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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty |
Week 52 Sunday So this is Christmas 
Christmas Day has taken on, for me, a new significance. Because it was on Christmas Day 2001 that I posted my very first weblog. In looking back two years, I do seem to be a bit predictable, a bit dull, a bit unoriginal. That’s because my first three 2001 topics remain high on my agenda today, without my having made any obvious breakthrough with any of them…
Am I making any progress? Will political parties survive? This is no clever
2004 New
Year brain-teaser. I am reclaiming for your consideration an
excellent article by the Guardian's Jackie Ashley,
published in May 2003. As a Labour Party
animal
I agree with Jackie's conclusion - even if she has got her history wrong. Originally, the parliamentary "parties" did indeed operate without corresponding "parties in the country"... 
Monovascellar Theory
OK – well, Yes - I did make it up myself, just last week – but it has an impeccable classical derivation.. Truly new perceptions always need new words.
Politics on the Net 
I am fascinated by the Howard Dean campaign, for the US Democratic Presidential candidature. And its brilliant, innovative use of the Internet, in arranging local political meetings. But the technique of the website is wholly conventional. In fact, it combines the simplest E-technology with the oldest technology of all – “let’s meet up for a chat”. Take a look at it yourself - www.meetup.com. The website (which pre-dated the Dean campaign, and was simply “adopted” by Dean’s team) does not rely on the web for “exchanging ideas” at all! All that the website does is to arrange a conventional face-to-face meeting and then give publicity to the arrangements. The Meet-up Webmaster assumes responsibility for matching venues to groups, presumably deriving income from promoting a venue for a “meet up”. I have, by way of experiment, registered a FabianDebate meetup for Cardiff, on the first Monday of every month.
The Court of Appeal gave an important ruling this week, in defence of abdroids (or "companies"). They held, in the Geologistics case, that in administering its compensation scheme for rescuing the clients of failed insurance companies, the industry was not entitled to withhold compensation from abdroids where they were ready to grant it to natural persons in comparable circumstances. This case is a cautionary tale in the workings of the "Third Way State". One year ago
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 - I have added the English-language China Daily ... and I now offer you the leading English-language Indian paper The Hindu.
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Robbie Williams
The Williams' machine is simply exploring another byway along that route. This represents a new twist in the burgeoning story of "intellectual (i.e. abstract) property". And Robbie will find that there is a major difference, in this respect, between the hyper-capitalism of the United States, and more moderate capitalism of Europe.
.. or rather Join my gang I am organising a five-day Fabian study-tour to Berlin (1-5 May
2004) for all those wanting to find out about German politics and
public affairs, from a Left-of-Centre angle. It will cost you £335
for travel and accommodation - and you will need to join the Fabian
Society first! Misconceived Defeat 
Last week I flew to Baden Baden with Ryanair for a £35 Return, to do a day's legal work in Stuttgart. Baden Baden is Ryanair's alternative airport to Strasbourg, where the civic authorities ran into legal flak for paying a subsidy to Ryanair, for using their airport. Last week the French Courts upheld the ban on the Ryanair subsidy, declaring it illegal. And Strasbourg is left out in the cold. Yet why should cities and regions not promote themselves by such means? Proceed with Care 
This describes my spontaneous reaction when I know that politicians are fixing their own terms and conditions of employment. The Strasbourg parliamentarians were at work doing that, this week, with huge rises for some, and losses for others. I am no cynic about politics - indeed, a representative political role would have suited me well, in life. I am realistic enough to know that these decisions have to be taken, satisfactory payment packages negotiated. "Politics" is now a free-standing profession, with all the disadvantages that brings. But there is a growing public discontent with the role of the political salariat and their closed, self-sealing systems of power. Politicians' motives are increasingly suspected, rhetoric disbelieved, trust weakened. New "constitutional" systems are needed, for the reconstruction of trust. Western democracies are heading for a new form of alienation between the governors and the governed.
Getting to know artificial people
 My
Christmas reading is determined. I shall be reading The Company
A short history of a revolutionary idea, by Mickelthwait and
Wooldridge, pub Weidenfeld & Nicholson. With the December
publication
Right principle
The State, held the great 18th century French political philosopher Montesquieu, should be le pouvoir neutre - the strictly "neutral power" in society. That political perception runs deep in France, and in French constitutional thinking. That is why it is France that has generated the current debate about Muslim schoolgirls wearing hijab headscarves to school. But the French, and the hapless President Chirac, have nevertheless got it seriously wrong. While I accept the principle of State neutrality, we must develop more sensitive and sophisticated ways of giving effect to this principle.
Never miss Recent topics Police Forces are dangerous >>> Iraq: Lawyers have failed.. >>> Labour Links: Amend Party Rulebook >>> Milburn gets "Third Sector" wrong >>> Queen's Speech verbatim >>> Check out New Wave Labour >>> My pessimism as investing Trustee >>> "Equality?" An electoral non-starter >>> Data Protection: Many Nasty Scams >>> My Mum was an Asylum Seeker >>> Rail Chaos - could do better >>> Uncoordinated Roadworks >>> Individualism is here to stay >>>
And read my Big Theory itself, at Multiple Differential Uncertainty... Or try my snappier and more practical analysis of the Corporations and the Left Coming to Terms My diary
0149 Make sure you have not missed Week 52 Sunday
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New
for the last 40 years, I share Jackie Ashley's conclusion - 
A reminder of some of
the great stamps of 2003
Did you see that Robbie Williams has registered his name as a
Trade Mark? Historically, the progress of capitalism has
been marked by the creation of property rights in everything of
value. If ££-signs can be attached to it, it
must be capable of ownership.
