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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
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040705 Make sure you have not missed
the previous edition
Check it out
And the
one before that?
Other recent topics
highlighted here
Week
28 Saturday
10 July 2004
Editor
Monthly Update, for aficionados and fellow Webmasters: it is beginning to look as if the
hit-count in May was a bit of a "blip", although I have not been able to
explain it... The June figure fell back to nearer the gradual upward
trend - and probably represents the more reliable indicator.
February 1223
March 1115
April 1109
May 1576
June 1305
But thanks for your continuing interest and
support - and in particular for your response and personal reactions -
rwe
Well Done, Bertie!
With the coming of July, has come the end of the Irish six-month Presidency of the
European Union, which was enormously successful - if you are like me a
committed "European",
that is. Jacques Chirac thought it was the "best presidency ever".
Thank heaven the Irish are not plagued by "Anglo-Saxon Attitudes".
The negotiation of a difficult consensus on the new treaty to regulate
the enlarged EU - that will go down as Bertie's biggest success, as well
as the appointment of the "small-nation" Portuguese Barroso to held the
new EU Commission. Bertie Ahern clearly demonstrated, as Sweden has
often done before him, that might does not always offer the right way
ahead.
Proud Dad
 My
daughter Kathy was on a London public podium, speaking last week.
And quietly, she expressed a great howl of protest
against the Government's use of repressive social control methods against
the children of our society - it was restrained, well-argued, but
absolutely damning.
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Legal Eagle Footnote
It seems I misled you, way back in
November 2002. In reporting the case of
Walwyn-Jones v Mendoza, I
said that it was then a House
of Lords decision. That turns out to have been wrong -because only this week (June
2004) the House of Lords confirmed the earlier lower-Court verdict.
Their
Lordships held that a statutory tenancy, under the Rent Acts, could be
inherited by the survivor of a homosexual couple who had been living
together as an established "household" at the time of the death.
That was a thoroughly sane and liberal conclusion. In November
2002 it must have been a Court of Appeal decision, my apologies.
- But the incident
shows the length
of the Lords'
waiting-list...
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Does this raise your spirits? Does nothing for me..
Smacking
is barbaric
 There
are some subjects which I find beyond argument. I cannot
accord any weight to the insubstantial arguments in defence of the "reasonable
chastisement" of children by their parents. This week's
House of Lords debate again casts my Government in a very bad light
indeed, as guilty of superficial populism and moral cowardice. My
website "record" on this subject goes back two-and-a-half years, when I
still hoped that Labour would take action, and show a moral lead.
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The Politics of
Being a Student
 You
may recall that, having canvassed curious undergraduates during my
unsuccessful Labour campaign for Swansea City Council a fortnight ago, I promised to set out my political stall for them. Why should
a successful student bother about “politics” at all?
That was the
question.
I’ve now had a
chance to think about it. I have concentrated only on the “selfish”
reasons, ignoring the moral or systemic political arguments that might
come into play. It makes good sense to take politics seriously, as a
matter of simple self-interest.
 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
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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.
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.
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Editorial apology
This website has been static, for the last few
days - I've been taking a break in Ireland, in County Kerry, without the
chance to update and edit and to keep you in the picture. I'm back now at
the Webmaster desk, and looking forward to hearing from you...
Editor
Iraq
The pen is mightier
than the
sword, sadly..
The second rape of Iraq started two days early.
The next six months, before the planned January 2005 Elections, will pose
grave new risks for the Iraqi people. That is because their
stooge "sovereign" Government will be able to sign away their inheritance to
the US.
It was wrong of the UN to bless this devious device.
We will all be looking the other way, when these great wrongs are committed.
This
stooge Iraqi Government, without any real "sovereignty" or
independence, will be legally-entitled to
sign away long-leases for US military bases, as well as lucrative
privatisation contracts, enforceable in the world's Courts. That is
the real Coalition agenda...
- I have been warning against this for
many months, and yet only The Guardian responded in April, by publishing
my gypsy's warning letter.
This week's new Royal Mail stamps go
overboard for the brooding vastness of North Wales, but makes their grandeur seem dull,
boring...
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Libraries & LIBRI
I was there!
I was at the London Seminar on
Monday 21 June, convened by
Culture Minister Andrew McIntosh, and reported by John Ezard in
The
Guardian. "How come?"
(I hear you cry...)
I am Secretary (and Founder
Trustee) of the Libri Trust,
a charity dedicated to the improvement and development of public libraries.
Our recent report, Who's in Charge?,
penned by the brilliant Tim Coates (photo courtesy Roger Tagholm,
Publishing News) formed the principal talking point of the Seminar. I am delighted that the Government response has
been so decisive.
And as a reporter, I can do better than
The Guardian. From a seminar held under "Chatham House
Rules", I can bring you the full text of Tim Coates' uncompromising address,
with his express consent.
And also -
Taming the
Corporations
The Chartist magazine has given me the
chance to seek support for the Company Reform Coalition.
It will require
a new UN Treaty to secure concerted international agreement on the
integrated reform of company law, to address and moderate the overweening
power of the corporate sector. The challenge to radical reformers is
to find a way of putting company law reform firmly onto the UN agenda.
The Fabians
are a great, enlightened Left-Wing political community some 7,000-strong -
and we have many skills among our number.
PS
If, without joining, you
would
like to be added to
the monthly Fabian Update e-mail list, just e-mail
Fabian Research
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 Never miss
Steve Bell!
His cartoons, from
The
Guardian
- his wit and perception illuminate
the absurdities of the political scene...
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I
enjoy dipping into informed US West Coast chat, always up to
the minute, which can be found at
www.metafilter.com.
Left
Activists' Corner
.jpg)
I have three moderately-left radical projects to engage your interest,
as 2004 passes its 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
a
new opportunity to promote the cause comes
with the next edition of
The Chartist.
(b)
Questors - the
birth of a new profession, group planning expansion - in July, we are
due to see top officials in the Department for Constitutional Affairs,
to progress the idea -
watch this space;
(c)
Labour Links -
the case for Party Reform is proving difficult to make, because Party
members still yearn to reassert the powers over MPs that they think they
once had - it would be much better to recognise the change in the
character of representative democracy, and move in other directions
- our latest attempt was in Cardiff in mid-June,
with the Fabians.
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Recent
topics
Extending
the Welfare State
>>>
Adjustment Pay - for every worker
>>>
Pay
Guardianship Allowance
>>>
We
do not own
our children >>>
"I was a heroin addict.." >>>
Teenage Education Successes
>>>
Nuclear power: the only option
>>>
"Public"
Schools are not charities
>>>
" Institutional Racism"
a fallacy
>>>
Elimination of Roman
ius soli >>>
Asylum:
Injustice abounds >>>
EU: New Withdrawal Options
>>>
"New"
New Labour Five Pillars
>>>
Pensions at 70 Good Idea
>>>
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
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to top
040701 Make sure you have not missed
the previous edition
Check it out
And the
one before that?
Other recent topics
highlighted here
Week
28 Saturday
10 July 2004
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