KitNotes

Perhaps another reason why Britain’s perverse libel laws must be overthrown.

See here, here, here and here for more.

This is also a rather amusing take on the matter.

One wonders that, if Mr Murray ever did manage to take it to court, if the case would be heard by Mr Justice Eady. Eady, to m’learned KitNoters, is rather prolific in Libel Land. He found against the Daily Mirror when it dared to question the acedemic qualifications of the Radio 1 DJ-cum-TV hypnotist and professional cock Paul McKenna, he had a book published in America, and not marketed or sold in Britain, pulped because some Brits had bought it over the internet, and the media consider him an enemy of free speech.

Fair comment, no?

As one of those links says;

 ”England’s libel laws have never been about protecting individuals - at least not poor or helpless individuals. They are about protecting the rich and the powerful.”

And that’s from The Times, apparently.

Living out in the green and pleasant lands of Surrey, as one does, I am more affected by the foot and mouth outbreak that most. Mainly because I live in the original F&M control zone (the outbreak caused by leaky pipes at the Government lab in Pyford - the first one - which happens to be just around the corner from my house) and all I see is closed footpaths and DEFRA tape closing up anything that isn’t a main road, the disinfectant pads outside Sandown Park race track, and the DEFRA/Surrey CC notices warning you that even just looking at a cow could cause it to catch F&M and will leave you liable to be shot.

 Maybe.

It’s alright for you city slicker KitNoters. Just because you’ve been so insulated from grass and moo-cows to the point where you can’t even visualise what one looks like (I’ve put a picture up just in case) - out ‘ere, in th’a coun-tree, it’s a pritty big deal. Obviously, farmers are pritty devistated, what with incomes taking an absolute dive and mass culls (read: slaughter) taking away a farmer’s livelihood generally not being good things, and huge swathes of Surrey’s countryside being shut off (not that I ever have the chance to put the walking boots on and take advantage of it, but the intent is good enough, right?) meaning what little tourism Surrey has (why else would you come here?) is being withered away.

Now, according to the BBC, I won’t be living in the closest thing to the North/South Korean border on the British Isles. Seems we’ve beaten it. Tally ho, chaps! We’ll fight them in Woking, We’ll fight them in Guildford…

But what of a socialist response?

There are serious questions about food security - OK, so we call for collectivised farming and planned production of meat and crops, but that ain’t gonna be enough. We cannot import everything - for a start, it’s not enviormentally sound. We can’t just become vegetarians overnight (has the militant Vegan movement never heard of Iodine deficiency?).

When the 2001 outbreak was confirmed, a mass cull took place. This is not sustainable for human consumption - the UK has a population of 60 million, and even if I’m being overly generous in saying that a quarter of the population doesn’t eat beef or drink milk for either dieticial, ethical or religious reasons, that’s still 45 million people feasting on the wonders of Daisy.

Should we just eat locally? Only feast on the wonders of Daisy if Daisy is local cow for local people? That’s impossible; when was the last time you saw a cow down Stoke Newington High Street? (The time you were tripping on LSD doesn’t count.)

One thing has been overlooked; the only lab in the United States that can store live F&M virus samples is on an island. About 10 miles out to sea. Where the only sight of a cow will be inside a researchers’ burger, dude. In Britain, we do our research into cattle-prone diseases in a big field. In the country. Near cattle. And when we’re done with it, we wash it down the drain.

Who thought up of that idea, eh?

Nevermind the fact that you actually can immunise cattle against F&M. So why didn’t we do this? Er, because it would cost money; some estimates range between £5 million to £20 million. Fuck me, that’s a small price to pay to make sure Daisy and her cuddly calves don’t get diseased before they go on my plate.

Anyway. The point is this; food security and sustainability is something we need to think about. Have I got the answers? No. But, if I don’t have food on my plate because it’s all diseased, boy, will I be pissed.

Bruce, an AWL comrade and a Northern Rock saver, has also written on the crisis here.

When you think of the wheels of international finance capital, you would not generally have thought of Northern Rock, the Gosforth-based former building society just two or three weeks ago. However, it has hit the headlines in the last weeks over the Bank of England’s decision to extend it a line of credit. The Bank, which is the “lender of last resort”, stepped in when the Northern Rock found its existing lines of credit had disappeared after the collapse of the US Sub-prime market and banks were too nervous to lend to each other. The news lead to widespread panic amongst Northern Rock savers, who withdrew £4 billion in savings.

The reason why the Northern Rock found itself in such trouble because of the US market is a good example of the truly globalised nature of capitalism today. When the US sub-prime lending market (i.e. lending to people with poor credit histories) took a dip, the previously confident banks stopped lending to each other. The Northern Rock relied upon borrowing from other banks to finance it’s lending in the forms of loans and mortgages, and, unlike other former building societies like Halifax and Alliance & Leicester who fund their lending through customer savings, NR built their lending business around their ability to borrow from other institutional lenders. Most of these lenders were not UK-based, and primarily American. So, when the “credit crunch” started to hit, NR’s lines of credit dried up, and it was forced to go cap-in-hand to the Bank of England.

Continue reading ‘Northern Rock: What happened?’

This is written by me, Kit Leary - in a strictly personal capacity, as this entire blog is. Not SYN. Not AWL. Just so you know.

Owen Jones has posted an article on his personal blog (he and Marsha seem to contribute to more blogs than I have mobile phones) about how political work outside the Labour Party is seemingly futile. I suppose this goes to the crux of my political differences with Owen and Marsha and their current approach to how socialists should operate, not just in the Labour Party but outside as well. So indulge me. It might make things a bit clearer as to why we seem to butt heads often.

(Post continues after the cut…)

Continue reading ‘Signs of Life Outside?’

In the former German Democratic Republic, or so I’m told, there was - in theory at least - a choice of what you ate. There were, apparently, branded goods. The rather excellent film, Goodbye Lenin, talked about Mocha Fix Gold, Globo Beans, and Spreewald pickles. Apparently, they also used to have ‘adverts’ on GDR television. Well, they really wern’t adverts, just a list of surplus goods and what prices they were.

If nothing else, the appearance - even if it was somewhat limited - of rival goods at least projected an image of choice in East German life, even if it meant diddly squat to ordinary Ossies. Even though everyone in East Germany knew that all foodstuffs came from the same factories, and the only difference was on the packaging, it allowed the East German bureaucracy to say; “Look, we have choice!”

Today, I got my ballot paper for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party. And I get a proper vote, too, as a paid up member. But since Brown will get his coronation, the real race is for the deputy leadership.

The floor on the inside of my front door has been flooded with promotional gumph from the contenders. Blears told me about how life was tough growing up in Salford (no, Hazel, no it wasn’t), Hain telling me about how he helped set up the Anti Nazi League (hang on, wasn’t that Paul Horobrow and the SWP?), Cruddas sent me a postcard (”In electoral oblivion for being too left wing. Wish you were here. Love, Cruddy.”) and I think there was some other stuff, but I read my post on the loo, and usually, I have other pressing matters to be thinking of.

The point is this; there is very little choice between the lot of them. The real contest that I wanted to see - McDonnell vs Brown - has been taken away from me. And, in terms of policy, there is very little to seperate the deputy leadership candidates - well, maybe a Rizla, but that’s it.

Cruddas voted for the war (though he thinks this was a mistake). He’s also seemingly in favour of cutting the union block vote at Labour conference - one of the very few methods of obtaining a workers’ voice in politics these days, sadly. He’s crap, basically. Well, he would be, if he were actually left wing, but because the left/right balance is so skewed these days - none so more in the Labour Party itself - he’s seen as left wing.

I fear that if I don’t vote, then the Labour right will see it as vindication. I think, on this occation, vote Cruddas - but I’ll be publically choaking and spewing about it, and helping organise the biggest, fuck-off fightback ever.

The Left seriously needs to get it’s act together.