Dear Futureworkers, Recent developments in what Dickens (in 'Little Dorrit') called 'our right little, tight little island' might be of interest to participants in this list: The New Labour government, (bearing in mind that it is one of Mrs Thatcher's many achievements to have turned the Labour Party into a respectable social democratic party on the European/ US Democratic Party model so that, as Gore Vidal over here recently has adapted one of his old sayings to say, we now have - like the USA - one party with two right wings), has come out with two surprising announcements, or rather its Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has. One, he has declared that New Labour intends to 'restore full employment'. This is a policy pledge that had been forgotten by the Conservatives since 1979 and by both parties more recently. However, to quote Brown exactly, he said, the government would restore 'opportunities for full employment', which is not quite the same thing for those who cannot or won't avail themselves of these opportunities, but it relates to the new way of talking about full employment and unemployment in the media and government, not as the old full-time job for life with other people full-time unemployed, but full employment defined as everyone working at least part -time and the rest of the time training or in education so that no one is actually unemployed. Rather like actors 'resting'. This appears to be the North American model as opposed to the (mainland) European one - regarded by Blair as hopelessly 'inflexible'. Two, Brown is talking about 'cancelling third world debt'. I can't think he is serious about this. However, FWers might be interested to know that there is a campaign being run by the Jubilee 2000 Coalition to celebrate the new Millenium in a worthwhile way by 'giving a debt-free start to a billion people' through the one-off cancellation of the unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries. Jubilee 2000 was launched by major aid agencies in Britain in 1996 and is now a coalition of over 50 groups including trade unions, churches, Jewish groups, development agencies, black groups, women's grops and medical organisations. The name and origin of the campaign comes from the scriptural idea of the Jubilee year, periodically every 7 x 7 years (ie. 50 years) when debts were forgiven and slaves set free with a general beano and celebration/ carnival with 'liberty proclaimed throughout the land', as it says (so I believe) on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia (which incidentally was cast down the road from here at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in East London). Jubilee 2000 can be contacted at email [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.oneworld.org/jubilee2000. Patrick Ainley. Dear Futureworkers, Recent developments in what Dickens (in 'Little Dorrit') called 'our right little, tight little island' might be of interest to participants in this list: The New Labour government, (bearing in mind that it is one of Mrs Thatcher's many achievements to have turned the Labour Party into a respectable social democratic party on the European/ US Democratic Party model so that, as Gore Vidal over here recently has adapted one of his old sayings to say, we now have - like the USA - one party with two right wings), has come out with two surprising announcements, or rather its Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has. One, he has declared that New Labour intends to 'restore full employment'. This is a policy pledge that had been forgotten by the Conservatives since 1979 and by both parties more recently. However, to quote Brown exactly, he said, the government would restore 'opportunities for full employment', which is not quite the same thing for those who cannot or won't avail themselves of these opportunities, but it relates to the new way of talking about full employment and unemployment in the media and government, not as the old full-time job for life with other people full-time unemployed, but full employment defined as everyone working at least part -time and the rest of the time training or in education so that no one is actually unemployed. Rather like actors 'resting'. This appears to be the North American model as opposed to the (mainland) European one - regarded by Blair as hopelessly 'inflexible'. Two, Brown is talking about 'cancelling third world debt'. I can't think he is serious about this. However, FWers might be interested to know that there is a campaign being run by the Jubilee 2000 Coalition to celebrate the new Millenium in a worthwhile way by 'giving a debt-free start to a billion people' through the one-off cancellation of the unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries. Jubilee 2000 was launched by major aid agencies in Britain in 1996 and is now a coalition of over 50 groups including trade unions, churches, Jewish groups, development agencies, black groups, women's grops and medical organisations. The name and origin of the campaign comes from the scriptural idea of the Jubilee year, periodically every 7 x 7 years (ie. 50 years) when debts were forgiven and slaves set free with a general beano and celebration/ carnival with 'liberty proclaimed throughout the land', as it says (so I believe) on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia (which incidentally was cast down the road from here at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in East London). Jubilee 2000 can be contacted at email [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.oneworld.org/jubilee2000. Patrick Ainley.
