A progressive analysis of politics and the arts.
Norwich City Council has backed calls for the government to support a pilot for Universal Basic Income (UBI), which would trial providing a monthly income to all residents of the city, following a recent debate at City Hall. City councillors argued that all residents should receive this fixed monthly amount regardless of employment status, wealth and marital status.
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by Eli Lambe
Released shortly before the disaster at Grenfell, Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle is a timely and balanced exploration of the factors that led to the tragedy, and to the wider social cleansing of working class and low income communities throughout the UK. Introducing the film to a packed room in Norwich’s Cinema City, director Paul Sng emphasised the need to counter the “media culture of denigrating people who live in social housing”. The goal of the film, for Sng, was to show that people living in these estates and situations are valuable in themselves, and that the communities that exist there are important and should be preserved, as well as highlighting how this is overshadowed constantly by the prioritisation of profit and private sector gains.
by Toby Gill
Content warning: article mentions xenophobia and racism
There’s no way of hiding it, Labour took a beating on May 4th. Losing control of 7 councils while the Conservatives gained 11, the Tories now hold 28 councils to Labour’s 9. Overall, the Conservatives gained 563 seats, while Labour lost 382.
The left-of-centre media has been united in their response to these results; the internet is strewn with articles heavy with despair and foreboding. Such was the synchrony and unanimity of this outcry, that our nation’s journalists have almost come to resemble a marching band in procession behind the coffin of progressive politics itself.
Yet this despair is misplaced. For these commentaries seem to treat the Local Elections as little more than another poll for the upcoming General Election. Except this poll is even more significant, because it employs a real electorate.
This belief could not be further from the truth. I am here to tell you that the correct response to the Local Elections is not to get disheartened, it is to get mad. Continue Reading
by Jonathan Bartley & Caroline Lucas
This week’s House of Commons vote to renew Trident and the scrapping of the Department for Energy and Climate Change are the latest reminders of the scale of the task we face together as progressives.
The future looks far more dangerous and insecure even than it did just a few weeks ago. The UN has found our welfare system seriously wanting. Over a million people still rely on food banks. And hate crime is on the rise.
The People’s Assembly Against Austerity national End Austerity demonstration takes place on Saturday 20th June. Assemble: 12pm, Bank of England (Queen Victoria Street). March to: Parliament Square.
Like a storm in the sea sending a tidal surge our way, the past 5 years under austerity tell us of looming devastation. We saw it gather momentum on the horizon, as the waves of cuts started to roll in — pay freezes for the public sector, caps on benefits and cuts to social housing. This left in its wake a falling GDP per capita, a decline in affordable housing, and the rise of food banks. And now that those responsible for this have been re-elected, we are shamelessly informed that the storm is not over, the worst is yet to come and we will not be rescued.Continue Reading
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