As the week has been so hectic, I'm afraid it's been a while since I last had the chance to update the blog.
Well, it all started with the first of the great debates. OK, I'm going to give Nick Clegg a bit of credit - after all, he did manage to go, within the space of a week, from being someone most people wouldn't recognize if they bumped into him to being the most popular party leader since Winston Churchill. So I do agree with Nick about one thing at least - you have a choice in this election other than Labour or the Conservatives.
We have quickly seen the well worn arguments of the "Vote Clegg, get Brown," variety. The point, of course, is that Labour and the Tories have a symbiotic love-hate relationship. They must make a great show of hating each other, for of course their raison d'etre is to keep the other out. In fact, of course, both are entirely happy with a system that allows them to make a "it's one or the other" argument, and any other vote is a "wasted vote." If you don't vote for one of the big two, you don't count and neither do your views. With all this, it's hardly surprising that around a third of the electorate didn't bother to vote at all in 2005. But it's not just about the big three either; we need to tell people that their vote counts whoever they choose.
What has been particularly amusing is seeing the reaction of the tabloid newspapers to the scandalous notion that the British public should have the right to decide the outcome of the election instead of them. I think that Nick has so far been accused of just about everything short of satanic ritual abuse, although that too may soon be coming.
And so to the other great debate. Well, I'm not talking about the second debate last night, which I didn't see (as I don't have Sky) and which the BBC spent about 20 minutes dissecting ad nauseam on the news. We had the first campaign hustings, courtesy of the York Older People's Forum, at the Friends' Meeting House on Monday, at which I think all the candidates acquitted themselves well; this includes Paul Abbott of UKIP who popped along and spoke several times from the audience. I think there are a number of issues that might crop up again in later hustings, but more of that later.
Friday 23 April 2010
Friday 16 April 2010
Justice for the Jarvis workers
Yesterday, I attended the march in York in support of the Jarvis workers who have been made redundant. The march itself was just like the good old days - megaphones, banners and copies of the Socialist Worker on sale; in fact, it's a shame there weren't a few chants of "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Out! Out! Out!" for old times' sake. I ended up with a good friend of mine holding the other end of his banner. But the purpose was certainly deadly serious.
However, as of earlier this week, Yorkshire minister Rosie Winterton was still insisting that Network Rail was a private company and that she couldn't intervene. Hugh Bayley, who didn't come to the march (though some of his Labour colleagues on the city council did) has pledged "100% support" for the workers, though it's not clear exactly what will happen in practice as a result of his representations.
It was interesting that a local PC who was policing the march came up to me and said how shocking she thought the treatment of the Jarvis workers was. Of course we need TUPE and decency for Jarvis staff - but we also need to end the shambles of a fractured rail system in which the different entities look after their own interests instead of those of the travelling public.
The Greens are the only party at this election calling for the railways to be brought back into public ownership.
The fiasco leading up to the sacking of the workers is testament to the dysfunctionality of the privatized rail system. Network Rail slashed its track renewal programme by 30% last year, leaving Jarvis in a vulnerable position and the firm finally collapsed in March. Meanwhile, engineering work has been contracted out to other firms employing agency staff. The workers have asked for a TUPE arrangement, which means that they would be taken on by the other companies doing the work under existing terms and conditions. Because this hasn't been applied already, the taxpayer could end up footing the bill for redundancy pay, while skilled employees are thrown out of work. This is entirely typical of the rail industry - public subsidy goes in at one end and private profit comes out at the other, a fact that seems to be lost on some people in other political parties.
However, as of earlier this week, Yorkshire minister Rosie Winterton was still insisting that Network Rail was a private company and that she couldn't intervene. Hugh Bayley, who didn't come to the march (though some of his Labour colleagues on the city council did) has pledged "100% support" for the workers, though it's not clear exactly what will happen in practice as a result of his representations.
It was interesting that a local PC who was policing the march came up to me and said how shocking she thought the treatment of the Jarvis workers was. Of course we need TUPE and decency for Jarvis staff - but we also need to end the shambles of a fractured rail system in which the different entities look after their own interests instead of those of the travelling public.
The Greens are the only party at this election calling for the railways to be brought back into public ownership.
Thursday 8 April 2010
It's hide behind the sofa time...
...and keep your household pets safely away from the television - yours truly has just completed an interview for Look North.
Danni Hewson from the BBC was interviewing three Green candidates about issues that concerned them: Dilys Cluer from Scarborough discussed pensions and older people, Jillian Creasy from Sheffield talked about health (she is a part time GP), and I discussed transport and the economy. We did the interview on the city walls next to the headquarters of Jarvis Rail, who have been hit hard by Network Rail's decision to cut back on track maintenance contracts.
Well, I did manage to fluff one question although Danni was extremely pleasant about it. I wonder whether they could do something like the "comedy of errors" as they used to at the end of the Dick Emery show - where they show all the mistakes that everyone has made, just for a laugh.
A couple of points I did want to get across - a personal passion of mine is that we need to invest in science and innovation. Of course this is partly to do with tackling climate change, but it's also about taking a pride in again being a country where people make and produce things, instead of having everything we used every day made by people on the other side of the world earning 5p an hour.
The other thing is that I don't shy away from saying that we need a more equal distribution of wealth and the taxation system ought to be designed to achieve that. All available evidence shows that almost every social indicator improves - there is less crime, better health, better mental health, people feel happier and more secure... and in fact things are better even for rich people.
Anyway, if I can find out the date of the broadcast it will no doubt be good for a few chuckles.
Danni Hewson from the BBC was interviewing three Green candidates about issues that concerned them: Dilys Cluer from Scarborough discussed pensions and older people, Jillian Creasy from Sheffield talked about health (she is a part time GP), and I discussed transport and the economy. We did the interview on the city walls next to the headquarters of Jarvis Rail, who have been hit hard by Network Rail's decision to cut back on track maintenance contracts.
Well, I did manage to fluff one question although Danni was extremely pleasant about it. I wonder whether they could do something like the "comedy of errors" as they used to at the end of the Dick Emery show - where they show all the mistakes that everyone has made, just for a laugh.
A couple of points I did want to get across - a personal passion of mine is that we need to invest in science and innovation. Of course this is partly to do with tackling climate change, but it's also about taking a pride in again being a country where people make and produce things, instead of having everything we used every day made by people on the other side of the world earning 5p an hour.
The other thing is that I don't shy away from saying that we need a more equal distribution of wealth and the taxation system ought to be designed to achieve that. All available evidence shows that almost every social indicator improves - there is less crime, better health, better mental health, people feel happier and more secure... and in fact things are better even for rich people.
Anyway, if I can find out the date of the broadcast it will no doubt be good for a few chuckles.
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