economic policy, particularly the PFI which seems the economics of the madhouse, Iraq and ID cards. Needless to say I opposed Thatcher a bloody site more over virtually every breath she took.

However, I have to weigh those feelings against the good I think a Labour Government has done. I won’t list them here, it will just sound like another Gordon Brown promo. Some people say, well, you are all to blame because your Party, left or right, still allows Blair to get away with it. Well, that brings to mind the old joke about Thatcher. I blame the police. There’s two on the front door of No. 10, and two on the back door, and still she gets out! Getting rid of a party Leader who has won three consecutive general Elections is not like clicking your fingers and saying ‘go’. It is virtually impossible, but I think the reason he’s going voluntarily is that he knows he has pushed it too far… much too far in my humble opinion.

Anyway, the problem, which doesn’t seem to be being addressed by POWER is that of Prime Ministerial patronage. The power, passed down from the Monarch to the Prime Minister which allows the PM to choose the Executive, appoint the judiciary and clergy and Lords. By giving complete control to the Prime Minister the appointment of the Cabinet, Ministers, Junior Ministers and the Whips as well as other important Select Committee appointments, the Prime Minister virtually controls the ruling party… and thereby, the House of Commons. We need democracy, not an elected Monarch, whichever team of fans wins the day.

Today sees the publication of the Power Report, claiming to be the biggest ever investigation into democracy in Britain. I haven't had a chance to look at it properly yet, but one thing stood out like a sore thumb. Apart from a former 'member of Hastings Young Persons Council' and the 'Chairman of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes' the members of the Commission seem to be lacking in any experience of, ermm, how can I put this nicely..... democracy!

Liberty Central is up and running. I've got an immediate aversion to anything which smells of coalition, and I despise anything which considers coalition with Tories, whatever their views on civil liberties. I'm almost as averse to Lib Dems... and come to that there are a hell of a lot of Labour people I've got reservations about. But as one of Liberty Central's inspirations, and the bloke who appears to have done the most work, is Unity from TalkPolitics, it deserves a chance. Only a chance mind... the moment they start returning to that anti-Labour crap some of the started, they are dead in the water, doomed to be splitters and will be for ever cast asunder.

The Dublin Riot!

This picture was taken on Saturday during the Dublin riots.

Did someone not tell the youth with the scarf in the foreground that these riots had nothing to do with Dion!

Tory resigns after child pornography allegations

Iain Dale really should learn not to stand in his greenhouse and throw bricks at his neighbours. Obviously not content with rubbishing Neil Kinnock for "saying we should scrap the mile and adopt kilometres instead" when it later turns out former Tory Deputy Leader, Lord Howe was also in there with Kinnock, he has now turned on LibDem Councillor Isabelle Campbell following allegations of drunken behaviour. Of course, as we know from Lord Archer and Jonathan Aitken, the Tories are whiter than white on matters of public behaviour. Apparently the Tory Leader of Dartford Borough Council in Kent who "always took a keen interest in youth affairs" has had to resign because "he wants to concentrate on other things".

Statement on Ken Livingstone chair of Unite Against Fascism

The Chair of Unite Against Fascism Ken Livingstone has a record of three
decades of opposition to racism, fascism and anti-Semitism. Millions of
Londoners have twice chosen Ken Livingstone as their Mayor, because of his
proven record on opposing injustice, racism, fascism and promoting equality.
His suspension from office for four weeks by a un elected body flies in the
face of democracy.
We are proud that he is our chair and will continue to be so.

Scrap the Standards Board

I have had my own run in recently which resulted in a ludicrous reference to the Standards Board. As it happens the Standards Board realised that it was an entirely frivilous complaint and it proved to be, as I forecast, a ridiculous waste of public money. Now the Standatds Board have taken this decision in respect of Ken Livingstone which must surely hasten their own demise. How a bunch of unelected officials can suspend from office someone elected to run one of the World's biggest cities is beyond me.

Iain Dale is a sucker for punishment. Not content with Ken giving the Tories two trouncings in a row, the masochistic Mr Dale wants a third punch on the nose. As if the news on Ian's new best friend Comical Cami wasn't bad enough!

Surely we've got to be preggmatic about this?

Over five million people at work in the UK regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers £23 billion of free work every year. If you're one, why not take some time to reflect on how well (or badly) you're balancing your life?

Tomorrow (Friday 24th) is Work Your Proper Hours Day. Ask your employers to publicise it on their Intranet (don't hold your breath though).

An interesting analysis of the US fatalities in Iraq compared with the same stage of the war in Vietnam at lies.com. Regrettably there is no comparison for dead Vietnamese and Iraqi citizens.

Prince Charles - 'political dissident'

On the same subject... From a letter in The Guardian
"No chance of Prince Charles being dissident enough to be a republican, I suppose?"
Colin Burke
Manchester

See also, on the same letters page, the cutting observation about.... the Oxford Revolutionary Socialist Society

It is almost a mantra: no-one with power gives up that power voluntarily. Whether we are talking about Emperors, Kings, Governments or local councils, if you expect them to 'give away their powers' you've probably got a long wait. You can point to some examples I'm sure (devolution?) but beware of those who talk the talk of 'devolving power' to communities or neighbourhoods... it usually just masks further centralisation. So, when David Miliband makes 'a keynote speech' about 'localism' ... be sceptical. As I have said before, David and Ed Miliband's dad, a fine old Marxist, wrote a book called 'Parliamentary Socialism' with the central thesis that Labour would always sell out and would never deliver socialism. His sons are engaged in proving the old man was right.

Simon Jenkins in The Guardian casts a sceptical eye over Miliband's New Localism. The one thing Miliband and his colleagues never mention is democracy. They are horrified by voting.... Miliband is unable to list a single power to be given to elected councillors. His benefaction is to unspecified volunteers who are "below the radar" of democracy yet who deserve something called 'more control', writes Jenkins. Miliband's Leader is worse though: Blair is equally off the Miliband message. He regards local democracy as akin to avian flu. To him "community school" is a term of abuse. He yearns to release education from the clutches of local councils and give it to churches, tycoons and his own regulators.

Within the wider labour movement, the Tectonic Plates are beginning to rumble. The Blairites have already done what they can to emaculate local government. The latest proposed education reforms are seen as an attack on LEA's and a step too far. The parliamentary backbenchers have picked up the noises. Miliband's new localism, combined with Sir Michael Lyons' anticipated proposals for local government are designed to castrate local authorities. But the wider movement knows we fight General Elections with the troops honed on local elections. Get rid of your local elections, you become like the current Provisional IRA; an army without any troops.

Perhaps then the Blairites (or will it the be the Milibandies by then) can embark on the final solution. Get together with the Lib Dems, introduce state funding of political parties, fight elections on TV, and ditch those inconvenient trade unions altogether. Some bloody localism, eh?

Ming Campbell is dead in the water! He has just been given the kiss of death! Either that or Hemming is so confident Ming is going to win he has decided now is the time to start sucking up.

Yesterday, prior to sitting through the yawnathon that was Aston Villa's inept performance against Manchester City (who for 94 minutes couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo) I read 'Guards' by Ken Bruen. (Ignore the Amazon review by 'A reader from Slagelse' - it tells you more about the Danish than 1,000 Islamaphobic cartoons). What a cracking book! Bruen's central character is a dipso former Garda in Galway who stumbles his way through 300 pages either totally pissed or preparing to get pissed. How have I missed these books before? Here's a flavour.

I'm getting a bit pissed off with student lib dem supporters who say the sort of thing Doctor Vee said: "I’d far rather vote for the Conservatives than Labour at the moment. In fact, for the forseeable future. If it leads to a Conservative government, so what?" If you follow the link he gives to MatGB, he writes: "In 1997, I wanted Blair to win. New Labour appeared to be a refreshing alternative to a Conservative govt that had been in office too long and lost its way." Lost its way!!!!! Just exactly when did it do that; before of after Thatcher sent baton wielding thugs into the Yorkshire coalfields or to Murdoch's Wapping printworks? I'll condemn Blair for sucking up to George W Bush (and a lot more besides), but Thatcher sent Paul Channon to sit on Saddam's white sofa to try to flog him weaponary after they knew he had practised genocide against his own people. Of course, she was not beyong sipping tea in china cups with murderers and torturers like Pinochet, but hey, perhaps she had 'lost her way' by then. Where did these people learn their social history? Smash Hits? Do they think the Thatcher years were all New Romantics and David Bowie? Last year I wrote a post which pointed out that in 1979 some small Trotskyite sects used to wander around advising people to vote for Thatcher’s Tories in the General Election. The Labour Party under Jim Callaghan had “sold out the working class” betrayed the trade unions and danced to the monetarist tunes of the IMF. Murdoch’s Sun newspaper reached the same conclusion (albeit not, as you can imagine, for the same reasons), and come the election, Thatcher swept into Downing Street. Bloody good strategy that turned out to be! If you want Lib Dems... ask people to vote for them. They opposed the war (until it started, then they supported it) argued for increased taxation to fund public services (even though Labour invested more than they had promised) and wanted to drive us unthinkingly into a federal Europe and the single currency (although they became strangely silent on that as time passed). But to argue for the return of the Tories in the hope that they have 'found their way again'.... you must be barking! Say what you will about the SWP and Respect, at least they have class politics... not the politics of the classroom.

Clearly a man who can't tell his Arth from his Elwen.

It is estimated that women who are subjected to domestic abuse suffer around 35 incidents before they report it to someone. If, that is, they live long enough. Another excellent post by the World Weary Detective.

Birmingham Tory/Lib Dem Council in leak scandal.

Why do supermarkets stock so many brussels sprouts? I am the only person I know who loves them. This is painful.

People who have been following this blog over the last couple of years will know that we have been waging war with a company called Blue Chip Casinos for the last three years. For those who don't know...start here! Blue Chip submitted a planning application to convert a pub in a residential street in my Ward into an all-night gambling den decked out to look like some ridiculous ocean liner.


Local residents objected to the plans and the Planning Committee threw the proposal out on the grounds of unreasonable noise and nuisance to local people. Undeterred, Blue Chip appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, and after a three-day public inquiry, the Planning Inspectorate upheld the Planning Committee’s decision.

We thought that would be the end of it, and they would go away and leave the residents in peace. Oh no! Blue Chip submitted modified plans which erected some bloody awful ‘sheds’ at the back, directly facing people’s homes, to act as ‘an acoustic barrier’. Planning Committee kicked this in to touch as well, this time with the rider that the sheds themselves were ugly. Back came Blue Chip again, this time with ‘litter gathering’ shrubs on the street facing part of the sheds. Once again, Planning Committee threw out the plans and confirmed quite clearly that they still didn’t think an all-night casino in a residential street was appropriate… with or without tarted-up sheds.

So, now, with only three days before their deadline to appeal expired, Blue Chip are back for a fifth bite of the cherry with another appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. For three years this odious company have subjected residents to a process of mental torture. But for the fifth time in three years the residents are preparing to resist them. With the assistance of the excellent Planning Aid, we are drawing up the battle lines. Unfortunately the Planning Inspectorate has chosen to deal with this latest appeal behind closed doors on the basis of an exchange of papers, leaving local people suspicious that the Inspectorate don’t want to stab them in the front.

The fight goes on.

"Public-funded art is for everyone, not just some stupid vicars." ... or Mullahs presumably. 'Christian Voice is outside, praying for our souls ... '

Last year I went to see the African Soul Rebels tour with the excellent Tinariwen and Rachid Taha, Algeria's answer to Joe Strummer. Next week I'm off to see African Soul Rebels II with another Algerian star Souad Massi and the creators of last year's best album, Amadou and Mariam. The tour starts in Manchester tomorrow... get to one of the shows if you can, (sold out in London, I'm afraid) if it's as good as last year it should guarantee a great night out.