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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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Week 27 A Very British Coup 
What's going on at the Post Office?
Has a Royalist cell taken over? After last month's ten-stamp
celebration of the Coronation, this month we have four new glamorous stamps
of Prince William. Probably to avoid the jokes, the Mint does not publish a "Second Class" stamp
at all
Did you know that "The Monarchy" has its very own
promotional website? I wonder Reclaim by
I am deeply apprehensive about the current calls - from the Trade Unions, Tribune, and the Old Left - for the so-called "reclaim" of the Labour Party. The Labour Party, after 100 years of growth of development, is not "theirs" to reclaim. Properly understood, the Labour Party has never been a "class party",and it would be disastrous to start now! The trade union movement now represents only 25% of the workforce, with membership predominantly in the public sector. The TUC is essentially a public service staff association.
Humble Endive...  I did my shopping at Sainsburys early on
Thursday, and encountered the nostalgic endive. My nostalgia
was for Paris 1964, when I was a
stagiaire at the Conseil d'Etat, learning all about French
administrative law. Living on a French student grant, I had digs on the Left
Bank, near the great railway station of Montparnasse-Bienvenue - the
Paddington of Paris, serving Brittany and the West. I remember the delight of discovering that even the cheapest student menu fixe included a small carafe of red wine. And always (it now seems) the first course was the cheapest of choices - a single braised endive.
 What are Central Bankers for?
I have been posing this question for some little time. As "Steady Eddie" George, the UK's Central Banker, rides off to retirement, I pose the question again. What credible, relevant functions do "central banks" now perform? Interest rates are determined by global market forces. Government borrowing is determined by political practice, ideology, circumstance. Is the Central Banker merely a one-man focus group? Hit-Count Statistics For those of you with a statistical bent, let me report
that I have become quite attached to my faithful hit-counter, which has been
with me since January 2002 (for less than £20 pa) - and having received 2619
hits during 2002, this website has already had
3022 hits...
Yep folks! We have just passed mid-year, and we are now counting down again to Christmas, with Week 27... Neuhardenberg, Neuhardenberg! Don't know about Schloss Neuhardenberg? It's near the German/Polich border, and it's where the entire German Cabinet assembled over the weekend (now known as an "Awayday"...)
to decide what to do to stimulate economic
growth.
Politicians of both Right and Left are contemplating swingeing tax cuts next
January, in a desperate attempt to stimulate national economic growth.
Consumers are Don't let the use of the jargon term "consumer" confuse you. It simply means you and me, deciding what to do this week, next week, this July, this August. And most of us are experiencing increasing anxiety. "Lack of domestic consumer demand" is now weakening every major global national economy - US, UK, Japan, Canada, France, Germany - and domestic demand elsewhere (India, China, South America) is simply not strong enough to take over as a locomotive power. Paradoxically American consumers, caught up in the gung-ho jingoism of George Bush, may well feel more "confident" - but everyone else is scared of America, and of what Bush will do next... back to topPolly's Perception
Planning for US failure With the US military budget soaring, with Iran now in the Bush gun-sights, a falling dollar and a weakening US economy, we must start thinking about Plan B. Don’t just shut your eyes – because the global risks will not go away. And if America faltered, responsibility for structuring global affairs would pass to Europe The deal 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 
Rise of the I believe that our society is becoming more dicastocratic. With judges like Lord Woolf around, is understandable. The modern citizen seems to prefer the appointment of neutral adjudicators or regulators of some kind, to the imposition of other forms of authority. “ Dicastocracy” simply means rule by judges. As the authority of the professional political salariat continues to wane, I predict a new dicastocratic phase of the UK Constitution.Watch for Basel II Does “Basel II” mean anything to you? It should. It is the working-title of new global negotiations, all about the regulation of banks. The international negotiations have been going on for years – and Governments are now targeting the installation of a new control system… 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 - 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) My diary I have re-structured my Diary to give you a day-to-day means of looking back, throughout the year |
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 GuiltyConscience > I am definitely a
The Fantastic
Trust  My suspicions of
Ministerial motives deepen. I believe they are plotting to by-pass local government,
by sleight of hand.
In the Government's weak "shake-up" of the Lottery, local councils
are given no role to play - while the public is to be
given plebiscite-type powers to decide what happens to "their" money.
That is a cheap populist gimmick, and will unleash the very worst traits in the British character. Half of all the Lottery's profits should be assigned to local authorities according to the generation of ticket-purchases, for deployment within their territories. Labour should trust the judgment of local councillors.
Continuing Subservience 
Britain continues to undermine the United Nations by accepting a lead role in a new "Coalition" force to police Iraq. We should have used our bargaining power to force the United States to take the United Nations seriously again. That offers the only rational way ahead. Instead, both Poland and the UK are colluding with the USA in undermining the United Nations. Michael > Sunder We have a decision! White smoke from the chimney! The new Fabian General Secretary, appointed to succeed Michael Jacobs, is 29-year-old Sunder Katwala. Katwala joins the Fabians from the Observer, where he has been Editor of their Internet site, and a leader-writer. He was previously founding Research Director at the Foreign Policy Centre from 1999 to 2001 and Commissioning Editor for Politics and Economics at Macmillan from 1995 to 1999. This is an exciting appointment. Katwala is of Indian/Irish parentage, and got a “First” in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Jesus College, Oxford. He certainly brings intellect to the job. My hope is that he will also bring a real understanding of the Fabians' huge membership base, their popular potential.
Sounds good to me. Katwala's specialist subject
at the Observer
The liberal Lord Woolf
Campbell has a point
 I
share the exasperation
of many commentators, that this seedy spat between Alistair Campbell and
the BBC has been allowed to dominate the airwaves.
 But Campbell is
right to
criticise parts of the BBC
(particularly the
Today
programme), for their new-style "scoop" reporting. We used to be able to
rely on the BBC for its cool
reportage of record,
as a matter of style and content. About two years ago, the BBC decided
to compete with the investigative Press - "This
Programme can now reveal..."
I have been a regular critic of this journalism myself, over the past twelve
months.
Localism Ascendant
Localism Frustrated 
The story of the Stillington Post Office Cooperative will stir the hearts of all good localists like me. The citizens of this popular Yorkshire village banded together to save their Post Office from closure, employing a manager and supplementing the labour force with a team of volunteers, to keep the PO open at all times.
Use your grey cells.. 
I am a self-confessed,
practising intellectual. That is, I have absolutely no doubt about the
simple power of ideas and the originality of the intellect. And I am
keenly aware of the intellectual poverty of current politics. There is no
intellectual challenge in the humdrum meat-and-drink of everyday
political life - monetary management, tax
strategy, improving our schools,
hospitals, roads, railways, airports.
But key intellectual challenges nevertheless abound, just beneath the surface of the political agenda. There are FIVE abstract themes on my current worry-bead list, and I invite you to follow them through, and share my agonies with me -
These themes all interact. And I never have time to make real progress with any of them... Political Courage 
I have never met Lynne Jones, Labour MP for Selly Oak. But she is a politician of courage. She is one of only ten MPs with the courage openly to advocate the legalisation of drugs. She is a signatory to the Angel Declaration, which you will find on the Web - and open for you to sign up on-line, to strengthen the case for radical reform. And this week, writing in Tribune, she nails her colours to another unpopular mast - the establishment of a full State Old Age Pension. Labour is running scared of any radical pensions reform, and is thus missing the ideal way of cementing its electoral future. "Pensions" have been entrusted to one of the Cabinet's weakest members, Andrew Smith, who has got bogged down in the side-issue of rescuing occupational pensions.
Other recent topics
Multiple Differential Uncertainty Saturday |
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New
(nudge, nudge, wink, wink - heavy symbolism - very sensitive, these Royalist cells) - so they
start with the 28p First
Class Stamp, moving rapidly to the 47p - then a casual young Prince for the
European-postage rate (to maximise intimidatory effect upon those lesser
breeds who are decidedly inferior, don't
y' know, in the Royalty Department) - no doubt mobilising our dear Prince
in support of the faltering UK tourist trade - and just to emphasise that
this princely sequence could not possibly have started with the second-class
(the one in universal and most
common usage) the Royal Mail moves up a gear and finishes off the collection
with the high-value 68p stamp, thus finishing with a real Royalist flourish...
Infiltration of the Royal Mail boardroom is really paying dividends, for the
Royalist cause. And surely the control-freakery of No 10 must monitor these
selections? As you know, I favour the retention of the monarchy,
provided its denizens remain genuinely toothless. 
in the first six-months of 2003.
Polly Toynbee has hit the jackpot, by highlighting a new Government
aspiration. It is the "long term vision" of Margaret Hodge, the new
Children's Minister, to create a children's centre "
Connie who? Connie Fozzard is the 70 year-old
newly-elected Mayor of Truro, a LibDem Carrick District councillor and a
retired surgeon who has taken up the case of drugs legalisation. Her
attack on drugs prohibition is being taken to the AGM of the British Medical
Association. She will propose simple legalisation, as a Resolution for
BMA debate. A powerful part of
her case is that the present laws create
far more disruptive and extensive crime than they could possibly prevent. If
you agree, sign up now to the
has been the review of think-tank
output - and I am delighted to say that he shares with me a very critical
view
We should be
grateful for the liberal conscience of Lord Woolf, our Lord Chief Justice -
may he never retire! In the Swinging Sixties, the LCJ was the infamous
and illiberal Lord Goddard, I remember him all too well, indeed I appeared
twice before him. We are truly lucky to have the liberal Lord Woolf in such
an influential position. And this week, he sent packing a mischievous
wheeze by illiberal Police Officers that threatened to pillory the families
of convicted criminals, in breach of their rights of privacy.
"Communities in
Control" is a new Fabian pamphlet by a rising Blairite Minister Hazel Blears. It is clear that she has been given, by Tony Blair, the necessary "licence
to advocate" even to the extent of arranging for the launch to be held at
10 Downing Street. You should therefore check
I am sure
you will want to
keep in touch with what Steve Bell is drawing, in