Budgeting The Fun

Comrades,

Firstly, before I begin talking about the budget, something I'm sure will bore almost every reader into a coma, I must apologise for my awfulness at updating. This is to be the first post in nine days. Which is a bit rubbish, seeing as I pledged to post every day. I do have a small excuse in that my internet was broken for a few days, but really I just forgot and was lazy etc etc. Anyway, sorry and all that jazz; hopefully it won't happen again.

And so we meander slowly to my chosen topic for this post. Namely, the budget set out this week by Alistair Darling that supposedly includes a way of keeping public expenditure up, and thus public services functioning in a rudimentary way, and also getting rid of the debt the government has accumulated. The analysis conducted by various media sources has effectively concluded "We're in a lot of debt. And they've raised taxes."

Ah yes, the tax rise. 45p to 50p. And it's been called radical.

Radical my left foot.

Producing apoplectic proclamations of death and poverty for us all from the right wing media, including the Daily Fail's assertion that Labour was restarting the class war. Nice to see they're keeping things in perspective as usual. Several unconfirmed reports have also alleged that the HQ of the Daily Telegraph actually exploded in a vast fountain of middle class rage.

However, on an somewhat more serious note, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) thinks it will force the people who pay the extra five measly pennies out of the UK and off to somewhere the 'fiscal climate' is more to their liking. I don't know about you, but the reason I live in this country isn't purely to do with the level of taxes. It's because I was born here, have friends, family and a life here. Therefore, the notion that everyone who has been asked to contribute just a little bit more back to the society they preyed on to make their millions will up sticks and leave because they can afford five less penny sweets in the post office is just that little bit far fetched in my humble opinion.

I'm sure everyone will be thrilled to hear what I would have done to the tax rates, so I'll tell you. If you aren't thrilled, oh well. Maybe the next instalment will capture your attention more. I've entitled it "Fred's road to the revolution"...

Anyhoo, the way I see it, capitalism is in essence the unfair gain of others' labour-power by a minority. Therefore, people become rich by standing on other people's fingers, and it would be frankly immoral not to pay back your debt to wider society in the form of a slightly higher tax. If the rich can't stand the thought of parting with a few more of their swindled pounds then frankly, screw them. A fair and inclusive society needs everyone to pull their weight rather than anyone who can hire a decent lawyer avoiding making a contribution. Hell, maybe we should just ban lawyers...;). You get the point though.

I think that's enough for now, so I'll sign off. Au revoir until next time my fellow travellers.

Solidarity

RedFred

Just to apologise also for the weird font...I don't know how to change it back. Damn.

Campaign Tictacs.

Hello again comrades,

Last time on iRed, I waxed lyrical about my ideas for the Disillusionment With The Political Process campaign (hereafter known as DWPP because I'm lazy) and now the time has come to get some form of strategy down from which things may be achieved. Whilst brainstorming these earlier I found that despite having big plans for this campaign, getting it off the ground in the first place could be rather more difficult.

To that end, here's a list of ideas I've considered and little explanations which will hopefully be handy for you all. If you could find the time to offer suggestions, comments and critique I would be most appreciative and I'm sure it will result in the campaign being far better and more successful.

Schools:

As erudite readers will be aware, most young people are in schools of some form. Therefore, they are a brilliant way of getting in to contact with large groups of young people. Teachers also tend to be fairly receptive to ideas of community involvement etc. There is an award scheme for schools that do just this which I shall find out about so that I can offer them a tangible reward that acknowledges the positive achievements of the pupils and also makes the school look good. In the age of target driven education this could be extremely useful in selling DWPP to teachers.

Another possible angle to take with the schools is to get involved with student councils. I am slightly reluctant to do this after some, erm...bewildering...encounters with a few teams from my school. Student councils attract very pro active people who are happy to sacrifice their time to make a difference, but they also gather some who just want somewhere to go during lunch. Nevertheless, it is a valid route and if this is to make a lasting impression then they will be necessary as obviously I can't actually be in the schools and teachers are liable to get distracted by things more important than some obscure request from an MYP.

This is (again) longer than I expected or planned and I still want to comment on something I read in the Guardian the other day, so it seems likely that my plans are going to be published in a series. Isn't that exciting. Now the fun can be stretched out over a few installments...

Moving on to the Guardian. I don't know if anyone else perused their copy of Society Guardian on the fifteenth of April, but it was entirely edited, designed and written by young people. There was a large section written by a group who had taken action in a very deprived housing estate to reduce youth offending through involvement in the community; allotments, volunteering, incentives had all been utilised and the change was remarkable. The police went from receiving roughly six complaints of bad behaviour a day, to six a month. This has sort of vindicated this campaign in my eyes and just proven the fantastic things that could get done if things go to plan.

In the words of that annoying little git from 'The Speaker': "We COLLECTIVELY need to make a difference today." *shudder*

Solidarity

RedFred

The Show Must Go On

What-ho fellow travellers,

Continuing from my post yesterday that was supposed to include all of my MYP related activites but morphed into a long moan about buses, here's what else I've been up to.

Around February sometime (I think) I attended a meeting of the 'Children's Shadow Trust Board'...Or something like that anyway. Basically, it's a report back to the local youth groups from all the people who in some way come in to contact with young people. So that's police, schools, social services et al. The idea is to get one or two youth representatives, who will probably be me and my deputy, to go along to the offical meetings so we can exert some form of influence rather tha n just getting a vague report every so often.

What next...hmm...Ah yes, I started this blog. Now you can all contact me and see what I'm up to rather more easily. Huzzah.

And so on to campaigns. First and foremost is the campaign for B&NES I want to get off the ground. With the snappy title of 'Disilusionment with the political process' (I'm open to suggestions on new names) the idea is to, in broad terms, make people care. One of the many things that irritates me is the way that nobody, and young people in particular, really care about issues which don't involve them directly. How are we going to change the world if no one cares!

Mock me for my dreams if you wish ;). But it's a valid point and the whole lack of interest thing impacts on many aspects of society. Education, crime, vandalism etc etc, it's all linked. The main focus will be to get young people involved in their communities. It doesn't have to be in a big way, merely increasing awareness would be sufficient, if people want to go further that's great. I can also see this campaign linking in with others such as the negative image of young people in the media and votes at sixteen. If we get people involved in their communities it firstly ends the myth created by the tabloids of teenagers being 'out to get us' and also it will increase the demand for a say in how the country is run.

I'm rambling now and I think that's enough for tonight anyway. Hope you enjoyed it and see you soon.

Solidarity

RedFred

The Tale So Far...

Good morning comrades :)

In this post I thought I'd write a breakdown of what I've done so far as the MYP. Frankly, it isn't a lot or particularly impressive but it takes time to find one's feet and know who to contact etc.

Firstly, on the matter of bus transport. I discovered that local buses were likely to shut down and since I included improving the bus service in my manifesto I thought making sure these buses were not removed would be a good test for how a region-wide campaign might go. I duly emailed a local councillor explaining the problems that shutting down the bus services would cause for not only local youths, but pensioners and anyone else who can't drive.

He replied with a very polite email that corrected some of my facts, for which I was grateful, and also explained the extent to which the council already subsidise the bus routes. Not only do they have to pay for all over-65's to get free bus travel anywhere and everywhere (note this becomes pointless if there is no bus service in the first place) since central government withdrew funding after a year, but the local council also gives First Bus cash to the tune of £120,000 a year, just to keep the existing services open.

Now First Bus have decided that isn't enough, and the council do not possess the funds to subsidise further.

No, I'm not happy with it either; the bus services were privatised on the understanding they would provide an adequate service for local residents, something they obviously aren't doing at the moment. However, short of taking rural transport routes into public ownership, there doesn't seem to be an alternative and I'm probably not the only one who, looking at their past record, thinks it's ever so slightly unlikely that this government will be overly keen to nationalise the rural transport network.

So in summary, want better public transport? Tough luck. It does seem a tiny bit hypocritical that in an age of climate chaos when we're being told to use cars less, there is no funding available to pay for a cheap, green alternative.

This post has morphed into a sort of giant complaint about the bus services, so I'll stop now and fill you in on the rest of my MYP activities tomorrow.

Fraternally

Fred

Intro Post

Just a quick hello, and to explain a bit more where I'm hoping to go with this blog.

I'd like to use it to update the (probably few) followers of my (probably few) achievements as the Member of Youth Parliament for Bath & North East Somerset. Anyone who reads them and gives commentry on what they think could have gone better, what was good and so on will be given points. And as my old english teacher used to say, we all know what points mean! Absolutely nothing.

Ahem, yeah. 

I'll also notify the rest of the virtual world about any campaigns I'm running or involved in, feel free to email me if you have something to add or want to get involved yourself.

This blog will also be a sort of soapbox for me to perch precariously on proclaim from it my angry, Guardian reader, lefty views. If this infuriates you, I know I'd be infuriated by a rightwing, Telegraph-touting one, then so be it. Get your own back via comments or email, but please try to keep it vaguely non-offensive.

Finally, on the matter of how frequently I'm going to post updates. I would like to post every day, however I have an unfortunate feeling that real life may intrude on this plan so basically as often as I can.

That's all for now...

Solidarity to all

(red)Fred

PS: thanks to my two-man focus group; Jim and Will who assisted in naming this blog.