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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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Week 07
Mary Martin blows apart the appalling state of UK citizenship law. She is a Sussex grandmother, having lived for over 50 years in this country, since a child. And the Home Office told her that she is an American citizen, and must leave the UK immediately: the Officer was legally correct in his action, and John Gummer (her hapless MP) was quite wrong to criticise. Nothing could demonstrate more clearly than the Mary Martin Case the poverty of our citizenship laws - which is all part of the prevailing international system of migration management. I say that anyone who has lived in the UK continuously for five consecutive years without official challenge should be entitled to UK citizenship, and should not have to rely on the indignity and uncertainty of "waiting upon a bureaucratic discretion"... These laws are inhumane, undignified, insensitive.
172 Heroes... Green Belt? a class deceit This time, John Prescott must stand his ground, and press through his new plans to release sufficient development land to address the disastrous shortage of new housing in the South East. Labour cannot continue to submit to the middle-class stranglehold on housing land and house-prices (see May 2002...) Prescott must draw himself up to his full socialist height and confront the self-serving shibboleth known as the Green Belt...
Old Dogs,
New Tricks Old Boys, New E-Methods I had not done it, in fifty years. This week, I returned to my "old
school" - Leighton Park School,
in Reading - all as a result of a contact on this Website - the Senior
Teacher John Allinsion read the above commentary on Leighton Park, and invited me to come
along to speak to the LP Sixth formers. The World Wide Web brought the
generations together. Good Sense from Sterling The Local Government Chronicle
is regular reading for me. And UK local government is in deep
demoralisation, not be relieved by Labour's "new localism" - however
well-intentioned. Writing in the LGC the energetic Chief Executive of Sterling Council
Keith Yates bemoaned the emasculation of city government, throughout
the UK - read his attack.
Let Judges decide I Jurisdiction could be given to a High Court judge to visit and interview each person requesting the "right to die". The High Court already has to intervene in disputed matters of patient consent, and this would be an entirely sensible new jurisdiction. Other recent topics
And read my own Big Theory itself, at
St Petersburg Novgorod Moscow Tallinn (2)
Week 07
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Stop the
War Coalition
Today's the day! We leave Swansea at 7.00 am this morning by coach, anticipating mayhem in simply getting into London. Those who say that demonstrating does no good, may be right. I am marching today, as I marched last September, not because it will deflect the Madness of President George II, but because it offers me a practical way of expressing my own views.Last September, I marched with gusto - and I will do so again. I did originally have other political plans for the day - but I ditched them. I was also apprehensive about the influence of the unconstructive anarcho-revolutionary factions, who do all the organising. But I came to conclusion that the cause of a consensual world order is of far greater importance than my personal distaste for the UK extreme Left. So I shall be marching in London today, again. Now I understand... On Monday, congestion charging starts in London. I have always been puzzled by the preoccupation of the Authorities with electronic surveillance for the management of congestion charging, when a simple paper-based ticketing system would be sufficient.Now the truth is coming out. The electronic surveillance system has been refined specifically as a means of Police detection, capable of photographing the faces of the drivers, as well as the number-plates of their cars. Sinister purposes are behind this new revelation, explored this Sunday in The Observer.
An
end
to Old
America
The Al-Marashi Factor The case of the botched Iraqi Dossier from 10 Downing Street, will have profound indirect legal consequences. Alistair Campbell's staff had been forced to cobble together a PR document (including the Al-Marashi student essay) because MI5 apparently refused to give them access to the real thing - claiming disclosure would have "threatened their sources"... And the same argument is used to defend the imprisonment, without trial, of asylum-seekers suspected of terrorism. Secretive civil servants are permitted to report threats to themselves, and to use those reports to prevent the proper trial of others. That cannot be right. We must find ways of reasserting the universal right to a fair and impartial trial, however heinous the allegation.
Victoria Park and me... The tragic Victoria Park murder revived my recall of one of my first - and more successful - social enterprise projects. For many years (1967-72) Elizabeth and I lived alongside Victoria Park, in Gore Road, renting a house from the Crown Estate - and from the formidable Estate Manager Miss Lamplough.
Betrayal  We
betray our children
by allowing the US-led "war on drugs" to
dominate our lives and our laws. This historic error was made by the
UK, giving in to US pressures, at a time when the great Welshman David Lloyd
George was Prime Minister in 1920. And I feel an almost personal
responsibility to put rightthis awful wrong.
I find it hard to forget these anguished, doubting eyes
Labour Party, Junction Ward, N1 "This Party has no confidence in the Prime Minister...." I was present in Islington, this week, when the Junction Branch passed a Motion of No Confidence in Tony Blair. It was ably and comprehensively debated. They forwarded the Motion, as is Labour Party practice, to the General Committee of the Islington North Constituency, as a proposal for adoption. Why was I there? I was waiting to address the Branch on the new Socialist Civil Liberties Association - you can catch up on SoCLA right here... Private property The founders of the World Trade Organisation cannot have believed it would be like this. This week, WTO chief Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi warned that a failure to agree a deal on cheap medicines for developing countries could threaten the whole new round of global trade negotiations. This issue epitomises the titanic struggle between private and public power..
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 - 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 |
 Footnote to history, and to my
fascination with stamps - I found these stamps, on a New Year clear-out of
an old cupboard, strangely moving.. |
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Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT NOTICE
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New
172
is a number to conjure with. For my part, I was not at all disappointed by the
outcome of the chaotic Parliamentary debate, this week, on Lords Reform.
Faced with the "official seven Options", Speaker Martin accepted a
last-minute Amendment calling for the outright
abolition of the Lords. And then - fantastic! - no fewer than 172 MPs voted in
favour of Option 8 - namely
total abolition of our Second Chamber, our peculiarly English
pantomime called
"The Lords". Check out whether
your own MP is on this 
Socialists must re-learn the limits of
State power. And we must propose a new international
socialist order - nothing less will do.
