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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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051107 Make sure you have not missed the previous edition Check it out And the one before that? Other recent topics highlighted here
Week 45 Monday Pluses & Minuses 
Tony Blair is now a particularly dangerous man. His key projects are manifestly failing all around him, and he can see his "legacy" crumbling on all sides. Yet for a thousand reasons there is no effective challenger, from within the Labour Party, for his office.
Other factors work to strengthen him. His own natural brilliance as a communicator is still a trump card. Gordon Brown has now been too long on the shelf, and his morale is clearly broken, it shows on his face. And if the Tories elect David Cameron, Gordon Brown will in any event be finished, as an asset to the Labour Party: MPs will want to skip a generation, and match youth with youth. That means that Blair can continue in power for as long as he likes, particularly if he avoids controversial legislation. Within our system of parliamentary democracy, he enjoys the awesome power of the democratic incumbent. Very few MPs are willing to sacrifice their livelihoods, in a bid to depose him. It is the penalty we pay for having a political salariat, in which MPs must vote for their personal financial survival. Very few of them could achieve comparable earnings in any other occupation. So it remains true that Blair will go at a time of his own choosing. My own position on "Blair" is an odd one: Apart from Iraq, ASBOs and civil liberties, I support the broad sweep of what Blair is trying to do - in Europe, on the NHS, on education, on pensions - but strategic flaws bedevil the detail, and doom him to failure, at every turn. NB This following item was last week's attempt, penned on 31 October, to get back to my editorial role - unsuccessful, in the event, but I record it by way of E-Archive - this week, I try again... RWE Halloween!
Weblog Mining What were we thinking about, at this time in October - last year, two years ago, three years ago? With modern web-logging, we can check it out - a new form of modern history becomes possible. This is how the world looked to me, at this time of year, in - |
*Recent
topics
Asylum Management my reforms >>> Turkey should join Europe >>> What New Orleans means for UK >>> Josef Stalin and Flat Tax >>> Corporate Theft by Proxy >>> What do interest rates mean? >>> Labour Party my resignation >>> New principle Public Primacy >>> The Power of Private Property >>> Drop the school-leaving age >>> Against Unreasonable Inequality >>> Abolish Wrongful Dismissal >>> Adjustment Pay for every worker >>>
 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 reluctantHit Counter I am forced to apologise, to eat humble pie. Many of you will have been disappointed readers this month: I have achieved only two editorial changes within the entire month, such has been the pressure of my asylum work. And that was reflected in a poor hit-count, at 1,122 - indeed the lowest October hit-count of the last three years...
Web-editing is a fiercely competitive game: we are all competing for your time, and this month I have failed - but I will return! RWE Webmaster
051107 Make sure you have not missed
Week 45 Monday
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Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT
NOTICE |
This strange day marks my return to the
editing desk. It is also the day when I say goodbye to my car: it is
being towed away for scrap, this very afternoon. I have decided to ditch
it (after 287,000 miles of loyal service) take to the bus-ways and
foot-ways of this world. My old 1992-model Mercedes 190 has served
me well, but will now cost £1,000 to get through the 2005 MOT, and I have
decided to do without a car. I reckon I will "save" £70 per week,
and make full use of my free Welsh Pensioner bus pass. I have been a car
driver-owner without a break from age 17-70, but now is the time to
acknowledge the force of the environmental arguments, and to scrap the car
- wish me luck!
And read my Big Theory itself, at 
