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ETA: Sorry if you have to fill this in again, I had to delete this the first time...

I liked this article!.

This question is hypothetical, since I don't plan to have children! I'm quite fanatical in my view that education, healthcare etc should be provided by The State, hence I've ticked the comprehensive option.

Poll

What makes Purnell's plan to make the unemployed work for benefits really beyond the pale is that they won't be paid minimum wage. So they'll be working for less than minimum wage, and the work will take up time that could have been spent applying for jobs.

Precarity cards. (From Infinite Thought). These are awesome. Here is the wikipedia article on precarityI should get back into political activity, but unfortunately I hate the left (too full of organic chicken eaters). Also, having the motivation of a fly that accidentally fell into a whisky bottle not only means that I'm unlikely to suceed under ( Read more... )

It would help enormously, for instance, if the smell of crankishness which still clings to the Socialist movement could be dispelled. If only the sandals and the pistachio-coloured shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian, teetotaller, and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City to do his yoga exercises quietly!

From ( Read more... )

Job insecurity and mental illness.

For some time, I've thought that there is some sort of link between increasing elevels of job insecurity and mental illness. A quick search "job insecurity mental illness" in google gives me many links. From here:

The report found that, over the past 10 years, job insecurity had increased by 28% among ( Read more... )

People constantly talk about the laziness of people who go on benefits rather than simply getting any job. It's probably true that it's possible for most people to find some sort of job, but the conditions in many casual jobs are often bloody appalling. Catering is a good example. I have worked as a catering assistant before in holidays from ( Read more... )

Fucking awesome blog post by k-punk here about chicken welfare. I would have posted it on my other LJ, but I'm worried that people would get offended ;). It partly expresses why I don't buy organic chicken or free range eggs:

...Fearnley-Whittingstall's aim to transform his local town, Axminster, into 'Britain's first free-range chicken town' was ( Read more... )

Trying to make sense of the situation in Pakistan at the moment. It is very very difficult. This article argues that the Americans wanted to install Bhutto due to what's going on in Afghanistan, but that they then failed to protect her when she went back.

( A section of the article )