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Diary in date order Jan 2002 to date
but you also find this search
engine useful, in keeping track of events
Renewing
participatory democracy
My Little Red Book
A
New
Socialist Settlement
Bevan
Re-visited
Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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040920 Make sure you have not missed
the previous edition
Check it out
And the
one before that?
Other recent topics
highlighted here
Week 40 Friday
1 October 2004
Editor Hit-count
for September! Thanks for your support during September,
although I did not deserve it, having been overtaken by other
obsessions...
April 1109
May 1576
June 1305
July 1125
August 1077
Sept 1194
The autumnal upswing in Web activity seems to be resuming, as the
evenings draw in - let's stay in touch..
Second Wind
 I
have a promise to make to you. I will return to the
web-editing desk from which I have been absent in recent weeks. Having
spent the week at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton, my batteries are
re-charged. Provoked, if not inspired.
But I am more convinced than ever about the need to
cultivate the political Party as a pillar of our Constitution. I remain convinced
too that the Labour
Party needs radical surgery. Power must be re-balanced, as between the
professional political salariat and the mass "Party in the country":
these
are my ideas.
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Quickfire Potted
Politics
Blogging is about immediacy,
about conveying distinctive personal positions. And I must find a
way of keeping in touch, in spite of Summer pressures. These are my
quick-fire responses, to current political issues.
 Olympics
- I am a sports sceptic. I am suspicious of the
nationalism with which "sport" so easily becomes tainted. Of course,
there were Athens events which I thoroughly enjoyed. But I dread the
coming years, with their testosterone headlines, as the UK strives for the
ill-conceived prize of the 2012 Olympics.
I suspect the Government's motives in trying to
encourage greater preoccupation with sport, as a diversion akin to bread
and circuses.
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Tony
Blair - I do not want his impeachment: that would
perpetuate the agony of his abusive leadership. But if he does not
find, for himself, a pretext for resigning,
then impeachment may have to be considered. The
injustices of Guantanamo Bay are just one of the awful consequences of his
weak and deceitful leadership. And I was deeply distressed by the
gross misjudgement of his holiday stay with Silvio Berlusconi.
TV
in the Courtroom? I am
against it. There is no parallel with the experience
of sitting in the public gallery. Communication by TV generates its
own multiple distortions, subliminal messages, and they would
irretrievably taint the judicial process. I would approve, however,
of a discreet radio coverage, with unobtrusive commentary.
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Examinations
- I favour the shift to a
British Baccalaureat, with a wider range of subjects taught
in the 16-18 period. Wales is already moving in that declaration,
with preparation for a change well advanced. Up to 15, the
subject-content of the syllabus should be reduced, and we should focus on
skills, language skills, basic maths and the use of documents
(map-reading, musical notation, mathematical formulae). I would reduce the School Leaving Age from 16 to 15.
Stem-cell
Research, human cloning - I
applaud the Government's openness in this sector.
This time, we have got it right.
Alcohol
licensing - I think the
Government is right to go for deregulation, reducing
further the dismal grip of "drinking hours". All societies, all
mankind, must come to terms with the phenomenon of intoxication, and
develop forms of social and personal control, by behavioural convention.
So the Government is right to deregulate. They should apply the same
reasoning to the decriminalisation of drugs, where the considerations are
precisely the same, and where a more liberal approach would show huge
societal dividends.
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Postal
Voting - I agree with the Electoral Commission, but
I would go further. We
should keep the Polling Stations open, allowing other methods to run in
parallel. But I would still require a reason to be given, for the
grant of postal votes: the "normal" democratic expectation should remain
the local Polling Station, and a personal visit on "Polling Day".
- Keep thinking - don't let the
holidays dumb you down
- And
drop me a line
Having
discovered this remarkable NASA website, linked with the Hubble Telescope
and the NASA Mars exploration vehicles, with its current photographs from
outer space, I am reluctant
to let it go
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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
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 current
topics
Extending
the Welfare State
>>>
Adjustment Pay
for every worker
>>>
Pay
Guardianship Allowance
>>>
We
do not own
our children >>>
" Institutional Racism"
a fallacy
>>>
Pensions at 70 Good Idea
>>>
The Mischief of ASBOs
>>>
US/EU: Wrong market models
>>>
Immigration
Insights
>>>
Dodgy
Opinion Surveys >>>
Are Public
Schools charities?
>>>
Taming
the
Corporations >>>
Kalan Karim
The Swansea city-centre murder of Iraqi
refugee Kalan Karim was a tragedy, and probably an unvarnished unprovoked
racist attack. I was proud that many hundreds of local Swansea
citizens and refugees attended an impromptu vigil last Saturday, to
express their horror and sympathy. And I can support the local
campaign to raise £5,000, to ensure that his body is flown back to Iraq
for burial - in the circumstances, that is an act of friendship and
solidarity.
More
means worse
George Monbiot is a passionate and committed campaigning
journalist. True, I am often
infuriated by his other-worldliness, and inability to generate practical
political solutions.
But I respect his passion, and his perceptions. And
I accept his current analysis, which contends that current generations may
well be enjoying the best of global existences, never to be repeated. Global warming and climatic
degradation, he contends in this week’s
Guardian, are bound to bring far
less satisfactory conditions beckoning, for our grandchildren.
The Fabians
are a great, enlightened Left-Wing political community some 7,000-strong -
and we have many skills among our number.
like to be added to
the monthly Fabian Update e-mail list, just e-mail
Fabian Research
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to top
 Never miss
Steve Bell!
His cartoons, from
The
Guardian
- his wit and perception illuminate
the absurdities of the political scene...
Activists' Update
September
2004
.jpg)
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 -
the weakling is "Labour Party Reform", although I shall be flying the flag
again at the September meeting of the West Wales Fabians. 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 September
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 - we now have realistic prospects of finding two pioneering
Councils, willing test our ideas - our aim is to
develop the charity sector, to replace the collapsing local authority
provision of public toilets.
Drop me a line
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(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 to many Party members - and I am making no progress at all.
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.
Other r
ecent
topics
Nuclear power: the only option
>>>
"New"
New Labour Five Pillars
>>>
Students!
Get political!
>>>
US/EU: Wrong market models
>>>
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
back
to top
040920 Make sure you have not missed
the previous edition
Check it out
And the
one before that?
Other recent topics
highlighted here
Week 40 Friday
1 October 2004
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