Same Sex Marriage

Rainbow flag. Symbol of gay pride. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now I know that this is ‘old news’ but it is something that is very important to me, so much so that even a month after the Same Sex Marriage Bill passed Parliament and became legislation, I thought I should still quickly write and say Thank You! A lot of people made this bill pass through Parliament, firstly (and this feels VERY odd, and I wish to be corrected if they were not the introducers) the government, then all the MPs including all the Sheffield MPs (even Nick) who voted in favor and all the Lords who voted in favor. And mostly to all the charities who have raised this issue long before the bill.

I suppose that the day I heard the bill had passed will stick with me, and many other LGBT people, for the rest of their lives, as the moment they were granted another form of equality. But don’t get me wrong, the LGBT movement, just like any minority movement, still has a long way too go.

Thank You,

Ben

Related articles

• Gay marriage moves step towards becoming law after bill clears Parliament (express.co.uk)
• Queen Gives Her Blessing; Same-Sex Marriages to Begin in UK (advocate.com)
• Gay Couple To Sue Church Of England For Marriage Rights (albanytribune.com)
• Same Sex Marriage is a must, but it doesn’t go far enough (theupandcomingwriters.wordpress.com)
• Same-sex marriage set to clear final hurdle in UK House of Commons (cnn.com)
• UK’s Gay Marriage Law Clears Parliament (abcnews.go.com)

We’re Back!

So just like Parliament and various other important organizations tend to go away for a month or two in the year, we had to as well.

Before delving into that I think its time I gave us a proper introduction, I’m Ben (SN2) and I’m 17 and studying A Levels in college, SN2 is Isabelle, she is 18 and studying mostly similar A Levels at college, we started this blog because we love to talk about all the goings on in politics, so why, in this day and age, should we not share them to anyone who wants to listen (or read rather). But its not just politics we are interested in, I prefer to watch TV to relax, Isabelle like to read to relax; Isabelle is more in tune with the cinemas and I’m more in tune with goings on and the workings of the USA. I think though, that it is these things that will make this blog great! We both share values and both want to share them, but together we cover a wide range of interests and we want to blog about those too, as we have below!

Back to the main point of the post, we started the blog a few weeks before the exam season; long story short, we decided that our studies came before spending an hour or two writing our blogs, then we just never seemed to pick up the blog again. But now summers here, we’re both about to start interesting and busy chapters in our lives and in my opinion, some of the stories could make for interesting reading.

So if you’re reading this, Thank You, and subscribe to get our latest blogs (1-2 a week, maybe more if we have enough time)

Hmmm…TV versus Books?

Evening Readers! I would like to pose a question, do you prefer books or do you prefer TV? I decided to write about this topic because of the massive changes in technology over the last few decades, in fact over the last few years, which are changing our lives beyond recognition. My generation (don’t forget I am only 18) is the first generation to grow up with the Internet, TV and mobile phones to name a few. Technology is practically ingrained into our lives now. Whereas my parents and even my older sister (25) has see the development of technology which is getting faster and faster.

Even though I could say a lot more about this topic, I’m focusing on books because of the threat to them. In answer to my own question I posed at the beginning of this post, I love books and I love to read. TV doesn’t even compare to the power and wonder books can bring. One of my earliest memories is of my dad reading books to me every night and I fell in love with how books and stories can capture your imagination. Due to reading a lot when I was younger, I can now read very fast (several books in a day when I’m not busy) and by the age of 11 I was reading adult fiction books. I’m probably making you think I’m a nerd or whatever; I didn’t just read, don’t worry. However I think this has set me apart from quite a few members of my generation, I know many people my age who don’t read at all, they much prefer TV.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like well made TV (yes, soaps do not class as well made) and sometimes it’s nice when you don’t want to do anything but just relax. Most of the time I find it incredibly boring though, I imagine plenty of people disagree and find reading boring too. However I find it boring because it’s not very active in the same ways reading is. When your reading, you can let your imagination take over and you can put yourself in the story. With TV you just can’t do that.

I am probably being slightly harsh on TV here but with one in five adult Americans unable to read, scary considerings its one of the most developed countries in the world. We have a reading epidemic. However there is some great TV like Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, Broadchurch, Game of Thrones etc which I could happily watch and do. Plus don’t forget all the great documentaries on the TV as well. All in all, books will always have a special place in my heart and we should encourage more people to read books (even if it’s on a e-reader device or borrowed from a library) but TV can be a nice addition to our lives; depending on what you watch. Socialist Number 1 signing off. 🙂

DPRK in more detail than before.

Demilitarized Zone, North Korea (Photo credit: yeowatzup)

Here in the UK we are hearing a lot about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (I find that most countries with ‘Democratic’ in the titles, aren’t democratic, that’s another story for another day). Not that British people aren’t talking about NK and aren’t aware, we just don’t need to care, we get blasted with images of how we aren’t in range and expert after expert saying they should be taken seriously but aren’t anything to worry about (that sentence alone is filled with reverse meaning).

Yesterday the BBC aired a controversial journalistic journey through eight days of a North Korean trip, which was heavily censored, the reason for the controversy was the BBC’s lack of telling other travellers (mostly students from London School of Economics (LSE)) that they were secretly filming the whole trip and in the process endangering all the people on the trip, the students and other travellers only found out during the visit.

The programme showed briefly how North Korea seemed to be blaming everything that went wrong on the war, and that at the same time there was a bigger military presence in and around the capital. I’ve read somewhere, not really sure where but one of the political journals (if I find out where I’ll add a link or quote below), that at first America took an extremely authoritarian approach, exercising military fly-bys with South Korea and speaking out against NK a lot. Since the. They have taken a more softer and diplomatic route. This source also said that Pyongyang’s elite would be the only beneficiaries of forge in financial aid to keep the happy and satisfied with their new leader (I also read somewhere, and this shocked me and didn’t surprise me at the same time, that North Koreans elite are poorer than the lower earners in South Korea). Whereas the money should be going on the hundred of thousand of starving North Koreans, maybe we should try and help the starving citizens, worry less about ‘a small fat man in a boiler suit’ to paraphrase Newsnight host Jeremy Paxman and focus more on poverty and other countries less obnoxious about their nuclear programme.

I’ve often said to my family and Socialist Number 1 that hopefully there will never be a World War Three because we are at the hight of technological communications and democracy and diplomacy, and that human nature is such to survive in this day and age of nuclear warfare we would have to compromise. This is similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis in which both nations and the world were pushed to the brink of nuclear warfare because both the USA and USSR were too afraid to show any sign of compromise. I’m just hoping we as citizens of not countries but of the world can trust the ‘superpowers’ to sort this out and more than anything help the starving North Koreans.

Socialist Number Two, Out.

Related articles

• North Korea vows blitz attack on South warning ‘retaliation will start without notice’ (express.co.uk)
• S.Korea urges DPRK to change, make sensible choice (nzweek.com)
• N Korea issues new ‘ultimatum’ to South (bigpondnews.com)
• North Korea’s War Plan (news.usni.org)
• North Korea vows ‘sledgehammer blows’ if South Korea doesn’t apologize for protests (thestar.com)
• BBC ‘used LSE students as shield’ (bbc.co.uk)
• LSE students on North Korea trip with BBC team ‘have received threats’ (guardian.co.uk)

Is Activism Dead?

Last week Socialist No. 2 and I went to a lecture on this very topic – is activism dead? Now I’m only a college student but was able to go because nobody checks your name or age. You know your at a university lecture when people are making jokes about dissertations. Socialist No. 2 and I were the only non-university students there (as always); which was quite intimidating especially when they’re asking very complicated questions about people and groups you’ve never heard of. However i really enjoyed it. I thought it’s a really interesting question especially in the day and age of the Internet, 24 hour news and instant communication.

The lecture consisted of a panel of four, two were activists or ran activist organisations and the other two were academics from the university of Sheffield, it was obviously quite academical and even though all the panelists said activism wasn’t dead, I think that they missed important points. So I have decided to write my own view.

I think that when people talk about activism, they often mean the people participating in democracy in the fullest extent that they can. For example protests and petitions. The Ian Duncan Smith petition is a major example of that over 460,000 people signed that petition for Ian Duncan Smith to live on £53 a week in less than 5 days, it is one of the fastest growing petitions or the fastest growing petition in the UK ever. I would class this as activism, people obviously care enough about an issue to let there feelings be known and try to make a change (though this petition just shows the obvious distaste for politicians by the public, I think). And in counties like Egypt, the world has seen a new revolutionary spirit in the Arab spring; spread by the Internet and the power of the people’s voice.

But is there something more? Activism is about change, changing or trying to change something usually using democratic means. The world isn’t perfect, there are always things that people are trying to change so in that sense activism can never die (though don’t get me wrong unfortunately it can be restricted). However I think a society needs more than activism, it needs engagement. Activism is a part of engagement but it ignores the importance of having community bonds and doing things not because you want to change it but only for the sake of keeping society going. As Aristotle once said when people are no longer taking part in democracy (or society), it will wither and die.

I think we could learn an important lesson from that. Engagement is the simple things like talking to your neighbours and helping out at your local schools and charities. Things we do everyday like using public roads and parks with the decency of not littering etc. Activism is important but we shouldn’t forget that pure engagement at a everyday level is often a lot more valuable.
Socialist number one signing off. 🙂

Related articles

• 450,000 sign IDS ‘£53’ petition (standard.co.uk)
• Don’t Forget the #wowpetition! (neitshade.wordpress.com)

Five reasons to love Sheffield

Evening readers, so in case you didn’t know, Sheffield is officially the best city in the world (Awarded by me, sorry London, you can sit this one out). I’m going to jump straight into it so I don’t ruin the list, here we go:

1. 1.       Sheffield is the greenest city in the whole of Europe!

According to Wikipedia (linked) Sheffield has a whopping 2 million trees! Seriously that an awful lot of trees, it is almost 4 trees to every Sheffielder! You can’t walk down a street and not see a plant, shrub, tree or hedge. Many of the roads around the University of Sheffield’s campus is tree lined, they are some of the nicest roads to walk down. If that wasn’t enough Sheffield has a whopping total of 83 parks, with more on the way! On top of that Sheffield has 4 public gardens ranging from large Victorian ones to small ones from the 1770s, dedicated to the Hillsborough Disaster victims.

1. 2.       Sheffield has two of the best universities in the country

Sheffield has two fantastic universities, University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. Together they bring in over 50,000 students, which makes walking the streets in the city centre even more joyful as you can see all the students from home and abroad who have decided to make Sheffield there home and who are enjoying their time here.

1. 3.       Sheffield has some of the best leisure venues ever.

Home to 4  movie theatres (cinemas) (one the largest independent out of London), 3 theatres, a sprinkling of shopping centres and locations, great village pubs and restaurants, many sports centres, two football stadiums, a basketball team, ice hockey team, music stadium, rock climbing, go carting, skateboarding parks and indoor facilities, running tracks & bowling alleys. (If I’ve missed something please help me out in the comments). Sadly though we have just got our Ski Village closed and Don Valley Stadium (former training ground of Jessica Ennis, Sheffield born Olympic gold medallist). Add onto that our transport is slightly better than national average. If that hasn’t persuaded you alone I don’t know what will. But I have two more points to help my case.

1. 4.       Sheffield has some AMAZING hospitals!

With 5 or more hospitals and one of only 4 children’s hospitals not linked to a teaching hospital, Sheffield has some of the best healthcare facilities in the country. Our doctors, nurses and other medical staff are sure to look after you if ever you need any help!

1. 5.       We smile!

Here in Sheffield we are kind, community focused and smiley people. Now just like in any city we do have some angry people but on the whole we smile.  If you smile at someone while you walk past them in the street 9/10 will smile back and if you were unsure of Sheffield before that then this should change your mind because why live in London where nobody smiles and nobody looks at you when you trip over, when you can live in Sheffield where we are VERY kind and we would flock in our tens to help anyone who needs it.

So, that is 5 simple reasons why you should visit, live or educate in Sheffield. In time all these things should be linked to a website but if not comment and I’ll try and get back to you.

Thanks for reading, Socialist No. 2 x

Related articles

• Sheffield unveils £40m sports complex – but it’s a ‘back of fag packet’ estimate (yorkshirepost.co.uk)
• £120m From Overseas Students (educationbestpractice.com)
• Jess Ennis: Short-sighted to close Sheffield’s Don Valley stadium (yorkshirepost.co.uk)

NUS Briefing, More to come… :)

Evening readers (or afternoon or morning wherever you may be in the world), now this week I have been to NUS national conference and experienced what it really means to be involved in student politics. The National Union of Students (or NUS as everyone calls it) represents 6 million College and University students across the UK and every year has their national conference in the great city of Sheffield.

This was my first national conference and it was so different to other conferences I have been to (Woman’s and Further Education). First of all, it may say national on the name but it really is alot bigger than you think it will be. There was about a thousands elected students all wandering about the City hall and basically taking over all the hotels in Sheffield. Local economy benefit. Check.

I then spent three days passing what felt like hundreds of motions (NUS policy) and listening to all the speeches accompanied to each motion and listening to all the debates before deciding which way to vote. Don’t worry I will do a post on the actual policies passed and not passed in some cases. It was great, hard work but great. When I say that I’ve really experienced student politics is that during the conference we had two votes of no confidence of the chair (both of which failed fortunately), an attempted third, a mass walk out as part of a silent process and all the elections of national positions which got quite heated and there was number of protest candidates. More about NUS soon and other topics. Hope you enjoyed my post, I promise more info and posts soon.

Socialist Number One, Thanks Guys 🙂 xx

Related articles

• NUS elects first president who did not go to university (metro.co.uk)
• Toni Pearce elected NUS president: Students elect first leader not to have been to university (independent.co.uk)
• Lad culture in universities: new feature and NUS report (thefword.org.uk)
• ‘Proud’ new NUS leader calls for frank dialogue (morningstaronline.co.uk)

Round Up, Thatcher, NUS and North Korea

The Baroness Thatcher, 1925-2013

Evening readers (still working on a name). So unless you have missed the news or haven’t walked into your local news agents or live under a rock with no TV, radio, wifi or even neighbor it falls to me to let you know Baroness Thatcher is dead. Now I know this is a socialist blog, and while other socialists have spent the night drinking and celebrating, you won’t get any horrible spouts of evil from me. Although, like many other socialists, I don’t agree with many of the things Thatcher did, I can’t help but think the whole media coverage is ill thought through and slightly disturbing to watch.

On the day the news broke the news was very subtle in its coverage having only one or two opponents to Thatcher with a whole coach full of people speaking how ‘she saved Britain’. Turn midnight and suddenly (maybe not so dramatically) the news outlets, daytime TV shows and shows that normally wouldn’t cover headline news (cough cough Loose Women! How I hate you!) had invited opponents onto the sofas to release a tidal wave of abuse. Now I know I shouldn’t defend any aspect of MT but as a human and not a socialist now I can only think of the family who are still grieving. To use an old phrase ‘Let sleeping dogs lie’. If you want to celebrate her death, do so in private, if you want to mourn her do so in private, if you want to throw a party do so in private and think before you speak (or tweet in this day and age). What’s done is done, no amount of debate and arguments to be had will change what she did, what we should focus on today is how we can improve British industry and how we can start to stop privatization.

The National Union of Students National Conference 2013 kicked off in our hometown of Sheffield on Monday 8th, I don’t have too much to say as I was only elected to my Union position earlier in the month, but Socialist No 1 (Already on the same union) is there and has promised me a great coverage and summary of the event which shall be published tomorrow!

North Korea was going to be my topic for today but obviously other news has taken precedence. So if the story is still bubbly away on my next post day I shall have something to say. As I said, Socialist No 1 is posting her first blog post tomorrow, so if you see this before hand be sure to check it out, if you don’t check it out anyway!! 🙂 (smiley faces to balance out the aggressive double !) However I may do my own brief obituary of her life and her legacy.

Thanks for Reading, Socialist No 2, Signing Out

Related articles

• Thatcher’s big funeral ‘disrespectful’ (itv.com)
• RIP Margaret Thatcher. TY 4 Dealing With The Socialist Scourge Which Had Infested England (themadjewess.com)
• MSNBC: Thatcher Was a ‘Good Socialist’ Because She Kept Some Welfare Programs (nationalreview.com)
• Hundreds gather in Glasgow’s George Square for ‘party’ to mark death of Margaret Thatcher (dailyrecord.co.uk)
• Margaret Thatcher Dies (people.com)
• Tale Of Two Obituaries: AP Basks In Legacy Of Chavez, Sneers At Accomplishments Of Thatcher (mediaite.com)
• Left-wingers shocked Thatcher’s death hasn’t unfucked the nation (genericparody.com)
• The Real Thatcher and the Symbolic Thatcher (reason.com)
• Margaret Thatcher is like Alex Ferguson… (sluggerotoole.com)
• Police injured and arrests made as hundreds ‘celebrated’ death of Margaret Thatcher (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)

BBC’s The Village! Does it has resonance?