Your Favourite Political Tweeter
On Twitter we have amazing, wonderful people from all over the world. On my Twitter feed @Rosiecosy I have asked for nominations from Tweeters for their favourite political Tweeter.
When I get all the nominations from Tweeters I shall post the list with their favourite political Tweeters with a paragraph about each one.
So please return to check out the list and you’ll be able to follow on Twitter the nominations. It will be a diverse list.
Thanks
Rosie
Workers lives will only get more dangerous
Workers lives will only get more dangerous
While the coalition and the Prime Minister are set on cutting health & safety regulation that protect workers and talk of a ‘health & safety monster’ and it being a ‘burden to businesses’. What should we think on the subject?
Worldwide, work kills more than war each year. While here in the UK, even before the cuts to health & safety take a real hold, the estimated figure is that 1,300 died last year in work related incidents. Which includes those working on the roads, at sea and in the air, work-related suicides and members of the public killed by work activity, plus another 20,000 – 50,000 died from work related diseases.
Yet the government has seen fit to cut the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) budget by 35% over the next three years. Withdraw the HSE info line and after a recent government report classed certain industries as ‘Low-risk’, which will exclude them from proactive inspections. These proactive workplace inspections are known to help reduce the number of workers getting killed, injured or maimed due to work. Approximately 11,000 inspections will no longer take place, in these so called ‘Low-risk’ industries. Industries like, light engineering to dock workers, printers to office workers, and the list goes on. Five workers were killed in the ‘Low-risk’ docks in as many months last year. *1 Such industries are not ‘Low-risk’. Continue reading
Why I joined the Labour Party.
Before the 2010 General Election, I would sometimes fire off a letter to Gillian Merron explaining that as a Carer for my disabled wife we would struggle for money. That Carers Allowance wasn’t fit for purpose, and was happy when I got a understanding letter back saying that the Government was looking into how to help Carers and Disabled people more, that we did a important job. The closest I got to actually being ‘overtly political’ was arguing that the Iraq War was a unjust war and that ‘we was only helping Georgie to finish Daddys War’
Now in May 2010 I followed the election results on BBC with Jon Snow’s swing-omiter and saw quite quickly that we was going to at least have a hung government (which was predicted by the papers) the moment the Lincoln results came out one of the first things I did was email our new MP Karl McCartney very politely congratulating him, and explained to him that I was a Carer, and that I thought they should get given more money, thinking ‘They claimed to support us during the campaign so I should at least be listened to’ a week or so later, I got a reply, basically saying If I thought I wasn’t getting enough money then call DWP, I didn’t bother calling the DWP as I had already known that I was on all the benefits we was entitled to. Continue reading
Education, Education, Education.
Education is essential. We know how important it is for a society. A good education system is what every country in the world should strive for. Now education is personal to me. Why you may ask ?
Well you could say it’s a family business. My father was a head teacher, my mother worked in a school, nearly all my aunties, uncles, cousins and even great aunties were teachers. I even graduated from a teaching College. I am now a school governor. Thus my background is education. I feel passionately about this area.
Every Government has tried to improve and reform education in the UK. One could argue the success and failure of all governments in their quest to make the education system in this country the best in the world. Have we succeeded ? Well if you look at the world league tables, then I guess you could say we haven’t.
Now don’t get me going on league tables because I don’t agree with them. Shock , horror ! I don’t agree with SATS, shock , horror. In fact I am not too keen on any official testing till the age of 16. Yes that is right you heard it, no testing till 16. Maybe that is too radical but Finland does it and guess what they have one of the most successful education systems in the world now.
Let’s get to where we are now with education in the UK. We have a Secretary of State, Michael Gove, who is on a mission not just to reform the system, but to change it completely.
His idea is to create this amazing education system. Yes, of course that is what we all want. How does he want to achieve this. He wants to create an academy programme. He wants free schools. His idea is choice, choice, choice. Let’s be free of the old systems of a Local Authority. Who needs that ! Give the head teachers, governors the responsibility of running the schools completely. After all its the people on the ground that know what they are doing.
Sounds good doesn’t it. Teachers and parents in control, not some stuffy Local Authority. I don’t think anyone could argue against teachers having control and parents being part of the school. Its about local communities, running local schools, marvellous.
Yes but its at this point we need to really look into the detail. I am afraid at this point it becomes political. Is it really in the best interests of the community that control is actually taken away from Local Authority and given to Gove. To centralise. Yes this is what is happening.
I fear its the contradiction of giving choice at a local level to then taking it away by centralising.
I agree that teachers, head teachers, governors are the one’s to run their school. I agree that head teachers should run their budget.
But what if there is no local safety net, no local accountability .What if something where to go wrong?
This is where it all becomes worrying. What we need is balance. We do need a Local Education Authority, where there is that local accountability, that local support.
The key is in the LEA – Local – not CEA – Central which is what the Education Secretary is intent on creating. He could actually call it GEA – Gove Education Authority , he might as well.
Are the teachers really happy with the reforms, the academies and the free schools ? No , the teachers I have spoken are not and I know a lot of teachers.
Has this reform been thought through. I seriously do not believe it has been. In the mission to create this Utopian vision of a perfect education system he has actually forgotten how important local government is to protect the interests of the community. You need local government to be there as support, to know what is happening with the local schools. A distant government , centralised in an office in Whitehall is not the answer to our education system in this country.
Oh yes and I will be writing more about education in the future on my blog.
Should there be a Mayor for Leeds ?
I believe there are a number of ways in which local government could, and should, be reformed but simply grafting an expensive new elected mayor system onto the existing framework is not the way to achieve that.
Despite Government rhetoric, a mayor does not come with the guarantee of additional powers. A mayor can do no more for a city in terms of job creation, transport or economic development than the current council leader. Indeed, negotiations about a City Deal for Leeds, whilst still ongoing, demonstrate that the current council leader is already actively engaged in bringing inward investment to the city.
If all 10 cities who have had a referendum imposed upon them elected a mayor, this region will have 3 expensive elected mayors in a 10 mile radius. While I can see the logic of a Leeds City Region mayor in terms of attracting investment, having three mayors competing within a small area only seems to undermine this aim.
An elected mayor is a very expensive option for Leeds at a time when public funding is being drastically reduced in most other areas. Typically the position of elected mayor attracts a salary of around £150k. That is more than three times the level of allowances awarded to the current leader – for no additional benefit. When other areas of public funding are being cut this represents excessive spending on what is essentially a vanity project for Government.
If a mayor is introduced and proves to be a poor choice, there is very little anyone can do to remove that person for their 4 year term in office. Currently the council constitution enables the council to remove a poor or failing leader.
You only have to look to Doncaster, where there is already an elected mayor, to see the damage caused to a city by concentrating such a significant amount of power in the hands of a poor decision maker.
It has been suggested that the selection of a council leader is undemocratic. This is also fundamentally inaccurate. A leader – like the Prime Minister – is a democratically elected individual who is nominated by other publicly elected representatives. If that system is good enough for Parliament, why is it not good enough for Leeds?
The current Leader represents the party that is in administration. To elect a Leader, potentially from a different party, is a recipe for further conflict and less accountable decision making.
The current commitment of the Council and its Leader to driving forward the city’s ambitions is evidenced in part by its development projects – such as the Arena, Trinity and Eastgate. It will be creative partnership arrangements like this between the public, private and voluntary sectors that will determine this city’s future success – not an elected mayor.
Councillor Mark Dobson
@cllrmarkdobson
Women and Eating disorders
I recently noticed this whilst studying for my dissertation. Part of my research was to read women’s aimed at women and there were many articles and adverts emphasising having the perfect body and being what society deems to be beautiful. In this day and age young girls are more susceptible to this form of media than ever before which is why I think this is a big issue. An example is I was walking in my neighbourhood and I heard a child who can’t have been more than six playing outside saying to a another child who was even younger ‘this one will go around your waist because you are skinny’ I don’t know about you but I didn’t even know what skinny was at six years ago. In fact I didn’t care much about my weight till I started watching more and more TV. I am lucky to be the age that I am (21) for it to not have a huge affect on me. Another example was in last weekends time magazine which showed in America mothers were making their daughters as young as 11 go through strict exercise regimes and eating habits. I am all for being healthy but sure the point of being a child to being able to eat junk food too. I mean I had sleepovers where all we did was eat and eat and that hasn’t affected my weight. Exercise is important but children are active as it is. There are other ways in which to get them to exercise. I did Karate from the age of nine and played football. I would not have done that if I didn’t like it though that is a difference. Children shouldn’t be forced to go to the gym especially when they are young and their bodies are still developing. Continue reading
Between a rock and a hard place: life for women under the Coalition.
The 27th April 2011 was a missed opportunity for the Labour party. On that day the debate surrounding gender inequality did, briefly, rear its head at the forefront of the British political agenda once again. David Cameron’s quip advising Angela Eagle to “Calm down, dear” brought two distinct reactions with many in the Labour party outraged at the prime minister’s remark. Those with profiles to enhance such as MP Heidi Alexander asserted that “people will rightly be asking how someone with such disgraceful views came to be selected as a Conservative candidate in the first place… David Cameron should apologise and make clear that there is no room for sexism in Britain today”. At the same time some commentators berated those on the left for overreacting to what they insisted was nothing more than a humorous remark. Continue reading
A fair and faithful fighter, she smouldered with the will to save the world – Young women in politics
When I speak to people about politics, especially in the Labour Party, a common complaint is that Young Women just aren’t interested in politics. To many being interested in politics is all about attending Branch or G.C meetings and running for office.
To which my reply is always the same “well have you asked them?” This gets varying responses from ummm… to well we did once but didn’t get any response back so didn’t bother again. They then go on to complain about young people in general which gives you an idea of what the real problem is.
People expect that young women won’t be interested in politics and therefore don’t put the effort in to welcome them to meetings or invite them to events. Many young political women I have spoken to have at some point attended a meeting and had a bad experience. In my own experience my first Branch meeting scared me off for a year despite already being politically active within the Labour party. There is this expectation that if you are new to a group your role is to sit down, shut up, listen and learn. Very few people felt welcome in their first meeting which is a major issue for any new member let alone young or female ones. Continue reading
The problems with joining the Labour Party
I am a woman born of immigrant parents and brought up on a council estate. I was in the first generation of my family to go to university. I am a member of Amnesty International and care greatly about the way asylum seekers are treated, and have visited an asylum seeker detained in Pentonville and helped him and his family. I was the person in my year at university to whom the fellow student came who had had an abortion; I was the one who put my arms around her when she was crying and told her she wasn’t disgusting and that her friends were wrong to shun her. I am a Feminist. I don’t believe in judging people and I passionately support the welfare state and the NHS. I can’t stand what this coalition government is doing.
So why then did I, a Labour voter and ex labour party member, not vote Labour in the last election and why am I still hesitating about re-joining the Labour party now? Continue reading
Social media is key this International Women’s Day On March 8th
Social media is key this International Women’s Day
LONDON, UK – From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe women are heavily using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn to focus global attention on areas where inequalities prevail.
8 March marks the 101st International Women’s Day with thousands of events occurring worldwide that celebrate women’s progress or rally against inequality.
World dignitaries including the President of the United States of America Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon proclaim official statements supporting International Women’s Day and its focus. Celebrity supporters for the day include singer-songwriter and We are Equals activist Annie Lennox, Avon Foundation advocate Reese Witherspoon and OXFAM supporter Kristin Davis.
For decades women have banded together to challenge injustices, overcome barriers and pursue equality. International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to commemorate these efforts, celebrate progress and call for commitment to women’s rights, peace and equality. Social media and #womensday tweets provide a whole new way to interact, clearly a contrast to the days of pioneering suffragettes.
Glenda Stone, founder of the internationalwomensday.com website that has served as a global hub for International Women’s Day events, resources and news for over a decade says:
“Activity on International Women’s Day has skyrocketed over the last five years. This is due to the rise of social media, celebrity involvement, and corporations taking on the day sponsoring and running big events. Ourtwitter.com/womensday community with around 10,000 followers is phenomenal for sharing videos, information and news as it happens. Offline large scale women’s rallies have become even larger through the use of social media. It would be hard to find any country that did not celebrate the day in some way.”
International Women’s Day, which saw its first event run in 1911, continues to provide a powerful opportunity to unite, network and mobilise worldwide for meaningful change. It provides an opportunity to make a stand against inequality, discrimination and marginalisation that only serves to weaken all of our societies.
Labour Rose
- Time to end 'Camerkozy' economics
- Owen Paterson's made-up job figures don't add up to much for Northern Ireland - Coaker
- U-turn a victory for places of worship but other listed buildings still clobbered - Harman
- Increase in number of patients who waited longer than 18 weeks for treatment is another sign of an NHS slipping backwards