The Case For Our State ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... needs re-making ... this might be a start

we do need a far more relevant debate than the usual .... security is one thing, economics and markets another, but we ourselves are unthinking in our varying priorities for our lives in society ... and incoherent in our values and claims .... Toynbee in the Graun is asking labour to grow up and forget triangulation and start making the case .... that would be good, but i would rather have some fresh faces ... none of the old faces will garner my trust or respect ... the real case for social democracy as a political project is so downplayed these days as to be meaningless ... between Murdoch, Maggie, the Toff Boys, and the Finance Interest it is like a spluttering squib ...

i reaslise that the book is an extension of a Demos Pamphlet from last year to be found here

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

a counter factual If Only from Will Hutton making a plausible argument for joining the euro in the first place ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

and another from Will Hutton arguing the case for the social ownership and control of public spaces ... a serious issue, we have surrendered to private capital much that was public

[Thropplenoggin]

This might be a good place to start: Mutual Aid, Peter Kropotkin.

I hope Scotty Celt's head doesn't explode upon clicking that link.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

This might be a good place to start: Mutual Aid, Peter Kropotkin.

I hope Scotty Celt's head doesn't explode upon clicking that link.

oh i dunno

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

health matters eh

market-style reforms offered to health care systems, and a discussion on the ways these are being effectively imposed by the governments in richer countries - and by global bodies in the poorer ones.

It argues that these so-called ‘reforms’ are driven not by evidence, but by ideology. And behind the ideology is a massive material factor: the insatiable pressure from the private sector to recapture a much larger share of the massive $5 trillion-plus global health care spend, much of which only exists because of public funding.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/john-lister/neoliberal-epidemic-striking-healthcare

[amateur51]

health matters eh



http://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/...ing-healthcare

oh dear!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

if we do not claim our state they will take it and us for every last cent

[amateur51]

if we do not claim our state they will take it and us for every last cent

Chilling stuff - truly the ruling class then.

[ahinton]

if we do not claim our state they will take it and us for every last cent

http://socialinvestigations.blogspot...-links-to.html is all very well (and I note from it that the donation received and apparently forwarded on to a charity by the person who happens now to be my own MP was made before he was an MP), but unless and until all MPs are (a) compelled to act full-time in that professional capacity and undertake no work of any kind, paid or unpaid, outside the scope of their contracts, (b) prevented by law from receiving any donations, gifts or inheritances of any kind and (c) debarred from membership of any organisation whatsoever during the lifetime of their contracts other than the political party to which they belong unless sanctioned in writing by Parliament, the "outside interests" matter will always be one to which there is and can be no answer to satisfy everyone.

[eighthobstruction]

http://socialinvestigations.blogspot...-links-to.html is all very well (and I note from it that the donation received and apparently forwarded on to a charity by the person who happens now to be my own MP was made before he was an MP), but unless and until all MPs are (a) compelled to act full-time in that professional capacity and undertake no work of any kind, paid or unpaid, outside the scope of their contracts, (b) prevented by law from receiving any donations, gifts or inheritances of any kind and (c) debarred from membership of any organisation whatsoever during the lifetime of their contracts other than the political party to which they belong unless sanctioned in writing by Parliament, the "outside interests" matter will always be one to which there is and can be no answer to satisfy everyone.

yes, very much so....

[ahinton]

yes, very much so....

For the sake of clarity I should perhaps have added that the conditions (a), (b) and (c) in my previous post would be virtually impossible to meet and would therefore never arise, in my view.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i would refute the term 'outside' as referring to interests; surely the point is that they bring their interest inside, masked or not, and pursue it with blithe impropriety ....

[ahinton]

i would refute the term 'outside' as referring to interests; surely the point is that they bring their interest inside, masked or not, and pursue it with blithe impropriety ....

Fair comment; my reference was intended to signify "other than". That said, an expectation that MPs have no interests other than those to which they are contracted to serve as MPs or that MPs' contracts stipulate that they have and pursue no interests other than those specified in those contracts is surely the stuff of cloud-cuckoo-land, isn't it?

[amateur51]

Fair comment; my reference was intended to signify "other than". That said, an expectation that MPs have no interests other than those to which they are contracted to serve as MPs or that MPs' contracts stipulate that they have and pursue no interests other than those specified in those contracts is surely the stuff of cloud-cuckoo-land, isn't it?

Fascinating how the issue of MPs' contracts with us, the public has been raised. I'm sure most of them would not see it like that. And then we have scotty and his civil servants' contract re secrecy; and what he would see as Mr Snowden's breaking thereof. Mr S says he's doing it to protect the USA and its citizens from its own Government's activities. Many of our MPs are acting mostly within their own self-interest, in my opinion.

Perhaps we should set up a list of current MPs on an e-petition thingo and get their constituents to vote for whether or not they believe that their MP is working principally for them, the constituents. I would if I could but I can't ... so I won't.

That might cause some kicking in the loose-box.