[new puritan]

Bit surprised he doesn't have his own thread yet. Anyway, here's an interesting interview with OJ courtesy of Novara Media discussing where Labourism stands in the wake of the financial crisis. Well worth listening to.

http://novaramedia.com/2013/09/in-conve ... our-party/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MisterMuncher]

It does mildly amaze me that Jones' technique, of researching the topic at hand and having facts and figures ready to quote, is such a hammer-blow to the politicos he is variously ranged against.

[Daley Mayle]

It's cheating though, isn't it?

Watching Cleggy's mumbling, inarticulate interview with Andrew Marr you wonder whether he had actually read-up on LibDem policies and his vision of their future.

[The Red Arrow]

It does mildly amaze me that Jones' technique, of researching the topic at hand and having facts and figures ready to quote, is such a hammer-blow to the politicos he is variously ranged against.

I'll take this opportunity to plug his book 'Chavs: the demonisation of the working class' again. Full of such fact and figures (sourced). Do pick up a copy if you haven't already. It might well make you angry, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in this case.

[Andy McDandy]

And the tactic used by so many against him - "Look at you, you're so young, learn some respect!", says so much mre about them than him.

[Picklechu2]

"You wear a checked shirt to every event" is the other line if playing on his youthful looks fails.

[The Red Arrow]

Preaching to the converted here, but very well put...

Bedroom Tax: Owen Jones on why Labour's pledge to change this law is a victory
No decent human being can offer a defence for this despicable attack on some of the poorest

http://www.mirror.co.uk/opinion/news-op ... rs-2291921" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Red Arrow]

Monday 23 September 2013
Labour Party Conference: An honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work. Friends, this is my pledge
Ahead of Ed Miliband’s keynote address today, Owen Jones imagines the speech he should deliver if he wants to propel his party to election succes

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 35601.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hire him, Ed.

[Timbo]

I have to admit, reading that did get me a little excited, like the Bear in Bo Selecta.

[Picklechu2]

So excited you had to sexually harrass Patsy Kensit?

On topic, good stuff from "young" Jones as always!

[The Red Arrow]

Jones in Manchester last weekend. Good stuff.

[youtube]2ioHt-iDg7E[/youtube]

[canus insanus]

It does mildly amaze me that Jones' technique, of researching the topic at hand and having facts and figures ready to quote, is such a hammer-blow to the politicos he is variously ranged against.

I'll take this opportunity to plug his book 'Chavs: the demonisation of the working class' again. Full of such fact and figures (sourced). Do pick up a copy if you haven't already. It might well make you angry, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in this case.

I read that last year - essential reading for any of us on here.

[The Red Arrow]

Sunday 6 October 2013
Ed Miliband isn’t offering socialism – but the Tories are still terrified
The right fears that social democratic ideas might prove popular

But let’s get a bit of perspective here. Socialism? I don’t think so. Labour have – wrongly – committed themselves to Osborne’s spending plans in the first year of a new government. As Michael Gove gobbles up the comprehensive education system for dinner, Labour’s response has been, to say the least, muted. Medialand may be wailing about 1970s socialism being back with a vengeance, but given polls show 69 per cent want the energy companies nationalised, the Labour leader still found himself to the right of public opinion. No commitment on rail renationalisation, either, which some polls show is even the preferred option of Tory voters. There’s suggestions Labour would hike the top rate of tax up to 50 per cent again, but polls show the public would be happy to take it to 60 per cent. Not exactly the full-scale expropriation of the bourgeoisie, is it?

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 62388.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Red Arrow]

Monday 14 October 2013
Vicky Pryce will do fine. But there are so many other ex-cons who won’t
Discussion has focused on the horror of middle-class people in jail

It would be easy to write a column damning Vicky Pryce as she tours the studios, promoting a new book inspired by her experiences of prison. “Crime doesn’t pay,” the expression goes, and yet here is a privileged, well-connected public figure, using her imprisonment for criminality to flog a book and rehabilitate her reputation. Contrast her with a young black man, lacking stable friendships let along contacts in the British Establishment, released from prison, for ever treated with suspicion, with few prospects of getting secure work or any sort of comfortable future.

But it was not Vicky Pryce who designed the hideous injustices of British society, and her media blitz is a useful hook for a debate about our bleak, discriminatory, counter-productive justice system. Again, it is a tragedy that it takes the imprisonment of white, privileged public figures like Pryce and her fellow studio-touring ex-husband to provoke such a debate.

The discussion has focused on the horror of middle-class people having to endure the misery of prison, as though it is worse because they supposedly have further to fall. Her diaries revealed “what life is really like for a middle-class woman inside of the country’s toughest prisons,” salivated the Daily Mail. But again, here is simply the sad reality of how our country is structured....

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 79711.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Red Arrow]

Monday 21 October 2013
Rising energy costs: the bullies at the Big Six must be stood up to
It’s the story of modern capitalism: debt is nationalised and profits are privatised

It is the story of modern capitalism: the nationalisation of debt and the privatisation of profit. In 2010 alone, the taxpayer was stuck with a £4bn bill to close down old nuclear plants, and the clean-up cost for Hinkley A this year was £736m. And take Royal Mail: the profitable elements flogged off to the likes of the Kuwaiti dictatorship’s sovereign wealth fund, while the British taxpayer carried the burden of the pension fund. It was the same story with the banks, too. Cameron et al can wail all they want about “socialism” in response to a temporary price freeze, but the reality is socialism for the rich thrives under their administration.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 94842.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;