A New Kind of Government

I'm not a natural optimist. I have to work quite hard to be one, but I believe that it is worth it and that it is a healthier attitude than pessimism. This week we have welcomed a new kind of government into power, a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition. As soon as the election results were looking like a hung parliament was going to be the outcome, this is precisely the solution I thought would come about. From some time over the weekend, when informal talks were happening and seemed to be going well, I had a good feeling about it. Lib Dems in Government.... how can that be a bad thing? Speaking as a Lib Dem party member and volunteer campaigner I saw this as a wonderful opportunity to do something different. The old system wasn't working, as a nation we were swinging between Labour and Tory and neither party were getting it right.

The election results showed that the nation was split. No party had an overall majority and so it became necessary for two or more parties to cooperate. This is precisely the kind of democracy that I have long wished to see in action. Why must we have an adversarial system? Why can't the politicians from different parties and different backgrounds at least try to work together? It works in other countries, it works in the European Parliament. Why shouldn't it work here?

The Tories and Lib Dems demonstrated in their talks that they were able to sit down and compromise, that they were able to put the interests of the nation above the interests of their parties. The leaders passionately want this to work and even though they will undoubtedly face some opposition from within their own parties, I believe that they can set the example and make it work.

I have encountered a lot of negativity towards this coalition already. I believe this comes down to two fundamental causes: Firstly that this is a new way of running the country and people are wary of change. This way of working has not been proven to work in Britain before. Secondly, bigotry. I'm sorry to say this, especially of friends, but so many people have blinkered views of politicians, or of one party in particular. I've heard people saying "Look what happened last time the Tories were in power!" But I say to them - that was a long time ago. Thatcher came to power over 30 years ago. The political landscape has changed since then, the population has changed since then and the politicians have changed since then! I have found myself reminding people that this Tory party is NOT the same as the one under Thatcher. It is not the same as the one under Major. This is Cameron's Conservative party.

We all saw what happened to Labour under the "New" banner of Tony Blair, the party did change. No longer is Labour the left wing, unionist party of old. For a long time now the Liberal Democrats have represented the most left wing of the three main parties and under Cameron we can already see the Conservatives edging towards the middle from their old position on the right.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not jumping for joy at a predominantly Conservative government and I do have an edge of scepticism to my view. We have a proven Eurosceptic in the Foreign Office and an early pledge to hack public spending. But what I am saying is let's not judge this coalition before it has even got going. They have settled upon a 5 year fixed term parliament. Let's at least give them that long to show us what they can do, how well they can work together.

If it doesn't work, if the economy doesn't recover as well as the experts suggest it should be able to in that time, if Lib Dem policies are continually blocked then fine, vote differently in 2015. We can always go back to the old system (but I doubt that will happen if we get the reform we want!) but don't condemn this one just because it is different or not what was hoped for.

A sleeping nation

Philip Pullman (of His Dark Materials fame) wrote an opinion piece in the Times on Friday 27th February. Rather strangely that piece now appears to have vanished from the Times website, but a number of other website have quoted pieces of his comment on the internet to preserve it. A friend of mine managed to find a website with the full, unedited piece originally published in the Times.

Lest it be lost yet again, Here is the full text of Philip's article:

Philip Pullman

Are such things done on Albion’s shore?

The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake’s prophetic books. Sleep, profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.

We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness - the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.

We are so fast asleep that we don’t know who we are any more. Are we English? Scottish? Welsh? British? More than one of them? One but not another? Are we a Christian nation - after all we have an Established Church - or are we something post-Christian? Are we a secular state? Are we a multifaith state? Are we anything we can all agree on and feel proud of?

The new laws whisper:

You don’t know who you are
You’re mistaken about yourself
We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless
We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we shall know them for you
And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the only proof we shall allow to be recognised

The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what the new laws say about that:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity
Whatever your opinions are, we don’t want to hear them
So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are
And we do not want to hear you arguing about it
So hold your tongue and forget about protesting
What we want from you is acquiescence

The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.

You are not to be trusted with laws
So we shall put ourselves out of your reach
We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition
You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate them, or to send your representatives to vote against them
You do not need to hold us to account
You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?
Who do you think you are?
What sort of fools do you think we are?

The nation’s dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.

And the new laws whisper:

We do not want to hear you talking about truth
Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours
We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely on
We do not want to hear you talking about innocence
Innocent means guilty of things not yet done
We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence
You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt
We do not want to hear you talking about justice
Justice is whatever we want to do to you
And nothing else

Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don’t mind if we are. They don’t think we care about it.

We want to watch you day and night
We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you
We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people
We can see you have abandoned modesty
Some of our friends have seen to that
They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible
In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not want to be watched must have something shameful to hide
We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural
We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things

One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what the new laws say about that:

We know who our friends are
And when our friends want to have words with one of you
We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need
It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have committed under British law
It is for us to know what your offence is
Angering our friends is an offence

It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to pass such laws as the Protection from Harassment Act (1997), the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000), the Terrorism Act (2000), the Criminal Justice and Police Act (2001), the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002), the Criminal Justice Act (2003), the Extradition Act (2003), the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003), the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004), the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005), the Inquiries Act (2005), the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005), not to mention a host of pending legislation such as the Identity Cards Bill, the Coroners and Justice Bill, and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Inconceivable.

And those laws say:

Sleep, you stinking cowards
Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms
Freedom is too hard for you
We shall decide what freedom is
Sleep, you vermin
Sleep, you scum.

Philip Pullman will deliver a keynote speech at the Convention on Modern Liberty at the Institute of Education in London tomorrow

Victory in Europe

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favour of two men who took their case to them after the UK government refused to removed their DNA records from the database. The two men were arrested, one was acquitted, the other had his charges dropped, but their records were kept, according to current procedure.

That the ECHR has ruled in favour of these men is a huge step for liberty in this country. The decision was unanimous from the 17 senior judges appointed to the case. They found in favour of the men on the grounds of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Although there are no immediate changes this will set a precedent for future cases of innocent people's personal data being stored and will be a severe spanner in the works for Labour's disastrous ID Card campaign. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has snubbed the ruling, in typical fashion for this government when faced with criticism of the DNA database.

To find out more about how you can help stop the government robbing us of our privacy visit http://www.no2id.net/ and to read the whole news story visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7764069.stm

A Liberal Life

In his speech at the Lib Dem conference in Brighton this week, Sir Menzies Campbell gave an inspiring speech about the future of the party. Apathy and disillusionment are severe problems in Britain today and I know that many of you reading this email will be planning to dismiss what I say. "All politicians are the same", "all the parties are the same", "nothing will ever change" - I tell you what... with attitudes like that you're damn right! Things will never change if people continue to brush off the possibilities, if people give up on hope and ambition.

I am a Liberal Democrat because I believe that we, as a nation, deserve better. We deserve a free, fair and green country to live in and more than that... I believe that we can achieve it.

Ming concluded his speech with these words:

"I will lead this party into the next election with energy, ambition and determination. Because the stakes for this party have never been higher. And liberalism has never been needed more than it is today. So whenever people ask you: “Why vote Liberal Democrat?” tell them this:
We alone are prepared to break the cosy consensus of British politics and face up to the challenges confronting our society. To create a country that is free, fair and green.

[...]

Only we can achieve that free, fair and green society. Because only we believe in it – Only we will work for it – Only we will fight for it. The Liberal Democrats versus Labour and the Tories. Today, our party is not only the real alternative: It is the only alternative. Not two against one. But one against two."

To read the full speech go here.

Please don't dismiss me out of hand. Please don't hit "delete" without a second thought. Read what Ming has to say, think about what you can do to help. Even if that doesn't mean voting Lib Dem at the next election, tell your other friends what the Lib Dems have to say, tell people you meet that the political landscape needs to change and encourage people to vote with their feet. Literally. If there is an issue you care about, even just one issue, get out there and do something about it! Shout from the rooftops "No! I will not lie down and submit to this! I demand change!"

Thanks for reading. Now go do.

Thank you!

As you all know by now, I am terrible at getting my coursework done. I put it off until I almost crack under the pressure. I can't do this all on my own, I have help and I thought I would give credit where credit's due. So here are my top 10 procrastination websites!

10. Adult Fan Fiction
For those who missed it the first time I "came out": I write smutty Harry Potter fanfic. Here it is. I used to spend hours at a time reading other people's stuff on AFF, but I don't have time any more and a lot of my favourite authors have stopped writing. To be fair, so have I.

9. Home Office Watch
Essential viewing for any Brit. Informative and occasionally shocking.

8. Flickr
Mainly I check out my friends' photos, but it's good for a browse too. You can find pictures of anywhere in the world. Excellent for procrastination material.

7. Dave Gorman
I love Dave Gorman, he writes a fantastic blog, reluctantly!

6. The Lexicon
A fantastic site for losing yourself. Anything you can think of to do with Harry Potter is on here. Any little factoid from the books that you could want to know has been catalogued and numerous essays dissecting characters and events are there to entertain.

5. ROFL Cat
Side-splitting, hilarious pictures of cats! Funny every time you go back even if you've seen the images a dozen times already.

4. 20 Sided - The GM of the Rings
Hilarious comic strip of what might happen were D&D and Lord of the Rings to be reunited now. It's a long running strip, so there's a lot of content, but it's well worth catching up on as and when you have ten minutes.

3. The Rockstar Game
I love this game, I've been playing for years on and off. It is one of those things you can immerse yourself in to whatever level you wish. There have been times (between jobs!) when I have spent hours every day playing and writing on the roleplay forum. Because of how the system works, when I came back to the game recently after a seven month absence I didn't have to put many sessions in before I got a top 100 album!

2. MySpace
Obvious maybe, but true. I spend far too much time faffing here. Although not so much lately, it seems to have gone quiet in the last month or so. I dare say that will change though.

1. BBC Religion & Ethics
Ahh, my beloved religion forum. I am mostly found on the Pagan board. This community provides by far the most time away from my coursework (and job work these days!), I can while away hours chatting with people I have come to think of as friends. Alas, the site has come upon hard times, with the mods getting very strict about staying on-topic. But hopefully they will chill out again soon.

So that's my procrastination chart - a product of yet more procrastination!! Go ahead and check some of the sites out and say "hi" if you spot me in any of my guises!

Under 10s on DNA database

The government's campaign to monitor the innocent at any cost continues as DNA records for young children and elderly people (over 90 years old) appear on our ever-growing DNA database. For more on this see www.homeofficewatch.com

This disgusts me. What business does the government have taking DNA samples from little children and storing them for 100 years? What about those elderly people too? Are the government afraid of an OAP uprising over pensions or fuel allowance?!

Write to your MP and demand an answer to the question 'What has my gran done to you?'

Tony Blair's Legacy

Inspired by the three accounts on the BBC, I thought I would write my own How will history judge Tony Blair?

Economics:

Inflation is today at its highest in six years, 5.5%, causing problems for first time buyers and current mortgage payers, as well as other personal lending. Personal debt is now at a record high of £3.8 trillion and the government has little to offer on improving this situation. Blair seems quite happy with this level of debt.

There is a greater divide between rich and poor in the UK than ever before, with the wealthy having better access to services and those less well off with less access to services that would improve their lives.

Students are in debt to the tune of £16 billion, following the scrapping of grants in favour of huge loans and the introduction of tuition fees and the government have dipped into this pot several times since Labour came to power in 1997 to bail themselves out.

Health, education and transport:

Controvertial school reforms, poor funding distribution in the NHS and grossly unpopular foundation hospitals all speak for themselves. Lack of improvement to public transport and road charges widely regarded as a stealth tax leave many Britons confused as to the Labour party's attitude towards climate change; despite the rhetoric about needing to act on the issue, the UK's emmissions continue to rise year after year.

Pensions:

The labour party's treatment of pensions is under serious criticism. Blair has always backed Brown on this issue so is also to blame for the failings. In all of these economic issues, we do of course have to credit Gordon Brown with the appropriate responsibility for Labour's fuck ups, and he's our next PM. Oh joy.

Iraq:

Tony Blair will be most vividly remembered for his defiance of international and domestic opinion in invading Iraq and the extended period of conflict following that and the previous invasion of Afghanistan. His blind obedience to US President G.W. Bush has marked him in a negative way in many people's eyes.

ID Cards:

Tony Blair has pushed through his proposals for this huge waste of public funding, breaking the law on requested reports and repeatedly lying about the supposed benefits of the scheme. We can only hope that this scheme will also leave with his departure.

The Liberal Democrats have today called for a General Election to detirmine the next UK PM. This move has been criticised as there is no historical basis for such a request, despite the fact that according to a poll last week most voters want an election.

The democratic system in the UK is stale and no longer relevant for people. So what if there is no historical basis? We need electoral reform in this country, now is the perfect time to implement it. Labour have got away for too long with this Presidential style of leadership, with Tony Blair refusing to change his proposals in the face of opposition from his own party. The last 2 elections Labour have kept their place in government despite increasingly low percentage of the vote (tweaking constituency boudaries where they need to).

People are uninspired by politics, low turn outs demonstrate this clearly. However, the absence of an "none of the above" option on the ballot may be to blame to an extent we cannot judge. If this option were present how many more people would turn out to register their disatisfaction with the options, rather than being counted as apathetic?

It's time for change.

Burying Bad News

Tony Blair announces his resignation the same day the the government admit the latest rise in estimated costs for ID cards. Talk about trying to bury bad news. It's almost as bad as the day TB was taken by police for questioning the same day as the results of the Diana enquiry (he was the first PM to ever be brought in by police, yet the papers glossed over this story in favour of the enquiry results).

Almost, but not quite, the press have seen through the attempt as have other politicians and they are making sure people hear about it.

Over £5.3 billion it's going to cost now.

Anyone not persuaded by the liberty issue must be put off the scheme by the cost issue. This money would be much better spent on recruiting more police officers.

To say "no2id" click here.

Immigration Issue

The new system was confirmed today, it will be based on points earned depending on what skills you have and how in demand those skills are. In theory, I don't mind this too much. It's a step back from the open borders that I would like to see, but I do understand that at the moment this ideal isn't possible.

What baffles me a bit though is that there are no restrictions on EU citizens because of the deal we have about European migration. This system of open borders is great, it's exactly what I want to see, I just find it disturbing that what the government seem to be saying is "we have too many immigrants, we need to tighten controls, but if you're one of us [European/white?] then come on in!"

It doesn't sit right with me. Especially given the huge influx of immigrants in the last couple of years from new EU countries, surely these are the areas we should be restricting access from? Especially as they are low-skilled workers. And this is what the government is claiming to be targetting. Personally I don't have a problem with low-skilled workers coming into the UK, most British people, myself included, think cleaning and manual labour to be beneath them! But someone has to do it!

There are also concerns that the new system will make illegal immigration worse, though this was barely mentioned in the linked bbc article.

March of Political Moans!!

The latest from John Reid is to up the marital age for immigrants from 18 to 21. Excuse me, but what on earth makes him think he is authorised to detirmine what age people can marry?! Just because someone is under 21 does not mean that the intended marrige is in any way forced either. What a bizarre thing to do.

The BBC report that this move is thought to reduce the number of immigrants by 3000 a year. That doesn't seem a particularly large number to me. It strikes me as a similar publicity stunt (to make it look like the government are doing something productive) to the ban on replica swords. Both policies will have little actual effect on the perceived problem (immigration vs. violent crime) but get Labour some press coverage that appeals to the mass public who are enthralled by the tabloids.

Mad.

The NHS "Spine" and our children's fingerprints

This government just keeps pushing the boundaries of our privacy and democracy. As if the whole thing with ID cards wasn't bad enough, I have today learned that kids are being fingerprinted in school without parental consent (link) and our medical records are going to be held on another central database like the one for ID cards, i.e. just as insecure against hacking and abuse (link).

It's not just me is it? This is getting out of control. We are talking about massive abuses of power on the part of the government. Taking intimate physical details and storing them in an insecure way and even selling them to private businesses! Children's damn fingerprints will be held on file when they get a passport.... because...? Ok, it will help identify the odd John/Jane Doe. But the reasons we have been fed for the government wanting this information have nothing to do with identifying dead bodies.

They've tried to tell us it will prevent terrorism, experts from MI5 quickly denied that one; they've tried the ID theft line, but honestly, if all our details are held in one place one quick hack will make it nice and easy for anyone determined to steal IDs. So they go for the "if you've got nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about" line. *Cough splutter* Riiiight. So it's OK for our government to invade our privacy, sell our details and make us present our ID cards at every shop, bank and service we use???!! I don't think so. One small step towards bar codes on our hands that we have to swipe all over the place.

Anyway, my point, what the heck is going to be solved by having children's fingerprints on file? Of course, we all know that most terrorist acts are carried out by under 10s! Seriously, taking the prints without permission from the parents... which they are *already* doing ... is a gross violation of the trust of the public.

Then there's this thing with our medical records. Again, it will be vulnerable to hacks and abuse and information will probably be sold at a later date. What's worse is that after a certain period of time (this year) people will not be able to opt out. This is appalling. It's all very well for people with long-term conditions that may take them to hospital, but medical bracelets are a quick effective means of communicating this. One glance at a patients wrist tells the doctor not to use penicillin or whatever, rather than postponing treatment until looking the patient up on a database, whose information may or may not be correct depending on if their information has been hacked yet!!

We can't keep letting the government get away with this bollocks. They have gone too far and we have to show them that. If you think you live in a Labour "safe seat" area then talk to your neighbours and tell them your concerns, distribute leaflets, tell people what is going on because a lot of people don't realise. And vote for who you want to lead!! For goodness sake, tactical voting screws democracy over like nothing else, it is exactly how we have been stuck with Labour for this long, despite millions of people being deeply troubled by actions taken by them, from the Iraq invasion to ID cards.

Labour make the public think that they have been fairly elected, but this simply isn't true. The first past the post system means that at the last general election Labour only received less than a third of the votes and only a quarter of the possible vote (due to low turn out)! They do not represent the majority, despite what they claim. You can find out about other options for democracy here.

Anyway, please pass on the links above and talk about what is going on, this gradual theft of our democracy and liberty. I don't mean to sound so dramatic, but I do think it's a serious problem that is in danger of happening in our sleep.

More on Iraq

OK, so some bright infiltrator has put camera-phone footage of the execution on the internet and it has created quite a stir. Also, Prime Minister Maliki has said he wants to step down. AND, the Baath party have posted Saddam's former deputy to lead the party.

What did I say? Eh? Civil war draws ever closer and we're caught in the middle. Well, I don't want to say it, it isn't entirely accurate, but there is a case for suggesting that it is actually our fault. Say what you like about Saddam's regime, the country was a heck of a lot more stable then. I suppose with all the infighting they're less likely to be amassing an arsenal with which to attack us... but come on, we all know how unlikely that was. Many of us were saying so before Tony took our troops marching in illegally.

On a slightly lighter note, I started my new job yesterday, training is easy. Blah.

"End of a dark chapter"

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki has said that the execution of Saddam Hussein "ends a dark chapter" in Iraq's history. Such a mind-numbingly, ignorant and down right false statement at such a time strikes me as further evidence of a puppet regime that has been erected by the US in Iraq.

People are still dying every day in Iraq as the country plummets ever more rapidly towards civil war. Shia and Sunni rivalry continues to build, areas of Baghdad, Basra and other major cities are growing into forts controlled by militarized civilians. Police forces go rogue, occupying forces are faced with daily attacks against them. It's a mess.

What did "we" really get with the execution of the former-dictator? What does it really mean? I'm inclined to think that a martyr for the Sunni minority has been created. The BBC quotes a "Security Advisor" saying that Saddam looked remorseless as he was led out to be executed. Is that really a surprise? Should we expect to see remorse from a man who all along undoubtedly believed he was doing the right thing?

One thing is for certain, this is in no way the end of trouble.