lord of the blog

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Thursday, August 25, 2005

Lord of the Blog

The Lord of the Blog is airborne! (Thanks to Jennifer)

I hope to post comments on the work of the Lords when the House is in session.

Any comments would be welcome.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

We are not afraid

I added a link to http://www.werenotafraid.com after reading an entry on Jamie's blog ( http://www.jamiesbigvoice.blogspot.com ) where he said he was often a little afraid when he went out at night. I then looked at the 'were not afraid' site and decided I liked the philosophy they described there.

It was Jamie's comment that reminded me of John Healy, the former vagrant alcoholic, who wrote The Grass Arena. When John and I discussed his vagrant lifestyle and the brutality on the streets the question of fear often came up. You are constantly looking over your shoulder with that lifestyle.

I rarely feel afraid on the street and yet many others of my age do say they don't like going out at night. And yet it is the older people who are in fact safer. It is teenagers and young men generally who are most at risk.

Groups of young people do make older people feel a bit afraid and I think that part of this is down to the fact that youngsters today are much bigger then the older generation. I am 5' 9" (and shrinking fast!) and I frequently get a crick in the neck talking to the younger generation!

If you are not a young man your chances of being attacked in the street are relatively small. So walk with confidence!

Having said that I will probably get beaten up tonight!

To end on a lighter note, some years ago I heard some youngsters about to break into a neighbours car at 2am. I leaned right out of our window and yelled "Don't even think about it". They pulled their woolies over their faces and ran. Was it my forceful intervention that scared them? Or was it my garish nightshirt with "Tweetie Pie"" emblazoned on it!?

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Climate change

I see two Russian physicists have wagered $10,000 that the world will get cooler over the next decade. They say the apparent global warming is due to the sun's activity. I'm impressed that they are putting their money where their mouth is but I think they are going to loose!

Interesting news especially for Future Heathrow supporters. Cambridge scientists revealed a design for a quiet aircraft which could be flying in 20 years. If it is better on emissions too then it will be the technological breakthrough that we need.

Church and State

Sunder katwala, general secretary of the Fabian society ( http://www.fabian-society.org.uk ) has called for a radical reform of Church - State relations.He wants more equal treatment of religions in the Constitution. He is right although my preference is to keep religion and politics as separate as possible. I don't think I will get that though!

GP's

The department of Health is to invite around 100,000 people to comment on the GP service in their area. It's an important consultation exercise so if you get an opportunity please grab it!

Responses

Trial by media is only a marginal improvement on the ducking stool. I know people want to second guess the sequence of events and the reasons for them so it is impossible to stop all comments but whether we are talking about Mr. Menzes or the police officers concerned it is important not to look for the worst possible reason straight away.

All that we know for certain is that an innocent man has been shot in a highly charged situation  and there is confusion about the facts. That is a  good reason for the PCC inquiry and a possible subsequent trial.

Domnall (Thanks for picking up the spelling mistake on Mo btw) how can you possibly want to re-launch the crazy argument about whether the Irish or the English are stupid?

I spent years in the 1980's/90's telling British people that if you called the Irish stupid that itself was a good definition of stupidity! And Ingrid how could you make the mistake of rising to catcalls? Forget it!

This is not a history site but when I was dealing with Northern Ireland I was struck by the incredible misconceptions between the national groupings within these islands. When I went to live in Glasgow in the 1960's I made the mistake of asking a lady carrying a banner in a march "Who was King Billy and where is the Boyne?" She nearly killed me! For those not steeped in Irish history it was a battle by the Boyne river in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics.

The battle is still celebrated annually by the Unionists but most English people have not heard of it - though they have certainly heard of the riots/demonstrations along the route when protestants insist on walking! In the 20th century most British governments would have had little problem leaving Ireland because it was no longer a backdoor invasion route for Catholic France or Spain. The religious wars were long over.

The problem was that roughly 1 million Protestants in the North didn't want to live with roughly 4 million Catholics in the South and neither Ireland or Britain were going to force them to do so. Every Secretary of State I've known since 1979 with one possible exception would have been delighted if the North had asked to join the South. The North has had no strategic value to Britain since Napolean.

The colonial argument is more messy then you think Domnall. Try asking some North American Indians what they think of the Irish generals who led the US army with great enthusiasm and considerable military skill in the 19th century. Or one or two Irish run islands in the Caribbean. It was white Europeans who led colonialism in the 18th and  19th centuries and not just the British.

As one of my favourite authors (James Joyce) had one of his characters say "It seems history is to blame"! 

 

Friday, August 19, 2005

Mo Mowlam

Although Mo's death was expected it doesn't make her loss any easier. I knew her well and admired the way she worked.

We shared many discussions on Northern Ireland and her unique brand of humanity and straight talking was a great asset.

When I did a TV programme tonight the camera man said "She was the only politician who ever bought me a beer"! Apparently she had invited the whole camera crew into a pub for a drink. That was Mo!

I also fondly remember the way she dealt with a male politician in Northern Ireland who had difficulty coping with an outspoken female politician in a powerful position.

She linked arms with the man who looked in embarrassed horror as they came towards me. He leaned over at an increasingly alarming angle in order to escape - but there was no escaping Mo's grip!

She made a real difference.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Police shooting

One of the reasons for not rushing to judgment when Charles de Menezes was shot is that you only get a partial picture at first.

The Police Complaints Authority will complete its report. If the facts are as suggested today then it may well lead to a very serious charge for the Officer involved. It would not be the first time although fortunately it is very rare.

Whatever the truth this is not the time to start apportioning blame. We can be sure of one thing - an innocent man has been shot. It has been a terrible tragedy for all concerned. Lets hear the facts and let any Court case take place (as looks increasingly likely) without jumping to conclusions.

I think we should also remember that bombings and suicide attacks whether in London, or on the Paris Metro or New York or Nairobi are designed to create terror and provoke division and hatred.

Don't let them succeed.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Responses

Global warming questions.

So; I have learned that some Canadians were worried about arctic ice melting and drowning Canadians but they have been worrying needlessly because the Arctic is just one big iceberg and therefore won't add much to sea levels. It's still bad news for Canadians though as all those displaced polar bears will head South to Winnipeg!

What I still haven't learned is what the climate was like before the last ice age? Was it as warm as we are predicted to get? Was there any permafrost to melt in pre ice age Siberia and if not why is it a problem if it melts now?

Schools.

Vivienne seeks Grandparents views on why children question previous parenting regimes (or I think that's what she is asking). I'm sure part of the answer is the nature of the human need to question and understand their environment which means all rules are up for constant revision.

However, I think there was less openness in post WW2 Britain and also less willingness to justify and explain rules. This changed radically and quickly in the 1960's.

I think that as long as children get sufficient love and consistency in their early years they will be able to cope with rule changes and the complexity of human relations later in life. Whether the grandparents can cope is a more open question? Any views Vivienne?!

Excluded pupils need extra help. The key question is whether we remove them from the normal school system while they get that help. Interestingly, the daughter of  the mother who was sentenced to a few months imprisonment 3 years ago is reported to be at college now and keen to go to University. So did punishing the parent work?

Iran.

There is too much for me to fully respond to but the following points are relevant. I was suspicious of some of the Iranian opposition groups who (when I talked to them) had either been involved in some pretty dodgy activities themselves or weren't committed to democracy and the rule of law.

Banning groups is always contentious. All democracies have done this and you only do it to protect the very tolerance you are trying to defend. I do watch some of these sites and although they occasionally say they are against violence at other times they appear to condone or support it.

At a time like this and especially when the aim of some of these terrorist groups is to divide us, it is important not to allow a situation to develop where the large majority of the population feel they are not being protected. I think this rather then some evil BNP agenda is what underpins Ingrid's feelings which are fairly common. You won't reassure her by comparing her to the BNP.

A possible alternative to banning could be the use of the Race Relations Act or the proposed religious discrimination Act but it is difficult. They are whipping up fears and talking to a young Arab mother the other day she was far less sympathetic to them then Dan is and far more determined to deport those who reject the values that underpin a free society.

A free society is NOT just a Western society. There are (and have in the past) been many such societies all over the world and it is not true to say that Arab and Muslim societies have always been scorned by the West. See William Dalrympel's book the White Mughals.

There has always been an ebb and flow of conflicts and for a lot of their very long history Jews and Arabs have enjoyed good relations. Religion is in my view (as an atheist) a large part of the problem. Religion is about power just as politics is. That is why there are arguments about the separation of Church and state.

Religious belief and political ideology are, I think, interchangeable. It is no accident that the Communist Party was usually stronger in Catholic countries then in non Catholic countries. 'There is only one Pope in Rome' fitted neatly with the Communist ideology as practiced by the old USSR. There was an inherent contradiction in that but there is in many if not all ideologies and religions.

If I'm struck dead by a thunder bolt you'll know this theory is seriously flawed! If I'm not then I'm right - OK!

Final comment for Tom Drake. I think you are confusing me with Chris Mullin MP. I never claimed to know the identity of the Birmingham pub bombers. Chris did - and I think he did name them but I'm not sure. 

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Global warming

The Guardian headline today focused on a scientific report saying that the Siberian permafrost was melting at an alarming rate. There has been concern about the possibility of this happening for some years now but apparently the evidence is now very strong.

I understand that and I view global warming as a serious threat where the precautionary principle ought to be applied. But I wish some bright environmental scientist would answer the following question for me. If, as the Guardian claims, the permafrost has "started to melt  for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago" what was the Earth's climate like then?

Other scientific reports have claimed that humans were able to walk across the Arctic from Siberia to North America. So was the Earth so warm that there was little or no ice at the North Pole?

It has been frequently claimed in the recent past that we are due for another ice age and maybe global warming is temporally putting that off but if there were periods when the permafrost melted should we be worried? Clearly flooding of low lying areas is a problem but arguably less of a problem then another ice age.

Any answers for a puzzled Lord?

Animal cruelty

I note a report today (from People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) giving further evidence that people who are cruel to animals are often also linked to violence against humans.

This is not a new idea and extreme and persistent cruelty to animals especially in childhood has always been regarded an one of the indicators of later violent criminal behaviour.

There was an interesting debate many years ago on whether it should be taken into account when deciding if children needed external supervision/ family intervention in order to try and modify the behaviour.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Robin Cook

I heard the news about Robin's untimely death while I was in Oxfordshire.

I knew him well and we often talked not least about the United Nations and foreign policy.

He will be greatly missed. He had a very sharp mind and an acute concern about the problems facing the people of the world.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Iran

I have just done an Iranian TV programme (Al Ahram) which broadcasts in Arabic. There was also a speaker from Damascus and another from Lebanon. It was not a meeting of minds especially when there was a suggestion that the London bombs were placed by western intelligence agents!

I spent some time talking about the Islamic reaction in Britain and around the world against suicide bombings and pointing out that they were not justified by any credible form of Islam.

I noticed at times that the screen showing the broadcast would suddenly switch to a still scene which can indicate that you are being censored.

All of which will reinforce Dan's view about Iran. My view remains that there is sufficient movement amongst the people of Iran to leave some hope that reform will come from within - but, Dan you may be proved right.

I was told that the programme will be repeated tomorrow at 2pm so those of you with time and a satellite dish can check it out!

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Family Courts

Patrick and Clare. I am no longer directly involved in this but you might want to look at the Children and Adoption Bill dealing with contact with children. That gives some idea of the future direction of policy in this area but other factors are also coming into play. www.publication.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldbills/010/200610.htm  (If this doesn't work type children and adoption bill into Google - I'm having some trouble making the link here).

Increasingly solicitors are now looking at the way they work with families and there are some encouraging developments on a resolution approach rather then the traditional adversarial system which can certainly aggravate the situation. I think the Law Society is aware of this approach and may well have further information on it.