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Yearly Archives: 2017
After the Fire
A fortnight after the Grenfell inferno it is still beyond us to know with any degree of precision just how many people were burned alive, suffocated to death or killed as a result of blunt force trauma in the early hours of June 14. Indeed Scotland Yard warned yesterday that it could be months before the total loss of life is ascertained, with some reports suggesting that as many as 300 people are still unaccounted for and therefore presumed dead. This in addition to the 80 victims whose deaths have already been officially confirmed.
But there is at least one aspect of this monstrous crime that can be discussed with the greatest certitude, namely the cladding which, in the words of the Grenfell Action Group, ‘played a major part in spreading and accelerating what began as a single-dwelling fire’ and as such ‘rendered standard fire safety advice redundant’.
It was…
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A shadow of things
From julijuxtaposed
God’s got a direct line
to Downing Street
by a covenant of equivocation
and hellfire in a field of wheat;
a billion sly indulgences that wryly speak
“out-toried”, sit inglorious upon the mercy seat.
A shadow of things to come.
Value of individual – depends what you can give #Tories
Read this, from Jayne Linney
A short rant on equality, you make your own mind up.
After yesterdays announcement of the Tories £1.5+ BILLION gift to DUP for Votes, today we learn disabled patients requiring a wheelchair are essentially reliant upon begging. It transpires disabled people unable to afford and needing, an alternative to the NHS 44lb wheelchair, is being forced to raise their own funds to purchase suitable equipment.
The wheelchairs available from the NHS is not only unwieldy but “manoeuvring the devices risks causing damage” , however the price of a suitable chair can cost Thousands. Given that disabled people have already been hardest hit by the plethora of Cuts, in particular by vast array of issues experienced during those transferring from DLA to PIP it seems fair to assume many of the 13 million people in UK can not afford the potential £10,000.
It appears that if you’re a DUP MP…
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Grenfell is Political
London awoke this morning to the news that a blaze had ripped through Grenfell Tower in Notting Hill late last night, leaving at least twelve people dead and several hundreds homeless. The magnitude of the destruction is horrific — truly shocking — and everything must be done — indeed, heart-warmingly, is being done it seems — to provide for the needs of all those who have been hurt and dislocated.
As what remains of the tower block continues to burn, we who watch it do so cannot afford to shirk the difficult issues at the heart of this disaster; we cannot reasonably give in to pleas not to ‘politicise’ what occurred, for it was nothing if not fundamentally ‘political’. For example, residents of the property had repeatedly told the local council — controlled by Tories — that living conditions in the building were ‘dangerous’ and that it was not up…
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A New Dream of Politics – go out and vote for it
The Booker prize-winning writer Ben Okri was called a genius by Jeremy Corbyn in his Labour party conference speech in 2015. Here he responds:
They say there is only one way for politics.
That it looks with hard eyes at the hard world
And shapes it with a ruler’s edge,
Measuring what is possible against
Acclaim, support, and votes.
They say there is only one way to dream
For the people, to give them not what they need
But food for their fears.
We measure the deeds of politicians
By their time in power.
But in ancient times they had another way.
They measured greatness by the gold
Of contentment, by the enduring arts,
The laughter at the hearths,
The length of silence when the bards
Told of what was done by those who
Had the courage to make their lands
Happy, away from war, spreading justice
And fostering health,
The most precious of the arts
Of governance.
But we live in times that have lost
This tough art of dreaming
The best for its people,
Or so we are told by cynics
And doomsayers who see the end
Of time in blood-red moons.
Always when least expected an unexpected
Figure rises when dreams here have
Become like ashes. But when the light
Is woken in our hearts after the long
Sleep, they wonder if it is a fable.
Can we still seek the lost angels
Of our better natures?
Can we still wish and will
For poverty’s death and a newer way
To undo war, and find peace in the labyrinth
Of the Middle East, and prosperity
In Africa as the true way
To end the feared tide of immigration?
We dream of a new politics
That will renew the world
Under their weary suspicious gaze.
There’s always a new way,
A better way that’s not been tried before.
Enough is Enough
Lots of information and links here.
None of us, none of us is tolerant of terrorism. We are sad, angry, shocked and hurt. But we aren’t stupid. Cuts to police and army because of ideological austerity is bad enough. But these awful acts are funded by people who we are selling arms to, and May wants to suppress investigations. Meanwhile, we incite violence, hatred and division by bombing people’s homelands thousands of miles away. We won’t tolerate Theresa May either. Indeed, enough is enough. We need someone who understands peace. We need to change this broken society, and give people hope not fear. We have an opportunity on Thursday. Let’s rebuild our country, our society, and #VoteLabour on Thursday. A new start.
An investigation into the foreign funding of extremist Islamist groups may never be published, the Home Office has admitted.
The inquiry commissioned by David Cameron, was launched as part of a deal with the Liberal…
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Vote Labour – Policies uphold the rights of disabled people
Letter in The Guardian today, PROUD to be a Signatory, please READ & SHARE:
For chronically ill and disabled people, recent years have been a disaster. The UN recently found “reliable evidence that the threshold of grave or systematic violations of the rights of persons with disabilities has been met” (Report, 8 November 2016).
We have been forced through a work capability assessment that the government’s own expert adviser described as “inhumane”, and which in 2015 was found to be associated with an additional 599 suicides.
Many needing help are now forced through another persecutory assessment – the personal independence payment – designed to reduce the numbers qualifying for help by half a million.
Theresa May says this is “focusing disability benefit payments on those most in need”; but it means removing support from many in great need. Over 50,000 people have lost their vehicle, with some losing their…
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Where will the money come from?
Here is the funding document to the Labour manifesto, showing where the money will come from to implement the manifesto commitments. As John McDonnell says in the Foreword:
“In this pamphlet we publish the costs and funding sources, and reference the research and calculations for each policy proposal. Every spending commitment is fully costed. Every source of funding is explained.”
The warning is the same as the one I gave in my previous blog on the manifesto: read the actual document, not just the media reports.
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