UK government silent over Maduro land grab

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67610200 refers.

Impending Senedd bloat

 Rather late in the day (the key decision in the Senedd was made earlier this year), people are waking up to the enormous increase in the size of Wales' parliament which Labour and Plaid Cymru are set on. Conservatives have started to campaign on the increased cost of a larger assembly - and they are on firm ground in doing so. But the nature of election is at issue also. A former member of PC, and of the last commission to look at Wales' electoral system, objected on Sunday Supplement (just over 33 minutes in to this) to the reduction in democratic control inherent in the list system.

There is a summary of the various constitutional committees and commissions here.

The great Iranian crisis

The expert contributor* to yesterday's Great Lives programme was of the opinion that one cannot draw a straight line between the events of 1951-1953 in Iran and the Islamic revolution of 1979. However, 1953 was surely the year in which Iran might have settled to a future of stable constitutional monarchy (alla UK) but instead tipped into monarchic dictatorship shepherded by the USA and all the instability that that engendered.

The great movie sound-sculptor and editor Walter Murch had chosen Muhammad Mossadegh as his Great Lives subject. Murch had been attracted to the subject by his background reading to conflict in the Middle East in preparation for work on Sam Mendes's Jarhead. He went on to work with Iranian exile Taghi Amirani on a documentary about the 1953 insurrection, Coup 53. It no doubt helped that both Amirani and Murch are now British residents.

I am gratified that I got so much right in my earlier post on the subject - and, of course, that such a major figure as Walter Murch is championing Mossadegh's cause. Having access to much more original material and people who knew the players in 1953 enabled Murch to produce a richer and more rounded picture. For instance, the switch from the Democrat Truman, who was sympathetic to the democratic aspirations of Mossadegh and against the effective colonialism of the Anglo-Iranian Oil company, to the Republican Eisenhower in the White House was significant. Eisenhower, himself an anti-Communist brought the cold-warriors, John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen to the State Department and the CIA respectively. Thus the scales were weighted against Mossadegh, but the revolution was not inevitable if some other key events had turned out differently. The whole programme is well worth hearing. Sadly, there is little chance of our government listening to it and even less chance of issuing a long-overdue apology. 

Only a couple of minor details were missed: the fact that the signal for the decisive riots was given by a coded message on the BBC Overseas Service** (now the World Service) revealed if I recall correctly by this analysis programme from 1980; and Mossadegh's hypochondria (from Christopher de Bellaigue's biography), which may or may not have affected his political judgment.

* Professor Ali Ansari of St Andrews University, presenter on Radio 4 of Through Persian Eyes

**A very rare example of the BBC's breaching its ethos of impartiality, even more marked in the World Service than in terrestrial broadcasting. Of course, the management may not have been aware of (presumably) MI6'ht s initiative.

Wales 0-0 Germany

 Congratulations to the Welsh women footballers on holding the mighty German team to a draw at the Hafod stadium tonight. Wales did not merely defend well, they were the more positive side for most of the match and were unlucky not to score. At last they have found a formation and personnel to suit, too late in the day for the Nations League, but promising for the future. All they need to do now is work on their ball retention.

 

Tories blaming the pensioners again

 From Friday's inews:

The co-authors of the 2019 Tory manifesto said the state pension triple lock should be scrapped – but warned both Labour and the Conservatives are too concerned about the electoral damage to do so.

Rachel Wolf and Robert Colvile, who helped to write Boris Johnson’s landslide-winning manifesto, said the Tories should not maintain the triple lock pension pledge into the next election.

They argued it is unsustainable and would need reforming in some way to ease the rising cost on the taxpayer and growing generational divide.

So a former political adviser and a think-tank chief, both no doubt having built up a reasonable private pension pot, believe that the UK economy cannot sustain a decent state pension while virtually all our nation's continental rivals can. Last year's suspension of the lock put a great strain, at a time of inflation, on those people whose only regular source of income in the state pension. Scrapping the triple-lock, or even a suspension, after the general election is going to increase the hardship for old people. One notes that neither the Tory leadership not that of the Labour party will commit to retaining this progressive measure. I trust that the manifesto of the Liberal Democrats, who introduced the triple-lock in 2010, will contain that guarantee.

Starmer's love of the headline may deny Labour absolute power

 The big domestic news this morning is that, in a Sunday Telegraph article, Sir Keir Starmer has praised for their "sense of mission" Clement Attlee, Tony Blair … and Margaret Thatcher*. What a disparate crew! There may be some similarities of world view between Thatcher and Blair, but the fact that Blair chose the Labour party as the vehicle for his ambition, when he clearly could have made a Conservative front bench, shows that there were differences of philosophy. Both, of course, were leagues away from Attlee. One has to conclude that Starmer wants to be more associated with people who have made headlines, rather than any particular political belief. He has already been accused of trying to woo Conservatives, but for every soft Tory vote he attracts, he is likely to lose both socialists and social democrats, the nod to Attlee notwithstanding.

The impression that he wants to be all things to all voters had already been given a boost by his foreign affairs spokesman, David Lammy, on Friday.  The i headline proclaimed: "Labour: EU will be our number one priority for foreign policy". Examination of the small print, however, reveals that there is no change from Labour's avowed policy of "making Brexit work", only a promise to hold regular (every four months) talks with EU leaders. There is a suggestion of closer military cooperation, but nothing about restoring our former favourable trading relationship or common social and environmental standards. Participation in Europe's political processes of course is right out of the window. 

Not being a Tory is insufficient. Voters, come the general election, will want to know what Sir Keir really stands for. I pity the Labour candidates who will have to reconcile the conflicting messages on the doorstep and at the hustings - if they dare to attend any.

* I have also been known to applaud Margaret Thatcher, but only for chipping away at the glass ceiling by becoming the first British female prime minister.

Anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine

 From the US National Archive:

The Monroe Doctrine was articulated in President James Monroe's seventh annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823. The European powers, according to Monroe, were obligated to respect the Western Hemisphere as the United States' sphere of interest.

It has been argued over, nationally and internationally, ever since.

Hancock wants less devolution of health

 Given the lying and contempt for the advice of experts at the top level of government exposed in the Covid-19 Inquiry, surely more devolution of public health matters would improve things? Yet Matt Hancock in his evidence of the last few days opined that when an epidemic strikes all decisions should be taken in Westminster. 

When a community recognises what needs to be done, puts aside party and other politics, and coordinates in a common cause, great things can be achieved. Ceredigion's successful fight against the SARS-Cove2 virus was only vitiated when outside authority stepped in and forced the county to accept returning university students, bringing fresh battalions of virus with them.