The case of Prue Leith

 On the latest Food Programme on Radio 4, asked about her political stance Prue Leith said "we are probably woolly liberals". Yet unusually for her generation - my generation - she voted for Brexit. There is certainly an anti-authoritarian strand in traditional liberalism. Leading up to the 2016 referendum, the Brexiteers' PR machine, helped by the BBC, exaggerated the control exercised by the European Commission and dismissed that of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. This may well have deceived liberally-inclined voters who ventured no further than the Daily Mail and BBC current affairs programmes in forming their views on political topics. I know several grass-roots members and former members of the Liberal Democrats who felt that way.

But I suggest that the real reason that Ms Leith did not see the necessity for remaining in the EU was her background. She had been brought up in comfort in South Africa, disagreeing with apartheid (indeed she said she went on demos. against it), but nevertheless benefiting from the privileges it afforded. South Africa, although being committed legally to supporting the UK and the rest of the Empire against the Nazis and Japan, was distant from the main action and thus virtually unscathed. Those of us born in Britain in 1945 and earlier, and brought up here, would have been all too well aware of the damage, both physical and social, wrought by conflict between European nations. Politicians returning from action against Nazi Germany, like Harold Macmillan, Denis Healey and Edward Heath, supported the move to create a tighter bond between European nations so that war in Europe would be impossible in future. Our wartime leader Winston Churchill, a survivor of previous conflicts, also wanted to see Britain as part of such a community. As an immigrant to London in the 1960s, when the economy was apparently booming after a decade of austerity, Ms Leith would have missed all that.

"Liberal" would certainly not fit her son, Danny Kruger, Tory MP for Devizes. In his relatively short time in the Commons, he has consistently voted against increased devolution to Scotland and Wales, against fair votes and against evening up the size of constituencies. He has also voted for a meaner redundancy package for civil servants and for a hostile environment for EU nationals. 

None of the foregoing excuses the nasty tweets and other communications which the two have received. Feelings are strong, especially on Brexit, but we should not resort to thuggery.

 

When will something be done to prevent these auditing failures?

 It is clear that the big four financial services firms in the UK treat fines by the Financial Reporting Council as no more than an unwelcome overhead. The Patisserie Valerie auditing scandal has been known about for some time, but Grant Thornton has only just been brought to book over it. Another recent ruling has been against EY for failures in auditing the transport firm Stagecoach in 2017. The 2019 judgements against PWC have proved no deterrent. 

These continuing scandals damage London's reputation as a place to do business in and must be a deterrent to long-term investment in companies quoted on the LSE. 

UK liaison with US Congress

 Now that we are out of the EU, has the government set up an equivalent to the European Parliament Liaison Office in Washington DC? Or are Johnson and company still under the delusion that all power in the US resides in the presidency?

Petrol hoarding hits nurses in Wales

 The Royal College of Nursing has warned that the inability to get fuel could affect NHS care in Wales.

Some nurses had faced aggression when trying to identify themselves as key workers at stations, said Diane Powles, of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). She called for key workers to be given priority over fuel, and urged people to act responsibly.

This is yet another argument against the closure of local hospitals and concentrating medical care on fewer and fewer large centres. Nurses and ancillary staff should not have to make the long journeys to work in facilities not easily accessible by public transport.

HGV driver shortage - an opportunity for rail?

 Michelle Meagher in the Guardian sees a bleak future for convenience stores as a result of the plethora of online shopping apps. But these still depend on a supply chain where large lorries form a link or links. One advantage which locally-owned stores have is that their owners need only vans under the 3.5 ton weight limit and thus do not need a HGV licence to pick up supplies. There may be scope for more warehousing near rail stations where bulk supplies of non-perishables can be delivered more efficiently than by road, leaving the final stage to be completed by the local store-keeper with his or her light van.

An electoral first for Iceland

 The final vote in Saturday's election is not yet in, but it is already clear that there will be a preponderance of women members in the new Althing. This will be a first for an elected national assembly, in Europe at least. It also appears that the  ruling coalition has slightly strengthened its position. Euronews reports: 

Iceland’s coalition government appeared likely to continue after voters rallied around the political centre in a volatile parliamentary election. The outcome may become historic: The incoming members of parliament were 54% women on Sunday morning, when nearly all votes had been counted. If the number holds, Iceland’s Althing parliament will have a female majority for the first time. According to data compiled by the World Bank, no country in Europe had ever passed the symbolic 50% mark, with Sweden leading the way with 47% female MPs. Polls had suggested a victory for left-leaning parties in the unpredictable election, which saw 10 parties competing for the Althing’s 63 seats. Instead, the centre-right Independence Party took the largest share of votes, and there were big gains for the centrist Progressive Party.

[Later] Not so fast. The final count shows that males will still predominate - just. Reuter says:

  

a recount of votes on Sunday showed there will still be more men than women in the chamber, state broadcaster RUV reported.

One wonders whether Iceland will still beat Sweden, the previous record-holder.

Stop demolishing buildings, say engineers

 The Royal Academy of Engineering, which one might have expected to have an interest in lots of new building, has set that aside in the interests of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. BBC reports:
Britain’s top engineers are urging the government to stop buildings being demolished. Making bricks and steel creates vast amounts of CO2, with cement alone causing 8% of global emissions. They say the construction industry should where possible re-use buildings, employ more recycled material, and use machinery powered by clean fuels. They are concerned about "embodied emissions", which is the CO2 emitted when buildings and materials are made.

A stitch-up which even Kigali would be ashamed of

 There is a lot to criticise in the way A Killing in Tiger Bay was presented. The intrusive, portentous music, the repetitions and the gimmicky way in which the testimony of the main protagonists was produced had me shouting "get on with it!" at the telly. It was a two-hour series, or maybe even a three half-hour series, of programmes stretched to three hours. For all that, even those who had followed news of the investigation of Lynette White's murder must have been shocked at some of the revelations, and those who came new to the case must have been devastated. Five young men, who were guilty only of petty crime and being non-white, were blatantly framed for a murder which early, admittedly scant, evidence clearly showed was committed by a single unknown white male. One accused and four "witnesses" had been harassed and coerced into giving false evidence, against not only the spirit but also the mandated practice of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. 

The lives of five young men, even of the two who were found not guilty, were permanently blighted and those of several family members cut short by the effect of the longest-running criminal trial in England and Wales. On top of that, even after the perversion of justice had been exposed by the legal appeal - only obtained by persistent campaigning by family and friends of the accused - the police officers concerned, named by the TV programme, were not convicted of any offence. Finally, a shadow of guilt ("no smoke without fire") was only finally removed by the use of DNA matching and thus identification of the real killer.

Three other unsatisfactory murder investigations by South Wales Police come to mind. In 1985, two men were wrongly convicted of the murder of the manager of a sex-shop in Swansea. Closer to home, the court threw out charges against a man accused of a murder in Skewen in 2008. Between those two came the case of Dai Morris, who was convicted of the Clydach murders in 1999 and who recently died in prison. Whether he was or was not responsible, the dubious use of character evidence in the trial may have significantly swayed the jury. We are promised a TV documentary on this case, possibly looking at new evidence, later in the year. Given the revelations of A Killing in Tiger Bay, one cannot take the verdict of the programme-makers for granted.

We are assured by the current Chief Constable, and his predecessor, speaking at the end of A Killing in Tiger Bay, that South Wales Police are totally reformed. 

How long will our EU legacy last?

 We are still reaping rewards from our membership of the EU nearly two years after Brexit. For instance, in New York a few weekends ago, a Brit for the first time lifted the American lawn tennis trophy for women. Emma Radecanu was only a UK citizen because her father is a Romanian and EU membership gave him the right to bring his family here. Her mother's origins in Hong Kong would not have been good enough. A Labour government saw to that, in spite of Paddy Ashdown's urgings, heartfelt and, as it has turned out, far-sighted. 

Another instance is the energy-efficiency ratings of our domestic appliances. Brenda Boardman was the person who pushed this valuable measure through in the UK, but was quick to point out in her interview by Jim Al-Khalili on Radio 4 this week that the initiative came from Europe. It is clear from the disorganisation of COP26 that the benefits of a clear anti-global-warming strategy are already being dissipated by the Johnson government.

 

 Late last week, the government declared its intention to eliminate preferential voting for police and crime commissioners and for mayors in England and Wales. Not only did they carry out this threat yesterday, they also used an arcane mechanism (an instruction to the Bill committee) which inhibited detailed consideration of the changes. There were weighty contributions to the debate from Cat Smith for Labour, Brendan O'Hara for the SNP and Alistair Carmichael for the Liberal Democrats, but Caroline Lucas (Green) summed up the situation rather well:

Today, we are faced with yet another example of a Government with absolutely no respect for democracy, demonstrated both by this process and by the use of it in relation to a policy change of such huge electoral importance.

Ironically, the Minister who tabled this instruction—the hon. Member for Norwich North (Chloe Smith)—was the very Minister who recently criticised the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) for using this little-used mechanism himself. The irony is compounded not least because the hon. Gentleman used it as a Back Bencher, with few other options at his disposal, faced with a Government blatantly leaving the issue of suspending Parliament out of a Bill that should have included it. By contrast, in this case, the Government of the day are abusing parliamentary process in two ways: first, they did not give notice of this extension of the scope of the Bill; and secondly, there is no good reason for using this instruction mechanism in the first place.

That raises questions as to why this attempt to foist the undemocratic and unfair first-past-the-post electoral system on mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections was slipped in as quietly as possible. For example, why was this silently published on the day of the reshuffle? More substantively, why did the Government not include this issue in the Bill in the first place so that the principle could have been debated on Second Reading?

Frankly, the disrespectful nature of this instruction is compounded by the fact that this is an Elections Bill—a Bill of constitutional importance, which requires those in power to behave with the highest respect for due process in order to protect our democracy and trust in Government. Anything else looks like rigging the system to the Government’s own electoral advantage. Extending the use of first past the post, and stripping out the proportional aspects of mayoral and police commissioner elections are not changes that should be bounced on MPs of other parties with no pre-legislative scrutiny or discussion.

Since 1997, every new representative body in the UK has been elected using an electoral system other than first past the post. We have had two decades of experience with PR systems in devolved Assemblies, mayoralties and local government. Now, suddenly, we have this blatant abuse of parliamentary procedure to allow the Government to scrap the PR systems that we have. Instead of the surreptitious use of this last-minute instruction, we should have had pre-legislative scrutiny so that we could properly explore on a cross-party basis the serious concerns that first past the post is unfair, unrepresentative and undemocratic. It is unfair and unrepresentative because it regularly delivers powers to those who win only a minority of the popular vote, ignoring the number of votes cast for smaller parties, and undemocratic because it promotes voter inequality, giving disproportionate power to swing voters in marginal seats and encouraging the belief that voting never changes anything, which is dangerous for participation in our democracy.
[...]
When we teach young people about what the suffragettes went through to get the vote for women and how important it was to vote, it really would help if we could tell them that we had a system now where their vote actually counted. That means that the Government of the day should be treating any change in the law on our voting systems with the respect that it deserves. The fact that the Government are not going to through the normal due legislative process with this change rings major alarm bells. Second Reading debates exist for good reason; they are a high-profile part of the scrutiny process, and I can see no good reason why we were not allowed to scrutinise this outrageous proposal then. How different it would feel if we had a Government who were pluralist, open, willing to engage in dialogue with all people and parties, and willing to improve our democracy with a commitment to fairness and to increasing wellbeing for all citizens.

In May, the Tories lost 11 of 13 mayoral elections, all under the supplementary vote system, which allows voters to express their top two preferences. Now they want to change these elections to first past the post, but without any normal scrutiny. We can only conclude that they are seeking to do this unfair thing in an unfair way because they understand that when elections are fair, they tend to lose.

I trust that the Liberal Democrats will, when they next have the power to influence legislation, rather than merely restoring the supplementary vote, scrap these superfluous posts altogether.

Bonfire of the standards

 Back in 2018, the talk from Brexiteers was not of reducing standards when we left the EU, but of improving on them. For instance, Michael Gove in evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee in July:

Gove told MPs that the opportunity for ministers to set different standards to those enforced by the bloc would “unquestionably” lead to tougher regulations being introduced, claiming that many “pro-leave” politicians took their stance in the 2016 referendum partly due to the appeal of setting stricter controls than the EU.

In February, Boris Johnson had said that "Britain may choose to remain aligned with European Union standards for some products to help trade after Brexit". I also have the distinct impression that the prime minister had aspired to build better on EU legislation once we were out of the Union. No doubt many wavering Conservatives had been persuaded to back Brexit on the basis of such hopes.

The Act made sure that EU regulations and standards would continue after Brexit. But that was all thrown up in the air in the Commons last Thursday. The newly-appointed Paymaster-General, Michael Ellis, stated:

First, we will conduct a review of so-called retained EU law; by this, I mean the many pieces of legislation that we took on to our own statute book through the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. We must now revisit this huge but anomalous category of law, and we have two purposes in mind. First, we intend to remove the special status of retained EU law so that it is no longer a distinct category of UK domestic law but is normalised within our law with a clear legislative status. Unless we do that, we risk giving undue precedence to laws derived from EU legislation over laws made properly by this Parliament. The review also involves ensuring that all courts in this country have the full ability to depart from EU case law according to the normal rules. In so doing, we will continue restoring this sovereign Parliament and our courts to their proper constitutional positions, and indeed finalise that process.

Our second goal is to review comprehensively the substantive content of retained EU law. Some of that is already under way—for example, our plans to reform Toggle showing location ofColumn 1149inherited procurement rules and the plan announced last autumn by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor to review much financial services legislation. But we will make this a comprehensive exercise, and I want to make it clear that our intention is eventually to amend, replace or repeal all retained EU law that is not right for the UK. That is a legislative problem, and accordingly the solution is also likely to be legislative. We will consider all the options for taking this forward, and in particular look at developing a tailored mechanism for accelerating the repeal or amendment of retained EU law in a way that reflects the fact that laws agreed elsewhere have intrinsically less democratic legitimacy than laws initiated by the Government of this country.

We also intend to begin a new series of reforms of the legislation we have inherited on EU exit, in many cases as recommended by the TIGRR report. Let me give some examples. We intend to create a pro-growth trusted data rights regime that is more proportionate and less burdensome than the EU’s GDPR—general data protection regulation.

On the last point, the government should be aware that weakening data protection may make exchanging data across the EU-UK border more difficult and thus inhibit some types of business.

Emily Thornberry for the Opposition posed key questions:

First, why do the Government believe that signing a veterinary agreement with the EU is incompatible with their ambitions to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Secondly, if the answer is that joining the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership requires them to diverge from EU standards in relation to food safety, which is the only logical explanation for the comments that Lord Frost has made, can the Paymaster General tell us which specific standards they plan to diverge from?

But answer came there none.

Now we learn that Johnson and Raab are intent on finally carrying out the threat initiated by Theresa May, to scrap all UK human rights legislation.

AUKUS removes last excuse for retaining Trident

 It has been obvious for some time that the UK's nuclear missiles have been no deterrent to the military actions of a resurgent Russia and certainly not to terrorism. The only nation which might be deterred from military expansionism by atomic weapons is China and, though we should all desire the continued independence of a liberal, democratic, Taiwan, the fight for it would be best conducted by Pacific nations. Now that Australia has come on board as a fellow atomic-powered submarine power with the US, there surely is no point in maintaining our own super-submarines based half a world away from where they would be needed. While Australia's boats are being built, we could even lease our Trident fleet or even attach boats and men to the Australian navy.

Australia's subs, though powered by American nuclear reactors, would be conventionally armed which in itself casts doubt on the need for atomic overkill as a deterrent. 

 

The Mont Cenis Tunnel

On 17 September 1871, the Fréjus Tunnel, also known as the Mont Cenis Tunnel) was opened to traffic for the first time, facilitating a new era of interaction between France and Italy. It had taken only 13 years to construct as against an estimate of 40 years, thanks largely to such innovations as pneumatic drilling machines and dynamite. The tunnel was the first great tunnel through the Alps. (There is more on wikipedia)

Nigeria and Norway, two nations faced by a similar dilemma

 Initiating a series on the subject of global warming, BBC News last Tuesday broadcast a report from a Nigerian correspondent on that country's contribution. He highlighted the dangers of crude natural gas flares to the nearby populations. At the same time, he pointed out how dependent Nigeria is on her oil revenues. Unless world bodies are prepared to help the nation diversify her economy, Nigeria is bound to continue adding to global warming.

Global warming, along with inequalities in wealth distribution, was said to be a major factor in Norway's general election this week. In the event, a Conservative government which was in no hurry to rein in the nation's oil industry has been ousted by Labour equally committed to maintaining Norway's oil and gas industry. Of the two parties which were committed to practical measures to combat climate change, the Greens made only a slight advance and the liberal Venstre party trod water. Neither will figure in the coalition government which will take shape once the final results are in. So, although Norway has the highest number of electric vehicles per head in the world, her people as a whole sign up to the wish: Lord, make me good, but not yet.

The Central American Federation

As Spain's grip on the Americas loosened, Mexico threatened to take over Central America. In response, as the US Office of the Historian says: 

The states that composed the Central American Federation (also referred to as the Federation of the Centre of America) were the states known today as Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. These areas declared independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. In 1823, the United Provinces of Central America was formed of the five Central American states under Gen. Manuel Jose Arce.

The federation began to dissolve in 1838 and by the early 1840s was all but defunct. Throughout the 1840s, the United States recognized the independence of the five former components of the Central American Federation in their own right: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Last chance to save fair votes in England and Wales?

 Anthony Tuffin of the Campaign for Real Democracy makes this plea:

Rescue the ERS

If you aren’t a member of the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), please consider joining or rejoining now so you can help to rescue it and restore it to its main purpose of campaigning for PR in accordance with its constitution.

Whether you are a member or not, please forward this to any friends who support PR but may not be members of the ERS.

The ERS has been campaigning in recent year for many issues related to democracy in the widest sense but, however worthy some of these may be, they have diverted its time and resources from its main purpose of PR, which is needed more than ever.

With assets of more than £40 million, the ERS could make a big difference to the campaign for PR.  You, yes, you could help it to do that.

At least eight of this year’s ERS Council candidates are committed to upping the ERS’s game to campaign more vigorously for PR.

They’ll do the hard work.  All you have to do is join the Society before the end of Tuesday 14 September and vote for them.  The minimum sub is only £2 a month, or less if you qualify for a concession.

Join here:

https://electoral-reform.netdonor.net/page/76559/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=yi2xbabf&_ga=2.114580676.253137843.1631385214-2035032394.1631208355

or google Electoral Reform Society and go from there.

Kind regards,

Anthony Tuffin

At last a railway good news story

 Thanks to Railfuture's monthly bulletin for the following:

and finally...

An African Grey parrot missing from his home in Tadworth, Surrey, was found perched on a rough sleeper at London Waterloo station. Safely returned, he is now making train noises and various station announcements.

Coughing in the auditorium

 Emma Barnett in the Independent and i, and Jessica Duchen in her blog, draw attention to the reduction in coughing during orchestral performances and especially in the intervals between symphonic movements. Ms Barnett attributes this to an attack of conscience on the part of the concert-going public; Ms Duchen to the power of Korngold.

I have a more prosaic - and welcome - explanation: social distancing and mask-wearing. In addition to checking the spread of SARS-CoV2, these measures must have also reduced the transmission of the other viruses and bacteria which we have put up with for so long in daily life. Less common cold = less coughing. It stands to reason. My personal experience is that I have suffered from practically no disabling chest infection this year in contrast to pre-2020 conditions. Only now, with the ending of the Welsh firebreak, have I picked up a bug, but it is not causing me any great trouble. In turn, it is unlikely that I have passed on any of my bugs to other people.

When the mandatory lockdowns have ended, we could well see voluntary face-covering as part of daily life as has occurred in daily life. And yes, intrusive coughing during concerts may well be at an end.

The first reformng Soviet leader

 Nikita Khrushchyoff the man who started the de-Stalinisation of the Soviet Union died on this day fifty years ago.

Parliamentary Boundary shake-up

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statutory-homelessness-in-england-financial-year-2020-21 

 refers. This map shows the boundaries of the local constituencies for the next general election (unless the consultation process throws up any changes.)

Current members of the Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats in Rhos and the Tawe valley from Trebanos northwards will vote in the new Brecon and Radnor constituency. Those in Skewen who previously voted in Aberavon (currently held  by Labour's Stephen Kinnock) will join the rest of us in Neath (MP Labour's Christina Rees) in a combined Swansea and Neath constituency. Aberavon will be augmented by Porthcawl, restoring a previous parliamentary disposition under the name Aberafan Porthcawl.

Needless to say, this will necessitate consequential changes in party organisation. Currently, the parliamentary constituencies of Neath and Aberavon sit neatly within the local government boundary of the county borough of Neath Port Talbot. This enables us to campaign as one party in both parliamentary and local government elections.

I have some ideas on the matter which I have put to fellow officers of the party. We will no doubt be talking (Covid-19 restrictions permitting) to our colleagues in the Swansea & Gower, Bridgend and Brecon parties in due course. However, we are always open to ideas. People can comment here, on our Facebook page or our email accounts neathlibdems@hotmail.co.uk & aberavonlibdems@hotmail.co.uk. 

The way in to classical music

 "Pliable", in his On an Overgrown Path blog, worries that classical and popular music are drifting further apart and that music from the concert-hall is not helping itself gain the wider audience it deserves. 

Jimi Hendrix shared a management agent with the progressive rock and jazz fusion band Soft Machine, and Soft Machine supported Hendrix on his 1968 North American tour. In 1970 William Glock was Controller of the Proms. On 13th August 1970 - just two weeks before the Isle of Wight Festival - there was an all-Bach Prom at 7.00pm in the Royal Albert Hall with a star-studded cast including Neville Mariner, Philip Ledger, David Munrow, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. This was followed at 10.00pm by a late-night Prom with Soft Machine, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductors David Atherton, and Elgar Howarth. This concert, which was broadcast on BBC TV, opened with works by Terry Riley and Tim Souster, and then showcased three tracks from Soft Machine's Third album. Can you imagine the outcry from on Slipped Disc and in The Spectator if that daring experiment was repeated today?

Emerson, Lake & Palmer was one of the bands at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival and back then they played an important role in introducing a young audience - including myself - to classical music. As Carl Palmer explained: "I think the fact that Emerson, Lake & Palmer ended up playing things like Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorsky introduced all of those young people to this great classical music. They could go and get a recording of it by an orchestra. We weren't there to educate; we were there to entertain. But we actually did open up the doorway". 

More could certainly be done. Music should be restored to its rightful place in schools. Popular radio should embrace a wider mix of genres, just as more rock and light music is invading Radio 3. Radio 4's Tales from the Stave and How to Play are welcome, but programmes like this should be more frequent. (Much of my appreciation of music is down to the old Home Service Children's Hour use of such as Bartok, Dvorak and Walton as incidental music for its serials.) But I think Pliable is mistaken about the Proms.

There may no longer be a mix of stadium rock and classical music, but I suggest that this is because the happening music scene has shifted. An equivalent to the 1970s late-night Prom cited by Pliable occurred on the 15th of last month when Rameau met Africa - and it was not a late-night event, either. There is hope yet.

The Elections Bill 2021

 Labour's Clive Lewis nailed it in his speech in yesterday's Commons Second Reading debate:

I will start with a question. If your policies are unpopular with most voters and your own party’s demographics are shrinking, what do you do? Do you change your policies so that your party’s platform is more appealing to more voters, or do you make it harder for people to vote? After reading the Bill, I think we now have this Government’s answer.

The point is that the most contentious change to our electoral law need not be made. Personation, as has been explained here and elsewhere many times, is a vanishingly small issue in England and Wales. The requirement for photo ID is an unnecessary inconvenience. Government spokesmen repeatedly riposte that the voters of Northern Ireland have no trouble with it. But the situation in the six counties is different. Because personation, including the use of the names of the deceased, has been a systemic evil there for generations, the majority of democratic voters in Northern Ireland welcomed the reform introduced by the Blair government in 2002. 

So, if a change does not have to be made, and that change involves additional expense, especially on the part of local authorities who will be responsible for issuing electoral identity documents, then one must suspect an ulterior motive.

The latter holds true of the removal of the limit on the years an expatriate has been away from the country after which they cannot be registered to vote here. If this was such a basic right, unjustifiably denied, why did the Conservative-run coalition and subsequent Conservative government not reinstate it? The answer to that is of course that it would have tilted the vote in the 2016 EU referendum and subsequent elections in which Europe was a principal factor.

Why remove the limit now? The suggestion has been made that it increases the pool of people permitted to make personal donations to candidates while making such donations more difficult to police. Another relaxation benefiting richer parties was welcomed unashamedly by Craig Mackinlay who was one of the Conservative MPs helped by the party's national "battle bus" sent to closely-contested seats. 

From changes made which were not needed, to needed changes which have not been made

As the secretary of a party which had blind and partially-sighted members, I naturally looked in the Bill for a remedy which genuinely is needed, enabling all disabled voters to cast a secret ballot. I was disappointed. In clause 8 there is just the following wording: "such equipment as it is reasonable to provide for the purposes of enabling, or making it easier for, relevant persons to vote in the manner directed" which is easy for local authorities to weasel out of, given the inclusion of the word "reasonable". From memory, this is no more use than the existing provision which resulted in a variety of devices in polling stations round the country, most of them virtually useless. 

One further thought: discussion of this important Bill in the media is inevitably swamped by responses to the announcement by the PM of increased taxation to boost the NHS and social care budgets and the attack on the living standards of state pensioners. For once, this seems to have been a lucky (for the government) coincidence rather than the result of plotting. 

First mis-steps by the "new" Taliban

 If you want international recognition - and the people of Afghanistan certainly need international money to start flowing again - it is not a good idea to appoint an alleged money-launderer as your finance minister in your caretaker government, not a prime minister on a UN sanctions list.

Mind you, if that list is based on CIA intelligence, perhaps it should be looked at again.

Another mineral-rich third-world nation falls to an armed coup

Liberal International reports:

Two days ago the military in Guinea seized power and has shut the country's borders and installed a nationwide curfew.

LI vice president, former prime minister of Guinea and leader of the main opposition Cellou Diallo is safe but the situation remains highly unpredictable and Guinea's future is in the balance.

Assessing the take over, reviewing the risks, and discussing the political trajectory for Guinea, Liberal International President, Hakima el Haité will speak directly with Cellou Diallo at 1pm UK time today.

While there must be concern at an elected government being ousted by a military junta, it has to be said that the outgoing president had Guinea's constitutional law changed so that he could embark on a third term. The coup leader has accused government ministers of corruption but has promised a return to free elections eventually. As in Afghanistan, we must wait and see.

More on Estonia

 Well, the stand-off reported in a previous post was broken and Estonian MPs settled on their state auditor and National Museum director as state president after all.

Constitutional quirks notwithstanding, Estonia has been outstandingly successful since joining the EU. Last month, Euronews published an article highlighting her progress.

For starters, the nation has garnered an enviable reputation for mastery of the digital realm and leads the region on many economic and social indicators, flying very much in the face of a common misconception about 'slowness' being a national trait, of which more later.

For Tonis Saarts, Associate Professor of Comparative Politics in School of Governance, Law and Society (SOGOLAS) at Tallinn University, the country’s biggest accomplishments besides the EU and NATO memberships and the dominion of the e-realm is establishing “resilient and well-functioning liberal democratic institutions.” Asked what Estonia did differently than the other two closest Baltic neighbours, Lithuania and Latvia, in executing reforms over the last 30 years, Saarts underlined that Estonia managed to avoid the rise of oligarchs.

It is a sobering thought that this tiny state in the shadow of the Russian federation is less in thrall to oligarchs and to Putin than Johnson-dubbed "global Britain".

Need for Taliban to form representative government

 Euronews reports that the first reactive flush of embassies of EU nations closing has been replaced by cautious engagement.

According to the EU, cooperation is dependent on the Taliban meeting five conditions, including preventing the export of terrorism, respecting human rights, creating an inclusive government, allowing access to humanitarian aid, and allowing the departures of Afghan and European civilians who wish to leave.

When the conservative Islamist group took over last month, the EU and many Western countries chose to close embassies in Afghanistan, limiting their influence on any new administration. But now, Brussels is changing its tone, whilst remaining cautious about formally recognising the Taliban, as well as how trustworthy the new government will prove to be.

It does, however, hope to keep any European citizens remaining in Afghanistan safely and prevent a new large influx of migrants coming to the bloc's borders.

Earlier, the Christian Science Monitor in explaining the roots of the Taliban's swift success incidentally pointed at potential vulnerability:

“They used age-old Afghan traditions, as was the case when they came to power the first time [in 1996],” says Douglas London, former CIA counterterrorism chief for South and Southwest Asia. “It wasn’t through a series of military conquests. The Taliban leveraged negotiations and bribery with local and provincial officials.”

The Taliban need to keep sweet local governors, officials and clan leaders who do not necessarily subscribe to the former's extreme interpretation of Islam. For this, the Taliban administration will need money. In turn, this can only come from international aid and from trade, both of which depend on cooperation with other nations.

While on the subject of perspective, we should not rush to write off Afghanistan as a perpetual failed state. People of my generation can remember (though I never indulged) the Afghan trail through territory which welcomed visitors from the West. Richard Gregory recalled:

Herat was the first real destination on the Hippie Trail. The paranoia of oppressive control in Turkey and Iran was left behind for a wilder but welcoming state of anarchy. Afghanistan has people from many distinct tribal and ethnic groups on which I am no expert, but the one thing they all seemed to have in common was a proud independent spirit. 

 They generally had a great sense of fun too. The traditional hospitality of the country is well documented, and it extended to the young Europeans with long hair who crossed in their thousands during the sixties and seventies. In the major cities there were hotels, cafes and restaurants whose clientele were exclusively 'hippie trailers'. They were networking centres where travellers would swap stories and advice, learn where to head for in the next town, and smoke the world's finest hashish.

The widespread suspicion of foreigners probably began when in 1979 the Soviets invaded in order to shore up an unpopular elected Marxist government which had failed to fulfil its promises.

Finally, Alexander Hainy-Khaleeli, a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, takes the long view:

Biden labelling Afghanistan “the graveyard of empires” is, at best, historically illiterate and, at worst, utterly self-serving. It not only negates thousands of years of Afghanistan’s history as a flourishing centre of civilisation, but also—in an act of supreme imperial hubris—shifts the blame for U.S. failures there onto the land and people of Afghanistan themselves.

But where did this phrase come from? What does it mean? And why is it flat out wrong – and even racist?

It may sound like timeless wisdom, but Afghanistan’s epithet “the graveyard of empires” appears to have been coined only recently—so recently, in fact, that it doesn’t even predate the U.S. invasion. It first appeared in 2001, in a Foreign Affairs article by the CIA’s former Pakistan Station Chief Milton Bearden, titled ‘Afghanistan, Graveyard of Empires.’

In the article, Bearden cautioned against a U.S. occupation of Afghanistan based not only on the historical experiences of the Soviet Union and the British Empire, but also of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and all “the world’s great armies on campaigns of conquest” who “eventually ran into trouble in their encounters with the unruly Afghan tribals.” This argument reduced the history of Afghanistan to a history of its invaders and dismissed the Afghan people as backwards and savage, recycling classic orientalist tropes for a “War on Terror” audience.

Most importantly, however, Bearden’s argument is utterly at odds with the realities of history. Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan not only conquered Afghanistan, their successors ruled it for centuries after them and adapted themselves to its culture and religion. Far from being a place where empires go to die, the land of Afghanistan was, for millennia, a place in which they thrived and prospered, thanks in part to its strategic location at the crossroads of Asia. It is only to be expected, then, that many great empires also emerged from Afghanistan to make their mark on world history.

Thanks to Liberal England for pointing us to the last article.

Council makes grants available for green projects

Thanks to the Green Liberal Democrats, I learn that Chelmsford City Council has allocated funding to help make Chelmsford greener:

Greener Chelmsford Grants make £100,000 available for projects that address the climate and ecological emergency in Chelmsford. Applications are more likely to be successful if they are for projects which protect and enhance wildlife and green infrastructure, lower energy consumption, reduce waste or lower carbon emissions. These are the priorities set out by the council for addressing climate change and ecological crises.

Councillor Rose Moore, Cabinet Member for Greener and Safer Chelmsford, said, "The Greener Chelmsford Grants are one of the many actions being taken by the City Council to deal with the Climate & Ecological Emergency declared in 2019. Everybody in Chelmsford and beyond needs to play their part if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change and these grants recognise organisations which are putting great effort into doing their bit."

The pot does seem rather small and looks more like a "toe in the water" than a major change in direction. What Essex can do, West Glamorgan councils can surely do better. I fear, however, that unless there is a major clearing-out of the dinosaurs on Neath Port Talbot CBC our council will continue to move in the opposite direction.

Mark Harmon is 70

 Happy birthday to the actor who, before the creation of the NCIS TV series, was probably best known for his portrayal of Ted Bundy in a TV drama-documentary about the serial killer.

"They are not genuine asylum-seekers, they are economic migrants"

 While hoping that the new administration in Kabul is true to its word, and that human rights will be respected under a Taliban government, one must accept that, based on history, many - perhaps most - of those attempting to flee the country have a genuine fear of retribution. I would therefore disagree with those who, like John Redwood, regard most refugees as people who want to take advantage of the UK. In case, the UK is only one of migrants' preferred destinations, Germany and the Scandinavian nations having consistently taken more immigrants than the UK.

We Liberal Democrats do little to discourage the general impression that we have an "open door" policy regarding immigrants. Statements like "they have risked their lives getting here, they deserve to stay" owe more to social Darwinism than humanitarian feeling. Then there are the many testimonials from refugees or their offspring who have made it to the top of a professional tree. I do support the party policy of allowing refugees to support themselves by paid work even while their status is being investigated. It would not only offset the costs to the state but also afford some dignity to those who were able to continue their profession while in this country. However, the advantage to the state of filling gaps in the NHS or social services should not sway an assessment of the reality of an incomer's fears if he or she were returned home. Also, by allowing them to settle here, we are depriving a (probably) third-world nation of a professional trained at that nation's expense. 

But the majority of voters does not comprise professionals. Most of them are in jobs, or seek employment, where there are many more applicants than vacancies. They know that, given the opportunity, employers of manual labour will take on unofficial migrants, by-passing minimum wage legislation, knowing that the workers dare not complain and that legal enforcement is practically non-existent. The reluctance of voters in those areas of high unemployment to support any migrant policy is therefore understandable.

I agree with Mr Redwood on one point. We have been bad, and so far as I can see continue to be bad, at assessing refugees' cases. The answer is to move much of the process closer to the source of migration, using the expertise of FO staff and intelligence on the ground and to provide safe corridors to the UK for successful applicants, thus removing the reliance on criminal gangs and hazardous sea journeys. The expertise of the division handling those who still arrive undocumented on our shores must be increased, even if this means paying a premium for foreign language skills. Enforcement of employment legislation on (especially) building sites needs to be taken seriously. And finally, the UK should stop interfering in the affairs of other countries unless we can be sure that what we leave behind is better than what we went in to correct.