Johann Hari: Cameron’s cuts will kill, not cure

“To preach austerity as the solution to depression is the equivalent of drilling holes in your head to cure your migraine while dismissing aspirin as for wusses.”

Johann Hari, writing in the Independent on 30 July, argues that the government’s programme of cuts is a recipe for disaster, and cites the experience of Ireland as a warning to us all.

“A detailed study for Oxford University … calculates that there will be 38,000 premature deaths over the next decade as a result of all this.”

“The National Housing Federation says the number of homeless people will double as a result of their slashing of housing benefit.”

“Half a million children living below the poverty line will have their free school meals cancelled.”

“The unemployed are having £6.50 knocked off the £65 a week they have to live on.”

“The country [Ireland] introduced austerity to pay off their debts and the austerity killed their economy, making it impossible to pay off their debts in any case. It was self-defeating. So introducing all these cuts doesn’t only inflict misery; it doesn’t even achieve its professed goal.”

Read the full article and weep!

It’s the same the whole world over
It’s the poor what gets the blame
It’s the rich what gets the money
Ain’t it all a bleeding shame

Academies Bill passed by Parliament – “A bad day for democracy”

The Academies Bill, allowing schools to opt out of local council control as early as September, was approved by Parliament on Wednesday (27 July).

The vote was 317 in favour, 225 against. The legislation is expected to receive royal assent on Tuesday before the summer parliamentary recess.

The National Union of Teachers described the bill as an “attack on the very existence of democratically accountable, free state comprehensive education.”

Caroline Lucas, Green Party Leader and MP for Brighton Pavilion, said after the bill was passed by the Commons, “Today, with this bill’s passage, is a bad day for democracy and for education. This was legislation that was rushed through Parliament, without proper consultation. We should be improving the quality of every local school for all children, rather than accelerating Labour’s programme of academies to deepen divisions between schools.”

Better Schools for All – Not Academies

The current enthusiasm for Academy schools is misplaced and will lead to more control over education by Government say the Greens.

Keith Ross of Swansea Green Party said, “The move towards academy schools will widen the educational gap between rich and poor. There is no intention to properly resource schools in areas with the greatest needs under this scheme.

“Under targeted policies, there would be far more assurance that lessons meet the needs of the children and society and assurance that children are not cherry picked to make schools look good.

“The Government’s claim that academies are raising standards is not proven. Covert and overt admissions and exclusion practices enable academies to skew their intakes in favour of those from higher-achieving backgrounds. Local authorities can ‘direct’ maintained schools to accept special needs children but can only ‘ask’ academies. There is also increasing evidence of academies excluding more children than maintained schools.

A response to recent press coverage of Democracy Village

Press Release

Democracy Village, Parliament Square July 2010-07-12

Democracy Village has been an experiment in peaceful protest. We’ve achieved a huge amount. We’ve also made mistakes. The media has portrayed us as drunks, drug addicts, fighters and layabouts.

Here’s the truth.

We all are.

Whether you like a drink on a Friday night, smoke cigarettes, drink coffee, get angry, or can’t be bothered to tidy up, none of us are perfect. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

What we’ve done is put a microcosm of our society under the microscope, and many of you (and some of us) dont like what we see.

UN Report reaffirms sovereignty of the Palestinian people over their natural resources

The Palestinian football team having been prevented from participating in World Cup Qualifying by the occupying power – the Palestinian community in Swansea displayed their footballing prowess against a local “Wales” team in Singleton Park yesterday evening.

The result was 3-3. Cue chants of “3-3 Palestine” from the assembled company!

Meanwhile, the latest report of the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly published this month reaffirms the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources.

Download the full report at:
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4c36f2f72.html

For a summary of the draft resolution

Public pay £5million bill for flood damage at UK’s nuclear weapons factory

(Information from CND Cymru: http://www.cndcymru.org/)

Taxpayers have been dumped with a five million pound bill to cover the costs of serious flooding at Britain’s privately-run nuclear warhead factory, according to an official answer to a Parliamentary Question asked by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.

Severe flooding at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Burghfield, near Reading, Berkshire, on 20th July 2007 came close to overwhelming the site, resulting in a “near miss” event and causing long-term disruption to nuclear weapons manufacture.

Another First for Swansea

On June 17th Swansea City Council took an historic decision to bar future contracts with Veolia on the grounds of the company’s illegal activities in the West Bank, Palestine.

The resolution was put to the Council as the result of a campaign by Swansea Action for Palestine, in the course of which all 72 councillors were mailed with details of Veolia’s illegal activities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.