War on Want has called on the Duchess of Cambridge to speak out on the exploitation of female migrant workers in south-east Asia by western brands.

War on Want has called on the Duchess of Cambridge to speak out as the anti-poverty charity launched a new report which shows how western brands are sourcing from south-east Asian factories which exploit female migrant workers.

Young women migrants from rural areas represent almost 90 per cent of garment workers in Cambodia, from where the Duchess' favourite fashion retailer Zara imports many of its clothes. But 10-hour shifts in the peak season earned just 20p an hour, or £50-55 ($80-90) a month.

And amid Kate Middleton’s role as a Team GB ambassador for the London Olympics, the report identifies the Games partner Adidas among other brands exploiting Cambodian workers. It also names three more sportswear brands sourcing clothes from Cambodia – Nike, Puma and Reebok – besides H&M, Gap, Marks & Spencer, Levi Strauss, Timberland and Benetton.

Laia Blanch, international programmes officer at War on Want, said: “Western brands promote themselves as ethical and responsible towards the people who make their goods. But they maximise their profits and minimise costs by exploiting migrant women workers as cheap labour. It is high time the British government stopped this abuse.”

Nine out of ten Cambodian women interviewed for the report told how, despite sharing a room with four or five others, they needed to cut back on essential food in order to send any money home to their families.

Phhoung*, 29, a migrant worker in the capital Phnom Penh from her country’s central province Kampong Thom, said: “Our food is not good enough for our health. I live with four other friends who came from the same village as me. It is really crowded for us in the small room, but we have no choice.”

In addition to Cambodia, the report, Restricted Rights, cites Adidas, Nike, Reebok, Levi Strauss, Timberland and Benetton profiting from workers forced to endure exploitative conditions in neighbouring Thailand.

Burmese migrant women in Thailand’s border town Mae Sot received just £1.40 (69 baht) for 10-11 hours’ toil, less than half the minimum wage. About half of the employees interviewed in Thailand lived in dormitories in the factory grounds, where conditions were often overcrowded and unsanitary. Not one of the factories where the women interviewed for this report work had a trade union.

Exploited Burmese migrant women interviewed in Malaysia worked in electronics – supplying firms such as Dell, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and Hitachi – and the garment sector, which featured brands like Adidas, Nike, Reebox, Gap, Eider UK and Levi Strauss.

Workers were so desperate for jobs that they paid recruitment agencies up to $1,000 to find them employment – money which is then deducted from their wages. Most of the women interviewed in Malaysia could only afford cramped homes with many workmates – one lived with 17 others and her room barely measured three square metres.

War on Want is demanding that the Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke establish a business, human rights and environment commission to protect rights for workers in British retailers’ supply chains.

*Phhoung is a pseudonym for the worker’s real name in order to protect her identity.

[Ekk/4]

Leading housing groups have warned that the Government is failing to tackle the country’s growing housing crisis.

Leading housing groups have warned that the Government is failing to tackle the country’s growing housing crisis.

In their second Housing Report, the National Housing Federation, Shelter and The Chartered Institute of Housing warn the Government is failing to deliver on five out of ten key housing indicators:

* affordability of the private rented sector
* help with housing costs
* homelessness
* housing supply
* overcrowding.

The warning comes as new figures show housebuilding starts are down 11 per cent on the last quarter.

The Housing Report warns ministers of the urgency of meeting the nation’s housing needs as pressures, such as falling incomes and a growing and ageing population, intensify over the coming years - putting an increasing strain on Britain’s broken housing market.

The report also urges the Government to make good on its promises, in particular to ‘get Britain building’, to provide much-needed homes for thousands of families, as well as delivering new jobs and economic growth.

Kay Boycott, Director of Communications, Policy and Campaigns at Shelter, said: "Every day Shelter sees families up and down the country whose lives are being torn apart by the shortage of affordable homes.

"This government has had two years to start delivering on housing, yet this report paints a pretty bleak picture of its current record on housing in all its forms.

"We must now see progress made on the commitments outlined in November’s Housing Strategy and bolder action taken to make sure families across the country can find a decent place to call home.’

Commenting on today's housebuilding figures, Campbell Robb, Chief Executive of Shelter, said: "The fall in construction is one of the key reasons we are still in a recession.

"So to see housebuilding starts down 11 per cent on levels that already don’t even scratch the surface of what’s needed is extremely concerning.

"Increasing housebuilding would take some pressure off our overheated market and help to bring down rent and mortgage costs at a time when so many families are finding it difficult to make ends meet."

Read the Housing Report here

[Ekk/4]

Catholic bishops have called on the EU to tackle corporate tax dodging. They say it deprives the world’s poorest countries of more than £100bn every year.

Seventeen Catholic bishops have called on the European Union (EU) to tackle corporate secrecy and tax dodging. They say it deprives the world’s poorest countries of more than £100bn every year. 

The bishops, who are from around the world, include John Arnold, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and William Kenney, Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham. They have called for “rules to put more morality into the financial system”.

They insisted that “The greed of a few threatens the very survival of the most vulnerable populations”. 

Nearly two- thirds of global trade is conducted within multinational corporations which are supposed to pay tax on the profits they make.  By dumping their costs into countries with higher taxation and shifting profits to tax havens - where they pay little or no tax - they can slash their tax bill. 

Christian Aid insist that adopting country-by-country reporting would make these companies break down their results for each country in which they operate and help poor nations identify and collect the taxes they are due.

“New rules are urgently needed that ensure that the wealth produced, particularly from the exploitation of natural resources, is not monopolised for the sole benefit of a minority," said the bishops.

They added, "These resources should benefit all equitably and in particular the local people who are directly impacted by the activities of production or extraction".
 
The bishops added that improved transparency would also strengthen democracy. They pointed out that the European Commission has proposed a rule for financial transparency, on both a country-by-country and project-by-project basis.

They said that if implemented effectively, these measures would offer more opportunities to citizens to monitor whether extractive industries are making a fair contribution to the economy.

They added, “To achieve this goal, the European Union must ensure the threshold for reporting payments by extractive companies is set at a level that is meaningful for developing countries. Exemptions should not be allowed to create loopholes.”
 
Christian Aid’s economic justice advisor Joseph Stead backed the bishops’ call for better regulation.

“We all have a moral responsibility to hold these companies to account,” he said. “It is important that lawmakers play their part and introduce legislation which helps to end tax dodging”.
 
In their statement the bishops quote an extract from an overview of the Catholic Church's teachings about humanity's relationship to society; the Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes.

It reads: “God intended the earth with everything contained in it for the use of all human beings and peoples. Thus under the leadership of justice and under the company of charity, created goods should be in abundance for all in like manner.”

[Ekk/1]
 

Unemployed people and welfare rights campaigners are holding a “leaving party” following the end of a controversial government contract with A4e.

Unemployed people and welfare rights campaigners are holding a 'leaving party' today (17 May) for a discredited provider of 'welfare to work'. The government have terminated a contract for the controversial firm A4e following widespread campaigning and accusations of fraud.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) stated yesterday that the A4e contract for delivering workfare in the south-east of England has been cancelled due to inadequate documentation, erroneous claims and non-compliance with guidance.

The cancellation of this one contract may well be the tip of the iceberg for fraud at A4e. The National Audit Office (NAO) released a report yesterday which was highly critical of the DWP’s fraud investigation noting that it failed to collect key documents.

The DWP statement concludes just one of several ongoing investigations into the company whose success has depended on government contracts worth £200 million a year.

In February, Emma Harrison resigned as David Cameron’s 'Families Champion' and as chairperson of A4e, walking away with an £8.6 million dividend.

The NAO report suggested at least £773,000 has been lost to fraud in contracted employment programmes since 2006. Earlier this week, an eighth A4e employee was arrested in an ongoing police investigation into conspiracy to commit fraud. Next week, the House of Commons Public Account Committee will discuss “fraud within welfare to work providers”.

“Until recently A4e was the flagship for government plans to turn welfare into a business,” said Liz Wyatt, a member of Boycott Workfare.

She added, “Now that a range of inquiries are shedding light on the shady world of workfare, it is increasingly clear that the the entire 'welfare to work industry' is not fit for purpose”.

The party will be complete with balloons, bunting, music and rhubarb crumble. Boycott Workfare say it will celebrate “the demise of a company which has bullied unemployed people and forced them onto workfare whilst diverting taxpayers’ money directly to Emma Harrison”.

Campaigners will also use the party to talk with claimants at A4e about their welfare rights. This is part of a wider campaign against workfare that has seen protestors up and down the country target high street stores that use workfare.

In a sign of the level of public opposition to unpaid labour, numerous stores have since pulled out and the government have been forced into retreat over their workfare schemes.

Liz Wyatt, said, “We will continue to celebrate as the reality of the 'welfare to work industry' is exposed and the companies profiting from workfare flounder. Unemployed people are being completely let down by these companies and the taxpayer is being ripped off.”

[Ekk/1]

The question for us today is how, in the many Os we might draw, and in the many circles we form on a daily basis, we negotiate our way across the empty spaces and the deep chasms they inevitably bring into our view, says Dr Andrew Hass. Yet Giotto’s legacy is not all lost: he at least tells us that something, even if that something is a “nothing”, remains there for our creation.

There is a great story about the Renaissance painter Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) who is said to have won a Vatican contract from Pope Benedictus XII by submitting nothing more than a perfectly executed hand-drawn circle. The circle became famously known as the “O of Giotto”, and remains to this day part of artistic lore. But it is not famous for its realism; realism, as an aesthetic pursuit, was not yet a virtue in Giotto’s time, even if Giotto did much to usher that virtue in. It is famous, rather, for its symbolism: the idea of perfection.

The perfect circle, we know, has had a long history of expressing the perfect, the ideal, and thus the divine. Giotto’s O becomes emblematic of a Renaissance obsession with symmetry, with the aesthetics of geometry, with the unity of the whole, and with the spiritual features of the circle. And we can see this worked out in the many Roman arches and halos that Giotto painted for churches and ecclesiastical patrons. But it was more. It also became emblematic of the human aspiration to master an ideally integrated world, one in which the divine imprint on the created order not only could be perceived with the eye and the mind, but also – and this the Renaissance championed most expressly – could be replicated by an aesthetic gesture. This gesture, perfectly rendered, is what so obviously endeared Giotto to the Pope, and allowed Giotto his celebrated career. His O was an immaculate sign of a higher order – indeed, the highest.

But of course, this side of the Enlightenment, and with all our scientific advance, we have become more sceptical. We are first compelled to ask whether there is ever such a thing as a perfect circle in the natural world. And even if we admit the possibility, we preclude the chance it was made by a human hand, at least one unaided by instrument. But we go further, and ask can any symbolism be pushed beyond the platitudinous use we still find, say, within a wedding ceremony, or with such phrases as “the winner’s circle”. The question is quickly dismissed if we try to extend it to more ideal, or heavenly, spheres. For us moderns, the symbolic ideal of a perfect circle has become antiquarian, and we see it for what it always was: a doctrinal construct, a theological hope, a philosophical dream, or some form of a utopian wish. In the pre-modern West, the perfect circle found its representational power within a large schema of unity and oneness. In such a schema, which went by the name of a cosmology, the circle was a pure symbol of the one true divine perfection, not only reflected in the heavens and their movements, but also resident as the ultimate Sovereign in those heavens. So that by drawing freely his circle, Giotto proved not only his technical prowess but his theological acumen. But with the coming of modernity, we lost that ruling sense of one, or the One. It fell victim to irreparable division. It is not just that, in the Renaissance, the perfect circle was applied to humanity, as in da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian drawings. Nor was it simply that the Catholic Church lost its catholicity in the upheavals of the Reformation, and in the bloody wars that swept across Europe in their consequence. It was also that the true and perfect circle was finally seen for what it was: a spiritualised aesthetic.

The development of modern science had much to do with this shift in perspective. In the 17th century, Johannes Kepler, for example, a man who was not without a deep sense of the spiritual, wrote with great implications for the future understanding of circular movement, and any attendant symbolism:

For if it was only a question of the beauty of the circle, the spirit would decide with good reason for it, and the circle would be suitable for all bodies, principally for celestial bodies, since bodies participate in quantity, and the circle is the most beautiful form of quantity. But since it was necessary to rely not only on the spirit but also on natural and animal faculties to create motion, these faculties followed their own inclination, and they were not accomplished according to the dictates of spirit, which they did not perceive, but through material necessity. It is therefore not astonishing that these faculties, mixed together, did not fully reach perfection. [1]

Kepler, of course, figured for us this “material necessity” in the form of the ellipse. And to arrive at the ellipse we must distort the circle. The etymology of Greek ellipsis already shows us the radical consequence: a “coming up short”, most egregiously of perfection itself. Only a spiritualised circle can remain purely whole, as a visionary reality. As a factual reality, the phenomenal circle remains bound to 'quantity'. That is, it goes beyond the singular, the unity, the idea of ultimate oneness. As Kepler says, with ramifications he probably did not intend, spirit and nature divide, and therefore so does the symbol, as the sign is rent from any divine signified. In modernity, the circle can no longer point to the One, or the One is no longer at its centre. “The centre cannot hold”, wrote Yeats in this oft-repeated quote from his 'The Second Coming' poem.

In an earlier article I had written about the slow but inexorable encroachment of the concept of nothing into our modern sensibility. I can now say that the coming of this nothing is not without its own symbols. Yet ironically, its most prevalent and persistent symbol is one that it has appropriated from its ostensible opposite: the circle that had come to represent the divine perfection in its wholeness, unity and oneness, virtues that so impressed Benedictus XII in the O of Giotto. The 'O' becomes hollowed out by modernity, we might say, and in that hollowing arises the nothing that is 'zero'. It is not that the symbol of 'zero' entered our thinking by means of some modern form of numerology. (The symbolic notation of zero has a very different history, as we’ll see in my next blog.) It was rather that the circle had lost its symbolic sense of unity and wholeness, even in the very sphere where it once held sovereignty, the heavens. The appearances – deviation from circular perfection – no longer needed to be saved, because now science could account for them efficaciously and comprehensively. But the knock-on effects back down on earth, the material necessities that rendered the divine ideal lost to the centrifugal pull of a space emptied of cosmological unity, led to a breaking apart of the wholeness on every level. Division entered our world to a degree not seen in a millennium. And it continues to reside in our present world as a commonplace. Today we have many circles, many centres, many Os.

Like Kepler’s ellipse, the O is no longer one, no longer truth with a single and perfect centre, no longer One. Its spirit has absconded, chased away by the material purpose of scientific or instrumental rationality. We must do our calculations, and we must do them now with a zero that is both functionally and conceptually necessary. We can still marvel at Giotto’s O in our museums and churches. But we marvel at a bygone theology, as much as a bygone aesthetic. The question for us now is how, in the many Os we might draw, and in the many circles we form on a daily basis, we negotiate our way across the empty spaces and the deep chasms they inevitably bring into our view. Yet Giotto’s legacy is not all lost: he at least tells us that something, even if that something is a 'nothing', remains there for our creation.

Reference

[1] Johannes Kepler, Gesammelte Werke, eds. W. Von Dyck, M. Caspar, et al. (Munich: Beck, 1938 et seq.), Vol.7, p. 330, as translated by Fernand Hallyn in The Poetic Structure of the World: Copernicus and Kepler (New York: Zone Books, 1990), p.213.

-----------

© Andrew W. Hass teaches Religion at the University of Stirling, with specialty crossovers in Philosophy and Literature. He moved to Scotland after five years at as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Honors College of the University of Houston, Texas, USA. He is originally from Vancouver, Canada.

This article is one of a continuous series appearing on Ekklesia through our association with the University of Stirling Critical Religion group blog. CR is a research project bringing together academics from a wide range of backgrounds to explore the way 'religion' is employed as a a marker, construct and category in public and intellectual discourse. You can also follow Critical Religion on Twitter: http://twitter.com/StirCritRel

Critical Religion articles and news on Ekklesia: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/criticalreligion

Moderated comments can be left on: http://www.criticalreligion.stir.ac.uk/blog/

On the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia, trade unionists are recalling those around the world killed because of their sexuality.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is asking people to use International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia to remember lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people who have been attacked or killed around the world.

The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia is held on 17 May each year.

The TUC is urging union members and the general public to use the day to remember LGBT people who have been killed around the world simply because of their sexuality.

Homosexuality is still illegal in at least 80 countries around the world and in seven countries women, men and children are punished for their sexuality with death sentences.

The TUC is supporting LGBT communities around the world in its work in 2012, and helping unions internationally to develop their understanding and support for LGBT rights.

A delegation of French union members is visiting the TUC headquarters at Congress House in London next week to learn from the good practice developed by UK unions.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber commented: "Unions have campaigned for equal rights for LGBT people in the UK with a great deal of success, but around the world the situation is very different."

He continued: "In many countries LGBT people face harassment, intimidation, violence, ostracism, hate crimes - and even death - just because of their sexuality."

"The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia is a chance for unions to highlight the suffering of LGBT people all around the world, and demand that the way they are treated is improved - both at work and in the wider community," concluded Mr Barber.

[Ekk/3]

Twenty leading international and Afghan NGOs have called on NATO and the Afghan government to ensure Afghan forces uphold law and order.

Twenty leading international and Afghan NGOs today (17 May) called on NATO and the Afghan government to agree commitments ensure Afghan National Security Forces are able to protect civilians and are held accountable if they commit abuses or violate international law. The agencies also warn of a possible rise in crime and insecurity in the country if there are no jobs for up to 120,000 troops due to be demobilised post 2014.

The organisations, including Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, the Norwegian Refugee Council, CIVIC, Christian Aid and the Research Institute for Women, Peace and Security Afghanistan, made the call as NATO states prepare for a summit in Chicago on 20-21 May to discuss their future role in Afghanistan. They said that despite some positive efforts by NATO to improve the quality of Afghan security forces, more action and safeguards were needed.

“Over the past decade the lives of millions of Afghan men, women and children have improved:

2.7 million girls go to school, women sit in parliament, Afghans can vote and there is better access health services. But these improvements are continually threatened by insecurity and weak rule of law. There are consistent reports of abuse by poorly trained and unaccountable Afghan security personnel. NATO governments have an obligation to ensure that the security forces they've helped create, fund, arm and train do not commit abuses and can serve all Afghans. Security forces that are poorly trained, unaccountable and unable to uphold law and order are bad for Afghans and bad for peace and security in the region” said Anjo van Toorn, Oxfam’s Regional Manager for South Asia.

The agencies also warned that proposals to slash the size of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) post-2014 could result in up to 120,000 men with weapons’ training left unemployed throughout the country, risking even further the safety of Afghans.

The NGOs called on NATO and the Afghan Government to:

*Ensure that all civilian casualties and allegations of abuse by Afghan security forces are effectively tracked and investigated by the Afghan government, and prosecuted where appropriate. This requires an effective civilian casualty tracking unit to monitor casualties attributed to the ANSF and help reduce the number of Afghan’s harmed, as well as a complaints review body for all ANSF, which is well-publicised, easily accessible, transparent and independent.

*Ensure there is a fully-funded demobilisation plan in place before any major Afghan troop cuts to address the high risk of increased crime and conflict.

*Accelerate the recruitment of female security personnel, especially in the police, to ensure the security services are more accessible and responsive to women and girls.

*Allocate additional resources to ensure improved ANSF vetting and expanded training on human rights, rule of law and women's rights.

Buy Christian Aid charity gifts and support present aid online.

[Ekk/4]

Christians in Syria trace their roots to ancient communities and have survived under many rulers, while enclaves in other Arab nations have withered.

Hani Sarhan is a Christian who says none of his relatives works with Bashar Assad's regime or has anything to do with it - write Stephen Starr and S. Akminas.

"But what we heard from (the protesters) at the beginning of this revolution saying, 'Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin,' started us thinking about the real aim of this revolution," he said. "So from this point of view, fearing for my life, I declared my support for President Assad."

Muslims dominate this nation of 22 million people, but Christians can be found at all levels of Syrian government, business and military, reports Religion News Service via USA Today. The 2 million Christians here trace their roots to ancient communities and have survived under many rulers, while Christian enclaves in other Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia, have withered.

The rebellion of hundreds of thousands of Muslims against Assad that began in March 2011 has not seen Christians abandon their support for the Alawites, the Muslim sect to which Assad belongs and that has controlled Syria for decades. Christians have largely remained quiet as Assad's forces pummelled rebel cities and towns with artillery, killing close to 10,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Many of Syria's Christians continue to stand by the regime not out of support for Assad but out of fear of civil war if rebels gain strength, or worse, if they win and install an Islamist government that is hostile to religious minorities.

Qatana, a town 20 miles southwest of Damascus, is home to a Christian community of several hundred families. Protests here against the Assad regime have prompted military incursions and clashes between renegade soldiers and the regular army. At checkpoints surrounding the town, some Christians chat to Alawite security officers. Others offer water and whiskey.

Christians firmly believe that the Alawite regime will keep them safe. With the town's two churches located in Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods, for months many families were too fearful to attend services, Christians here said. But a teacher at a Christian school said life is better now than before.

"The crisis is almost over," she said, asking her name be withheld because she feared retribution. "Our church was full on Easter Sunday; last year, it was practically empty. We were allowed to parade around the town, when last year we could only go in the street outside the church."

Yet Christian communities elsewhere have seen trouble.

A church in Homs, Um al-Zunnar, was badly damaged during the military's month long shelling of the city in February. Christians in Homs said the church was attacked by "foreign-backed armed gangs." Syrian state TV aired interviews with civilians who said the rockets were fired from the mountains dividing Syria from Lebanon, where rebels have arms-smuggling routes.

The uprising has also hurt Christians' standard of living.

Foreign visitors are nowhere to be seen in the Christian neighbourhood of Bab Touma in central Damascus, a once-popular tourist attraction characterised by winding alleyways, traditional Arab-style hotels and ancient churches.

In 2010, tourists from the Persian Gulf, Europe and North America added $8 billion to the Syrian economy. Since the revolt began, Syria's tourism sector has dropped off by 60 per cent, according to the Tourism Ministry, and Christian businesses are among those suffering.

These days, many conversations in the close-knit communities turn to "the crisis," as it is called. Families watch Arab television broadcasts by the extremist Salafist sheik Adnan Arour, who from exile in Saudi Arabia calls for jihad against the Assad regime and death to those who actively support it.

Pro-regime commentators on state-run Syrian TV pounce on figures such as Arour and say Assad is all that stands between extreme Islam and stability. Christians here talk of letters sent to churches saying they are the next to go after Assad, and a mortar that struck a monastery in the Christian town of Saidnaya, north of Damascus, was blamed on rebels.

There is little evidence that the rebels are responsible for such acts, and Christians here say Arour does not appear to have a lot of support. But recent suicide bombings in Syria have the look of al-Qaida, which seeks Islamic law over all.

Many Christians simply do not want to upset their way of living in a country where their fate will always be decided by Muslims, according to Syria experts.

Christian doctors, lawyers and dentists have established successful and stable careers. Others occupy leading positions in the Syrian army, though a new constitution mandates the head of state must be Muslim.

"They do support (Assad) and are feeling quite anxious," said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and a Syria expert. "Even so, there are plenty of Christians (in Syria) who believe that democracy in the long run is the best protection for Christians."

[With acknowledgements to ENInews. ENInews, formerly Ecumenical News International, is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

[Ekk/3]

In the wake of the 2012 local elections and other recent developments, we can see that local democracy in England is in a perilous state. Voter apathy shows that. Simon Barrow looks at the issue in its wider context, and suggests that deep change is required that goes well beyond single-fix 'solutions'.

With the recent local election results, David Cameron's 60 per cent disapproval rating, dissatisfaction with austerity and the Murdoch tentacles proving embarrassing, the coalition government has hit a mini-iceberg, though not one that is likely to sink it any time soon.

The overall verdict from the local election results across Britain is that the Tories have taken a big hit in England and have become vulnerable to the xenophobic political frame behind UKIP - though the public, according to polling, want them to lean in other directions.

The Liberal Democrats have suffered their worst results since they were founded. And in Scotland and Wales there are contrary trends involving the simultaneous reassertion and crisis of the Labour opposition. The Greens did well in London and elsewhere, but are still not being seen as a sustained alternative. They have more work to do but few resources.

Meanwhile, the narrow demise of ‘the People’s Ken’ in London, the personality-driven victory of Boris Johnson, and the quiet removal of the last peace protest camp from Westminster (while none of us was supposed to be looking) seems to reflect the end of an era in the capital. Or maybe just the twist and turn in metropolitan politics.

It is party conference season in the summer and autumn where the readjustments needed by the three largest parties will be partly brokered. They will follow council polls in which two-thirds of voters did not bother to turn out, but which paradoxically still remain significant in national and regional terms.

As a result of commercialisation, central government manipulation, outsourcing, personality pushes, political blame-shift, lack of proportional representation, the imbalance between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, the demise of effective neighbourhood media and a potent combination of apathy and anger among those who are supposed to be represented, local democracy has been hollowed out disastrously in England. The case for a new governance structure now looks even stronger.

However, the ‘English problem’ is rarely acknowledged as such, and the official answer is that England already has a parliament. It’s called Westminster. That only strengthens pressure for greater self-governance elsewhere in a not terribly United Kingdom. Viewed positively, such trends could constitute a healthy move in the direction of confederalism. No one wants ‘break up’: that includes the SNP, Plaid and the Greens. Subsidiarity recognises that inter-dependence both requires and tempers autonomy.

Sadly, however, these are not the terms by which political decisions among the ruling elites are taken, or upon which referenda are constructed. More than one question at a time is deemed ‘confusing’ politically, while in the marketplace we are cajoled by myriad (often meaningless) ‘choices’.

This rhetoric of choice bereft of real influence and accountability is why voters have been deserting polling booths in their droves. The chief architects of the dominant order promote and acquiesce in systems that put increasing power in the hands of fewer, more technocratic individuals and agencies.

At the same time, the voluntary sector is being made statutory, the government sector is being marketised, polling changes too little, and protest leaks out at the political fringes and in resistance to elected mayors bypassing crucial elements of local democracy.

None of this detracts from the important, difficult work that local councillors and civil servants do. The trouble is that we, and they, are being let down by a series of political deficits which may require a much larger cultural and systemic change than we are currently envisaging.

----------

© Simon Barrow is co-director of Ekklesia. This article is adapted from his regular column in Third Way, the Christian magazine of social and cultural comment. http://www.thirdwaymagazine.co.uk/

Personality politics, half-baked solutions and populist pretensions by tired political fixers are being used to disguise real, significant problems with local government, says Graeme Smith. He hopes that the shallow rhetoric of ‘people know best’ can suffer a similar fate to that of elected mayors, in favour of renewed democracy and a decent appreciation of expert knowledge in its proper place.

Birmingham was recently one of eight cities that voted “No” to the idea of a directly elected city mayor. As a resident of the city I am greatly relieved. We shall be spared the ‘Ken and Boris’ show, or worse, some pale imitation of London’s celebrity politics – Ken and Boris-lite.

There is too much ‘celebrity’ in national politics. It is possible, and sometimes good, that individuals represent and embody political ideas. Aung San Suu Kyi is a good example. But what was on offer in Birmingham was not an iconic personality-led revitalisation of local government. Those touted as potential candidates looked like politicians who had failed to make the Westminster premier league.

Being relieved, I am in something of a minority, as it is clear that most people did not really care one way or another. In the end the big winner was apathy.

The campaigns were lack-lustre. There seemed no good reason to have a directly elected mayor. The notion that a dynamic personality could be of economic benefit to the city is equally applicable to a good council leader.

No one seriously believed the ‘directly’ in ‘directly elected mayor’ would create a new breed of accountable, listening, promise-keeping politicians. And perhaps most seriously for the yes campaign it just looked like another layer of expensive bureaucracy proposed at a time when we are all suffering from government cuts. So an uninspiring, probably expensive idea proposed at the wrong time.

However the idea of a directly elected mayor arose because of specific problems within our political culture and although having a mayor might not be the answer, the questions still remain. Two problems stand out.

The first has been often discussed and is the problem of local government power. It is very difficult to get good people involved in local politics because all the major decisions are made at national level. Local politics is reduced to the status of a training post for those who want to get into the real business of national politics.

Furthermore, local elections are a way for the voter to comment on the performance of the government. So this time around it looks like Tory voters stayed at home in protest at what they see as Cameron’s failures. As a result, Cameron’s position is weakened whilst good hard-working local councillors lose their seats. In Labour’s time in government, they suffered the same fate.

None of which is any incentive to dedicate yourself to local government. You know that regardless of the hours you put into reading reports, listening to constituents complaints at regular evening surgeries, attending dull and relentless meetings, and building local alliances and movements for change, one hefty government scandal and you are out.

The second problem is less well-known but equally serious. Directly elected mayors short-circuit local party politics and also local government civil servants. They imply an uncluttered relationship between ‘ordinary people’ and the ultimate decision-maker, in this case the mayor.

This model of government pretends two things. First,that politicians are monarch-magicians who wave their magic wands to effect substantial social and/or economic change. That this is a fallacy is demonstrated by the rueful political memoirs of Prime Ministers.

Second, it pretends that ordinary people are experts in the common good. It is the same fallacy that proposes patients know best how to run hospitals or that parents know best how to run the education system.

Parents and patients know well whether the service or utility is working for them. They know whether little Simran can read yet or whether Uncle George’s hip is better after the operation. They can protest when it is not and they can vote for politicians who promise to make schools or hospitals work better. But they are not as well qualified as administrators and civil servants at making the whole work for the majority.

We need managers and administrators to work the bureaucracies which ultimately serve the common good. And we need local politicians who are experts in directing and checking local bureaucracies so that the interests of all in society are served. The system of local government we have is not ideal or perfect by any means. But it cannot be bypassed without a serious undermining of our democracy.

We should be very suspicious of politicians who seem to want to give up power to ordinary people. It looks too much like a rhetorical justification for keeping it themselves and removing the real threat to their authority, local experts.

I know “All power to the bureaucrats” is hardly an inspiring slogan. The daily grind of running the system is hardly the place for glorious political rhetoric. But there is no democratic short-cut which bypasses good, accountable local government. ‘Directly’ elected mayors have thankfully been rejected in Birmingham.

My hope is that the shallow rhetoric of ‘people know best’ can also suffer a similar fate in favour of a decent appreciation of expert knowledge in its proper place and a renewal of local democracy.

---------

(c) Graeme Smith is Senior Lecturer in Practical Theology at the University of Chichester. He has worked previously at St Michael’s College, Llandaff and Cardiff University, and Oxford Brookes University. An Ekklesia associate, his research interests are in contemporary social and political theology. He is editor of the journal Political Theology and author of the books A Short History of Secularism and Oxford 1937: The Universal Christian Council for Life and Work Conference, as well as academic articles on Thatcherism, Blair, Richard Rorty and Pragmatism, and Red Toryism.

The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network has issued a atatement calling for the ending of indefinite immigration detention.

The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network has issued the following statement which has been adopted by Quakers in Britain.

We urgently call for the ending of indefinite detention, which is fundamentally unjust and causes much suffering to its victims.

As Quakers we believe that there is that of God in everyone. We see the Testimony to Equality as clearly relevant to our concerns about those migrants and asylum seekers who are kept in detention. They are treated much worse than those born British.

The right to liberty is a fundamental right enjoyed by all people in the United Kingdom, whether British citizens or subject to immigration control. It is a right established in common law as well as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. Recent anti-terror legislation that allows for terror suspects to be locked up without being charged has been controversial. There has justifiably been an outcry about it and the time limit has now been reduced to 14 days. However, thousands of people are kept every year in detention by the UK Borders Agency with no date set for their release, yet there is no public outrage about this.

The Immigration Act 1971 first included the power to detain immigrants; later legislation has extended or amended that power. People can be detained on arrival in the UK as immigrants or when seeking asylum, if considered likely to abscond, or when they have already been refused the right to remain and deportation is expected to be imminent.

The decision to detain is made by immigration officers without reference to a court. In theory each detainee has the right to apply for bail after 7 days, but many people are unaware of this procedure and find it difficult to access legal advice. The immigration court ‘judges’ do not have to be trained or experienced to the level of senior judiciary, inadequate records are kept, and in many cases the Home Office view that the applicant is likely to abscond is accepted without evidence.

In theory it is Government policy not to detain survivors of torture or those with serious medical conditions or mental health problems, but in practice even proven survivors of rape and torture, pregnant women, and those with severe mental and physical health problems are often found in detention. Many innocent men, women and children who have been locked up in immigration detention centres have suffered severe mental health problems, with detention in many cases adding to trauma already suffered in their home country.

The Coalition Agreement committed the UK to ending the detention of children for immigration purposes. Yarlswood Family Unit has been replaced by Cedars, which opened in August 2011, with the capacity to detain up to nine families and has activities provided by Barnardo’s. Detention should be limited to 72 hours, though with ministerial authorisation, this may be extended for up to one week. Immigration detention remains for many adults.

[Ekk/4]

The World Council of Churches is urging the NATO summit in Chicago to “lead by example” and withdraw nuclear weapons still deployed in Europe.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is urging the NATO summit in Chicago 20-21 May to “lead by example” and withdraw NATO nuclear weapons still deployed in Europe more than two decades after the end of the Cold War.

A statement issued today by the WCC General Gecretary the Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit reiterates a key policy recommendation raised repeatedly with NATO officials by the WCC, the Conference of European Churches, the Canadian Council of Churches and the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA since long before the summit.

The ecumenical organisations express concern at the perception that the summit is prepared to postpone key decisions. “Rather than taking action,” the statement observes, “advance reports indicate that the summit will make the removal of its nuclear arms from Europe and other confidence-building measures dependent on Russian reciprocity.”

Tveit warns NATO that the expectation of “such reciprocity is a recipe for deadlock.”

[Ekk/4]

Seventeen Catholic Bishops are calling on the European Union to tackle corporate secrecy and tax dodging which deprive the world’s poorest countries of more than £100bn a year.

Seventeen Catholic Bishops are calling on the European Union to tackle corporate secrecy and tax dodging which deprive the world’s poorest countries of more than £100 billion a year.

The Bishops, who are from around the world and include John Arnold, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and William Kenney, Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham, have called for "rules to put more morality into the financial system".

"The greed of a few threatens the very survival of the most vulnerable populations",’ they said.

"To end this, new rules are urgently needed that ensure that the wealth produced, particularly from the exploitation of natural resources, is not monopolised for the sole benefit of a minority. These resources should benefit all equitably and in particular the local people who are directly impacted by the activities of production or extraction."

Nearly two thirds of global trade is conducted within multinational corporations which are supposed to pay tax on the profits they make. By dumping their costs into countries with higher taxation and shifting profits to tax havens - where they pay little or no tax - they can slash their tax bill. Adopting country-by-country reporting would make these companies break down their results for each country in which they operate and help poor nations identify and collect the taxes they are due.

The Bishops add that improved transparency would also strengthen democracy: "It is now up to the European Union to improve the international standard of transparency. The Commission has proposed a rule for financial transparency, on both a country by country and project by project basis. If implemented effectively, these measures will offer more opportunities to citizens to monitor whether extractive industries are making a fair contribution to the economy. To achieve this goal, the European Union must ensure the threshold for reporting payments by extractive companies is set at a level that is meaningful for developing countries. Exemptions should not be allowed to create loopholes."

Christian Aid’s economic justice advisor Joseph Stead backed the Bishops’ call for better regulation.

He said: ‘If developing countries are to be able to raise the revenue to pull themselves out of poverty and reduce dependency on aid they need to be able to collect the tax owed to them, including by rich corporations.

"We all have a moral responsibility to hold these companies to account and it is important that lawmakers play their part and introduce legislation which helps to end tax dodging."

In their statement the Bishops quote an extract from an overview of the Catholic Church's teachings about humanity's relationship to society; the Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, which reads: "God intended the earth with everything contained in it for the use of all human beings and peoples. Thus under the leadership of justice and under the company of charity, created goods should be in abundance for all in like manner."

Buy Christian Aid charity gifts and support present aid online.

[Ekk/4]

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced spending of £5 billion at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced spending of £5 billion at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire.

AWE Management Limited, which is a joint venture consisting of Lockheed Martin, Serco and Jacobs Engineering Group, will receive £1 billion a year for the next five years.

This is the second time in six months that the MoD has announced spending on AWE, which develops and maintains the nuclear warheads for Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system.

In November 2011 an extra £2 billion spending was announced to pay for new facilities for warhead assembly/disassembly and high-explosives testing, among other projects.

Kate Hudson, General Secretary for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), said :"At a time of massive spending cuts to vital public services, it is disgraceful that the government keeps ploughing money into a redundant Cold War weapons system.

"The government isn't listening to over 60 per cent of the British public who want to see Trident scrapped.

"A decision on whether or not to replace Trident is not due in Parliament until 2016. But the scale of spending on nuclear weapons, which we are frequently reassured is simply routine investment, suggests that the MoD is trying to force Parliament's hand by making Trident replacement a fait accompli."

She concluded: "This is unacceptable, shadowy decision-making which is economically unjustifiable, strategically wrongheaded and morally bankrupt. And worst of all they're paying for it out of the pockets of people who oppose it."

[Ekk/4]

Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party in England and Wales, says she will not seek re-election in order to "broaden opportunities for others" in her party.

In September 2012, Caroline Lucas MP will reach the end of her second term as national Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, and has announced that she will not be seeking re-election for another two-year term, in order to broaden opportunities for the range of talent in the Party and to raise the profiles of others aspiring to election.

Caroline Lucas said: "I'm hugely honoured to have served as the first Leader of the Green Party and I'm proud that during the four years of my term, we've moved Green politics forward to a higher level, with the Party by far the most influential it has ever been. We've seen significant breakthroughs in winning our first seat at Westminster and gaining our first ever local council in Brighton and Hove. These were followed by further breakthroughs onto new Councils in the recent local elections, which were among the most successful we've ever had, as well as establishing ourselves as the third party, ahead of the LibDems, in the elections for London Mayor.

"I look forward to continuing to do all I can in my very demanding role as the MP for Brighton Pavilion, representing my constituents and defending them against the Coalition Government's disastrous economic policies and its refusal to accept its environmental and social responsibilities. I will also be able to dedicate even more of my work to the political frontline, putting the Green case for change in Parliament and in all circles of national political debate."

Cllr Darren Johnson, London Assembly Member, said: "Caroline has made a huge impact in her time as Green Party Leader and has helped shift Green politics from the margins to the mainstream of British political life. She will be an extremely hard act to follow but this is an ideal time to allow new talent to come forward."

Jenny Jones, London Assembly Member and recent Green Mayoral Candidate said: "The Green Party has made some massive breakthroughs in the past two years, since having Caroline as our Leader, in Parliament, in Brighton and most recently in London, where we are now the third party behind the Conservatives and Labour. Caroline's decision not to seek re-election at this point is entirely in keeping with Green principles: it's a strong move, allowing other talented people to come through and to take the Green Party even further forward. She has set a superb example of how to lead. Whoever is elected in her place has a tough act to follow."

Caroline Lucas added: "We're lucky to have a wealth of capability and experience in our Party. Now feels like the right time to step aside, to allow more of that ability to come forward and help the party to grow. I offer my very best wishes to the next Leader, whoever they may be."

The roles of Leader and Deputy Leader were established by the Green Party in 2008 to provide a public face and voice for Green politics and policies. Both roles have a term of two years and Caroline Lucas MP, the Party's first Leader, will have served for two consecutive terms.

[Ekk/4]

The Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe Indians of Brazil are celebrating a Supreme Court decision to allow them to live undisturbed on their land.

The Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe Indians of Brazil are celebrating a Supreme Court decision to allow them to live undisturbed on their land.

Survival International. the NGO which campaigns for the rights of tribal people, says the Pataxó, of Bahia state, have been subjected to violent conflict for decades as ranchers have been occupying their indigenous territory.

They have been pushing to be able to live undisturbed on their ancestral land, a right guaranteed to them by Brazil’s constitution and by international law.

After a long judicial battle, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled this month that the ranchers must leave the area.

The Pataxó sang and danced at a ceremony to welcome the decision. One Indian said, ‘Today our damaged heart is crying with happiness’.

State Deputy Padre Ton emphasised that this land is for the Indians, ‘chased away and evicted by the violence they suffered’.

The Brazilian authorities are now responsible for resettling the ranchers.

[Ekk/4]