Labour Party
Revolution

Peter Fitzgerald of Caerphilly and I are both leftwing lawyers, and Party loyalists.  And we spent last Saturday, in a Cardiff office, re-drafting the Labour Party Constitution. 

• The picture, just in case you did not recognise it, is of Caerphilly Castle...

Fanciful? Pretentious?  Perhaps.  But we are desperate men, without political office or position.  We asked ourselves -

"What can we do, in our small corner of the political universe, to resolve the awful malaise, which is corroding contemporary Party politics - not just the Labour Party?" 

We spent last Saturday plying our legal trade, amending and drafting, finding the right words. And I think the outcome is constructive, and creative.

• Do you agree?

For those of you who are serious about Constitutions and politics, take a look at the specific amendments, proposed by Labour Links.

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Take a break!  For something completely different, abandon your daily preoccupations, and take a gentle browse around the enterprising website - Best of Wales

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Political Management
v Civil Liberties
My daughter Katharine replies

I confess - I am a hopeless mixture of libertarian and authoritarian.  I confess to being, by intellectual orientation, an "organiser", a manager - and I consider the "good society" can be realised only by the deployment of organisational skills of a very high order (= "politics").  On the other hand, I do have a keen sense of the limitations that should be placed upon "the State" in the pursuit of managerial intervention.  I explored these dilemmas, earlier last week.

But my daughter Katharine found my "managerialism" unacceptable, and argued for a much more radical view of the Government's oppressive conduct at the London Arms Fair.

• This put me on the spot.

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Unknown Doctor

A new voice penetrated the dark debate about asylum-seekers last week,  It was from an anonymous GP, writing in The Times on 28 October.  His account was perceptive, sensitive. generous, imaginative - and liberal. 

• I commend it to you.

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This Christmas 1st from the Royal Mail puts up a fine show - but what is it?  Does anyone have a clue?

•  Drop me a line

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I enjoy dipping into informed US West Coast chat, always up to the minute, which can be found at www.metafilter.com.

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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 -  I have added the English-language China Daily ... and I now offer you the leading English-language Indian paper The Hindu. 

They are all just a click away.

• Guardian
• Daily Telegraph
• Independent
• The Times
• New York Times
• Le Monde
• Die Welt
• Moscow Times
• China Daily
• The Hindu

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Never miss Steve Bell!  His cartoons, from The Guardian - his wit and perception illuminate the absurdities of the political scene...

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One year ago

As a political activist, this time of year has its own excitement for me - anticipation of the Queens Speech, the Government's attempt to "set the political agenda" for the coming year - these are the things I was thinking and writing about in early November 2002...

• My sacking by Anglia TV

• "Mandates" are nonsense

• Socialist victory in Brazil

• Pensions: no place for employers

• My dream: democratic participation

• Funding political parties

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