Love Eurovision, Hate Austerity.

Eurovision is pretty important to me. Last year, I was stuck on night duty and missed out which was devastating. None of my colleagues cared. 

This year, all's well as I have a clear two days off! Crisis averted. 


Unfortunately, you can't say the same for the Eurozone. The Eurozone is a real thing, it means all the countries which use Euros. Greece uses Euros. It's handy for going on holiday, but it's a really bad idea. 

I bought this Brie using Euros. They call it a Petit Brie but it was bigger than my head. And delish. 

Through no fault of their own, the Greek people have been hammered by the EU with savage austerity measures, to pay for a crisis they didn't create. Some people have been so shafted, they've had to give up their own kids. 

The suicide rate went up by 40% in two years. 

They've elected a government which is against austerity, which is good, but they can't get rid of austerity AND still use euros. The Euro-banks won't allow that. 

There are some people who really like the idea of people from different nations co-operating and getting along with each other. I like that too. 

But the EU isn't about that. It's a bosses club. It compels governments to embrace a market system in Health Care. It enshrines in law the privatisation of railways. It has forced working people across the continent to pay for the crisis of the rich. 

What would be great would be great would be international collaboration based on shared ownership. World Socialism, boom! 

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Dude, Where's my Votes?

By now, everyone who's anyone now knows the Ballad of Paul Dennis. 




Basically, for no apparent reason, Paul Dennis aka our man in Rainham North polled zero votes. This is incredibly odd, in fact it is impossible because Paul lives in Rainham North and voted for himself. There are also out-n-proud TUSCies in Rainham North who definitely voted for Paul.


The election count was a shambles. The poor counting staff started at 10pm on 7th May, didn't get off until half 9 the next morning and were then summonsed to return just 5 and a half hours later to resume for the local elections. You can't blame them if they make mistakes.


But, democracy is democracy and people have this crazy idea that when they go into the polling station, put a cross on the ballot paper and stick it in the box, they imagine it will make it to the other side.  

The council were so obsessed with doing the election on the cheap, they've created a democratic deficit. Who know's how many votes just didn't get counted? 

Naturally, there's a petition. Sign here by clicking on Paul's face:

And on Saturday we will be on Rainham Shopping Precinct, dishing out the truth to the local populous. Can't imagine they'll be too impressed with ballots going awry. Oh well, that's what you get when you run an austerity election. 




PS Thanks for all the messages of support we've received so far. 

The Kent Online went to the trouble of doing a cartoon of Paul, suggesting he could perhaps be the UK's Eurovison Entry, prompting his mate to make this terrifying graphic. 

Banter

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Filipino Nurses: Accept this Badge of Honour!

The Daily Mail is a hate-filled paper, full of hate. Everyone who is anyone has been slagged off by the Daily Mail. 



Women. We're all bitches apparently. 

Gay people are unnatural. Trade Unions are all types of evil. Don't even get them started on the Muslims. There was that one time they openly backed the Fascists. 

Don't be afraid of this foreign sounding fascism. It could be great, they say. 

Now they've turned their fire on those hard-working killing-machines; Filipino Nurses.

I google-imaged this. No way was I going to give money to the Daily Mail. 

It is worrying. Maybe the NHS should top hiring old white guys with beards. That's not racist at all.

 Not Racist

Filipino nurses, along with workers from all over the world come to Britain to care for our sick. They're part of our NHS. 

It was a Filipino nurse who took me by the hand on my first day in the front line. Another showed me how to measure blood pressure. Another who comforted me when my patient died. 

When I qualified, it was a Filipino nurse who spent weeks teaching me how to manage life support equipment and remained calm the entire time! 

No-one at my work is this chirpy.

Nurses from the Phillipines aren't some "other" to be vilified by the Daily Mail. They're our friends. 

To my Filipino friends I say: welcome to the club of Everyone the Daily Mail Hates. It's a badge of honour and a fitting reward for all you contribute.

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To the Barricades!

We've been on holiday!



After 5 nights in Paris, I've come back a wine buff. We didn't really do much. I had an amazing quiche. We went to a few cemeteries. Took a couple of public naps. 

On the Tuileries they have chairs adapted for napping.

We stayed in Montmartre, which you think is all cute streets and cafe culture but take a two minute walk in the opposite direction and you see this is not the case for most who live in the 18th Arrondissement.

No Housing = No Life. 

It's a bit like the East End, a former working class community which has been part gentrified, pricing out the people who live there. 

People come from all over the world to eat at the cafe where they filmed Amelie and be awed by the Sacre Coeur but for the people who live there it's a different story. 

Sounds familiar.

Tourists love the Sacre Coeur cos it's big and pretty but it's history is really quite sinister. 

In 1870, France was at war with Prussia. Prussia obviously doesn't exist anymore, but it was bits of Germany, Poland and Denmark. For the visual learners:  

Like Russia but with a P.

In the Montmartre district of Paris, workers had been taxed to pay for cannons to defend the city against the Prussian army which had surrounded them. The French government were doing a deal in secret to surrender against the wishes of the people.

One morning, when they thought everyone would still be in bed, the armed guards tried to steal the cannons away from the people. 


Unfortunately for them, they didn't bank on the Fish Mongers Wives, who were all up at that time anyway and caught them in the act.  

The fishwives then start abnging on every door in manor, waking everyone up to stop the State from stealing the cannons. Anyway, to cut a long story even shorter, they led an uprising against the corrupt, capitalist regime and set up a commune in Paris, which was the first time anyone had tried that. 

They returned everyone's stuff that they'd had to pawn to survive when they were under siege. They scrapped interest on debts, let workers take over companies which had been abandoned and even did away with night duty for bakers! 

Zut Alors!

If they needed to get stuff in and out of the city, the used hot air balloons and hoped for the best.


It all ended tragically when the French Government, under the leadership of Adolphe Theirs teamed up with their old enemy, the Prussians to crush the revolution. 30,000 men women and children were slaughtered in the one week. 

The rich were so terrified of anything like this ever happening again, they destroyed all monuments to the Paris Commune. In place they built the Sacre Coeur, to strike the fear of God into people and assert the authority of the church and the state over the people.

However, no-one has been able to white-wash the commune and its legacy from history. The whole episode inspired Karl Marx, who realised that when it comes to uprisings, you can be no half-measures. 

This is the grave of Adolphe Theirs. According to some old guy at Pere Lachaise cemetery, 100 years later, in 1971, Communist Party members tried to blow it up. That's what you get for murdering 30,000 civilians I suppose. 

You can find, amongst the fallen revolutionaries and monuments to those who fought fascism in the 20th Century, a small memorial to the Communards. 

People come here from all over the world to remember the triumph and the tragedy of the Paris Commune and those who fought for it. 

A word to the wise though, don't be like this guy. Eudes was giving such a barnstorming speech that he blew an aneurysm in his brain and died. 

To the Barricades! 

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The Other Side

26 hours of counting later, we've emerged back in reality.


Counts are weird. 

Stuck in a green-lit basketball court with the hoi-polloi for 26 hours, you can clearly see the parties for what they are. 

The Conservative Party is a club for wealth and power. Their slightly poorer, crankier relations make up the UKIPs. 




Some of the Greens were nice enough. They had vegan pizza which looked alright.

I was waiting to be interviewed, sitting next to former MP, Cheeky Girl lover and now Radio Kent correspondent Lembit Opik, when the LibDems had their big melt-down. It was clearly a distressing time, but that is what you get for propping up a Tory Government. 

Stickers. You never know when you'll need 'em.

Sad, tired and a bit lost, the Labour Party are completely incapable of fighting back against the emboldened, unfettered Tory austerity heading our way. 

Unable to counter the popular anti-cuts rhetoric of the SNP. Unable to win back disgruntled working class new Kippers. 

Ed Miliband didn't lose because he made a pigs ear out of a bacon butty. Labour didn't lose because he's a bit weird. They lost because they couldn't mobilise the great masses around their austerity-lite program. 

They even lost a councillor in the Soviet Republic of Twydall. "That's a kick in the nuts" I say to ex Labour MP and Iraq War supporter Paul Clark. "That's one way of putting it." he says.

From a pretty much standing start. Medway TUSC won 600 votes in the General Election. We were just shy of 3500 in the Locals. 

We can, and do, feel immensely proud of each and every vote. 



DISCLAIMER: Paul Dennis of RMT fame stood in Rainham North. The returning officer declared he had zero votes. We know this is not the case. Richard Hicks, Deputy Returning Officer acknowledged this was "unheard of".

Even Paul voted for himself! And his Mrs! We are gathering evidence and considering a legal Petition via the Electoral Commission to find out where our ballots have gone. Watch this space...


Over 3000 people made a clear, anti-austerity stand. 

Despite a very small national profile, no fulltime party machine and a few seconds on the regional news, we made our mark and are here to stay. 

Rosettes are for prized cows and pigs. We went for Hi-Viz. "You look just like workers" chirped one of the women doing the counting. "That's cos we are!" I said.

No-one predicted a Tory Majority. They won it by default. There is a crisis in politics; a crisis in working class representation. 

Labour will lurch further to the right, completely misunderstanding that the votes lost to UKIP are not because of racism; it's because working class people are angry and are looking for someone to blame.

Labour is terminal.





The trade union movement, in order to remain relevant, cannot continue to endorse a zombie-party of cuts, privatisation and war. It must join the RMT and throw its weight and resources behind building a new political voice. 

Following an election that was about who has the least unpopular, the political establishment is weak and fading. The future is ours! 

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Vote TUSC

The last few weeks have been the most exhausting, life affirming and frankly bizarre of my life. I'm kicking back with a large gin before the final, final push tomorrow. 

Acquired that glass from a bar in Amsterdam. 

There have been some truly off the wall insults hurled at TUSC this campaign. Someone called me a paedophile. A few have accused us of murder. One guy even called me vain! 

I mean, come on!

Naysayers and the insane aside, the vast majority of comments have been overwhelming in their optimism.  

Couple on the High Street

The Lovely Khan's. 

Nursing: It really really matters! 

A Very Excited Librarian.

Geoff got a leaflet through his door.  

This is what we've achieved. 

The 22 Medway Council candidates, the hundreds who have put up posters, given out leaflets, shared posts online have all contributed to the largest socialist challenge Medway has ever seen. 

If you want to vote for something, VOTE TUSC. 

Reject the politics of austerity. 

Reject the politics of fear. 

We are the many and they are the few.

This is only the beginning...

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We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together

Today is day 1 of International Nurse's Week!


It's like any other week, except sometimes there are cupcakes.  

Tomorrow you can celebrate by voting TUSC! 

All of us in the NHS have endured a real terms pay cut of around 15% since 2010. Labour have refused to reverse this.  

You can't put a worth on the work of a nurse, apparently.  

Stop Being So Greedy, Will. 

Over the last 5 years, have we worked any less hard? Are we doing 15% less than we were in 2010? Of course not, so why has the value of our pay decreased? 

At the end of the last Labour Government, the banks collapsed. They bailed them out to the tune of £850bn and this government has spent the last 5 years making us pay for it. 

The failure of our unions to fight the pay freeze is because they are stuck in a loveless marriage with the Labour Party. 

All the major parties are committed to a market in healthcare. 

All refuse to reverse the pay cuts.

None are prepared to acknowledge that the £20 billion "efficiency savings" they all signed up to, is really cuts by any other name. 




If this election campaign has taught me anything, beyond "Stop Going to the Co-op in Your Pyjama's, Voters Will See You." its that nurses, physios, teachers, fire-fighters, bus drivers, all working class people need a political voice of our own. 




TUSC is the only 100% anti-austerity choice at the ballot box. Get behind us tomorrow. The fightback starts here.  

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Tactical-Schmactical

As a rule of thumb, Mae West quotes are a pretty good guide to live your life by. 

I have this one on my living room wall. It covers up where some shelves used to be. 

"When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I never tried before."

The problem is, we've tried both evils and many people, Russell Brand included, seem to think it's the politician's tie colour that matters, not, you know, what they actually stand for. 

Labour won't repeal the real terms pay cuts for us NHS workers.

Russell Brand coming out for Labour isn't necessarily surprising. Lots of millionaires are. 

But he had made such big deal out of having a revolution, which is slightly at odds with backing a party of cuts, austerity and war. I threw some tweets at him but no response.

 

I don't think he knows who I am. Obviously doesn't watch BBC South East.

 

Somehow, in all the electioneering, the fact that Labour will stick with the Tories budget for the next 2 years seems to have got lost on the ether.   

Lesser-evilism is sometimes made to sound savvy and insightful by calling it "tactical voting". 

Robin thinks he's ahead of the game because he "votes tactically." 

If all you think is possible is Labour austerity rather than Tory, then you and the millions of other "tactical voters" are actually perpetuating the cycle of disenfranchisement.


For crying out loud!  To paraphrase Mae West, you only get one vote, but if you use it right, you only need one. 

Don't waste your vote on hopelessness and despair. We've tried the all the evils. It's time for TUSC

Team TUSC

Not gonna lie, I think the whole world is electioned out. 



In a few days time, it'll be over. Except it won't, because whoever manages to scrape together a government next week, it is going to carry on peddling the same austerity agenda as before. 

Thank Crumbs for TUSC

In the final push, ask not what TUSC can do for you, but what you can do for TUSC! 

Have you:

...put up a poster? 

...told all you nearest, dearest and postman about the wonder of TUSC?



...spread the word around your kids school, your work-mates and your nearest shopping outlet?


Does everyone you know, know about TUSC? That is the question. 

Maybe, if you're feeling particularly bolsh, you want to come out canvassing. It's not half as terrifying as you think it is. 




We've got pink hi-viz so you don't need to worry about looking cool. 


It's only three more days, come out and play! 

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The Chris Irvine Information Appeal

Comrades; there has been a gross miscarriage of justice! 

Chris Irvine -  Husband, Glenman, LFC, Singer, Songwriter, Ulsterman, Smoker, Libertarian UKIP candidate for Rochester East and election agent to Mark Reckless- has had one or more twitter accounts hacked. 

This all started a few days ago. Mark Reckless, UKIP MP for Rochester and Strood, wrote to every constituent. "You Are My Boss!" He proclaimed. 

We TUSCies know how UKIP love prudent public spending, so on Thursday, we thought we'd save the HMRC the bother and drop off a P45 to him before he gets booted out next week. 

Dan Burn TUSC candidate for Rochester & Strood presents Mark Reckless with his P45. Seems harsh, but many Rochesterians & Stroodudins have received their own P45s thanks to the government Mark was part of. 

It was an amusing interlude. 

The next day, Friday, someone starts tweeting from a Chris Irvine account @cgi247. "I've been hacked" he says "so I've re-activated my old account". 

Curiously, this account was solely dedicated to trolling TUSCies. Curiously, normal tweeting service was maintained from the original, allegedly hacked, Chris Irvine account @ci247. 

Confusing or what?

Yesterday was Saturday. We managed to break the TUSC TV embargo with a quick 10 second clip on BBC South East.

Me and Ian Palmer. Nice man, firm grip. 

It went out that evening, straight after Wall-E, and no sooner had it finished but I get this congratulatory tweet from the new, re-activated Chris Irvine. 

Rude, but whatever. You've got to shake it off. 


Then:

Then, in an acknowledgement of the great P45 drop off of the day before:

I think I was being remarkably cool for someone who was being told they were crap the first time they'd ever been on telly. @cgi247 obviously disagreed. 

Whoever was behind the tweets, they knew who my parents were. 

In an equally bizarre twist, when other twitteros got wind of this, Chris Irvine @ci247 then says: 

Followed immediately after by: 

Its a relief he doesn't have his own Wikipedia page. 

The next morning, this: 

Note to self: When deleting all of one's tweets, be sure to delete the one about how you've deleted all your tweets. 

Agent Price had a few words on the subject:

Right On!

I really hope these screen-shots help Councillor Irvine get the justice he clearly deserves.

The Tops of the Trees Move First

Happy May Day! 

Liz is coming round in a bit to plan out the final weekend in TUSCing before the election next week. I'm going for a spot of lunch with 2 of the weirdest nurses Medway Hospital has to offer, followed by a canvassing session on a doorstep near you! 

They are pretty weird. 

Last night was the St Mark's Church très offish Question Time event. It was a bit of a sausage fest, but I think we came out on top. 

People are bored with career politicians who are all saying pretty much the same thing. The whole process is completely moribund. 

Every 5 years, we get to vote for the colour of the tie of someone who'll disappear off, pocketing a salary 3 times the average and pontificate over the best way to make the rest of us pay for the crisis in big business. 

As Labour continue their proud march to the right, the Tories dole out misery onto millions, including their own supporters. 

Actual conversation last night.

Comfortable, middle class families who thought the Conservatives would protect them are finding that rail fares rocket, the NHS is in crisis and the homes they've worked so hard for will have to be sold to pay private firms to meet their long term care needs. 

This is quite a let down. 

The illusion that if you keep your head down, work hard and get on the property ladder, you will always be comfortably provided for is being shattered. 

The phone hacking scandal, the revelations around Jimmy Saville et al, MPs expenses and of course the economic crisis have shown up the establishment for what they are: a self serving, corrupt elite of the rich and powerful, doing the bidding of global capitalism. 

Socialism isn't a dirty word anymore. In fact, its the only hope for the 99%.