Shot by both sides

London Vegans this Wednesday

kerrymccarthy — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:20:55 +0000

I’m speaking at London Vegans on Wednesday night, at a venue in Holborn. More details on their website www.londonvegans.org.uk

Here’s the menu… www.shambhus.co.uk/lv If the prospect of hearing me speak about all things relevant to the political vegan doesn’t tempt you, I suspect the menu will! Tofu tikka massala and mint choc chip cheesecake. Or does the lemon and coconut cheesecake sound better?

Paul Simonon = handsome

kerrymccarthy — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:42:23 +0000

Every day someone lands on my blog searching for Paul Simonon. Most days someone lands on here searching for “Paul Simonon handsome”. I’ve come to the conclusion the latter must be him, just checking the internet to make sure people are still lusting after him.

Another frequent search is “cos fashion”, ie people looking for the clothes store. That’s because I once quoted a line from “Do Nothing” by the Specials, “cos fashion is, my only culture”. I’ve just checked with the very helpful and somewhat addictive @GuardianStyle on Twitter to see whether it should be ’cause, coz or cos – the answer is, ‘cos. If you’re a pedant, there’s endless fun to be had here – http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide.

If you like seeing pictures of Paul Simonon you could always look at http://www.disneyrollergirl.net/paul-simonon-hot-hats/

Second debate – youth unemployment + bankers’ bonuses

kerrymccarthy — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:18:25 +0000

The second of our Opposition Day debates today has just started, with Rachel Reeves speaking. I’ll be in the Chamber for some of it but I’m not planning on speaking. There is already a 6 minute time limit on backbench speeches, which will no doubt be cut further towards the end of the day. As someone who speaks quite a lot in parliament, I tend to be quite far down the pecking order to be called. I was last but one of the Labour speakers in the debate we’ve just had, and the only Labour speaker who was called after me was someone who’d missed part of the debate because he’d been taking part in an SI committee. So I probably wouldn’t get called in this debate which is already “full up”. My time is better spent in the office getting on with emails… but I will pop down for some of it later.

The motion is:

“That this House notes with concern that unemployment has risen to its highest level for 17 years, youth unemployment has now reached a record level of 1.04 million and the number of young people claiming jobseeker’s allowance for over six months has more than doubled since January 2011; believes that cutting spending and raising taxes too far and too fast has choked off the recovery and pushed up unemployment and that it was a mistake for the Government to abolish the Future Jobs Fund; recognises that rising unemployment and the Government’s failing welfare to work programmes are leading to a higher benefits bill, which is contributing to the £158 billion of additional borrowing announced in the Autumn Statement; further notes reports that multi-million pound bank bonuses are set to be paid out this year, even in banks where the share price has almost halved; and in view of the most recent figures on unemployment, calls on the Government to take urgent action to kickstart the economy to promote jobs and growth and to reconsider its refusal to introduce a tax on bankers’ bonuses this year, in addition to the permanent bank levy, to fund 100,000 jobs for young people.”

Ugly food

kerrymccarthy — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:55:36 +0000

An amusing moment just now in the food poverty debate. Laura Sandys, the Tory MP for Thanet, gave a plug for her new “Ugly Food” campaign, which encourages the sale and consumption of wonky carrots, ugly spuds, deformed tomatoes. Its slogan, she declared, is “Tasty but Imperfect. Just Like You.”

In the Commons however, “you” always means whoever’s in the Speaker’s Chair. Dawn Primarolo gave Laura her best Mary Poppins “practically perfect in every way” look… Oops.

Health and safety at DWP Qs

kerrymccarthy — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:02:07 +0000

More of the usual nonsense from the Tory benches at DWP questions today on health and safety legislation. There were three planted questions on the Order Paper, all asking what steps the Secretary of State has taken to reduce the level of health and safety regulation affecting business. This is despite the welcome he gave in November to the report by Professor Ragnar Lofstedt, which concluded “there is no case for radically altering current health and safety legislation” and that “the existing regulatory arrangements are broadly right”. IDS somewhat gave the game away – ie it’s all about scaremongering and pandering to the tabloids who peddle ‘elf and safety stories of dubious authenticity – in his answer to Tobias Ellwood, who had a mini-rant about schools chopping down trees in case children climbed them and teachers not being able to change lightbulbs until they’d been on the climbing a six foot ladder training course. IDS responded that such stories resulted from over-zealous interpretation of health and safety principles, and usually had no basis at all in law. In which case, why is he getting his backbenchers to bang on about changing the law?