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Thinking about a manifesto of my own...
24 April 2008 .
Talking of living in a surreal society (which I seem to, more and more)...
For some of us, trying to put the country right is almost a game, like trying to sort out the England football team. A few of us do it on our websites... [Children sometimes say, 'when I'm Prime Minister... (I'll do this and that.)' Writing a journal like this is much the same thing; all talk and (perforce) no action.]
I'm never going to hold any political power, but since starting on these pages I've been exercised about whether a part of being the outsider, criticising, ought to be a bit more constructive (even if it's only here)
A new page, perhaps, which I can develop as time passes; being, a manifesto of my own...
Karl Marx wrote one, and became quite famous.
Manifesto 'political power'
The Benign Government.
01 April 2008 .
Whenever anyone writes about the potential for misuse of the new state databases holding our details, of the growing surveillance over our daily lives, or of the increasing constraints on our civil liberties, they almost invariably refer to a possible future government less 'benign' than the present one (the adjective is remarkably consistent). I've fallen into the same trap myself.
Because... I think it is a trap. I'm not at all sure that, on the evidence, the present government can be taken to be so benign. This is a government which is passing 4,000 new laws and over 10,000 statutory instruments a year, to the distress of democratic oversight, and has removed or eroded in excess of twenty of our civil liberties; it's taken us on military adventures - at least one of which, in overwhelming legal opinion, was contrary to international law; it stands accused internationally of condoning torture and domestically of cozying up to corporations and the Bush White House contrary to the interests of the majority of the UK population; it's increasingly criticised by Amnesty International and UN bodies in a way which would have been unthinkable forty years ago... and so on... (see elsewhere on this site).
At what point do we start to accept that our rulers might not be so benign? Do we wait until concentration camps appear in Cumbria? Until we are frightened? Until travellers require permission for anything more than commuting? Until armed police are shooting innocent people on the street? By the time we know in those ways that 'benign' is certainly the wrong word, isn't it already too late?
'benign government' 'amnesty international'
The Public Memory.
02 February 2008 .
One of the reasons I had for starting this site was a sense that the public's memories - including my own - seem to be incredibly short. With Blair, for example, time after time either he or his cronies would say or do something appalling or mess up somehow, and all sorts of people would say that he was finished this time - and a few days later it would all be forgotten. Calling him Teflon Tone was an acknowledgement that we knew he was getting away with everything... but it was always difficult to grasp the whole picture because there was just too much to remember - and anyway, we have our own lives to get on with.
This journal is in part my own attempt not to let things keep slipping away; but I know they still will. Take the data losses: a few weeks ago it looked as if the government must give up on their scheme for ID cards: now it's business as usual, plans for the implementation of the cards back on track, and nobody even squeaking a protest.
Or Blair: it looks as if there's beginning to be a serious possibility that he might become the first president of the EU. How can we let it happen? Have we really forgotten?
'Teflon Tony'
Tie A Yellow Ribbon On The Old Oak Tree.
21 December 2007 .
This from Boris Johnson...
It seems that, in the public swimming pool in Leatherhead (Surrey) last month, part of the shallow end had been roped off one day so that a dozen wounded and crippled soldiers invalided back from Iraq could have therapy.
A fit young woman arrived and started to swim her lengths.
Finding that part of her lane was blocked, she left the water, went up to the soldiers - many of whom were disfigured - and started berating them for interfering with her swimming. She was quoted as saying that she had paid to swim and that they hadn't.
Nobody at the pool told her to behave. The soldiers, apparently deeply embarrassed, retreated and the ropes were removed.
'Boris Johmson' Leatherhead 'Swimming pool' 'wounded soldiers'
1957
10 December 2007 .
On BBC4 just now, in 'Never Had It So Good', Colin Schindler revisited his childhood in Manchester, and what was going on in the world, in 1957. We seem to have shared a fair amount: I too was seven that year, we both came from aspirational backgrounds but the good times ended for both our families in '57 - his because his father's business failed, mine because my father died.
I recognised what I saw in the film: the streets, whether town centre, back-to-back or suburban had a quite different feel 50 years ago, most obviously because of the vehicles (or lack of them); but it was detail that resonated, the school buildings and classrooms, the brickwork outside and the furnishings inside people's homes, the way people wore their hair (and washed it less often). And the fog. The sounds - the way people spoke and, especially the music (and the equipment it was played on) - were even more evocative. There are some things which TV can't portray, of course - the smoke in those cinemas or the cold, damp and smell of the top deck of a bus in, say, November; but I had no problem imagining them as I watched.
What Schindler said, however, rang very few bells at all. I will say that we didn't have a car, or washing machine, or TV - I'm surprised that most of his friends did; we certainly never came close to owning our own house, but then we lived in London; the way we lived was probably different. But the gap between the ambience (?) which Schindler described and my own recollections was wider than just a matter of standard of living - although I can't yet quite put my finger on it.
This site isn't meant to be about personal reminiscence. But it is written by a person with his own unique history, experiences, baggage: they colour the way I view the issues about which I write; indeed, the fact that I'm older than the majority of the population gives me a perspective which must differ from most people's. If my perspective leads me to write something that is useful, then this site might thrive; if not, it won't; and if it does thrive, then people might want to know what informs my opinions. So it may be helpful to put a bit of myself into the site from time to time; and how I lived as a child has a bearing on how I see things.
The point about the programme was that it shewed that even people from ostensibly similar backgrounds have very different memories and probably bring very different viewpoints to the present. There isn't a point at which you can say, "they're from a different time, they're bound to have such-and-such a viewpoint."
I don't think I quite hit the nail on the head yet. Maybe I'll come back to this. I'll certainly come back to my family as it was then; there were psychologies in an awful lot of families then that simply don't exist indigenously now, and that most certainly affects how some of us see Brown's Britain.
'Colin Schindler' 'Never Had It So Good'
A Healthy Respect For Our Constitution...
A Healthy Suspicion Of Our Politicians.
04 December 2007 .
There is frequent lamentation that we, the public, have a 'fashionable' contempt for our politicians (or, as in an article today in the Independent by Steve Richards, for our political parties), not least, of course, from the politicians themselves. Richards refers to 'a whiff of self-righteous hypocrisy'.
Richards' article looks at causes and dangers, but it got me to thinking in a slightly different direction. I believe that a degree of suspicion of our government is vital to our political well-being.
In Britain, we have enjoyed liberties and stability, plus for many of us prosperity and a way of life, beyond the imaginings of many people either historically or comtemporarily.
I suggest:
A question worth asking oneself is what attitude one has towards the great age of satyr in the 18th century. I would argue that in the US and France as well as the UK, much of the restraint of arrogant power which we (still, just,) enjoy comes from then. Once certain level of mickey-taking prevails in society, I suspect that Hitler, Stalin et al. have far less chance of getting up to their little tricks. The best deflation of the BNP I ever saw in Islington was by a black lad who applied to join because they had lots of activities.
'Steve Richards' BNP 'fashionable contempt'
On the Nature of Society.
02 December 2007 .
Dreams of living in an English village... thatched rooves, warm beer and John Major... well, forget the last bit. But herewith two alternatives:
Use your imagination to fill in the details, and the ambience, to each...
In which world, seriously, would you rather spend your autumn years?
'John Major' 'English village'
27 Words for 'Snow':
02 December 2007 .
Travellers' tales report from Greenland that the locals there enjoy 17, or 23, or 27, words for the dominant feature of their environment.
The joke is supposed to be that the English language rather lets us down when it comes to 'rain'.
What, however, if we approach the English from the other end, starting instead with groups of words and hence deriving the true dominant feature of our environment?
I suggest a list of words associated with pecuniary, financial or monetary remittances; I bet I can reach 20 without raising a sweat, especially if one allows for a certain leeway in probity, legality and/or linguistic aesthetics: wage, salary, pay, fee, rent, dividend, charge, yield, interest, retainer, remuneration, price, charge, earnings, income, emolument, baksheesh, bung, bribe, incentive, sweetener, payment, back-hander, brown-envelope, donation to the Labour party... (you knew that was coming, didn't you?)
Interestingly, the list concerned with possession of the means of production seems to be almost as long, such as; ownership, share, shareholding, equity, stock, portfolio, capital, assets, etc. But for some reason they don't seem to constitute much of my environment.
My first effort at humour on this site. Treasure it; I don't suppose there'll be many more.
remuneration emolument baksheesh back-hander bribe
We Love Our Leaders, especially when they don't give a damn about us.
19 November 2007 .
What is it about us?
Adolf Hitler seems to have been adored by vast numbers of Germans, and others. Even when not only what he had done but the fact that he cared not one jot for anyone but himself became irrefutably clear, people still worshipped him. It seems some people still do.
Stalin was a monster, yet millions of Russians believed -and still believe - that he was virtually the incarnation of God.
Napoleon's famous remark that he had an income of 80 000 men a year revealed everything about him, yet when he returned from Elba the French flocked to him. He almost destroyed France and caused death on a more than biblical scale, yet Frenchmen still think he's wonderful.
(When I was young, I had friends who said they thought the Kray brothers were heroes: the fact that anything the Krays did with regard to these lads would have been on a whim, and very likely very nasty, seemed to have no relevance at all. That was when I first began to wonder what makes people want to follow so abjectly.)
Scary.
Purely by the way: do you truly, in your heart of heart, think that Blair or Brown like you? Trust you? Care about you? Then explain Iraq, ID cards, Statutory Instruments (of which more anon).... I know it is said repeatedly that these men are of good intention (the fear about the Big Brother state is always expressed in terms of some future, less benevolent government).- but the same was said of Hitler.
I hope I'm not just ranting: I am trying to express very real fears I have which I believe to be well-founded.
These Scroungers on our streets.
19 November 2007 .
The Times and the Daily Mail lead me to understand that we have vast numbers of benefit scroungers, including 40% on incapacity benefit who claim on the basis of depression or back pain because these complaints are difficult to for the authorities to disprove.
It took me shamefully long to realise that, by the same token, these complaints are difficult for the sufferers to prove.
To be clinically depressed in Britain now is to have the additional burden of being demonised by that bastion of middle England, the Mail.
'Scroungers on our streets'
The Climate of Fear in British Society:
09 November 2007 .
I think it was on BBC's 'Question Time' recently that I briefly caught the panel agreeing, in connection with terrorism, that there is no climate of fear in this country.
I assumed that this referred to the small effect of Jihadi terror on the native population.
My feeling is that there is such a climate growing, but that it arises out of ourselves, largely but not only down to the government... I find that I seem to be objecting to the government all the time in these notes - perhaps something is crystallising in me about what I really feel... but also out of our media and even from ordinary people
We hardly need to ask Muslims - many of them are at last articulating their feelings very well.
How about old people? All the 'normal' fears like illness and frailty are compounded rather than ameliorated - pensions damaged, threats to sometimes much loved and/or hard-worked-for property, a health system that for many old people is an international disgrace, government shewing little sign of commitment, expensive and often uncaring care homes, bureaucratisation, increasingly threatening attitudes by officials over things like rubbish bins, a generally isolating society... and so on.
If we're arrested for non-violent offences, there is a fair chance that the police will go over the top in order to meet targets, yet we know that violence on our street is a great deal worse than it was a generation ago.
We are frightened for our children - stranger-danger fear and risk aversion are out of proportion, and we have a schooling system, politically rather than scientifically driven, economically rather than socially oriented, which is - it is suggested - putting an unprecedented strain on the students.
The mentally ill, the chronically ill, the inadequate - all of whom are as entitled to a good life as the rest of us - face less of the social discrimination they sometimes did in our Victorian past, but there is a new state-sourced bureaucracy which cancels out many of the gains that should have been made.
Just for the record, anecdotally from amongst my own friends and relatives (each story is sufficiently fudged to avoid any possibility of identification but no more):
Girl A, mentally troubled as a teenager some years ago, now pregnant and wants to keep the baby (and, I would say, is well able to do so with the support she'll get). Fiancé died in an accident and social services are now demanding that she give the baby up at birth. I find this story quite incredible, so more facts plus permission before I elaborate. Suffice to say that this young woman - having done nothing wrong - qualifies as afraid.
Mrs. B. An ancient - and vulnerable - woman recently widowed has been threatened with a £1000 fine if she doesn't get her head around rubbish sorting. I don't for a moment think she'll be fined, and if she is I'm sure that I won't be the only one who makes sure that the council at Bury St. Edmunds is shamed. It is one of several trivial things that don't seem at all at trivial to her. She certainly lives in a personal climate of fear, despite no crime save being old.
Friend C, late 40's, emigrated after a tax audit. Inland Revenue (or whatever they're called now) demanded documents concerning his private life going back several years. They also made, and finally admitted, a couple of errors. However, when he made a mistake (and since he is mind-numbingly honest, I believe it probably was a mistake - smaller than theirs) and realising it, let them know... he was charged interest (fair enough) and then threatened with prison if he didn't sign an affidavit admitting that it was deliberate (plus pay a fine). He couldn't afford professional help and he got more and more ill over the time they were auditing him. He left the country because he couldn't take it any more. I can't know that he did nothing wrong, but if he did, he was never charged.
Elderly friend D was given a car by a grateful US business associate. The car being delivered in this country, import duties, VAT and Heaven knows what were chargeable - and the tax bill was way ahead of anything he could afford. Before the matter was closed (he never did get the car) he had been aggressively questioned by customs officials, threatened with audit, solicited for a bribe (or tempted by entrapment?) and threatened with court. D coped reasonably cheerfully, but he may have been helped by the fact that he has connections and eventually used them - what if he had not? I would find that scary.
Some years ago, but significant for me as the first time I began to understand just how foul our officials can be: a Canadian friend (call her E) came to stay with me; we came into Dover together in my car and she had all the required documentation. She was questioned, without any attempt at courtesy, for over two hours, during which time inappropriate comments and suggestions were made to her while I was there - ie the officers knew they could discount my presence. (It should have no bearing on anything at all, but clearly did, that she was, and is, breathtakingly beautiful. It may not have helped that she is francophone.) She made it clear that she was going to stay in London only because she was to be my guest but that once gone, nothing would persuade her ever to return to this country. I could only totally agree. I have met some pretty scary border controls (including in Idi Amin's Uganda where my life was briefly on the line) and some rude ones (you in Atlanta, Georgia, I'd say you know who you are except that by all accounts you are only the same as a lot of your colleagues) and I've had a few guns pointed at me: but this is my own country and E's interview was as surreal and intimidating as anything I've encountered.
None of these add up to anything in comparison to what people go through all the time (actually, as I write this, I've just realised that I've only begun to scratch the surface of even my own and friend's anecdotal experience, so I guess I'll probably be telling more tales in future rants) but I'm just trying to make the point that if I (white, middle-class, male, fairly establishment but rather private) can come up with these in a few minutes, that implies that there are 5 x say 40 million (let's exclude the youngsters, even though they probably have tales, too) stories off the cuff like these out there.
Q1. Am I right?
Q2. Does it matter?
More anon about soi-disant anti-terror legislation, etc., but for now a question: if we are not afraid, why have we given up so many of our rights with scarcely a whimper? (What an irony!)
'Question Time' 'anti-terror legislation' 'mentally ill' 'chronically ill'
Maybe it's only the Samaritans who are good.
24 October 2007 .
While I was waiting, third car back, at a junction today, there was a crash ahead of us - fairly minor but enough to spin one car 360 degrees. Because of waiting cars in the way, I saw only the final instant of the crash, so I couldn't swear to my impression that it was caused not by one car moving into oncoming traffic (almost across when hit) but by the other going far too fast and not braking (at all?): but it seemed clear that witnesses were needed.
Whatever the right or wrong of it, what shocked me wasn't the accident but the reaction of the two drivers in front of me, and one on the major road, all of whom sat gawping at the two cars for two/three minutes - because of the geography of the road, blocking the fast-building rush hour traffic - even though the damaged cars were both well out of the way. Even that was, I suppose, understandable. What I couldn't grasp was that, when one of the protagonists came to ask for witnesses, all three cars shot off. Tyres screeched.
It led me to thinking. Over my life I've seen some nasty episodes where there were other witnesses [including fights, two major steamings, a beating up on a crowded platform where there were literally hundreds of people present, crashes due to dangerous driving (one involving a police car) and a blooded assault victim in the road in full daylight] and every time, without exception, the most immediate witnesses have absconded, disappeared, done a bunk. Every time. So I hope you will be patient if this site is sometimes a trifle cynical.
'violence in the street' witness
a21.