January 30, 2012

David Cameron appears to be engaging with the EU in a good way

Even small-state, cut public expenditure David Cameron seemingly wants to help young people find jobs.

This is excellent news which I hope will be translated into concrete action in Britain to bring down youth unemployment which currently stands at a staggering 22% of those aged 16 to 24.

David Cameron is, moreover, discussing youth unemployment at an EU summit starting in Brussels today, according to the Observer. Cameron will apparently play a full part in the talks, a welcome change for our avowedly Eurosceptic Prime Minister. Let’s just hope he stays the course and doesn’t walk out as he did at the previous Brussels summit on 9 December last year.

The EU could, we understand, provide 22 billion euros from an underspend in the European social fund for measures to combat unemployment among young people. While youth unemployment stands at 22% in the UK, it is even higher in other EU member states – 51.4% in Spain, 46.6% in Greece and 30.7% in Greece.

The EU initiative is therefore very welcome. Having young people unable to find work constitutes a real tragedy, robbing them of the start in life they deserve, leading often to long-term defeatism and periods on the dole throughout their lives.

If the proposals are agreed, the European Commission will work with member states to draw up country specific programmes on how to address the problems and use the EU funds.

Unemployment is the scourge of our times. Even George Osborne is beginning to understand this as he teamed up with Ed Miliband joining leaders of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank urging action to create jobs amid warnings that youth unemployment was a time-bomb under the global economy.

However, Cameron and Osborne making all the right noises abroad is no substitute for action at home. The main reason unemployment is so high in Britain lies at the door of the Tory-led coalition’s fierce austerity measures. The cuts have been much too much, much too soon. Such policies could lead to a much longer recession than necessary, possibly even a double dip.

We, the British people, need a government that looks after all our interests not just those of a rich few. Everything possible should be done to bring down unemployment at home where it matters. International action is all very well, but the real solution is here, fairly and squarely with David Cameron and George Osborne.

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January 30, 2012

Honeyball’s Weekly Round Up

Last week an article in the Guardian claimed we are witnessing a voluntary sector glass ceiling; this is despite the Sex and Power report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission that suggested that 48% of chief executives are female. An encouraging figure, you may think, bringing us ever closer to parity in one sector (the voluntary sector) , at least. So it was a little disappointing to learn that only 43% of charity leaders (including chief executives, and where there is no paid leadership role’s) are female, according to a report by the Clore Social Leadership Programme.

OK so it could be worse, but recognition of the lack of parity was encouraging, but only because it means it has more chance of being addressed. Authoring an article for the Guardian was Rowena Lewis who stated in the piece: ‘Frankly, I don’t think 43% is anywhere near good enough for a sector in which 68% of employees are female.’ Her report: ‘Close to Parity a Study into Female Leadership in the Voluntary Sector’ is available to download from the Clore Social Leadership Programme’s website.

You can read her article for the Guardian here.

The Telegraph reported last week that fewer places will be made available this year to prospective university students. Some 10,000 temporary places– offered in previous years to cope with a sudden surge in applications – would not be made available in 2012.

A further 5,000 places that are normally allocated to universities that over-recruit are also being cut.

Last week the Mirrors editorial claimed in a powerful, albeit short piece, that David Cameron is writing his own political obituary. ‘David Cameron’s squirming to avoid responsibility was pitiful and his blindly ploughing on, pretending it’s all someone else fault, will blight more lives on top of those already ruined by voodoo economics,’ the piece stated. I couldn’t have put it better myself. You can read the comment piece in full here.

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January 29, 2012

David Cameron increasingly looks both ways on Europe

Balancing the responsibilities of Britain’s membership of the European Union with his feral Eurosceptic backbenchers is proving well-nigh impossible for our pull me – push me Prime Minister. 

David Cameron is, inevitably, being forced into U turns on Europe.  Having flounced out of the EU summit in Brussels as it was agreeing changes to the Lisbon Treaty in December last year, David Cameron seemingly felt the need to shore up his extraordinary behaviour.  He accordingly held forth in adamant fashion stating that the UK would resist any attempt to involve the EU institutions in enforcing the amendments to the treaty agreed by 26 of the 27 EU member states in December.

 Such a hot-headed, indeed stupid, way of operating was bound to come unstuck.

 It did not take long to unravel.  In abandoning his pledge to block the Eurozone from using common EU institutions to police the new regime of fiscal integration agreed by the “EU 26” in December, Cameron has given way to the European Union in a major way.

Britain will now no longer object to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) enforcing the international, as opposed to EU, treaty among the 26 EU member countries who agreed it. This is a significant U turn on the part of the Prime Minister, who as recently as 6 January said on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “Let me be very clear that they [the ECJ] shouldn’t do things outside the European Union that are the property of the European Union.”  

Cameron has also accepted that the European Commission will act as “referee” in deciding whether Eurozone members were breaching the new rules.

Meanwhile, according to the Guardian, arch- Eurosceptic and leading feral Bill Cash, is not at all happy and is on record as saying, “There mustn’t be any backsliding. There are serious concerns about the lawfulness of these proposals. The institutions are simply not allowed to use the European Commission and the [European] Court of Justice in an unlawful manner.”

I predict there will be more situations like this for David Cameron. His feral backbenchers will push him one way while the EU (and possibly Nick Clegg) will pull him in another. The inevitable outcome will be victory for the EU. After all it’s one against 26, long odds indeed.

We already know that UK observers are at the tables looking at the changes to the Lisbon Treaty, despite Cameron’s refusal to sign in December. This represents a quiet U-turn which speaks volumes about the way David Cameron is seeking to resolve his EU dilemma. To try and have your cake and eat it is not a sustainable policyin the long run.

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January 29, 2012

Britain’s (Anguilla’s) Olympic Hopefuls – Shara Proctor

Shara Proctor has gone on an unsual journey to be part of the British Olympics team as the only woman to qualify for long jump for London 2012.

Shara was born and raised in Anguilla, a very small island in the Caribbean with a population of 13,600 people. Anguilla is too small to have its own Olympic Committee so is therefore ineligible to enter a team for the Olympic Games itself, but its citizens are eligible for British Citizenship.

Shara leapt at (excuse the pun) the opportunity to claim her British citizenship when the chance to compete for the British team presented itself.

Shara’s family background is political rather than sporting, with her mother being, rather fittingly, the current Anguillan minister for sport, and her rather a retired permanent secretary for education.

Shara started her athletics career as a sprinter but turned to long jump because, even on an island as small asAnguilla, there were two other women who were faster than her.  She said recently that she had to make the switch because she simply hated losing; a promising quality for Team GB.

Shara’s lifetime best is 6.71 meters and her season’s best is 6.68m, putting her at the very top of the British rankings. She says she is “jumping big” in training and has set a target of 6.9m this year, which would put her well into medal territory at world and Olympic level.

In recent interviews Shara has said that if she wins a medal for Team GB, in her heart it will be for her home country of Anguilla.  I’m sure none of the cheering on lookers from Britain will mind this one bit, if we can see a medal in a category where we haven’t won once since the subject yesterday’s profile, Mary Rand.

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January 28, 2012

Britain’s Olympic Greats – Mary Rand MBE

This week former athlete Mary Rand was granted the freedom of the city of her birth Wells, Somerset. This long called for recognition comes almost 50 years after her astounding achievements at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

In Tokyo, Mary Rand was the first ever British female to win a gold medal in a track and field event. This achievement came just two years after the birth of her first daughter.

Smashing the previous world record, Mary took the gold medal in the long jump with a jump of 6.76 meters. Mary was the first Brit to break a world record at the Olympics since 1932. That year at the games Mary also took home a silver medal for the pentathlon and bronze in the 4×100 meter relay.

Mary’s path to success was not an easy one. Her record in Tokyo was set 4 years after massive disappointment at the Rome Olympics where, after setting a British long jump record in the qualifying round, she fouled twice in the final and came ninth.

1964 was also the year that Mary was voted BBC sports personality of the year. Given this year’s disgraceful absence of women from the BBC’s shortlist it is surprising to be reminded that in the sixties almost half of the winners were women.

Whilst much of the furore over last year’s award has now died down I am still disgusted that not a single woman made the shortlist. That ‘lads mags’ Nuts and Zoo, who could be said to trade in the objectification of women, participated in the nominations, is just one more example of the pervasive sexism in the media highlighted in the Leveson inquiry.

1964 was a particular high point in Mary’s illustrious career, but was far from the only success. Mary also broke British records in pentathlon and won medals at the 1958 Commonwealth Games and European Championships.

Fellow Olympian Brendan Foster has said that Mary was an inspiration to female athletes.

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January 27, 2012

Cameron’s pot has the temerity to call the Eurozone’s kettle black

David Cameron is one of those people who never fail to take the biscuit, and his attack on Angela Merkel in Davos yesterday was a massive one covered with lashings of chocolate.

Cameron had the temerity at the World Economic Forum to tell Eurozone leaders how to run their affairs, affairs Cameron has made sure he has had nothing whatsoever to do with.

The non-Eurozone British Prime Minister, according to the Evening Standard warned that Europe was at a “perilous moment” and attacked its leaders for “tinkering here and there” rather than showing the bold leadership needed to save the Euro. You may be forgiven for forgetting that this is the same British Prime Minister who flounced out of the European Summit in Brussels on December 9 and has resolutely refused to engage with his opposite numbers – the national leaders across Europe – preferring splendid marginalisation instead.

Just to rub it in, David Cameron with breath-taking lack of subtlety blew his own trumpet telling Angela Merkel and the others world leaders that Britain – i.e. his Tory-led coalition – is doing it right.

Are they really? There are now 2.69 million unemployed in the UK, up 118,000 in the three months to November and still rising. The IMF revised its growth projection for the UK downwards due to lower than expected output in the production and construction sectors.  And, to cap it all UK government debt is now over a trillion pounds – 64.2% of GDP.

Britain is so obviously in as bad, if not worse, state than the Eurozone. The facts speak from themselves.

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January 26, 2012

Olympic Organisers should not take Dow Chemical money

Congratulations to Meredith Alexander for resigning as a member of the 13 strong Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 over the £7 million sponsorship from Dow Chemicals to install a wrap around the Olympic stadium. Head of Trade and Corporates at Action Aid, Meredith opposes taking money from a company which is not discharging its responsibilities relating to the Bhopal disaster.

While I understand the motives for LOGOC – the London Olympic Games Organising Committee – taking Dow Chemical money, those accepting commercial sponsorship should always be aware of where the money comes from. However strapped for cash an organisation may be, this never justifies taking funding from tainted undertakings.

This is a non-negotiable principle, and a principle that must be rigorously upheld when it comes to major national projects. However much in need of cash the London Olympic Games may be, those in charge should never have had anything to do with Dow Chemicals.

And Dow has a lot to answer for – somewhere in the region of 20,000 deaths and thousands more serious injuries resulting from the disaster at Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh in 1984. True it was Union Carbide not Dow who owned the plant at the time, but once Dow took over Union Carbide in 1999 it also took over this responsibility.

Despite Dow’s claims that the Indian Government accepted a £300 million payment in final settlement of any obligations, there is ample evidence that the tragedy has not come to an end.

In December last year Lorraine Chase, a 29 year old nurse, who has worked at Bhopal, told the Guardian “The mistake people make by continuing to say that this is about an explosion in December 1984. It’s about contamination that’s happening today.”

Toxic sludge was dumped in pits, on top of plastic sheets, in an attempt to cleanse it through evaporation. Instead the chemical leached into the ground water. The pits and the sludge are still there and the water is still used for drinking and washing by people for whom government supplies of water are unreliable. Chase says, “People know the water tastes funny, they know it isn’t doing them any good, but they don’t have a choice. And absolutely nothing is being done.”

Dow Chemicals apparently continually maintain that this appalling state of affairs is nothing to do with them.

I really do not understand how LOGOC can take money from a company which has so little regard for human life.

Strong supporter of the London Olympics that I am, I ask LOGOC to think again. Other sponsors will come forward once the word gets out. A wrap around a sporting stadium is not worth even the smallest amount of human suffering let alone bringing continuing tragedy to thousands of very poor people who have already been through more than most of us could even imagine.

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January 25, 2012

Bill Gates – Aid works: the EU needs to keep the ball rolling

“Aid Works”. This was Bill Gates key message when he visited the European Parliament yesterday, as those of you who follow me on Twitter might have seen.

During his visit I had the opportunity to ask him about what we need to be doing here in the European Parliament to increase the use of vaccines and immunisation in developing countries.

In his talk Mr Gates focused on the positive effect that aid has already had on many developing nations. He pointed out that success stories are often sidelined when it comes to talking about development since much of the coverage focuses on crisis situations. This positive angle is something that he hopes to promote with “Living Proof”, his partnership with the ONE Organisation.

Bill Gates praised the EU for its current and past commitment to development aid but stressed it was important to keep the ball rolling on this issue.

His speech highlighted the positive impact that agriculture and immunisation have in developing countries and the  far-reaching changes that projects focused on these two factors bring about. He also spoke of the importance of effective aid.

Gates pointed out that improving agricultural productivity reduces poverty more quickly than any other investment. Small farmers who are assisted in developing the means, in terms of technologies and knowledge, to improve their output are then able to provide greater support for their families. This can enable to send their children to school.

He also illustrated the massive effect vaccination programmes have had on the number of deaths related to diseases such as measles and polio. Between 2000 and 2008 measles deaths fell by 78% whilst cases of polio have fallen by around 99%. Aid from the EU is estimated to have helped vaccinate 5 million children against measles.

One organisation that is a good example of a vehicle for effective aid is the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. GAVI has been commended for the ‘value for money’ and efficacy of its work in this area.

So, how did Bill Gates answer my question?

He responded by saying that together UNICEF and GAVI have made much progress on vaccines and immunisation in developing countries and are key organisations by which vaccines and immunisation programmes can be rolled out. 

However, following a big push in the 1980s, pressure to ensure that all children are immunised against vaccine preventable diseases has plateaued . Demographically 20% of children are still missing as a result of lack of access.

We need to re-dedicate ourselves to ensuring equitable coverage of vaccines everywhere in the world.

You can view Bill Gates’ response in full below. His answer made it clear to me that we must work together to push the discussion of vaccinations and immunisation back up the  EU’s aid agenda.

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January 25, 2012

David Cameron’s stance on the European Court of Human Rights would make Winston Churchill turn in his grave

In what seems like a follow-up to his stupidly short-sighted refusal to join all 26 other EU leaders in signing up to treaty change at the summit in Brussels on 9 December last year, David Cameron is again displaying his ignorance on European matters.

 Cameron now wants to reform the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which is, incidentally, nothing to do with the European Union. While there is probably no institution on this earth which would not benefit from some kind of sensible reform, Cameron’s attack on the ECHR is undoubtedly motivated by a desire to appease the feral Eurosceptic Tories who not only make up much of the Parliamentary Conservative Party but were also instrumental in electing Cameron as Party Leader.

 Cameron obviously knows little about ECHR. In yesterday’s Independent Sir Nicholas Bratza, the British judge who heads up the Court, put forward a sterling defence of its long and distinguished record, citing, amongst other things, the judgements which allowed the media to challenge restrictions on reporting the Thalidomide case and ensured child criminals were not charged in adult courts.

 David Cameron’s attitude to the ECHR becomes even more dislocated when the history of British cases tried in the Court is examined. Over the past 12 months Britain only lost eight of the 955 applications sent to the ECHR. This fact alone makes a complete mockery of David Cameron’s accusation that the ECHR “meddles” in internal UK matters.

Maybe Cameron should look hard at the two cases he believes did constitute interference – allowing prisoners to vote and the ruling that the radical cleric Abu Qatada cannot be returned to Jordan. I believe prisoners have basic human rights, the franchise being one of them. In the case of Abu Qatada, the ECHR would not allow the deportation of a man who would be tried by the Jordanians using evidence gained by torture.

Prisoners voting rights and the Abu Qatada case transported the feral Tory right into a state of apoplexy. This is the real reason Cameron is turning his attention to the European Court of Human Rights. Winston Churchill, who played a key role in establishing the Court, would surely turn in his grave if he knew the levels to which the modern Conservative Party has sunk.

David Cameron is displaying the same breathtaking level of ignorance about the ECHR as he has already done on the European Union. While I am prepared to concede there may be a case for reasonable reform of the ECHR based on proper evidence, this does not appear to be the way Cameron is looking at the issue.

David Cameron is also going it alone again. He either does not understand, or does not wish to understand, that European institutions are made up of many countries, 47 in the case of the Council of Europe which oversees the European Court of Human Rights. I believe that as a lone voice, albeit as the one currently holding the Council of Europe presidency, calling for reform, Cameron will almost certainly fail. To be successful, he will need to build alliances, something he does not seem to have done and may not be able to achieve during the six month presidency.

This is all very reminiscent of the debacle on 9 December. Cameron left the Brussels summit with nothing. We know he did not circulate the British demands to the other summit members until the night before rather than two weeks earlier which is the usual practice to allow time for discussion negotiation. We have also heard that Cameron did not involve the UK Permanent Representation to the EU in the preparation for the summit, an extraordinary dereliction of duty which lends weight to the argument that Cameron did not take the summit seriously.

 David Cameron is treating the EU and now the ECHR with utter contempt in order to buy off the rebellious hordes on his backbenches. He is merely engaging in superficial posturing. I very much doubt if push were to come to shove he would actually take Britain out of the ECHR, largely because there would be a huge body of informed opinion against such a move.       

 What I personally want to see from the Prime Minister is honesty. The UK has been in the EU for nearly 40 years and the ECHR even longer. These institutions are part of the very fabric of our society and also have a lot of good in them. Britain is never going to come out of either, so let’s stop kidding ourselves.

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January 24, 2012

The EU must object to the lack of women in Hungarian politics under Orban

In Hungary, politics is a harsh world in which women don’t have the capacity or talent to enter the “boxing ring” and instead stand back and let the men do the fighting.

Or this is what one would think from reading an interview with Viktor Orban, populist and increasingly dictatorial leader of Hungary, in German Tabloid Bild last week.

Below is a rough translation of the section of the interview relating to women in Hungarian politics.

“Bild: This [nothing has changed] attitude also seems to be true for your opinion on women. It is only a short time since your government gained a female minister, responsible for development

Orban: … and 7 state secretaries!

Bild: That’s still not much!

Orban: I hardly think about women in terms of too much or too little. To me it’s about capacity and talent.Hungary’s politics is a harsh world, politics in general is. The fights in the political arena take up very few women. I’m happy about any who do enter politics. For example, the head of the statistical bureau, the judicial authority or the equality body. These things are done by women. But, most of them stay outside the boxing ring and rather let the men do the fight.”

Given the ever growing list of criticisms towards his Fidesz Government’s record on human rights, hearing his attitude towards gender equality and women’s rights is hardly surprising.

It is even less surprising when I recall Orban’s defence of Hungary’s new regressive constitution, brought in by his government at the start of the year, during his visit to the European Parliament last week.

The behaviour of Orban and his Fidesz government has led to the unusual step of the European Commission launching infringement proceedings against them.  The situation in Hungary is alarming to put it mildly.  This is the first time that there has been a genuine concern that a member state is going the way of authoritarian rule.  These comments in Bild show just how reactionary Orban is and they are very troubling coming from the mouth of a European leader. 

At a time when the Hungarian economy is in melt down and their currency is tanking at an alarming rate the government will be looking to the EU for help and support.  That support will be difficult to give if the Fidesz government continues with these constitutional reforms.  I will be watching with interest to hear what decisions have been reached following Orban’s visit to Brussels today.

For those of you who can read German, the enlightening interview can be read in full here.

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