Category Archive

Half hearted one from Madonna’s ex Sean Penn and another very public declaration from John Edwards. The latter is what the world’s been waiting for since January (to paraphrse the Stone Roses) and comes in spite of Hillary’s repeated wooing of the ex VP candidate.

Is the end in sight yet? Given the protracted nature of the Demnocratic nominatoin contest let’s hope that the infighting hasn’t ended of their chances of wining the White House.

The scores on the doors are here from Labourhome’s survey of grassroots activists on what they think of party direction. David Milliband comes out as top minister in the satisfaction ratings while Alistair Darling brings up the rear. Fascinating stuff and interesting to read in conjunction with this thoughtful post from Greater Manchester Fabians up this morning. As Graham from GMFs points out when people start saying “a spell in opposition would do us good” things are really bad. That was the end of Major.

However while we are on the subject of parallels between Brown and Major  as seems to be popular these days, never let it be forgotten that Major actually won a General Election against the odds. There is still time, if we act now, for Brown to replicate the feat when we next go to the polls. The legislative programme outlined today has already had the Tories on the defensive. Way to go.

People may have clicked before on the link on the left here to the wacky funster who maintains a parallel blog to Luke Akehurst’s excellent site. Whoever he/she is they are sometimes really witty but other times totally tasteless. It seems that Luke is not alone in inspring such dedication. Chris Paul now also has a spoofster, notwithstanding the fact that Iain Dale recently called the real CP “Comical Ali”. Stumbling through cyberspace recently I discovered that Harriet Harman’s blog too has inspired this. I’m unaware of any right-wing equivalents but there must be some out there.

The Economist recently bigged up the blogosphere in claiming “web gurus insist that British politics could be doing much more with the internet”. They report that the slowest of all modern politicians to cotton on to the dawning of the new era was the “comically technophobic” Tony Blair who apparently set up a secret stalker squad as one of his last acts in office.

Crikey Sundays follow a pattern at the moment don’t they? Andrew Marr, Adam Boulton and the papers chock-full of lurid revelations from usually ghost-written tomes of sometimes bitter and twisted attention-seeking people connected to New Labour. These organs are being used, on the slowest news day of the week, for self-publicity in a way worse than Wogan (80s chat show that was blatantly a vehicle for the guests’ new products to plug).

So first it was John Prescott’s admission of bulima, widely seen as courageous. Then Lord Levy’s outburst, then Cherie Blair then Lord Levy (again not to be outdone). Isn’t all the stuff about Leo Blair’s conception at Balmoral because Cherie was too embarrassed to bring contraception for fear it would be unpacked by royal bum-wipers just a bit too much information? Doesn’t Lord Levy look just a bit publicity obsessed at the moment ?

More to the point will anyone want to buy any of these books now that the juicy bits have been distilled in yesterday’s chip paper? I forsee the remainder bookshops being full of ‘em before long. Worse still (for the publishers who have lavished advances on them) they could end up being pulped which happens more and more to surplus printed material these days.

Interesting debate here at Labourhome, hot on the heels of a post by Will Parbury the day after the mayoral results, ponders on who the next Labour mayoral candidate should be. Iain Dale has even linked to it (although he doesn’t recognise the suggestion he picks was a joke). It was sad to see a picture of Ken forlornly carrying a plastic Thomas the Tank Engine trainset out of his office in the Mail on Sunday last week but a suggestion from Alex Hilton (all round affable guy and PPC for Kensington) is that should be Kon not Ken next time ie Konnie Huq. All this speculation less than a week after Livingstone’s electoral demise. Indecent haste?

The full list of candidates is yet to be announced but you may have seen Channel 4 news showing stump action from the Crewe and Nantwich by-election yesterday. More here and here. Tamsin Dundwoody, the late Gwyneth’s daughter and star of this Facebook group, is Labour candidate. The Tories have picked an Edward Timpson, heir to  Timpson’s heel-bar empire.

Among what will be the also-rans at the end of the day is this 26 year old northern Irish glamour model and Former Miss Great Britian, Gemma Garrett, from the “Beauties for Britain Party” who are hoping to inject some glamour into the proceedings. Strange things happen in by-elections but the likelihood of a British Cicciolina (Italian porn model turned MP who had a Pop Will Will Eat Itself single named after her) is unlikely I reckon. Screaming Lord Sutch was never like this.

Have had this up today on Comment is Free. Various commentators have fingered the blame for Boris’ win on outer London yet as Luke Akehurst points out here suburbs that bucked the trend by swinging to Labour include Brent and Harrow now represented by Navin Shan and further out in Slough in the Thames Valley. In Bromley and Bexley the Tories romped home with James Cleverley a candidate who smashes Conservative stereotypes as their first black Assembly Member. The suburbs cannot be subjected to blanket treatment then; outer London boroughs also helped the BNP to their first Assembly Member - an alarming fact that seems to have been conveniently overlooked by the media who are punch drunk on the Boris victory.

Comments are welcome, as all this is background to what will be my next book on the changing face of twenty-first century suburbia. They seem to be, for some reason, flooding into this curio which I can’t really account for.

Iain Dale has been having a pop at a clutch of Labour bloggers for not covering Gordon Brown’s Sunday round of interviews. In a typical hissyfit he decrees that none of the bloggers listed, which include the mighty collaborative efforts Harry’s Place and PIckled Politics, will be deemed worthy of a link from the Dale-ster.

Well this blog has never really been into tv reviews, particularly of programmes that I’ve never seen - Paul Burgin does that stuff much better. Some of us have stuff to do, kids to play with etc etc on a long weekend. I ended up turning on the box for the first time of the day late on Sunday night when I caught Headcases for the first time. As with earlier attempts 2-D Tv and Spitting Image, it inevitably felt too short. The Amy W(h)inehouse and Al-Fayed-baiting bits were mildly diverting. The portrayal of Boris Johnson as a St Bernard in a dog-basket was probably penned before Friday night’s result. Good to see some new satire on our screens. You can never have enoughin my book. Interesting to note also that ITV is replicating the i-player with this lil’ thing.

Now Iain, toys back in the pram pleasse.  

I’m not in the mood for post-mortems right now so have just had this on an entirely unrelated subject (schools as it happens) up at the spanking new Harry’s Place instead. Let’s hope Ken can still pull it off this evening. Gordon Brown’s famous fingernails must be under extreme pressure.

Recieved here via the new look Harry’s place who nicked them from Socialist Unity. I didn’t realise Gorgeous George was on the ballot paper so I shall be putting Ken first and Sian Berry 2nd. Hopefuly no distribution of Ken’s second places will be needed so it’ll be irrelevant anyway. But that’ll only happen if Labour people get off their arses to turn out.

Remember to urge everyone you know who has a London vote to use it - specially for the London-wide top up list member as a low turnout will make the BNP’s job of the measely percentage they need for an assembly member and potentially holding the balance of power in our great city an easy one. I shall try to slip it into what I say to the 170 first years in the exam I am invigilating in a bit.

…Thinking woman’s (?) Tory Michael Gove flanked by two young Boris-leaflet bearing sharp suited men marching him towards Northfields tube station at 5.30 today. Pre-MP Gove used to contribute to the edited books of the irrepressible Mark Perryman . I was a contributor alongside him to this title on Blairism (although I never met the guy, who looks even younger now he’s ditched wearing glasses). He is not however in “Imagined Nation: England After Britain”. I guess he has had other fish to fry lately - which according to his Conservative homepage was the family business.

I couldn’t engage in banter/do the “keeping a Tory on the doorstep routine” sadly as I was in a car.

According to the Manchester Evening News, Morrissey is forking out £28,000 quid to save Sunday’s gig following the withdrawal of a sponsor.

According to the MEN he said: “This is a historic event spreading an important, anti-racist, message so it must be allowed to go ahead.” Can’t say fairer than that.

I wish he’d appear on the bill though. That really would give it the oomph that some say it has been missing.

This weekend sees a Carnival in Hackney’s Victoria  Park in aid of the Move Music Hate Racism campaign which aims to be a neo-Rock Against Racism. Details of Sunday’s fun and games is here.  Latest Comment is Free piece by me on the legacy of the original 30 years ago this weekend is here. Organisers want a big turnout but it’s the turnout (of non BNP voters) on May 1st that really needs to be a biggie to stop us finding out this time next week that a BNP assembly member (possiby more) has been elected to City Hall.

See you in the moshpit?

Launched yesterday was Mark Perryman’s edited collection “Imagined Nation” out with erstwhile radical publishing house Lawrence and Wishart. It’s a thoroughly recomended thought provoking read with chapters by Billy Bragg, Paul Gilroy and my good self amongst others. The serious bit after the colon is “England After Britain”. It’s being discussed all over the left-side of the blogosphere including Mark’s piece at Comment is Free, the Compass site here and even this Respect blog. This shouldn’t put you off acquiring a worthy addition to any bookshelf.

It’s also been featured here in the Swindon advertiser. The local man called Andy they interview is not the XTC lead singer and possibly greatest living Englishman Andy Partidge who has had a longstanding love-hate relationship with the town, but a Socialistunity contributor with a chapter in the book - Andy Newman.

So go seek out his perfect St Georges… um season.. gift. Who says feting 23rd March as a permanent fixture on the calendar will never catch on?

Looks like Roger Waters was not so far wrong last week after all according to this.

E8 Voice has a YouTube clip here.

When the number of first time buyers in the capital is at a record low, student princess Beatrice is reportedly eyeing up a central London townhouse with a price-tag of a cool £4.25 mill to be her base when she starts a History course at Goldsmiths College in the Autumn. Former residents of the smart stucco-clad square include David Blunkett and Enoch Powell. It is calculated that her mortgage payments will be £21,000 if he puts a million quid down (amount she got out of the Queen Mother’s trust fund at 18). At 2,390 square feet it’d probably have to be a pretty big cat (to swing).

Blur went to Goldsmiths and were holed up in a squat south of the river. Despite his anti-Blair tendencies Damon is apparently now back in the Labour fold - or at least backing Ken, who guested on Blur track Ernold Sane earlier in pop-time. Other alumnae include the last pre-1997 Labour Home Secretary Merlyn Rees and artist Damien Hirst.

I’m sure Beatrice’s student surroundings will be a better bet than the damp-ridden rodent-infested hovels controlled by Rachmanite landlords that the rest of us had to make do with but hasn’t anyone told her that Goldsmiths is in New Cross not Belgravia?

Labour Home have an audience with Livingstone next week. Send in your questions to the man himself here:

http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/4/19/83619/9076#8

As Gordon Brown flies back to blighty speculation continues about his recent less-than-satisfactory poll ratings and how to reverse this, this Indpendent column from Mathew Norman suggests that he “do a Sarkozy” and marry one-time Orange book prize judge Lilly Allen or even Konnie Huq as a way to restore his fortunes. Norman is apparently Press Association columnist of the year. The advice to ditch Sarah must be a joke although it comes about 20 days too late to be an April fools story. I can only conclude that it’s in keeping the with the desire of the Indy’s new editor to jazz the paper up a bit. Clearly this would be a daft move and out of character with the PM’s pronouncements against the cult of celebrity. A rethink on the abolition of the 10p tax band for the lowest paid in our society however might not be such a bad idea though.

There was another Mayoral Debate yesterday on ITV’s London Tonight  yesterday but I missed it and reckon this morsel from the same programme last year is of more interest.

In case you missed it: “He’s fumbling all over the place.”

Sad news this morning of the death of longest serving woman Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody here and here. The biog from her website is here.

According to my 1984 Smash Hits annual which I have recently re-discovered today is the day that

- Billy Fury was born in 1941

- Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) entered this world in 1955

- Eddie Cochran was killed in a car-crash in 1959

Smash Hits was a brilliant publication in the 80s with its razor sharp wit and incisive penetrating journalism. Writers included future Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant, features were on things like how many ’O'Levels pop stars possessd (Howard Jones had the most) and the rock-against-Thatcher project Red Wedge.  

The mag has since been axed but it’s contribution to the character of the nation’s contemporary media can be seen here in the Independent which has a Smash Hits style Q and A with the ex-Islamist Ed Husain. These boys are doing well with their confessionals. Another has a yet another BBC show out next week. The Indy interview does not sadly have the standard Smash Hits Q+A question “Does Your Mother Play Golf?”

Many happy returns to Pete.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but yesterday night BBC London region was treated to the third televisual ding-dong between Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone and PC Plod. The first was refereed by Konnie Huq, the third saw Jeremy Paxman grill the three and this latest one had Andrew Neil as question-master. Country cousins you didn’t miss much: it was the dullest of the three and if you are still not put-off by that you can watch it here.

Brian Paddick smiled a bit more than last time, maybe because someone told him how stony-faced he appeared for Paxo. The fact that there were no candidate opening statements unlike with the other two meant that he couldn’t fluff his lines again. I agree with LabourHome who said of last week’s performance that he has about as much in common with the average LibDem as Norman Tebbit (except maybe ex-Tory Nick Clegg - see below). Boris J looked as embarassingly shambolic and skew-whiff as ever attempting to play to the gallery with populist soundbites on crime and Ken was just Ken. Honest, straight, likeable, take-it-or-leave-it Ken. I doubt it changed a single audience vote as the baying crowd looked like they were all there to cheer on their faves and jeer their opponents.

Finally this cover from Friday’s Tribune is a corker. For people who weren’t around at the time, it’s revenge of the lefties from the Sun from polling day in 1992 that later led to the grammatically challenged headline “it’s the sun Wot Won It”. Sadly Tribune doesn’t have the same sized circulation to decide the whole outcome but let’s hope it jolts people into action. A Boris-led London would be a disaster.

Niggly point: they should’ve made it an enviro-friendly lightbulb.

I remember wondering at the time of the Lib Dem leadership contest (i) how it was managing to be even duller than the Labour one even though there were twice as many competitors and (ii) whether Clegg had come from the SDP or Liberal wing of the party. Nobody seemed to know (or care much). The answer is not that he was too young to have been in either but that in 1986 he was a Conservative. If you don’t believe me it’s here in the Torygraph, substantiated by erstwhile Newsnight performer Guido Fawkes himself. Having CUCA on his CV would have helped secure Clegg’s past employment for Leon Brittan.

In the meantime here in the Indy it is alleged that Florida style shenangigans occured in the Lib Dem’s agonisingly prolonged contest last year. A pile of postal votes were only later unearthed. Their inclusion would have meant victory for ex-SDP and Labour party member Chris Huhne. Does this explain Clegg’s physical resemblance to Cameron and why he has not ruled out jumping into bed with the Tory toff if needed to? I know that the man has had a promiscuous past but this news is worse than those revelations. The tag “Calamity Clegg” seems to be not without foundation.

The in-house fave of the Tory party the Daily Telegraph is reporting that if an election were to be held today Margaret Thatcher at the height of her powers would romp home. There seems to be a fair bit of supposition there with “if” liberally sprinkled about but the story is based on YouGov poll findings.

The Torygraph is also offering freebie Thatch DVDs this week - pass the sick bucket. As someone who remembers Labour members spending 18 years trying to get her out of Downing Street (back-seat driving or otherwise) I personally found it questionable that Brown chose to pose with a shocking pink clad Lady T outside number 10 after his passage to power last year. It obviously had the Tories hopping mad though. Initially they condemned it as exploitation by the PM of someone who’s marbles aren’t all there anymore. Nonethless Cameron who has made his career on apeing Tony Blair later posed with the Iron Lady, not to be outdone by  Brown.

I always think it’s good to see what the enemy is thinking so would recommend the mini Thatcher site the paper has set up in homage to their most electorally successful twentieth century premier which includes cartoons and timeline. She’s not even dead yet so such treatment for a living being is high praise indeed even if it’s not exactly from objective quarters.  Go on I dare you, have a peruse, if only to remind yourself how fortunate we are to be rid of that lot.

According to the NME Roger Waters of 60s/70s prog rockers Pink Floyd reckons Hilary Clinton in the White House would lead to the invasion of Iran. He also declares“I would buy a whole page in The New York Times and fly Obama’s flag. But I would be terribly afraid they’d go, ‘this is that pinkoshitbag who’s attacking our President in a time of war’.” Fellow British aristoRock-racy mermber Elton John has meanwhile nailed his colours to the Hillary mast and slammed the yanks for misogyny.

I’ve also been impressed by Obama but is it Waters’ place to stick his beak in though? What next? Rick Wakeman banging the drum for third term for Berlusconi? As for Mr John, raking in a coupla mill for the Clinton campaign, is going even further in my estimation. He is also allegedly backing the supposedly LibDem PC Plod for Mayor. There’s no accounting for taste. The late great Syd Barrett would never have made any clumsy intervention like this.

A beheaded life-size shrubbery version of the drummer can be seen here. The act of criminal damage, carried out by vandals over the weekend, is is being investigated. It sems that this is the price Ringo paid for the faux pas of dissing his home-city on the Jonathan Ross show. Buffoon Boris has also slagged off Liverpool in his time (as well as offending Portsmouth and Papua New Guinea in similar foot-in-mouth outbursts) but as far as I know there are no any foliage scupltures in existence of the Henley moptop to take an axe to.

I’m sure the world and his wife are blogging yesterday’s Newsnight mayoral debate today. Dunno what their squillions of non-London viewers made of it all but I suppose our great capital is significant enough to command all the attention. No real surprises content-wise. Under pressure from Paxman, Ken said that he’s rather Brian than Boris. PC Paddick ungenerously refused to return the compliment. Is this a return to the earlier Lib Dem policy of “equidistance” from the big two that was ditched by Paddy Ashdown when he said an anti-Tory coalition needed to eject Major from power? Certainly Corporal Clegg seems to be veering back in that direction. 

I found myself fairly underwhelmed by it all but I thought Ken’s opening gambit was best of the bunch and he handled the questions most convincingly. Having seen him speak in the flesh at the recent Unite Against Fascism conference and hold the audience in rapt attention I have to say he really he is the man. This vote Ken4London broadcast not yet aired on tv follows the trend begun with the Hugh Hudson directed chariots of Kinnock PPB which was groundbreaking for just presenting a politician in a likeable way; no bashing you on across the head diagramatic stats, no quasi-scientific Open University style patronising bits.

And if you really are stuck this useful tool from Unlock Democracy has statements that you click on then it collates the responses and spews out who best represents your views. It’s changed a little since I had a go yesterday and came out with a dream (?) ticket combination of Ken/Green/Paddick but you can still give it a spin by clicking here then on “start vote match”. 

Have been a bit tardy in posting of late and it’s probably a bit “after the horse has bolted” to do Torchgate but it does seem my period of inactivity has been mirrored by record hits so…

On Sunday I was hosting a party to felicitate my little lad turning from a three year old to a four year old so while the eyes of the world were on the torch relay I was faciliating pass the parcel. I sensed something was up when I kept getting “Is Konnie ok?” type texts from various quarters. After the kiddies had gone I turned on the box to find wall to wall scuffles on all the news channels. What can we conclude from all this? Well the plight of the Tibetans and the appaling record of China on human rights is now a major talking point in this country which it wasn’t before. Although Konnie didn’t do it in a “Free Tibet” t-shirt I must point out, it was snowing that day in London. It was a torch of the Olympic games not the Chinese regime. Let’s not confuse the two.

Socks-gate, Ken-gate, the phone-in fiasco, when Konnie met Tony and now this. The modern lot of the Blue Peter presenter has moved on from when making space-ships outta double sided sticky taped loo-rolls represented complexity. On the recent Foreign Office delegation to Bangladesh, only two of the six who went from the UK had undergone the rigorous “hostile environment training” that the FCO requires for dangerous missions: the manadrin who accompanied us and Konnie Huq who’d gotten it via Blue Peter. Presenters these days have to be toughies and deal with situations never anticipated when the elephant pooed on the studio floor, like potential plane hijacking, kidnapping and military coups.

As Chris Paul describes over at his he and I not only met up with her but cadged a lift off Huq junior yesterday. She is en plein forme as the French would say. Long live the ideals of Olympic harmony, tolerance and peace. As for the autocratic Chinese government they need to start applying the same values to their own citizens; that includes oppressed minorities in Tibet, the Falun Gong, the Uyghur and doubtless countless others.

I was reminded of the Sex Pistols’ “Holidays in the Sun” when I heard via Labour Home  that Blue Peter is offering a trip to the Olympics in China as a competition prize. The main hook of the song, you may remembe , went “a cheap holiday in other people’s misery”. In the meantime former presenter Konnie Huq has courageously voiced her opposition to the treatment of Tibetan pro-democracy protestors by the Chinese regime. The story has been all over the place including CommentisFree but my favourite treatment of it was this version here in the Calcutta Telegraph.

Two posts out at the weekend in the FT and Times speculate on how the Indian restaurant industry (largely run by Bangladeshis) is feeling the pinch in the face of the credit crisis. It seems a long way from 10 years ago when the late Robin Cook declared that the popularity of chicken tikka masala over fish and chips had made it the national dish. Rising prices of foodstuffs (which was big news in Bangladesh when I was there recently), tightened immigration legislation and more discerning national eating habits are all factors. Bright red tandoori chicken seems just a tad out of step with a world in which “no artificial colours and preservatives” is supposed to be a recommendation.

The latter piece includes the following which is amusing, if a bit harsh:

My parents are from that part of the world and I can tell you that my Mum has never sat me down in front of a balti or a chicken tikka masala and a pint of Cobra. These dishes were invented in Britain for a British market and perpetuate the myth that all curries are hot, greasy and cause flatulence. “Balti” actually means “bucket”, which says everything you need to know about the quality of the slop being served up.

In the meantime it’s ages since I recall any politician described as having “fire in their belly”. It was commonly said of Neil Kinnock who coincidentally had some scrapes at local curry houses in his time (mentioned in passing here). Those were the days. Can’t see a discreet dinner at the now defunt Granita having the same effect myself.

…has a thing by me on p31. It’s on racism in the mainstream music industry. It’s also just gone up on Comment is Free so the slew of usual nutter comments can’t be too far behind. Here is the link:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/rupa_huq/2008/03/paint_it_black.html

Pictures speak louder than words so thought I would alert you to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wBd_kXhKM0More is to go up later on the Foreign Office You Tube channel including various bits of reportage from Konnie.

By way of a reply to people who were asking about how British-Bangladeshis are perceived by Bangladeshis in Bangladesh this has just gone up on Comment is Free.

I personally get the sense that there can be a tendency to blanket all of “the west” together by some Bangladeshis in Bangladesh. Apparently when the Danish cartoons row errupted the British High Commission in Dhaka was the site of protests.

Just re-adjusting to the climate and time zone of blighty after last week’s Bangladesh adventure as part of the Foreign Office delegation I served on. Lots of stuff happened in the space of 4 days. I distributed a couple of box-fulls of Kingston University biros to students in schools and universities we went to, so if there is a sudden surge of overseas applicants from Bangladesh it may be not unconnected.

The last day saw us observe an army-run voter registration centre on the outskirts of Dhaka. Interesting to see hordes of people swarming around to enrol with the carrot of getting … da da… an ID card which entitles the bearer to public services. A more detailed post by me on this is here on the FCO blog.

Gossipy aside: Konnie got repeatedly stopped in the street in Sylhet during the half hour we looked around the shops there by people recognising her from Blue Peter and then again at Sylhet airport.

As for talking about “back to…”, this report here says that teachers want a return back to the 80s which are being harked as a golden age because there was no such thing as phonics. There might have been some decent music around but politically the decade when greed was good surely sucked.

Hopefuly something will be up here later today on what I’ve been up to this week.

Am outta the office this week. Details to follow hopefuly tommorow sometime.

Meant to do a post this time last week on the BBC’s “white” season which was launched with a Newsnight Nick Griffin interview (see Pickled Politics) and lo and behold it’s ending tonight. Where does the time go? The season has attracted critics including the SWP who reckon it’s quasi BNP propaganda. I’ve not caught that much of it but find it a curious idea to have a season about the indigenous “majority” and paint them as under threat somehow. I hope to tune in to tonight’s installment which is a profile of Barking. I used to know the area reasonably well having done an empirical chunk of my PhD there on “Barking youth” while I was based at UEL’s Cultural studies department which was there at the time (University East of London anyone?).

Talking of which there is an anti BNP day of action in Dagenham tommorow (same London borough). The associated Hope Not Hate website is here. More details of anti-racist activity on all over London this weekend can be found here with Barking and Dagenham at the top.

Most Labour people have never had a soft spot for the Evening Standard, London’s Evening paper. It was not for nothing that Neil Kinnock in the 80s said that it should be recipient of the “one-legged chicken award for balance”. More recently Ken Livingstone christened the rag the “Evening Boris” for their covreage of the mayoral race and now on their website of today they have a story that equates Amy Winehouse’s state of mind with some rubbish dumped outside her Camden pad. Scrabbling around in famous people’s bins for a story really is scraping the barrel.

Last week in a first year sociology lecture I did on “the mass media”, we featured an input from distinguished Professor of Journalism, ex-Independent, ex-Observer and current New Statesman columnist Brian Cathcart who outlined what he called the “vanishing newspaper theory” in a video killed the radio star way, as he explored the relationship between the press and the web. We have a situation where the Audit Bureau of Circulation registers plummeting circulations and if sales stabilise editors hold a party. Readers are bribed to remain with endless give-aways. If this is the best the Standard can do while they are challenged all all sides including freebie papers in the capital, they deserve to have readers leaving in droves.

It might not be quite on the scale of Guido Fawkes being outed by the Guradian’s Micheal White on Newsnight in a replay of Mathew Parris outing Mandelson on the same programme, but “controversial” regular commenter to this blog Mix Together and purveyor of the Mix Together blog has exposed himself to Auntie beeb. On News 24’s “Your News” this week he came clean as a bloke called Ashley who runs a website to promote inter-ethnic relationships based on his own experiences of being and not being in mixed couples. The programme was aired on Sunday so if you are quick with the iplayer you have 5 days to sample MixTogether’s mission statement, holiday snaps and partner captured on camera. The whole thing, as it happens, is book-ended by one ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq who does the links from her hometown of Ealing - also known as “Queen” of the suburbs, which is quite appropriate if we’re taking about outing…

 More thoughts in the aftermath of Saturday’s Unite Against Fascist meeting.

This is a grim year of anniversaries for the anti-racist struggle. It is 30 years since the 1978 battle of Lewisham stand-off between the then National Front and anti-racist protesters that gave rise to the first Anti-Nazi League carnival of that year in East London’s Victoria Park. People with memories stretching further back will note that it was in 1968 that Enoch Powell uttered the shameful ‘rivers of blood’ that got him exiled from mainstream politics and sealed his reputation as the nation’s best known racist politician.

Regarding more recent history, next month will mark the 15th anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s murder by a racist gang who to this day remain free - despite the best efforts of the unlikely ally of the Daily Mail.

Anti-racism today is just as relevant as in any of these earlier eras. But we need to go further than simply having the ‘right’, ie correct, groups on our Facebook profiles and make sure that we keep the pressure on the fascists and drive them from county hall and the town halls in which they have a presence, which the documentation in the accompanying conference pack demonstrated is an alarmingly high number across the country.

The rest of this appears at the Progress website here.

Have just written this as a news story for Friday’s Tribune. Should be self-explanatory and explain my absence from Labour’s Spring conference over the weekend:

Some 500 delegates gathered over the course of the day on Saturday 1^st March at Congress House in central London for United Against Fascism’s national conference. Keynote speakers warned against the threat of having BNP London Assembly members elected at this May’s elections. The message was to maximise the popular vote to prevent the fascists getting a toehold or even possibly as many as two or three elected representatives in City Hall on May 6^th, given that the PR system is generous to small parties.

The opening plenary included a number of big hitters from across the Labour movement and beyond. Daud Abdullah of the Muslim Council of Britain, who have had their government funding scaled back, was among those on the platform. The point was much made how for the connotations of “Muslim” in racist folklore today we can substitute “black/Asian” in the 50s/60s/ 70s or “Jews” at the turn of the century. Steve Hart of Unite TGWU gave an impassioned plea from a historical perspective of previous moments in anti-fascist struggles spanning Lewisham and Southall while the TUC’s Brendan Barber managed to combine thoughtful comment with the most memorable soundbite of the day. Alluding to the BNP tendency to appear suited and booted these days he said “they may wear Armani but their inspiration is still Mussolini.”MPs Emily Thornberry and Jon Cruddas too delivered rousing addresses. Thornberry highlighted the anti-women tendencies of the BNP and Cruddas spoke from his experiences as MP for Dagenham which is often dubbed “the racist capital of the UK”. Warmest response of the morning however was reserved for Mayor Ken Livingstone who had brought his baby-sitting with him. Speaking without notes he underlined the solidarity shown by Londoners in the face of the 7/7 attacks and the way that “business as usual” prevailed whereas in other world cities rioting would have followed.

In breakout groups subjects such as no platform policies for the BNP on campus, mobilising faith communities and the Love Music Hate Racism (UAF sister organisation) carnival in East London’s Victoria Park on 27^th April were approached in a practical manner, with all delegates leaving energised as the next chapter of the fight begins.

Today the government’s new points-based Ozzie-styled style immigration system comes into force. The gist is a tightening of Visa requirements for entrants of non-EU nation states prioritising the highly skilled. As Brucie, whose knighthood is being clamoured for as we speak, used to put it: what do points make? Points make prizes.” However restaurant chefs rank low in the points-scheme. According to industry insiders the new regime could mean the ruin of the UK curry industry which contributes a healthy whack to the national economy. That’s 80,000 people employed in 10,000 restuarants worth £3.5 billion per anum.

The Red Hot Curry article gets in a pop at Eastern Europeans implying that the Polish are better suited to unblocking toilets than creating “Indian” delicacies. A restauarateur interviewed by the Bucks Free Press concurrs: “The Government are telling us to employ local people, but when you try to employ Polish people you find they can’t make a chapatti” and in the Times the head honcho of Brick Lane’s Cafe Naz says: “I tried to employ a Polish man in my restaurant. He didn’t last the week. It’s… very hard work, and when he got home his girlfriend complained he smelled of curry.”

Yet this shouldn’t be about competing ethnic groups. Stuff in Indian restauarants is served up by Bengalis and was concieved in the UK to appease the western palatte. It’s now part of British national culture. The late Robin Cook cited Chicken Tikka Masala as the UK’s national dish and at the time it was calculated that sales of it (including the microwavable ready meal versions) were outselling fish and chips by a huge margin. 

Effects of this new crackdown have also been felt in Birmingham’s curry triangle, Scotland and (just like the burning of Jade Goody effigies) been reported in India. This country has been greatly enriched by world cuisines yet surely the answer to a bleak future where the Goodness Gracious Me “going for an English” becomes reality would be more training in catering via NVQs and other elements of the formal qualifications framework that accomodate the diversity of cooking in the current UK. A reclassification of cooking to accept it as a skilled activity would also be welcome although there are additional hurdles of language proficiency that new entrants must demonstrate. Such obstacles should not be relevant to the second generatoin but according to Rajman Sarker cooking is not considered cool by them: “The younger generation are not interested in tradition at all and people born in this country would prefer to work in Tesco and not follow the family business.”

Aside from the Tescopoly issues here, perhaps Jamie can lend a hand to dispel these myths?

This story in today’s indie is enough to make that post-bargain glow that infuses you after having boaght a £9 pair of jeans fade pretty fast. The trail has been traced to Bangladesh. Good on them for keeping up this story.

Sunny has some pictures up of the Save Southall Black sisters protest last night here. It was my first demo in ages and my three year old added his voice to the chanting (including “Jason Stacey - come on out” which sounded like some gay issue but there you go). Spotted as well as Mr Hundal: Ranjit Dheer (Labour GLA candidate for Ealing and Hillingdon), Yvonne Johnson Labour PPC for Ealing Acton in the ill-fated 1992 General Election and my ward councillor Phil Taylor (Con, Northfield) shuffling into the meeting. They only let 80 into the meeting so I didn’t make it but weirdly I did literally bump into coun Stacey on the way out of the building earlier that afternoon. I tried to raise the subject but he said nothing had been decided at that point.

Drummers. They’re always the slightly ker-ay-zee ones in the group aren’t they? Ringo said he wore so many rings because he couldn’t fit them up his nose, Keith Moon was a self-confessed loon, Stuart Copeland pulled those wacky throwing-his-sticks-aloft stunts in Police vids and now Dave, the one who pounds the skins in Blur has been selected as Labour prospective parliamentary candidate in Westminster. He could be the PM’s MP amongst other things. I know Dave Rowntree as he’s on the editorial board of Labour Home with me. He’s a top bloke; thoughtful with sound politics who’s these days tea-total and training to be a barrister. Although the seat is traditionally seen as safe Tory 1997 showed us that there is no such thing as a safe seat in modern politics and the fame factor may count with the youth vote. Weirder things have happened. Parliament needs to reflect diversity. Who knows? We could get the first honourable member to have done Top of the Pops the same week as Oasis out of it.

> —–Original Message—–

Pickled Politics reports details of a picket at 7pm Ealing Town Hall tonite to protest against the Tory council’s plan to cut funding to pivotal pressure group Southall Black Sisters. This is typical of Ealing’s Conservative administration who only seem bothered about pouring money into the marginal wards of Ealing who delivered them the council while rock solid Labour-voting Southall is starved of facilities to do this. Short notice I know but the more the merrier. Let’s hope the powers that be can reverse this regrettable and short-sighted decision.

I addressed a seminar held by the Barrow Cadbury Trust not long ago. You may have seen a letter from dynamic chief exec Sukhvinder Stubbs in Saturday’s Guardian urging a rethink on government policy on citizenship. She is quoted again here at the Economist. The piece is on the “social glue” of community cohesion. It’s not the most elegant of terms and the concept itself has taken a battering in various ways recently from quarters involving the anti-arcbishop brigade and in recent comments by the Bishop of Rochester.

The Economist’s article claims that swimming pools are the new battleground of multicultural Britain. Muslim exclusionists are blamed for this but my pal David T has sounded off about the matter (in the Jewish Chronicle no less) after being denied a family swim and being told that Jewish and Muslims have been responsible for the single sex swimming policy at his local baths in Hackney. Good to see one issue that these two can unite I suppose but they could pick their fights better. David T describes a conversation with pool staff:

The main movers for prime time single sex swimming were the Hassidic jews. She was not racist, she stressed: but they had the advantage of being able to run an effective community-based letter-writing campaign, and of organising politically around the issue.

Fine, I said. And what would the policy be if a group of racists decided that “sensitivity” to their cultural preferences resulted in a whites only swimming session? Why should a public institution subsidise the expression, in a public place, of the gender apartheid practice mandated by a small religious minority at all?

She laughed.

In the meantime the BCT have been doing some really interesting work of late. Findings published by them late last year caused quite a splash by predicting that Birmingham, Slough and Luton are set to follow Leicester by becoming towns where there is no white (or any) majority before long. There could be a dozen such towns by 2020. Has anyone told the still defiant Bishop of Rochester though?

What a shame, if it is indeed true, that David Cameron politely declined his invite to last night’s Brit Awards ceremony. I imagine he was fearing a Chumbawamba meets John Prescott moment, or for those with longer memories, a possible twentyfirst century re-run of Norman Tebbit (then industry secretary) being booed off. It worked wonders for Blair in 1996 though. This US commentator says  In the mushy discourse of charisma, the Tony Blair of the mid 1990s had given many young Britons the greatest reason for hope. Part of this was due to the well-manicured ties Blair and his made-over New Labour camp kept with the nation’s most credible pop stars.

Instead last night was pretty dull. Paul McCartney did not dedicate his lifetime achievement award to Linda, as had been rumoured, or denounce private schools (see post below with Molesworth-like title). The pantomime dame that is Amy Winehouse did not self combust in her two goes at the mic. She did her best to prove that she is a woman of substance (when she is mostly known as a woman of substances) but her comment bigging up her husband was largely drowned out in the general cacophonous mellee.

It’s a shame Dave, as a well known pop fan and Smiths admirer was not there (I’ll not use the phrase “bottled it” as it’s so unbecoming). We can only speculate how the awards might have had that missing wow factor if he was. 

PS How do you manicure a tie?

No it’s not a drink but an old expression for Anglo French relations, set to suffer (according to some) as a result of this - a new Mister Man called Mr Rude who’s flatulent, malodorous and speaks with a French accent. Mon dieu. Will this faux pas from Channel 5 and Roger Hargreaves’ lad Adam, who has taken over penning the stories, dent the special relationship between Blair and Sarko? According to the Today programme this morning other EU leaders noteably Angela Merkel are less keen on Blair’s bid for the EU Presidency than Monsieur Le President of France. TB needs him on side and can’t afford the Mister Men to become a diplomatic incident and scupper it.

In the meantime what new Mister Man/Little Miss would you like to see and who should such characters be modelled on?

Word will have reached you of this by now I imagine. Around these parts the p word is serious indeed. Kingston University’s policy is here.

Furthermore according to this Obama’s phrase “yes we can” is a translation of “Si, se puede” - the 1972 chant of the United Farm Workers.

And there was me thinking it was nicked from Bob the Builder (click here for a link to the natty pyjamas).

This time it’s a LibDem who’s crossed the floor to Labour in Manchester, or more precisely Longsight (a ward in which I lived for 6 years). It’s not just Respect who are in freefall then. The Tory total on the council incidentally is still just one (another Lib Dem defector from Jan 08). To think until 1987 they had a parliamentary seat (in Withington). Seems unimaginable now.

Anyone following this blog, my Tribune columns and other web outpourings will know I’m parti-pris when it comes to Respect (can’t stand them) so I was amused to see that another of their councillors in their Tower Hamlets powerbase has defected. This one has not “come home to Labour” but done a political somersault to join the Tories, after it seems having a few wobblies on the way.

The news was broken in blogland among others by Chris Paul and Dave Osler who both link to earlier ruminations of theirs that foretold all this - respectively here and here. As long-time LBTH Unison man Jon Gray asks pertinently: “Why is it that absolutely anything that Galloway touches eventually falls to pieces?” The defection means that the Conservatives are now the main opposition group in a borough where there are many oppositions including the Lib Dems who used to rule the roost in the 90s. I think all this adds up to the fact that Respect are now, to mix metaphors and use a Lib Dem analogy, as dead as a deceased parrot. The borough is clearly changing. Not long ago it was a Tory free zone, now they are creeping into the southern bit.

It would be fair if the defector Ahmed Hussian resigned to fight a by-election and seek a legitimate mandate. But just as calls for Gurcharan Singh and his mates in Ealing fell of deaf ears I bet he won’t. Even the example of Dick Taverne who did resign from the Commons in 1973 after leaving Labour to sucessfuly fight a by-election was out on his ear a year later. There was a Facebook group and Downing Street e-petition to get the Southall councillors to resign. There should be the same for this bloke.

Finally the source of this bombshell of a story is the East London Advertiser’s Ted Jeory, the sharpest political hack of the local reporter pack. His “Trial by Jeory” column is the first thing most politically inclined folk in the TH turn to on a Friday. Give this man a Fleet Street slot someone (or whatever the 21st century equivalent of the Street of Shame is).

Am on the front page of www.guardian.co.uk for this Comment is Free article. Look under “Stephen Lawrence centre vandalised”. Not sure for how long.

The usual tide of complaints is flooding in so feel free to rush to my defence if you are able to. 

Latest installment of Mills v McCartney saga seems to be a fight over whether Beatrice should go to private school or not with Macca dead against.

Private education, in his estimation, “messes up” children and he hopes Beatrice would gain from being grounded by the experience of state schooling. Sir Paul has told friends how his other children had “certainly turned out all right”.

Is the fact that one is a fashion designer, another a photographer and the third “working in the music industry” an indication of other resources available to them (cultural capital)? I imagine it wasn’t a sink school/bog-standard comp that they attended and that the McCartney brand must have helped rather than hindered their passage in life.

All this comes hot on the heels of George Osborne’s U-turn in withdrawing his kids from the state primary for a £11k a year per head private school - a move condemned by bloggers such as Mike Ion and Recess Monkey. The comments thread on the Telegraph piece on it mainly consists of colonel blimp type saying it doesn’t matter a jot whether they go.

Although I recognise that the “setting an example” argument could apply in the Osborne case, I always got used to the idea that Tories did think themselves above the schools that the vast majority send our kids to. It is more shocking when Labour politicians choose to buy their way out of the state sector as happened with Diane Abbott amongst others. In my view the main aspect of private schools that needs immediately reforming is their charitable status. Many have huge endowments and they seem to be all engaged in a huge tax dodge. 

Anyway surely the issue is grammar schools and how they continue to create elitism within the state sector and practice nothing short of educational apartheid: a child’s future determined by an exam sat the age of sometimes just 10. It may not be a big issue in metropolitan areas but in Chesham and Amersham one of the best organised and most vocal pressure groups is “Bucks Parents for Comprehensive Education”. In my book New Labour has been pretty timid on this one, serving up an inscrutable system requiring a ridiculously high threshold to even get held dressed up as “parental choice”. Phasing out these schools would not even cost a single Labour seat in the county of Buckinghamshire.

My three year old will hopefuly start at the local authority primary this September myself, if he gets in. It’s massively oversubscribed and the catchment area seems to be shrinking as people purchase property (or even temporarily rent) to get their offspring in. It’s another (covert) form of selection (by house-price) which maintains educational inequalities - something that Labour is officially against.

David Miliband has remarked that the EU might not be able to afford Tony Blair as President. Ex French-PM Edouard Balladur reckons he is not right for the role even if

“He certainly has great qualities - flexibility, rapidity and a feeling for how to communicate.”

Meanwhile according to the Independent Konnie has apparently turned down half a million quid to model for Playboy as it wouldn’t create the right impression for her as a family entertainer. Her agent said other mags were also in touch “But Konnie is just not interested.” Would such an assignment be of (a) the appropriate skill-set and more to the point (b) enough dosh to tempt Tone though?

Smiths guitarist Jonnny Marr is to become a prof at Salford University.  As someone on a rather more lowly rung of the academic ladder, I’d like to congratulate him on his entry to the professoriat. This is not a case of dumbing down in any way, shape or form - the Smiths were always the most intelligent of the indie bunch in the 80s in so small part due to Marr’s exhaustive knowledge of the fretboard. I hope that Salford will give him the space to develop some exciting courses. A BA or BMus in Smiths content, meaning and form in terms of aesthetics, musicology and lyrical contribution could straddle the composition and social aspects of them. It’d be a model of inter-disciplinarity and should recruit well including from the golden goose category of international students. Can’t see Professor Marr* wearing patches on his elbows myself though.

* Interesting fact, his real name was Maher but he changed it not to be confused with theBuzzcocks drummer John Maher

Got an invite to a Facebook group, from an MP no less, sometime last year called “Irritated by the Mindless Love of Barack Obama” which inexplicably had a pic of Andy Burnham next to the message. I ignored this piece of out-and-out negative campaigning at the time and now note the honourable member in question is no longer part of it. As Barack Hussein O edges closer to the Democrat nomination unsurprisingly people are leaving in droves. The bumpf is pasted below.

Meanwhile Burnham as first among equals is not that unlikely - particularly now that he has a seat at the cabinet table, although he doesn’t seem to have won over everyone with his recent Question Time appearance - not Paul Linford or Spoof Akehurst anyway.

It’s all conducted by text these days apparently including trying to woo exes back. At least it has been alleged this is the case chez les Sarkozys.

This week has seen a fair few negatively presented Muslim flavoured news generalisations in the usual way that one has become accustomed to. Abu Hamza to face extradition, sentences handed out to 21/7 bungling bombers and to round it off Phil Woolas raising “the elephant in room” issue of marriage to first cousins that continues in some Pakistani families on the cover of the Sunday Times. The unfortunate headline is “Minister warns of ‘inbred’ Muslims,” when there is a genuine debate being aired here.

In the meantime the Archbishop of Canterbury, who also thought he was raising a subject for debate, is facing resignation after his much remarked on remarks from his lecture on Thursday. Blanket media coverage of the reactions reminds me of when Diana died or 9/11. There seems to have been nothing else in the news for ages. A commenter to this blog asked why I’d not posted on this. I’m penning a column (900 worder) for  Tribune as we speak which covers the matter amongst other things. It’ll be out on Friday. Subscription details are here.

If you’ve been keeping a close eye on the columns of the Independent  and Torygraph lately you’ll have seen the name Mark McDonald pop up. He’s also been on the websites of Sky News and the daily current affairs organ the First post . To top it all the news website of the beeb which is one of the world’s best regarded URLs has featured him. As my cousins in Bangladesh used to say “we listen to the BBC when we want to hear the truth”.

So why all the attention? First up as someone who knows hom personally I can say that he’s an all-round good egg. He was broaght up by a single mum on a council estate in Birmingham. Mark built on his background as an NHS ancilliary nurse for many years by becoming a mature student and is now a human rights barrister and former Labour PPC (ran against Ed Vaizey at the last General Election).  The media interest is because, as readers of Labour Home will know, Mark is running for the Labour Party treasurership. The incumbent happens to be Jack Dromey ie Mr Harriet Harman.

The Guardian’s Backbencher column comments “Maybe he’ll ask Harriet’s advice on how he can tighten up Labour’s dodgy finances… But the Backbencher has a feeling that Jack may be just the human sacrifice that Gordon has been waiting for.”

Alex over at Labour Home points out though “This isn’t an attack on Jack Dromey, who has held the post for four years. Neither is Mark’s candidacy a confrontation with the party hierarchy. It is meant as an illustration to the party that it can benefit from the constructive co-operation of regular party members at every level.”

Politics needs its tarnished reuptation restoring, particularly in the Labour Party after cash for peerages, dodgy donations etc. As a cobweb busting exercise a new treasurer would send a powerful signal, particularly someone of the callibre of Mark. There is an inevitable Facebook group as Chris Paul has pointed out.

Although on paper the unions have a great deal of sway and Dromey is seen as a union man, I get the feel that a lot of the rank and file, like the voters of America, would welcome a bit of change in the Labour Party. Apparently the post is traditionally unopposed however democracies thrive on contests. The situation has been described as a David and Goliath one but stranger things have happened.

Finally as any keen follower of 20th century sociological developments will know, McDonaldisation is a theory of George Ritzer that updates Weber’s theory of rationalisation and bureaucracy with an analogy to the burger giant. One of its key features is “efficiency”, which is greatly�