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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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040607
Make sure you have not missed the previous edition Check it out And the one before that? Other recent topics highlighted here
Week
24 Sunday
Labour lost overall control of the City of Swansea, losing 13 seats overall. My own bid at Mumbles for a city-wide role was washed away, in the tidal wave of Welsh resentment at Blair and the misconceived Iraq invasion.
There were of course a hundred other factors. The failure of Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan to attend at Arromanches, for the D-Day Anniversary, lost "Old Soldier" votes, among pensioners. The class tribalism of Old Labour in Swansea alienated potential supporters. The City Council had been cack-handed, if not incompetent, in its emergency closure of Swansea Leisure Centre. But these were flea-bites. The overall Welsh message was that the minority Tory vote held firm, and a demoralised Labour vote did not. Plaid Cymru trod water. And in Wales, where conversions to Toryism are few and far between, the beneficiaries were the LibDems - whatever, from locality to locality, they might have stood for.
Iraq enters danger zone
The new UN Iraq Resolution exposes the Iraqi people to the greatest possible political danger. Their new US puppet "Government", lacking any democratic legitimacy, will on 1 July be entitled to sign "sovereign" contracts for the privatisation of oil and utility services, privatisation on a huge scale, as well as grant long-term leases for US military bases. And the pressures on this puppet regime will be enormous, to accommodate American commercial and political interests. The nominated Iraqi "leaders" will rule only by grace of the American military, without any countervailing democratic legitimacy, and without the Police and military resources to defend themselves. They will be stooges. The new leaders have already made key concessions to the US, inviting the Americans to stay for at least a year after 30 June. Many more concessions will follow.
Immersion 
My canvassing has set my political agenda for the next few weeks, when the madness of Election Fever fades. I have (as they say) "engaged with" literally dozens of young Swansea undergraduates, who are just finishing their academic year and preparing for the Summer Vacation. I was canvassing in Mumbles' bed-sit land, its HMO territory. Some of the talk was about the new top-up fee system (no big deal, to them..) But the craic also went wider, to the expectations that they had of "politics" in general. And I was challenged, "What was there in 'politics' for them, and the future conduct of their lives? Why should they take an interest?"
Our
I think our very form of "State" is disintegrating. By that I mean the top-down, military model of a “Command State”. I mean the form of unitary state which has developed in Europe, the Commonwealth and the United States, and which we are trying to create in Iraq. It is parodied by the UKIP and the Little Englanders. Our politicians are panicking, because the wrong leaves have fallen on the political line - they find themeselves presiding over the wrong kind of state...My hunch is that we shall have to build a new model of "democratic legitimacy" modelled on participation, not on command. Territoriality Regular readers of LivePolitics will know of my long-running preoccupation with the "territorial state", and its superiority over the newer forms of "membership state". I raised with you last February the related issue of "extra-territorial" jurisdiction, where States claimed the right to operate lawfully outside their own territory. And all my political instincts tell me I should resist moves towards institutionalising the newer concept of the " Membership State". I dislike the image of my country as an exclusive club, with "insiders" who are members, and others who are not. For that approach carries huge systemic risks of global division, social and political exclusion, and awful military confrontation.But popular opinion if firmly on the side of the "Club" view of politics, both here in the UK and other countries. And it seems that I must turn my political imagination to ensuring that we get...
? Drop me a line Territorialism Asserted As you read this, you are becoming enmeshed in a massive legal tussle. Which libel laws apply, to this website? The hit-counter shows that LivePolitics has received over 50 hits from all the following jurisdictions, in this order of quantity -
Sixty-one (61) other countries have recorded less than 50 hits each so far, on my hit-counter. The question is this. As you read it, are you subject to your own (territorial) laws or the (territorial) laws of the transmitting country, the UK? For those accessing from the UK, no problem of course arises. But for others? Several national Courts have been asked to decide the matter, and have reached differing conclusions (Zimbabwe, Australia). Now, the august Washington Post has been sued for libel in Canada, for allegations published on the Internet "in Canada"...
NB Mike Davis reports that he has tussles with AOL - he's left them and is now to be contacted on davis949@iprimus.com.au
That's me, at the top-left of the picture - at the inauguration of a new refugee support service in Swansea. The service is much in demand, but for all the wrong reasons. The legal-aided solicitor service is collapsing, with many applicants left without representation for key appeal hearings. My own actions, in stepping-in as a McKenzie Friend, without fee, is legally problematical, and it seems I could be prosecuted for doing so. And although I try to register as an Immigration Adviser, I cannot secure in the market place the £250,000 insurance cover needed for official Registration.
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.. Great
ships bring out the best in everyone. |
Managing religious diversity 
The drive for the creation of more Muslim state schools is entirely understandable, but it should be resisted. We should meet the reasonable demands of Muslim communities in other ways. We should review the institution of the state school itself, and ensure that each school makes reasonable provision for the weekday observances of all its pupils, whatever their religious observances.
But the Muslim claim highlights the ultimate absurdity of the "English solution". It is that very formula which must be reviewed, and existing practices also modified: the sensible course would be to disestablish the CofE, just as the Church has been disestablished in Wales. Religious observances and preferences continue to inspire mankind, and every multi-cultural society must develop appropriate institutional solutions - that is the political challenge that we face.
Charities
Nowhere does the gap between lawyers and laymen run deeper than in their understanding of "charitable status". Lay perceptions are dominated by the modern practice of raising money for those in need, first by tin-rattling collections then by more sophisticated means. For lawyers, the status of "charity" denotes something quite different - merely the commitment of funds, in perpetuity, to the exclusive pursuit of the public rather than private objectives, public gain rather than private profit. This is a huge gap, of perception and understanding. Charities were (among other things) the precursors of the modern welfare state, from the reign of Elizabeth 1 (end-1603) up to 1900. Their purpose was not to collect public moneys: it was to persuade the wealthy to use their funds, voluntarily, for specified public purposes. When Lloyd George introduced the State Old Age Pension in 1908, he was opposed by leading charities. They considered that the change would undermine their rationale, their position in society. The Labour Party, taking its lead understandably from these early perceptions, has always been suspicious of the charitable sector. We have argued that benefits should be receivable as of right, and not as a matter of charitable bounty. And so they should.
Hockney
I share Hockney's distaste for
the illiberal, authoritarian approach of the public authorities to smokers. As for
“public smoking”, I agree that buses
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
now illustrated by the high diplomacy of our relationship with France,
which adorned our mail during April.
(a)
Company Reform Coalition
my group of fellow schemers met
in London on 20 April, I continue my attempt to give practical
expression to the underlying legal issues - and we are planning new initiatives for November
- in the meantime,
keep scouring
the news for insights - like
the
Rowe
Evans Case;
(b)
Questors - the
birth of a new profession, group planning expansion - we are seeking
allies, co-promoters, progress steady if slow,
as of June 2004, negotiations
are actively being pursued;
(c)
Labour Links,
the unconventional modification of the Labour Party Constitution,
proposed by Peter Fitzgerald (of Caerphilly) and I, is not
providing popular - but I shall get another attempt to argue our corner
at the Cardiff Fabians in July -
The Fabians
are a great, enlightened Left-Wing political community some 7,000-strong -
and we have many skills among our number.
Extending
the Welfare State
>>> Prison last!
That's my policy >>> Adjustment Pay - for every worker
>>> Citizenship rituals
wrongful coercion
>>> St Paul's Epistle
and the LibDems
>>>
"I was a heroin addict.." >>>
Teenage Education Civil rights, Continental style >>> Nuclear power: the only option >>> Capitalism: Sumatra Test Case >>> 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
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.
040607
Make sure you have not missed
Week
24 Sunday
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with acknowledgment to: South Wales
Evening Post
If it were open to the
UK, I confess I would prefer to follow the secularism of the French
tradition. But for us, that option is simply not
open: for 200 years, France has consciously adopted the principled
separation of "Church" and "State",
but we have not. We have trodden
the path of the integration of Church and State, starting with the Church of
England: Catholics, Jews and Non-Conformists have followed, and secured
denominational places in the educational sun. It is inevitable that
Muslims should claim the same right. 
David Hockney struck a
blow for smokers, writing in
and coaches should be smoke free. But
I see no reason why there should not be smoking carriages on trains – health
authoritarianism has run wild there. I accept that restaurants should be
smoke free – but pubs should retain the freedom to smoke. The British pub
is an important social institution, open to all and now welcoming to all.
Everyone could be given the choice whether to eat in a smoke-free restaurant restaurant or in the
more informal surroundings of a pub. There should be choice. The
Irish have got it spectacularly
wrong.
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