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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty |
Week 48 Monday RWE Editorial Note: Oops! The new week has dawned, without my having completed the usual weekly "new edition", in time-honoured manner - if you have exhausted this webpage, please browse in recent topics and check in again tomorrow.. Bill Lawlor & I
On Thursday, I did get to the Bush-Blair March in London. And that is precisely what it was, a Bush-Blair March. We had a long wait in Malet Street to get started, before the Long Walk down to the Aldwych, across Waterloo Bridge and back over Westminster Bridge. It was good to see LIBERTY there, with appointed Official Observers. But make no mistake: this was a personalised attack from the Left. It was essentially a grudge march, against the twin personalities of George Bush and Tony Blair. It was the character of both these men, - their moral vacuity, their arrogance, their insensitivity, - that powered this protest. The march was not anti-American, it was not anti-Republican. It was directed at Bush and Blair personally. And that is, I confess, how I see it too. I marched alongside an Irish socialist Bill Lawlor from Richmond, an accountant and long-standing Labour member who like me marched in sadness and regret, without banner and for the most part in silence. We shared the same deep apprehensions for world order, and hi-jacking of our great Party by the Blair cabal. I ran out of time before reaching Trafalgar Square. But it was right to have joined the march, and registered my own protest against the Bush juggernaut.
What is the question, to which ID cards are the answer? 
Do you want to see FEW? A Fully Enumerated World? I do not. Erstwhile opponents of ID-cards are gradually switching to support the Blairite authoritarian cause – even Government Minister Fiona MacTaggart, once proud to be a LIBERTY officer, writes plaintively of her conversion, in The Guardian. But I remain 100% opposed. Nothing has happened to change the balance of the argument. There is no point in treading this path unless compulsion is eventually intended. And compulsion would be a disaster for future forms of human civilisation. Raw Thatcherism 
Margaret Thatcher has taken everyone by surprise by publishing thousands of her personal notes and records right here on the Web. A thoroughly desirable precedent - plenty of good source material for the budding National Curriculum subject of Civics. Too Few Cabs 
The Office of Fair Trading is definitely right. All attempts to control the size of local “Hackney” fleets should be abandoned. In many cities (like Swansea and Cardiff), the fallacies of market management were rejected long ago. But in some cities, they still hold sway.
Right
Direction 
Alan Milburn has attacked the polarisation of “State” and “private sector”. He argues that “the voluntary sector” should become “the third leg of the stool” in public service provision. He is partly right. But he is also partly wrong, and he makes a very significant mistake, as many Labour Ministers do (and he is trying to get back into the Ministerial fold…) For Milburn fails to distinguish between voluntary sector (where “volunteering” and “volunteers” are critical, both for funding and management) and the informal salaried not-for-profit sector.
Re-selecting Candidates
Labour's MP-selection procedures are throwing up a few examples of MPs who are being forced to fight for their Party nominations for 2005 - because they have not survived the protective trigger mechanism. But not enough. I say that we should return to automatic reselection for all MPs, every time - that would re-invigorate the Party and keep every MP vigilant to stay in touch with the grass-roots. This change, and several other proposed by Labour Links -  Take a break! For something completely
different, abandon your daily preoccupations, and take a gentle browse around the
enterprising website
Best of Wales
"Wildcat" Strikes
Strike action in the UK a deeply complex phenomenon, in legal terms. The complexity goes back to the awful judges of Victorian England, who invented new repressive laws (without consulting Parliament) and threw huge legal boulders in the path of the growing labour movement.
This Christmas 1st from the Royal Mail puts up a fine show - but what is it? Does anyone have a clue?
back to top 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.
Never miss One year ago
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Maudsley rejects the 
Just to report that my “appearance” last Wednesday at the Maudsley Hospital Debating Society was successful. I was proposing the motion (drafted awkwardly by others…)
This was the 24th Maudsley Debate, with a superb attendance of
over 130 – quite an achievement, these days. It is marvellous that
the Maudsley strives to keep alive the tradition of formal University
debate. In the “before” vote a
majority rejected the motion – but we (Dr John Marsden and I) succeeded in
turning it around to a Proposition Majority – 62-51, with 20 abstentions…
You can check out my arguments at But doctors, I fear, wear political blinkers. They treat us all, not as thinking, sentient principals, but as patients...
Unknown Doctor A new voice penetrated the dark debate about asylum-seekers recently. It was from an anonymous GP, writing in The Times on 28 October. His account was perceptive, sensitive. generous, imaginative - and liberal. Fat but happy Ellie Levenson of the Fabian Society puts into perspective the worldview of those of us who are fat. Having been "fat" since at least my early-teens, I find it difficult to take the systemic opprobrium that regularly heads in my direction. I do not believe 
Radical Labour businessman Chris (Lord) Haskins has proposed a radical shake-up of all our "countryside" organisations, at the behest of Margaret Beckett, now the Minister responsible. But as I listen to BBC's Farming Today, at the beginning of each working day, I strive to identify any distinctive countryside issues. I cannot. There is no such thing as the "rural economy". The greater truth is that our tiny agricultural industry is "just another business", closely integrated with the wider economy and the wider UK constitution. The politics of town and country are indivisibly intertwined, and require the same imagination, the same analysis, the same political solutions. Respite from autocracy 
The authoritarian juggernaut that is "New" Labour has been stopped in its tracks by the most unlikely candidate - Health Secretary John Reid. I am delighted to see that he has ruled out any legal ban on smoking in all public places, which looked likely only a few weeks ago. My hope is that this will mark a turning-point. And that we will leave any future illiberal nasties for the Tory Manifesto... Star brought low
When "stars" cancel contracts, they must face the commercial consequences. The prima donnas of our entertainment society are not above the law. Gary Marlow, a 57-year-old Wiltshire publican sued singing-star Van Morrison for late cancellation of a concert-booking, which had (he claimed) destroyed his business. The High Court ordered Van Morrison to pay damages, I am delighted to say. I had a famous day in Court myself, representing Youngs Soho Chinese Restaurant against a wayward night-club singer who had missed her "big spot" at midnight on Saturday night...
What do Charlie Falconer 
It is the manner of their going. The Law Lords and the Judges Council have launched an unexpectedly strong attack upon Government plans to abolish the office of Lord Chancellor. And their objections reflect the real technical difficulties of moving from an unwritten to a written Constitution. Everything suddenly gets fearsomely complicated. Which is certainly what would happen if we followed Roy Hattersley's lead, and proceeded to abolish the Monarchy...
Lawyers have failed... 
This is not a good time to be a lawyer, in the public arena. Because legal institutions have failed to nail the greatest illegality of my lifetime, namely the aggression against Iraq. There is not a single credible international lawyer in the world who regards the US/UK action as lawful - Attorney General Goldsmith has shown himself to be no great international lawyer. The remit of the International Criminal Court has proved too narrow to nail the aggressors, even Blair (who is formally subject to its jurisdiction). And no legal action through the Courts, in the USA, UK or other EU countries, has reached lift-off. True, diplomatic pressure
and public opinion are gradually wearing Bush down, and the continuing
illegality of the joint Occupation is weakening both Governments.
Naomi Klein hammered this message home last week, in
 The countdown to Christmas is firmly
underway, with the Post Office selling its "Christmas" stamps.
Nothing conventional, though, about the puzzling combination of crystalline forms
which will adorn our mail for the next eight weeks!
Are there
prizes, for the first identifications?
My diary
Now up to date (well,
more or less...) Recent topics Economies to be responsive >>> The Spin is in the Media... Judges rule OK >>> Missing liberal sensibilities >>> Planning system in disarray >>> Judges curb litigiousness >>> Housing industry misunderstood >>> De Charmoy, and Emmanuel Todd >>> Police Forces are dangerous >>> Better Census data essential >>> Civil rights: Katharine is tougher >>> Re-drafting Labour's Constitution >>>
And read my Big Theory itself, at Multiple Differential Uncertainty... Or try my snappier and more practical analysis of the Corporations and the Left Coming to Terms
0144 Make sure you have not missed the previous edition
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