Darfur: An urgent case for Humanitarian Intervention - no comments

Euston Manifesto Group Meeting: 7:00pm, Tuesday 5th September 2006, Kings College London.

Tickets are available by contacting tickets@eustonmanifesto.org, and venue details will be provided. Entry is free, but a £5 donation is suggested...

Speakers: Linda Melvern, Lord Clive Soley, representative from the Aegis Trust; Chair: Phillip Spencer. More here.

Sorry for the lack of posts, by the way: have been forced to change my plans rather suddenly, and I don't even have time to read, let alone write anything at the moment. I can see, though, that lots of good articles are around at the moment - must collect some of them together.

Fixes - 1 comment

Some of the newer, or more zealous, bloggers here appear to have been using the Blogger Beta program. I'm sure it's great, but it has caused some problems with the display of their posts on our pages. Newer Labour and Rayleen Kelly's blogs seemed to have been most affected by the display of raw HTML on our pages, rather than the nicely-formatted display that readers used to.

Anyway, that's fixed. While I was at it, I added the ability to indicate quotations: these are now denoted by italicised text, and a slightly differently coloured background.

On the forum today - no comments

On the forum today are discussions about the Manchester venue, changes to the recommendations page I'd like feedback on, as well as changes to B4L itself. Plus whatever you're interested in...

So please sign up if you're a supporter, log in, and get involved in the discussion.

Sociable - 2 comments

Thanks to everyone who made the get-together on Thursday, some of whom have already posted reports:

Andrew B, Andrew W, Courtney, Iain, Kerron, Luke, Paul, and Tom.

Plenty of photos are knocking about, but this is probably the nicest (author not pictured):


Andrew Brown, Tom Hamilton, Kerron Cross

We planned and we plotted (the irresistible rise of the sensible Labour blogging movement), but mainly had a very good time, so I hope to see as many people as possible in Manchester next month.

You can expect some updates to this site in the light of the discussions we had. You can also expect more blog entries: I'm free of the unremitting joy that is commuting for the next two weeks, saving myself a rather shocking 29 hours and 15 minutes...

Bloggers4Labour Social III: Venue - 3 comments

No venues were suggested, so I've made an executive decision - the Bloggers4Labour faithful will meet at Williamson's Tavern, Mansion House, London, this Thursday 24th August.

I can't say I've been to the place before, but it gets good reviews, offers food, real ale, and a fair amount of leg-room, and is surrounded by decent train stations.



For Multimap purposes, the address is 1 Groveland Court, Off Bow Lane, EC4M 9EH. Mansion House tube is a stone's-throw away, while Cannon Street and London Bridge mainline stations are easily walkable.

I'll arrange to get there on or before 7.00 pm (I only work 10 minutes away) and will indicate my presence with the renowned costermonger-style logo:



If you haven't been to one of the past meetups, I think it's fair to say that the people are extremely friendly and, well, refreshingly normal: politics will be discussed, as will many other topics, and I suspect there will be very few takers for three-hour discussions about the rights and wrongs of the recent Lebanese conflict. I'll be interested to hear any ideas you may have for the site and for expanding or developing our network.

Once again, all B4L bloggers are invited, B4L Forum members, and indeed any local Labour officials who happen to be in the vicinity.

If you can't make it, there'll be another meetup in Manchester in a month or so.

Update: This is entirely optional, but I thought it might be a nice touch if people coming on Thursday made a small charitable donation, say, £10, either before or after the event. Just a thought - nobody's going to check, and I don't have any particular charity in mind. The genesis of this particular idea came from my trawling of the divine Gillian Anderson's site. When she asks us to "give a bit back", what mortal could disobey?

Global Development report 2006 - 2 comments

Via Owen, and Andrew, the Center for Global Development's 2006 on the commitment of wealthy countries to global development was released a couple of days ago.

Scores have been calculated for 21 countries across seven components that all contribute to the fight against global poverty - the absolute level of financial aid being only one (very important) part.

Results for the UK are below - the leftmost bar in each category shows scores for 2003, while the rightmost shows 2006. Look out for other countries' scores on the site - they range from the impressive to the dreadful (sorry, that's not the USA).



Owen takes up the story:

A striking finding of the 2006 survey is that, despite the rhetoric that 2005 would be the Year of Development, there has been little progress across the range of policies that affect prospects in poor countries. Indeed, Netherlands has moved into first place because Danish aid has been cut despite strong economic growth.

The UK comes top in two of the seven components [Investment and Environment], thanks to policies that promote investment in poor countries, and an outstanding environmental record. The aid program, managed by DFID (disclosure: my past and future employer), is internationally respected, though less generous relative to national income than the Scandinavian countries. Overall, however, the UK finishes in the bottom half of the league table, weighed down by extensive arms sales to undemocratic governments [Security] and tight immigration policies [Migration].

Read the rest.

Also related are a couple of my favourite Stumbling and Mumbling posts of the past week or so: this on immigration (contra the irrepressible Polly), and this on markets, globalisation, and the 'invisible hand'.

Bloggers4Labour Social III - 17 comments

It's been a while, but I'm hoping to organise a Bloggers4Labour get-together this month.

I would have expected this to be quite low-key, given that events are planned for the Labour Conference next month. On the other hand, given the huge increase in membership this year, and our strength in the South, another London meetup should be well attended. All B4L bloggers are welcome, non-blogging forum members, and guests (within reason).

I'm proposing Thursday, August 24th. If that isn't good, would the Friday be better, or the following Thursday? Venue suggestions are also welcome.

Details of the first meetup (Brighton), and the second (London).

New Look - 4 comments

I've updated the header section of this blog, as you must by now have noticed.

Given the number of useful, non-blog pages we have on offer, the policy of cramming them into that thin, green bar under the logo was becoming increasingly untenable. Hopefully things are a little clearer.

The Recommended Posts page now gets a proper link, as does the Blogging Tips Wiki page - which I encourage you all to add to and improve.

By the way, though I haven't had time to update the Recommended Posts page to let you see more interesting information, give this URL a whirl if you'd like to see the most recommended posts from the current week, or this for the week before, etc. I'll streamline this in due course.

See no evil / Euston - 36 comments

If anyone's interested in my opinion on the recently averted airline terrorist outrage, you'd do well to read Scribbles' post instead, which makes the points I wanted to make, and shows a humanity that is, frankly, absent from all too many of the posts I've read. Some extracts:

[...] We get passengers at airports being interviewed asked if they think this is the fault of British foreign policy. People writing letters to the Guardian saying that this is all a set-up, staged to distract from matters in the Middle East. Comments in blog posts from British lefties telling us that if they were Muslim they'd probably do it too.

And today we had a smarmy man in a suit, being interviewed by ITN lunchtime news, who told us calmly that there can be no surprise that Muslims are trying to do this to us. It is obvious, he explained casually, and the fault is entirely our own. It is totally normal behaviour to plan to commit mass murder because you disagree with government policy. Totally normal to kill yourself and others because of events that are happening to people you don't know in countries you have never been to. And all the while he spoke as if he were verbally shrugging his shoulders at the idea of thousands of people being ripped apart in our skys.

[...]

And, you know I’m not sure how much longer I can keep doing this. I really don’t think that it would have mattered to some people if this plot had not been foiled. If the attacks had gone ahead as planned and hell had opened up above the cities of America, they would still be doing it. Still shrugging their shoulders, still making excuses, still blaming Tony Blair. Because that’s what they are like these people. Devoid of any heartfelt compassion, lacking in any sense of reality. When that man was pontificating today on the ITN news I started shaking with anger. Literally. And when he had finished his easy delivery of his world-view in which guilt attaches to the innocent and murder is standard, I burst into tears. I had to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to distract myself from the pure fury that was burning me up. His complete nonchalance at what violence on a mass scale is, at the idea of it, at the threat of it, was just unbearable to me. If he knew, I kept thinking, what he was being so casual about, if he knew just what he was shrugging his shoulders at, he wouldn’t do it. He couldn’t do it.

Read it all.

It is depressing to encounter so many people - Comment Is Free is particulaly foetid at the moment, if you've spent any time trawling through the comments - for whom murder is either a legitimate, 'inevitable', or 'understandable' reaction to a real or perceived injustice.

If you feel the same way, I encourage you to sign the Euston Manifesto - you'll find yourself in good company.

Update: See also Rob, Lola, Hak, to name just three. And well done, Kim Howells.

I buy goods from poorer countries - 7 comments

Via Owen. They may be evil incarnate, but the Adam Smith Institute are giving away free Free Trade wristbands.



Email them with a mailing address to receive your own. I've ordered one, even if they do look like something that belongs deep within the bowels of your vacuum cleaner. Why?

The trade which can lift peoples out of poverty is assailed from many directions. A motley assortment of protectionists and anti-capitalists use every argument they can lay their hands on to protect their interests. From the CAP to 'food miles,' the effect is to deny poorer people the chance to gain wealth by selling us what they produce. Those who embrace free trade as an instrument of good can now express their support for poorer peoples by proclaiming an intention to buy their produce.

Wiki: political blogging tips - no comments

I thought I'd do my bit to encourage political bloggers, especially potential Bloggers4Labour joiners, with a list of tips. This is, of course - given that I'm very far from all-knowing - a perfect opportunity to set up a Wiki (an earlier experiment is here).

I've set up one for this site, and added a page for the tips here:

http://bloggers4labour.wikispaces.com/politicalBloggingTips

At the moment this is entirely open to the general public, so head over there to edit - if you have some ideas, or positive experiences to relate - or just see the latest. Instructions and explanations are provided on the page. The whole point is that the more people who contribute, and the more highly their contributions are judged by their peers, the sooner the 'ideal' list will be achieved.

If you do make changes, please check back regularly (an RSS feed for the page is here) to deter hackers, and help undo their work. All edits are stored, so previous versions can be revived easily.

Euston: Social Democratic Futures - 1 comment

The Euston Manifesto Group has been busy lately, expanding its web-site and attempting to advance (or rather, kick-start) thought on the Left.

Here's the latest idea: Social Democratic Futures:

[This] will help to develop a new agenda for left-of-centre democratic politics by hosting an international conversation as open as it will be intelligent, as passionate as it will be non-sectarian. Because it is dialogue we seek, each debate (or "carriage") will set off with an article, travel by way of responses or questions to the author, and arrive with a rejoinder by the author. Each journey, we hope, will prompt the next.

The first two discussions will both explore the modernisation of progressive politics in a transformed world:

• Shalom Lappin, co-author of the Euston Manifesto, will make the case for global trade unions and social trade agreements as the foundations of a new global social democracy.
  
• James Purnell, Minister of State for Pensions, will call for a candid debate on the future of modern social democracy, and open it with a defence of the reform of the public services as "modern methods within a modern setting", and as the best means to secure the ends of equality, liberty and solidarity.

Responses are strongly encouraged. It would have been nice to offer 'live' feedback in true blog style - and I will bring my influence to bear to improve this in the future - but for the time being details on how to email your submissions appear at the end of the article.

Apologies to regular readers - 3 comments

The waxing of political leaders' body hair is not perhaps an issue worthy of the concern of serious-minded bloggers, but if you must know the grisly truth that lies beneath the shirts of Tony Blair and David Cameron, blogger Nicola has the answer - and it isn't pretty, in at least one case.

Possible reasons for Cameron's "last turkey in the shop" image are explored in this characteristically insightful Daily Mail article.



Now for something far more wholesome. Via Lisa (though, of course, I knew already), Wednesday marks (or marked) the 38th birthday of the divine Gillian Anderson, she who put the "Lady" in "Lady Dedlock" in the BBC's excellent Bleak House, and who is only an Economics degree and a trouser suit away from thoroughly usurping Newsnight's Stephanie Flanders.


Image © GillianAnderson.ws

Blog @ Conference - 8 comments

In the unlikely event you haven't already seen this, Labour is offering an up-and-coming blogger access to this year's Party Conference in Manchester from 24-28 of September.

They'll be given access to all the key speeches and events at Conference and will be blogging from the floor about their experiences. More details, and how to apply, are here. The "best, the most innovative and the freshest" entry will be chosen.

It sounds like a very good idea, and a great opportunity for a new, or recent, blogger to give their unique take on proceedings and to establish themselves.

However, I'd strongly discourage all references to "Official Labour Blogger", not least because it (a) isn't what's on offer, (b) implies a hierarchy of bloggers, which doesn't (or rather, shouldn't) exist, and (c) undermines the credibility and independence of the participant.

Leaving all that aside, I hope as many of you as possible apply!

Campaigns Wikia - 1 comment

I've been meaning to post something about, and delve further into, the new Campaigns Wikia project since Andrew Brown mentioned in last month.



Entitled "Let's ramp up the intelligence of politics", here's the mission statement, written by Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales. An extract:

This website, Campaigns Wikia, has the goal of bringing together people from diverse political perspectives who may not share much else, but who share the idea that they would rather see democratic politics be about engaging with the serious ideas of intelligent opponents, about activating and motivating ordinary people to get involved and really care about politics beyond the television soundbites.

Together, we will start to work on educating and engaging the political campaigns about how to stop being broadcast politicians, and how to start being community and participatory politicians.

I can't say I have a very clear idea of how it's going to pan out - or indeed what tools they might make available for political bloggers and campaigners - but I've registered an interest, and I hope you'll do the same. You can find out how here.

One bit of content they have: an international electoral calendar. If you want to improve it, you know where to go.

Hove today, gone tomorrow - 2 comments

Originally planned to post about this last Wednesday, but time and illness got in the way. Was amazed to read in the BBC's coverage of the (then) latest twist in the Conservatives' London Mayoral candidacy saga - Ferrari will not be Tories' mayor - that former Hove and Portslade candidate Nick Boles was believed to be the Tory frontrunner.

There's been plenty of coverage of Boles on this blog. Political historians will remember that, despite a fawning national press, he was unable to overturn a Labour majority of just 3171, last year. So shaky had seemed Labour's chances that the Guardian selected Hove as one of their four Conservative targets to watch.


Image (c) The Argus

Nick may have his talents, and is a Henry Jacksonite, but with a track record of ballsing-up what look like easy targets, is he really the chap to put up against a Labour majority of 161,202 (5.4% swing required), against (we assume?) an experienced a campaigner as Livingstone?

I would suggest no, but if views like this spread to the London arts world, perhaps the Conservatives might as well take a risk and go for someone with a track record of success.

"... if you [Blair, New Labour, etc.] carry on the way you are, I and others like me, might be seduced into voting for someone who could unleash who-knows-what over the next 18 years."

Shirley Porter, recently

Ugh - 2 comments

I must confess I'd never heard of the European Cricket Council. Its aims are to spread the game throughout Europe, improve the quality of play, and to uphold and promote the positive values associated with the spirit of cricket. ICC Associate Members include Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, and Scotland. Twenty-seven other countries have teams.

A match between Israel and Jersey on Thursday has already been abandoned "as a result of safety issues". CricInfo has more: "the threat of a protest by a Muslim group" was the cause.

Israel are scheduled to play both Norway and France in Glasgow over the weekend, and according to the BBC, they will be met by protesters from the Glasgow Stop the War Coalition and "representatives of the Lebanese community", presumably with a view to getting these matches abandoned too:

A spokesman for the Stop the War Coalition said: "Sporting events such as these are little more than attempts to give international respectability to a regime which has consistently flouted United Nations resolutions and which continues to bomb and harass first the Palestinian people and now the Lebanese people."

He added the protest aims to follow a tradition of "opposing tyrannical regimes and highlighting the injustices that they perpetrate".

They presumably believe they're following the famous example of the 70s boycotts against South African sides.

It should go without saying that (a) the comparison between Israel and the racist South African apartheid regime is both unpleasant and wrong, and (b) the mobilisation of Socialist Worker goons to victimise a team of amateur sportsmen and disrupt an international tournament is contemptuous.

Harry's Place also cover this - rather less coherently.

New Councillors - 1 comment

I discovered a bumper crop of new Labour councillors at ReadMyDay last night. Although some have kept up their blogs, others - though seemingly optimistic - have not. Clearly there has been some coaching, but I suspect that - without the support, the feedback, and the encouraging traffic - they've found the technology too complicated, felt isolated, or just felt blogging didn't make a difference.

And it is a shame that, for so long, we haven't known about them, and they (I guess) haven't known about us. Anyway, perhaps we can drive some traffic their way, and - if there are other councillors reading - people can get in touch with them to offer some advice and encouragement:

• Pauline Carlile - Councillor for Brumby ward, North Lincolnshire
• John Collinson - Councillor for Ashby ward, North Lincolnshire
• Nicholas Dakin - Councillor for Kingsway with Lincoln Gardens, North Lincolnshire
• Doreen Davies - Councillor for Selby South, Selby District Council
• Andrea Davison - Councillor for Ashby ward, North Lincolnshire
• Dick Fordham - Councillor for Frodingham ward, North Lincolnshire
• Sheila Griffin - Councillor for Norbiton ward, Kingston Borough Council
• Mark A Kirk - Councillor for Crosby and Park, North Lincolnshire
• Christine O'Sullivan - Councillor for Crosby and Park, North Lincolnshire
• Paul Shotton - Councillor for Fenton Ward in the City of Stoke on Trent.
• Steve Swift - Councillor for Bottesford, North Lincolnshire

Also, new on the Labour blog site is Maryam Khan- "one of the new councillors on Manchester City Council. She's 24, female, Muslim, and she beat the sitting Lib Dem with a huge 22 per cent swing in May".

Comments are free - 7 comments

Just to let you know, I've deactivated comment moderation. In other words, you can leave comments and they'll appear straightaway.

Hopefully I'll be able to leave moderation off, and commenters will no longer have to wait ages for their observations to be approved.

As much as anything, I'll be glad not to have to deal with all the emails that come through from Blogger, especially as my otherwise sane Microsoft Entourage doesn't decode the "approval" URL properly, forcing me to paste each one into a text editor and manually remove both the &s.

Six Figures - 3 comments

Bloggers4Labour earned its 100,000th hit this morning.

July 2006 has also been our most popular month so far, and would have been even more so - the statistics suggest - if I hadn't started posting again last week. Charming. But it just goes to show how much I should thank the many assiduous Labour-backing bloggers out there for making this network what it is.

Now, is this enough of an excuse to buy champagne, do you think? Too late. Yes, it is - emphatically so.