Yesterday, the GMB adopted a motion entitled, “For a fair and humane immigration policy”. This was proposed by my Branch and moved at Congress by me. The motion confirms its policy on fairness and dignity in immigration policy, calling for the repeal of Tory laws, action on ending the hostile environment, and the establishment of safe routes for refugees. It also sets out opposition to some of the proposals in “Restoring control over the immigration system”. The debate on the motion is embeded below.
The General secretary, Gary Smith, presented the annual report, which excludes the detailed financial report which has its own agenda item later in the week. The following summary is based on notes I took at the time, which I have not checked on the video record. The aerticle, overleaf, talks about growth of membership, energy, the anti-politics of politics., and my article finishes with Gary's shopping list. ...
It is my view that Starmer wants a Swiss style deal with the European Union. The reason I consider the summit to be a draw, albeit a score draw, is that neither of the end goals of rejoining nor staying out with a Swiss style agreement are closed off. But also, neither is the end result of the EU saying we’re too busy to spend this time “dot & comma-ing” with you.
There is no inexorability in rejoining from that agreement as I believe is implied by John Palmer’s Chartist piece. Perhaps, John believes that Trump will drive even Starmer away from NATO but I believe they will try very hard not to make the choice. In fact, I believe the proposal for a defence/security agreement is deliberately made to allow trade-offs against the single market acquis and to try to exclude security which includes border control co-operation from the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the EU Court of Justice’s jurisdiction.
I also believe much of Labour’s defence positioning is designed for internal party combat and learnt from simplistic board games.
I was given my Labour Party long service award to recognise 50 years of membership, I was able to make a speech of thanks, and I have posted my notes overleaf/below. …
In this podcast at the newsgents, the presenters talk about Trump’s tariffs and his liberation day and the impact on the UK’s public finances. This article is a reply.
The guardian reports US Department of State, channelling JD Vance, has raised the issue of “freedom of speech” in the current trade negotiations and are ‘concerned’ about the possible sanctions against an anti-abortion demonstrator who has been convicted of demonstrating too close to a clinic. The identification of ‘free speech’ as a trade issue is not just caprice. It was raised dramatically by JD Vance at the Munich security conference earlier this year. It is part of their pro-oligarch agenda; they are frightened of European regulators and the massive fines levied on the US high tech firms and now that Musk has bought twitter, the social media companies and their ‘freedom of speech’ is a tool by which they seek to maintain their power.
I was curious that they identified the fact that Trump respects those that strike back and yet spoke favourably of Starmer’s weak response, particularly when compared with both the EU’s and the US’s neighbours.
While they spoke of the short term economic results as a possible constraint on Trump’s behaviour, I suggest that the only constraint that concerns him is his popularity which since he can’t run again is of limited use to him. Curiously, I read an article by Lawrence Lessig today suggesting the founding fathers deliberately excluded term limits on the grounds that a desire for re-election would act as a moderator on behaviour. They were particularly concerned about kleptocracy, although Hamilton used the word plunder.
In the second part of the interview, they speak to Andy Haldane, once Chief Economist of the Bank of England. He argues that the trade war will blow Reeves’ plan off course as it lacks what he and others call fiscal head room. He argues that higher taxes will need to be raised but that the bond markets will live with a plan that works i.e. delivers growth, which he argues needs to be based on defence industries.
Itr was always unlikely that Haldane would argue that since the purpose of the golden rules and even the growth strategy is to reduce the national debt, what needs to change are the rules, the independence of the Bank of England and Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR). The progressive inventors of the fiscal golden rules argued that that their purpose was to protect investment. The purpose of Reeves’ iteration of the rules is to pay off the debt.
One justification against borrowing to fund investment, is the interest costs but Google reports that “As of 2023, Japan’s government debt to GDP ratio was 255.20%, while the UK’s was around 98.5%.” How can Japan fund their debt while the UK cannot?
I also question the efficacy of the government’s proposed industrial strategy; historically private sector capital has not invested in UK innovation which has been funded by retained profits.
It is frustrating that commentators like Haldane can’t or won’t mention easing trade barriers with Europe as a means of stimulating export led growth and that no digital liberty campaigners are arguing to rejoin the single market in order to implement the Digital Services Act which the US social media companies rightly fear.
Reeves’ rules are aimed at the wrong policy outcome, and her capitulation of judgement to the OBR is a democratic mistake which merely constrains her room for manoeuvre. In my view its time to review the independence of the Bank of England and the existance of the OBR. Economic policy should be the outcome of a democratic process, not a technocratic black box built by the dead.
I wrote something on JD Vance’s speech to the Munich security conference. This was part of the series of policy repositioning for the trump administration. My article was published on labour hub, in it I reference Vance’s speech to the Munich Security conference, i note the oligarch’s hypocritical and fascistic agenda, the foreshadowing of the crippling of NATO, and talk of the UK’s alternatives pointing out that we seem to be re-joining the EU one agency at a time.
I note his arguments on free speech are partisan; US oligarchs want American rich people’s voices to be heard and amplified by privately-owned social media companies and fear Europe’s regulation of them being based on a demand for truth. We also note the hypocrisy of the US free speech advocates’ attacks on ideas, books and teachers in schools, universities and libraries in the US. His comments on not relying on foreign technology providers by which he meant China, may come to haunt him as Europe examines its defence supply chains.
Trump’s call for European NATO to increase their defence budgets to 5% of GDP is a naked attempt to build budgets for the US arms industry, just as the UK’s requests to have a side treaty on defence and security with the EU is also at least partially based on the economic interests of BAe.
Trump’s arguments about what does his money, that is, the arms shipments to Ukraine, buy, has a moral vacancy but it is clear that the view that ‘the business of America is business’ has returned to the White House. The crudity with which Trump pursues his views of US fiscal and commercial interests is echoed by the UK Labour Government in positioning its ‘EU reset’, arguing for changes in agreements which only benefit Britian from their limited, primarily electoral, point of view.
In the Labour Hub article I suggest, the choices facing the Starmer administration are bleak while Starmer seems to be seeking to avoid Trump’s tariff increases, on defence the choice is stark. The UK can either continue to act as a vassal state of the United States or develop more effective partnerships with the European Union. It should be noted that Vance has questioned the need for NATO joint command. Labour’s foundational commitment to NATO, is looking weaker than it once was.
Starmer’s ambition on EU cooperation is limited, I have argued that the UK should use the withdrawal agreement review clauses to re-enter the customs union and the single market. The suspicion is that for the Starmer Administration, the single market is a step too far because of its requirements for a free movement of labour and Labour’s fear of the Tories and Reform UK.
Today’s military questions and the need for ‘security of supply’ strongly imply that the UK should join the European Space Agency and possibly the European defence agency.
The proposed military and security side treaty is looking less and less attractive to both sides because in order to protect our democracy against the attacks from US social media companies and US owned AI search engines, the UK needs the umbrella of the EU’s competition & digital regulators, this needs membership of the single market. We have already rejoined Horizon (the R&D programme) and the Euro HPC joint undertaking, and Northern Ireland is still part of the single market. At what point do we say, we need our MEPs, Judges, Commissioners and Council seats back or will we just be rejoining the EU an agency at a time. …
This was a webinar called, “The big tech threats to democracy, challenging the oligarchy from Musk to meta” which was hosted by Another Europe. This article consists of the notes I took at the meeting and while I was hoping to improve my notes on the speakers contributions by reviewing the video, I am unsure if this will become available. It also consists of the notes I used for my contribution as I was asked to speak from the floor. I made this article because I think it was the first time I argued for the need for joining the single market to participate in the EU’s democracy shield and digital market regulation regime. This article has been back dated to the day after the day of occurrence. I have tried to ensure that comments that became obvious or were impacted by events after the seminar, are presented as foot notes.For more, see below or overleaf … …
This blog article comments on the reactions to Marco Sefcovic's suggestion that the UK as part of the negotiations to improve relations between the UK and the EU should consider joining the pan European Mediterranean convention (PEM); . Sefcovic is the commissioner responsible for trade. The rest of the article looks at HMG's lukewarm response and looks to explain what the PEM is. For more, press the button ...
The problem with modern software is much of it is inference, and completely unsuitable for “beyond reasonable doubt”. It’s also opaque and likely to fail the tests around if it returns popular vs accurate and authoritative results. It’s often wrong and arguably a bullshitter. The EU’s GDPR introduced the right to freedom from profiling, which means a freedom from being processed automatically by computers. This is an important barrier.
This is my first written declaration that that the GDPR’s “freedom from profiling” is a crucial defence of humanity against the machines.
My alarm about the consultation was probably unnecessary. …
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