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Diary in date order Jan 2002 to date
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Renewing
participatory democracy
My Little Red Book
A
New
Socialist Settlement
Bevan
Re-visited
Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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040719 Make sure you have not missed
the previous edition
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one before that?
Other recent topics
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Week 30 Friday
23 July 2004
Now relishing memories our few days' real relaxation in County Kerry -
I have great admiration for the constructive and creative use which the
Irish have made of their independence - even if I do not seek the same for
Wales...
Tony Blair
Faultlines now clear
Butler has come and gone, leaving little trace. The
Leicester and Hodge Hill bye-elections were ambivalent in their message.
The lollipop of power remains in Blair's hands, and the electorate seems
willing to put up with his shortcomings.
But as a Labour leader, he remains deeply flawed.
In my book, he stands convicted, not of any outright lie (and certainly
not of any lack of charisma) but of flawed judgment on his Iraq, of
weak moral standing, and of an
astounding capacity for self-delusion, even gullibility or naivety. The
new evidence of his massive exaggeration of the Iraq "massed graves"
evidence confirms this fatal weakness for exaggeration, for wishful
thinking. He is not a genius, communing with the masses. He is in a
world of his own.
These flaws are fatal to his future success as a
political leader, in particular of the
Labour Party. And he is not entitled to rule by the creation of a
new rainbow "Prime Minister's Party", combining
Tories and LibDems.
If Blair had any sensitivity to the political world
about him, he would resign and let the rest of us get on with rebuilding
Party morale. But his infinite capacity for self-delusion and
self-regard continues to cloud his vision. He is said to believe
that he can go “on and on”.
Dangerously misinformed
"Planning", in its popular sense of town-and-country planning and
development control, is poorly understood. As a specialist planning
barrister by profession, I can understand laymen's confusion over a number
of its key concepts.
But I cannot and do not forgive senior politicians who peddle
mischievous and ill-informed fallacies about what "planning" can and
cannot achieve. The system has become grossly overloaded with
popular expectations, which ill-informed politicians do nothing to dispel. Among the most destructive current misunderstandings
relate to -
= Losing school playing-fields;
=
Imposing quotas for "affordable housing";
= Housing for "rural residents"
Politicians continue to mislead the public in these sectors, remaining
stubbornly misinformed...
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Natural Europeans
The Irish have proved "natural" Europeans. They share with the UK an
easy assumption of international horizons, as well as a clear sense of
responsibility towards that wider world, and for its proper ordering.
They have seized without cavilling the opportunities which the wider
alliance gives them.
It is often difficult to believe that, at just 3.6m population, Ireland
is much smaller than Scotland and just a little bigger than Wales.
Irish politicians have made played leading international roles, accepting
personal responsibility easily. Over the
Euro, there was none of the ridiculous nationalist
posturing that still characterises the UK.
In spite of the new hustle and bustle of the new Irish economy, Ireland
continues to generate for me a real sense of relaxation, and perspective.
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EU? America?
Both models are wrong
Our "new" younger TU leaders are seeking
to push the UK economic debate in precisely the wrong direction. They
argue that under Blair, Labour has swung too far towards the unfettered
capitalism of the USA, and that we ought to swing back towards the more
protectionist EU labour market model, with strong Union rights and
powerful firing constraints.
I think they are right about Blair, but
wrong about the EU. I do not buy the pendulum imagery. EU
labour market models are far too rigid, too protectionist, too much of a
deterrent to new investment and enterprise.
The need is for a new view of our fellow
workers, and their "economic" significance. There is no such thing as a
"labour market" comparable with commodity markets: that is a misleading,
capitalist parallel. We must accord to each fellow worker the
dignity of equal partner, enjoying more powerful
individual rights, new and better forms
individual security - enjoyed
as of civil right, without the necessity of mediation by trade unions.
I readily admit that this personalised,
dynamic view of the economy is nowhere fully formulated. Older
misleading models still prevail, particularly the mishcievous doctrine of fixed-cakery.
- Part of the solution lies in my
prescription for Adjustment Pay. But in designing the new model,
there is still much thinking to be done.
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Lords
fudge smacking
 While
I was away in Ireland, their Lordships fumbled this important issue. The Irish media were scathing about this "fudge", and I confess I do not
yet understand what happened, politically. It seems that, faced with
the prospect of a "traditionalist" backlash, the Lords adopted Anthony Lester's
amendment - to permit the smacking of children, but not injury.
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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.
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.
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My
new direction
Friday 23 July: I have been
pinned-down in a London class-room for a second week, receiving the
most excellent training in Asylum/Immigration law, with the public-service
charity Immigration and Advisory Services. I am appalled at the
Government's deliberate restriction of legal aid. Blunkett is using
the withdrawal of legal aid as an instrument of immigration policy, just to
make the UK seem less attractive to newcomers. It is an amoral and
discreditable strategy, pursued by a seedy Government. And I am
ashamed.
Please bear with me,
for web-editing will be impossible until the weekend. I am making
plans to counter the turpitude of my own Government - but I am not yet
ready to declare my hand..
It is clear that the sector is
in turmoil, and that the political turmoil is replicated within the
Administration. It will take the most enormous effort of political
imagination and perception to carve out a new path ahead.
214,592
It's official.
That is the membership of the Labour Party, as reported to the
National Executive Committee at the end of June.
And I am still one of that number.
Hardly a day goes by, when I do not
question my continued Party membership. I stay in membership, because I know that this
great party, finally constituted as a serious force in February 1918,
represents a radical UK political institution which it would impossible to
replace. I recognise the force of Blair's skills as an
election-winning politician, but I find him morally flawed in ways which I
cannot endorse or accept.
- But I regard it as
my job to stay, and help to steer Labour out of its
current difficulties.
I'm not abandoning my Party to others...
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It is perhaps the mark of a smaller economy that "special stamps" are few
and far between, in Ireland
Taming the
Corporations
The Chartist magazine has given me the
chance to seek support for the Company Reform Coalition.
It will require
a new UN Treaty to secure concerted international agreement on the
integrated reform of company law, to address and moderate the overweening
power of the corporate sector. The challenge to radical reformers is
to find a way of putting company law reform firmly onto the UN agenda.
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The Fabians
are a great, enlightened Left-Wing political community some 7,000-strong -
and we have many skills among our number.
PS
If, without joining, you
would
like to be added to
the monthly Fabian Update e-mail list, just e-mail
Fabian Research
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 Never miss
Steve Bell!
His cartoons, from
The
Guardian
- his wit and perception illuminate
the absurdities of the political scene...
Activists' Update
July 2004
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As the August political recess beckons, let's take stock.
Three of my four pet reform projects are decidedly "alive", but the fourth
is floundering, and will probably have to go onto the back-burner - this
is just to keep in touch...
(a)
Company Reform Coalition
In this, I am targeting the stimulation of
a new UN treaty - nothing less! This difficult project has attracted a
little more understanding in recent weeks, and will be the subject of an
article from me in the
next edition of
The Chartist - it's a slow burn.
Drop me a line
(b)
Questors - the
birth of a new advocacy profession has come a little nearer - July
discussions at the Department of the Constitutional Affairs have
confirmed (a) that there is constitutional space for such a creation
and (b) that there would be no legal or institutional obstacles to
its emergence - this leaves the ball unambiguously in my court, and
I need allies...
Drop me a line
(c) Charitable Public Loos - my new
charity Hygeia is making
progress, and will be strongly represented at the AGM of the British
Toilet Association in Northampton on Wednesday 21 July - our aim is to
develop the charity sector, to replace the collapsing local authority
provision of public toilets.
Drop me a line
(d)
Labour Links -
the case for Party Reform is proving difficult to make - my
latest attempt was in Cardiff in mid-June
with the Fabians - but the prospect of taking deliberate action
to re-structure the relationship between Party Members and MPs is deeply
unattractive - and I am making no progress at all.
Drop me a line
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