Dividing Economic and Employment Recovery

Economics is not my strong point, but I think its worth digging into one of the assumptions being made by the media, especially in the language it uses whilst debating signs of an economic recovery. We here about economic recovery, and we assume this is good for the mere mortals at the bottom of the chain, but does this really hold truth? (With apologies to Naomi Klein from whom I learnt most of this).

Government seeks showdown with Unions over Israel

A friend pointed me to a press release on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (read, Foreign Ministry), in which the Foreign Secretary attempts to put Trade Unions in line on policy towards Israel. I find this problematic on several levels, not least, in that it shows what a Labour government will demand from Unions.

Odds and Ends

Well I guess the problem with my way of writing blog posts is that I end up with more stories saved in my RSS feeds than I know what to do with, and not enough time to write my 800 words on each of them. Cars have been banned from Times Square, New York, which could lead to a massive tirade about the need to keep pedestrianising the world, or I could just lump a bunch of stories together with brief comments, kind of like this…

Fair Trade vs. Rainforest Alliance

There’s a silent shift going on in coffee trading at the moment, or so it would seem to someone like myself who simply can’t miss changes to labelling practice. For years, the “big deal” has been Fair Trade, tied perhaps to a concern that one’s coffee has not been touched by the “Big Bads”: Nestle and Starbucks.

A car-free solution to factory closures?

I was watching News 24 on Saturday (not for long, I should add) and happened upon an interview with a representative of Friends of the Earth. I was appalled by what the FOE representative had to say: the solution to car industry woes is to build more cars, and make them a bit nicer. What are they thinking? Aren’t they missing the real opportunity?

Making the poor pay

A couple of articles from the BBC really ticked me off, and reminded me how completely unjust our economic system can be. Predictions are being made that 600,000 jobs will be lost this year (and I suppose the cynical might think to round that up to a million) and now bosses want those of us with work to suffer real-terms pay cuts.

Must money define me?

Capitalism wants me to see myself as a consumer, demanding things be cheaper, bigger, better, faster, and, well, even cheaper still. Socialism, and Communism, on the other hand, want me to see myself as being, well, a worker, demanding more pay, more holiday pay, more sick pay, the same pay for fewer hours, the same pay for less stress. Whilst I do prefer the latter approach, it doesn’t really feel like its a different way of seeing the world, merely a counter argument designed to perpetuate an underlying norm; that ones economic role in society is ones primary definition.

Construction Danger Made Visible

It is a sad fact of life that sometimes an event which occurs regularly must occur once in the West before anyone really takes notice of it. In the case of the type of incident I’m referring to, its not just happened once in the West, its happened twice in just 10 days, and both times in America. Following on from the lethal crane collapse in New York city, a crane has collapsed in Miami.

I found the catch…

Well, I meant to write this a few days ago, but seeing as I was out of town and very busy, and forced to upload in a Weatherspoons using the free 30 minute wifi vouchers they give out to anyone who knows about them and bothers to ask for one, I never had time to write it. That said, if this is to become a big issue, then maybe its still relevant. David Cameron might have made a brilliant conference speech with lots of admirable policies for the press to shout about, but I think I’ve found the nightmare policy which should remind people that these are still the same old Tories.

I blame the Union!

I realised this sometime ago, before I’d even started this blog, but was reminded about it lately. Don’t know if it was the postal-strikes or what, but I was forced to stand up for a Union’s actions to someone complaining about a strike. Public understanding of basic Union concepts and issues is at an all time low and even if many people will never be convinced of the connection between their interests and strikers, there ought to be some bare-minimum attempt to explain striking to the public.