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Thank you @obotheclown! I've entered the top 100 Total Politics left-wing blogger awards 2011 at no 13!
Thank you to @obotheclown for telling me that I’d made the top 100 Labour bloggers this year.
http://www.totalpolitics.com/blog/257882/top-75-leftwing-bloggers.thtml
It’s public knowledge I was very upset at not having made the top 100 last year. I asked Iain Dale why this was so, and he simply explained, delicately, that nobody had heard of my blog. So many thanks to the people who voted for me this year. I put a huge amount of effort into my blog, and I’m ecstatic this year it’s been rewarded!
If I could subpoena Cameron and Clegg to do a leaders' debate now, I would
If I could subpoena Cameron and Clegg to do a leaders’ debate now, I most definitely would. As a student of a MBA course going at a very fast rate, it is easy to get a feel for a flavour of the management and leadership styles of David Cameron, and to understand why he personally, and his Tory-led government, are doing catastrophically badly. I exclude Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, whose ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity to transform the nature of politics on the left-wing has been utterly wasted. Nobody sane would expect Nick Clegg to face the music in a Leaders’ debate in 2015, for example.
The issue with the Tory-led government is that they have a sole core competency, that is to reduce the deficit. However, the mechanism by which they are doing it is causing considerable damage to the recovery which had started in the first few months of their current (and probably) last term of government. By having no coherent policy for generating growth, they potentially could worsen the deficit by decreasing tax receipts and increasing benefit spending. It’s like having a credit card when you’re unemployed, but you are sanctioned from having any source of income.
David Cameron also fails as a leader in a number of textbook ways. As a potential transformational leader, he does not have the support of key followers essential for a change management to succeed, say in the public sector. Essential in this change management is not doing the change too fast, and having some symbols of success. Instead, David Cameron faces increasing waiting times and a plethora of equally disastrous metrics in NHS management, and the ultimate accolade in manufacturing output, the GDP, is deterioriating all the time. His preferred management style for running the public sector is ‘lean management’, which runs two grave dangers. Firstly, it can be extremely difficult to do a root cause analysis of problems when things go wrong, and secondly there is little functional slack. Take for example the recent riots. In an overstretched, underfunded, police service, it is difficult for the police and justice system to mount a satisfactory response. Amazingly, they have, but despite a dangerous level of cuts.
David Cameron has equally proven himself as a poor crisis leader. Over the riots, where he was accused of spending too long in Tuscany, and over the hacking crisis, where the evidence provided by Goodman, Coulson and Murdoch continues to cause problems, Cameron has been seen naked in responding way too late after the events; and again he suffers from a lack of trust by his followers, the UK general public.
Furthermore, in textbook terms, David Cameron fails as a charismatic leader. This was first identified really by Mary Liddell who wondered some time ago whether the general public could grow to embrace David Cameron. Indeed, Liddell was right. They couldn’t. The result was a hung parliament, with a completely ineffective Nick Clegg, driven by a personal dislike of Gordon Brown and ‘liberal principles’, led his party at Westminster to vote against EMA and the rise in tuition fees. No wonder his political party was slaughtered in the local elections.
So, I do come back to my basic thought: if I could subpoena Cameron and Clegg to do a leaders’ debate now, I would. Tragically, the country is stuck with them until 2015.
Please vote for http://www.shibleyrahman.com in the Total Politics Blog Awards 2011.
Total Politics Blog Awards 2011 | Vote for Shibley Rahman!
Hi readers,
I would be very grateful if you could vote for my blog in the ‘Total Politics Blog Award 2011‘. I would like to win an award in ‘Total Politics 2011′ as I have never won a blog award of any sort, and I feel that inclusion somewhere in the Top 100 might recognise it. It has a reasonable following, and people have often told me how much they enjoy reading my contributions, ranging from Labour policy, to some other loves of my life, medical education, recovery and dementia. These days, I love the law and business, and hence my other blog ‘LegalAware‘.
My blog is http://www.shibleyrahman.com
Please use this link: Vote for Shibley Rahman – Total Politics Blog Award 2011.
The rules of Total Politics Blog Award 2011 provide that:
Please note you must vote name at least five blogs/authors for each question for your vote to count, but if you don’t want to name more than that, just write ‘blank’ in the other boxes.
Voting is said to close later this week.
Please feel free to mention me @shibleyrahman as your favourite political tweeter.
I have cross-party support for the blog which I’m proposing for Total Politics Blog Award 2011 (see my testimonials on my front page of this blog). Thank you! Rules prevent me from recommending any other blogs! (Thanks, H.)
Finally, I should like to mention one person who has influenced me massively over a long period of time. Iain Dale has shaped the landscape of political blogging like no other person in England, and for that I believe we should be enormously grateful. I had no votes for my Labour blog last year, but it was in its infancy. Whilst I do not agree sometimes with Iain’s political views, I don’t think there is anyone on the left or right who is as competent at articulating his ideas and with passion, currently. I know Iain Dale is not judging this Award, so I do not feel inhibited in writing this!
Fleet Street Fox launches new range of T-shirts in an online shop
You can now buy these from “Foxy’s Shop“.
Fleet Street Fox (“The Fox”) has extended her brand into what looks to be a successful competitively-priced clothing range. The clothing is iconic for anyone who is championing freedom of the press. The critical importance of investigative journalism has been demonstrated recently, for example, in the BBC Panorama exposures of care homes and the FIFA World Cup (separately). You can follow The Fox on Twitter.
Also, the clothing, which currently includes a range of inexpensive T-shirts of her well-known sayings, occupy an unique niche in the market for T-shirts. I am unaware of anyone producing such T-shirts, personally. They are available in various colours including white, black, red and blue, various sizes (S, M, L and XL), and are available at £12.90. You can buy them on-line in a safe environment.
These are the current offerings:
“Boys are wankets”
“Injunct me I dare you” (2 designs)
“Hangover Status 7/10″
“Feeling Foxy?”
“Lost count vodkas” (2 designs)
It is widely expected that Fleet Street Fox will be soon obtaining a book deal, not a superinjunction, however. This seems a sensible move for her, following a hugely successful blogwhich had about 50,000 hits daily (it is reported), at the height of the recent superinjunctions and anonymised injunctions discussion.
My new Labour blog
Readers of this blog may be interested to know that I write with a small team of people in a fresh Labour blog. Please do contact me on Facebook if you would like to be a contributor – particularly if you’re not a Labour voter, nor a member of Labour, but you would like to explain where Labour is going wrong.
The blog is called “LabourView”, and is here: LabourView blog
"No to AV" : final words
The No to AV campaign write:
Today sees the second NO to AV referendum broadcast, in which David Blunkett, David Cameron, John Reid and hundreds of NO to AV supporters urge voters to keep One Person One Vote.
Following the success of the first broadcast, in which NO to AV used three short films – including the return of Alan B’Stard – to illustrate the problems with the Alternative Vote system, the new broadcast focuses on the benefits of First Past the Post and the safeguarding of the principle of One Person One Vote.
You can get a sneak preview by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok-CMxtMYj0
The second NO to AV referendum broadcast will air this evening (Monday 1 May) at: 6.55pm (BBC ONE), 5.55pm (BBC TWO), 6.25pm (ITV ONE), 7.05pm (CHANNEL 4) and 6.55pm (CHANNEL 5).
With just three days to go, the campaign is really hotting up. On Saturday NO to AV launched our ‘Get Out the Vote’ Battle Bus Tour, and over the next few days we will send out another 15 million leaflets and hold hundreds of street stalls across the country.
Our aim with the Battle Bus tour is to explain and inform voters about the dangers of a switch to the unfair and expensive Alternative Vote system. We have always tried to explain why First Past the Post is better than the Alternative Vote, whilst the Yes campaign has avoided talking about AV, choosing instead to peddle untruths about expenses and safe seats to confuse and obscure the issue.
We need all your help and support over the next three days if we are going to make the current polls a reality and preserve the historic principle of One Person One Vote for Parliamentary elections. The next 3 days are the most crucial period in this referendum and nothing is done or settled yet.
Together we can stop the Liberal Democrats rigging our voting system in their favour and destroying several hundred years of British political history. Vote NO to the Alternative Vote on 5 May.
There are three things you can do right away to help:
- PASS THIS EMAIL on to your friends and family;
- Visit our ACTION CENTRE and print off a poster to display in your window; or
- DONATE a small amount to help us keep the momentum going over the crucial next three days.
All the best,
Team NO to AV
"Yes to AV" campaign from Jonathan Walsh
Jonathan Walsh writes:
Well here we are, just three days to go.
Since we launched Yes to Fairer Votes on 5 November 2010, thousands of people have come together at hundreds of events across London, and the UK.
The incredible movement we’ve built shows how much this referendum matters; your tireless dedication shows how much the country is crying out for change. But with just three days left, we can’t lose momentum now.
You’ve still got time – right up until 10pm on Thursday, you can make a difference. Once polling closes though, your chance to change the way we vote is over forever.
Don’t let the moment pass you by – use these three days to hit the streets and get on the phones whenever you can, and please give as much time as possible on 4 and 5 May:
http://www.yestofairervotes.org/This-is-it-London
Polling day is going to be absolutely crucial. This referendum will be won or lost on turnout – simple as that. Whichever campaign gets their voters to the polls will decide the course of British politics for generations to come.
So what’s it to be next Monday? Back to Westminster politics as usual or a clear statement that enough is enough?
Can you spare a couple of hours, or a whole day? Either way, sign up to be part of our “Get out the vote” movement, and this historic campaign – before it’s too late.
http://www.yestofairervotes.org/This-is-it-London
Thursday 5 May will be a historic moment for the UK. It’s up to us to make sure the history books tell the story of change – a story of people coming together to defeat the institutional old guard and win a fairer democracy for everyone.
Thanks,
Jonathan Walsh
P.S. Thursday is crucial, but every hour before it matters. Find details for your nearest activities here:
Osama Bin Laden has been killed in the War Against Terror
The trail started last August. Bin Laden is a highly symbolic figure in the War Against Terror. Tony Blair was once asked in the House of Commons in PMQs how he would know the precise time at which the War Against Terror would be finally be over, and he did not know. The death of Bin Laden is being held as symbolic by the US news networks, in that nobody who commits a crime on the US will get away with it, wherever that perpetrator is in the world. The consequences of this news are unforeseen.
Clearly, the War Against Terrorism is not over. Al Qaeda is still highly active in various parts of the world including Yemen. It is said that the Obama administration will thank the work of George Bush in introducing drone strikes. The drone attacks had been going on for about two years now.
A small group of men from the U.S. conducted the operation which ended in a firefight. President Obama in his Presidential address praised the Military and Counter-Terrorist officials of the U.S. and its allies, and explained the difficulty in tracking down Bin Laden as a pivotal part in the war against Terror. President Obama, who had made it a top priority for his Administration, apparently last week authorised an action to bring Bin Laden to justice, with no Americans harmed, and took custody of Bin Laden’s body. President Obama has especially emphasised that this is not a war against Islam, and Bin Laden is not a Muslim leader. He praised Pakistan for being supportive in the U.S.’ mission, and Pakistan have agreed that this a good step forward in the War Against Terror.
Tomorrow's hymns for the Royal Wedding
Love divine, all loves excelling
Guide me thou O great redeemer
Jerusalem