Hay - The Last Two Days

Highlight of today at Hay’s Guardian Stage has to be Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winning economist who expanded on his article which recently appeared in the New York Review of Books, (see my post of 18th March). This year is the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments and it is to be republished with a forward by Sen himself.

Sen looked at ideas contained in both the Wealth of Nations and the Theory of Moral Sentiments as part of his re-evaluation of Smith’s view of Capitalism and again he made the point that Smith’s painstaking analysis of how capital works seems to have been misinterpreted by those who have cited Smith wrongly as a proponent of unbridled free markets.

This morning I managed to slip into A C Grayling’s talk at the Barclays Wealth Pavilion and he didn’t disappoint with a reasoned exposition of how we have all allowed our individual privacy to be hijacked by the state, by engendering a fear of terrorism out of all proportion to the reality of the threat posed. Grayling argues that the state is there to defend our liberty rather than to protect us as individuals from every conceivable threat to our safety, and each of us has a responsibility to accept that we have to put up with a modicum of risk if we are to enjoy the liberty that we crave. Now I have paraphrased Grayling’s argument here as I failed to take any notes, so please don’t think that I am quoting him verbatim.

A quick note on yesterday at the Guardian Stage, one of the most entertaining events of the whole week was Alain de Botton on The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work with a detailed examination of various jobs which one would otherwise think were quite mundane – jobs in logistics, accountancy, biscuit production and the dreaded human resources department. Anthony Beevor has another monumental historical work published, this time his subject is D-Day and includes a significant re-assessment of Montgomery and his dealings with the American generals which sounded very interesting. I would have bought this book but I still have his assessment of the Spanish Civil War waiting on my bookshelves. Perhaps my epitaph should be "too many books, and never enough time."

As ever, on leaving of Hay on the last day of the festival, I am relieved to be able to get some much needed rest and at the same time part of me wants the festival to go on forever, at least as long as the sun shines as it has over the last three days.

Idle Thoughts

Idly daydreaming between events at Hay yesterday, soaking up the sunshine and the culture, it suddenly occurred to me that the ideal man to be co-opted onto Llandrindod Wells Town Council would be that most famous resident, Harold Nicholls.

After all, he is a man who knows everything there is to know about the town and is certainly not afraid to speak his mind, thus he already possesses the essential qualifications. All he really needs to become a great politician is a toothbrush moustache and a girlfriend called Eva or Sarah or Suzy or…?

And Then There Were Twelve...

A week ago last Monday Llandrindod Wells Town Council had its full complement of fifteen councillors, fourteen elected and one co-opted. Today it has just twelve as a result of resignations which seem to have more to do with clashes of personality than with genuine council business. It is truly the politics of the playground. Those who have already resigned, and there may be more resignations to follow, are choosing to appease their personal egos over their duty to the people who put them on the council, their electorate.

If grown adults decide to wash their dirty linen in public, then they bring upon themselves the disapproval of most other adults because they are seen to behave like children. Remember these are people who like to boast about how much they do to serve the people, it would seem that this notion of service is fine when everything is going smoothly, but not so fine when the council faces problems which require strong leadership and a cool head.

Perhaps it is time to think about petitioning for the winding up of the town council unless it can put its house in order and very quickly?

Two Countries With A Fine Tradition Of Choral Singing

A brief, eight-hour visit to the capital of a country can only ever give one a fleeting glimpse and superficial impression of that country and capital. However, my short visit to Tallinn, capital of Estonia was both interesting and disturbing and to a certain extent presented a picture of confused, and in some ways tentative, nationalism

Our tour guide during our morning trip around “Leisurely Tallinn” was at pains to point out the distinctiveness of Estonian culture throughout history and the degree of tolerance that even the “Soviet Occupiers” allowed to the great Estonian tradition of choral singing. We were taken to visit the huge open-an auditorium that is used to stage the national choral festival and reputed to be big enough to accommodate 30,000, yes thirty thousand, singers dressed in many regional variations of the Estonian national costume. Giving us a potted history of Tallinn and Estonia, our guide frequently referred to the first Estonian Republic, followed by the period of Soviet occupation during which about a tenth of the population was exiled to Siberia, to the present Second Estonian Republic. The perceived and constant threat from the east seems to figure fairly highly in the Estonian psyche.

I was minded of another country dominated by bigger and more powerful eastern neighbour currently pursuing an avowedly nationalist agenda and containing some seeking independence from what they regard as centuries of “occupation”. I also wondered about the extent to which the recent experience of Estonia, with a population similar in size to that of Wales and full membership of the European Union, serves as a useful model for those seeking independence for Wales.

I was beset by doubts on a number of issues. Firstly, the treatment of, and difficulties in integrating, the significant minority of citizens who don’t speak the traditional local language and whose loyalties clearly remain with the former ‘occupiers’. Secondly and more worryingly, the apparently growing influence of the extreme right who seemto continue to see their struggle in terms of the competing ideologies of communism versus national socialism. I have to admit I found the overt sale nazi regalia and t-shirts bearing the picture of Adolf Hitler above the slogan “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fűhrer”, more than a little distasteful.

My brief visit to Tallinn, especially the older parts of the town, certainly left me wanting to visit Estonia again in order to see more of the country and get a better understanding its place within the community of Europe.

Why I Love Hay Festival

One of the most pleasurable of the various bits of volunteering that I get involved with is stewarding at the Hay Festival. If you steward then you tend to attach yourself to a particular venue and then get to listen to whatever event is scheduled for that venue. The result is that you are able to listen, watch, experience a whole variety of talks, lectures, etc which, given a free choice, you would not have attended. So one gets drawn in to topics and subjects that previously one knew absolutely nothing about.

On Monday, I heard Polly Toynbee and David Walker on the subject of Unjust Rewards, and although I read Polly Toynbee regularly in The Guardian, I came away with an entirely changed perspective on what it means to be a Social Democrat in Britain today and a better appreciation of the anguish felt by traditional supporters of the Labour Party after twelve years of New labour.

Another very absorbing event was Chris Mullin MP being interviewed by Guto Harri. Here not only was I riveted by what Chris Mullin had to say on his experiences as a Junior Minister under John Prescott and later, Jack Straw – he confirmed my previously held views of both – but for the first time I was able to appreciate the great skill with which Guto Harri elicited the information that he thought would interest his audience.

Yesterday, my highlights were Tony de Saulles engaging demonstration of how to hold an audience of 500 or more children from 6 to 16 by getting them all to copy his wonderful cartoons of smelly dogs and vomiting Italians, it a was riveting event and he should be invited to visit teacher training colleges to demonstrate what interactive learning is all about.

Two other events that demonstrate the benefits of the serendipity of stewarding, Professor Simon Blackburn on David Hume and Atheism, which was both irreverent and highly amusing, and Professor Frank Close on Anti Matter. Having ploughed through Bertrand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy as a teenager, I had known a little about Hume, but Blackburn’s insights were a delight. Anti matter was something I had known nothing about, and I am only a little wiser now, but Frank Close’s explanation of complex scientific theory in terms that were appropriate to both layman and scientist was exhilarating, as was his demolition of Dan Brown’s Angels and demons.

I Should Go Away More Often

To celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, Julie and I have been on our first cruise, only a short cruise, just twelve days, from Tilbury around the Baltic Sea calling at Copenhagen, Warnemunde (Rostock), Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm, returning to Tilbury via the Kiel Canal. It was the first proper holiday that we’ve had in ten years, and very enjoyable it was too. If I am given another ten years, I might be tempted to go on another cruise. By then I would be approaching the average age of cruise passengers and the intimations of one’s own mortality that one inevitably experiences when cruising may not be quite so worrying.

I resisted the temptation to take my laptop with me, ignored the ship’s internet suite - it was prohibitively expensive anyway - and managed to keep out the various internet cafes that we came across en route. In addition, we watched television only to catch up with BBC World News which offered little UK news and only hinted at the unfolding saga of MPs allowances and expenses. So apart from the shore visits, it was catching up with serious reading during the day and sampling the on-board live entertainment in the evening, all very therapeutic.

I returned yesterday to find when checking my e-mails that there had been ructions on Llandrindod Wells Town Council last week. Apparently, former County Councillor Keith Tampin failed in his bid to be elected Chairman of the Town Council so he and his cheerleader-in-chief Gary Price, both resigned from the council. I can’t wait to get the full story. If this is what happens when I take a holiday, then perhaps I should take more holidays, but possibly something a little more energetic than going on a cruise.

Vote Conservative At Your Peril

There are real dangers in voting Conservative in the forthcoming European Parliamentary Elections and the subsequent General Election whenever it is called. Quite clearly Cameron’s Conservatives lack the mature judgement and concern for the UK’s long-term future that characterized the administration of Edward Heath. Nick Crosby writing in "10 Years of the Euro: New Perspectives for Britain" has this stark warning:

“Under Cameron, the Conservatives would oppose Britain joining the Euro, would oppose strengthening of the EU’s foreign policy machine and would seek a major political confrontation over the Lisbon Treaty reforms. This at a time of heightened economic crisis; at a time when his own shadow foreign secretary said the foreign policy ‘challenges may be the most serious for any incoming government since the end of the Second World War’; and major competitors and neighbours such as Russia are actively dividing and ruling us Europeans.

The European Consequences of David Cameron could be devastating to the citizens of Europe, to the safety and economic prospects of the British people and to the idea of international democracy and the EU’s founding principles. I urge all Conservatives to reclaim your tradition, reclaim your senses and reclaim your strong sense of the practical common solutions we Europeans deserve.”

Put Not Your Trust In...

Poor Christopher Galley, he made a fatal mistake and put his trust in a leading Conservative and it looks as though he’s paying the price. Seduced by the juicy prospect of working for Cameron’s new, exciting Tories, Galley leaked sensitive Home Office documents to the Conservative Shadow Immigration Minister, Damian Green. What precisely was offered in return we don’t know, however Galley was clearly promised that he would be ‘looked after’, whatever that means in Tory-speak.

Surprise, surprise, he now appears to have been dumped by the Tories and sacked by the Home Office. I suppose the lesson to be learned from this unfortunate episode is choose your friends more carefully in the future. Galley should heed the warning in Psalm 146:3 “Put not your trust in princes…”

Global Online Campaigning

One of the more effective online campaigning groups with over 3 million members worldwide is Avaaz.org. This is part of its mission statement:

“Avaaz.org is a new global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want.
Across the world, most people want stronger protections for the environment, greater respect for human rights, and concerted efforts to end poverty, corruption and war. Yet globalization faces a huge democratic deficit as international decisions are shaped by political elites and unaccountable corporations -- not the views and values of the world’s people.”

Their current campaign seeks to send a message to the World Health Organisation asking them to investigate and develop regulations for factory farming in accordance with public health safety standards. Food production must be regulated to ensure global health security.

As the people from Avaaz point out:

“Technology and the internet have allowed citizens to connect and mobilize like never before. The rise of a new model of internet-driven, people-powered politics is changing countries from Australia to the Philippines to the United States. Avaaz takes this model global, connecting people across borders to bring people powered politics to international decision-making.”

If you are concerned about the inevitable side effects of globalisation and the casualties those side effects produce and want to draw the attention of those in power to issues that they either have no knowledge of or have deliberately ignored, then you might find Avaaz’s campaigns worth getting involved with.

Politics Could Be A Lot More Democratic

One of the campaign groups that I follow on a regular basis is Unlock Democracy. I became interested in them a few years ago when they were campaigning in support of sustainable communities. In the autumn and winter of 2004-2005 they were looking for a parliamentary sponsor to introduce their Bill to the House of Commons. Roger Williams, my local MP, had been successful in the Private Members ballot and I suggested to him, almost as an aside, that this might be a measure worth supporting. To my surprise and delight Roger agreed and successfully introduced the Bill to the House of Commons. The calling of the general election stopped its progress through the House, but it was subsequently taken up by a new sponsor and has now been enacted for England but not for Wales. Apparently the Welsh Assembly Government claims that it already has similar powers to protect communities at its disposal, a somewhat dubious claim in my view.

However, Unlock Democracy has many other campaigns underway including electoral reform, an elected House of Lords, combating voting fraud and a written constitution for Britain. In you’re interested in stuff like this, the spring edition of their magazine Citizen is available now and you can download it here. Well worth dipping into, not least as an antidote to the unremitting gloom of Gordon Brown and the shallow waffle of David Cameron. Politics could be very different if enough of us had the will to change it.

Family Values

Henry Porter in today’s Guardian gets wound up about an interesting idea from Professor Julian Le Grand of the LSE. In a recent debate entitled The Contested Family: under-valued and over-nannied? organised by the Family & Parenting Institute it is reported that Le Grand suggested that “…to reduce the number of relationship break-ups, marriage should be the 'default' setting once co-habiting couples have children, making them automatically regarded in law as married and obliged to get a divorce to separate.”

Most libertarian commentators, like Porter, have interpreted this as “…people who have children out of wedlock, should be automatically married by the state to stop them splitting up.” For me, Porter conjures up an unfortunate image of a civil servant, armed with a shotgun, forcing reluctant couples with their newborn down the aisle or to the Registry Office to undergo a formal marriage ceremony . This is not quite what I think Le Grand was actually suggesting.

Le Grand, like many others, is concerned that co-habiting couples who produce children are, by default, embarking on a lengthy and intense responsibility for the welfare of these children and to do this successfully requires some lengthy and intense commitment to each other as well as to the children. In cases where the couple may be unwilling to make this commitment to each other voluntarily, Le Grand seems to be suggesting that the state, for purposes of affirming the couple’s legal responsibility to the children, as well as to each other, should regard them as ‘married’ in the sense that they are formally identified as joint parents of their progeny and as such have a clearly identified legal responsibility for the welfare of their children. Marriage, according to Le Grand, should be the ‘default setting’ under some very specific circumstances.

Now I would be the first to agree that this suggestion would appear to be beset with all sorts of difficulties and a myriad of ‘what-ifs?’ However, before sounding off about how this idea infringes all sorts of liberties and so on, I would like to have a more detailed look at the whole debate rather than obsess on a juicy soundbite that emanated from it.

Europe Deserves Better Than This

In just four weeks we are all expected to go to our local polling station and cast our vote in the European Parliamentary Election. Those of us with sufficient intereat in Europe and belief in the democratic process who bother to turn out will be asked to vote for a party list rather than an individual candidate, and because it has this faint whiff of impersonality, some of us will use this opportunity to register some sort of protest or mild dissatisfaction with the status quo.

We might decide, for the sheer hell of it to vote for some obscure fringe party which offers little in the way of a coherent agenda. Equally, we might vote for some extreme party, which under normal circumstances, we would never, ever dream of supporting, simply out of a desire to embarrass a dysfunctional establishment. This is a dangerous thing to do at the best of times. Or we might have thought really deeply about the European political situation and cast our vote from a position of sound knowledge and interest in matters European. This last alternative is extremely unlikely and that is a tragedy. As Timothy Garton Ash pointed out in a recent column:

“Across the European Union, direct elections to the European parliament, which take place in 27 countries between 4-7 June, will largely be decided on national and local issues. In most of them the dwindling cohorts who bother to turn out will take the chance to express their views on national parties, personalities and governments. How individual MEPs performed in Brussels and Strasbourg over the last five years; what is in the programmes of so-called European parties such as the European People's party (EPP) and the Party of European Socialists (PES); what are the big issues coming up in the European parliament – all this will be of supreme indifference to most voters.”

There is a blythe assumption on the part of the British political establishment that the electorate is uniformly intelligent and informed and therefore capable of making a rational judgement as to the relative merits of the various parties with regard to all the issues that are relevant to the particular election in question.

The reality however, is that, especially with regard to European elections, the electorate is woefully uninformed and uninterested in what actually goes on in the European parliament or even how it works, and politicians of all parties aided and abetted by a hostile and frequently jingoistic press, have conspired to ensure that European issues and how the European parliament deals with them is kept well below the horizon for fear of diverting attention from what is happening at Westminster or in the Bay. For our domestic politicians, nothing must be allowed to turn the spotlight away from them, and matters European are deliberately kept off the agenda for fear of exposing the fault lines that exist in all the parties.

Actually this is only partly true, items of European news are reported occasionally, but only when they are likely to result in some sort of anti-European indignation. Just think about it, when did you last read or hear any positive comment or report in the British press concerning the operation of either the European Commission or the European Parliament?