work in progress

me and Burly.

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:23:09 +0100

me and Burly.

Flying the flag

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:40:44 +0000

I am sick of reading about Northern Ireland in the news.

Sick of it. I don’t even know if I can be bothered to write about it. Well, let’s see if this gets it out of my system, temporarily.

David Ervine once spoke about decommissioning. His line was that decommissioning weapons was pointless unless mindsets were also decommissioned. A typical David Ervine line. It seems that the loyalists he once represented have been stockpiling all their bitterness and grievances since they apparently laid down their guns, because the riots and the violence on the streets of Belfast are an echo of a bygone age.

I was asked by a friend the other day whether I thought the Troubles would start again. No, I said. I still say this. There is too much to lose, no one wants to go back to that, it’s criminality rather than ideology, all the trite cliches. I didn’t say ‘recreational rioting’, but I know a lot of people back home are thinking it. But it’s not going to be long before someone else dies, if this continues.

And for what?

A flag, apparently.

A fucking flag.

I think it’s an excuse, even though I have no doubt that bringing Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK when it comes to flag-flying on public buildings makes their loyalist blood boil. The irony of it all! But like the riots in London in 2011, this is more about an underclass exploding with anger at their perceived impotence. A feeling that they are not in control, not like they were in the good old days, and that they might as well set some things alight, and shoot at the State which they love and they hate. Poverty, bigotry and lack of education feed into this sense of grievance. Others will be orchestrating this, using the anger and hopelessness of young people to incite hatred, and maybe try to get those good old days back, when they were the Big Man in their estate. The one with the gun. The one people ‘respected’. The one people remembered - after all, there hasn’t been much talk in the news about loyalists recently, just the dissident republicans and the drug-vigilantes, punishing dealers who don’t cut them in on the action.

The rioters feel that the other side are winning and calling the shots, and that they are laughing at them. But their behaviour plays straight into the hands of republicans. Again. Again, again, again, it has been happening like this for so long. Make the loyalists act like thugs and Sinn Fein will seem oh so reasonable, oh so civilised. Just defending their community. It’s a familiar game, from the besieged residents in Portadown tormented by red-faced Orangemen, to churchgoers in Harryville and now, again, the Short Strand is under siege. If he were alive today, I think David Ervine would have been telling people to wise up and cool down. He’d also be talking about poverty and trying to explain why this was happening. It’s a shame the leaders of loyalism have not stepped up to lead their community accordingly.

I can’t be bothered to write any more, as it’s making me even more annoyed. There are so many other things which I haven’t even considered, like the role of the police itself or the lack of jobs in Northern Ireland. It just feels like while there have been some superficial changes since the Agreement, deep down, things are exactly as they have always been.

How do you include people who don’t want to be part of society? Or don’t want peace if it’s not on their terms? Dissident republicans and loyalists are trying to turn the clock back to a time when people were dying on a daily basis. We must persuade them and their supporters that they are wrong.

I wish I knew how, but it seems so hopeless.

"But the rape thing…you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept her child, gave it up for..."

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 22:03:31 +0000

“But the rape thing…you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept her child, gave it up for adoption, she doesn’t regret it. In fact, she’s a big pro-life proponent. But on the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s the consequence of this crime, how does that make it better? You know what I mean?”

- A GOP candidate opposes an abortion ban exception for “the rape thing.” (via think-progress)
No, I don’t know what you mean. I don’t know why anyone would vote for you either.

Ben Folds Five video

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:46:47 +0100

Ben Folds Five video:

Love this video. Nice inspirational message too.

This seems appropriate today. I may need to watch this video...

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:32:22 +0100

This seems appropriate today. I may need to watch this video again to get my head around it all. That’s sleep deprivation, by the way, not my lack of understanding of quantum doohickeys.

Higgs-sighting times! :-)

really lovely music website

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 21:17:00 +0100

really lovely music website

Election day

Thu, 03 May 2012 13:24:50 +0100

I love voting. Burly and I generally go and exercise our franchise together, so I’m holding off until he gets home from work this evening. If I start to get contractions in the meantime, I’ll head down to the polling station on my own. I refuse to let the small matter of having a baby get in the way of casting my votes.

An update on yesterday, in terms of electoral communications - we had a hand-delivered letter from the local Green candidate; I was probably going to vote Green anyway but I didn’t actually realise who our candidate is (not being completely up to speed with the name of our ward etc). Anyway, it’s a guy called Dr Martin Bartos that I’ve heard speak before, he’s a psychiatrist in Govan and I rate what he says on mental health - as the Council will be providing local social care services for people with these and other disabilities, it would be helpful to have someone on the council who will have something sensible to say on these matters. So that’s preference 1 sorted. (I love STV too - lots of votes!!)

I also saw some UK unity party / anti-SNP flyering down the street, but that was it for yesterday. Growing up in Northern Ireland has made me pretty resistant to people wrapping themselves in the flag; leaflets emblazoned with the Union Jack make me think of either Ian Paisley or Nick Griffin, so (surprise, surprise) I’ll not be going for them. And while people can criticise the SNP, they do have other policies apart from independence; the unity crowd don’t have anything except rejection of independence. If I was minded to vote on that issue, which I’m not, I’d probably support one of the pro-Union mainstream parties rather than a single issue unionist party, and get more bang for my buck.

The postman has been and gone, with no new literature. The parties seem to have decided not to spend money on their local election campaigns; either because of lack of funds (Labour, Lib Dems, Tories) or greater priorities for that pot of cash (SNP and the Independence referendum in 2014, and the others to counter their attempts at secession). If I can be bothered this afternoon I’ll google my candidates. In any case, it’s a poor show.

Election tomorrow?

Wed, 02 May 2012 08:06:00 +0100

Tomorrow is election day across the UK. Aside from a couple of flyers about a month ago, we’ve survived this election period relatively unscathed. No canvassers, no party election broadcasts, no posters cable-tied to local lampposts, no sign of this important event at all. This is despite living in Glasgow, one of the so-called ‘key battlegrounds’ in the UK. After over 30 years of Labour rule, there is (was?) a chance that the SNP would win a majority of seats on Glasgow City Council.

I don’t know if they will manage to do this; old habits die hard here, and despite the poverty in the city, despite the mismanagement, despite the sleaze, despite a long list of unfulfilled pledges and manifesto promises, a lot of people in Glasgow continue to support Labour as their default setting.

I do not think Labour deserve another chance based on their performance. Life expectancy in Glasgow is appalling. The roads are appalling. Schools are not good enough. Cuts are being made to desperately needed adult social care services and organisations which support rape victims, but the allowances paid to Councillors and high salaries of officials remain untouched. We pay high rates of council tax and get little in return. The one leaflet we did get from Labour had some promises enclosed, rather than a list of achievements since the last election, which after three decades in power demonstrates inadequacy, as well as a lack of respect to the people they have been apparently serving for more than a generation.

I am not necessarily convinced the SNP would do a better job, although they might be in a stronger position to lobby Holyrood for money and support than their predecessors in City Chambers.

In 2007, Labour won 45 seats, the SNP won 22, Lib Dems 5, Greens 5, Tories 1 and Solidarity 1. I reckon that the SNP will win at least 35 this time around, at the expense of Labour and the Lib Dems, but probably shy of the 40 needed for an overall majority. I could be wrong though, I wasn’t expecting the landslide last May. So it is likely that Labour will lose overall control of the council, rather than the SNP gaining an absolute majority. The revelation of Salmond’s lobbying of Murdoch may also dent the SNP’s chances, but probably not. In which case, it may fall to some of the smaller parties (and I expect the Lib Dems to get even smaller) to form a coalition with the SNP. The Greens generally work quite well with the SNP in Holyrood, but they too could be swept away by the tribal politics of Glasgow. We shall see.

Local government is important; Glasgow City Council has a big budget and the decisions made have a massive impact on peoples’ lives here. That doesn’t seem to be anyone’s priority though - too many people go into local government as a stepping stone to national politics, a hurdle to be overcome rather than an end in itself. And we can tell that a lot of them aren’t really that interested in the local issues. No wonder turnout tomorrow is expected to be around 30%, when our politicians behave as if the electorate don’t matter, and the electorate are too disenchanted to vote. The local media doesn’t cover what actually goes on in the 12 Council meetings a year within City Chambers, or bother to read the minutes of Committees and ask the tough questions which should be put to our elected representatives. Our local councillors receive precious little scrutiny; perhaps if they did there would be a bit more enthusiasm from the voters and a bit less complacency from the politicians.

Given the dearth of election material we have received, I’m not actually sure what any of our local candidates are standing for. Perhaps there will be fresh missives today.

guardian: guardianpolitics: Nice bit of political coverage...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:16:00 +0100

guardian:

guardianpolitics:

Nice bit of political coverage here - Bill Shorten interviewed on Sky News Australia

Now viewable on our site - this is pretty special

I bet David Cameron dreams of such collective responsibility from members of his Cabinet… wow.

D-Day

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:13:35 +0100

Burly and I have made it quite clear to my bump that today is D-Day and they should be getting a move on.

Alas, the baby is ignoring us.

This bodes well.

Daily Mail returns to its 1930s fascist roots...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:08:00 +0100

Daily Mail returns to its 1930s fascist roots...:

…by endorsing Marine Le Pen. Incroyable.

Chiropractic 'therapy' debunked

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 11:58:00 +0100

Chiropractic 'therapy' debunked:

I’ve not heard of Darryl Cunningham before, but a chapter of his new book ‘Science Tales’ was published in today’s Observer. Worth a read, more so as it’s in comic form and nicely digestible - wonder if the British Chiropractic Association will try to sue him for libel too?

A couple of my friends go to chiropractors, bit worried about them now…

Puntastic literary name for a local business. I do like this.

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:10:09 +0100

Puntastic literary name for a local business. I do like this.

Satire from a pub landlord. Love it.

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 20:18:44 +0100

Satire from a pub landlord. Love it.

A prediction for tomorrow’s Budget…

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:11:01 +0000

A prediction for tomorrow’s Budget…

Some thoughts ahead of finishing work

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:41:00 +0000

So begins my last week at work for a year… I’m not sure how I feel about this yet. It’s not as if I’m going to be a lady of leisure for the next 12 months, I’ll be on maternity leave caring for our child. And given how often I’m kicked and pummelled on an hourly basis, I imagine this little one could be trouble :)

I’m looking forward to some time off politics, both within and outwith the office. It’s been a fairly depressing time to be a lobbyist, throughout this financial crisis. My organisation faces cuts, which impacts staff morale; redundancies loom and there is a real feeling of insecurity and panic at work. And when our services are cut, the people we support will get a reduced level of care. This is on top of the challenges they are already facing. I’ve spent yet more time this morning reading about the impact that the Government’s policies on benefits are having on disabled people; some of our service users have lost their DLA, so they no longer have a car and their benefits are substantially reduced. They cannot work, and they have no money. They are getting into debt. They are not well enough to cope with this - nor should they have to.

It makes me sad; it makes me angry. I try to alleviate things with my work, and so do hundreds of other organisations representing children, people with disabilities, single parents, people who are homeless, but the Government carries on regardless, ideologically driven and ignoring all the evidence. The feeling of powerlessness makes me wonder ‘why bother?’. Any impotence I feel, however, is nothing compared to the people who use our services, who don’t have a voice, who don’t feel well enough to shout about it.

Their suffering is so invisible. Any press coverage of people on benefits tends towards the ‘scroungers’ angle. The gut-churning poverty which is being inflicted by a Cabinet of millionaires doesn’t find its way into the tabloid press. Will this change as the years go by and the cuts really begin to bite? Do we really need to start seeing soup kitchens and street sleepers in their hundreds and thousands before things have to change? It’s so bloody predictable.

So, trying to turn my eyes away from this and immersing myself in childcare will be welcome, although I imagine I’ll continue to get annoyed with the stupid Government. Baby and I will be sitting at home watching the Parliament channel, the two of us screaming at the TV in between sleeps and feeds.

Work has always been bound up in my identity as an adult. ‘What do you do?’ is the question people ask when you meet them, and I’ve been lucky enough to have had interesting, worthwhile jobs. For the next year, I will never be saying I’m ‘just a mum’. I hate that phrase - it demeans an important role and it underplays how difficult it is. It continues to perpetuate a myth that this is ‘lesser’ than paid employment, therefore requiring less support from the state or society. Yet society benefits from people looking after children well. Good childcare / child rearing leads to responsible citizens, saving money in benefits, policing and prison and improving their education and employment prospects for the future.

This role has been undermined by the Government not making childcare affordable, not honouring the work done by women in pensions’ contributions, and not enforcing the Equal Pay Act. These inactions make women the default carer because her job is generally paid less than her partner’s and losing it to look after the kids will be less of a reduction in the household income. It is something too many women are forced into, and too many women are made to feel doesn’t really matter. That is hardly going to improve their ability to care for their children.

I remember when I worked for the Women’s Coalition, more than ten years ago now - when the Northern Ireland Assembly got up and running, they insisted on family friendly working hours to be included in the legislature’s standing orders. This was agreed. Every Monday and Tuesday, the motion to overrule these standing orders were passed by the main, male-dominated, parties. Debates often went on into the evening, or carried on into the Assembly’s bar. Things haven’t moved on much whenever the burden of care and the role of the family is seen by too many men as not their priority, not their domain, none of their business.

It’s everyone’s business. Next year is probably going to be the most important working year of my life.

think-progress: theamericanprospect: The contraception debate,...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:26:07 +0000

think-progress:

theamericanprospect:

The contraception debate, basically.

Just can’t win.

Genius.

I do like Graeme Obree. It is lovely to see someone who has...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:23:00 +0000

I do like Graeme Obree. It is lovely to see someone who has struggled with his demons so passionate about life.

ilovecharts: Celebrity Baby Names via lifeisrandomblog Burly...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:45:26 +0000

ilovecharts:

Celebrity Baby Names

via lifeisrandomblog

Burly and I seem to have avoided all of these for the bump. Good, good.

Going to see these pair in November (babysitter permitting) -...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:49:58 +0000

Going to see these pair in November (babysitter permitting) - really looking forward to it.