Archive for March, 2011|Monthly archive page

, ,

London Underground: An Eyewitness Account Of March 26

In Rory MacKinnon on March 29, 2011 at 8:56 am

Hi all. It’s been two days since the anti-government rallies and the accompanying media coverage, and rather than the usual essay I’m just going to put my thoughts, actions and reactions in a tangled mess here. If that’s alright.

Much of the media coverage has drawn a distinction between peaceful protestors – those who stayed on the designated march route and toddled home after the speeches – and Violent Anarchists. The truth is much more complex.

There were certainly anarchists (and anarcho-communists). I was there when they marched from Malet St; I was there when they broke away from the official march and surged up towards Oxford. I spent much of the rest of the day chasing after them, arriving just too late to see what really happened at TopShop, HSBC, Santander and The Ritz.

But they were just one of many groups, and they had specific goals and tactics which go well beyond the media depiction of mindless violence. Read the rest of this entry »

, ,

Where There’s Smoke: Tracing The UK Tobacco Lobby

In Rory MacKinnon on March 23, 2011 at 7:22 am

[First published in the Morning Star, 23/03/2011]

Last fortnight’s release of the Government’s tobacco control plan saw a flurry of press releases and talking heads; everyone from local shop owners to libertine smoking enthusiasts. But behind the headlines lies a carefully coordinated and well-funded network of lobbyists and public relations experts who all draw their paycheques, at least in part, from the same trio of multinational tobacco companies.

At present the tobacco control plan (available here) centres on two issues: a ban on point-of-sale displays from next year and potentially a ban on the colourful cartons themselves. But the Government has said it will first explore the “competition, trade and legal implications, and the likely impact on the illicit tobacco market” – and it’s here where the industry lobbyists hopes to win over public opinion.

Noone doubts that tobacco is big business in Britain: around 7 million packets are sold each day, generating nearly £13b a year. In the convenience store sector it outsells confectionary, soft drinks and newspapers combined. To put it another way, nearly one in three adults in the UK are regular smokers — and the market doesn’t look to be drying up anytime soon.

Read the rest of this entry »

, ,

How IR Law Turns Press Into Propaganda & Gets People Killed

In Rory MacKinnon on March 10, 2011 at 12:47 pm

Industrial relations is one of those weird political anomalies; a field which affects literally everyone who’s ever paid their own rent but is somehow seen as a bit of a bore by anyone who isn’t an active card-carrying union member. It’s what prompts the insistence on “balanced” legislation which invariably assumes lawsuits and industrial action are effortless, exhilarating experiences for employees with no personal impositions whatsoever.

But events in the British rag trade over the past week have provided a perfect case study of why the systematic erosion of rights for new employees -particularly the 90-day probationary period in New Zealand, and Britain’s one-year exemptions from unfair dismissal – has been such a dangerous idea.

First Liberal Conspiracy‘s Sunny Hundal posted allegations of political pressure on BBC reporters to recast Government funding cuts as “savings”. Then the next day Daily Star reporter Richard Peppiat tendered his resignation in an open letter which alleged that for the last two years he’d basically been paid to make things up about celebrities, neo-Nazis and Muslims. Read the rest of this entry »

,

This Sceptic Isle: Why Noone’s Stealing Your Job

In Rory MacKinnon on March 6, 2011 at 9:38 am


[Excerpted from a piece for this weekend's Morning Star]

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle…This happy breed of men, this little world, /This precious stone set in the silver sea, /Which serves it in the office of a wall /Or as a moat defensive to a house, /Against the envy of less happier lands,– /This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
- Richard II, Act II Scene I

The ideological battle over immigration raged on this week, with big-business think tank CentreForum’s spirited defence of the admission of international students.

The group put out a report on Monday which criticised the government’s plans to halve immigration levels over the next four years through a combination of tougher English-language tests, fewer entitlements and possibly repealing graduates’ right to work for up to two years here after completing their studies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.