Police Cuts under the Tories

With a fanfare of publicity, the Prime Minister has announced plans to increase the number of police officers by 20000. That sounds like a lot. The number of police officers has in fact fallen by 20000 under the Conservatives since 2010 so this is the equivalent of someone pinching your wallet and then expecting praise for giving it back.

Under the remarkable headline "Jeremy Corbyn is Right" (something the media seldom admit) Channel 4 ran a fact check which verified the scale of police cuts under the Tories.

The results are here

Dixon of Dock Green was a work of fiction, like many of the things the Prime Minister says.



Reviews written for the Socialist and Socialism Today

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Unite's case against Universal Credit

10 reasons why Universal Credit should be stopped

1. Unbearably long waits for claimants to receive money
2. People can only apply for Universal Credit online making it inaccessible for many
3. Not enough help for claimants when the system fails them
4. Rent paid directly to claimants instead of Landlords causing people to get into arrears and even to lose their homes
5. Letting agents are already refusing to rent to anyone claiming Universal Credit
6. Cruel sanctions for both in-work and out-of-work claimants
7. Payments only go to one named member of a household
8. Universal Credit takes 63p in every £1 people earn
9. Universal Credit leaves many working families much worse off than the old system
10. People in part-time work could be forced to give up work that suits their disability or family life in order to take up worse paid full-time work or risk sanctions.

The Unite Campaigns page is here

Characters in The Miranda Revolution

The Miranda Revolution is being reissued in 2019.

Here are the main characters:-



The Dictator   
The Dictator has no name. His father did but nobody was permitted to use it. He made sure his son was only ever called “The Dictator's son”. There was no question of his daughters being allowed to inherit and no question of more than one son surviving.

Xavier Hollands
Torturer to Wolf-Dietrich with an aversion to actually torturing anyone but mental powers which compensate for this.

Tilly Hollands  
(nee Brandwine) Wife of Xavier. Her name really is 'Tilly'. It is not short for Matilda. See also Sister Lam.

Wolf-Dietrich Von Raitenau     
Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Somehow he gets roped in to Xavier's battle with The Dictator. See Appendix 1.

Kaspar 
Reporter who turns up in Ye Olde Boar with an amazing tale about The Dictator. There is more to him than meets the eye.

Neeta and Petra
The Dictator's twins. Possibly the Devil's. Petra has a deeper voice. This is important as they are otherwise very hard to tell apart.  They have been brought up to torture and kill without mercy.

Will   
Rebel #1 – a member of the Revolutionary Committee.

Garcia 
Rebel #2. Garcia is an intelligent and very attractive young man as he would be the first to tell you.


Karl   
Rebel #3. He was named after Karl Marx. A bold move by his parents who never told anybody and claimed it was an “Uncle Karl” he was named after.

Ygael
Rebel #4. Ygael is the Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee at the time the story opens.

Father Simon   
The Priest of St Michael's Church. Quite a contrast to Wolf-Dietrich as a man of God.

Marcos 
The man with the car and pimp to Sarah.

Sarah   
A bone-thin street girl. Marcos is her pimp.

Sister Lam     
The persona Tilly chose to adopt in the Dictatorship.
Geert Hollands
Adoptive Mother of Xavier. Her greatest wish was to meet a well-manicured young man she could take as a lover. Be careful what you wish for!
Terrance Hollands      
Father of Xavier, former ICI employee and scientist.

Mitch  
Pimp#1.

The Man        
Pimp#2 and uncle of uncles. Real name Cedric.

Doctor 
Pimp#3 real name Phil.


Shelly/Sheila/Suki     
Under-age Girl#1 Mitch's girl.

Delia/Lucy/    
Under-age Girl#2 one of The Man's girls.

Maria/Jenny    
Under-age Girl #3 The Doctor's girl and daughter of Miranda.

Lucas  
Street thug.

Connie 
Girlfriend of Lucas.

Miranda
Consort of The Dictator. Although Miranda is worshipped as a saint, there are in fact many “Mirandas” at the time our story opens. One is the mother of Maria/Jenny.

Charles
Cousin of Father Alon and owner of the cafe where the street girls hang out when not working.

Father Alon    
The priest of Saint Miranda's Church and cousin of Charles.

Captain Brand  
Female “handler” of the satanic twins.  She is a tall dark-haired woman in her mid forties.

Quin   
Jailer and torturer. A pupil of Captain Brand.

Lynda or occasionally Morganna
The Doctor's replacement for Jenny.

Darijus Dagys  
Under-secretary for communications


Sergeant  Marach
One of the soldiers who side with Miranda.

Sergeant  Michael 
One of the soldiers who works with Sister Lam.

Commander Nelson
Head of security assigned to deal with the street gangs under The Dictatorship.

The Boss
Leading gangster in the capital city – has information with which to blackmail anybody and everybody.

Soldiers
A whole cast of ordinary soldiers who find themselves doing extraordinary things for Saint Miranda.

Guild Care Computer Club on Tuesdays

I have a total of two computers but in the past, we have managed because people have brought in tablets, phones and laptops.

The main program I have used is https://www.learnmyway.com/ but some students have also come up with their own ideas of websites to explore. There are thousands of websites out there.

Trump, knave or fool?

If the Commander in Chief is telling the truth when saying he ‘hasn’t a racist bone in his body’ then surely that makes his remarks even worse. It shows he is either too ignorant to realise his remarks are racist or he is dishonesty seeking racist support for the next election. 

Mental Health Charter

The NEU Mental Health Charter deals with a range of issues in schools. A staggering ninety per cent of teachers surveyed by the union said they were considering leaving the profession because of workload and stress. This is an issue which needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. Mental ill-health is not an inevitable part of working life. 

The mental health charter is intended as a focal point around which staff and school/college leaders may collectively develop tools and strategies specific to their needs and aimed at reducing stress. The charter seeks to ensure that the well-being of staff is reflected in the culture, organisation and management of your school or college.

The charter clarifies the legal responsibility of decision makers to look after the mental and physical well-being of workers in education. We all know from bitter experience that without an effective trade union organisation the law is a dead letter which decision-makers can safely ignore. Where the union is strong, management have to sit up and take notice.

The link is here

Waterstones

A selection of my books is available from Waterstones but only online. It is the devil's own job to get their shops to accept them.

https://www.waterstones.com/author/derek-mcmillan/2461486

Blockheads

Neil Dury writing in the 'i’ is amusing or pathetic depending on your viewpoint. He wants the Labour leader to stand down. He neglects to tell us who he’d prefer. Nor does he explain how Jeremy Corbyn, who has thrashed his Blairite opponents in two leadership elections, can be removed. Anyone would think Dury was a Blockhead.