What no Apple stores South of the River? …
Controlling Immigration
I have just commented on a piece at Left Futures on Brexit. The original correspondent wrote a piece arguing to remain inside the EU customs union, which would involve the acceptance of the Free movement of Labour.Many of his correspondents failed to recognise that Labour’s Policy is to require a second mandate once the terms of exit are known. I reprised my arguments on immigration policy expressed here, asking what more we can do?
If we had the legislative freedom to restrict immigration from the EU, what would you do? Which of the current entrants would you stop?
If after, empowering trade unions, setting a minimum wage, creating new industries and jobs, introducing tax equity, building more houses, controlling rents, building and running more great schools, abolishing student tuition fees, re-establishing the EMA, reinvesting in skills training, abolishing zero hours contracts, mandating local vacancy advertising, creating a migration stabilisation fund, we find that people still want to “Control Immigration”, what do we do next? This is a genuine question; I can’t see how to triangulate/accommodate any further.
Actually, I would not oppose implementing stricter border controls, mainly documentation standards (in proving that EU entrants have come to work or join family members who have done so) on entry, and would support increased contributory principle for some in-work benefits, although I consider the latter to be mainly gesture politics. On the other hand I believe we should repeal the requirement that foreign workers must earn more than £35,000 to get a work permit, the previous test of market rates was more appropriate and should restore the UK citizen’s right to marry who they want and bring them here to live together. None of this takes on board what one might one to say on the entry of overseas students, freedom of academic exchange and refugees, all of which our government is failing to address with any vision or decency. …
Segregation of Duties
Another thought on Labour’s rules, anyone with a conviction for breach of election law requires special permission from the NEC, to become a candidate for elected office. This may put Iain McNicol, the Party General Secretary in a difficult position since the Electoral Commission have decided that Labour broke the law when reporting its election campaign expenditure. Fortunately for him, this rule does not apply to being an Officer of the Party, but it does expose once again the fact that the complaints and disciplinary procedure needs review and a reinforcement of the segregation of duties. Apart from the weaknesses identified by the Chakrabarti report, we can see that we need a specific process for complaining about the General Secretary. …
Jared Anderson wrote …
Jarred Anderson wrote an interesting little piece on Pulse, questioning how the right to be forgotten can be implemented in the block chain; in my view a false dichotomy since the right to be forgotten is being applied to search engines and the regulators’ need to prove non-repudiation will probably override citizens rights to privacy. It is even more interesting that he catalogues the jurisdictions implementing a strong right to privacy as Argentina and the EU; both places with histories of fascist, neo-fascist, Stalinist regimes and murderous secret police forces. …
Equity
In all the excitement in reporting the politics of #lab16, I forgot to mention the massive pride that the Labour Party is now debt free since we now have ½ million members. Not many people know that ~98% of membership fees are held/kept by the national office; it’s obviously time to rethink this. …
Engagement
In the Labour Party, an affiliated member must be invited to their LP branch meetings and CLP all member meetings, speak but not vote. …
Loomio
While at #lab16, I attended the the Digital Democracy session at “The World Transformed”, and one of the fellow attendees pointed me at Loomio as a collaboration tool, I have now looked at it and post a review here. In summary, not bad, but maybe too simple for most of my needs. …
Lies, damn lies & statistics
I am catching up on my reading, and came across this article in the Economist, about the prosecution of Greece’s Chief Statistician, Andreas Georgiou. The article looks at his predecessors in the dock, but finishes with the old canard, Lies, damn lies and statistics, but in this case, statistics is rightly seen as an alternative to the lies. Mrs. L. would approve. …
Some thoughts on municipal housing
Just back from a seminar on Housing in London, hosted by the Lewisham Council, a couple of presentations and then some breakout sessions. I had some great company on my table; we considered how to make rented housing affordable and how to increase rental quality. I’d like to thank my table-mates. …
Labour’s Conference Lost
I was privileged to attend Labour’s Annual Conference in Liverpool as a voting delegate. The Conference was the book-end of a summer in which the Labour Party re-opened the debates about programme and strategy which many had thought finished last year. This article reports my experience and views; it is quite long, about 2750 words and is broken up into sections, Unity and the membership, some comments on the politics of Conference, a short section on the future, also covering the Tuesday atmosphere and Wednesday’s Leader’s speech. This is followed by a commentary on the Rules debate and the surrounding shenanigans; the main part of this article/report is concluded with comments on the state of the debate on Immigration and Brexit. …