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The announcement by English football’s ruling elite, the FA
Premier League, that they intend introducing an extra round of fixtures to be
played in venues around the world over one single weekend should come as no
surprise to anyone. Since its formation 15 years ago as a replacement for the
old First Division, the FA Premier League has sought to increase the
profitability of its product (their term not mine) out of all proportion – and
at our expense.
In a speech on 'liberty' at the University of Westminster, Gordon Brown
outlined his vision for 'Britishness'. Brown is, of course, a Scot.
Listing the achievements of so-called 'British liberty' from Magna
Carta to the Reform Act of 1832, he announced a debate on what it means
to be British. Brown's vision, however, amounts to nothing more than
reactionary politics dressed in liberal-radical language.
New Labour
should hang their heads in shame in their ongoing programme of cuts, closures and job losses
in the public sector. Margaret Thatcher’s band of robbers would be proud of their accomplishments and
their policies sit so easily within a Tory ideology that it is no wonder the Tories don’t look
like an opposition. They don’t need to. They have been in power in the guise of New Labour for over 11
years.
Caroline Flint, the new
Housing Minister has proposed that new tenants on council estates will have to
sign up to "actively seek work" as a condition of their tenancy. So now it's a
case of "no dog, no cat, no loud music, keep the place spick and span and you
must get a job". There is something
disturbingly familiar about this rubbish: it's like the old Victorian notion of the deserving and
undeserving poor.
Former military heads of
the British army have attacked proposals for Parliament to have to
approve any declaration of war made by the British state. The ruling class is
eager to keep a direct grip on its bodies of armed men; the police and the military,
the chief instruments of class suppression. These are vital to the ruling
class' ability to keep control of society, and sections of the boureoisie are
reluctant to relinquish them even to their own organs of so-called democratic rule.
Since 1979 UK child
poverty has doubled. In 2006, 3.8 million children were living in poverty in
homes on less than 60% of average income. Although this is a fall of about
600,000 since 1998, this still leaves 500,000 children above the Government's
own target. This is not the whole picture either - poverty in the whole
population is increasing.
From The Guardian, 
Sixty years ago Railway companies up and down the
country were nationalised. They were not necessarily nationalised for
ideological reasons - the vast majority were were hindering the
development of the British economy after the Second World War. At the time the
view was that you cannot plan what you don't control and you can't
control what you don't own. That view still holds true today.
Over Christmas the railways were in chaos - again. Why does
this sort of thing happen in Britain? It hasn't always been like this. The
problem started with privatisation. The Tories under John Major plotted a
privatisation so stupid that even Thatcher had thought better of it.
"The London police on strike. After that,
anything can happen", said Sylvia Pankhurst in 1918. The ground is certainly shifting in Britain. There has
been a continual build up of public anger at the government's attempt to impose
a 2% limit on public sector pay. The Police are getting a paltry 1.9% rise, in effect a pay cut.
They were furious and making all kinds of threats against the Home Secretary
Jacqui Smith and Gordon Brown.
Gordon Brown and Chancellor Darling are trying to cut public sector pay and impose three year pay deals, despite the price of basic goods rising. In effect the deals the are trying to impose are pay cuts. Why? 
Once again
New Labour are aping the Tories. Jack Straw has rushed through rules making strike action
by the Prison Officers illegal, reintroducing rules brought in by the Conservative government in 1994. We need to defend the
rights of the POA and the principles of free trade unionism.
The government has now pumped about £60
billion of our money into Northern Rock. That’s a lot of money – it’s more than
half what the health service costs. Now the NHS is looking after millions of
people at any one time and hospital services are available round the clock for
you in case anything goes wrong. It employs over a million people and its
benefits are there for all to see.
