Thursday, 30 June 2011
Monday, 13 June 2011
May- June feels a little flat by comparison- Obama, Iraq, Osama
I have been waiting patiently since this announcement was made one month ago for some kind of comment...
But with ash filling the skies on the day this story featured on page 8 of the ipaper...
... the symbolic end to a shambolic war was easily lost among the noise...
... leaving a distinctly Iraq-shaped hole in Obama's first visit to the UK three days later.
The War on Terror, Axis of Evil and WMDs. More than 1 million people marched, and they did it anyway.
What have we learned?
The Robin Cook Memorial Conference is being hosted by Compass at the Institute of Education in London on Saturday.
As a fierce opponent of the war, Cook would have been pleased that t
he event brings together progressive politicians of all parties, pressure groups, trade unions, think tanks, NGOs, academics, activists, thinkers and campaigners from across civil society to discuss and debate how we build the good society.
Since 2003, Compass Youth has aimed to engage young people to find out what issues really matter.
At 12.45pm they will host: Liam Burns, NUS President-elect, Adam Ramsay, co-editor of the Bright Green blog, Tom Wood, Chair of Liberal Youth, Shiv Malik, Guardian journalist and co-author of 'The Jilted Generation' and Lisa Nandy, Labour MP for Wigan.
The panel, chaired by Luke Pearce from Compass Youth, will discuss: ‘Signals of Intent: Values and Structures of Tomorrow’.
"There exists a generational disparity in the way politics is practised and the values political parties represent. Increasingly youth politics is practised on issues and through structures distinct from conventional politics.
“At a time when youth have been disproportionately affected by the recent cuts to funding and in order for the centre left to grow support for our ideals, we must embrace the distinct way of thinking and doing politics that youth movements represent."
So, a month ago, after nine years, my whole political lifetime, the British armed forces stepped off Iraqi soil for the final time.
Where is the Opposition? In fact, where is the Government? Or as a country, after nine years, is this us done?
Tony's children, surely, we have to work out what we need to do to make sure this never happens again?
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