Schwarzenegger Terminates Drilling Plans

The Governor of California's announcement earlier this week to suspend the expansion of oil drilling off the US West Coast is good news, particularly given the financial problems confronting the State. These share some similarity with those of Greece, although California remains one of the world's major economies.

In contrast to the lack of action by the United States Government in dealing with the problems of the Gulf of Mexico, the move by Schwarzenegger reflects the positive side of the US federal system. The Governor of California has also led action on energy and climate change issues.

WEAKNESS OF US GOVERNANCE MODEL

The reaction of the United States Government to the catastrophic oil spillage in the Gulf of Mexico reveals the weakness of the US model of governance. In short, legal retribution is the name of the game. This approach may be more effective than other models in dealing with consequences of financial wrongdoing, as in the case of banks, but when the environment is at stake pre-emptive and prompt practical action by the appropriate public authorities is essential. Once again, the US Government has been lacking in the this regard, as it was with New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina.

Importance of the Precautionary Principle

Less than a fortnight ago, much of Europe was grounded by the eruption of an Icelandic volcano. The airline business was swift to complain that European civil aviation officials were overly cautious, but most people would prefer this kind of disruption to a calamitous accident.

At around the same time aircraft were returning to British skies, the rig component of a deep sea oil well and pipeline complex belonging to BP - British Petroleum - exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people. However, the possible wider impact of this incident does not seem to have been fully acknowledged by the company, the US Coastguard, or the government in Washington....until too late.

This failure to fully acknowledge the potential consequences of the oil rig explosion at the time of the incident may have been due to a number of factors, including the impending announcement of BP's annual profits and the United States Government's plans to extend drilling in the Gulf.

Whatever the reason, the outcome may be the US's worst ever environmental disaster, bringing devastation to marine and other wildlife, as well as to the livelihoods of people engaged in industries such as fishing and tourism.

The economic collusion of big business and national governments is always a clear and present danger, as the recent banking crisis has revealed. This is precisely why the precautionary principle and timely intervention by regulatory authorities are so important in disaster prevention and management, even if this time it's the environment, stupid !

The Shadow Side of Political Correctness

One consequence of Gordon Brown being off-message and on air yesterday was that British National Party Leader Nick Griffin was on air and on message this morning on the BBC's Today Programme.

The Importance of Real People's Concerns

Gillian Duffy's retort to Gordon Brown's off-air - but actually on - description of her as a bigot was that he needed to meet more real people.

The context was a prime ministerial visit to Rochdale today, and Mrs Duffy is a former Labour supporter with concerns about the economy and social justice, although she didn't use the latter expression. Like many other people, she is also concerned about immigration to the UK. In short, Mrs Duffy expressed the kind of concerns which most pollsters have found characterise the British electorate.

What the Prime Minister's faux pas - for which he has apologised - reveals is the political correctness gap, or perhaps that should be gulf, between ordinary people and those in positions of power who have been the major beneficiaries of New Labour's social engineering project, of which mass immigration has been a key component. To express disquiet about this runs the risk of being labelled "that bigoted woman" as Brown described Mrs Duffy.

The fact that Gillian Duffy is a traditional Labour supporter makes today's encounter all the more interesting. Although I once hoped that the future ex-prime minister would do a "Tony Blair" and pretty much disappear from British public life, my present feeling is that he should retire gracefully to the back benches and spend more time in the company of real people.

Business backs Clarke for Chancellor

News agency Reuters reports today that Ken Clarke is the favoured candidate for next Chancellor of the Exchequer amongst UK business leaders. This is hardly surprising, as Clarke steered the economy from the last recession, and British politics is short on experience just now. Ken Clarke has also stuck around, although rebuffed as contender for the Tory leadership, in stark contrast to the leading architect of New Labour, former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Ken Clarke Reveals Tory Terms For Deal

According to a Press Association report today, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business Industry and Skills has said the bottom line for a deal with the other political parties would be adherence to the Conservatives planned deficit reduction programme, involving early massive cuts in public expenditure.

The timing and scale of public expenditure reductions is a defining difference between the Tories and the other main parties, and Clarke has also expressed doubt that these would accept the Tory proposals.

However, a legacy of "moral hazard" (see below) also applies to much of the public - and publicly funded - sectors under New Labour. In short, there has been a great deal of profligate spending and too little accountability when things have gone wrong. The problem is that the casualties of public spending cuts will not be, in the main, the people who made the wrong decisions.

Nevertheless, I do very much support Conservative proposals to scale down The Quango State, although even Mrs Thatcher found this difficult. Nevertheless, as a previous Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as Secretary of State for Health, I do regard Ken Clarke as someone capable of administering radical surgery of the kind most people accept is required sooner or later.

THE NEW DUKES OF MORAL HAZARD

To celebrate the restoration of "The Image" to my blog, I'm returning to the 1980s auto theme with which the present British General Election campaign started. I'm referring, of course, to the David Cameron-Gene Hunt-Audi Quattro image for which "Dave" expressed his thanks to New Labour spin.

The Dukes of Hazzard was a real (as distinct from retro) US TV show of the late 1970s-mid '80s, with 2 main heroes - a bit like the contemporary partnership of David Cameron and George Osborne - and an attractive woman in hot pants, not as yet sighted amongst those Cameronettes....but now the weather is hotting up, who knows what might happen.

"Moral Hazard", I fear. For I'm not convinced that David Cameron's Conservatives will tackle this problem arising from the bail-out of UK banks and the protection of bankers from bearing the real consquences of their risk-taking. I also detect a return of the Conservative pre-occupation with the less fortunate amongst the feckless, at a time when it is the morals of the wealthy and powerful that most need regulation.

BLACK SWAN FLIES INTO LONG CRISIS ?

Yesterday, I was reminded of Black Swan Theory - see www.fooledbyrandomness.com - and today hit upon a website called www.longcrisis.com Black Swan Events are unpredictable happenings which have an impact of great/wide magnitude, and whose occurrence and effects are later rationalised as predictable: the consequences of volcanic eruption(s) in Iceland serve to illustrate the theory very well. The forecast "Long Crisis" encompasses changes arising from increasing global connectivity, with particular reference to financial/economic systems, climate change and "peak oil" and the need to adjust to these environmental limits to growth. Political leadership will be a key factor in determining how societies like our own adjust to the challenges ahead, and this is precisely why Britain needs a very different kind of politics at the present time.

An Ideal UK General Election Outcome ?

The prospect of a genuine coalition government involving all the major, and some of the minor, UK political parties is looking more attractive to many people, including myself. However, there is a possibility that such a government would not be run by any of the current political party leaders. In a situation where the Conservatives had most seats followed by the Liberal-Democrats, my guess is that Ken Clarke might prove the most acceptable prime ministerial candidate, with Vince Cable as the man who would be Chancellor. It strikes me that these are two men who could do business with one another, to paraphrase Mrs Thatcher's description of her relationship with former Soviet President Gorbachev. At the present time, the UK needs more experienced leadership than that offered by David Cameron who, as former Number 10 advisor Mathew Taylor pointed out on BBC Radio 4's The World at One today, did not appear to demonstrate much real passion or enthusiasm for office in the three party leadership debate last week.

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER !

"Global Gridlock" is how Australian ABC News describes the impact on world air travel of the volcanic ash plume across northern and central Europe.

Forecasters are now suggesting that the climatic conditions which have contributed to the problem could continue into next week.

The volcanic ash plume is an environmental event of global significance, a so-called "Act of God" which at best is an inconvenience for users of air transport, and at worst a disaster.

However, unlike recent earthquakes, there do not seem to have been any direct fatalities as yet from the eruptions in Iceland.

What this episode should do is make people - and policy makers in particular - think more laterally about the potential for and impact of "Nature's Great Events".

Please also see http://the-deep-stuff.blogspot.com

A week is indeed a long time in politics....

By any stretch of the imagination, the past seven days has been an extraordinary week for international and domestic politics.

I wonder if Iceland's volcanic ash plume would have so effectively grounded North Western Europe had the pilot of Poland's ill-fated presidential plane followed Russian air traffic advice and diverted from Smolensk to Minsk last weekend ?

Meanwhile financier and philanthropist George Soros has warned of the possible break-up of the European Union if Germany and other countries fail to support the financial rescue of Greece and similar failing economies more wholeheartedly.

Sounding a positive note, the Washington summit on nuclear arms control earlier this week has been widely hailed as a success.

On the domestic front, I listened to yesterday's first live broadcast "debate" between the leaders of Britain's three main political parties on the radio, which conveys a rather different impression to television.

I have to say that there was something about the format of this event which wasn't entirely satisfactory, although I agree with the general view that Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg emerged as the "winner".

As I missed the end of the broadcast, I'm not sure whether environmental issues were discussed. However, I have to say that the silent skies outside more than made up for this !

ANOTHER TWILIGHT OF THE GODS ?

The serious consequences for British airspace of ash fallout from the eruption of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajoekull - a name to strike fear into Anglo-Saxon pronunciation - recalls again "The Twilight of the Gods" myth, or Ragnarok.

Coming as it does on the day the Green Party launch their election manifesto, one cannot but help be reminded of the power of nature to disrupt human affairs.

Technocrats, in particular, should take note. Similar previous events - before humans took to the skies in such droves - did not cause widespread disruption.

I hope environmental issues receive some serious attention when the leaders of our three main political parties make their joint appearance on television this evening.

Co-incidentally, I last blogged on the subject of Ragnarok during the height of the Icelandic banking crisis in 2008, when an economic catastrophe arising from a "Twilight of the Banks" threatened our horizons.

The Next Most Dangerous Man In Britain ?

Hearing a banker describe Liberal-Democrat Treasury Spokesman Vince Cable at "dangerous" on the radio this lunchtime brought a smile to my own and a few other faces, I imagine. Such use of the "dangerous" word reminded me of the days when Ken Livingstone was Leader of the Greater London Council, and this epithet was regularly used to describe GLC policies, many of which turned out to be very sensible, and were later adopted by other political parties.

Please also see my posts on "Will Hutton & The Economics of Fairy Dust" @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com and "The New Battle for Britain" @ http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com

My Image Problem...& That Of Others

Like quite a number of other Blogger.com users, I have found that the images have mysteriously disappeared from my posts.

However, after "reading" yesterday's Guardian newspaper - a rare occurrence these days - I have to confess that this personal image problem may be just the right reminder that image is too much relied upon these days. For amidst a display of pictures recalling "Hello" Magazine, was poor Samantha Cameron on the political campaign trail being railed for her unsartorial attire.

So, dear readers, there won't be any more image-bearing posts from me for the time being, I shall, instead, focus on content !

Nevertheless, for those who like pictures, my other blog http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/ still has these !

GORDON BROWN AS NICK BOTTOM

Given the interest generated by the New Labour Government's campaign poster of opposition leader David Cameron depicted as the hero of "Ashes to Ashes", I've decided to cast Gordon Brown in the role of the ass-headed Bottom (shown here), a figure of fun in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Bottom temporarily becomes the love object of Queen of the Fairies (analogous to women voting for New Labour ?), due to a work of enchantment, in this case perhaps by Peter Mandelson. All in the end is put to right.

Importance of Herd Matriarch in Politics

The Bank Holiday weekend has shown just what a "Boys's Game" British politics has become. Gordon Brown deserves to lose the General Election because, like the ass-headed character of Bottom, his comparisons are often odious. I'm thinking of his latest podcast which compares economic recovery with the convalescence of footballer Wayne Rooney from minor injury (a sprained ankle).

Therefore, let us all rejoice, as Mrs Thatcher might have said, that the Prime Minister will today ask the Queen (image courtesy of Wikipedia) for the dissolution of Parliament. The burden is already lifting as far as I'm concerned !

However, Her Majesty aside, British politics is short of "Herd Matriarchs" these days and much the worse for this. In New Labour's case, they appear to have been pretty much "Folletted". Barbara Follett - yes She of the recent expenses scandal despite being married to a millionaire - some may remember was creator of the so-called "Blaire Babe", a sort of political Barbie Doll, now unfortunately somewhat the worse for wear !

Where is the Angela Merkel or Nancy Pelosi of British politics I ask myself ? There are undoubtedly women of talent in all the main political parties, and the Greens have a very able female leader, but I don't seen the New Mrs Thatcher on our political horizon. Quite the opposite in fact, when David Cameron described himself as "probably not" a feminist, I think we all knew that this meant. Personally, I don't look to the New Politics for a resurgence of feminism, as all our male party leaders would be easily upstaged by a serious female contender for power, and will, therefore, do their utmost to ensure that such a woman does not emerge.

In the meantime, British politics has become a "Boys's Game" from which mature women are significantly sidelined, albeit that some younger "cheer leaders" are allowed centre stage from time to time to help rally the crowd, along with the leaders's wives, of course. The media have been their prime allies in this, with market research apparently conveying the view that Jo Public does not like to see women of a certain age on screen, and only then when they have been heavily made over to look like the "Living Dolls" identified by contemporary feminists.

How did this New Old Lad Culture, with its odious comparison of footballer Wayne Rooney's injury to the parlous state of the British economy , arise ? I partly blame New Labour's State Nannies like Harriett Harman and Tessa Jowell, who have eschewed Herd Matriarchy for male approval and the Living Doll look themselves. However, the problem goes much deeper than this, and the "feminised" contemporary British Man with his football joke and similar comfort blankets, has ultimately turned out to be the main obstacle to modern feminism and the substantial exclusion of the Herd Matriarch from British politics. Just look at the sorry state of play we're in as a consequence !

The Battle for Tristramgrad (aka Stoke-on-Trent)

This is the coat of arms of the city of Engels (Saratov Oblast) in the Russian Federation, evoking sentiments surrounding hard-working labour symbolised in the bull bearing his heavy load. Enter the Hon Tristram Hunt, recent biographer of Engels, undisputed pretty boy of the academic media set, and now the Labour Party's candidate for the apparently safe seat of Stoke-on-Trent Central. I'm not a fan, incidentally, and nor, apparently, are many Labour supporters in Stoke, according to the secretary of the local party, who intends to stand as an independent candidate. However, the selection of Tristram Hunt does raise some interesting issues.

Stoke-on-Trent, like Liverpool under the Thatcher Governments of the 1980s, has been the victim of New Labour policies in the noughties. These have included the imposition of education programmes and demolition of much perfectly good housing and other building stock. There has been a loss of population and employment, and, most significantly, a pervasive loss of confidence in the area both amongst its own residents and external interests, notably the very central government whose policies have exacerbated problems arising largely from industrial restructuring within Stoke and its surrounding sub-region in the North Midlands. In the midst of all this, Stoke and other parts of the North Midlands have fallen victim to another political problem, headed by another Cambridge historian, albeit not one so pretty as Tristram Hunt: Nick Griffin of the British National Party.

The question now is whether New Labour "Patrician Socialism" of the kind embodied in Hunt (an apparent favourite of Lord Mandelson) can deliver the kind of transformation required in Stoke-on-Trent, or whether the Labour Party needs to recast itself post General Election as a party of (as distinct from for) the people again. Peter Mandelson aside, Tristram Hunt does have a number of attributes in his favour, including a wide ranging knowledge of the kind of historical developments which contributed to the rise of cities like Stoke, or Five Towns, during the Victorian period. The real possibility that Hunt is the right man to preside over a new renaissance of the North Staffordshire Conurbation cannot, therefore, be overlooked. Against this, is a real danger that any renaissance will still leave many people behind, contributing further to a disaffected rump of voters who will opt for the BNP. With all this in prospect, Labour supporters of Stoke-on-Trent may choose a local independent candidate, something which may in turn split the vote in favour of the not-so-pretty Mr Griffin.

Whatever the outcome, "The Battle for Tristramgrad" has the makings of drama to which many a nineteenth century novelist would have aspired : a dashing hero with dubious connections, an ugly rival with even more dubious connections, and a hitherto unknown man of the people, deeply connected to the local community, but without the right connections to make him New Labour's candidate and perhaps, therefore, without the connections to deliver the modern regeneration which has hitherto eluded Stoke.

A TROIKA OF WISE MEN

The bombing of Moscow railway stations this morning is a sad reminder of the common terrorist threat now facing countries like Russia, Britain and the United States, coming as it does on the heels of a historic agreement on post "Cold War" nuclear arms reduction.

However, the "New Order" which has replaced earlier international hostility has created a set of problems of its own, as my previous post indicates.

Asked by an interviewer whom he would most like to meet, one of the authors of "Londongrad" cites a group of oligarchs and Russian Prime Minister Putin.

My own preferred grouping would be Gorbachev, Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa, suggested to me by an account in Havel's own memoirs, "To the Castle and Back".

Closer to home, and as an antidote to accounts of oligarch excess, I've just started to read Vince Cable's "The Storm",about the causes and consequences of the global financial crisis. I'll include the good Mr Cable in my "Troika" of wise men.

A CITY WITHOUT PEERS...OR TOO MANY ?

Image: Wikipedia Commons

The outing this week of three former New Labour Cabinet members for touting business might have stole some of the thunder from the Budget, had it contained any.

As it happens, I've been reading "Londongrad: from Russia with Cash" by Mark Hollingsworth and Andrew Lansley, a book drawn to my attention by a 2009 Channel 4 Dispatches programme about the influence of oligarch money over peers of all parties.

"Londongrad" draws attention to the impact of Russian oligarchs on the Capital and hinterlands, re-inforcing the City's role as the world's premiere financial centre in the noughties, and contributing to the domination of the UK economy by a small number of geographically concentrated business sectors.

In short, the book draws attention to some fundamental failures of governance, most notably in the former Soviet Union itself, but facilitated by the international community and particularly by Britain.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated story. For whilst the "Londongrad" phenomenum undoubtedly provides one of the most sensational perspectives on the world's "laundry of choice"*, as one African commentator describes some of the Capital's financial and property services, many other countries have lost out to Britain's failures of governance, as well as their own.

Indeed, this might very well be described as "The New British Problem", and there is little evidence that any of the nation's main parties have the wherewithal to tackle it, as last year's Dispatches programme illustrated very well.

For the inconvenient truth is that the British economy is now dependent on its role as the world's "laundry of choice", and it is notable that the Chancellor has postponed the introduction of a higher rate of stamp duty on properties over £1 million until next year, something which will undoubtedly encourage a flurry of international purchases in the meantime.

* BBC Radio 4 "File on 4" 31.10.2006

THE MEN (& Women) WITH NO BRAIN

The hero - or anti-hero - of "The Dollar Trilogy" is "The Man with No Name", and I shall return to him in a future post, but today I want to focus on "The Men with No Brain". Now I'm aware that this expression sounds sexist, so I'd just say that women are included here, but they play a smaller, albeit not insignificant, role.

"No Brainer" - something which requires little or no mental effort - is a term whose usage has become widespread in recent years, along with an apparently insatiable interest in zombies etc. For my own part, I've long suspected an android conspiracy whereby key sections of the UK corporate world, public and private, have been infiltrated by automatons.

My evidence for the presence of these, admittedly high-functioning, drones is their incapacity for individual thought and apparent dependency on some collective "super-brain", possibly located in the United States, but more probably in China. The implications of the global financial crisis would seem to bear out my suspicions.

I also suspect that there may be a hierarchy of such collective brains, with a superior one in London, albeit subservient to more powerful forces elsewhere, and lesser ones operating across the English regions, at County and District level. My own feeling is that the intellectual professions, including many academics, are particularly prey to this collective intelligence.

Fortunately, many other people seem to have a natural immunity to the "No Brainer" virus, and I very much hope that their vote will determine the outcome of the next UK General Election when "The Man with No Name", for his identity is still unclear, will restore this nation's strong tradition of collectivist individualism.

Please also see http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com - Planners's "Ivory Towers" targeted by Conservative MP

THE DOLLAR TRILOGY OF NEW LABOUR

I began to reflect yesterday on the legacy of New Labour, and it struck me that "The Dollar Trilogy" might provide an alternative narrative for the Blair-Brown years as follows :

1997 to 2001

A Fistful of Dollars

2001 to 2005

For a Few Dollars More

2005 to 2010

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I refer, of course, to the dominance of "The Special Relationship" between the US and the UK for the past 13 years, the positive aspects of this and its serious consequences.

It must be remembered that New Labour came to power amidst the strong expectation that it would oversee Britain's entry into the Eurozone, although I thought at the time that this was unlikely.

However, the pervasiveness of "The Special Relationship" did not become entirely clear until after the UK joined forces with the US in Iraq, thereby calling into question not only external relations with other key members of United Nations and the European Union, but also within this country's own government.

This has had a very high price indeed, not least because both the US and UK governments clearly had their eyes off the ball from the mid-noughties on economic issues, and most notably in failing to intervene in the global speculative bubble from which the economies of both countries are still reeling.

DEFICITS - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

News this morning that the European Commission wants Britain to cut the national deficit faster than proposed by the present government has put the issue with which most UK voters are most concerned - the economy stupid - firmly centre stage again, thank goodness !

However, it is not just New Labour and the Liberal Democrats who favour a more softly softly approach to tackling the financial deficit, so do many bankers. The Conservatives, on the other hand, have declared firmly that they do not intend to be dictated to by the money markets.

Meanwhile, the public need to understand the implications of different approaches to dealing the deficit so voters can make an informed choice at the ballot box. What is clear is that the consequences will be serious and far reaching whatever approach is taken.

In short, we can look forward to "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" - to continue my analogy to "The Dollars Trilogy"* - whoever wins the Election.

The real choice is between a short, sharp shock of the kind favoured by the Conservatives - or economic shock therapy too far for some - and pain management from the other main parties, which may not in the end deliver an economic cure.

* A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More (see below) and The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Wild West of UK Financial Services

The wish expressed in my previous post that UK politics might be re-cast as a Spaghetti Western in the run-up to the Budget and General Election seems to have been in part granted by the latest revelations on the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Lack of robust action by the Financial Services Authority on the bank's UK operations is now being cited by the United States Treasury Department as a contributory factor in the bank's demise, according to BBC Radio this morning. HSBC are also credited with playing a significant role in the collapse of Lehman Brothers, although it is auditors Ernst & Young who come in for most blame. However, whilst one is certainly left with the impression that the "Big Guns" are out for bounty, precisely who will be ingloriously dispatched at the end of the day is still rather less clear.

BUDGET FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

Like many folks probably, I'm starting to tire of a too long run up to the British General Election. Usually thought-provoking, Channel 4's Dispatches programme on Monday about David Cameron's Conservatives was just plain boring, and I decided to have a bath in order to watch "For A Few Dollars More" on Five later on. If only British politics could be recast in the form of a low budget Spaghetti Western, we could then all look forward to a much more exciting Budget on 24 March, and opposition party response.

"British Politics....murky, obfuscatory, opaque"

This was Mathew Engel's description of The Iraq Inquiry on Friday as Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave evidence, in the weekend edition of the Financial Times. Engel's sketch laments a lack of robust cross-examination, only adding "...one panel member, Sir Roderic Lyne, did show a sharper edge. As ambassador to Moscow in Boris Yelsin's time, he is used to dealing with exasperatingly obtuse leaders."

Michael Foot - The Old & New Politics

Today's announcement of Michael Foot's death is, paradoxically, both a reminder of the Old and New Politics. For whilst he is synonymous with the British Labour Party's "Wilderness Years", which co-incided with the Thatcher Governments of the 1980s, Michael Foot is also strongly associated with progressive liberal and socialist politics which survive in movements like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and other contemporary anti-militarist campaigns. It should also be remembered that whilst the 1983 Labour Manifesto proposal to nationalise banks was regarded as unthinkable by many people at the time, this is effectively what has happened under New Labour.

GENERAL ELECTION ON LADY DAY ?

In addition to being shared by Basil Fawlty's wife and Alistair Darling's cat, the name Sybil also belongs to creatures from classical mythology endowed with the power of prophesy.

March 25 - known as Lady Day* - was forecast as the date of the 2010 UK General Election earlier in the year.

Could this be one forecast which proves correct ?

*Also New Year's Day until 1752

IS DARLING LABOUR'S NEW STALKING CAT ?

This is a charming picture of Sybil Darling, the present feline incumbent of No 10 Downing Street : the Chancellor of the Exchequer's place of residence, I understand, since Cherie Blair requisitioned the larger premises of No 11 and "got rid of" previous feline incumbent Humphrey during the early years of the New Labour Regime.

Now we learn in today's Guardian newspaper that the Chancellor's wife, Maggie, has referred to the Prime Minister's attack dogs - or "the forces of hell" - as "those fxxxxxx cxxxs" who "are trying to stitch up Alistair", although Mr Darling can't remember his wife using these words.

Is this latest attack on the New Labour leadership made with a a view to ousting Gordon Brown, I wonder ? Mr Darling himself is reported to be in league with "Prince of of Darkness" Lord Mandelson.

THE GOVERNANCE OF BRITAIN

Below - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and United States President Barack Obama. Right - Mr Brown and Russian Prime Minister (erstwhile and perhaps future president) Vladimir Putin.

Back at the beginning of 2007 I wrote a blog entitled "Gordon's Gang and Labour's New Politics of the Playground". News that the Prime Minister - along with former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott - may be regarded as a bully by some of his colleagues comes as no surprise.

However, I am surprised that this information should have caused such a furore in the British media. Indeed, I find myself in rare agreement with Mr Prescott's successor as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Ms Harriett Harman, who has pointed out that there are much more important matters at home and abroad.

It is with these important matters that I'd like to deal today, under the umbrella title of "The Governance of Britain", not to be confused with the UK Government's own publication of that name, whose implementation is indeed very confusing.

Now Britain has been described as a "Mini Super Power", although it is unclear who recognises this particular status internationally - I suspect not the United States and China - and whether the title reflects the reality of current geopolitics, or is really a historical aspiration. Certainly Gordon Brown and former Prime Minister Blair, especially, have aspirations to be world leaders on economic, social and environmental issues.

However, it is widely felt in this country that these aspirations and the "Faustian Pacts" which have gone with them have undermined Britain's status in the world rather than enhanced it. This disenchantment has highlighted a wide range of governance issues, not only within government itself but across the public and private corporate sectors.

In short, the British brand has been damaged and the prospect of Lord Bell of Belgravia* and his likes returning to repair it - particularly at a time when the discovery of new oil reserves may re-ignite conflict over the Falkland Islands - is by no means an attractive one. This is precisely why so many people are hoping for a coalition government for national unity after the general election later this year.

*Lord Bell's connections with the Russian oligarch community are well known (see below)

FOR WHOM THE BELL CHIMES

Citing a famous Russian Meerkat amongst his 1000 clients, Big Beast of the PR jungle Lord (Tim) Bell of Belgravia put a couple of lesser creatures firmly in their places on this week's Radio 4 "The Bottom Line" programme, repeated at 5.30pm today for anyone who didn't catch it.

Needless to say, the accompanying squabble amongst the programme guests was worthy of a group of meerkats.

Lord Bell distinguished public relations, no doubt another of the world's oldest professions, from the kind of spin practiced by people like Alastair Campbell (see my previous post). His firm, Chime Communications, advises the government of Iraq and will, I strongly suspect, be amongst the beneficiaries of Regime Change closer to home.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

"The Blair Years" : Their Own Victims

The latest casualty of "The Blair Years"*, former Metropolitan Police Commander Ali Dizaei, is yet another reminder of the culture of personal self-importance which has replaced professional competence in Britain's public services.

I met the photogenic Mr Dizaei on a couple of occasions when he worked for Thames Valley Police, where he struck me as an intelligent and likable man.

"Likable Rogue" was how he was described by a former police colleague this morning.

Public life has never been short of such people : Lord Archer is a prime example of one who rose to high office during the previous administration, before he was put in the "Clink" : a reversal of fortune which Mr Dizaei now shares.

My guess is that, as with Archer, this experience will provide an opportunity for new literary endeavours.

However, we must remind ourselves that other "likeable rogues" are now pursuing literary and self-publicising careers without being brought to public account, even if they have now turned to religion and tearful appearances on television shows.

*"The Blair Years" by Alastair Campbell was a recent Channel 4 Political Book of the Year. Mr Dizaei might consider a similar title for a book about his time at "The Met" under Sir Ian Blair.

THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER !

As something of a pagan, I have chosen the festival of Imbolc to relaunch EPONA, my strategic advisory and project development business : http://www.epona-land.co.uk/

Like the doyenne of British Banking, Angela Knight, I'm an adherent (or perhaps that should be aspirant) to the "ever-stalwart" approach myself.

Although I'm also aware that 2 February is "Groundhog Day" !

THE FUTURE ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE

Having been critical of last week's BBC Radio 4 Analysis Programme at my other blog - http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com - by way of balance I shall commend this week's episode.

Edward Stourton takes on the thorny issue of financial regulation, and, in particular, the relationship between the retail and investment roles of banks.

One commentator has a good dig at "a former British prime minister" who now holds a lucrative advisory role with one of banking's Big Beasts !

British banks declined to participate in the programme, handing their representation over to the ever-stalwart Angela Knight.

The episode ends on a rather apocalyptic note, with the economist John Kay raising the spectre of a new crisis of capitalism.

In short, western economies seem to be given a "Triple B Rating" : the lasting legacy of the Bush-Blair-(not-to-forget)Brown years ?

TIME TO END THE YEAR ZERO POLITICS

Like most people, I suspect, former British Prime Minster Tony Blair's appearance before The Iraq Inquiry yesterday left me dumbfounded. We were asked to look at events leading up to the war in Iraq from the year 2010. In fact, Blair, like former United States President George Bush, is a "Year Zero" politician, which means that history began with their own election, as leading members "The Elect" (that is God's) themselves.

CULTURE, THE ECONOMY & THE MEDIA

Speaking on an excellent episode of The Culture Show a couple of months ago, the veteran campaigning newspaper editor Sir Harold Evans - who notoriously fell out with Rupert Murdoch - stated that the key task for the news media at present was to understand the reasons for the financial/housing market collapse and what should be done to ensure that this is not repeated.

Sir Harold now lives in the United States and his comments reflect this, but the principle applies equally to the systemic failure of the banking system and subsequent economic crisis in this country.

Since the heyday of Sir Harold's career in Britain between the 1960s and 1980s, coverage of economic issues by our news media has changed dramatically, with increased reporting of supposedly well-performing sectors, such as finance and property, and a steep decline in coverage of industrial sectors, particularly in the regions. However, notwithstanding this shift in focus, much of the mainstream media still failed to anticipate the events which precipitated our longest post-war recession, from which the UK is only just emerging.

One reason for this is the strong tendency of journalists to rely on media releases from major companies and government organisations, carefully prepared for their consumption. Real investigative journalism of the kind promoted by Evans has declined significantly, again particularly where this might require some hard labour amongst Britain's industrial hinterlands. Perhaps this kind of work is now a job for the so-called "citizen journalist". The Blogosphere certainly did anticipate some of problems associated with financial and property speculation.

The very good reason for this is that the Blogosphere is just as much - perhaps more so - about production as consumption. Regaining this balance is the key challenge facing economies such as the United States and Britain. In short, since the 1970s we have lost much of our mass culture of manufacture, with trends in mass consumption being increasingly manipulated through media organisations - including national and international governmental ones - instead.

This is precisely why an enterprise like the search engine Google is so important, and why not so long ago Google was voted most trusted brand by consumers. Let's hope it can retain this status.

SEXING DOWN POLITICS & THE MEDIA

Steve Bell's Guardian cartoon of Alastair Campbell giving evidence to The Iraq Inquiry seems to have raised a few eyebrows, but is unlikely to lead to riots. Campbell denies "sexing up" evidence which contributed to Britain's decision to join the US action against Iraq in 2003. Bell's cartoon takes a difference view. Fortunately we live in a free country, or just about anyway.

However, serious commentators, such as theatre director Peter Hall, have long acknowledged the tendency of the British press to use sex as a distraction from politics. This was the theme of my first post on the subject of "Culture" back in June 2006.

The immediate subject was a play by Mark Lawson entitled "The Third Soldier Holds His Thighs", about the controversy surrounding the original staging of Howard Brenton's play "The Roman's in Britain", which portrays male rape.

Now it seems that Iris Robinson's views on homosexuality may well have contributed to her own manhandling by the media as referred to in my previous post. I suspect we shall hear more from her young man, in "Beau de Jour" style, very soon.

Fortunately, Northern Ireland's politicians seem to be taking a more sensible line on these particular troubles than one might have expected from the media coverage, giving a strong and positive signal that this is now a country which does not want to return to the kind of "Troubles" with which Brenton's play also implicitly deals.

MAD ABOUT THE BOY

Listening to BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend yesterday, one might have been forgiven for thinking that not just the "First Lady" of Northern Ireland, Iris Robinson, but British broadcasting herself had gone "Mad About The Boy". I refer, of course, to Mrs Robinson's affair with her "teenage lover" and the impact of this upon Stormont politics.

However, whilst Mrs Robinson, in the words of Dinah Washington's great song, has, apparently, be driven"quite insane" by the episode, I do wonder what would have happened if the affair had taken place in the Home of Popery ?

For events in Northern Ireland rather remind me of the recent antics of Italian President Berlusconi. Indeed, I'm wondering whether Mrs Robinson should consider conversion to Catholic faith, which is, I believe, more forgiving. She will in time, I suspect, be regarded as a kind of "New Madonna" who has liberated middle-aged female sexuality for the world media.

THE DEEP STUFF BLOG

Last year, I started a blog partly inspired by the cold weather called - you guessed it ! - http://the-deep-stuff.blogspot.com/ Check out my post on "Nature's Great Events".

On a more mundane level, I was amused this morning to hear a local authority official complain that councils hadn't been warned about the present "3o Year Event", as if "Our Mighty Leaders" could plan for such things !

Government officials both local and national have grown to accustomed to "Soviet-style planning" under New Labour, and I'm looking forward to a "3o Year Event" Regime Change !

NEW SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPS

The Former US & UK Defence Secretaries
For some time I've been reflecting on another E-Pantomime called "New Special Relationships" whose synopsis runs something like this ....

The British Commonwealth and the Commonwealth of Independent States (ie former Soviet Union countries) have merged to form an Anglo-Russian Commonwealth (ARC), whose prime minister is Boris Johnson. Vladimir Putin has been declared the "New Tsar", and the old British royal family have been exiled to Australia. Peter Mandelson has entered into a civil partnership with a Russian oligarch, and Ken Livingstone is the new Mayor of Moscow...

In the meantime, Gordon Brown has invoked "A New Cold War" - Good Timing Again Gord ! - which might have something to do with Britain's growing dependence on Russian energy supplies, and Geoff Hoon has embarked upon a failed coup at home. Now Hoon is described as inconsequential by his former comrades in the Cabinet, but wasn't this the man who as former Secretary of State for Defence helped lead Britain into the Iraq War ? In fact, isn't he due to give evidence to The Iraq Inquiry, along with former Prime Minister Tony Blair ?

Given the leadership problems, past and present, of New Labour and the need for a new politics of pluralism in Britain, might I suggest the following political strategy to the Liberal-Democrats in the run-up to the General Election :

1. A Partnership with Labour in which Vince Cable is identified as Leader
2. A Partnership with the Conservatives in which Vince is prospective Chancellor

This is the kind of new special relationship we need on the domestic front, and there's nothing like a cold, clear snowy day for some blue sky thinking.

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow

Walking to my destination this morning, the snow blizzard caused me to stop to put on a waterproof layer of clothing. The sign by the doorway in which I stopped - the Lodge of one Whittington Manor, now used for edge of town offices to which people have to drive it seems - said "Liter Life". Let's Lighten Up today, I said to myself ! To others, I suggest walking !

BURJ DUBAI AND "BABEL TOWER"

Welcome to 2010 ! This "first past the post" blog of the New Year continues the "Lessons of Literary Constructions" theme that I began last December, which already seems a long time ago.

Maybe the stratospheric aspirations of the world's tallest building officially opened today - the 818m Burj Dubai whose spatial dimensions are shown here - have speeded up the temporal realm, or perhaps not.

For history, in the person of Scottish poet David Lyndsay writing of the Tower of Babel in 1555, tells us in "The Monarche" :
The shadow of that hyddeous strength
Sax myle and more it is of length.

These lines give the name "That Hideous Strength" to the third book of C S Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy, mentioned in my previous post.

Co-incidentally, I am now reading another book by A S Byatt called "Babel Tower" : a truly Jungian synchronicity !

THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH

I finished reading A S Byatt's "The Children's Book" yesterday. Shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize, it is a beautifully written story with a profoundly moving end; and perhaps the finest/most appropriate cover design I've encountered.

Nevertheless, whilst this is a deeply intellectual and thought-provoking book, I find myself disagreeing with the underlying vein of "northern realism" - which Byatt attributes to one of her most sympathetic characters - although I actually share such an outlook myself.

For although "The Children's Book" is a brilliant book, dealing as it does with the birth of socialism in the Victorian period, and the popularity of fantasy in The Arts, particularly in relation to childhood, I am left with the feeling that Byatt does not really understand the psychological power - or indeed empowerment - of myth in helping people confront difficult, sometimes profoundly difficult, situations in their real worlds.

Like some of the main characters in "The Children's Book", C S Lewis fought in and survived World War 1, along with fellow Oxford academic Tolkien. Lewis found it difficult to re-adapt to some of the superficiality of College life and students. However, he is best remembered for his own children's tales of Narnia, and for The Cosmic Trilogy which concludes with "A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups" called "That Hideous Strength".

Like the Narnia books, "That Hideous Strength" has as a central theme the need to recognise evil, and human susceptibility, both individually and collectively, to its cosmic presence. In an incident which might have been encountered in a work of fiction, but in fact happened in my real life, I was reminded of this theme only the other day.

Visiting a country friend on Boxing Day, I was accosted by a local man who inquired "Do you realise that you are approaching the scene of a murder ?". I was shocked but not surprised by this question as there had been a police road closure in the area since before Christmas, which until then I had put down to a traffic accident/dangerous road conditions arising from the snow.

The full story emerged in yesterday's local paper. A woman had been beaten to death a few days before Christmas, and her husband is now the prime suspect. The couple had only recently moved into their lovely house, in what I have long regarded to be an almost idyllic rural setting in this part of Worcestershire.

Indeed this place has a particular resonance for me, a romantic attraction of the kind which A S Byatt - but probably not C S Lewis - might well disapprove. Moreover, my "country friend" is not human but a cat, whom I have known for over seven years. Yet it was precisely this feline, and another who joined her for a while in the run-up to Christmas, who seemed on some subconscious level to have alerted me to something in the area that was not quite right.

For this is an "almost" idyllic setting terrorised by heavy lorry traffic by day, and sometimes by night, from a dubious enterprise nearby, whose inhabitants seem strangely isolated amongst their many parked vehicles. In short, something of "That Hideous Strength" seems to be blighting the land, not just here but in other parts of Worcestershire where the population has become highly mobile. I ride a bike - in all weathers - incidentally.

Returning to the murder incident, it seems strangely fitting that the prime suspect should be identified to the public, in a police statement of the "northern realist" genre, as the driver of a highly distinctive gold landrover discovery. This seems to have travelled across large areas of The Midlands, visiting various shopping centres, on the day of the crime, carrying black plastic bags, and possibly the murder weapon, for disposal.

Lessons of Literary Constructions

I've recently finished reading the final volume of Stieg Larsson's brilliant Millennium Trilogy, "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest". The Millennium series is now topping the best seller charts in Europe and the United States, causing some commentators to make comparisons with the Harry Potter books.

This comparison was particularly interesting for me because I'm also in the middle of "The Children's Book" by A S Byatt, written partly in ironic response to the kind of supernatural fiction popularised so successfully by J K Rowling.

I obtained my copies of "The Millennium Trilogy" and "The Children's Book" from Worcester's excellent city library, currently housed in a wonderful Victorian building, part of a larger civic legacy, some of which has now been re-developed for a city centre apartment block.

By co-incidence, a minor sub-plot of "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" involves the "outing" of a corrupt construction boss. Indeed Larsson's descriptions of the operation of the Swedish construction industry - not too different from our own - are quite fascinating. Larsson's life partner is an architect.

The subject of construction brings me back to Worcester City Library, for whom relocation plans are progressing as part of a larger building complex. As it happens, the firm selected to build this, under the Private Finance Initiative, has just been fined some £8 million by the Office of Fair Trading following an inquiry entitled "Bid Rigging in the Construction Industry".

This is a very interesting story* in itself ! For more information, please see :
http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/ca98/decisions/bid_rigging_construction
However, a word of warning, in my own experience those who try to dig too deeply into such matters tend to be treated like naughty children and excluded by bossy bureaucrats.

* Unveiling the main findings of their investigation, the OFT stated that - as in Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" - almost all potential suspects turned out to be involved. See also Financial Times Article of 22.9.09 "Web of wrongdoing that spanned an industry".

WEBSITE UPDATES

Green Man Projects - http://www.greenman-projects.co.uk/ - has recently been updated, and I plan to relaunch my areas regeneration business EPONA in February 2010 : please see http://eponaland.wordpress.com/ in the meantime. Apologies to anyone who has experienced problems with email contact recently : these have now been resolved.

Three Wise Men to attend Iraq Inquiry ?

Some Suggest that the Three Wise Men came from Iraq*.... Image - Wikipedia Commons

Details of the Christmas cards to be dispatched by the Prime Minister, the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, and London Mayor Boris Johnson have been published today in The Telegraph newspaper. Intelligence suggests that the apparent image of three camels and a desert encroaching upon the Houses of Parliament on the Mayor's card either poses the threat of some unforeseen climate change....an unknown unknown** perhaps ?; or the impending arrival of Three Wise Men at the Iraq Inquiry. Now that would indeed be a miracle !

* There is no suggestion that they came from Dubai, however.

** Former US Secretary of State for Defense Donald Rumsfeld reflected on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan : "Reports that say something has happened are always interesting to me, because we know that there are known knowns, there are things we know we know. We also know that there are known unknowns : that is to say there are things we know we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the one's we don't know we don't know"

A UK Strategy for Enterprise & Industry

Whilst attending a conference on the subject of energy and climate change a couple of months ago, I commented that what the UK needed to properly tackle these issues was a good old-fashioned industrial strategy. Now I want to address the issue of climate change at my other blog - http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/ - and focus here on the issues of UK enterprise and industry.

Following my conference contribution - not greatly welcomed by some of the organisers it afterwards transpired ! - I was approached by a youngish man who, I seem to remember, worked for a government funded-agency involved in energy conservation. I had used the analogy of the Greater London Industrial Strategy, produced shortly before the abolition of the Greater London Council in the mid-1980s, and about the time I started my career in area regeneration. The young man told me that he partly agreed with what I'd said, but felt I needed to be more private-sector orientated.

This comment surprised me for 2 reasons. On a personal level, I've been self-employed for some 80% of my working life, and, therefore, in this "private sector". Secondly, the young man seemed to have forgotten - and this is very worrying because I suspect he is not alone - that a large part of the UK banking sector is now publicly owned, and the sector as whole has now been bailed out by our Government to the tune of £850 billion as mentioned in my previous post.

With this level of government intervention - unimaginable in the days of old "Red" Ken Livingstone's GLC - I would suggest that a comprehensive UK strategy for enterprise and industry is required at the present time more than at any other since the end of World War II. This should clearly identify the role of strategic sectors, such as banking and energy supply, in the context of wider economic, social, security, and environmental objectives.

Of course such as strategy would involve partnership between the public, private and non-governmental sectors. However, elected government should take the lead - as the GLC did - so that the citizens of this country can have some influence and accountability in the process. This would, of course, require a considerable cultural change, because it is precisely the absence of real accountability which has brought us to the state in which we all presently find ourselves.

UK Banks Bail-Out & Bonuses

It has emerged today that the UK banking bail-out has cost some £850 billion. At the same time, it's bonus time for bankers again. Surely there must be some mistake, or does gross incompetence merit equally gross reward ?

Looking around me just now, I suggest that there's a bonus for bad behaviour and not just in the banking sector. As I've said elsewhere, it's the survival of the feckless at the present time !

On a more serious note, those concerned about UK finances and economy should check out the Financial Times today - http://www.ft.com/ - and headline reports on the problems of the commercial real estate sector. It is here, I suspect, that events in Dubai will have most impact.

SUNNY DUBAI CASTS A DARK SHADOW

The serious consequences for stock markets in the UK and elsewhere of Dubai conglomerate DP World's request for a 6 month postponement of its debt repayments has been headline news.

However, there is another story underlying the collapse of the patently unsustainable Dubai asset bubble which has prompted my return to economic matters. This is a story about the darker side of the world's property hotpots in recent years, and how the good sense of one Senator Hilary Clinton has helped protect the United States economy from this latest episode of global financial turmoil.

Would Europe's new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, and, indeed, the Iraq Inquiry - see previous posts - please take note !

To begin with Iraq. Following the invasion of that country in 2003, the United States made the largest investment in re-construction since the Marshall Plan following World War II. Nevertheless, it was remarked upon by some commentators at the time that large amounts of this investment found their way out of Iraq and into increasingly speculative real estate markets in countries such as the US, UK and, you guessed it, Dubai.

On the back of this boom - to which key UK business interests, incidentally, have been critically exposed - D P World went on a global spending spree, a prize purchase of which was the British P&O Group. This group had a world-wide shipping and property portfolio which included strategic assets in North America. However, Senator Clinton took the lead in blocking the sale of key US facilities to DP World on grounds, amongst others, of national security.

What her counterparts in the UK and Europe were doing we can only guess, but the answer is clearly not a great deal, which is precisely why these matters need to be thoroughly investigated at the present time.

THE IRAQ INQUIRY

In my previous post I emphasised the need for "tough and fair" public hearings into matters of national and a strategic importance. It is very much to be hoped that the inquiry into events leading up to the war in Iraq - www.iraqinquiry.org.uk - will provide these.

Also, to any readers who feel that my blog has been unfair to members of the present British Government, I would respond that the prospect of fewer lawyers in senior political positions in the next administration offers the possibility of better national governance, and therefore a reduction in the need to blog much on the subject of politics....but I may be wrong.

CLIMATE CHANGE & INFRASTRUCTURE

The impact of flooding on infrastructure has been highlighted again by events in Cumbria, including the tragic loss a policeman's life due to collapse of a road bridge. The danger of similar collapses have made travel around the County extremely difficult, and a motorist interviewed on the radio this morning identified the particular difficulty of access to Sellafield, the location of Britain's major civilian nuclear waste installation.

Further capacity is proposed for Cumbria and the Sellafield area. and it is the task of the new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) to assess issues arising from this and other proposed increases in British nuclear power capacity.

Now although the Government's Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has suggested that the flooding in Cumbria is on the scale of a once in a millennium event, I question whether he can really know this. Indeed, I would invite Mr Hilary Benn and some colleagues - weather permitting - to accompany me on a historical climate change tour of Britain, which will include site visits to areas which have experienced significant changes in sea levels.

Returning to the IPC and the need for "tough and fair" decision-making in public policy at the present time, highlighted in my previous post, I would remind the Chairman, Sir Michael Pitt, and his colleagues of the ruthless manipulation of the facts in which promoters of major infrastructure projects sometimes engage, historically leaving objectors to rely on "tough and fair" planning inspectors to hear their challenges.

I have to say in this context that my low estimation of the characters of political and business leaders (see below) would improve if resources were made available to those challenging the Government's proposed nuclear and other major infrastructure programmes, such as strategic road and bridge construction, which may well end up making this country more vulnerable to climate change, when local adaptation strategies are really what are most urgently required.

Ruthless & Manipulative vs Tough & Fair

Harriet Harman's reaction to being asked on BBC Radio 4's "Any Questions" about her attitude to the use of mobile phones whilst driving a car has prompted me to reflect on the subject of character. This is a subject apparently of much interest to policy-makers at the present time.

My own experience - direct and indirect - leads me to suspect that what might be termed "the ruthless and manipulative personality" is currently the dominant one in British business and public life. The attributes of this personality are perhaps more feminine than masculine, although it is by no means exclusive to women, with many - perhaps the majority - of men in positions of authority displaying some or all of its qualities. I would, incidentally, classify both the Leader and Deputy Leaders of New Labour Party as ruthless and manipulative people.

Ms Harman is a particularly good example of this character type. She conducts herself in an aggressive manner, reflected in a number of convictions for driving offenses, but when challenged on her latest entanglement with traffic laws, is extremely defensive.

Readers may gather from my description that I do not regard people like Ms Harman as exemplars of good character, and they would be right. This is because I have had the good fortune, particularly in my early career, to encounter some "tough and fair" authority figures.

The tough and fair personality type is still to be found in business and public life, although I believe there are far fewer of such individuals at present than in earlier times, largely because the prevalence of ruthless and manipulative people tends to bring out these qualities in others, thereby perpetuating them. This is a real problem for society, as great, I would suggest, as any of the other problems which we currently face, because it is precisely these other problems that need tough but fair solutions.

Lesson of Baroness Ashton's Appointment

Like most people, I was vaguely aware that Cathy Ashton had replaced Peter Mandelson as European Trade Commissioner, before her appointment yesterday as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. However, I didn't know - thankfully not being part of them ! - that in New Labour circles Baroness Ashton is best known for being the wife of journalist and YouGov founder Peter Kellner.

The lesson of this is that who you're married to matters in New Labour circles, except, of course, if your husband ends up charged with corruption in another European country, like Mr Tessa Jowell....when you separate from them as quickly as possible.

On this note, I would suggest that a key task for the new European High Representative will be tackling international corruption, and I very much hope that Cathy's Ashton's professional background in, amongst other things, chairing an English health authority has prepared her for this.

Paying For Education With Sex

The story of "Belle de Jour" has received much coverage in the middle class press this week. For those unfamiliar with this tale, it concerns a PhD student who moonlighted as a prostitute and thereby funded her studies, helped also by an anonymous blog which was turned into a television series. The lady in question now works as a science researcher in Bristol - or did until her cover broke.

Although this story may seem - and indeed is - rather sensational, the fact is that there have always been clever women who worked in the sex industry, as illustrated by the histories of royal courtesans across the world.

However, by far the majority of women engage in prostitution through necessity rather than lifestyle choice, often suffering injury, illness and death as a consequence. So whilst "Belle de Jour" may have made the right choice for herself, many young women - in countries such as Zimbabwe, for instance - would prefer not to have sex with their teachers to pay for their studies.

Tabloid Coverage of Environmental Issues

On Monday, I purchased a copy of The Sun newspaper : a first for me !

Inside was a copy the first tabloid edition of the paper, published on 16 November 1969. This was rather a good little read !

My feeling is that there is an opportunity for the likes of The Sun to provide better coverage - dare I say more balanced even ! - than the non Red Top broadsheets, which seem to have opted for the "let's take something straightforward and make it as complicated as we can" approach to environmental issues.

So here's my list of key issues needing some good old fashioned common sense reporting :

• Population & Health
• Resources & Nature
• Energy & Transport
• Waste & Pollution...

I look forward to the headline : "It's The Sun What's Done It !"

"Do Not Go Forth and Multiply" !

The following extract from Channel 4's website (18 November) highlights the importance of population issues in tackling climate change - please also also see my post of 14.11.2009

UN: educating women 'key to climate change'

'Do not go forth and multiply' is the conclusion of the UN's world population report, which says educating women may be the key to cutting carbon emissions - UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund

However, as my earlier post highlighted, the role of men is equally important !

WHY I SUPPORT THE SUN NEWSPAPER

Having never purchased a copy of The Sun, and having little time for the Murdoch Media Empire, I surprise myself in supporting the newspaper's coverage of Jaqui Janes vs the Prime Minister. The decisive moment in this story came for me when a BBC Radio 4 PM male presenter interviewed The Sun's editor, and suggested that Ms Janes was psychologically damaged - which she is by the circumstances of her son's death in Afghanistan - and therefore not fully in possession of her faculties. How deeply offensive to the woman ! Neither the former Deputy Prime Minister nor New Labour's former Director of Communications were, by their own addmission, fully in control of their faculties when running the country : a state which the Prime Minister may yet admit to himself. Perhaps it's only so-called alpha males who are entitled to feel psychologically damaged and give interviews to the Media.

Could Simon Cowell Do The X-Factor For Climate Change ?

Free thinking people in this country have long observed how New Labour has infantilised large sections of the public, who apparently now favour baby-faced politicians like David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Indeed, if anyone doubts that infantile politics are confined to the present government, they should listen to the latest edition of "Any Questions" where Mr Conservative Home refers to the importance of financial support for the struggling parents of babies and toddlers, as these early years are the most important in human life.

Frankly, it is precisely this kind of daftness which encourages people patently unsuited to parenthood to procreate in the first place, thereby adding to unsustainable population growth. This, rather than infrastructural issues, I would suggest, is the overriding challenge in the context of climate change. Put another way, the widespread availability and encouragement, through financial and other incentives, of the contraceptive "male pill" may be the most effective way of curbing population growth, and thereby reducing human pressures on the environment.

Moreover, it strikes me that Mr Simon Cowell who has remarked upon the tendency of the alpha male - and even the non-alpha one - to have multiple partners and offspring, may be right the man to front such a programme, and to show the nation that it's a sign of success to have 1 or 2 children, who are properly looked after, or even none at at all, where parenthood is likely to prove problematic. I suggest this because it seems to me that the onus for family planning, in this country and elsewhere, needs to be placed much more firmly upon the adult male of the species....if he still exists that is !

MORE ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Over the weekend, I felt that perhaps my previous post "On the Limitations of Science and Religion" needed some qualification. I was also reminded of one of my favourite essayists, the great English polymath Francis Bacon. In addition, Haye's boxing victory over "Beast from the East" Valuev is a reminder that the Davids of this world can still beat the Goliaths.

So to begin with the subject of science, on a day when the Government has announced a major expansion of nuclear capacity, with a Goliath-like fist shake to those Davids of the environmental movement who still oppose nuclear power, that it now has the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) in its grasp ie this is going to be a fight, as things stand, with no independent referee ! Although the Conservatives have promised they will do something about this.

Unfortunately, nuclear power has always struck me a being a sort of technocratic religion, and it comes as no surprise that this relatively new religion has a growing number of environmentalist converts. I've previously noted in my other blog - http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/ in a post entitled From Forum for the Future to Fight the Future Forum - that I regard many so-called scientific environmentalists as repressed technocrats with a strong preference for top town centralised planning. Such Soviet-style planning has, incidentally, quite alot in common with most of the world's major religions where controlling edicts are passed down from on high to ordinary folk who aren't allowed to question them.

It has occurred to me, therefore, that in another life (whether previous, parallel reality, or future) that the entertainment impresario Simon Cowell may follow some kind of religious calling, or perhaps even convert to one in the later years of his present incarnation and establish a cult. Mr Cowell, it will be remembered, first came to fame with the show Pop Idol. However, following a dispute with the apparent "True Creator" of Pop Idol, he moved on to the X Factor.

The subject of idolatry brings me back to Francis Bacon and his own "Four Idols". Bacon is regarded by many as the first genuine philosopher of science, notwithstanding that he took a bribe whilst holding public office and died directly as a result of his scientific experimentation. However, whilst Bacon would have heartily approved of evidence-based policy making and, had he been alive today, might well have been a celebrity scientist like Professor Lord Winston, Bacon was too astute an observer of human nature to regard science as value free.

Thus he warns us against the following seductions or "idols", which I have adapted to present day culture and semantics and therefore advise readers to consult the original Bacon text. These "idols", which ever threaten to distort the facts, are as follows :

Idols of the Tribe - Scientific thinking is always circumscribed by the wider culture of individual and collective, including political and religious belief systems.

Idols of the Den - Science is subject to personal prejudice as evidenced by the cases of so-called "Expert Witnesses" whose evidence has turned out to be just plain wrong.

Idols of the Market Place - Society and economics ascribe more value to certain types of science than others, which may mean important research is not funded or funded properly.

Idols of the Media Circus - This does not just refer to the silliness which surrounds the likes of the X-Factor, but to the subjectiveness of the media in general on science and other subjects.

Moving on to the subject of religion, it may seem to some that my previous post expressed anti-religious or irreligious sentiments which I would have done well to suppress. In fact, I am, in general, a supporter of religions in their more spiritual forms, but not in the excessive materialism which most seem to support, and, indeed, encourage in their established forms. By materialism I do not mean only an excessive emphasis on the making of money whether through Western-style or state capitalism, but materialism in the Marxist sense which has no place for genuine spirituality. This said, I do not subscribe to the so- called "Doctrine of the Other Cheek" either, which some proponents of Buddhism, for instance, seem to favour, as an "Opt Out Clause" from tackling political and other worldly problems.

On the Limitations of Science & Religion

The tragic shooting of United States service personnel by one of their comrades - a Muslim Psychiatrist - has prompted me to reflect on the shortcomings of the scientifically-trained mind when combined with religious belief, or worse still, extreme ideology - please also see my post on the case of Radovan Karadzic and Dagan Dabic @ http://the-edge-of-town.blogspot.com/

Whilst these are extreme examples of the scientific mind, to all intents and purposes, gone mad, or just plain bad, there are, I feel, underlying issues which are relevant to the more everyday relationship between science, religion and society in this country and elsewhere.

Let's start with the explicit/implicit social status stakes which have become so important in countries such as Britain and the United States. In my experience, scientifically trained individuals tend to assume they are socially superior to other members of society, even if they do not follow a scientific profession. Many have, for instance, found work in better-paid positions within the financial services sector, and look where that has led us ! To systemic insanity and the edge of economic chaos, simple people like me might respond. However, the wider public must also share some responsibility for embracing such obvious charlatanism in the first place. In short, we have given our power away to those who professed to know better, but in actual fact didn't.

Turning again to the case of Johnson vs Nutt on the subject of drugs classification (referred to in my previous post), this has clearly ruffled the feathers of the scientific community with heavyweights such as Labour Peer Professor Lord Robert Winston coming to the defence of so-called scientific integrity.

Now Professor Winston is, in my view, far more of a danger to society than Professor Nutt. The fact is that science of the kind practiced by Winston is deeply value laden. In short, the right to have children supersedes just about every other kind of right and people who don't embrace this notion are socially and morally deficient. This has led to a generation of women - of which I am one, but not one who shares Professor Winston's sentiments - who are obsessed with the need to bear their own children and willing to go to any lengths to this end. Winston and his kind, I would suggest, have created a fertility neurosis amongst women in many Western countries, at a time when there are already many unwanted and uncared for children, and population growth poses one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of both nation states and the wider world.

It is noteworthy that Professor Winston is Jewish, and that unsustainable population growth in both the state of Israel, and, indeed, in neighbouring Palestinian Gaza, is one of the prime causes of instability in that region, although this is one of those truths that dare it's speak their name. For Jews and Muslims population growth is a weapon of mass destruction , which they would do well to focus on as much - if not more so - than other causes of insecurity.

This brings me on to the subjects of Roman Catholicism and Christian fundamentalism, which, like aspects of Islam and Judaism, pose threats to global security. These are also reasons why former British Prime Minster Tony Blair - a Catholic Convert with, I strongly suspect, leanings toward the Christian Right - should be, as far as possible, excluded from international politics, even if people in the business community want to pay alot of money to hear him speak.

Blair is undoubtedly a technocrat, which is precisely why many in the scientific community felt professionally, not to say socially, bolstered by his term in office, with people like Lord Winston accorded celebrity status. This may be one reason why the Professor's website has a colour-scheme which could have been designed by Katie Price. Maybe one of his medical colleagues was the designer of her so-called cosmetic enhancements, and perhaps they'll ghost author "Katie's Guide to Plastic Surgery" one day and make even more money.

The entry of Alan - Corporal or Captain according to your class politics - Johnson into this hitherto cosy relationship, occasional tiffle notwithstanding, between the political and scientific establishments seems to have come as quite a shock, or should that be reality check. Actually, I happen to quite like Alan Johnson, who bears a passing resemblance to David Bowie but is more down-to-earth than fell-to-earth, as he plainly doesn't do drugs. Johnson also seems to have wanted to tighten up on psychiatric drugs during his tenure as Secretary of State for Health, in favour of so-called "talking cures". Whilst I have some doubts about the likes of Cognitive Behaviour and other "State" Therapy - a bit too Soviet for my tastes - there's alot to be said for "Jaw, Jaw", particularly when the alternative is "War, War".

"Captain" Johnson vs "The Nutty Professor"

In recent posts I've reflected upon the importance of maintaining a sense humour in public life, and in the unseemly wrangle between the Home Secretary and Professor Nutt we may observe a classic failure in this regard.

At the time of the local government and EU elections earlier this year, when it became clear that New Labour had suffered a disaster, a Staffordshire councillor referred to "Corporal" Johnson : a reference to the character of Jonesy in Dad's Army who's famous by-line is "Don't Panic, Don't Panic". However, in his sacking of Professor Nutt from his position as a leading government advisor on drugs, Johnson comes across more like Captain Mannering who doesn't like to have his views challenged by sub-ordinates.

In some respects, nevertheless, the Professor is fair game. Nut must be one of the few people to have simultaneously succeeded in upsetting both New Labour and the Horse and Hound Magazine with his views on the relative dangers of drugs and equestrianism, even managing to bring in some class politics by accusing politicians of treating scientific advisers like "serfs".

Unfortunately, the Professor doesn't have the class act of Eddy Murphy in his role as "The Nutty Professor", a charming and talented scientist who is also extremely fat. Seeking a more svelte form - and in a nice take on the tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - the Professor concocts a slimming drug which certainly reduces his girth, but at the same time unleashes a dastardly alter ego, also played by Murphy with much panache. The behaviour of this other personality is not socially acceptable, alienates the Professor's girlfriend and, ultimately, like his slimming drug, has to be suppressed.

"The Nutty Professor" could also serve as a cautionary tale on so-called recreational drugs, including alcohol and cigarettes, which can have unforeseen side-effects that need to be taken account by people contemplating their use. However, for many people a rational and sensible approach to intoxicants - and indeed horse management and riding - is not possible, and this is precisely why we need effective regulation of such activities, and, in this case, science mediated through policy.