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This is my
contribution to the festive season of stimulatory consumption -
the Royal Mail Christmas stamps are excellent this year - but
was there a touch of bureaucratic wit in the illustrations?
Did you notice that the illustration chosen for the "European
stamp", was the bitter ivy...? And are my eyes
deceiving me - or is the bitter ivy turning the
back of its leaf
towards us? Is there a Euro-sceptic at
work in the Royal Mail Stamp Design Department, regretting the
possible loss of stamp sovereignty? |
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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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Week 50
Wow! Bingo! 
I am not privy to the MoT's files. But last weekend I wrote, on this very Home page -
And the Roads U-Turn came on 11 December! This is the long-awaited political realignment of the Government with the road-using majority. These investments will also greatly improve the reliability of inter-city coach services, which I often use and which will become far more important as rail-fares rise dramatically.
No War, I t may be a bit early for New Year forecasts, but I make them anyway. I confirm my forecast that there will be no 2003 Euro Referendum in the UK.I stick to the forecast I gave you on 6 January 2002, almost a year ago. In the event, Gordon Brown has been cleverer than Tony Blair in covering himself for a deferred Euro-entry, and that may still be enough to make him Prime Minister. As for a US war on Iraq , it would throw the US economy into a complete tailspin, unseating George Dubya in the process - so you should watch out - for the U-turn.The Cherie SideShow  The Deal III I have embarked upon a magnum opus, I can see that. This week I re-visit my vision of a new socialism, thrashed out in a new global concordat with the corporate sector, confronting its demons, acknowledging its weaknesses, playing to its strengths. You have had Chapter I, and Chapter 2 -And don't forget to tell me what you think... Hezza Heseltine was right to demolish Duncan Smith - but quite wrong to promote Kenneth Clarke - Steve Bell captured the moment perfectly, drawing in The Guardian. The man whom Labour should really fear is Oliver Letwin. If he were to take over as Tory Leader, he really would transform the political scene, rejuvenate the Tory Party, and put the illiberal Tony Blair on the back foot.. As a committed Labour Party animal, I hope fervently that the Tories do not think of that...Mohammed Abu-Zhara This is a name we should not forget. I am proud of the Newcastle Employment Tribunal, and the TGWU. Palestinian Mohammed Abu-Zhara, an asylum-seeker in the UK, was first employed and then sacked by the private Roselodge Group, management contractors to the Home Office for a "dispersal hostel" in Newcastle. The Tribunal upheld his allegations of racial discrimination, and awarded him £9,000 damages.
Has the Labour Party
Several of you have expressed interest I insist that Blair has not , as some of his Party critics allege, "become more Thatcherite than Thatcher" - that is a misreading of the situation. Blair is a creature neither of the Left nor the Right, he's a non-ideological machine politician, seeking principally the perpetuation of his Party's power - neutral, focused, unscrupulous. But that, for the rest of us, is a problem...What do you think? back to top Fixed Cake Fallacies Everybody carries conceptual baggage. Education leaves its own detritus. Crude models in the mind of how the world works, of God and the Devil, of "history", of geographical locations, of the communities in which we live, of "Them" and "Us", of the class structure - and of "the economy".
Are you a victim of
the Fixed
Cake Fallacy Financing Our Universities Public debate has narrowed the Government’s options down to two. There is no appetite for advance payment, and the options are narrowed to adult-life collection formulae...
Where do you stand? back to top Network Rail reject me.. " Dear John Evans.." said this week's letter from Network Rail, using an automated mode of address extracted by mail-merge program. It came from one Sir Malcolm Field (who he?), telling me that my "application for membership as a Public Member of Network Rail as a Public Member has not been successful on this occasion." Now - I have had Dear John letters before, but this one is a pantomime - read the full story...Recent topics And read my own Big Theory itself, at
0096
Make sure you have not missed the previous edition of LivePolitics
Check
it out |
Chiltern Railways The class system is finally to be abolished. Date? The tumbrils will roll on Sunday 5 January 2003. Chiltern Railways, running commuters into Marylebone Station, will abolish First Class carriages on 5 January. I am delighted. As a committed Third Class Passenger, I resent the spotty expense-account junkies who colonise the privileged carriages of our railways. Chiltern Railways have finally acknowledged that it is inexpedient to accommodate a small number of privileged passengers in luxury, while others only stand and hang on straps - check out the full story. What do you think? back to top the power of poverty Nachum Goldnick could become an Internet hero. He is a diamond trader in Australia, and locally known as Diamond Joe. His libel action against Dow Jones is to be heard in the Australian High Court, following a landmark jurisdiction judgment. He is suing the US giant for an article published on the Web in Yr 2000, which he claims is libellous. Dow Jones argued that the article was "published" in New York, so he could sue them only in New York. Not so, said the Australian Supreme Court . Diamond Joe can sue in Australia, under Australian libel law. That is, after all, where he claims to have been libelled. This is bad news for the wealthy, for the big corporations. The big Web publishers could be very exposed, financially.
Honesty may not be In these risk-obsessed times, I cannot accept that "honesty", for Governments, means blurting out every adverse prognostication. That is what Deirdre Hutton of the National Consumer Council, argues for, writing to the Financial Times. But in the management of public anxiety, Government may have to be very secretive indeed... The Paddick Tragedy The London Divisional Police Commander Brian Paddick has given up the battle to get his job back, and has
abandoned the Lambeth Division. He has accepted a desk-job, at
"the Yard". That
was my dismal prediction, when I wrote on 
Mr & Mrs Williams There's nothing like a real storm, in a real Welsh tea-cup. And when the Times Law Reports last week carried this Court of Appeal judgment, my eyes popped out of my head. Because it relates to a small local shopping centre in Swansea East - I know it well - we always meet at CKs carpark, when gathering to go canvassing for the Labour Party in Cwmbwrla. Yet the Court case was an important one, for all businesses.Anniversary! Having launched this Weblog on Christmas Day 2002, my first anniversary
rapidly approaches.
NB One of you has challenged my version of web-history. My first Webroadcast was indeed on Christmas Day 2002 (I took Barbara Castle to task, defending Tony Blair against her attack). But it was not until later that I installed the Hit-Counter. The Counter was set at “0001” on 25 January 2002, which means that I shall be taking-stock at close-of-play on 24 January 2003, and reporting to you on my first-year total...
My embarrassment is compounded. It is clear that the recently deceased John Rawls, the American political philosopher praised last week by Roy Hattersley and Will Hutton, was a widely-read, widely respected, theorist of egalitarian socialism. I simply had not read his works.
Where do you stand, on Rawls? back to top "As long as drugs are illegal the problem won't go away" This is Polly Toynbee's recent headline in The Guardian. Hers is a courageous and principled position. If you want the opportunity to make your own public declaration in support of the legalisation of drugs, check out and sign in at the Angel Declaration.The chaotic Old Left I
Buy Nothing Day
Nobody can fail to sympathise with the promoters
of Buy Nothing Day, which was
recently marked. But the approach is nevertheless misconceived.
The right course is to harness the dynamism of consumption, and re-direct it -
let me explain why...
What do you think?
back to
top Diary
2002 Now up to date! I have re-structured my Diary to give you a day-to-day
means of looking back, throughout the year
just click
through
Follow
my August 2002 Russian Tour Diary,
now unfolding
in splendid
technicolor - capacity problems have so far limited the scale of how
much I can E-publish, but there is still plenty to read -
Special Footnote I love the online newspapers, which are my access
to the world - share them with me - click through to their Homepages from here
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