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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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050131 Make sure you
have not missed the previous edition Check it out And the one before that? Other recent topics highlighted here
Week 5 Saturday Radicalised 
Meet Professor David Colquhoun. He heads up the Department of Pharmacology at University College London. But he has converted his scientific, departmental website into an excoriating attack on George Bush, his religious America, and the dangers they pose for the world. And on Bush's key ally, Tony Blair. My thanks to Rona Epstein for the tip-off. This is an example of the power and the drive that can be generated by the blogging world. Why not learn to blog yourself, and
join in the great debates of the Web? This is truly a movement of
all the peoples. If now, 
We all rejoice, with all Iraqis, that the elections have been a success. They could not have been held in worse circumstances. Yet they should have been held in June 2004, when the insurgency was relatively limited. They could have been held then, and (like many others) I argued that they should be held, warts and all. But we were ignored. Why? Bush needed secret fixing time. Sovereignty was transferred (on 1 July 2004) to an undemocratic puppet regime, which has subsequently abused its "sovereignty" to sign-up to all the Americans' long-term contracts, betrayals of Iraqi national interests - in the oil industry, in utilities supply, and in leasing military sites.
Wrong
The Tories must be rubbing their eyes in disbelief. The Government plans effectively to ask the Electorate whether they wish to "establish a Constitution for the EU". And for the majority of voters, the answer to that misconceived question must be No... For that is simply not the issue. There is an EU Constitution already, which has regulated the Union for over 40 years. It exists, derived from multiple sources, and has been frequently revised and updated. And if this most recent Revision does not go through, simplifying its use and bringing all its provisions together between two covers, the Union will simply carry on with it present higgledy-piggledy Constitution. True, new powers to get tough on terrorism will not be covered, nor will improved third-world aid. The offices of President and Foreign Minister will not be enhanced as envisaged. But that's all. Peter Hain was, politically, unwise to have described the new Constitution as "simply tidying up" - but he was in essence correct. Apart from a few mechanical issues (definition of a "qualified majority", changed seat-numbers in Parliament), nothing is changed by this re-run of the Constitution. The Government is therefore barmy, if it wants to win the Referendum, to adopt this wording. The wording should have been -
That would be vastly more accurate. And before you ask: Yes I have read the new Treaty. And having in my youth studied French and German public and administrative law, I understand precisely what the Treaty is about.
Iraq Every day, I meet casualties of the Iraq War. Failed asylum-seekers in Swansea, young people who have fled the awfulness of life in Iraq, albeit without a strong UK asylum claim. Their applications have, quite properly, failed - yet they cannot go home. The UK cannot deport them to the worsening conditions in Iraq, and they are terrified of returning voluntarily - to what they see daily, on their TV screens. They are victims of the Coalition invasion of Iraq. They are trapped by international circumstance. Their lives are in limbo. They are banned from employment, and while some may find voluntary work to do, they live for the most part in enforced idleness, in growing depression. We must find a new solution, both for them and other failed applicants who cannot be sent home - to Zimbabwe, Burundi, and other war-zones from time to time. They should be granted Discretionary Leave to remain (say for two years) - and permitted to work. 
One Year Ago
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Hitcount for January 2005 January has broken all records! The monthly hit-counter for this Website hit 1706, easily beating the previous May 2004 monthly record of 1580 - thanks for your continuing support - keep following the bloggers - RWE Waterstones and Human Rights >>> How politicians abuse "contracts" >>> Abolish Wrongful Dismissal >>> "Groupism" Extending the Welfare State >>>Adjustment Pay for every worker >>>
The Mischief of ASBOs >>>
This is a fine man
David Ramsbotham is a retired general who found his true destiny only after leaving the Army, as HM Inspector of Prisons. And he has become the fearless champion of teenagers cruelly enmeshed in our awful Court and Prison system. He is our conscience, and he keeps harassing the Authorities. His public condemnation of last week's permitted suicide of 16-year-old Gareth Price, in a young offender institution, hits a new high of condemnation. Given this Government's pantomime parades of "toughness", it will be difficult to get the message through, to Charles Clarke, that the UK still abuses its children, legally and officially.
Gateway to Disaster
But he is right - for entirely the wrong reasons. He argues that the whole process should be run by Great Architects - but that would be a disaster of a new and different kind. Our town-building failures, in the UK, run very deep, within our system of government, and the limitations of our political understanding.
Humanita!  Are
you a potential recruit forRedistribution...
The latest theme is the possibility of engaging millions of citizens in the governance of their own lives, by way of super-parish Councils. Prescott's commentaries are not encouraging, but at least the theme is the right one.
The Fabians are a great, enlightened Left-Wing political community some 7,000-strong - and we have many skills among our number.
Never miss
050131 Make sure you
have not missed
Week 5 Saturday
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NOTICE |
Do
you approve this latest Revision of the EU Constitution, which strengthens
the EU in the war against terrorism and as a humanitarian aid donor, and
accommodates the increasing number of European member States?
Older readers will recall that I was very
active, two years ago, campaigning for drugs legalisation.
My commitment has not changed.
But I am dulled by the bovine obtuseness and lack of principle displayed
by our MPs, afraid of every electoral shadow. Here, I celebrated the
11 MPs with the courage to identify with the liberal cause of drugs
legalization. They are still, to my knowledge, the only 11 to stand
out from the bovine herd.
And read my Big Theory itself, at 
John
Prescott's plans for a great new city along the Thames will be a disaster. That is what the great architect Richard Rogers writes in 
My own politics are unashamedly
structural. I believe
the key malaise of modern public life is the over-centralisation of power -
in London, in Whitehall, in Westminster, in Cardiff, in Edinburgh. For
power to be constructive, it must be spread around, re-structured and divided
in new ways.
We need a
radical redistribution of power, throughout civic society.
This is essentially a socialist cause: markets will never achieve it, nor
will the Tories. It is now as important as the redistribution of wealth - far more citizen
participation is needed, in newly designed institutions. Also a drive
to rehabilitate the profession of public administrative service, at all
levels - akin to the radical reforms undertaken by the Victorians (Northcote-Trevelyan
reforms, of the 1870s).
