What’s Occurring?

Ah, blogging about blogging. Always a way to get warmed up.

As both my readers know, I’ve had a little holiday from blogging since the European Election.  Not because Bread and Roses was a ploy to get elected (not a very good one – I was still 400,000 votes off), but because I’ve started a new job, not spent a lot of time in Glasgow, and graduated: logging into facebook or twitter alone has been a bit of an effort in the last month.

But an excellent post by Will Patterson, in which my modest efforts as a blogger really does not merit a mention, has sent me back to the keyboard.  Will’s post on the perils of blogging, particularly in the case of former SNP Glasgow North East candidate Grant Thoms, provides a deft analysis of the hazard blogging can pose to a political career.

Dorothea Brande, in her seminal work Becoming a Writer, described the writer as a dual personality: one childlike, sensitive, spontaneous; the other adult, discriminating, critical.  Too much of one, and no work gets done; too much of the other and fluency is paralyzed.

Although Brande wrote in 1934, the principle remains.  Engaging brain before mouth, or keyboard, is always a good idea. Calculating the political impact on your career of every word you utter is a bit sad.  Having to calculate the political impact in the first place is worse.

Thoms is unfortunate as a candidate in having faced a by-election rather than a General Election.  By-elections are nasty, scrappy, necessary evils: short, over-heated, over-scrutinized messy things with too many people working too hard, making it too easy to seek easy hits.  Like the contents of a candidate’s blog. 

There isn’t a solution, other than trying to find the balance above, between writing something interesting, and making a t*t of yourself.  The idea that what someone has committed in writing isn’t going to be reported on or (mis)used isn’t credible, but neither is the anodyne reposting of propaganda. 

So, no answers to this conundrum (it’s my first post back, gies a break), but enough of blogging about blogging.  I appear to have missed a few important events in the last few weeks. It seems the fashion to analyze Scottish politics through the medium of the West Wing (I can think of at least three researchers on the Labour floor attempting the Josh Lyman look: stress on attempting) I thought I would summarize some of what I’ve missed via, sotto voce, a far superior piece of television.

 Expenses finally published – ‘I won’t lie to you Stace’

 Expenses reaction – “Everyone was laughing at me. And not just because I fell over.”

 The Tories reacting to Bercow elected Speaker – probably much like the restaurant toilet in Caprichos  at the start of season two.

 Iraq Inquiry – “Ooh, I’m going to fall out with you today!”

 Calman Commission – “Listen Gav, no-one wants this marriage to fail more than I do.”

Michael Jackson – “At the end of the day, when all’s said and done, d’ya know what I mean.”

Tidy.  Just a shame there’s no opportunity to mention John Prescott.

Vote early…

There are so many things happening this week which I would like to write about – not just British politics this week, but also Kitty’s comment on my last post, monkey babies, Britain’s Got Talent …

But today and tomorrow I’m knocking a lot of doors, and Bread and Roses will have to wait until Friday at the earliest.  

Even with the last 27 days of revelations from the Telegraph and the sets of dominos it has set tumbling, I still believe elected politics remains the best way to make a contribution to our society, to engage in public service with others of differing views to work to make the changes we need.  Even with the resignations and sleaze, there are still hundreds of politicians and activists who are spending their time and money and shoe-leather this week to make sure their views and their candidates are heard.

I hope you vote.  I hope you vote Labour – especially for Europe in Scotland where I think we are putting forward a dedicated, hardworking, experienced, and diverse team of candidates.  But most of all I hope you vote so that the stain of hatred of the BNP doesn’t slip through our ballot boxes and into Brussels.   

I’ll be back soon, blisters and all.

Hustings, Hogarth, and Human Rights

With one week to go until polling day, last night was the last hustings I am scheduled to do for the campaign – a gigantic ten party panel hosted by the Public and Commercial Services Union in Glasgow. 

Hogarth's 'The Polling'

Although now somewhat more sedate affairs than Hogarth’s depictions of drunken and corrupt cacophonies of public nomination, hustings remain perhaps the most fun aspect of running for election, together with doorstep canvassing.  Both are equal parts unpredictable and useful.

The most interesting question I have been asked so far at a hustings was at Strathclyde University Union, regarding the right to free movement in the EU for LGBT people. 

Directive 2004/38 grants EU citizens and their family members the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the member states and gives to EU citizens and their families a right of permanent residence after five years of residence in the host member state.  However, by the end of 2008, 14 EU member states – Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Malta, Cyprus, Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia – still did not give full residence and entry rights to gay and lesbian couples.  While I was aware some of the newer entrants to the EU are less than progressive on this matter, which was the focus of the original question, I was surprised the number of older member states who also perpetuate this injustice. 

There should be ambitious EU legislation to deliver equality and there should be equal and mutual recognition of same-sex partnerships across Europe.  The unequal treatment of gay and lesbian coupes in rights of residence and entry is one of many areas of discrimination the European Union needs to take action on.  I have signed the ILGA-Europe’s 2009 pledge to promote equality and to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, and I hope many of my fellow candidates will do likewise.

So, useful and unpredictable.  And I’m sure the rest of the doors I’ll spend the week chapping will generate more.

Making Bread in Europe

 

Photo: European Commission

The award of a £217,000 grant by the European Social Fund to the Scottish Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology prompts me to write in a little more detail about some aspects of Labour’s manifesto for the European Elections.

The response to the economic crisis will dominate the next term of the European Parliament.  As about two-thirds of all the UK’s trade depends on Europe, securing better jobs, more trade, and sustainable growth will continue to be priorities.  But this does not by any means disregard the vital need for investment in human capital, especially in women.

The above grant to the Centre, based at Napier University, recognizes the adverse impact on the Scottish economy – skills deficits and low productivity – caused by having too few women employed in science, engineering, and technology industries.  The Party of European Socialists’ manifesto is rated by the European Women’s Lobby as the highest scoring among the political groupings in terms of addressing gender issues.  Critical among these are the challenges for women in the workplace.

Labour MEPs have made sure part-time and temporary workers now have the same rights as full-time workers regarding training, pensions, maternity rights, and leave entitlements.  Our manifesto pledges to fight to close the gender pay gap, an action vital to transforming our society by improving living standards, reducing poverty, and increasing economic growth.  (So important, in fact, a whole chapter of the PES manifesto is on the very subject.)

Millions of women around the world still face exploitation and rights violations, from unfair treatment in their workplace, to domestic violence in their home, to those who are the victims of the heinous crime of human trafficking.  2009 is a critical year for politics and for women in Europe: with the election of a new Parliament and the appointment of a new Commission, this year provides an excellent opportunity to ensure gender equality and fair representation of women in top positions at a European level.  But this is also the chance to make sure Europe makes the right policies to shape women’s lives on a day-to-day basis.  There is no tool for development, whether social, political, or economic, which is more effective than the empowerment of women.  European social policy needs to reflect and act on this.

Primary Conditions

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or to accept the responsibility for changing them” Denis Waitley

David Lammy MP has suggested that the introduction of primaries, where Labour “supporters could vote alongside party members” would help to “engage local people and would boost the prospects of candidates rooted in the constituency”.  Wendy Alexander in her speech as Leader in the Scottish Parliament to Scottish Labour’s 2008 conference in Aviemore mooted something similar.

I am dubious regarding the introduction of primaries, much like I am dubious when any attempt to transplant American election campaigning to a British context is suggested.  It partly comes down to a mater of scale.  The Conservatives ran a primary system to select Boris Johnson as their Mayoral candidate, which saw about 20,000 people participate. 

From davesandford's Flickr

‘Raiding’, where opponents participate in an attempt to choose whoever is considered the worst candidate is probably cancelled out at this level.  But the prospect of open primaries at a constituency level is not so secure.

My fundamental disregard for primaries is in a large part due to being a Labour party member, and from knowing that selecting candidates is one of the privileges Labour party members have.  I recognize the need, much as David Lammy and Chuka Umunna do, for the party to emerge from this current political crisis by rebuilding trust in our elected representatives. 

The party needs to deselect corrupt MPs.  I’m not sure if the NEC proposals this week will be effective.  But the party also needs to permit uncorrupt MPs to demonstrate their continuing suitability for the job prior to any election.  Instead of primaries, I would have mandatory reselection.

Mandatory reselection would mean sitting MPs, instead of facing a trigger ballot to either endorse them or move to full re-selection, would instead be subject to a ballot of one member, one vote, to be re-selected to fight the next election.

It is, as you may guess, a proposal generally unpopular with sitting MPs and party officials.  It got a bit of a bad press when the party last used it in the 1980s.  But I have no problem with people who make their living from being Labour Party representatives having to seek direct approval from their local Labour members more than once in their career.   

Lammy writes “The only way to truly reform Parliament is to change the way that people are chosen – and to change the people who go there”.  But those who want to stay there should also re-apply for the job.

A Guid Cause

On 10 October 2009, hundreds of people will re-enact the 1909 Suffragette procession along Princes Street in Edinburgh.

 

1909 Princes Street Procession

 

While the popular depiction of the women’s suffrage movement is London-based – chained to Whitehall railings, imprisoned in Holloway – the movement was widespread in Scotland too.  Leah Leneman’s work is bursting with details how Scottish women played an important part in the campaign for the franchise, including how two Women’s Freedom League members – Agnes Husband and Lila Clunas – took part in a fruitless deputation to Churchill in the same month as the original march being re-enacted this year.

Organisers Gude Cause have a number of activities before October too, with the first meeting of the banner making group tonight, as well as the chance to make a commemorative quilt, learn procession songs (no prizes for guessing my favourite), and concerts, exhibitions, and lectures to be announced soon. 

Hat-tip: The F Word

Unite Against Fascism – Tonight

Unite Against Fascism

Unite Against Fascism Public Rally

Tuesday 19 May – 7pm

STUC Halls, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow

Chair:

Ken Cameron

Speakers:

Weyman Bennett – Unite Against Fascism

Aamer Anwar – human rights lawyer

Sophie Taylor – Scottish Trades Union Congress

Kirsty Connell – Labour Party

Sarah Gibbons – National Union of Students

plus SNP speaker (tbc).

The new and the nightmares

 

Winning parliamentarian candidate for the third constituency Dr Aseel al Awadhi celebrates her victory at her campaign head quarters in Surra, Kuwait City. Gustavo Ferrari / AP Photo

First of all, the new.  In the third attempt to reach the Assembly since receiving full political rights in 2005, and out of 16 female candidates, Kuwait today welcomes 4 newly elected women to its Parliament.  Their election, alongside 17 other new MPs, with more liberals and fewer Islamists, breaks the recent trend of Kuwaitis electing increasingly conservative MPs to the Gulf’s oldest Parliament. 

Women’s representation in the Lok Sabha has also increased from 49 to 59 following India’s election.

But now, the nightmares: a female Presiding Officer offers a different perspective on India’s elections.  And while 42 women have registered to run for President in Iran, women who contested the 2001 and 2005 presidential elections were later barred from running in the final contest.  It will be interesting to see if conservative Rafat Bayat, or any other woman, will be on the list of approved candidates to be published soon.

Working Together for a Better Future

 

European Manifesto Launch

 

I spent this morning at Scottish Labour’s European manifesto launch at the Glasgow Science Centre alongside my fellow Scottish Labour European candidates, Iain Gray MSP, Jim Murphy MP, and Glenis Willmott MEP, Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party.

 

Fairness is at the heart of Labour’s manifesto:

A fair future for all: with action to tackle the recession, create new green jobs, and build on our commitments to the developing world;

Fair chances for all: tackling discrimination; improving pay and rights for parents; and building a New Social Europe;

And fair rules for all: tackling cross-border crime and terrorism, securing new rights for Scottish consumers, and making the EU work for Scotland.

I intend to post in more detail about each of these headings before polling day, but even if you’ll need these extra posts to persuade you, don’t forget tomorrow is the deadline for registering to vote!

Scores on the Doors

Europe Day in Glasgow for Catherine Stihler MEP and I was a bit soggy, at Partick Farmers’ Market and the doorknocking in Glasgow North.  I will be using these photos to counter any accusations of being a fair weather campaigner in the future.

This week also had visits to the Cumbernauld College campus in Kirkintilloch, a fantastic new building on a beautiful site next to the Forth and Clyde canal, and a trip to a pensioners’ club in Kilwinning for a very jovial lunch.  

Glasgow North Doorknocking

Partick Farmers’ Market

Kilwinning Pensioners’ Club

And in between sitting two of my university finals (I graduate in June) I’ve also been out on street stalls and knocking doors in Dennistoun, Thornliebank, Bishopbriggs, Newton Mearns, and Irvine. 

Are MPs expenses the single biggest issue on the doors? Yes.  Are people angry? Of course.  Campaigning is always hard work – persuading people to vote for your party isn’t something to be undertaken lightly or half-heartedly.  It is even harder than usual at the moment. But there are still 18 days until polling day, and there are still activists working hard to elect Labour MEPs.  To recycle an election day and football cliche, there is still all to play for.