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You are in the company of Owen Evans - not
because he is my son, but because ...
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... as an engineer and
industrial designer he has just been retained by the innovative
Rotherham coach company Optare to extend the operational scope of
their excellent small public service vehicles
- being a bus enthusiast (and proud father..), I shall definitely be reporting to you on Optare's progress...
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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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Week 48 Editorial Note: Warning for Web-Editors! Do not mix-and-match your web-editing packages! I normally use Microsoft Frontpage on my home-PC, but this week got myself into horrific problems by using other PCs and having to deploy WORD on the same HTML, also Notepad and Wordpad - the whole Page become so large and complex that it simply had to be ditched and replaced.. RWE UK House Prices Are they "too high"? I have - let me confess it - been putting off this moment. But as the clamour from the Bank of England gets louder, I must contribute my two ha'porth. Because this is a subject which I really do know something about. Having spent ten years of my life as a General Manager in the housebuilding industry, the subject of house prices is close to my heart. Do you have a view on this? back to top
The Injustice We are going through another public orgy of bitter resentment over the dramatic injustice of relative personal rewards throughout our society. The contrast between nurses' and Firefighters' pay on the one hand, and "fatcat" company remuneration packages on the other, fuels deep public discontent. In a liberal and democratic society there are strict limits to governmental intervention. But less secrecy, and far greater publicity, would help to solve the problem... What do you think? back to top check out new Home Footnotes Page I s the US a rogue state?Back in June '02, before Bush went to the UN, before the Congressional elections got under way, I posed this question. I think it is worth a second look... What do you think? back to top
Digby Jones, Director-General of the Confederation of British
Industry, is rapidly becoming a joke. He is wrong to designate the UK as
unfriendly to business, and to argue for the "tax burden" of
industry to be reduced. In the modern state, companies are necessarily
the primary
tax-gatherers of society -
Income Tax, NI, Excise, VAT, Corporation Tax
- they should accept that role, take advantage of it, and simply strike a
hard bargain in return.New Forms of "Democracy" We've all got a bit stale, in thinking about our "democracy". We tend to limit our imagination to the institutions of representative democracy, which bestow legitimacy upon "Government". But over the weekend, at the Wales National Fabian Conference, I had the chance to air my views about participatory democracy. Representative democracy has indeed served us well, and wrought great liberalising changes in society. But it is no longer generating new political insights, and it is spawning its own form of autocracy. The springs of political inspiration are running dry.
And let me know what you think back to top The Patagonian Toothfish, again The Patagonian Toothfish hit the headlines again this week. Keen LivePolitics readers may remember the leading case - Quark Fishing Company v. HM Government - in which the UK Courts broke new ground by annulling Robin Cook's decision on the allocation of Falklands fishing licences... - that was all about the Patagonian Toothfish.This week the same species was on stage in Santiago, for the CITES conference (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). Australia tried to place the Toothfish (also known as Chilean Sea Bass) on the Endangered List, but fishing-industry opposition was too strong, and the attempt was defeated. Not many people know that... Government Parties a new political phenomenon Several of you have expressed interest in my theory of the emergence of a Government Party. My suggestion is that Tony Blair, having taken possession of the Labour nest, has turned to exploiting Labour's systems to create a new, and entirely different, form of Party..
What do you think? back to top check out new Home Footnotes Page Foundation Hospitals This confused debate is leading nowhere. Alan Milburn is bidding to pioneer an important new idea for the management of public services generally. But he is wrong to limit the idea to a small number of Foundation Hospitals - he should apply the principle to all hospitals... Where do you stand? back to top
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This weekend, I had an intensely political Saturday. Three public speeches underlined the difficulties faced by concerned Labour Party members, faced with the growing managerialism of their Government. I heard the charismatic Michael Jacobs, General Secretary of the Fabian Society, Mark Seddon, the rising Editor of Tribune, and the urbane Welsh Leader of the House of Lords, Lord (Gareth) Williams of Mostyn.  They were
all, each in their own way, anguished Labour activists. Grey Power Much nonsense is being talked about the political power of pensioners - the 11m of our fellow citizens who have reached retirement age. They are certainly important - but when it comes to political muscle, they are a busted flush...What do you think? back to top check out new Home Footnotes Page Forest v ASH ... and the merchants of risk Tobacco smoking is an emotive business. The Health Secretary Alan Milburn has launched a new "drive against smoking", and there is good reason for a determined preventive health drive: see The Guardian. I am a non-smoker, and I have never smoked - so I have no personal axe to grind. But in this drive, the authorities must show a proper respect for personal freedom.
What do you think? back to top Don't top-up, pay up This issue poses a real challenge to your political judgment. For on the one hand, it must be common ground that graduates benefit enormously, personally and financially, from the successful completion of higher education. But that does not make it wise to present all future students with the prospect of a huge lifetime debt... What do you think? back to top check out new Home Footnotes Page
Workers’ Rights The assertion of "Union" rights is not a popular cause. But the development of stronger systems of workers' rights strikes a chord with everyone. And as a socialist, I am more interested in workers’ rights than in union rights. What do you think? back to top check out new Home Footnotes Page Wonderful Water Good, positive news about solutions to impending water shortages in the Middle East - a little good news, for a change... back to top Germany, Japan Their weak economies threaten us Inflexibility is dangerous. Institutional rigidities in both Germany and Japan are inhibiting consumer confidence, thus blocking economic growth. Japan's banking and corporate sectors are positively sclerotic, seemingly incapable of facing essential reforms. The German problems are less dramatic, but no less severe. And if those problems cannot be resolved, UK economic growth will be put at further risk. These problems confirm the wisdom of Labour's commitment to the cultivation of flexible and responsive market-sensitive systems - in this respect, I am a signed-up Blairite. It is important to minimise restrictions upon trading transactions, including the hiring and firing of labour.
What do you think? back to top check out new Home Footnotes Page Limiting Limited Liability Upon the collapse of ITV Digital its two promoters (parent companies Carlton and Granada) simply "walked away" and abandoned all the creditors of their own stricken subsidiary. Now International Power, the parent of the collapsing UK power-generator TXU, has similarly "walked away" - abandoning creditors for £2.78 billion. Technically, this is legal, but it is an abuse of power, and should be curtailed. 5,000 Bean Counters It must have been quite a sight. 5,000 professional accountants met in Hong Kong this week, as the 16th World Congress of Accountants. Disoriented by the failures of corporate control in American, they were in suitably self-critical mood. The whole "auditing profession" was invented by the Victorians precisely for the purpose of monitoring corporate conduct, and that system has failed. But the faultlines lie much, much deeper than the annual audit, and the carelessness of auditors. They are not really the ones to blame... What do you think? back to top |
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