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Renewing participatory democracy Multiple Differential Uncertainty
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060102 Make sure you have not missed the previous edition > Check it out And the one before that? Other recent topics highlighted here
Week 1 Monday
Arise I told you so. If rumours are correct, the Government is planning to follow the French constitution, strengthening city government and extending commune, or neighbourhood. government. If the Guardian leak is correct, the news could not be more welcome to me. I am Director of the inactive City Region Campaign, founded by me in 1994 to further this constitutional cause. In 1996, working with the political analyst Simon Partridge, I wrote a paper arguing strongly for this position, but our thinking was overwhelmed by the wave of enthusiasm for Celtic "regional" devolution: see Building a New Britain.
"As long as drugs are illegal This was Polly Toynbee's headline in The Guardian. Hers is a courageous and principled position. If you want the opportunity to make your own public declaration in support of the decriminalisation of drugs, check out and sign in at the Angel Declaration.
Polly Toynbee is in good company,
the world over: many thousands of the world's leading citizens have
called for the decriminalisation of "drugs"...
Britishness?
Identity is a matter of individuality, an attribute of the natural person, a matter of precious human experience. It is not some compendium of collective generalisations which in the end apply to nobody. In race relations too, community is a fallacy - all the paraphernalia of multi-culturalism (or any culturalism) is destructive and distracting. Every individual seeks to be valued on a personal, individual basis - that is a constant affirmation of identity, and we all need that. That is our human birthright, the essence of the Human Rights philosophy (or religion...). There is no such thing (pace Durkheim) as a collective consciousness, une conscience collective - that way lies dictatorship, even fascism.
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My readership falls
Roger WE Webmaster Asylum There is an awful twist is the Government's maltreatment of asylum-seekers, newly introduced this week. Until now, lawyers preparing appeals to the Asylum & Immigration Tribunal have had 14 days (10 working-days) between the Case Management Review (the first "business" hearing) and the Full Hearing.
That is a pantomime. It's a sick joke. Few professional Solicitors will be able to comply with such a tight programme, given the frequent language and interpretation difficulties, Clients without money to travel, busy timetables, financial constraints. The Government is simply trying to force independent lawyers out of the system, so that it can do its dirty work in private, far from effective scrutiny.
New History What were we thinking about, at the turning of the year - last year, two years ago, three years ago - FOUR years ago? With modern web-logging, you can check that out - a new form of modern history becomes possible. These extracts are newly-mined on New Year's Day 2006. This is how the world looked to me, at this time of year, in - *Recent topics My opportunistic web-editing >>> Wanna be happy? Avoid anxiety >>> Ministries should not be "spun" >>> Asylum Management my reforms >>> Turkey should join Europe >>> What New Orleans means for UK >>> Josef Stalin and Flat Tax >>> Corporate Theft by Proxy >>> What do interest rates mean? >>> Labour Party my resignation >>> New principle Public Primacy >>> The Power of Private Property >>> Drop the school-leaving age >>> Against Unreasonable Inequality >>> Abolish Wrongful Dismissal >>> Adjustment Pay for every worker >>>
 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
060102 Make sure you have not missed
Week 1 Monday
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But that devolution has left a huge
democratic deficit unresolved. The Government of Scotland Act did
not address the good governance of Glasgow or Edinburgh, nor did the
Welsh Act address the governance of Cardiff, Swansea, Newport. And
community government was disdained by Parliament.
Are
David Miliband and his fellow Ministers really serious about building a new
democratic structure? If so, that would be good news indeed. No
more silly mayors. The creative potential of our cities unleashed. The
better democratic governance of our schools and hospitals. Far
greater involvement of ordinary citizens in the governance of their own
local communities. Can it possibly be true? Is it unfair of
me to be sceptical?
Shall we watch this space together?
I value the Fabians. And
I encourage you to go to their open annual Conference in London, on
Saturday 14 January 2006. The theme is
Who do we want to be? The Future of Britishness.
And the keynote speech will come from Gordon Brown..
Suddenly, without notice, over the
Christmas break, that gap has been reduced from 10 days to 4 days. I
have just received notice for a new Client (who consulted me on New
Year's Eve for the first time) that his
Case Management Review will be held on Thursday 5 January,
and his Full hearing on
Wednesday 11 January.
And read my Big Theory itself, at