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E-mail from Matthew Jenkins, Young Fabian of Cardiff

Roger

Human Rights YES, Equality NO

I found this addition to your website interesting and particularly relevant.  Tomorrow I will be at the Welsh Policy Forum as a delegate of Cardiff West CLP  Earlier this week the papers arrived: predictably, several documents - each of which corresponded to Assembly ministerial briefs. 

Now you know me – I am all for getting into practical policy issues.  But unless I'm proved wrong tomorrow, it appears that there's little opportunity for us to focus on re-capturing the political high ground.  To what end is all this effort?  I am sure the answer would be "for equality and social justice". 

Matt 

Roger

Matt 

This is a further response to your thoughtful Memo.  How is the equation to be made, between traditional socialist formulations (in terms of equality, and social justice) and the demands of contemporary society, and of contemporary voters?   

1. Confidence that my Old Age will not be impoverished
2. Confidence that if I fall ill or suffer disability of any kind, satisfactory medical attention will be available to me 
3. Confidence that loss of employment will not mean poverty and threaten family life
4. Confidence that in conceiving children there will if necessary be support from society, if the family needs it
5. Confidence that education and training will be available to me personally, both to fulfil my personal potential and to help me earn a living
6. Confidence that my society will uphold my personal freedoms, as embodied in the growing "human rights" agenda (I am not naive - I accept that most people do not know in any detail what they are, but the sense of personal freedom and sovereignty is nevertheless a major factor in the political mix.)

In these respects, inequality is unacceptable - this is where the high ground lies - and socialists give high priority to the elimination of unacceptable inequality, however small of the minority adversely affected - that is an article of faith - "every man's inequality diminishes me..."  But the "gap between rich and poor" is only peripheral to this agenda. 

Other subjects are simply "one-offs", seemingly unrelated to any obvious socialist concerns - I cannot convince myself that there is any political rhyme-or-reason for state intervention in fox-hunting, for example.  And our appalling continuing preoccupation with the "War of Drugs" is beyond all coherent socialist analysis, for me.  And the mindless maintenance of the "Green Belt" has no coherent political content at all... 

In this configuration, "choice" does not figure at all as an objective in itself - although I recognise that that "choosing systems" may be valuable, both in the market and the managed sectors - I give very low priority to "parental rights", because I concentrate on applying the above agenda to the child, not to the parent at all...  Again - embarrassingly for me, in Labour Party circles, neither does the whole world of Trade Union effectiveness (unless by way of the human rights agenda) - I am totally committed to the creation of "equitable space" for trade unions to flourish, but TU issues do not score high on my personal socialist agenda. 

Roger

 What are your thoughts about "Equality"?  Drop me a line

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I am no killjoy.  I do not want to hit the railways when they’re down.  But I have a story I must tell you. 

On Monday 8 December I embarked upon my “usual” 0330h train journey from Swansea to Paddington, scheduled to arrive in London at 0635h.  I reached London at 1040h – a delay of over four hours. 

• I know times are hard for the railway industry.  But this debacle was avoidable.

Last weekend, Network Rail faced three problems.  I acknowledge they were real problems, albeit self-inflicted - they all originated in bad management, and their remediation could also have been far better managed.. 

First, that the Cardiff/Bridgend mainline desperately needs renewal, and Network Rail are working on that project every weekend.   The Sunday night-shift should be finished by 0400h, to allow through the first London Inter-City train.  But the shift frequently over-runs forcing the Inter-City to divert slowly via branch lines from Bridgend to Cardiff.  To counter that, First Great Western is sometimes forced to run the train early from Swansea (0305h), often causing much passenger aggravation.  But that does at least enable this important early-commuter train to leave on time from Cardiff.

Second, further refurbishment at Neath (Briton Ferry) has recently appeared to complicate matters.  This week that night-shift also over-ran, making it impossible for the Inter-City to leave Swansea until 0600h. 

• NB  Both of these “obstacles” are self-inflicted, and should be overcome by better contractual discipline on the part of the line-contractors.  In my own experience, many Sainsburys’ stores had to be refurbished between p.m.-closing time and a.m.-opening – and woe betide any contractor who was still in sight when the first customer arrived in the morning!  Problems of this kind merely reflect bad management, and cannot be prayed in aid as a “justification” for delay.

Third, there was the blockbuster failure of the signalling system at Twyford.  It was reported that a fibre-optic cable had been fractured, and that the whole system had gone down.  Trains were being passed through manually, at the rate of four-per-hour. The fragility of fibre-optic cables (because their very rigidity) is a well-known problem – and at one level, one should sympathise.   But how did it get broken?  No explanation was offered.   And given the known fragility of fibre-optics, why are they used for this purpose?  The rail-signalling system cannot suffer problems of heavy message-loads, like the public telephone system.  And why was there no back-up system, no fail-safe alternative?  Was the system designed without a second reserve circuit?  Properly understood, this is also a management failure by Network Rail or their predecessors – a failure either of analysis, or of foresight. 

Finally, note this.  When I checked with Rail Inquiries on Sunday evening, I was specifically told that, because of all these difficulties, “customers” would be asked to board a coach at Swansea and travel to Bristol Temple Meads, to pick up a London train there.  I had already had to do that twice in recent months: the switch is sensible, and it works well.  And it would clearly have solved the problem on this occasion, by-passing all the South Wales track-repair problems.  But when I reached Swansea station at 0315h there was no sign of a coach, and the Paddington train was "ready to leave".  Except that it did not leave until nearly three hours later. What happened to the reported plan to take the coach to Bristol? 

Another management cock-up, I fear.  This time, by First Great Western, rather than Network Rail.