Friday, 17 June 2011

My 4 Qs for Hilary ben after the death of the third way

My 4 Qs for Hilary ben after the death of the third way - my gf went to see him today in leeds..

  1. Why did we need to do PFI on top of the greatest increase in public spending in modern history?
  2. The greatest unequaltiyy is now house prices - could labour have considered methods of deincentivising the investment market of people’s houses?
  3. By raising public sector & NHS workers did we fuel the pension crisis too?
  4. Given the UK is still a hugely rich country, do you see the country returning to 45% public spending after the deficit is filled?
Answer pending, thoughts welcomed..

Wednesday, 8 June 2011

#poorkids, useless activity and radicalism..

i watched #poorkids last night like many people. Then i thought about big society and the criticisms of it being a self serving version of the third sector (how many hours spent tending church flowers really helped anybody?). The i walked home and saw people playing bowls on nicely watered lawns. and i went home and watched television.

And i thought - how useless all this activity is. all this running around. It's basically playing golf in a developing world enclave. We are complicit in the violence against other people's children because we don't see than as anything to do with us.

The third sector should walk in the most troubled streets. It should be looking at the mass migration of prostitutes lined up outside london for the 2012 olympics. It should be behind the #noborders crew, and the crazy environmentalists (having revised their date for the end of peak oil until oct 25 2011). The history of social change is the history of oursiders. Maybe its time to come out into the cold..?