Politics – Page 87 – davelevy.info

More on e-voting

The announcement of the result for the Mayor of London occurred at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday morning; this was about six hours later than expected, 26½ hours after the polls closed and legally a day late. It was also 6 hours after the first GLA member’s result was declared. I hope we find out what the delay was caused by and we should remember the legal fire-drill in 2012 when Boris and the Tories wobbled and thought they might actually lose which raised questions of accuracy. Uniquely in the UK, the London elections are counted by machine[1], I wonder if that was part of the problem since the use of electronic counting & voting systems is controversial around the world. …

Sadiq for London

The London Mayoral election is reaching its denouement and getting dirty. The Tory’s fires of pandering to islamaphopia, lit presumably by the serial racist Lynton Crosby and fanned by Cameron, would have thought to have ended with the disclosure that the dangerous islamist that Kahn allegedly associates with is in fact a Tory. It’s a degrading campaign, damaging the reputation of two good men. Furthermore, there can be little doubt that the timing of the story about Naz Shah’s anti-semitism is designed to damage Labour’s campaigns across the country and has aided by the stupidity and dishonesty of comments made by Labour’s own right and left. Kahn recognised from day one that racism was going to be an attack vector on his credibility and good will in an attempt to win the Mayoralty and become the Mayor that London needs …

A target’s view of assassination

The Independent reports on the target of he US drone attacks and the personal security measures he now takes to protect himself and his family and children. In the article he is quoted and repeats the statement that the drone campaign is one of individual assassination. I have written previously on this blog and on storify opposing the use of drones and assassination as anti-terrorist tactics and its legality or otherwise. The US have a different legal system and tradition, but throughout the ’80s the UK maintained the principle of civil primacy in its domestic anti-terrorist campaigns. The story though is as much about humanity rather than politics. …

On the coming Robot Revolution

At the Real World Economics blog, Dean Baker argues that, those proposing the Reign of the Robots, have some evidence to find and that (US) economic policy makers are pursuing policies in direct contradiction to the implications of such an event. …

Beyond Factionalism, but not today

I made a storify covering attacks on Momentum, it’s possible role in allowing new members to influence the party, the extent to which they should be listened. It finishes with a critical look at Burke’s “All I owe you is my judgement” and the way in which members of Labour’s PLP were preparing to use it to ignore Party Mandates.

This was written over the winter of 2015/16 and published in March 2016, and I have backdated it to that date. The optimism about Momentum might have been misplaced.

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CLPD’s 43rd AGM

Over the weekend, for the first time ever, I attended the AGM of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, their 43^rd it would seem. Much of the right wing media locate the intellectual and organisational engine room of Corbyn’s victory in this body. It’s been around for a while, over 43 years it would seem, but I think it underestimates the changes in society occurring over the last 10 years and the changes available to and needed by the Party, and they’re not alone. The meeting was as those of with experience of the movement know, a mix of set piece speeches from in several cases very worthy individuals, the receipt and acceptance of reports, and debate around motions. At the end of the day, I left disappointed. …

Labour’s front bench and surveillance.

The Labour Campaign for Human Rights organised an event at which Kier Starmer, Labour’s shadow spokesman on the Investigatory Powers Bill, he introduced himself, and pointed to his record as a Barrister where he has been involved in a number of cases prosecuting the government, the police and the intelligence agencies and his time as DPP. He says his experience shows him the “the reality of the crimes to be fought”. (This is not necessarily a scarce resource if you came to adulthood living in the UK in the eighties, or were working or travelling in London on 7^th July 2005.) The rest of this article looks at the critiques made by the guest speakers and audience; it’s a piece of reporting, not a polemic, there’s plenty of those around. Basically the view in the room was it’s not fit for purpose, the new powers are too extensive, the old powers are too extensive, the proposed oversight remains too weak and the powers are not necessary, effective or proportionate. Those of us in the Labour Party can also add, the question where did this come from as Party policy. …

The Snooper’s Charter again! :'(

The Tory Government, have republished the Snooper’s Charter, 😥 changed some of the words and it has been inching towards the House of Commons via three parliamentary committees of experts, all of whom have criticised the Bill as it stands. The Labour Party plans to abstain on the 2nd reading, and explains why here. The campaigning academic, Paul Bernal, has written a blog, welcoming Andy Burnham’s press release as the most pro-privacy comments made by a Labour Shadow Home Secretary and makes the following comments. …

It’s not just Google

Over the last week, Google's transnational profit shielding has come into focus with HMRC agreeing that they can settle up and agreed a sweetheart deal. It's not popular, nor is it probably the most important. Amazon is probably a bigger problem for the real economy. I made a story on storify which I copied over in Jul 2020 and back dated to the date of it's original publication. See overleaf/below for the story.

Hacker’s Guide to Economics

I went over to Hackney to attend the People’s PPE. This, their second event was called the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to Economics and I originally produced a storify, which is now here which is a collection of tweets and other social media comments about the event. The rest of this blog is based on my notes and the thoughts it provoked, on debt, banking regulation and Islamic finance, a bit less about the class war.

Ann Pettifor, Director of PRIME, opened the session, stating that the problem was debt and the banks, which create debt. …