International

I've been updating my PowerPoint presentations for the next module I'm teaching on Public Services at work, International Perspectives. It can be incredibly tough to judge just how much or how little you show students about situations like Darfur, Kosovo and Iraq. Some of the images of war and the Human Rights abuses that have occurred are too explicit, but you can't hide the reality of some of the awful things that go on in our world. What I am trying to do is to balance that with some of positive things that we do manage at an international level, with relief efforts and humanitarian missions. I hope I get the balance right.

The Australian Greens are already punching their weight in the lower house of the Australian Parliament. Adam Bandt's motion on Gay Marriage was carried by one vote (even one Green MP can make a difference).

Time reports that the current Israeli Knesset has put a further barrier to peace in place and opened up the country to further attacks, according to the Labour Defence Minister Ehud Barak. He goes on to say:

"A Palestinian state is in Israel's clear interest... this [law] won't do anybody any good. We must get pass the obstacle of settlement freeze, because is a weak point for Israel that cannot be explained to the world."

The consistent position of the Palestinian Authority is in my opinion the correct one. It will push public opinion in the world in favour of the Palestinian negotiators. The logic is impeccable. If the Israeli government is unwilling to even freeze settlements in the West Bank, how could it possibly make the much further leap to withdrawal? I think Ehud Barak is smart enough to recognise that. One thing is certain, the push by President Obama for peace is badly stalled, and I can't see how that impasse is going to be overcome at the moment.

There is an excellent article in today's Independent by Kate Allen from Amnesty International. We've made considerable strides in Britain in trying to protect our children from abuse. Despite the appalling cases where our system doesn't succeed, such as Baby Peter or Khyra Ishaq, we have a social services system and a society that predominantly works to protect children. As Allen's article highlights, children elsewhere in the world don't benefit from that protection.

The biggest story internationally is the very real threat of further skirmishes or conflict between the North and South Koreas. With Kim Jong-il's succession, a period of instability in the North has arrived. That is bad news for international stability. Even the might of China is not necessarily enough to prevent further provocation. These are difficult times and it is easy to forget that ordinary North Koreans live in poverty, without democracy and often threatened with starvation. Such a regime must be brought to an end. We can hope that perhaps a change of leadership might lead to some reform, but it is not the simplistic situation that many people perceive. There are complex dynamics to consider, as outlined in the Huffington Post by Ra Jong-Yi.

It's easy to feel down and depressed about the state of the world at times, but then along comes Sarah Palin with a gaffe to cheer you up.

Croxteth byelections result

So the Croxteth byelection result gives us the basic message that where the Liberal Democrats once ran Labour close, or even won the seat (by 10 votes most recently), here in Liverpool they are likely to get knocked back considerably. Labour seem set to benefit.

What does that suggest for the 2011 local elections? Well locally it means that the Lib Dems will be defending seats rather than going on the offensive to try and win back the council, despite the inevitable bluster that will precede May's contest. I think things would be different if somehow Labour had clung onto power nationally and the Lib Dems remained in national opposition, but the reverse is now true.

I imagine the Lib Dems probably only think one gain is even possible, and we'll be expecting them to throw everything at St Michaels again. Given the national situation, the halving of Lib Dem support in opinion polls and a small but significant student hall in the ward, they will face an uphill struggle against John Coyne, our incumbent and very well known and liked local councillor. I strongly believe that if the local elections had been separate from the General Election in May, we would have won a third seat in St Michaels, and that it was really only the Cleggmania surge that carried the Lib Dems through. Once bitten, twice shy. That said, nothing will be taken for granted by us.

Council business has continued. A Green amendment to the Labour motion against the cuts was accepted by Labour. The Lib Dems couldn't stomach it though. It said:

"Council regrets missing the opportunity presented at the annual budget meeting to set this year’s Council Tax at a modest 1 per cent increase and regrets forgoing the chance to thereby obtain approximately £1.6 million as a buffer against the cuts which were fully anticipated. Council therefore agrees to consider reasonable rises in Council Tax charges in the forthcoming years in order to mitigate some of the effects of the government-imposed financial restrictions."

As usual, it was only the Greens that earlier this year were willing to even suggest that a below inflation council tax rise would be better than a freeze, given that the red, yellow and blue parties had all admitted that cuts were on the way. Instead of heeding this, Labour and the Lib Dems both froze council tax, putting electioneering ahead of the interests of the people of Liverpool. To their credit, Labour at least recognise that not considering this was a mistake.

David Bartlett has picked up on another Green amendment, about Human Rights issues and China. Why is it so difficult for other parties to state the obvious about Human Rights abuses abroad?

For reference: Croxteth result remains

Martin CUMMINS (The Labour Party Candidate) 1,447
Stephanie TILL (The Labour Party Candidate) 1,424
Mark Anthony COUGHLIN (Liberal Democrat) 611
Michael John MARNER (Liberal Democrat) 479
Kai ANDERSEN (Socialist Labour Party) 135
Peter TIERNEY (British National Party) 117
Barbara BRYAN (Socialist Labour Party) 70
Eleanor Edith PONTIN (Green Party) 63
Tony Stop-Mass-Immigration HAMMOND (UK Independence Party) 50
Paul Duane RIMMER (English Democrats "Putting England First") 35
Steven McELLENBOROUGH (English Democrats "Putting England First") 33
Norman COPPELL (Conservative Party) 31
Brenda COPPELL (Conservative Party) 29
Michael John LANE (UK Independence Party) 19

Greens to Mount Electoral Assault on Lib Dems

Up until the election, I would have argued against this. While we are often appalled at the tactics used by the Lib Dems, and have often been attacked and misrepresented by them, there was overlap in areas like electoral reform and government accountability.

Since entering government, the Lib Dems have consistently shown that they have had little mitigating effect on the Conservatives. Given their long-term commitment to electoral reform, they sold out cheaply and not a single Lib Dem MP voted in favour of Caroline Lucas' amendment to offer the British people a choice between AV and real Proportional Representation.

As we saw in the recent Hulme byelection, which in retrospect we were not really prepared for, and even allowing for the much lower turnout, look at what happened to that Lib Dem vote:

May 2010

Labour 2445
Lib Dems 1229
Green 1172
Con. 490

November 2010

Labour 1031
Green 451
Lib Dem 151
Con. 67

Both Labour and us saw a percentage increase in the vote on a much lower turnout. But look at what happened to the Lib Dems. We have the Croxteth byelection very soon in Liverpool, in which we've done some campaigning, to test the water. There are two seats, although we only have one candidate on this occasion. One was held by Labour and one was held by the Lib Dems. This was a marginal seat. We'll see what happens.

If indeed the Lib Dem vote collapses, we may have to review our strategy locally to see what seats may be vulnerable to us in this new political environment.

Another Party Conference

Reports on the Respect Conference can be found on the blogosphere, with both Socialist Unity and Liam Macuaid reporting back. The Scotsman and the Daily Record report on an amendment to the Respect constitution that paves the way for George Galloway to stand for election as an MSP on the Glasgow top up list.

I attended the Conference as one of the morning session's guest speakers and spoke for around 15 minutes in a session introduced by Salma Yaqoob and chaired by Kay Phillips. I took time to thank members of Respect for the support they had given us here in the North West in our battle against the BNP in 2009. I went on to talk about the struggle against cuts, the questions I'd like to see Ed Miliband answer and finally how best to make a political impact after the recent change of government. The reception was warm and I had a good talk with a number of the delegates at lunch.

Sadly I've heard today that some of the people I was with yesterday were attacked at a meeting they were holding in Oldham, again reported at Socialist Unity. According to one of the comments, five men were arrested. I hope that all present at the meeting have not been too shaken by this.

Quirky Youtube AV Video

I used this with my students in our Government and Politics unit on Friday.

What political party do you view as "banana flavour"?

Aung San Suu Kyi Walks Free

As read in the Independent. Some good news on a busy day, but with no guarantee of improvements in the lives of ordinary people in Burma.

I've had a busy day today and I hope to update on things tomorrow.

International

So David Cameron has visited India and China in the last week. No mention of Kashmir or Tibet in public though, despite fears of increased militancy in the former and despite a recent poll of that showed 3 out of 4 British adults think that protecting human rights in Tibet is at least as important as maintaining good trade relations with China.

The Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives in January. President Obama has acknowledged the losses, but looks unlikely to give ground on healthcare. However, any serious US action on Climate Change is going to be dead for the next two years at least, and has perhaps been lost altogether.

It is no clearer how exactly our last government's wise decision to "bring democracy to Iraq" is actually going to be. The Parliament is due to sit for the first time since the elections in March, but there is no certainty about how things are going to work. This follows on from another bloody week in Iraq which is now very much third division news in the British media since Britain ended combat operations.

Finally, will the G20 heed the call to adopt the "French model" which allows European Courts to go after and seize the assets of money laundering by rich and corrupt officials from some of the poorest countries in the world?

Thank You

As a party, we are often very poor at thanking people for their long service in our national bodies. Nicola Watson and Tim Dawes recently ended their terms as Co-Chairs of GPRC and deserve credit for a great deal of the work that was accomplished during their time.

I'll not always agree 100% with the decisions and actions taken by the bodies that run our party, but I would never question the motivation and hard work put in by those that accept and work in roles that are often stressful, to do their best to try and move our party forward.

Thank you to Nicola and Tim.

Woolas and Court Cases

I won't rewrite what has been covered elsewhere, but I'll share my own personal story. In the run up to the Euro Elections, I was speaking at a panel at Manchester University. A No Borders protest, that gained wide publicity, showed the power of the custard pie in exposing the Labour government's record on immigration. On the video you see my right arm briefly. Chris Davies (Lib Dem MEP) and myself, both got hit as well.

Woolas (or in legal terms, his agent) stepped well over the line in the leaflets used in the General Election. I think the judges have got the verdict right.

I'll reiterate that anyone can make a genuine error. Politics can be tough, but in ten years of campaigning, I've only ever made one mistake in drawing an incorrect conclusion from research I was doing. We published something wrong, we got challenged and we apologised (in our next leaflet). That is how it should be done.

As many of you already know, we are bringing our own Court case on the Liberal Democrat agent who published an appalling leaflet that claimed that Green councillors had forced homeless people to sleep in the snow (not very believable). I understand that papers have now been served, so we'll have our very own Court date in Liverpool soon.

The Confidence Fairy

I'm thinking carefully about how I bring up my son. Do you lie to him and introduce mythical figures that don't really exist - Santa Claus, Leprechauns and the Confidence Fairy - or do you point out the real truth, based on social and economic reality from an early age?

This has become a pressing question, as he is showing early potential in free market economic thinking as he learns to count. His current sequence is:

One
Two
Three
Six
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Sixteen
Eighteen

I'll need to check that other 2 year olds are not moonlighting and somehow predicting that cuts won't impact on the economy...