Labour has allowed the Conservatives to frame its politics
April 15th, 2015
George Monbiot is well worth reading in today’s Guardian, here are a few extracts . . .
In reality, the deficit should rank somewhere in the low hundreds on the list of political priorities. It’s a con; an excuse for redrafting the social contract on behalf of the elite. But Labour has meekly acquiesced to this agenda, disputing only the extent of its application.
By accepting your opponents’ frame, you reinforce their power, allowing them to pull the entire polity into their own arena. No Labour capitulation has been as extreme and catastrophic as the one with which it begins this year’s manifesto.
[…]
Five more years of Tory rule?
April 14th, 2015
Update 2017 Volunteers help preserve London’s parks as funding withdrawn
Tax the rich: an animated fairy tale
A while back when I was still on Twitter (yes I know) I came across this animated video about unrestrained neo-liberalism. Despite retweeting it at the time it didn’t take off. I was surprised because to me it is an accurate graphic representation of what is and has been happening to our society in the UK since 1979.
It ties in with an analysis I did a while back of a Stuart Hall paper where he examines what will happen if neo-liberalism is allowed to continue to dictate policy in public life.
Thatcher reviewed in the Architects Journal
April 14th, 2015
High Rise Dreams
A good article from the 11th in the AJ which makes good if uncomfortable reading for those of us who remember the years before it was all dismantled.
The biggest impact on the profession was the closure of the vast majority of public sector architect departments. In-house council teams had employed thousands of architects across the country.
What Uk Labour ought to do – Guardian
April 10th, 2015
The first clear chance for years to differentiate themselves, to renounce austerity and commit to a genuine Labour manifesto, sod the Mail, renationalise, reunionise, tax the rich, protect the poor, FIGHT FOR THE WORKING CLASS WHICH IS TECHNICALLY THEIR ****ING PURPOSE and all they can offer is the Vegetarian Option
I don’t read the Guardian in order to be told what to think, I read it because their editorial views are the most closely aligned with my own. In most cases. This applies today where they summarise responses from a readers’ survey leading to a list of 10 things their readers think ought to be in the manifesto but which are not:-
Right to buy replacement costs
April 8th, 2015
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Labour: End the right to buy!
April 5th, 2015
Estates under threat II
April 4th, 2015
We will not get the new social housing we need until there is a profound leftward shift in Government. Whether that comes from a Labour / SNP deal or elsewhere remains to be seen but without it I fear another five years of expulsions
Map @onalifeglug HT @gamecounsel & @CorpWatchUK
Five years ago I wrote this:-
“Among
Toryboroughs across London, there seems now to be a disease spreading ever wider that the land on which council tenants live is available for development”[Tory struck out 7/11/12 owing to realisation that they’re all at it. Hello Southwark (Lab)! – Ed.]
Follow the fight to save London’s social housing @michaellondonsf and planning stuff.
If you’re planning to vote Tory first read this
March 31st, 2015
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A new report by Professor Anne Power of the LSE reviewed here by Aditya Chakrabortty
Regeneration Game – Vice – Part One
March 31st, 2015
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In part one of Regeneration Game, host Daisy-May Hudson visits the Carpenters Estate in Newham, the borough with the biggest homelessness crisis in London. With Westfield shopping centre, the Olympic site and excellent transport links surrounding the area, the land on which people’s homes stand has rocketed in value. The council has said the Carpenters Estate is no longer “viable” and has been slowly trying to relocate residents over the last eight years – but a group of local mums are leading the fight back.
Tweet of the day – Keep public land, public!
March 31st, 2015
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Michael, why aren’t you Mayor? You’d make a better one than Boris.
If I could take everybody in London under 30 back to the 1970s for a day and show them the council housing we had then, and point out that they themselves could have applied for a flat and got one in under a year in most cases, they’d be in heaven. What have we lost under the Tories and New Labour???