TRIDENT MOTHBALLED

Today, the Telegraph claims Trident may well be another casualty of the recession and abandoned.
Welcome news, but it could have been a positive announcement from Number 10 instead of a swept under the carpet job.........
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/5844275/Gordon-Brown-delays-Trident-work.html

FARRAH'S STORY - ALL OUR STORIES

I never watched Charlie's Angel's. But with the help of Carmen rollers in the 1970's along with millions of other teenagers I tried to have hair like Farrah Fawcett. I suppose if I'm honest I always thought she was a bit of a Hollywood airhead but after watching tonight's extremely moving documentary on Channel 4 I'm astounded at her bravery in charting two years on film of invasive and terrifying cancer treatment.

Ten years ago this August, my sister died aged 51 of secondary cancer in her liver. She wasn't a Hollywood actress but she shared with Farrah Fawcett a profound concern for her children and family, rather than herself. At 61, my mother died of lung cancer when I was only 28 so to some extent it has been a major shadow over my life as it is for millions of others. Once it's been your loved ones in the frame the fear it might be you next never quite goes away.

When I was Mayor I tried to do my bit my raising as much money as I could and we collectively managed to raise £4000 - a decent enough total but only enough to keep the hospice going for one day. Their work continues.

At times in our lives, we all get wound up about trivial stuff like not enough money and getting older. We should be glad we are alive. I may spend a lot of my life in political activity - but I never forget mortality, the great leveller which none of us can escape. Nor cease to be affected by the bravery of others facing the end before their time. Like the rest of us, Hollywood legends have to die. And Farrah Fawcett emerged from her last movie with serene dignity and style.

NO MORE STITCH-UPS FOR BLAIR

The news that Tony Blair is being endorsed as President of Europe should come as no surprise to anyone who realises where the real power of this Government now resides. Peter Mandelson, plotter-in-chief and one of the most effective politicians of his generation, now effectively holds the strings which are keeping Brown in power. It's only thanks to Mandelson that Brown survived the serious coup attempt of a couple of months ago and, obviously, there was a price to pay.

One of which is, seemingly, suggesting the return of TB to the stage as holder of a £275,000 a year post in the EU. To Blair, now earning millions on the US lecture circuit, this is chickenfeed financially. But presumably he misses strutting around as a player closer to home.

New Cabinet Minister Glenys Kinnock, also part of the cabal which saved GB, is already enthusiastically drumming up support. Which is all deeply depressing news for all of us who have had enough of corrupt power politicians who seem to think they have a God-given right to high office.

Hasn't Blair done enough in consigning troops and the indigenous people of Afghanistan and Iraq to endless violence without returning to wreak havoc in the EU. I may not have said yes to No2EU. But I most definitely say NO to TB.

Frankly, the Labour Party has had enough of the Blairs and their unending boarding of the gravy train.

WHY OUR TRAINS ARE A NATIONAL SCANDAL

I don't blame the poor bird who flew into the windscreen at Oxenholme for turning my journey home into a nightmare. That honour goes to the staff at Preston station who tonight refuted the view of the guard at Lancaster that I was entitled to a taxi to get me home after the unfortunate creature had caused me to miss my (last) connection.
Thus a 40-mile journey took three hours, I had to go into Manchester and out again, two hours added to my journey, and it was made clear to me it was a case of like it or lump it.
In pre-privatisation days, British Rail honoured their customer contracts and did their best to get people home at the least inconvenience when things went wrong. The private companies don't give a monkey's.
So" thanks" to Virgin Trains for rendering a previously delightful day at my niece's graduation into an exhausting and unnecessary horror story. Is it any wonder people are reluctant to use public transport? And why we call for re-nationalisation

CALDER BRANCH LABOUR PARTY.......

Tonight affiliated to the LRC. We regard this as an absolutely fundamental step which will help us re-build and recruit more members. It will also enable us to send out a clear message that our Branch, the largest in the Calder Valley constituency, is not signed up to New Labour policy and that we retain the socialist values which we have stood for ever since we campaigned against Iraq, tuition fees, privatisation, and the other policies which the LRC stands for.I urge other Branch Labour Parties to do the same and our next fund-raiser on Thursday August 6 will give part of the proceeds to the LRC.

A DIRTY GAME.....

Politics is a dirty game and after 30-odd years I see no reason why it should change - much as I would like it to. Stitch-ups, treachery and jobs for the boys have always been a part of Labour Party culture which is why in the early 1980's groups like the Campaign For Labour Party Democtacy struck such a chord with activists.
CLPD is still gamely hanging on and trying to reverse measures like the abolition of contemporary resolutions at annual Conference. The results of which we will see at Brighton in a couple of months but that will only happen if the unions come on board. Which, hopefully, they will.
OMOV voting for the National Policy Forums would be another advance , making the NPF more representative and ending the sheep-like mentality of the current set-up which is still overwhelmingly dominated by what's left of New Labour.
The mood locally in my Labour Party Branch is unremittingly bleak folowing the NEC's refusal to listen to us over the Parliamentary selection(s) and several of our keenest activists have resigned. Most members are just apathetic and unwilling to engage - and who can blame them.
As Branch Secretary, I face a Herculean task turning that round but we still have over 100 members and the only way forward is to try and motivate people which is not going to be easy in the current circumstances. In the long term, things can change and with local elections coming up next year we will need candidates in place who our members will campaign for.
If there are any more stitch-ups, or candidates barred for spurious reasons, Calder Branch will be in terminal decline.As things stand, most of us are just hanging on in there by our fingernails.

BONUS CULTURE MAKES MOCKERY OF DARLING'S POLICY

Earlier this week, the Chancellor was criticised for his failure to adopt stringent regulation on the banks bailed out by US. Today's Mail reports the bonus culture is back......
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1198904/City-banks-reward-staff-mind-blowing-bonuses-months-bringing-world-economy-brink-meltdown.html
The Left Economic Advisory Panel's take is here

THE GREAT FOOD DIVIDE

I blame the fact that I was force-fed as a (very) premature baby both for a lifelong obsession with food - and a lifelong problem with my metabolism. I'm currently (successfully) managing to eat rather less but note today's CiF thread on a report in the Mail which suggests us Northerners spend far less on fresh produce and eat more junk than our counterparts in the south. Oh, yawn.

Some 70 years ago, in The Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell pointed out that people with very little money or indeed time would tend to opt for a tasty fried fish supper rather than take the time to concoct something healthier or cheaper.

His evocation of the fly-blown tripe shop remains one of the great examples of descriptive prose in the English language. The fact is that diet is still largely determined by income and by class. Not by geography.

Until recently, it was fair to say that food in Britain remained cheap. Not so any longer. The days when you could cram a bag full of veggies for very little are long-gone .

Hebden Bridge, where I live, is a haven of foodie-ness with two delis, an organic veg and meat shop, two butchers, greengrocer's and no big supermarket. Two farmer's markets a month and every week a market where this week I bought a fresh piece of perch for £2.47 and baked it in the oven with lemon and herbs. I must confess it was rather bland and a portion in batter with some chips would have tasted rather better. And cost rather less.

I skipped on the fruit and veg ( apart from a punnet of strawberries for £1) because it was far too expensive.And frozen veg is just as nutritious.

Due to diminished income, I've become adept at stuffing sell-by cheapies in the freezer, I can make a pan of soup for about 50pence, and being a post-war child am also pretty skilled at the comfort dishes my mum made like shin beef stew ( Tater ash if you're a Mancunian, Scouse if you're a Scouser) and liver and onions. But, North and South, the art of cooking is dying out.

Junk food is undoubtedly more prevalent and I see far more takeaways when I go down to London than there are in Manchester city centre. It's all part of a quick-fix, corporate society where a vegan cafe has little chance of success in a world dominated by KFC and McDonalds.

I'm reminded of that wonderful TV documentary where Michael Portillo took over the cooking for a family in Liverpool and shamefacedly confessed he spent more on one meal out than the family did in a week. And that's the bottom line. Iceland, Lidl and Aldi are the ports of call for anyone with mouths to feed and very little money to feed them on. Ocadia and Waitrose the preserve of those with oodles of cash. Those with very little will eat what they can afford. And chips are very very cheap.....

A TERRIBLE TOLL

It is not Bob Ainsworth's fault that the speaking clock is probably capable of emoting more distress than he is able to in the wake of the news that the death toll in Afghanistan hasnow reached the same total as Iraq.But never was a man less suited to the role of conveying public sorrow at private grief. He talks like an automaton.
That's no doubt why one of the bereaved relatives today accused him of being uncaring about the deaths of so many soldiers in so few days. I am sure that is not really the case.
However, it is surely time for the Government to consider bringing the troops home and ending the carnage.

CELEBRITY POLITICOS

George Clooney is arguably one of the most handsome men currently on the planet. And, if I were Sarah Brown, I probably wouldn't exactly turn down the chance to meet him either. But I wonder what both were doing at the G8 summit in Italy.
Most of the tabloids coverage of the summit has consisted of blow-by-blow accounts of what the various wives were wearing and who looked the best. Why, exactly, do the wives have to be there? It only adds to the cost of the whole circus and it's rather depressing so little progress has been made and that the world's leaders are still male, middle-aged and parading their partnes around as if it were London Fashion Week rather than a serious political summit. It 's all a bit farcical and, frankly, a distraction from the global changes which desperately need to be addressed. Still, fair play to Carla Bruni for snubbing Berlusconi so she could take George to the opening of a cinema. Given the choice, who wouldn't ........