It is apparently acceptable for Brigitte Bardot to spend decades whipping up racial hatred and still be celebrated as a national icon, perhaps helped by glamour, distance, and nostalgia. But it is unacceptable for Gary Lineker to voice contemporary moral objections to cruelty and injustice.
As ever, responsibility for this alleged civic misery was pinned on a single figure – Sadiq Khan.
Stonewall’s corporate donations more than halved over the past year.
According to American campaign group Stop Street Harassment, the definition of street harassment is: Street harassment”Unwelcome words and actions by unknown persons in public places which are motivated by gender and invade a person’s physical and emotional space in a disrespectful, creepy, startling, scary, or insulting way.”
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is likely to recommend on Friday that MPs receive an inflation-busting pay increase of £10,000.
The Scottish National Party has declared that “Westminster isn’t working” as it has unearthed evidence showing the poorest 20 per cent will be worse of as a result of the spending review when compared with the budget in March.
After the photo opportunities, early morning swims and talk of famous blues musicians last week in Lough Erne, the temptation is to think it’s all over for the UK’s Presidency of the G8.
The most read articles on Left Foot Forward this week.
President Obama has announced the suspension of ‘trade privileges’ for Bangladesh following the recent tragedies in the garment industry, notably at Rana Plaza and Tarzeen Fashions, where over 1,300 workers have died in building collapses and fires.
Judging by yesterday’s announcements, the government believes the hype about shale gas. Like a love-struck teenager it seems blind to any downsides and is lavishing its beloved with gifts such as tax breaks and streamlined regulation.
Everyone knew there would be very little money to spare in Wednesday’s Spending Review and Thursday’s ‘Growth Statement’. The slow recovery of the national economy has put paid to any attempts to move away from ‘austerity’, so departmental cuts of up to 10 per cent came as no surprise.
As expected, the spending review is a very mixed bag for sustainable transport. While some funding for buses has been saved, and already-announced investment in the railways safeguarded, the government made a big play of new roads, setting itself on a collision course with environmental campaigners.
It was the Keynesian era of full employment – when, after all, more people were ‘contributing’ – that delivered ever higher proportions of contributory spend that rose to 71 per cent by the mid-1970s Keynesian collapse.
