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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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Week 02 Editorial Query: I have experimented, over "the break" with an alternative, more discursive mode of presenting this same material - will you take a look? RWE Mischievous BBC I am appalled by the BBC's treatment of the "Armenian" Ricin poison scare - the news management has been obsessive, alarmist, and wholly irresponsible. The broadcasters, like some politicians, delight in dramatising and exaggerating "alarming" messages, because they enhance the importance of the messenger.
Let's admit it. My new Welsh hero Rowan Williams did get it wrong, in his initial political critique. His perception of an emerging "market state" misses the point, and is a tad shallow. David Blunkett was entitled to take a pop at him. But it was nevertheless unwise of the Home Secretary to do so. Because Blunkett's defence was itself disingenuous... Flood Taxation a bad idea Faced with a new crisis, Government seems to have two knee-jerk reactions (a) create a new crime or (b) dream up a new tax. The Birmingham drug-gang shootings will produce a new crime. And the floods seem likely to produce a new tax - a new "Flood Tax" imposed upon the builders of new housing. That will not work. I explained the right solution last January (namely a generic Property Tax). But this new once-for-all Flood Tax would have a very limited effect, and would inhibit house-building in low-value regions... What do you think? back to top 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 Welsh electorate's first verdict on the practicalities of devolution.
Are you a Libri? 2003 will be the year of Libri. The Libri Trust is a new charitable initiative targeting the improvement of public libraries, both in the state and community sectors. Chairman is Kiffer Weisselberg (of Islington, London), and he is supported by an enthusiastic band of Trustees (including me...). Local authority libraries face major challenges, with rising costs which result in a derisory 10% of funds being spent on books at all. Libri aims to change all that. Weisselberg says that at least 25% of all funds could be spent on book-purchase - which would mean more than twice as many books for the same money. And Libri seeks to contact kindred spirits outside London, willing to work for library reform.
Bremner, At the weekend, the BBF trio moved into a new political gear, with their Sunday programme Between Iraq and a hard Place. This was well-researched, historically accurate, political parody, which brutally exposed the absurdity of the US/UK war-on-Iraq position as no straight political attack could ever have done. My hope is that even Tony Blair will now have realised that he has painted himself into a pantomime political corner. My hope is also that he is intelligent enough to chart a way out for himself - and soon. Otherwise, as a European political leader, he is dead in the water... Tough on terrorism,
What do you think? back to top Try again, Tony! The PM is reported to have "failed" in his attempt to keep the Courts
open longer, to make the wheels of criminal justice work faster. The
experiment in "instant justice" is reported to have been ruinously expensive, and
Lord Irvine is set to scrap it. But the idea was a good one, and Remembering Michael 
The magnificent Michael Young died, this time last year. Recently, I came across a Guardian article which we had written together in 1998, which addressed his lifetime preoccupation with local government and London, and in particular with neighbourhood governance... Lawyers' Revelations As an old hand at matters of law, I am rarely surprised at the ebb-and-flow of judgements, through the Times Law Reports. But this week, I had three surprises - all in one week. Impoverished "Socialism" I am obese. Let's not beat about the bush. I was an obese child ("Fatty" Evans, throughout my school-days), and I still exceed 17st, while standing a mere 5ft 11ins in my stocking-feet.So I am dismayed that the Fabian Society should be giving priority, as the focus of their New Year campaign for socialism, to the problem of "obese children" in our society. Surely there are more telling issues of socialist principle to address, at this juncture in history? What about poverty and wealth? Peace and war? Freedom and indignity? There are apparently 10% of all children (I am informed) now in the "obese category", and every socialist Government should take action..
Were you a fat child? Drop me a line Recent topics And read my own Big Theory itself, at For aficionados of the Constitution - I have dusted own my city-region proposals of 1996, whose political language seems a bit dated, I confess - but the underlying analysis remains strong - we are still woefully failing to mobilise the vitality, the cultural and economic strength of our great cities - see Building a Better Britain. And our political salariat continues to ignore the huge democratic potential of effective neighbourhood government...Viatical Settlement? ODM? Mandatory Convertible? Where is the financial jargon taking us? UK Political Salariat 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 -
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 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 - |
Mowlam Mo Mowlam launched a mischievous and insubstantial attack on Gordon Brown, in Sunday's Observer. She may prove right (in that Gordon Brown may never become PM) but her reasoning is deeply fallacious... But she is 
Mo Mowlam is, on the other hand, the only politician to analyse correctly the Birmingham gang-shootings. We killed Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespear, you and I - they were the two Birmingham teenagers shot by gun-toting young drug-dealers. We killed them by failing to take responsibility for managing an open and legal supply of the drugs in which their boyfriends deal. Mo Mowlam writes her most powerful indictment yet of Government drugs policy, in Thursday's Guardian. She calls for a system of controlled over-the-counter sales of all drugs - and that is precisely what is needed. If you want to make your own mark in 2003, and call for an end to this evil regime of drugs prohibition, sign on-line at - The Guardian for publishing my Angel Declaration letter on Friday morning, even if their editing did make nonsense of my text! Here's the original... Everyone misjudges Jenkins 
I was always ashamed of the late and thoroughly un-Welsh Roy Jenkins. He will not be lamented by me. True, in the Sixties I admired his incredible record as a liberal Home Secretary. I wish there were still a Labour Minister who displayed one-tenth of his liberal instincts. But he was otherwise an insufferable, pompous, self-centred, self-seeking, unprincipled turncoat - who betrayed his Party, his friends and his principles in the vain pursuit of personal glory. As I do not have to observe the niceties of elevated public debate (as Hattersley, Healey and Benn seem still constrained to do) I can tell you precisely what I think... Defending Little did I think that I would ever be defending Lord Irvine, whose unelected tenure as a senior Minister I consider to be entirely illegitimate, and unacceptably undemocratic. He is one of a pair of unelected non-political Bar buffoons unwisely introduced as "Tony's cronies" into the Labour Cabinet - simply because Blair cannot find enough trustworthy friends from among his elected colleagues (Lord Falconer is of course the other one...) But Irvine is entirely right in his dismissal of imprisonment for first-time offenders, including burglars. He spoke with real common sense, and echoed my own concerns about the incarceration culture, expressed here on these pages during December . And I condemn the appalling Daily Mail for its pandering to the worst in human nature..
No Compensation for Redundant Lords I smell a Railtrack coming on. Legal actions have been launched to recover an average of £1,000,000 per lost lordship, arising from the Government's Lords reforms. I inveighed against the principle of compensation last May. But this has the look of a storm the size of a man's hand... What do you think? back to top Prohibit
AD+6 
This is my shorthand reference to January 1997, when the Blair Government had not yet been elected - that was month when I first complained, writing in Tribune, that the planned Blair Project was too timid for me, too old-fashioned, lacking socialist perception - what has changed?
Remember droids?
The sci-fi term, created by Star Wars?
The robot slaves of the human race? Well, "abdroid"
is my own invented term for the millions of artificial persons sharing Family Labour spat 
My wife Elizabeth has had enough. This week, she has resigned from the Labour Party, after a lifetime of membership, both in London and Swansea. Elizabeth is history teacher by profession, a miner's daughter from Aberdare, and "cradle Labour". As an 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.
Migration Management Commentator John Lloyd, writing in this week's NewStatesman, does his job well, posing the question - "Is the Daily Mail right about immigrants?". The good journalist is one who identifies the right question, and makes a good article out of it.
Musical
My Labour Government, I am sad to report, is making a real error of judgment in "toughening up" music licensing, in the interests of crowd control and noise amenity. In terms of elementary civil liberty, this is an own-goal. 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, and rely on generic public order and nuisance laws. England (and Wales) should follow the same, more liberal, course. Are we too litigious? 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.
Week 02 Sunday 12 January 2003 |
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New
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 
This
year, Labour should bite the bullet and introduce a new standard
statutory speed-limit of
