I suppose I am part of Labour's problem.  A faithful Old Labour OAP member, but diverting increasingly from my Party.  I will still vote Labour but with resignation rather than enthusiasm, and praying for the Blair era to come to a rapid end.  I admired the political skill of the Budget - except for its continuing failure to acknowledge the seriousness of the pensions issue.  But I am not moved to do anything for Labour than the minimum - paying membership dues and casting my vote for the Party candidate.

I did not lift a finger to attend the Welsh Labour Party Conference, held in my home city of Swansea last week.  I confess I considered that I had more important things to do...

Budget Postscript: Andrew Rawnsley, pinpointing Labour's Achilles Heel (" Never mind the bungs, where's the vision?"), castigated the Stamp Duty relief for cheaper houses as "economically illiterate".  And so it is. Because the gap would immediately be absorbed, in a market system, by house-price increases. Any sensible housebuilder, realising that his purchasers no longer faced a price-related tax-demand, would put up the house-price accordingly.  Markets are funny that way, Gordon...

Mobile Myths

Every new technology seems to generate its own myths.  And the mobile phone was no exception.  One fear was that mobile phones could trigger vapour-explosions, on petrol-station forecourts.  Dire warnings still disfigure many forecourts.  But research has now shown that there is no such risk.

I was once travelling on the National Express Flightlink bus from Swansea to Heathrow, when a peculiarly officious driver ordered all mobile phones to be switched off, because they interfered with the operation of the coach's automatic gearbox!  This was "Company Policy", he intoned.  Needless to say, faced with this pantomime allegation, I left mine firmly on...

What are your favourite memories of urban legends surrounding mobile phones?

.... drop me a line

Strange Death
of Liberal England

Something certainly died, last week.  It was a terrible week for our politics, for Britain's distinctive contribution to the creation of a just and egalitarian society.  In the Courts, a young fuel-sniffing addict was sent to prison merely for breaking the terms of an awful ASBO, without having been convicted of any substantive criminal offence.  And in Parliament, disgraceful debates disfigured our democracy, tearing up vital civil liberties ought to be asserted and defended, in perpetuity.

The craven Commons majority showed no understanding of the key values of a free society: everything was up for grabs, for trading.  Precious traditions were indeed traded, simply because our politicians were fearful of being blamed for a terrorist attack. They were intent upon saving their electoral skins. I was deeply ashamed of the Labour Party, the Party into which I am held by loyalty and optimism.

And this was all for electoral gain. All that mattered, to most of those speaking in the Commons, was the verdict of the voters. What failed, last week, was not only the integrity of the Labour majority, but the very institution of salaried politicians. They are terrified of electoral defeat, because their very livelihoods are at stake. So terrified was everyone, of sending the "wrong message" to the electorate, that all sense of principle was abandoned.

These are dark days. This was a defeat for civilisation as ruinous, in its own way, as George Bush's destruction of the United Nations.  It demonstrates that our politicians simply do not understand the values that they are called upon to defend - indeed, assert. The principled bonds of civilisation the world over have been perceptibly weakened, by this Labour Government. When Robert Mugabe does the same thing, we will have no "high moral ground" left, from which to address him.

• ... drop me a line

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Will Hutton recalls...

I always enjoy reading Will Hutton, and his recent piece in The Observer was no exception.  He took a very broad look at the collapse of the "old Left" and of the Trade Union movement, prompted by the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Miners' Strike, in 1985.

I nodded agreement as I read.  The collapse of the old collectivism now seems complete, and the winners and losers better identified.  But the Left has found no alternative banner around which radicals can re-group.

I believe, against the odds I admit, that the human rights agenda, internationally and nationally, offers the Left an alternative framework of convincing principle, well adapted to current political challenges.  The language of human rights is now universal, universally comprehensible, and compelling.

• The Left should look no further.

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Never miss Steve Bell! His cartoons, from The Guardian - his wit and perception illuminate the absurdities of the political scene... Our political life is diminished by the absence, in mainstream politics. of leaders with capacity to deliver the same punch.

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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.

• Join the Fabians, right here...

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