Opposition to the continuing reduction of all social and inter-personal bonds to legal relations seems to unite both the left and right in British politics.
Scratch beneath the surface, however, and you soon find very different thinking. For the right the enemy is the imposition of the so-called politically correct agenda against traditional British practices. For the left the issue is the insertion of repressive and capitalist relations into the community to frustrate solidarity.
The right and left may seem to coalesce on this issue, but only on the surface.
5 March 2009
The House of Lords in Britain
The House of Lords should simply be abolished; other than in a federal system, having two chambers of parliament is as useful as two umbrellas in the rain. Far more important for democracy is having ONE chamber elected by proportional representation so it actually reflects how people vote.
A right to privacy on the internet
Does the citizen have a right to look at an internet page without the state or commercial organisations being informed about it?
I say ‘yes’ the government, it would seem, says ‘no’
Such monitoring appears even more intrusive than one where every book or magazine bought had to be notified to the police. In that situation at least the police would not know which page I had looked at and for how long.
I say ‘yes’ the government, it would seem, says ‘no’
Such monitoring appears even more intrusive than one where every book or magazine bought had to be notified to the police. In that situation at least the police would not know which page I had looked at and for how long.
New Labour was never soft on the poor
Even in the boom years of New Labour, life was not soft on those at the bottom of Britain’s unequal society. Relative and often absolute poverty has increased for those ensnared in the crime and drug ridden ghettoes. Lives have been scared by insecure employment and housing; and psychologically by exclusion form the “good life” seemingly enjoyed by the richer two thirds of Britain.
What is happening now in the 2009 recession - and what is politically significant - is that poverty is penetrating upwards.
What is happening now in the 2009 recession - and what is politically significant - is that poverty is penetrating upwards.
Britain in Superlatives
Reading the papers it seems that Britain is chalking up a number of superlatives.
The most obvious, and the one that directly affects everyone, is the IMF forecast that of the G7 countries, Britain’s recession will be the deepest. Britain’s level of private debt, a key element in the current economic predicament, is the worst in the EU. So much for Britain being well placed to weather recession!
Britain’s debt-ridden system of unbridled capitalism, championed first by Thatcher and then perfected by New Labour, seems to have led the country to the edge of a social abyss – at least that is the picture thrown up by a whole raft of studies comparing Britain to its continental neighbours.
Social democracy is truly dead in Britain, if only because Britain is now under a Labour Government the most unequal society in the EU. British children according to another survey are the worst off in Britain: enjoying the least parental time, having the fewest rights and suffering the highest stress levels. British state pensions are the lowest when compared to average national earnings.
The wider society does not fare much better. In another study published a few weeks ago, I read that, if you exclude older people, the British were among the least likely to trust one another in Europe. Yet another study showed that Britain had the highest transient population (people moving rather than staying in any one location). The result is fractured communities and anomic men and women. As Margaret Thatcher said, ‘There is no such thing as society.’ Blair and Brown have realised her dream.
Then Britain spends more on policing than any other EU country; it has the largest prison population per head and has the most CCTV cameras at one for every fourteen individuals.
OK, Britain does not come out on the bottom in everything. It is not the poorest, does not have the most violent police – nor is it the most corrupt country in Europe. However even in these indicators Britain is slipping down the table rather than moving up.
It stinks. New Labour has failed and has done so spectacularly.
The most obvious, and the one that directly affects everyone, is the IMF forecast that of the G7 countries, Britain’s recession will be the deepest. Britain’s level of private debt, a key element in the current economic predicament, is the worst in the EU. So much for Britain being well placed to weather recession!
Britain’s debt-ridden system of unbridled capitalism, championed first by Thatcher and then perfected by New Labour, seems to have led the country to the edge of a social abyss – at least that is the picture thrown up by a whole raft of studies comparing Britain to its continental neighbours.
Social democracy is truly dead in Britain, if only because Britain is now under a Labour Government the most unequal society in the EU. British children according to another survey are the worst off in Britain: enjoying the least parental time, having the fewest rights and suffering the highest stress levels. British state pensions are the lowest when compared to average national earnings.
The wider society does not fare much better. In another study published a few weeks ago, I read that, if you exclude older people, the British were among the least likely to trust one another in Europe. Yet another study showed that Britain had the highest transient population (people moving rather than staying in any one location). The result is fractured communities and anomic men and women. As Margaret Thatcher said, ‘There is no such thing as society.’ Blair and Brown have realised her dream.
Then Britain spends more on policing than any other EU country; it has the largest prison population per head and has the most CCTV cameras at one for every fourteen individuals.
OK, Britain does not come out on the bottom in everything. It is not the poorest, does not have the most violent police – nor is it the most corrupt country in Europe. However even in these indicators Britain is slipping down the table rather than moving up.
It stinks. New Labour has failed and has done so spectacularly.
30 January 2009
World Jewry and Israel
The WJC and the Israel-right-or-wrong lobby are digging themselves into a deeper and deeper hole. More and more they are deluding only themselves.
Every element which helped blind the world to Israeli crimes is falling away: Israel the little besieged settler-state (no more), Holocaust guilt (now a crime of great grandfathers), Zionist socialism (gone).
Israel can only maintain itself by being a pawn of US Middle East imperialism and winning the support of American right wing Christian nutcases. The country has no moral strength; so thank God (if I believed in Him) Israel is not synonymous with Jewry.
Every element which helped blind the world to Israeli crimes is falling away: Israel the little besieged settler-state (no more), Holocaust guilt (now a crime of great grandfathers), Zionist socialism (gone).
Israel can only maintain itself by being a pawn of US Middle East imperialism and winning the support of American right wing Christian nutcases. The country has no moral strength; so thank God (if I believed in Him) Israel is not synonymous with Jewry.
No Aid Appeal broadcast for Gaza
The suffering in Gaza is the direct result of Israeli military action. To have people see that suffering, identify with it and want to ameliorate it, also focuses attention on its perpetrators. In other words, Israel’s war crimes are unmasked.
To defend Israel in world opinion it is therefore necessary to conceal the effects of Israel’s actions. Hence the BBC, at the behest of pro-Israeli pressure, seeks to deny human suffering; the BBC is in effect saying that helping injured Palestinian children is anti-Israeli and therefore illegitimate.
To defend Israel in world opinion it is therefore necessary to conceal the effects of Israel’s actions. Hence the BBC, at the behest of pro-Israeli pressure, seeks to deny human suffering; the BBC is in effect saying that helping injured Palestinian children is anti-Israeli and therefore illegitimate.
Imposing Esperanto and English
There is undoubtedly an assumption on the part of many Esperantists to the effect that not only is Esperanto the best choice for communication across language boundaries, but also that everybody else should endorse that opinion. Given the peripheral status of Esperanto, that view is liable to cause annoyance as it clearly has done here.
The imperialism of English works differently. Everyone is free not to learn it and take the consequences.
Children are not often free to choose what is best for them, so when their schools and parents compel them to learn English, that is no different from forcing the child to learn his or her multiplication tables.
Across Europe, at any rate, the English language is imposed, not with police, courts and prisons, but through capitalist economic power. If the citizen wants a better job or to sell the firm’s product, English is often required. The more people who learn English as a lingua franca, the more powerful the lingua franca becomes.
Is that fair? Of course not, but life is seldom fair.
The imperialism of English works differently. Everyone is free not to learn it and take the consequences.
Children are not often free to choose what is best for them, so when their schools and parents compel them to learn English, that is no different from forcing the child to learn his or her multiplication tables.
Across Europe, at any rate, the English language is imposed, not with police, courts and prisons, but through capitalist economic power. If the citizen wants a better job or to sell the firm’s product, English is often required. The more people who learn English as a lingua franca, the more powerful the lingua franca becomes.
Is that fair? Of course not, but life is seldom fair.
21 January 2009
Britain in Europe
Whether to join or not to join the Euro consists of two parallel debates. One is the calculated economic merits of doing so; the other is the political and psychological implications of membership. Jeremy’s article is on the latter.
If the British have lost an empire and failed to find a role, the only place where that role could be found is as one country among equals in the European continent. If that is to be, the British must want it for themselves. There are three test issues.
First is seeing the Euro, not as an external threat, but as a potential means of participating in the joint economic strength of a continent. Second, is a willingness to identify with a Europe in which Britain can be an equal, rather than with the US where Britain is condemned to satellite status. The third is to see open borders with Schengen Europe, not as rot pouring in uncontrolled, but as an open bridge inside free European space.
Practicalities may prevent or delay any or all of these measures, but the will has to precede the means.
If the British have lost an empire and failed to find a role, the only place where that role could be found is as one country among equals in the European continent. If that is to be, the British must want it for themselves. There are three test issues.
First is seeing the Euro, not as an external threat, but as a potential means of participating in the joint economic strength of a continent. Second, is a willingness to identify with a Europe in which Britain can be an equal, rather than with the US where Britain is condemned to satellite status. The third is to see open borders with Schengen Europe, not as rot pouring in uncontrolled, but as an open bridge inside free European space.
Practicalities may prevent or delay any or all of these measures, but the will has to precede the means.
20 January 2009
Appointing Ken Clarke
The main difficulty for Cameron and his crew is that they radiate an early middle-aged haute bourgeois dandyism. Though once seen as electorally ‘attractive’ in the booming 2000s when Blair was their opponent, it now grates. In contrast, the New Labour government may be authoritarian and self-serving, but Brown’s morose oafishness better suits the recession age.
Clarke is there for his personae; and Cameron obviously believes that Tory quarrelling on Europe is less to be feared than the effects of his own personality.
Clarke is there for his personae; and Cameron obviously believes that Tory quarrelling on Europe is less to be feared than the effects of his own personality.
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