tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5678555351841954052024-03-05T19:40:03.850-08:00Nick Matthews: a Black Country Bloke @ LargeNick Matthews was born in Wednesbury. Birmingham is a suburb of Wednesbury that has done rather well for itself. He is a co-operator and is interested rested in all aspects of co-operative life.Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-83454304497869529812017-04-14T06:14:00.000-07:002017-04-14T06:14:03.597-07:00GJH@200<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two hundred years ago, and a short walk from Birmingham’s New Street
Station, inside Birmingham Hippodrome, is a plaque commemorating the birthplace
of one of the most important co-operators of all time. This was the location of
no. 1 Inge Street and George Jacob Holyoake is one of the most influential citizens
in the illustrious pantheon of Brummies. A radical democrat, freethinker, campaigner
for education, founder of secularism, historian and champion of co-operatives
and co-operation Holyoake had a long and eventful life. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From the age of 8 he went to work with his father at the
Eagle Foundry as a whitesmith. He studied and became a teacher at the Mechanics
Institute and his political education continued through his membership of the
Birmingham Reform League which he joined in 1831. During his lifetime he formed
or was on the executive of twenty two different organisations. He was friendly
with other leading thinkers including John Stuart Mill. He lobbied Gladstone against tax on
knowledge (such as books & newspapers) and for the secret ballot. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He is probably most famous today for defending himself in
the last trial for blasphemy in a public lecture. His nine hour oration cost
him six months in prison!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He coined the term self-help, later taken up by Samuel
Smiles. His legendary book published in 1857 ‘Self-Help by the People: The
History of the Rochdale Pioneers’ went into ten editions and was translated
into dozens of languages and, it is claimed, led to the formation of 250
co-operative societies within two years of its publication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He went on to chronicle the history of many individual
co-operative societies and to produce the seminal history of the movement as a
whole.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His death was marked with a permanent memorial when 794
co-operative societies contributed to the building of Holyoake House in Manchester in his
name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James Ramsey McDonald wrote the
entry on Holyoake in the Dictionary of National biography. And for the 150<sup>th</sup>
anniversary the BBC commissioned a play for today about Holyoake’s trial and imprisonment.
The playwright was no less than John Osborne and the actor who played Holyoake was
the most famous actor of the time Richard Burton. Mrs Holyoake was played by an
equally famous Rachel Roberts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So how should we remember Holyoake today? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think the most important lesson we can take from him is
his radical commitment to democracy. He spent a lot of time thinking about how
co-operators and others could work together. He stated that associationism (one
of the many terms he brought into popular use) was an art to be learned. “The
moral art of association” was, he said, the art of making co-operative
behaviour more likely. That development of a co-operative culture is reflected
in his anecdotal style of writing, “folly is a contagious disease”, he said,
“but there is difficulty in catching wisdom”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lastly he championed collective action and individual
freedom. In his autobiographical work, Scenes from an Agitator’s Life published
in 1892, he wrote,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The ambition of distinction is wholesome as long as it
permits equal opportunity. In democracy there is no chieftainship in which
others must submit their judgement against their reason. There is no legitimate
leadership, save the leadership of ideas, no allegiance save that of
conviction, no loyalty save loyalty to principle.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spreading the message of co-operation is as important today
as it was two hundred years ago. Holyoake said “I have cared for co-operation
more than for any other cause” today he inspires us to continue to make the
case for co-operation as a vehicle for economic, social and political
emancipation. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Happy birthday GJH!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-45107100473135105172016-06-20T00:27:00.000-07:002016-06-20T00:27:00.814-07:00Referendum Blues<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have received quite a lot of feedback of my previous piece
about the coming EU referendum. My position as a pro-Euro-sceptic caused some
amusement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not a romantic European but
someone who looks at the practicalities of our relationship with our European
neighbours. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One comment I have to refute is the assertion that it is not
possible to reform the EU. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The EU has
evolved and developed with every treaty change. The problem has been that those
evolutions and changes have not been in the direction we would want because the
left across Europe is too weak. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The whole world has been in the grip of the “Washington
Consensus” the intellectual drive for ever freer markets and privatisation. The
EU institutions like those of every other international organisation reflect
that neo-liberal economic ideology. We cannot get off the world we have to work
to change that dominant ideology in every forum and every economic and
political space we can get access too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Criticism of the EU as undemocratic, which it is, comes a
bit rich however from the citizens of a monarchy that is probably the least
democratic country in the EU.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The key questions for those of us on the left are not the
romantic questions about sovereignty – we are not national socialists or about identity
– we know workers have no country. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As internationalists the question we must ask is would the
left across Europe be made stronger or weaker
by us helping to deliver a victory for Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We should be in no doubt that a victory for ‘Brexit’ would
be a right wing triumph that would propel Johnson into Number 10 and put a
spring into the step of every right and far-right party across the entire continent.
This act of political self harm would be duplicated by a huge level of economic
self harm. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite its portrayal as “operation fear” the Remain
campaign has bizarrely underestimated the scale of economic dislocation that a
vote to leave the EU would trigger. I suspect this is because they do not want
to admit how little control they have over large parts of our economy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The level of economic integration that the UK now has with
the rest of the EU is so deep both sides agree it would be impossible to
unravel in terms of markets, supply chains and investment. This is presumably
why even the out campaign wants to try to do the impossible by staying in the
single market for capital, goods and services but not for labour.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The mess of red tape that would be needed to replace our
existing relationship with the EU would be vast. Despite the Outers complaints
about European red tape most of it is to enable the single market to function. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is no doubt either that agriculture in Britain owes a
debt to the strength of the agricultural lobby on the continental mainland for
its level of subsidy. Similarly the regions and smaller nations of Europe have benefited greatly from being in the EU sometimes
much to the annoyance of the larger states they are part of. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a similar story when it comes to
legislation about the environment individual member states frightened of their
domestic industrial lobbies often blame the EU for tougher standards.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not going to give you any guff about the EU
strengthening workers rights or health and safety laws as we all know at
whatever level these have to be fought for. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Migration has obviously become the hot topic of the
referendum campaign bringing out some of the least edifying aspects of the
campaign. As someone who has no children and wants a pension I am happy to
welcome young workers from other parts of Europe.
The hypocrisy about migration is staggering without migration Britain would
have no economic growth at all. The fact is we need migrant workers but both
government and employers are reluctant to pay the costs in terms of housing,
education and health care to support them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even if we left the EU it would not cease to exist and it
would continue to exercise a profound influence over us. Of course some of
those seeking our exit hope to encourage the collapse of the whole European
Union project such a collapse would indeed be a massive economic disruption but
does anyone honestly think that such a collapse would be accompanied by a
massive swing to the left?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-59745760035551408462016-05-18T07:25:00.000-07:002016-05-18T07:29:40.915-07:00I am a European
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
Umberto Eco the great Italian semioticist died in the same
week as Terry Wogan. Terry, bless him, taught us to laugh at the Eurovision
song contest that overblown camp extravaganza in all its glorious absurdity. If
we had been listening to Umberto he could have taught us something far more
important, he could have helped us to decipher the absurd language around the
current debate on our membership of the European Union. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
Umberto’s last book of essays has the title, Inventing the
Enemy, he implies that every country, every people need an external enemy to
unite them and given them a sense of who they are by defining who they are not.
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
For me this is particularly relevant to the EU which for
some people is the omnipotent other that controls their lives from afar. To which
we can attribute everything we do not like about our lives. This is a fantasy possible
because the real problem with the EU is its weakness not its strength.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
Most people give up trying to understand what it actually
does and how it actually works because of the EU’s secret weapon. It is boring!</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
First let me make a confession I am actually enjoying the
current debate I love the mixture of absurd posturing and claim and counter
claim about our future in or outside the EU. When I was younger I worked for
five years as a research assistant for a Euro-MP. I sadly understand all the
institutions and most of the treaties and know my way around the European
infrastructure.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
If I had back in those days had to describe my own position
on the whole European adventure I would have described myself as a
pro-euro-sceptic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meaning that I am in
favour of an ever closer Europe indeed of a fully federal union what I am
sceptical of of is that the current confederal structure with what is called in
the euro-jargon flexible geometry going to get us there anytime soon.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
As the Clash once put it back on Combat Rock the current
question is Should I Stay or Should I GO? There is no doubt that the EU has
many flaws. The most important of course being its anti-democratic nature and a
structure which enables multi-national capital to run rings around both
democratic governments and that which is probably driving the split in the Tory
party domestic or national capital.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
For me any conceivable position outside the EU is worse than
the one we currently occupy. The Norway and Swiss options leave us in the
Single Market and in Schengan with no voice on any of those rules and
regulations. Michael Gove has advocated the Albanian option. One it seems even
the Albanians do not want to occupy. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
In some ways the EU has been a modernising force in British
politics, bringing us regulations and directives that have had a direct impact
upon the free movement of workers and inequality between men and women. The
main benefit of these measures is that they can combat certain forms of
discrimination – whilst of course trying to make the labour market as
competitive as possible.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
I want to stand up for migrant workers. I have been one. Without
whom Britain would currently have no economic growth at all. I am against
discriminating against workers in the UK on the basis of their passports! The
Tory demand to have discriminatory benefits depending on where you come from
should have no truck from any socialist. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
The European tragedy however is the overall economic policy
which has greatly contributed to its current malaise. That neo-liberal policy which
of course is replicated in spades here in the UK. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
For me the economics makes little difference in or out
without a significant change in economic policy. The issue then comes down to
politics. There is no doubt for me that Brexit leads to Boris Johnson as Prime
Minister and his vision of a deregulated free market UK and a triumph for Nigel
Farage on a tidal wave of xenophobia. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
At a time when all my friends in Europe want us to stay and
work with them to reform the economics of Europe and help tackle the
devastating crisis of migration, which I feel the UK is partly responsible,
leaving feels like an act of betrayal. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
That is why I am joining John McDonnell, and his demand for
a Europe of solidarity, workers rights, and environmental justice, and in
supporting Another Europe is Possible. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
Utopian? Possibly, but less unattractive than the
alternative, of blaming the EU for all our problems when we are the EU! Of
blaming them when we should be blaming us! Often for things that our own
government have supported but have not told us. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
The real challenge for us remainers however is to admit the
future we seek is a federal democratic Europe one which allows small nations to
flourish, welcome Scotland and Catalonia and sees an end to the fantasy of
London as an imperial capital.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
I reject the binary choice of Brussels business as usual or
a retreat into nationalism. We need to bring transparency to the EU’s current
institutions and to build towards a new constitution creating a genuine
European democracy with a sovereign parliament. </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
I am a European. </div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-70578635172348406592016-05-18T07:23:00.000-07:002016-05-18T07:29:45.688-07:00Corruption
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One thing about working in a Business School is that you see
the disconnect between business in theory and business as it is actually
practiced. Something that is rarely mentioned when it comes to the British
economy is the issue of corruption. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was thinking about this whilst reading the excellent
CLASS/IER pamphlet by David Whyte called the Mythology of Business. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David is a Professor at Liverpool University
and one of his previous books is called ‘How Corrupt is Britain?’ </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well the answer is very.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the past it was only addressed when doing business with “Johnny
Foreigner” now it is an integral part of how our economy works. Most studies of
corruption readily identify that it is not a question of wickedness but a
question of opportunity. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a country like Britain with well-developed legal and
accountancy systems that opportunity is rare at the lower levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Foer example it is still rare for a police
officer or a planning officer to take a bribe because the risks out way the
benefits. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The opportunity almost always accrues to the better off none
of the corrupt practices you read about, from MPs expenses’, phone tapping in
the media, price-fixing by the utility companies, LIBOR rate-fixing in the
banking sector; and falsification of evidence by the police at the Hillsborough
enquiry are committed by the less well off. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today the scale of corruption in Britain is vast yet the
perception is the opposite this is partly due to the way corrupt practices are
presented. Take the way the fraudulent selling of payment protection insurance
by financial services companies was called ‘miss-selling’.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As if a systematic £24billion fraud could be committed by
the slip of a pen.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The other issue is that not only are they are presented as
crimes without victims but also as crimes without perpetrators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in
which perhaps as many as 16 of those too-big-to-fail banks, have been
manipulating global interest rates. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This meant altering the valuation of up to US$500 trillion (yes
trillion) worth of financial instruments. MIT professor Andrew Lo says it
"dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of
markets."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fines levied on the
banks for this are also colossal so far six banks have agreed to pay
US$5.8billion (including US$2.5billion from Barclays and US$669million from
RBS). </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So far only UBS trader Thomas Alexander William Hayes has
been convicted as if he could do all this by himself!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Not only do we not take fraud seriously we actually
facilitate it. Corrupt oligarchs from around the world need somewhere safe to
store their ill-gotten gains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the
safest is right here in what has become known as the buy-to-leave market. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At a time when people across London are desperate for a
place to live there are some 36,000 empty properties in this category across
the city. Transparency International the NGO that specialises in corruption
issues estimates that around a tenth of the properties in Westminster alone are
now owned offshore and anonymously. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The great scandal of our age is this Buy to Leave market,
where new homes are developed, sold, then left empty by their owners for years
on end. Why do they do it? If you buy property for, say £1 million and the
value increases by 10% each year, after 5 years you can sell it making a
pre-tax profit of £500,000 a better return and more secure than other investments
– and you don’t have to worry about pesky tenants. Whole streets and apartment
blocks across the country are lying empty. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Billions of pounds of corruptly gained money is being
laundered by criminals buying upmarket properties through anonymous offshore
front companies turning London into the world capital of money laundering.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Even arch advocates of globalisation are beginning to see
the problem, Leonard McCarthy, of the World Economic Forum, asks, “Has
Globalization Made Corruption Worse”? </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When the collapse of
a bridge or building leads to preventable deaths, it’s worth digging around to
see if bribes were paid. We see a consistent pattern, of companies cutting
corners on safety and quality in order to recoup the cost of the bribes they
pay government officials to win contracts. Even something as mundane as waste
removal, which does indeed have an impact on the environment, can be distorted
by corruption. The problem with fraud and corruption is that they prevent good
solutions and sound policies from reaching their full potential</i>.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What is more McCarthy suggest that, globalization can be
held responsible for this increase.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">However, many also
cautioned that while increased international attention has helped move the
anti-corruption agenda forward, globalization is responsible for an
increasingly sophisticated form of corruption. We have to ask whether
corruption-fighting solutions have kept pace with the integration of financial
systems, global supply chains and multi-jurisdictional entities</i>.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">These complex frauds are not committed by small back street
crooks but by large multi-national organisations. Desperate for profits at a time
of low global growth efforts to minimise tax liability easily slip over into
totally fraudulent activity.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When the Government stops the fraud trial against BAe
systems<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>over the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Al Yamamah contract with Saudi Arabia on the
grounds that to proceed is against the national interest we can see that not
only is corruption endemic <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in business it
runs right to the heart of the state. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Whilst the trial was stopped in the UK proceedings continued
in the US.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under a plea bargain with the
US Department of Justice BAE was sentenced to pay a US$400 million fine. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">US District Judge John Bates said the company's conduct
involved "deception, duplicity and knowing violations of law, I think it's
fair to say, on an enormous scale". <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks to the plea bargain BAe was not
convicted of bribery, and was therefore not blacklisted from future contracts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So as long as the US received their cut it was
business as usual.</span></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-70711258730860089602016-04-27T01:33:00.001-07:002016-04-27T01:33:24.773-07:00Hillsborough<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the verdict is in, “unlawful killing”. As a passive
observer of the processes of the inquest I was completely wrung out by the time
we reached the verdict how the families must feel goodness only knows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now the world knows what happened on the afternoon of the 15<sup>th</sup>
April 1989 when Liverpool met Nottingham
Forest at Hillsborough home of Sheffield Wednesday in the Semi-final of the FA Cup. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That sunny afternoon 96 people died 766 others where injured
and despite the best efforts of Kelvin McKenzie and the Sun in collusion with
the Tories and the police what happened was not the fault of the Liverpool fans
drunken or otherwise. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
96 people crushed to death and hundreds more injured was caused
by an astonishing array of incompetence at every level and an almost callous
disregard for pubic safety by those whose primary responsibility was to protect
the public.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a consequence of this second inquest the term
‘compression asphyxia’ the cause of death of all but one of the victims has
entered our language. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My personal interest with this case goes back a long way. As
a fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers I had attended the FA Cup semi-final at
Hillsborough between Wolves and Spurs back in 1981. That day too the Leppings Lane
enclosure was overcrowded and 38 Spurs fans where injured and many more spilled
onto the pitch. A warning of what dangerous overcrowding could do in a confined
space that was ignored by everyone in authority.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had watched this unfold, fortunately for me, from the
other end of the ground. Prior to this I had already developed something of a phobia
when going to away games of entering what where called pens. Indeed as far back
as 1976 I was thrown out of Old Trafford before the kick off of an FA Cup game
for refusing to enter one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These steel pens where an accident waiting to happen
designed to stop you getting out onto the pitch no matter what happened. Of
themselves however they where not enough to turn an accident into a disaster
what was also needed was the public vilification and demonization of all
football fans so that as less than human they could be treated like cattle. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That job had been done by Mrs Thatcher with a supportive
press. She did not like football or those who watched it, indeed she had no
feeling for sport generally, and as far as she was concerned everyone who
watched football was a potential hooligan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was one other ingredient and that was a politicised
police force that saw football supporters as part of the ‘enemy within’. No
force in the country was more politicised that that of South
Yorkshire.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course what had happened between 1981 and 1989 was the
miners strike when the South Yorkshire Police force developed a pattern of
behaviour that would culminate at Hillsborough. That pattern was a culture of
brutality and cover up. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Nothing could symbolise this more than what happened at Orgreve. The
official report stated that during the confrontation 93 arrests were made, with
51 pickets and 72 policemen injured. Of course now we look at official reports
with a pinch of salt.<br />
In 1987 after 95 pickets had been charged with riot, unlawful assembly and
similar offences, a trial took place. <br />
The trial collapsed, all charges were dropped and a number of lawsuits were
brought against the police for assault, unlawful arrest and malicious
prosecution from that other sunny day at Orgreave when miners out numbered by
police where delivered up for a beating.<br />
The first part of the plan worked well but over confidence and a sloppy effort
at collusion meant that South Yorkshire Police ended up paying £425,000
compensation and £100,000 in legal costs to 39 pickets in an out of court
settlement. Meanwhile however, no officers have been disciplined and as they
settled out of court no apology ever given.<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mansfield" title="Michael Mansfield"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Michael Mansfield</span></a> QC described the evidence
given by South Yorkshire Police as "the biggest <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame-up" title="Frame-up"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">frame-up</span></a>
ever". He said that the force had a culture of fabricating evidence a well
developed skill which we now know was fully utilised by the time they got to Hillsborough.<br />
After the 2012 report of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_Independent_Panel" title="Hillsborough Independent Panel"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Hillsborough Independent Panel</span></a>,
NUM leader Chris Kitchen called for the investigation into the force's
practices to be widened to cover Orgreave. Now we must make that demand again. <br />
Now the Hillsborough families have the truth I hope they will press on to
ensure those responsible are made accountable for their actions. What with the
Shrewsbury pickets, collusion in Northern Ireland and now this Claude Cockburn’s
dictum that ‘You should never believe anything until it is officially denied’,
has never been truer.<br />
For the Hillsborough families this is a tremendous victory against the whole
of the states machinery but we should not rest until the full story of the role
of the police in this period is bought out into the open. This is the only way
to ensure that this corrupt policing will not be repeated. <br />
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-34076508470831212212016-02-29T05:48:00.000-08:002016-02-29T05:48:08.181-08:00Robin Cook at Seventy<div class="MsoNormal">
On February 28<sup>th</sup> Robert (Robin) Finlayson Cook would have
been seventy. As I have just reached the age at which he died in 2005 I realise
how much life he had in front of him. His death was a great loss to our
politics. I worked with him when he was Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary and
I felt he would make a very good Chancellor of the Exchequer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sadly there where Blairites and Brownites but few Cookites
not a one to tolerate fools, essential as Jeremy Corbyn has discovered in
managing the Parliamentary Labour Party, he was poor at cultivating his
supporters in the party<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suspect that today he is best remembered for departure
from high office. Immortalised on You Tube, his 2003 resignation speech contains
the most incisive demolition of the case against the War in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> that you
will find from a man who had been foreign secretary from 1997 until 2001 and therefore
knew what he was talking about. This was the very first speech ever to receive
a standing ovation from members. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The loss of Cook to the government was indeed a great tragedy
but the much greater tragedy was the fact that he was right. Amongst those who
heard that speech who can forget the words;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“<st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place>
probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of
the term - namely a credible device capable of being delivered against a
strategic city target. <br />
<br />
It probably still has biological toxins and battlefield chemical munitions, but
it has had them since the 1980s when US companies sold Saddam anthrax agents
and the then British Government approved chemical and munitions factories. <br />
<br />
Why is it now so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a
military capacity that has been there for 20 years, and which we helped to
create?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That speech and the comment about British approved munitions
factories took me back to the 15<sup>th</sup> February 1993 and Cook’s
parliamentary demolition of Ian Lang the Secretary of State for Trade and
Industry over the Scott Report.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To be precise it was the <i>Report of the Inquiry into the
Export of Defence Equipment and Dual-Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions</i>,
undertaken by Sir Richard Scott Lord Justice of Appeal. They must have thought
he was a safe pair of hands. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I played a very small part in Cook’s preparation for that
debate. Whilst ministers had eight days to read the report, all 2386 pages, it
was only released to the opposition three hours before the debate. About eight
of us who had been following the twists and turns of the inquiry took chunks of
it and read them drawing anything we thought relevant to Cooks attention.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I remember at one point with a colleague just checking in
the dictionary to see if “dissembling” meant what we thought it meant. It did,
it is to conceal or disguise, to assume a false appearance of something in
everyday language it is lying. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The way the Report was presented by the press you would
think it was ambiguous that was not the case it was in fact clear and easy to read.
Apart from the occasional double negative, its narrative was compelling and its
conclusions plain as a pikestaff Scott was a very literate author. Some of his
language like the use of words like dissembling was enough for the largely
illiterate press to accuse him of obscurantism. This was of course what the
government had wanted - a smoke screen!<o:p></o:p></div>
When we think what has happened since the whole affair now seems amazing. In the late 1980s, <st1:city w:st="on">Coventry</st1:city>
based machine tool firm Matrix Chruchill had been bought by the Iraqi
government and was exporting machines used in arms manufacture to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p><br />
Such exports are subject to government approval, and Matrix Churchill had
all the necessary paperwork, as in 1988 export controls had been relaxed. This
relaxation however had never been announced – indeed, even when asked in
parliament whether controls had been relaxed, Ministers said they had not.<o:p></o:p><br />
HM Customs and Excise, unaware of the change in policy, where suspicious
that Matrix Churchill where exporting arms components illegally in 1991 the
directors were prosecuted for breach of export controls. The trial was a fiasco.
The Government sought public interest immunity but this was overturned by the
trial judge, forcing key documents to be handed over to the defence. <o:p></o:p><br />
The trial collapsed when former minister Alan Clarke admitted with typical
sangfroid that he had been 'economical with the actualité’ in answer to
parliamentary questions about what he knew about export licenses to <st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p><br />
Cook’s demolition of the Government almost bought them down as they only won
the vote 320 to 319! It turned out that one of the Directors of Matrix
Churchill was working for the security services all along. <o:p></o:p><br />
Before Scott the Government had been prepared to allow innocent people to go
to prison - now the appeal court quashed a string of convictions - of Ali
Daghir, managing director of Euromac, of Paul Grecian, managing director of
Ordtec, and of Reginald Dunk, of the trading firm, Atlantic Commercial. Some of
them won compensation Dunk received over £2m.
James Edmiston, managing director of the <st1:place w:st="on">Sterling</st1:place>
machine gun manufacturer took over 20years but won eventually £5m but no
apology. Charged with Dunk but acquitted, the charges had forced him to sell
the company and he was later declared bankrupt.<o:p></o:p><br />
So why where the Government secretly arming <st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place>? Well you have to go back to
the Iran/Iraq war in 1980 when government policy was not to support either side
but when <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> looked like
losing the <st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region> and the
British started covertly supporting <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p><br />
Cook did the nation a great service on that day as he did again in 2003 over
the Iraq War. If only he had remained Foreign Secretary and there had been a
Prime Minister who shared his ambition for an ethical foreign policy today the
whole could would now be a better place. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
The conspicuous absentee at Cook’s funeral was Tony Blair perhaps that shows
us that despite appearances he does have some shame. <o:p></o:p>Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-29016091965260929702016-02-29T05:46:00.002-08:002016-02-29T05:46:10.508-08:00It’s a God Awful Small Affair.<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Noel Coward in Private Lives points out that it is, “Strange
how potent cheap music is.” I thought about this as I was listening to the
discussion about the musical legacy of David Jones from south London better
known as international superstar David Bowie.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His potent music has the ability to evoke over decades time
and place for millions of people. The charge is that the response to his death
was disproportionate to his talent. This may well be true only time will tell.
The response could be a function of the fact that his death was unexpected; happening
just releasing a new album signalling to most people that he was very much
alive. It could be a function of the age and life experiences of many of the
news editors and presenters losing someone who had provided a part of the
soundtrack to their own lives.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All modern pop music is cannibalistic often eating itself
and other less popular musical forms and making them palatable for a wider
public. Some say this is like the process of turning wholemeal into white bread
in the process refining out all the goodness! It is very rare for a true
original to reach a mass audience. An
obvious example from the birth of the modern pop music industry is the way
British blues bands took the great blues from the original artists and made
their music palatable for white suburban kids to listen to in their bedrooms.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many of the early blues greats died in abject poverty yet it
would have been hard to conceive of the Rolling Stones, Cream or even Led Zeppelin
without Robert Johnson. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Stones have had a long career from this process. Are
they as good as Bod Diddley or Chuck Berry, no of course not, still touring
they put on a good show even though today they seem to have morphed into their
own tribute band.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other bands of course pillage both folk and classical music
with the occasional pillaging of music from the wider world. Where Bowie was
interesting with his art school background was his pillaging of music from the
avant-garde. He was not the first to do this; Mark Bolan probably beat him to
it, but sadly did not live to evolve the way Bowie did.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After almost packing it in for the musical-theatre it is
well known that he created his first successful persona from his reading of the
Velvet Underground and MC5 adding beat poetry and a degree of sexual ambiguity
to the mix later repaying the compliment by producing Lou Reed’s most
commercial album Transformer. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a debate about where the quote, “good artists copy,
great artists steal,” comes from, some say Picasso some T.S. Eliot. The point
however is that there is never anyone who is truly original which is something
that makes the present copyright laws so irrational. The point is to take an idea or inspiration
one receives from others and add to it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is no doubt in my mind that Bowie did this on more
than one occasion. Bowie would have been the first to admit he was no great musician
or singer but he did have a feel for the zeitgeist and there is skill jumping
successfully onto a moving musical bandwagon and not looking a mere copyist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If he had only done this once it would have been remarkable
but he did it again and again. He did it
with Nile Rodgers and funk for the Thin White Duke, Young Americans period. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The period I liked best was his so called Berlin phase. He
managed to escape from the rock god hedonism of Los Angles which could have
been terminal to engage with of all things German expressionism. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What was called Krautrock in a disparaging way by the
British the music press involving bands like Amon Duul, Tangerine Dream, and
one I followed around University campuses at the time Can (Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay of the band
had actually studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen), Faust and probably the best known
Kraftwerk. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They had been picked upon by people in the States like Frank
Zappa who always had an ear for contemporary classical music and there was an
overlap with the so called Canterbury Scene in England which included Soft
Machine and Caravan. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With the help of Brian Eno and later King Crimsons Robert
Fripp and producer Tony Visconti his music did a hand break turn with albums, Low,
Heroes and Lodger. Taking this German sound and making it something different. The
restless chameleon however soon moved on with the development of the new
romantic style and the revival of the character Major Tom who we found out was
junky!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A new way of getting to your audience arrived with MTV and
the music video which seemed to have been made for Bowie. As well as
establishing a compelling visual image by now Bowie could do pretty much
anything he wanted and to his credit he always surrounded himself with the very
best musicians and producers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There were other interesting episodes and in many ways the
best at least commercially was yet to come. Through a career when his music had been both
potent and strange he had ploughed his own furrow. He even has some credit
along with Eric Clapton, even if for the wrong reasons, for the formation of
Rock against Racism.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is unlikely that someone like Bowie could achieve
mainstream success today as digitalisation has destroyed the value in many
large scale record labels making them risk averse. The kind of just on the edge
style of a David Bowie would be unlikely to be promoted. The music he poached
from Black Soul music, to German Expressionism to the avante-garde however is
still going on under the mainstream radar you just have to go out look for it!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-65078383830643454062016-02-24T00:48:00.000-08:002016-02-24T00:48:08.829-08:00Jeremy Corbyn: History Man.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
What a difference a year makes. This time last year I felt
such a degree of despair about Labour I felt the party was incapable of
renewing itself and was just going to slide into the dustbin of history. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maybe it was time to think of creating a new party? Labour
had lost the ability to think, to develop policies to address now rather than
the situation it faced in 1992. It was in 1992 that Labour failed to win what
looked like a certain victory against John Major. Blair and even more so Brown
had been scared by this defeat and had like old generals had been fighting the
same battle ever since.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The old adage that it is the winners who get to write the
history seems to be true unless the “wrong” person wins the Labour Leadership.
Since Jeremy Corbyn had the temerity not just to be a good chap and prove his
unpopularity but to actually win the fight has not been about the future but
about the past. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the History Boys, Alan Bennett puts this into the mouth
of Irwin the history teacher, “But this is History. Distance yourselves. Our
perspective on the past alters. Looking back, immediately in front of us is
dead ground. We don't see it, and because we don't see it this means that <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">there is no period so remote as the recent
past.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Observer ran a
series of essays about Labour over the new year in his contribution, Peter
Hyman, former Blair apparatchik, tripped headlong into this dead ground. It was
his interpretation of the history of the Blair/Brown years that gave Corbyn his
huge majority. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Hyman rightly dates
the failure of New Labour from its second term in office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Firstly what was New
Labour - essentially it was a marketing tool. How do you sell someone who has
risen without trace, has little life experience, none of high office or indeed
any obvious qualifications for the job? Let us call them “New”. A new product
has no past. This is the Year
Zero Pol
Pot School
of politics. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The simple fact is
that in 1997 Blair inherited a broadly social democratic policy platform from
John Smith. Despite the New Labour rhetoric around the manifesto the core
policies, the minimum wage, trade union recognition, signing up for the Social
Chapter, Regional Economic Development, Devolution for Wales and Scotland,
Lords reform, and the Human Rights Act, had come from Smith.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It was the second
term that the problems began because once Blair and Brown where making the
policy it was in an over centralised un-tested way free they where free ignore
conference and members alike. Remember the clapathons after the leader’s
speeches? What they said however absurd went. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Policies where
shaped by their Atlanticist politics. They imported neo-conservative foreign
policy ideas and neo-liberal economic ideas into British politics. Blair
floated off into neo-con foreign policy land with his liberal interventionism
and Brown began a love affair with Alan Greenspan - even seeing to it that
Greenspan would receive an honorary knighthood!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Most of the things
we campaign against now - they started, light touch city regulation,
privatisation of education and health, their failure to invest in
infrastructure particularly, green energy and broad band, the lack of new
social housing and crazy PFI schemes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Remember the way
they where in thrall to the rich, their inability to tackle foot and mouth, the
way they announced things as if they had actually DONE something and the bloody
millennium dome! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This is what people
remember it may not yet be in the history books but we know this is what
happened because we where there!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“</span>Who controls
the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past,” says
George Orwell in 1984. The establishment and the corporate media have always
understood this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From the true history of World War One, in which Britain was as much to blame as Germany, to the false history of the collapse of
the Callaghan Government, to the Falklands war, from the Shrewsbury Pickets to
Orgreave, from our role in Northern Ireland
to the Iraq
war.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The left have always understood the importance of
understanding what really happened in the past and after a golden period when left
historians where helping to put the record straight the right has made a
comeback with celebrity TV historians. Now however the ability of the
mainstream media to shape our understanding of our own history has been eroded
by the internet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I do not mean the crazies who think 9-11 was done by Mossad
but by intelligent alternative voices to the mainstream narrative. Reading the
mainstream press about Corbyn he is projected as being a throwback to a
previous age but this only works if you can make people believe just how awful
that age was.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In reality of course far from being hard left his policies
are broadly social democratic ones that John Smith would recognise. Yet without
the internet Jeremy Corbyn could not have been elected. Discovering that what
you saw and felt was real and others felt the same way was so important in
creating the campaigns momentum, in building the crowds for rallies and just
letting people hear un mediated what he was actually saying!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We must not let up in this battle they will not stop trying
to crush our hopes and real aspirations. Sadly even this great paper does not
yet have the reach to get to hundreds of thousands of Labour members and
supporters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let us make that our New
Year resolution to build our reach using all the tools the internet has bought
us including our e-edition<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is voices
like the Star and its journalists writing that first draft of history that are
so important in building that alternative future. </div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-83720020760095485132016-02-24T00:44:00.000-08:002016-02-24T00:44:07.295-08:002015 The Co-op Year in Review<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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After a traumatic 2014 many of us in the Co-operative
Movement where looking for the quiet life in 2015. Despite a year of steady
progress we are still suffering the effects of the forced asset sales and the
reputational damage the collapse of the Co-operative Bank precipitated. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite that set back, and whilst the Co-op Group is still
of significant importance to the movement, there is new life and growth across
the co-operative sector generating some considerable success. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a new confidence amongst the worker co-op’s who
have established a solidarity fund to help support and develop new worker
co-ops. Growth in individual co-op stores has been encouraging and it was great
to see Beanies the Wholefoods the worker co-op from Sheffield
receive the Observer award for independent retailer of the year. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the agriculture sector it has been especially tough for
milk producers and yet OMSCo (the Organic Milk Suppliers Co-op) won the
prestigious Food Chain Marketing Award at the food and farming awards. OMSCo is
a terrific co-op it manages over 250 million litres of organic milk, which
accounts for 65% of the total organic milk </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
supply in the UK.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In consumer co-ops the incomparable Wine Society won the
Decanter Retailer of the year award for the fifth year running. Meanwhile in
the autumn the Co-operative Group was able to celebrate a return to profit and its
first real increase in market share with a glass of its own prize winning
champagne. Les Pioneers named after the Men of Rochdale and it is pretty good.
I know call me a champagne socialist!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Co-op Group was named ethical drinks retailer of the
year whilst having only having ten per cent for the nation’s drinks market it
sells over half of all the fair-trade wine consumed in the UK.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the Groups most successful partnerships is with the Argentinean
Riojana Wine Co-operative. They had a special celebration because thanks Co-op
customers and the fairtrade premium a village that before 2008 didn’t have
clean drinking water now has a secondary school. Their wine is pretty good too.
If you like a robust red their award winning Malbec is just the thing. </div>
Talking of ethical products the phone co-op has been selling one you can
talk on. <strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">They</span></strong>
became the UK's
only mobile provider to stock <strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Fairphone</span></strong> the ethical smartphones,
challenging the mobile industry over supply chain transparency. There is some
nasty stuff in your mobile phone and at last here is a way to do the right
thing.<br />
This helped them to win an award at the social enterprise awards along side
two other co-ops. Leading Lives, a worker co-op providing high quality social
care support for adults with complex needs, who picked up the Health
and Social Care Social Enterprise award and Zaytoun which
supports Palestinian olive farming families by helping them to grow
sales of their produce work that was recognised with the International Impact
award.<br />
Credit Unions have been having a good year too with adult membership
reaching 1.1million in November and assets growing to £1.32billion with almost
400 people joining a credit union every working day it seems the message about
loan sharks is finally getting through. <br />
In Manchester just ten years after their formation fan owned FC United where
being cheered on at their very own ground against of all teams Benfica it may
sound like a fairy tale but it has been achieved with a great deal of passion
and a lot of hard work.<br />
For the first time this year we opened up the Co-op of the Year to a public
vote. The winners where Midcounties Co-op they have had a roller coaster year.
They had some real problems with their Co-op Energy business caused by a
challenge all co-ops would love – it has been growing too fast!<br />
Of course it would be foolish to pretend everything in the garden was rosy.
It is not despite the Co-op bank putting £1 million into co-op development they
have managed to alienate many long standing and supportive customers by closing
their accounts over the heavy handed imposition of money laundering
regulations. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
In recent times one of the fastest growing sectors has been community energy
co-ops now that is threatened by the Governments lack of commitment to renewable
energy and damage done has been done to the sector by tax changes. <br />
There is a similar picture amongst housing co-ops the Government attacks on
social housing and restrictions on housing benefit are causing considerable
concern across the country. <br />
It also took a real struggle at the Co-op Group AGM to secure the future of
the Co-operative Party. Although we have faced some serious issues even the
Peoples Press Printing Society is finishing the year in a better place than it
started with real optimism for progress in the New Year. <br />
Looking forward the 2016 Co-op Congress will be in Yorkshire at the
magnificent Unity Works in Wakefield, formerly
the home of Wakefield Co-op now in community co-operative ownership and leading
the cultural renaissance of Wakefield<br />
This last year has been tough commercially for all co-ops with very poor
margins across all sectors. Despite talk of recovery and growth most co-op
businesses focussed on the domestic market are just not seeing it. This has not
stopped them making a real difference for their members, customers and the
communities they serve in 2015. Let’s hope for another year of steady progress in
the New Year.<br />
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-47911641202488002172015-11-27T08:46:00.002-08:002015-11-27T08:46:26.657-08:00How Goes the Project for the New American Century?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The drum
beat for war driving Britain
into joining the bombing campaign in Syria is more about politics than
any real military strategy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that
the UK has only eight very
old Tornados based at Akotiri in Cyprus
available for Iraq and Syria, extending their role into Syria is
clearly a political rather than military act. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The political
objective seems to have two dimensions, to show our fealty to the USA and, to
split the Parliamentary Labour Party from its leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly the PLP is well populated with Neo-Cons
who buy into the Americans world view enabling the media to exaggerate any
split. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This has
been convenient for the PM as it conceals why he needs Labour support. He
cannot command the votes of his own party. Not all of the Parliamentary
Conservative Party are Neo-Cons there are still a few genuine Conservatives
left amongst them! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course
the flagship policy of the Neo-Cons, the one that Cheney, Rumsfeld and
Wolfowitz promoted and was championed by Bush and Blair was “the War on
Terror”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Iit was
always morally dubious that the “war on terror” was to be being fought using
terrorism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Chambers dictionary
defines terrorism as “the systematic and organized use of violence and
intimidation to force a government or community, etc to act in a certain way or
accept certain demands.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So we find
ourselves again as we did after the attacks on the Twin Towers in the position
of attacking the random bombing, shooting and killing of civilians by the
random bombing, shooting and killing of civilians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something we have been doing in Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Iraq, Libya, Syria,
Yemen
in fact anywhere in drone range.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We seem
not to have learned from our own experience that people do not respond well to
terrorism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So how is
this “War on Terror” going? Well the Institute for Economics and Peace a think
tank founded by Australian tech entrepreneur</span> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Steve Killelea produces a fascinating Global Terrorism
Index. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This year’s Index was released recently and the headlines are not good.
It reports that by non-state actors:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">* 32,658
people were killed by terrorism in 2014 compared to 18,111 in 2013: the largest
increase ever recorded with Boko Haram and ISIL jointly responsible for 51% of
all claimed global fatalities in 2014</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">* Countries
suffering over 500 deaths increased by 120% to 11 countries, 78% of all deaths
and 57% of all attacks occurred in just five countries: Afghanistan, Iraq,
Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">* Iraq continues
to be the country most impacted by terrorism with 9,929 terrorist fatalities
the highest ever recorded in a single country. Think about this for a moment.
Almost ten thousand dead in Iraq
over a decade after Saddam Hussein was captured. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">* Nigeria
experienced the largest increase in terrorist activity with 7,512 deaths in
2014, an increase of over 300% since 2013.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">These are the
deaths many more have been injured. In countries with poor health services and
none existent welfare support. What is more, terrorism is spreading. The number
of countries that suffered more than 500 deaths has more than doubled,
increasing from five in 2013 to 11 in 2014. The new additions were Somalia, Ukraine,
Yemen, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Cameroon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Remember
that these are just the numbers killed by non-state actors. State sponsored
terrorism, if the word means anything, must apply to the killing of British
citizens in Syria
by drone. The argument that this targeted lawless assassination was
self-defence is stretching that notion beyond belief. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is not
just a huge human cost the economic cost of terrorism reached its highest ever
level in 2014 at US$52.9 billion, an increase of 61% from the previous year’s
total of US$32.9 billion, and a tenfold increase since 2000.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What we do
seems only to make things worse. The more violence we exert the worse things
get, the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq
and Syria,
since 2011 is the largest influx in modern times. Current estimates now range
from 25,000 to 30,000 fighters, from roughly 100 countries. This flow is not
falling but growing over 7,000 arriving in the first six months of this year. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
presenting this gory data,</span> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Steve Killelea said, “Since we can see a number of clearly identifiable
socio-political factors that foster terrorism, it is important to implement
policies that aim to address these associated causes. This includes reducing
state-sponsored violence, diffusing group grievances, and improving respect for
human rights and religious freedoms, while considering cultural nuances.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Instead of
this sensible and logical course of action we are turning our society into a
surveillance state destroying our civil liberties and freedoms. We need to
bring the majority of Muslims onto our side yet we promote the idea of two opposed
camps - Islam and the West – and fail to tackle the jihadists' propaganda of
our rampant Islamophobia.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Worst of all
we fail to stem the source of the most reactionary version of political Islam
by doing business with and forming alliances with those states most active in
the propagation of this reactionary religious ideology. Then acting like neo-colonial
and self-interested powers <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>we support the most authoritarian,
corrupt and venal states and wonder why they alienate their own people. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jeremy
Corbyn is right we have to tackle the underlying causes, there is no military
solution, there has to be another way. If anyone asks you how goes the “War on
Terror”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell them we are losing it. </span></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-55492948842319415102015-11-27T08:30:00.001-08:002015-11-27T08:30:10.406-08:00Letter to the Guardian in Full!Dear Editor, John McDonnell makes a very important point by brandishing
Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book in parliament. George Osborne is not just
enabling the Chinese State to own British State assets. He is actually
subsidising Chinese state enterprises to do so as well as structuring UK
public sector contracts in such a way as to favour the Chinese! What’s
more with recent Chinese engagement in energy he is effectively selling
to China future UK tax revenues. When he finally leaves office I fully
expect him to be given a Chinese pension and a grace and favour
apartment in Beijing. <br />Yours sincerely,<br />
Nick Matthews Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-1176963636522997502015-11-23T05:19:00.001-08:002015-11-23T05:22:49.912-08:00Tony Blair, David Cameron and the Neo-Cons.
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Ah, Love!
Could thou and I with Fate conspire</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire!</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would not we shatter it to bits-and then</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!”</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Rubaiyat
of Omar Khayyam</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Following Tony
Blair’s non-apology, apology I thought back to when I first realised that he
was mad. It was at the Labour party conference,</span> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">after nine eleven, in Brighton in 2001 and the speech
when he said, “This is a moment to seize. The Kaleidoscope has been shaken. The
pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us
re-order this world around us.” </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I heard
this I thought this bloke is a megalomaniac and my legs refused to draw me into
an upright position and I was left the only person in my row not joining in the
standing ovation. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Upon leaving
the hall I was asked by a journalist what I thought about the speech I said
that it reminded of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khyyam written in the eleventh century
and bought to Victorian English readers by Edward Fitzgerald, the speech had a
similar rhythm to its quatrains and it contained the same moral ambiguity.
Needless to say he gave me a funny look. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This speech
was essentially a version of one Blair had given in Chicago in 1999, labelled
the ‘Blair Doctrine’ by US commentators; it was as Gore Vidal so clearly
articulated the case of “Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace”.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That speech
in Chicago was a game-changer because it completely cut the ground from under
the democrats in opposing George W. Bush and his later adventures in
Afghanistan and Iraq. Blair gave Bush the language he himself did not have. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Brighton was
Blair at the very peak of his oratorical powers in the previous paragraph, he
had said, “The starving, the wretched, the dispossessed, the ignorant, those
living in want and squalor from the deserts of Northern Africa to the slums of
Gaza, to the mountain ranges of Afghanistan: they too are our cause.”</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now his
follower David Cameron is not so keen on welcoming those huddled masses to our
shores. What should have been a job for the police to arrest Bin Laden, who it
now appears, was hiding in plain sight, has turned in to a thirty years war
that covers the entire area Blair so poetically described. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What amazes
me about many contemporary politicians especially those who talk about “abroad”
is how ignorant they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something has
gone badly wrong here. We used to govern a fair chunk of the world’s surface
and yes it may well have been for the wrong reasons but we knew what was going
on in the world.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we hear politicians of all colours talking
complete nonsense about international relations in a way that is symptomatic of
the neo-conservative world view. International relations should not be decided
upon using mere facts. We must first shape the facts and then the world to our
hearts desire. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The greatest
exponent of this shape shifting before Blair and the Dodgy Dossier was George W
Bush’s head of Strategy Karl Rove. In an interview with Ron Suskind of the New
York Times<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he said that guys like Ron were
"in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as
people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of
discernible reality." .... "That's not the way the world really works
anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we
create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as
you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study
too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all
of you, will be left to just study what we do."</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now
initially David Cameron was not a Neo-Con he was from an earlier school of
conservative political realism. He had been a reluctant supporter of the Iraq
war and had been critical of Israel. On achieving the top job however it did
not take long, he too became a Neo-Con, and with French President Sarkozy,
leading the way in the intervention in Libya and only two years ago he would
have intervened militarily against President Assad if parliamentary had not
stopped him.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mr Cameron
regularly seeks advice from Blair who was one of those urging him to bomb
Libya. In foreign policy Cameron can be seen as Blair’s protégé. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are both solid supporters of the Gulf
dictatorships, of Netanyahu’s Israel, and are totally hostile to democratic
movements within Islam, in particular the Muslim Brotherhood. Now not a week
seems to go by without some dictator crossing the Number 10 threshold.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then there
is Chilcott, Cameron has clearly protected Tony Blair. This inquiry was meant
to publish its conclusions within 18 months of the British withdrawal from Iraq
in 2007 and we are still waiting and what happened to the investigation into
British complicity in torture and extraordinary rendition during the Blair
premiership?</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Listening to
many Labour MP’s including sad to say Mike Gapes and John Woodcock recently
they have clearly been bitten by the Neo-Con bug. To his credit Ed Miliband was
trying to move Labour away from this position. By opposing intervention in
Syria and by whipping Labour MP’s in support of a Palestinian state. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a foreign
policy speech before the election he made the case for the rule of law,
international institutions and diplomatic engagement, and against the idea of American
exceptionalism. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This work is
now being carried on by Jeremy Corbyn who is now Britain’s finest advocate for
human rights and we must not let him standalone against this empire of lies. On
hearing Tony Blair back in 1999, that old hawk Henry Kissinger had said he “felt
a little bit uneasy” about the inference that this was a good moment to solve
every problem in the world. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We should
all be uneasy if the world continues to be shaped by people with a wanton lack
of concern for the truth, human rights, and life itself.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-66642614405216836282015-11-11T03:12:00.002-08:002015-11-11T03:12:31.263-08:00Y Gwyll - Hinterland<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
A few years ago I went on a pilgrimage to Aberystwyth. It’s
a bitter sweet story. When I was 12 or 13 on a family holiday to New Quay on
Cardigan Bay one day it rained as only it can in West
Wales. Fleeing from our caravan we ended up in Devils Bridge
just in time to miss the last little steam train back to Aber on the delightful
Vale of Rheidol Light Railway. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Forty years later I finally took that ride. Happily very
little had changed a beautiful little steam loco took us up the valley we had
lunch in the Hafod Arms Hotel looking like a piece of Switzerland and took in
the punch bowl and the famous three bridges. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not long after what should appear on our TV screens but
Hinterland a new noir detective set of all places in and around Aberystwyth and
where was the very first storyline to take us but up to Devils Bridge. Needless
to say I was hooked. Today I have two main obsessions, the progress of Jeremy
Corbyn and catching every episode of Hinterland or Y Gwyll to give it its Welsh
title.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is much more than your usual TV detective the whole world
of West Wales is a key character. The place has
this astonishing marginality that I find fascinating. Its Welsh title, Y Gwyll,
means the dusk, between light and dark and across this landscape we see a whole
society and economy teetering on the edge.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The cinematography is stunning never has decay and decline
looked so beautiful, the acting too is outstanding, there is not a single
character that is not fully rounded. The key partnership between Richard
Harrington as DCI Tom Mathias and Mali Harries as DI Mared Rhys is also deeply
enigmatic. Richard Harrington’s character is central to each episode but the
acting too of Mali Harries is excellent. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just what are they one to the other, well you will just have
to watch and find out. I first discovered Y Gwyll in its English incarnation as
Hinterland. Astonishingly it was filmed twice once in Welsh and once in
English. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
S4C the Welsh TV channel had been here before with A View to
a Kill starring Philip Madoc as DCI Noel Bain, which ran for ten years from
1994 to 2004. I greatly enjoyed that show too my first introduction to a gritty
view of South Wales.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Y Gwyll however elevates the detective genre to art it out
noirs the Scandinavians and often uses silence and sparse dialogue to give us a
huge sense of space. This is achieved without the usual patronising back fill
and over explanation of much modern crime drama.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contemporary crime drama can give us the reach of Dickens
linking those from the very top of the pile to those at the very bottom along the
way exposing the ugly greed, corruption and social dislocation of globalised
capitalism. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the edge lands of Ceredigion
so stunningly captured in Y Gwyll. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We often say that our crime genre is running to catch up
with Scandy noir with offerings like Broadchurch but that is not the case with
Y Gwyll, Ed Tomas, executive producer, of Cardiff
based Fiction factory had pitched the idea years before the Scandy detectives
reached our screens. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The challenge for S4C was raising the cash to do the idea
justice. Fortunately with some support from the Welsh Assembly they have pulled
it off to the extent that the second series was bought by Danish television
unseen. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now I think you can tell there is something I find
particularly satisfying about Y Gwyll and what is more despite only
understanding the odd word I prefer it in Welsh to English. The sound and
rhythm of the language adds another layer to the whole marginality of the
drama. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Raymond Williams the great Welsh cultural theorist wrote one
truly great novel called Border Country in it he explored the boundaries
between England and Wales, town and
country, classes, and the generations. Showing how culture and character was
shaped by landscape.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The young protagonist on returning to the family home in
Pandy not far from Abergavenny says that, “He had felt empty and tired, but the
familiar shape of the valley and the mountains held and replaced
him. It was one thing to carry its image in his mind, as he did,
everywhere, never a day passing but he closed his eyes and saw it again, his
only landscape. But it was different to stand and look at the
reality. It was not less beautiful; every detail of the land came up
with its old excitement. But it was not still as its image had been.
It was no longer a landscape or a view, but a valley that people were using.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is what Y Gwyll does for the landscape of Ceredigion,
it makes it not just a thing of beauty to look at but turns it into a landscape
that is lived in capturing brilliantly along the way all the difficulties of
life lived literally right on the edge.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-80154193273541594452015-11-06T04:47:00.001-08:002015-11-06T04:53:30.942-08:00When we all wanted to be Nicaraguans <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<br /><br />When I was a student, (back in the day) one of things I did at our Poly was to help set up a Film Society to show films you could not ordinarily see. Every Friday night at six pm before heading for the pub we devoured anything with sub-titles.<br />
<br />The films from Latin America where always among the most interesting and challenging I learned so much about so many different parts of the world by watching their cinema. I love the art of a good story teller and I always found the rhythm and grammar of their films so much more interesting than the Hollywood standard.<br /><br />The films of Chile, Argentina, Brazil and of course Cuba where in our schedule. Then came the Sandinista Revolution an event which gripped our imagination, we still have the mugs and the faded tee-shirts with pictures of the man in the big hat on them, Augusto Cesar Sandino. The overthrow of the Samoza dictatorship and the David and Goliath struggle between the FSLN, known as the Sandanistas, against the Contras backed by the USA. <br /><br />This was the very early eighties when Mrs Thatcher was in her pomp and we took great heart from the Nicaraguan struggle. In artistic terms it produced some great literature as well as a series of short documentaries which we showed to gain support for the solidarity campaign.<br /><br />In more recent years the radical democratisation of Latin America politics has generated some stunning new movies. The smaller Central American nations have all been gripped by this new wave but face considerable problems in getting films made there are the usual problems of raising cash and getting films distributed but in many ways made worse by the lack of the necessary film making skills. The nearest film school is as you may expect in Cuba. <br /><br />
It was a real delight then when back in 2010 after twenty years of silence this wave hit Nicaragua when Florence Jaugey’s film La Yuma hit the screens. Amazingly this was the first feature film to be made in the country for all that time! <br /><br />That film told the story of a young woman who dreamt of escaping her bleak life in the slums of Managua by becoming a boxer. There was an extraordinary performance by Alma Blanco as Yuma, her strength, astuteness and determination reflected the feelings of the adversity and inequality faced by Nicaraguans. <br /><br />It was an instant success shown in many film festivals receiving the audience award at the San Francisco festival. <br /><br />Florence Jaugey’s film allowed us the rare opportunity to get a glimpse of life in a country which has been through so much in recent years. Florence, originally from France, came to Nicaragua in 1984 to be the lead actress in the movie El Señor Presidente by the prolific Cuban director Manuael Octavio Gomez. <br /><br />In 1989, together with her partner Frank Pineda a Nicaraguan film maker, (he was second camera on Ken Loach’s film Carla’s Song) they set up in Managua an independent film company, the Camila Films Production Company. La Yuma was well received and it has received numerous awards at Festivals across the world. <br /><br />
Now we have the chance to go to the UK Premier of her new film La pantalla desnuda (the naked screen). Filmed in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, this is the story of a couple who topically find their intimate relationship is made public on social media. <br /> To say making these movies is tough is an understatement. It took Florence ten years to make La Yuma despite being an award wining short film director. Her new film has cost $500,000 scraped together from sponsors and crowd funding. They have to do all sorts of work to make ends meet including working on BBC’s Caribbean with Simon Reeve broadcast earlier in this year. <br /> As I began many of us remember the importance of short films in the Nicaraguan revolution when INCINE, the Instituto Nicaragüense de Cine, was important and of which Frank Pineda was a founder member, making dozens of short documentaries about the revolution. <br /> As Florence Jaugey says, “It was a time before the internet, and a way of showing to the outside world what was happening in Nicaragua – everybody wanted to film, and be Nicaraguans!”<br /><br /><br />Now you can help support this fantastic new endeavour in bringing the lives of the underdogs to the silver screen by treating yourself to an afternoon of Nicaraguan film. You can see the UK premier of La Pantalla Desnuda / “The Naked Screen” (93 mins, 2014). Directed by Florence Jaugey together with one of her prize winning shorts “Cinema Alcázar” (10 mins, 1997) about an elderly woman who lives in what used to be a cinema, together with “Running in Solidarity” (10 mins, 2015). About a young woman runs the London Marathon for the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign. Directed by George Fuller. £12.50 or £7.50 (concessions) on the day, £11 or £6.50 in advance.<br /><br />020 7561 4836 or <a href="http://www.nicaraguasc.org.uk/shop/filmshowtickets.htm">www.nicaraguasc.org.uk/shop/filmshowtickets.htm</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-16914804966548216142015-10-30T05:34:00.000-07:002015-10-30T05:34:41.475-07:00Student Debt is an Economy Wide Issue Not Just for a Problem for Students <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The introduction of student loans in the UK was meant to
introduce a more vibrant dynamic market for higher education. The idea was that
we would copy the United States and create a new Higher Education market with
new entrant institutions financed by a larger number of students studying to
improve their career prospects. As the Treasury has been colonised by bankers
what was not to like about the fact that this would be financed by larger and
larger student loans. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact is however that this model does not work. Student
debt in the US is now reaching crisis proportions and this is no longer looks
like such a good idea. Student debt in the US is now higher than all US credit
card debt or auto-loan debt and according to some US commentators it is having
serious negative effects on the US economy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since 2004 US student-loan debt has quadrupled with some 40
million people now owing around $1.3 trillion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Over the same period student-loan defaults have also nearly
doubled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The average student-loan debt
of a bachelor's degree student has risen from $15,000 in the mid-1990s to the
most recent class of 2014 graduating with debts of $33,000.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This debt burden is having two major economic impacts
firstly there is a crowding out effect as unable to take on any more debt fewer
people are buying homes and cars. The second effect is as larger portions of
incomes are eaten up student loans people are less likely to engage in
entrepreneurial activity and to start new small business.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what has this to do with the situation in the UK?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well the House of Commons Library published a
paper at the beginning of October on Student Debt with the following
predictions, “The Government has projected that the outstanding cash value of
publicly owned student debt in England will increase to around £100 billion in
2016-17, £500 billion in the mid-2030s and £1,000 billion (£1 trillion) in the
late 2040s.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now a trillion pounds is a lot more than a trillion dollars
so you can we are copying the US alright but not in a good way! Both the scale
and rate of this debt increase is staggering. The Office for Budget
Responsibility (OBR) does not project the size of the student loan book per se,
but the additions to net debt from student loans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some ways this underestimates the issue but
it does give us an indication of what is happening by representing the cumulative
cash flows (spending less repayments) on loans as a proportion of GDP.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It gives us an indication of the scale of lending. Their
latest projection is that across the UK student loans added 3.5% of GDP to net
debt in 2014-15 (around £63 billion). This is all loans, repayments and sales
up to 2014-15, not just net lending in that year. This rate is expected to
increase rapidly over the next two decades (even with planned loan sales)
before peaking at 8.8% of GDP.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a serious drag on the economy as a whole. The fact
is however that the creation of a market for Higher Education has made students
the latest target for what have been called NINJA loans (No Income, No Job, No
Assets). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the next sub-prime
crisis in the making because it underestimates the total of student debt.
Students do not just depend on their student loans they rely on a host of other
forms of credit too – from overdrafts and credit cards to payday loans – all specifically
marketed to them because of their limited income.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The whole loans process is enormously expensive: about
one-third of all the money lent to students – approximately 10 per cent of
public spending on higher education – is never repaid just because of the
interest subsidy that the Government spends supporting the loans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even so the lack of jobs paying sufficient to
enable repayment of loans is leading to just 45p in every £1 of loan being
repaid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No wonder this month Moody’s, the ratings agency, has<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>downgraded the Higher Education Securitised
Investments Series No. 1 PLC's debt (part of the sold off student loan book)
because of higher than expected defaults and the higher than expected
proportion in deferment. From these types of loans they are only expecting a
30% recovery rate. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Looking to what is happening<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>in the US we know this is a ‘ticking time bomb’ as the young are
shackled with mountains of debt that will take decades – during their prime
earning years – to pay off if they are lucky enough to get a well-paying job
and a rising number will never pay off these debts<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>. The
government are so concerned about the poor repayment of this debt they are
considering reducing the salary at which payment commences from £21K to £18K.
Not quite the fantastic graduate salary students have been promised.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not only is the UK seeing the emergence of its own
Generation Debt – where the young must mortgage their future to gain access to
today’s economy but the whole structure of these debts is beginning to have a
deleterious effect on the economy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Time to stop this process before it gets any worse, there
has to be a simpler way of financing higher education. The Loan route produces
far too much waste in this system with money that should be being
spent on actual education leaking out of the system in finance costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Government already effectively funds half
the costs of graduate’s tuition why not cut out the financiers and support the
rest?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has called for the burden
of fees and debt to be removed. That burden however is not just on the
individuals concerned this crazy method of financing higher education is a
burden on all of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-76630649207360282632015-10-28T08:54:00.002-07:002015-10-28T08:54:56.944-07:00My Old China <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Britain
and China could develop a
grown up relationship China
is already a major global economic power that relationship is however unlikely
to be a healthy one whilst the key interface between the two is George Osborne.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Osborne seems to have found being Chancellor of the
Exchequer insufficient to keep him busy. Nature abhors a vacuum so the space he
has been pulled into is that as Trade Minister. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The present President of the Board of Trade, Sajid Javid
(also known as the Minister for Business) has vanished. Nowhere to be seen on
the steel industry, he seems to have no time for supporting business,
increasing skills or promoting exports being totally preoccupied in destroying
the residual rights of trade unionists.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Board of Trade is possibly the oldest part of the
British state it was in 1621 that James I directed the Privy Council (a body we
here a lot more about these days) to set up a temporary committee “to
investigate the causes of the decline in trade and the consequential financial
difficulties.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Board of Trade has been filled in many ways over the
years but it has always had roughly the same objectives - to win overseas
markets for British goods and services and to win work for British firms from
foreign governments. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, I repeat his
title because he seems to have lost his grip on it, at least in relation to
China seems to see this trade thing in a very strange way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does he think he should be helping British firms to win a share
of the Chinese market for British goods and services or helping them to win
contracts from the Chinese to undertake work in China? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No he thinks his job as a British trade minister is to help
the Chinese get a bigger share of the UK
market and so keen is he on this he is prepared to subsidise them to get it and
to structure UK
public sector contracts in such a way as to favour the Chinese! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can you imagine any other country doing this? We will
subsidise you to increase your penetration of our market. We will package
public sector contracts in such a way to help you get more of our business!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The headlines promise us billion of pounds of Chinese
“investment” in the UK.
But no one makes an investment at all let alone on this scale without a return.
So what do we pay the Chinese in return for this investment? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As most of our manufacturing sector is in freefall caused by
an over strong pound and slowing Chinese growth, steel is collapsing and both
JCB and Jaguar Land Rover have seen a large slow down in sales in China so have
even luxury brands like Burberry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So how is Osborne to get the Chinese to finance projects
like HS2 or Hinckley Point or his most fanciful project of all the Northern
Powerhouse?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
His record on
government investment in infrastructure despite his rhetoric is lamentable
falling by over 5% since he became chancellor. Now finance to pay for
infrastructure can come from taxpayers, from banks or pension funds or from
foreign institutions. However thanks to his policies many of these sources are
now unavailable. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
His
bizarre fiscal charter and its objective of an overall surplus on the public
finances prevents a significant rise in public sector capital expenditure and
since the banking crisis the banks have become far less willing to invest in
infrastructure, so that only leaves foreign investors. Undoubtedly as pockets
go China’s
are the deepest. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The failure of the Government to do the sums on investment was
shown in the 2014 £2.8bn purchase of 1,140 trains and carriages for the
Thameslink service. We have paid way over the odds because of its exorbitant
finance costs when it would have been cheaper for the state to finance the
purchase.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is worth remembering how ultimately these projects are
paid for? They are paid for by me and you. The extra private finance costs are
in paid higher taxes, higher rail fares and higher energy bills not just in the
short term but for decades to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is bizarre that only last week the Chancellor (for it is
the same person) was telling us we could not borrow to invest because it is
immoral – he could find no economic reason. Yet we can borrow from the Chinese
state.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
How
can we determine if this Chinese “investment” is value for money when these
deals are hidden behind walls of commercial confidentiality, with costs
obscured by government guarantees and with no clear obligations on the financiers
to accept any of the risk for the construction or indeed the operation of the infrastructure?
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
The
case of the London Underground public private partnerships shows how bad these
things can be with all the benefits going to the “investor” and all the costs
to the taxpayer. When Osborne offers Billions as government guarantees, a
“contingent liability” does not show up on the books — but such contingencies
have a nasty habit of materialising in practice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
So
what is Osborne selling in return for this so called investment? Effectively he
is selling off future tax revenues. As James Meek has pointed out in his
splendid book Private
Island, Why Britain Now
Belongs to Someone Else, <em>“The essential public good that Margaret Thatcher,
Tony Blair and now Cameron sell is not power stations, or trains, or hospitals.
It’s the public itself. It’s us.”</em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-27168048291197859652015-10-28T08:53:00.001-07:002015-10-28T08:53:37.287-07:00Our Island Story<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have often wondered what first attracted the Barclay
Brothers to <span class="st">Brecqhou near </span>Sark,
an island that has no taxes on income, capital gains or inheritances and no
company law.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They live in a castle that was designed by Prince Charles's
favourite architect, Terry Quinlan, the man who designed Poundbury his new
olde-worlde village in Dorset. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Technically of course, purely for health reasons that I am
sure have nothing with their tax-status, as residents of Monaco they do not actually “live” on Brecqhou although
as Sark has no customs post how will anyone
know if they are there or not?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite being hidden in their castle the impact of the
Brothers on Sark has been felt. Since
acquiring the island they have been at war with the local citizens I say
citizens but I probably mean serfs. The island was trapped in a medieval Norman
time warp but unfortunately for the Barclays the wrong feudal lords where in
charge. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sark has been kept
underdeveloped for years partly because it is good for tourism and partly
because if you do not collect any tax you cannot tarmac the roads. With a
population of just 600 they did not relish the impact the Barclays would have
on what they saw as being their islands. Mind having seen the size of their
gothic monstrosity who could blame them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A series of legal battles by the Barclays forced the islands
into the twenty first century with their very first elections in 2008. As owners
of the Daily Telegraph, they probably thought they knew a thing or two about
how to influence the outcome of elections.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well it did not work. It did not work again in 2010 nor in the
most recent ‘elections’ in 2014 when mysteriously 16 people stood for 16 seats
– the islanders had tried democracy and did not seem to like it!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So it was back to court and a complex legal battle over the new
constitution. After a long trek through the courts that finally ended in the
Supreme Court, with the Barclays’ arguing that the “dual role” of the island’s
chief judge and de facto president were incompatible with European human rights
laws enshrining the independence of the judiciary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An admirable interest here in European Human Rights law you
may think not something one would expect from the owners of the Daily Telegraph.
In June the papers editorial said that “The Government is entirely right to
seek to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights. Britain needs
to return some common sense to these vexatious legal proceedings.” Somehow I don’t
think this was the case they had in mind. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Barclays finally lost the case last October (although
the roles where split in 2013). In apparent retaliation in November the
Barclays closed their four hotels on the island for the 2015 season showing an
admirable commitment to the islands economy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Their patriotism as knights of the realm is unquestionable although
they seem to go to inordinate lengths to avoid UK tax their murky tax affairs and
the control of their businesses being hidden behind trusts and offshore
companies.</div>
The Telegraphs war against Jeremy Corbyn however is all to clear.
Unpatriotic Corbyn snubs the Queen screams the front page headline. This was of
course just hours after the paper had been found guilty of misleading its
readers by the new press regulator. <br />
The Press Gazette reported, “The Daily Telegraph breached the Editors’ Code
by inaccurately reporting on its front page an allegation of anti-semitism made
against Jeremy Corbyn. It is the fourth Independent Press Standards
Organisation ruling against The Daily Telegraph, making it the title with the
worst record for upheld complaints since the new regulator opened in September
2014.”<br />
It is not just readers who cannot believe the paper. Last winter their chief
political commentator Peter Oborne resigned because he could no longer write
for the paper as he felt the advertisers where determining the news content. <br />
He met with the chief executive of the paper Murdoch MacLennan, to air his
concerns. Maclennan agreed with him that advertising was allowed to affect
editorial, but was unapologetic, according to Oborne , he said that “it was not
as bad as all that” adding that there was a long history of this sort of thing
at the <em>Telegraph</em>.<br />
Well there you have it. Was there ever a better case for proper media regulation?
As Peter Oborne points out, “A free press is essential to a healthy democracy.
There is a purpose to journalism, and it is not just to entertain. It is not to
pander to political power, big corporations and rich men. Newspapers have what
amounts in the end to a constitutional duty to tell their readers the truth.”
Something you are not going to find in the Telegraph.<br />
<br />
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-78985009311853481892015-09-22T06:44:00.000-07:002015-09-22T06:46:30.501-07:00A New Platform for Co-operative Ownership <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
At last weekends Co-op Party conference there was much
discussion about Jeremy Corbyns first week as labour leader. The Co-op party
historically has been firmly on the moderate wing of the Labour Party loyally supporting
whoever is the leader. There is no doubt however that Corbynism in terms at
least of opening up Labours policy process to new thinking has been warmly
received by co-operators. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One example of that new thinking that was welcomed at
conference was his advocacy of a Peoples Railway. As far back as 2011
Co-operatives UK published a pamphlet by the recent London Mayoral candidate
and all round railway buff Christian Wolmar advocating co-operative ownership
for Britain’s
railways. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The model is what is called in co-op circles
multi-stakeholder meaning that unlike a consumer or a worker co-op there are
different groups represented in the ownership structure. In the case of the
railways the key stakeholders are the government – representing the national
interest in such a crucial piece of infrastructure, railway workers, who keep
it moving and provide the essential service and the rail users those who depend
on and contribute to the service through their fares and season tickets.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It would be superfluous to argue yet again how the present
system is confusing, over complicated and creates unnecessary competition
between providers, thereby driving up costs and fares to extortionate levels.
The question is how we change it and that is clearly the stage that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Jeremy Corbyn proposals have now rreached.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The scope for a people’s railway is huge for example the
Welsh Government are seriously discussing how to bid for the Wales and Borders franchise
to turn it into a not for profit business integrated into a regulated national
Welsh bus service thereby providing an effective Wales wide public transport
system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A proposal for Rail Cymru, supported by Aslef, the Co-op
party and the Socialist Environment Association written by Professor Paul Salverson
was published in 2012. The irony is of course that the current Wales
and the Borders franchise run by Arriva trains is owned by the Deutsches
Bundesbahn which in turn is owned by the Federal Republic of Germany. So the
take over of this franchise by a not for profit co-op would be a form of
privatisation!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the Alice in Wonderland world of rail franchising
the so called radical Scottish Nats<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>gave
the Scot Rail franchise to Abellio or <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Nederlandse
Spoorwegen the Dutch national rail company! So clearly they are not against
nationalisation as long is its not our nation doing the nationalising!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">One of the exciting
things about a co-operative model is the potential for very local micro-franchises
working with Passenger Transport Authorities and local rail partnerships to
create new services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This model would
immediately stop the £200million of public subsidy leaking out of the railways
in profits for shareholders. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Some estimates are
that over a quarter of the total £4billion in public subsidy are the
“fragmentation” costs the transfer payments and duplication costs between the
train operating companies, the rolling stock companies and network rail. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There are also huge
knock on benefits in public procurement and line improvements by having a more
unified approach. More rational planning in electrification programs and
rolling stick procurement could bring substantial cost savings. No wonder
bringing the railways back into public ownership has over 60% popular support a
figure that has increasing over time. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Furthermore the
example of the London North eastern franchise shows that they can be bought
back into public ownership at almost no cost. The Tory commitment to a
privatised railway is a triumph of ideology over common sense. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Anyone who thinks
these ideas are extreme needs to get out more. Christian Wolmars original ideas
where endorsed by the hardly left Andrew, now Lord, Adonis. There is no doubt
in my mind that the original Herbert Morrison model of public ownership did not
give the public or the workers in the state industries any meaningful say in
their operations making privatisation that much easier.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Tory critics to Jeremy
Corbyn’s peoples railway idea are in fact right it is indeed ideological and it
will certainly be a joy to ride! .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-27996883151330681402015-09-17T08:54:00.002-07:002015-09-17T08:54:49.060-07:00Patriotic Karaoke<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a secular republican I have deep sympathy for Jeremy
Corbyn’s position at the recent service for the 75<sup>th</sup> anniversary of
the Battle of Britain. What the furore about his not singing along to our so called
‘National Anthem’ shows is the deeply undemocratic nature of our country. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It reminded me of my school days when once during assembly
the Head stopped the hymn singing because we where demonstrating a complete
lack of gusto. He said if we did not make a greater effort he would have us
back after school, “and we would enjoy it.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even as I child I was able to work out that forcing someone
to enjoy something was not an easy task. Setting aside the sound of the right
wing press, whose owners’ patriotism does not extend to being British for tax
purposes, baying for craven support for our monarch what is going on here? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is the edifice of the British state so fragile that not
singing the praises of Her Majesty is enough to bring it down? No wonder the
nationalisms of Scotland and
Wales
are so powerful they have much better songs. As do many other nations as we
will find at the Rugby World Cup!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have this dreadful uninspiring dirge. It was not an
uninspiring dirge when it was first song. Like much of the British
constitutional settlement it was not adopted by Royal Proclamation or my Act of
Parliament but by custom and practice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It became popular on the London stage in about 1744-45 and was taken
up as a response to the landing of Charles Edward Stuart, (Bonny Prince Charlie
– as Billy Connolly points out the only leader to be named after three sheep
dogs). </div>
The first performance was in support of George II after his defeat at the
Battle of Prestonpans in 1745. The anti-Jacobite nature of the song was shown
in a verse expressing support for Field Marshall George Wade who was then
assembling an army at Newcastle:<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
May by thy mighty aid,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
Victory bring.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
May he sedition hush,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
and like a torrent rush,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
Rebellious Scots to crush,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
God save the King.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No wonder the modern Scots prefer, ‘Scotland the
Brave’ or ‘Flower of Scotland’. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
dictionary says that a National Anthem is a “nation’s patriotic song”. This
song then is not a song of our nation, there is nothing in it about the place or
its people, and its only role is to put a dampener on national sporting and
other events by reminding us of our embarrassing Imperial legacy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On a more sinister level however it is part of the pseudo
democratic rituals of our institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like for example the oath of allegiance that every MP has to make before
they can take their parliamentary seat. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is this allegiance to uphold the law or to the people who
elected them. No it says "I...do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and
affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth, her heirs and successors according to law".</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How can this make any sense it is either a piece of
theatrical nonsense or it is a way of subverting the rights of the citizen.
Allegiance is being pledged to the yet unborn - to Royal sperm!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then comes all the nonsense about being Her Majesty’s
Government and Opposition topped off with the ruritanian Privy Council which
originated from the French prive meaning the private advisors to the Monarch,
not as my Dad once told me because they met in the outside toilet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a gloriously ambiguous situation appointed by the
Prime Minister under the fiction of loyalty to whoever the monarch happens to
be. This is the pinnacle of the secret state. The Privy Council Oath was not
revealed until 1989 following a written parliamentary question:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You do swear by
Almighty God to be a true and faithful Servant unto the Queen's Majesty, as one
of Her Majesty's Privy Council. You will not know or understand of any manner
of thing to be attempted, done, or spoken against Her Majesty's Person, Honour,
Crown, or Dignity Royal, but you will lett and withstand the same to the
uttermost of your Power, and either cause it to be revealed to Her Majesty
Herself, or to such of Her Privy Council as shall advertise Her Majesty of the
same. You will, in all things to be moved, treated, and debated in Council,
faithfully and truly declare your Mind and Opinion, according to your Heart and
Conscience; and will keep secret all Matters committed and revealed unto you,
or that shall be treated of secretly in Council. And if any of the said
Treaties or Counsels shall touch any of the Counsellors, you will not reveal it
unto him, but will keep the same until such time as, by the Consent of Her
Majesty, or of the Council, Publication shall be made thereof. You will to your
uttermost bear Faith and Allegiance unto the Queen's Majesty; and will assist
and defend all Jurisdictions, Pre-eminences, and Authorities, granted to Her
Majesty, and annexed to the Crown by Acts of Parliament, or otherwise, against
all Foreign Princes, Persons, Prelates, States, or Potentates. And generally in
all things you will do as a faithful and true Servant ought to do to Her
Majesty. So help you God.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does this matter?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well yes in one direct way Orders-in-Council take the form of secondary
legislation and are used to make government regulations and appointments. And
secondly in an indirect way this is the very centre of our state stuffed with
appointees and serving a monarch. Yet we continue to pretend to live in a
democracy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jeremy Corbyns crusade to democratise the Labour Party is
the beginning of a wider crusade that is to finally democratise our country! </div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-60044796046368847502015-08-05T04:05:00.000-07:002015-08-05T04:05:15.886-07:00Not Just the Young Gripped by Corbymania!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
You know something is happening when people like my mum and
dad (78 and 80 respectively and no longer in their young socialist phase) sign
up as Labour Supporters so they can vote for Jeremy Corbyn. My Mum had been a party
member but drifted away and Dad had been active in his union the GPMU. Living
in Shropshire they had almost given up hope of
hearing a labour voice they could support. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This shows that Jeremy’s reach is way beyond what the Westminster chattering
class would have us believe. What is fascinating about this Labour leadership
election is the way that the more publicity and the louder attacks on him the
more people stop and listen to what he actually has to say and the more they
like it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then and this is the key thing they are then able to express
that support through the ballot box. It is interesting also that over the last
few years some of the Tories and New Labour’s democratic fix’s have come back
to bite them on the bum! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Tories believed that giving the Unions back to their
members that greater democracy would make them more moderate. Yet what actually
happened was that they won every ballot for a political fund and then started
to elect real left wing leaders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Described as the awkward squad they began to change the
terms of debate in the Labour Party. Now the reforms that Ed Miliband agreed to
get the unions to give up their collective voice in the party have opened the
doors in ways that are a nightmare for the Labour right.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth is that there has always been an appetite for the
views that Jeremy Corbyn expresses but they have been squeezed out by electoral
manipulation. Now they are out there and being clearly expressed the true level
of support for them can be seen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I remember going to Tony Benn’s ‘shows’ after he left
parliament to devote himself to politics and seeing the huge numbers of all
ages and class backgrounds who turned up and broadly agreed with him. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What most people on the broad left feel I think is why are
Labour so spineless? Why have they surrendered so much ground to the Tories
without a fight? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me this goes back to the Philip Gould effect within the
Labour Party. Find out what the public want and give it to them. Reflect the
publics opinions back at them. Don’t try to shape or lead public opinion but
follow it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the complete abdication of any form of leadership.
It also leaves that public opinion to be shaped by others. One thing that is
interesting at Jeremy Corbyn rallies is that often he asks how many people read
a daily paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The response is often a very
small number. This means that amongst the young and the less affluent the right
wing press has less and less influence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course this does not stop the BBC giving it undue
prominence but it does mean that with social media this campaign is the first
one for the Labour leadership that has truly exploited the power of the
internet. This is what has enabled huge crowds to turn out for Jeremy’s
meetings at incredibly short notice and for his message to be heard unmediated
by the mainstream media thought police. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not everyone who hears Jeremy Corbyn agrees with every word
but I do not think that anybody finds his views outlandish or in any way
extreme. This is why the hysterical reaction of the Labour right is so
laughable. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He is also remarkably unspun, completely authentic, kind,
generous and lacking in ego. Whilst he is asking you to vote for him his
message is one of join me, come with me, we can change things if we do it
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is not just building a
party he is building a community.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Listening to some shadow cabinet members criticise Jeremy’s
economic ideas just demonstrates their economic illiteracy and exposes how far they
have swallowed the Tory big lie on the necessity of austerity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One thing is certain the genie is out of the bottle. Now we
have to build the biggest possible vote for Jeremy over the coming days and
weeks. And when he is elected we need to build that support as broad and wide
as possible. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Tories have a tiny majority. We need to build the
campaign into next years mayoral election in London and the local elections across the
country. And before those elections we need to do what Barak Obama did and actually
build the electorate with registration drives!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Tories where elected by around a quarter of the
electorate people who voted against Human Rights and for the bedroom tax. To
win a general election we do not need any of their votes we need the votes of
the other three quarters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The people who need a message of hope. All across Europe people are asking for the same thing we are not
alone. At last there is an alternative! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-11983116096833100582015-08-05T04:03:00.001-07:002015-08-05T04:03:57.834-07:00Ferry Co-op Fight Goes On<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
I sometimes think that the 21 miles that separate England
from France
are the longest 21 miles anywhere in the world. The lack of attention to what
is going on there is quite staggering.<br />
There has been a great deal of coverage of the fall out from the industrial
dispute involving the formerly co-operatively owned MyFerryLink. Particularly
the plight of migrants desperately trying to enter the UK on trucks and trains headed I
our direction. There has been far less coverage of the dispute itself. <br />
The co-op at the centre of the dispute emerged out of the collapse of the
formerly SNCF owned cross channel operator Sea France. Eurotunnel bought the ships
from the French Government and the Syndicat Martime Nord lead by the
charismatic Eric Vercoutre persuaded 600 Sea France
workers to put their redundancy money into a workers co-operative to enable
them to operate three former Sea France ships.<br />
All seemed to be going well they had captured 12% of the cross-channel
traffic and it was reputed that the crews worked much more efficiently as a
co-operative than under the previous owners. The future of the co-op based in Calais, is now to say the
least highly uncertain.<br />
Whilst the ferries are actually owned by Eurotunnel they had contracted the
management of the service to the co-operative. The dispute began when Eurotunnel
withdrew from the agreement at the beginning of June with the inevitable effect,
if nothing changes, of the co-op having to go into administration.<br />
The reasons for this are rather complex, but here goes, it seems to have
begun when the UK Competition and Markets Authority had ruled that Eurotunnel
was breaking competition law by owning the ferries as well as the Channel
Tunnel. <br />
This decision lead in January to Eurotunnel putting the ferries up for sale.
In response the co-op joined together with a broader social enterprise venture so
that it could make a formal bid for the whole business, one of several
Eurotunnel received.<br />
Whilst all this was going however the case was grinding on through the
courts in Britain
to the British Supreme Court. Then last month came a major surprise: the court
ruled that Eurotunnel was not, in fact, in breach of competition law. <br />
Despite there no longer being any reason for the sale Eurotunnel say that it
is going ahead – and that their previous decision to terminate the deal with MyFerryLink
will not be revoked. Two ferries are to be sold to DFDS and one to a freight
operator. <br />
This is all rather odd as Eurotunnel and MyFerry Link had been involved in a
long legal battle together to keep the new service going against P&O the
biggest cross channel ferry operator and the British competition authorities who
had fought them all the way objecting to Eurotunnel owning a ferry company.<br />
Then just as the legal battle was won Eurotunnel scuttled its own ships leaving
six hundred workers high, dry and very angry. The suspicion is that they see
this as an opportunity to break Mr Vercoutre and his militant union. <br />
As I write with a migrant getting killed attempting to make the crossing at Calais, ferry workers are
continuing their occupation of the two MyFerryLink vessels that where formerly
worked by the co-operative and are now leased to DFDS by Eurotunnel. DFDS has
complained to French Transport minister Alain Vidalies at the situation at Calais. As one Ferry
Company - P&O – are able to operate normally whilst DFDS cannot.<br />
DFDS’ vessels have now been ‘barred’ from Calais for a week and the financial
implications could be significant. But this is part of a wider pattern going
back to the famous trade unions and the ferries cases of Viking and Laval. <br />
The late lamented RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that collective
bargaining rights were being hollowed out by EU diktat and EU court rulings
which encourage social dumping and severely weakens trade union powers to
defend workers.<br />
“ECJ decisions in the Viking, Laval, Ruffert and Luxemburg ECJ cases take us
back over 100 years to the Taff Vale judgment when any trade union activity was
perceived by the bosses to be ‘in restraint of trade.” <br />
The legal framework now around secondary action means that this small co-op
of unionised workers has to struggle alone as any secondary industrial action
is pretty much impossible. At this stage one has to admire their tenacity in
furthering this dispute against overwhelming odds.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-89664954792490139862015-06-30T09:32:00.001-07:002015-06-30T09:32:12.090-07:00Drawing Inspiration from Co-op Congress<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I hope those of you who attended the AGM of Co-operatives UK and Congress
got as much out of it as I did. Meeting so many passionate, engaged, innovative
co-operators has made a huge contribution to re-charging my batteries.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I feel a renewed commitment to the cause. That inspiration does
not just come from the energy on show in Birmingham Town Hall
but from a co-operator who died in 1964. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That co-operator was William Hazell, the
subject a splendid new book, ‘William Hazell’s Gleaming Vision’ (Y Lolfa 2014) by
Alun Burge. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The title comes from the history of the Ynysybwl Industrial
Co-operative Society Hazell wrote in 1954. Alun Burge’s book really is a
stunning piece of scholarship. It brings back to life a whole world of
co-operative enterprise and all its interlocking social and political
connectivity’s that existed in South Wales
from the First World War to the 1960’s. Our guide on this thoroughly delightful
journey is William Hazell himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hazel is what Gramsci would have called an ‘organic
intellectual’ not a utopian but a very practical man with huge ambition who set
about creating a new world. The story begins in the relatively isolated pit village of Ynysybwl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet as a result of Hazell’s and his fellow
ordinary members’ creativity this, ‘one co-operative society expanded from a
single village shop to become a large business undertaking with a million-pound
turnover that stretched across and beyond the valleys towards Cardiff ’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The challenges he and his colleagues faced in this endeavour
are well documented thanks to the hundreds of articles he wrote for the myriad
of co-operative publications at the time and Burge deserves great credit for
tracking them down. Many of the issues he grapples with from the balance
between members and management, local versus national control and the role of
women are perennial issues and Hazell’s voice is remarkably contemporary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite some of the massive challenges they faced from the
general strike, the depression and war he is always on hand to offer sound
advice and practical support.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Burge says, “Hazell’s view of the potential of the
movement at times appeared to have no limit. Throughout his life, his writings
displayed an absence of cynicism and a freedom from disillusion or despair. He
was a proselytiser who called for those who had become cynical or disillusioned
to ‘Start again now’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alun Burge has done a great job in bringing an entire world
to life in his other writings he makes a small linguistic point that gave me
much to think about in how we make co-operative ownership meaningful. It is that
Welsh speakers referred to their Societies as ‘siop ni’ (our shop) rather than
‘the co-op’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in
retail co-operation and those of you who are avoiding Amazon can get it online
from the Welsh publishers at: <a href="http://www.ylolfa.com/">www.ylolfa.com</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Burge is now working on a history of the Co-operative
Movement in South Wales we must not distract
him if this book is anything to go by it will be a classic. Hazell did not live
to see the Co-operative
Commonwealth the baton has
been passed onto our generation. So it is our turn to, ‘Start again now’!</div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-60731505613228566292015-06-30T09:30:00.000-07:002015-06-30T09:30:53.955-07:00Midcounties triumph in Co-op of the Year <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was great to see one of the shortlisted candidates for
Co-op of the Year given the full page treatment in the Morning Star. Following
a process where nominations where generated by Co-operatives UK members, nine
Co-op’s where shortlisted for the accolade.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They included, and real footie fans will be delighted that
the Northern Premier League Champions, F.C. United of Manchester are included
on that shortlist, as well as The Channel Islands Co-operative, East of
England Co-operative, the Foster Care Co-operative, Jamboree, the
Midcounties Co-operative, Oikocredit UK, the Phone Co-op and Unicorn
Grocery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This year we opened up the process to member nominations and
received 65 of a very high standard from all parts of the co-operative economy
making the short listing process really difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have had some fantastic nominations supported
by some very passionate members.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we got to the business end we opened it up to an online
poll and there where thousands of votes cast. With such a large number of votes
cast whoever came out on top, must have tremendous popular support.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last years winners where Suma Wholefoods, Secretary General
of Co-ops UK ED Mayo when he presented them with their award last year said, “Suma,
as a leading worker co-operative, shows what the power of true employee
ownership can be, lifting the bar on business innovation and performance.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There where some real stars on this years shortlist and it
will was hard to choose between them. I nominated the Channel Islands Co-op as
I felt their move into healthcare was an important innovation for the Channel Islands
Community and there all round co-op performance is pretty impressive too.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
East of England Retail Co-operative is distinctive for its
commitment to local sourcing and providing their customers with the best in
regional produce. Many of us believe that social care co-ops are the coming
thing and the Foster Care Co-operative shows the potential for this type of
co-op it has been recruiting and expertly training foster carers for the last
fifteen years, which has provided vulnerable children with safe, caring and
loving homes throughout England
and Wales.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jamboree is a very special co-op owned and operated by
adults with learning disabilities commissioning their own support and running
CafeH2O at the Key IQ visitor centre on the Malvern Hills.
It is a great example of how co-operation can work for everyone. They are
a great team and if you are in that part of the world they produce great teas!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another candidate Oikocredit International is celebrating
its 40th anniversary this year it is a worldwide co-operative and social
investor, providing funding to the microfinance sector, fair trade
organizations, cooperatives and small to medium enterprises. They were
ethically investing before it was fashionable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Phone Co-op have had another great year giving great
service (and a dividend) to their members and what a year they have had
retailing the Fairphone the first smartphone that puts social values first,
built with conflict-free minerals and made in a factory with a
worker-controlled welfare fund.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then there was Unicorn Grocery a worker co-operative, the
shop is controlled, directed and owned by its workforce. Even as they approach
60 members, they all get the same flat pay, everything is decided in fortnightly
meetings with consensus decision-making, and they share manual and administrative
tasks. The harnessing of this talent and energy generates a turnover of over
£5million from a single shop! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next year let’s hope the Peoples Press Printing Society is
doing well enough so it too gets a nomination. That would be a great way to end
to the 85<sup>th</sup> year of the Morning star. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well there could only be one winner and with a clear
majority it was Midcounties Co-operative. They have been consistently
innovative over the last few years doing the usual retail things, food,
pharmacy, travel and funerals but also launching the fast growing Co-op Energy
and also developing a significant presence in child care. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Midcounties first amongst equals.</div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-73712563144626555702015-06-02T02:26:00.004-07:002015-06-02T02:26:23.306-07:00Co-op Party Lives to Fight Another Day<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was a letter in the Morning Star recently asking what had
happened to the Co-operative Party? Well at the recent Co-operative Group AGM they
won a spectacular victory to maintain the Group’s subscription to the Party. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Given the size of the Group the loss of this subscription could
have been catastrophic. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is no doubt that the Party ran a very imaginative
campaign in favour of keeping the link. Under the strap line <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Not Just Shoppers Pioneers </i>it was simultaneously
informative, entertaining and serious. It stood out compared with Labour’s limp
general election campaign which ran at roughly the same time. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One former Labour and Co-operative member must wish that
instead of the Co-op Party fighting for its life with the Co-operative Group
membership it had been running the election campaign in Morley and Outwood. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One wonders what the skills and resources
expanded on this campaign could have contributed to winning the just 422 votes
needed to retain Ed Balls seat. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This result in the Co-op Group is a tremendous achievement
for Co-op Party general secretary Karen Christiansen. She has made some bold
decisions and the whole process has raised the profile and significance of the
Party within the co-operative movement and in politics generally. She more than
held her own when being quizzed by Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The debate at the group AGM about political funding was
quite interesting there is clearly a resistance to simply donating money to
political parties. There was a lot of passionate support however for the link
with the Co-op Party. Most of the serious criticism was not about whether the
Co-operative movement should have a political voice but hat form it should
take. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Given the contemporary political fragmentation the link with
the Labour Party is clearly an issue. Particularly in Scotland where there exists a quite
effective cross-party group supporting co-operative and mutual enterprise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some of the issues raised should really be raised at the Co-op
Party’s own conference. When that takes place later this year it will surely be
a lively event with a rich agenda. And most importantly the Co-operative Group now
needs to play a full role ensuring that it gets out of that relationship what
it needs both in support of co-operation generally and in the interests of its own
businesses. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
Something that stands out
given the intellectual self-destruction of the Labour Party is for the
Co-operative Party to have a more substantial input into how we develop the
Co-operative message and take it into the UK Parliament, the other devolved
administrations and into local government.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
At Co-ops UK we have done some
thinking about this message. When we looked at Co-operative identity in seeking
an overarching narrative that won the support of our members and offered
external audiences a persuasive argument for co-operatives by far the strongest
element was ownership. Ownership rather than fairness, ethics, community, or even
membership is seen as the USP for co-operatives. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
Research shows us that we live
in an economy over which people feel they have no control, they have little
influence in their workplace, they think big businesses are out of control and they
feel they have no influence over the economy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
Co-operatives as businesses
run by the people who own them offer a way to regain some control over what is
happening in their communities and workplaces, and to have a say in how they
are treated by businesses and in the wider economy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
Clearly the promotion of collective
or social ownership has been a long way from the Labour Party’s policy agenda
in the last few years. What is more it will have to be backed up by a serious
policy framework if it is to have any hope of success.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
That framework must include a
level playing field for enterprises using the Society legal form whilst looking
for further improvements including an asset lock on bone fide co-ops. We also
need to ensure an enabling regulatory framework that balances flexibility and
innovation with protection of both the public interest and co-operative values
and principles.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
We also need a fair slice of
the available business support so the co-op option is not overlooked. Finance
is also a big issue so how we come up with public policy that enables co-op’s
gain access to capital is critical. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
Lastly the public
understanding of co-ops is not as good as it should be and policy makers are no
exception we need an ongoing dialogue with them to keep the co-op option on the
table. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
This is a substantial agenda which
I hope the Co-op Party will consider. If we are to make a significant increase
in the Co-op economy we will all have to work together to deliver on this
agenda in the coming years.</div>
Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567855535184195405.post-7345750996704405072015-05-18T05:00:00.000-07:002015-05-18T05:00:21.939-07:00Bye Bye Ed<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Lady Bracknell may have put it, “To lose one Ed is
unfortunate, to lose two is downright careless.” It was disappointing to see a
happy smiling Ed Miliband on the front of the Sunday papers looking happy and
relived to be out of a job. Few of those threatened by the Tory nightmare are
smiling. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After the last election Labour ran a dull leadership
election that dragged on for months whilst the Tories spun the lie that the
economic crisis was all Labours fault. They say a lie is around the world
before the truth gets its shoes and socks on and that was certainly true in
this case.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ed should have stayed until the party Conference when a short
leadership election should take placec. Now he should be leading the attack on
the Tories and shaping the debate on what went wrong. Not leaving the space for
his enemies and those on the Labour right with access to the media to set a
false trail. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I always expected the Tories to get a small majority. But I
did underestimate the scale of the defeat in Scotland. How Jim Murphy could try
and hang on there is beyond me. It was obvious he did not have a clue about
Scottish politics when he dragged Blairite-ultra, John McTernan in as his
chief-of-staff. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was cheered by the election campaign. Like most people I was
misled by the opinion polls. The result reminds me of a line from the John
Cleese film, Clockwise, “<span class="st">It's not the </span><em>despair</em><span class="st">. I </span><em>can</em><span class="st"> take the </span><em>despair</em><span class="st">. </span><em>It's the hope</em><span class="st"> I </span><em>can</em><span class="st">'t stand.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st">Since Donald Dewer died Scottish labour has
not put a foot right. The first thing they should do now is establish the Scottish
Labour Party as a completely separate independent party so that it can then elect
its own leader. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st">They have no need of Douglas Alexander’s
neo-liberal foreign policy, or the confrontational style of Jim Murphy, after a
defeat like this a bit of humility is in order. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st">Despite appearances Labour did not do as
badly in England,
increasing their share of the vote by 3.6%, despite having nothing like a
coherent economic policy symbolised, by the decapitation of Ed Balls. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st">The distribution of the vote however was
unhelpful. The collapsing Liberal vote went mostly to the Tories and the UKIP
vote split with the working class sticking with Nigel whilst the more affluent
ones switched to the Tories creating a double whammy for Labour in suburban
constituencies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st">Labour has a problem in both personnel and ideology.
The SNP has produced two of Britain’s
best politicians in Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmon. Labour seems to have lost
the ability to produce leaders with the basic political skills - simple things like
being able to connect with people or to talk to them in a language they can
understand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st">The gene pool the party is drawing upon is
just too narrow. One of the reasons why they misunderstood the UKIP threat is
they simply do not understand the social and economic dislocation of
globalisation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st">For the well educated middle class the world
is your oyster for the rest it brings fear and potential impoverishment. When
it comes to migration there is a problem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st">That problem is that neither government nor
employers have been prepared to pay the real social costs of migration in health,
education and most of all housing. This is compounded by the Labour Party no
longer understanding that a larger public sector could protect many working
class people from the worst aspects of a globalised economy.</span></div>
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<span class="st">John Cruddas, the dilettante who spent the
pre-election policy review flirting with “Blue Labour”, now leader of the
review into what went wrong things could easily go from bad to worse. </span></div>
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<span class="st">This year Verso published a superb collection
by Ralph Miliband entitled Class-War Conservatism and other Essays. It is great
pity it has gone unread by his son. In the title essay Ralph points out that
the Tories, “are seeking a drastic weakening of the labour movement because
their view of the good society requires it; and the good society in which they believe
is a class society in which the subordination of the many to the few, on the
basis of property and privilege, is the dominant principle. Labour has long
lacked the capacity to project a radically different view, and therefore to
turn it into a major theme in political life. Until it regains that capacity,
it will be fighting on Mrs Thatchers ground rather than its own.” </span></div>
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<span class="st">If people say this cannot be done point them
at the Scots Nats if they say labour must return to the middle ground point
them to the Lib Dems. And if they want to know what Class War Conservatism is
just tell them to watch and wait. </span></div>
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Nick Matthewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175897312461136437noreply@blogger.com0