Absent Friends?

Since the Westminster Parliament voted (by 26 votes) to continue with the justly maligned Bedroom Tax, the twitteratti have been having a field day. Bitter recrimination has been piled on accusation and deep loathing. MPs have been targeted for direct action. Threats have been made to oust MPs who have left their vulnerable constituents at the mercy of this iniquitous legislation.

So far, so unexceptional you might think, but in this case the targets are the MPs who represent the party that publicly opposes the Tax; that has committed to repeal the legislation; and that was responsible for the staging of the debate. Whit?!

The substance of the accusations levelled at (some) Labour MPs (and at the Party in general), is that by not having all their MPs in the Commons for the vote, they have let down the fight against the Bedroom Tax. In some extreme cases the claim is that this failure led to their own amendment being lost, despite the obvious fallacy of that!

Now the rights and wrongs of the pairing system aren't an argument that can be dealt with here. Nor, incidentally, are they an issue that was raised by anyone before the debate or vote. However, it is unquestionable that the missing MPs were paired. Thus, all claims that the missing MPs 'cost' the vote against the Bedroom Tax fail, as their appearance would immediately have been matched by the appearance of their 'pair' to vote in favour.

It is also most unlikely that any attempt to 'ambush' the vote would have defeated the tax. Firstly, even if successful, it would not have been binding on the Government, and they would simply have called a vote of confidence, which they would have won. A similar caveat applies to any attempt to impose a three-line whip. That would have been made public, and would have turned the vote into a a vote of confidence with similar results.

Indeed, one MP has pointed out that all the SNP MPs have been absent at one time or another at votes against the legislation containing the Bedroom Tax, while it was going though the commons. While there is one error in her list, the point about absent votes and pairing remains true. No doubt MPs of other parties missed these and similar votes. No doubt all of the above MPs were paired, and their vulnerable constituents not left without a representative. But quite clearly not all parliamentary votes are as significant as others. Indeed these votes actually impacted on the passage of the legislation!

Having said that, there have clearly been failures on the part of the opposition. How else can we explain what should have been a great public opportunity being turned into a publicity gaffe? It should have been anticipated that public interest in the outcome of the vote (even if overturning it would have required the votes of LibDems) meant that any likely absences should have been identified and - if unjustifiable, stopped, if justifiable, explained. After all, many of those criticising believe in extra-parliamentary campaigning, and it is hardly wrong for MPs to also take part in such campaigns. Not preparing for this, and probably allowing some non-attendances that should never have been allowed, has meant a massive publicity opportunity for the Labour Opposition has been lost.

However, what has also been lost in the welter of criticism is any sight of the real villains of the piece. After all the majority of the votes in the Commons were to back the Bedroom Tax - these ConDem MPs are thanking their stars for the furore whipped up by the nationalists and ultra-left.

It's Boyling Point in Glasgow!

Anyone who woke up yesterday to the frost on the cars and on the ground, and who heard the weather forecasters say it was the coldest day this year, will be wondering what this blog is about.

Of course, if you come from Edinburgh, and are a reader of the Evening News, the

Frank Boyle and his work

suspicion may have already dawned that the reference isn't to the temperature at which water changes from a liquid to a gas, but to a well-known cartoonist whose work appears regularly in the pages of that blatt. And you would be right!

Glasgow-based cartoonist of the Edinburgh Evening News (as he styles himself), Frank Boyle is opening a solo exhibition of his work in Glasgow on Friday of this week. This will not only display some of his best known cartoons of the recent past, but in addition, Frank will be displaying some of his water colours and drawings.

Cuts Hurt - Part one of thePublic Works diptych 

 

 Frank has been drawing politicians, celebrities and the topical issues of the day, for many years. He also has done cartoons for trade unions and other good causes. - he drew the posters for UNISONScotland's Public Works campaign - but his watercolours and other work are a revelation.

It's well worth getting along to South Block in the centre of Glasgow between November 11-29 (closed 16,17 & 21-24) to check out Frank's work. and if you can't summon up the cash for an original, his current book Boyling Point 2, is on sale there for a measly £8.99. (Or you can get it from Frank's website with a pound off at www.boylecartoon.co.uk).

South Block itself is a new creative venue in Glasgow City Centre. Developed by the well known WASPS Studio it provides studios and work spaces on the corner of Osborne Street, and King Street.

Star at the heart of Scottish working class culture

This is the original of a piece in the Morning Star, published on Wednesday 30 October. It isnt (yet) on the Star website so I'm posting here in case anyone needs digital access. 

The increased focus on Scotland, and the higher profile here of the Morning Star, is at least partly because of external activities that have not really featured in the paper until now.In addition to the deployment of a Scotland-based reporter and a network of supporters groups, a Scottish Campaign Group has established a successful activity that, on the face of it, doesn't seem to directly contribute to selling papers.

Over the last three years a series of cultural events in halls and centres across Scotland have been organised. These have caught the eye for the comprehensiveness of their coverage, and the unusualness of their approach. The latest series of 'Our Class, Our Culture' events covering the rest of this year and into next summer, has just started. The events and venues for the rest of the autumn are listed here. http://scottishmorningstarcampaign.blogspot.co.uk

 A couple of events have already taken place, both marking the 40th anniversary of the Chilean coup. In East Kilbride a large meeting heard two trade unionists discuss their part in stopping military supplies being delivered to the Chilean junta, and in Glasgow a fascinating presentation on the poetry of Chilean poet and politician, Pablo Neruda was given by Ruben Romero. The unusual juxtaposition of culture and class is typical of the mix.

On 5 November in Falkirk a discussion on Robert Tressell's Ragged Trousered Philanthropists has become only too topical. The person delivering the talk is Mark Lyons, Unite's convenor at the INEOS plant at Grangemouth! A timely discussion on the nature of capitalism and its repercussions for working people I would have thought.

Other gems include a fascinating-looking event in Paisley on Helen Macfarlane, the woman who first translated the Communist Manifesto (Dec 3). Although from a factory-owning family, her radicalism stemmed from a factory background in Chartism, and carried on as she met both Marx and Engels.

Later in the series (in 2014) highlights are William McGonagall and the radical tradition on Scots poetry (in Dundee appropriately enough, on Feb 4) with well-known contemporary poet, Alistair Findlay, Keith Stoddart on James Connolly, socialism and nationalism - in Edinburgh (18 March) as part of the Edinburgh Irish Festival, and again a hugely relevant discussion in time for Scotland's Independence Referendum later in the year, and 1 April sees a presentation on Jack London's forewarning of fascism - Iron Heel by Rab O'Donnell in Clydebank

As befits its status as a month containing the international workers' festival, May has two events. Stuart Moir on Shelley's Masque of Anarchy, its background and contemporary resonance (6 May in Bathgate), and slotting in neatly to next years MayDay celebrations, an appreciation of UCS cartoonist and author, Bob Starrett, by author and poet David Betteridge, and featuring the man himself! (8 May in Glasgow's STUC Centre).

Helen Crawfurd. Anti war activist

The final two events centre their topic on the centenary of the start of the First World War, but - as you might expect - concentrate on the nature of that's war in Whose War Was it? on the 5 June in Fife (venue yet to be confirmed), and in July (8) in Glasgow, a couple of activists who have been working to ensure that those who protested against the war are remembered for their activities as Bob Holton and the GMB's Richard Leonard discuss 1914 and Keir Hardie.

This series is often eagerly awaited and well attended, drawing in new and existing readers and supporters of the paper. They do more than that though. They have established the Morning Star at the heart of working class culture and celebration in Scotland, along with Glasgow's increasingly successful MayDay celebrations and the Songs of Struggle concerts promoted by FairPley both as standalone and as part of Glasgow's Celtic Connections, and Edinburgh's Fringe Festivals.

Happy Lands needs YOUR vote in second BAFTA nomination

News has reached the Captain of potential BAFTA stardom for a film that has been mentioned once or twice in these pages. Most notably here.

Yes, The Happy Lands - in addition to its earlier nomination for a BAFTA 'New Talent' award - has also been nominated for the BAFTA Cineworld Audience Award in the BAFTA Scotland awards.

This is a public vote, the peoples' vote - so if you want to see this great film getting the credit it deserves, get along to the website and get your vote in!

In addition, you get an extra chance to see the film as it is being shown in the Cineworlds in Aberdeen (Union Square), Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow (Renfrew Street).

The competitors for this award are also being shown between now and Monday 28 October, so you can get a surfeit of good, Scottish film making! But The Happy Lands is on in each of the cities named at 18.00 on Thursday 24 Oct, so you'll need to hurry!

Some of the other films have bigger budgets and even bigger casts! So every vote counts.

Please vote yourself and encourage friends and family to do the same.

Any networks or organisations you can circulate this through would be tremendous and appreciated tenfold.

In addition the film is due out on DVD shortly. By SODA pictures, it is available from Amazon, I-Tunes and Distrify from Oct 28.

To the next stage, comrades!

Serving us and boosting our economy - Public Ownership

In the wake of the Ed Miliband/Daily Mail saga, a blog from James Maxwell of the New Statesman has an interesting series of points to make on the difference between Milliband’s pledges on the UK stage and Salmond’s in Scotland.

His point is essentially that while Miliband is (possibly against his will) being forced to challenge the UK consensus that the the Tories, their coalition partners and New Labour have espoused for a number of decades now - that an unregulated private sector is the saviour of the UK economy and that there is no role for the state to intervene; here in Scotland - despite the opportunities offered for challenging this consensus by the independence referendum - Alex Salmond shows no sign of doing so. Indeed he points to many policies where the SNP have actually moved towards the UK consensus.

To be fair, he also points to a range of policies where the SNP and Scottish Government are still to the left of the Labour Party, but the difference in challenging ‘business and its vested interests’ is marked. 

  The Scottish government was almost alone in retaining close relationships with News International, when even their close political pals were abandoning them. They have consistently courted tax-dodging corporations like Amazon, and argued against state intervention to take our share of windfall profits by North Sea energy companies, or to freeze energy prices to the consumer.

And where is the evidence that these policies work? Ofgen warns of power black-outs by 2015 as a result of lack of investment in the privatised energy sector. Privatised rail has the highest subsidies in Europe – except where the publicly owned East Coast line has delivered almost £1billion in profit. A socially disastrous housing crisis has resulted from the inability of the private sector to provide affordable houses. Yet elsewhere in the world there is economic growth – and it is generally in those countries where there is a significant measure of public ownership and active public support for industry.

In this context Sunday’s conference taking place in Glasgow on the need for greater public input

into our economic life is remarkably appropriate. While few at the conference would put much faith in Miliband, the lack of arguments for increased public ownership that have come out of the ‘indyref’ debate despite the spectacular failure of privatised companies, will hopefully be rectified by an impressive range of speakers. Economists and researchers like the STUC’s Stephen Boyd, and UNISONScotland policy chief, Dave Watson will be joined by politicians from both Labour (Neil Findlay MSP) and the SNP (Chris Stephens of the SNP TU Group). The conference will examine the evidence for successful public sector intervention, from the past and from the present, from the UK and from elsewhere in the world.

The conference is organised by the Morning Star’s Scottish Campaign Committee and takes place from 11 am at the STUC offices in Woodlands Road, Glasgow. Further details here.

From Neruda to Starrett. Stargazing across Scotland

The Morning Star is a newspaper everyone thinks they know. In the old joke it is 'read by those people who want another country to run the country', Tony Blair once claimed he 'didn't know that paper was still coming out', and it's line is supposedly dictated to it by the 'politburo'.

Whether or not any of these myths had foundation, the foundations have long been excavated and the paper has made strong strides towards becoming a 'must-read' for any on the left - well, actually by anyone with an interest in the politics, or the cultural life of the UK. And in these days when hacking murder victim's phones, and libelling dead fathers pass for 'news', maybe the opportunity is there for a wider readership?

In Scotland, the twin developments of a Northern print run, meaning the paper gets here on the day of publication, and the appointment of a Scottish reporter, has meant the relevance of its content has increased exponentially. But strangely some of the most positive things about it, aren't things you'll find much about in the paper at all.

One of its strongest props is its network of supporters groups. Readers and Supporters groups have

sprung up across Scotland, and a Scottish Campaign Group who have been instrumental in both successfully lobbying for other organisations (like trade unions and the Co-op) to back the paper in practical ways, running conferences to discuss policies of the left, and chivvying the London organisation of the Star to address its weaknesses in circulation and content.

But possibly it's most successful activity is one that, on the face of it, doesn't seem to directly contribute to selling papers. Over the last three years a series of cultural talks, discussion and even performances in halls and centres across Scotland have been organised. These have caught the eye for the comprehensiveness of their coverage, and the unusualness of their approach. The latest series of 'Our Class, Our Culture' events has just started. The events and venues for the rest of the autumn are listed  here.

Allende y Neruda

Tonight's event  - on the poetry of Chilean poet and politician, Pablo Neruda - has been chosen to mark the 40th anniversary of the armed coup that overthrew Chile's elected government, and is a great example of the genre. It's at the STUC at 7.30pm.

Other gems include a fascinating-looking event in Paisley on Helen Macfarlane, the woman who first translated the Communist Manifesto (Dec 3). Later in the series (in 2014) highlights are William McGonagall and the radical tradition on Scots poetry (in Dundee appropriately enough, on Feb 4 with well-known contemporary poet, Alistair Findlay), Stuart Moir, on Shelley's Masque of Anarchy, its background and contemporary resonance (6 May in Bathgate), and slotting in neatly to next years

Bob's new book

MayDay celebrations, an appreciation of UCS cartoonist and author, Bob Starrett, featuring the man himself! (8 May in the STUC).

If you haven't seen the Star for a while, try your local newsagent, or Co-op food store. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Radical Shifts on the Fringe - Fringe Blog no 2

The Morning Star website is currently being revamped and unavailable, so here is my article published in this weekend's edition. It is a summary of my thoughts on this year's Edinburgh Fringe shows.

If politics is show business for ugly people, then show business should be aware of political attempts to move into their territory more comprehensively!

Before this year's Edinburgh Fringe. some commentators (including this one) identified an increase in the number of political shows. Even with a surprisingly low level of shows dealing with Scotland's referendum, especially from Scottish writers.

After three weeks viewing, I can a) confirm that there was a large amount of both overtly political shows and shows with a political angle, and b) while the referendum was covered, especially in spoken word events, it did not form a major theme. Even in a wide-ranging seminar on political theatre it only got one mention in a uplifting discussion that identified political theatre as still very prominent.

Partly because, as respected commentator, Joyce MacMillan, points out, the constitutional debate has been part of the cultural background in Scotland for years, and many writers have moved on. They deal with wider overarching political and human issues - like David Greig in The Events, which deals with our reaction to atrocity. Inspired by (but not directly dealing with) the Anders Breivik murders, this will become a very important play.

Other productions dealt with political history - like Unite-sponsored, We will be Free, Townsend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs' play, or particular issues, like Northern Stage's How to Occupy an Oil Rig - an entertaining training session on direct action in climate change campaigning.

Many productions deal with non-political topics, but allow political issues to feature. An effective
example, is FairPley's production of God Bless Liz Lochhead! in which a struggling group of thesps attempt to re-create a 12 character play with 3 actors! While the convolutions this entails deliver a very funny play, it also makes a comment on the politics of cultural funding in Scotland.

Of course, there is more to the Fringe than drama. Comedy has always been a strongpoint, and this year the return of many 'Alternative Comedy' legends brought that political edge. Mark Thomas crammed a hugely busy schedule with shows on Extreme Rambling along the Israeli apartheid wall; debates on the efficacy of some of his previous Manifesto pledges; and his new 100 Acts of Minor Dissent project. He reached 26 by organising a stand-up demo outside the Russian Consulate against their anti-gay laws! Alexei Sayle, too, came from stand-up exile to prove he was as ascerbic as ever. After 17 years away, he can be forgiven some slight rustiness!

Vladimir McTavish and Keir McAllister's The State of Britain was one show that took the independence debate head-on, but did seem to be unsure of its audiences, possibly for a similar reason to Steve Richards. The political columnist said in the Guardian that he had had to tailor his act to Scottish or other UK audiences on a show-by-show basis.

A further reason for more politics this year is the massive increase in spoken word events. Once the province of the Book Festival, the Fringe started listing these separately a few years ago. This year has seen an explosion in such shows.

Driven by demand (The Book Festival resolutely refuses to move anywhere bigger), the need for promoters to fill venues during the day, and the relative ease of staging this type of show, debates, discussions, Q&As, demonstrations etc. sprang up all over. Most of all, there is an audience for these shows, which is good news for political debate. Almost all major venue complexes featured some spoken word, but the major venue, was the Assembly Rooms/Famous Spiegeltent. FairPley Productions contributed massively, by importing their Verb Garden from the Belladrum festival. The concept - backed by the Co-operative Membership, covered many topics and presented major politicians such as Tony Benn, and George Galloway MP, journalists like BBCs Brian Taylor and Iain Macwhirter, and academics and comedians. Even including the finalist of 2012 Great British Bakeoff, James Morton!

Stephen Wright of FairPley, thinks that spoken word can only increase. "While you need to
programme different topics carefully," he said. "the demand is there for politics. We will be building on that, both in Edinburgh and elsewhere."

God Bless Liz Lochhead!