Monthly Archives: April 2009

April 27, 2009 · 7:30 am

THE SUNDAY TIMES RICH LIST…WHERE ARE THE WOMEN?

I have to admit to avidly ploughing my way through the “Sunday Times” Rich List every year.  It seemed even more necessary reading this year following TV advertising promoting the Rich List to show the effect of the credit crunch on our million and billionaires. Rather than the fate of Alan Sugar or Richard Branson, I was much more interested in the list of 100 wealthiest women.

It made depressing reading. It would  appear that only 16  (yes only 16) of these top 100 women made the money on their own merits, being entries that did not have an asterisk next to the name, which denotes family money, or made their pile through inheritance or divorce.

Tamara Mellon and her Jimmy Choos

Tamara Mellon and her Jimmy Choos

Five, perhaps predictably, made their money in fashion : Tamara Mellon, Linda Bennett, Christina Ong and  Alison Goldberg and Sara Phillips (ther last two have a joint entry); four fall into the publishing, media, music category: Cristina Stenbeck, Louise McBain, Judy Craymer and Charlotte Bonnier; three are writers: Joanne Rowling, Barbara Taylor Bradford and Jackie Collins, while the remaining four are made up of two women in finance, Amanda Staveley and Carol Galley and two in property, Charlotte Townshend and Julia Davey.

In 2009 as a woman it still seems you either have to have been born rich or marry a rich man to make it in the money stakes.  It’s also very apparent that women do better in writing and publishing than most other walks of life, and we should take note of the dearth of leading women in the financial and property sectors.  This is the gender pay gap brought to life in stark terms.  I hope next year will be better, though I doubt it.

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April 26, 2009 · 1:58 pm

THE READER BY BERNHARD SCHLINK

This is not a book for the fainthearted, and I’m not completely surprised that it has taken over twelve years to make it into a film.  It has all the ingredients – a vivid and self absorbed main character, an unforgettable love story between the 15 year old Michael Berg and Hanna Schmitz over twice his age (36 at the beginnng of the book) plus a holocaust trial involving Hanna herself.  First published in English in 1997, maybe it’s the deeply uncomfortable and disturbing nature of the book which prevented it becoming more openly available until recently.

The book, it has to be said, has it all.  We are treated to 200 pages of some of the most intense writing I have come across for a long time.  Set in a provincial German city, the star of the story, Michael, who writes in the first person, is a young man you probably would not wish to meet.  His relationship with neighbouring Hanna, a tram driver, set in the 1950s, does nothing to allow Michael to be an “ordinary” teenager, though it obviously adds years to his worldly experience.  During the whole of their passionate affair, Michael reads aloud to Hanna, something she continually demands from him.

Yet Michael, as he sees it, “betrays” Hanna, ultimately preferring friends his own age and then going on to attend university.  The tale may well have ended there, but for the fact that Michael studies law and is called to attend a trial of women concentration camp guards who let a group of women prisoners die in a fire.  During the proceedings it emerges that Hanna, the most outspoken of the defendants, asked women prisoners to read aloud to her, leading Michael to realise that she is illiterate, and that she has developed many ways of disguising this from the rest of the world.

Hanna is sentenced to a long time in prison where she learns to read and write, and contacts Michael, who sends her cassettes of him reading out loud.  On the the eve of her release, Hanna seemingly can face no more and commits suicide.

The metaphor relating to German history is not hard to see, maybe another reason the book has not gained prominence before now.  I did not find this book an easy read; it’s far too harsh and difficult for that.  Yet it was ultimately worth making the effort.  Since I rarely manage to get to the cinema, I haven’t seen the film.  I’d be interested in comments from those of you who have.

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April 24, 2009 · 4:49 pm

G20 POLL – AS NEWS OF POLICE VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO BREAK, WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS?

On the day that RBS announce they are suing a female teenager for £40,000, for damages to their London City branch, my fears and upsets around the policing of the G20 summit are renewed.

RBS pursues G20 teenager for £40,000 damages

Whilst I do not condone criminal activity of any kind, I have been a campaigner all my life and fully support the right to protest.

I was shocked and saddened to receive this letter from one of my London constituents Luna Glucksberg earlier this week. The scenes she describes are those of upset and fear from both sides of protesters and police. Methods of kettling and battoning protestors seem archaic in the extreme. I support Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O’Connor’s opinions on the event. He told MPs last week that the violence at the G20 event was “unacceptable”.

New media – Youtube especially – has really come up trumps in raising justice during this G20 event. Without it, Ian Tomlinson would be an unknown name. Just a man who had a heart attack up a quiet side street during the time of the protests. Instead, we now know that he was a man who was recorded, by numerous people, being repeatedly beaten by police officers, whilst he tried to make his way home.

The story of what happened, on all sides, is being revealed from all angles – phone cameras, personal video camera and professional cameras – so that this time, more so than at any other large scale political protest, the public can decide who is to blame themselves.

Given this, I would like to know, what are your opinions on the policing in this event?

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· 2:18 pm

LABOUR HELP SECURE COPYRIGHT VICTORY FOR MUSICIANS

With the media often focusing on musicans who earn millions of pounds every year, it is sometimes easy to forget that there are many very talented musicans out there that make a great contribution to the music in the UK but don’t earn these kinds of sums.

That’s why I’m pleased to report that Labour has helped to pass a vote through the parliament that  calls for national governments to extend the period during which performers can claim royalties for their recordings from 50 to 70 years. Many performers rely on modest royalties in their retirement. In a profession which can be insecure we need to do all we can to ease the burden and help those who dedicate themselves to producing the music that we all like to listen to.

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April 23, 2009 · 7:02 pm

MOST RECENT TWEETS

  • 11:32 Voting on discharge of EU budget. Contrary to some reports, budget does get signed off #

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· 8:35 am

THE CHEEK OF DEN DOVER

Would you believe it? Disgraced Den Dover, expelled from the Tory delegation in the European Parliament last year for alleged gross misconduct over expenses claims, has launched legal action in the European Court. He is attempting to clear his name.

Dishonest Den has been asked by the European Parliament to return hundreds of thousands of pounds claimed without justification.

Den Dover drives what he thinks is the gravy train...but really is a dumper truck. Dumping on his constituents and all European tax payers.

Den Dover drives what he thinks is the gravy train...but really is a dumper truck. Dumping on his constituents and all European tax payers.

Mr Dover has now said nothing will be repaid pending the court action.

Den has, of course, denied any abuse of the expenses system over payments of about £750,000 which were paid to a family firm, MP Holdings Ltd, in European Parliament staff allowances between 1999 and November last year.
His suspension and then expulsion from the Tory group of MEPs came after the demand for repayment last November, following a European Parliament inquiry.
But Mr Dover continues to receive his full salary and allowances, including his daily allowance on the days he has the brass neck to be seen in the European Parliament.

In keeping with his dishonest demeanour, Disgraceful Den is on record as dismissing the issue as “a big fuss and bother” and has insisted he will fight a “robust” case in court.

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· 8:13 am

NEW WAYS OF WORKING POST BUDGET

As some of you may know, I am a longstanding member of the Co-op, having worked in the Political Department of one of disparate parts of the retail co-operative sector (the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society) in the 1980s.

Following the budget, I therefore wanted to make the point that in times of change as these we are all looking closely at ways of building the new economy. But, whatever the shape of the post-crunch world, its roots lie in this one – and indeed one route to creating this new economy will be employee ownership.  I strongly believe that the mutual model could have a real role to play in our future economic organisation.   

I am pleased to say that the UK has seen one of the largest increases in employee share schemes over recent years and long may this continue. We put in place legislation allowing for the schemes’ expansion, and well-known companies like John Lewis are fully employee-owned. John Lewis in particular is incredibly popular, and this is not least thanks to the friendly and engaged staff you find in store, who are no doubt motivated by their personal ownership of the company.

Allowing mutual recognition of employee share schemes between EU Member States would be a key way of promoting this excellent way of doing things. For the past five years businesses have been able to transform themselves into a Societas Europaea – a European Company – and the time is now ripe to complement this by developing European Stock Ownership Plans. Indeed, the Americans have had something similar in place for over 30 years, and it is only right that European citizens be able to benefit too.

That’s why I am pleased to support the European Federation of Employee Share Ownership’s election manifesto ahead of the European Parliamentary Elections in June.

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April 22, 2009 · 7:03 pm

MOST RECENT TWEETS

  • 12:21 Just voted on energy reforms – ending monopolies, reducing energy poverty, compensation for poor service & info for consumers on their bills #

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· 9:50 am

JACK JONES – UNION LEADER AND PENSIONERS’ CHAMPION

Jack Jones, leader of the Transport and General Workers (TGWU) from 1969 to1978 died last night aged 96.  I was privileged to know Jack, who lived in south-east London not far from my old stamping ground of Lewisham and Deptford, and it was through one-time Lewisham councillor Mee Ling Ng that I met Jack and his wife, Evelyn, who sadly passed away nearly ten years ago.  I joined Jack and Evelyn and their son Mick for Sunday lunch on more than one occasion – something which gave me great pleasure as well as providing much to think about.

Occasionally a person appears on the national, and indeed international, stage who is such a towering figure that the well worn word “great” seems sorely inadequate.  Jack Jones was such a person.  As a young man he fought the fascists as part of the International Brigades during the Spanish civil war in the 1930s.  A docker in Liverpool, Jack grew up in poverty yet made it to the very top.  Even his contribution after leaving the union was massive – he donated the money he was given as a retirement present to the TGWU Retired Members’ Fund and used this as a base to set up the National Pensioners’ Convention to which he gave truly committed leadership until his health forbade it.    

Jack was, above all, a compassionate man.  Rather than talk about his own tough upbringing, he preferred to comment about today’s poverty. ‘You’ve got slum areas, multi-occupied flats. There’s terrific poverty near where I live, even though people are working, slaving their guts out, wives as well as husbands, a pretty squalid existence. They’re living on ready-made food because there’s no time to prepare nourishing food. I was brought up in poverty but we fed relatively well, we had Irish stew, rabbit stew. And people were closer together, it was a more human collective existence. These days women are expected to work nights even if they’ve got babies. It’s shameful and it’s wrong.’

It was this care and concern for all, especially the vulnerable and the poor, which drove Jack.  As the most formidable trade union leader during the turbulent 1970s he was said by some to be Britain’s real ruler.  Nonetheless, Jack did it all because he believed in making life better for the majority, especially those whose lives were difficult.  He was an inspiration to us all.

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· 8:58 am

BORIS BETRAYS LONDON WOMEN WITH FALSE ELECTION PROMISES

True to Tory form Boris Johnson has reneged on his explicit promise to ‘act immediately’ to put more funding into rape crisis centres in the capital.

The Mayor’s manifesto said “We will act immediately to provide longterm funding for four Rape Crisis Centres in London…To secure the funding for this centre and three others would require ringfencing of around £744,000 annually.”

But yesterday betraying  Boris said funding for the three new centres would not be found in his budget.

 

As Boris might look if women's rights campaigners got a good shot

Artist's impression of how Boris might look if women's rights campaigners got a good shot at him

Rumours that funding for these centres might not be found have been circulating for some time. As a woman living in London I am deeply frustrated by Boris’ distinct lack of commitment to women in the captital. This, he has clearly demonstrated throughout his time in office – deleting the post of women’s advisor, cutting funding for Capital Women and producing an extremely shoddy report on Women in London 2009 in which he carelessly spells the name of Kids Company charity chief Camilla Batmanjella [sic], rather than its correct spelling of Batmanghelidjh. You would have thought even he could spell his supposed ‘hero’s names correctly?

Thankfully, the press are now finally waking up to Boris’ bad behaviour:

Boris ‘betrayal’ as he breaks his promise

The strong words from Assembly Members Joanne McCartney and Jenny Jones should be heeded by the Mayor. Reneging on election promises is never acceptable, but most especially when it is for desperately needed services such as Rape Crisis Centres.

 

Back in the good old days...Joanne McCartney and Ken Livingstone standing up for womens rights in the capital

Back in the good old days...Joanne McCartney and Ken Livingstone standing up for women's rights in the capital

At his previous people’s question time in March Boris promised to make his next one about women. Women of London need to attend this on mass – we need to hold this bumbling betraying mayor to account. Click here to register to attend.

 

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