Ed and Mandy aren’t talking
July 21, 2009
Germany has 250,000 working in their renewable energy sector. The UK? Less than 10,000.
Minus 600 more if this government allows Vestas to pack up their wind turbine factory, on the Isle of Wight.
Even then, those turbines were not being sold here, despite the hot air of nuclear-friendly New Labour, they failed to create demand for wind turbines.
Let’s get this straight. The other day, Ed Miliband tells us about his plans for ‘low carbon Britain’.
At the same time, the boss (Lord Mandelson) decides he cannot be bothered with Vestas. He has got his hands full trying to save TATA’s Jaguar….. and more car factories.
In a few months, in Copenhagen, we will hear more hot air from Brown and the rest as they tell us how they really, really do care about the world and climate change……
By the end of the next decade, Germany will have a million people plus working in a sector both high tech and job friendly.
Meanwhile, Cameron and Brown will sweep us towards a nuclear future – hardly any jobs, a decade late and hugely over-budget.
Welcome to low carbon – high unemployment Britain.
Farid Bakht
Tower Hamlets Labour AM thinks hedge funds ‘add value’
July 14, 2009
Saturday’s Progressive London conference was peppered with Labour politicians. They did their best to stretch the word Progressive to breaking point.
John Biggs, the Labour Assembly Member (and Tower Hamlets stalwart) astounded the audience with his comments.
On a Saturday, dressed impeccably in a suit and tie, he highlighted his credentials of working in the City of London.
He told us that hedge funds added value to our economy (while the Chinese economists in the main hall were saying the opposite)…. how we had to ‘work with the City’… how it was a nostalgic dream for manufacturing to return to London………
This was a performance of an unreconstructed New Labour politician in thrall to the City and the banks.
Northern Rock, the collapse of the banks all seemed to pass by…..
He also came out against any EU regulation of the City…. which rather says it all. He made a comment that we don;t need Europeans to regulate us.. well, we wouldn’t if the UK Labour Government had the guts to do something (Darling’s speech last week was widely derided as Labour’s final capitulation to Finance)
If Singapore can operate as a financial centre, a manufacturing centre and a magnet for tourism why not London?
In any case his old boss, Ken Livingstone, told the main meeting that indeed we need to bring back manufacturing to the Thames Estuary….
Incredible..
Where now for Progressive London?
July 14, 2009
Ken Livingstone did Part two of his Progressive London project last Saturday. In case you are wondering, Pro-London is his vehicle for his mayoral bid in 2012.
The numbers this weekend were disappointing. Is it running out of fizz?
The main draw was Vince Cable of the Lib Dems.
Ken Livingstone and Vince Cable has competed for a Labour MP’s position in North London many moons ago, so there is history there.
Then, Ken won.
The dynamic on Saturday was about an attempt to stitch together a ‘progressive alliance’ behind Ken as Mayoral Candidate. i.e. why Greens and Lib-Dems should back Ken as ‘the man to oust Boris’.
Will it work?
I have my doubts.
First, in 2012 Ken will have been out of power for four years and there is no sign of Pro-London being anymore than a series of conferences – by itself not constituting a ‘movement’.
Second, Ken insists on inviting totally discredited Labour/New Labour politicians. For example, where does Geoffrey Robinson fit in to anything progressive? His performance was that of an apologist for the banks. In the first meeting, Ken brought over David Lamy(!), Harriet Harman (!) and other Labour politicians.
After the next election, there is no way Greens will ever contemplate sitting with these types of Labour politicians.
Similarly, with Nic Clegg having taken his party to the Right, there is no reason for Greens to ally with them either.
In any case, while the Mayor’s post is important, we will all face far larger issues – a Conservative government, an imploded New Labour, a continuing war in Asia, unemployment at 3.2 million (using govt stats), public sector cuts and social tensions over immigration.
For the rest of us, the 2012 mayoral election can wait.
Meanwhile, I wonder if Vince Cable may not turn out to the winner. He has carved himself a niche on economic competence – more for highlighting the dangers, rather than any radical solutions (he is after all an ex-economist for Shell) .
With Nick Clegg slipping up (a serial loser of by-elections), Ken may find his competitor is one level up on him and untouchable.
The Geoffrey Robinsons and David Lamys and other Blair/Brown/Mandelson crowd will quite happily join with the Lib Dems (1981 all over again)…. Where would Ken then go?
Green mayoral candidate? Kidding……………….. on the other hand…….
Farid Bakht
Parliamentary Candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow
New Labour: new initiatives
July 1, 2009
Another week, another set of ‘initiatives’.
Since surviving the coup, I haven’t been able to work out what the new, polished & refreshed Gordon Brown is all about.
This weeks he uses the word: Britain again.
We had British jobs for British workers.
Now he has discovered housing, twelve years after destroying council housing as Chancellor, bent on impressing the City of London (and Middle England).
Spain’s equivalent to the Guardian, El Pais, unfortunately compared this new Brown initiative to something that could have come out from the BNP.
Beyond that, are voters going to be fooled? After twelve years of taking away the money from council homes sold off, rather than let local authorities use to that to build more homes………. why should we believe him or New Labour?
It’s the equivalent of David Miliband going down on one knee and promising not to invade another country again…….
New Labour can now promise everything……. and try and hoodlink its traditional supporters that they can be trusted………..
They (the Party) have nothing to lose…….. just shift rightwards on immigration and housing, and left on the latter too, pretend they will not cut public spending (only the evil Tories will do that….. yes, Gordon… we believe you)……. talk about billions for climate change… while building coal plants… & subsidising nuclear…… …… all the while praying for a fast economic recovery.
Oops, new ‘revised’ (they are always revised when no one is looking) statistics show that the country’s econony tanked over winter….. the worst result since 1930…..
Farid Bakht
New Labour want to hide
June 8, 2009
Tonight Labour MPs bottled it. A speech by Gordon Brown about his apparent willingness to listen was enough to persuade MPs that they should stick with him.
Translation: labour MPs know they will be wiped out in an early election.
If they changed leader they would have to have an immediate election. It was a P45 moment.
So they decided to ignore the public, forget about the recession, and the spin and betrayal. They want to hang on to the bitter end.
Even john mcdonnel, the lefts standard bearer in Labour persuaded himself that a slowdown in post office privatization is enough for now.
The attempted coup has stalled. The death of new labour isn’t – it’s been postponed.
The Daily telegraph engineered a UKip triumph and a shift to the Right. They however weakened but so farn failed to klll off new labour and force an early election.
The last 48 hours has been shameful for New labour.
They are responsible for the rise of the BNP and they have shown no morality or principle.
They are fighting it out solely for position.
With results the worst since World war one, they have lost their dignity.
Farid Bakht
Why are they in politics?
June 5, 2009
The voting is over. The circus continues.
Ultra Blairite, James Purnell, resigned and stuck the knife in his Prime Minister. It wasn’t a case of ‘E tu Brutus?’ since Brutus was supposed to have done the dirty deed to save the republic against dictatorship.
These ex-ministers (inc Blears and Smith) are not going because of principle.
It’s not as if they are resigning over an issue such as perhaps against an illegal war.
They are jumping before being pushed or as one tabloid puts it: rats leaving a sinking ship.
Other New Labour MPs are also doing a lot of calculations. If they ditch Brown, they would be bumped into an early election and certain slaughter.
The Spectator even speculates that some Ministers would rather leave now, and bag £120,000 in payouts because it’s almost certain rules will change and MPs/Ministers will not in future get such bonuses.
What have we come to?
Why did n’t these people just join a multinational or an Investment Bank if money is all they crave?
Purnell moved into media & PR (public relations, not proportional representation!). His contacts would have provided lucrative jobs. Why go into politics at all?
Becoming a Minister in the Cabinet was once the pinnacle of achievement. A position of power and influence.
Like sterling, it’s been devalued. The quality of ministers is pitiful. How many will you remember in a year’s time?
Which New Labour politician is thinking of public service? Thinking about what’s right for the constituency, voters and the country?
Are they fighting an ideological war over how to rescue the country from a generational economic decline?
Are they arguing over how we should regain democractic control over the economy?
No. Of course not.
What a naive question.
And of course who do Cameron and Clegg think they are fooling with their false posturing?
They want an election to get some power. Then what? The same free-market unsustainable capitalism which has plunged the people and government alike into monstrous debt?
We are back in 1832 in the age of the rotten boroughs and rotten politics.
It’s all about looking for Number 1.
Farid Bakht
This has been an angry election. Very unlike any Euro election. Then again, this vote has very little to do with Europe.
It’s seems to be about two issues:
(a) public revulsion with hypocritical MPs - anxious to come down hard on benefits claimants by pushing for the Welfare Reform Bill. Basically, it means chasing single mothers and reducing welfare handouts. All the while, MPs were seeking devious ways of playing the property game and gettings tens of thousands of pounds.
(b) the deteriorating economy – yes that thing which was on our TV 24 hours a day when bank after bank was collapsing. People are being driven to vent their anger on MPs playing around with a couple of million quid perhaps in total. Meanwhile, bankers and the wealthy continue to enjoy the public’s generosity in a grotesque bailout of the banks. A million against a trillion.
The three main parties have shown no bravery in speaking the truth and ditching free market capitalism and globalisation. So the public know it’s wrong but see no alternative.
So, the Telegraph and the rest of the media find that a banking crisis is a perfect back drop for the ‘Clean Hands’ or “Anti-politics” campaign.
i.e. destroy the credibility of the political class.
What then takes its place?
It looks like the UKIP agenda is what is in play.
The operative word is ‘agenda’.
No one wants an UKIP administration.
What some powerful quarters would like is to see their agenda become new mainstream thought.
This means ultimately getting the Conservatives and Labour to become even more anti-European and Atlanticist (code for US’s faithful ally).
Add incendiary debate about cutting immigration and you see how ugly this could get – did you see this week’s Newsnight and UKIP’s MEP calling for immigration to be cut back?
Even David Dimblebey had to remark that talk like that was very close to what the BNP was thinking. Then, the BNP (barring an improbable late surge) seem to have been the bogey – a non issue made into the number one preoccupation and making UKIP extremists seen as some sort of cuddly, traditional English gentlemen.
The acceptable side of xenophobia perhaps for Middle England?
The untold story has been the quiet resurgence of the Greens for those who can see through New Labour and see the Greens as the only Left of Centre Party remaining.Greens are in double figures in the latest polls and are looking to double or triple the numbers of their MEPs.
Is it not unusual to see Greens on 11% while New Labour are on 16%?
This is a quiet revolution. Merely the start of a realignment in the politics of this island.
I will develop this theme in the near future.
It is important to realise that what we have been seeing is not a media circus to attack a few unscrupulous MPs (however deserving of our opprobium).
Note how David Cameron has quietly aligned the Euro-Conservatives with hard right elements in Europe. You get the picture.
The last few weeks have been the opening shots of what might become the nasty decade.
Farid Bakht
Parliamentary Candidate for Bethnal Green & Bow
Our football has been stolen
May 7, 2009
Last night, the emotions boiled over at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea and Barcelona fought it out over a place at the Champions’s League final in Rome.
We know the result.
Football is not just the people’s game, bringing more people together than anything. Forget the Olympics. Forget many an ideology. Football is the great leveller and the connector.
Yet, it is rarely heard. A Labour Minister yesterday made a worthless gesture calling for more sharing of wealth among clubs in the Premier League.
Typical posturing from New Labour, after bowing at the feet of Big Money in the Premier League for well over a decade.
I wonder whether we will see the demise of New Labour next year and associate it with the obscene spectacle of money running through the veins of a sport that was once the property of the poor, now merely a possesion desired by billionaires.
With no disrespect to ordinary Chelsea fans, at what cost did Roman A. fulfil his ‘toys for boys’ fantasy of spending half a billion pounds on a club in one of the richest cities in the world. Where was the source of his money? Russia. After the collapse of communism, oligarchs engorged themselves in the great privatisation of that country’s resources.
While engineers and professors were reduced to begging and people died through lack of heating, the new super rich returned that nation to the days of the Tsars.
And one individual felt it better to splurge on over-paid footballers and their agents in West London, rather than say in his homeland.
Perhaps, last night was very significant. Will Roman A now having been thwarted in his attempt to get his hands on a European trophy decide to throw in the towel?
Will he find some other game or trinket and sell up? He has technically lent money to Chelsea and could therefore call in his loan, thus destroying a club in the process.
Similar spectacles are evident in much of the Premier League, or should it be called the Pirates’ League.
Like the way it grovelled to Bankers and Hedge Fund robber barons, New Labour welcomed with open arms any billionaire willing to buy up a football club. Americans own Manchester United and Liverpool, a Thai ex Prime Minister on corruption charges Manchester City before offloading to a bunch of Arab investors…. the list goes on.
The Chelsea manager said it was a ‘man’s game’ – no, it is not. It’s a billionaires’ game.
In the end, it will go ‘pear shape’ as these monied adventurers tire of a game on this island. Perhaps they will decamp to Asia (the point after all is to sell advertising to a billion Asians – TV rights are the key) or if this recession turns to depression, even a billionaire will have cash flow problems.
And the fans? Over-priced shirts for their kids, over-priced season tickets, over-priced monthly TV packages to watch the game.
If anything was crying out to be in public control, it’s the televising of football. What do we pay our BBC license fee for?
Think about it. What’s the technology? A few cameras at a football club, connected to satelite (we have had this technology for decades).
We enjoyed Pele and Best without cable or Sky TV. We can enjoy Ronaldo and Messi the same way. For a fraction of the price and just as enjoyable.
Billions of pounds are diverted away from people least able to afford it so that a few hundred footballers can be ‘role models’ and drive in an Italian sports car and live in mansions while big companies get ‘eyeballs’ focused on their product.
Meanwhile, political parties like to pretend football doesn’t matter. It does. They dare not touch this for fear of a sports funded media bashlash.
Meanwhile consumers (they are not seen as supporters) have to fork out for the benefit of the few.
You can draw a line from the sport all the way to Parliament.
Our football has been stolen. Just like our democracy. Hand in hand. Welcome to the media age.
Farid Bakht
studentmedic
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