While I was away...

I'm catching up on my RSS feeds and emails...

War on Want report "Stitched up" on the gross exploitation of women workers in the Bangladeshi garment industry.  The research is spot on but I was concerned that recommendations failed to mention any action or pressure on pension funds or insurance companies who own the companies that make money out of such misery.  Hat tip Phil T.

Tom P at Labour & Capital on the recent report on directors pensions by the High Pay Commission.  Double standards in boardrooms. Not only are directors paid far more than their workers but they build their pensions at a much higher rate - often with 1/30th DB schemes rather than 1/60th for their staff.

"A FTSE 100 director with a defined benefit pension could be expected to receive a
median annual pension worth £174,963 on retirement. The annual median pension paid from a private sector defined benefit pension scheme was £5,860 for the rest of the work force".

Good to see "Labourhome" back after nearly 2 years offline. Welcome back Alex! I notice that they are moderating comments :)

Astonishing history link from normblog "Trumpeter Landfrey, a bugler in the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaklava (October 25, 1854), sounds the charge again, playing a trumpet that was used at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The recording was made in 1890 and you can listen to it here. (Via.)".

Tribute at UNISONActive here to Newcastle City Branch Secretary and Northern Region Deputy Convenor, Kenny Bell, who died of cancer on August 14.  Kenny was quite simply a top trade unionist and will be sadly missed.   UNISONActive also has a link to this Guardian article on the true cost to workers of outsourcing which I will post further upon later this week.

Nice Guy Cameron, Shame about his Party?

Its a view I suppose. He has taken the Tories towards the centre on social issues, but on economics, he is still a thatcherite fundamentalist who if he gets the chance will cut and cut, while wringing his hands at the consequences as a necessary price worth paying.

Call me cynical (mo?) but my first 18 years as an adult was under the Tories.

Been there, done that, had the UB40, got the tee shirt so... No Nice Guy Dave to me!

Hat-tip John Frost at Labourhome.

"Kaschke, complaints and kirschtorte"

This story was in the Village People gossip column in today’s “The Independent”.

"Alex Hilton, star of the Labour blogosphere and Labour candidate for Kensington & Chelsea, won a minor victory in the High Court this week, in a case which illustrates how easy it is to get sued for libel in the UK. He owns the website Labourhome, on which another Labour blogger, John Gray, wrote about a political activist named Johanna Kaschke, who left the Labour Party in 2007, to join George Galloway's Respect Party, then joined a communist party of some description, and since autumn 2007 has been an active Conservative.

In 1975, Kaschke was falsely suspected by the German police of links to the Baader Meinhof terrorist gang. She was arrested, but eventually released and awarded compensation.

She objected to having this old story dug up on LabourHome. Hilton removed the post and offered right of reply, but she decided to go to court. She lodged five complaints, but this week, the court struck out four. One point m'learned friends may yet have to deliberate, seriously, is whether it is actionable to describe someone as "one cherry short of a Schwarzwalderkirschtorte".

Not quite the full story but...No comment!

Being Sued for Libel by a Disrespectful Tory

Alex Hilton at Labourhome first brought this to attention, then yesterday, Dave Osler, in this post here spilled the beans good and proper about an attempt to sue us all for libel.

Now, I am convinced that the case against us (and "Private Eye – now “settled”, The Labour Party – kicked out with costs awarded against the claimant and “Der Spiegel” – just coming up to speed) is frivolous and vexatious (also just plain nonsense). That is my opinion. However, I am not sure what the Court thinks about reporting actual details of the case so I will have to keep Mum for the moment.

I think that the law needs to be changed. This is in one way a truly fascinating and amazing experience but on the other it is in my view a colossal and tragic waste of Court time and money. Since there is no “Court” costs awarded in English libel cases, the costs to the public purse so far (which cannot be claimed against claimants or defendants) must run into thousand and thousands of pounds. What a disgrace. Please note how this money could have been better spent elsewhere.

I do think that with regard to Alex and Labourhome that it is just absolutely outrageous that they are facing any such legal action. I posted the original article on Labourhome and accept responsibility for it. Sue me if you must. If this legal action was to be successful then there would be no Labour, Conservative or whatever blogs which allowed un-moderated comments or posts. Even moderated blogs would be under threat since the law allows spurious claims to be made which cost £1000's to defend.

I hope all bloggers will pause for a moment and put aside sectarian interests (only for a moment of course) and realise that “there for the grace of god” argument applies to our little problem and any support you can offer in our common cause will be greatly appreciated.

Dave and I are defending ourselves in person but Alex has employed solicitors - so click on his post on Labourhome to donate to his costs and support the call for real on-line freedom of speech and expression for all.

Please note that for very obvious reasons I will have to delete any comments which may relate to the claimant or the case. You can email me privately via my blog profile (left).

(I've updated this post to take account of my Labourhome one)

Curse of Labourhome – Why Barack Obama lost in New Hampshire

Now the dust has settled, it is time to explain what happened. Last week I posted about Money Shop and Payday UK who have high street stores which target vulnerable “customers” with unsecured short term loans and charging up to 1330% APR.

I also posted these items on Labourhome and got some useful information. Labourhome commentator “Rwendland” pointed out that even in the land of the free; many US states limit the amount of interest that can be charged on loans. They are even called usury laws. Other countries also have such laws. In Canada they have a legal limit of 60%.

So there are precedences to ban this vile practice.

“Redrooster” pointed out that there is a UK website called “debt-on-our-doorstep”, this is a bit out of date but it provides a lot of useful information about how excessive interest rates can be restricted by the state.

Finally, Rwendland also posted on Saturday a comment that pointed out that the Democratic front runner at the time, Barack Obama, had actually voted against a poplar congress resolution to “To limit the amount of interest that can be charged on any extension of credit to 30 percent” while his rival Hilary Clinton had voted in favour of it.

Of course, once this disclosure had filtered through across the pond – Obama was history. Such is the power of “Labourhome”.

Alex Hilton at Congress House Hustings

Wandering around after the event I saw someone talking to UNISON Labour Link committee member, Alan Griffiths (Local Government) whose name badge was vaguely familiarly. I suddenly realised it was Alex Hilton (left), of the Labour party supporters blog Labourhome fame. I tried to have a go at him for censoring one of my posts on this site for the use of the term “McNoHoper” but he wasn’t having any of it. He did say first that it was strange to meet somebody for the first time in person when you had previously only come across them on the Internet. Pictured with UNISON Labour Link committee member Ian Horrigan (Health).