Budget 2011: Retro Shock Doctrine as Thatcher’s Enterprise Zones return
In a display of loyalty to the memory of Margaret Thatcher (don’t get excited; she’s still alive), George Osborne today announced that now the Tories are back in power, they’re bringing back Enterprise Zones. There will be 21 in total. Ten locations have been chosen by Osborne, so we will see EZs in Birmingham and [...]
Budget open thread
George Osborne gives his first regular-season Budget speech today at 12.30. You can watch on BBC2, BBC Parliament or online at BBC Democracy Live. We’ll have analysis for you once we have our hands on the Budget documents, and we’ll be tweeting throughout the speech @brightgrn. In the meantime, this open thread is for you [...]
Film: Patrick Harvie MSP: “If I ever vote for fees, sack me”
Scottish Green Party co-convener Patrick Harvie yesterday speaking to students protesting in Edinburgh against fees and cuts yesterday, called on students to sack him if he ever votes for fees:
Public services or an unnecessary road bridge?
By Francis Stuart We all know the upcoming Scottish election campaign will be dominated by cuts. This isn’t surprising given we are looking at significant cuts year on year to the Scottish Budget and a future Scottish Government, whether that be made up of Labour or the SNP, that fundamentally disagrees with the UK Government [...]
For our grandparents, our children, and our friends
This post first appeared on the blog Why Trafalgar? The history of Britain is a history of struggle. The institutions which to us feel permenant are nothing of the sort. They had to be fought for. They had to be won. In 1910, the Tories brought down the governnment in an attempt to stop the [...]
3 things we’ve learnt on Libya
1) This isn’t just a No Fly Zone. Today, there have been reports of French planes bombing Libya, and firing from the air at tanks. So, the first thing that we have learned is that, as predicted, there is no such thing as a No Fly Zone which is only a No Fly Zone. This [...]
Jenny Jones will run for London Mayor in 2012
Three-term London Assembly Member Jenny Jones has been selected as the Green Party’s candidate for Mayor of London. In a ballot of London party members, Jones received 458, or 66%, of the 1st preference votes. Shahrar Ali, parliamentary candidate for Brent Central last year, took 133 1st preference votes (19%), and Farid Bakht, who ran [...]
Honey Gathering Peoples of the High Hills
This is a story about a different kind of community, one in the Global South. A different kind of community to the ones we are working in in the Global North as we try to build resilience before the economic and ecological dam breaks completely. Or is it really such a different community, and such [...]
Environmentalists who defend nuclear miss the point
George Monbiot, in his recent article ‘The Fukushima crisis should not spell the end of nuclear power’, argues that since – in climate change terms – coal is ultimately worse than nuclear, we should not abandon nuclear power. However, surely the choice is not between nuclear and coal but between: (i) continually refuelling and expanding [...]
Edinburgh UCU strike day 1 photos
Today I took part in my first strike and my first picket. Here are a few pictures from the picket line, the rally in Bristo Square where we heard speakers from UCU, PCS, STUC, NUS and the Edinburgh Anti Cuts Coalition and our brief occupation of Charles Stewart House, where the university Human Resources department [...]
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