|
|
|
|
Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
|
Week 20
This Opinion was written in mid-March, for a learned legal journal. It deserves a much wider audience - and you have every word of it, right here. We must find a way of bringing this issue before the UK Courts. Blair's recent public soul-bearing and sickening religiosity cannot stand against this stern judgment, the judgment of his peers.
Coming to Terms
I love stamps...
IPPR Director in March 1993 was the redoubtable leftwing intellectual James Cornford, with whom I dined last week in London. Today's Director is Matthew Taylor of the Incisive Mind - you may recall how impressed I was with him, at the last Labour Party Conference. And Matthew Taylor, writing in this week's New Statesman, heralds "Baby Bonds" as the early signs of a profound socialist revolution. I say Yes, but...
T he InternationalOptimism Agenda Globalisation has one consequence which no UK political party has yet grasped. It is that we must now cast all our manifestoes, both on the Right and on the Left, in terms which make sense globally. “Politics in one country” is no longer enough. I have made my own attempt to shape such an international political agenda, which would bring hope to all the peoples of the world... The Euro is not an issue 
The Euro continues to grab the headlines. But the right course is for the Government to block any Referendum, and then call an early General Election (perhaps in Autumn 2004), putting the issue into the Labour Manifesto. Once this June deadline is passed, there is no continuing commitment to hold a referendum at all. And there are now no substantive issues raised by joining the Euro. It is the biggest non-issue of contemporary politics.
"Anti-racism" is not enough We are right to be concerned with last week's electoral success of the British National Party, with the popular resentment of refugees, and with the tendency of politicians to play the race card. But these nasty trends will not be countered by the barren language of "anti-racism", or by tired negativity of the old IS Left.
back to top
Try BBC News, the public service website for the best and quickest access to the news, as well as a huge political data resource, the BBC is unbeatableSpecial 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 What are your thoughts? Drop me a line
Week 20 |
|
New Labour, 
Few of my fellow-citizens will understand the anguish
of being trapped, as a thinking, middle-o'-th-road leftwing radical,
within
today's Labour Party. The Party is going through a dark and
uncivilised period of its history, pandering to the very worst in public
opinion.
Do you know who The English Courts must be given the opportunity to rule upon the lawfulness of the Iraqi War. But legal procedures will stand in the way of proceedings unless there can be found a specific cause of action within the jurisdiction of the UK. At the end of March, three British soldiers were sent home, ostensibly for refusing to obey orders which (they contended) involved the killing of innocent civilians.
Leave charities alone As a "natural" radical , I have ideas about changing most things about our civic order. But I shall be resisting the current fashion for "modernising" charity law. Leading commentator Malcolm Dean backs the cause of radical reform, writing in The Guardian.
Blair, revolutionary? Tony Blair commonly uses radical language, without true radical intent. In early 1997, Tribune published an article of mine, Blair is too old-fashioned for me. But there are certainly revolutionary changes now afoot, in the radical restructuring of "local government" - in the broadest sense of that term.
NB Some of my friends are puzzled by my seeming conversion to the Blairite Cause. Let me explain myself more fully.Spinning the Economy
I am so impressed with this excellent cartoon of Alan Greenspan and George Bush (from Nicola in The Guardian) that I retain it for a second week - albeit at the bottom of the page - as a piece of serious economic analysis.
Try BBC News, the public service website
Other recent topics
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 - St Petersburg Novgorod Moscow Tallinn (2) What are your thoughts? Drop me a line |
|||||||
|
Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT NOTICE
|
New
If correct then, why not now?
I am sure
you will want to
keep in touch with what Steve Bell is drawing, in
One of those soldiers would make the ideal
"plaintiff", for a human rights action. 
