persistent niggle

quite a while ago now, whilst having a conversation with a friend (albeit a fairly new one), i was asked what one thing would make me happier. not in a personal sense, but in a wider social/political sense; its probably seemed a good question to stop me roaming all over the china shop of my political and moral grumbles. "what one thing, if you could apply from it tomorrow, would you have happen or change or whatever?"

i thought about this. mostly while admiring the girl's pleasing belief that one thing could make me happy. in a world of sometimes blithe innocent unthinking cheerfulness, i possess a list of things as long as my "to read" or "albums to buy" lists that i would like to see change. my anger and annoyance is multifarious and insatiable.

however, after several years of consideration (my productivity is definitely increasing, folks) i have managed to think of one thing that, while it wouldn't make me completely happy, would make me happier, and relieve me of periodic persistent rage.

i would like, no, love to see all private education abolished.

this probably isn't a surprise to anyone who's grasped the unsubtle tenor of my political views. it is, though, something which looms for me far above every other iniquity of the current state of the country.

i cannot fathom how it is allowed (i hope one day in the future it will be looked back on with the same "how could they allows this???" type disbelief that we associate with burning witches and children working up chimneys). It is one of the more disturbing sights and sounds of the media to see people appear from the woodwork to justify private education on television and radio. usually people who either work in the private schools, or people who send their children to them. red of face and vociferous they often are. the classic argument in defence is as follows:

"why should we prevent parents providing the best possible education for their child? we have a right to use our hard work and labour to gain better opportunities for them?"

the simple answer is "no. you don't" i can understand you want the best for your child. but your child is of no more importance than anyone else's. they do not deserve "better opportunities" than anyone else. we cannot claim to live in a fair society, a meritocracy if you like, where some children have better educational opportunities. And certainly not better opportunities based on their parent's earnings or property. any "right" that is based on money or power is spurious and unjustifiable.

i used to use a two question method on people that argued there was nothing wrong with private education; it seemed the quickest, and clearest, route to making the issue clear:

1) why would you purchase education for your child?

(answer: because i wish to provide them with the best possible education and

opportunities. let's face it, no-one would spend the money otherwise, would they?)

2) why should your child, important to you as they may be, talented as they may be, gain better opportunities by dint of your greater wealth than other parents?

(answer, usually more garbled and annoyed: because i have worked hard for my money and

i have right to do whats best for my child..... or words to that effect)

needless the say, the second answer is not in any way satisfactory. it is based on a falsely competitive notion of society (ironically, people who have a lot of money and are used to buying their privileges get astonishingly, and entertainingly, angry when other factors prevent them accessing the thing they want: for instance, not getting into school or a club or whatever because their religion or their child's ability is considered "wrong").

Furthermore, the nastier implication, never mentioned, is that they worked hard for their money and deserve the privileges it brings. well, firstly there should be no privileges in education, and secondly, it would be nice to have them openly tell other parents: "I'm afraid you don't work hard enough, my dears, or you too could have our opportunities". because that is what the argument amounts to, effectively: my child is more deserving than yours, and my wealth is proof of this. your poverty is proof you don't deserve the best

anyway, the view is pretty abhorrent to most people. my favourite retort is that the rest of us are merely "envious"; yes, too bloody right we are, in some sense, envious; only in another sense, a sense these people will never understand, we aren't.

Because we don't form our ethics and beliefs around what money we have, and what our position will allow us to do. "if you had the money you'd do it too" they often say.

but, simply, no. we would not send our children to private schools, no matter how much we'd like them to experience the highest quality of education and facilities (and that itself is often a moot point; not all private schools are remotely good anyway, many are there merely to take financial advantage of wealthier parents deluded hopes for better chances), we don't feel that something is right to do merely because we have the money or power to do it. if my having a lot of money (oh, the thought!) allowed me to get away with murder then that would not make me commit the act or feel it justifiable. wanting the best for your child is justifiable and understandable, but not a reason for acting to put them ahead of the pack.

in fact, quite honestly, it wouldn't matter whether you were a bad parent, lazy and feckless, who had no desire to improve your child's chances, they still deserve as much chance and as high a standard of education as the wealthiest, most doting parent's child. arguably they deserve it even more, because they have no parental support, no financial advantage, and almost certainly no emphasis on achievement in their lives.

every child, from richest to poorest, brightest to dimmest, whitest to blackest, deserves the same highest standard of education and opportunity. no-one should be exempt from either the best or the worst. if the local school is failing, then all the children in that area should be subject to that failure, just as if the school is excellent that excellence should benefit all children. we cannot have a system where children from wealthier backgrounds go state schools when they are good, and then get bought out when they are bad. it isn't a fair way of doing things. and it leads to my final point:

the continuance of the private sector only works to diminish the state sector. it drains money, it drains resources, and perhaps worst of all, by allowing the wealthier in society to escape the state system, it strips much of the impetus for increased funding and improved quality and standards. what is more, it maintains a state of social immobility whereby your background and your parents background works to determine your opportunities in life. and no-one surely would agree with that?

so, yes, i think your child deserves the best; but he/she also deserves the same as every other child. your having money or power (or for that matter, the right address or religion) should be no factor in their getting "better opportunities" than their peers. no child has more right to better opportunities than any other child. the sooner we get rid of the private system, and get everyone working under the same system (on a level playing field, as the principle has it), and working to make it the best it can be, the better for everyone. otherwise, the whole country will remain tied to a socially immobile class system it misguidedly thinks it has grown beyond.

BNP, racism and apathy.

i have a bad secret to reveal: i didn't vote in the local and European elections.

no, wait, come back.......

yes, i know to some this may invalidate any political statement i make. i don't think it does, though you are right i should feel shameful for not voting.

But, being the mouth that i am, i do have some things to say.
i didn't vote for a combination of reasons: a combination of disillusion and laziness.
i had three choices for my local election:
a Labour candidate (not now, not without serious policy changes)
a Lib Dem candidate (currently shifting to the right, and virtually identical to Labour)
a Tory (well, i'm not dead yet, am i?)
its an interesting question: where does a progressive/socialist sort go with those options? as far as i'm concerned they are all now abhorrent. Obviously i don't want a Tory government, but equally i can be fairly certain i will get one even if Labour or the Lib Dems were to win the next general election.i had no Green candidate; the agreeable Independent wasn't in my ward; there weren't even any other options.maybe i should have turned out, and voted for my least disliked; but i'm fed up of having my vote taken as tacit acceptance of Labour's neo-Tory policies. the Labour Party cannot rely on voters to vote for them when we can't tell any difference between them and the Tories anymore.
the Right is the only game in town at present.

unsurprisingly the Labour vote collapsed. it either didn't turn out, or it voted elsewhere (judging by the stats, mainly the former). Unfortunately large quantities of people seem to have voted BNP again. a slight increase on last time; but they got their seats not because of a real increase in support (as they claim) but because the other parties simply didn't get their voters out. i don't blame them frankly, though some people will have had other party options.
anyhow the near-million people that voted BNP is still disturbing. i heard MPs on the election coverage desperately trying to play down this action: it was a protest, the public were conned by the BNP's presentation, they weren't really racist.
utter balls! there is no excuse for voting BNP. even if you are dissatisfied with how immigration is handled (who isn't??), this is not a reason to vote BNP unless you are stupid enough to be sold the scapegoating of the immigrant community. if you can vote BNP, you are a racist. it isn't something one can slip into by mistake.. i heard lots of talk about how the main parties(particularly Labour) weren't representing the concerns of the (presumably white) working-class people; i certainly wouldn't disagree with this, but in what way do the BNP? the only way the BNP represent working class people is if you buy that immigrants or non-white people are somehow 'stealing' resources/jobs/whatever from some romanticised white "native" populace.
and that is pure offensive shit.
the problem is that for many years we've been sold the idea that some groups are more deserving than others; largely this has mean the scapegoating of poor immigrant communities by poor white working-class communities, when they logically should be on the same side. both are occupying similar (exploited) positions in the economic chain.
recently when the 50% tax band came in we heard loud decrying from the right-wing press anxious to protect their own, not the general public (who, the surveys show, seem largely to support its introduction). this is rather typical of the situation. both the the press and the parties are guilty of protecting and deflecting attention from the wealthy, and scapegoating the immigrant community. the working-classes have been daft enough to take the dummy. thus, exploitative labour practices are fine, super-rich paying themselves huge bonuses and dodging tax responsibilities are fine, the unregulated capitalism that has led to this current economic crisis is fine, but the working-classes and the immigrant communities are left fighting each other for the scraps of what's thrown from the top table.
what i found laughable on Sunday night watching the television coverage was that:
a) no-one was prepared to admit that we have a serious racism/ xenophobia issue (UKIP are a
manifestation of this too, despite their seeming respectability they are part of the more subtle
prejudice of the middle/business classes).
b) all the other parties, especially the Tories, were keen to separate out the BNP as the only
party of racists; when its clear that within the other parties too the race issue is played
regularly. there are racists in the other parties, particularly the Tories. we shouldn't forget the
tacit vilification of the black community in the Eighties by the Tories with their allies in the
press. the racism may be better hid, but its there behind the sharp smiles and the blue-rinses
of the conference crowd. the BNP are merely more open about their disgusting attitudes.

i got this from the BBC website responses to "why i voted BNP":

"ivoted for the BNP for the first time in the European elections. I read the party's policies, they are not racist, they simply want to look after people who are British first, and that includes all races who have a right to be here.
Our elderly citizens are not getting the care they deserve
People who work and contribute to our country and society (irrespective of colour or religion) are welcome and people who come here for our benefits system and the NHS who have never contributed to this country are not so welcome. Neither are bogus asylum seekers and criminals. We have enough of our own. I have every sympathy with people from countries where the system is not so generous, but we can't look after all of them in Britain. We're full up, and our elderly citizens are not getting the care they deserve. It's because we are so generous that everyone wants to come here, to the detriment of people who have lived here all their lives, paid their taxes and deserve to have their place in the queue."
Nick, Oxford

it seemed a fairly representative email, and shows a lot of the daft assumptions made by people. the noticeable underlying thing is that old chestnut about not enough resources to go around. the immigrant community is not really taking that large a share of the resources, its merely that we aren't getting anywhere near the amount of tax revenue (in proportion to population) that we used to. the myth that they take our jobs is in there too, but ,as most people who investigate the lowest reaches of the employment market will tell you, the immigrant communities are frequently doing the worst paid jobs that others are not prepared to do. what's more they are doing this with the minimum of protection and the maximum of exploitation by employers.
our elderly citizens are not getting the care they deserve because of firstly underfunding, and secondly what funding there is is being drained away by the private sector who are contracted to provide this care for government agencies.
the middle section is another recurring theme: the view that the country is "swamped" by bogus asylum seekers, and criminals. if you read the wrong newspapers you'd undoubtedly think this, as they seize on the proportionally uncommon behaviour of a few bad examples and allow it to misrepresent an otherwise law-abiding and friendly group of people in need. note also he says "we have enough of our own". the spurious notion of "our own" somehow being preferable presumably to "the other". the language is one predicated on fear of other groups, who all present some vague threat. i didn't see a single politician on Sunday night who wanted to make the argument that these people are, in most important ways, like you.

i also liked the mention of taxes at the end. again, we're back to funds, and the idea that these people are scrounging by not having paid any taxes. but by that argument, the unemployed or the sick shouldn't get any support either. the point is that when people are doing well they pay taxes proportionate to their earnings, and their wealth; thus, when they aren't , they don't and they receive state support until they can pay again.
we need more taxation; 50% of the country's wealth is owned by 2% of its population. and the myth that they work so much harder for it is sheers balls. even if you are prepared to believe that those that earn £200,000 work harder than those that earn £20,000, do you really believe they work ten times harder??!

the saddest thing in all this is to see unemployed people berating immigrant communities as "undeserving" of state aid in the same way the Tories villainised the poor and unemployed as "undeserving", when they should be standing side by side.

I honestly cannot face news-based television at present. its overrun by the coverage of the MPs expenses scandal, and every thing you hear is more immoral and perverse than the last.
the expenses system has been deliberately abused on a scale none of us could've predicted; though it seems obvious, as the rules were set up by MP themselves, that they knew exactly what they were doing. it may have been disguised as "well, we can't justify paying ourselves more", but clearly the underlying motive was "we can exploit a laxly enforced expenses system even more to our advantage, an those dim fuckers WON'T KNOW A THING".

what's most galling about the whole affair is the explanations given by guilty MPs, and often just other MPs, that "i have done nothing that contravenes the regulations". as if the regulations define their whole sense of ethics. even when they do admit the rules are clearly wrong, as 'orrible Hazel Blears did, they act as if their taking adavntage of these lax regulations isn't a matter of personal conscience. like the system is there, and they HAD to make these expense claims its like listening to children caught out, "i know its wrong, but i only did it 'cos Lisa did it"
if you want a good example of the disgusting level of self-defence MPs are giving, then check out the clips of Margaret Moran on the BBC website. the sort of person who oozes into chairs.
its also clear that many MPs are using the expenses to make money through property investment, flipping claimed poperties, in Blears' case avoiding paying capital gains tax on sales of property, and generally treating the money as an investment opportunity.

no wonder the parties do nothing about fat-cats and tax avoidance schemes! their whole view is: if we can get away with it, without breaking the law, its fine. some of the suspects are fairly unsurprising: a load of Tory grandees (their ethos has always been that they deserve more), the more dubious Labour politicians like Mandelsohn, Shaun Woodward, and Keith Vaz, but it extends to most of the two main parties,(its pleasing, at least so far, that most of the more genuine old Labour members have remained unscathed).
it remains to be seen how many Lib Dems are similarly guilty.
Furthermore, its shameful to hear the genuine argument for expenses, that they are necessary to allow more people from less affluent backgrounds to be active representatives in democracy, being abused and used by sheer greedy bastards like Barbara Follett or Shaun Woodward, who have fortunes valued in the millions. why on earth are we giving money to these people, whilst we make ever more stress-inducing and unfair tests to genuine public servants like nurses, teachers, and other public sector workers?

frankly, the love of wealth, and awe with which its owners are treated, becomes clear in this case; many MPs, regardless of party, don't see exploitative affluence as wrong. it just doesn't occur to them.their lifestyles are givens and must be kept up at all costs. usually ours.

almost every group in this country, from students to benefit claimants to the elderly to whoever, has spent the last thirty years having what little they could claim from the state whittled away by unfair overly stringent and offputting means-tests. people have been victimised as spongers, layabouts, and workshy; those who do work have had their working rights ruthlessly cut away; genuinely needy groups have been scapegoated; and we now know why:

because it is one rule for the wealthy and successful in this country, and another for everyone else. as every good Leftist of any variety has been pointing out for years, the rich are making the rules for their own benefit. freemarket capitalism DOESN'T work remotely fairly. the fact that it puts greed before ethics is, in this case, made explicit. (the most pointed illustration of this is that, everytime someone suggests remaking/remodeling/properly regulating the financial institutions and businesses in this country, the wise men of economics say "but it will have a negative effect on investment, people won't want to set up business here/we'll lose our talent"; well the recent economic malaise has shown the talent of the the cityboys is a mirage; besides this, should other people's greed be allowed to dictate our distribution of wealth, and the services the state offers its citizens?course it bloody shouldn't).

in all honesty, none of this surprises me, though it does appal me; what truly surprises is that the people in question are so detached from normal living standards, that they actually thought these claims acceptable.
the one excuse i've yet to hear, but know i will soon, is the "if parliament doesn't pay this much/offer these expenses, then the best won't want to work in politics, because the pay will be be too little". well, again, we have to draw the line somewhere, and i think the MPs' basic salary of £64000 a year is no-one's remote idea of poverty. besides, do we really want someone in politics who would consider principles less important that earning more than this amount?? the pay should be fair, and the job is undoubtedly a stressful one. but personal wealth is not the reason to enter politics, and anyone with the idea that it is should be allowed nowhere near the House of Commons.

i fundamentally agree with the need for MPs to claim expenses, but certainly not with this laissez faire attitude to what can be charged to them. travel expenses certainly, maybe eating expenses (within reason), even the second home near parliament is often a necessity. in many cases however, its clear MPs are claiming for unnecessary properties too. the ever-annoying Keith Vaz has been claiming for a second home in London, when he in fact has a third home in Stanmore, North London. considering vast numbers of the country manage to commute from the feeder towns outside London (Luton, Northampton, Barnet, Reading etc) to jobs in London, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect the same of MPs. To have your family home in Manchester, Nottingham, Edinburgh, even Birmingham, say, and need a second place in London is reasonable. but once you're within the commuter routes, and the Underground network, the need is disputable. Finally, in the cases where the MP is, for example, Oliver Letwin, an MP with a sizable fortune and income from various sources, then the taxpayer can hardly be expected to foot the bill. At the very least, give them a flat-rate housing allowance based on current average London living costs to put towards whatever they choose.

the question now, is whether we can trust Parliament again, when its' members interests are so clearly corrupting their ethics? more immediately, can we trust them to revise the expenses regulations to something fair and reasonable?

and my recommendation for the next election? check yr MPs expenses, if they aren't too bad, vote for them. if not, then try voting for one of the smaller parties. Frankly, most Labour voters could vote Lib Dem and notice little real difference in terms of policy; The Tory right can go back to UKIP or the BNP which they've always wanted to anyway, and the rest with a progressive agenda can try Greens, Socialists, or independents. for one election at least, it might the scare some ethics into the big two.