The real truth about the benefits cap….
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 25, 2012
The Government’s arguments over the proposed benefit cap appear, to me anyway, to be fundamentally flawed. The figure of £26k which is supposed to represent the average annual salary might well be the place to start, but the government is looking at this in the wrong way for several reasons.
Firstly, the 67000 households who claim more than the £26k do this because of their circumstances. A family of five are always going to claim more than a single person who shares a flat with friends or lives with his/her parents. Some folks have large families, and whilst there certainly are arguments against the state footing the bill for this, there are explanations for this. Religious freedom, something we prize and hold dear in this country, sometimes means that certain folks will have larger than average families. The orthodox Jewish communities are just one example of this. Widowed folks might also be in the same situation. Life has a sometimes cruel way of forcing people into unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances. Unemployment very often reduces the family income to a point where they rely on benefits to make sure that their children don’t suffer unnecessarily.
Secondly, most of this £26K does not find it’s way into the pockets of the claimants, but goes instead directly to their landlords. Our economic mismanagement; the boom and bust years; political control of interest rates…all of these have lead to artificially high and ultimately unsustainable property prices. This translates directly into artificially high rents, which claimants have no control over. Telling them to move to cheaper areas with lower property rents is a short term and artificial saving, as rents will rise in these areas as demand increases. But what about the children who will be forced to uproot, move school, and leave behind social and support networks? How will the demand for extra school places in the ‘lower rent’ areas be met? And what about the schools from which these children have been forced to exit? Surplus capacity also costs money to maintain. School closure battles will commence in some areas whilst over demand will lead to expensive short term accommodation solutions for other areas…and extra medical services will need to be established to cope with an influx of new patients…the list goes on. Moving these families (half of the 67,000 live in London) is a false economy in the long run, and do we really expect them to move large distances away, deconstructing and reconstructing their entire lives? Just to save what will in fact be a pittance? I am coming to the view that this proposal is based on populist scaremongering (a la Daily Mail) and social stigmatisation of a particular group of people. This kind of thing happened in Germany and Italy during the first half of the last century and we are in danger of heading down a similar road. Many of these claimants are disabled and have special needs. The government is in danger of being seen as picking upon this vulnerable group who very often lack the means to fight back. We need rent controls to deal with this, and ultimately, more social housing will force greedy landlords to lower their rents to more realistic and affordable levels, or sell up and get out. The landlords must be quite happy that the claimants are taking the flak for the high cost of housing rather than themselves!
Thirdly, if people are forced out of their homes because of this proposal, then their local councils have to pick up the pieces by rehousing them. Short term accommodation is probably going to be more expensive than the properties they have had to vacate…so where’s the saving there, Mr Duncan-Smith!
Fourthly, we don’t include child benefit when we calculate the ‘average’ wage. So why should benefit claimants loose this due to their high housing benefit claim? Are we really saying that a family with , say an income of £100K can claim child benefit, but a family on benefits ( maybe due to disability) can not?
Kate and Wills, if they’re blessed with a child could claim but a crippled single mother of three cannot?. This is just crazy.
Fifthly (!) The aim of these proposals is to ‘encourage’ the claimants back into employment. Well, it might do this to some, but the flaw in this argument is that a large proportion of the 67,000 will never be able to work due to disability of because they are carers ( who incidentally, save this country a small fortune in care costs ). Why should they be forced to move, their already stretched incomes cut further to satisfy this Tory populist blood-lust? Social services and the NHS will have to pick up the tab here with revised care assessments, adjustments to new homes, and increased levels of ill health.
Are the LibDems really supportive of these changes? I hope they force the government to have a rethink. Where are the real cost savings, if any, from these proposals taking into account the many indirect costs. Or is it that the Government wants to gain more control over local government spending by the back door of increasing need, which these proposals, if they become law, almost certainly will. Labour needs to step up to the plate and be an opposition. Here in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon is already talking of not giving Scottish Government approval to the legislation. Good on her for standing up for the moral imperative to do what’s right in society, where the principle of taking care of those less fortunate should be a hallmark, not a cost limited cosh…
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How could you spend it?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 21, 2012
How could you spend £11 million ?
Well, how about some of the following…
Running costs for maybe fifteen secondary schools for a year
Salaries of 300 or so extra nurses
1100 extra hip replacement operations
11 day centres for adults with learning disabilities or elderly people
Free school meals for all children
A new hospital maybe?
Extra respite care for parents of disabled children…20 thousand holiday places for these parents who never get a decent break.
Public sector workers get inflation matching payrises
Pensions for care workers, nurses, teachers, fire and rescue workers, ambulance staff maintained at current levels.
What else could you add to the list?
And what will Barclay’s Bank chief executive Bob Diamond do with his £11 million bonus when he picks it up in a few weeks time ?
Economic crisis? All in it together? I don’t think so.
Cutting disability benefits to pay for an economic crisis caused largely by people like Mr Diamond, whilst they still get their huge bonuses is obscene and sick. What value is £11 million to him anyway? An extra £100 a month to severely disabled folk and their families has much more meaning.
Anyone for a 90% supertax on bank bonuses over, say £10K? That would get my vote….
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Are they really lying Tory bastards?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 17, 2012
A quote from a recent Guardian online report on the proposed abolition of Disability Living Allowance..
“Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, is the Fords’ MP, and Emma rolls her eyes when she tells of his doorstep visit at the last election: “I said I was really worried his party would cut benefits for disabled people. He said to me, face to face, ‘You know about David Cameron’s son, that’s why you know there’s no way we’re going to harm disabled children like yours’. Right there, on our doorstep.”
And the title of this blog post? Judge for yourselves…
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Where are you Ruth Davidson?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 16, 2012
- In: capacity-building | change | Personal | politics
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The Scottish Conservatives have a new leader. So what, most of you would say. Because to many, the Conservatives are an irrelevance here in Scotland. Dear old Annabel fussed about like a dear old auntie chiding the other party leaders with what sounded like good old homespun advice instead of the political poison darts she should have been spitting. Ruth could be a bit more savvy and on target though. After all, she’s been a journalist for many years so she should know better.
I hold no personal torch for the Conservative party in thus day and age, even the Scottish semi-skimmed brand. The Westminster mob are trying to drive through some of the most disgusting and heartless legislation I’ve ever come across with their benefit reform proposals. Making the most disadvantaged and the most sick and disabled people pay for the millionaires mistakes in mismanaging the financial and economic sectors is just obscene. Why should disability living allowance be cut to fund a (state bailed out) banker’s winter skiing trip to Verbier or St Moritz in the form of annual bonuses ? Is this the mark if a political party which cares about ordinary people? Not any more.
Because I think this was not always the case. I was a Conservative supporter in my youth. I was brought up with values like hard work, support your family, contribute to society, maintain law and order help others and remember to look after those less fortunate or disadvantaged through no fault of their own. But that’s all gone now. Our society is selfish, many choose not to work relying on the state to support their ever burgeoning families. Many refuse to contribute, the Police are shot through with corruption and perjury appears to be the norm for for a service which in many parts of the country has become a haven for trigger-happy violent politicised bullies. Instead of contributing more, our wealthiest have become addicted to excess ( bank bonuses are a damming indictment of this culture) whilst our sick and disabled are targeted for benefit cuts and labelled as malingering scroungers. And because of this I’m not the Conservative I once was, almost by nature, I think.
Ruth Davidson is, whatever many might think, a fresh face. This party has done what might have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago in an age of legislation like section 28 and elected a young, gay, woman as it’s leader. Surely to God that must be a sign of progress? So come on Ruth, get going. Fire up all your guns and blaze a bit…and follow the example of the SNP and get your social media presence going. I manage the social media presence of a small number of selected clients including a major Scottish charity, and I know just how important such a presence is if you want to connect with people and their networks in this day and age.
So come on Ruth…let’s hear what you’re all about. We’ll spread the message, good and bad, so think carefully about what you want to say. And manage your presence well (getting professional advice is essential for you) because you’ll get far more connections than a newspaper or television interview will ever get you nowadays, and you’ll be able to target your voter prospects so much more precisely through the networks of your converts than with a traditional media presence ‘scattergun’ approach.
In this era of Salmond-style quasi-presidential politics, strong opposition is needed perhaps more than ever in Scotland. We need you to play your part in this Ruth, so come on…get going girl. Start to build your tribe and who knows, we may just follow you…
Thanks to Amnesty International Scotland for the creative commons photo- at least we know one thing Ruth stands for now !
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Independence… Good sense or sheer folly?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 15, 2012
- In: change | politics
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All the bruha in the media over independence recently has been interesting to say the least. The tug of war between Alex Salmond and David Cameron over ownership of the referendum appeared to kick off a verbal turf war and the legalities of this particular process have still to be settled.
What really interests me though are the unanswered questions. Nobody on the independence side actually appears to want to address these, at least, not that I’ve read or heard. What about Scotland’s share of the national debt for example? Or Armed Forces? And what about social security and taxation? Or Border control? Scotland would not automatically be a member of the EU and would have no automatic right of entry. Indeed, specific fiscal conditions might have to be met before Scotland could join. And come to that, what about currency? Would Alex really consider joining the Euro?
These are just a few of the many things which are perplexing me at the moment. The SNP don’t appear to have stated positions on all these points. How could an independent Scotland afford to set up public services from scratch anyway. Alistair Darling highlighted some of these in a recent interview. He was fairly specific whereas Stewart Hosie from the SNP was just dismissive rather than providing a line by line critique.
I am open to persuasion on independence. Thousands if others must be too. So come on SNP – put your case by answering these questions clearly and honestly rather than just dismissing them as Unionist scare tactics…
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Is there ever a time to kill?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 10, 2012
I’ve just finished the latest from John Grisham. It’s called The Confession and I have to admit that anything by this particular author would be one of my guilty pleasures. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t really see why there should be anything guilty at all about reading. I’ve never been a book snob. I happily devour the collective outputs of Grisham, Higgins, Francis, and Bernard Cornwell, to name but a few. I’ve heard many people slate John Grisham’s work as formula, or pot boiler, but to me that’s just opinion. I like to be entertained. To feel that I shouldn’t put the book down, gripped by the plot, and this latest from him was no different to all the others.
It’s no secret that Grisham is against the death penalty. He’s written about this before ( in The Chamber). And the Confession holds up the American justice system for the biased, unfair, and dangerous farce it has become especially for murder cases. In the southern states like Texas, if you’re male and black and accused of murder….well, you don’t stand much of a chance of a fair crack if the whip under their judicial process. Grisham very cleverly, in my view, holds up the whole farcical process from arrest to the needle to the grotesque ridicule it deserves.
The recent judicial murder by the US state of Georgia of Troy Davis was another example of why these lynch mob mentality killings must be brought to an end.
The USA is one of the very few civilised countries left in the world which still has the death penalty and actively uses it. They’re fond of using the bible to justify it. An eye for an eye, they say. But what about, thou shalt not kill? And moving away from the old testament, what would Jesus do? Would he not try to stop each and every one of these executions (and calling them that just adds to their shaky air of quasi-credibility doesn’t it?) just as he did the stoning of Mary Magdalene? Would he stand by and witness these killings and do nothing?
Please support Amnesty International in the important work they do with others in the USA to end these judicial murders. When I taught at Cathkin High School the students ran a campaigning blog and supported the work done by Amnesty.
And yes, I’d have lent them my John Grishams if they’d asked !!
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Make a joyful noise…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: January 9, 2012
- In: capacity-building | change | Equality | Family | Inclusion | Leadership | Pastoral care | Personal | PLN
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It’s been a wonderful weekend. On Friday, the feast of the Epiphany, our friend Chucks was ordained priest at our church, St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow. He was ordained by the Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway, the Right Revd. Dr Gregor Duncan. And on Sunday, Fr Chucks celebrated his first Holy Communion and Evensong as a Priest. Provost Kelvin preached a delightfully personal sermon addressed to Chucks in which he drew some parallels between the season of Epiphany and Chucks’ own journey to becoming a priest in our church. He mentioned some of Chucks’ qualities during his sermon. One he didn’t mention was humility. Chucks is one of the most humble men I’ve ever met. Struggling with everyday things with good grace, helping others before himself, admitting his own perceived shortcomings….I could go on. I’ve heard some pretty good sermons in the past few years from all of the wonderfully eclectic group of clergy at St Mary’s, where the Provost, Kelvin is not afraid to address the big issues and even take to task those who he feels might be doing great damage to church and society, but one of the most memorable was from Chucks a few months ago whilst he was still a curate. It was about forgiveness. How, despite our Lord’s example, he himself really struggled with forgiveness and how hard he found it to forgive in certain circumstances. Not just preaching forgiveness as a given, an expectation, but sharing with his congregation his own struggles and failures with forgiveness. When I listened to his words, they really struck home as I was having an almost identical problem to Chucks at that time. I truly believe God was speaking to me through Chucks that day, just quietly reassuring me it was ok to struggle with forgiveness. That it was just human to find it difficult, to fail, as long as I kept trying, kept working away at the problem I had. Trying to find the answer. And I did, although I’m not quite there, even now. But I’m still trying and that’s due entirely to those words from Chucks that day. It was really inspirational. As were his words on passing judgement, but that’s another sermon and another story.
The ordination was an amazing service. The sense of joy and love in the Cathedral that night was so great you could have scooped it up in big handfuls and thrown it about. Anyone who saw the huge hug Chucks got from Fr Kelvin could be in no doubt about how happy and proud he was that his first curate was now a priest. The spontaneous trumpet playing, and African drumming and singing reminding us of Chucks’ Nigerian origins and culture were just so the right things at exactly the right time…
We have gotten to know Chucks as he joined our congregation. We were privileged to share in his wedding to Adana and delighted at the birth and baptism of their first child Christian. He’s been a fantastic support to our family through some very difficult times and Ruth and I are honoured and blessed by his friendship. And so, so very proud both of Chucks and his family, and of our church which despite being in White middle class West End Glasgow welcomes and embraces people of all faiths, cultures, backgrounds, sexualities, ages, colours and creeds. Open, inclusive, and welcoming is not just a mission statement, it’s a living breathing warts and all ethos which translates into a place where although folk may have very different opinions and values they can still come together to worship God. Other denominations might want to take note…
“Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
Praise Him with the tambourine and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord”
(Psalm 150)
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Adult diagnosis- a personal reflection….
Posted by: mimanifesto on: December 19, 2011
- In: ASD | Autism | emotional education | Family | Inclusion | Personal
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You know something’s a bit different about you. All your life you’ve been perpetually anxious about the simplest everyday things…you know, will you catch the bus, will you be at the station or airport early enough to make your train or flight. Will you get a decent seat, will it be crowded, will you make it through to your hotel on time, will you get a parking space near your work, will you get the dinner cooked, or get the housework done, a seat at the cinema..????? The list gies on and on. You dread social occasions or networking meetings, or going out with work colleagues. You’ve never made friends easily, preferring your own company, collections, obsessions even. Everything has to be in it’s proper place, desk has to be ordered with everything arranged just so… Routines are very important and fear of the unexpected is ever-present. Socialising on line is easy, but meeting those online friends face to face at conferences or social meet-ups is nerve wracking and fear-inducing. Folks think you are unhappy because you hardly ever smile, and find social chit-chat impossible. Failed relationships characterise your personal life and you end up being scared to get close to anyone for fear of rejection.
Anxiety takes you along to your GP eventually. It affects your life in a huge way. Or problems with relationships takes you down a counselling route. Either way, anti-anxiety drugs or anti-depressant medication gets prescribed and a referral to community mental health is made. This leads to an appointment with a CPN or Psychiatrist. Each stage of this involves long discussion reaching back over whole life experiences and things start to slowly fit into place rather like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. Because we understand a lot more about certain developmental conditions now than we did even ten or twenty years ago (let alone thirty years ago when you were growing up and at school where you were just that weird kid who did strange things with her hands, collected the strangest stuff, had an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of music, couldn’t keep still, dropped things or griped over her own feet and just wanted to be left alone) and this is no truer than with Autistic Spectrum conditions.
You get a referral to an adult Autism diagnostic service, and over the course of two or three meetings, your whole life comes under the microscope, and you finally discover that at least there’s a reason for all this, and that you’re not just weird or strange, anti-social or depressed. Being given a diagnosis of Autism or Aspergers is not the answer to your problems, but it makes it just a little easier to deal with knowing it’s not your fault that you behave in sometimes strange ways…in fact, a diagnosis is just the start, not the end, of another journey.
Now, that’s just my story, but there are thousands like me out there in the world. Undiagnosed, struggling with the things in life that most folks don’t even think about. We find ways of dealing with our lives and at least accept those things about ourselves we don’t understand. Some of us are lucky and have people in our lives who are prepared to accept the differences, the rigid thinking and quirky obsessions and behaviour, but many are not so lucky and spend their lives alone and unfulfilled. Most of us manage to get by, modelling behaviour and using intelligence to develop ways of reflective thinking and an ability to rationalise unfamiliar situations (indeed, high intelligence is a common factor amongst adults who have undiagnosed Autistic Spectrum Disorders and manage to lead fairly successful lives). We develop strategies to help us function. I used to arrive for meetings and conferences just a couple of minutes before the start to avoid the registration and coffee beforehand, and lunch breaks would often be spent catching up on work rather than socialising or networking. Strange staff rooms could be a nightmare scenario, but there is always somewhere to disappear to.
With current funding cuts, adult autism diagnosis and support services are threatened ironically at a time when they are more necessary than ever before. An uncertain future lies around the corner. Autism service providers and charities need support to satisfy an increasing demand for their intervention and support, not just for those diagnosed but for their extended families as well.
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Two Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got
Posted by: mimanifesto on: December 3, 2011
- In: Equality | Family | homophobia | LGBT | marriage equality
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Via Scoop.it – Marriage Equality in Scotland
What’s the reason for opposing this again?
Via front.moveon.org
What are they really afraid of ?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: December 1, 2011
- In: Equality | Uncategorized
- 4 Comments
“With all the problems currently facing the world, people will struggle to understand why organisations like the Catholic Church are wasting so much money and energy on this homophobic campaign.”
Well said Tom French, from the Equality network, in response to the unholy alliance between Keith O’Brien, Bashir Mann, and Gordon Wilson of Solas on their attempts to dictate the definition of ‘marriage’ to a largely secular society. Now these Catholic, Muslim and Christian Fundamentalists wouldn’t ordinarily cross the floor to each other except to condemn and denounce each other, however they all have decided to spend crazy money on a homophobic campaign to force their own personal views upon a society which has largely left them behind
in the dark ages. Bashir Mann has already had to resign from one public body in Glasgow due to his homophobia, and dear old Gordon,
well, the least said the better. Wise of the Cardinal to dress in mufti though; the sight of him protesting in his red frock, shoes and hat would have been all too delicious to bear ;-p
The Cardinal only speaks for a minority of Scots Roman Catholics on the subject of marriage equality. Bashir Mann is certainly not representative of most Scottish Muslims, and dear old Gordon, well, one man and his dog. You get the picture.
So, with the polls still indicating a majority of Scots favouring full marriage equality, what is the Scottish Government to do? After all, a consultation exercise is mostly replied to by activists at each end of the scale. And religious bodies will contribute based largely on the views of their leaders rather than their active congregations. But what of the middle ground? How are their views represented? By their MSP’s, who will stand or fall at elections depending on their records. And with all the parties at Holyrood broadly supporting this move, that’s a pretty unified view in my opinion, covering all political constituencies up and down the land.
So whilst the government must certainly consider all responses to their consultation, it’s the representatives of the people, accountable to the electorate and not the vested interests of the large (or not so large) organisations and groups, who are really the ones to make a final decision on this matter when legislation is bought before parliament.
I for one pray to God that they will make the right choice. A vote for fairness, equality, freedom of conscience and religion, which will confirm Scotland’s place on the map with the other forward thinking and inclusive tolerant societies across the world.
And perhaps what O’Brien, Mann, and Wilson fear most of all, is this: that their time has been….and gone.
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Press censorship…in the name of the Catholic Church
Posted by: mimanifesto on: November 22, 2011
Some recent articles in the Scottish Catholic Observer have moved me sufficiently to comment. However, this mouthpiece for the Roman Catholic Bishops ( I hesitate to call it a newspaper) is heavily censored. So much so that they won’t print comments to their online edition that don’t agree with their editorial line. My comment to a recent story on marriage is still ‘awaiting moderation’ many days after submission. I’ve reproduced it below…
“Of course the number of postcards only re-asserts the somewhat slewed view of reality evidenced by the Bishops. 14,000 respondents doing their bidding is not representative even of the Catholic Church, let alone society as a whole. I’m sure the government factor this into their deliberations as well as the fact that the public at large generally don’t take part in these sorts of consultations.
Why don’t the bishops concentrate on matters in their own church and leave legislating to the proper authority, ie, the state. Marriage is not the preserve of Roman Catholicism, or even of Christianity, presaging both.
Perhaps the example of the COS and the Scottish Episcopal Church is one to be commended to ++Conti and +Tartaglia. They consult their clergy and laity and form a view based on this process. Many folk in all churches, including clergy are in favour of marriage equality, and many are against. The Catholic church is no different in this respect. The important thing here is that no individual clergy member is forced to act against his or her conscience”
So…not rude, disrespectful, aggressive, or even abusive. But not agreeing with them. So censored.
One very good reason the the Government should treat their submissions on this issue with caution. If they attempt to stifle debate in this way, how could they be considered fit and proper to engage in debate themselves.
Reply
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Cathkin High and the semi minute silence..
Posted by: mimanifesto on: November 18, 2011
So my old school Cathkin High makes it into the news yet again, and again, for the wrong reasons.
We’ve had the spineless Biology teacher who got his pupils to write to the Rutherglen Reformer about lack of funding for rugby ( he didn’t have the guts to do it himself of course!)
Then the RE teacher who walked a thin line with the convicted criminals otherwise known as the IRA hunger strikers.
And now, the two minute silence last week was apparently interrupted continuously by two gobby female teachers
Now there are a few jackey teachers at Cathkin, I’m sad to say. Both male and female. But this smacks of absolute rank unprofessionalism. I bet I could narrow the suspect list down to about six possible reprobates…in fact, the names have just been DM’d to me on Twitter. Should I publish and be dammed? Will the British Legion picket the school? The paper says the Heidie will investigate. So…over to you, Anne Marie.
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Twitter donors worth the most on social media
Posted by: mimanifesto on: November 17, 2011
Twitter donors worth the most on social media.
Sonme interesting comparisons here. Apparently Tweeps are more generous than facebookers…or is it just that the call to action on Twitter is more direct, by the very nature of 140 character messages?
What the Guardian won’t report: LGBT thrives in Israel, while Arabs …
Posted by: mimanifesto on: November 9, 2011
The sad reality is that LGBT anti-Israel groups are throwing our queer Palestinian brothers and sisters under the bus. LGBT persecution in the disputed territories is horrendous – it comes from Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, …
Via cifwatch.com
A police state?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: November 2, 2011
- In: Equality | Leadership | Racism
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This was the scene outside my office on Monday of this week. Now just to explain a little, my window looks out onto St Andrew’s Street and directly opposite is the Glasgow JP court. You can see a grey car in the picture. It was parked in the cycle lane over double yellow lines. In fact, it was blocking the cycle lane. The picture below perhaps shows this more clearly..
It was impossible for cyclists to use this cycleway without going onto the pavement or bumping over the curb into the street. You can also see a small group of people (five of them, in fact) behind the car by the entrance to the court. They are members of the Glasgow Defence Campaign, a group which demonstrates against the public sector cuts implemented by our current government. You can read about why they were there at the court here.
Two uniformed police officers were in this car with orders to monitor the activities of this group, and particularly Dominic O’Hara and Joey Simons who had been arrested for alleged incidents whilst on peaceful demonstrations earlier this year. The officers were present for several hours. One can only imagine how much this cost and how many serious crimes could perhaps have been prevented during this time and for this wasted money. Do Strathclyde Police really expect us to believe that this was in the public interest ?
Just like the student demonstrations at the Hetherington Club where the use of Police manpower and resources (a helicopter for hours) was grossly excessive. Do Strathclyde police really expect us to believe that this was anything other than political policing and repressive intimidation of those prepared to stand up and say no to all the injustice and unfairness going on all around us? The same stuff which most of us just shrug our shoulders and accept with nothing more than a wee bit of grumbling into our sauvignon blanc? the actions of these folks, and the occupy Glasgow people, and the STUC demonstrations, and the students at the Hetherington make me feel ashamed that I don’t do more. Ok, I made Dominic and his friends some coffee to warm them up on Monday, but that’s nothing compared to what they, and many others do to protest against injustice and inequality in our society. And he’s a reasonable bloke, despite provocation and harassment from Strathclyde Police, as you can see for yourselves in this video…
I’ve been increasingly worried by the behaviour of Strathclyde police over this past year or so. Watching them behave with sometimes shocking indifference to the law on an almost daily basis in and around the city centre and Salt market has left a very bad taste in my mouth. Its a case of do as I say, not as I do much of the time. Corruption is alleged as police officers sell information to the newspapers and perjure themselves in court. Dominic O’Hara, Joey Simons, Tommy Sheridan and no doubt many others are victims of this. Even respected journalist John Pilger has accused Strathclyde police of actions which are, in his words, outrageous, in the way in which they police peaceful demonstrations. I was a victim of this during the anti-war demonstration in Glasgow a few years ago when with many others, I was held in a side street for several hours without explanation…
So if you can, please support peaceful demonstration to protect democracy and fairness in our society. Its not enough any more to grumble from the comfort of our nice warm houses. The days of armchair activism are well and truly over, I think…we need to think about how we can follow the lead of those named in this post and whatever our political persuasions, actively demonstrate for fairness, justice and equality in society.
Diversionary tactics and popular opinion
Posted by: mimanifesto on: October 26, 2011
“And as for the Catholic Church in Scotland – well, if all those of a Catholic background in this country really shared the reactionary views embraced by the current hierarchy, then the government might have cause for concern; but since the bishops and their spokesman seem as far out of touch with majority Catholic opinion as they are with the rest of Scottish life, there is no need – beyond the confines of popular journalism – to overstate the significance of their views”
So says Joyce McMillan writing in the Scotsman earlier this month.
Joan Burnie in the Daily Record agrees, and even, arguably, goes further saying..
“I cannot, for the life of me, understand how allowing gays to marry would, in the words of former SNP leader, Gordon Wilson, “Destroy Scottish society”, any more than I can get my head around Catholic Bishop Tartaglia’s view that it would “shame Scotland in the eyes of the world.
…In fact, most of us simply don’t care. Even the majority of Bishop Tartaglia’s own flock don’t support what is, with respect, an issue unworthy of the hysteria and hype that some have heaped upon it”
And she finishes by quoting the great Apostle St Paul from his letter to the church in Corinth..turning his exhortations against their modern-day ignorance of society’s real problems by saying..
“If Gordon Wilson and the bishop want to rail against that I’m with them all the way, but the noise and fury against gay marriage is a diversion.
It is the sounding of brass and the tinkling of cymbals signifying nothing but their own prejudices”
Yes, Scots die from cold, cannot afford to heat and eat. The divide between rich and poor widens ever deeper, and the Roman Catholic church fixes on something like marriage equality. Incredible.
And well said, you two ladies above.
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Teaching students about Creative Commons and appropriate use of images : The Edublogger
Posted by: mimanifesto on: October 26, 2011
Via Scoop.it – Education and Technology
RT @librarianinasia: Teaching students about Creative Commons & appropriate use of images : The Edublogger http://t.co/dReAGOEI via @addthis…
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Sometimes, you just have to blog…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: October 12, 2011
- In: change | Equality | homophobia | LGBT | Same sex marriage
- 1 Comment
This is one of those posts that you just have to write. You know the ones. When a subject or issue really important to you and close to your heart comes along. For me, its usually something to do with education, but this post strays away from that a little although connected indirectly.
To me this matter is important because it strikes directly at the heart of equality and fairness and also democracy. The issue is marriage equality and the recent concerted efforts by (Roman) Catholic bishops in Scotland to organise the RC faithful into some sort of electoral battering ram in order to frighten politicians and political parties. The idea that these Bishops can speak for all 750, 000 declared Roman catholic adherents in this country is, to me, a sign of the complete megalomania that has recently overcome the RC church here. Archbishop Conti and Bishop Tartagila (surely positioning himself as the Scottish catholic hardman and future Cardinal) appear to have a sense of importance and influence which is so far beyond the actual reality of the situation as to be rather embarrassing. A great many Roman Catholics will be shocked and dismayed to have Archbishop Conti’s letter read out to them by their parish priest, as well as receiving the little postcard, to be returned with their ‘protest’ against marriage equality. I suspect many priests will also have been rather dismayed at the tone of this letter and the message it sends out, which is full of both biblical and factual inaccuracies and damages the image of Christianity and religion as a whole. Indeed, the Provost of Glasgow’s St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, the Very Rev. Kelvin Holdsworth hit the nail squarely on the head during his sermon yesterday, on the subject of The parable of the wedding feast in Matthew’s Gospel when he told his congregation (and the wider world through press reporting of the sermon) that in his view, the outbursts from the RC Bishops and their attempts to abuse the democratic process by trying to scare their congregations was embarrassing and did Christianity a great disservice. You can watch or read the text of Provost Holdsworth’s sermon from yesterday here. The passage which particularly hit home for me (and I hope he doesn’t mind me reproducing it here on this blog is this;
To behave as though bishops carry some kind of block vote to Holyrood, to threaten politicians and to decry those who want access to the dignity of marriage as unnatural…. to say these things seems to me to go too far.
Such comments from the leaders of the Roman Catholic church have left me feeling embarrassed as a Christian. There is a risk that all of the churches will appear to be out of touch, arrogant, conceited and rude. We don’t all have to agree but we are all called to behave charitably and there has been an absence of love in this relentlessly bitter campaign and it diminishes us all.
He goes on to say…
One of the great things about living in Glasgow is that you can find out fairly quickly that one’s Roman Catholic friends and neighbours don’t all share all the views of the hierarchy of that church. Indeed a good many share that sense of embarrassment.
The RC Bishops might do well to remind themselves of Christ’s words in this parable, speaking as it does of inclusion and exclusion. They might also do well to consider the definition of marriage which appears to be perplexing them so much. The bible defines eight types of marriage, including polygamy as practiced by Jacob, and having a child by your barren wife’s slave (that one was Abraham, father of both the Judaeo-Christian and Muslim faiths). This last one is interesting, from the praxis adopted by Archbishops Conti and O’Brien, that marriage is for procreation and therefore cannot be for same-sex couples. Are they agreeing with the Holy scriptures and advocating a husband having a baby with the cleaner or nanny or the au pear if his wife cannot bear children? Just as Abraham did with Hagar when his wife Sarah couldn’t have his children. Will the RC church permit concubines? after all, its in the bible…as is the stoning of your wife if she’s not a virgin. And how did Adam and Eve have grandchildren and populate the earth without brother marrying sister? there is a rather interesting video which explains biblical marriage for the uninitiated here..
Of course, our interpretation of the scriptures evolves to fit the culture of our age. Just as we would not permit stoning, execution, rape, child or animal sacrifice (all there in the old testament) so our understanding of marriage evolves. The biblical precedent for same sex marriage is of course, Ruth and Naomi, where the original Hebrew grammatical structure reveals more about the nature of their relationship than the translations into Latin by Roman Catholic scribes, and then English would want us to realise. Censorship by any other name. If you want the original Hebrew and the grammatical breakdown, just leave me a comment, by the way, and I’ll blog it)
Thankfully, there has been much more balanced correspondence in the press and online. Follow the twitter hash tag #equalmarriage for some of this discussion. Tim Hopkins of the Equality Network, writing in the Herald makes a rather telling point. Why, he asks, are the RC Bishops spending so much time and money on opposing equal marriage, something which might affect, maybe five hundred people each year, when thousands in Scotland are suffering from deprivation, poverty, homelessness and domestic violence? surely the power and resources of the Roman Catholic church would be better directed to these problems, such as the 50,000 reported cases of domestic abuse rather than five hundred or so Gay and Lesbian marriages?
And now the lovely folks at Solas CPC have piled in with a quite frankly, incredible submission to the government against marriage equality. Led by the former SNP leader Gordon Wilson they have written one of the most inaccurate and truth-distorting documents I have ever seen riddled with assumptions, supposition, and religious distortion. They are calling for a national referendum on marriage equality (and how long will it take Sir Brian Souter to hitch up his bandwagon to the bus and offer to fund this travesty of a proposal). I’m not sure what they hope to achieve by this proposal, and neither am I sure of their logic. I’m sure this will turn into the SNP’s ‘clause 2a’ issue. Lets hope Nicola Sturgeon has the courage displayed by Wendy Alexander during that previous struggle for equality…
Why you might already be using games-based-learning … and never knew.
Posted by: mimanifesto on: October 4, 2011
Via Scoop.it – Education and Technology
There’s a cycle to games that reflects Kolb’s learning styles. He’s the guy who talks about experiential learning, and that learning happens even when there is no teacher around. You might see this…
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The 4 Biggest Things Impacting Education Technology – Edudemic
Posted by: mimanifesto on: October 4, 2011
Via Scoop.it – Education and Technology
The 4 Biggest Things Impacting Education Technology http://t.co/nV3kSZcz…
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