All For One and One for... Emmm... Me...

I learnt today that staff at a JCB factory, one of the companies suffering most as a result of the housing bust, voted to cut their hours rather than face large redundancies.

It's very seldom you hear people display such comradeship as those workers did when they voted just hours ago. We saw it after 7/7 and when a whale got lost in the Thames, but solidarity has become much less a central structure of our society, and much more a one- off event.

During the war bread wasn't rationed. You could have as much bread as you liked. You probably couldn't have butter with it, but you could have the bread.

But at the end of the war, once fathers, brothers and friends came back from the beaches of France, the sands of Africa and the islands of the Pacific, we rationed it.

To everyone I tell this to nobody knows why. It seems to make no sense.

But we rationed it so we could feed the German people who were now starving. We fed our enemy when they were most in need.

In this world, never mind our society, there is so much more that unites us than divides us. Not as nations or groups, but as human beings. Now we talk about carbon credits: this strange idea where the rich can buy the right to pollute the earth while the poor can't.

I hope these times of crisis, like many others, will bring us closer together as Scots, as Brits and as people.

At least we now know where his values lie

Politician? Em... Not so much...

It was with great suspicion that I heard John Loughton, the self proclaimed 'activist' and 'advocate' for young people in Scotland, had announced to be standing in the upcoming Forth by-election in Edinburgh as an independent.

It was always known that John was closely linked to the Lib Dems, and he made no secret of that.

In the Herald in 2007 he said, "I take account of the party as well as the candidate, and the Liberal Democrats are the key party for young people in Scotland".

Within a year, he approached the Labour Party and stated that he was going to stand at the Westminster election for either the Lib Dems or Labour. "Whichever one gives me the better offer," he stated. I know because I was there.

He, on this particular occasion, had his eye on Gavin Strang's seat in Edinburgh East, as at the time it was thought Gavin was standing down.

I wouldn't go for selection for Edinburgh East, and if I did, I wouldn't get it, but I would get behind the candidate that did. I'm sure most would, and it's evident that the vast majority do.

They do it because they believe in the values the party stands for.

They do it for the cause, not the career, and so should he.

John Loughton, after being rejected by both Labour and the Lib Dems, shows that it's not a set of values he believes in. In return, the two parties have shown him that respect, judgement and the ideology of equality and justice can't just be bought by being on a celebrity show.

I heard the other day that MP really stands for 'Man of Principal'. And I like that, because no one can ask more of a man than that, and in politics, we shouldn't expect any less.

Identifying Identity

If this child's name was James, and he lived in a council house in Sighthill, there would be public outcry across our nation. But he's not. I don't know his name, but he's from Darfur, and suddenly his image and situation become less important to our society. As quick as we are to talk about the moral worth of every child, we are just as quick to turn that vision inward, onto our own dreams, ambitions and idealised identity.

I have had to become used to sometimes having a minority opinion.

My frustration with the increasing celebrity and values of our western culture often angers me, as it looses sight of values which are so terribly important: not just to my socialist values, but to human kind's very existence.

It was reported today that a mother's child is in the care of social services in England after she left him alone in her flat while she went to the shops. (The full story can be found here). She left the hob on, and the fire brigade were called. After breaking in to the house they found the boy alone.

The mother has been arrested for child neglect, and released on bail.

Allow me to clarify that there is no doubt that the mother made a terrible mistake, and put a 2 year old's life on the line, and that this counts as child neglect.

But what makes me angry, and what I feel is a huge injustice, is that the parents of Madeleine McCann were never seriously blamed or held responsible for leaving their 3 children alone in that apartment in Portugal while they dined else where.

Now it pains me to say it, and I have no personal vendetta against the McCanns, nor do I want to put down or discredit any of the work they have done in highlighting abduction and child exploitation around the world. But it is here where a much more serious point is highlighted.

It is our shared identities, and our expectations of others which led the press and the UK to fall into a black hole of sympathy for the McCanns. Had that family been black, who knows whether that sympathy would have been as great.

But what I do know, is that 100 000 missing children are reported every year in the UK, 9000 of which are from Scotland. Looking through the names and pictures of the 27 children listed on the UK Missing Children site who have gone missing in the last year, there's one striking feature: the vast majority are not white.

The slow and dating website seems to be fitting to the names of these children, none of which I had heard of. Maddy McCann was not featured on the list.

Why did the world fall for Maddy?

Because she managed to perfectly encapture our ideal and perfect vision of what we think being British is. I don't think the other children did.

I don't imagine Bashir Ahmed from Peterborough, or Irene Kattah from London managed to raise millions for their campaign. And I know the press didn't give them as much coverage.

But I do believe that their moral worth is no lesser than that of Maddy McCann.

No one needs to say that Maddy McCann is valued more than these other children's names. No one has to. And it makes me very sad, that our shared identity of 'being British', creates a looking glass through which all of our individualism and moral worth are distorted.

...And Tiscali Said, "Let There Be Light", and There Was Light.

Well Helloooooo.....!!!!

I am delighted to announce that the good people of Tiscali broadband have finally accepted that after a £30 'installation fee', and a £15 line rental charge, it is appropriate that maybe they should stick to their end of the deal, and actually provide my flat mates and I with broadband.

Over the past few weeks, there have been many moments when I craved for this time. This moment where I could share some of my thought with you, and hopefully hear some of yours.

Not blogging for a while has left me with some unwanted free time, which walks hand in hand with really dull activities. On Thursday, I spent 12 mins taking off a pair of washing up gloves. I have come to learn that we as humans are above all else thinkers. We need to be mentally stimulated. So whether you're ruling the world or doing the washing up, great care goes into each detail, and the thought processes of whether you're doing it right or wrong, efficiently or not, are similar, whatever the activity.

I thought it would be a really fun game if we played a bit of catch up, so here are just a couple of things I would have blogged about had my flat, as great as it is, not been stuck in the mid 80s.

1) I have a new radio alarm clock. (It's amazing- it's got an ipod dock and everything...), and on I think it was Wednesday (it's hard to tell what day it is now sometimes...) I woke up to this guy Alex Salmond, who I think is First Minister or something...?? Anyway, he was complaining that the UK Government hadn't given him the £1 billion he'd asked for, which I thought was rather ironic considering the fact that all the SNP have done in the last year is reduce taxes, and Alex has more money than any First Minister of Scotland has had before to spend on whatever he wants.

I think he's just picking fights...

2) Unemployment. The absolute horror of our nation.

What more can a nation be denied of than the hearts and dreams of its own people?

I was also woken up by my radio alarm clock to women's hour on Radio 4 this morning. Apparently the unemployment statistics show a sharp rise in the women in unemployment. It is still not known whether women, who tend to be more flexible, part time workers, will suffer more in the long run than men. One of the healthier trends, not just in our country but globally, has been the rise of women in the work place. To see that progress slip away in these times of difficulty will be very hard.

3) Fred Goodwin.

He resigned.

Excellent news.

I met him once. Wanker.

(Not such great news- he has an estimated pension of around £540 000.)

We are all taking the weight of the economic circumstances, but as usual, the rich are left with choice and opportunity, and pay a disproportionately low price for the loss.

4) I passed a charity shop on my way to uni yesterday. I thought there was a Santa costume in the window. As the windrow parallel to me drew nearer I got more and more excited. But then when the moment came and I passed it, I realised it wasn't. It was just a red coat with a white furry scarf wrapped around it. What a disappointment.

That story had no point what so ever.

5) Nobody knows anything about the church. It was the first organisation to build schools, hospitals, and raise awareness (never mind try to combat) global poverty and disease. People make fun of it an awful lot, and are completely ignorant to the work that it does, despite the fact that it built the foundation for most of the fundamental freedoms we enjoy in society today.

Hurricane Katrina? Christian Aid was there before the US Government (who cares- they were poor black people, right?)

Make Poverty History? It was a Christian Aid campaign, which was quickly adopted by the media and celebrity, and as a result the church and anything to do with Bible- bashing Jesus lovers was firmly aside.

I will certainly blog more about this is the weeks ahead, as it's one of the issues that's rather close to my heart.

Anyway people, I'm off. A quick club session before the presidential debates awaits.

Thanks for your patience. I look forward to hearing from you all again and getting back into reading your blogs (apart from of course Professional's, because he doesn't have one... *haha...!*)

$&(*£$*(£$"!$*(&?!

Margaret Thatcher, unfortunately very much alive with power in Scotland and the UK today

One week Salmond says he "didn't mind" Thatcher economics, and a fortnight later Cameron says "Thank God we elected Margaret Thatcher".

I was really really really surprised Cameron said that yesterday, I think it was a politically foolish move... And if I had more than 3 minutes of internet time to comment on it then I would.

Don't say I didn't tell you though...

(Still no internet... May have to start using semaphore. Or Indian smoke signals.)

Home from Home

Obama, despite remaining refreshingly ambitious and new, has matured as a politician over the duration of the campaign.

I am currently at my mother's house. trying to capitalise on the free food, dish washing, laundry and internet services which are on offer.

It has all been a bit strange leaving work and becoming a student again. Trekking around Tesco and having to buy really dull stuff like Fairy Liquid is I suppose one of the truly hash realities of life, which I once tried to embrace in Dundee studying Social Work but which made me deeply unhappy. I do however feel that this is slightly different. The air of my flat and even that of Tesco's graces me with a slightly warmer prescence. A sense of freedom from the restraints of the narrow corridors of Holyrood and into the ocean of opportunity that is Edinburgh University.

Last night I stayed up until 5 am watching the Presidential debate live from "the best political team on television", through the semi-legal median of my friend Emma's internet.

My fellow viewers and I (one of which was a political researcher to an ex- Minister in the UK Cabinet) failed to come to a definitive agreement on who came off better last night.

I was delighted to hear this morning that Obama polled (just) slightly better than his Republican rival McCain. This was fantastic news for one very good reason: the economy and foreign affairs were at the beginning of this campaign McCain's home turf. He should have owned Obama, but he didn't. Obama presided over questions with an exciting presidential quality, and showed depth of knowledge and presence unseen before.

After the last couple of wins, Scottish football fans may be disappointed with only a draw from a game with France, but we shouldn't be. In this case, as with football, a draw is a fantastic result for Obama.

McCain's insular 'Americanised' answers were lifted out of the debate by Obama's openness and sense of humanity, not just as an American veteran, but as a human being.

Yes we can.

Yes he did.

I think he will.

I HATE TISCALI

Gordilocks back in the day

Well I should have listened and taken advice... Tiscali suck. I was impressed at the speed and efficiency with which they took all my money and account details off me. I hoped this was evidence of what more there was to come. At this rate my router should have flown through my bedroom door and set itself up before making me a cup of Earl Grey and a sandwich, but as much as it pains me to say it, nothing has happened.

Of course this has made blogging difficult, and I want to sincerely apologise to all you good people out there (and Professional...) who read it regularly and contribute to the debates views which I throw into the cockpit that is blogging chaos.

Well, well done Gordon.

I know I haven't blogged too much on Gordon Brown. If you remember I wrote an article in support of him after our Scottish Labour's Aviemore conference, and since then I haven't really been very sure what to make of him. But yesterday he reminded me why we as a party loved him so much.

He was in a difficult situation yesterday (and I'm not saying that wasn't his fault), and as a result he had to take risks. For those of us hoping for a big policy announcement, disappointment was shared, but it was never going to be an election- esque speech. Something people always loved about Brown was the way in which he never spoke negatively of others. I remember his first speech as party leader only made one reference to the Tories, in a line about opportunity being for all not just for some. But yesterday was different.

He had a few things he needed to do. He had to;

• Draw a line between Labour and the Conservatives


• Acknowledge that mistakes had been made


• Be open and transparent as a person


• Reinforce that the action the Government was taking was right


• Remind the party and the public why they loved him so much


• He achieved all of these things.
  

He achieved all of these things.

The most important of these the top one. There is a choice at the next election. A clear choice between right and wrong.

He reminded me why I joined the party, and why I am so sick of Scottish political debate. A debate so far withdrawn and disengaged with the actual issues facing society, our great country and our world.

This is about the big boys now.