Dogs...

Dreadful news about a 4 year old child been killed by a dog that went wild and of course my sympathy goes out to his family, it is a terrible end of a young and Innocent life. What has driven a dog though, man's best friend, to kill and who the hell is controlling this new craze that allows irresponsible people to breed and keep animals in flats and treat them like objects? More should be done to educate young adults before they leave school so that they understand and respect animals. They are not here to be mistreated and although man is dominant in the animal kingdom that dominance and superiority comes with the need to show respect and treat other creatures well and give them some dignity. The government should licence those who have dogs as pests and those caught without one should be dealt with.

Lambeth Council and confusion...

Again I will be boring and start by saying that the majority of what Lambeth Council does is good and those who work for the organisation do so because they are dedicated public servants and not banker like people.

The problem with the organisation however comes from certain sections not functioning well and this is without any doubt (and based on my 21 years of working with the Levitan) to do with complete lack of central coordination or control. This is definitely the case with matters to do with HR policies and procedures. I have deliberately left a number of job evaluation appeals parked to see how long it takes for the machinery to sort things out and set the panels up. I am not at all surprised that the 3 in question have still not been scheduled even though they were submitted in July. I know for a fact that when I start screaming they will be arranged but this is not the way to do business? I will report here next week when I will be announcing that after my intervention these will be done. This is no way to do things and that is where Lambeth (a fantastic place to live in) goes wrong!

Titles and Equality

There are major contradictions in every aspect of society but the one that makes little sense comes from the tradition to dish out titles in a modern age where meritocracy should be the dominant factor. I am fed up switching the telly on to watch the news only to hear that Mr Trolley and Madam Shopping basket are now titled peers. The trick is to create an illusion where someones status is suddenly elevated by adding a title to their name. No thought is given whatsoever of the fact that to have this 'class' of people simply perpetuates inequality. I will never forget the incident where Dr Owen of the SDP was suddenly made into Lord Owen. You then had the same person parading up and down looking more important. I have nothing against Dr Owen but he, and others less able than him, should have more sense and understand that titles simply make inequality more severe. It is all nonsense and the original title class (aristocracy) got where they are through some funny business so why should they be seen as different I do not know. And no I am not having a go at the Queen. You need to have a head of state and she would be as good as some unknown so that isn't the issue. Just get rid of all the titles for God's sake otherwise we should all start calling ourselves Lord this and Lady that. At least the inequality gap will then be narrowed!

The x factor nonsense...

Well the x factor has been around in different formats for a number of years and it is a programme designed to make people think that they are involved with making decisions when in real terms they are not they simply help promote large music producing companies needing to make more money and bring out talentless people who normally wouldn't make it. Saying that I would admit that Will Young was good and Leona Lewis could sing. But then there's others riding on this big money making machine like Simon Cowe who is simply at the right place at the right time and Cheryl Cole who is as much of a vocal singer as I am a Swedish nationalist! Anyway fact is a lot of people watch this shows which give them the hope that maybe one day they can make it in shalowland! This is the first year ever that no one in the 'competition' has shown any signs of talent. Might as well have the United Left singing the Lambeth walk on it!

Domestic violence

I welcome the new initiative by the Education department to teach young school children the need to respect each other in relationships. There are many horrific stories emerging every day about women (and it is mainly women) being abused by their male partners and indeed quite a few of these are either murdered or injured.

I would also add that any initiative teaching children to respect each other must include lessons about psychological torture which is often exercised against partners in what must be catastrophic relationships. I don't know what can be done to stop us all behaving like animals but one way to deal with this is to put more emphasis on teaching children at a young age that it is not acceptable to behave in such a way. Men must respect women and women must demand respect. The same of course applies to same sex partnerships.

The Inquiry into the Iraq War

The inquiry starts today and whilst no one expects the establishment to find that Tony Blair did anything wrong I am hoping that some evidence will come out showing that the true principles of democracy and decency were ignored by someone who was elected to office by those he ignored. That is what I am hoping will come out of this. Many young men and women sacrificed their lives for something that wasn't true. Removing a dictator from office is always a splendid idea but there are many corrupt governments around the world and I don't see us doing much about removing them. The other excuse was that Sadam had weapons of mass destruction which is something that we discovered not to be true afterwards. The dictator was also not too fond of Osama Bin whatsit so that excuse was out of the window. So why didn't Blair tell the truth and explain that since Iraq produces 10% of the world oil supplies he could not take the risk of having Bush worry about the supplies of oil to the West and therefore he had to be removed? That was the real reason otherwise there would have been a task force send to Rwanda? Hypocrisy is a nasty disease!!

Margaret Greer

I am writing this morning to express my support for Margaret Greer who has declared her intention to stand for the position of Regional Convenor for London Unison. I have known and worked with Margaret for many years and she has my confidence and that of many other free thinking non dogmatic independent activists.

I think it will be great if Margaret wins as she will bring a new approach into the way London deals with union business. She is a hard working no nonsense strong independent individual who has done a lot for Self Organised groups and specifically the Black Workers. I declare my support publicly and I hope others follow my example.