catholiclefty

Things continue to complicate at home, too. The Government is mired in a total mess with lost child benefit records, bizarre illegal party donations, and the continuing and continually worsening saga of the Northern Rock. It has really gone quite nasty. And I have to say that I don't really care the way I'd have expected to just a few years ago, even though some of the outrage over the donations, for example, seems both manufactured and something that the media is caring a lot more about than the public at large.

Meanwhile, the bizarre and utterly incomprehensible fight to reintroduce the miserable, unsuccessful and highly-counter-productive policy of internment continues yet again, with 42 days of pre-charge imprisonment, sort of, being the latest idea. The Government's total obsession with this issue, which alienates far more people than finds it supporters, is completely baffling.

And of course, you can now be convicted of a criminal offense for knowing how to do something bad and possibly thinking about doing it at some potential point in the future. Not doing it, not trying to do it, not being capable of doing it, just knowing how to do it and imagining doing it. Minority Report's pre-crime unit is already functional and active on our statute books. We are all technically criminals anyway (the burden of proof here is reversed), as long as we possess a bus timetable, or a photograph, or a school textbook. Fortunately, for now, until New Labour abolishes them, such things have to be tried in front of a jury - so at the moment, you probably won't get convicted of a terrorist act just for owning a bus timetable, as the British people on the whole retain some modicum of sense. You'll still be eligible for the 42 days (or whatever it will become tomorrow) of pre-charge interrogations first though. Modern Britain is a fun place to be, isn't it?

So, our supremely intelligent government has gone and gifted the personal details of 25 million people to persons unknown. Well, that's nice. I'm certainly going to trust them with my biometrics and the reams of data that's going to go into the Identity Card (07-12-06 : corrected an amusing typo where I said 'care' rather than 'card'!) scheme, aren't I?

Seriously though, if the ID Card scheme ever had a hope of avoiding becoming 'Labour's Poll Tax', today would seem to have scuppered it entirely. Every cloud can have a silver lining.

I think I've managed to compartmentalise my current disgust with our political 'leaders' into three specific areas. I may expand on these in the future, but I am utterly dismayed by what this so-called 'Labour' Government has done in all three areas. Any party which wants my support has to have coherent and positive ways of addressing these three issues. All three, in different ways, come down to our indivisibility and identity as human beings who deserve equal treatment from everyone - a fundamental Christian message, whatever those right-wing Americans may say.


1. Peace - Respect peace and international law and the rights of all human beings, whatever random piece of land they happened to be born on. Murdering people who have done nothing to us other than happen to live in a country whose leaders we disagree with is utterly unacceptable except in extremis. Catholic Just War Theory sets it out very well. We have one Earth and we are all God's children. Dramatic policies on climate change and sustainability are required here too, and the current lip-service and tinkering at the edges is woefully inadequate.

2. Liberty - Respect the rights and civil liberties of the citizen. All people are equal and all deserve equal rights and equal protection from the state. Illiberal and poorly-drafted laws need to be stopped, and many formulated in the UK in the last 10 years need to be repealed. Parliament needs to be respected rather than used as a railroad mechanism. Policies have to be decided on the good of society as a whole, and the rights and needs of minorities have to be respected. Making policy to satisfy reactionary forces with only their own self-interest at heart is not a way to run a Government.

3. Dignity - Respect the essential dignity of human beings when formulating policies relating to money and distribution of resources. It is unacceptable that the gap between rich and poor continues to increase. It is unacceptable that the housing market is so ludicrously inflated. It is unacceptable that personal debt is widely accepted, and in many cases (eg. students) almost required. It is unacceptable that so-called 'growth' and 'progress' are considered required for a successful society.


This is just basic decency and common sense. It is that simple. Why can't we have sensible people who stand up for these things?

Here is an unsurprising map - and don't expect things to get anything but worse.

For what it is worth, I have finally actually left the Labour party, as opposed to just wibbling on about doing so. Though to be entirely fair, my principles are almost precisely the same as they were 12 years ago (which is about when I first joined). The party - or at least, the parliamentary party - has unfortunately left me so far behind that I cannot in any conscience remain in it, and through my subscription funding it. For only so long can the argument 'Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn, and some others manage to stay in the party, so I can too' hold water. I can no longer bear to be in a political party that is travelling in completely the wrong direction. I never expected the gap between rich and poor to grow ever-wider, however much I expected New Labour economics to be less than satisfactory. And I never expected at all the illegal, immoral, damning wars of aggression, or the war waged on the civil liberties of the British people. Put as simply as possible, the behaviour of this Government has been disgraceful, is disgraceful, and looks set to continue to be disgraceful. I wish they would all just disappear down the memory hole the way Tony Blair has. Short of a hung parliament at the next election, I fear deeply for what this country will become.

Not much to say about this week. Lib Dem conference went well with a lot of sensible ideas (bet that won't happen at Labour next week...), queues at the Northern Rock, Cambridgeshire Police saying we've got lots of immigrants and not enough police, zero progress in Iraq, threats over Iran, Israel continuing to unconscionably squeeze any remaining life out of the Gaza strip, and floods all over Africa (of course, this last one not exactly plastered all over the media).

The visit of the Bishop to our Church last weekend seemed to go well. I may have mentioned this before, but we do have a very very good Bishop. Thank God for that!

I do have problems with the word 'Bishop' though since the Monty Python sketch 'The Bishop'. I don't even think it is a good sketch, but it does come to mind every time someone says the word 'Bishop'. Hmm...!

Are we all sufficiently frightened yet? Some people failed miserably to blow people up in London and Glasgow. I guess I'd better be terrified, or something. At least, I would be if the media had anything to do with it - I've never seen such hysterical, exaggerated nonsense since... well, since the last time something vaguely approximating to terrorism was supposed to have occurred. To be fair to the new government, the response was at least somewhat better and more measured than we'd have had under 'the rules of the game have changed' Blair or 'terrible things are threatening' Reid. That doesn't mean they won't try and pass some hideously destructive illiberal legislation anyway, as they probably will, but their initial reaction - stressing that terrorism is a *crime*, not some sort of military engagement; and that what the public should be doing is getting on with life and being vigilant, not cowering in their homes - was well-balanced. It won't last, but for now, it's refreshing to see a vaguely sane response. Would that the media would have some restraint too.

I managed to get myself organised enough to go and see Taking Liberties last night, and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of it. There was little new information there (for those of us who've been awake the last few years, at any event), but there was a lot of footage I'd not seen before which fitted in really rather well. There were also some wonderful propaganda-style animations which were downright excellent - kudos to the creator of those (not that I managed to notice in the credits who it was). I thought it managed a good mix of the downright depressing - which of course this subject is - and hopeful optimism that things can still be done, and battles won. It also basically managed to avoid party political bias except in one or two places - this was clearly (and totally fairly) an attack on New Labour's record, not governments of the 'left' or right, though it would have been nice to have noted that the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (which was mentioned) was actually a Conservative thing, not to mention the start of the slippery slope that came in the 1994 Criminal 'Justice' Act.

The interesting thing about protection of civil liberties is that it really is something that cuts across the political spectrum, as the No2ID meeting I went to on Friday showed. The more I see of David Howarth, the more I like him, even if he's not the greatest orator known to mankind. Even James Paice was making sense. The UKIP invasion was a bit tedious (someone should tell them the government is perfectly capable of being mendacious without being pushed into it by 'Europe') - but then, even if you disagree with their motives, the utter stubbornness of such people is exactly the reason that things like ID cards will fail, which can't be complained about too much. Unfortunately the Labour PPC, Mr. Zeichner, was very disappointing indeed, wibbling on about immigrants and making people feel more secure (how exactly would ID cards do anything about that? - even if I were to agree that 'something should be done to placate people' with illogical grievances, which I clearly don't), which for the first time I've seen him in person is troubling. Still, it makes it all the more straightforward to remove myself from the Labour party, which I'll be doing as soon as I've voted for deputy leader. When the Conservative guy is making more sense than the Labour guy, you know something has gone badly badly wrong. Grr.

I think the only reason I have great inertia about changing party now is that joining a political party is something I feel I have to do, and choosing which is so difficult, that I get stuck where I am because at least I am a member of a party, even if I grow more disappointed and annoyed with them by the day. Still, I'm almost out of the door now - I couldn't possibly support Mr. Zeichner after his performance on Friday. Probably the Lib Dems are the best to jump into, though I haven't made up my mind 100%.

Tony Blair has finally announced he is going, and when (June 27). He gave an odd speech; good in parts, glossing over important details in others, and some quite bizarre comments about the British people at the end. All in all, he was a reasonably good politician, though his policies often were pretty awful. He was a good actor. Good enough, in fact, that it was hard to tell when he was sincere (as he was at least some of the time) and when he was just telling us what he wanted us to believe. Of course, Iraq is the perfect example of that. I still recall watching the Commons debate of 18 March 2003 on C-SPAN at some ungodly time in the morning and almost, just for a minute, being persuaded by his argument for invasion. Though not for longer than a minute or two.

Comparing this to the day Margaret Thatcher announced she wasn't going to contest the second ballot in November 1990 is a bit odd. I don't see people happy the way they were then. Then again, I was living in Liverpool at the time, and at school (a hotbed of radical lefties! Or something like that...)! No matter how much hate is stirred up by some sections of the media about Blair, I think people are largely ambivalent about his going. They dislike what's happening in Iraq immensely, but then it doesn't directly affect most of them. And the groundwork for the abolition of most of our civil liberties and the formation of the surveillance state hasn't entirely become apparent to the casual observer yet.

On a different note, today is four years to the day since I received my degree of Magister Artium from the University of Cambridge!

On Monday I went to London very late (6.15pm train!), because I was bored with Cambridge and couldn't think of anything else to do. I ended up eating at Mabel's Tavern and then going to do Paddington pubs - on the way there remembering that this was exactly what I had done 4 years before to the day, on my first day after un-emigrating from the USA! So that cheered me up somewhat.

Other than a few trips to the County, not too much else has happened, though life seems busy at the moment.

After posting on Monday night, I watched my video of the 1997 election. It's good to remember once in a while just how cathartic the whole evening was, even if the jubilation and hopes for the following ten years were highly over-optimistic. Still, not that optimistic. I said myself in my diary that night that I 'hoped Tony Blair would be more left-wing in power than he had been in the campaign' - no doubt suspected that he really wouldn't be, at all. I think it is probably easy to over-mythologise that night, something I am guilty of too, but it was so much more about 'getting rid of them' than 'welcoming these others' - I don't think we expected anything as downright awful as Iraq or the repeated, mendacious attacks on our civil liberties, but we didn't expect a socialist paradise to break out either.

On a lighter note, it's still fun to see Portillo lose (although his 'rehabilitation' has lasted long enough now for me to believe that it is entirely genuine. I still wouldn't want to see him in government again, but he's much more reasonable now than then. And he is effectively the popular British face of Wagnerism now, so I suppose I have to like him!) - and it is still hilarious seeing James Goldsmith and David Mellor abuse one another, and Paxman asking Cecil Parkinson about being chair of a fertiliser factory :-)

So, local elections today (not quite as fun as 1997, but still the important exercise of democracy, for all the use that is nowadays when all the parties with a realistic chance of getting anywhere are almost all the same neo-liberal nonsense). I'll be voting either Lib Dem or Green, with a bias towards Green, though the Green guy has said some odd things about cycling on pavements not always necessarily being bad, which puts me off considerably! It'll be the first time I vote at the Castle End Mission at St Peters since I was at Fitz, which should be a blast from the past.

More anniversaries : today is the 10th anniversary of my trip to Southend and thus, I believe by extension, the 10th anniversary of having rocks thrown at me while walking along the street by some young thugs in Shoeburyness! (At least I think so. It's not in my diary, but I don't think I went to Southend any other time). I've not been back to Shoeburyness, oddly enough. And then the 10th anniversary of winning the Eurovision with Katrina and the Waves (a rather bad name after Hurricane Katrina, actually!), and then later being locked in Trinity Gardens a bit after midnight with champagne, and then trying to get out. A more interesting evening than it sounds, for various complex reasons. Good fun!

I went to the University Library over lunch and got some more Wagner books. This is very useful! It's a shame it took me so long to start using the place properly. I guess I'll survive the closure of the central library - though it might be a lot more annoying if I wasn't still a member of the university.

One more though : it's very good to see the County Arms back in the hands of decent landlords who I like and am happy to go back in there again. Excellent! Now if they could do a barmaid reunion from 8 or 9 years ago, I'd be very happy...... :-)

Also watched Star Trek:DS9 'Rapture' last night, possibly my single favourite episode of DS9. It treats spiritual matters with the respect they deserve, rather unusual for Star Trek, and it is an excellent and even beautifully crafted episode. I can watch this over and over and not get tired of it. I'll possibly deconstruct this in more detail in a future entry (assuming I continue blogging, of course!) I'm glad I chose to buy the fifth season on Monday in preference to others, because on balance it is probably the strongest.

Now, I've got to get into Battlestar Galactica beyond the mini-series. I hear nothing but good things about this from everyone, so...

Was it really 10 years ago that I was in my college room watching Labour win the General Election? I guess so. And what a disappointment it has mostly been, from the betrayal just a couple of months in over tuition fees, right through to the fundamental changes in the relationship between the individual and the state which has crept in day by day and will have ramifications for years to come. And I don't have letters big enough to type IRAQ in the size it deserves. Even in the euphoria of that night 10 years ago, I knew I'd be bitterly disappointed by some things this government would do. But not like this. Not like this.

Was it really 4 years ago that I was in my apartment in the USA watching George Bush pretending to be macho on an aircraft carrier with 'Mission Accomplished' blandished loudly behind him - while the packers cleared out my apartment for my move back to the UK? I guess so. And how ludicrous that looks now. How much blood has been shed because of a tableau of lies, oil, pride, and American imperial ambitions? I knew Iraq wasn't going to turn out well, but not this badly. Not this badly.

Was it really 3 years ago that I was sitting in the front room of the family home in Liverpool, on my first morning out of hospital in almost 4 months, watching the news talking about the 10 new members of the EU? Yes, it was, and who knew where my life would have gone from there then? All in all, that hasn't gone too badly, even if the world has been falling to pieces at the same time.

May the 1st, the day of the worker, the socialist day. I don't see the Red Flag flying anywhere near here today. Perhaps it is time to start grabbing back politics from these dangerous jokers that we've allowed to 'represent' us for far too long.

Lord Levy arrested - well, I'm not sure I expected that. I knew that the police were taking the 'cash for honours' thing seriously, but this still surprised me.

Still, the idea that democracy is so transparently for sale is troubling, if unsurprising.

Update : he has been bailed. He's accusing the police of using their arrest powers 'completely unnecessarily'. Perhaps he should communicate that to the Government, so they can think about it - quite carefully - when they do their next inevitable round of giving the police yet more and more powers.

Very good article about the dangers of ID cards in The Guardian today. Henry Porter is doing an outstanding job on monitoring the Government's attacks on our hard-won liberties.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to think about today - but I'm damned if I let the media tell me what to think, or how many random minutes of silence I should be observing.

I have no different an opinion of Islam now as a year ago, or five years ago. They are a large, mature religion, with a small element that uses a perverted version of Islam as an excuse for extremism and violence. I don't see a vast amount of difference with the IRA in that respect - which is a statement that at least means something concrete, coming from a Catholic.

Any act of terrorism is a terrible and horrible act. I wish we could get a bit of perspective though. More people are killed on the roads in the UK *every week* than were killed on this day last year. Worse yet, as was simply but devastatingly pointed out to me earlier today, worldwide more people die of *preventable* poverty in 5 minutes than were killed last year in London. Do we clamour for draconian police powers and scathing legislation every time there is a car crash? Do we clamour for changes in the horrific unfairness of the world? Well, we have a pop concert, and some of us wear a wristband, and then some bombs go off and it is all basically forgotten.

The true threat to this country comes from two things. First, from over-reaction to the terrorist 'threat' in response to which we destroy our basic freedoms and way of life. One of the clearest lessons from the China program, about which I've been thinking quite a lot, is that there is a very short road from freedom to tyranny. Even shorter than I suspected, I fear. With ID cards on the way, and bans on protesting 'near' Parliament without police permission already here, among masses of other authoritarian legislation, we are going down that road as we speak. We are maybe only a couple of further terrorist attacks to approaching a police state. It is truly alarming what is going on.

And secondly, perpetuating injustice around the world - in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and every other country to whom we act hypocritically and unjustly. People are desperate, and they are angry. Now the Catholics have a fairer deal in Northern Ireland, I don't see IRA bombs going off all over Britain. Anyone who argues that terrorism isn't related to injustice and unfairness has their heads so far into the sand that I wonder about their critical thinking abilities. We are hypocrites. We act as hypocrites, we vote for hypocrites, and we get attacked for being hypocrites. And for being downright cruel and selfish.

I'm angry today. I'm angry at people who think blowing up ordinary people on public transport is a useful thing to do. And I'm very, very angry at people who exploit this for their own unscrupulous ends, whether politicians, religion, or the media.

I've just picked up on this survey in the Torygraph about how we perceive the USA.

All I can say it that it's pretty shocking, even given the depth of feeling towards the USA we have as a country. We know we're bound up with them, and it seems we really don't like where they are going.

• 22 per cent believe that the present American government's policies and actions make the world a better place to live in, whereas 65 per cent regard America's influence in the world today as predominantly malign.



• President Bush's ratings are 'horrendous'. 43 per cent think he is 'terrible' as President.



• 72 per cent reckon Mr Bush cares little for democracy and is merely using his pro-democracy rhetoric as a pretext for pursuing selfish American interests.



• 76 per cent think that, even if the president really does want to promote the cause of freedom and democracy in the world, he is not going about it in the right way.



• 58 per cent reckon it is now fair to describe the US as "an essentially imperial power, one that wants to dominate the world by one means or another".



• 72 per cent believe American society is essentially "unequal".



• Three quarters of Britons think the US is "badly led" (73 per cent), "ignorant of the outside world" (73 per cent) and "doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks" (83 per cent).

I suppose it shows on most things the British have a reasonable amount of good sense and moderation - a feeling I often get when watching Question Time and somebody says something reasonable about capital punishment, or immigration, or crime, etc. etc. and a good proportion of the audience actually claps them. It's quite heartening, in a way.

More good news (in a way) as a judge rules the 'anti-terror control orders' illegal. Seems pretty obvious to me.

It's not all that good though, as all we'll hear for days now is moaning about the Human Rights Act. Again. Why do people not think things through and realise these things are there for *their* protection as well as everyone else's? Grr.

More attacks from past Home Secretaries! Ken Clarke attacks David Cameron over his 'Bill of Rights' idea.

You can't really blame Ken Clarke. He is heading a 'task force' on constitutional issues, yet apparently he wasn't told about this!

As for the idea - personally, I'm all for a full constitution for the UK, it would protect from the kind of good-natured but deeply dangerous meddling we've seen over the last few years from this Government. But nevertheless this is tabloid headline chasing equivalent to Labour's worst, because of the ludicrous 'human rights' bandwagon. It seems incredible to me that 'human rights' have become this derided, spat-upon thing.

So - Mr. Cameron, if you want to have a full consitutional discussion, please do, I'd be fascinated by it. But don't use it as a pretext for rejigging the 'hated' Human Rights Act.

Charles Clarke has come out and moaned a lot about Tony Blair. People are comparing this to Geoffrey Howe's attack on Margaret Thatcher though the comparisons seem a bit half-hearted.

I can't say I was a fan of Mr Clarke at the Home Office (quite the opposite!), but then the Home Office is designed to be disliked. I'm not sure what I think about him in general.

Bad news first : Gordon Brown has decided it would be a good idea to replace Trident. Err, why? Who exactly do we need to fire nuclear bombs at? I don't think anything is worth Armageddon. And we can't even use them with the USA's say-so, as they depend on their guidance system! What a dangerous waste of money.

But then the good : today Gordon has had talks on global warming with Al Gore. At least we are beginning to take this seriously.

John Reid is apparently looking into a version of Megan's Law for the UK. Talk about reactionary!

When 'your' 'socialist' party is in Government and talking a lot of nonsense, and someone as right-wing as David Davis is talking complete sense

We must also make sure we don't end up with some lynch mob law. And bear in mind we've had the Criminal Records Bureau failures, with innocent people being given apparent criminal records.

you know something is going badly wrong. What has happened to this Labour government? :-(

This kind of tabloid-headline-chasing is one of the worst, most depressing things with this government. What on earth is the use in knowing there is a rehabilitated sex offender in your community? (...if they are not rehabilitated, that is a problem with the prison system, not the person. They've done their time for the crime...) What exactly are you going to do about it?

Well, this is what we ought to be doing about it. These 'support circles' are a wonderful idea. Fantastic people involved here.

Tags: uk politics