Category: Uncategorized

Birmingham Against The Cuts's avatarBirmingham Against The Cuts

On Saturday, Birmingham PCS disabled members will be doing a soup kitchen stunt and leafleting session in Birmingham City Centre, calling for an end to attacks on disabled workers & people.

Saturday 8th September
12noon
By Waterstones, corner of New Street and High Street, city centre Birmingham

Disabled workers have come under attack from this government, with thousands of workers being made redundant as Remploy factories close – 90% of Remploy workers made redundant in the previous cuts two years ago have been unable to find new work as the recession increases competition for remaining jobs.

As part of the cuts to welfare, disabled workers face losing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) as it gets changed to Personal Independence Plan (PIP) – with a reassesment test that will be run by ATOS, the IT company that has been the focus for protests against the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) assessment for Employment…

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Birmingham again proving itself to be the forge of progressive and innovative ideas in the sphere of civic governance. Taking the argument beyond pro- and con- and instead to define how an enlightened local authority manages change to meet the needs of its citizens. Our city motto is ‘Forward!’
Understand why.

askparentsfirst's avatarAsk Parents First

It was announced in an article in the Birmingham Post earlier this month that the education scrutiny committee at Birmingham City Council will begin an inquiry into academies. Councillor Brigid Jones confirmed the plans today in a television interview for BBC Midlands Today. (Also reported were Birmingham City Council’s plans to develop a co-operative model that will bring together schools and academies in the city, there is more on this in an earlier post here).

The inquiry will be launched in September and will be headed by Councillor Anita Ward. The Birmingham Post reports that the inquiry will not be about whether the Council is for or against academies, but rather how they should deal with them.

The draft Inquiry Outline cites the key question as;

In the light of schools in Birmingham becoming academies what role should the council play to support all schools and children. New strategic…

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Brilliant! A must read and also a good game to try yourself.

Tom Pride's avatarPride's Purge

You must have heard about the theory of 6 Degrees of Separation – you know the idea that everyone in the world is personally connected to anyone else on Earth by on average only six people.

There was even a Hollywood film and a game – Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon – in which everyone in Hollywood is given a ‘Bacon Number’ depending on whether they have worked on a film directly with the actor Kevin Bacon (Bacon Number 1) or has worked with someone else who has (Bacon Number 2) or worked with someone who has worked with someone who has worked on a film with him (Bacon Number 3) etc etc etc.

So what’s Kevin Bacon got to do with politics you may be wondering?

Well I’m old enough to remember the rise of the far-right National Front in the 1970s and its subsequent decline in the 1980s –…

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Birmingham Against The Cuts's avatarBirmingham Against The Cuts

This weekend, Boycott Workfare are organising days of national action against workfare, and in Birmingham we’ll be taking part on Friday, with a lunchtime demonstration outside InTraining, one of the workfare profiteers, whose failure to help jobseekers led to one contacting us with his story, which you can read here.

With workfare schemes being expanded, and a new scheme being piloted in London, forcing school leavers to do a 3 month forced work placement as soon as they sign on, it is important that we show and build resistance to these schemes which force unemployed and disabled people into unsuitable work placements that threatens paid jobs and fails to help jobseekers into work.

You can read more about workfare and why we support the Boycott Workfare campaign in this post

Friday 7th September
12noon – 1pm
InTraining
4 Norton Street, Hockley, B18 5RQ

Accessibility information: The nearest…

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Excellent commentary on the value of long term planning. Nice to be reminded that there are horizons beyond the next gate, that ideas can take root, grow and stand the test of time.

Ann Walker's avatarLifelong Learning Matters

This is a guest blog by Ruth Spellman, the WEA’s General Secretary

My vote for educational influencers would probably go to RH Tawney for all the reasons why I applied to become General Secretary of the WEA, and why I have had a lifetime’s commitment to improving access to learning.One of my favourite quotes from Tawney;“The purpose of the association is to provide for men and women who want to take their bearings on the world, opportunities of co-operative study, in congenial company, with a leader who knows enough of his business to be not only a leader but a fellow student.”

The quote has huge resonance today as more and more of our language and discourse is dominated by the need to re-examine short term returns, short term profits, short term gratification for the consumer, short term windfalls and bonuses.  Education (as Tawney reminds us) is a longer term investment enabling us to participate in and benefit from…

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I have added my views – have your say, it is a good feeling.

askparentsfirst's avatarAsk Parents First

http://www.labourleft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/gg.jpg

Grassroots Gauge is a Labour Left initiative to ascertain the views of the public on current affairs. A new question is posed every week, and this week’s question is about education, academies and free schools, so please click the link and let them know what you think.

 

 

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Front line services, presumably not often used by those who axed the funding.

After all, if you need legal advice, hire a solicitor and if you need financial advice, ask a banker, the one you play golf with.
Oh, nearly forgot – if you want to know the time, ask a policeman.
If you can find one.

“Oops!”

Birmingham Against The Cuts's avatarBirmingham Against The Cuts

Further news this morning of austerity failing – the budget deficit for July 2012 was £600m – compared to a surplus in july 2011:

This year, the deficit is £44.9bn – up from £35.6bn in the first four months of 2011. This figure excludes one off payments made by the transfer of royal mail pension assets into the public sector – so when you see some people saying the deficit is lower now than last year, don’t fall for it – they can only say this by including this single payment, which disguises the economic reality we are facing.

The deficit is increasing because tax receipts are falling and benefit payments are rising. This is exactly in line with what anti-austerity…

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The Lib-Dem’s shameful, woeful attempts to excuse the inexcusable are here analysed and debunked. The operative word here is ‘shit’ and uninspired shit, at that.

Tom Pride's avatarPride's Purge

(This isn’t satire – it’s the Lib Dems!)

The single most common argument Liberal Democrat supporters use to defend themselves on the tripling of tuition fees whenever I try to debate the subject with them is that Labour were the first to introduce them.

They’re right of course about Labour being the first to introduce tuition fees, but what a bizarre argument.

What they’re basically saying is that because Labour were really shit and introduced some really shit ideas when they were in power, it means they have the right to continue with the same shit ideas too and in fact make them even more shit. In the case of tuition fees, three times more shit to be exact.

The second argument they use is that they’re in a coalition and sometimes have to accept what the Tories want, even if they think it’s a shit idea and don’t agree…

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Michael Gove’s school privatisation bonanza

Continuing in the theme of the Coalition’s unmandated give-away of public assets may I recommend the following:

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/michael-gove-playing-fields.html?m=1

I shall be adding this resource to my growing reading list. Additionally, it is about time I put some effort into adding content to my Blogspot stream.