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| You are in the company of Roger Warren Evans, Welsh socialist lawyer and company director, on a journey to work out a new socialist order capable of generating equality and freedom for the world. Nothing less will do. |
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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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New American Century Our perception is widening, of the awful Pax Americana strategy which is emerging, over Bush's shoulder - and the Web is playing its part in this process. This is a serious, ultra-Right-wing imperialist enterprise - is Blair "in on the plot?"
Terrorists v Democrats Regular readers will know just how deeply I oppose unilateral aggression against Iraq. In my view, the drive-to-war is a mere political device, deployed by the US Republican Party for its own narrow ends, without principle and without vision. But that does not mean that I underestimate the difficulties of countering terrorist threats to a peaceful world order. I favour the expansion of counter-intelligence services, both conventional and covert. And as a socialist and democrat, I know that I must address the political problems which this expansion poses. Try BBC News, the public service website Mandelson's Mangoes My own mango experience As political transparency increases, intriguing light is thrown on the lives of our leaders. A declaration was published, of gifts received by Ministers, in the course of their official duties. And shock-horror! Peter Mandelson received a gift-box of mangoes from the Hinduja brothers, when their passport applications were under consideration.
Iraq Three New Arguments I have spotted three new arguments this week, all designed to back up military action against Iraq. Two of them are secondary and cynical, the third principled - but the principle is a scary one... I joined a "pernicious campaign"... 
Labour's attack on pub entertainment must rank high on the Government's Silliness Index. Minister Kim Howell has simply lost perspective. The proposed new licensing system will repeal the two-musician rule, which has traditionally exempted pub entertainers from the full rigour of licensing control. For my part (having often played pub piano myself, in my younger days...) I signed the on-line protest petition - there were 76,000 of us in all. This, according to Kim Howell (never one to mince his words) was a "pernicious campaign" - and he plans to stick to his ministerial guns.
Kalms' Consensus Sir Stanley Kalms is not a a nice man. This pillar of the Thatcher business establishment is a nasty snarling right-wing character, contemptuous of others and insensitive to those around him. But I agree 100% with his onslaught on Derek Higgs and the strengthening non-Executive Directors. Taming Corporate Power practical political action Expression must be given to the universal public resentment and contempt for the abuse of corporate power - see my thesis at Tame the Corporations. But that must be converted into practical politics - and that is what I have done as a matter of practical politics. Migration Management statistical mayhem
Sex toys v. Lingerie
More from Russia You clearly enjoyed the Moscow Times leader,
about Vladimir Putin and the Oligarchs. For me, even more interesting
is the current debate in the Russian My love of Welsh My once-a-week love affair with my own language continues: I engage my own Tutor, Sion Woods of Ammanford, once every week. The Welsh language is rich, distinguished, elegant and expressive. Sadly, the BBC did not broadcast in England their excellent recent historical series - you can click through, and get the flavour > Other recent topics
And read my own Big Theory itself, at 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 - St Petersburg Novgorod Moscow Tallinn (2)
Week 10 |
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Foundation Hospitals  This important debate rumbles on, with the growing prospect of another major
Labour Backbench revolt in the Commons. But this time, the
backbenchers are wrong, and Milburn is right. I gave you my views, way
back in November, and they have not changed.
Andy Gilchrist and I.. 
Coincidences are strange, are they not? When Andy Gilchrist and his colleagues enjoyed their great dinner at the Cinnamon Club, they were in "my" restaurant - in a sense. My "City" Directorship is with the quoted property company that owns the old Westminster Library in Great Smith Street, near Parliament, and the Cinnamon Club is our tenant. I brought all my professional skills to bear on the planning proceedings for that restaurant, and I am delighted that it has been such a glittering success.
Outrage! I was outraged by the action of the Home Office in the case of the imprisoned Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset-al-Megrahi. His wife and five young children had been admitted to the UK so that they could exercise their visiting rights and keep in contact with al-Megrahi while in prison in Glasgow. But when their visa expired, the Home Office forced them to return to Libya merely to process their renewed visa application - see The Guardian.That was a breach of their "rights of family" under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. I have no doubt about that. But it was in any event a crass piece of maladministration and insensitivity towards those children and his wife. Yet the case passed by with little public comment.
Broadband Scandal 
European Governments are driving forward, using public funds to ensure that their poorer regions are not left out of the Broadband revolution, creating the most rapid access to the Internet. Brussels has approved massive Government subsidies, solely to achieve this coverage. The process cannot be left to "market forces". Yet the UK is falling rapidly behind. Why is Labour not making a similar investment? I cannot get Broadband, because BT argues that in my particular Swansea suburb they do not yet have 400 applicants - but why should that be the determining factor? This is one of the better-off suburbs in Wales' second city - yet we remain deprived of up-to-date services, thanks to BT. Auditing Democracy Democratic Audit is a fine concept. It describes a team of political analysts and commentators led by Stuart Weir, and imaginatively funded by the Rowntree Charitable Trust. I joined them recently for a debate on regional devolution within England, which the Government is weakly pursuing. For me. the great challenge is to strengthen city government. Devolution has left this problem unresolved. My 1996 constitutional analysis still stands, even if the language now sounds a little old-dated, post-Celtic devolution -
New Discussion Group
Let's experiment with a bit more interactivity (as they
say...) - you can now make your own contribution to any political debate
- try the new
The new voice of Europe European politics changed this week. The Brussels Commission had the idea of polling the entire European population last November, with a common set of political questions - about the role of America, and relations with Europe. Studies of this kind could transform popular perceptions of "Europe". Based on a massive 16,000 sample, the Survey had previously been used only to assess "Euro-friendliness" itself. This is different. Suddenly, there emerges a remarkably coherent picture of European public opinion - and the majority sees the United States as a danger to world peace, rather than as a force for good - check it out in The Guardian.
Anxiety is the normal condition of mankind I have a "world view", a Weltanschauung. I argue that the distinctive intellectual abilities of mankind have laid the human species peculiarly open to anxiety as a normal condition of existence. But evolution has also equipped mankind, I argue, to counter those anxieties successfully, so as to be able to get on with furthering the species. If you can spare a moment - give it a whirl... Try BBC News, the public service website Confidence is indivisible Business news comes in dribs and drabs. Reports come through about “investor confidence”, “City confidence”, “business confidence”, “manufacturers’ confidence”, “retailer confidence” – and “consumer confidence”. They generate acres of newsprint, a torrent of headlines. Yet there is only one confidence that matters. And that is consumer confidence. 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 - 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
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