Too many people have died

Why is this happening? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/10755530/The-Queen-to-help-the-Irish-commemorate-the-1916-Easter-Rising.html

I am not at all happy that the United Kingdom head of state is interacting with people who so obviously hate us and have demonstrated that hatred for the last hundred years through murder and maiming and the most offensive anti-British statements and behaviour.

Please do not tell me "it is time to let bygones be bygones".

Too many people have died for it to be all brushed under the carpet.

At the very least all that generation of IRA murderers active until the early 1990s must pass away before we can even think about "normal" relations (and in case you are thinking that is too long to wait, let me point out that there is a very easy fast-track to ensure murderers pass away).

And a personal message to the British head of state - please do not take my loyalty for granted.

For the first time in my life I am advising people not to vote Conservative

On on Thursday 22 May 2014 the United Kingdom will vote in the European Elections.

For the first time in my life I am advising people not to vote Conservative.

Certainly you should vote.

And definitely don't vote Labour or Liberal Democrat.

But I am not advising you to vote Conservative in the European Election.

I think a message needs to be sent.

A demonstration needs to be made.

A warning shot needs to be fired.

And the European Election is the most immediate way to do this.

I am coming to the conclusion that David Cameron is a dud

With the announcement that Sajid Javid is the new Culture Secretary, is is unreasonable to ask whose culture he will be representing?

What does Sajid Javid know about English culture? (the devolved regions have their own culture secretaries).

Into a Cabinet stuffed with posh toffs does David Cameron promote someone white and working class?

No, he chooses a BME token.

I am coming to the conclusion that David Cameron is a dud.

I am dangerously close to saying Piss Off David Cameron, I am getting tired of you and your antics.

The Tibetan Prime Minister in exile

Interview with the Tibetan Prime Minister in exile:  http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/interview-lobsang-sangay/

"India has done the most for Tibetans, in fact more than any other country."

"You do know who Beyoncé is, don't you!"

"Yes, she's the one with the fat legs."

Stephen Castle seems fascinated by the nuances of the apology

Are the New York Times readers really bothered about the resignation of a government minister most British people have not heard of?

This article by Stephen Castle seems fascinated by the nuances of the apology and its ramifications:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/world/europe/british-culture-secretary-quits-amid-uproar-over-expenses.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

Perhaps the outside world thinks it is just some comedy episode from the pages of Trollope's The Prime Minister.

New Culture Secretary

Let's hope that the new Culture Secretary will drop all the multi-cultural crap from the First World War centenary plans.

We are only one year away from the General Election

On the Today programme this morning (when discussing Prime Minister's Questions with Michael Gove) John Humphrys said "David" instead of Ed Miliband when referring to the Leader of the Opposition.

We are only one year away from the General Election.

If Ed Miliband still has not managed to differentiate himself, even in the minds of extremely experienced commentators such as John Humphrys, what hope does he have of registering with the electorate?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj9z

The Guardian needs to get some new writers

It seems incredible that Zoe Williams is trying to rehabilitate Tony Blair:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/tony-blair-labour-pride-war-criminal-iraq?CMP=twt_gu

It's like saying:

Pol Pot did a Very Bad Thing but y'know deep down he believed in equality.

Or:

Stalin may have carried out rather too many purges but don't forget he left some fine architectural monuments (if you like socialist wedding-cake buildings).

Or:

Reinhard Heydrich went a bit far with the genocide thing, but he was a sensitive violin player and expert skier.

But perhaps Zoe Williams just ran out of ideas for her column and chose the most provocative subject she could think of to try to fill the gap.

Perhaps the Guardian needs to get some new writers.

Lies, whitewash and false perceptions

There is rather a flaw in the credibility of this Talk For Change report by Jo Broadwood with Nicola Sugden, Barry Navarro, Lucy Holdaway, Phil Champain and Hen Wilkinson:  http://www.talkforachange.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/UntoldStories_Report_WEB.pdf

The organisations listed are:

• community organisations
• local authorities
• national charities
• police
• universities / colleges / schools
• health authority
• housing organisations
• local elected members
• fire service

These are all organisations in receipt of public money.

Under the terms of the Equality Act 2010 all organisations receiving public money have a legal duty to promote a positive view of "diversity".

Therefore nothing negative will ever be reported by any of these organisations and the Talk For Change report is just lies, whitewash and false perceptions.

If were to be controlled by Russia again would that be a disaster?

Ukraine was controlled by Russia until 1991 and the United Kingdom was not adversely affected by the experience.

If were to be controlled by Russia again would that be a disaster?

Not for us I think.

David Aaronovitch seems worked up about it, but this reflects the immigrant past of his family not the genuine interests of the rest of us.

Don't try to drag us into another war Mr Aaronovitch - after Iraq and Afghanistan no-one is interested.

The experience of being a Roma person

In this article about the experience of being a Roma person there is absolutely no reference to the United Kingdom:  http://pipopotamus.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/international-romani-day-and-why-this.html

Presumably to this Roma person the United Kingdom ("home" to the rest of us) is just a host on which he feels entitled to feed.

And he wonders why he and his fellow Roma are rejected.

Ed Miliband proposes devolving power

There seems to be some confusion about who Ed Miliband proposes devolving power down to:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/04/miliband-shows-his-hand-english-devolution

If it is to "regions" then the idea will be stillborn.

There is no regional identity and loyalty in England.

"Regions" are artificial fix-it scams by politicians hoping to divide and rule.

Outside cities loyalty on a local level is to the county.  Devolve power down to the counties (and historic sub-counties in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire).  And don't tell me Rutland is too small - economies of scale are not everything.

Nach bhfuil tú fáilte romhat Mr Higgins

Let me just put on record that this blog is not welcoming the visit today to the United Kingdom of the President of the Irish Republic (Eire) Michael D. Higgins.

Not one welcome to you Mr Higgins.

Nach bhfuil tú fáilte romhat Mr Higgins.

You and the rest of your murderous republican compatriots can fuck off.

This article by Jill Rutter is interesting:  http://www.leftfootforward.org/2014/04/economic-arguments-will-not-persuade-a-sceptical-public-about-the-merits-of-immigration/

I look forward to reading her book.

Shame on you Andrew Gwynne MP

Andrew Gwynne MP hi-jacking the First World War centenary to push his own highly partisan views on multi-culturalism:  http://andrewgwynne.co.uk/2014/04/02/gwynne-blog-marking-wwi/

Mr Gwynne tells us:  "World War One was also an important landmark in our multicultural history. More than 1.2 million people from across the Commonwealth served in the British war effort, including soldiers from India, the West Indies, Australia and Canada. This underlines the importance of all children learning about the shared history of multi-ethnic Britain."

The implication is that the BME voting-fodder that helps Andrew Gwynne's Labour Party are descended from the same BME people who participated (for various reasons and motives, most of them mercenary) in the First World War.

As Hugh Muir (himself a BME person) has noted, after the First World War all BME people in the British Isles were deported:  http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/02/immigration-lessons-first-world-war

Shame on you Andrew Gwynne MP for using the sacrifice of British soldiers in the Great War to further your own political campaign.

The coverage of the Oscar Pistorius trial

Having listened to the PM programme on BBC Radio 4 in my opinion the coverage of the Oscar Pistorius trial is becoming uncomfortably voyeuristic.

Do we really need to listen to someone so distressed they are close to tears?

Is this level of sensationalism appropriate for the BBC?

George Osborne is right to emphasise (as he has just done via Twitter) the importance of exports to Brazil.

The pictures from the Royal Visit to New Zealand appear to show the weather as blustery and overcast.

The near-naked Maori warriors look cold.

Only 103 affordable homes?

The new designs for Battersea are ghastly and repeat all the usual mistakes:  http://www.building.co.uk/news/gehry-and-foster-unveil-battersea-power-station-designs/5067733.article

Are we supposed to believe that the pristine white structures that look as if they are from the promonade of some Mediterranean water-front are going to appear like that when put up in sarf London?

And what lack of originality in the rip-off wavy block of apartments - an architectural cliche.

And only 103 affordable homes?

A frisson of unconscious racism in Hugh Muir's column about Bruce Springsteen

Do I detect a frisson of unconscious racism in Hugh Muir's column about Bruce Springsteen today:  http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/06/bruce-springsteen-trevor-phillips-cluster-ghetto

Probably to BME people all whitey folks look the same, but surely Mr Muir cannot have avoided noticing that Bruce Springsteen is an American.

His music, and the culture he refers to through that music, is American not English.

Therefore the argument that whitey folks are "clustering" around other whitey folks because they are white entirely falls down.

Those English people going to a Bruce Springsteen concert are sampling another culture, not clustering around their own.

You are an idiot Mr Muir.

Angela Merkel indulged in cartographic diplomacy

German Chancellor Angela Merkel indulged in cartographic diplomacy in giving to the Chinese leader an 18th century map of China that does not show Tibet:  http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/04/01/merkel_map_message_china

Art deco block of flats at Princes Gate Mews

Beautiful 1938 art deco block of flats at Princes Gate Mews designed by Adie, Button and Partners who also designed the incredible Charters at Sunninghill (since spoiled and mutilated).

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild

Have just finished reading King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild.

It's a history of the Congo Free State.  Almost everything in this book was new to me, and I finished it feeling I had really learned something.  The author is sometimes hectoring, and labours points rather unnecessarily, but it is packed with detail.

It is most interesting as a case study on how colonialism operates (an extreme form of colonialism, but it is often through extremes that you can see things most clearly).

Next time you admire the architecture of Ostend (which is genuinely admirable) you might ponder that it was paid for by the proceeds of the most devastating cruelty.

At one point Adam Hochschild quotes Hilaire Belloc's verse:

Whatever happens, we have got 
The Maxim Gun and they have not

Substitute nuclear bomb for Maxim Gun and you can see that the West still assumes hegemony over the developing world.

Article by Robert Mendick and Eileen Fairweather in the Sunday Telegraph

In this article by Robert Mendick and Eileen Fairweather in the Sunday Telegraph Margaret Hodge MP says that she was culpable of "shameful naivety" over Jimmy Savile's behaviour in Islington care homes during the period she was helping to run the borough:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/10747257/Margaret-Hodge-sorry-as-council-she-led-told-to-investigate-Savile-abuse-allegations.html

However the left might not have been so naive as they now pretend.

Consider this clip from Til Death Us Do Part, a controversial comedy drama of the 1960s and 1970s:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yv4Nmrwtg4

In this episode Alf Garnett, a grotesque caricature of an East End working class Tory, describes Jimmy Savile as an evil "middle-aged peroxide albino clunk-click ponce".

It is important to remember when watching this clip you are not supposed to be agreeing with Alf, you are meant to be laughing at him for his dated bigoted views ("yer wogs and yer coons" the character also says in this episode, to the outrage of the younger generation).

So when leftie author Johnny Speight makes his character attack Jimmy Savile you are meant to feel sympathy for Savile.

Naive? 

Or a cover-up?

Collecting and listing documents - the past week at work

Monday

It is now so mild I can take my cup of coffee into the garden to see what new plants are coming up - the Morning Glory almost double in size.


At the office Matthew P from Head Office was already there carrying out "an investigation".  Brief feelings of panic until I realised it was not me he was investigating.  I talked to him for two hours and gave him as much information as I dared.

Tuesday

I am in a position where unless I find myself things to do I would sit at my desk and do nothing.  And yet Matthew P yesterday pointedly told me my work is noticed and valued.  Almost all of the morning I replied to personal e-mails.

A lot of the afternoon I spent collecting and listing documents for Matthew P, adding my comments.

Wednesday

I went to London today specifically to take the documents to Matthew P (hand delivering them).

My cover for the visit was a very flimsy meeting with Dannielle E in Publications.  Unexpectedly she asked me if I would do some freelance writing for her, which was flattering.  I also talked to James B who leaves at the end of this week.

Leaving Head Office I went for a walk, glad to be in London again.

Thursday

The heating was off so that everyone in the office felt very very cold and everyone complained.

Most of the day I worked on a new presentation.

Martin H, a new person in finance, showed me pictures of his family. 

Friday

I worked at home.  Frequent 'phone calls from Alec Nussbaum.  There is a certain vulnerability to his plans.

Rivers of blood

Seeing this article in today's Guardian one cannot avoid thinking Enoch Powell was right.

There are rivers of blood in the United Kingdom where no rivers flowed before.

It is difficult to see how Maria Miller can stay on.

It's not just the expenses thing.

The support just isn't there.

Ever-perceptive

On Dateline London earlier today the ever-perceptive Michael Goldfarb said:  "Nationalism is becoming the ism of the moment".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b040tmsd

Laurie Penny writes how "white men" are crowding out minorities in the media

Right-on lefty provocateur Laurie Penny writes how "white men" are crowding out minorities in the media:  http://www.newstatesman.com/media/2014/04/where-are-real-outsiders-new-media

And yet she forgets to mention that she comes from a comfy middle class background (born in trendy Islington!) and went to a private school and then Oxbridge.

Her mouth is so stuffed with silver spoons it's a wonder she can speak.

And yet she claims that "white men" are oppressing her.

The vast majority of white men in the United Kingdom, like the vast majority of white women, have no common cause with people like Laurie Penny.

Ms Penny is a beneficiary of the current bias in the media, not a victim.

We need more working class men and women in the media, not Oxbridge types pretending they are one with the workers.

The Crimson Field

The new BBC drama The Crimson Field starts this Sunday:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01vftgb

These people are not our friends

The 65th anniversary today of the founding of NATO:  https://history.blog.gov.uk/2014/04/04/whats-the-context-4-april-1949-the-signature-of-the-north-atlantic-treaty/

Let us not be starry-eyed about the north Atlantic alliance.

It was a strategic move to ensure that any future world war between the USA and the Soviet Union was not fought on American territory.

The United Kingdom benefited from NATO, and in the end the bluff won, but we took a big risk for fifty years or so.

Which is why I am not keen on the assurances being given to Ukraine and the guarantees being given to the Baltic states.

These people are not our friends - you only have to look at what their politicans say about the United Kingdom when we try to stop them dumping their unemployed people on us.

Joel Benjamin writing for the Fabian Society

I'm afraid this argument by Joel Benjamin writing for the Fabian Society is a non-starter:  http://www.fabians.org.uk/local-councils-could-lose-millions-if-our-banks-fail-again/

If local councils set up their own banks they will have boards stuffed with local bigwigs and apparatchiks.

And inevitably the Reverend Flowers factor will start to operate and absolute power will corrupt absolutely (there is no power more absolute than in a clique that runs a small organisation).

As someone born into a working class family from the East End (my father was a welder, my mother did dozens of low paid jobs but mostly kitchen assistant and cleaner) I know that there is no organisation more corrupt and filled with people out for themselves than organisations claiming to be serving others - and that goes from the Labour party and national trade unions down to small co-operatives and council run institutions.

The market-driven model of society might be harsh and uncaring, but it is relatively clean and you can see the workings for yourself and adapt yourself to them.

The toffs and aristos might be arrogant and obnoxious, but generally they ignore the lower classes, and sometimes under noblesse oblige will make a clumsy attempt to help them.

The socialists on the other hand actively prey on working people - lying to them to get votes, fleecing them of their money (in dues and taxes), bullying them to conform with crazy ideological conceptions of what humanity should look like.

Which is why I am a Conservative - for the workers it's the least bad option.

New Left Project article about Hungary

As Carl Rowlands points out in this New Left Project article about Hungary, the domestic politics of other EU states are not compatible with democratic accountability:  http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/hungary_goes_to_the_polls_as_the_walls_close_in

Are we really expected to share citizenship with these people?

Are we really allowing these politicians, through qualified majority voting, to decide EU policies that apply to the United Kingdom?

Are we going to drag these people up, or are they going to drag us down?

Freedom

I tend to work at home most Fridays on a project so secret even I do not fully know what it is all about.

But anyway, I watched Daily Politics at lunchtime.

Not convinced by the segmentation applied to people unhappy about the EU.

If you are going to do this sort of segmentation you have to use the labels that people self-identify with, not stick labels on people from a great height.

Question 1:  should EU states have a right to secede?

Question 2: would you feel more free in a United Kingdom outside the EU?

Question 3:  do you want to feel free and in control of the laws that govern your life?

As soon as you portray the argument in terms of freedom vs non-freedom perceptions start to change.

Freedom is an intoxicating idea.

The erroneous assumption that the rest of the EU is a united monolithic bloc

Article by Mats Persson on the Daily Telegraph website about possible problems with the United Kingdom leaving the EU:  http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/matspersson/100026967/leaving-the-eu-how-article-50-could-make-the-divorce-very-tricky-for-britain/

This makes the erroneous assumption that the rest of the EU is a united monolithic bloc, whereas in fact significant numbers of people (perhaps a majority) across the EU want to be free of the dictatorial ensnarement they currently find themselves in.

Where the United Kingdom leads others will follow.

Article in American Anthropologist magazine about "Latins" and immigration into the USA

Interesting article in American Anthropologist magazine about "Latins" and immigration into the USA:  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aman.12069/full?dmmsmid=83956&dmmspid=18410101&dmmsuid=2220345

Authors are Arlene Dávila (guest editor), Leith Mullings, Renato Rosaldo, Luis F. B. Plascencia, Leo R. Chavez, Rocío Magaña, Gilberto Rosas, Ana Aparicio, Lourdes Gutiérrez Nájera, Patricia Zavella, Alyshia Gálvez and Jonathan D. Rosa.

Of course, immigration into the United States is different to immigration into the United Kingdom.  In America there seems to be broad acceptance that they are all immigrants in various ways.  In the four nations of the United Kingdom most of the population is autochthonous and immigrants have only arrived in large numbers since 1945 (moving here without the consent of the majority).

However it does seem that no discussion is taking place in America around the issue of family size.

If one culture is characterised by large family units and many children, and another culture is characterised by nuclear family units and two children or less, is it realistic to expect harmony when the two cultures are forced together?  Is it moral to allow one culture to outperform another culture in terms of population growth?  Or is this social Darwinism the inevitable result of globalisation which has been decided a social "good"?

When it comes to immigration who has the right to say "no"?

Crimea

Google maps still shows Crimea as part of Ukraine - I wonder how long before they come under pressure from the Russians.

Grantham Museum:  http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2014/04/helen-goral-next-week-grantham-museum-will-celebrate-and-commemorate-the-towns-greatest-daughter.html

Also note that Kesteven and Grantham Girls School has received listed building status as a result of its historic interest.

Statement by Nic Dakin MP on the centenary of the First World War:  http://www.nicdakin.com/worldwar1.html

I will try to go to the For King and Country exhibition at the North Lincolnshire Museum.

Today is World Autism Awareness Day - I think the main thing to be aware of is that we are all located at some point on the autistic spectrum.

The Royal Mail privatisation was all about ideology

John Elledge is absolutely right in this article in the New Statesman, the Royal Mail privatisation was all about ideology:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/04/royal-mail-underselling-shows-was-privatisation-through-ideology-not-pragmatism

But the ideology was not right wing vs left wing (the previous Labour government wanted privatisation).

The ideology was European and related to EU competition policy which bans state subsidies (and state ownership) of all kinds.

John Elledge needs to be looking at inter-state EU meetings of senior civil servants where these decisions are being worked out.

Call the bluff of prospective asylum seekers

Australian best practice perhaps sets a benchmark we can follow - call the bluff of prospective asylum seekers by putting them in a place where safety is the main consideration, not sociability and economic potential:  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/02/asylum-seekers-fail-prevent-transfer?CMP=soc_568

Article by Andy McSmith in the Independent

Slightly confused imagery used by Len McClusky in this article by Andy McSmith in the Independent:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/unite-union-boss-len-mccluskey-threatens-to-launch-party-to-rival-labour-9231266.html

Mr McClusky talks of "a socialist Valhalla" forgetting that Valhalla was a kingdom of the dead.

Even so, the article is worth reading - plunge the left in Britain into its biggest crisis for 33 years... Mr McCluskey revealed that he and Mr Miliband rarely speak to one another... We are at a stage in politics where just bumbling along in the old ways is not going to happen any more...

Poland

Can I suggest that the EU redirects all prospective asylum seekers to secure accommodation in Poland?

They can then be processed and evaluated and if their case is accepted they can be given temporary visas to stay in Poland (and only Poland) until their home countries have sorted themselves out.

We know Poland has the room as millions of Poles have moved over here - there must be huge amounts of surplus housing in Poland.

According to this map almost no-one is pushing their way into Poland, so if prospective asylum seekers are happy to be directed to Poland we will know that they are probably genuine:  http://jplusplus.cartodb.com/viz/60956ce4-9f98-11e3-b9ed-0e49973114de/embed_map?title=false&description=false&search=false&shareable=true&cartodb_logo=false&layer_selector=false&legends=false&scrollwheel=true&fullscreen=true&sublayer_options=1&sql=&zoom=4&center_lat=38.89103282648846&center_lon=19.599609375&utm_content=buffer03d94&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Transnistria

Credit where it is due, Paul Mason's report from Transnistria on Channel 4 News this evening was genuinely interesting.

However one could tell that Paul Mason was mentally salivating over the still-revered Transnistrian symbols of Soviet communism, the camera lingering lovingly over a statue of Vladimir Lenin.

Tibet

Another self-immolation in Tibet? http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/nun-03312014140052.html

This is completely unacceptable.

And I am not happy about reports that Nepal is harassing Tibetans due to pressure from China:  http://multimedia.hrw.org/distribute/nwpkasbhfl

Fortieth anniversary

As the Labour History Group points out, today is the fortieth anniversary of the disastrous reorganisation of local government in 1974:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Government_Act_1972

Do not underestimate the loyalty that people feel towards their county - even if they have recently moved into an area.

As a Unionist I regard Scottish and Welsh nationalism as deplorable (Irish nationalism in Northern Ireland is equally despicable, but for different reasons, and different solutions need to apply).

The easiest way to remove the electoral threat posed by the SNP and Plaid Cymru is to use the power of devolution against them.  Devolve new powers down to county level (perhaps like the canton system in Switzerland).  The emotional loyalty people feel to their county will counteract the tinny nationalist prancing that goes on in Edinburgh and Cardiff.

A quiet exercise in asset-stripping

As Royal Mail is under the spotlight at the moment, perhaps it would be interesting to look at the sell-off of prestige post office properties (stuffing the counters into the back of local shops as a compensation).

There is a quiet exercise in asset-stripping going on.

Did Vince Cable insist that if Royal Mail property was sold off a proportion of the sale would be returned to the taxpayer?

Full employment

You cannot have full employment unless you close the labour market.

As Jeremy Paxman pointed out on Newsnight yesterday, if you have an increasing demand for labour and an unrestricted supply of labour from overseas (better trained because the British education system has failed so abysmally; better motivated since they are coming from places they are often desperate to leave behind; willing to accept lower pay and conditions) all that will happen is that whoosh the jobs all go to foreigners.  

Michael Meacher MP in this article for Left Futures is right

Although it pains we to say this, Michael Meacher MP in this article for Left Futures is right to pour scorn on the idea that only floating voters in marginal seats decide elections:  http://www.leftfutures.org/2014/04/wheres-labours-strategy-for-working-class-voters/

The idea that only marginals matter is a faddish idea imported from America.  It has never had any real validity here.  And even in America the strategy is immoral, since it ignores the majority and gives undue attention (bribes even) to slender majorities in each of the swing states.

How many times does it need to be said, the United Kingdom is not the United States.

In America there are huge distances and distinct cultural differences between different states.  You can make one sort of promise in Wyoming, and a different sort of promise in Rhode Island, and the one does not impact on the other.  Here the population is much more networked and inter-connected.  National elections can and should be won with national campaigns that swing the marginals with them.  If you start splitting the marginals off and just targeting small clusters of people in those marginals not only does the strategy risk failure (since those small clusters know and talk to people outside their constituency) even if by a fluke you win the election you have no moral authority.  The idea that elections are won in the marginals is an intellectual conceit that places too much power in the hands of fixers and dissemblers and psephological know-it-alls bigging themselves up.

Yes opinion formers are important, but at the end of the day the people must decide.

It also pains me to quote Ted, but he was also right when he said governments should be "at the service of all the people – the whole nation".

Balkanisation

In defiance of  Kwame Nkrumah (quoting Kobina Sekyi) I have come to the conclusion that the only long-term solution for Africa is the balkanisation of that continent.  Only when each ethnicity has achieved the self-respect of self-determination will they be able to enter into voluntary co-operation with their neighbours.  The current lines on the map are imperial conceptions of who the Africans are, and impose impossible demands and limitations on the aspirations of the ordinary people.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/28/libya-poised-retake-oil-ports-rebels-split-country?CMP=twt_gu

Democracy

Faultless reasoning by Stefan Stern on the LabourList website:  http://labourlist.org/2014/03/government-of-the-people-by-the-people/

If the people want a policy the people must have it.

If the people do not want a policy it must not be forced on them.

Are we really at a point where politicians need basic lessons in democracy?

And so we go on with the present unsatisfactory system

Fascinating look on the Left Futures website of the managerialist impulse within political parties (using the Labour Party as a case study):  http://www.leftfutures.org/2014/03/labours-significant-divide-between-renewal-and-decay/

The Conservative Party has solved the mangerialist problem by accumulating all decision-making power at the centre and relying on media advertising to win elections.  There are still local associations but they do not do anything, still less do they influence policy.  Eventually this high-handed usurpation will come to grief, but things seem to be jogging along well enough at the moment and will see the party through the 2015 election.

Labour has gone in the opposite direction - factionalism, fractionalism, fatuous febrile fumbling.  In part this stems from the party's origins in the non-conformist religious tradition.  They cannot help free-thinking, it is fundamental to who they are and what they do (you could offer the collective Labour Party an immaculate version of the socialist New Jerusalem, ready to implement and all tied up with a ribbon, and they would still pick holes in it and say it needed more ramps for the disabled and health & safety restrictions on the nirvana experience).

The only long-term answer for both parties is a return to mass membership (and please don't say this is not possible - it absolutely is possible).

Unfortunately the Labour leadership will not countenance mass membership as it will change dramatically the Labour Party they love.  The Conservative leadership will not agree to mass membership as it will take power out of their own hands.  And so we go on with the present unsatisfactory system, waiting for...

The stick

Reading this Hugh Muir column, it seems that he has come to the conclusion that many of us came to a long long time ago - "diversity" is not working:  http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/31/ed-vaizey-altruism-not-enough-achieve-diversity

It cannot work as it is a policy that does not have democratic consent.

Politicians could, of course, gain democratic consent any time they like simply by asking the electorate to vote whether they want "diversity" or not.

But they choose not to do this.

One is reminded of the Abraham Lincoln saying about not being able to fool all of the people all of the time.

On his Twitter site Hugh Muir tells us the solution is "less carrot much more stick".

Which is of course the usual behaviour of anti-democratic apologists who want their pet policies imposed on the people without democratic consultation.

You should be careful Mr Muir that the stick is not used against you, as most people in the United Kingdom do not like being pushed around.

Rev

The BBC2 comedy series Rev was mentioned by a bishop on Rdio 4's Thought For The Day this morning.

Euan Ferguson, writing in yesterday's Observer, unwittingly identified what is wrong with the comedy-drama when he wrote:  "at his heart is not so much a crisis of faith but the full and faithful knowledge that God does not exist other than to provide the wages".

Rev is unconvincing because it is about clergy who do not believe in God.  

Which means we are essentially watching a comedy about social workers, and not very good ones.

Regular churchgoers will spot this immediately.  

The rest of the laity will think this is what the Church of England is all about - The Office in frocks for men.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/mar/29/rev-mammon-the-great-british-sewing-bee-television-review

Article by Jamie Doward in today's Observer, interviewing Georgiana Sale

Completely uncritical full-page article by Jamie Doward in today's Observer, interviewing Georgiana Sale Head Teacher at City of Leeds School.

Ms Sale comes across as an unbearable self-righteous prig (the smugness of the accompanying portrait photograph!).

"I feel truly blessed" Ms Sale tells us, "There is a richness about this school.  Multiculturalism is a real asset, something to celebrate."

I am sure we are happy that Ms Sale feels "blessed" by multiculturalism.

But the fact remains that under the Equality Act she is not legally able to say anything different.

Which means she is just spouting propaganda and the article is entirely worthless.

You should be ashamed of yourself Mr Doward for submitting garbage like this.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/30/city-of-leeds-school-english-as-second-language

The pace of cultural integration

Analysis of the Census data reveals there has been a move in self-identity from White Irish to White British:  http://www.ethnicity.ac.uk/census/CoDE-Changing-Identities-Census-Briefing.pdf

Does this indicate the pace of cultural integration of migrants - a subject we are all interested in, since the easiest way to solve the problem of immigration would be to assimilate the incomers/interlopers out of cultural existence.

The latest Elyar Fox video for A Billion Girls (due for release 13th April) shows Elyar Afshari performing in front of a giant Union Jack.  No reference to anything Azerbaijani.  Will other Eastern European communities follow this example? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egRlSfS8XxY

Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society

The arrival of the latest volume of Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society always tends to put me out of action for a couple of days.

This one has a fascinating study of medieval warren lodges.

I think I will drive over to Thetford soon and look at the warren lodge there.

Crimean Memorial Church

Recently at the Victoria & Albert Museum I looked round the Empire Builders exhibition - architectural drawings of British architects working overseas including the legendary Crimean Memorial Church in Istanbul by William Burgess.

I would love to see this church - the interior is by GE Street.

The church needs £130,000 for repairs - you can send donations to the Diocese in Europe Board of Finance, FCO Istanbul, King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH.

Louis MacNeice

I always have a book of poetry I am working my way through, reading one poem (or perhaps just part of a poem) a day.

I have just finished The Burning Perch by Louis MacNeice.

On the whole I found his work a bit bleak.

Memoranda to Horace and Charon and Réchauffé.

Funnily enough, at the same time I was reading Louis MacNeice I came across a reference to him in Simon Raven's Feathers of Death.  This tells you all you need to know about the sort of people who read this poet.  Lefty, cosmopolitan (we would say multicultural), sexually er... ambiguous.

 At the same time as I am writing this blogpost I am listening and half-watching the excellent documentary on BBC Four about Ivor Gurney.

Tensions - the past week at work

Monday

Responses to the mailshot have come in steadily, and I spent the morning analysing them and writing a briefing paper.

Tuesday

Tensions between the Reading Room staff (Gary and Matthew) and the Research team led by Abi Reed.  Abi wanted to look through the locked filing cabinets.  I would quite like to look through them myself.

Wednesday

A confidential meeting with a small group of volunteers who want to carry out a particular campaign.  I told them they should have more confidence.  One has to take risks sometimes. 

Thursday

A quiet day.  I talked to Deputy Director Marcia Walsh about the mess Head Office seemed to be in.  She revealed the Institute had received a big donation from a London dentist.

Friday

Another day spent working at home on Alec Nussbaum’s project.  He always rings me just after 9, presumably to check whether I am working or not.  My task is to produce scenarios and come up with ideas and angles.

Lord Howell needs to take a walk along Dallow Road in Luton if he wants to see what "nasty" looks like:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2591558/Immigration-clampdown-making-Britain-nasty-warns-George-Osbornes-father-law-Lord-Howell.html

The growing bibliography

Interesting review of the growing bibliography associated with the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War:  http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21599798-first-world-war-was-defining-event-20th-century-thousands-books-have

The author (who does not seem to be identified on the webpage) tells us that "When the war ended suddenly, after the extraordinary “100 days” offensive that culminated in the armistice of November 1918, it was greeted as victory."  It was indubitably a great British victory.  And that victory should be celebrated (celebrated with all due solemnity, but celebrated nonetheless) in November 2018 - preparations need to start now to plan this victory celebration on a scale commensurate with sacrifice that was made.

Also I was interested in the mention of William Philpott's Bloody Victory which describes how the Somme became the turning point of the war - more attention needs to be paid to the significance of this battle.

Roma migration into Sheffield

On the Today programme this morning the main report, immediately after the eight o'clock news, looked at Roma migration into Sheffield.

Later an organisation called Stand Up To Racism (sic) tweeted that the BBC was "whipping up hostility to Roma people" and urging their followers to complain to the BBC.

I listened to the report on the Today programme and far from whipping up hostility the BBC actually gave a voice to the voiceless.  John Humphrys was on a street in Sheffield interviewing an official from a diversity-awareness organisation who was blandly repeating the usual pro-immigration platitudes.  In the middle of this interview (which was in one of the areas affected by the immigration) a group of ordinary people came up and intruded into the discussion, insisting that the diversity-awareness official was not telling the truth.

The diversity-awareness official turned to these people and in a lordly way told them "you will be able to speak later" (basically she was saying shut the fuck up).

To his great credit John Humphrys allowed the people to give their side of the story and many valuable insights were gained that otherwise would have been suppressed.

We know that the pro-immigration lobby operates on the basis of lies and bullying (screaming "racist racist racist" at anyone who tries to discuss the subject) but seldom has such a blatant example come to light.

All credit to the BBC for managing this so well.

Was it really necessary for Channel 4 News to film Michael Crick live in the dark and the pouring rain?

Are we supposed to think he is standing outside Preston Crown Court all night in case there is some dramatic new development?

Would it not have been more sensible for him to have been filmed in a nearby hotel?

The Farage-Clegg debate

I did not watch much of the Farage-Clegg debate yesterday, mainly because I felt I already knew what each would say.

I did however see the "read the small print" gaffe, which I thought Nick Clegg got out of quite cleverly and quickly, although not without damage.

Sunder Katwala reviews the debate on the openDemocracy website:  http://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/sunder-katwala/cleggfarage-debate

Mr Katwala says in his article:  "When Ipsos MORI confronted survey participants, who had significantly  overestimated the proportion of migrants in Britain, with the ‘real’ figures the two most popular responses were: ‘I still don't believe it’ and ‘those are the people you know about’. ('I was just guessing' was much less common)."

Here one sees one of the dividing lines between the pro and anti immigration camps.

When Sunder Katwala says "migrant" he means very recent arrivals.

When others (indeed, I would say the majority of people) say "migrant" they mean members of migrant communities who have arrived since the Second World War.

There is no more mortifying experience than being forced to apologise to someone you despise - especially if they have behaved just as badly as you have.

A fatuous discussion about "the Midlands"

Also on the Today programme this morning a fatuous discussion about "the Midlands" and how no-one knows anything about the area.

Does this not prove the lack of any popular allegiance to the EU's carve up of England into artificial regions?

In this wilfully stupid radio conversation no mention of the Saxon treasures recently discovered near Litchfield, beautiful and significant relics of the ancient Midlands kingdom of Mercia.

And more up-to-date, no mention that the greatest Prime Minister of the post-war period came from the Midlands town of Grantham and throughout her life preserved in her philosophy the views and opinions of the people of that area, and took those principles to the very heart of government and world affairs.

And why have on the programme a multicultural writer of doggerel instead of the great Midlands poet Geoffrey Hill - possibly our greatest living poet.

There needs to be a clear-out at the top of Sport England

On the Today programme this morning there was a report on how Sport England was cutting funding to football (a working class game) supposedly on the grounds that "grassroots participation" targets had not been achieved (this is usually code for diversity and multiculturalism outreach projects).

There needs to be a clear-out at the top of Sport England.  Almost all the senior officials at the quango were Labour appointees.  They will go on pursuing the policies of the Blair-Brown until they are given their marching orders.

I have no intention of watching this video by the glutinously-voiced Stephen Fry.

I find that watching Stephen Fry makes me feel as if I have just been crawled over by a giant snail.

Ugh!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/stephen-frys-humanist-secret-of-happiness-is-the-best-thing-youll-watch-today-9214536.html

There is always that moment when playing office politics that you light the blue touch-paper and just before you retire immediately there is always that risk it is going to blow up in your face.

Alma mater

I see from this list from Luton Borough Council that my alma mater (I use the Latin ironically) Icknield High School is "partially open" - which means it is partially closed due to striking teachers:  http://www.luton.gov.uk/news/Pages/Teachers%27-strike---school-closures.aspx

If salaries at schools were decided by a vote of the alumni I'm afraid the staff at Icknield High School would end up owing me money.

Dreary dull-as-ditchwater deadwood.

Since the Second World War house price inflation has averaged 7% per year

Channel 4 News had a report that showed Chancellor George Osborne at a bingo club in Cardiff in their bulletin tonight:  http://www.channel4.com/news/

They also reported that inflation has fallen to 1.7%, much to the chagrin of the Labour Party.

Low inflation means it is less likely that interest rates will go up, which is good news.

Andrew Sparrow reports that house prices in the United Kingdom as a whole are an average of 6.8% http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2014/mar/25/harriet-harman-says-labour-making-steady-progress-politics-live-blog?commentpage=1#block-53314ef4e4b038e10603ca01

This should not be of any real concern.

Since the Second World War house price inflation has averaged 7% per year (with peaks and troughs, but overall it remains a steady and consistent 7%).

Rev on BBC2

Disappointed by the return of Rev on BBC 2 last night.

When you cut a rubber tree the rubber does not gush out, it seeps out slowly, dribble by dribble until there is a sticky mass of gunge that is unmanageable unless collected into a bucket.

This is how I felt about Rev.

The political correctness seeped out and seeped out until the characters were not believable and the situations entirely artificial and the conversations so anodyne they were silly.

Article by Luke Akehurst for LabourList

The Labour in-fighting is back on again in this article by Luke Akehurst for LabourList:  http://labourlist.org/2014/03/why-yesterdays-letter-to-the-guardian-was-a-mistake/

"I am not happy that the letter attempts to rehabilitate Neal Lawson and his faction" says Mr Akehurst.

Oh how I have missed the factionalism. 

Perhaps it never went away, but was always there covered over by a Milibandite gloss (Milibandite would be a good name for a clear gloss lacquer - the sort that dries hard and inflexible and produces hairline cracks in thousands).

Books in prison

As someone who is helping (through my taxes) to pay for the books in prison, can I ask that no-one is considered for parole until they have read all of Trollope?

And the punishment cells are equipped with Sebastian Faulks and the poetry of Benjamin Zephaniah.

And no-one is sent out into the world without a copy of The Waning of the Moyen Âge by Huizinga.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/reality-check/2014/mar/25/books-banned-prisons-justice-secretary?CMP=twt_gu

Mr Field is MP for Westminster and the City

Conservative MP Mark Field is arguing for an appeasement policy towards immigration according to this article by Matthew Holehouse in the Daily Telegraph:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10721797/Tories-make-ethnic-minority-voters-feel-like-they-are-a-mistake-MP-says.html

The appeasement argument is well-known.  Just go with the flow and everything will turn out fine.  Never mind democracy, we the elite (Mr Field is MP for Westminster and the City) will make the best we can of the difficult situation.

Appeasement as a policy never works.  Feeding the monster of immigration will only make the monster more hungry.  One only has to look at America where uncontrolled immigration has made the Republican Party unelectable (to whoops of delight from the left in this country).

There are times, Mr Field, when you have to confront people, and tell them to back off.

If you can't do this to the pro-immigration lobby then you are no use to us.

Flight MH370

The tragedy of Flight MH370 has concluded with the realisation that the missing airplane crashed into the southern Indian ocean.

Already the drama is passing into mythology, as this esoteric article by India Ross in the New Statesman indicates:  http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/03/lost-passengers-flight-mh370-why-modern-world-can%E2%80%99t-cope-missing-people (although it does not seem to have occurred to India Ross that most of the world's population will not have access to the digital social media she talks of so the all-pervasive argument falls a bit flat).

Presumably the crazies will soon start talking about Flight MH370 passing through a hole in the Antarctic and into the hollow centre of the earth where clones of Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Madam Blavatsky are already examining it through the magical power of vril.

One of the more frivolous aspects of the narrative has been the gushing reaction around the world to the appearance of Flight Lieutenant Russell Adams, who led a search for the missing aircraft http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-australian-pilot-russell-adams-internet-sensation-1441581 (the attention is supposed to have irritated Flt Lt Adams and also provoked disdainful comments about lack of respect by David Sim and other journalists).

Having had Flt Lt Adams brought into focus, one cannot help noticing his lack of ear lobes.

According to a study in the Harvard Business Review lack of ear lobes can indicate leadership potential, although another study reveals that individuals who lack ear lobes also have hairy ears and translocation in chromosome number 22 (whatever that means):  http://bioinfopublication.org/files/articles/4_2_1_IJMCR.pdf 

This article in the Daily Telegraph about aborted babies being burned as rubbish utterly disgusts me:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10717566/Aborted-babies-incinerated-to-heat-UK-hospitals.html

It is fashionable for atheists to regard the scriptures as meaningless twaddle, but reading this article I was reminded of the Canaanites passing babies "through the fire" as a sacrifice to Moloch.

One of the desperate proles queuing for three hours

Oddly worded "tweet" from Kevin Maguire (Daily Mirror).

Has Kevin Maguire been dismissed from his comfy well-paid job in the political-media elite (with attendant appearances on This Week, Press Preview etc) and is now seeking employment at Aldi?

The "we" implies that he is one of the desperate proles queuing for three hours in the hope of being noticed and accepted by a not very caring employer.

In reality, he is trying to avoid using the same wording as the Conservative bingo and beer advertisement last week.

Which is worse?

Those who openly acknowledge there is a gulf between the political-media elite and the ordinary people?

Or those who pretend they are one of the workers while all the time enjoying their covert status as a pseudo-toff?

Stinking hypocrisy Mr Maguire.

What would Frederick Engels make of this?

https://twitter.com/Kevin_Maguire

They are simply surrendering

I do not condone the Russian invasion and occupation of Crimea, and I join those calling for a Russian withdrawal.

Nevertheless one cannot help but be struck by the supine acquiescence of the Ukrainian armed forces.

One would expect them to put up some resistance, even if just a little.

Are the Ukrainian forces in the Crimea fighting the Russians on the seas and oceans?

Are they fighting with growing confidence and growing strength in the air?

Are they defending the (almost) island of Crimea, whatever the cost may be?

Are they fighting on the beaches?

Are they fighting on the landing grounds?

Are they fighting in the fields and in the streets?

Are they fighting in the hills?

No, they are not.

They are simply surrendering.

Ukrainians, if you do not defend your country you cannot expect anyone else to do it for you.

Having just watched Martin Amis I thought it was rubbish.

And obviously very cheap television.

It reminded me of those Grumpy Old Men television programmes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumpy_Old_Men_%28TV_series%29 ).

The new Tobias Hill novel What Was Promised

Review in last week's Observer of the new Tobias Hill novel What Was Promised.

Written by Stephanie Merritt, the review makes the novel sound interesting, and she describes him as "one of the outstanding writers of his generation".

However I would advise caution.

Recently I read Tobias Hill's novel The Hidden.

It was a pot boiler.  Everything thriller cliche he could think of seemed to be put in the mix and over-cooked to a mush.  The idea of a secret band of terrorists working as archaeologists was silly and completely unconvincing. 

Which was a shame, as there were many parts of The Hidden that were excellent - so much so that I would guess Tobias Hill had worked himself at an archaeological excavation in Greece and had written a brilliant diary of his experience and then ruined it by stuffing in all sorts of Da Vinci Code nonsense.

Great War in Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

The Great War in Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

Rather too crowded.

Painting of Siegfried Sassoon, the equine profile emerging from the surrounding browns and greys.

An RAMC Stretcher Bearer by Gilbert Rogers - an ordinary man given heroic treatment.

Gassed and Wounded by Eric Kennington - the injured soldiers lying together intimately.

Major JB McCudden by William Orpen - impressionistic fresh face, the eyes cooly unimpressed.

General Sir Herbert C. O. Plummer by William Orpen - boiled face, imperial moustache, terse air of practicality.

A room with portraits of three emperors - the British King-Emperor in red, the German All Highest in black, the Austro-Hungarian KuK Emperor in white.

In the wall of photographs some of the faces (Albert Ball for instance) looked completely modern.


http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/firstworldwarcentenary/exhibition.php

Are all the rumours true? - the past week at work

Monday

Like most Monday mornings, the first couple of hours seems to be spent dealing with e-mails.  Some excellent pictures had arrived over the weekend.  I dropped them into a Powerpoint presentation.

I also worked on the Operation Plan for tomorrow's meeting.

Tuesday

A day spent at Head Office.

As soon as I arrived Danielle from Publications rushed up very excited about praise (from the highest level) for a publication I had done most of the writing for.

On an upper floor I met Ashish Sharma and he offered me a job in the Birmingham office (he had to get additional funding for the post - "I said you were invaluable").

I made a non-committal reply, but privately I made up my mind not to accept the post unless I could work from home.

Between meetings (of such banality I can hardly remember what they were about) I went for a walk to think about the job offer - Beech Street, the battered grandeur of Long Lane, Farringdon Street with its little courts and alleys, finally to the bridge and the grey rushing water of the Thames.

When I had hesitated Ashish Sharma had said I might not have much choice.  Does this imply that the Institute is moving back to London?  Are all the rumours true?

Wednesday

An e-mail from Danielle with the praise (names redacted) for the publication.  The praise was extensive.  Annoyingly it was sent to me in confidence, so I am unable to distribute it.

In a discussion with Deputy Director Marcia Walsh I caught her lying, which was a satisfying moment.

Thursday

A day on confidential work.  So confidential that Alec Nussbaum told me to work at home.  Working at home meant I hardly got anything done and just lazed about.

Friday

A photoshoot in the Reading Room downstairs.  I managed this, which allowed me to appear busy without actually doing anything.  The photos are for a mysterious "prospectus" that Alec Nussbaum is working on.

Stephen Kinnock has become Labour's candidate for Aberavon - the parliamentary Labour party is well on the way to becoming an hereditary caste.

The front page of the Guardian has a focus on the statins controversy.

No mention that the Chinese health system prescribes red rice yeast to reduce cholesterol - why do we not see the NHS researching this alternative instead of always (ALWAYS) opting for medicines from pharmaceutical companies that have no interest in putting forward a medicine they cannot patent and control and charge premium prices for.

It seems ridiculous that I have far more readers in America than the United Kingdom (it's about double). 

I am very concerned about live export of farm animals:  http://www.ciwf.org.uk/donate/pages/uk_live_exports_2.aspx?utm_campaign=transport&utm_source=welcomeemail&utm_medium=email

A Very British Renaissance

Enjoyed watching A Very British Renaissance which has just finished on BBC2.

Dr Jame Fox is a perfect presenter - knowledgeable but never showing off.

Not sure I agreed with all his conclusions (I thought England remained a chivalric society until at least the Civil War).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2014/12/very-british-renaissance-ep2.html

Boxing

Boxing seems everywhere at the moment.

Tommy Coyle retained the IBF International lightweight title last month.

Tony Parsons made an intriguing documentary on boxing that was broadcast earlier this week:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03ympq6/The_Culture_Show_Tony_Parsons_The_Art_of_Boxing/

Foster the People's new song Coming Of Age (which has a 1980s feel to it) features boxing in the video (made by BRTHR):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBqzrj18S2w