Rupert's Read

Check this piece out, along similar lines to those I myself have penned and pointed out previously, on this blog: http://www.leftfootforward.org/2009/10/tory-mep-confuses-science-with-faith/

The case for equality is overwhelming. So what policy-instuments do we need, to make it happen? I advocate the following two, as key parts of the process: • A maximum income differential in percentage terms between boss and lowest-paid employee in each company. And the differential should be narrowed in percentage terms each year. It should never be allowed to grow in absolute terms at all. (Similar laws, though just slightly less radical, are in place right now in (e.g.) Denmark.) • Wage rises should be on a cash-amount basis, not a percentage basis. In other words, everyone in a given organisation would get the same wage rise, each year, in monetary terms. Over time, this would reduce the percentage difference between high and low earning employees very considerably, and eventually might make it trivial. The beauty of my proposals (you need both, because the second one only applies if there is an actual wage/salary _rise_, which in a recession there is not nece...

Important stuff here from the Sustainable Development Commission, in line with arguments that I have made previously on this blog: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/redefining-prosperity.html Synopsis - Prosperity without Growth? The economy is geared, above all, to economic growth. Economic policy in the current recession is all about returning to growth - but an economic crisis can be an opportunity for some basic rethinking and restructuring. Two objectives other than growth - sustainability and wellbeing - have moved up the political and policy-making agenda in recent years, challenging the overriding priority traditionally given to economic growth. SDC's "Redefining Prosperity" project has looked into the connections and conflicts between sustainability, growth, and wellbeing. This project has now resulted in a major SDC report: 'Prosperity without Growth?: the transition to a sustainable economy' by Professor Tim Jackson, SDC's Economics Commissioner...

Check out Left Foot Forward piece rebutting the right wing press reports on the new Green Fiscal Commission results:  http://www.leftfootforward.org/2009/10/revenue-neutral-green-taxes-have-public-support/

We mustn't help help fascists to look like victims, for, the reason that most people vote BNP is that they feel like victims, feel marginalised etc. . So it is important not to make the BNP look like their Party. The positive answer is community organising, proposing an alternative vision that has anti-racism and internationalism at its heart, etc. . That is what we need to be doing: not wasting time - in fact, counter-productively - trying to deny the BNP their 15 seconds of fame. This is what I myself have already been trying to do for years in fact, and especially in the elections I ran for this year.

'No Platform' is dead. We need to smell the coffee of political reality. And then celebrate the fact that the vast majority of the 8 million who saw Griffin on Thursday night saw an embarrassing / appalling car-crash performance by him. That needs to be continued and redoubled. The man and his ilk can be stuffed even more thoroughly than he/they were on Thursday night, in future debates, e.g. with us Greens. His endless lies need to be endlessly exposed to the cold light of truth. What we must not do is turn Griffin into a victim and martyr. The most likely way one would do that is by saying that he has no right to speak at all, even when he was (I'm afraid) elected.