Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care

Product Information

Despite the advance of marketisation, Bunting notes, swathes of the care economy remain hidden and its currency of time, attention, empathy, respect, tact, trust, dignity, discretion, reciprocity and solidarity is undervalued. She shows that care relies simultaneously on expertise and matriculated skills, and on tacit knowledge, the power of touch and wordless reassurance. These different aspects of care are not always successfully conjoined. The provision of care can be routine and repetitive, but at the same time attentive and compassionate. Care takes place in the interstices of the quantifiable and the ineffable. Like David Lyons, I have one of the supposedly safest seats in the country. I’d been the candidate for two weeks when I was told the people of Tottenham would vote for a donkey if you put a red bow on it. Lyons is told the people of Mansfield would vote for a tub of cottage cheese if it had a red rose on it. But still, on election night, I always think I’ve lost. All of it counts for nothing when the ballot papers are being counted. I remember watching Oona King lose her seat after the Iraq war. The play captures that feeling, the vulnerability of the candidate. Nothing is safe at that moment. This is a beautifully written book, full of insight and humanity. It asks important questions about the deficit of care in our society, to which there are no easy answers. Young, Graham (3 February 2016). "See UB40 stars return to the Red Red Wine Eagle & Tun pub". Birmingham Mail . Retrieved 12 October 2017.

On September 8, 2021, it was revealed that the series was officially cancelled. [6] Contestants [ edit ]The band defended their decision to make an album of cover versions, stating that they had always wanted to make reggae for a wide audience. Robin Campbell said, "We actually set out in the first place to popularise reggae. That was our intention." [5] His brother Ali added, "What we want to do is play heavy dub reggae. But if we came straight out doing that, it would never have gotten on the radio. We commercialize our music all the time; it's been a series of compromises." [7] Labour of Love film [ edit ] The book traces the story of care from birth through to death. Bunting is critically concerned with ideas of motherhood and how they shape women’s commitment to care. Her own attitudes to motherhood, she suggests, drew on ‘a template buried in memories of being mothered myself’ (46). For Bunting, motherhood was the beginning of a journey away from the orthodoxies of feminism. Parenting threw up moral dilemmas that feminism failed to solve. Feminism won a new role for women in the world of work, but the workplace is organised around the imperatives of productivity and efficiency, while parenting requires patience and the acceptance of distractions and interruptions. Scaping, Peter, ed. (1985). "Top 100 albums: 1984". BPI Year Book 1985 (7thed.). British Phonographic Industry. pp.48–49. ISBN 0-906154-06-5.

Also, I can’t bear to see yet another depiction of that Labour period – after the transformations of the 1980s – that says nothing about the change in women’s lives. Once again, I had to sit there watching as the only women depicted are the MP’s wife, or the woman who works for him. Actually, a huge part of New Labour getting into power was because women changed their votes. Once again, this was looked at through traditional male eyes and I’ve lost patience with that. Between the marketplace and rigid bureaucracy, where is the space for new models of care? Bunting notes that William Beveridge, original architect of the British welfare state, envisioned a role for ‘friendly societies’ – non-governmental providers – for the provision of healthcare. But this was a road not taken. Instead, a highly centralised national health service prevailed, which adopted a medicalised approach to care, valuing technical expertise over human values. Where this approach has resulted in poor care, such as in the notorious case of Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, health managers respond with programmes and associated performance indicators to promote compassion, as if this can be legislated and quantified. Michael Schneider (September 8, 2021). "Fox Alternative Boss on The Masked Singer COVID Cases, Fate of Lego Masters, and Canceling Labor of Love". Variety . Retrieved September 8, 2021. We’re facing a crisis in care likely to affect every one of us over the course of our lives. Care-work is underpaid; its values disregarded. Britain’s society lauds economic growth, productivity and profit over compassion, kindness and empathy. For centuries the caring labours of women have been taken for granted, but with more women now in work, with increasing numbers of elderly and with austerity dismantling the welfare state, care is under pressure as never before.Dutch album certifications – UB 40 – Labour of Love" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld- en geluidsdragers . Retrieved 10 June 2019. Enter Labour of Love in the "Artiest of titel" box. Select 1984 in the drop-down menu saying "Alle jaargangen". There’s some beautiful broad humour in Labour of Love, and a moving Much Ado-style relationship, but the play is really a celebration of the party’s achievements – from SureStart centres to peace in Northern Ireland. People forget that what we achieved in power was extraordinary. Taylor, Jordyn (July 17, 2020). "Kristy Katzmann From Labor of Love Reveals What Happened With Kyle Klinger". Men's Health . Retrieved February 28, 2022. The play is a love story between two individuals but also looks at each character’s relationship with the party. I fell out with Labour most recently when it took a very different position to me on Brexit – I felt like a stranger in my own party. Like any sort of marriage, there are ups and downs, moments when you can feel quite estranged. And to govern, you do need a broad church. All political parties are a coalition of interests, especially in a two-party system. During the good times, it all comes together, but during the tough times you can be at war among yourselves. We need more portraits of politics that are local and regional. The strength of our system is that, unlike American senators, we are not just politicians, we are representatives – and we represent a place zealously. I thought Graham did well to convey a real sense of place – Nottingham, over the last 25-odd years, is brought home to us. Graham, like me, is proud of the part of the world he comes from. There are points of detail that only someone from a former coal-mining community could possibly know. It takes us away from the chattering classes and the north London dinner parties and helps us to understand post-Brexit Britain and those who voted leave.

The play was sophisticated enough to recognise that it is not the case that there is one group of people in the Labour party who have principles and one group who want power. It showed that every Labour person has a bit of both. It was interesting that the leader of the council couldn’t do anything without Labour being in government because the council was being starved of funds – and of course we’re seeing that happen again. Bunting argues that ‘care is the feminist issue’ (3) because its burdens fall unevenly on (some) women. She identifies the particular fate of the middle-aged woman still caring for her children and, at the same time, for elderly relatives. Care, traditionally, was the work of women because ‘caring is engrained in the definition of what it is to be a woman, a wife, a mother, sister and daughter’ (16).The testimonies she gathers constantly confirm what is meant by “good” care . Listening, her interviewees say, is nine-tenths of the job. Care is about attentiveness. It needs time and focus, and trust. It is not always about action; it is often wordless. It cannot easily be measured. Care, in other words, is often beyond price. Yet in a modern, industrialised society like ours, with an increasing population, it must often be paid for and given to us by those we do not know.

In his earlier play, This House, Graham went inside the whips’ office to show very salt-of-the-earth Labour folk for whom it was all trench warfare, but who felt uncomfortable with Westminster. In Labour of Love, Jean Whittaker – the agent played by Tamsin Greig – barely even goes to Westminster, but she plays just as important a role as David Lyons. There are details that only someone from a former coal-mining community​ could possibly know

Recommendations

There were some things that just felt wrong. I think the idea that the majority of work for a Labour MP in a northern constituency is “dog shit” – as they say – is just wrong. The constituents have so many problems – yes, parks that are unusable, pavements that are fouled – but there are more problems than just dog shit, and it trivialised that. David Lyons, Martin Freeman’s character, is parachuted into a safe seat in 1990, his old Nottinghamshire patch. I’ve only been in office for a year – I succeeded Jo Cox as MP for Batley and Spen, an area I’ve known my whole life. I’ve got no idea how anybody could represent a place they either didn’t grow up in or don’t know very well. a b Considine, J.D. (19 January 1984). "UB40 – Labour of Love". Rolling Stone. No.413. p.61. Archived from the original on 27 December 2007. The only women depicted are the MP's wife, or the woman who works for him … I've lost patience with that