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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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041129 Make sure you
have not missed
the previous edition
Check it out
And the
one before that?
Other recent topics
highlighted here
Week 49 Saturday
4 December 2004
Labour's Blind Spot
This is not the greatest photo of my old
friend the leading UK human rights lawyer Anthony Lester QC (now LibDem peer Lord Lester of Herne
Hill) - but it's all that Google had to offer.
His presence in Cardiff last
Saturday, joined by Shami Chakrabarti Director of LIBERTY
was important.
They formed part of a glittering slate of speakers, at the Fabian Annual
Welsh Conference.
 For it underlined the abject poverty of the
Labour Party in its understanding of the human rights theme, in our future
politics. And in spite of Anthony's personal eminence (we
originally worked together in the Society of Labour Lawyers, when he was
in the Labour Party) the LibDems
are almost as flaky, on human rights territory.
I say that the perceived dichotomy between
collectivisim and individualism
is a sham, a conceptual will o' the' wisp. It's a matter of form,
and not substance. These perspectives can and must be reconciled.
Socialists face the challenge of
reconfiguring their traditional "values" in the form of individual
entitlements, absolute and qualified. The language of contemporary
politics is individualist, although that rationale of political action
remains firmly collectivist, into whosoever hands the baton of government
falls.
Unless we socialists find a new individualist language, our children will simply not
grasp what we are talking about.
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Light over Ukraine
For me, media coverage of the Ukrainian crisis has
been opaque, the quality of reporting poor. But I commend to you a
remarkable, brilliant, report by The Guardian's Jonathan
Steele. It is jam-packed with invaluable perceptions, and key
nuggets of information - it is everything that "foreign reporting" should
be - don't miss it.
Down with
Groupism
 What is "groupism"? It is the
practice of referring to a person by reference to pigeonholes ("groups"),
rather than in terms of individual characteristics. Groupism is
close to "culturalism" - the means by which people like me ("He's
Welsh, you know...") get pigeon-holed and put down. I am
exasperated by the rumbling debate, triggered by Trevor Phillips, on
multiculturalism, which is a destructive influence.
The only way to counter racism and ethnic prejudices
is to assert the power of individual identity, personality. Racism
cannot be "combatted", like an enemy, any more than one can have a
"war" on terrorism. Racism can only be eroded, weakened, softened,
lived with and changed by a thousand sensitivities, built into the fabric
of daily life.
is a
dangerous intellectual
error.
Drop me a line
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Labour's
Fatal Faultline
We are beset by an ice-age of authoritarianism. It is
has been triggered by terrorism, but it is fed by Labour's insensitivity
to the very concept of a "human right".
Blair, Blunkett, Hoon, Straw and Falconer have all proved themselves to be
wanting in any "liberal" dimension, and seem almost to revel in
their thuggishness. The insidious and fallacious Blairite doctrine
that rights must be balanced by "responsibilities" had given
birth to a collectivist monster, the New Authoritarianism.
 I hardly thought that I would ever find myself agreeing
with Vanessa Redgrave, whom I have always considered a bit of a
lightweight and a crank, politically. But her perception, shared by her brother Corin, of Human Rights
as moving to the centre of the political stage chimes remarkably with mine.
They have founded a new political Party
(somewhat clumsily called Peace and Progress)
-
check it out.
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Embedded Police
Labour is trailing its new communal law-and-order
strategies for the next Election: see
Blunkett's Press Release. He makes
liberal use of the term "embedding" the Police in the local community,
just as BBC reporters are now "embedded" with the advancing Coalition
troops in Iraq.
Now: I approve of these changes, in principle. But
there is not a single mention of greater democratic accountability for
this rapidly expanding Police force.
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Labour's
NEC Secrets
 Ann
Black of Oxford is a fearless scribe. Like Dennis Skinner, she is an elected "Left"
member of Labour's National Executive Committee, and an active trade
unionist. But she is also rigorous in her regular reporting "to the
outside world" what goes on within the NEC.
 Her personal commentaries are
principally of interest to other Party members. But I bring you
November's "Black Report" because it bears worrying signs of a
cocooned complacency within the Party which could still
cost Labour the Election...
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One
Year Ago
17
November
2003
Right
Direction
Wrong Principle
"Alan Milburn has
attacked the polarisation of “State” and “private sector”. He argues that
“the voluntary sector” should become “the third leg of the stool” in
public service provision.
"But Milburn fails
crucially to
distinguish between the voluntary sector proper (where “volunteering” and
“volunteers” are critical, both for funding and management) and the
informal salaried
not-for-profit sector, which does not rely on volunteering for its support.
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Two
Years Ago
18
November 2002
Workers’ Rights
not
Union Rights
 "As a young Labour lawyer,
I was a part-time Tutor and Examiner to the National Council of Labour
Colleges, in trade-union law and industrial law. As a result, I have always
differentiated clearly between rights (a) which attach to the individual
worker, and those (b) which attach to the trade union as a collective
organisation.
 In Labour political debate, these two ideas are often
confused, rolled-up easily together. After all, given the individual’s “right
to join a trade union”, it is easy to argue that such a union
should have the necessary collective rights to render it effective.
The conflation is entirely understandable, is misleading.
"The winds from the
Continent are, I am glad to say, strengthening worker’s
rights - rather than union rights.
Part-time and agency workers in the UK are benefiting mightily from EU
initiatives, and long may that process continue. I am sure that our systems
are moving in the right direction, foreshadowing a major systemic
re-balancing of the employment relationship, a new work settlement
right
across Europe. "
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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.co
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Hit Count for
November
For the statisticians among you, November
was only the second month ever when the hit-counter
reached 1500. The only other month was May 2004,
when there was a freak 1580
record. Last month, there was a much steadier growth to
1515. Thanks again for your
continuing support -
RWE
Recent
topics
The British
Proud or Cowed?
>>>
Regional Devolution
case wrecked
>>>
Religion
ravages politics
>>>
Are Public
Schools charities?
>>>
Taming
the Corporations
>>>
Asylum-seekers abused
>>>
Extending the Welfare State
>>>
Adjustment Pay
for every worker
>>>
Pay
Guardianship Allowance
>>>
We
do not own
our children
>>>
Pensions at 70
Good Idea
>>>
The Mischief of ASBOs
>>>
 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
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Pre-Nups?
No, thanks!
The top UK family lawyers, the Solicitors'
Family Law Association, want the Government to legislate for "pre-nuptial
agreements" to be made legally binding. At the moment they are not:
marriage is conceived as a matter of status, nor personal contract, and it
is only the Courts that can regulate the consequences of its dissolution,
as a matter of civic status.
In some American States, and in Canada and
Australia, they are already binding, and they regulate the break-up of
marriages - who get's what, how common property is shared.
I am opposed
to any such move, but I am
aware that my opposition may seem illogical to some. After all, it
is argued, consenting adults should be free to regulate these matters for
themselves, in a liberal society. Are you not, Warren Evans, in
favour of personal freedom?
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Impeach Blair
Website censored
 Wham
Bam!
The Gods are clearly furious.
Just as the day for the Commons debate arrived (the Motion was filed on 24 November), the spineless Service Provider, on 23
November, pulled the
plug on this website! Political censorship, or what?
It is now
re-sited and back operating again - you can sign up on-line.
I
am keenly aware that my support for impeachment will be seen by Party
colleagues as disloyalty. It is nothing of the kind. It is rather my desperation, both as a
concerned lawyer and Labour Party loyalist, that nothing else seems
capable of shifting the complacency of our professional politicians.
They
fail to confront a grave wrong, a "high misdemeanour", committed by their
Leader, by his exercise of the Royal Prerogative. Indeed, I tried to
launch an impeachment action myself, in June 2003, only for it to run into the
sand of solidarity and complacency.
I
regret (strictly in Party terms) that it has been left to the courageous Adam Price, one of our
local West Wales Plaid Cymru MPs, to make the key move.
Check
out the website. He and Dan Plesch have my support...
On air, again...
What goes around, comes
around. After a gap of twenty years*, I have the chance of
broadcasting again, on local radio - one of the great loves of my life.
A new regional franchise for South West Wales is to be launched next year,
and competing groups are assembling, rehearsing, scheming. You can
hear our 24/7 experimental transmissions on 102.1 FM. You can catch
me on Monday evenings at 6.00 pm. That's
Swansea Bay Radio.
*From
1980/86 I broadcast every weekday
on local business news, with Swansea Sound, when talk-radio ruled OK,
before the onset of cheap pap.
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Are you a Libri?
"My" new charity
Libri is firing on all cylinders, right now. I say
"my" - but although the idea was mine, the cause has now been taken
forward by marvellous body of other Trustees who are deeply
committed to the cause. Libri
challenges the Government 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.
-
Interested? Concerned?
-
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
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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
 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
December
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
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.
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041129 Make sure you
have not missed
the previous edition
Check it out
And the
one before that?
Other recent topics
highlighted here
Week 49 Saturday
4 December 2004
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