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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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Last Day Last Friday, 3 January, was the last day of the Government's public consultation-period on GATS, the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The proposed Agreement covers the vital sector of intellectual property rights, and lays down future ground-rules for world trade in services. We have been asked to advise the Government what it should do. GATS
One year ago I do not like retrospective comparisons. The real political challenge is always to think clearly about tomorrow, not to reminisce about yesterday. But you must forgive my looking back to my very first days on the Web, this time last year - the editing was primitive, but it was an exciting process - I wish more Leftwingers would do it.
... ah, those were the days... I seem to have become more serious as the year has worn on - in the early days, I took the Micky out of the Germans for their ponderous treatment of advertisements - I argued that Wales was not a musical nation - I explored rare Welsh proverbs - reported on the local management of fireworks - a world shortage of honey - the abandonment of tonnes of Russian vodka on the dockside at Kaliningrad - somehow, it all seems to have been more fun...
NB An understandable mistake, but one of you has been searching these pages to find the new Welsh Fabian newsletter - I have indeed created a new 2003 Welsh Fabian Newsletter over Christmas, which you will find at Fabians of Wales
Crunch Year, for Wales
I ask
y'all to remember that this is Election Year,
for Wales. May 2003 will see the key Welsh Assembly Elections, which will be
the electorate's first verdict on the practicalities of devolution.
It's Sherron Time Magazine has named my favourite Sherron Watkins as its Whistle-blower of the Year. She was the Enron Manager who had the courage to write to the Chief Executive Kenneth Lay exposing questionable accounting, and predicting that Enron could "implode on a wave of accounting scandals". But why was that information not known to the Press at the time? We need a massive change in the system of protective secrecy which surrounds out corporations - that is one of the key demands of the Newport Manifesto, at Tame the Corporations.. What do you think? back to top Hail the Commentariat! This
thought, from
Martin Kettle in The Guardian,
deserves continuation into the New Year. Kettle identifies a new political force, which he calls the
commentariat.
This is the cadre of 120 professional journalists who write regular week-in
week-out opinion pieces about domestic politics. What worries me is
the prospect of conflict and collusion with
Let me
know what you think Viatical Settlement? ODMs? Mandatory Convertibles? Where is the financial jargon taking us? Recent topics And read my own Big Theory itself, at Follow my August 2002 Russian Tour Diary, now unfolding in splendid technicolor - capacity problems have so far limited the scale of how much I can E-publish, but there is still plenty to read - Special Footnote I love the online newspapers, which are my access to the world - share them with me - click through to their Homepages from here -
back to top Diary 2002 Now up to date! I have re-structured my Diary to give you a day-to-day means of looking back, throughout the year just click through
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Family Labour spat
My wife Elizabeth has had enough. This week, she finally resigned from the Labour Party, after a lifetime of membership, both in London and Swansea. Elizabeth is a history teacher by profession, a miner's daughter from Aberdare, and "cradle Labour". As a hardened ol' activist and organiser, I remain firmly within the Labour Party, because I am convinced that democratic nation states cannot function without an effective Party system - and I seek to contribute to that process. I will continue to work to put Labour leaders into power, in spite of my disagreements with certain current policies.
We are ..you and I. We killed
Charlene Ellis and Letitia Shakespeare,
the two young girls in Birmingham, shot by gun-toting young drug-dealers, to
whom we have a delivered a criminal career ladder.
How have we done that? We have
failed to take responsibility for managing an open and
legal supply of the drugs in which they deal. We have forced them into
a cul-de-sac of disregard, into
an underworld where nothing is legal, and gun-law rules. That is our
doing. If you want to make your mark in 2003, and call for an end to
this evil regime of drugs prohibition, sign in on-line at the No compensation for cricket 
The Government faces a difficult question of principle, over the February Zimbabwe "Test match". Some short-term pragmatic compromise will have to be sorted out, perhaps the venue rearranged and commercial losses minimised. But the longer-term solution lies in the use of insurance against "political risk".
Musical 
My Labour Government, I am sad to report, is making a real error of judgment in "toughening" music licensing, in the interests of crowd control and noise amenity. In terms of elementary civil liberty, this is an own-goal. And the Minister making the key mistake is the Welsh intellect Kim Howell - o dear o dear o dear... There is no sound case for this heavy-handed "State" intervention into every pub, church and community hall. Scotland and Ireland have no such licensing - they rely on generic public order and nuisance laws. England (and Wales) should follow the same course. Corporate Reform Global mountains to climb 
T UC new boy Brendan Barber takes over as General Secretary, as John Monks heads East. Confronted with corporate “management” in global disarray, trade union leaders need a new balance-of-power strategy. Barber made a good start last week, writing in The Observer. But tinkering will not be enough. The unions must demand a sea-change in the character of corporations themselves as legal entities – nothing less will do.
Managing I will be watching this year for signs that the Judges are seeking to constrain the compensation culture. You know me - I do not think that the process is inherently undesirable, but I do recognise that it should be brought under "social control", by the Courts themselves. This is not a matter for parliamentary intervention.London Incapable City The Government would be right to oppose the drive to bring the Olympics to London. Because the government structure of Europe's greatest city could simply not handle such an assignment. And for that, national Government itself must is entirely responsible.
20 mph for 2003 
Nowhere is the fragility of UK Government authority more clearly demonstrated than in traffic management. In key areas, such as speed-limits and highway-charging, Westminster has simply passed the buck to the declining local authorities. That is unacceptable. And extra driving lessons will not be enough. The evidence is crystal-clear that, above 20 mph in residential areas, moving vehicles cause far more injury and death than can possibly be justified. Local authorities are permitted to impose 20 mph limits, but commonly lack the political courage to do so. Labour should show its concern with road-casualties, and the quality of local life, and introduce a new 20 mph speed-limit for all "communal roads", whether residential or otherwise. Local authorities would have the right to override, and retain the 30 mph figure if road conditions justified it.
House Price Forecast Greater precision called for This will be a Big theme of 2002. Threat of 
Governmental management of the "war on
terrorism" constitutes a real threat to personal freedom, throughout the
world. Nobody should be in any doubt about that. California was
the scene of a nightmare "swoop" by the US Immigration and Naturalisation
Service on 23 December, when 700 Middle-Eastern males were arrested for
non-compliance...
Week 01 Sunday 5 January 2003
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