ALB
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Another hustings last night in Oxford, this time in Cowley in Oxford East. These are becoming run-of-the-mill affairs now with some of the candidates making the same speeches, that is, those who turn up themselves and don't just send a representative. We've never seen either the LibDem or Tory candidates (the Tory is vice-chair of nextdoor Cherwell council). We did see the Independent candidate, Artwell, this time wearing his controversial golliwog (see Daily Mail report here). He is calling for "Interest Free Loans from the Banks to the Treasury to End Austerity and Bring Us Prosperity" as a payback for having been bailed out. He doesn't explain where the banks are to get this money from but is probably one of those who mistakenly think that banks can simply create money out of thin air. Which they can't, one reason why his plan won't work or even get off the ground. But his is only slightly less realistic than those of the other parties who think they can make the capitalist economy operate for the benefit of all.Before the meeting we held a stall at the nearby Cowley shopping centre and distributed a few hundred leaflets, also to the 50 people at the hustings.
He's definitely not standing for Kensington:https://yournextmp.com/upload_document/584/It's against the law to stand in two places, so (assuming that he's not that much of a firebrand anarchist as to break the law here and risk going to prison for perjury), we must assume that he's only standing in Lewisham West & Penge.
He must have decided to stand at the last moment since he doesn't include this constituency in those he lists in that interview. Maybe there are others too? We'll have to wait for the final list of all candidates everywhere.
As predictable (and predicted) Class War are only standing 9 candidates in the end:http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/election-2015-meet-class-war-party-standing-because-all-other-candidates-are-scum-1495040Ian Bone is not even standing himself but here's some of what he says:
Quote:As a party, what are your top three priorities?Mansion tax, 50%. Abolition of public schools. And double all benefits.Okay… Could you explain why you've chosen those things?We want to make the rich pay rather than the poor pay for austerity. So unlike all the other parties who are running scare stories on benefits, we'd double all benefits including pensions. A 50% mansion tax would go hand in hand with a 90% top rate income tax, and that would pay for improved social services, affordable housing and a great increase in benefits for working class people.It's not clear whether he is (a) being serious; (b) taking the piss out of the trots and their extravagant demands; or (c) trying to be like the Monster Raving Looney Party.Whichever, I don't think he succeeds in any of them.
SocialistPunk wrote:I was wondering if any examples exist to show that tax cuts for the working class lead to direct wage reductions. Examples of this would be very helpful in explaining this idea, as simply saying it without any examples proves little.The situation is complicated by the fact that, with inflation, nominal wages are rising along with other prices while income tax levels remain fixed. These are eventually raised, allowing the government to claim that it has reduced taxes whereas in fact it is merely restoring a previous position. Also, the changes in tax levels are not nearly as high as those mentioned in the article you are quoted from (high figures being used to simplify the maths).So, what we're talking about is not so much a cut in nominal wages but these still rising but not as much as the general price level.For instance, I got an email from my local LibDem candidate a couple of days ago, which says:
Quote:An £825 tax cut for 53,100 local people because the Lib Dems have raised the 'personal allowance'This week, the personal allowance went up again to £10,600. This is £4000 higher than under Labour in 2010, representing a tax cut since then of £825 for 53,100 tax payers in Richmond Park (and 27 million people across the country). In addition, the 3,800 lowest paid workers in our constituency have been taken out of paying income tax altogether thanks to this Lib Dem change to our tax system.A month from now, the country goes to the polls again. And the Lib Dems have a clear message on tax cuts for working people: we want to go further. We want to raise the personal allowance again, this time to £12,500. This is a significant level because it would mean that no one on the minimum wage would pay income tax.What they are saying is that if the personal allowance had remained at its 2010 level of £6400 people would be paying £825 more tax today. Not quite the same thing as an actual cut in tax paid. What they don't say either is that the general price level has risen almost 12% since then, so £825 today is not the same in real terms as £825 in 2010. In any event, it is unlikely that the level would have remained at £6400.Talking of the minumum wage, the Labour Party has promised to increase it to £8 an hour by 2020.from its present £6.50 an hour. With a continually rising general price level over the next 5 years it will probably be near that level by then anyway. It certainly won't amount to a real increase of 23%.
ALB wrote:Our candidate in Oxford East was not invited to a hustings in Headington organised by the local churches. This was in effect a selective hustings as only 5 of the 9 declared candidates were invited, the fig-leaf selection criteria being parties which had had MPs.Comment received from someone who stayed for the whole meeting:
Quote:It was a complete farce, I'm so sorry I wasted your time by telling you about it.The chair was a Labour Party member and made sure he didn't give Artwell and James any chance to speak.There were only two candidates and three substitutes and they'd all rehearsed endless platitudes.Ten candidates in Vauxhall. Besides the Whigs and Pirates there's also the Cannabis party:http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/ec-vauxhall-candidates-and-notice-of-poll-2015.pdf
Oxford Communist Corresponding Society leaflet here.One of our candidates will be speaking at their election meeting on Thursday 30 April.
Busy day of activity in Oxford yesterday, two hustings and a street stall. Six of us did a stall in Broad Street in the centre from 5pm to 7pm organised by the Oxford Communist Corresponding Society. Also present, handing out his own pamphlet and a bit of nuisance, was Ernie Reynolds who stood as an "Abolish Money" (but only in one country) candidate in Swindon in 2005.Our candidate in Oxford West & Abingdon represented the Party at the hustings in St Barnabus church (actually more a basilica) in Jericho organised by the Oxfordshire branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. An audience of 100 or so. All the other candidates (first time we'd seen the Tory, who wants to bring back the killing of foxes for pleasure) were there except the UKIP one who withdrew because of alleged "death threats" following the exposing of his prejudiced comments a year or so ago on facebook. Mainly local issues. Mike's introduction can be found here. His vision differed from William Morris's in News from Nowhere which is partly set in Oxfordshire but where it never rains. The event was filmed by three TV companies. A report on it should be on BBC South local news at 6.30pm and 10.30pm today if anyone here is that catchment area. One of the others was Brookes TV, an internet TV station run by and for students of Brookes University in Oxford. Still trying to track it down.Our candidate in Oxford East was not invited to a hustings in Headington organised by the local churches. This was in effect a selective hustings as only 5 of the 9 declared candidates were invited, the fig-leaf selection criteria being parties which had had MPs. When the moderator introduced "the candidates" it turned out that 3 of them weren't actually candidates but their representative. Two of us at the back heckled him on this. So, in fact, there were only 2 candidates on the platform with a further 2 excluded ones (not ours) in the meeting hall. The moderator rather let the cat out of the bag when he declared an interest: that he was a member of the Labour Party. He would want to exclude candidates which the Labour Party might think would take votes from them, wouldn't he? And could it be a co-incidence that of the 5 hustings organised by local churches, this was the only one not to invite all the candidates? In any event he wasn't like Ceasar's wife. Both us and the TUSC candidate made certain everyone of the 80 or so present had our respective leaflets.
Editorial from the Abingdon Herald (1 April):
Quote:The Greens, the Labour Party, the National Health Action Party and the Great British Socialist Party are all fielding candidates for the same "ultra-marginal" seat.Unfortunately, it wasn't an April fool.
Vauxhall nomination papers and deposit handed in and accepted today. That means only Easington left. They'll be handed in tomorrow (but have already been checked by the returning officer and are in order). So, we're off, all ten constituencies.Meanwhile the "election communications" that Royal Mail will distribute in the 10 constituencies, totally 500,000 in all, have been sent to them for vetting.
Probably for one of our regular street stalls. We're planning these on every Thursday evening from 5pm to 7pm in central Oxford and every Saturday from 12 noon and maybe in the afternoon (or door-to-door leafletting) from now until election date.The first Thursday one is this Thursday (9 April) in Broad Street.The second Saturday one was planned for this Saturday but we may change this to Sunday as we've been invited to a hustings on Sunday 12 April at 6pm:http://www.meetup.com/The-Socialist-Party-of-Great-Britain/events/221615962/We'll decide at the branch tonight. I'll let you know.In any event, from next week it will be every Thursday at 5pm and every Saturday. On Thursday 30 April we'll be holding an election meeting, with the Oxford Communist Corresponding Society, at 7.30 in central Oxford
We were unable to leaflet this event in Oxford as it coincided with our annual conference:http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/12869043.5_30PM_UPDATE__VIDEO__Three_arrested_and_one_police_officer_injured_during_EDL_march_in_Oxford/?ref=arA number of our leaflets were, however, distributed in Kidlington, which despite being part of Cherwell (Banbury) council, is included in the Oxford West & Abingdon constituency.
A member has posted our election video here:https://vimeo.com/123923032So it's here as well as on Youtube.
