Results seen as protest vote against Spain’s José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s handling of the Spanish economy since 2008This article titled “Zapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional elections” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for The Guardian on Monday 23rd May 2011 17.28 UTCThe socialist party of Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is licking its wounds after defeat by the conservative opposition People’s party (PP) in municipal and regional elections.In what was widely seen as a protest vote against Zapatero himself and his handling of Spain’s economy, his party lost control of key city halls in places such as Barcelona and Seville while the PP took control of most of the country’s powerful regional governments.The central Castilla La Mancha region, Aragon and the Balearic islands all ejected socialist administrations.“We are aware of the situation that had distanced people from our party and caused them to criticise us with their vote or abstention,” party spokesman José Blanco said.The socialist drubbing came just 10 months before a general election and appeared to clear the way for PP leader Mariano Rajoy to take possession of the prime minister’s Moncloa Palace residence on his third attempt.The voting coincided with the eruption of numerous popular protests against established politics across Spain, with demonstrators camping out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and in dozens of other cities. A backdrop of 21% unemployment and sluggish growth has spread pessimism throughout Spain as the country struggles to find its feet after the 2008 crash.The socialists lost one in five voters on Sunday, compared to the municipal elections of 2007. Not all those votes were picked up by other mainstream parties, however, and the number of spoilt ballots doubled. But overall turnout was a high 66%.Zapatero is blamed by some for mismanaging a debt crisis that saw Spain on the edge of disaster last year. Others dislike the austerity measures he has since imposed in order to avoid a Portuguese- or Greek-style debacle in Spain.His popularity has plunged since a U-turn last year saw him bring in a strict deficit-cutting plan, which he has pledged to stick to, along with labour and pensions reforms.Markets reacted nervously to the poll result on Monday, pushing up the price of Spanish bonds and pushing down Spanish share prices.The PP urged Zapatero to call a snap general election. “Zapatero and the whole socialist party must reflect on what has happened. Spain cannot waste another year like this,” said the party’s general secretary María Dolores de Cospedal.The one socialist leader to have survived Sunday’s debacle, the head of the Extramadura regional government Guillermo Fernández, also suggested that an early general election might be considered.The socialists must first choose a new leader to take them into those elections, with deputy prime minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and defence minister Carme Chacón as favourites.Party officials said that a timetable for electing the new leader would be set on Saturday.With a general election due in Portugal on 5 June, and with opinion polls showing that socialist prime minister José Sócrates will struggle to hang on to power, the rolling back of leftwing politics that has already taken place in northern Europe now appears to have moved south. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogZapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional electionsRelated posts:Blair to go, now give back the Labour PartyCatalan independence boost after Barcelona voteZapatero says Spain safe from bailout
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Zapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional elections
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May 23 2011, 12:35pm | Comments »
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Spain reveals pain over cuts and unemployment
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/21/spain-reveals-pain-over-cuts-and-unemployment
Spain protests: Young protesters in Madrid and beyond have many different demands, but they are united in opposing the Spanish governmentThis article titled “Spain reveals pain over cuts and unemployment” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 21st May 2011 11.59 UTCThe arrival of the table, a battered piece of formica bashed on top of four rough, oversized legs raised a cry of joy. Never mind that anyone on a normal chair would barely be able to see over the top – here was another small triumph of the new Spanish revolution, the gathering of angry Spaniards of all colours, ages and persuasions that is sweeping across the country and beyond its borders.The table that arrived in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square was part of the swirl of creative chaos, naive enthusiasm and pent-up frustration that has transformed it into a makeshift camp for thousand of protesters who call themselves los indignados, the indignant ones.Tents and mattresses, armchairs and sofas, a canteen, portaloos and solar panels have sprung up in a remarkable display of organisational prowess. And the mass of people jostling around, each pursuing their own dream or demand, or just watching others doing the same, seemed more like something transported from the Arab spring in North Africa than from Europe.As the protests continued to swell on Friday, with 60,000 people defying authorities to obey the campaign’s “Take over the square!” slogan in dozens of Spanish cities, and with copycat demonstrations across Europe, the question was whether this was the new May 1968 – a youth-led popular revolt against an establishment deemed to have failed an entire generation.Esther Gutierréz, an elfin 26-year-old, wandered through the crowd with a battered shopping cart full of fruit.“We’ve got so much food we don’t know what to do with it. People just bring it to us for free and it’s wonderful stuff,” she said. “We want real democracy. Not just freedom for bankers. You’re not from the Spanish press, are you? We don’t speak to them.”Cynical and ingenuous by turns, the Madrid protesters and those who last week refused to obey orders to budge from the occupied city squares have torn up the rule book of Spanish public politics. The heavyweights of old – political parties, trade unions and media commentators – are not wanted here.“I was sacked when the Madrid regional government closed down a women’s centre last year when it imposed cuts,” explained Beatriz García as she bashed a small frying pan with a wooden spoon. “The unions didn’t even bother to turn up.”The political parties were worse, she said. “There is no renovation. There is nothing new or different, just two parties who take it in turn to govern because our electoral laws favour them.”Just a week ago Spain was known for the passivity of its citizens as they put up with one of the most depressing eras in recent history. Despite unemployment hitting 21%, widespread spending cuts and a socialist government bound to obey the diktats of Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the financial markets, they had refused to show their pain. Marches, sit-ins or riots were for the French – or British students. The real drama, anyway, was in North Africa. Spaniards stayed at home.All that changed this week as demonstrations organised via Facebook and Twitter became static protests in city squares, mushrooming into something that caught politicians, unions and the media by surprise.While journalists were following the dull routine of campaigning for Sunday’s municipal and regional elections, the steam was beginning to escape from a pressure cooker of discontent.Many Spaniards had told pollsters they were tired of the same, well-known political faces – especially those who are due to be re-elected despite being mired in corruption scandals. Politicians have rarely been held in such disregard, with the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, of the conservative People’s party, rating lowest. Rajoy seems set to take over after a general election next March.When police forcibly evicted the Madrid demonstrators on Tuesday morning, they came back in even greater numbers later that day. By Friday night authorities had lost the battle to impose rules banning public politics on the day before elections. Police could only look on. “Join us, police officers!” the demonstrators shouted.By the early hours of Friday, it was already elbow-room only in the Puerta del Sol – the square which prides itself on being Spain’s “kilometre zero”, the spot from which all other distances are measured.On the statue of King Carlos III, somebody had pinned a sign that read: “We are anti-idiots, not anti-politicians.” Other placards read: “We aren’t against the system, we want to change it”, “Democracy, a daily fight”, and “Take your money out of the bank!”“We’ve brought tents, food and even Trivial Pursuit to keep us entertained,” said Pablo Cantó, a fresh-faced 23-year-old journalism student. Like many younger protesters, and the movement as a whole, he had trouble expressing exactly why he was here. “We want change,” he said. “Things just can’t carry on as they are.”The heavy clouds of cannabis smoke suggested others had brought their own form of entertainment.“I’ve been protesting for decades,” said 60-year-old school teacher Rosa Marín. “I’m glad to see so many young people here. The questions is this: Is this another May 1968, or are they just here for the party?”A gang of drunken skinheads, mindlessly chanting football terrace slogans, were there for the latter.But a neat, disciplined circle of people intently debating social reform showed many were here in earnest. They took turns to stand up and make their proposals, the audience listening and using the sign language applause of the deaf – by shaking their hands above their heads – to show approval without drowning the speakers out.The proposals, due to make their way through a laborious process of committees, working parties and general assemblies, varied from calls for less spending on the military to helping businesses. “Because it is not just money for the owners. They are the ones who give people like us jobs,” said one young man.For some younger protesters, it was a political baptism. “I don’t know what will come out of this, but it is enough just to show everyone how upset we are,” explained Javier de Coca by phone from the protest camp in Barcelona’s Plaza de Catalunya, where there was a surprising absence of the nationalist or separatist symbols of protest movements in recent years.“It’s as if they’ve realised they have more serious problems to deal with,” said one protester. One of those problems is 45% youth unemployment.On a wall beside the tarpaulin-covered command centre in what some were calling Madrid’s “Republic of Sol” – home to a press office, an infirmary and a legal centre – a list of needs had been pinned up. Toilet paper and food were scratched off the list. Bookshelves, wood, rubber gloves and bottles of cooking gas were on it. Volunteers were needed for a creche.“We process the proposals and try to turn them into something that makes legal sense,” explained a volunteer at the legal centre.However, the open assemblies are painfully slow. Some last for hours, as everybody is given their turn to speak. After almost a week of protests, the demonstrators have failed to come up with a coherent set of demands.Electoral reform to end the two-party system and action to both punish corrupt politicians and limit their luxuries and privileges were the main areas of agreement.So is the Arab spring spreading to southern Europe? “You can’t really compare us to people who were risking their lives by protesting,” said 23-year-old computer engineer Jaime Viyuela. “But yes, you can say that we are inspired by the courage of the Arab spring.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogSpain reveals pain over cuts and unemploymentRelated posts:Zapatero says Spain safe from bailoutProtest march against coalition cuts expected to attract 300,000Anti-cuts campaigners plan to turn Trafalgar Square into Tahrir Square
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May 21 2011, 8:54am | Comments »
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Portuguese learn price of €78bn debt bailout
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/04/portuguese-learn-price-of-e78bn-debt-bailout
Health and education spending in Portugal to be cut by €745m, state pensions reduced and major building projects axed
This article titled “Portuguese learn price of €78bn debt bailout” was written by Giles Tremlett, for The Guardian on Wednesday 4th May 2011 15.20 UTC
Portugal woke up to the price of its €78bn (£70bn) bailout on Wednesday as new airports and high-speed rail lines were sacrificed in a package of austerity measures and the government pledged to freeze pensions and shrink the civil service. Lisbon’s new international airport, already on hold, and the building of a high-speed rail link between Lisbon and Oporto will now be put back until after 2013, according to state news agency Lusa. Health and education spending will be cut by €745m, civil service pay and pensions will be frozen, and people on state pensions above €1,500 a month will have them reduced. Civil service staffing is to be squeezed by 1% a year in central government, while regional administrations and town halls will be told to shed 2% of their employees annually. Portugal’s banks will take up to €12bn of the bailout funds to rebuild their capital ratios, according to reports. The banks would have to raise their core tier one capital ratio – a gauge of higher quality capital that mainly comprises equity and retained earnings – to 9% at the end of this year and to 10% by the end of 2012, Reuters said. The country will also carry out a fire sale of the nationalised Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) bank. “The authorities are launching a process to sell BPN on an accelerated schedule and without a minimum price,” according to a memorandum of understanding seen by the Guardian, which added that the sale should be finished in July. Portugal is expected to reduce public spending by 3.4% of its GDP this year and raise an extra 1.7% of GDP by raising taxes on cars, tobacco and electricity and getting rid of income and corporation tax loopholes. A detailed investigation of public-private partnerships (PPPs), which have been used for building hospitals, roads and rail lines, will be carried out to see if they are hiding extra government debt. New PPP projects will be suspended. José Sócrates, Portugal’s caretaker prime minister, announced the areas that would remain untouched when he explained the bailout during a television address to the nation on Tuesday night. These included pensions for the worse-off and the retirement age. But he failed to reveal what austerity measures came with the bailout package, beyond saying they would be similar to those rejected by parliament in March. The March defeat brought down his minority socialist government and a snap election was called for 5 June. Polls show the opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD), which rejected the March austerity package, may win that vote. Representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank met Social Democrat leaders on Wednesday morning to seek their backing for the plan. “The PSD will give its opinion on what it has read and heard late today or early tomorrow,” said Carlos Moedas, the party’s economics advisor, after the meeting. Social Democrat leaders had already indicated they might change elements of any bailout-related austerity package if they were elected to government, although always with the aim of hitting this year’s target of reducing the budget deficit to 5.9% of GDP. The IMF said: “We have said from the start that it is important that any agreement have multi-party support and we shall continue in our efforts with opposition parties to show that this is the case.” Portugal managed to raise €1.12bn euros in three-month treasury bills today with demand almost doubling the offer, but investors insisted on a 4.65% interest rate – up from 4.05% two weeks ago. Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics in London, said the bailout might not be enough to stave off restructuring: “It won’t put an end to speculation that – along with Greece and perhaps others – it will sooner or later need to undertake some form of debt restructuring.”
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Related posts:Ireland forced into new £21bn bailout by debt crisis Portugal bailout fears rise as credit rating cut Portugal’s PM calls on EU for bailout
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May 4 2011, 10:30am | Comments »
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Talk About Local Unconference 2011 gets under way in Cardiff
Tweets and news from the first Talk About Local unconference to take place in Cardiff, Wales – looking at issues around local publishing 2011
This article titled “Talk About Local Unconference 2011 gets under way in Cardiff” was written by Hannah Waldram, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 2nd April 2011 13.53 UTC Community publishers met in Cardiff today to talk about issues surrounding promoting your local area online. The first Talk About Local Unconference to take place in Wales, roughly 80 people met at the Atrium in Adamsdown for a day of tea, coffee, tweeting and sessions on all issues which affect local bloggers. Sessions, organised ad hoc in an ‘unconference’ style, looked at hyperlocal bloggers and councils, elections, law, issues around content, making money and supporting each other in a community were all discussed throughout the day. Attendees included Twitterers, bloggers, web publishers, photographers and anyone with an interest in producing content online about a place important to them – travelling from Edinburgh, Leeds, Isle of Wight, London and across the UK. Session topics were pitched and then posted onto a day schedule to run throughout the day. Networking and chatting among hyperlocal publishers will continue into the evening at Gwdihw Cafe Bar. The event was supported by Guardian Local and Rightmove. We’ve been tweeting from the event today along with others on Twitter using the hashtag #TAL11. Scroll down this Storify to follow tweets from the beginning of the day. Also see this live blog from Talk About Local here. If you went to the unconference or have any comments about it – feel free to leave them in the comment box below.
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April 2 2011, 3:00pm | Comments »
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Inflation will drop to 1.5% as cuts hit spending, MPC member predicts
American academic Adam Posen calls on UK Chancellor George Osborne to embark on another round of quantitative easing (printing money) and insists the Bank of England should not raise interest rates
This article titled “Inflation will drop to 1.5% as cuts hit spending, MPC member predicts” was written by Larry Elliott, economics editor, for The Guardian on Sunday 27th March 2011 20.00 UTC The Bank of England’s leading dove has predicted that inflation will tumble to 1.5% by the middle of next year as George Osborne’s austerity drive and the underlying weakness of the economy stifle consumer spending. In an interview with the Guardian, Adam Posen admitted he had sleepless nights over his call for more money to be pumped into the economy and said he would not seek re-election to Threadneedle Street’s monetary policy committee if his view turned out to be wrong. Posen said: “If I have made the wrong call, not only will I switch my vote, I would not pursue a second term. They should have somebody who gets it right and not me. I am accountable for my performance. I’m holding my nerve because it is the right thing to do.” The American academic said he would be profoundly affected if it was proved that he had erred in voting repeatedly for bank rate to be pegged at 0.5% and for more money to be pumped into the economy through quantitative easing. “It would not just be terrible that I had messed up for other people but it is also my fundamental world view that I have been testing. “I would take it deeply and personally, which is why I have laid awake at night thinking about it.” But Posen said recent trends in the economy had left him convinced that inflation would fall back below the government’s 2% target in the second half of next year, as the temporary factors pushing up prices washed out of the system and the economy slowed down. This analysis, he said, chimed with the views expressed in recent speeches by the Bank’s governor, Mervyn King, and Charlie Bean, one of the two deputy governors. Three members of the MPC – Andrew Sentance, Martin Weale and Spencer Dale – voted for higher interest rates this month, but Posen challenged their view on four separate counts. He said so-called “core inflation”, which strips out the effects of fuel, food costs and taxes such as VAT, did not suggest that the economy was overheating; the recent strength in manufacturing only affected 13% of the UK’s total output and was not replicated in other parts of the economy; it was too simplistic to say that the economy was overheating if inflation was high; and it would only be costly to take a wait-and-see approach to raising interest rates if there was a risk of an inflationary spiral. “We could get inflation back to target really fast if we put the economy through the wringer,” he said. Posen added that the real debate inside the MPC was whether the increase in inflation to 4.4% would lead to consumers and businesses believing that there had been a permanent upward shift, and thus have knock-on effects on wages and prices. “I don’t see that as a material risk given all else that is going on, which is why I have been leaning the way I have.” He echoed King in calling a small increase in bank rate futile, as any rise would have to be reversed, damaging the Bank’s credibility. Posen said that whatever the merits of the government’s austerity plans, higher taxes and reductions in public spending would have a “meaningful” dampening effect on consumer spending and overall demand in the economy. “Household consumption is going to be pretty darn weak. It may even contract a little”. Consumers, he said, were unlikely to run down their savings in an attempt to maintain spending patterns, while the weakness of trade unions meant it would be hard for wage bargainers to push up pay settlements in response to higher inflation. “Wages will be the dog that doesn’t bark,” he said. Posen said he disliked the idea that interest rates had to be brought back to a more normal level after being cut to 0.5% in early 2009, the lowest level since the Bank was founded in 1694. “If I am a firefighter fighting a fire I don’t say I have pumped more water than I have ever pumped in my life so I must have pumped too much. You stop pumping when the fire is out.” Posen was also sceptical about some economists’ suggestion that the government’s deficit reduction plan could help growth by boosting confidence in financial markets, leading to a fall in long-term interest rates and higher investment.
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Related posts:Bank of England governor blames spending cuts on bank bailouts Petrol prices crushing customer spending, Morrisons warns Insurers fall after Japan quake, as FTSE suffers worst weekly drop for eight months
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March 27 2011, 3:33pm | Comments »
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Clegg has a date with the grim reaper
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/05/clegg-has-a-date-with-the-grim-reaper
The Grim Reaper is a coming to town and Clegg just might die.
This article titled “Glegg has a date with the grim reaper” was written by Chris Riddell, for The Observer on Saturday 5th March 2011 15.54 UTC guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
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March 5 2011, 11:14am | Comments »
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Wales votes to loosen lawmaking tie to Westminster
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/04/wales-votes-to-loosen-lawmaking-tie-to-westminster
Lord Roberts, of Llandudno is happy. And on the same day the Liberal Democrats got pushed into 6th place in a by-election.
This article titled “Wales votes to loosen lawmaking tie to Westminster” was written by Helen Carter and Hannah Waldram, for The Guardian on Friday 4th March 2011 18.01 UTC The people of Wales have wholeheartedly endorsed giving their assembly more power to make laws without having to ask Whitehall or Westminster for approval. At the declaration at the Welsh Assembly Senedd in Cardiff Bay, 21 out of 22 districts agreed to give the body direct new powers to leglislate in specific areas, bringing Wales closer into line with Scotland and Northern Ireland. More than half a million people voted yes while fewer than 300,000 opposed the change. Only Monmouthshire sounded a lone note of dissent. People there voted no by the narrowest of margins – a mere 320 votes, or 50.6% no to 49.4% yes. As the last result, for Cardiff, came in there were large numbers of the yes camp gathered, eagerly anticipating the result amid cheers. First minister Carwyn Jones said: “Today an old nation came of age. “Our country has united in a way that perhaps it wasn’t in 1997. It means, of course, that for us politicians we have a duty to show those people who voted for us that we can use the powers we have for the benefit of the people. We can now do things, instead of talking about doing things.” Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams expressed delight, with the caveat that the campaign had exposed widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of the Welsh government “which has presided over Wales becoming the poorest part of the UK, with standards in our schools and hospitals slipping behind England and Scotland”. She called for a new era of devolution in which a culture of blame is replaced by a culture of responsibility. The areas that delivered the biggest yes votes – 70% and more in favour – were Neath Port Talbot, Gwynedd, Carmarthenshire and Rhondda Cynon Taf. When the first result from Baenau Gwent was declared, yes campaigners cheered the 11,869-5,366 vote in their favour. Results from Denbigshire and Wrexham soon followed. Lord Roberts, of Llandudno, a yes campaigner, said: “No longer will the bills passed in Cardiff have to be signed in Westminster and that will save time and money and the work of many staff. Cardiff can say today and can do tomorrow. We aren’t asking for any more powers or any more money, but a streamlined system.” In the lead up to the referendum, some voters criticised the lack of information available to them or claimed they did not fully understand the technicality they were being asked to vote on. In some areas, turnout was below 30%, which first minister Jones described as “not brilliant, but then not apocalyptic which some people predicted”. Roger Lewis, chairman of the Yes for Wales campaign, said: “Wales has said yes – laws which only affect Wales will henceforth be made in Wales. Together we can take Wales forward, today we have found our voice.” Defeat was conceded early by Rachel Banner, the Pontypool teacher who led the True Wales campaign against the change. She claimed the result should not be seen as an endorsement of the assembly’s record and said she was concerned about a fragmentation of the UK and “an obsession with lawmaking from Welsh politicans”. Shadow Welsh secretary Peter Hain described the result as a fantastic vote of confidence in devolution and for the way the first minister had led the assembly government. Darren Millar, a Conservative member of the assembly, said: “It’s fantastic to see this result. I’ve been campaigning for a yes vote with my colleagues.” He said the referendum was about the lawmaking process, not about independence, and changes needed to make the assembly more efficient.
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March 4 2011, 12:25pm | Comments »
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Tunisian prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi resigns amid unrest
Down with the interim coalition Government. The Tunisian mass movement is being emulated in the whole region. In the revolutionary process, the mass of workers, young people and poor are learning very quickly. Past illusions in the ‘benevolent’ and protective role of the army have been replaced by a much more defiant attitude. Egypt take note.
This article titled “Tunisian prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi resigns amid unrest” was written by Kim Willsher, Paris, for The Guardian on Sunday 27th February 2011 19.58 UTC Tunisia was thrown into turmoil once more after Mohamed Ghannouchi resigned as prime minister of the post-revolution government amid further clashes between police and protestors. The interim president, Fouad Mebazaa, named the former government minister Beji Caid-Essebsi as Ghannouchi’s replacement. Ghannouchi said he felt forced to stand down “because I am not willing to be a person that takes decisions that would end up causing casualties”. He made the announcement after three people died on Saturday and nine others were injured during outbreaks of violence on the streets of the capital, Tunis. Tunisia’s interim coalition has struggled to assert its authority since a wave of protests that started in December sparked what was called the “jasmine revolution”, leading to the overthrow in January of president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who had ruled for 23 years. Protestors have targeted Ghannouchi, accusing him of being too close to the former government. They have also become frustrated over the slow pace of change since the revolution despite the interim government’s pledge to hold a general election by 15 July this year. Ghannouchi, 69, who since 1989 had held various ministerial posts under the old regime, told a news conference he had thought carefully about the decision. “I am not running away from responsibility,” he said. “This is to open the way for a new prime minister.” He added: “This resignation will serve Tunisia, and the revolution and the future of Tunisia.” On a third day of clashes, police fired tear gas and warning shots in an effort to disperse stone-throwing youths and protesters shouting anti-government slogans around Habib Bourguiba avenue in central Tunis. More than 100 people were arrested and accused of “acts of destruction and burning”, according to a statement by the Tunisian interior ministry put out by the state-run news agency Tunis Afrique Presse. Demonstrators want the interim government disbanded along with the current parliament. They also seek the suspension of the constitution and the formation of an elected assembly that can write another, organise elections and oversee the transition to democracy. Ghannouchi took power after Ben Ali fled on 14 January. He formed a new “national unity” government, including opposition party members and a blogger. Tunisia’s revolution was sparked by the death of a young street vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi, in December. In an act of desperation which sparked unrest in several other Arab countries in the region, Bouazizi set fire to himself after officials stopped him selling vegetables without permission.
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February 27 2011, 2:35pm | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Can Scandinavian crime fiction teach socialism?
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/24/can-scandinavian-crime-fiction-teach-socialism
I don’t know if it teaches anything at all, but DI Lund and co do make compulsive viewing over 20 episodes shown in ten weeks on BBC 4. Great stuff.
This article titled “Can Scandinavian crime fiction teach socialism?” was written by Deborah Orr, for The Guardian on Thursday 24th February 2011 09.00 UTC Who killed Nanna Birk Larsen? The question grips the relatively small, but avid, band of people who are following The Killing, a Danish crime series being screened on BBC4. The Killing throws up plenty of other questions, too. One even feels a strange tug of interest in Copenhagen’s local political scene because the abduction, rape, torture and murder of a 19-year-old student seems inextricably linked to a number of people fighting a city election. Alliances between various political parties ebb and flow, as the turns of the plot hurl suspicion at different candidates. One of the many things The Killing asks is this: are political coalitions really healthy? It is no doubt coincidence that the query is so particularly pertinent in Britain right now. But there is a definite reason why a slice of Scandinavian crime fiction should be actively concerned with framing socio-political debate. It is part of what is expected of the genre in this part of the world, and has been since Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö started publishing what came to be known as the Martin Beck series, in 1965. The couple, former journalists, conceived 10 crime novels that would provide a deliberate critique of what they viewed as the degeneration of Sweden. Marxists themselves, they intended to use the crime genre to illustrate the advantages of socialistic approaches to social problems. That sounds unbearably didactic and worthy. But the tremendous thing is that the books work first and foremost as crime fiction. In fact, they are reckoned by the cognoscenti to be among the finest and most influential crime novels ever written. Essentially, the pair challenged the convention of the lone genius private detective, replacing him with a group of police officers, led by the low-key Beck, who depended on each other to solve cases – and also, as a matter of course, put up with, or worked round, colleagues who were not so gifted. Maverick individualism was out, patient and humane people management was in. Thus, the ever-shifting group ploughed through many and varied crime scenes – crime scenes that usually in some way or other questioned the permissive values espoused by the liberal left so successfully at that time. It seems to me that in the pages of these Swedish police procedurals, all those years ago, Sjöwall and Wahlöö were examining contradictions that the British left even now refuses properly to acknowledge. The socialist left and the liberal left have little in common, with Blairism a shining example of how difficult it is to “triangulate” them. Hard work and compromise is needed before social freedom and state welfare can be shackled together. Even then, perhaps, the resulting beast is an impossible chimera. Is it too much to speculate that the current huge vogue for Scandinavian crime fiction is somehow a tacit acknowledgement of the need to have this debate, and the fear of what conclusions it might draw? Henning Mankell, in his Wallander series, now televised in two versions in Britain, makes no bones about the fact that he is continuing in the Martin Beck tradition. Stieg Larsson, who meant his phenomenally successful Millennium trilogy to be a 10-part work when he first started writing it, has succeeded in igniting exactly the sort of debate, among feminists anyway, that Sjöwall and Wahlöö expected. Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo, with 5m sales worldwide and film deals in the works, similarly uses sexual crime as an expression of the extremes of discord among men and women. This “metaphor” is somewhat unanswerable, on the face of it. But the details are quite controversial. The women who are killed in his novel The Snowman, for example, stand accused of denying men their paternal roles, and messing up their children in the process. Discuss that thesis in sexually and politically mixed company, and passions can run high quite fast. Nesbo is not a reactionary, despite the “traditional family values” cast that can be placed on his bestselling novel’s storyline. Like his peers and predecessors, he deals with problems inherent in social democracy, problems that are not that usefully divided between “left” and “right”. It is often said now that the two opposing terms have become “meaningless”, since both left and right contain a range of values from libertarian to authoritarian. In truth, the political tension is between freedom and regulation, often between whether the social realm should be regulated in order to benefit the economic realm, or the other way round. Social democracy, if it is about anything, surely, is about constantly striving to get that tricky balance right. The British are used to believing that the Scandinavians, especially the Swedes, have social democracy cracked, while Britain is far from being a socially democratic country. The truth, however, is much more nuanced. Britain shares many of the values and difficulties of the Scandinavian states, and of other European states that Britain tends to view as being much more socially democratic than we are. That was emphasised in a depressing report yesterday from risk analyst Maplecroft, which ranked Britain the 10th most likely country of 163 to undergo another economic crisis. Sweden is fourth, and Japan is the only non-European country to make it into the top 10, at nine. The shared challenges are “ageing populations, substantial levels of debt and high public spending on health and pensions”. Each of these, of course, is already high on the national agenda, the subject of raucous, sometimes hysterical debate. The logical solution – if there is a solution at all – is for everyone to live very healthy and disciplined lives, expecting to look after more vulnerable members of the family whenever necessary, and seeking only specialist or temporary help from a well-ordered state as a last resort. It is a vision that unites authoritarian left and right, but scares the bejesus out of free-marketeers and social liberals. All of these groups, however, can probably find something compelling in a chunk of Scandinavian crime fiction, which possibly owes its great popularity to its ability to offer sensationalist escape, but of a kind that is grounded all too recognisably in the real world.
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February 24 2011, 4:41am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Egypt: Protesters Communique No 1 Demands to The Army
The people in Tahir square have had a crash course in revolutionary politics over the past twenty days, worth a lifetime of study. They have formed a council with powers to call and also call off mass protests, and issued a “People’s Communique No 1″ with a list of demands to the new military regime. “People’s Communique No. 1″ demands: * The dissolution of the cabinet Mubarak appointed on 29 January and the suspension of the parliament elected in a rigged poll late last year. * A transitional five-member presidential council made up of four civilians and one military person. * For the formation of a transitional government to prepare for an election to take place within nine months, and of a body to draft a new democratic constitution. * Freedom for the media and syndicates, which represent groups such as lawyers, doctors and engineers, and for the formation of political parties. * Military and emergency courts must be scrapped These just the constitutional, legalistic demands. No doubt there will also be demands for the return of the scandalous amounts of wealth siphoned out of the economy and into private bank accounts by the previous corrupt regime, some of whose individuals may be remaining in positions of influence with the military council. The first priority though, is to consolidate the gains of January 25th-February 11th and prevent power from slipping back away from the people via the military leaders.
This article titled “Army and protesters disagree over Egypt’s path to democracy” was written by Chris McGreal, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 12th February 2011 17.14 UTC Egypt’s new military administration and the pro-democracy protesters who brought down Hosni Mubarak are at odds over the path to democratic rule. The army sought to stave off pressure from jubilant protesters to swiftly hand power to a civilian-led administration by saying that it was committed to a “free democratic state”. The military leadership gave no timetable for the political transition, and many of the demonstrators who filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square for 18 days rejected the military’s appeal to dismantle the barricades and go home. They said they were waiting for specific commitments from the military on their demand for a civilian-controlled interim administration, the lifting of the oppressive state of emergency and other steps toward liberalisation. The shockwaves of Mubarak’s fall were felt across the region, particularly in Algeria and Yemen. Thousands of anti-government protesters, apparently inspired by events in Cairo, turned out in Algiers to confront the police. There were reports that hundreds had been arrested. In Sanaa, a protest by about 2,000 people to demand political reform was broken up by armed government supporters. Some of the organisers of Egypt’s revolution announced they had formed a council to negotiate with the military and to oversee future demonstrations to keep up pressure on the army to meet demands for democratic change. “The council will have the authority to call for protests or call them off depending on how the situation develops,” said Khaled Abdel Qader Ouda, one of the organisers. Earlier, General Mohsen el-Fangari said in a televised statement that the military intends to oversee “a peaceful transition of power” to allow “an elected civilian government to rule and build a free democratic state”. He said the present cabinet would continue to sit until a new one is formed. Fangari announced that the widely ignored overnight curfew imposed during the crisis would be shortened by several hours. The military council also sought to allay US and Israeli concerns by saying that Egypt will continue to respect international treaties it has signed. Israeli politicians had expressed concern that a new government in Cairo might abrogate the 1979 peace accord between the two countries. Israel’s finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, welcomed the announcement. “Peace is not only in the interest of Israel but also of Egypt. I am very happy with this announcement,” he told Israeli television. But there will still be concern in Jerusalem about whether a future civilian government will be as co- operative as Mubarak’s regime in isolating and undermining the Hamas administration in the Gaza strip. People continued to pour in to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, in part to celebrate at the centre of the revolution against the Mubarak regime. But there was also concern among the core group of activists who helped organise the mass protests that brought down Mubarak at the army’s apparent intent to control the political transition. A group of the activists issued what they called the “People’s Communique No 1″ – mirroring the titles of military communiques – listing demands. The included the immediate dissolution of Mubarak’s cabinet and “suspension of the parliament elected in a rigged poll late last year”. The reformists want a transitional administration appointed with four civilians and one military official to prepare for elections in nine months and to oversee the drafting of a new constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamist group that has been the target of military tribunals aimed at suppressing it, sought to allay fears that it will attempt to take power. It said it would not be running a candidate in presidential elections and would not seek to win a majority in parliament. It also offered unusual support for the military council. Reuters reported that the information minister, Anas El-Fekky, was placed under house arrest after the military barred officials suspected of corruption from leaving the country. Mubarak was believed to be at his luxury retreat in Sharm el-Sheikh.
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February 13 2011, 2:02am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
If Not Diane Abbott, Who?
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2010/05/20/dianeabbott
Diane Abbot entered the Labour Party leadership contest live on radio 4 this morning. Taking the Today programme interviewer completely by surprise she said “I’m going to run”. After looking at the field she asked herself “If not now, when?” and “If not me, who?’”. So suddenly the contest is transformed from one which started off promising to be the least controversial in history, with a series of sharp suited new labour apparatchiks exchanging pleasantries, a bit like the tedious TV debates between the party leaders for the general election, and with none of them much different to the two similar stuffed shirts leading the new coalition government, into an open contest which may even see mention of the socialism word from time to time, if we hold our breath long enough. Renowned for being on the supposed left wing of Labour, Diane Abbot will inevitably make political capital out of being female and black, so that at least they don’t field a set of candidates who “all look the same” but she will also be in a position to voice an alternative perspective on issues such as immigration, tackling the budget deficit by taxing the rich instead of cutting services that hit the weakest hardest, and regaining a defensible policy on civil liberties instead of being in the embarrasing position where it is the Tory and Liberal coalition government cancelling Labour’s hated ID card plans. Diane Abbot’s surprise entry into the leadership race appears to have ambushed previous left candidate John McDonnell who has been criticising the curtailed procedure which requires potential candidates to garner support from at least 33 Labour MPs by Thursday May 27th for an election which will run until September 2010. Diane Abbott
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May 20 2010, 6:26am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Harriet Harman Next UK Leader
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2010/05/04/harriet-harman-next-uk-leader
OK, here’s my prediction for the outcome of the general election in the United Kingdom, just for fun. New Labour have had their chance and blown it to such an extent that they come third in overall votes, a disasterous result by all accounts. But the Tories fail to win an overall majority in the House of Commons and Gordon Brown tries to stay on as Prime Minister with a minority government, daring the Liberals to vote down the queen’s speech, which they then do. Brown is forced to resign as Labour leader and the battle for a successor begins, with a timetable stretching over many weeks. Meanwhile, the Liberals enter into negotiations with the Tories to see if they can stitch up a coalition government between them. Nick Clegg demands electoral reform as a precondition to more detailed discussions, and David Cameron categorically rules it out. So no deal there. Harriet Harman the current deputy leader of the Labour Party automatically acts as a caretaker leader and approaches Clegg to see what terms he might accept to go in with Labour. A historic deal is then patched together which involves mashing up Vince Cable and Alastair Darling’s economic policies into one chancellorship, big concessions on electoral reform, and a double figure-head leadership which makes Nick Clegg and Harriet Harman both being prime minister. Cameron is thus thwarted from forming a Tory government for at least another four years and such is the jubiliation on Labour back benches that all the other contenders for leadership are persuaded to withdraw from the contest leaving Harriet Harman as uncontested leader of the Labour Party and joint Prime Minister of the UK parliament. Harriet Harman, The UK's second ever female Prime Minister Of course constitutionally, you can’t actually have a joint prime ministership in absolutely everything, there are some occasions when a single name must be applied, such as taking a seat at World Summits etc and in the EU so for these occasions they toss a coin, and Harriet wins.
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May 4 2010, 6:10am | Comments »
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