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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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0156 Make sure you have not missed Week
6 Saturday 
As January 2004 passed into history, our website counter clocked up 1,267 hits in the month - thus -
Thanks for staying steady, perhaps even suggesting a modest growth... Dissatisfied
For my dissatisfaction is quite different. I do not believe that the BBC has been unfairly treated. I do not believe that media freedoms are under threat. I do consider that Hutton "cleared" Downing Street far too easily of exercising undue influence over intelligence sources. Finally, and for me critical, I do not consider that Hutton has properly explained Dr Kelly's death. 
My daughter Katharine has responded to my “post-Hutton thoughts”, just as everyone else is entitled to respond. While it lies outside the scope of Hutton, I share her judgment that the whole “spat” was a Campbell ploy to divert attention away from the underlying illegality of the Iraq invasion, and a spat in which Campbell had a keen, personal, vested interest. We see broadly eye-to-eye, she and I, on Hutton’s weaknesses, his total failure to address the human tragedy of David Kelly’s pivotal position, the noble Lord’s spineless subservience to Downing Street and the Intelligence establishment, his feeble criticism of Campbell’s evident bullying, and his formalistic and exaggerated critique of the BBC. 
But she does not share my criticism of the BBC’s “scoop journalism” – she thinks I am being “stuffy” about that, and that the Corporation should continue to respond to popular demands for more of Paxman, more of Humphries.
Understanding “Risk” 
I am concerned. I am worried that, as an educated and informed citizen, I simply do not understand the language of “risk”, which now peppers our public affairs. If it means nothing to me, how can it carry significance in our broader public discourse? Is it bluff? Is it a cover for something more sinister, more oppressive?
I
remain appalled.. .. appalled at the
human rights nightmare being played out in France, just a few miles away.
The French
The draft Bill is
chillingly simple - "Dans les ecoles,
les colleges et les lycees publics, les signes et tenues qui manifestent
l'appartenance religieuse des eleves sont interdits" "All signs and symbols
of the religious affiliation of pupils shall be forbidden, in all schools
and institutions of further education" This represents a
monumental error of judgment, perpetrated by politicians who are playing
to the racist gallery, fearful of the rise of Le Pen and the ultra-Right.
I have no doubt that battles of this kind, in France and in Germany, are
our battles - we cannot wash
our hands of them, although we have no means of exercising any influence
over them.
I pray for France - which is all, it seems, that I
can do. Campaigning
Cancelled My union, the GMB, has
undergone a facelift, an image makeover. Sensitive to criticism
of the “politicisation” of unions, it has re-labelled itself “Experts
in the world of work”. That goes too far, becomes
too neutral, too like a mainstream personnel consultancy. I can
understand a move to dissociate the union from the distinctive “socialist”
position of the retired John Edmonds (although that is what drew me
to the GMB..) After all, unions are “selling” their services
to millions of workers who are not Labour supporters and such associations
may not be an advantage.
But the GMB is wrong to have abandoned its claim
to a moral mission. Trade unions should remain awkward, campaigning
organisations, challenging the myriad wrongs which workers suffer at the
hands of bad employers the world over. This is what
This man is a
fool I confess I do not rate Charles
Kennedy. But I was nevertheless surprised by his total lack of judgement
in sacking Dr Jenny Tonge from the LibDem "Front Bench"
for her perceptive comments on the plight of the Palestinians.
It was an act of unmitigated political cowardice and spinelessness on
his part, for which he will not be easily forgiven. Special
Footnote I love the online newspapers, which
are my access to the world - share them with me - click through to their
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. |
NOTE from the Editor
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New
The
Hutton Report will not go away. There is widespread discontent with
his findings, indeed some of the criticism has been very harsh.
I am also dissatisfied. But
it seems that I am at odds with prevailing opinion. 
Parlement
seems intent upon passing, in the coming weeks, new laws which will outlaw
these headscarves in French State schools, along with Sikh turbans and
beards, even necklace crucifixes.
This month the Royal Mail
stamps have been hi-jacked yet again, to dismal effect, by its resident
railway fetishist...
As for Blair,
as a diehard Labour activist I want nothing more than for him to go and be
replaced by Gordon Brown in good time for the next Election, and I hope and pray that he is looking for an
elegant exit route himself...
Make
no mistake. Barrister Blair has decided that he can
no longer justify the Iraq aggression by arguing the presence of an
"imminent threat". The 45-minute claim, which was a pillar of that
justification is coming apart in his hands, even by his own startling
admission in the Commons this week. The fragile construct which he had
built in his own mind is clearly crumbling, and he is being
caught increasingly entangled in its inconsistencies. He must bail
out, and look for another argument. 
Martin Johnson's "retirement"
will spur sales of these excellent Royal Mail celebration stamps.
I can imagine a new line in autographed postage stamps - who will be first
to collect the whole team, with original signatures?
Never miss
