The Daily Torygraph continues to roll out the sordid details about the great and the good and their expenses. New Labour ministers and MPs have been getting it for the last few days but now I believe that the spotlight is falling on the Tories and others. The strangest must be the case of Sinn Fein, who have an abstentionist policy to taking seats in the UK parliament, yet still managed to claim £500,000 in second home expenses. This has the makings of a good farce. But who would believe it?
Mind you in Lambeth we have had an absentee councillor in Princes Ward for most of the last two years who headed off to Bristol to gain a parliamentary nomination for a Labour seat there and only attended two council meetings in Lambeth in the last year. I believe that the Lib Dems are calling for the return of his councillor's allowance to the people of Lambeth, and if they are not, I certainly am. The Council Leader also stood full square behind him during this time and he should have something to say on the issue. Or are the Labour Party in Lambeth only following the example of their larger scale counterparts across the river in Westminster? Answers on a postcard please Mr Reed. Is it any wonder that people are disillusioned with politics? I will not be doing a moonlight flit to any far flung spot looking for a nomination as I will be standing for the constituency which includes Princes Ward.
1ST OXFORD WORKING CLASS BOOKFAIR
ReplyDeleteSaturday 20 June, 11 am - 6 pm
Ruskin College, Walton Street, Oxford
www.oxfordworkingclassbookfair.blogspot.com
oxfordworkingclassbookfair@googlemail.com
We cordially invite YOU to visit the 1st ever OXFORD WORKING CLASS BOOKFAIR! There will be books, talks, workshops, short films and more books and magazines . . .
We plan to recover/reclaim some of the hidden history of Oxford, with its gallery of rogues, rebels and revolutionaries, to touch upon some topics of contemporary relevance to the man & woman on the street today, provide quality entertainment, discuss the big issues past and present & hopefully have a real good time to boot! - All in a relaxed and warm atmosphere!
The range of local groups invited includes; political groups, Trade Unions, community groups, campaign groups, booksellers and history societies. If you would like to have a stall email us at the address above!
The event will include a commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the 1909 RUSKIN COLLEGE STUDENT STRIKE, a pioneering student uprising for independent working class education, that saw students breakaway to form a radical education and self-help networks based on an alternative progressive view of what education could be. They argued that it wasn't enough for the working class to have limited extended access to higer education, but rather that they needed a fundamentally different kind of education, curriculum & pedagogy to meet their needs and the needs of the class. They were involved in the PLEBS LEAGUE (a grassroots education iniative) and set up an anti-capitalist education network of CENTRAL LABOUR COLLEGES, many of the leaders of the student uprising were miners and trade unionists who went on to be authors of THE MINERS NEXT STEP, a classic text of rank & file trade unionism and syndicalism.
Along the way, we will learn the story of the RED SHIRTS, a group set up at Ruskin College to sabotage the attempts of Oswald Mosely's fascist BLACK SHIRTS to get a base in 1930s Oxford & consider how we fight against fascism & racism today. There will also be sessions on culture, trade union & labour history, feminism/women's liberation, ecology & climate, war & empire etc. More information about speakers, events and other happenings planned will appear on our page shortly - watch this space! Sponsors include the local I.W.W and trade unionists.