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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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Week 22 
Toddites I have been converted to Toddism. I have become a Toddite. Nothing to to do with Luddites. Everything to do with the followers of Emmanuel Todd, a radical French demographer who perceives (it seems to me) the greater truths behind the stage-scenery of today's international politics.
That sinking feeling… Blair’s spirits must have slumped when he read Lord Goldsmith’s 26 March Opinion on the illegality of the Coalition’s post-war occupation of Iraq. The text of that Opinion is published in full by the New Statesman this week. The reasoning is specious and facile, and illuminates the even greater fragility of Goldsmith’s professional “legitimation” of the War itself, three weeks’ earlier. His reliance upon the “authority” of a time-expired UN Resolution of 1990 was roundly rejected by all other lawyers who considered it (see Rabinder Singh QC’s reasoning). Indeed, I have not discovered one single lawyer who thinks his reasoning was sound. Not one. Goldsmith, owing everything to Downing Street patronage, had dutifully blessed the War, and paid the price of his preferment. But in this second Opinion he took his revenge, and clearly sought to retrieve his professional reputation, which was otherwise in tatters. He refuses to bless the peace. Indeed, given the post-war straitjacket he imposes on the Coalition, it is remarkable that he gave no prior warning of these constraints, at the time of his War Blessing. His effectively tells Blair that the Coalition will not be able to proceed lawfully to rebuild Iraq at all without a further Security Council resolution. True, the obliqueness of the language obscures the position – but Blair would have understood perfectly. Sadly for Goldsmith, his attempted redemption (as with Clare Short) came too late to retrieve his reputation. Timing is everything, in politics. He is now a lame duck Attorney, and will not recover his authority.
Rowan's
Yet what does "our" mean? Who are "we"? In this case, the Community Council of Mumbles, the elected "parish" council for my home-town - of which I am proud to be a Member, Councillor. We acted on behalf of our proud community. Elected bodies do so much more than provide services - they represent their communities, articulate, symbolise, bring thoughts to public expression, convey mourning, mark celebration. On 21 June, we shall throw a great party, for Dr Rowan Williams. When the next New Labour Cabinet Minister tells us that local government is all about the efficient delivery of services, I shall scream..
Flagging  The reason why
global economic prospects are poor is precisely that ordinary consumers - in
Europe, America and Japan - are genuinely
worried about the future,
 and the monumental mess that Bush and Blair have created, in the Middle East.
Successful suicide bomb attacks, flight bans, and the excessive media
coverage they all receive, add to the sense of of personal anxiety,
throughout the world. American
aggressive behaviour, while satisfying the baying mobs at home, is unsettling the rest
of the world, tuned in to CNN. They may not all understand what is
going on, but they can pick up from TV coverage that all is not going well.
Global systemic uncertainty is now a prime
cause of weak consumer demand. PS On a lighter note, I thought this was a very pithy
cartoon, from the business pages of The Guardian.
T he InternationalOptimism Agenda Globalisation has one consequence which no UK political party has yet grasped. It is that we must now cast all our manifestoes, both on the Right and on the Left, in terms which make sense globally. “Politics in one country” is no longer enough. I have made my own attempt to shape such an international political agenda, which would bring hope to all the peoples of the world... 
Public trading, a real third way The Government's "modernisation" of the welfare state is still seen in terms of "privatisation". The spectre of Margaret Thatcher looms, and that awful corrosive doubt about her motives. That is wrong. While there are indeed proper opportunities for conventional privatisation, the primary drive should be the shift to more flexible, more responsive, more local forms of dedicated public company.
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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Election, 
Nothing can conceal the failure of Blair’s management of European issues. True, his European credibility has been grievously damaged by his Iraq misjudgments. That must have undermined his self-confidence, when he communes with his shaving mirror. But he should not even consider holding a Referendum, either on the Euro or the constitutional changes. He should bide his time, and call a General Election. Drugs: US attempts to interfere in Canadian politics, to prevent a sensible minor liberalisation of the drugs laws, will backfire. It is American evangelicals who were behind the first campaign in 1919, and they are still blocking liberal reform. Will Hutton this week highlights the baleful influence upon American civilisation of the Religious Right. We should adopt a strategy of supply interdiction, and challenge the Americans to follow.
Our own housing crisis
We should not be crucifying our young people by forcing them, early in their adult lives, into crippling mortgage commitments What they need above all is good-quality, reasonably priced rental accommodation.
"The voluntary Party in the country..."
That terminology reflects my view of the future for political Parties. There are in practice two political forces in play, and they should both be given political expression. There should be "lay" citizens' Parties, engaging the hearts and minds of activists throughout society, and differentiated from the professional Party systems of the new salariat. The Party salariats should regulate their own business, as "parliamentary parties", getting on with the business of Government and Opposition, forging new links with the voluntary parties in the country. Our political systems would be diversified and enriched if such a dual system were to be developed.
Try BBC News, the public service website for the best and quickest access to the news, as well as a huge political data resource, the BBC is unbeatable
I stand accused... ... of being more Blairite than Blair, in my approach to the diversification of UK state structures, Foundation Hospitals, and all that.
Try BBC News, the public service website
Other recent topics
Multiple Differential Uncertainty 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 What are your thoughts? Drop me a line
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) What are your thoughts? Drop me a line
Week 22 |
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Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT NOTICE
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New
The Archbishop of Canterbury has accepted
"our" invitation to visit my home-town Mumbles, where he spent many of his
formative years as a young priest. He will be here in Swansea, on Saturday 21
June. 
I love stamps...
This is not what you think. This is
is no attack on Tony Blair for his Presidential proclivities. It is to
commend to Labour the ingenuity
of Charles de Gaulle, when faced with the task of reviving the residential
rented sector in France, in 1958. The absurdity of the Government's
mortgage subsidies to young teachers and other public professionals in
London must be apparent. 
I am indebted to the perceptive Tory defector Crispin Blunt
(MP for Reigate) for this
telling phrase. Reporting on his consultations within Tory circles, he affirmed his belief
that "the voluntary Party in the country"
had lost faith in Ian Duncan Smith.
I love stamps...
I am sure
you will want to
keep in touch with what Steve Bell is drawing, in
