Can the Obama revolution come here?
I spent several months in the UK in 2008 before I shipped back to North Carolina to work on Obama’s campaign. I was struck how at some point the British press stopped bothering to contextualise US election stories as being about another country. The candidates were named and discussed in shorthand just as if they were running for Parliament – and usually given much more coverage than the latest row in Westminster.
Yet at the same time, I kept hearing the rueful opinion that none of this would be possible over here. The British people, I was told, were far too apathetic, far too disengaged, far too convinced that their voice – no matter how loud – would fall on the deaf ears of politicians who couldn’t be bothered. Plus, as I was frequently reminded, “there is no British Obama”.
All of this casts a rather sad tinge to the cathartic obsession with the America election – it’s as if many Brits gave up looking for vibrant democracy in their own lives and resolved to experience it vicariously in ours.
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The case for proportional representation
Jon Cruddas is absolutely right, First-past-the-post actually increases support for marginal parties such as the BNP because it allows Labour to ignore them in constituencies where there’s no real opposition. Some form of Proportional Representation is now desperately needed.
PS: I’m also getting involved in a local campaign to start community organising, to get people involved in the political system. Will post more information about this soon.
1984 in 2009?
This week, I have mostly been re-reading George Orwell’s 1984. It’s been too long. Somehow, sixty years after it was published, this book is once more at the linguistic core of the zeitgeist. Words like doublethink, Big Brother, Thought Police are used by all political factions, indiscriminately and with tongues only half in cheeks. I was struck by the way that terms like ‘Orwellian Nightmare’ were flung around at Saturday’s Internet For Activists conference, at which I was speaking- flung around with a quiet, numinous resentment that I found deeply frightening.
1984 is claimed by both the left and the right, but by far the most urgent message of the book for the modern age is one of paranoia. 1984 is the definitive paranoid novel.
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Taxpayers Alliance exposed!
Are the Taxpayers’ Alliance a politically motivated, right-wing conservative group? Anybody applying the duck test knows the answer. But not the Taxpayers’ Alliance themselves.
It is “outrageous” to claim they are on the right, or that they prefer any political party, their campaign manager Susie Squire spluttered on LBC Radio, when host Nick Ferrarri described them as across “the party political divide” from Labour, and when Chuka Umunna challenged Squire’s claim that “we don’t have a party preference”.
Given their insistence on non-partisan independence, logically, how outraged the Taxpayers Alliance to find themselves traduced by their inclusion in Tim Montgomerie’s post, intended to dramatically illustrate the “growth of Britain’s conservative movement“, with two very pretty PowerPoint slides showing a sparse lack of activity in 1997 and a crowded market of ideas in 2009.
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The English Lobby is not happy
We received this email the other day. How should we respond?
Dear Mr Semple
Re: Distorting St George’s day
I observe that you lack the candour to disclose YOUR interest in this subject of St George’s Day.
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How liberal are the Conservatives?
With Shirley Williams speaking on liberalism and Labour in conversation with Michael Crick at last night’s Fabian event (previewed by Ed Wallis), and Stuart White setting out some challenges to the LibDems (though he also, rightly in my view, credits their strong overall record in this area).
So let’s complete the set.
Thanks to Evan Harris MP suggesting and coordinating the following letter to The Observer, published on Sunday, following the Convention on Modern Liberty, which senior Conservatives had been keen to use as an opportunity to project the party as “pro” civil liberties.
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It’s not easy being a protester
When it comes to protests like Leila Deen’s yesterday morning, it’s difficult to know where exactly to draw the line. Undoubtedly, having any liquid substance thrown over you is unpleasant, yet unless it’s something spectacularly nasty, such as the far more available urine rather than the “acid” mentioned by the likes of John Prescott, there really shouldn’t be any repercussions for such rare political statements, and Peter Mandelson doesn’t seem to want to take it any further.
In fact, if anything I’d further support the sliming of politicians, or the throwing of custard pies in some circumstances: a politician that can’t take the odd act of direct action is one that really ought to get over themselves. The power they wield, especially someone unelected like Mandelson, is out of all proportion to that of the humble protester; sometimes you have to take your cause to the next level. Deen might have came out of this looking slightly infantile, and her arguments are not as convincing as she might believe, but she succeeded in getting her own personal message across.
It would also be nice if some people could digest such events without restorting to straw men, as the noble Martin Kettle just had to. The greening of Mandelson proves that we don’t live in a police state, even though only those addicted to hyperbole have said we do. Sleepwalking towards one potentially, already in one no. Still, it seems to have been good timing for Kettle to say just that, as the Guardian today has an exclusive on… the police building databases on peaceful protesters.
Jack Straw’s right, Cabinet Government matters
Jack Straw has decided not to appeal a decision and instead the Cabinet has voted, using the power allowed it by law the law, to prevent the release of documents, for the first time since the FOI Act was passed.
Y’know what? I disagree with Justin, Jennie and most Lib Dems on this. He’s right to do so. We can, and should, be attacking this, but not because Cabinet minutes aren’t going to be released. Cabinet minutes should not be released, it’s one of the basic principles of our Parliamentary democracy.
Here’s how it’s supposed to work:
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Slipping a Rizla between Labour and the Tories
Tory bloggers like to crow about how awful and incompetent and corrupt and authoritarian the Labour government is, and how different the Tories will be when they get in. If, by any chance, anyone brings up past performance they point out that it was a terribly long time ago they were last in government, and anyway, look at David Davis!!!
Ah yes, David Davis. The man who thinks 42 days is worth resigning over, but 28 days is A-OK! Well, you can paint him as a Tory Champion of Liberty if you like but Cameron and his little buddies, emboldened by the recent opinion poll leads, are distancing themselves from his Liberal
agenda at the speed of light.
And yes, that is this Chris Grayling they’re talking about. Oh how corrupt and incompetent and anti-liberty the Labour party are. Isn’t there something Christians say about planks and eyeballs?
And then there’s yesterday’s news (broken by Jo Swinson) that Jack Straw has disobeyed a court order because he’s Judge Jack Straw, and he doesn’t have to go through no stinkin’ appeals procedure! it might be embarrassing for various people.
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Call for Prince Andrew inquiry
Republic has this evening called for Prince Andrew’s use of taxpayers’ money to be subjected to a full parliamentary inquiry after a damning Channel 4 documentary.
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Following Ashcroft’s Money
At the risk of giving Sunny another attack of the vapours by poking a stick at the notoriously litigious, the news that the Electoral Commission have finally decided to take a good close look at Lord Ashcroft’s financial affairs is not only long overdue but if, like me, you’ve done a bit of poking around in few sets of relevant accounts, hardlycomes as much of surprise.
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Responding to the Convention backlash
The backlash to the Convention on Modern Liberty, as exemplified by David Semple yesterday, seems not about anything the Convention is trying to achieve but because it is being supported by the Countryside Alliance and there are too many Tories (and even a UKIP!) on the panels.
Let’s start with the Countryside Alliance. The CA is about a lot more than fox hunting, and in recent years, played a pivotal role in ensuring the success of the Sustainable Communities Act. The infamous John Jackson, the former chair, is a man I have got to know quite well. Far from being a tweed-jacketed toff, Jackson is a progressive, a solicitor and perhaps one of the best constitutional experts I know. Just read his columns on OurKingdom or his masterful chapter about the rule of law in Unlocking Democracy: 20 Years of Charter 88.
But since we’re on the subject of fox hunting, it has to be said that you can find no better example of Labour’s skewed sense of priorities.
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Movement politics: a century ago
The new movement politics – the lessons from Obama and the potential of the internet for progressive campaigning, which new spaces such as Liberal Conspiracy seek to realise
– is both the idea of the moment and quite an old idea too.
If politics is the art of the possible, progressive change has depended on the arguments and campaigns which can change the possibilities of politics. One of the best descriptions of why this matters was offered a century ago, as Beatrice Webb recorded in her diary the reaction of Winston Churchill, then a New Liberal member of the Asquith cabinet, to her campaign for the abolition of the poor law.
That campaign arose from the publication – one hundred years ago tomorrow – of the Minority Report to the Royal Commission on the Poor Law.
October 3rd 1909 – Winston and his wife dined here the other night to meet a party of young Fabians. He is taking on the look of the mature statesman – bon vivant and orator, somewhat in love with his own phrases. He did not altogether like the news of our successful agitation. ‘You should leave the work of converting the country to us, Mrs Webb, you ought to convert the Cabinet’. ‘That would be all right if we wanted merely a change in the law, but we want’, I added, ‘to really change the minds of the people with regard to the facts of destitution, to make the feel the infamy of it and the possibility of avoiding it. That won’t be done by converting the Cabinet, even if we could convert the Cabinet – which I doubt. We will leave that task to a converted country’
Snapping coppers
Yet another one for the government’s ‘helping ourselves to your liberties’ file:
The British Journal of Photography reports that from February 16, the thrill that is photographing coppers acting like arses will be taken from us by new laws ‘that allow for the arrest – and imprisonment – of anyone who takes pictures of officers ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.’
The BJP continues:
‘A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine.
‘The law is expected to increase the anti terrorism powers used today by police officers to stop photographers, including press photographers, from taking pictures in public places. continue reading… »
Enough’s Enough campaign
The independent campaign group Enough’s Enough yesterday took out a full page advert in The Times newpaper to highlight a new campaign for more lobbying transparency. It is part of the ‘Alliance for Lobbying Transparency’ coalition, which also includes Spinwatch, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Unlock Democracy.
In early January the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee published a report calling for tighter rules on how lobbyists operate and called for a mandatory register of lobbying activity so we can keep a closer eye on how lobbyists operate. Unlock Democracy gave evidence to the Select Committee in the preparation of the report.
You can help the campaign by:
1. Write to your MP and ask them to sign EDM 563: Register of Lobbyists.
2. Join the new Facebook pressure group.
3. Invite your friends to do the same.
(Full ad beneath the fold) continue reading… »
The House of Lords needs reform
So a debate on the Lords rages because of the allegations. Shall we get rid of the Lords? Shall we increase sanctions? That the integrity and probity of Liberal Democrat and Conservative peers was tested and not found wanting is reassuring. That many peers say they have sent lobby rogues packing in the past is cheering. We must not lose sight of the fact that only part of the system is broken.
It goes without saying that lobbying should be scrutinised. It is obvious that no member of either House should hold another job while being a legislator.
But in the kerfuffle it must not be forgotten that sound amendments have been made in the Lords. It is must not be forgotten that hasty dangerous legislation has died there – detention for 42 days, and clauses in the Police and Criminal Bill last year.
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News media: not just biased, but rubbish
I don’t know what confluence of planets has caused me to notice this at the present time, but the media are really, really bad at their jobs. I’m signed up to a number of RSS feeds, from the BBC and Sky onwards. I read the Guardian and the Times if not daily then every other day.
And yet there are an enormous amount of stories which are of huge importance but which are receiving minimal coverage, for some reason.
Could a Labour / Libdem coalition happen?
It could, according to Sunder in this week’s edition of New Statesman.
But there must be changes to the New Labour agenda…
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The first Carnival on Modern Liberty
Welcome to the first edition of the Carnival on Modern Liberty. This has been an interesting week to begin this carnival. We’ve had the rise and fall of the government’s latest attempt to exempt MPs’ expenses from the Freedom of Information Act, the inauguration of President Barack Obama and the launch of the Guardian’s new Liberty Central. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves…
Winning the Right to Know
Is freedom of information a civil liberties issue? We could debate that for hours, but as (my, ahem, boss) Peter Facey says in Yes, Democracy Works (Comment is Free):
…a significant swath of the establishment fears and distrusts the public, treating us as compliant subjects rather than citizens. We are regarded as a problem to be controlled and managed and our fundamental rights and freedoms are paid lip service but considered ultimately to be an inconvenience. The impulse which has lead us to a national identity database, identity cards, the DNA database, photographers being detained for taking pictures in the street, parents being spied on to check if they live in the appropriate school catchment area, the drive to marginalise trial by duty and hold inquests in secret and suspending/habeas corpus, is the same impulse that assumes the public is neither entitled nor interested in knowing how MPs spend their expenses.
The plan to exempt MPs’ expenses from the Freedom on Information Act caused an uproar. The Campaign for Freedom of Information, Unlock Democracy and mySociety moved swiftly.
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What we need is a leap of faith
This discussion about a ‘British Barack Obama’ has been so overdone even I’m getting tired of it despite having politically obsessed about him for over two years. But there are two points I’d like to make.
I don’t entirely buy Unity’s reasons for why there won’t be a British Obama, neither am I persuaded by Sunder and Sadiq’s emphasis on current representation and stats. On that, I’d like to see a more dispassionate analysis like this on 538. I’m a bit more more influenced by the work I did out there on the campaign.
Obama’s narrative was that America is the land where any dreams are possible and he was the culmination of that dream. He needed them to believe in three things: that he was capable for the job, that America could elect a black man (important during the primaries) and most importantly that they could make that change happen. These were leaps of faiths that were explicitly tied to the ongoing myth-making that is The American Dream.
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You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
» How bad is the feline obesity crisis?
» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civic cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
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