British socialism cannot be nationalist

One week after the conclusion of the London 2012 Olympic Games, and a large article appears in today's Observer by Tim Soutphommasane, described by the Guardian as "Ed Miliband's new political guru".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/aug/19/labour-guru-olympics-milband?newsfeed=true

However, I think Tim Soutphommasane misunderstands the socialist culture of large sections of the British Labour Party.  British socialism cannot be nationalist, it is too committed to an internationalist world view.  While the Blairite faction might be persuaded by Tim Soutphommasane, is it likely that activists such as Owen Jones would embrace a policy of nationalism? (throughout the Olympic Games the most partisan statement on his Twitter site was a line saying Yorkshire was doing fairly well in the medals table).

Trip Gabriel and Helene Cooper reporting a Paul Ryan speech in Florida

Also in the New York Times is an article by Trip Gabriel and Helene Cooper reporting a Paul Ryan speech in Florida. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/us/politics/in-defending-medicare-plan-ryan-speaks-on-caregiver-role.html?hp

Earlier on Dateline London (BBC News 24) Gavin Esler said Paul Ryan had "set the campaign alight".

Henry Chu (Los Angeles Times) said Paul Ryan "has very strong intellectual credentials".

Agnes Poirier (Marianne) had nothing to say about Paul Ryan, which reinforced my suspician that she is not a serious journalist.

Zadie Smith's new novel NW

Reading a excerpt of Zadie Smith's new novel NW in the Guardian Review section, there appears to be a chav-hate caricature:  "in the estate a grim girl on the third floor screams Anglo-Saxon at nobody... Fag in hand.  Fleshy, lobster-red... the girl's burnt paunch rests on the balcony... silly fat bitch..."

Very late getting back to the office - the past week at work

Monday

Another visit to Head Office.  The traffic was so bad getting to the mainline train station (about twenty miles from my house) that I realised I would be late.  Once I got to Kings Cross I rushed to the tube.

At Head Office I went into a very large meeting called to discuss internet strategy.  I sat next to Nancy C who was absurdly politically correct.  Afterwards I was asked into a smaller meeting to discuss some of the proposals in detail.

It was a good visit, and I felt as if a lot of progress had been made.

I travelled back to the office on the same train as Accounts Manager and Acting Deputy Director Marcia Walsh - we had a wary conversation that avoided any direct exchange of facts.

At the office I felt as if I had been away for weeks, instead of just the weekend.

Criticism of the Institute has appeared on a website - I wrote a riposte stressing our non-aligned position and impartial standpoint.

In the afternoon a meeting with Marcia Walsh and Institute Director Vijay Singh to discuss the internet strategy.

Tuesday

All the morning I spent writing an article.

I thought about remarks Marcia Walsh had made on the train yesterday.  The IT officer for the Institute, John Johnson, is obviously accessing the computers of managers.  So far he has not been challenged about this.  Marcia Walsh is unsure whether he is just being nosey or is working for someone (Alec Nussbaum!).  As John Johnson is not terribly bright nor particularly discreet I think it is unlikely he is spying on behalf of someone else.  Even so, it is unsettling to think I am being watched.

At lunchtime graphic designer Joey took me to lunch (obviously a bribe to keep giving him work, although he does not need to bribe me, I would give him the work anyway).  We went to an Italian restaurant and had four courses.  Very late getting back to the office - I had been away two and a half hours.

Wednesday

A big tin of Quality Street has appeared on Reception, everyone helping themselves.

John Johnson complaining to Receptionist Kyla about grey hair ("I've got more grey hair than my Dad").  None of his hair looked grey to me.  Kyla looked through his hair like a capuchin monkey grooming a mate.

More criticism of the Institute on two websites.  Vijay Singh worried about who was behind it.  I told him not to worry.

I finally finished the article and e-mailed it to the magazine - I wonder how it will be received.

Thursday

My birthday, and deliberately low-key. 

Friday

I "worked at home" today, a euphemism for another of the Institute's activities.

Intense, but soon done.

Gradually my sense of time and place returned to me.

I felt very tired, and after a cup of coffee the three of us slumped in chairs and waited.

Terrible violence against migrants in India

Report by Jim Yardley on the New York Times website of terrible violence against migrants in India (particularly Assam).

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/18/world/asia/panic-radiates-from-indian-state-of-assam.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

So much for diversity and multi-culturalism.

For some reason the BBC has not reported this story.

Double page

Double page spread in today's Guardian on why Paul Ryan is not going to be an important factor in the American election.

Ewen MacAskill in Washington, Richard Luscombe in Miami, and Ana Marie Cox (located unstated).

The double-page allocation rather undermines their argument.

It's a case of protesting too much (to quote Hamlet).

Not completely sure why I like Paul Ryan, but I like him a lot (even from this distance).

Britannia Unchained — Global Growth and Prosperity

Disappointing article in the Evening Standard reporting five members of Parliament (Kwasi Kwarteng, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, Chris Skidmore and Elizabeth Truss) saying that British people are too lazy compared to workers in third world countries.

You can see the article:  http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tackle-lazy-britain-fellow-tories-tell-david-cameron-8056787.html

Apparently they advance this theory in a book entitled Britannia Unchained — Global Growth and Prosperity.

The logical conclusion of globalisation is that British people will ultimately have to accept third world conditions and salaries or else be unemployed.  The only exception to this is if you can protect your occupation by membership of a closed shop of some kind (MPs for instance).  At the moment unemployment benefits are better than the globalised conditions and salaries on offer for unskilled people, which is why increasing numbers are preferring to take the benefits they are entitled to rather than participate in the humiliating race to the bottom that is currently taking place in the unskilled labour market.

No point in expecting the trade unions to campaign against this as they are ideologically wedded to the idea of unrestricted importation of third world labour.

It is worth pointing out to members of Parliament (all parties) that the globalisation policies of the last twenty years do not have a democratic mandate from the people (I'm disregarding the small print politicians are so fond of pointing to).

Is Mr Dromey not capable of understanding the link

Jack Dromey MP is complaining about the housing crisis ("Day after shock CLG statistics on falling housebuilding").

Is Mr Dromey not capable of understanding the link between the current shortage of affordable housing and the Labour government's policy that allowed migration to boost the United Kingdom's population by several millions during the period 1997 to 2010?

Or does he think the migrants just stay here 9 to 5 and commute back to Poland each evening?

This is the Shadow Minister who intends "to put housing 'centre stage' at next election":  http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/video/2012/jun/11/jack-dromey-labour-shadow-housing-minister-video

Anniversary of the birth of Marcus Garvey in 1887

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Marcus Garvey in 1887.

Some Garvey quotes we should all be able to agree with:

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

The cry is raised all over the world today of Canada for the Canadians, of America for the Americans, of England for the English, of France for the French, of Germany for the Germans - do you think it is unreasonable that we, the Blacks of the world, should raise the cry of Africa for the Africans?

The mighty forces of the world are operating against the non-organized groups of people, who are not ambitious enough to protect their own interests.

We have a beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world.

Nationhood is the highest ideal of all peoples.

The masses make the nation and the race. If the masses are illiterate, that is the judgment passed on the race by those who are critical of its existence.

Slavery is a condition imposed upon individuals or races not sufficiently able to protect or defend themselves, and so long as a race or people expose themselves to the danger of being weak, no one can tell when they will be reduced to slavery. 

There was a statue to Garvey in the now-closed Willesden Green Library

Ian Lavery MP is complaining that 7,394 charities have closed over the last twelve months.

Is it legitimate to ask how many of those charities were genuine social enterprises and how many were just cosy sinecures for Labour activists bunged public money to support them while they carried out New Labour's programme.

Sorry if that sounds cynical.

If I were advising the government on PR I would recommend making school playing fields a Big Society initiative, with voluntary trusts organised and supported to safeguard school sports facilities from short-sighted Head Teachers tempted to sell them off (and I am disappointed that no-one in the Department of Education has emphasised that in almost all cases it is the TEACHERS who have proposed selling particular playing fields, not the government of the day).

"A life not worth living"

Personally I find the idea of assisted suicide disgusting, and I resent the over-emotional way one extreme case is being hyped-up in the media.

Do the apologists in favour of assisted suicide (Suzanne Moore twitter.com/suzanne_moore comes to mind) not stop to think what the logical result is going to be once the official taboo against murder is broken?

Once you accept that there is a standard of "a life not worth living" then you are in a relativist position where that standard can be redefined to suit personal or political expediency.

That is not a society any of us would like to live in.

Paul Ryan is the only candidate on offer, anywhere

In today's Guardian Martin Kettle writes about Paul Ryan in a major article.

Read the article:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/15/paul-ryan-mitt-romney?INTCMP=SRCH

Also see:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/16/paul-ryan-ayn-rand-admirer

Some lines from the Martin Kettle piece:

One out of four presidents has died in office.

...the focused, intelligent and powerful Ryan...

...reduction of income tax to two rates - 10% and 25%.

But I disagree with Martin Kettle that the American election will not have any influence elsewhere in the western world.

I have tried to visualise the electorate (both Britannia and Europa although it is probably the same for America) as a single person and attempt to surmise what that person might say.

The image that returns repeatedly to my mind is Catherine Zeta-Jones as Eustacia Vye on the summit of Egdon Heath crying out: 

“O deliver my heart from this fearful gloom and loneliness; send me a great love from somewhere, else I shall die, truly I shall die.”

The people want a strong and confident leader, and Paul Ryan is the only candidate on offer, anywhere. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyjKOSw_xe0

The wild flowers have changed

I am not at work today - it is my birthday and I am having a quiet day at home.

Earlier, in the peace of the afternoon sunshine, I walked the dogs three miles along an unfrequented lane.

As usual, I looked at the wild flowers on the roadside.

Above:  the banks of the ditches are covered in convulvulus.

Above:  white convulvulus, also known as Field Bindweed.

Above:  convulvulus with a subtle pink stripe.

Above:  clumps of Achillea millifolium or Common Yarrow - the leaves are eaten as a boiled vegetable locally.

Above:  poppies among the corn.

Above:  a large thistle with the mauve flowers just beginning to come out.

Every time I walk along this lane the wild flowers have changed.

It is a reminder of how beautiful the natural world can be.  All this would be at risk if GM crops were allowed to go forward.  And yet this ever-changing show is the free heritage of all of us ("Bell notes alone ring praise of their own, As clear as the weed-waving brook and as evenly flowing").

Headlines just now on BBC News 24 - Julian Assange claiming asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy, followed by news of someone with "locked-in" syndrome.

Racist aside

In an article on the Guardian website today Jon Neale, Director of Research at Jones Lang LaSalle made a racist aside slighting "Little Englanders" and their "cultural preference". 

In his insulting, blinkered and roundabout way he has, perhaps unwittingly, drawn attention to a serious point - traditional family life cannot survive without traditional family homes with gardens.  Cramming families into rabbit-hutch flats leads to inter-family conflict, neurotic behaviour and family breakup.  This is exactly the kind of "churn" in property ownership that estate agents thrive upon, so you cannot expect someone like Jon Neale to be opposed to it.

The article:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2012/aug/15/2011-census-housing-numbers

More about Jones Lang LaSalle, which seems to be the usual predatory real estate company providing services to fat cats:  http://www.joneslanglasalle.co.uk/unitedkingdom/en-gb/Pages/Home.aspx

Why are Labour Members of Parliament fasting for Ramadan?

Have they become Muslims or is it just a cynical ploy to appeal to the block vote?

A new and unexpected development

One rather thinks that Marcus A Roberts, Deputy General Secretary of the left-leaning Fabian Society, is being disingenuous by circulating this comment about Paul Ryan.

If he genuinely believed that the Paul Ryan appointment was "poison" presumably he would be quietly pleased, keep quiet about it, and let the "poison" have its effect.

The fact that he, and left-wing writer Sunny Hundal, and the others involved in this conversation are publicly trying to "warn" the American Republican Party that they have made some kind of mistake indicates that the British left is alarmed for some reason.

As Paul Mason pointed out on Newsnight yesterday, in a political landscape bereft of original thinking (in the United Kingdom and in Europe as well as in America) the appearance of a political leader able to generate new ideas as well as having the charisma to communicate them and a platform to get attention - this is a new and unexpected development.

Michael White's article about Paul Ryan

Two paragraphs from Michael White's article about Paul Ryan in today's Guardian.

The words "conviction politician" stand out.

Sincerity wins elections - even Margaret Thatcher's bitterest opponents respected her sincerity.

Unfortunately privatisation has not worked

Discussion on the Guido Fawkes microblog on what should be done with the railway network.

Privatisation in the late 1990s was botched.  Both parties were to blame for this.  The Conservatives rushed weak legislation through before an election they knew they would lose; Labour allowed the newly privatised rail companies to flounder without support because they were ideologically opposed to denationalisation (not Blair of course, but in the early days Blair was timid and afraid of backbenchers like Gwyneth Dunwoody).

Nationalisation of the railway network in the Second World War produced a behemoth corporation that eventually became tired, starved of funding, completely demoralised.  The organisation benefited in the immediate post-war period from the influx of ex-forces officers and NCOs who saw in the railways a substitute for the wartime experience of central planning, public service and personal sacrifice (anti-social hours, low pay, endless complaints from the public).  From the 1980s onwards these "wartime" managers and supervisors retired, and the industry failed to recruit new staff of comparable quality.

The corporation also suffered from excessive "closed shop" unionisation, with three trade unions (often fighting among themselves) regularly bringing the country to a standstill, each national strike seeing a permanent transfer of freight traffic from rail to road.

By the 1990s radical action and reinvention was required, resulting in privatisation.

Unfortunately privatisation has not worked, and most people (in my judgment) do not want to continue with it.

Re-nationalisation would not be advisable as all that would happen would be the re-emergence of militant union activity, with annual strikes damaging the economy (particularly in the South East).

Perhaps the sector might benefit from some kind of co-operative ownership such as the John Lewis model?

Subsidies would still be necessary, but these are not necessarily a bad thing as the subsidies ultimately benefit private employers who would otherwise have to pay their staff more to commute to work (unless it is proposed that commuters should bear the entire cost of their transport to work, which is not a practical idea).