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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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041101 Make sure you
have not missed
the previous edition
Check it out
And the
one before that?
Other recent topics
highlighted here
Week 45
Friday
5 November 2004
The politics
of religion
With very large electorates, the mobilisation of voter-support is a
crippling problem for professional politicians. Democratic election, with
all its faults, may well be the least objectionable way of appointing and
dismissing Governments. But the larger the electorate, the more difficult
it becomes to focus electoral attention on a specific proposal, a specific
“Government”.
 The US and Indian electorates have long been the largest in
the world, and have therefore had to pioneer new electoral techniques.
 It
should not be a surprise that “religion” has come to play a key
role, in both electorates. With huge electorates, the search for
high-level unifying themes takes the spinners easily into the realm of
quasi-religious generalisations, and then into religion itself. In the 1990s, the Hindu BJP
Government took power in Delhi, having played the religious card.
And the US electoral process has now been hi-jacked by a crude
fundamentalist Christianity. This right-wing Republican coalition is reported to have
been systematically organised, over a period of
four years, as the foundation of its electoral success.
As
a mere amateur scribbler
in political matters, I have often thought that
the mobilisation of common commitment, within large electorates, demands
thinking akin to “religion”. Politicians are called upon to generate a
series of persuasive generalisations which do not condescend to confusing
detail.
Those are the sought-after “ Big Ideas”, the coherent narrative. Without it, it is
impossible to keep followers focused on the wider, unifying horizon – and
to get them to the polls. The US neo-Con Right has just clung
onto power by hi-jacking the ill-informed simplicities of American Christianity.
a new faith in human rights
and in the open societies which honour them.
Gambling
and Drugs
Reform
I have kept my silence,
throughout the furore about casinos, and the cack-handed political
presentation of gambling "reform". That is partly because I know, as a
lawyer, that the Government is right about better regulation, and deserves
support. I also know just how easy it is to get planning
permission for casinos at present, so that every city has several
already.
The issue at stake is
merely the removal of constraints upon prize-levels, and the imposition of
tighter planning controls - neither of which is (in my book) an
objectionable point of principle.
But also, as a
Liberal Socialist, I recognise that the
future of civilisation turns on the ability of humankind to develop
self-regulating systems for habits and practices that are destructive -
whether the consumption of tobacco, alcohol or drugs, or gambling. Society cannot "manage" individual behaviour by dirigiste,
punitive methods. We must all learn, as we must learn to conquer
obesity.
 I
am delighted to see Polly Toynbee,
in The Guardian, expressing again her strong support for drugs decriminalisation. And I cheered on Canadian
Government's plan to decriminalise cannabis possession for personal use.
In these highly personal matters, State coercion will never work.
The same courageous,
optimistic
approach is needed to gambling. That is why, if I were in
Parliament, I would support the Government on this measure. For my part, I
have no personal inclination to gamble at all: it is like a missing gene.
I recognise,
of course, that there are many millions of my fellow-citizens who are
quite different.
-
But there is no alternative
to confronting the problem, and learning to overcome it, both personally
and collectively. For me, the real disaster remains the
National Lottery, which
represents a profound failure of leadership and moral judgment.
The
State itself should not become the casino operator...
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Editor
Hit-count
for October! Thanks for your support during October - the
monthly
hit-counts have been looking pretty sick recently, reflecting my own inactivity
and other preoccupations, but things may be looking up..
June 1305
July 1125
August 1077
Sept 1194
October 1365
The autumnal upswing in Web activity seems to be resuming, as the
evenings draw in - let's stay in touch..
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Redirecting Refugees
One
of our regular correspondents is the Australian immigration agent Mike
Davis, whose job entails encouraging immigration to Australia - and Mike
always generates a new and different perspective - I've just received an
E-letter from him, proposing a systematic re-direction of refugees to
countries in
need of immigrants (like Australia...).
I have no doubt that migratory flows need to be more sensitively and
skilfully "managed", internationally. This is one of the greatest challenges
of contemporary politics. However, I do
not think this
can be done bi-laterally by the "magnet states" themselves, as Mike
suggests. It represents a key future role for the UN.
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Liberal
Socialism
Martin Kettle explores in The
Guardian the demise of 20th
century socialism, and holds that the world is now reverting to
conventional individualist "liberalism".
I disagree.
I recognise the powerful individualist elements that are at work in our
civilisation, and I welcome them. But there can be no reversion to
Lloyd-George Liberalism, or any of its Continental versions: the whole world has been profoundly influenced by
the socialism of the 20th century, and profoundly changed. To the extent that the United
States is not socialist, it stands discredited and its walls will not
stand.
In health, in law, in education, in communications, in
environmental control, in the collective direction of society,
socialism has become the
dominant grammar of global politics.
We're all socialist now. Socialism has raised the
gaze of all peoples upwards, opened their horizons. The socialist
genius will not be put back into the bottle.
- Our task is not to re-read the textbooks
of the Liberals' 1906 victory. It is to write the new
Liberal
Socialist text-books for a 2006 tomorrow.
It was
early in 2003 that I started preaching the
Liberal Socialist
message - and it seems to become
more relevant by the day.
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Arise Sir Robin
Good news that Robin Cook is now writing
regularly for The Guardian, on Fridays. He is
making a great political success of his backbencher life, with grace and
without rancour. He's a knight in my book. In shining armour.
I cannot get excited, though, about the
issue of the Black Watch and their move to Baghdad.
The only good thing is that it has given a few pusillanimous MPs the
chance to change their position on the invasion itself.
But compared with the awful wrong of our
continuing presence overall,
and the UK's continuing complicity in the Neo-Con Bush Conspiracy, this
troop-movement seems to me a trivial matter, even if motivated by US
presidential politics.
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Dismissive Darling
I
am impatient, with the Pensions debate. And I
am angry. Angry that New Labour Ministers can have been so
dismissive, so insensitive, about one of the greatest concerns of our
fellow-citizens. I well remember attending, in a stuffy Commons
dining-room, a pre-1997 seminar with Alistair
Darling, organised by the Labour Finance & Industry Group.
-
I argued for early action by New Labour
to increase the basic Old Age Pension, and to restore its
purchasing-power at least to 1981 levels. He treated me with
lip-curling condescension, as a pitiable amateur without political sense
or understanding. Did I not realise that the State Pension would
have to wither away, to be replaced by measures “to assist the poorest
pensioners”? That was early-1997.
Nobody thinks that now. Nor
does the Adair
Turner report significantly advance the debate, although has
certainly raised the political profile of the issue. I remain committed
to a much higher, though deferred, State pension commitment. I say: £160
per week at 70.
And
drop me a line
Legal Aid for Asylum
a nasty political
tale
Labour
is proving a ruthless manager of the
asylum process. This is all part of the positioning of Labour as the
natural party of government, incapable of being outflanked by the Right.
-
True, the UK is still better and more humane
in this sector than some of its EU counterparts. But that is an
undemanding comparison, when it comes a respect for human dignity, and
human rights.
The quality of our asylum administration nevertheless falls far short of
the standards to which we should be aspiring.
For my part, as a barrister by profession
and a general manager by occupation, I am no "bleeding-heart
liberal". But
I am, quite simply, ashamed of the poor quality of our public administration in this
sector.
And I am particularly distressed, as a natural "advocate for
the Defence" (I hated appearing for the Prosecution, when required
to do so, at the Bar...) at the Government's manipulation of the Legal
Aid system for political
purposes.
-
Find out how David Blunkett has suborned the
legal profession, in his drive to make the asylum system as nasty and as
discouraging as possible read all about it.
And
drop me a line
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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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I was for Kerry...
 ...like
most Europeans. And the disappointment is
physical, in seeing power resumed
by the swaggering, oafish Bush. While instinctively pro-American, we liberal
Europeans fear the
aberrations of The Great Society - its insensitivities, its
perplexing illiberalism, its shallow religiosity, its popular ignorance of
other lives and cultures, its mindless embrace of "capitalism" as if the
very term denoted a religious value system - all these turn us off,
alienate us.
And the awful
Bush regime has them all, in spades. True, nobody could warm
to Kerry, as a charismatic leader. But he was a decent,
straightforward, balanced and liberal man. He was capable of bringing America back
within the community of nations.
- Now, for the very
first time, I begin to fear for my future. It is not safe in Dubya's
hands.
Some other
topics
Web-editing
is a habit: the more you do, the easier it becomes. And this week, I
have been able to find several hours to devote to this most modern form of
letter-writing. Almost essay-writing, I suppose, at times. Thanks for
taking the trouble to read - Ed
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
>>>
One
Year Ago
30 October 2003
Blair's Palpitations
...first time around
Truth to
tell, I felt a bit
guilty, as the news of Blair's hospitalisation rolled in, on that fateful Sunday
evening. Because last June, I had speculated about the awesome
pressures to which Blair was subject...
Two
Years Ago
21
October 2002
Nationalising
"Insurance"
...my radical musings
The very last act of the US Congress, before breaking up this week for the
key 5 November Congressional Elections, was to extend Federal State
backing to the beleaguered US insurance industry. But if the
"private" insurers cannot survive without
re-insurance by the State, does not that mean that the
risk-industry has been nationalised? Is this not nationalisation by
the back door?
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How to
counter anxiety
Take a look at The
Age of Anxiety, a major think-piece by Madeleine
Bunting, for
The Guardian. My only attempt at a philosophical essay
is on this subject, and I have a distinctive analysis to propose. I
say that, for mankind, states of anxiety are
endemic, and that as a species man has developed by evolution
and by socialisation a bewildering array of counter-measures. You will find
them all around at every turn, if you will only learn to spot them.
Royal Mail
Award
My accolade this week goes to the Royal
Mail, for re-issuing their magnificent "vegetable" stamps, with
images that cleverly oversail the serrated edges of each stamp - creative, ingenious,
and
beautiful. The idea is however tarnished, for me, by their issuing a sheet of
spoof "decorations", to be used by customers in creating their own
individualised stamps..
PS
I confess that, when these beautiful stamps were first issued last year I
experimented with the gimmick myself (this is from my 2003 archives) but
I was not convinced. What
do you think? Where does the greater beauty lie, in the decorated or
undecorated version? In nature or in "art"?
Are you a Libri?
The new charity
Libri is firing on all cylinders, right now.
Libri challenges the
Government, this week, to promote book-issues from public libraries. Too many
libraries, they say, are becoming Internet cafes, needlessly competing
with the private sector - and neglecting book-reading. The primary public requirement is for the
cultivation of book-reading, and the deployment for libraries to achieve that end.
- The Trust has just published the
official CIPFA figures for declining book-issues, through the UK.
The Government may whistle in the wind, and rely on IT-visits to boost
performance figures. But the signs are not good.
Check out
LIBRI
The Fabians
are a great, enlightened Left-Wing political community some 7,000-strong -
and we have many skills among our number.
Would
you like to be added to the monthly Fabian Update e-mail list?
Just e-mail
Fabian Research
On
Guy Fawkes Night, I shall be dining with the Young
Fabians, at their Annual Dinner in London - a special pleasure for an old
warrior...
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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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Activists' Update
November
2004
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", in spite of the evidence from
Brighton that radical reform is needed, if political Parties are to
survive as viable political institutions.
(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
-
there is growing official interest in the
the birth of a new "citizens'
advisory" profession, as the lawyers continue to price themselves
out of the market - it is clear (a) that there is
constitutional/legal 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
continues to make progress, and I think and believe that we are nearing
a breakthrough in public toilet provision, although all our discussions
are at this stage strictly confidential. But we would welcome
contributions from those of you who share our concern at the
disappearance of the public loo...
Drop
me a line
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(d)
Labour Links -
the Brighton Labour Conference decisively underlined the case for
Party Reform - my
latest attempt was in Cardiff in mid-June
with the Fabians - but "Party reform" will face the implacable
resistance of the professional
salariat, and that
makes it highly problematical.
Drop me a line
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Never miss Steve Bell! His cartoons, from
The
Guardian
- his wit and perception illuminate the absurdities of the
political scene... He's no lemon
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
041101 Make sure you
have not missed
the previous edition
Check it out
And the
one before that?
Other recent topics
highlighted here
Week 45
Friday
5 November 2004
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