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You are in the company of
Roger Warren Evans
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 With
Saddam Hussein "accepting" the UN terms well in advance of Friday's
deadline, the conflict moves into a new phase - Bush will not be able to
maintain the same blanket verbal bombing - a Middle East war would be disastrous, for all the Western economies,
wrecking consumer confidence - I think that Bush, greatly strengthened by
Republican electoral success, will now turn his attention to Christmas
trading, and the January Sales... This BBC News pic shows an Iraqi
standing guard over the UN headquarters in Baghdad, which will be the focus
of diplomatic attention for the next few months...and my thanks to the BBC.. |
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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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Week 47 Editorial Note ...Emergency! This is the Week 46 Edition extended by force majeure into Week 47 - my PC is in dock for a few days, editing suspended! I hope to be back on-line by Wednesday 20/11 - apologies to all regular Monday readers... - Roger WE check out new Home Footnotes Page There is a theme
It is said that Wednesday's Queens Speech was without any coherent theme
- a ragbag, a hotch-potch.
I disagree. The Speech was a clear demonstration, at every point in its reasoning, of just how barren the strategy of building a minimalist neo-liberal state can be. There is nothing, but nothing, in this Programme which differentiates a Labour from a traditional Tory Government. No wonder Duncan-Smith is getting desperate.What do you think? back to top MEMO To: Ken LivingstoneFrom: Roger WE You’re getting problems from Swansea . Press reports suggest that the records at Swansea’s DVLA are so out-of-date that you will not be able to collect your London congestion fines next Spring. You will get bogged down (the Press says) in mis-collection disputes.Death by Drone The assassination in Yemen, by US remote-control airborne robot, of one Abu Ali, reported to be a "leading associate" of Osama bin Laden (together with five unnamed car-passengers) was an outrage. If it accorded with the Forces' "terms of engagement", then either Bush or the High Military Command should be indicted. This was murder. Yet news report came as such a profound shock that it has been difficult to appreciate the sheer enormity and gross criminality of the attack. As we gather our wits, the world must unite to condemn this awful war crime... What do you think? back to top Pensioner Blix - a intriguing footnote to the Iraq crisis is that the key UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix, is aged 74 (Yep! Seventy-four) - he is a senior Swedish diplomat, discharging one of the most stressful and demanding functions on the international stage - youngsters should think about it... check out new Home Footnotes Page Central Bankers Last week should have been a very big one, for central bankers. Last Monday 4 November, in the US, UK and EU, the central banks were all poised, Batman-like, to reduce interest-rates and save their economies from recession - the US did, the other two did not. No parts of the Earth moved, or showed any sign of moving. And the real lesson was this - State interest-rate fixing by Central Banks does not now make a blind bit of difference to the performance of national economies. Attempting to fine-tune the "official price of money" is a futile exercise...
Let me know what you think
Radical Rail Action Make no mistake - the Regulator's decision to shorten renewed rail operating franchises to three years constitutes a fundamental change of system. For many years now, the train-operators have been lobbying to get 7-year franchises increased to 12- or 15-years. The importance of this change is that it will strip out capital investment from the franchise relationship, and allow operating contracts to focus exclusively on operational effectiveness. Capital equipment will have to be held by Network Rail, which is the correct PFI principle. This represents a "step change" (..to use current jargon) in our understanding of how to operate PFI relationships - and that is where I have distinctive personal experience
Let me know what you think
check out new Home Footnotes Page Unmarried Adoption Liberal pitfalls Like all good liberals, I am delighted that the Government stuck to its guns and extended the adoption laws to unmarried couples, both heterosexual and gay. The Government's second-round victory in the Lords ensured that the second Chamber did not again frustrate the will of the Commons. The Tories have proved only that nastiness comes in widely differing forms.
What do you think? back to top Jacqueline and Legal principles can be awkward. Out of a clear sky, a strange case can generate penetrating legal perceptions. And that is what happened in the case of the Quark Fishing Company v. HM Government (Foreign Office, Robin Cook). The Judges broke new ground, by reprimanding the Government for unfair administration, in the allocation of Falklands fishing licences... What do you think? back to top Don't Ditch ENA! I am a fan of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the great French graduate civil service college which attracts into public service a goodly proportion of France's best intellects. There is currently a revolt under way against this 1945 foundation, inspired by Charles De Gaulle, because of its "elitism". ENA arouses many of the same resentments as the Oxbridge hegemony, in the UK. But it is fundamentally different. What do you think? back to top Walwyn-Jones & Mendoza Sounds like a solicitors firm - but it's not. This is the House of Lords case which decided last week - establishing that a statutory residential tenancy could be taken over as of right by the same-sex partner of a deceased statutory tenant. Gay campaigners made much of the "precedent" - but that was much overstated...I f their Lordshipsmust stay... You will know that I favour outright Lords abolition, heralding a harder-working single-chamber Parliament. But as common sense is not likely to prevail, I am casting around for a compromise. And I have found it - in Clive Soley's proposal for 100% indirect election – read his own words. What do you think? back to top
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Blairism 
Now that the Queens Speech is on the streets, Blair's article lastt Sunday in The Observer is put into better perspective. But the Government's programme reveals the political sparseness of its position - there are no matters of real principle raised by these proposals - they are pedestrian, managerial, without any real political insight or inspiration. There is a huge gulf of principle between Liberalism and Socialism (see my earlier analysis) - and it is now quite clear that Blair is a Liberal, not a socialist. In spite of Tony Giddens' best efforts, the material is distinctly impoverished.socialism and civil rights Wednesday's Queens Speech has prompted an immediate response from the new Socialist Civil Liberties Association. While supporting a number of the Government's criminal justice reforms, they are implacably opposed to any curtailment of jury trial, and to the more extended use of personal or criminal records as evidence in criminal trials - see SoCLA Press Release Panic Management The enhanced threat of terrorism is not in doubt. I certainly do not doubt it. But as politicians we still have much to learn about how to manage the public information process. It is all-too-easy for Governments to use the inculcation of apprehension, even subconsciously, to inhibit opposition, suppress criticism, enhance deference. I say that "threat data" should be kept secret by Ministers unless its publication would enable members of the public to take relevant evasive or defensive action. Last week's "administrative" cock-up by the Home Office in "releasing the wrong text" was sheer pantomime. The Dover ferry threat was also bungled - First, the "highest-ever" State of Alert was made public and then Downing Street announced that "nobody should change their plans" to travel by ferry.What then, was the point of the original announcement? We still have a lot to learn about the management of public anxiety.. What do you think? back to top
Company law reform Enron continues to reverberate through capitalist circles worldwide. Shareholders, and those who live by the investment of "capital", are rightly incensed by the crimes and deceit of their trusted managers. But there is no sign that the necessary initiatives will be taken, to target the radical reforms which are really required. Current reform proposals are so mild that all competent corporate crooks will sleep easy in their beds. For radical change, you will have to read my Newport Manifesto, which you will find at Tame the Corporations!
Let me know what you think
Too little new housing Some of you thought I was being too hard on John Prescott last week, in condemning the Government's weaknesses on the housing and urban regeneration front. I make no apology, because of the key political importance of this theme - and because there is still time for the Government to recover, if they will only follow my advice What do you think? back to top check out new Home Footnotes Page More Thoughts on My experience of the housebuilding industry generates quite different perceptions from those of laymen. Let me explain...Let me know what think back to top M andate Schmandate...Assertions fly, that George Bush now has a "mandate" for every right-wing excess. But that is nonsense. In the UK, very little of the forthcoming Queen's Speech will have the authority of electoral mandate. In an electoral system of competing images and few promises, the doctrine of the mandate has outlived its usefulness... check out new Home Footnotes Page international devolution All over the world, politicians and constitutional lawyers are exploring new formulae for provincial devolution. The 19th century unitary nation-state is under challenge, and new "federal" formulae are urgently required.
Let me know what you think
Migration
law in This week's end-of-Term fracas over the Asylum and Immigration Bill was a grave embarrassment to everybody. The Government is stumbling from one crisis to another, with David Blunkett persistently trying to "get tough with foreigners" in order to head off right-wingers at the electoral pass - he clearly wants to win the racist vote, next time. This is a barren and short-sighted strategy, if for no other reason than that racism is not amenable to such rational argument. In any event, come the General Election, there will be many better racists than Blunkett on parade. More important, the grave disarray of UK immigration policy indicates that the whole system of migration management needs radical reform. What do you think? back to top check out new Home Footnotes Page What's in a name? Quite a lot, if the name is Hrothgar Habakkuk. He was the august Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, who died this week. I heard him lecturing at Cambridge, when I was studying History (1957) and he was the Chichele Professor of Economic History at Oxford. He was a Welshman, a South Walian born in Barry and educated at the local state school. His father was Director of Education for Glamorgan, also a founder of the Cardiff Fabian Society, in 1939. What's in his name? Let me give you the very Welsh explanation.. Check out previous Diary Page ...and the one before that?
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