Hello!
This will just be a quick one; I just thought I ought to update this blog on some things that have been happening lately. I sometimes see things and think, 'Ooh, I ought to write about that...' and then something happens and I don't. It's really bad, isn't it?
I will start off with some good news. In my last blog I discussed spikes that were being put up around the country to prevent homeless people sleeping there, a measure which I needless to say disapprove of. I am happy to announce that due to the outcry, many of these have now been removed. I'm really pleased about this. I think we talk so much about bad things that go on that it goes unnoticed when actually, a public outcry is successful, as this one apparently has been.
Talking of public outcries, on 21 June there was a huge anti-austerity demonstration in London. I couldn't actually go as by the time I found out about it, I had already committed myself to something else (I'll talk about that below), but I am glad that such events are still taking place. I sometimes worry that we accept the status quo too much, and these things give me hope. What does concern me is the lack of footage that the BBC have given it. I feel as though this is a tactical way of minimising the amount of anarchy this country has. I don't especially like feeling that way especially as I try to give people the benefit of the doubt whenever I can, but I feel that on this occasion I have no choice, as there is no other reason that I can think of for this to happen. What I do find laughable is how people still complain that the BBC are very left-orientated! Seriously, I think that the BBC ought to be completely fair in how it deals with things. This does not mean making sure that both sides of a debate get an equal amount of coverage when science has proven one to be far more accurate, but it does mean not sitting and obeying the status quo.
What was I doing on that day? I was here in Bristol, promoting Global Education Partnership and petitioning Justine Greening to uphold her pledge to commit £525 million (yes, I did a double-take as well, but it is actually a very small percentage of our total budget - which we spend on garden parties and the Royal Family whilst there are people that can't afford to heat their homes). I was surprised at how unsuccessfully this particular event went actually. It seemed that very few people were actually willing to talk to me and my colleague, and I think we only got about five signatures in the whole day. Although I have heard that whilst this day was rather a fail, the campaign as a whole actually went really well, and I was recently informed that the funding has gone up by 50%. I think it's a really important campaign actually - it's not necessarily the sort of thing I generally get actively involved with, but when you actually consider it, there would be violent outcries (quite rightly so) if there was the merest hint of a suggestion that this country could not afford schools. So yes, I certainly think that we should be helping promote global education for all.
I have more projects to talk about, but I think they will have to wait for a later blog. This was just to briefly update on the sort of political work that I have been doing lately. Will be updating more soon, take care all!
Monday, 30 June 2014
Sunday, 8 June 2014
Lucy Fey and homeless spikes
Hello!
Once again, I have been letting this blog fall by the wayside. I'd apologise, but I think an apology means that you are committing not to do something again, and my track record suggests that this probably will happen. All I can say is that I have been busy of late with my University course, and also that if I don't blog for a certain amount of time, I get very demotivated to do this. I need to update this more in order to keep my own motivation going. So anyway, I am going to attempt to add more content to this in the coming days. I can't guarantee that I'll be successful in that endeavour, but I will of course do the best I can.
There are really two things that I want to discuss on this blog, and the first is as follows. I was really struck the other day by news reports about someone called Lucy Fey, a primary school teacher from Bristol who has quit her job in protest of the immense pressure put on students by our education system. As most people know, our education system, led by Education Secretary Michael Gove, prioritises core subjects, what we might call old-school academic subjects, such as what used to be known as 'the three Rs', over and above things like arts, literature, human interest subjects and physical education. There has been a lot in the news recently about Gove's intentions of removing texts by non-British writers, such as Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, from the GCSE curriculum, in what actually comes across to me as an attempt to promote works that Gove likes personally over and above a wider variety of cultures, nationalities and eras of literature. I'm not sure if I have spoken much about Gove's education ideals on this blog, but that kind of attitude I needless to say disapprove of. I enjoy reading, but a lot of people my age do not, and I think that this kind of decision is not going to help people enjoy good literature in any way.
I may talk a little more about that in future blogs, but that isn't really what this one is about. When we hear about Gove's controversial changes, we generally think more about secondary education. It appears though that primary school children are just as affected, if not more so. Lucy Fey quit her job teaching in a primary school because apparently she was angry and fed up with having to prioritise subjects that her students were struggling with over and above subjects that they could potentially take much further, and demotivating them in the process. When she left her job, she wrote an open letter to Michael Gove, which I think everyone should read. I'll copy and paste it below, as that will be more effective for the purposes of this blog than me summarising it:
"There is nothing better than a class full of buzzing pupils, excited about what they are learning, taking ownership of the lesson.
"This is becoming increasingly hard to achieve when we expect so much from them. There is little time to have fun, to enquire, to be intrigued, to be children. They have too much pressure. They must, 'compete with the world's best'.
"Why are we not letting them grow as individuals? Why are we damaging their self-esteem and confidence by trying to make them all fit into the same box?
"To ensure a successful future for our country we need to give children a broad, balanced curriculum which enables everyone to excel at what they are good at.
"They need to feel empowered and valued for their individual skills to be able to take risks and push the boundaries to be successful. How is that possible if they have had a restricted education?
"How will all those talented people who are not necessarily 'academic' excel in their different industries if they were not given the opportunity to hone their skills throughout their education?
"How will this improve our country? What sort of adults will they turn in to? I know I never had those pressures when I was a child.
"I handed my notice in last week. I can't do this to them anymore."_
"Until recently, I was not adept at data analysis. I now know that the pupils we are teaching are not simply children, they are numbers, percentages."
"The hours I have spent analysing data to decide which children need intensive afternoon intervention groups, those who need that extra 'boost.'
"Those children do not take part in the afternoon history, geography, art, science, music, PE or RE lessons as they are struggling with maths, reading and writing.
"They understand that they must miss out on subjects they are more likely to engage with, feel confident in, so they have the opportunity to achieve the required level in writing, reading and maths.
"They spend all day, every day struggling. Slowly feeling more and more like a failure, becoming more and more disengaged.
"It is amazing that every one of my pupils knows what level they are working at and what level they need to be at the end of the year.
"Children are so desperate to achieve and to please others that they naturally put themselves under a huge amount of pressure.
"If they are not working at age related expectations they believe they are not doing well despite the amazing progress they have made. They are in tears. They feel the pressure.
"They know they are not where they 'should' be. They know already, at primary school, that they may not be 'successful' in the future.
"They know that the only subjects worth anything are reading, writing and maths. They know that their options are limited."
There is no doubt that I agree with every word. I think that there is far too much of a focus on achieving exceptional marks in an academic sense, and nowhere near enough on the subjects that make a person think, consider and grow on an individual basis. We're all different, and our education system needs to reflect that. Having a system based around a dog-eat-dog situation where only the most conventionally 'bright' students succeed, and those who are having a bit of trouble fail is simply not feasible, not only because it puts everyone who doesn't fit into a certain box a massive disservice, but also because it means that our future is in the hands of people who were not taught effectively about the varying ways of looking at the world and considering situations. I think we're putting our own future in serious jeopardy, actually. This could severely harm the next generation of authors, actors, musicians, artists, sportspeople - in fact, anyone whose talents lie in anything that requires creativity and intellectual capacity, and not merely being able to dot the Is, cross the Ts and circle numbers on a spreadsheet.
I consider myself very lucky to have had an excellent education. If any member of staff or former pupil from my secondary school reads this blog, I don't think anyone will disagree with my assertion that the senior staff there made a very conscious effort to look out for me specifically, and to make sure that I always received any support that I needed with any subjects that I was struggling with, or with any social or emotional issues that I was having. I suppose that it could be argued that it was possibly unfair on the other students that I in particular was looked out for in that way - I sincerely hope that the same went for every student and it seemed to quite a lot from what I saw, but I imagine that must have been difficult with around 1000 students and I think it likely that I was particularly lucky that certain decision-makers took a shine to me early on - but I think overall my school was very good for allowing people to be themselves and being there for students who need support. My experiences there have stayed with me, and as a result I tend to have very high standards of people. I expect people to do their jobs properly, and to fulfil any duty of care that they may have to those using their facilities. Our beloved Education Secretary is one of those people. Of course, he would say that he has 'high standards' as well, but his form of high standards are different to mine. His form of high standards centres around everyone achieving a certain grade on a tick sheet and being especially good at certain subjects. Mine are more about providing services to those that need it, encouraging and supporting people who are struggling, and making sure that students are able to think creatively, enjoy their education and take something really valuable from it. This is what I was lucky enough to be provided with (predominantly by my secondary school, but in fairness probably by the schools I attended in my younger years as well), I think that everyone should be able to get as much out of their education as I did, and I think that it is actually a serious disservice to have a system which is only tailor-made for a certain type of student. If any one student is not able to take what they should be able to take from their school years, I think that is an absolute disgrace, and there are some people who really need to answer to that.
As for how to change the situation? Well, I think that at this stage, the best thing to consider is how to put the parties under the spotlight on this kind of issue at the General Election next year. I believe, rightly or wrongly, that Michael Gove's approach is more about how he personally feels about education than what would suit society at large. Who is to say that we won't get someone better next year? I'm idealistic, I know, but I think that one has to be, otherwise we'll just sit complaining and not get anything done.
There is another thing that I'd like to discuss before I sign off for the night, and I'll try not to go on and on about it (although knowing my general writing style, that may be something we'll just have to wish for)! It has been widely reported lately that there are housing estates in Britain in which spikes have been erected to prevent homeless people sleeping there. As far as I am aware, this has not been implemented in a huge number of places thus far, as there is only a small number of images being used in reports - and one of them isn't actually in the UK, which I do feel is a little misleading even if it does make a point about something that is happening in the UK. I have written about homelessness a lot on this blog in the past. It makes me angry how homeless people are essentially being treated as pests. Spikes like this are used on roofs to deter pigeons - is that how we see homeless people? In a day when people's benefits are being cut and it is actually really hard to find jobs, educate oneself or gain experience in an industry for those of us not born with a silver spoon in our mouths, I do find it rather sickening that this is even considered. In fact, the money spent on these spikes could surely have been put to better use providing services to these vulnerable people? I'm not convinced that this is the way forward at all, and that is putting my thoughts mildly to say the least.
It's hard to know what to do sometimes. Personally I find it incredibly difficult not to give a homeless person money. People tell you not to give to beggars because they will apparently spend it on the wrong things and that it is better to give to a charity. Charities do great work, but ultimately that doesn't help that one person who you shake your head at. I think assuming that people like that are heroin addicts and alcoholics is very unfair actually, as in this climate it could potentially be any of us who end up on the streets. I would suggest to anyone who has a bit of spare time to sit down with a beggar and chat to them for a while. I have done that a few times, and it is generally quite illuminating.
Well, I don't think that there is a huge amount else that I can say about that, so I shall sign off now. Thank you for reading, and as usual, please share this around, leave me any feedback you'd like to give me, and hopefully I will blog again within the next couple of days.
Peace out x
Once again, I have been letting this blog fall by the wayside. I'd apologise, but I think an apology means that you are committing not to do something again, and my track record suggests that this probably will happen. All I can say is that I have been busy of late with my University course, and also that if I don't blog for a certain amount of time, I get very demotivated to do this. I need to update this more in order to keep my own motivation going. So anyway, I am going to attempt to add more content to this in the coming days. I can't guarantee that I'll be successful in that endeavour, but I will of course do the best I can.
There are really two things that I want to discuss on this blog, and the first is as follows. I was really struck the other day by news reports about someone called Lucy Fey, a primary school teacher from Bristol who has quit her job in protest of the immense pressure put on students by our education system. As most people know, our education system, led by Education Secretary Michael Gove, prioritises core subjects, what we might call old-school academic subjects, such as what used to be known as 'the three Rs', over and above things like arts, literature, human interest subjects and physical education. There has been a lot in the news recently about Gove's intentions of removing texts by non-British writers, such as Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, from the GCSE curriculum, in what actually comes across to me as an attempt to promote works that Gove likes personally over and above a wider variety of cultures, nationalities and eras of literature. I'm not sure if I have spoken much about Gove's education ideals on this blog, but that kind of attitude I needless to say disapprove of. I enjoy reading, but a lot of people my age do not, and I think that this kind of decision is not going to help people enjoy good literature in any way.
I may talk a little more about that in future blogs, but that isn't really what this one is about. When we hear about Gove's controversial changes, we generally think more about secondary education. It appears though that primary school children are just as affected, if not more so. Lucy Fey quit her job teaching in a primary school because apparently she was angry and fed up with having to prioritise subjects that her students were struggling with over and above subjects that they could potentially take much further, and demotivating them in the process. When she left her job, she wrote an open letter to Michael Gove, which I think everyone should read. I'll copy and paste it below, as that will be more effective for the purposes of this blog than me summarising it:
"There is nothing better than a class full of buzzing pupils, excited about what they are learning, taking ownership of the lesson.
"This is becoming increasingly hard to achieve when we expect so much from them. There is little time to have fun, to enquire, to be intrigued, to be children. They have too much pressure. They must, 'compete with the world's best'.
"Why are we not letting them grow as individuals? Why are we damaging their self-esteem and confidence by trying to make them all fit into the same box?
"To ensure a successful future for our country we need to give children a broad, balanced curriculum which enables everyone to excel at what they are good at.
"They need to feel empowered and valued for their individual skills to be able to take risks and push the boundaries to be successful. How is that possible if they have had a restricted education?
"How will all those talented people who are not necessarily 'academic' excel in their different industries if they were not given the opportunity to hone their skills throughout their education?
"How will this improve our country? What sort of adults will they turn in to? I know I never had those pressures when I was a child.
"I handed my notice in last week. I can't do this to them anymore."_
"Until recently, I was not adept at data analysis. I now know that the pupils we are teaching are not simply children, they are numbers, percentages."
"The hours I have spent analysing data to decide which children need intensive afternoon intervention groups, those who need that extra 'boost.'
"Those children do not take part in the afternoon history, geography, art, science, music, PE or RE lessons as they are struggling with maths, reading and writing.
"They understand that they must miss out on subjects they are more likely to engage with, feel confident in, so they have the opportunity to achieve the required level in writing, reading and maths.
"They spend all day, every day struggling. Slowly feeling more and more like a failure, becoming more and more disengaged.
"It is amazing that every one of my pupils knows what level they are working at and what level they need to be at the end of the year.
"Children are so desperate to achieve and to please others that they naturally put themselves under a huge amount of pressure.
"If they are not working at age related expectations they believe they are not doing well despite the amazing progress they have made. They are in tears. They feel the pressure.
"They know they are not where they 'should' be. They know already, at primary school, that they may not be 'successful' in the future.
"They know that the only subjects worth anything are reading, writing and maths. They know that their options are limited."
There is no doubt that I agree with every word. I think that there is far too much of a focus on achieving exceptional marks in an academic sense, and nowhere near enough on the subjects that make a person think, consider and grow on an individual basis. We're all different, and our education system needs to reflect that. Having a system based around a dog-eat-dog situation where only the most conventionally 'bright' students succeed, and those who are having a bit of trouble fail is simply not feasible, not only because it puts everyone who doesn't fit into a certain box a massive disservice, but also because it means that our future is in the hands of people who were not taught effectively about the varying ways of looking at the world and considering situations. I think we're putting our own future in serious jeopardy, actually. This could severely harm the next generation of authors, actors, musicians, artists, sportspeople - in fact, anyone whose talents lie in anything that requires creativity and intellectual capacity, and not merely being able to dot the Is, cross the Ts and circle numbers on a spreadsheet.
I consider myself very lucky to have had an excellent education. If any member of staff or former pupil from my secondary school reads this blog, I don't think anyone will disagree with my assertion that the senior staff there made a very conscious effort to look out for me specifically, and to make sure that I always received any support that I needed with any subjects that I was struggling with, or with any social or emotional issues that I was having. I suppose that it could be argued that it was possibly unfair on the other students that I in particular was looked out for in that way - I sincerely hope that the same went for every student and it seemed to quite a lot from what I saw, but I imagine that must have been difficult with around 1000 students and I think it likely that I was particularly lucky that certain decision-makers took a shine to me early on - but I think overall my school was very good for allowing people to be themselves and being there for students who need support. My experiences there have stayed with me, and as a result I tend to have very high standards of people. I expect people to do their jobs properly, and to fulfil any duty of care that they may have to those using their facilities. Our beloved Education Secretary is one of those people. Of course, he would say that he has 'high standards' as well, but his form of high standards are different to mine. His form of high standards centres around everyone achieving a certain grade on a tick sheet and being especially good at certain subjects. Mine are more about providing services to those that need it, encouraging and supporting people who are struggling, and making sure that students are able to think creatively, enjoy their education and take something really valuable from it. This is what I was lucky enough to be provided with (predominantly by my secondary school, but in fairness probably by the schools I attended in my younger years as well), I think that everyone should be able to get as much out of their education as I did, and I think that it is actually a serious disservice to have a system which is only tailor-made for a certain type of student. If any one student is not able to take what they should be able to take from their school years, I think that is an absolute disgrace, and there are some people who really need to answer to that.
As for how to change the situation? Well, I think that at this stage, the best thing to consider is how to put the parties under the spotlight on this kind of issue at the General Election next year. I believe, rightly or wrongly, that Michael Gove's approach is more about how he personally feels about education than what would suit society at large. Who is to say that we won't get someone better next year? I'm idealistic, I know, but I think that one has to be, otherwise we'll just sit complaining and not get anything done.
There is another thing that I'd like to discuss before I sign off for the night, and I'll try not to go on and on about it (although knowing my general writing style, that may be something we'll just have to wish for)! It has been widely reported lately that there are housing estates in Britain in which spikes have been erected to prevent homeless people sleeping there. As far as I am aware, this has not been implemented in a huge number of places thus far, as there is only a small number of images being used in reports - and one of them isn't actually in the UK, which I do feel is a little misleading even if it does make a point about something that is happening in the UK. I have written about homelessness a lot on this blog in the past. It makes me angry how homeless people are essentially being treated as pests. Spikes like this are used on roofs to deter pigeons - is that how we see homeless people? In a day when people's benefits are being cut and it is actually really hard to find jobs, educate oneself or gain experience in an industry for those of us not born with a silver spoon in our mouths, I do find it rather sickening that this is even considered. In fact, the money spent on these spikes could surely have been put to better use providing services to these vulnerable people? I'm not convinced that this is the way forward at all, and that is putting my thoughts mildly to say the least.
It's hard to know what to do sometimes. Personally I find it incredibly difficult not to give a homeless person money. People tell you not to give to beggars because they will apparently spend it on the wrong things and that it is better to give to a charity. Charities do great work, but ultimately that doesn't help that one person who you shake your head at. I think assuming that people like that are heroin addicts and alcoholics is very unfair actually, as in this climate it could potentially be any of us who end up on the streets. I would suggest to anyone who has a bit of spare time to sit down with a beggar and chat to them for a while. I have done that a few times, and it is generally quite illuminating.
Well, I don't think that there is a huge amount else that I can say about that, so I shall sign off now. Thank you for reading, and as usual, please share this around, leave me any feedback you'd like to give me, and hopefully I will blog again within the next couple of days.
Peace out x
Sunday, 30 March 2014
Lord Kitchener, Edith Cavell and TTIP
An excerpt from War Game by Michael Foreman:
Later he saw a pale ball of gold in the misty sky. 'There's a ball in Heaven,' he thought. 'Thank God. We'll all have a game when this nightmare's over.'
At home when he had a bad dream he knew that if he opened his eyes, the bad dream would end. But here his eyes were already open.
Perhaps if he closed them, the nightmare would end.
He closed his eyes.
Hello! I've been sitting on this blog for a couple of days, but my studies have just got in the way and I haven't had time to write it - until now! Anyway, as everyone knows, this year marks the centenary of World War I. In the past I haven't thought a huge amount about this war - I have learned more about the Second World War, and I confess to not being quite as knowledgable about this one as I possibly should be. However, recently this subject has begun to interest me more and more, quite possibly because it is being talked about so much this year. I was born in 1993, and it has hit home to me that were I born 100 years earlier, I would most likely have been caught up in it. If it happened in this day and age, I would probably declare myself a conscientious objector or even an absolutist (which is a step up from being a conscientious objector, where you don't do anything to assist the war effort in any way). However, I don't think I would have grasped that concept was I alive at that time, so I think it extremely likely that I would have been among the countless young men who lost their lives at that time, which is a very sobering thought indeed.
Now, it is my belief (whether or not I am proven correct) that this year is focussing on something contrary to what I think it should be focussing on. I feel that the intentions are not to remember the sacrifices made by the people of the day, but more to justify the reasons that we went to war, therefore giving the public more faith in warfare and making it more likely that they will support the wars that we are taking part in today. There are many reasons that I feel this way, but one of the key ones is the fact that there are plans to release a new £2 coin featuring an image of the then Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, saying 'Your country needs you!' the way that he did on recruitment posters at the time. I find this pretty immoral actually. At the time, it was not known by those young men what this form of war would be like, and I believe that many of them expected it to be an adventure as such. These posters were designed to encourage and entice new blood into taking part, and as a result countless numbers lost their lives. It is not that I have any objection to a commemorative coin, but I feel that having this particular image gives the wrong impression of the war.
I saw a petition recently for an alternative WWI coin which I thought was a fantastic idea, and I wanted to share it with my readers. The idea is to have a coin which features Edith Cavell instead of Lord Kitchener. Edith Cavell was a nurse in the early stages of the war. What made her notable was that she treated everyone, regardless of which side they were on. Ultimately, she was executed for treason with regards to aiding the enemy in 1915. The person who created the petition feels Edith to be a hero, and I agree. She is certainly more worthy of a coin than Lord Kitchener. So, I have decided to share this petition with you. I really hope that this convinces someone with decision-making power to listen and commemorate someone who deserves to be remembered and recognised, rather than someone who promoted an immoral war.
The petition is here (thanks to Sioned-Mair Richards for starting it):
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-british-treasury-issue-a-2-coin-with-the-face-of-edith-cavell-on-it
There is another thing that I would like to discuss on this blog. There is a proposed Government Bill being discussed at the moment called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is a free-trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, and essentially means that Europe and the United States would be run under a single market. I believe that the idea is to remove the regulatory differences between the USA and European nations. However, with this scheme there is something considerably more sinister at work. There is a mechanism involved called investor-state dispute settlement. I have been researching it over the last couple of days in preparation for writing this blog, and what it essentially entails is that corporations would be able to sue Governments for legislation which affects their profits.
Consider this for a moment. A corporation, acting in its best interests, is able to sue a Government for impacting its profits. This would essentially mean that if a corporation was making money out of harmful or dangerous activities (and as I'm sure you know, there are quite a few that do), our Government would not be able to pass any legislation to prevent them from doing that. It could cause huge sabotage to environmental campaigning in particular. When a company wants to engage in fracking, collecting of fossil fuels or the destruction of the rainforest, it would be very hard for them to be stopped without paying a huge amount of compensation. Similar things have already happened internationally, in countries such as Argentina, El Salvador and Canada. It could also severely scupper the idea of ordering cigarettes to be packaged plainly (this is not a definite plan in the UK as yet, but it is being talked about, and I for one very much hope it goes ahead.)
Personally, I feel that this is not acceptable in any way. What I like about the UK is that we have one of the least corrupt law and justice systems in the world (and I'm not suggesting that it is not corrupt at all - it is far from that as we all know that dirty things go on behind closed doors, but I think that compared to numerous other countries we have a better deal, though it still could use some vast improvements.) I find the idea of a corporation acting in its own interests having more influence than the Government, who may be acting in the interests of its people, pretty sickening actually. There was recently a Bill passed to prevent lobbying of the Government by pressure groups around election time; I disagreed strongly with that as I support numerous pressure groups and I think that anyone should be able to put the Government under pressure if they think that their policies are unfair, but there are positive elements involved with that general idea as well. Corporations should be all means be able to state their viewpoint and how they will be affected by any law, but that is only one of many things that the Government needs to take into account. If the corporations themselves actually had the right to sue for compensation as a result of legislation, that would make our legal system considerably more corrupt than it currently is. I should also note that the bodies making up the arbitration panels which examine the claims will be composed of corporate lawyers, who will be considerably more invested in the interests of the claimants than of the people.
I am strongly against this whole idea, and I would encourage anyone else to be as well. I have summarised it here as best I can; if you'd like to learn more about it, there is a mine of information on the Internet. Whilst researching the subject for this blog, I read a few really good articles by George Monbiot for the Guardian. The Wikipedia article has quite a lot of information, and obviously that can be tracked back to its sources. The one positive thing is that the final decision on this will not be made until the end of 2014, so we have a good few months to work on getting this to stop. I believe that it can happen; these things have been stopped before, such as SOPA and PIPA out in the States. This can be as well; it just requires a lot of people raising a stink. When this started, it was kept very quiet specifically so that that would not happen; the information is getting a bit more public now, so I remain cautiously optimistic. I implore readers to share this information with everyone, look it up online and just watch out for anything that you can do which would help keep our legal system fair. I will update with any petitions or other means of protest tactic that I hear about. We can stop this, but only with the right information and enough people standing up for what is right.
Just before I finish, I'd like to end this blog on a positive note. I am so happy that equal marriage has finally come through! It has been a long time coming, but the right side triumphed, and I wish anyone who is now able to marry their partner the very best in their life and their relationship. I am so satisfied when such things happen; as a political activist, you come across so many campaigns that seem entirely futile. When something like this happens, it restores my faith in humanity.
Will blog again soon! Please share with your friends if you think they'd be interested, it would be great for this blog to get a bit more known.
Later he saw a pale ball of gold in the misty sky. 'There's a ball in Heaven,' he thought. 'Thank God. We'll all have a game when this nightmare's over.'
At home when he had a bad dream he knew that if he opened his eyes, the bad dream would end. But here his eyes were already open.
Perhaps if he closed them, the nightmare would end.
He closed his eyes.
Hello! I've been sitting on this blog for a couple of days, but my studies have just got in the way and I haven't had time to write it - until now! Anyway, as everyone knows, this year marks the centenary of World War I. In the past I haven't thought a huge amount about this war - I have learned more about the Second World War, and I confess to not being quite as knowledgable about this one as I possibly should be. However, recently this subject has begun to interest me more and more, quite possibly because it is being talked about so much this year. I was born in 1993, and it has hit home to me that were I born 100 years earlier, I would most likely have been caught up in it. If it happened in this day and age, I would probably declare myself a conscientious objector or even an absolutist (which is a step up from being a conscientious objector, where you don't do anything to assist the war effort in any way). However, I don't think I would have grasped that concept was I alive at that time, so I think it extremely likely that I would have been among the countless young men who lost their lives at that time, which is a very sobering thought indeed.
Now, it is my belief (whether or not I am proven correct) that this year is focussing on something contrary to what I think it should be focussing on. I feel that the intentions are not to remember the sacrifices made by the people of the day, but more to justify the reasons that we went to war, therefore giving the public more faith in warfare and making it more likely that they will support the wars that we are taking part in today. There are many reasons that I feel this way, but one of the key ones is the fact that there are plans to release a new £2 coin featuring an image of the then Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, saying 'Your country needs you!' the way that he did on recruitment posters at the time. I find this pretty immoral actually. At the time, it was not known by those young men what this form of war would be like, and I believe that many of them expected it to be an adventure as such. These posters were designed to encourage and entice new blood into taking part, and as a result countless numbers lost their lives. It is not that I have any objection to a commemorative coin, but I feel that having this particular image gives the wrong impression of the war.
I saw a petition recently for an alternative WWI coin which I thought was a fantastic idea, and I wanted to share it with my readers. The idea is to have a coin which features Edith Cavell instead of Lord Kitchener. Edith Cavell was a nurse in the early stages of the war. What made her notable was that she treated everyone, regardless of which side they were on. Ultimately, she was executed for treason with regards to aiding the enemy in 1915. The person who created the petition feels Edith to be a hero, and I agree. She is certainly more worthy of a coin than Lord Kitchener. So, I have decided to share this petition with you. I really hope that this convinces someone with decision-making power to listen and commemorate someone who deserves to be remembered and recognised, rather than someone who promoted an immoral war.
The petition is here (thanks to Sioned-Mair Richards for starting it):
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-british-treasury-issue-a-2-coin-with-the-face-of-edith-cavell-on-it
There is another thing that I would like to discuss on this blog. There is a proposed Government Bill being discussed at the moment called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is a free-trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, and essentially means that Europe and the United States would be run under a single market. I believe that the idea is to remove the regulatory differences between the USA and European nations. However, with this scheme there is something considerably more sinister at work. There is a mechanism involved called investor-state dispute settlement. I have been researching it over the last couple of days in preparation for writing this blog, and what it essentially entails is that corporations would be able to sue Governments for legislation which affects their profits.
Consider this for a moment. A corporation, acting in its best interests, is able to sue a Government for impacting its profits. This would essentially mean that if a corporation was making money out of harmful or dangerous activities (and as I'm sure you know, there are quite a few that do), our Government would not be able to pass any legislation to prevent them from doing that. It could cause huge sabotage to environmental campaigning in particular. When a company wants to engage in fracking, collecting of fossil fuels or the destruction of the rainforest, it would be very hard for them to be stopped without paying a huge amount of compensation. Similar things have already happened internationally, in countries such as Argentina, El Salvador and Canada. It could also severely scupper the idea of ordering cigarettes to be packaged plainly (this is not a definite plan in the UK as yet, but it is being talked about, and I for one very much hope it goes ahead.)
Personally, I feel that this is not acceptable in any way. What I like about the UK is that we have one of the least corrupt law and justice systems in the world (and I'm not suggesting that it is not corrupt at all - it is far from that as we all know that dirty things go on behind closed doors, but I think that compared to numerous other countries we have a better deal, though it still could use some vast improvements.) I find the idea of a corporation acting in its own interests having more influence than the Government, who may be acting in the interests of its people, pretty sickening actually. There was recently a Bill passed to prevent lobbying of the Government by pressure groups around election time; I disagreed strongly with that as I support numerous pressure groups and I think that anyone should be able to put the Government under pressure if they think that their policies are unfair, but there are positive elements involved with that general idea as well. Corporations should be all means be able to state their viewpoint and how they will be affected by any law, but that is only one of many things that the Government needs to take into account. If the corporations themselves actually had the right to sue for compensation as a result of legislation, that would make our legal system considerably more corrupt than it currently is. I should also note that the bodies making up the arbitration panels which examine the claims will be composed of corporate lawyers, who will be considerably more invested in the interests of the claimants than of the people.
I am strongly against this whole idea, and I would encourage anyone else to be as well. I have summarised it here as best I can; if you'd like to learn more about it, there is a mine of information on the Internet. Whilst researching the subject for this blog, I read a few really good articles by George Monbiot for the Guardian. The Wikipedia article has quite a lot of information, and obviously that can be tracked back to its sources. The one positive thing is that the final decision on this will not be made until the end of 2014, so we have a good few months to work on getting this to stop. I believe that it can happen; these things have been stopped before, such as SOPA and PIPA out in the States. This can be as well; it just requires a lot of people raising a stink. When this started, it was kept very quiet specifically so that that would not happen; the information is getting a bit more public now, so I remain cautiously optimistic. I implore readers to share this information with everyone, look it up online and just watch out for anything that you can do which would help keep our legal system fair. I will update with any petitions or other means of protest tactic that I hear about. We can stop this, but only with the right information and enough people standing up for what is right.
Just before I finish, I'd like to end this blog on a positive note. I am so happy that equal marriage has finally come through! It has been a long time coming, but the right side triumphed, and I wish anyone who is now able to marry their partner the very best in their life and their relationship. I am so satisfied when such things happen; as a political activist, you come across so many campaigns that seem entirely futile. When something like this happens, it restores my faith in humanity.
Will blog again soon! Please share with your friends if you think they'd be interested, it would be great for this blog to get a bit more known.
Monday, 17 March 2014
The return of this blog, Moazzam Begg and the Future
Hello!
This blog has been falling by the wayside again, hasn't it? I do the best I can to keep it up to date, but numerous things seem to stand in my way. Firstly, I don't have a huge amount of time on account of my being a University student. Secondly, since I moved away from Bristol I find that coming by the information to blog about it harder to come by. Bristol is such a free-thinking city that living there, the ideas about current affairs and such like landed in my lap quite a lot of the time. In Colchester they don't so much. I still hear about things through Facebook and from various exploits of my own, but not as much as I did once. There is less going on here, or appears so anyway. I don't go to many demonstrations or political talks anymore, not because I have lost interest but because there appears to be less of those events for me to attend, so it is a lot harder. Nevertheless, I have had ideas to discuss with you, and in the coming weeks I intend to blog quite a bit more than I have been. my intentions are to write at least a couple of blogs per week, although I realise that this is rather ambitious, and with my life and also my track record on this blog, it is very possible that I won't keep up with that. But I'll try!
My main idea for this blog is a man named Moazzam Begg. Moazzam Begg is a British man, originally from Pakistan, who was once held in Guantanamo Bay for allegedly being involved with Al-Qaeda and reportedly tortured there, along with numerous other detainees. It cannot entirely be clear whether or not he was actually involved with them, but from what I have read, the evidence against him was rather circumstantial, and certain confessions he gave were given under duress. The circumstances were enough for him to be released in 2005, and since then he has vehemently maintained that he was innocent, given numerous talks on the subject and declared that the war against terrorism can and does contribute to Islamophobia. Recently, he has again been arrested on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas. He has pleaded not guilty, and faces a plea hearing on July 14, provisionally followed by a trail at the Old Bailey on October 6 of this year.
Now, there is a lot of evidence to suggest he is guilty, and a lot to suggest he is innocent, so we cannot at present be certain either way. Personally I believe him to be innocent. Why? Because I have met him. When I was at secondary school he came to give a talk at my school - prior to writing this blog I thought that it was when I was in Year 11, but whilst researching it I discovered that he went on tour to talk about his experience in early 2009, when I was in Year 10, so it could have been then - I can't be entirely sure. I cannot remember a huge amount of what he actually said, but I did find his talk to be hugely inspiring to me. It was not long after that - just under two years at most - that I started this blog and started the work that I do on social change and political activism. I think that Begg's talk played a part in me realising that there is much wrong with the world that needs to be put to rights. I can't prove his innocence, or even be entirely sure of it in my mind, and if new evidence comes to light that shows beyond doubt that he is guilty I will of course admit to having been wrong. But as it is, I consider myself to be a pretty good judge of character, and the evidence appears circumstantial enough to believe his innocence. Any further developments in this case will come to light in time.
The other thing I want to discuss in this blog is the Future. Now, in my introduction (and just then) I have used a capital F with this word, and this is because it's about the future of our species, and of the planet. This is something that I have been reading and thinking about a lot of late. There is evidence from scientists to suggest that we as a species may only survive another 100 years or so, because we continue to make the planet uninhabitable for ourselves. I have thoughts on this which I will express below, and I confess that they stem from the logic of my understanding of human nature and my own spiritual beliefs rather than the actual science behind it. I'm not an expert, and I can't blog based purely on the science because I don't even understand it if I do read it, and that's not really what this blog is for anyway. But these are my thoughts, both on the future of the planet and on the future of us as a species, because they are two entirely different things.
I'll start with the planet. I believe that Planet Earth is tougher than we think, and is able to survive most things. I think of it as being an entity - it looks out for its own survival, its inhabitants are there and are given life by it, but Earth will always do what it needs to in order to protect itself. I'm not sure that it is possible for humans to destroy the Earth. We can certainly make it so that we cannot live on the Earth, but the Earth needs to protect itself, and my personal belief is that the Earth will wipe us out before we are able to destroy it. In the past, whatever harm humankind has inflicted on itself, nature has shown that it can go one further. For example, thousands of people died in the First World War, but not as many as in the 'flu epidemic that arrived shortly afterwards. I am not religious, but I am very spiritual, and recently I have taken to talking and praying to the planet, almost as a goddess-like figure (I say 'goddess' because I very much view the Earth as being female - I learned about the idea of Mother Earth when I was a child, and I think that it represents the ideals of birth and life-giving, which are very much represented by the female form.) I'm not entirely sure that I believe in God, but I have to believe in the planet because there is no doubt that it exists, and you cannot disagree with the fact that it breathes life into all of us.
Now, the future of our species. I don't think that there is any doubt that we will become extinct at some point; that is what science says, this is what has happened to the vast, vast majority of species within history, and I don't think that there is any species that can avoid extinction indefinitely actually. There is evidence to suggest that this could happen very soon - within the next 100 years. Will this happen? Well, I don't know. There is evidence pointing one way, and evidence pointing another way. Certainly, the more harm we do to our planet, the less inhabitable it becomes, especially with rising population numbers. I actually think that the human instinct for survival is very great, and the only reason that we continue to harm Mother Earth so much is because we haven't realised how grave we are making the situation for ourselves. I think that once it becomes obvious that we need the Earth to survive and that we are threatened with extinction sooner rather than later, there may well be a huge global move to clean up the Earth and sort things out - this would require a great deal of scientific knowledge (which we have already) and motivation from the vast majority of people (which we don't currently have, and that's the problem.) I think that the Earth will ultimately heal itself - whether that happens before or after human extinction remains to be seen - I like to think before, but who knows? I'll be honest about the fact that the idea of being part of the final generation of human beings very much frightens me, probably more than most other things that have occurred in my life to date. I want to leave some kind of legacy when I die for future generations to aspire to, and it very much concerns me that there might not really be any future generations to take anything from that. But, there is a part of me that is secure in the trust that the planet will do whatever is right in order to protect itself, and in the meantime I will do whatever I can in order to assist in that. I feel that we have to assist in the preservation of our planet, because there is nothing else to live for really. The planet does not belong to us, we belong to it. I suppose in a way, the best thing to happen would be for a great deal of the world's population to die off somehow, and for the remaining humans to start again. It would be a way of protecting both the planet and our species without resulting in our extinction. But who knows?
I realise that that last paragraph sounds a little bit preachy. It's not how I'm trying to be; it's the way that I see it. And also I feel that we have a whole lot of negatives concerning 'it's already too late' and 'we face death very soon' thrown around; I want to see how we can look at that in a different way, whilst not being unrealistic. And I don't think that I have been, though as I said, it's mostly just based on personal beliefs - albeit ones that I have thought about a great deal, and have strong reasons for believing in.
Well, thanks for reading my blog. I'll do my best to keep it up-to-date - we all know that I don't always succeed in that, but I have ideas to blog about. To be honest, the more I update this the more motivated I feel to carry on updating it. If it falls by the wayside, I feel less and less like doing anything. But I have no intention of stopping blogging any time soon.
Thanks for reading, everyone!
This blog has been falling by the wayside again, hasn't it? I do the best I can to keep it up to date, but numerous things seem to stand in my way. Firstly, I don't have a huge amount of time on account of my being a University student. Secondly, since I moved away from Bristol I find that coming by the information to blog about it harder to come by. Bristol is such a free-thinking city that living there, the ideas about current affairs and such like landed in my lap quite a lot of the time. In Colchester they don't so much. I still hear about things through Facebook and from various exploits of my own, but not as much as I did once. There is less going on here, or appears so anyway. I don't go to many demonstrations or political talks anymore, not because I have lost interest but because there appears to be less of those events for me to attend, so it is a lot harder. Nevertheless, I have had ideas to discuss with you, and in the coming weeks I intend to blog quite a bit more than I have been. my intentions are to write at least a couple of blogs per week, although I realise that this is rather ambitious, and with my life and also my track record on this blog, it is very possible that I won't keep up with that. But I'll try!
My main idea for this blog is a man named Moazzam Begg. Moazzam Begg is a British man, originally from Pakistan, who was once held in Guantanamo Bay for allegedly being involved with Al-Qaeda and reportedly tortured there, along with numerous other detainees. It cannot entirely be clear whether or not he was actually involved with them, but from what I have read, the evidence against him was rather circumstantial, and certain confessions he gave were given under duress. The circumstances were enough for him to be released in 2005, and since then he has vehemently maintained that he was innocent, given numerous talks on the subject and declared that the war against terrorism can and does contribute to Islamophobia. Recently, he has again been arrested on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas. He has pleaded not guilty, and faces a plea hearing on July 14, provisionally followed by a trail at the Old Bailey on October 6 of this year.
Now, there is a lot of evidence to suggest he is guilty, and a lot to suggest he is innocent, so we cannot at present be certain either way. Personally I believe him to be innocent. Why? Because I have met him. When I was at secondary school he came to give a talk at my school - prior to writing this blog I thought that it was when I was in Year 11, but whilst researching it I discovered that he went on tour to talk about his experience in early 2009, when I was in Year 10, so it could have been then - I can't be entirely sure. I cannot remember a huge amount of what he actually said, but I did find his talk to be hugely inspiring to me. It was not long after that - just under two years at most - that I started this blog and started the work that I do on social change and political activism. I think that Begg's talk played a part in me realising that there is much wrong with the world that needs to be put to rights. I can't prove his innocence, or even be entirely sure of it in my mind, and if new evidence comes to light that shows beyond doubt that he is guilty I will of course admit to having been wrong. But as it is, I consider myself to be a pretty good judge of character, and the evidence appears circumstantial enough to believe his innocence. Any further developments in this case will come to light in time.
The other thing I want to discuss in this blog is the Future. Now, in my introduction (and just then) I have used a capital F with this word, and this is because it's about the future of our species, and of the planet. This is something that I have been reading and thinking about a lot of late. There is evidence from scientists to suggest that we as a species may only survive another 100 years or so, because we continue to make the planet uninhabitable for ourselves. I have thoughts on this which I will express below, and I confess that they stem from the logic of my understanding of human nature and my own spiritual beliefs rather than the actual science behind it. I'm not an expert, and I can't blog based purely on the science because I don't even understand it if I do read it, and that's not really what this blog is for anyway. But these are my thoughts, both on the future of the planet and on the future of us as a species, because they are two entirely different things.
I'll start with the planet. I believe that Planet Earth is tougher than we think, and is able to survive most things. I think of it as being an entity - it looks out for its own survival, its inhabitants are there and are given life by it, but Earth will always do what it needs to in order to protect itself. I'm not sure that it is possible for humans to destroy the Earth. We can certainly make it so that we cannot live on the Earth, but the Earth needs to protect itself, and my personal belief is that the Earth will wipe us out before we are able to destroy it. In the past, whatever harm humankind has inflicted on itself, nature has shown that it can go one further. For example, thousands of people died in the First World War, but not as many as in the 'flu epidemic that arrived shortly afterwards. I am not religious, but I am very spiritual, and recently I have taken to talking and praying to the planet, almost as a goddess-like figure (I say 'goddess' because I very much view the Earth as being female - I learned about the idea of Mother Earth when I was a child, and I think that it represents the ideals of birth and life-giving, which are very much represented by the female form.) I'm not entirely sure that I believe in God, but I have to believe in the planet because there is no doubt that it exists, and you cannot disagree with the fact that it breathes life into all of us.
Now, the future of our species. I don't think that there is any doubt that we will become extinct at some point; that is what science says, this is what has happened to the vast, vast majority of species within history, and I don't think that there is any species that can avoid extinction indefinitely actually. There is evidence to suggest that this could happen very soon - within the next 100 years. Will this happen? Well, I don't know. There is evidence pointing one way, and evidence pointing another way. Certainly, the more harm we do to our planet, the less inhabitable it becomes, especially with rising population numbers. I actually think that the human instinct for survival is very great, and the only reason that we continue to harm Mother Earth so much is because we haven't realised how grave we are making the situation for ourselves. I think that once it becomes obvious that we need the Earth to survive and that we are threatened with extinction sooner rather than later, there may well be a huge global move to clean up the Earth and sort things out - this would require a great deal of scientific knowledge (which we have already) and motivation from the vast majority of people (which we don't currently have, and that's the problem.) I think that the Earth will ultimately heal itself - whether that happens before or after human extinction remains to be seen - I like to think before, but who knows? I'll be honest about the fact that the idea of being part of the final generation of human beings very much frightens me, probably more than most other things that have occurred in my life to date. I want to leave some kind of legacy when I die for future generations to aspire to, and it very much concerns me that there might not really be any future generations to take anything from that. But, there is a part of me that is secure in the trust that the planet will do whatever is right in order to protect itself, and in the meantime I will do whatever I can in order to assist in that. I feel that we have to assist in the preservation of our planet, because there is nothing else to live for really. The planet does not belong to us, we belong to it. I suppose in a way, the best thing to happen would be for a great deal of the world's population to die off somehow, and for the remaining humans to start again. It would be a way of protecting both the planet and our species without resulting in our extinction. But who knows?
I realise that that last paragraph sounds a little bit preachy. It's not how I'm trying to be; it's the way that I see it. And also I feel that we have a whole lot of negatives concerning 'it's already too late' and 'we face death very soon' thrown around; I want to see how we can look at that in a different way, whilst not being unrealistic. And I don't think that I have been, though as I said, it's mostly just based on personal beliefs - albeit ones that I have thought about a great deal, and have strong reasons for believing in.
Well, thanks for reading my blog. I'll do my best to keep it up-to-date - we all know that I don't always succeed in that, but I have ideas to blog about. To be honest, the more I update this the more motivated I feel to carry on updating it. If it falls by the wayside, I feel less and less like doing anything. But I have no intention of stopping blogging any time soon.
Thanks for reading, everyone!
Saturday, 4 January 2014
IPNAs PSPOs and Dispersal Orders
Hello, rabid readers, and welcome to my first blog of 2014. I love the start of a new year, don't you? It feels like a fresh start and the beginning of something new. Does anyone have any New Year resolutions? I don't usually bother with them, as I think resolutions have to be implemented when they come to you... but it happened that this year I actually had some good ideas that coincided with the New Year, so I thought they'd fit nicely. One is to finish my political novel, which has the working title Perseverance, though that might change... and second is that I want to stop thinking about who I want to be, and actually be that person. I analyse myself a lot. Sometimes that's a good thing, but at other points I think I overanalyse, and that gets in the way of actually getting on with the things that I want to do in life. Also, I had one written for me during a New Year's Eve game that I have to eat sweets every day, which so far I have been pretty successful in keeping up!
I have quite a few things I'm going to talk about in this one actually, and while we're on the subject of New Year, I think I may as well start with that. I went to a friend's house for New Year, and we watched the countdown to 2014 on television, and it made me think that these celebrations are really over the top. The amount of money that must be spent on fireworks and music and all the other things that are part of the celebration is astonishing, and it isn't as though anyone will remember it in the future. It is exactly the same every year; in five years time, no one will remember the countdown to 2014 specifically. I think for a really big event, like for the new Millennium, such a huge celebration would be very appropriate, but just for an ordinary New Year, I think that it is incredibly disproportionate. I had a rather interesting conversation with my mum about this; she said that she went to the celebrations in London once, a long time ago, and it was much less glamourous - just a group of people in Trafalgar Square, counting down and then walking home, and there were none of the big musical acts or anything. I wonder when it all started the way that it is? I suppose it was probably around the new Millennium. Once you have a big event like that, then anything less becomes an anti-climax in future years. You cannot have an event that wasn't as glamorous as the year before. I just find it pretty sickening that we spend this much money on foolish New Year celebrations that help pretty much nobody, given the amount of poverty and debt that we have in this country. I recently learned that our debts are so huge, we owe nine times what we are worth. Why are we spending money on utterly useless celebration events?
For a while now, I have been planning to blog about IPNAs (Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance) and PSPOs (Public Space Protection Orders). These are the new behaviour orders which are being rushed through Parliament, and for all intents and purposes, they are the new ASBOs. According to Scriptonite Daily, IPNAs are applicable where on the 'balance of probabilities', a person has or might engage in behaviour 'capable of causing annoyance' to another person. Personally, I think that that is absurd, as that could pretty much apply to any of us at any time. It makes no sense; you can't say or do anything that might annoy someone, even if no one is actually annoyed. Besides which, you could argue that the Injunction itself annoys people, so it entirely contradicts itself.
The orders can be issued to anyone aged 10 or over, and there is no limit to how long an IPNA can be applied for. Hypothetically, a person could receive an IPNA aged ten and retain it for their entire life. The subject of an IPNA can be found in breach not simply for doing things that they have been banned from doing, but also from not doing things that the IPNA states that they must. An IPNA can be applied for by Local Authorities, police, some transport bodies and some NHS authorities. The consequences of breaching an IPNA are serious. The breaching of an IPNA has been added to the conditions for securing possession of a home - meaning a ten-year-old child breaching an IPNA could result in the entire family being evicted from their council house. Breaching the orders can also result in jail time for anyone over fourteen.
PSPOs are, for me personally, even more worrying. According to Scriptonite Daily, they will replace Public Space Orders, Dog Control Orders, Gating Orders and a host of other orders intended to keep aggressive drunken people, drug dealers and dog poo off our streets. But it is plain that the actual targets are people like myself; people who carry politically challenging ideas. These new present a huge threat to the freedom of lawful assembly.
PSPOs will be granted where ‘activities carried on or likely to be carried on in a public place will have or have had a detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality’ (p21). They can be used to restrict an activity or require people to perform an activity in a certain way. They require substantially less consultation than current alcohol free zones or dog control zones and rather than applying to everyone, they can be applied to specific groups of people (the homeless, the unemployed, racial/religious groups etc.) – opening the door for discrimination. These rules could see homeless people or young people lawfully excluded from public spaces. These orders could apply for up to three years, and be extended by another three years at the end of their term.
I have quite a few things I'm going to talk about in this one actually, and while we're on the subject of New Year, I think I may as well start with that. I went to a friend's house for New Year, and we watched the countdown to 2014 on television, and it made me think that these celebrations are really over the top. The amount of money that must be spent on fireworks and music and all the other things that are part of the celebration is astonishing, and it isn't as though anyone will remember it in the future. It is exactly the same every year; in five years time, no one will remember the countdown to 2014 specifically. I think for a really big event, like for the new Millennium, such a huge celebration would be very appropriate, but just for an ordinary New Year, I think that it is incredibly disproportionate. I had a rather interesting conversation with my mum about this; she said that she went to the celebrations in London once, a long time ago, and it was much less glamourous - just a group of people in Trafalgar Square, counting down and then walking home, and there were none of the big musical acts or anything. I wonder when it all started the way that it is? I suppose it was probably around the new Millennium. Once you have a big event like that, then anything less becomes an anti-climax in future years. You cannot have an event that wasn't as glamorous as the year before. I just find it pretty sickening that we spend this much money on foolish New Year celebrations that help pretty much nobody, given the amount of poverty and debt that we have in this country. I recently learned that our debts are so huge, we owe nine times what we are worth. Why are we spending money on utterly useless celebration events?
For a while now, I have been planning to blog about IPNAs (Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance) and PSPOs (Public Space Protection Orders). These are the new behaviour orders which are being rushed through Parliament, and for all intents and purposes, they are the new ASBOs. According to Scriptonite Daily, IPNAs are applicable where on the 'balance of probabilities', a person has or might engage in behaviour 'capable of causing annoyance' to another person. Personally, I think that that is absurd, as that could pretty much apply to any of us at any time. It makes no sense; you can't say or do anything that might annoy someone, even if no one is actually annoyed. Besides which, you could argue that the Injunction itself annoys people, so it entirely contradicts itself.
The orders can be issued to anyone aged 10 or over, and there is no limit to how long an IPNA can be applied for. Hypothetically, a person could receive an IPNA aged ten and retain it for their entire life. The subject of an IPNA can be found in breach not simply for doing things that they have been banned from doing, but also from not doing things that the IPNA states that they must. An IPNA can be applied for by Local Authorities, police, some transport bodies and some NHS authorities. The consequences of breaching an IPNA are serious. The breaching of an IPNA has been added to the conditions for securing possession of a home - meaning a ten-year-old child breaching an IPNA could result in the entire family being evicted from their council house. Breaching the orders can also result in jail time for anyone over fourteen.
PSPOs are, for me personally, even more worrying. According to Scriptonite Daily, they will replace Public Space Orders, Dog Control Orders, Gating Orders and a host of other orders intended to keep aggressive drunken people, drug dealers and dog poo off our streets. But it is plain that the actual targets are people like myself; people who carry politically challenging ideas. These new present a huge threat to the freedom of lawful assembly.
PSPOs will be granted where ‘activities carried on or likely to be carried on in a public place will have or have had a detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality’ (p21). They can be used to restrict an activity or require people to perform an activity in a certain way. They require substantially less consultation than current alcohol free zones or dog control zones and rather than applying to everyone, they can be applied to specific groups of people (the homeless, the unemployed, racial/religious groups etc.) – opening the door for discrimination. These rules could see homeless people or young people lawfully excluded from public spaces. These orders could apply for up to three years, and be extended by another three years at the end of their term.
There is one more new power which I need to blog about. I am talking of dispersal orders for groups of two or more people thought to be antisocial. Under the current Direction to Leave powers, anyone over 10 years of age can be asked to disperse from a ‘locality’ and stay dispersed for a period not exceeding 48 hours. Current Dispersal Orders mean a Police Superintendent (or an officer with specific written authority from the SI) can disperse groups of two or more people in areas where there has been ‘persistent anti-social behaviour’ or take home any young person under the age of 16 who is in a dispersal zone between 9pm and 6am. Anyone failing to comply with a Dispersal Order faces a fine of up to £2,500 or up to three months in prison.
Under the new Dispersal Powers, police constables and even Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) can issue dispersal orders if they think a group of two or more persons might harass, alarm or distress others in the vicinity (p16). The PCSO or constable can specify how long the person/group must remain out of the designated area, and by which route they must leave, and also confiscate any items of their property which they deem anti-social. Failure to comply with any element of these orders results in a fine of up to £5,000 or three months in prison.
I find these things to be entirely erroneous actually. I feel that the technicalities behind them all are so incredibly broad that they could ultimately be brought in to silence anyone for pretty much anything. For me as a political activist and architect of social change, this is obviously very worrying. If I'm being completely honest, Bills such as this make me genuinely quite frightened of what the future has in store for me. Whilst political campaigning is a huge part of my life, I have a separate life to lead outside of this, and I worry that the consequences for me if I carry on the line of campaigning that I have been involved with since 2010 may prevent me from having the freedom to do the other things with my life that I want to do. On the other hand, this is exactly how these things are supposed to make me feel, and I'm not willing to be intimidated into keeping myself quiet about such things. They can take my civil liberties if they want to - although I'd really rather they didn't! Ultimately, while I obviously want to feel safe and secure, there are people like myself in this world for a reason, and if everyone let the powers that be dictate their lives over and above what is right - well, then no progress would be made.
Whilst writing this blog, I have had quite a long online chat with an acquaintance of mine who I have worked with on social change issues in the past, and I feel that I understand it a lot more now than I did when I started typing this out. As the Bill has now got as far as the House of Lords, there is very little that can be done to prevent it, and we'd be wasting our time to try. However, all is not lost. Here is the list of the things that I intend to do to sort this out in the future months and possibly years:
1) I will make sure that as many people as possible actually know about this. It seems to me that this is rather little-known - possibly as a deliberate strategy - and I think that the more people know about this, the easier it will be to create an outcry.
2) I will contact the police forces in the areas where I live (Colchester, and possibly my hometown of Bristol) and determine what their policies are regarding this, if they intend to implement these powers, and if they do, to what extent. I will put pressure on them to use common sense regarding people's individual freedom over and above all else. I recommend everyone does this in their own neighbourhood.
3) I will read through the legal material concerning this legislation, and determine which parts I want to change. There is no point focussing on repealing the entire Bill, but it can be changed so it is not so broad.
4) Having done the previous three things, I will focus as much of my attention as I am physically able to do petitioning Parliament to amend the Bill with regards to the sections that I will by then have specified.
I will of course continue to blog about this issue throughout.
I'd just like to say one more thing about this. There is a song that I sing to myself sometimes. I saw it in a theatre production of Franz Kafka's The Trial by the theatre company Splendid, and it is The Ballad For The Blissfully Ignorant. It goes like this:
They tell me when
They tell me how
I never question why
I trust what I read
I trust what I hear
Why would our leaders lie?
I'm all right, Jack
Though I don't know Jack
But one thing I have found:
If we know our place
And we don't speak out
They'll keep us safe and sound!
I find this song quite comforting, because I never want to be that person, and singing it reinforces that notion. I may personally be able to keep myself more comfortable by following that mantra, but it ultimately does not help anyone. I could not live with myself knowing that I had things that I could do to help people, and didn't do them. I will never lose my enthusiasm and optimism for social change. I think that's an attitude that I can be proud of, and I'd encourage everyone to look on things with the same viewpoint. After all, if you don't, who will?
Right, I think that this blog has been quite negative, so I'll leave you on a really positive note. 2013 was a great year for the LGBT community. The below link will bring a smile to your face as you read about the amount of progress that was made in securing people's freedoms. May the good work continue across 2014, and the years to come.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/76835/46-most-iconic-lgbt-moments-of-2013
Thanks for reading this! I think it was one of the most exhausting blogs I have ever written - but possibly one of the best. Having finished it, I think it was well worth the time I spent!
Watch this space for more political blogs soon.
Thursday, 26 December 2013
Food banks and Arctic 30
Merry Christmas!
This blog was going to be written on Christmas Eve. Then I was tired and left it until Christmas Day, and now finally on the evening of Boxing Day I'm actually doing it. (Okay, so I'm a little flaky about updating this sometimes... what can I say?)
I knew that I wanted to write a blog about food banks, but I wasn't really sure how to phrase it. I feel that the most appropriate way would be to bring to your attention a woman named Jack Monroe. She is someone who I have recently grown to admire, as this Christmas she successfully ran a petition to ask Parliament to debate hunger and the causes of it in the UK. I will quote her petition text below:
'On Christmas Day 2011, I sat on my sofa by myself in a freezing cold flat, with no television, no presents, no food in the fridge that had been turned off at the mains. I had no tree, no decorations, nothing to mark the day as any different from any other.
I was unemployed, broke, and broken. I hadn't bought a single present for my one-year-old son, and instead let him go to his father’s for the day, knowing I could not give him a Christmas myself.
This year, I’m lucky that things are different for me. But I am outraged that for 60,000 other people are facing the same situation. How can it be that in 2013, 20,000 children face Christmas with empty cupboards and no presents? And why is that figure three times the number that faced a hungry Christmas last year?
I don’t think this is acceptable in the seventh richest country in the world – and I’d really like to know the reasons why it’s happening so we can stop it.
That’s why I’m launching this petition calling for parliament to debate the causes of UK hunger – and to ask why, in modern Britain, foodbank use is escalating so rapidly.
This December, I’m backing the Daily Mirror and Unite the Union’s ‘Give Our Kids A Christmas’ Appeal for the Trussell Trust to raise money for Foodbanks. But we want to do more than just raise money to help – we also want get to the root of UK hunger.
I know what it’s like to turn the fridge off because it's empty anyway. To unscrew the lightbulbs to alleviate the temptation of turning them on. I spent countless mornings sitting across the breakfast table from my son, envious of his small portion of cereal mashed with a little bit of water, or his slice of toast with jam. "Where's Mummy's breakfast?" he used to ask. Mummy wasn't hungry. Mummy hadn’t been hungry the previous night either, and I used to wonder how long it would take him to notice that Mummy wasn’t very hungry at all any more.
I was referred to my local foodbank for help by a Sure Start children's centre, after staff noticed that my son and I always had seconds and thirds of the free lunch they provided.
This Christmas, my son and I will have food on the table. But 60,000 others won’t. It’s not just the festive season – 350,000 people received three-days emergency food from foodbanks between April and September this year. Yet supposedly the economy is recovering, and banker’s bonuses are back?
Please join me by signing this petition calling for a Parliamentary Debate. Make politicians confront what is happening. We need to stop turning a blind eye.
In the words of Desmond Tutu: "There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in."'
Anyway, I signed this petition, and it worked - to an extent -, because food banks and hunger were debated in parliament. Over 60 Labour MPs requested to speak at the debate and they took turns to tell the stories of their constituents. They talked about the ex-serviceman who turned to a foodbank while waiting for four weeks for Atos to deal with his appeal; the story of two hungry young boys who came to ask for one packet of cereal and one packet of drinking chocolate as a treat; and the man whose benefits were sanctioned when he couldn't attend an assessment interview because he was in hospital with his wife who was seriously ill with cancer. Unfortunately, no legislation has changed as of yet. Iain Duncan Smith left the debate halfway through - although he did turn up in the first place, which is according to Jack, a victory in itself.
I'm so proud of everyone who came together to make this petition work, especially Jack who started the whole thing. I think that 2014 will be a year in which a lot more will be done to tackle hunger, both here in the UK and internationally. I will continue to blog about it, so please keep your eyes posted on here, and on things run by Jack Monroe and other people involved with similar campaigns.
There is just one more thing I'd like to update you all on - the Arctic 30 have been released! Now, I don't think I've blogged about the Arctic 30, but I have been following their case very closely. Essentially, they are 30 people from Greenpeace who were imprisoned for two months in Russia, along with their ship, Arctic Sunrise. After a great deal of petitioning, trials and campaigning, all thirty have been released and allowed home. It is not over as many still have charges against them, but currently at least one of them has had charges dropped, and I am very much hoping that the same will happen for the others. So what with this and Pussy Riot finally being released, I think we can all have a little positivity at the end of this year.
So peace out, all have an amazing New Year and I'll do some more blogging soon.
This blog was going to be written on Christmas Eve. Then I was tired and left it until Christmas Day, and now finally on the evening of Boxing Day I'm actually doing it. (Okay, so I'm a little flaky about updating this sometimes... what can I say?)
I knew that I wanted to write a blog about food banks, but I wasn't really sure how to phrase it. I feel that the most appropriate way would be to bring to your attention a woman named Jack Monroe. She is someone who I have recently grown to admire, as this Christmas she successfully ran a petition to ask Parliament to debate hunger and the causes of it in the UK. I will quote her petition text below:
'On Christmas Day 2011, I sat on my sofa by myself in a freezing cold flat, with no television, no presents, no food in the fridge that had been turned off at the mains. I had no tree, no decorations, nothing to mark the day as any different from any other.
I was unemployed, broke, and broken. I hadn't bought a single present for my one-year-old son, and instead let him go to his father’s for the day, knowing I could not give him a Christmas myself.
This year, I’m lucky that things are different for me. But I am outraged that for 60,000 other people are facing the same situation. How can it be that in 2013, 20,000 children face Christmas with empty cupboards and no presents? And why is that figure three times the number that faced a hungry Christmas last year?
I don’t think this is acceptable in the seventh richest country in the world – and I’d really like to know the reasons why it’s happening so we can stop it.
That’s why I’m launching this petition calling for parliament to debate the causes of UK hunger – and to ask why, in modern Britain, foodbank use is escalating so rapidly.
This December, I’m backing the Daily Mirror and Unite the Union’s ‘Give Our Kids A Christmas’ Appeal for the Trussell Trust to raise money for Foodbanks. But we want to do more than just raise money to help – we also want get to the root of UK hunger.
I know what it’s like to turn the fridge off because it's empty anyway. To unscrew the lightbulbs to alleviate the temptation of turning them on. I spent countless mornings sitting across the breakfast table from my son, envious of his small portion of cereal mashed with a little bit of water, or his slice of toast with jam. "Where's Mummy's breakfast?" he used to ask. Mummy wasn't hungry. Mummy hadn’t been hungry the previous night either, and I used to wonder how long it would take him to notice that Mummy wasn’t very hungry at all any more.
I was referred to my local foodbank for help by a Sure Start children's centre, after staff noticed that my son and I always had seconds and thirds of the free lunch they provided.
This Christmas, my son and I will have food on the table. But 60,000 others won’t. It’s not just the festive season – 350,000 people received three-days emergency food from foodbanks between April and September this year. Yet supposedly the economy is recovering, and banker’s bonuses are back?
Please join me by signing this petition calling for a Parliamentary Debate. Make politicians confront what is happening. We need to stop turning a blind eye.
In the words of Desmond Tutu: "There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in."'
Anyway, I signed this petition, and it worked - to an extent -, because food banks and hunger were debated in parliament. Over 60 Labour MPs requested to speak at the debate and they took turns to tell the stories of their constituents. They talked about the ex-serviceman who turned to a foodbank while waiting for four weeks for Atos to deal with his appeal; the story of two hungry young boys who came to ask for one packet of cereal and one packet of drinking chocolate as a treat; and the man whose benefits were sanctioned when he couldn't attend an assessment interview because he was in hospital with his wife who was seriously ill with cancer. Unfortunately, no legislation has changed as of yet. Iain Duncan Smith left the debate halfway through - although he did turn up in the first place, which is according to Jack, a victory in itself.
I'm so proud of everyone who came together to make this petition work, especially Jack who started the whole thing. I think that 2014 will be a year in which a lot more will be done to tackle hunger, both here in the UK and internationally. I will continue to blog about it, so please keep your eyes posted on here, and on things run by Jack Monroe and other people involved with similar campaigns.
There is just one more thing I'd like to update you all on - the Arctic 30 have been released! Now, I don't think I've blogged about the Arctic 30, but I have been following their case very closely. Essentially, they are 30 people from Greenpeace who were imprisoned for two months in Russia, along with their ship, Arctic Sunrise. After a great deal of petitioning, trials and campaigning, all thirty have been released and allowed home. It is not over as many still have charges against them, but currently at least one of them has had charges dropped, and I am very much hoping that the same will happen for the others. So what with this and Pussy Riot finally being released, I think we can all have a little positivity at the end of this year.
So peace out, all have an amazing New Year and I'll do some more blogging soon.
Friday, 6 December 2013
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