Does anybody care? Wednesday 8 August 2012  Far from being concerned, much less alarmed, though, my response is almost total indifference. Such is the decline in respect for our political élites that the idea that anything Cameron and Clegg do is important somehow seems faintly absurd. And indeed, when the power has gone elsewhere, and the fate of nations is being decided by events over which they have no control, why should one care about this posturing duo? As Cameron vows to push ahead with boundary reform though, one thing that does stick in the craw, though, is the idea that politicians should express proprietary rights over this matter. It should not be for them to decide. Under our scheme, we would prefer fixed boundaries for our administrative areas, decided by the people in referendums and locked in by local constitutions. We would expect the maximum size of an administrative area to be about half a million people. And, for a Westminster lower house of about 500, we would expect each area to be allocated one MP per 120,000 population – typically, an area will have four MPs. The only thing that should change is the number of MPs, as population waxed and waned. Boundaries should stay fixed. These are not (or should not be) the playthings of politicians. And how the representation is ordered within the boundaries of those areas should be for the citizens of the areas to decide. As an aside, on House of Lords reform, the most economic and simple way to staff the upper chamber is for the lower house to elect its members from their own ranks. With the reduced role for central government that we propose, a house of about 120 would suffice, with "senators" serving a term of five years before being put out to grass. With the people as the ultimate revising chamber, and most legislation arising from local legislatures, that would be enough. But while Cameron and his cohorts play their little games, having sub-contracted the business of government to Brussels and beyond, their irrelevance grows by the day. They are just figureheads of a corrupt machine. Who they are doesn't matter. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 08/08/2012 |
Greece "was a mistake" Wednesday 8 August 2012  For those of you who believe in coincidences, this was a coincidence. And I have tooth fairies at the bottom of my garden who have a magnificent bridge to sell you. Nevertheless, while manageable, Greece leaving is "not desirable" says Juncker, and he rules out the exit, "at least until the end of the autumn - and after that, too". That could be sometime never, of course, except that this man openly admits that, "When it becomes serious, you have to lie". And how do we know when Juncker is lying? COMMENT THREAD Richard North 08/08/2012 |
iThingy Tuesday 7 August 2012 I have gone to some lengths this afternoon to make the site look right on portable thingys and gadgets. Experiments with my new iPod-phone seems to indicate I have got it right, though I am sure someone will tell me otherwise. Now I have to stop procrastinating over this RSS XML problem.  COMMENT THREAD Peter North 07/08/2012 |
Greek crackdown on illegal immigrants Tuesday 7 August 2012  We last saw something like this in Italy in 2007 but this time, minister for public order and citizen protection, Nikos Dendias, is saying that this is no short-term change but a new policy direction. "We will not allow it to return to the previous chaotic and unacceptable situation", he says. The round-up has been picked up by the international and domestic media, with the Daily Mail citing claims by Dendias that mass migration had brought the country to the brink of collapse. "The country is being lost, What is happening now is [Greece’s] greatest invasion ever", he is quoted as saying. "Whoever is arrested will be held and then deported". So far, 88 people have been deported in a special charter flight, back to Pakistan, with the costs borne by the European Return Fund. Ironically, here we have the EU doing something which looks to be useful, making available €676 million between 2008-13 as part of the general programme "Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows". The system being taken up here seems to be the "integrated return plan" which finances up to 50 percent of enforced return schemes for non-EU country nationals, "particularly those who no longer fulfil the conditions for entry or stay in the host country". All the same, the fund is going to have its work cut out if it is to dent the problem. Out of a population of nearly 11 million, Greece has about 800,000 legally registered immigrants, while the number of those without papers is estimated at more than 350,000. The charter flights are going to be busy is Dendias means what he says. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 07/08/2012 |
The Harrogate Agenda – next steps Tuesday 7 August 2012 With the provisional list now up, I think the best thing to do is let the discussion run for a few days. At this stage, of course, the list is not set in stone, so there is plenty of scope for deleting some of the suggestions and replacing them with others. Already, there have been calls for additions, but I am minded to keep to the historical six, not least because a limited number of points is easier to remember and has more impact. In that context, any new point to be included has to be matched by a deletion, and should be looked at in that light. After the discussion has settled, I then propose to write a synthesis of the comments, taking in material from the forum and other blogs, etc., drawing up as best I can an overview which best represents a consensus position. Here, there is some slight controversy about e-mail discussions, where I have asked that comments should be exposed to a wider audience on the forum. There is no intention to shut down discussion. Simply, it is very difficult attending to multiple fora, and unfair to the majority if there are "back door" discussions going on, to which they are not privy. Once the discussion has run its course and the synthesis is in place, I will then run up a new draft list, item by item, with a short essay on each, bringing us to the point where we have something which is generally agreed, and which can go forward for further consideration at another conference. COMMENT: "PROVISIONAL LIST" THREAD |
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