Ian Jack on the commemoration of the First World War

Article in Saturday's Guardian by Ian Jack on the commemoration of the First World War:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/13/century-first-world-war-narratives?CMP=twt_gu

In the article he writes "the wonder is that an official narrative still exists".

Anyone who is in any doubt about this narrative simply has to look at the words carved on the Cenotaph - The Glorious Dead - honoured by the nation each November (and broadcast live on national television).

No amount of mischief-making contrarian history by the late Alan Clark, or miserablist hand-wringing by lefties afraid of the power of national sacrifice, or simple ignorance by younger generations failed by a dumbed-down education system is going to alter that fact.

The British dead of the Great War are glorious (and that includes three members of my own family).

In a way, I think that was what Ian Jack was also trying to say in his article although he seemed to feel obligated to provide a counter-point of anecdotes about Clydeside socialists.

We could have lost that war, but we didn't.  We won it because of the glorious dead.  That is the narrative, and that is what we are commemorating.

Is it not amusing to see our enemies feting the Lord Ashcroft research in marginal seats.

Are they really so naive?

Perhaps they think Lord Ashcroft is doing them a favour, that it is all impartial, that they are being given the full story.

The muse came to me - the past week at work

Monday

The weather has become cold, and driving to work I noticed the pedestrians were all wearing coats.

Lots of people in the office today, so that there was a lot of noise.

All the day I worked on the Resource Pack which is to go out to supporters (we are giving it away free, although the unit cost is quite expensive). 

Gavin (assistant in the Reading Room) back from holiday, complaining about running out of money in the last couple of days and having to scrounge to get enough to eat (in Ibiza).

Tuesday

More work on the Resource Pack including briefing the designer (Joey). 

A request for marketing assistance from Peter Whitgift at our Birmingham office.  I found this interesting since rumours indicate that the Birmingham office is to be cut adrift from the Institute.  Or perhaps it is the Institute that is being cut adrift?

Wednesday

Everyone in the office seemed to be idle today.  Callum Smith (Director) is a poor leader.  Others seem to have noticed this, and there are hints that he may be replaced.

A meeting in the afternoon with Tim Watts (Innovation) to look at research on the impact of technology on society.

Then I had to write an article for a magazine very specialist and low circulation so that I had not given it priority until it was pointed out to me that Alec Nussbaum was on the Editorial Board.  The deadline was at 4pm and I began to think I had left things too late.  But as I worked the muse came to me and it was all done in time.

Thursday

All of the day spent on interviews.  It has been quite a while since I have done a full day of face to face research.  There is no substitute for this - it makes your arguments unassailable.

Friday

The morning spent dealing with amendments to the Resources Pack (it is a joint project with Head Office, so lots of people have to see the drafts and all of them want to put their mark on it).

Tensions between Finance and Admin that almost became an open row.

"Lost" clip from the horror film The Wicker Man:  http://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2013/sep/13/wicker-man-lost-clip-video

I think a lot of the creepiness of the film is due to the 1970s decor, clothes, hairstyles etc.

Whenever I see the '70s in film and photographs I shudder involuntarily.

I'm sorry to see that Melanie Phillips is leaving the Daily Mail.

An interesting and original writer capable of very profound analysis.

Even if you do not agree with her on a particular issue, she would always make you think.

The idea that MPs should use public money to employ their relatives absolutely stinks

The problem with MPs employing their relatives (as highlighted on the Today programme this morning) is that the recruitment process cannot be open and transparent.

As MPs are spending public money on these employees they must not employ their relatives.

Imagine an NHS surgeon who insisted on his/her operating team being relatives.  Who insisted that they were the best people for the job for no other reason than because he/she said so.  Imagine the anaesthetist on that team justifying her employment because she lives with the surgeon and so they they can adjust to the odd hours surgeons are required to work.

You would run a mile from such a surgeon!

Imagine a teacher who insisted that classroom assistants and relief staff were all relatives.  Imagine one of those classroom assistants telling us they didn't feel they had to justify their employment because they had been employed over thirty years ago and anyway they had to work somewhere.  Imagine the teacher justifying these employment relationships because they can talk about work in the evenings and on the commute to work.

Such a teacher would rightly get a boot up his/her backside.

The idea that MPs should use public money to employ their relatives absolutely stinks.

Where are the open and transparent recruitment processes?  Where are the annual appraisals?  Where are the regular audit surveys that assure us that public money is being expended in the best possible way?

The idea that MPs should use public money to employ their relatives absolutely stinks.

More job opportunities for women

The ending of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme is good news for feminism.

Of course the farmers and large-scale agri-business operations will complain.  Over the last decade they have had via agencies an endless supply of immigrant field workers who are compliant, undemanding and easily disposable.  From an employer's perspective what's not to like?

Now the farmers will have to recruit seasonal workers locally.  They will have to rebuild their networks, make sure the recruits are reasonably well cared for, even (shrieks from the farmers) pay them a bit more.  The result will be villages that are more socially cohesive, where more money is kept in the local economy, where there are more job opportunities for local people.

Not least more job opportunities for women, since seasonal agricultural work was traditionally taken up by women supplementing their household income with part-time and temporary seasonal jobs.  With the introduction of the agency system supplying cheapo immigrants these local jobs for women almost totally disappeared.  The impact on the rural economy has been devastating.

No doubt desk-bound townies will chunter on about these not being desirable jobs for women.  And as things stand they would be right - agency staff are treated appallingly.  But the work itself is quite pleasant - as a child in Norfolk I joined neighbours in picking carrots for two summers and completely enjoyed it (everyone was in the open air each day, everyone got to know everyone else, even ten-year-old children like myself could earn the going rate for each sack of carrots picked).

And the ending of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme will mean the relationship between employer and employee will have to change. 

At the moment, if a farmer does not like a bolshie immigrant field worker he/she can just say to the agency "I don't want that person back" and the worker simply disappears.  With local people that is less easy, even if they are recruited via the gang system.  If the farmer in Elm Tree Farm upsets one of the workers on his fields he will have to live with the consequences as that worker probably lives in the row of cottages in Elm Tree Lane and her husband drinks at The Elms pub and her kid sister works at the Elm Stores and Off-Licence. 

You can be a bad employer in the anonymity of the city.  You can be a bad employer when you are using cheapo throwaway immigrant labour.  You can't be a bad employer when everyone knows who you are and where you live, and your children go to the local school, and your wife uses the local hairdresser etc.

More:  http://news.migrationwatch.org.uk/

The far land is ethereal and translucent

Driving between appointments this afternoon I had to stop the car and look at the landscape.

It was an entrancing vision of subtle greys and browns.

The square shapes are straw stacks.

The far land is ethereal and translucent.

I have seldom seen the land look so beautiful.

Auto-renewal scam

Is it not the case that the "auto renewal" of car insurance is a mis-selling scandal?

Unsolicited insurance documents are sent to people with (often in small print) the message "you must tell us if you don't want this" and a ridiculously short window to respond.

The language used is bullying in tone, implying that you are somehow at fault of the law and will be reported to the police if you do not renew.

If by mischance you happen to go over the arbitrary deadline they have designated (in small print) for telling them you do not want the insurance you are charged a cancellation fee of up to £50.

It seems astonishing that the financial services industry (in this case the insurance companies) has not learned its lesson.

This auto-renewal scam needs to be stopped and the insurance companies ordered to pay compensation to those people it has duped into taking out expensive insurance that is not appropriate for their circumstances.

Perhaps Louise Ellman MP and the Transport Select Committee could look at this?

Raquel Rolnik

Deposit left by a passing horse.

This reminded me of the witterings of United Nations "Investigator" Raquel Rolnik.

The mistake Suzanne Moore makes in this article about class for the Guardian is in assuming that "working-class" equates a "collective" ideology (ie lefty to Labour supporting).

The working-class has always contained a very substantial number of Tory voters.

The trade unions have always contained a very substantial number of Tory voters.

Mrs Thatcher's vast majorities in the 1980s would not have been possible without working class support.

Indeed, Margaret Thatcher is an example of a party being swept to power by the working class, exactly in the way that Suzanne Moore yearns for.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/11/what-happened-to-class-action

When William Came by Saki (HH Munro)

I have just finished reading When William Came by Saki (HH Munro).

The novel was written in 1913 and predicts a war between the United Kingdom and Germany which the Germans win.  The prediction of a blitzkrieg subjugation of a great power in only a few weeks was astonishingly accurate, except that it happened to France in 1940 rather than to us in 1914.  The book deals with the aftermath of such an invasion and the choices faced by the population:  exile, resistance, or collaboration.

The book was written by Saki to warn of the military build-up in Germany and the necessity for the United Kingdom to prepare for it ("Beat your sword into a ploughshare if you like, but beat your enemy into smithereens first"). 

Sake is also concerned about the issues of degeneracy in the population ("the natural transition of the unathletic boy into the podgy unhealthy-looking man...") and effeminacy ("One gets tired of everything, said Plarsey with a fat little sigh of resignation, I can't tell you how tired I am of Rubenstein and one day I suppose I shall be tired of Mozart and violette de Parme and rosewood.  I never thought it possible that I could ever tire of jonquils, and now I simply won't have one in the house...")

The United Kingdom is jeered at as a nation of shopkeepers that is no longer a nation.

Foreigners are everywhere, and without a fight seem to have taken over the country.

A few pockets of resistance remain, and there is a vivid description of Torywood, a great country house where the old allegiances are still maintained.

HH Munro died fighting in the First World War, and it is interesting to speculate how he would have developed as a writer had he lived.  He believed in the cause he was fighting and he died for it.  We should respect his beliefs (and those of many thousands of other casualties who thought the same) and not trivialise their experience with rubbish interpretations of history such as Wipers Times and Chickens.

Rape

Commenting on this article in the Guardian Bidisha tells us:  "Nearly quarter of men in Asia-Pacific admit to committing rape".

What happens to these people if they migrate to the United Kingdom?

Do they remain rapists, or do they become infused with liberal sensitivity and reform their ways?

Given that the 2011 census tells us there are over four million south Asians in the United Kingdom, and given that this survey indicates a quarter of them will have committed rape, is it possible that we have imported a million rapists into the country?

Who is responsible for this? (I mean who exactly - names of politicians and civil servants and facilitators).

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/10/asia-pacific-rape-survey?CMP=twt_gu

What a disappointing TUC conference this is proving to be.

Ed Miliband's speech so discrete it qualifies for a boring-snoring award from Newsnight.

There's been no booing.

And ASLEF have withdrawn their motion to expel (and presumably disembowel) the thinktank Progress.

Is no-one going to be denounced?

Are there to be no show-trials?

Have all the ice picks been banned by Health & Safety regulations?

When I read that Bidesha had welcomed the Booker Short List as "stunning" and "diverse" I'm afraid the thought went through my mind:  what politically correct crap is being served up to us now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24029748

Cogent analysis of the US-UK-EU nexus by Ted Bromund:  http://www.cps.org.uk/blog/q/date/2013/09/10/where-the-syria-vote-and-obama-s-eu-advocacy-meet/

So much rain the bucket is overflowing.

The clinging moss is refreshed.

The dry earth is doused freely.

The left-wing hierarchy of ologies

The Voice has this article on the experiences of the LGBT community in Jamaica, which includes oppression, attacks and murder:  http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/protesters-call-jamaica-improve-record-gay-rights

British Caribbean-heritage LGBT campaigners are calling on Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller to take action.

Have Diane Abbott MP and Lady Doreen Lawrence, both members of the British legislature, added their voices to this campaign?

Perhaps Independent journalist and gay rights campaigner Owen Jones can intervene with these two leading Jamaican-heritage women and persuade them to do something? 

He must know Ms Abbott and Lady Lawrence quite well as all three of them went to Venezuela together as official elections observers. 

Or perhaps these two women are not interested in the rights of their fellow Jamaican LGBT people?

In the left-wing hierarchy of ologies does race "liberation" trump sexual orientation "liberation"?

To paraphrase Enoch Powell, does the black heterosexual man have the whip hand over the Jamaican-heritage LGBT community?

This article in the Express by Patrick O'Flynn is alarming:  http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/patrick-o-flynn/427562/The-floodgates-are-back-open

The renegotiations with the EU will have to include the ending of the automatic right of entry to the United Kingdom.

Otherwise we must leave the EU.

Dr. David Wilkinson FRAS, Principal of St. John's College, University of Durham

Dr David Wilkinson FRAS, Principal of St. John's College, University of Durham used Thought for the Day on the Today programme to talk about the Lindisfarne Gospels as a symbol of identity based on diversity (Celtic, Roman and Anglo-Saxon art intertwined).

Cultural synthesis is one way of defining a national identity.

However British identity has always been defined primarily as relating to a society based upon democracy.

Take away democracy and British national identity becomes just a sham and a mish mash of tropes.

Therefore the challenge faced by the advocates of "vibrant diversity" is how do you square the "vibrantly diverse" national identity you champion with the fundamental British national identity of a society committed to democracy?

Because majority opinion has always opposed immigration (and opposed it by a big margin).

You can either have diversity or you can have democracy, but you can't have both (not while public opinion continues to be opposed to immigration).

Unless Dr Wilkinson you intend to join the large number of public figures telling lies on this subject.

Sunflower harvest

The annual sunflower harvest is underway in the county.  I found these towering but spindly examples on the edge of a field.  I think they had been left because the flowers were too small.

Potted sunflowers decorating the church porch before morning service.  Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are an American plant, brought to England in the 16th century as part of the bounty (and booty) of the New World.  Basically they are giant daisies.

Did you know William Blake wrote a poem about the sunflower? 

Modernist sensibility

The influence of hedonistic post-Great War modernist sensibility can be seen in the new video for Reconnected's Time of Our Lives, to be released in October.

No idea who the director is, but it was filmed in Ibiza.

Presumably at the same sub-Bauhaus villa that Lady Gaga used for her equally hedonistic video for Poker Face.

Obviously Pugin would tell you (if he were able to) that gothic is the only moral form of architecture.

Marina Warner in this week's Times Literary Supplement

Review by Marina Warner in this week's Times Literary Supplement of Edith Hall's new book on the cultural history of Iphegenia in Tauris.

Like everything by Marina Warner, it is worth reading several times.

I know this is 2013.

Nevertheless I was surprised (I nearly said shocked, but that would not be the right word) to see the BBC presenter at the Last Night of the Proms in an evening dress with bare shoulders.

Lord Reith would have made her wear a stole.

Involving Head Office in an investigation - the past week at work

Monday

Since Callum Smith became Director there seems to be less and less for me to do.  And looking about the office others also appear to be scrabbling about to look busy.  But perhaps it is just the long summer that has created this lull in activity.

The server down again, so no e-mails came into my In-box today.

At last I got to grips with a powerpoint presentation, and although it took most of the day to do I was pleased with the result.

Publication proofs to check in the afternoon.

Marcia Walsh (Deputy Director) unexpectedly absent, so that everyone wondered where she was until late afternoon and she rang Katie in accounts and true to her reputation as the office gossip Katie blurted out to everyone what had happened:  "Marcia's daughter split up with her boyfriend in a big row in the street last night and the police were called and Marcia was arrested!"

Tuesday

For some reason I woke up at 4 am and could not get back to sleep properly, so by the time I get to the office I was already weary and wanting an easy day.

One of the aspects of not having any major campaigns at the moment is that many staff do not have enough to do, and so a low-level bickering emerges.

Encouraging signs of activity on the internet shop - sales of publications are up.

I took the afternoon as holiday and drove to see a client I do freelance work for occasionally.  

Wednesday

It was not terribly warm in the office when I arrived, and I wondered when the heating will be turned on.

Callum Smith was in today, so things seemed busier, but although I like him a lot I am forced to concede that he is not a leader.  Vijay Singh was impossible to work with, but at least he knew what he wanted to do.  Callum Smith just seems to wait for orders from Alec Nussbaum.

In the afternoon I sent out an e-mail campaign.  Normally we do these through Head Office, but this one was so sensitive that Callum Smith asked me to do it personally.  I used DotMailer, taking ages to work out how to use it.

Thursday

Beautiful fog, like rippling sheets of white silk hanging across the landscape, the sun behind the fog making it glisten.

Pleased that an article I have written has appeared in a magazine we have long wanted to get into.

A visit from security personnel which was unusual as the office address is supposed to be confidential.

Friday

An attack on the Institute's computers, not it seems a very sophisticated one.  Callum Smith just wanted everything put right, but Marcia Walsh insisted on involving Head Office in an investigation.  "It was launched on the 9th" she told us.

I borrowed a laptop and wrote letters (we can't send e-mails until the investigation has been completed).

Gary (Library Room assistant) on holiday and nobody had thought to buy the newspapers, so I walked across to the little parade and got them.  And the rest of the day consisted of reading newspapers.  When 5 o'clock arrived I was one of the first to leave.

Congratulations to Tony Abbott.

Your victory is our victory.

This is no longer an internal Labour party matter

Are we able to celebrate the Unite union's "vindication" in the Falkirk debacle?

I'm afraid not.

Not until the report has been published.

Otherwise we only have the Labour party's assurances that there was no jiggery pokery.

"We the Labour party have looked into the behaviour of the Labour party and have concluded that the Labour party is entirely innocent".

Doesn't quite ring true does it.

This is no longer an internal Labour party matter.  Not only have journalists been called fascists and prospective parliamentary candidates accused of sleeping their way to the top.  The police have been called in to investigate - and this expenditure of public money makes it a legitimate matter of concern to us all.

And also is it not a question of trust among those people who aspire to be our political masters?

For all it's comical ineptitude and bad-tempered name calling the Falkirk incident is, as it stands, a form of cover-up.

There is no whitewash at the Falkirk Constituency Labour Party, we are being told.

I am not a crook, Len McClusky seems to be telling us.

Fine.

Prove it.

Publish the report.

Otherwise you risk going into the 2015 election with the Richard Nixon Endorsement for open and transparent government.

http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/2013/09/falkirk 

The US did not "join in" until December 1941

President Obama is wrong to say when London was being bombed in the war the US joined in even though it was unpopular with the US population.

When London was being bombed in the Second World War the American ambassador in London, Joseph Kennedy, was sending back messages saying England was finished.

The US did not "join in" until December 1941, well after the Blitz was over.

We should not forget these things.

Inspiring

As a mild isolationist I was very cheered by this article in the Daily Express quoting Economic Secretary Sajid Javid:  http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/427357/Leaving-the-EU-is-nothing-to-be-afraid-of-minister-says

Also I enjoyed the front cover of this week's New Statesman.

I suppose they mean it as a rebuke but I find the image quite inspiring. 

In the left-wing hierarchy of ologies does multi-culturalism trump feminism?

After seeing the devastating report on female genital mutilation on Newsnight yesterday and earlier in the week I feel bound to re-ask the question:  in the left-wing hierarchy of ologies does multi-culturalism trump feminism?

Rape of young women is a heinous crime, except apparently when carried out by gangs of "vibrantly diverse" men in which case it can go on for years without much notice being taken.

Abortion on the grounds of sex selection is illegal except that doctors aborting female embryos (for no other reason than they are female) are not prosecuted. 

Female genital mutilation (which is apparently carried out on tiny children without anesthetic) is in theory illegal in the United Kingdom but in practice it is widespread and no-one in the criminal justice system much cares.

Of course lefty feminists will tell you that both multi-culturalism and feminism are equally valid and complementary and we need both to be truly "liberated".  In reality this is a load of hogwash.  Through the ideology of vibrantly diverse multiculturalism the United Kingdom is importing new forms of female oppression - and in any dispute multiculturalism will always trump feminism.

Self-important twerp

I used to think David Aaronovitch was a self-important twerp (in a newspaper seemingly staffed by self-important twerps).

Then I read this harsh article in today's Times and realised he is much nastier.

As a Conservative obviously I like to see lefties fall out with each other, but I think we are all demeaned by this sort of character attack.

David Aaronovitch was interviewed on Channel 4 News about half an hour ago and his body language was terrible. 

He could not hold the interviewer's eye but kept looking down and sideways as if he was deeply ashamed of himself.

I am very concerned at what is happening in Sinai and the impact on St Catherine's monastery.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/st-catherine-shutdown-monastery-sinai-unrest.html

UK growth is on track to outstrip rest of Europe

The Guardian is no friend of the Coalition government, so when even they are saying the economy is recovering we should pay attention:  "Strong services data signals UK growth is on track to outstrip rest of Europe.  PMI survey's all-sector reading hits 15-year high, with order books growing at fastest pace since Tony Blair became PM."  http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/sep/04/strong-services-pmi-uk-growth-europe

Happy days are here again, as the song goes.

The skies above are clear again.

The Labour Party's sunk again.

Happy days are here again.

Do issues of race trump issues of feminism

The Today programme this morning discussed the gender abortion story:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23968107

Personally I think all abortion is wrong, and therefore the idea of killing embryos according to gender is no different to killing them according to race or disability or latent sexual orientation or eye-colour or whether the dna suggests they might have dimples or not.

It's all equally disgusting.

But let us for a moment try to enter the mind of pro-abortion lefties and try to understand what hierarchy they are putting on the legal murder of embryos.

Do issues of race trump issues of feminism (for instance is it OK to kill girl embryos even though this is clearly discriminatory against women)?

Do issues of feminism trump race (for instance is it OK to ban immigrant communities from practising their vibrant multi-culturalism if it means killing girl embryos)?

Does the current option of abortion according to lifestyle choice (killing embryos because they are inconvenient to the mother) lend itself to facilitate the killing of embryos according to gender (for instance, can a vibrantly diverse mother kill her all her girl embryos, one after the other, by simply asserting that continuing with the pregnancies would cause injury to her mental health)?

182,000 abortions were funded by the NHS in 2011 (latest figures I can find) therefore we have a right to know what on earth our money is being used for.

When is the government going to do something about "auto renewal" of car insurance polices?

Is this not inertia selling, which I understood to be illegal.

Zurich car insurance is a practitioner of this kind of sharp practice, and is ENTIRELY unhelpful when you try to discuss the issue.

Basically the insurance companies are saying "we will steal money from you unless you specifically tell us not to".

Luckily I managed to cancel the direct debit before any money left my account, but how many people have fallen victim to this scam?

Ref http://www.confused.com/car-insurance/articles/car-insurance-auto-renewals-your-rights

The immigrant experience by Mamata Nanda on the Huffington Post website

Rather self-satisfied account of the immigrant experience by Mamata Nanda on the Huffington Post website:  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mamata-nanda/british-jobs-for-british-_b_3777231.html

"In 1960s and 70s, many young highly qualified science and engineering graduates came from India in search of a job. They were welcome then" says Mamata Nanda.

Welcomed by whom may I ask?

Who exactly welcomed you to the United Kingdom and facilitated your employment here?

It certainly was not the general population who have always opposed, by a considerable majority, the arrival of the post-war immigrants.

Is it not a disgrace that democracy has been set aside to allow your sojourn here?

Are you not a tiny bit ashamed of yourself Mamata Nanda to push yourself into someone's home when you are clearly not wanted or welcome?

And would it be an unreasonable question to ask when you intend to leave?

The distillation of Thatcherism

Mitya Pearson does not seem to have done much research in this rather shallow article for Left Foot Forward:  http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/09/the-thatcherite-legacy-is-a-paradoxical-conservative-party/

The distillation of Thatcherism can be summed up in three words - free to choose.

Yes, we urge you to live within your means.  Yes we tell you moderate things are stable (mediocre firma should be written on John Major's gravestone).  Yes we want everyone to stand on their own two feet and support themselves (with a gentle shove for those a little slow in getting off their backside).

But at the end of the day you are free to choose.

You want to lie in bed until midday?  You are free to do this.  Just don't expect others to support you financially.

You want to max out your credit card and run up debts you don't intend to pay back?  You are free, within the law, to do this.  But don't be surprised if you lose your credit rating and institutions stop trusting you.

You want to vote in Labour councils and Labour governments that are totally incontinent when spending other people's money?  You are free to vote these people into office.  Just remember the gleeful note left by Liam Byrne telling us there was no more money left after thirteen years of Labour maladministration - these people will take all your hard-earned taxes, squander them on vanity projects and wasteful fol de rols and then laugh in your face.

There is no paradox in Thatcherism.

At the end of the day we value freedom above everything.

And if (as will happen from time to time) a Labour government comes along and blows out all the candles we will light them up again.


(candle quote from Betjeman).

Message to the GMB union

My message to the GMB union is COME AND JOIN US !

You can have an influence on government policy through the Conservatives just as much as through the Labour party (and let's be frank, they have been moving away from you for about twenty years now).

Conservatives At Work http://www.conservativesatwork.org.uk/

It would be an eye-catching initiative that would radically change the political landscape, rebalance the Conservative party (not that it really needs rebalancing) and bring trade union leaders back into Number 10 complete with beer and sandwiches.

So what if Labour has jilted you.

Affiliate to the Conservative Trade Unionists.

Think how satisfying it would be to slap down all those Blairites who have been tormenting you for years.

The Labour party is never going back to the way it was pre-Blair, so it's time to start thinking imaginatively.

Come and join us!

Owen Jones is not happy about the Lobbying Bill, telling us:  "Government may be forcing their Gagging Bill through, but it is an unacceptable attack on democracy that should be met with non-compliance".

Is "non-compliance" a mealy-mouthed way of encouraging people to break the law?

Is this incitement one wonders?

Perhaps Mr Jones should reword his tweet, or take it down altogether.

Much as I enjoy the theory that a negative vote in the British House of Commons influenced the American administration to "seek consultation" from Congress before a Syrian strike, is it not more likely that President Obama does not really want to get involved in Syria in the first place, and although for form's sake he needs to sound tough (Kerry saying this is a Munich moment) he would actually be quite grateful if the proposals get voted down and he is "forced" by "weak caviling cowards" to do nothing.

As Angela Brazil (that writer of pithy aphorisms disguised as schoolgirl wisdom) once said:  it is pleasant when duty and inclination coincide.

Home thoughts from abroad

Vinnie Jones demonstrates that sometimes you have to go abroad to see British society clearly:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/vinnie-jones-claims-immigration-has-made-england-unrecognisable-and-not-the-country-i-grew-up-in-8795617.html

Home thoughts from abroad, indeed.

Du lieber Gott ! as Rupert Brooke would say.

Update:  and immediately there is a clamour of commentators pointing out the "irony" of Vinnie Jones complaining about immigration into the United Kingdom while living as an immigrant in the United States.

Independent writer Owen Jones actually calls him "thick" for not seeing this supposed irony (perhaps Owen Jones should also call him a chav, since his reaction is obviously an unthinking dismissal of working class thickos like Vinnie Jones daring to have an opinion on issues of the day).

However is it not the case that Vinnie Jones is actually a cultural refugee rather than an immigrant?  He says clearly that he is unable to return to the United Kingdom because the society has changed out of all recognition for him.  His exile is easy of course, and buoyed up by ample money and numerous diversions, but the pain of exile will be just as keen.

And is it not also ironic for Mehdi Hasan and other commentators from immigrant communities to be giving us their lordly opinions on this subject.  Vinnie Jones may be an immigrant in the United States, but he is there with the approval of the majority of the population.  How many post-war immigrants into the United Kingdom can claim the same?

Article by John Stephenson on the Left Foot Forward website

Misinformed article by John Stephenson on the Left Foot Forward website about the Conservative party and "Europe" (by which he means the EU):  http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/09/opinion-the-conservatives-will-live-to-regret-the-eu-referendum/

The Conservative party will not tear itself apart over "Europe" because there is no significant pro-EU faction left in the Conservative party - they have all died, retired or defected to the Lib Dems.

As for David Cameron, he is a self-avowed Euro-sceptic, the only Prime Minister ever to have used the national veto at an EU summit, and has promised a referendum on whether the people wish the United Kingdom to remain part of this out-moded sclerotic elitist geopolitical bloc.

Does that sound like a pro-European to you?

I am confident that when the time comes David Cameron will claim his place in history by extricating the United Kingdom from the EEC-EC-EU gintrap.

Out and into the world.

Rather drab and uninteresting Newsnight yesterday, so that one wonders if the programme has passed it's prime.

Nothing new to say about Syria, and an interminable item on football that went on so long I kept thinking "when is this going to end".

Article by Lord Ashcroft on his recent polling on the subject of immigration

Interesting article by Lord Ashcroft on his recent polling on the subject of immigration:  http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2013/09/from-l.html

He says that "Only a minority of voters thought Britain would have a firmer policy on immigration under a Conservative government rather than a coalition".

However a firm but fair policy would be in the three-point plan to address the issue of immigration without consent:

1  Halt all future immigration unless it has specific consent from the electorate (any party wishing to bring more people into the country to publish the number in their manifesto and not subsequently go over this number without a renewed mandate).

2  Use the tax system to move on economic migrants who are not serious about joining British society - the tax codes to bring down the wages of migrants to the approximate level of the country they have come from.

3  Implement a national policy of assimilation to completely merge all communities within two generations, the assimilation criteria to be linguistic, cultural, economic etc.

As for the argument that it is "impossible" to stop immigration from the EU, note needs to be taken of the events at Westminster last Thursday when an opportunistic party leader was able to channel popular feeling to entirely trash an international relationship.

No British equivalent to Seamus Heaney

Sunder Katwala says that there is/was no British equivalent to Seamus Heaney (he talks of Larkin, so presumably must be including dead poets as well as living ones).

Has Sunder Katwala not heard of Tennyson? (or Geoffrey Hill for that matter).

And in any case this "our poets are better than your poets" bragging seems puerile.

And also I don't much care for Seamus Heaney.

No glass of mine was ever raised to toast an Irish nationalist poet.

Lobbying by charities

A rather disingenuous article by Owen Jones in the Independent claiming that restrictions on lobbying by charities is an attack upon democracy http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/owen-jones-under-the-disguise-of-fixing-lobbying-this-bill-will-crush-democratic-protest-8793224.html

Were charities impartial non-political organisations dedicated solely to the interests of the causes for which they have been registered he might have a point.

However anyone who have had any close contact with charities (as I have had over the years) will realise that most of them are staffed by lefties pursuing politically correct political agendas and only indirectly bothering themselves with the people they are supposed to be helping.

One national charity I worked with engaged in a bitter internal struggle to remove the word "Royal" from their name, wasting weeks of time over the issue and ultimately requiring the junking of all their literature, redoing websites, changing signage etc to reflect the name change.

Recently Save the Children, run by ex-New Labour executives, claimed that the United Kingdom was on a level with the Third World in terms of child starvation.

It would be interesting to take the top 500 charities in the United Kingdom and check the political affiliations of the people who run them.

Dr King advised us

Hugh Muir writes in the Guardian about the 50th anniversary of the Martin Luther King speech saying that it has implications for the United Kingdom http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/sep/01/meaning-martin-luther-king-speech-then-now

Black people in the United Kingdom would dearly love to be American-style black people - with historic grievances, centuries of fighting oppression, a widely admired blues and jazz culture etc.

Gary Younge so desperately wants the validation of being an American-style black person that he has physically relocated himself to America.

However the reality of black people in the United Kingdom is more prosaic.  There is an inscription from the Roman period which might (or might not) indicate one of the Roman garrison was black; there are a few exotic dandies as extras in 18th century paintings; throughout history black sailors have got off ships and spent a few nights at quayside hostels in the dock areas.  But these people are so few they do not register statistically.

The black community in the United Kingdom arrived as economic migrants in the 1950s and 1960s.

Their arrival was against the wishes of the majority, and the on-going subsequent arrival of black and minority ethnic people has been against the wishes of the majority.

Was Dr King only interested in the rights of black people, or were the rights of all people of concern to him?

If the latter, Hugh Muir needs to speculate on what Dr King might say about the way in which the majority of people in the United Kingdom have had their rights taken away in the matter of deciding who they should share their country with.

This is of more than just historic interest.

Given the tendency of BME people to vote Labour, the majority of British people have also had their democratic right to decide their government taken away - they now have to endure an BME veto in many marginal constituencies on deciding who is sent to Westminster.

Dr King advised us that a society built on an injustice cannot endure.  That is the relevance of his legacy to the United Kingdom.  Eventually the BME communities in the United Kingdom will have to apologise for what they have done and make amends to the people they have wronged.

Today I did my bit for the economy by buying a new car.

A difficult day - the past week at work

Monday 

A heap of post and about fifty e-mail messages when I got to my desk today.

James B from Head Office was at the Institute to use the reading room.  He came upstairs to tell me how much he liked some of the publications we have done recently.  Not sure how he got to see them as they were on the controlled circulation list.

Tuesday 

The new IT person started today, Martin H - middle-aged, quiet, curly hair and heavy glasses.

Most of the day I worked on a presentation.

Wednesday

Controversy with overseas contacts, so that an initiative has become stalled.

Thursday 

A difficult day, and I had to abandon all my plans for the afternoon.

Friday

The Institute split between short term expressions of loyalty versus longer term commitment to strategic objectives.

24 hour ban on social media, which I thought a bit high-handed.

He has let David Cameron off the hook

Those commentators who are arguing that the United Kingdom could yet join the Obama strike on Syria are misinterpreting what happened on Thursday.

Ed Miliband led his party through the No lobby not in a demonstration of strength but in a demonstration of weakness.  If he had sided with the Coalition his summer-long metamorphosis into Ramsay MacDonald would have been complete, therefore he had to vote No.  This situation has not changed - he cannot join the Coalition without his party tearing itself apart, and the Coalition government cannot join the Obama strike without Labour's support.

And in many ways he has let David Cameron off the hook.  There was an element of humiliation on Thursday for the Prime Minister, but equally there is not going to be any long term involvement in a bloody intractable war.  The Prime Minister retains the moral high ground ("I wanted to help those children, but Labour blocked me"), whereas Ed Miliband is now a hostage to whatever happens in Syria and every atrocity can (unfairly) be portrayed as "Ed's fault", thus providing an on-going narrative for the more unscrupulous newspapers between now and 2015.

"First they crashed the economy, then they trashed our international standing in the world" the narrative will read.

To paraphase Obama, Miliband has given Assad licence to use chemical weapons.

One could paraphrase the Labour party's position on Syria as:  "a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing".

Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick has resigned as Shadow Minister of State for Transport.

The Syria crisis has the capacity to tear the Labour party apart.

Much will depend on what happens in Syria itself.

A principled and ethical stand on foreign policy?

At last we are beginning to see clear blue water emerging. 

Going into the 2015 election we will be able to say they are pacifist, proto-isolationist, and that they entirely repudiate Blair's foreign policy.

It's probably not possible (at this moment) to call them appeasers, although their former leader did cosy up to Assad, and their current leader is refusing to act against him.

More problematic (because the implications are not entirely clear) is the charge that in a moment of international crisis they refused to stand with the government, thus breaking the convention of consensus over military action.

Are we seeing from the Opposition a principled and ethical stand on foreign policy?  Or has the debate over the past week been a form of regression therapy for the Labour party taking them back to the Iraq debacle and resulting in a form of breakdown in the Labour leadership.  The Shadow Cabinet is not yet a collective whimpering shivering jelly, but there is a risk that they will be portrayed as such.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary Danny Alexander looked shocked on Channel 4 News when Cathy Newman told him that the government had agreed to Labour's demands on the House of Commons vote to authorise the Syria strike.

Presumably they had not expected that.

It shows what a master of tactics the Prime Minister is (this is a classic stoop to conquer device).

Now Ed Miliband will be on the receiving end of the Blairite faction's disquiet and will have to justify his stance (which is counter to Britain's European allies and American allies).

Personally I would rate A Case of Knives by Candia McWilliam as the greatest Scotch novel of the twentieth-century.

http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/film/comment-choose-trainspotting-as-best-scots-novel-1-3063333

A convulsive rejection of all things Blair

There is a risk for Labour in the Syria debate tomorrow - it risks reopening many painful memories about Iraq when the Labour party was in supine abasement to Tony Blair.

Those MPs who have been haunted by their vote in favour of the Iraq war are likely to vote against Syria not on the merits of the Syrian situation but in an attempt to exorcise their responsibility for what happened in Iraq.

That in turn will reawaken the horror at what Tony Blair was allowed to get away with.

Which in turn will exacerbate the current divide between Blairites and non-Blairites and embolden the non-Blairites to reject Blairite policies out of hand in a convulsive rejection of all things Blair.

On the wrong side of Dr King's ethics

Very impassioned article by Lee Jasper on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous speech:  http://blackactivistsrisingagainstcuts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/dr-martin-luther-king-what-happens-to.html

If published in America this article would be very powerful.

In the United Kingdom it does not quite ring true.

Dr King's message to the world was that a society built on an injustice cannot endure.

Post-war immigration is an injustice.  It has always been strenuously opposed by the majority, and therefore has no democratic consent.  Retrospective democratic consent could of course be sought, but so far this has not been done.

Therefore Mr Jasper in the United Kingdom you are on the wrong side of Dr King's ethics.

Required reading for everyone who cares about democracy

Very important briefing paper produced by Migration Watch http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefing-paper/11.29

This must be required reading for everyone who cares about democracy and how it is being manipulated in the United Kingdom by the importing of Commonwealth citizens.

Personally I think these voting rights must be suspended immediately - if someone wants to vote in a British election they should make the effort to acquire British citizenship.

Diane Abbott is making such a soi disant principled stand

I hope I am not being unduly cynical, but is it possible that Diane Abbott is making such a soi disant principled stand over the Syria strike because she thinks she is going to be out of the Shadow Cabinet anyway when it is reshuffled in the next few weeks?

The same thought crossed my mind when she made her pro-immigration speech recently (with UKIP support soaring to 18% in the poll immediately following her speech).

It's almost as if Diane Abbott is saying to Ed Miliband go ahead punk, make my day.

From a realpolitik point of view Ed Miliband is unable to support any military intervention in Syria without alienating a large section of Labour's asian block vote (the Bradford West by-election was both a warning and a humiliation).

We are all in the gutter

It is always satisfying when one lefty journalist attacks another lefty journalist, and even more rewarding when the dispute become intractable and without any prospect of reconciliation.

However I was puzzled to read the latest installment of the feud between Owen Jones (Independent) and Nick Cohen (Observer) http://owenjonesramblings.tumblr.com/post/59475329819/the-smears-of-nick-cohen

What is all this about?

I have to confess I am unable to unpick the arguments which are becoming increasingly impenetrable.

The idea that Nick Cohen and James Bloodworth are "ex-left" is bizarre.  What are they if not left-wing?  They certainly do not resemble any right-wing writers I would recognise.

Nor would they last five minutes in the Conservative party (by mutual repulsion).

And Mr Jones should take note of the sayings of Oscar Wilde - we are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.

Even when the raw data says the effect is negative, the published report will say it is positive

Evan Davis rather gave the game away this morning on the Today programme.

Discussing the report Non-Native Speakers Of English In The Classroom: What Are The Effects On Pupil Performance? by Charlotte Geay, Sandra McNally and Shqiponja Telhaj he said "the raw data is negative but the report says the effects are positive.

Of course the report will say the effects are positive.

Under the Equalities Act there is a statutory duty for every person and every organisation in receipt of public money to promote a positive image of diversity.

So even when the raw data says the effect is negative, the published report will say it is positive.

Lies upon lies upon lies.

http://cee.lse.ac.uk/ceedps/ceedp137.pdf

The desolation of the dunes

To the coast.  Brooding fortification commanding the desolation of the dunes.  Had the Germans been foolish enough to invade the county they would have been thrown back into the sea.

The dunes were formed by a tremendous medieval storm that threw sand over a low range of hills.  The sandy paths through them are like a maze, with towering masses of sea buckthorn.  No-one about apart from once I was passed by two lovers on horses, dogs following behind.

Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria) on the sea buckthorn.  The heat and humidity were intense.  The air seemed to press down heavily on me so that it was an effort to move, an effect accentuated by the experience of walking on sand.

The end of the dunes and the start of the beach, and far out (perhaps a quarter mile in the distance) you can see the North Sea.  Rushing warm wind, humid and not at all refreshing.  I am sure if I had entered the sea it would have been cold but I did not have the energy to walk so far.

Returning to the village I looked at the hall from the road.  Parade of roses leading up to the manor house, the view romantically satisfying.  The house is sixteenth-century, the lack of defensive architecture so close to the coast an indication of how peaceful this area of the county has been, for centuries.

The nearby church dates from Norman times and is grade 1 listed.  Attractive combination of greenstone repaired with mellow red brick on the fourteenth-century tower.  You can see running up the corner of the tower the slit windows of the internal staircase.

The church is no longer used.  Inside I could hear the squeaking of bats, and bat droppings were everywhere.  Looking towards the east, you can see the rood screen in the middle with either side the wooden box structures which are chapels enclosed by parclose screens.

The chancel is notable for these early eighteenth-century communion rails.  Four graves waiting for the end of days.  On the right you can see part of the Norman sedelia.

The chapel on the south side of the church.  An enclosure of this kind was probably a chantry set up by a bequest paying for a chantry priest to offer daily prayers on behalf of the deceased.  This screen dates from the Marian restoration of catholicism, but may well replace more ancient screens removed at the closure of the chantries.

On the floor of the chapel is this brass memorial to a knight, dated 1424.  Image of martial masculinity - lion at his feet, enormous sword on his belt, narrow waist and the v-shaped physique of an athlete.  His name was John - I wonder if his remains are still beneath this stone slab.

His arms are unusual - a lion and a cross.  Does this indicate he was a crusader?  Not sure if this is meant to be an African or an Asiatic lion.

Also in the south chapel is a medieval stone altar and this rare medieval reredos surround (most were destroyed at the Reformation).  Probably an ornate alabaster plaque fitted into the frame.  Possibly it was buried at the time of the Reformation and may yet be uncovered.

The parclose screen around the chapel on the north side of the church.  Again the woodwork is mid-1550s, but perhaps recreating what might have been destroyed in the 1530s.  As well as chantries and family mausoleums, chapels of this kind would also have been used by guilds - semi-religious bodies that served a particular saintly cult, operated as mutual self-help charities for different professions, and raised money for specific purposes.

I was very struck by the carving above the entry to the north chapel which shows the Head of John the Baptist on a plate with two heads either side (perhaps Herod Antipas and Salome).  Veneration of John the Baptist is associated with crusaders.  Is it possible that this chapel was the focus of a guild that raised money for the crusades?

And in one of those strange coincidences that happen so many times, driving through the next village I noticed that the pub was called the Turks Head.  The present building dates from 1821, but may well be a rebuilding of a previous inn going back to medieval times.  Was an actual Turks Head brought back from a crusade as proof that they money raised by the John the Baptist Guild had been spent as purposed? (Guilds would have rituals and services in the chapel and feasts in a local inn).

If there is to be a strike against Syria can we at least know what the objectives are so that we can evaluate afterwards whether they have been achieved?

What exactly is going to happen, how is it going to happen, and what is the desired result?

Toxic atmosphere

Labour "grandee" (grandeza?) Tessa Jowell complains about the toxic atmosphere created by "party elders" in publicly criticising Ed Miliband.

Not sure who wrote the sub-heading "Party elders should have known better" but whoever it was needs to be advised that it is not just elders who are unhappy with the dithering inactivity of the Labour front bench.

Younger Labour activists are also publicly complaining as well as Labour students, gay socialists, trade unionists and women of color (Bonnie Greer actually wrote "wake the fuck up").

And the reason they are speaking in public instead of going through the "usual channels" is that their messages are not getting through the usual channels.

Hypocrites

Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell draws attention to:

"A PEACEFUL PROTEST AGAINST THE BRUTAL MURDER OF JAMAICAN TRANSGENDER DWAYNE JONES IN JAMAICA AND FOR LGBTI RIGHTS IN JAMAICA. THE PROTEST WILL TAKE PLACE ON 28/ AUGUST 2013 STARTING AT 4:30 PM VENUE JAMAICAN EMBASSY IN LONDON 1-2 PRINCE CONSORT ROAD LONDON SW7 2BZ, NEAREST UNDERGROUND SOUTH KENSINGTON STATION CIRCLE AND PICCADILLY LINES DISTRICT
BUSES: NUMBER'S 9, 10, 52, 14, 49 and 74 .
THEREAFTER A VIGIL WILL BE HELD FOR DWAYNE JONES AT 6 PM ORGANISED BY JUSTICE FOR DWAYNE JONES."

Can we expect to see Diane Abbott MP and newly ennobled Doreen Lawrence giving their support to this vigil?

Will Shami Chakrabarti CBE and Liberty be supporting it?

Will Lee Jasper be carrying one of his placards up and down Prince Consort Road?

Thought not.

Hypocrites all of them.

Brisk work

Monday

A lot of my time at the moment is taken up with preparing Conference material, including a series of factsheets.

A Swedish person arrived to meet Director Callum Smith, and I was asked into part of the meeting to discuss joint initiatives.  It was quite time-consuming, especially as Callum Smith left me alone with him for over an hour.  Relief when I could pass him on to someone else.

Almost all the afternoon spent developing a narrative and testing it by asking people to find fault with the reasoning.  I was able to finish it easily and began to send it out with the other briefs.  Callum Smith came to my desk to chat, in a very civilised way, about my work.

Tuesday

When I arrived at my desk and opened up my e-mail I found a long message from Head Office that took a long time to reply to.

Then some brisk work - booking space at an exhibition; ordering reprints of a publication; commissioning some photography.

I am aware that the departure of Vijay Singh has caused some tensions in the office as power has shifted and some old scores are settled.  Happily I am not involved myself.  My policy is to keep out of office politics.

Wednesday

A  day off work (I can't take a whole week because there is so much on - this summer has been very busy).

The great wide landscape that at first sight is empty, but to practised eyes is filled with interest and romance - like an enchantment that hides with a bleak veil the delights of another world.

Thursday

Back at work I drank coffee and dealt with e-mails.  Also a lot of post to deal with.  The office quiet.

Deputy Director Marcia Walsh came to sit opposite me to chat (an unusual occurrence - presumably she now thinks I am worth cultivating).  She talked about Callum Smith getting the Director's job.  There is no doubt that the departure of Vijay Singh has left her isolated.

Friday

Confidential meetings all day - meetings so confidential that I have been threatened if...

I can't see why Ben Affleck should be so admired.

Wooden actor.

One facial expression (perpetual bewilderment).

The multi-cultural experiment has failed?

David Wearing (New Left Project) referring to new Ipsos MORI polling, tells us: "Race relations/immigration seen as bigger issue than unemployment & NHS. Not good for those of us who don't fit in."

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3247/EconomistIpsos-MORI-August-2013-Issues-Index.aspx

Why don't you fit in Mr Waring?

What possible justification can you have for making such a statement?

If, after decades of multiculturalism, someone such as yourself should confess to not fitting in should we not conclude that the multi-cultural experiment has failed?

Under-investment in the railway network

Airily Alastair Darling on the Today programme this morning blamed under-investment in the railway network on the period "following railway privatisation in the 1980s".

Railway privatisation occurred on 1st January 1994.  The period after this date is comprised of three years Conservative government and thirteen years Labour government (a Labour government of lies, incompetence and financial squandering).  Therefore Mr Darling and his Labour colleagues must accept responsibility for the under-investment.

This was strategic under-investment - Labour wanted to undermine the financial viability of the railway companies so that they would falter and become an easy target for state control.

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