What is the future of small modular reactors?

 My first thought on reading of Tufan Erginbilgic taking up his new post as chief executive of Rolls-Royce was that the SMR programme was in doubt, because of his history with BP and his statement that R-R's
current investment strategies are 'unsustainable'. However, he also comes from Global Infrastructure Partners, which is making the right noises about climate change, though purists may quibble about the organisation's advocacy of natural gas as a transition fuel from coal.

Collective punishment

 A boy takes a gun, seriously wounds a man and the man's son. He is shot and wounded at the site, treated, but under guard of the police. The authorities go further. They arrest his family and seek to break up the community in which they live to find refuge goodness knows where. This could have been a story from Stalinist USSR, but in fact it is from Israel today. It is collective punishment and a breach of human rights.

Further, while mouthing platitudes about citizens' not taking the law into their own hands, the prime minister and his minister of the interior move to relax gun licensing restrictions and encourage those settlers already licensed to take their guns out on to the street.

Meanwhile, thousands of ordinary Israelis continue to protest against the government's threat to the nation's Supreme Court.

Unfit for heroes

 Thus Private Eye headlines a report on Military Housing, which opens:

It must be galling for British military families stuck in damp or mouldy homes that the companies supposed to repair the are part-owned by foreign firms

which the Eye goes on to detail.

I have memories of married families accommodation which was primitive by the standards of the 1940s and 1950s. Rather than mould, what stands out is a recollection of having to cross a yard to reach a WC in both the Isle of Wight and our first billet in Aldershot. It was not much fun in the night in the bitter winters of those years. But things improved. There was nothing to complain about in our moves thereafter in Aldershot and Woolwich, and certainly nothing when my father was posted abroad in Egypt, Libya and Germany. The War Department repaid regular soldiers for their continued service during the cold war by taking care of the families.

Why are we going backward? There was some excuse for sub-standard housing in the immediate aftermath of war, but now?

Afghanistan: repression of women is tribal, not Islamic

 There is dissension in the ranks of the de facto government in Kabul after the attempts of the UN to prevent the prohibition of women working for aid agencies in the country. The UN representative has expressed optimism after talks with Afghan government representatives.

However, in public it seems that the hard Taliban line has prevailed in ignorance of traditional recognition by Islam of women's place in society. A recent emergency meeting of the intergovernmental Organization of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) executive committee condemned what is happening in Afghanistan as against the holy Quran and Islam. The OIC aims on behalf of its 57 members to be the collective voice of the Muslim world.

Never mind the chairman, what about the treasurer?

 The current publicity surrounding Nadhim Zahawi as chair of the Conservatives has distracted attention from a more important party post, that of treasurer. At least, there are now no obvious links to Russian donors or money-laundering possibilities, but one has worries about the soon-to-be-installed Mohamed Mansour. His history is that of a minister in the government of the last Egyptian autocrat but one, and one wonders in which country he pays his taxes.

Under the Tories, authorities are soft on fraudsters and oligarchs

 At least, that is how it seems. It is unlikely that ministers tell the various Departmental heads to go easy on cronies and people the Conservative party depends on for donations. I do not believe the Civil Service has yet been totally corrupted. More likely is that the investigators involved are starved of resources by Treasury ministers in this "cost of living crisis". 

Anyway, the result is that a pitiful amount (back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest <1%) has been recovered from non-performing contracts signed, usually by-passing Civil Service procedural checks, in the height of the Covid epidemic. A few of these failures to deliver may not have been deliberately fraudulent, but too many clearly were. The cost of dubious equipment supply contracts is conservatively estimated at over £3bn and at least a similar amount has been lost to fraudsters obtaining "bounce-back" and other business support loans. By the end of last year, only £18m has been recovered in respect of the PPE contracts. 

Private Eye magazine issue 1590 told a similar story about sanctions on Putin's cronies.

Almost a year on from the Ukraine invasion, are the oligarchs who found sanctuary in Britain for a couple of decades feeling the sanctions squeeze as much as the government would have everyone believe?

Latest figures from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), set up after Russia's Crimea annexation, last month prompted Simon Fell, chair of an all-party parliamentary group of MPs on fair banking, to describe the performance as "not good enough".

So far there have been no fines for breaches of sanctions imposed since the Ukraine invasion last February, although reported breaches had hit 236 by November. Enforcement measures do take time, but recent history is not encouraging. 

In the year to March 2022, the OFSI imposed just two fines, totalling £86,000 [...] In the previous year, there were no fines for breaches.#

                                               

Integrity of the Civil Service,

 Jane Merrick, policy editor of the i newspaper, reported yesterday:

The impartiality and integrity of the Civil Service is being put at risk, due to the rows involving Nadhim Zahawi and Boris Johnson's financial arrangements, insiders have told i.

The Cabinet Secretary,, Simon Case, and Whitehall's propriety and ethics team have been dragged into both affairs because civil servants offered advice on the arrangements.

Yet Whitehall insiders said that because full official advice to ministers - with qualifications - cannot be made public, disclosures about Mr Johnson and Mr Zahawi's financial affairs being approved are undermining the integrity of the Civil Service.

It surely does not help that there has been no recent head of the Home Civil Service who has come up through the ranks of at least the administrative grades of the service. The last such was Richard Wilson (now Baron Wilson of Dinton), Tony Blair's first appointee, who joined as an assistant principal (AP) in 1966. Since then, there have been five Cabinet Secretaries (Turnbull, O'Donnell, Heywood, Sedwill and Case). They have all previously filled senior roles in organisations at least linked to government but none, I suggest, imbued with the traditional civil service ethos. Simon Case is on particularly dodgy ground. He was involved in "partygate" and, a worse transgression, was compliant in the political sacking of a respected colleague, Tom Scholar.

The appointment of the top civil servant is necessarily a political decision and the selection will optimally be of one who is congenial to the elected administration. However, I suggest that appointing someone from outside the ranks of the service puts in question the traditional "Chinese wall" between politicians and the executive.

Neath in Glamorgan 2023 fixture list

 

Pre-payment meters

About this time last year I posted in another place: 

"Users of pre-payment meters (usually poorer people who are forced on to them by utility companies) pay more for their gas and electricity than the rest of us. The excuse from the utilities is that the system costs more to run. ISTM that the benefits of having the cash in advance and never having to send out reminders would more than make up for that."

It was put to me that providers only did this as a last resort in the case of their more troublesome customers. However, data gathered by investigative reporter Dean Kirby and published in the i newspaper show that obtaining warrants to impose these meters on users has become virtually routine. 

Out of 533,760 utility warrant applications - which all debt firms acting on behalf on behalf of suppliers use to force entry into homes and businesses - only 72 were refused by magistrates.

i can now also reveal that the court costs for the energy firms [...] are set out at £22 per warrant.

Government has responded to pressure from opposition parties and others by asking utilities to do more to protect vulnerable energy users. It is not clear that this softly-softly approach will work and government must be prepared to tighten the law in this area.

 

Ammanford firm pooh-poohs (sorry!) Green pessimists

 NappiCycle is developing "an innovative solution for a better future for our children". 

The concept for NappiCycle started back in 2009, to provide a low impact, cost-efficient nappy and absorbent hygiene products recycling facility in Wales, aimed at servicing the requirements of both the local authorities as well as the business community at large.

The company signed up Cardiff City Council as a client in 2021. One trusts that other local authorities will follow the Welsh capital's lead.

(Swansea City has had its own nappy service scheme for many years and my local  council, Neath Port Talbot CBC, started a nappy and absorbent hygiene products collection service last August. My party colleague, Cllr Helen Ceri Clarke, had campaigned on the issue under the previous administration and it is good to see that the coalition has recognised what has been a problem for many young families. While easing the pressure on the latter, it is not clear how "green" these schemes are.)

Jacinda Ardern to spend more time with her family

 Although BBC has reported that there is growing disquiet about the economic situation in New Zealand, the prime minister's resignation announcement came as a surprise. Ms Ardern had previously expressed her determination to lead her Labour party into the next general election. John Hartevelt of RNZ reported on the media announcement:

Ardern carefully dispensed with what turned out to be the most overshadowed announcement of an election date ever. (It's 14 October, by the way.)

The mood of her address quickly shifted as she moved on to the second of her two "important announcements".

"Consideration of the date over the summer, and the impending election and new political term has also given me time for reflection."

The tone of this statement suggested something other than a policy reset was about to be announced.

"I believe that leading a country is the most privileged job anyone could ever have, but also one of the more challenging. You cannot, and should not do it unless you have a full tank plus a bit in reserve for those unexpected challenges.

"This summer, I had hoped to find a way to prepare for not just another year, but another term - because that is what this year requires. I have not been able to do that.

"And so today, I am announcing that I will not be seeking re-election and that my term as prime minister will conclude no later than the 7th of February."

[...]

Prior to informing her Cabinet and caucus colleagues, Ardern says she had shared her decision with only "a very, very small number" of people.

It's safe to assume her fiancé Clarke Gayford - who was in the room and walked arm-in-arm with her as she left it - had a say. Ardern addressed him during the press conference.

"To Clarke: Let's finally get married."

Their daughter, Neve, was apparently not in the loop, though. "Four-year-olds are chatty - couldn't take the risk," Ardern joked.

But there were special words reserved for her too.

"To Neve: Mum is looking forward to being there when you start school this year."

I read between the lines that now that the country has emerged from disaster, she was no longer regarded as indispensable by party and parliament and would struggle to see her agenda through. With a lively child at a critical age, she has clearly got her priorities right. She owes her nation and indeed the world nothing.

Maria Ressa: the clouds part in the Philippines

 Maria Ressa welcomed her acquittal on trumped-up tax evasion charges. She and her investigative website Rappler had been vigorous critics of the extremist rule of the previous President Duterte who responded with a battery of criminal cases against her. There are still three outstanding convictions against her but the Nobel laureate  expressed optimism that these would be overturned and that the "ray of light" would become "a day of sunshine" ... that the "upside-down world" would be turned right way up. In a TV interview she pointed to the efforts of President \Marcos in Davos to attract new investment in the islands.

Local initiative restores post office service

 This item from the Lakes Line Rail User Group in a Railfuture newsletter caught my eye:

Working with Tim Farron MP, Avanti West Coast has helped restore a Post Office service to Oxenholme after a two-year gap. Local Postmaster Phil Ballantyne provides a counter service at the station from 1100 –1300 on Mondays and 1230 -1430 on Thursdays. It is believed to be the first of its kind on the West Coast Main Line, and one of only a few Post Offices operating at a railway station in the UK.

It is good to know that local people continue to find ways to keep the vital PO network functioning in the face of government indifference.

Income inequality

 Television news this morning showed troops of protestors trudging through the Swiss snow to plant their banners before the great and good at their annual meeting in Davos. Time, that pillar of publishing in the centre of capitalism, reported in 2019 on the reasons. 

Governments, companies and civil society must take drastic measures to reduce global inequality in order to improve lives, save the environment and stem rising populism, experts gathered at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, said Friday at a panel called ‘The Cost of Inequality.’

The panel, developed in partnership with TIME and moderated by TIME's CEO and Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal, met to discuss the ways inequality has contributed to a populist backlash around the world.

One of the top issued raised by panelists was the assertion that multinational corporations and the very wealthy are not paying "their fair share" of taxes.

“No one is talking about tax evasion," said the historian Rutger Bregman of those gathered at Davos. "I feel like I’m at a firefighters' conference and nobody is allowed to talk about water.”

Also high on the agenda was the recognition that low corporate tax rates, today the policy of many governments around the world, are a relatively recent historical phenomenon. "Governments have chosen not to tax fairly, to get rich companies and rich people to pay their fair share of taxes," said Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International's executive director. "Because they don't collect those taxes, they don't put enough money into health, education and social protection of their people."

The result is rising levels of inequality around the world. According to a recent Oxfam report timed to coincide with Davos 2019, 26 billionaires had the same wealth as the poorest 3.8 billion people combined. About half of the world’s population lives off less than $6 per day.

Things have not improved since, according to Oxfam's latest report.

The world’s top 1 percent grab bed nearly two-thirds of the $42 trillion in new wealth created since 2020, Oxfam says in a new report released to coincide with the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The share was almost twice as much money as the amount obtained by the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, according to Oxfam’s “Survival of the Richest” report.

Probably best not read this if you are about to eat

 Phlegm has been the bane of my life since early childhood. However, it is not only a symptom of asthma, so this guide originally written for Asthma + Lung UK will probably be helpful to others.

What is phlegm?

Phlegm is the specific name for mucus that you cough up from your lungs. Your doctor might call it ‘sputum’. And mucus is a jelly-like liquid found all over the body that protects you from infection. 

Coughing up lots of phlegm doesn't mean you have asthma, although some people with asthma do find they cough up lots of phlegm.  [...]

If you feel unwell and you’re worried because your phlegm’s a different colour or thickness than usual, speak to your doctor. They might look at or test a sample of your phlegm to find out more.  

Everyone’s phlegm looks different and it isn’t a completely accurate guide to what’s going on in your body. But here's a general guide to what different colours of phlegm mean:

White phlegm

A bit of white or clear phlegm every now and then is completely normal.

However, if you’re producing lots ofwhite or clear phlegm, it could be a sign that your airways are inflamed and your asthma symptoms might be getting worse.

It’s worth remembering that your airways include the nose and sinuses, as well as your throat. It may be that the mucus you’re coughing up has moved from your nose or sinuses to the back of your throat or chest. If you get symptoms in your nose and sinuses – such as mucus, sneezing or an itchy or blocked nose – speak to your GP or pharmacist about how you can treat this. Treating your nose and sinuses can improve your asthma symptoms too.

Your preventer inhaler is the number one way to deal with this, as long as you’re taking it as prescribed by your doctor or nurse.

If you’ve been taking your preventer but nothing’s improving, see your doctor or asthma nurse. They might need to change your medication or help you manage your triggers or allergies, like hay fever. 

Yellow or green phlegm

This might be a sign of an infection, like a cold, the flu or a chest infection.

Infections often make asthma symptoms worse. This is why it’s really important to keep taking your preventer inhaler every day, as this helps to control your asthma.

Find out how to reduce your risk of catching a cold or the flu if you have asthma. 

Streaked red phlegm

If you cough up blood, call your GP surgery as soon as possible, even if it's just a tiny bit of blood.

Coughing up blood can be alarming, but it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a serious problem. If you cough up blood, it is usually because you have been coughing a lot or you have a chest infection.

Read about the common causes of coughing up blood, as well as some less common ones. 

Brown or black phlegm

There are a few reasons you might get brown or black phlegm and one of these is smoking.

It’s very important that you quit smoking, as it can make your asthma worse in the long term and trigger asthma symptoms in the short term.

Just three days after you’ve stopped smoking, your breathing will become easier and you'll have more energy. Get help to quit smoking.

Coughing up brown phlegm can also be a symptom of pneumonia. If you’re coughing up brown or black phlegm, it's really important that you book an appointment with your GP. 

Last updated November 2020

Next review due November 2023 

St Hilary

The Tudor tower, all that remains of the church burnt down in 1857

Today is St Hilary's Day. That is, the day dedicated to Hilary of Poitiers, who is remembered in the Roman church for playing a major part in eradicating Arianism. This I discovered only recently when I got to wondering who was the saint to whom Wallasey's parish church was dedicated. All l remembered being told from growing up there was that the dedication was a rarity and the only other one was in Cornwall. 

Since then, I learned of the St Hilary in the Vale of Glamorgan. Indeed, all three churches may originally have been dedicated to the Breton missionary, St Elian, who founded a church in North Wales, but who was clearly not famous enough for a later church Establishment in England and Wales. Certainly, Elian's linguistic credentials are stronger than that of Bishop Hilary who does not appear to have visited these islands.

I would like to think that Wallasey, separated from the rest of Wirral by watercourses and marshland, was a redoubt of Welsh-speakers in the days of the early church.

Government in trouble? Call on MACA!

 No, not Paul McCartney, though he would assuredly make a better fist of running a Department Of State than some present - and recent - incumbents. MACA stands for Military Aid to Civilian Authority, effectively "calling in the Army". 

In August of last year, the Evening Post published an article by Richard Ault in which he highlighted the increased use of the Armed Forces to supplement the public services. 

The UK’s armed forces are being asked to support the government “more and more often” to “relieve exceptional pressures” on public services. Armed forces personnel can be deployed in the UK when asked to do so by government departments or the relevant civil authorities, and signed off by a minister. This could be to assist with flood relief, terror attacks, or to support major national events such as the Commonwealth Games. Currently, around 1,000 armed forces personnel are deployed to work alongside West Midlands Police at the Games in Birmingham.

The specialist skills of the military may also be required, for example bomb disposal, removing dangerous chemicals, or using reconnaissance aircraft to locate missing people. Requests for help - called “military aid to the civil authorities” (MACA) - peaked during the pandemic in 2020, when around 34,000 military personnel were deployed around the country to help with a variety of tasks, including to support the roll-out of mobile testing centres.

But MACA requests have remained high, even as the need for help with the UK’s pandemic response has eased. Figures provided by the Ministry of Defence show that the armed forces received 332 MACA requests in 2021, down by 40% from the 550 requests received the previous year - but more than double the 157 MACA requests received before the pandemic in 2019.

Since that (Reach syndicated) article appeared, MACA requests have continued, most controversially in respect of ambulance workers. Just before Christmas, it was revealed that troops on MACA duty because of industrial action would receive £20 per day on top of their normal pay. 

Civil emergencies caused by natural events or hostile action clearly justify MACA, but strike-breaking? Surely not, at a time when our armed forces are below strength anyway.

Food integrity in danger

 Towards the end (just on the 27' mark in the podcast) of today's Life Scientific, Professor Chris Elliott, a pioneer in detecting food fraud, raised worries about the probity of future food imports.

My fear in the UK now is we're likely going to face another scandal like the horsemeat scandal. Now we've got the National Food Crime Unit in operation which is doing a wonderful job but we've lost total control of food that is being imported  into the UK. There are no checks, no inspections, it's just a free-for-all. So people are going to make a lot of money, there's going to be criminal activity. Where in the food system is that going to turn up? Will it be in the multiple  retailers? - very unlikely. But is it going to be in the small stores, the corner stores and food service - yes, likely. So I have a horrible feeling we have another food crisis coming down the road. [...] 

The science is there, I've described all the wonderful techniques we can do in terms of detection, but if there's nobody there to actually take samples then are going to be massive problems. [...] we've left the European Union - for good or bad, people will have their own opinions of it - but just in terms of our food system it has left us much, much more vulnerable, because most of the food that comes in to the UK comes in through Europe, particularly through Rotterdam. That was always the first line of defence. Anything coming into the UK now in Rotterdam, it's not checked, it's not inspected, it's given free passage to wherever it wants to now. The UK has basically said now: that's the responsibility of the industry. 

Big companies will look after themselves because they've got all the issues about reputational damage, but if you think about all the small stores and food service, they don't have the technical know-how, they don't have the budgets to do a lot of checking and inspecting.

Is this really the red tape the government wants to get rid of? 

A dynasty ended in Kent

 Today is the 150th anniversary of the death of Napoleon III. It occurred in Chislehurst, a fact beloved of trivia quiz setters. He should be remembered for creating much of the infrastructure of modern France.

Legislation is no substitute for good management

The Government has announced plans for a Parliamentary Bill which, it says, will ensure vital public services maintain a “basic function” during industrial action. 

People Management magazine gives details:

The bill – dubbed the anti-strike law – which is due to go through Parliament in the coming weeks, will impact six key public services and see trade unions “bound to follow” the legislation in a bid to ensure minimum service levels and avoid a complete shutdown. 

While it is yet to be formally announced, the Government release stated those who do not comply would be at risk of the employer bringing an injunction to prevent the strike from taking place, or seeking damages after the event if strikers and unions do not stick to their obligations.

Details on minimum safety levels for vital public services – including health, education, fire and rescue, transport, decommissioning of nuclear installations and management of radioactive waste and spent fuel and border security –  would be determined on a consultation basis by “relevant Government departments”, it said. 

But it has been confirmed these would be “in parallel” with the bill on ambulance, fire and rail services, and then set out in regulations due to follow the legislation. 

The impact of this bill could mean that employers are able to “effectively disregard strike action” or give it “less significance” in negotiations with unions, according to Daniel Zona, associate at Collyer Bristow. 

“If made law, these changes would amount to one of the most significant curbs on the fundamental right to strike in recent decades,” said Zona. “It could, in effect, amount to forcing some workers to work against their will. The proposed changes could breach human rights legislation and potentially modern slavery laws,” he added.

In an attempt to preempt criticism, government spokesmen assert that most advanced nations have similar legislation. One wonders, however,  how effective it is, given reports from abroad of occasional crippling of public services when employees feel their backs are against the wall. People Management relays other objections already in:

Alexandra Mizzi, legal director at Howard Kennedy LLP, said the enforcement routes for employers “may not be very useful” as suing unions for damages would be “legally complex”. 

Paul Nowak, general secretary at TUC said the bill offered “nothing more” to help with this year’s pay and criticised the Government for its u-turn from “clapping key workers to threatening them with the sack” if they take industrial action. Nowak also warned this could “push” people away from essential jobs in public services. 

David Hopper, employment partner at Lewis Silkin, said there was “no guarantee” that the bill would make it past the House of Lords and that even if it did become law it may “not be effective”. 

“Unions can be expected to resist the new requirements and will almost certainly challenge any enforcement action against them on human rights grounds. Minimum service levels also actually risk prolonging strikes, by preventing unions from being able to generate sufficient leverage through causing disruption to secure their demands,” said Hopper. 

The whole thing has the air of a gesture, and a hastily cobbled one at that. One is reminded of Margaret Thatcher's provocative attack on trade unions, describing them as the enemy within. That sound-bite was issued during the miners' strike, when public opinion was divided for and against the NUM. In the present situation, survey after survey, and TV interviews, show that there is greater public sympathy for the strikers than for the government. Sunak, Shapps and Barclay may judge that the Bill will enhance their standing with the hard-liners within their own party, but at the cost of increased mistrust on the part of the electorate. 

And they have clearly not learned from recent experience:

Arguments on human rights grounds have already been raised towards an earlier Government repeal of a law banning agency workers from covering strikes in July last year. 

The High Court has since granted permission for 11 trade unions to launch a legal challenge against these regulations, which is expected to be heard in March this year. 

Unions claimed the repeal was unlawful as the government failed to consult with them, breaching the Employment Agencies Act 1973,  and a violation of the trade union rights – protected by Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights – which protects the right to form and join a union.

 

Netanyahu is losing Israel friends

 The provocation referred to in a previous blog post has had repercussions. 

A little history. In the early 2000s, peace talks between Ehud Barak, the then Labor prime minister of Israel, and the Palestinians led by Yasser Arafat, broke down. The root cause, according to this even-handed article, was the parties' mutual suspicion. To my mind, though, the armed intrusion into the al-Aqsa mosque in September 2000 by Ariel Sharon, leader of the opposition in the Knesset, ratcheted up the violence between Israelis and Palestinians. The mosque is not only one of Islam's holy sites, it is in theory under the control of a body independent of government. So the incursion was not only an affront to Muslims, it was also illegal. What is known as the second intifada resulted. The wave of violence created a mood of fear and uncertainty in Israeli voters which has lasted, leading to a succession of nationalist governments from 2001 onwards. This was clearly Sharon's intention.

Whether the same calculation was in the mind of Itamar Ben Gvir, when he visited the mosque a few days ago, is doubtful. Ben Gvir is the extremist who has been appointed head of national security in the new government of Israel led by Benjamin Netanyahu. More likely, it was a personal flaunting of his new-found power and that of his ultra-nationalist friends. Either way, it has antagonised one of Israel's few Arab allies, Saudi Arabia. (It must be admitted that the Saudis have been onside with Israel largely because of their common bond with the USA and also because Sunni Saudi Arabia wants to reduce the power of Shi'a Iran, as does Israel.) Jordan, who had care of the mosque until the 1967 Six Day War, and Egypt have also protested what they see as a violation. Christian memorials have also been desecrated, according to UN Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour: "The attack is not only against our holy sites on Al-Aqsa mosque and Haram al-Sharif. You've seen by now that there are crosses over graveyards being trampled upon and attacked by extreme settlers. This is a toxic environment." 

Israel needs friends, maybe not now, but certainly in the future. She has the protection of the USA at present, but the States' status as the dominant world super-power will not last forever. 

75 years of Burmese independence

 Burma became an independent state on 4th January 1948. There has not been any noticeable celebration here. Considering what has happened to Burma/Myanmar since, that is hardly surprising.

So what happened to the Zionist dream?

 Surely Theodor Herzl and the others who attended the first Zionist Conference in 1897 envisaged a homeland established by agreement with other governments, not expansion by violence. Certainly, the Balfour Declaration which started the process of re-establishing Israel "clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine". 

Yet the returning prime minister, who has unresolved criminal charges hanging over him, has appointed as head of national security a man who has been convicted under Israeli law of incitement to racism.

France 24 reports:

In recent days, lawmakers hastily passed legislation watering down standards required to hold ministerial office -- allowing people convicted of crimes, but not sentenced to prison, to serve as ministers. The move paved the way for the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, a long-time Netanyahu ally who was convicted of tax evasion earlier this year, to be appointed to cabinet. 

 The introduction of a derogation clause would allow lawmakers to maintain the controversial law even if the Supreme Court were to overturn it. Analysts say such a clause would also allow lawmakers to uphold any annulment of the corruption charges against Netanyahu, should parliament vote to absolve the prime minister and the Supreme Court then rule against it. 

 For the left-wing Haaretz newspaper, Justice Minister Levin's mandate is clear: "destroy the rule of law and its institutions, and with them, the entire system" by allowing parliament to "override" the judiciary. "Fighting a government like this one, which is emptying democracy of all its values, isn’t sedition... it’s a duty incumbent on both the opposition and civil society. This is their great time of trial," Haaretz said in an editorial.

The new minister has lost no time in stirring trouble. 

President Biden may have issued a bland uncritical statement welcoming the new government, but there is considerable disquiet in American Jewry.

Making democracy work

I believe Robert's comment to my earlier post misses Delia's point. In a national financial emergency, party politics were put aside. Out elected representatives saw what needed to be done in the national interest. Sadly, party loyalties revived in the period of complacency which set in. The spirit of the coalition agreement was forgotten by both signatories to the agreement. One suspects that the comfort of the ministerial Jaguar proved seductive.

 Of course, to make a real start on breaking down the power of the big party machines one needs a fair voting system, one that can allow individual representatives to act with integrity. A cross-party initiative, Get PR Done, has been launched and Anthony Tuffin explains here why jiggling about with boundaries does not cure our present malaise