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	<description>Left Foot Forward is a political blog for progressives. We provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy developments.</description>
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		<title>By: Bebop</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-159077</link>
		<dc:creator>Bebop</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:47:00 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>Amazing details of exactly what asylum seekers MUST BY LAW be given for free.

Were you aware? No you were not... And you are not allowed to become aware either.

Date: Thu, 17 May 2007

ASYLUM SCANDAL

We know they&#039;re going to move asylum seekers in there. All the flats have been done up, central heating, the works. And they&#039;ve put up brand new net curtains. That&#039;s a sure sign.

This is the kind of message that we have been hearing from angry locals all over Britain for the last couple of years. Many of the details change, but the total renovations and the highly visible net curtains crop up time and time again.

So too do the denials by local councils that the premises concerned are going to house asylum seekers. And almost as regular is the spectacle of those same councils being forced to eat their words within weeks as local residents wake up to find that new neighbours from Albania and Somalia have been moved in overnight.

The repetition of this pattern over the entire country has been something of a mystery up until now. Strangest of all has been the sight of so many councils telling lies to local residents and newspapers alike, even though the bureaucrats and local councillors telling the lies must know that they will be exposed and discredited within weeks. Just such a sequence of events, for example, played a major role in the by-election victory of our Robin Evans in Blackburn last autumn.

Secret Tenancy Agreement

The answers to this puzzle lies in a secret 26-page document the Revised Tenancy Agreement April 2001 - produced by the Secretary of State for the Home Office, acting through the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. Its very existence is supposed to be secret, Section 3 (p), on page 8 has this warning for people or companies thinking of making money out of housing asylum seekers:

The Landlord&#039;s attention is drawn to the Official Secrets Acts 1911-1989. The landlord shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that all individuals engaged on any work in connection with this Agreement have notice that these statutory provisions apply to them and shall continue to apply after the expiry or termination of the Term.

I don&#039;t know whether there is anything to make a reader who is not planning to be a signatory to the document subject to the provisions of the Official Secrets Act. I don&#039;t know, and I don&#039;t care. This document is so shocking that the truth about it has to be told. All I will say is that this article is published here solely on my authority, so if some Home Office legal bigwigs wants to prosecute over this shockingly democratic breach of their veil of secrecy, they know where to find me.

The anti-free speech restrictions continue on page 9, although by this time the section numbers seem to have become somewhat confused and very unclear. The actual meaning of Section (a) (iii), however, is all too clear:

The Landlord shall ensure that no press release or other public document containing Confidential Information is issued and shall not make any public statement concerning Confidential Information without the prior written approval of the Directorate and the Tenant Company as to its content and the manner and extent of its publication.

This is the answer to one key asylum mystery. This is why local councils and private companies alike, which are providing accommodation for &#039;refugees&#039;, continually refuse to comment or lie about their role in housing asylum seekers. Once they&#039;ve signed up to this Agreement, they simply don&#039;t have a choice.

Detailed list of items for asylum seekers

So what doesn&#039;t the Home Office want you to know? Take a look at Schedule 1 on page 14, and you can see for yourself:

This list of requirements for any property being used to house asylum seekers begins, reasonably enough, by insisting that it shall be fit for human habitation, and have adequate light. Let us ignore the fact that many hundreds of thousands of our own people are either homeless or live in houses which are unfit for human habitation because, according to central government and local councils, there isn&#039;t enough money to deal with all the problems.

By the time we get to Section 1.3, the secret Agreement begins to lay out requirements which are beyond the reach not just of a relatively small number of the homeless or desperately poor:

all meters shall be of the quarterly type, the use of card or key meters shall not be allowed.

Isn&#039;t that nice? If you and your family fall into arrears on your utility bills, particularly electricity, you have to agree to the installation of a card meter set at such a rate that it gobbles up money. British families with children can&#039;t be officially cut off but if they run out of meter credit, their lights and heating go off anyway and they have to go to bed at dusk in the winter to try to keep warm. Such hardships are unacceptable, however, when it comes to asylum seekers.

Section 1.7 insists that The Property shall have a full and safe central heating system installed. Paraffin or bottled gas fed heating systems shall not be used. Perish the thought! Such devices are fine for British pensioners and young families shivering on the poverty line, but far too smelly, inconvenient and dangerous for Mr Blunkett&#039;s favourites.

New electrical goods

After laying down requirements on issues such as fire safety, the Schedule reaches Point 10: All electrical appliances in the Property shall be either new or, if second hand, shall be supplied complete with a twelve month guarantee. Well, I don&#039;t know about you, but when my wife and I got married and set up home, we had to get our first electric cooker and heaters from an auction, completely without any guarantee at all. And, of course, ordinary British youngsters moving into places of their own still face the same choice between paying through the nose for new equipment or going without guarantees.

Pages 15 and 16 go on to provide a long list of the things needed in the kitchen, living room, bedrooms and bathroom of each asylum property. As you&#039;re probably expecting by now, this features everything from chip pans to teaspoons, from an easy chair for each bed space to a Boots first aid kit.

The long &#039;General&#039; list in Section 1.13 even proves that the popular observation about new net curtains showing that asylum seekers are moving in is true, since landlords are ordered to provide net &amp; drawable curtains to all living rooms and bedrooms. They get everything, in fact, including the kitchen sink.

Free colour TV and licence paid!

One item does, however, stand out:

For Each Living/Dining Room

1 new twenty inch screen colour television complete with licence which shall be renewed at each annual anniversary of the Start Date throughout the Term.

Native Brits, of course, have to wait until they are 75 to get a free TV licence, and non-payment of this iniquitous tax is the biggest single &#039;crime&#039; that puts British women in prison.

Many of those women can&#039;t afford a TV licence because they are struggling to bring up young families on pitifully low incomes. As a result, they are also often unable to afford proper child safety equipment. No wonder, then, that the Home Office bureaucrats being so generous with our tax money wanted to keep Section 1.20 secret:

Where there are to be children living in the Property, the Property shall include:

Adequate cot and highchair facilities

Appropriate sterilisation equipment;

Child safety gates on all stairways;

Childproof resistant devices or casement stays on all windows;

Appropriate play areas both inside and outside the Property.

Another thing that ordinary families on average incomes find a big problem is the occasional cost of major repairs. Asylum seekers have no such worries. Under this Agreement, the Landlord is bound to do all repairs within seven days, and to provide an emergency repair service (Section 1.23) where a threat to health and safety is apparent. The rest of us have to turn to Yellow Pages or pay for call out insurance, but it would be unfair to expect asylum seekers to do the same, wouldn&#039;t it?

Similarly favourable treatment is also specified in the Letting Provisions, Section (f) of which commits the Landlord to redecorate all parts of the Property in the third year of the Term. The rest of us may have to fork out down at &quot;Do It All&quot;, but not Mr Blunkett&#039;s special guests.

Perhaps most ludicrous of all, however, is the next section (g) of the Letting Provisions, whereby the Landlord agrees: To have the exterior of all windows of the Property cleaned once every twelve weeks. I kid you not, it&#039;s there on page 7. What would George Formby have had to say about it?

Who pays?

So what do all these modcons and services cost the lucky occupants of such premises? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. When various bleeding heart liberals tell us how asylum seekers only get basic income support payments, they don&#039;t tell us about the Letting Provisions on page 4 of the Home Office&#039;s Revised Tenancy Agreement, do they? Yet these show that not only do asylum seekers get their TV licences paid for them, we also pick up the tab for their rent, water rates, gas, electricity and council tax bills.

Surely, you must think, these people must want to spend night after night on the phone to all their friends and family back home, telling them all about the wonders of Soft Touch Britain? A lot of their pocket money must go on paying the phone bill? No, as you probably guessed, they don&#039;t have to pay a penny. Section 1 ((b) of the Letting Provisions sets out the fact that the Tenant Company (funded by the taxpayer) agrees to pick up the phone bill for every single property provided by the Landlord in question to asylum seekers.

Don&#039;t forget that every single council or housing association in this land which is housing asylum seekers has signed this document. Thousands of councillors in the ruling party in Labour, Lib Dem and Tory councils alike have either read this document or studiously avoided seeing it so they didn&#039;t have to.
</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Amazing details of exactly what asylum seekers MUST BY LAW be given for free.</p>
<p>Were you aware? No you were not&#8230; And you are not allowed to become aware either.</p>
<p>Date: Thu, 17 May 2007</p>
<p>ASYLUM SCANDAL</p>
<p>We know they&#8217;re going to move asylum seekers in there. All the flats have been done up, central heating, the works. And they&#8217;ve put up brand new net curtains. That&#8217;s a sure sign.</p>
<p>This is the kind of message that we have been hearing from angry locals all over Britain for the last couple of years. Many of the details change, but the total renovations and the highly visible net curtains crop up time and time again.</p>
<p>So too do the denials by local councils that the premises concerned are going to house asylum seekers. And almost as regular is the spectacle of those same councils being forced to eat their words within weeks as local residents wake up to find that new neighbours from Albania and Somalia have been moved in overnight.</p>
<p>The repetition of this pattern over the entire country has been something of a mystery up until now. Strangest of all has been the sight of so many councils telling lies to local residents and newspapers alike, even though the bureaucrats and local councillors telling the lies must know that they will be exposed and discredited within weeks. Just such a sequence of events, for example, played a major role in the by-election victory of our Robin Evans in Blackburn last autumn.</p>
<p>Secret Tenancy Agreement</p>
<p>The answers to this puzzle lies in a secret 26-page document the Revised Tenancy Agreement April 2001 &#8211; produced by the Secretary of State for the Home Office, acting through the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. Its very existence is supposed to be secret, Section 3 (p), on page 8 has this warning for people or companies thinking of making money out of housing asylum seekers:</p>
<p>The Landlord&#8217;s attention is drawn to the Official Secrets Acts 1911-1989. The landlord shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that all individuals engaged on any work in connection with this Agreement have notice that these statutory provisions apply to them and shall continue to apply after the expiry or termination of the Term.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t know whether there is anything to make a reader who is not planning to be a signatory to the document subject to the provisions of the Official Secrets Act. I don&#8217;t know, and I don&#8217;t care. This document is so shocking that the truth about it has to be told. All I will say is that this article is published here solely on my authority, so if some Home Office legal bigwigs wants to prosecute over this shockingly democratic breach of their veil of secrecy, they know where to find me.</p>
<p>The anti-free speech restrictions continue on page 9, although by this time the section numbers seem to have become somewhat confused and very unclear. The actual meaning of Section (a) (iii), however, is all too clear:</p>
<p>The Landlord shall ensure that no press release or other public document containing Confidential Information is issued and shall not make any public statement concerning Confidential Information without the prior written approval of the Directorate and the Tenant Company as to its content and the manner and extent of its publication.</p>
<p>This is the answer to one key asylum mystery. This is why local councils and private companies alike, which are providing accommodation for &#8216;refugees&#8217;, continually refuse to comment or lie about their role in housing asylum seekers. Once they&#8217;ve signed up to this Agreement, they simply don&#8217;t have a choice.</p>
<p>Detailed list of items for asylum seekers</p>
<p>So what doesn&#8217;t the Home Office want you to know? Take a look at Schedule 1 on page 14, and you can see for yourself:</p>
<p>This list of requirements for any property being used to house asylum seekers begins, reasonably enough, by insisting that it shall be fit for human habitation, and have adequate light. Let us ignore the fact that many hundreds of thousands of our own people are either homeless or live in houses which are unfit for human habitation because, according to central government and local councils, there isn&#8217;t enough money to deal with all the problems.</p>
<p>By the time we get to Section 1.3, the secret Agreement begins to lay out requirements which are beyond the reach not just of a relatively small number of the homeless or desperately poor:</p>
<p>all meters shall be of the quarterly type, the use of card or key meters shall not be allowed.</p>
<p>Isn&#8217;t that nice? If you and your family fall into arrears on your utility bills, particularly electricity, you have to agree to the installation of a card meter set at such a rate that it gobbles up money. British families with children can&#8217;t be officially cut off but if they run out of meter credit, their lights and heating go off anyway and they have to go to bed at dusk in the winter to try to keep warm. Such hardships are unacceptable, however, when it comes to asylum seekers.</p>
<p>Section 1.7 insists that The Property shall have a full and safe central heating system installed. Paraffin or bottled gas fed heating systems shall not be used. Perish the thought! Such devices are fine for British pensioners and young families shivering on the poverty line, but far too smelly, inconvenient and dangerous for Mr Blunkett&#8217;s favourites.</p>
<p>New electrical goods</p>
<p>After laying down requirements on issues such as fire safety, the Schedule reaches Point 10: All electrical appliances in the Property shall be either new or, if second hand, shall be supplied complete with a twelve month guarantee. Well, I don&#8217;t know about you, but when my wife and I got married and set up home, we had to get our first electric cooker and heaters from an auction, completely without any guarantee at all. And, of course, ordinary British youngsters moving into places of their own still face the same choice between paying through the nose for new equipment or going without guarantees.</p>
<p>Pages 15 and 16 go on to provide a long list of the things needed in the kitchen, living room, bedrooms and bathroom of each asylum property. As you&#8217;re probably expecting by now, this features everything from chip pans to teaspoons, from an easy chair for each bed space to a Boots first aid kit.</p>
<p>The long &#8216;General&#8217; list in Section 1.13 even proves that the popular observation about new net curtains showing that asylum seekers are moving in is true, since landlords are ordered to provide net &amp; drawable curtains to all living rooms and bedrooms. They get everything, in fact, including the kitchen sink.</p>
<p>Free colour TV and licence paid!</p>
<p>One item does, however, stand out:</p>
<p>For Each Living/Dining Room</p>
<p>1 new twenty inch screen colour television complete with licence which shall be renewed at each annual anniversary of the Start Date throughout the Term.</p>
<p>Native Brits, of course, have to wait until they are 75 to get a free TV licence, and non-payment of this iniquitous tax is the biggest single &#8216;crime&#8217; that puts British women in prison.</p>
<p>Many of those women can&#8217;t afford a TV licence because they are struggling to bring up young families on pitifully low incomes. As a result, they are also often unable to afford proper child safety equipment. No wonder, then, that the Home Office bureaucrats being so generous with our tax money wanted to keep Section 1.20 secret:</p>
<p>Where there are to be children living in the Property, the Property shall include:</p>
<p>Adequate cot and highchair facilities</p>
<p>Appropriate sterilisation equipment;</p>
<p>Child safety gates on all stairways;</p>
<p>Childproof resistant devices or casement stays on all windows;</p>
<p>Appropriate play areas both inside and outside the Property.</p>
<p>Another thing that ordinary families on average incomes find a big problem is the occasional cost of major repairs. Asylum seekers have no such worries. Under this Agreement, the Landlord is bound to do all repairs within seven days, and to provide an emergency repair service (Section 1.23) where a threat to health and safety is apparent. The rest of us have to turn to Yellow Pages or pay for call out insurance, but it would be unfair to expect asylum seekers to do the same, wouldn&#8217;t it?</p>
<p>Similarly favourable treatment is also specified in the Letting Provisions, Section (f) of which commits the Landlord to redecorate all parts of the Property in the third year of the Term. The rest of us may have to fork out down at &#8220;Do It All&#8221;, but not Mr Blunkett&#8217;s special guests.</p>
<p>Perhaps most ludicrous of all, however, is the next section (g) of the Letting Provisions, whereby the Landlord agrees: To have the exterior of all windows of the Property cleaned once every twelve weeks. I kid you not, it&#8217;s there on page 7. What would George Formby have had to say about it?</p>
<p>Who pays?</p>
<p>So what do all these modcons and services cost the lucky occupants of such premises? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. When various bleeding heart liberals tell us how asylum seekers only get basic income support payments, they don&#8217;t tell us about the Letting Provisions on page 4 of the Home Office&#8217;s Revised Tenancy Agreement, do they? Yet these show that not only do asylum seekers get their TV licences paid for them, we also pick up the tab for their rent, water rates, gas, electricity and council tax bills.</p>
<p>Surely, you must think, these people must want to spend night after night on the phone to all their friends and family back home, telling them all about the wonders of Soft Touch Britain? A lot of their pocket money must go on paying the phone bill? No, as you probably guessed, they don&#8217;t have to pay a penny. Section 1 ((b) of the Letting Provisions sets out the fact that the Tenant Company (funded by the taxpayer) agrees to pick up the phone bill for every single property provided by the Landlord in question to asylum seekers.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t forget that every single council or housing association in this land which is housing asylum seekers has signed this document. Thousands of councillors in the ruling party in Labour, Lib Dem and Tory councils alike have either read this document or studiously avoided seeing it so they didn&#8217;t have to.</p>
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		<title>By: rcain</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-148944</link>
		<dc:creator>rcain</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:46:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftfootforward.org/?page_id=5#comment-148944</guid>
		<description>agree with previous poster - black on purple is IMPOSSIBLE TO READ!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>agree with previous poster &#8211; black on purple is IMPOSSIBLE TO READ!</p>
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		<title>By: guest</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-147518</link>
		<dc:creator>guest</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:09:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftfootforward.org/?page_id=5#comment-147518</guid>
		<description>ffs...black on purple is impossible to read!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>ffs&#8230;black on purple is impossible to read!</p>
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		<title>By: GORDON</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-42583</link>
		<dc:creator>GORDON</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:02:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftfootforward.org/?page_id=5#comment-42583</guid>
		<description>I don&#039;t think David Cameron should be sticking his thumb up very many more times, when they read the article by BRAWDY on MP Peter Lilley
Posted on the web site for.  HARPENDEN PEOPLE for all his constituents to read.
When he is forced to Explain the Huge criminal Government action he played a major role in.
There might be millions of people, like those the Roman Amphitheatres 2 thousands years ago, turning their thumbs &quot;down&quot; when they understand the implications of David Cameron&#039;s Political part, along with MP Peter Lilley in the Conservatives &quot;Lost&quot; &quot;Stolen&quot; 3 Nuclear Weapons crime and the detonation of one of those Conservative weapons by North Korea on 25 May 2009.

or even more Politically damaging, if the Derbyshire Police are forced to make PUBLIC, to the CHILCOTT INQUIRY or International Press, the &quot;SECRET&quot; ARMS TO IRAQ Files and Dossiers removed using a Court Proceeds of Crime order from former Intelligence Advisor to the Select Committee of the DTI 
Ms TARA ANDREA DAVISON.

Having been arrested in January 2010 in North Wales, she is using her &quot;SECURITY BLANKETS&quot; to protect her from prosecution, with details of ALL the DIRT on our CONSERVATIVE, LABOUR Politicians and High Profile VIP&#039;s who were ALL involved in &quot;ARMS TO IRAQ&quot; Trade.

But then, Just like The Cover-up&#039;s in the
SCOTT INQUIRY
MATRIX - CHURCHILL
PAN AM 103
DODI &amp; DIANA
DR DAVID KELLY
and
THE CHILCOTT INQUIRY.

The Truth will eventually come out to HANG THEM ALL.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I don&#8217;t think David Cameron should be sticking his thumb up very many more times, when they read the article by BRAWDY on MP Peter Lilley<br />
Posted on the web site for.  HARPENDEN PEOPLE for all his constituents to read.<br />
When he is forced to Explain the Huge criminal Government action he played a major role in.<br />
There might be millions of people, like those the Roman Amphitheatres 2 thousands years ago, turning their thumbs &#8220;down&#8221; when they understand the implications of David Cameron&#8217;s Political part, along with MP Peter Lilley in the Conservatives &#8220;Lost&#8221; &#8220;Stolen&#8221; 3 Nuclear Weapons crime and the detonation of one of those Conservative weapons by North Korea on 25 May 2009.</p>
<p>or even more Politically damaging, if the Derbyshire Police are forced to make PUBLIC, to the CHILCOTT INQUIRY or International Press, the &#8220;SECRET&#8221; ARMS TO IRAQ Files and Dossiers removed using a Court Proceeds of Crime order from former Intelligence Advisor to the Select Committee of the DTI<br />
Ms TARA ANDREA DAVISON.</p>
<p>Having been arrested in January 2010 in North Wales, she is using her &#8220;SECURITY BLANKETS&#8221; to protect her from prosecution, with details of ALL the DIRT on our CONSERVATIVE, LABOUR Politicians and High Profile VIP&#8217;s who were ALL involved in &#8220;ARMS TO IRAQ&#8221; Trade.</p>
<p>But then, Just like The Cover-up&#8217;s in the<br />
SCOTT INQUIRY<br />
MATRIX &#8211; CHURCHILL<br />
PAN AM 103<br />
DODI &amp; DIANA<br />
DR DAVID KELLY<br />
and<br />
THE CHILCOTT INQUIRY.</p>
<p>The Truth will eventually come out to HANG THEM ALL.</p>
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		<title>By: Harry Barnes</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-37118</link>
		<dc:creator>Harry Barnes</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:27:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftfootforward.org/?page_id=5#comment-37118</guid>
		<description>Have a look to see how this local initiative over the Labour leadership contest is going - http://dronfieldblather.blogspot.com/2010/06/calling-those-with-voting-rights-in.html
Its birth is explained in the following item which I placed on the Fabiano Society web-site &quot;Next Left&quot; - http://wwwnextleft.org/2010/06/case-for-ralphs-milibandism.html
Andy Burnham has replied and will produce a personal manifesto in line with our call. Our actions might now get replies out of the other 4 candidates. But backing and help to raise our profile would be welcome.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Have a look to see how this local initiative over the Labour leadership contest is going &#8211; <a href="http://dronfieldblather.blogspot.com/2010/06/calling-those-with-voting-rights-in.html" rel="nofollow">http://dronfieldblather.blogspot.com/2010/06/calling-those-with-voting-rights-in.html</a><br />
Its birth is explained in the following item which I placed on the Fabiano Society web-site &#8220;Next Left&#8221; &#8211; <a href="http://wwwnextleft.org/2010/06/case-for-ralphs-milibandism.html" rel="nofollow">http://wwwnextleft.org/2010/06/case-for-ralphs-milibandism.html</a><br />
Andy Burnham has replied and will produce a personal manifesto in line with our call. Our actions might now get replies out of the other 4 candidates. But backing and help to raise our profile would be welcome.</p>
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		<title>By: John</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-34070</link>
		<dc:creator>John</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:45:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftfootforward.org/?page_id=5#comment-34070</guid>
		<description>I&#039;m waiting for your critique of Jack Straw&#039;s prisons policy against that of Ken Clarke&#039;s. Would you dare publish anything that goes against the former?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m waiting for your critique of Jack Straw&#8217;s prisons policy against that of Ken Clarke&#8217;s. Would you dare publish anything that goes against the former?</p>
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		<title>By: maxinefrasermf@yahoo.co.uk</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-28231</link>
		<dc:creator>maxinefrasermf@yahoo.co.uk</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 May 2010 13:47:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftfootforward.org/?page_id=5#comment-28231</guid>
		<description>I am surprised that Labour has not made more of the abolition of EMA. It really is a lifeline for poorer students and I fear its abolition will truly discourage poorer students from staying on at college. Surely that is retrogressive and will not help the poor. Is anybody on the progressive opposition side going to take up the EMA mantle??? Who is going to champion the rights of poorer students for whom the EMA is a necessity, not a luxury!!! Those poorer students whom Nick Clegg claims he is the champion of need to be supported throughout and after they have left school. Receipt of EMA can make all the difference between staying at college and doing nothing at all and becoming a NEAT</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I am surprised that Labour has not made more of the abolition of EMA. It really is a lifeline for poorer students and I fear its abolition will truly discourage poorer students from staying on at college. Surely that is retrogressive and will not help the poor. Is anybody on the progressive opposition side going to take up the EMA mantle??? Who is going to champion the rights of poorer students for whom the EMA is a necessity, not a luxury!!! Those poorer students whom Nick Clegg claims he is the champion of need to be supported throughout and after they have left school. Receipt of EMA can make all the difference between staying at college and doing nothing at all and becoming a NEAT</p>
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		<title>By: John Green</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-27184</link>
		<dc:creator>John Green</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 22 May 2010 22:38:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftfootforward.org/?page_id=5#comment-27184</guid>
		<description>In an interview with the Daily Telegraph today, Mr. Balls said:  “We just lost our way on some issues in the second term.”

The fact of the matter is that Labour has lost all credibility after thirteen years of mendacity, sleaze and sheer, mind-boggling incompetence.  

On a personal front, the three architects of the New Labour project have shown themselves to be such unappealing characters: Blair the Liar, Brown, the economic incompetent who has dropped us all in the deepest, thickest “brown stuff” imaginable, and Mandleson, the Wicked Fairy, waving her malevolent wand over all and sundry.  These three pantomime characters surrounded themselves with a host of political midgets, some of whom will now fight for the party leadership.  We know from the many insiders who have published their diaries, that these characters did not trust each other and employed hosts of “advisors and spokespersons” to plot against each other.  Why should anyone else trust them?

Until the Labour party faces up to its deep flaws and short-comings, its future looks extremely bleak.  It desperately needs some people with integrity, brains and political astuteness.  It needs to replace Brown’s despicable and sordid “moral compass” with an ethos to inspire.  I don’t see that happening sometime soon.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In an interview with the Daily Telegraph today, Mr. Balls said:  “We just lost our way on some issues in the second term.”</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that Labour has lost all credibility after thirteen years of mendacity, sleaze and sheer, mind-boggling incompetence.  </p>
<p>On a personal front, the three architects of the New Labour project have shown themselves to be such unappealing characters: Blair the Liar, Brown, the economic incompetent who has dropped us all in the deepest, thickest “brown stuff” imaginable, and Mandleson, the Wicked Fairy, waving her malevolent wand over all and sundry.  These three pantomime characters surrounded themselves with a host of political midgets, some of whom will now fight for the party leadership.  We know from the many insiders who have published their diaries, that these characters did not trust each other and employed hosts of “advisors and spokespersons” to plot against each other.  Why should anyone else trust them?</p>
<p>Until the Labour party faces up to its deep flaws and short-comings, its future looks extremely bleak.  It desperately needs some people with integrity, brains and political astuteness.  It needs to replace Brown’s despicable and sordid “moral compass” with an ethos to inspire.  I don’t see that happening sometime soon.</p>
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		<title>By: Bill Sperco</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-26219</link>
		<dc:creator>Bill Sperco</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 May 2010 17:19:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftfootforward.org/?page_id=5#comment-26219</guid>
		<description>Why is Dr Jon Cruddas not standing? He is by far the best candidate!! A leadership election without him will be an opportunity sorely missed</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Why is Dr Jon Cruddas not standing? He is by far the best candidate!! A leadership election without him will be an opportunity sorely missed</p>
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		<title>By: Al</title>
		<link>http://www.leftfootforward.org/contact/comment-page-1/#comment-24533</link>
		<dc:creator>Al</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 May 2010 17:21:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftfootforward.org/?page_id=5#comment-24533</guid>
		<description>I think much more attention should get paid to womens equality (or lack there of) under the new ConDem coalition. The issue of race equality is no where to be seen in the media either. 
The new cabinet are mainly white middle-aged men (two thirds of whom went to private school by the way) which is not progressive, is it? Theresa May is the new Home Secretary and Equality Minister and lets face it, she&#039;s not going to have time to commit properly to both. From a total of 29 individuals attending cabinet, there will be just four women and one, Sayeeda Warsi, is unelected and a &quot;minister without portfolio&quot;. She is also the only non-white member. 
What happened to a progressive, diverse and &#039;plural&#039; politics promised by Clegg? Change was supposed to be moving forward not taking a number of steps back. I&#039;m not saying put women in cabinet just for the sake of it, if they can&#039;t do the job (aka do back to Teresa May who thinks being a feminist is all about wearing a t-shirt for self-identification and voting appalling on equality issues, such as abortion and gay adoption.) There are a number of women in the ConDem alliance that could have been put forward for cabinet positions, albeit both parties are behind Labour in womens representation.
Equality is definately one policy area in which the majority of the population, who are not represented by the cabinet, will have to watch.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I think much more attention should get paid to womens equality (or lack there of) under the new ConDem coalition. The issue of race equality is no where to be seen in the media either.<br />
The new cabinet are mainly white middle-aged men (two thirds of whom went to private school by the way) which is not progressive, is it? Theresa May is the new Home Secretary and Equality Minister and lets face it, she&#8217;s not going to have time to commit properly to both. From a total of 29 individuals attending cabinet, there will be just four women and one, Sayeeda Warsi, is unelected and a &#8220;minister without portfolio&#8221;. She is also the only non-white member.<br />
What happened to a progressive, diverse and &#8216;plural&#8217; politics promised by Clegg? Change was supposed to be moving forward not taking a number of steps back. I&#8217;m not saying put women in cabinet just for the sake of it, if they can&#8217;t do the job (aka do back to Teresa May who thinks being a feminist is all about wearing a t-shirt for self-identification and voting appalling on equality issues, such as abortion and gay adoption.) There are a number of women in the ConDem alliance that could have been put forward for cabinet positions, albeit both parties are behind Labour in womens representation.<br />
Equality is definately one policy area in which the majority of the population, who are not represented by the cabinet, will have to watch.</p>
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