...TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Graduate gap year scheme won't help

2009-08-01T17:28:00.002+01:00

Imagine my excitement when I turn on the news this morning to find the headline: "Graduates to get gap-year money". Hooray! I thought, I don't have to stay at home filling in a million forms to get Jobseekers Allowance and sift through the job websites to find something to do, I can spend a year in far off places doing valuable work for charities while beefing up the CV while I'm at it.
Then I read further into the article:

"graduates must raise £1000, buy their own flights and cover the cost of vaccinations to be eligible"

Ah.

Being a graduate coming from a low-income family this puts me off the entire scheme. After three years of borrowing money to put myself through my degree(albeit supplemented by the maintanance grant) I'm sure not even Lord Mandelson expects me to have a grand plus airfare and money for vaccinations to go on one of these expeditions, so this leads me to believe that this scheme is only going to perpetuate the assumption that all people who go on gap years are spoilt rich kids going on a jolly for a year that they can put on their CV- the only difference here being the people going on these gap years are a bit less rich so the government can subsidise them.

If the government really want to stop graduates from getting into, as NUS President Wes Streeting so eloquently put it, "the soul destroying experience of sitting at home, watching Jeremy Kyle, on the dole"(by the way, this graduate is watching Star Trek repeats on the dole, lightyears more intelligent and definitely not soul destroying!) it's got to find ways of supporting graduates that don't exclude vast swathes of them who aren't middle class and came into university as the government made a considerable effort to increase university place take up. The internship scheme is a start, but maybe instead of funding gap years for people who could probably afford them anyway if they really tried, help out both graduates and the UK's voluntary sector by giving support to get this valuable work experience in organisations in this country that are no doubt as affected by the recession as anywhere else. Maybe the government could even put me up in London to do one of those parliamentary internships I've heard so much about, but that's probably not going to happen at this rate.

So, back to the drawing board then, Mandy. I'll be doing my job searching and avoiding Jeremy Kyle.

Change, twittering and Glastonbury politics: The 2009 Compass Conference

2009-06-15T18:14:00.000+01:00

Partly due to speakers(as they often do) having a tendency to talk for longer than the published agenda says they have, and also there being 8 flights of stairs between the conference hall debates and the attached seminars, I go home from this conference rather exhausted. This was only the second one of these I've been to, but the only thing that appeared similar in my experience of it was my incredibly dozy self rushing to the coach or train station to go home by the end of it. If there's any alternative byline for the Compass conference it is "an annual marathon of left wing political discussion".

But whereas last year's conference felt like it was more of a discussion of things that we could do in British politics if we had the chance, the mood this year couldn't be more different. Expenses scandals, plots against Gordon Brown, global economic turmoil and appalling election turnout allowing the BNP to take two European Parliamentary seats have given politicians and activists rather a kick up the arse telling them to go out and do something about it. Speakers and those in the days' seminars talked about their frustration and dismay at the current prevailing style of British politics, in particular what has been going on in the Labour party, and the reforms and policy changes that are needed to change that. Particularly notable was the speech from Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, who said rather than attempting to include many kinds of political persuasions under a "big tent" we should instead co-operate with each other in a "campsite of smaller tents", or, as I said on Twitter on Saturday, form a kind of Glastonbury Politics. This need for a discussion about policy between many parties was well illustrated by one member of the audience during the question time portion of the day who said he was a Green Party voting Lib Dem member who helps Labour MPs on issues of equality!

Speaking of Twitter, one of the seminars I attended concerned the use of online engagement in politics, and I was fascinated by the representatives from Blue State Digital (the people who helped do the Obama campaign) and Hope Not Hate, the latter of which ran a superb campaign against the BNP, using support from email, Facebook and Twitter to to bring people out campaigning against the BNP, which in some areas drew such a huge response they actually ran out of leaflets to give out. In countering Hazel Blears's famously ill-advised comment about internet campaigning, the message from the session was Youtube if you want to, but a) do it properly and b) don't use it for the sake of using it, use it to complement other aspects of the way you conduct politics.

Overall, the conference hammered it home to politicians and the Government in particular: Stop screwing around and start listening to people and give the reforms everyone wants. To bumble on the way you have done for the last few weeks would be frankly idiotic and against the values you attempt to uphold.

There will be tinkering...

2009-05-11T14:44:00.001+01:00

...But after that, I will be actually making some use of this blog. Anyone stumbling across this will note this.

Clippings from Facebook: So apparently I'm a right winger

2008-04-06T17:18:00.000+01:00

10 Steps to be a left winger... apparently...

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=18717071808&topic=8771

1. I don't think I've ever read an outdated history book- I tend to read much more interesting things, and watch history documentaries... Produced by respected broadcasters.

2. I never bring up Israel- partly because the whole issue gives me a bloody headache and also I wouldn't bring it up in inappropriate places like whoever wrote that assumes I would.

3. I don't think I've ever disagreed with the notion that we shouldn't allow illegal immigration- it's illegal, isn't it? Though if people have a genuine life-threatening reason to flee their country, then they should be able to stay somewhere safer. Not crying and screaming and accusing people of rape, frigging hell!

4. Left wingers can be realistic as well you know, hey we have to be in the UK as it's the only way we can make any of our political values possible. We also know that some ideas that seemed good at the time ended up not working because of the power crazy nutters that twisted them to their own ends.

5. Nah, don't take drugs- partly because my Dad was a drugs advice worker and regularly gave me the horrifying stories of people who went way too far with them. Though I'm partial to a beer as much as most people are!

6. Nutters come in many flavours, everyone knows that, and Muslim fundamentalists who treat women like crap and advocate the death penalty for things like being gay piss me off as much as Christian ones who essentially advocate the same things. If you put both in a room they would probably find a lot to agree on!

7. I hate that song and hate that that horribly sad cover of it was Christmas number 1. I prefer arguing about nasty atrocities, and trying to make politicians act on them, not wasting my time on Youtube trying to stir up emotion.

8. I really don't think MI6 have any interest in a run-of-the-mill leftie with an interest in community activism. Methinks they're more interested in those looking up how to make homemade bombs and stuff like that.

9. You don't want to kill all Jews and non-whites so why should I have any reason to call you a Nazi? Britain's always been diverse, right back to the Romans and the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans, and long may it continue.

10. Some of the candidates in parties are and some of them aren't, we just have to make sure we vote for the principled ones.

So according to some random person on an internet forum's standards I'm a right winger! Off to join the Conservatives then... NOT.

BBC News Have Your Say post of the week...

2008-04-04T17:23:00.002+01:00

In what may or may not turn out to be a regular series, here's my pick of one of the most insane ranting postings from the public on the BBC News website.

This week's comes from a thread on the merits to the UK on the London Olympics:

London yes, the rest of Britain no -not in any way.

ZanuLabour have been "London-centric" since 1997 - what major project have they "gifted" to the rest of Great Britain?

Zanulabour have abandoned their traditional areas & voters now they are in power - they prefer to lig with big business & foreign dignatories in metropolitan London.

Why they can't just declare London's independence from the rest of Britain I do not know - it certainly is not a capital city representative of us Brits.

MissBritish Insurgent, Middle England

1. Is this country being run by a senile old despot who will probably quit in the next few days? Do we have inflation levels in excess of 100,000%? No, we don't do we? Then don't compare the party in the UK government to Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe, you twat.

2. The last I heard an "insurgent" was someone who comes into the country from somewhere else to muck things up, you idiot. Unless "Middle England" is now a fully recognised nation state, in which case I will be writing to "Zanulabour" to recommend that we close the borders and refuse visas to everyone from there so we don't have to have anything to do with your nonsense. And take your Daily Mail and Express with you, cheers.

Homophobia in schools

2008-04-01T16:16:00.002+01:00

An article from the Evening Post came to my attention today about how the Council has been forced to shelve a programme of lessons about homophobic bullying in two Easton primary schools.

Leaving aside the ridiculous way that this article has been written (part of it seems to suggest that they were teaching people about homosexuality full stop when they weren't) it seems to have been sparked by a row between the schools and parents, of which a number of them are Muslims. Now there doesn't appear to be any indication of what was going to be taught exactly or whether the parents actually saw it. But regardless of religious or cultural belief, is it not a good idea to teach kids about all kinds of bullying? Homophobic bullying can certainly be some of the nastiest in schools, and I would have thought that a sensitive discussion on the subject would be very beneficial to personal and social education. There may of course be religious beliefs against homosexuality in general, but schools should be in the habit of teaching all points of view, and in a subject of which there is still a woeful divide in opinion about, it is a good idea to teach the facts and not the ill-informed prejudices. For then children can leave school more informed than they were, and (hopefully) more tolerant of modern society.

A note on the comment by me published in the Evening Post today

2008-03-08T00:04:00.002Z

I am of course delighted that they have published my comment, which was on a story about a woman who pretended she was tied to a wheelchair to get a ground floor flat. However- they have edited it so much it is almost unrecognisable, which is rather disappointing. One wonders how many more comments and letters have been edited in this way. It actually pisses me off, though it's only one comment anyway and it's the Evening Post letters page, which half the time I can't read because it seems constructed to boil your blood just by looking at it.

So here are both versions in full, first, the original one still available on the website:

The Little Britain character, Andy springs to mind with this! Did she get up as soon as the photographer and journalist turned away? And regarding the comments hoping that the information has been passed to the Council- it more than likely has now!!

And the Evening Post journalist interpretation (NOT IN ANY WAY APPROVED BY ME)

Did she get up as soon as the photographer and journalist left? I would have thought that this piece of news has been passed to the council, too!

Next time I won't bother putting comments on that website if they're going to completely change my words like that when publishing it. I frankly don't want to put my name to it, as unknown my name is anyway!

Democratic deficit?

2008-03-04T13:24:00.001Z

Democratic deficit? This thing is driving me nuts. If I'm not bloody careful I'll end up a Eurosceptic by the end of this. I can't let that happen. Noooooooooooooooooo

Oh yes, and Mark Thompson is an idiot (though in true Evening Post fashion they've published the story even though nothing has actually happened yet, they've just told everyone it might happen)

Europe Europe Europe

2008-03-03T14:28:00.002Z

With the prospect of there being a Eurovision entry this year that might actually know how to sing, and not drown in a sea of airline-themed innuendo as was last year with Scooch, Europe is high up on my mind at the minute. There's also the very thorny issue of me having to do an essay about the EU's democratic deficit for next week which I really have to get on with, so I'll keep this post brief.

So here's a piece I wrote to take part in a consultation for the PES's manifesto for the elections to that other love-it-or-hate-it institution, the European Parliament, of which I mention the ideas of involving people locally in EU initiatives. This can be found at http://manifesto2009.pes.org/en/european-democracy-and-diversity/post/247 . Enjoy!

"I went to the debate "Unity or Diversity? What Europe do we want?" in London earlier this week. The topic was the PES manifesto and democracy and diversity and there was a lot of discussion about democracy in Europe and how we can make it much closer to the people, and more relevant to them. I would like to suggest one of the ways we can do this is by giving the people concerned more of a say in how EU initiatives, particularly regional and social ones, are conducted and where the money goes.

We have had particular success in doing this at the South Bristol Urban 2 Programme, of which I am proud to have been involved in and also chaired for two years, where the ultimate decision making committee that decided what projects to support was made up of local residents, representatives of community organisations and particularly young people, of which the programme's main aim was to support. We also structured it's meetings so that young people could better access it - the meetings certainly are not boring and if there was any jargon that anyone did not understand then you could show a red card and shame the person into explaining it better! In doing this, we not only made one of the EU's most innovative programmes, but also one of the most successful! Because the Programme gave a very direct say in how it's money was spent to the very people who were effected by it, projects that were more relevant and supportive to young people were given funding by it, and also encouraged projects that operated in the same spirit as the Programme to go ahead. This has included a young-people designed open space, called Spacemakers, and also a new media centre of which young people worked closely with the architects to build.
More details can be found here.
To make the EU closer to the people it effects, we should use things like this as a model to introduce throughout Europe - it is too often seen as too distant by people, but if we can get it to do some genuine good in local communities by not only consulting, but involving them in it's initiatives then it can be more visible, and even better, more democratic. The EU can be a lot of things to a lot of people, but it is often very bad at making obvious all of the good things about it, and if more of this can be done, and hey, if we can put more new ideas into practice like the one I have listed above, then we can have a much better Europe."

Right, I'm really going to make an effort this time...

2008-02-27T15:30:00.002Z

Me with blogs has really been start-stop: I make posts that seemed a good idea at the time but later I feel that they were complete rubbish and go and delete the whole flaming thing.

So I'm going to start again. This time I'll try and make an effort. Or it'll go completely wrong!