So is GATT 24 the answer to our no-deal Brexit worries?
June 27th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Not according to all the experts including Chris Grey, a professor of Organisation Studies at Royal Holloway.
He writes on his blog:
“In my previous post I made reference to the recent upsurge of Brexiter interest in GATT Article XXIV. As noted there, it was mentioned as a way of avoiding the damage of no-deal Brexit by Boris Johnson in one of the leadership debates. Shortly afterwards, his claim was debunked by Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England (£) but he has continued to push it in interviews this week.
Indeed, it has been debunked many, many times before – in a briefing by the trade policy specialist of the House of Commons Library, by former WTO official Peter Ungphakorn writing for the UK Trade Forum and, more recently, on his own blog, as well as, more succinctly, by Chris Morris’s BBC Reality Check, amongst many other examples. Even Liam Fox has junked it.
But however often it is debunked, and whoever does so, it shows no sign of subsiding and Brexit ideologues continue to pump out technical sounding briefings and to provide ersatz ballast for Johnson’s airy claims.”
You can read more about GATT Article XXIV here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Some ideas for spreading kindness
June 26th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
A review of the enjoyable new film “Gloria Bell”
June 23rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
It is not easy, being a person of maturer years who has been single for some time, to start a new relationship and I can testify to that from personal experience. It probably helps if, as a woman in her late 50s, you have the body, the clothes and the confidence of the titular West Coast American played beautifully – in all sense of the word – by Julianne More who executive produced the work.
This is a close English-language remake of the apparently (I haven’t seen it) grittier Spanish-language original (the 2013 “Gloria”) by Chilean director and co-writer Sebastián Lelio.
All the male characters in this movie – notably Gloria’s lover Arnold (John Turturro) – are weak, vain and deeply flawed but, with the aid of music (there is a great soundtrack of 1970s ballads and disco classics) and dancing (we start and finish on the dance floor) and a little help from her elderly mother, Gloria survives so well that the Laura Branigan song at the finale becomes a feminist anthem.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
At last, I retire completely
June 23rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Technically, I finished working 17 years ago when I took early retirement on health grounds from the Communication Workers Union after 24 years as a national official with that organisation. In practice, in time I was able largely to address my health issues and continue working part-time through a portfolio of appointments in the consumer world.
So, over the last couple of decades, I have served on a variety of consumer advocacy bodies – often as chair – in various regulated sectors covering the Internet, telecommunications, broadcasting, posts, water, energy, and financial services (13 altogether). But, over the last three years, I have been on a glide-path to complete retirement, gradually stepping down from one position after another.
The last such position was Ofcom’s Consumer Forum for Communications which I have chaired for the last four and a half years. Earlier this week, I chaired my 19th quarterly meeting of the Forum which in fact will cease to operate at the end of this month. A colleague on the Forum has posted a kind tribute and a photograph here.
I am 71 in a few days and I feel that it is time to leave the world of work and enter a new phase in my life. As friends will know, the last three years have seen dramatic changes to my personal circumstances and I am now entering a new and exciting chapter in the mystery that we call life.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (6)
Seminar to celebrate the work of Bob Fryer
June 21st, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Today I attended a seminar at the National Education Union in London to celebrate the work of Professor Bob (Rob) Fryer. Bob has spent 50 years working in higher and adult education as a teacher, researcher, policy advisor, practitioner and leader in relation to employment, industrial relations, trades unionism and lifelong learning. The aim of the seminar was to bring together a group of Bob’s friends, colleagues and former students who have shared in some of his time and work, and for the group to reflect upon and discuss aspects of that work and the times in which it occurred.
Bob/Rob started as a research assistant at Imperial College and research officer at Barnet House in Oxford, where he had been a postgraduate student. He proceeded through a lectureship at UMIST (where I was one of his students in industrial relations) and was subsequently a research fellow, lecturer and senior lecturer at Warwick University. He was Principal of the Northern College for 15 years and was simultaneously Sheffield Hallam University’s first professor of lifelong learning. Bob then became Assistant Vice-Chancellor at Southampton University and his working career culminated as Chief Executive of NHS University and national ‘Tsar’ for Widening Participation in Learning in the NHS.
Along the way, Bob also served on a number of official inquiries and national policy committees, worked closely with unions on change and reform, notably NUPE and the formation of UNISON. In addition, Bob has been a Chair, member or advisor on several public bodies and boards centred on education, training and lifelong learning.
Bob is a great guy who has contributed so much and I was pleased to make a short intervention at the event to express my thanks.
Posted in My life & thoughts, Social policy | Comments (1)
Trade union rights under attack worldwide
June 19th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I spent 24 years working as a national trade union official and I regard independent trade unions as an essential component of a genuine democracy. But worldwide trade unions and trade unionists are under attack.
| Today in Geneva the International Trade Union Confederation is releasing to the world the results of its annual Global Rights Index. The picture it paints is not a pretty one: Trade unionists were murdered in ten countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Zimbabwe. 85% of countries have violated the right to strike. 80% of countries deny some or all workers collective bargaining. The number of countries which exclude workers from the right to establish or join a trade union increased from 92 in 2018 to 107 in 2019. Workers had no or restricted access to justice in 72% of countries. The number of countries where workers are arrested and detained increased from 59 in 2018 to 64 in 2019. Out of 145 countries surveyed, 54 deny or constrain free speech and freedom of assembly. Authorities impeded the registration of unions in 59% of countries. Workers experienced violence in 52 countries. You can now download the full report here. |
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A weekend visit to Lille
June 16th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
For our first foreign trip together, Kathleen and I decided to visit Lille, a location neither of us had been to before. Lille is a city of some 230,000 in the north-west of France in an enclave jutting into Belgium and it is the country’s fourth largest city. It is a mere one hour 20 minutes from London by Eurostar which has played a part in the substantial recent revival of the city.
We were surprised at just how vibrant is Lille – lots of cobbled streets, splendid architecture, artisan shops and cultural activities. Perhaps the top three tourist sites – all of which we visited – are the Palais des Beaux-Arts (the second most important art gallery in France), the Musee de L’Hospice Comtesse (a museum of local arts and crafts), and the birthplace of the former President Charles de Gaulle. There are an incredible number of cafes (our favourite was the famous Meert) and wine bars (our favourite was one called BiBo ViNo).
Lille is very close to the location of the trenches of World War One and we took an afternoon tour to two battlefields: Fromelles in northern France (battle on 19-20 July 1916) and Ypres in southern Belgium (five battles including Paschendaele).
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A review of “The President Is Missing” by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
June 13th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
“Billed as “With details only a president could know and the kind of suspense only James Patterson can deliver”, this political thriller has been a best-seller and is set to to be turned into an ongoing drama series for television. So does it justify the hype? Of course, not.
On the plus side, it is immensely readable. Using the present tense and the first person perspective of US President Jonathan Duncan, the 500 pages are divided into no less than 128 short chapters (several only a page or less) with most chapters ending with a teasing sentence inviting the reader to keep going. There is lots of dialogue and some (not enough) exciting action. And there are a few political homilies, notabably in a concluding address to a joint session of Congress.
But the plotting – a devastating cyber attack on America foiled by an heroic president – is weak and the writing (for all its military and intelligence references and regular plot twists) is simple as the writers play with the reader’s expectations. The leading personages are cardboard characters and, in the case of the prime villain especially, very much under-written.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Are 40% of Americans really socialists?
June 11th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Forty per cent of Americans would rather live in a socialist country than a capitalist one, with a majority of younger women having this preference, according to a new poll conducted for HBO by Axios.
This is a fascinating poll, but there are confused views on the nature of socialism (half thinks it means no democracy) and I see little evidence that Americans are willing to vote in accordance with these supposed views.
You can find out more about the poll here. If you follow the link on that page, you can see the raw data (table 25 is the key one).
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the classic 1930 film “The Blue Angel”
June 11th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
This was the film that acted as a bridge from the silent to the sound era for the career of noted Austrian-American director Josef von Sternberg and propelled to stardom its female lead, the then little-known Marlene Dietrich. It was produced simultaneously in German and English language versions and I saw it in German as part of a Weimar Cinema retrospective.
The titular ‘Blue Angel’ is not a person but a place – a club in smalltown Germany. The star of the club’s show is the sultry Lola Frohlich (Dietrich) who bewitches the middle-aged and pauchy local teacher Professor Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings). The film is best-known for the use of the song “Falling In Love Again” which Lola sings twice: first in a playful and flirtatious rendition and at the end in a colder, more remorseful manner.
This is a sombre work that reminded me of the Italian opera “Pagliacci”. The impact of the film is strengthened by the real-life parallels: director von Sternberg and star Dietrich had a romantic involement at the time and the rise of Lola and the fall of Professor Rath were echoed by the ascent of Dietrich and the decline of Jannings in career terms.
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