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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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050822
Make sure you have not missed the previous edition Check it out And the one before that? Other recent topics highlighted here
Week 34 Monday Medical Cannabis
Somali Anguish For the Somali communities of South Wales, it has been a bitter blow to discover that one of the London bombers may have been an "extremist" from Somalia. Cardiff has the largest Somali community in Wales, stretching back more than a century, to the first period of globalisation, 1895-1914. Somali seamen simply settled in Cardiff, without "immigration control". Cardiff is said to have the largest expatriate Somali community in Europe. Swansea is different. The Somali community is small, much more recent, living in a less tolerant, less cosmopolitan social and political environment. But no less concerned. And they have asked me to publish, right here on this website, their cry of anguish. Multicultural MisgivingsFor my part, I dislike the "new multiculturalism" which characterises the prevailing "liberal" response to Islamic fundamentalism, in the UK. Concepts of "culture" and national or communal "identity" are themselves divisive, sowing the seeds of greater factionalism in future. Worst of all is the awful concept of "Britishness", which I vehemently reject. I seek no national identity, not even "Welsh" (whatever that means...) We need to assert, more vigorously than ever before, the sovereignty of the individual soul...Tsunami! These are grim times. Momentum is clearly accelerating, throughout the asylum system. There are higher levels of removals* and threatened removals, a more aggressive approach to the withdrawal of support, inducing higher levels of destitution and despair. And Blair's intemperate response to the London bombings is spreading real, personal, fear among all refugee communities. This impacts with particular force upon the failed asylum-seekers, who caught in the vice of uncertainty, between two worlds. *
That has meant a tsunami of work for me - which explains my continuing silence, as a web-editor. This coming week, from 8 August, I am booked for 32 hours of "surgery" consultations in Swansea, Newport and Cardiff, plus a Court appearance on Tuesday in Newport. And that is without counting Wednesday, when I shall be in London for a meeting with the Chinese Embassy, planning a Fabian Society visit to China in October 2006. The problem is partly attributable to the Summer holidays, with three of my volunteer lawyers on holiday, and my having to hold the fort for both Cardiff and Swansea simultaneously. And in parallel, work continues to secure for the new charity Asylum Justice formal registration with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner...
Cherie for PM 
Cherie Blair understands the essence of civil liberties. Her recent speech in Kuala Lumpur backed the Judges in asserting individual rights against Governments, in the current wave of terrorist hysteria, in which her husband is a key element. She shows a real understanding of the issues confronting our society, as her husband does not. For the essence of liberty is due process. Nobody is wise enough to anticipate every turn of actual events, in a fast-moving and complex society. But we can, and should, adhere to principles of due and just process. Habeas corpus ("Do you have the body of ...... ?") was a matter of process, not substance. It embodied - and continues to embody - the power of the Judges to challenge the Executive and the State, anywhere anytime, anywhere, if there is any suspicious detention. LJ Brooke, when he declared the Blair Curfew Zones illegal, was applying basic principles of civil liberty, minimising the loss of personal freedom in the face of intrusive legislation. And Cherie Blair approved on that.
Dear Mr. Evans...
Tony Blair has at last replied to my resignation letter. Well, I say "replied" - rather, acknowledged. And I say "Tony Blair" as an abstraction. Judge for yourself ...
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Simon not Alan
My view is that the glory of UK citizenship is precisely that it has no cultural content. We have traditionally resisted the awfulness of the American citizenship ceremonies. We have accorded citizenship simply to the person, without assigning any cultural content to that status. That is, in itself, a brilliant political institution, convention, practice. UK citizenship is a sparse, minimalist concept, and long may it last. Everyone should do that, so that the sting is drawn, from "identity politics".
Chinese
whispers
This week has brought me new insights into
the Chinese journey. Or rather the journey of the leading cadres
of the Chinese Communist Party, who are striving to chart the long-term global future
of their enormous country.
In the course of my meeting at the
Chinese Embassy this week (I am planning a two-week all-hotel Fabian
study-tour to China next year, price just £1,800) my host fastened
quickly onto my theories of company law reform.
As this is one or my more arcane and
abstract concerns, which few people understand, this came as a surprise.
But on reflection, it makes sense that the Chinese, who have yet to
decide what sort of artificial personalities (i.e. "companies")
they should create, should be absorbed by this issue. The Chinese
represent the greatest hope for radical, socialist, company law reform
that the world has even seen.
My host eagerly
took away my website details, including
And if you want to
join the Fabian Society and come with us to China for a strictly
political study-tour in October 2006
drop
me a line
Web
Mining With web-logging, a new form
of modern history becomes possible. I can now give you an insight
into what was "in the news" for the matching week, one, two, and three
years ago. This is how the world looked to me, in the middle of August in
-
Corporate Theft by Proxy >>> A very Welsh Connection >>> "Moodmeter" measures confidence >>> What do interest rates mean? >>> Labour Party my resignation >>> My uncle, in the Assam Cabinet >>> Electoral reform My conversion >>> New principle Public Primacy >>> The Power of Private Property >>> Drop the school-leaving age >>> Countering Fundamentalism >>> Against Unreasonable Inequality >>> Abolish Wrongful Dismissal >>> Adjustment Pay for every worker >>>
050822
Make sure you have not missed
Week 34 Monday
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Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT
NOTICE |
"Removal"
is the equivalent of "deportation", in popular parlance. But the
term "deportation" applies strictly to cases where there has been a Court
or Ministerial "order to deport", signifying a
change of legal status for the individual concerned. In
the case of failed asylum-seekers, their status is
already that of illegal immigrants without any leave to
remain, and they are simply being removed
as a direct consequence of that status.
Have you
ever resigned from the Labour
Party? What happened?
Simon Partridge
has been thrust to the fore,
by the London bombings. Yep! Simon, not Alan. Simon is
an independent political analyst, one of whose specialities is the study
of the very concept of Britishness. The bombings have brought a
surge of interest in this elusive subject, and Simon is pitching in with
the best of them. A new E-mail arrived from him on Monday, and 
And read my Big Theory itself, at 
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