Washing the bottles

Well I have just got to the end of another weekend, and as usual I’m more tired now than I was Friday afternoon.  Being a new father is a stressful time and nothing really prepares you for the freight-train shock of instant unchecked responsibility that is thrust upon you without warning.  Ok, ok, there was a 9-month warning driven home by an increasingly misshapen girlfriend, and the rather strange appearance of various baby-related paraphernalia, but besides that; no warning, no warning at all.

So here I am, sober, shattered, and meek as a dormouse on a Sunday evening.  Even the slightest noise will awake my tentatively snoozing 8-month-old, and bring forth the high-pitched commands of subservience.  I shuffle into the kitchen to quietly wash his bottles and prepare his formula for tomorrow.

I’m 27; I should be the king of my domain, I should be all powerful and in total control. However I am the oppressed, under totalitarian serfdom, enforced by a despot so vengeful he will deny my sleep at the first hint of dissent.  

And so here stands the gelded man, hands deep in frothy water, with eyes puffy and worn.  Once he was all-powerful too, a man of energy, pride, and promise.  So beware the gelded man for one day he may be you….

Siberian Frost

This morning my partner received a telephone call from Siberia where we have relatives.  After the obvious pleasantries had been dispensed with we moved on the subject of their current deep freeze, which is causing concern across Central Asia, and because of current energy woes, concern in wider continental Europe too.

The temperature today?  Oh only –50C.

That’s very cold.  The coldest I have experienced is –23C in Estonia; you could feel the cold freezing your bones if you stood still long enough.  My partner went to Siberia a couple of years ago for the winter, and it was –40C some days.  It seems -50C is as cold as many can remember, certainly Olga’s uncle and aunt in Novosibirsk claim to be unable to recall a colder snap.

The UK and Europe are relying more and more on Russian gas supplies, if extreme weather is to be the accepted norm in our changing world can we afford to?

Other than the Siberian kiddies, who are off school, it’s hard to imagine anyone enjoying the current situation across a frozen Eurasia.

****BREAKING NEWS****

Reports are breaking that Russia sabotaged its pipeline into Georgia.  From the BBC: -

Georgia’s president has accused Moscow of serious acts of “sabotage” after gas blasts on Russian pipelines cut off supplies to Georgia and Armenia.
Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC the near simultaneous attacks close to Georgia’s border were pre-planned actions orchestrated by Russia.

An electricity transmission line was also destroyed as Georgia experiences extremely cold weather.

Russia’s foreign ministry dismissed Mr Saakashvili’s remarks as “hysteria”.

Russian prosecutors earlier described the attacks as deliberate criminal acts and said an investigation was under way.

Georgia has no gas reserves and was due to run out of gas on Sunday evening, correspondents say.

Relations between Georgia and Russia have been tense since Mr Saakashvili was swept to power by the so-called “Rose Revolution” in 2003, pledging to lead his nation on a pro-Western course.

An alternative Bible for American schools

I’m currently reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I’m just over a hundred or so pages into it and we have reached the discovery of the Dinosaurs. It’s an excellent book, written in Bryson’s trademark prose - humorous, digestible, and impeccably structured.

I never thought I would enjoy a book that is primarily about physics and its curious history, but it’s an excellent summary of the universe in which we all share.

What is rather interesting is the level of scientific discoveries made by Brits throughout the last few centuries. While men of the Enlightenment indeed frequented North American and France, it was Imperial Britain, which led the way.

One could transplant this dominance of science to the modern world and the technological dominance of the US. The arrival of the America as a superpower coincided with an increase in their scientific prowess. Equally British scientific influence in the world diminished with its Empire (although the UK remains a world leader, it has nowhere near its former grandeur). It is no surprise that scientific progress correlates directly with economic superiority; however what should not be ignored is the pace at which Asian nations (notably China, Korea, India) are challenging American scientific primacy.

If Bible belt America continues to garner political power, and conservative anti-constitutionalists get their way, science in America may suffer further. The wave of support enjoyed by the theory of Intelligent Design, which supposes the world is just too complex to be coincidental, is in direct conflict with scientific reason. ID suggests that the world is little over a few thousand years and dinosaurs and man once co-habited the Earth. There is nothing really to add to this supposition other than the much-loved, but sadly over-used term…bollocks.

So if indeed America is to face down the technological march of the emerging hyper-economies of Asia, it would do well to issue every school child as copy of Bryson’s cracking tome.

Bin Laden offers US a way out of current fracas

Just as US conservative commentators had confidently began a disinformation campaign that Osama Bin Laden had bitten the metaphorical bullet, everyone’s favourite international terrorist reared his valuable head above the parapet, with a lengthy voice recording.

The message was delivered, as it now accepted protocol, by the Qatar-based news agency al-Jazeera. Both the al-Jazeera and the US intelligence community believe the recording to be authentic.

Bin Laden in effect offered the Americans a way out of their current conflict, much like he did (to the Europeans) prior to the Madrid rail bombings. He addresses the American publice directly: -

My message to you is about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and how it can be ended. I did not intend to speak to you about this, because we already know how this war should end …

But I spoke to you because your president is continuously misinterpreting public opinion polls which show that the vast majority of you support the withdrawal of your forces from Iraq. But he disagreed with this desire and said the withdrawal of troops will give the wrong message to the enemy, and that it is better to fight them on their ground than on our ground.

Now it seems to me Bin Laden is either being very contrived, and is actually addressing his own base, or he has very much overplayed his hand. Addressing the American people directly and offering them a way to wimp out of the fight, is hardly going to be well received. Even government-hating sandal wearing lefties are hardly going to jump at the chance for a truce with the Grand-Ayatollah of the Covenant of Islamic Fascists.

What Bin Laden has done is give the Pro-War Right an excuse to claim he’s running out of steam and is looking for breathing space. However Bin Laden’s communiqué was not all flowers and chocolates either: -

And from another point, the mujahideen have been able, with the will of God, to overcome all security measures that the forces have taken, and the result of this is what you have seen in the explosions in major European capitals …

And our delay on similar attacks in the US is not because we could not penetrate security measures. The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are completed.

Hmmm. So it’s a case of “hi, Bin Laden here; look all this bickering and bloodshed is getting us nowhere, lets all just go home. Of course if you don’t wanna be friends, then I’ll be obliterating your ass.” If we’re honest, Bin Laden we know, is addressing his base. Following the ill-received bombing of a wedding in Jordan, Al Qaida popularity took a bit of hit in the Middle East, and they have wheeled out their Ronald McDonald character for a wee bit of PR.

It’s just good marketing after all.

*****
All extracts courtesy of The Guardian.

This post was originally written for the gasworks blog.

Diary

the gasworks secret lair

As you may have seen I have taken on co-editing a second weblog with fellow blogger Mr. Zhisou.  I fully intend to re-print all articles I write for the gasworks here at tygerland and also fulfil my promise to myself to import all the articles from the previous incarnation of tygerland.

There will however be a few changes to the general content of tygerland.  I intend to write more diary entries in the manner of my trip to Estonia late last year.  I very much enjoyed the observational blogging that gave me a chance to hone my writing and include a little humour in the mix.  I hope this will give readers more scope to interact with the site, and feel more confident in commenting on posts.

So feel free to heap praise where you feel it’s deserved, and pour scorn where you feel it’s needed.

As the gasworks is a realpolitik project, I will have to keep my more vociferous Libertarian comment exclusive to tygerland.

Over 25?

This email managed to sneak its way though my spam filter, and I’m thankful it did. It gave me a chuckle on this miserable January morning….

SYMPTOMS OF BEING OVER 25

1. You leave clubs before the end to “beat the rush”.

2. You get more excited about having a roast on a Sunday than going
clubbing.

3. You stop dreaming of becoming a professional footballer and start
dreaming of having a son who might instead.

4. Before throwing the local paper away, you look through the property
section.

5. You prefer Later with Jools Holland to Top of the Pops.

6. All of a sudden, Tony Blair is not 52, he’s only 52.

7. Before going out anywhere, you ask what the parking is like.

8. Rather than throw a knackered pair of trainers out, you keep them
because they’ll be all right for the garden.

9. You buy your first ever T-shirt without anything written on it.

10. Instead of laughing at the innovations catalogue that falls out of
the newspaper, you suddenly see both the benefit and money saving
properties of a plastic winter cover for your garden bench and an
electronic mole repellent for the lawn. Not to mention the plastic man
for the car to deter would-be thieves.

11. You start to worry about your parents’ health.

12. You complain that ecstasy’s “not as pure as it used to be coz you
know that if you have some it will take about 48 hours to recover and
anyway, you might look a bit of an idiot.”

13. Sure, you have more disposable income, but everything you want to
buy costs between 200 and 500 quid.

14. You don’t get funny looks when you buy a Disney video or a Wallace
and Gromit bubble bath, as the sales assistant assumes they are for your
child.

15. All Pop music starts to sound crap.

16. You opt for Pizza Express over Pizza Hut because they don’t have any
pictures on the menus and anyway, they do a really nice half-bottle of
house white.

17. You become powerless to resist the lure of self-assembly furniture.

18. You always have enough milk in.

19. To compensate for the fact that you have little desire to go
clubbing, you instead frequent really loud tapas restaurants and
franchise pubs with wacky names in the mistaken belief that you have not
turned into your parents.

20. While flicking through the TV channels, you happen upon C4’s Time
Team with Tony Robinson. You get drawn in.

21. The benefits of a pension scheme become clear.

22. You go out of your way to pick up a colour chart from B&Q.

23. You wish you had a shed.

24. You have a shed.

25. You actually find yourself saying “They don’t make ‘em like that
anymore” and “I remember when there were only 3 TV channels” and “Of
course??in my day….”

26. Radio 2 play more songs you know than Radio 1 -and Simon Mayo has
some really interesting guests on.

27. Instead of tutting at old people who take ages to get off the bus,
you tut at schoolchildren whose diction is poor.

28. When sitting outside a pub you become envious of their hanging
baskets.

29. You make an effort to be in and out of the curry house by 11.

30. You come face to face with your own mortality for the first time,
and the indestructibility of the 20s gives way to a realisation that you
are but passing through this life and if you don’t settle down soon and
have kids you’ll have no-one to look after you when you’re old and frail
and incontinent and you can’t go on pissing your life up against a wall
forever and think of how many brain cells you’re destroying every time a
swift half turns into 10 pints, and look at that, a full set of
stainless steel saucepans for 99 quid, they cost as much as 35 each if
you buy them separately, and you get a milk pan thrown in, …

31. You find yourself saying “is it cold in here or is it just me?”

the gasworks arrives

I am contributing to a new project called the gasworks. It’s a decidedly realpolitik affair and a collaboration with Mr. Zhisou a seasoned and insightful political enthusiast and commentator. Hopefully we can find similarly commonsensical and talented folk to help us make it a success.

*****

Here is my first contribution: -

Iran: A measured response

Yesterday the Iranian supreme religious leader, and de facto emperor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a statement, which sought to rebuke US and European diplomatic pressure over its nuclear ambitions.

From the New York Times: -

“The West knows very well that we are not seeking to build nuclear weapons,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with Tajikistan’s president, Emomali Rahmonov. “Nuclear weapons are against our political and economic interests and our Islamic beliefs. Therefore, the Islamic Republic will not fear the uproar and will continue the path of scientific progress relying on its principles, and the world cannot influence the will of our people.”

We can’t be sure of the ambitions of Iran; we can’t know if their scientists are in fact only developing peaceable technology for civilian energy requirements or toying with apocalyptic tools of war. What we can be sure of however is that we should be very sceptical of so-called intelligence reports and ideological rhetoric from our own governments and media.

If the British and American people take anything constructive from the Iraq adventure, let it be a healthy distrust of our politicians. We were assured of Iraq’s weapons of mass-destruction and yet over two years after President Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” aboard the USS Lincoln we have found little more than sand and strife.

It seems the stream of disinformation has already begun. This week Iran reversed a ban on news network CNN, after the channel apologised for misrepresenting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Farsi in a translation. It seems our ‘principled’ news providers can’t wait to send more kiddies off to fight the wars of those who have already got old, rich, and fat enough to buy their way into the seats of western power.

What no one has actually done, and this is astonishing considering the impact of invading Iraq, is address the effect of any military action on the global economy. We are already paying record high prices for our energy, and with a cold snap underway in Siberia (with Russia trimming supplies to its Eastern European neighbours) the demand for fossil fuels can only get higher. Iran is one of the largest exporters of oil (the second largest OPEC contributor, now Iraqi production is decimated) and is critical in ensuring supplies do not crash, which may lead to a global economic slowdown.

The west in reality actually has an interest in peaceful Iranian nuclear power. According to ambassador Mohammad Hossein Adeli, Iran will become a net importer of energy by 2024, as he explains in a comment piece in The Guardian, September of last year: -

Moreover, the west placed a big question mark over Iran’s legitimate right to access technology that would enable it to have a civilian programme aimed at building a nuclear power plant. According to a recent BP estimate, Iran will be an oil importer in 2024 if it continues to consume oil at present rates. This highlights the legitimate wish of the country to develop alternative sources of energy, including nuclear.

The question is not whether we should attack Iranian nuclear facilities, but whether we can afford to. Surely action, which would drive up the cost of fuel even higher, would be electoral suicide in the west.

The politicians are right to be worried, but one has to wonder how much real political capital they have left? Should we offset economic growth to geld another ‘rogue state?’ And are we sure they are actually seeking the bomb?

The hard-left would argue not. They would point at Iraq and claim that we can’t believe anything we are told by western governments. Now the gasworks is rightly cynical of the influence of the hawks in Washington and Westminster, but it is equally suspicious of the bunnie-lovers on the left. Regardless of CNN’s gaff it appears Ahmadinejad did demand that Israel be wiped off the map.

We must remember Iran’s proud roots. It was once a superpower, the heart of the Persian Empire, which had so much conflict with Classical Europe. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the time of the Ottomans the Islamic world had a champion, a bulwark against Christian dominance. Since Hiroshima, and certainly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, American hegemony has been unopposed. With Pakistan neutered under the unpopular General Musharraf, Islam has no powerbase, no champion. Iran is no friend of the Arab, but neither are the Americans popular on the Arab Street. A powerful and nuclearised Iran could command incredible influence throughout the Muslim World.

And this is what this is about. This is about brinkmanship. With Iraq’s fragmentation Tehran sees the opportunity for regional dominance and knows that only the bomb will give them credibility in world politics, such is the Bush administrations lack of diplomatic sophistication.

The current standoff can be traced to both the inexcusable Axis of Evil speech and the botched invasion of Iraq which has strengthened the hand of Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is proving to be a combustible and dangerous complication in Middle East politics. One has to wonder, if the Mullahs are all-powerful, why are they allowing such outbursts; is Ahmadinejad a pawn?

It is safe to say that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the region loathe American interference in the Middle East, and Iran knows that they would tentatively welcome an Islamic Champion that would challenge American hegemony and destabilise its regional surrogate Israel.

The Western Left should not be suckered into tolerating a character that demands the destruction of a sovereign state. The rise of this intolerant and destructive brand of Islam should be seen as the threat it is.

Let’s not romanticise Iran, it’s a totalitarian state; and with a nuclearised Israel to its west, Pakistan and India to its east, and Russia to its north, one can see why it feels it needs to go nuclear. I think Persian pride is welling. There is no way a confident Iran will allow itself to play second fiddle in regional influence – oil money flows and Tehran knows it will not last forever – now is the time to become a big player.

With external support Iran could go nuclear quickly. One wonders if Russia and China would like to see a nuclear Iran as a bulwark against American influence reaching eastward. The Bush administrations handling of diplomatic tensions is astonishing, it will rue its policy towards North Korea for a very long time. The precedent has been set: go nuclear and be taken seriously.

The policy of the West must be inclusion and engagement. We must convey to the Iranian people the virtues of living in a free and open society. Ostracising Iran’s leadership is doing nothing but strengthen their grip on power, consolidation support through nationalism.

The time for a return to a rational foreign policy has arrived. A policy not poisoned by the hawkish promises of quick and easy wars.

Our new tech-savvy consumer

An article by Matthew Broersma on tech site ZDNet called The essence of a Geek, caught my eye today, with the tagline: -

A general rise in technical literacy driven by gadgets such as the iPod could be evidence that ‘geekery’ as a personality trait is becoming more pervasive.

What I expected of the article was an informed commentary on the penetration of technology into the collective consumer consciousness. The article however digresses into a historical investigation into the term ‘geek’, which while diverting, never really gets to grips with the topic promised in the opening paragraph.

When Apple co-founder, and CEO, Steve Jobs informs the world that in the last quarter of 2005 they sold 14,000,000 iPod’s, you have to sit up and take notice. Jobs has also had reason to beam with news Apple’s stock is now worth more than PC behemoth Dell. There is no doubt that Apple’s iPod (and its subsequent online music store iTunes) has driven their incredible growth – the product has become synonymous with solid-state digital music.

With iPods, cell phones, laptops, and digital cameras becoming common accessories, there is no doubt that the general technological competence of the population will rise. This is no longer a case of infrequently setting the timer on the VCR, but regular interaction with high-tech consumer electronics.

The Dot.Com boom, and its consequent humiliating bust, had knocked investor confidence. However the astonishing recent growth of Google, Apple, and eBay has given prospectors reason to return to the industry. While the initial tech-boom arrived on a crest of promise and hope, this one rides high on oceans of cash.

Consumers are now comfortable with ever-evolving products, and the scope for real return on capital exists. The sophistication of the market is also evident with the arrival of serious mainstream coverage of technology news. Newspapers run informed and comprehensive technology sections, and magazines increasingly cover issues ranging from new products to interviews with IT gurus and pioneers. Tech is no longer the preserve of the ‘geek’, it has returned to the mainstream, a confident, and proven performer.

So what does an increasingly tech-savvy consumer mean to our culture? Does it indicate a general improvement in IT literacy within the nation? Well certainly the increased number of personal computers will result in a direct increase in the number of people at ease and skilled with them, however it is harder to gauge the impact of cell phones and MP3 players.

Beyond the popularity of text messaging (SMS) it’s hard to see how the basic functions of the cell phone add to ones IT skills, however with the emergence of the built-in camera consumers have been introduced to the delights and wonders of connectivity. The synergy of electronic devices has arrived to the masses. The industry is taking this connectivity one further stage as mobile phone companies push their third generation (3G) technologies. 3G offers on-demand video and other content. It’s unclear how much of an appetite consumers will have for what may be seen as just another revenue stream for mobile phone companies.

Connectivity advanced a step further with the Smart Phone, a hybrid which marries a cell phone with stripped down PC operations. The Smart Phone allows the user to access the Internet, make conference calls, manage documents, and receive emails with attachments. The natural end game for the Smart Phone is the chimerical aspiration of the Mobile Office. The problem persists however that IT often still fails to deliver the quantum leap that its marketing promises. Delivery is paramount to ensure the continued consumer appetite for innovation in the now established market place.

With the ongoing overhaul of the Internet, the hardware and software providers will be able to deliver much, much more. Data will be transferable at astonishing speed; meaning real-time streaming of high-definition on-demand video will be a reality. Applications will increasing ‘exist’ online meaning computer hardware will be less important, removing a significant barriers to consumer adoption and device mobility. Other domestic devices such as the television and Hi-Fi will become increasingly connected to the net.

We will also in essence enter a new period in the human experience; an era where silicon technology not only liberates us, but also increasingly shackles us.

The state and the corporation will use these fibre-optic manacles to steer and control us. They will watch and observe, always hinting and nudging us in a direction of their choosing. Technology, and the consumer’s newfound desire for it, could be construed as the next great social control, an Orwellian reality delivered under the guise of setting us free.

It is this resistance to authoritarian scrutiny, which threatens the future success of our increasingly high-tech consumer culture. Shoppers will become increasingly suspicious of online shopping if they know their buying trends are being monitored. People complain that the cell phone has meant they are never truly away from their office; the din of a ring tone can now always interrupt a solitary walk through the woods.

We are becoming ‘geeks’. But ‘geek’ no longer means someone on the fringes of society, indulging in a fascination for science and technology. The New Geek is actually the new proletarian, shackled to his machine.

There is also little evidence that our population, increasingly at ease with technology, are transferring these new skills into increased productivity. Britain’s stagnant productivity remains an embarrassment.

It’s true the lexicon of both young and old is being shaped by our new relationship with consumer technology. It is changing the way we access the media, and in the form of blogging it is giving a new medium for comment and dissent.

We are indeed entering the Silicon Age

Blair does a Nixon

Blair is to hand Mi5 new powers including the ability to tap fellow MP’s telephones.

Successive administrations have pledged that MP’s conversations would not be listened to, how possibly could Number 10 justify this in the name of anti-terrorism? This is evident of the blind path we are walking, towards a police state.

The scope for abuse is frightening.

From The Independent

Tony Blair is preparing to scrap a 40-year ban on tapping MPs’ telephones, despite fierce Cabinet opposition, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

[…]

The decision provoked a furious row in the Cabinet just before Christmas, when the Secretary of State for Defence, John Reid, voiced his opposition.

His outburst surprised other ministers, since he is seen as one of Mr Blair’s closest allies and not known for his support for civil liberties.

“Reid demanded to know why on earth we were going down this route,” said one government colleague. “It was all the more surprising since you would have thought the MoD is one of the departments most in favour of increased surveillance powers.”

Congress attacks Chinese online censorship.

I found this via The Guardian’s Technology Blog, and it represents a possible victory for online libertarianism. Congressman Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) has launched a congressional attack on US companies who are acquiescing with Chinese demands on censorship. Smith has claimed that companies, including Microsoft and Yahoo, that concur with Chinese demands for control over free speech on the otherwise liberating medium, should be brought to task. America is built on the principle of free speech, and for American companies (that have grown and prospered under the American values) to actively practice censorship, is an affront to these principles.

From The Boston Globe: -

‘’Call them on their bluff,” Smith said. ‘’We want an amelioration of your behavior, or we will not do business with you.”

Elected in 1980, Smith has become known in Washington for his fervent opposition to human rights abuses. He drafted legislation in 1998 to provide federal funding to help refugees who had been tortured in their native lands. On Tuesday, he was present as President Bush signed a law against human trafficking that Smith wrote and championed, with support from media mogul Oprah Winfrey.

If Smith makes Internet censorship his next crusade, he won’t be alone. The Congressional Human Rights Caucus also plans February hearings on the matter.

‘’We’re going to get moving on this,” said a caucus member, Democratic Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio. ‘’There are a lot of people in Congress who are very, very concerned.”

Ryan stopped short of calling for legislation. But he noted that the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a research body created by Congress, recently called for legislation requiring American Internet firms to demand a court order from Chinese authorities before revealing information about a user. The law would also require US Internet companies to report such information requests to the US government.

How this will reflect on Western corporations in Iran is unclear.

Bremer speaks

The much and justifiably maligned Paul Bremer – he of the missing billions – has written an Op-Ed in today’s New York Times; this article follows the controversy over his recently published book My Year in Iraq.

Mail Watch!

I have just found this excellent blog (c/o Pickled Politics), which reproduces covers of the Daily Express and that, most rotten of British institutions, The Daily Mail [urrghhh…spit]; naturally readers can comment on each cover and be as bitchy as they please… oh joy!

DVD war heats up at the CES

The red hot battle between Toshiba and SONY over the next generation of optical data storage, has been developing at the recent CES (Consumer Electronics Show); Bobbie Johnson in today’s Guardian brings us up to speed on the conflict with an excellent article.

Power to the executive

We all know that George W Bush and Tony Blair are no friend of the Libertarian. Both have abused the blind confidence offered by a horrified electorate following the tragedy at the World Trade Centre.

Indeed President Bush has sacrificed the very nature of American liberty to increase the power of the State. The Patriot Act is simply the most unconstitutional piece of legislation of the past 20 years, and Blair’s recent Terrorism bill, which while defeated - in part - sought to detain suspects for 3-months without trial.

There are however two recent developments that causes great concern among those who naturally resist the overt power of the State. The first among these is the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court of the United States. As was argued on the hallowed ‘pages’ of libertarian site Samizdata this week: -

…the judge’s role as limited, arbitral, pragmatic: dealing with cases, not causes. If you abandon the rule of law and make the justice system into an instrument of social control, you abandon the open society.

Well it seems this is exactly what the activist religious Conservatives want. They do not want a Judge who will use established jurisprudence, but will act in favour of the activist cause. Outgoing Judge Sandra Day O’Connor was famous as a conservative who judged constitutional affairs using an objective interpretation of the sacrosanct document. Indeed as Sidney Blumenthal highlights in today’s Guardian: -

In his application to the Reagan justice department, Alito wrote that his interest in constitutional law was “motivated in large part by disagreement with Warren court decisions … particularly in the area … of reapportionment” - which established the principle of one person, one vote. Alito’s law career has been a long effort to reverse the liberalism of the Warren Supreme Court.

To assume a position that intrinsically shapes American society, the role of Supreme Court Justice should not be granted without a severe examination of the candidate. The role should not, as seems to be the case with Alito, be bestowed for political expediency. Bush, following the huge embarrassment of the nomination of Harriet Miers, appears to have thrown the religious right pure red meat with the recommendation of Alito, a traditional conservative of recognised religious conviction.

The insidious truth behind the Alito nomination is his commitment to the overreaching executive power of the office of president, in stark contrast to the deliberate intentions of the Founding Fathers who made the role of president ultimately accountable. In 2000 the then federal judge claimed that the ‘unitary executive’ “theory best captures the meaning of the Constitution’s text and structure.” In response Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) declared: -

“In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture, and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito’s support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling,”

No wonder the traditional conservatives at The Conservative Union have found allies at the ACLU.

Here in the UK we have the recent announcement of Tony Blair’s Respect initiative, and no it’s not Tone’s new rap record, but a rhetoric filled commitment to engender ‘Respect’ within our crumbling social fabric by dragging persistent scallywags before judges or social workers, where they are either served with an ASBO, or asked to sign a contract promising to change their deviant ways. I can’t help but think this is akin to teacher forcing one to scrawl lines on a chalk-board (note: my political correctness), and one assumes the effect with be just as constructive.

According to The Guardian, Blair has cited C17th Thomas Hobbes as justification for the sweeping summary powers that have been announced in the proposals. Now let me get this straight? In the United Kingdom, in 2006, a democratically elected Prime Minister is falling back on the musings of one of the staunchest absolutists in history. He is, by associating his policies with Hobbes, stating quite clearly his totalitarian leanings. One would of course exchange the Hobbesian advocacy of an ‘Absolute Monarch’ with a commitment to the ‘Unitary Executive’.

Blair comments courtesy, again, of The Guardian: -

In practice, the person who spits at an old lady on her way to the shops is not prosecuted because to do so takes many police hours, much resource and if all that is overcome, the outcome is a fine. The result is the police do not think it is worth it; and so it doesn’t happen.

As distasteful as anyone spitting at an old lady is, Blair is attempting to dislocate the practice of due process from criminal prosecution. The deliberate and highly emotive mental-picture of a phlegm-soaked old dear has been sown in the collective consciousness of the public, to justify Blair’s corruption of British Justice.

If we have learnt anything from the last two Blair administrations, it is that such powers will be abused; it’s all rather like the use of anti-terrorism laws to silence dissent during a political conference… they wouldn’t, would they? As ever the insightful and effervescent Boris Johnson has provided commentary that cuts through Blair’s spin: -

…The trouble with this stuff is that it once again lulls people into the belief that the Government is really going to sort out their problems, when the reality is that the whole of the new anti-yobbo programme, parenting classes and all, will be about as much use to thug-plagued estates as Blair’s doomed plan to march them to cashpoints for on-the-spot fines - i.e. no use whatever.

The police already have a panoply of powers to deal with these characters; they just don’t have the resources to be everywhere at once and all Tony is doing is intensifying the illusion that he, Big Tone, is going to descend on your noisy neighbours and bang them away, or send them on parenting courses.

[…]

The sad truth about Blair’s “announcements” is that they will play beautifully. Everyone will feel that someone is doing something about the problem, and everyone will slump back further into apathy and atomism. Mr Blair has obviously decided that his last months must be adorned with “eye-catching initiatives” with which he can be personally associated, so that no one can say he is going gentle into that good night….

Liberal economics on top!

I found this via the libertarian blog Pragmatic Libertarian: Libertarianism from a practical, consequentialist perspective.

The Heritage Foundation (a Washington Based Free-Market Think Tank) produces an annual report called The Index of Economic Freedom. The top three should come as no surprise to those with an eye on global economics. The ‘city-states’ of Hong Kong and Singapore have always embraced the fundamentals of liberal economics, and their relative success suggest this is the path for real economic growth.

As Johan Norburg suggests on his blog: -

Per capita growth in the countries that liberalised the most since 1995 has been almost three times higher than in those where economic freedom declined.

What is surprising is that after almost a decade of Blairism we are positioned at Number 5. If we could convert this economic freedom into improved productivity we may be able to see growth over the next half-decade, not stagnation.

The Labour government has already passed the threshold of high taxation, and increasing public spending; a continuation of this level of fiscal drain on the private economy will see British industry suffer in the face of globalisation. We need incentives to ensure young people choose productive and contributory careers, and we must move away from the increasing dependency of many on the Welfare State.