IS IT FINALLY TIME FOR AN ANTIGYPSYISM INQUIRY IN THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY?

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Alan Mellins, antigypsyism, antisemitism, Ashkali, Community, conservatives, discrimination, featured, Gary STreeter, gypsy, hate speech, hatred, Irish Travellers, islamophobia, JAck Dromey, Joanna Dabrowska, Manush, media, Mike Bird, minorities, nick clegg, persecution, Philippa Roe, racism, Robert Fraser, Roma, Romani, Sandwell, Selous, Sinti, society, stereotypes, Tories, travellers, UKIP, unemployment, Yenish.

by Jonathan Lee

Content warning: hate speech, antigypsyism, inclusion of derogatory language.

After a Hope Not Hate survey revealed the not-so-shocking discovery that two thirds of Conservative Party Members are islamophobes, pressure has been mounting for the Tories to launch a party inquiry into Islamophobia. In a time when Jeremy Corbyn’s hummus eating habits spur fresh cries of antisemitism, it is encouraging to see that the ‘Nasty Party’ are not immune from scrutiny for the widespread racism amongst their members. Though the survey results were damning, the response from the media has been somewhat subdued. Can you imagine the backlash if a survey found that two thirds of Labour Party members believed antisemitic conspiracy theories? Or if 43% said they would prefer the UK was not led by a Jew (as Conservatives members indicated at the possibility of a Muslim Prime Minister)? The next Tory leader will inherit this scandal and may not be able to brush it off so easily.

Now that the lid has been blown off the rampant islamophobia within the Conservative Party, it’s high time other widely held racist beliefs in the party ranks were examined; not least, antigypsyism.Continue Reading

PARTY CONFERENCE SEASON RECAP

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Amber Rudd, Boris Johnson, Brighton, conference, economics, general election, grant shapps, Green, Iain Duncan, jacob rees-mogg, jeremy corbyn, Labour, neil kinnock, party, Plaid Cymru, policy, politics, pundit, Sirte, snp, speech, theresa may, Tory, uk, UKIP, vince cable.

by Chris Jarvis

Political punditry’s busiest time of the year has come to a close, as most of Britain’s political parties have wrapped up their annual festivals of spin, spectacle and speculation – only Plaid Cymru and the Scottish Greens remain un-conferenced. What a season it has been.

Typically speaking, party conferences go mostly unnoticed, change little in the political landscape, and are quickly forgotten as the cogs of history whirr on unshaken. 2017 will be more than an aberration to that pattern. True, the ‘smaller’ parties failed to make a mark this time round too. Little of note came out of the SNP or Green Party of England and Wales conferences. The sole memorable moment of the Liberal Democrat soiree was the laughable assertions trotted out to the press time and again, that Vince Cable could soon be the next Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. UKIP’s will only be recalled as the final subdued howl of Little England defiance as it casts itself into electoral and political irrelevance. That notwithstanding, this year was a bumper crop.Continue Reading

THE DIRTY PROFITS IN HOUSING

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged Chelsea, cladding, corporation, disaster, fire, Grenfell, James Charteris, Kensington, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, norwich, planning, profit, Rock Feilding-Mellen, Rydon, safety, Socially Conscious Capital, Thorpe Woodland, UKIP.

by Joe Burns

The Grenfell Tower fire has painfully illustrated how destructive and negligent council spending can be. The predominant cause of the disaster was that money was spent in the wrong places.

Almost nine million pounds worth of refurbishment was completed on Grenfell Tower by Rydon and many other groups in May last year (though the “successful” refurbishment of Grenfell Tower has disappeared from Rydon’s website). The work included new exterior cladding, replacement windows and a communal heating system. The bottom four floors were also made into new communal spaces. However, nothing was done to satisfy residents, even after years of complaints by Grenfell Action Group, about the safety of the building. The local council even threatened the campaign group with legal action if they were to continue their pursuit.Continue Reading

NOW IS OUR CHANCE FOR A NEW POLITICS – DON’T LET TRIBALISM STRANGLE IT AT BIRTH

Posted on July 1, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #GE2017, alternative vote, caroline lucas, conservative, corbyn, democracy, election, Green, hung parliament, ICM, Jon Bartley, Labour, Make Votes Matter, new politics, New Statesman, PR, referendum, theresa may, UKIP.

by Olivia Hanks

Outside onlookers would be forgiven for thinking that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party had won the general election. From the scale of the jubilation among sections of the left, you wouldn’t imagine we still had a hard-right government, now propped up by the very-very-hard right. For some, the joy is purely that a Labour party which seemed irrevocably divided and defeated has reasserted itself as a credible force. For others, myself included, the reasons for optimism are more nuanced, because our hopes are not for Labour, but for a real, functioning democracy. That’s why we can join Labour supporters in rejoicing that young people came out to vote, that the UK rejected the vicious bile of the tabloid media and the arrogance of a Prime Minister who believed the election was a formality. It’s also why we are sceptical that a tribal Labour party still wedded to first-past-the-post is capable of offering the answers we need.Continue Reading

UKIP: THE ORIGINAL RADICALS

Posted on June 18, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Community, Inter|national and tagged anti-establishment, Brexit, change, Chris Hanretty, clive lewis, EU, GE2017, general election, left wing, Norman Lamb, norwich, politics, progressive, radical, right wing, UEA, UKIP.

by James Anthony

Following the recent elections both locally in Norfolk and nationally at Westminster, many of us will have been enjoying the demise of the entity we all know as ‘UKIP’ – the United Kingdom Independence Party. With many realising that their main objective of leaving the European Union has been all but completed, the electorate have decisively rejected their flimsy, populist, far right manifesto and consigned the party to the history books.

It’s hard to believe that they were ever a considerable electoral force, this year picking up just under 2% of the vote, losing all of their incumbent 145 local councillors and their only seat in parliament less than twelve months after their referendum victory. UKIP campaigners were keen to talk about voters returning to them, but this clearly didn’t materialise.Continue Reading

THE 2017 GENERAL ELECTION – LEFT US HANGING

Posted on June 9, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #GE2017, Amber Rudd, austerity, Brexit, Britan, caroline lucas, Chris Jarvis, coverage, democracy, exit poll, forecast, general election, greens, jeremy corbyn, John Bartley, Labour, leadership, libdems, manifesto, media, MSM, NHS, nick clegg, nicola sturgeon, Norwich Radical, paul nuttall, people, Plaid Cymru, PLP, politics, poll, prediction, propaganda, Scotland, snp, theresa may, Tim Farron, tony blair, Tory, uk, UKIP, vote, voter, voting.

by The Norwich Radical

The following piece was created, compiled and co-written by a number of Norwich Radical contributors, across a number of locations, devices, and even countries. We followed the exit polls, the first counts, the calculations and predictions as they became available across the media. We do not have any inside information, but have combined our experience and information during the night to produce this article in time for the morning readers.

There is no final result confirmed at the time of publication, but it has been confirmed that we have a hung parliament, as it is mathematically impossible for any party to claim an overall majority.

A BEGINNING, NOT THE END – THE 2017 GENERAL ELECTION

Posted on June 8, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #GE2017, austerity, Brexit, Britan, caroline lucas, Chris Jarvis, coverage, democracy, exit poll, forecast, general election, greens, jeremy corbyn, John Bartley, Labour, leadership, libdems, manifesto, media, MSM, NHS, nicola sturgeon, Norwich Radical, paul nuttall, people, PLP, politics, poll, prediction, propaganda, Scotland, snp, theresa may, Tim Farron, tony blair, Tory, uk, UKIP, vote, voter, voting.

by Chris Jarvis

In a couple of hours, polling stations will close, and the fate of the United Kingdom will have been decided. Throughout the night the gentle trickling of results will sprinkle their way in, as the aftermath of the most fascinating election for a generation will begin to unravel. Psephologists will debate the relative merits of their predictions, political spin-artists will argue their respective parties have actually done quite a lot better than they expected, and the hacks (myself included), will drift further into the early hours, wearing out their laptop keys.

Right now, we know that the election campaign has been riddled with ups and with downs. We’ve seen Labour climb steadily in the polls, narrowing the Tory lead from over 20 points to single figures; two atrocities claimed the lives of 34 people; campaigning was suspended twice; the Tories launched a manifesto into a whirlwind of negativity; UKIP’s support collapsed; and Labour proposed a political programme further to the left of any Government in four decades. Any one of those alone would make this election remarkable. Combined they make it unique.

THE DECISION FOR PROGRESSIVES IN NORWICH SOUTH

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Community, Inter|national and tagged Brexit, business, caroline lucas, Charles Clarke, clive lewis, conservative, constituency, education, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, first-past-the-post system, general election, general election 2017, Green Party, jeremy corbyn, Labour, Lana Hempsall, Liberal Democrat, Lisa Townsend, norwich, norwich south, sustainable energy, theresa may, tuition fees, UKIP, voting reform.

by Joe Burns

Progressives in the constituency of Norwich South have a difficult decision to make tomorrow. It is a decision that has come up many times before. Do you vote for the party that you most strongly align with or do you tactically vote to keep Conservatives out? It might be that few in Norwich want a Conservative government in power, but is voting for a weak opponent to the Tories a risk worth taking? Aren’t Labour popular enough in the city to win without the support of Green Party or Liberal Democrat voters? Weighing those odds is tricky.

In many constituencies around the country the decision is relatively easy. There are dozens of websites that can quickly and straightforwardly tell you which party to vote for in your area if you want to vote for the party with the greatest chance of keeping the Tories out. This is the case in zones where Tory and Labour candidates score closely and no other party comes close to matching them. If you’re a small party voter then your vote makes little difference to the outcome anyway.Continue Reading

VOTE PROGRESSIVE, VOTE FOR OUR FUTURE – STUDENTS AND THE ELECTION #4

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #GE2017, campaigning, clive lewis, Compass, course cuts, cuts, elitism, Free Education, general election, Green Party, Havant, higher education, international students, Johnathan Bartley, Labour, Liberal Democrats, london, marketisation, norwich, politics, polls, progressive alliance, Sian Berry, snap election, student politics, student vote, students, Students and the Election, tactical voting, Tories, tuition fees, UKIP, universities, voters, voting.

by Robyn Banks

In the midst of multiple crises faced by students, universities and schools, the outcome of the snap general election will be a major indicator of the future of the UK education sector. Each week until the vote we are featuring perspectives from our regular contributors and guests on what the election could mean for students.

There is a lot of fear about the morning of June 9th. Will we wake up to a Tory super-majority that will see them stay in charge for the next 15 years? To a renewed age of cuts that hurt the poorest and most vulnerable in society, that disembowel the education system from primary to higher, and that destroy the environmental protections (or ‘Green Crap’) that will ensure that we have a safer and more secure future for our world? Or will the sun rise on something else? With the polls getting closer and closer, a miraculous Labour Party win isn’t off the table just yet.

NORWICH GOES BLINDLY TO RED

Posted on May 10, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged Adrian Dearnley, conservative, county council, defection, general election, george nobbs, Green Party, Isle of Wight, Labour, liberal, Liberal Democrat, libraries, local elections, norfolk, Norfolk County Council, norfolk greens, Norfolk Labour, norwich, norwich green party, progressive, public transport, roads, social care, UKIP.

by Joe Burns

In the county council elections that took place last week, Labour unquestionably took Norwich. They won twelve of the thirteen wards in the city. Although it is good news that the Conservatives continue to play no part of governance in the city, it is a sad day for true progressives. Voter turnout was a shameful 34.51 percent and the voting system we have means that even though more people voted against the Tories than for them in the county, they won the most seats. Obviously, as Richard Bearman (Norwich Green Party) says, we need a proportional representation system, but that is a matter for another time.

At county level, the Conservatives had a predictably great day at the expense of UKIP, whose past supporters seem to favour the dishonesty and intolerance of the current Tory government. Indeed, the views of many UKIP supporters have now been adopted by the Tories, most notable their stance on the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.

Although The Green Party won four seats in the 2013 county council elections (all in Norwich), the defection of Adrian Dearnley to the Conservatives late last year meant that Norwich Green Party were left with three seats to defend in this most recent county council election. Unfortunately, voters seem to have turned away in favour of Labour.Continue Reading

UKIP

IS IT FINALLY TIME FOR AN ANTIGYPSYISM INQUIRY IN THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY?

PARTY CONFERENCE SEASON RECAP

THE DIRTY PROFITS IN HOUSING

NOW IS OUR CHANCE FOR A NEW POLITICS – DON’T LET TRIBALISM STRANGLE IT AT BIRTH

UKIP: THE ORIGINAL RADICALS

THE 2017 GENERAL ELECTION – LEFT US HANGING

A BEGINNING, NOT THE END – THE 2017 GENERAL ELECTION

THE DECISION FOR PROGRESSIVES IN NORWICH SOUTH

VOTE PROGRESSIVE, VOTE FOR OUR FUTURE – STUDENTS AND THE ELECTION #4

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