< Back to Home Page

 Diary in date order Jan 2002 to date
but you also find this search engine useful, in keeping track of events

Renewing participatory democracy

My Little Red Book

A New Socialist Settlement

Bevan
Re-visited 

Multiple Differential Uncertainty

Week 21  Saturday
22 May 2004

Courageous Correspondent

I have received a very remarkable letter, following my support for the Stapleford drug addiction clinics.  It is a tribute to Dr Colin Brewer, from a former patient, a heroin addict now "clean" - Annmarie Jordan.  Dr Colin Brewer is now arraigned, with several colleagues, before the General Medical Council, accused of unprofessional conduct, for for running his successful addiction practice.

Dear Roger I was a patient of Dr Colin Brewer.  I had been a hopeless heroin addict for about five years – so were my brother and my cousin.   We all saw Dr Brewer in 2001: we all did the “home detox” - which , for my family, was a very difficult task.  But nevertheless, after a few days of being locked-in and given the medication prescribed, we all in turn succeeded.... 

• I challenge you to read
  Annmarie's full letter.

If you are willing to play an active role in supporting Dr Brewer's Defence, contact

Jill & Ian Harris
Tel: 020-8595-4375
Email: jillandian@btconnect.com

---

The Pensioners Parliament met in Blackpool this week, as it does every year at this time.  I found great support for my new charities to promote (a) libraries and (b) public toilets.  But why is the 11m pensioners' movement so ineffective, politically?  I suspect it is because the real problem lies in the loss of confidence experienced by young and middle-aged people, in their pensions institutions. Any radical promotion must find a way of meshing the aspirations of the old with those of the young and middle-aged.

back to top

---

That's crap, Jack

Jack Straw, commenting on the assassination of another cooperative Iraqi "leader" Abdul Zahra Othman, said -

"What this shows is that the terrorists and insurgents are trying to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power to the Iraqi people - these terrorists are the enemies of the Iraqi people themselves.." see The Guardian.

What impudence! What blind self-serving stupidity! Can Straw not see that the UK is part of the problem, not the solution?  It is vital that a democratic solution is found for Iraq, from the outset.

• Our troops must not be forced to preside over the corporate rape of Iraq later this year, while standing by - waiting for Elections to be arranged...

---

Charles & I

Prince Charles' Mount Athos retreat resonates with me.  I did the same, some years ago, for a full three-day retreat.  Not on Mount Athos, you understand, but at the Abbey on Caldey Island, a Cistercian monastery on a small island just off the coast of Wales, at Tenby.

• The silence, and the serenity,
  still live with me.

back to top

---

Liberal Litmus Test

A Mansfield schoolgirl of 14 recently had an abortion.  Nothing unusual about that, I hear you respond.  But in this case the abortion went through following consultation with a school social-worker without consultation with the girl’s parents. 

And that is what is causing the fuss.  I thought that The Guardian’s coverage of this story was mischievous and provocative: they splashed the girl’s name and a named photograph of her School all over a leading-page, together with a tidal-wave of comment from her mother’s lawyer and pro-life propaganda.  It was a nasty piece of reporting - without any input from the girl herself or any attempt to put her side of the story. 

My view is that the 14-year-old was perfectly entitled to make up her own mind, and that the social-worker was right to respect her confidentiality and desire for privacy. 

• However protective we may feel as parents, we do not own our children. 

back to top

---

New Labour
New Apprenticeships

The Government has shown real imagination in dealing with middle-teen education.  I am proud to give my positive support to Labour’s two new “flagship” measures.  They are – 

• (a) Earn as You Learn – the £30-per-week cash allowances to post-16s from poorer households who stay on in full-time education, and  

• (b) the revised Apprenticeships scheme, which will give the post-14s a chance to start apprentice training for two days every week, combining that with school commitments. 

These initiatives carry attractive flavours of both socialism and liberalism – indeed, this has been a good week for Liberal Socialism… 

• I have only
  a few niggling doubts...  

---

Can there be anyone left cold by the sight of great ships?  The Royal Mail stamps for May mark the launch of the new Queen Mary..  Mind you, she does look a bit unstable...

back to top

---

China can save
the world from itself

How will global patterns of consumption be re-balanced, to rein back high "Western" levels of personal consumption?  How can selfish Western consumers be persuaded to make room for the so-called "Third World"?

• That has always been the Achilles Heel of the eco-warriers. Their ends have seemed admirable, but they have not been able to demonstrate the means.

Now, China's economic growth will do the job for them.  We will all be forced, by economic circumstance, to adjust our patterns of consumption, although the changes will not be precipitate or cataclysmic.  Competition is rising, for the world's scarce resources - oil, commodities, capital.  Steel prices, and oil prices, are at long-term highs and interest-rates are rising. And as the pull of China bites, consumer prices will rise relentlessly against the Western economies. 

• This will change the politics of the 21st century, in ways so far unforeseen.  Keep thinking.

---

May Day in Berlin

My online silence is explained by my sojourn in Berlin, 1-6 May, with a Fabian Study Tour.  A great informative trip - all politics, Bier and plenty of good German food. There was the added excitement of EU expansion.  The accession of eight new Continental states, all to the East of Berlin, will greatly enhance the geopolitical importance of the City.  The City authorities gave free use of the City's facilities for the whole week to "New Accession nationals".

back to top

---

Real Cobber

At last!  The real Mike Davis, our powerful Australian correspondent - thanks, Mike - I'm holding, for another week, this excellent letter from Mike, with his choice views on Britain and Europe. I can now bring your the Real Mike Davis, not merely an Internet image reflecting his straight-talkin' no-nonsense style - but whatever he's talking about, you must admit that Mike has a very distinctive style....

• Read Davis, on the EU

---

Council Election Special

Battle is joined today, for the local Elections.  Today, the list of valid nominations is published, and that determines whether or not there is to be a contested election, Ward by Ward.  Candidates have until 12.00 noon tomorrow, Tuesday 18 May, whether or not to stand down. 

All Parties have had enormous difficulties in getting local citizens to stand in these elections, and that saddens me.  My hat is in the ring, for Labour, for both City and Community Councils.  Let battle commence...!

•   June Election Special.

---

The Fabians are a great, enlightened Left-Wing political community some 7,000-strong - and we have many skills among our number.

• Join the Fabians, right here...

PS  If, without joining, you would like to be added to the monthly Fabian Update e-mail list, just e-mail Fabian Research

back to top

---

As my scanner has been on the blink, you have been deprived of my customary running commentary on our beautiful UK postage stamps.  The anniversary of the Entente Cordiale between Britain and France went unnoticed, on the philatelic front - let me make amends.  Normal service can now be resumed...

---

Special Footnote

I love the online newspapers, which are my access to the world - share them with me - click through to their here -  I have added the English-language China Daily ... and I now offer you the leading English-language Indian paper The Hindu. 

They are all just a click away.

• Guardian
• Daily Telegraph
• Independent
• The Times
• New York Times
• Le Monde
• Die Welt
• Moscow Times
• China Daily
• The Hindu

back to top

---

I enjoy dipping into informed US West Coast chat, always up to the minute, which can be found at www.metafilter.com.

---

Never miss Steve Bell!  His cartoons, from The Guardian - his wit and perception illuminate the absurdities of the political scene...

---

Having discovered this remarkable NASA website, linked with the Hubble Telescope and the NASA Mars exploration vehicles, with its current photographs from outer space, I am reluctant to let it go

back to top

 

That's me, at the top-left of the picture - at the inauguration of a new refugee support service, last Saturday, in Swansea.  Much agonising preceded this launch, and the invitation of public attention - would we aggravate race relations, or not?  My judgment was that we should not hold back, merely for fear of racism, real as that might seem to be.

All our citizens should be challenged to react, and be faced down if necessary: they should have the opportunity to show tolerance, and understanding.  The next few weeks will be yet another liberal litmus test, for South Wales society...

• Watch this space...

Vote!

Childcare Strategy OK but ethically flawed

The “Nanny Tax Credit” adds another string to the Government’s bow.  Gordon Brown has been remarkably successful in extending childcare facilities, liberating many working mothers and raising their families’ living-standards.  Those achievements will stand Labour in good stead at the 2005 polls, as will the new Nanny Tax Credit for middle-income families who employ at-home nanny-care. 

But this whole strategy needs a better ethical balance. Labour is putting huge resources into taking parents away from their children, and handing day-time custody over to salaried personnel.  That is appropriate where both parents seek salaried work, for career or other reasons. But there should also be a Guardianship Allowance, for families where one parent prefers permanently to stay at home, to care for children up to the age of twelve.  True, the Working Families Tax Credit has also had limited childcare consequences, where it has raised family income sufficiently to allow one parent to stay at home, with young children. But that is enough: we should be giving parents the realistic option of caring for their own children, rather than sub-contracting childcare to others.

Guardianship Allowance would redress the ethical deficit.  I am delighted to see that Stephen Byers has recently espoused the cause of Guardianship Allowance,which I advocated, jointly with the late Lord (Michael) Young, some ten years ago.  

The effective redistribution of wealth lies at the heart of all these measures.  The process should now go further.  This is real, practical, up-to-minute, red-in-tooth-claw Socialism. 

• Eat your heart
  out Michael Howard… 

back to top

The
Jimmy White Experience

This short report appeared in the Guardian, last Saturday 15 May -

"Snooker player Jimmy White has been cautioned
for possessing cocaine in
Preston, where
he was playing an exhibition match"

What is going on?  The Police will tell you that this is part of their new softly-softly strategy. 

But the greater truth (I allege) is that the Authorities are terrified of prosecuting anyone for the crime of simple possession of any unlawful drug.  Why?  Because they realise that there is an effective Human Rights defence lying in wait for any unwary Prosecutor.  Article 8 of the European Convention, respect for personal privacy: it has the potential to rip apart the "official" strategy of Prohibition.  The Authorities want to avoid that eventuality.  So they limit prosecutions to aggravated offences to which there is no Human Rights defence.

It is the small-fry who are being prosecuted, those that are too poor to buy their drugs through secure channels, who deal among each other or grow cannabis in among their tomato plants, just to get by.  They are therefore prosecuted for aggravated offences - cultivation, supply, premises-provision or trafficking.  And the Human Rights Act cannot help them. 

• But Jimmy White would be a different kettle o' fish.  If he were to launch a successful challenge to the Drugs legislation, the effect would be cataclysmic, throughout Europe.  So he just gets a caution, and no possession-only charge...

• Can anyone in authority deny the truth of my allegations? That is my challenge.

These awful photographs should not be allowed to confuse the issue.  Yes, they constitute yet another illustration of the depravity which lies just beneath the surface of our seemingly ordered lives, our tortured psyches.  But Frederick West of Gloucester was just as horrific in his depravity.

The greater wrong was the invasion of Iraq, and the wrongful imposition of destructive sanctions in the first instance.  And for that, we were all responsible.  For my part, I favoured the defensive interventions (the overflying of North and South Iraq, to minimise the risk of oppressive intervention).  But I opposed the trade sanctions which impoverished the Iraqi people and robbed their children of their futures.

As a lawyer, I have abandoned the use of the word illegal, in these matters. It is too contentious, and only unleashes controversy.  I say that these actions were wrongful, and that we are paying their awful price.  For Labour, and for the UK, the only course is for Blair to leave office.  He is unapologetic for these awesome wrongs, and his stubbornness merely drags us further into disrepute.

• I am now, formally, the Labour Candidate for the Ward of Oystermouth in the 10 June Elections.  And I do not want to stand should-to-shoulder with this man.

back to top

---

Left Activists' Corner

I have three moderately-left political projects to engage your interest, as 2004 advances to mid-point - nothing too revolutionary, you understand - and let's move on from the frivolity of February to the high diplomacy of April..

(a) Company Reform Coalition  my group of fellow schemers met in London on 20 April, and we are planning new initiatives for November, seeking to make common cause with others who understand the global issues..;

(b) Questors - the birth of a new profession, group planning expansion - we are seeking allies, co-promoters, progress steady but slow - next landmark anticipated in May;

(c) Labour Links, seeking to unlock the resources of the Labour Party - Peter Fitzgerald and I are getting precisely nowhere with the suggestion of a binary Labour Party, differentiating clearly between the powers of the professional political salariat and the "Party in the Country" - but we shall persevere...

• Let me know what you think    

back to top

---

Recent topics

Extending the Welfare State >>>

Territorial v Membership States >>>

Prison last!  That's my policy >>>

Adjustment Pay - for every worker >>>

Multiculturalism, Crick and me >>>

Citizenship rituals wrongful coercion >>>

Protect Whistleblowers' pensions >>>

St Paul's Epistle and the LibDems >>>

Iraq must have Elections NOW >>>

There will be No Referendum >>>

Class is on the way out >>>

Managing Migration >>>

 

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

back to top

---

040510   Make sure you have not missed
the previous edition  Check it out   
And the one before that?   
Other recent topics highlighted here

Week 21  Saturday
22 May 2004

 

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
The originating content of this website is my own work, and subject to my copyright. But on one condition only, I hereby give my consent to its unrestricted reproduction for any purpose: the condition is that its source is subject to proper acknowledgment, giving my name, my assertion of copyright, and the name of this website as its source, namely: www.warrenevans.net - is that a deal?  Roger WE