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And I have three 2004 political projects to engage your interest - (a) the
international
Company Reform Coalition Click through, and let me know what you think < Back to Home Page
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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty |
Week 1 Wednesday New Year 
The impact of China continues to reverberate, on all our lives. Three major steel plants in South Wales (Newport, Cardiff and Port Talbot) are being revived by the intensity of China's demand for steel, with hundreds of new Welsh jobs being created in the New Year. On Christmas Eve, the Chinese authorities indicated that they would allow the Chinese currency (renmimbi) to move more flexibly against the dollar, which will permit smoother global accommodation of China's explosive economic growth. The Chinese are coming! And I predict a growing media interest in all things Chinese - watch out for Chinese New Year, a 15-day period of celebrations starting on Thursday 22 January...
Innovation?
Recent surveys report that British businessmen are “disappointed” with the failure of Government measures to promote “innovation”. 
That is absurd. Simplistic. Naive. It must be self-evident that the promotion of “innovation” cannot be a matter for Government. For the truth is none of us really understands the processes of innovation at all. The term “innovation” refers obliquely to nothing less than creativity itself – and who understands that? What is distinctive about the creative drive? Do we all possess it? Or merely geniuses? Conventional educational theory is woefully weak at cultivating creativity. There is no credible “theory of creativity”, however successful Edward De Bono may have been with “The Power of Lateral Thinking”. Schools are more likely to crush their pupils’ creativity than to foster it.
Christmas Past... 
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? My passion for Welsh 
This time, two years ago, I declared my passionate commitment to learning Welsh. It is a matter of sadness that I have made so little progress, in these last two years - I can read extensively, and understand much that I read, without recourse to a dictionary. But the music of Welsh, the rhythms of the spoken word, its gentleness and strength, escape me. I am still struck dumb, when confronted with the simplest question.
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
.... even if she has got her history wrong. Originally, the parliamentary "parties" did indeed operate without corresponding "parties in the country"... 
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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My own 2004 We are all fascinated by time - both the past and the future. The past is subject to constant revision (as currently with the Iraq War) - and "forecasts" always command the headlines. And at this time of year, we face a diet of past-year highs and new-year predictions. So I give notice of the subjects which I shall be tracking, in particular, during 2004 -
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 ultra-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! This is a unique chance to explore contemporary German politics, with a structured study programme, in the company of 29-other like-minded travelling companions. First-come, first-served. Malcolm Wickes will regret this...
Compare Tom Watson
Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich, has attracted much attention for his hour-by-hour Weblog. Yet for my part, I find it quite difficult to pick up any sense of the real Tom Watson, from this sequence of single-issue comments - for my part, I shall stick to my strictly selective technique... Get to know your neighbours, the Abdroids
Never miss Recent topics Police Forces are dangerous >>> Milburn gets "Third Sector" wrong >>> "Equality?" An electoral non-starter >>> My Mum was an Asylum Seeker >>> Uncoordinated Roadworks >>> Individualism is here to stay >>> Howard Dean, using the Internet >>> Are you monovascellarist? >>>Secular French, Mistaken secularism >>> Absurd Ryanair judicial verdict >>> "Equality for Abdroids!" >>>
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
Now up to date (well, more or less...) I have re-structured my Diary to give you a day-to-day means of looking back to January 2002 - just click through
0150 Make sure you have not missed Week 1
Wednesday
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Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT NOTICE
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New
for the last 40 years, I share Jackie Ashley's conclusions
about the centrality of political parties...
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.
Malcolm Wickes
is a nice, middle-o-th'-road Old Labour politician. He is now
The Company
A short history of a revolutionary idea, by Mickelthwait and
Wooldridge, pub Weidenfeld & Nicholson -that was my Christmas
relaxation... After all, we
