Rising inequality on the horizon

Here we go, here we go, here we go-oh …………….. the summer of sporting moments is slackening its grip. Players were well and truly trounced by big balls and little balls, and the victors held their trophies and their winnings high above their heads. Only the Tour de France remains as I write, and who can be the winner there in this seemingly never-ending bout of gruelling masochism with inexplicable rules, where grimacing and trying not to lose body weight are as important as the eternal leg-turning?

Attention round the globe can now go back to – let’s see, where were we? Oh yes, the UK had an election and we’ve got this new strange beast of a government which, now it’s settled in, is rearing its once-pretty head and revealing its beastliness. Cuts in public services and tax rises feel like attacks on disabled and poor people. “Any government would have had to do this” say defenders of the approach. That is probably true, but the ferocity of the present onslaught belies an ideological undercurrent that favours individual choice over equality, charity over entitlement, blame over encouragement, and relegates thousands to ‘no-hoper’ status and a life behind the barriers that progressive organisations have been steadily dismantling for a generation.

Who said this?

“The Government believes that there are many barriers to social mobility and equal opportunities in Britain today, with too many children held back because of their social background, and too many people of all ages held back because of their gender, race, religion or sexuality. We need concerted government action to tear down these barriers and help to build a fairer society.”

Yes, it’s in the famous con-dem coalition’s programme for government. I wonder how many times we’ll be able to quote it at them?

Jo has been on her holidays

Jo has been on her holidays, and has been blogging elsewhere.  See http://www.bikeright.co.uk/news-events/blog/mallorca/

“No-one will take us seriously”

At times there’s a certain advantage to the anonymity women experience in the male-dominated business world. Liz and I attended the Manchester Franchise Exhibition and Conference last weekend, as it’s a business model we may be interested in sometime in the future. However, we didn’t want to be bombarded as potential prospects by the exhibitors. There was a hint of ‘mystery shopping’ to our expedition.

Driving Addicts

What will it take to get over the addiction to cars that has afflicted our society? Whether I’m talking with an organisation about strategic priorities, knowledge of communities or building a new hospital complex, the obsession that monopolises attention is car parking facilities (or lack of it). Meanwhile buses stand empty, under-funded commuter trains are dirty and crowded, countless hours and lives are lost on motorways, and the carbon keeps pumping, pumping, pumping – while Green Travel Plans get signed, sealed but not delivered.

Diversity: identity versus individual

I was asked what I thought of Oona King’s candidacy for London mayor. Despite not being a Londoner and therefore having no vote, we in the sunny north take an interest in these things. I was a strong Ken supporter in the past. Nowadays I’m not so sure; has the Livingstone approach to politics been superseded by the changing times?

In that mood, I approached a new report from IPPR entitled You Can’t Put Me In A Box: Super-diversity and the end of identity politics in Britain.

Institute for Public Policy Research, January 2010

‘We owe people the duty of accuracy in solving social problems and not the default of assumption.’

Our house Thursday night 15th April 2010

A game of bingo seemed the only way to make palatable the widely publicised face-off between the three political leaders saying the same things (with subtle differences) about immigration, education, the economy, the state of Great Britain. So, Thursday evening found me downloading bingo cards from www.onesociety.org.uk .  Pens at the ready, our two teenagers (18 and 16) and I were poised to delete the buzz words that we expected to hear from the mouths of Brown, Cameron and Clegg.

Flexible Working

The Equality & Human Rights Commission has recently published two reports on flexible working under the ‘Working Better’ banner: Working Better: A Manager’s Guide to Flexible Working, and Working Better: Fathers, Family & Work – the first addressing business, the second aimed at unpeeling the next layer of fathers’ involvement in family life. See Press Release

An Oldie Speaks

Just to prove I’m not totally wedded to the Guardian’s view of world events, today’s thoughts are prompted by a different section of the establishment.

Frank Skinner, one of my favourite entertainers (not to be confused with Dennis Skinner despite superficial left-leaning similarities) writes in self-critical mode in today’s Times. Having made unpopular jibes at an Edinburgh festival gig about the intellectual prowess of A level students these days, he’s forced to conclude:

I’d accidentally been guilty of inverted ageism – that anti-youth attitude which seems to be becoming the country’s favourite brand of bigotry.

Manchester votes for anti-child labour measure

Mark Thomas, self-avowed lefty activist comedian, is conducting an experiment in democratic participation in his current tour [ Mark Thomas website]. During a gig peppered with fast-moving gags about the lies behind economic growth and occasional gaffes in his sexual politics, the audience is invited to put forward their proposals for new policies which government could adopt and which he will campaign around.