Art Garfunkel is 75 today: http://www.biography.com/people/art-garfunkel-17191580
Saturday, 5 November 2016
Friday, 4 November 2016
Will these people listen to themselves?
Guido Fawkes lists reactions from leaders of the various Leave EU factions to the High Court ruling that the UK parliament must have a vote before the prime minister tells the EU president that she wants to take the country out of the European Union. Words such as "betrayal", "attempt to block or delay", "out of touch with the people" and "activist judges" leap out at one. It is all very reminiscent of David Blunkett's attacks (like this one) on the judiciary when he was Labour's Home Secretary.
Her Majesty's Press have gone even further. The Guardian reproduces the front page of today's Daily Mail branding high court judges "enemies of the people".
It seems to me that the justices have done no more than affirm that while referendums may advise, parliament is sovereign and that government is bound by the will of our elected parliament. I am sure that the majority of people corresponding with me who voted "leave", stating that they wanted their country back, respect British institutions, including our parliament and our independent judiciary. My "leaver" friends are not well served by the people who drove the referendum who, it seems, do not trust the MPs who gave them the referendum in the first place nor the judges who reasserted that the UK is still a representative democracy.
One is reassured by the fact that, while David Blunkett voiced his neo-fascist feelings while holding one of the great offices of state, today's would-be dictators are only on the fringes of power. On the other hand, there are rather too many of them.
Her Majesty's Press have gone even further. The Guardian reproduces the front page of today's Daily Mail branding high court judges "enemies of the people".
It seems to me that the justices have done no more than affirm that while referendums may advise, parliament is sovereign and that government is bound by the will of our elected parliament. I am sure that the majority of people corresponding with me who voted "leave", stating that they wanted their country back, respect British institutions, including our parliament and our independent judiciary. My "leaver" friends are not well served by the people who drove the referendum who, it seems, do not trust the MPs who gave them the referendum in the first place nor the judges who reasserted that the UK is still a representative democracy.
One is reassured by the fact that, while David Blunkett voiced his neo-fascist feelings while holding one of the great offices of state, today's would-be dictators are only on the fringes of power. On the other hand, there are rather too many of them.
Walter Cronkite
The venerated US broadcast journalist was born 100 years ago today. There is an appreciation here.
He will be remembered by later generations from the closing verse of Bob Dylan's "Black Diamond Bay":
I was sitting home alone one night in L.A.
Watching old Cronkite on the seven o'clock news
Today is also the 60th anniversary of the Soviet forces' crushing of the anti-communist revolt in Hungary. Vladimir Putin was just over four years old at the time of the event, which must have helped in forming his attitudes.
He will be remembered by later generations from the closing verse of Bob Dylan's "Black Diamond Bay":
I was sitting home alone one night in L.A.
Watching old Cronkite on the seven o'clock news
Today is also the 60th anniversary of the Soviet forces' crushing of the anti-communist revolt in Hungary. Vladimir Putin was just over four years old at the time of the event, which must have helped in forming his attitudes.
Thursday, 3 November 2016
Financial boost for Montgomery & Brecon canal confirmed
Kirsty Williams has just confirmed on Facebook that the £2.5m which she trailed last July has been committed. The work will secure and improve the future of one of the UK's most beautiful and best loved waterways.
Ward heeler
With heavy activity in Richmond Park, and the peregrinations of the ambitious Labour councillor for Bryncoch South, on my mind, I was struck by this transatlantic coinage, courtesy of Anu Garg:
ward heeler (ward HEE-luhr) noun
A low-level political operative who solicits votes and performs chores
for his political bosses or political machine. Also called heeler.
[From ward, a subdivision of a city for voting or administrative purposes.
Heeler, from the idea of a hanger-on following at the heels of his boss,
and also as a reference to his door-to-door canvassing for votes. The term
has negative connotations and a ward heeler is generally considered to be
an unscrupulous character.]
"He (Pierre Trudeau) ... dispensed patronage like the best ward heeler."
Jeffrey Simpson, et al; Pierre Elliott Trudeau; The Globe and Mail
(Toronto, Canada); Sep 29, 2000.
"This time around, ward heelers worked their toxic magic in a dozen
different ways, from unduly influencing voters to manipulating the
final count with bogus votes."
Richard S. Dunham, et al; Sleight of Hand at the Polls; BusinessWeek
(New York); Nov 27, 2000.
ward heeler (ward HEE-luhr) noun
A low-level political operative who solicits votes and performs chores
for his political bosses or political machine. Also called heeler.
[From ward, a subdivision of a city for voting or administrative purposes.
Heeler, from the idea of a hanger-on following at the heels of his boss,
and also as a reference to his door-to-door canvassing for votes. The term
has negative connotations and a ward heeler is generally considered to be
an unscrupulous character.]
"He (Pierre Trudeau) ... dispensed patronage like the best ward heeler."
Jeffrey Simpson, et al; Pierre Elliott Trudeau; The Globe and Mail
(Toronto, Canada); Sep 29, 2000.
"This time around, ward heelers worked their toxic magic in a dozen
different ways, from unduly influencing voters to manipulating the
final count with bogus votes."
Richard S. Dunham, et al; Sleight of Hand at the Polls; BusinessWeek
(New York); Nov 27, 2000.
Wednesday, 2 November 2016
By Jingo, we'll turn the clock back
Peter Black, commenting on UKIP's leadership campaign, highlights candidate Peter Whittle's telling a hustings that the law should be changed so that “every school has a union jack and a picture of the Queen”. (Perhaps that is slightly better than Suzanne Evans attachment to the flag of St George which Guido Fawkes, reporting on the same meeting, tells us she wants to see on every house in Emily Thornberry’s street).
This crypto-Fascism is not as alien as younger readers might think. I remember a time when classes in junior schools were faced with a backdrop behind the teacher's desk consisting of a large map of the world (Mercator projection, of course, exaggerating the size of Canada and Australia) with the British Empire's overseas possessions and dominions highlighted in pink. Later, when the empire began to be dismantled and replaced by a more equitable Commonwealth, the maps fell into disuse only to be replaced by (rather smaller) portraits of a young queen. Perhaps my recollection is coloured by the fact that I was largely educated in HM Forces' schools up to secondary age, but I recall council schools being similar.
It is very unlikely that there was a law mandating these displays, though. The education chiefs would need only to have made the maps available as part of school supplies for them to be taken up readily by naturally patriotic school administrators, who, after both damaging world wars would have seen traditional British values triumphant. Similarly in 1952 and 1953 there was a wave of enthusiasm for a second Elizabethan age which would have inspired spontaneous royalist displays.
The point I would make is that though these expressions were understandable at the time, the world and the UK's place in it have moved on. Did educators miss a trick in 1972 by not opening their children's eyes to the other European nations which we had been joined to?
We are still in the top ten of nations, but our status depends more on membership of more than one group (UN, WTO and EU etc.) than the Commonwealth. We have not so much declined as been caught up with by other nations which have raised their game. We may be overtaken by France and India in the GDP stakes, but I see the only threat to our remaining in the top ten is returning to jingoism and an unaffordable isolationist stance.
This crypto-Fascism is not as alien as younger readers might think. I remember a time when classes in junior schools were faced with a backdrop behind the teacher's desk consisting of a large map of the world (Mercator projection, of course, exaggerating the size of Canada and Australia) with the British Empire's overseas possessions and dominions highlighted in pink. Later, when the empire began to be dismantled and replaced by a more equitable Commonwealth, the maps fell into disuse only to be replaced by (rather smaller) portraits of a young queen. Perhaps my recollection is coloured by the fact that I was largely educated in HM Forces' schools up to secondary age, but I recall council schools being similar.
It is very unlikely that there was a law mandating these displays, though. The education chiefs would need only to have made the maps available as part of school supplies for them to be taken up readily by naturally patriotic school administrators, who, after both damaging world wars would have seen traditional British values triumphant. Similarly in 1952 and 1953 there was a wave of enthusiasm for a second Elizabethan age which would have inspired spontaneous royalist displays.
The point I would make is that though these expressions were understandable at the time, the world and the UK's place in it have moved on. Did educators miss a trick in 1972 by not opening their children's eyes to the other European nations which we had been joined to?
We are still in the top ten of nations, but our status depends more on membership of more than one group (UN, WTO and EU etc.) than the Commonwealth. We have not so much declined as been caught up with by other nations which have raised their game. We may be overtaken by France and India in the GDP stakes, but I see the only threat to our remaining in the top ten is returning to jingoism and an unaffordable isolationist stance.
Tuesday, 1 November 2016
Orgreave
The apparent u-ey by the May government over an inquiry into the events at Orgreave coking plant during the NUM-led strike of the 1980s, and in particular the actions of the police both during the conflict and after when spurious criminal charges were brought, is hard to understand. After the Conservative-led coalition did the right thing by the victims of Hillsborough (which also involved the South Yorkshire Police), the logical next step was to clear the air over Orgreave. Not to do so will fuel suspicions that the already-discredited South Yorkshire police leadership did not act on their initiative alone in crossing a legal boundary in combating the strike.
I lived through those events though I had no direct experience of them. In fact, though there were some clashes in Wales, the major confrontations took place in Yorkshire and the English Midlands. I was however sitting in a café in Pontardawe when a group of men, clearly returned flying pickets, "debriefed" friends on events in England. I overheard accusations that police officers had all deliberately removed their collar numbers (required to be worn at all times by Metropolitan Police officers and by many other forces). There was also systematic vandalising (smashing with batons of headlights etc) of vehicles from out of area.
There was a ministerial statement in the House of Commons today. Home Office minister Brandon Lewis excused the department's resistance to an inquiry on the grounds that nobody died at Orgreave and that "lessons had been learned" by the police. In the face of strong accusations of systemic illegality this is a lame response. The only arguments added from the Conservative back-benches were of the "two wrongs make a right" variety. One should not doubt that there was violence on the part of some of the flying pickets. The killing of a strike-breaking taxi-driver (hundreds of miles away from Orgreave!) is also on the record. However, that does not excuse the readiness of the police at the time to "get their retaliation in first". Nor does the failure of the Blair-Brown governments to mount a serious inquiry into incidents during the miners' strike excuse succeeding governments for not doing so. The conclusion I draw is that Mr Cameron was prepared to take an objective view of the actions of previous Tory governments, while Mrs May is more resistant to any investigation which could possibly further tarnish the reputation of Margaret Thatcher.
I lived through those events though I had no direct experience of them. In fact, though there were some clashes in Wales, the major confrontations took place in Yorkshire and the English Midlands. I was however sitting in a café in Pontardawe when a group of men, clearly returned flying pickets, "debriefed" friends on events in England. I overheard accusations that police officers had all deliberately removed their collar numbers (required to be worn at all times by Metropolitan Police officers and by many other forces). There was also systematic vandalising (smashing with batons of headlights etc) of vehicles from out of area.
There was a ministerial statement in the House of Commons today. Home Office minister Brandon Lewis excused the department's resistance to an inquiry on the grounds that nobody died at Orgreave and that "lessons had been learned" by the police. In the face of strong accusations of systemic illegality this is a lame response. The only arguments added from the Conservative back-benches were of the "two wrongs make a right" variety. One should not doubt that there was violence on the part of some of the flying pickets. The killing of a strike-breaking taxi-driver (hundreds of miles away from Orgreave!) is also on the record. However, that does not excuse the readiness of the police at the time to "get their retaliation in first". Nor does the failure of the Blair-Brown governments to mount a serious inquiry into incidents during the miners' strike excuse succeeding governments for not doing so. The conclusion I draw is that Mr Cameron was prepared to take an objective view of the actions of previous Tory governments, while Mrs May is more resistant to any investigation which could possibly further tarnish the reputation of Margaret Thatcher.
Monday, 31 October 2016
Sarah Olney selected to stand for LDs against Zac Goldsmith
The emergency selection committee, meeting as a result of the declaration of a by-election in Richmond Park, has restored my faith in internal Liberal Democrat politics by confirming their previous local choice to fight the seat. This is the second winnable seat on the run where a young woman has been chosen as a candidate.
Her c.v. outlined here points up her political inexperience. Old hacks might see this as a drawback, but it is surely a positive selling point that Sarah, as a young working mother, is the sort of person who is seriously under-represented in parliament.
Her c.v. outlined here points up her political inexperience. Old hacks might see this as a drawback, but it is surely a positive selling point that Sarah, as a young working mother, is the sort of person who is seriously under-represented in parliament.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)