SHRINKING THE STATE OF CUBA

It is interesting that the 2010 TUC Conference should co-incide with an announcement that Cuba is to reduce the number of state employees by around 20 per cent, or 1 million. Apparently, independent enterprise and self-employment are to be encouraged.

I have to say that my recollection of working with public employees in Slovakia shortly after the fall of Communism suggests that these people were better prepared for market realities than some of their British counterparts in 2010.

With hindsight it also seems that some countries in "The New Europe" have made a better job of governing themselves in the period since the collapse of the former Soviet Block, even in the absence of an equivalent of the British media class: or perhaps because of this.

UK TRADE UNIONS: THEY'RE NOT EQUAL TO IT

I'm just reaching the denouement of a superb psychological thriller by the Labour Peer Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine, called "The House of Stairs". One of the book's central characters, Bell, often uses the expression "I'm not equal to it", although she is quite up to the job of murder.

In addition to being excellent genre fiction, "The House of Stairs" is also a fine novel whose story reflects on the excesses of the 1960s and the perspective of the more sombre 1980s. This is the time frame in which I now want to reflect on the role of trade unions, although my starting point will be the so-called "New Austerity" of 2010.

I began with a literary reference because one of the most sensible comments on "Unequal Britain" came recently from another Labour supporting writer, and former local councillor, Jonathan Myerson. Now I do not usually have much time for Myerson, but when he described the "New Poor" as people who have of necessity more than one low-paid job at the same time, he hit the nail on the head.

Most of these people will not be members of UK trade unions, nor will the comrades meeting this week in Manchester take very much interest in their plight. This is not to deny, however, that the unions have improved the lot of women working in low-paid jobs in the public sector, comprising a key part of its workforce, during New Labour's period in office.

The election of a Labour government in 1997 followed those "wilderness years" of the 1980s when the Party was widely regarded to be unelectable largely because of perceived trade union excesses in the 1970s, culminating in a "Winter of Discontent".

In fact, such excesses went much further back in to the post-war period, and were satirised in that brilliant film "I'm Alright Jack". Even the left leaning comedian, son of Communist parents, and now esteemed writer himself, Alexei Sayle, could acknowledge this in a rather good BBC Radio 4 "Archive Hour" retrospective, which humorously described his own experience of trade union conferences during the 1960s.

Nevetheless, the follies of the British trade union movement are by no means the whole story, nor are strong unions inevitably the enemy of economic productivity, as shown in Germany, even if this narrative has dominated their modern history in this country.

My own response to this narrative has however come full circle. I was skeptical of the movement by the late 1970s, a supporter during the 1980s, sympathetic when New Labour came to power in 1997, and skeptical again by the mid-noughties.

For the election of a Labour Government, with an unprecedented three terms in office, turned out to be a profound missed opportunity for the trade unions, who in turn contributed to the underlying problem of New Labour's lack of a viable political economy for government. In essence, both sold out to unsustainable market-fixing policies which enabled equally unsustainable levels of public expenditure: a political double-whammy if ever there was one !

Thus all the rhetoric currently directed by trade union leaders, and people like Labour Party leadership contender Ed Balls, at the Coalition Government's proposals to manage the economy and public finances sound extremely rich coming from a partnership which, aside from the speculative investment industry, have done most in recent years to create the very problems about which they now most vociferously complain. Talk about trying to get away with murder !

Green Party MP Job Share Proposal

I very much support UK Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas's proposal for MP job shares. Like her, I would like to see much more sharing of powerful and well paid positions. Unfortunately, it's not just amongst Britain's over-bonused bankers that greed continues to be good. Listeners to BBC Radio 4's "Any Questions" this week will have heard Labour Party leadership contender Ed Balls's reluctance to acknowledge the possibility of sharing the position of shadow chancellor with his wife, Yvette Cooper. This greedy couple of class warriors - yes, there's still plenty of them around - both held Cabinet positions in the previous government, and were leading lights in promoting the kind of policies that contributed to the country's present financial and economic problems. I therefore find myself in the unlikely position of agreeing that two Balls would be even worse than one in this instance, notwithstanding my general support for the Green Party proposal.

A SHORT STORY ABOUT SAUSAGE ROLLS

A couple of weeks ago, the Saturday edition of "The Times" carried a double-page spread on Lord Prescott. The article ended on the subject of sausage rolls, and our former Deputy Prime Minister's seduction by the offer of half a dozen from a girl at Greggs the Bakers in Hull.

The article also covered the issue of shipping, a favourite with the erstwhile hero of the Kyoto Agreement, and onetime Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

In short-crust - or puff for that matter - pastry terms, there is a lot more shipping these days, a source - or should that be sauce -not only of major direct impacts upon the environment, but also those nasty embedded emissions, a bit like hidden calories, with which BBC Radio 4's "Uncertain Climate" will deal this evening at 9.30pm. *

On the more mundane matter of food miles at home, it should be noted that around one in four lorries on British roads are involved in food distribution, and over half of these are empty, a reminder perhaps of pies that are all puff pastry and no filling.

Happily, this isn't true of Greggs', purveyor's of "The Nation's Favourite Sausage Roll". Sadly, the same cannot be said for British politics and its thick coating of media pastry during the Silly Season, to whose lack of content we should now all bid a not-so-fond farewell.

I, for one, shall be making a submission to the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee's Inquiry into the "Abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies". This will seek to separate the "phoney war" - or puff pastry if you prefer - around housebuilding targets for the English Regions, from the more meaty issues at stake.

* Please see also http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com

UK HOUSEBUILDING: THE PHONEY WAR

As Summer draws to a close, and with a new government now in place, the resumption of what can only be described as a "phoney war" by the UK's large scale housebuilding sector, and its adherents, has once again gathered momentum.

Historically, the big beasts of the UK housebuilding industry have enjoyed some of the highest profits in their sector, based upon international comparisons. This has led to calls from the wider development business, as well as consumer groups, for the industry to be better regulated.

However, whilst some anti-competitive practices amongst major housebuilders and construction groups have been identified, notably with regard to price fixing in public procurement, much of the sector remains, quite simply, unreconstructed.

One of the main reasons for this is the industry's unrivalled public affairs infrastructure, which is supported by organisations like the Institute for Housing and the National Housing Federation, who have a remarkably uncritical relationship with commercial construction interests.

Both these reputable organisations should know full well that commercial house builders are not going to develop more houses than they can construct, sell or rent at a profit - notwithstanding any affordability or social subsidy component - for the market.

The fact that the UK market is delivering an all time low number of dwellings at present is, to put it simply, "the nature of the beast", or more accurately, "the nature of the big beasts"; and all the rhetoric around this reality little more than a phoney war.

PLEASE END FERTILITY CULT POLITICS

It must surely be testimony to a profound lack of content - and perhaps sheer boredom factor -in Blair's autobiography and the Labour Party leadership contenders' debate, published and broadcast yesterday, that the media should choose to focus instead on William Hague's sex life.

In adopting the cost-saving measure of sharing a twin-bed hotel room with a young male adviser during the recent general election campaign, the Foreign Secretary has fallen prey to prurient minds, of which there are indeed a very great many, and a general presumption of something untoward in this arrangement. Surely, if Mr Hague had been having an affair with his young adviser he wouldn't have been so blatant about it !

However, the Foreign Secretary's response to allegations of an affair have touched the heart of the matter: Mr Hague's failure to pro-create with his wife, or anyone else, and thereby fulfill the requirements of the fertility cult which has dominated British politics in recent years.

The fact that Mr Hague has been forced to make "a detailed and emotional statement" (Metro) to explain the situation is testimony again to the low levels to which politics, and wider political commentary, in this country has sunk.

As for the propriety of the young adviser's appointment, our corridors of power would surely be empty if everyone was up to the job, as anyone who encountered the political entourage of former London Mayor - and Phallus-in-Chief - Ken Livingstone will be aware.

British Politics: Not a Game of Cricket

Whilst the world of cricket may be fretting about the latest match-fixing allegations, "No Balls" has been good for British politics in recent months as far as I'm concerned.

I refer, of course, to the Ed Balls campaign for the Labour Party leadership. Mr Balls basically wants a return to the days of "Spend, Spend, Spend" government on the back of the Blair-Brown speculative bubble, and he's advocating the kind of economic "match-fixing" policies which brought us to the current state we're in.

With that opening spin, I'd like to set out my wider views on the forthcoming Labour Party leadership elections and, indeed, my own political perspective at the present time.

To adopt a biblical reference and deal with the last first, I'm not so much interested in the particular political party species these days: with the possible exception of the lizard-like Ken Livingstone, who has, incidentally, thrown his balls in with Ed. It is the wider ecology of politics which concerns me, including the sustainability of the habitat generally known as "Centre-Left".

Now, it seems to be that the other Ed - Miliband that is - and Diane Abbott are the creatures best evolved to occupy this territory, Mr Miliband probably having the superior intellect, and Ms Abbott more common sense.

With regard to the wider political landscape, my guess is that at some future time socio-economic climate change may be accompanied by a shift in the tectonic plates of party politics, to borrow a favourite phrase of Lord Prescott, and a new social democratic grouping may emerge comprising some former Labour and Liberal-Democrat Members or Parliament.

However, such a "Rainbow Coalition" is not quite yet on the horizon; and whether the present terrain turns out to be "Brokeback Politics" or something more lofty has I think for most people yet to be determined.

Postscript : As an "old environmentalist", I would strongly caution against the creation of a "New Green Movement" based upon the development of GONGOS - Government-Organised Non-Government Organisations - of the kind found in China, for instance.

FIRE & FLOOD - ACTS OF GOD OR MAN ?

The recent forest fires in Russia, together with flooding in Pakistan and China, have dominated the world news this month. Wider climate change aside, abnormally hot and wet weather, linked to changes in the Gulf Stream and seasonal monsoons, has been identified as the root cause of these natural disasters.

However, Russia has experienced increased forest fires over a number of years, including devastating outbreaks in the far east of the country. The cause of these is largely "anthropogenic" - they are started by people - and other "human factors", including lack of strategic fire defence infrastructure, have undoubtedly exacerbated the latest catastrophic outbreaks.

Similarly in Pakistan, resources allocated for flood defence and emergency services seem to have been lost to corruption or incompetence. Additionally, there is the problem - shared with China - of development pressures associated with a growing population which inhabits areas prone to natural disasters.

In other words, these so-called "Acts of God" are very much "People Problems". Of these, it is clearly Pakistan that faces the greatest set of challenges. As well as countries such as Britain and the United States, it is to be hoped that the wider Islamic world, particularly wealthy nations in the Middle East, will come to the assistance of the people of Pakistan, and also that those nationals hitherto engaged in terrorism will now turn their energies to disaster relief.

BP - NOT BEYOND POLITICS

News that outgoing BP chief executive Tony Hayward is to pursue business opportunities in Russia suggests to me that he would make a good replacement for the former parasailing donkey, Anapka. The now famous ass, rescued by the Murdoch media machine - aka The Sun newspaper - was forced to fly through the air by a Russian entrepreneur to advertise a nearby private beach, much to the horror of those enjoying the public seashore beneath the braying beast. Sea-loving sportsman Mr Hayward seems like a fair swap for Anapka - who has been signed-up by Spurs Harry Redknapp according to The Sun's website - and Prime Minister Putin might invite the BP bete noire to sing some old Soviet songs at his summer dacha. Sounds fanciful ? So does Hayward's payout to most sensible people. However, if the man's a donkey, his BP colleagues in the US are asses along with a good few people in their government.

IMPORTANCE OF REGULATORY ACTIVISTS

Another excellent BBC Radio File on 4 programme yesterday drew attention to the role of the US Government in failing to regulate the activities of oil companies following the Exxon Valdez spill 20 years ago, with tragic consequences for the Gulf of Mexico.

With so much development advocacy around these days, I very much hope that the UK Government's "Big Society" society initiative will support people and organisations seeking to ensure that the activities of "Big Business" are properly regulated at the national and local levels.

For the Deep Water Horizon disaster, reflecting as it does the systemic failures of multi-national corporation and national government alike - as well as the wider consequences thereof - constitutes as much as a crises for capitalism as the inherent problems of its market structures.

THE REAL CRISES OF CAPITALISM

Most people will recall the numerous articles on "The Crisis of Capitalism" during the height of the global credit crunch and dire warnings of economic depression to follow. Whilst the more extreme of these prophesies do not seem to have materialised, the threat of another "financial apocalypse" was nevertheless featured on MSN News only the other day, reminding us that economic angst still abounds.

For there remains a very real "crises" - as distinct from single over-arching "crisis" - of capitalism which continues to manifest itself, albeit in different ways in different places around the world.

In a country like Britain, one symptom of the crises is a deepening concern about disparities of income, not just between extreme high earners, such as some bankers, and other people, but increasingly between highly paid individuals in the public sector, their less well rewarded colleagues, and the wider public.

Given the constant attention given to this widening UK wealth gap, it was very interesting to hear the response of a woman whose family lived on benefits as to whether she regarded herself as poor. No, she responded, she regarded poor people at those primarily living in the less developed world ie in conditions of extreme poverty.

Yet it is precisely these countries, such as India, where many millions - indeed billions - of poor people live who are now regarded as the engines of global economic growth and recovery; and one of the main reasons for this is, quite simply, the existence of very large numbers of people whose wages are far lower both in relative and absolute terms than those of people in countries such as Britain.

As the global balance of economic power inevitably shifts away from countries like our own, albeit that London may remain one of the world's financial capitals, questions will increasingly arise as to the real value of the UK economy and the relative importance of professions and sectors which contribute to this, as well as the affordability of public services and social security.

In this context, it will be increasingly important to distinguish between the financially engineered, virtually constructed and speculative economies, with their vulnerability to boom and bust cycles, and the more robust underlying economies of production etc. At present, it is often difficult to know where true financial value lies, and this in itself constitutes one of the crises of capitalism.

Construction, Construction & Construction

Although the last government started out with the mantra "Education, Education, Education", by the end of its time in office many people thought that "Construction, Construction, Construction" was more apposite. Not that there's anything new about close links between UK national governments and local authorities and the building industry, it was just that New Labour embarked on this relationship with far too little heed to the financial costs involved. "Building Schools for the Future" is a very good example of such overly-aspirational spending.

My previous post may have seemed unsympathetic to areas like Sandwell in the West Midlands, whose school re-building programme has apparently been cut by the new administration. In fact, this is precisely the kind of deprived area which should continue to provide a focus for government spending on regeneration, including education projects. However, there are almost certainly funding mechanisms which offer better value for money than the BSF model.

In this context, a key challenge for the Coalition will be re-contracting the relationship between government and the UK construction industry to reflect current economic and financial conditions. Much public - and private - building in recent years has created over-designed and costly constructions which are often neither fit for purpose nor aesthetically attractive, and its may well be that the architecture of austerity will not only be more sustainable but also leave a superior built legacy for future generations.

Please see also my post @ http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/ - Regional Policy and Regeneration: Confusion, Confusion and Confusion ? Or maybe just another example of the continuing overly close links between government and construction sector.

GETTING OUT OF THE STATE WE'RE IN

I have some sympathy for the present Government, and the latest furore about dismantling the previous administration's "Building Schools for the Future" programme has only served to re-enforce this.

Indeed, my own feeling is that the very Department for Children, Schools and Families - sometimes known as the Department for Carpets and Soft Furnishings by the teaching profession I understand - needs to be dismantled and restored to the status of an Education Department.

Instead of the carpets, I want the new Education Secretary to roll out his programme of "Deep Thinking", not least amongst those senior civil servants who were presumably responsible for wrongly briefing him - no surprise there ! - on the suspension of some BSF projects.

BBC RADIO 3'S CREATIVE NIGHTWAVES

The 9pm "watershed" has brought some especially good listening on BBC Radio over the past couple of days.

On Sunday there was "Looking for Leonora" about the English artist Leonora Carrington, now aged 93 and looking forward to being 100, whose work is shown here.

Carrington - also known as "Prim" - eloped with the famous Surrealist Max Ernst in 1937, and after their wartime separation moved to Mexico where she still lives.

Yesterday's Radio 3 "Nightwaves" show brought an interview with the US oceanographer Dr Sylvia Earle, also known as "Her Deepness" and "The Sturgeon General".

Earle's formative experiences were in the Gulf of Mexico, about whose current problems, and those of the wider oceans, she talked with great passion and profundity.

A watershed indeed !

TIME TO TOP KILL BP MANAGEMENT

The FT's excellent feature on BP in last weekend's magazine may well have the same effect as Rolling Stone's profile of General Stanley McChrystal a couple of week's ago....but probably not so fast.

As with the war in Afghanistan, however, one is left firmly with the impression that the main protagonists in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, namely BP and the United States authorities, are out of their depth in the serious consequences of their own (in)actions.

BP chief executive Tony Hayward is reported to have succeeded Lord Browne - now advising the UK Government - with the view that his company employed too many people trying to save the world. That was in the days of "Beyond Petroleum"....as well as "Big Profits"

Oil has always been BP's core business, and for many it was the main driving force for war in Iraq. Like civilian casualties, safety and environmental problems are regarded as collateral damage.

The question now is whether events in the Gulf of Mexico have changed United States public opinion to the extent that the country is willing to make the environment a core American value.

In the meantime, the top management at BP certainly deserve to go, but like the company's own "top kill" operation in the Gulf, this will not solve the deeper issues.

REFLECTIONS ON ROTTWEILER MAN

A couple of years ago, an incident arose in which I attempted to calm down the male owner of a Rottweiler, leading said man to accuse me of assaulting him and threaten to call in the police.

In fact, this individual - not his dog incidentally - was the aggressive party, and, needless to say, the police were not called in.

Since then, I have tried to steer clear of "Rottweiler Man" but this morning couldn't avoid a pavement encounter.

Once again, the dog behaved impeccably, but his owner - whose right arm was, I noticed, heavily bandaged from the elbow - growled "Nutter" in an aggressive manner as he passed me.

"Good job your dog had more sense than you !" I responded. The dog looked at me knowingly.

IMAGINE !

"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one....."

A while back someone said to me that he thought the John Lennon song Imagine had been censored from the British airwaves, as he didn't seem to have heard it recently. So just in case this is true, here's some of the lyrics !

In these bellicose times, I have to say that Michael Hastings article on "The Runaway General" in the edition of "Rolling Stone" magazine out tomorrow - but available for download today - makes a very interesting, as well as entertaining, read.

However, although its opening lines seem to support Stanley McChrystal's bravado style, by the end one is left with the impression that the General is probably best out of the way, for reasons other than his criticism of "The Wimps in the White House".

The good news is that the winner in this particular war is undoubtedly "Rolling Stone": a testimony to the enduring power of its genre of writing on music, politics and popular culture.

DON'T LET A FIGHT RUIN YOUR NIGHT !

I find this message all over the streets of Worcester this afternoon as people gather to watch England play Slovenia in the Football World Cup.

This is perhaps also a message to which embattled President Obama needs to take heed.

As the President's wrath switches from BP's Tony Haywood to US General McChrystal's comments in Rolling Stone magazine, my advice is "Calm Down, because this isn't a commercial !"

Diane Abbott MP: "Consistent and Persistent"

In an unlikely analogy, Diane Abbott's bid for Labour Party leader is being likened to the rise to power of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

This blog recognised some time ago that Ms Abbott had leadership potential, and she does share with Mrs Thatcher the virtue of being a "signpost" rather that a "weather vane", to use Tony Benn's defining description of the political temperament. The new Communities Secretary Eric Pickles described Ms Abbott as "consistent and persistent" yesterday.

As someone offering a genuinely left of centre perspective, Ms Abbott's candidacy for Labour Party leader is very much to be welcomed at a time when the interests of government and big business have become to far too closely intertwined, both in this country and abroad.

BP: FROM BIG PROFITS TO BIG PROBLEMS

When former President Putin effectively put a stop to BP's activities in Russia a few years ago, for a combination of financial and environmental reasons, the company's public relations machine ensured that it was portrayed as the wronged party. With hindsight, Putin may be regarded as having better political judgement than his US and UK contemporaries. This a factual comment rather than an ethical observation.

For a country which likes to regard itself as pushing forward the frontiers of ethical business - I'm speaking of Britain - the unethical activities of BP, like those of the overly-ambitious British banking sector, have struck another deep blow on the domestic front. For the facts are that BP's increasingly aggressive exploitation of the world's oil reserves and the big profits that accompanied this strategy have led not only to an unprecedented environmental - and economic - disaster for the United States, but the prospect of major financial problems in the UK if the company has to suspend payments to an already shaky pensions sector.

The US Government is, of course, as much to blame as BP for the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, and, therefore, equally responsible for tackling its consequences. Prime Minister Cameron needs to convey this message to President Obama. Both men should also recognise that the problems of overly powerful business interests are as much as issue for the US and the UK as they are for countries like Russia.