Here you go, a brand new one to see you through the day!

The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Wisdom by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (15 Sep 2003)

• £9.99 £8.62 Hardcover

Many other books also available by the Dalai Lama from Amazon

Mark Tully questions the pursuit of economic growth at all costs:

Something Understood Why do we have to get richer?

 The BBC is here, as Ed West might agree, in full on pious clerical mode passing on their divine wisdom as they ‘question the Holy Grail of perpetual economic growth.’

Ironic that they counter that ‘Holy Grail’ by bringing on that Holy of Holies, the Dalai Lama…and I have to say it’s no wonder the rapacious, capitalist Chinese don’t want him in Tibet…he’s a bloody communist!

The D.L (PBUH) reveals that money can’t make you happy…it may bring quantity but it doesn’t bring quality….the pursuit of riches and the increase in wealth have not diminished suffering….science and technology, and the great Western science of Economics, have not brought any real benefits or reduced suffering.

Always the West’s fault….no one ever thought of getting rich before the advent of ‘The West’.

Well you can certainly quibble with his suggestions that science and technology, and indeed economics, have brought little benefits or improvements in quality of life….as his brethren flying around the world covered in bling know all too well.　

What’s Tully’s solution?

We can all have little farms…or a field each…communes in fact….Market driven economics doesn’t help anyone….you don’t need your car, we need more public transport…Consumerism is based on greed.

Perhaps Tully would like to give a definition of consumerism…when does the accumulation of ‘stuff’ become ‘greed’? What if you actually use that ‘stuff’? Is that consumerism or just buying ‘stuff’ that is useful for your life?

Perhaps the BBC is saying we have too much ‘life’, too much fun…cut it out…shave your head, relax, meditate….give all your money away.

“It costs a great deal of money to keep Gandhi living in poverty,” one of his patrons said….funny how all those churches preach that we should give away our money…who to?  er…to the Churches of course.

Gord bless the BBC though….lawks…I was a wrong ‘un I was until they puts me on the right path….the path to redemption, and poverty.

Hallelujah! Praise the DG and pass the TV remote.

The BBC have no problem with those taking illicit peeks at top secret government docs…but if you watch the Telly, without a license…maybe not even the BBC, you’d better watch out…(via Guido)

TV LICENSING offences now account for more than a tenth of all criminal prosecutions in the UK, City A.M. can reveal.

More than 180,000 people – almost 3,500 a week – appeared in front of magistrates during 2012 after being accused of watching TV without paying the £145.50 fee.

Magistrates handled a total of 1.48m cases last year, meaning a record 12 per cent of court cases now involve TV licensing.

Women are disproportionately affected by the fee – which funds the BBC – with two thirds of cases brought against females. Last night the TV Licensing authority said the gender imbalance was because women are more likely to be at home when their inspectors call.

In total, 155,000 prosecutions resulted in a conviction, which can lead to a fine of up to £1,000. Those who refuse to pay can face jail.

The Ministry of Justice figures were published following a parliamentary question tabled by Lord Laird.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JK5kChbRw

The BBC have come up with a new and ingenious angle to tackle the government’s claims of signs of economic growth. 

The BBC will grudgingly admit that, yes, there may well be green shoots appearing but only in certain industries…and it’s the sunny weather, the wrong sort of consumer buying…bangers, BBQs and bikinis…it’s not sustainable.

But  look….the growth, what there is of it, is all in a tiny little well heeled harbour of the sunny South…the North is desolate…the North has disease, deprivation and desperation stalking the land.

The North South divide has become a chasm as the South plunges ahead reaping all the rewards leaving its Northern stable mate to its whippets and pigeons.

Julian Worricker asks if there really is a recovery…how do you feel about it?

The overall tone from the ‘adults’ is negative…the recovery is built on dodgy foundations…needless to say the BBC have the Marxist Resolution Foundation in as a witness….remember them…who wanted us to work 20 hours a week…how would you survive on the wages?…no problem….double the rate of pay.

A caller from North Yorkshire claims there’s ‘Looking on line there’s no jobs…they’re all in the South….nothing up here, they’ve forgotten all about us.’

Worricker agreed…it only confirms what we’ve said about the North South divide he claims.

Except that’s rubbish.

Look on-line and there are loads of jobs oop North…of all levels from basic labouring to high flying execs….and the economy isn’t exactly stagnating there either:

Figures released today by the Office for National Statistics have shown a 0.2% decrease in unemployment in Yorkshire in the last three months.
Not only does this indicate a short-term change in the economic climate of the region, but the 0.6% decrease over the past year could represent the long-term recovery of both Yorkshire and the rest of the UK after the prolonged financial struggles the country has faced.

Continued Improvement

Responding to the figures, Yorkshire’s Regional Manager of totaljobs.com, Gary Reilly, said that the fall in unemployment would continue over the next year.

“With the UK economy stabilising, employers in the region are more willing to invest in improving skills in the labour market with apprenticeships and work-based learning.

When a caller said he was doing well and finding success Worricker suggested that perhaps that was just his personal experience…he’d found a way through the gaps in the system…it wasn’t like that for everyone….it’s just your personal circumstances from which you can’t infer and apply any general conclusions to the whole.

Funny how anyone saying things were terrible didn’t get the same sort of treatment.

It’s a recovery but it’s not.

(Cartoon by Cartoons by Josh, courtesy of Tallbloke’s Talkshop)

Hacked climate emails: police seize computers at West Yorkshire home

Police seize equipment as part of investigation into the theft of thousands of private emails from the University of East Anglia

Tallbloke towers raided: many computers taken

“AN Englishman’s home is his castle they say. Not when six detectives from the Metropolitan Police, the Norfolk Constabulary and the Computer Crime division arrive on your doorstep with a warrant to search it though.

I waved the first three in and bid them head through to the sitting room, where there was less of an chill near the woodburner. Then they kept coming, being introduced by the lead detective from Norfolk as they trooped in. I thought I’d been chosen to host the secret policemen’s ball or something…”

Norfolk police had a warrant to “search and seize” Tallboy’s machines. In the end, they took 2 laptops and a router for the 90 day period of the Warrant.

A spokesman for the University of East Anglia said today: “We are pleased to hear that the police are continuing to actively pursue the case following the release last month of a second tranche of hacked emails from the Climatic Research Unit. We hope this will result in the arrest of those responsible for the theft of the emails and for distorting the debate on the globally important issue of climate change.”

What was it that merited such harsh treatment?

“The police told me that I’m not a suspect in any crime and so I am a little bit lost as to understand what they hope to find on my personal computers.

Mr Tattersall said police were interested in a comment posted on his blog which linked to a US website where the leaked emails could be downloaded.

“The bloggers aren’t really responsible for every comment that’s placed in the open public comments sections on their blogs,” he said.

“The police have been very clear that I’m not a suspect in any crime and it’s not illegal that my blog had this comment placed on it and people were able to go and download these emails, so I’m really just puzzled as to the police action at this stage.”

So  a mob handed police raid was instigated to have a look at the source of one comment placed on Tallboy’s blog by a reader…not even by him himself.

Surely a polite visit by one of Whitehall’s ‘most senior civil servants’ could have persuaded Tallboy to hand over the IP address and other details of the commenter.

Guess that was too easy.  Must have been a case of deliberate intimidation by the State to close down climate sceptic voices.

The BBC are headlining with the Snowden/Greenwald story and giving it plenty of airtime on Today….though it seems a minor revelation that Cameron asked the Guardian if it wouldn’t mind handing over the material.

They dragged in journalist Duncan Campbell, an expert in intelligence and computer surveillance, to tell us how bad things are now…..but, as a surprised Evan Davis pointed out, things were in fact at least the same, if not a lot worse in the past….Campbell had his door kicked in by police , the BBC were raided and an American was deported for writing about sensitive areas….which kind of undermines the Guardian’s stance now….though Campbell, somewhat of a lefty, disagreed….things are so much worse now he assured us, or reassured the ‘Left’.

It is entertaining to say the least to see the Guardian squealing about being treated like terrorists and complaining of the shadowy figures of State Security looming over them.

Remember the rumpus they set up over the CRU climate change emails? The Guardian and BBC worked furiously to denounce those who ‘stole’ those emails.

The Climate lobby demanded the police allocate huge resources to catch the criminals…for the consequences of the ‘theft’ could be catastrophic for the World.

Here the Guardian reveals the importance it gave to those CRU emails  and why the thieves really needed to be apprehended…

There is a scandal behind the latest release of emails written by climate scientists but is not about climate science. The true scandal is how, two years on, no one still has a clue who obtained the emails and why they so carefully timed their release for just before the UN’s annual climate change negotiations.

It matters. Those negotiations are central to the world’s efforts to tackling global warming.

Until we know the identity and motivation of those behind the release of the emails, they still present a danger…..until the merchants of doubt who seek to poison the debate are unmasked, that already Herculean task will be even harder.

Just how dangerous were the climate sceptics?….

‘….one scientist stating: “Those who deny the biophysical facts of the world would deny … gravity” and “we’re not in a gentlepersons’ debate, we’re in a street fight against … merciless enemies.’

The stereotypical Lefty, and favourite economic guru of the BBC compared them to the Nazis…

And Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman evoked Pastor Niemoeller’s cry against the erosion of humanity under the Nazis: “First, they came for the climate scientists…”.

When Foreign Secretary, Labour’s Margaret Becket compared climate sceptics to Islamic terrorists:

On Thursday, Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, compared climate sceptics to advocates of Islamic terror. Neither, she said, should have access to the media.

Beckett is following a trend. Increasingly, environmentalists are calling for the silencing of climate-change sceptics or deniers. The deniers’ words are so dangerous, we are told, that they must be censored for the good of humanity. Some have even claimed that in denying climate change, these individuals are committing a “crime against humanity” and should be put on trial.

The Guardian and BBC set out to undermine the credibility and importance of the exposure of the dodgy science behind the claims of global warming, claims which have cost this country billions and sent the price of fuel skywards, as well as having a drastic effect upon industrial competitiveness and therefore economic growth.   They were happy to see Tallboy in the dock so to speak, no problem that his life was turned upside down and his family inconvenienced…and he’s not a journalist either…just a civilian blogger with an interest in climate.

On the other hand the Guardian and Co believes potentially handing enormous amounts of highly secret and sensitive information to terrorists or foreign powers isn’t important…..and you have to assume both China and Russia have their hands on the files now after accomodating Snowden.

It seems that when it suits, the apparatus of a police state should be put at the disposal of the Guardianistas and BBC fellow travellers like Black (RIP) and Harrabin to hunt down the criminals who ’stole’ the ‘smoking gun’ emails but when the spotlight is turned on them they squeal about freedom of the Press, being treated like terrorists and the injustice of dragging in family members into the affair…despite Miranda acting as a willing courier for the highly sensitive information.

We’ve had the Hitler Youth, and of course the Commie version, the Young Pioneers….but now apparently the Nation’s liberal, progressive judicial system  is under threat from ‘Dad’s Waffen SS’…in WWII they defended us from the Nazis now Dad’s Army are the Fascists.

The age limit for jury service may be raised to 75.

Evan Davis’ main concern seemed to be that as we get older we get more right wing….he tells us.

Can’t have that can we…right leaning jurists…they might have to pass judgement on black, Muslim or gay defendants…absolutely no chance of a fair trial!

The Guardian is huffing and puffing about the indignity, the complete unfairness of the stop and search on Glenn Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda.

 ‘Journalism is under threat’….it’s a ‘betrayal of trust and principle.’

Funny how they were completely unconcerned about the arrests of News International journalists…in fact they in effect helped engineer those arrests with the BBC cheerleading all the way…never mind causing the closure of a newspaper and loss of 200  jobs due to Guardian lies.

We should all be worried about the Sun journos’ arrest

by Dan Hodges / 13 Feb 2012 14:51

These things fill up quicker than a BBC’s presenters eyes at the news of the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood, so here’s a new one for you.

Here I am again, continuing the look at the BBC’s internal plumbing and checking out the close ties between some very influential people.  Professor Laurie Taylor is the link to this second post….though he comes later in the piece…first I’ll start with the BBC struggling to create some interesting programmes.

A summary of the links:

iCreate…Patrick Younge…Gary Younge….the RSA….Matthew Taylor…Laurie Taylor……Marxism…the BBC…poverty…Open University.…The IPPR…The Labour Party….and finally James Purnell….IPPR and the Labour Party…not forgetting the BBC itself.

As said it is a very small world in the realm of politics, the media and academia  and it seems the revolving doors are going at it full pelt.

I’m sure there must be a joke there somewhere, about the BBC man, the academic and the Labour politician who went into a pub…but that would have to be told by a right wing comedian…and they don’t exist do they?

‘iCreate’ is the latest innovation from the BBC to look beyond the usual sources of new programming ideas. (Link may not work….but see the one below)

The BBC’s in-house production arm is aiming to harness the creativity of its 2,500 staff after launching a crowdsourcing system for programming ideas.

BBC Productions has unveiled a beta version of an online noticeboard called BBC iCreate, where staff will be encouraged to regularly post suggestions for new shows.

However, as the suggestion below is selected as an example of the new system working it doesn’t look like we can expect anything too groundbreaking:

 Health and safety adviser Christian McNally floated a sitcom idea about single fathers, titled Mr Mum, which is now being made into a 30-minute radio pilot.

The BBC has high hopes……iCreate can deliver TV gold

 And the future is bright….

“We believe we have a wealth of untapped creative talent which BBC iCreate, using Wazoku’s platform customised to our specific needs, can help liberate us to generate some fantastic TV shows.”

The staff themselves though might not be so upbeat: 

Overheard at the BBC

  “…This is not the golden age of new entertainment telly…”

Who was in charge of introducing his new system? Patrick Younge…brother no less of the Guardian’s Gary Younge. Small world at the BBC.

 Patrick Younge, Chief Creative Officer, Vision Productions 

Unfortunately Patrick is leaving his post soon:

Pat Younge is to leave his job as BBC Production’s chief creative officer at the end of the year.

He told in-house programme makers on Thursday that he was resigning because of changes to the structure of BBC Television that affected his role.

Shame for him…it seems to have been a well paid gig:

 Salary and total remuneration: June 2013

 Salary: £248,000
Total remuneration: £255,800

Of course he need not necessarily be cut from the same cloth as his brother Gary…but the two apples didn’t fall too far apart off the tree I suspect looking at his CV: 

Previously, Pat spent two years as Commissioning Editor for Multicultural Programmes at Channel 4, where his programme credits included: Untold, the black history season; Soul Nation, Trevor Nelson’s history of British soul music; Love In Leeds, a pop documentary series and An Indian Affair, a revisionist history of Britain’s relationship with India.

Pat has also worked at the BBC as a Series Producer in Current Affairs. His credits include: the award-winning series Black Britain, which he both co-created and series produced; and BBC One series Here And Now, of which he was series producer.

Will those BBC workers get paid for their additional input over and above their ‘day job’….well maybe, maybe not…payment is merely an ‘option available’….

 pat younge | 14-Dec-2012 0:31 am

As regards the payment issue its worth remembering many of those who will participate want the creative experience and opportunity for their idea to be heard and discussed. Those who are creatively active and whose ideas do well will be noticed, and who knows what creative opportunities could come their way. There are well recognised dangers of putting money front and centre in initiatives like this, especially where you are trying to promote collaboration. Check this great video from the RSA http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Du6XAPnuFjJc , but we do have financial options available to us if merited. PY

So that’s Pat Younge and iCreate….but look at Younge’s comment…he mentions the RSA …..the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

“The RSA has been at the centre of the debate of our age: what’s wrong with global capitalism and how to fix it.”
Robert Peston, BBC Business Editor

The RSA is a charity seeking to encourage business in a sustainable way and ‘responsible capitalism’….reducing poverty and caring for the environment.

It is of course, inevitably given such a brief, left leaning.

Perhaps not surprising when the Chief Executive is Matthew Taylor:

Matthew Taylor became Chief Executive of the RSA in November 2006. Prior to this appointment, he was Chief Adviser on Political Strategy to the Prime Minister

Taylor is the only son of the sociologist and broadcaster Professor Laurie Taylor who was a member of the Trotskyist International Socialists

Laurie Taylor is divorced from his third wife (whom he married in December 1988 in Camden), radio producer Cathie Mahoney who works on Loose Ends on BBC Radio 4.

Matthew Taylor and his stepmother, Cathie, have had directorships of the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Ahh…Laurie Taylor, is Matthew’s father…and works for the BBC and is probably slightly more than ‘left leaning‘ and does all those programmes about poverty….his stepmother also works for the BBC and both Matthew and she have worked for the lefty IPPR.

Not only that but Matthew himself works for the BBC on occasion…. ‘I am making [a programme] for Radio 4 on city regions and economic strategy.’

Update: thanks to Bodo in the comments for bringing this to my attention…Guido Fawkes has in the past had a close look at what Matthew Taylor was doing with the RSA and he didn’t like it:

Matthew Taylor is Ruining the RSA

Political Matthew Taylor Risks RSA’s Charitable Status

Taylor responds:

I don’t want to do anything to undermine the political neutrality of the RSA and incur the wrath not just of the likes of Guido Fawkes but, much more importantly, our Fellows. 

Here’s an insight into his thinking…he can‘t seem to help giving Labour a little praise:

 Powerful work from NIESR shows that underemployment can go up even as unemployment goes down. And, as the controversy raging over zero hours contracts reminds us, millions of people in the UK are working to take home a few quid a week more than they would be receiving on benefits (and that’s not because benefits are generous).

Criticising Government policy in one paragraph and praising it in the other is not simply a sign of my inconsistency it reflects a strange dualism. While at national level the economic debate feels polarised, predictable and short-termist, and while certain ministers continue ritually to trash local authorities, key parts of the Coalition (the Cabinet Office, the Treasury and BIS) are working pretty effectively with predominantly Labour councils to start to develop ambitious local economic strategies. Similarly, while the list of newly created peers might seem to emphasise the way national business interests line up with the Conservatives, at the city region/LEP level Labour Councils and the private sector are trying hard to work together to develop and pursue economic revival.

It is perhaps unfortunate but probably not the ‘rule’ that the first thing I came across on the RSA site was this video of ‘Radical sociologist [Marxist] David Harvey asking: is it time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?’

　 The Crises of Capitalism

 or try this for a taste of what the RSA also serves up:

Why do we keep on trying to cut our way out of this slump? Are our governments simply waging an ideological crusade in spite of all the contrary economic evidence?

European governments have succeeded in presenting government spending as profligacy that has destroyed the economy. The current policy of swingeing budget cuts –austerity- is presented as the only way to get us out of this mess.

But where did all that debt really come from? Not from an orgy of government spending, but as the direct result of bailing out, recapitalizing, and adding liquidity to the broken banking system. Private debt has now been rechristened as government debt, while those responsible for generating it placed the blame on the state, and the burden on the taxpayer.

Isn’t that straight out of  Labour’s handbook?

How influential is the RSA?:

Why work with the RSA?

“The RSA has played a crucial role in the debate around responsible capitalism in the UK. It’s influential and informed voice has set an important challenge to all businesses – how to act responsibly towards the communities they serve and the people they employ. Thought leadership of this kind is invaluable and I recommend the RSA to all businesses searching for innovative ideas around organisational development.”
Ian Cheshire, CEO, Kingfisher

“The RSA is without doubt one of the most influential and exciting influences on British public policy. The combination of a stellar public events programme, allied with a brilliant research agenda and a constant willingness to engage with pressing policy questions, means that the RSA is playing a pivotal role in shaping policymaking across the political spectrum.”         Rohan Silva, Senior Policy Advisor (to Tories), Number 10 Downing Street

So pretty influential then….playing a ‘pivotal role in shaping policy making’….not only that but helping to shape the way the BBC works…and maybe thinks?

I’m sure the RSA as an organisation is completely neutral despite having a Labour man at the helm.

Speaking of which as I looked up Patrick Younge I had a look at James Purnell’s details at the BBC.

Rather oddly the BBC, as when it reported the mass deaths at Stafford hospital, fails to mention Labour by name in Purnell’s biography, only obliquely referring to it….

He left the BBC to be Special Adviser on the Knowledge Economy, including Internet and broadcasting policy, to Tony Blair after he became Prime Minister.

He was elected Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde, before becoming Secretary of State for Culture and then for Work and Pensions. He resigned from the government in June 2009, and stood down from Parliament at the 2010 Election.

And when you look up Purnell’s register of personal interests he mentions the IPPR (Has lots to talk about with Matthew Taylor then…apart from both working variously at the BBC) and ‘Citizens UK’…both organisations from which he has stepped down….however he fails to mention that he was a member of the Labour Party and only stepped down because of his new BBC job.

Why is he so coy about that and not the others?

Why is it that the words ‘Labour Party’ seem so difficult to say in certain circumstances where it might prove awkward or embarrassing?

It is astonishing how closely entwined all these people are…all powerful and influential, and all of a similar mindset…..and the hub of it all being the BBC which provides a far reaching and significant platform for their ideas to be disseminated from.

The BBC is keeping itself busy, time waits for no man but if you can rewrite history it doesn’t really matter does it?

The BBC last night had another go at polishing the turd that was Degsy Hatton, expelled from the Labour Party for belonging to the ‘Revolutionary Socialist League’…or Militant Tendency as it had renamed itself….also known as ‘’The Loony Left’…with some justification.

Laurie Taylor (More of whom later) oversaw proceedings on ‘Thinking Allowed’ whilst Diana Frost from Liverpool University helped to delve into the sewers to seek out the truth:

In an environment of mass unemployment in which Liverpool felt abandoned by an indifferent government, the council resolved to join others across the land in refusing to set a budget that would hurt the poorest. It was at first wildly popular, but the scene soon became set for a battle between the city and central government that would shape the future of Liverpool.

Once again Thatcher becomes the villain of the piece nobly resisted by the champions of the poor and downtrodden…Hatton and his Marxist Marauders.

If that wasn’t enough we get a rose tinted look back at the working class, a noble breed, from Paul O’Grady, Lily Savage as you may also know him,  who asks… 

Whatever happened to the working class? In episode one of a two-part series for BBC One, Paul O’Grady goes on a very personal journey through the history of the British working class to find out how work shaped our communities and what happened when those iconic jobs disappeared

I took one look at the picture of O’Grady dressed as a miner and dismissed this as likely to be the usual anti-Thatcher polemic, maybe with a few jokes from our Lil.

Matt Rudd in the Sunday Times suggested it was more in line with Monty Python’s version of history than say Sir Alan Bullock’s, a rose tinted, nostalgic look back at the working man and woman….life were tough in t’old days lad!

Charles Moore in the Telegraph gives a more robust analysis and it looks like my initial misgivings were correct:

A sentimental view of the working classes

The employers of servants were cruel (“Her Upstairs was never satisfied”). The history of the 1930s was presented solely in terms of the Jarrow March of 1936, when in fact unemployment had been falling for three years. We learnt about the heroic trade union movement, and that the coal miners (“the backbone of British industry”) were the greatest. In the 1970s, we were told, “all the members thought as one”. Then along came “Thatcher” who was “ready to take on the working class”. That was “the beginning of the end”.

Looking up O’Grady on Wikipedia later, I found that he is a classic Left-wing luvvie. Obviously, the BBC would never dream of letting loose a Right-wing entertainer of similar working-class origins on a big programme like this.

Well that’s O’Grady and his version of history…but who else has a finger in this pie?

The BBC,  as is often the case, teams up with the Open University in a link with this programme (Check out Harrabin and Dr Joe Smith the climate change advocate and Open University lecturer)…which brings you into the wonderful world of class war and anti-cuts rhetoric.

OU on the BBC: Paul O’Grady’s Working Britain

With links to all sorts of enlightening information, brought to us by the likes of Marxist Dr Jason Toynbee (No relation I believe) and of course the BBC’s own Laurie Taylor….once, still? a Trotskyist member of International Socialist and the irrepressible Owen Jones…and we know what he thinks….because he’s read all the books and regurgitates it ad nauseum so often on the BBC….and not forgetting Professor Kath Woodward who tells us ‘I work on feminist theories and embodiment most recently in the field of sport, especially boxing and have published widely on sex gender, inequalities and the politics of sport
I teach undergraduate and post graduate interdisciplinary social sciences, sociology and supervise PhD students on a range of related topics-diversity, race and gender inequalities, often within the empirical field of sport.’

And then there’s Dr Tracy Kildrick who gives us this:

The riots: poverty cannot be ignored

The sociological discipline has, in large part, been defined by those prepared to take risks and work alongside the poorest and the most marginalised in society.

Politicians of all persuasions have tried hard to divorce the riots from any discussion about the current spending cuts. The problems of poverty did not go away under the previous government, but things were slowly improving for those on the lowest incomes. Much of this progress is now in danger of being swept away as those at the bottom face the greatest threat from the cuts instigated by those at the top. Research shows that relative poverty is set to rise over the coming period, making those already poor very vulnerable indeed. Welfare reform is targeting many of the most vulnerable in society, including those on sickness benefits. Cuts in public services are likely to affect the poorest most as they often have little choice but to rely on these services.

Can’t imagine what the conclusions drawn might be from that lot.

This might give us an idea though from Woodward and Taylor:

The poor are other people: Perceptions of poverty on Teesside

The very helpful sociologists have come to do missionary work amongst the poor…only the poor don’t know they’re poor….they only realise it when the kindly sociologists point this out to them….

…and of course, the sociologists tell us, this is why the ‘working class’  support the Coalition’s Dickensian welfare reforms…they just don’t know how poverty stricken they are…they don’t know what’s good for them….and naturally the sociologists can’t find hide nor hair of the scroungers and skivers, the not so disabled disability claimants, the undeserving poor….all a government manufactured PR myth to allow them to victimise and target the poorest in society..

Anyway you get the idea…..academics, in the realm of sociology, hardly likely to be a hot bed of Tea Party reactionaries.

The BBC knows who its friends are.

Laurie Taylor is the link to the next post in which he pops up again. It is a small world when you start probing around inside the belly of the beast.