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I really should have sold this story to the press a few years ago when my friend held the official title of “Baby of the House”. Matthew Taylor was an Oxford undergraduate when I met him in South Wales at a By-election. I was an undergraduate at Leicester University. We were volunteers at the election, helping out with the leg work, unpaid but given free accommodation. We were offered a place out in the country on a play farm, a rich man's country house with enough livestock to keep the wife from going bored and enough to allow a few useful tax breaks. It was called Love Farm. It would have been a great detail for the tabloids.
The parents had gone away for the weekend leaving the three teenage children in charge. You can deduce the rest. Wild party, booze and bongs appear. It would have been rude to refuse their generosity, after all we were guests in a foreign country. I was convinced there was going to be a body or two found floating in the swimming pool.
A few months later he becomes the youngest MP. Straight from the dreaming spires of Oxford to the mother of Parliaments. He probably never had a real job. If he ever makes a hypocritical anti-drug speech I may yet have my fifteen minutes of fame.
There are many things that people want but cannot buy themselves in a free market. For example; a police service, judiciary, universal mail distribution, food and drug inspection. But wider than that the government should also provide or very actively control all those services that are more efficiently provided by a monopoly; water, gas, electricity, sewage disposal and probably also transport systems. Monopoly is efficient, if it is run in the interests of the collective it serves then everyone gains.
Calling capitalism a system is wrong. It is a default state that is inevitable. Trade in goods and services arises naturally in every environment. Whether the currency is formal money, tobacco (as in early American colonies and most western prisons) or Pokemon cards. I see the job of a government with a socialist agenda to ensure that the "unseen hand" actually works in favour of what the people want. Efficient distribution of goods and services is good. Efficient hiring and firing of labour is good (for the collectivity if not for the individual firee). Capitalism is an amazing system that sorts out what people want and reduces unsatisfied demand. It is, like democracy, the least worst way of organizing. But it has faults. These faults can be cured by direct action. Excess wealth can be taxed. Poverty can be alleviated. Pollution and excess consumption could and should be addressed by direct action and targeted taxation.
What is the Ulster Unionist Party? Which one? There are several. The Official Ulster Unionist Party is the biggest party in Northern Ireland and represents the majority, moderate, face of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland. They are Protestant and feel themselves to be British. They are probably the most pro British people in the Northern Hemisphere, the most pro British of all live in the Falkland Islands. They are an entirely sectarian based party, they have no distinct left-right politics in Northern Ireland. They are, coincidentally, mildly of the right, they would feel more comfortable with a Conservative government. The axis in Northern Ireland politics is green/orange not left right. The green is the green of Irish republicanism, the orange is the colour of King Billy (William of Orange) the last British leader to have a coherent (if genocidal) policy on “The Irish Question”.
Within the next few decades the UUP will lose its power. The Catholics will outbreed the Protestants. Some people say the problems of Ulster would be solved by sending the Ulster Protestants back where they came from. They were immigrants from Scotland.
The UUP is the mild form of Ulster Unionism. The Democratic Unionist Party is a bit more extreme. It is lead by The Reverend Doctor Ian Paisley MP MEP. (He got his doctorate from Bob Jones University) He always tops the poll in the European Parliament elections, so you could say he was the most popular politician in Northern Ireland. He is a ranter who is vehemently anti-Catholic, but he also has his bad points. Most English people see him as a dangerous obsessive who is a total embarrassment, with friends like him who needs enemies. I hope this has been informative,
Martin
I agree that capitalism is better dismantled slowly and replaced with a more human system, one that actually addresses the needs of people, not the needs of wealth. The problem with socialism in one country is that it lets the competitors do better. Britain in the 1960s lost ground in comparison to much of the rest of the world. This was due to socialism. It is a real and measurable difference. BUT it was only a relative loss of competitiveness. No group or class was worse off in 1970 compared to 1960 in real terms. (Obviously there would have been individuals who lost out, and many who gained.)
During the 1960s health care and education improved and general living standards across society reached unprecedented levels, poverty shrank to the point where it was almost eliminated. BUT the Germans and Italians did better. In real terms the sixties were fantastic for the British working class. If there was nothing else to compare it too then it was a boomtime. But there always is somewhere else to compare things to. And nobody ever looks to those countries who are poorer. Compared to the middle class in America and Germany the British did not fare so well. Foreigners are a brake on the development of socialism. The middle class will not vote for socialism for long enough to impose it fully as long as they have foreign examples of lifestyles to be jealous of. Remember that nobody lost out in real terms. There was full employment, social healthcare, good levels of funding in education (despite rising demand due to the baby boom). Things were going great. But problems and jealousy were imported.
Trying to create socialism and a better way of living in one country will cause many problems. We impose a minimum wage, and other countries do not, we lose jobs. Or we impose one low enough so that does not happen and so few people benefit. We raise standards in agriculture to benefit animals, cheaper food is imported from countries with lower standards. We raise taxation and we lose people and companies to other countries. We use only renewable energy, someone else sells us cheaper aluminium, steel and concrete by burning the cheapest, dirtiest coal. So we try to stop that happening; we become neo-imperialists, protectionists and keep the third world in poverty.
Capitalism sucks. Nation states suck. We need to change the world and change the system, in that order. I have to disagree about the police. They are trying to keep the lid on. They do not join the service to serve the rich and shoot niggers. When a large proportion of crime is committed by young blacks then they will be subject to more police attention. They cannot go around filling quotas "Sorry sir, I couldn't arrest the guy with the baseball bat because I'm over my quota on young black males, I need to find another sixteen white senior citizens to arrest on crack possession charges before Tuesday." I am sure that there is room for improvement and there are too many bad police officers but they are the minority and they can be rooted out. There is no alternative. No modern society can run without police. There will always be people who exploit others and break the law, it is human nature. I would like to see a world in which the police were the most respected members of society, and police corruption dealt with as seriously as armed robbery or rape.
I applaud your tax policies but I hope you have checked the figures fully. You must always remember that the rich are a very small but highly visible minority. You cannot raise a lot of money by taking a large slice of income from a small number of people. It always seems like a good idea to tax the rich to pay for everything but there just aren't that many of them. Better education and healthcare for a nation of hundreds of millions will cost a lot, most people will have to pay more. Parliament resumes Tuesday 2 May. Today is a public holiday comrade. Mayday. Workers of the world unite. (But I went to work, no rest for the retailers.)
Martin
The John Wayne Syndrome. The tendency for a police officer to pigeon hole people into either lawbreaker or good citizen category. The reality is more complicated, most people are policed with consent but that doesn't mean we are uncritical either. It really is a tough problem. We need to re-educate the people and the police.
That reminds me:- Teacher sets class an essay to write on the police. All the children write interesting little stories except little Johnny. He just puts “All coppers is barstids.” Teacher feels upset and so invites the local police round to see the class. They let the children sit in a police car, work the siren, stroke a police dog, play with the police radio and the police give the children ice cream. Next day the teacher sets another essay. Johnny puts “Coppers is cunnin barstids”.
One bit of re-education I would like to see is some kind of antidote to the working class first commandment, Thou shall not squeal. Even the bloody bible does it. Bearing false witness AGAINST your neighbour. Leaving lying FOR your neighbour a virtue, presumably. I am deadly serious. This matter should be addressed in every school. Shielding wrongdoers is wrong. Silence is complicity. If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem.
I think that Sheriffs who make people with out of state plates pull over for no reason should be dismissed. And towns in the south that put up speed restrictions simply to make money from fines should be used as toxic waste dumps. Well, maybe. I certainly think that bringing law and order into disrepute is a very serious offence against the people. My father was a police officer and he is a good man, he sees police corruption and abuses of their position as grievous sins. When my mother was caught speeding and tried to use his position to get off a charge he went ballistic. The speeding was a minor issue. I was in the car, about 11 or so. My respect for her took a nosedive at that point.
Mayday. Most people here think it's a joke. Somebody in Brussels a few years ago decided that Europe should celebrate Mayday so we have the first Monday in May as a "Bank Holiday". Bank holidays started in the nineteenth century (I very nearly put last century) as concessions to the white collar workers who without them would never have had two consecutive days off work, so all our extra public holidays are on Mondays. Which detaches them even further from the reason for choosing that date. I like Mayday. It is a holiday with no religious or nationalist associations and it comes at a time of year when, rain permitting, the countryside is at its most beautiful. When I rule the world I will get rid of Christmas as an annual event, I'll do it like the Olympics, every four years. And what about having the first day of EVERY month off? And no other public holidays, that will do it. You don't need a holiday to have a festival, there has never been a Halloween holiday or 5th of November either. OK “history expert”, what is the fifth of November about then?
Martin
Religion and parties Christians are found in all parties but they are not a controlling force. The Church of England was called the Conservative Party at prayer, but that was a long time ago. All Anglican vicars are gay or women now, some are both. Possibly a slight exaggeration, but the Conservatives certainly cannot count on the support of the Church without question. There is also a strong Christian Socialist tradition in the Labour Party, typified by Tony Benn. Tony is a great guy, I saw him speak a few times when I tried to prevent him being elected in the Chesterfield By-election. He is my second favourite political opponent of all the candidates I campaigned against, my favourite being the late great Screaming Lord Sutch. A former Pirate Radio DJ and rock star who spent all his money running The Official Monster Raving Loony Party and standing for Parliament at every opportunity. I saw him belting out honest Rock 'n' Roll in a pub which was his headquarters, a true English eccentric. (He changed his first name to Lord, he wasn't a real one, but he should have been.) Most of the old style Labour Party activists were more Methodist than Marxist.
Guy Fawkes Hung drawn and quartered. Hanged by the neck until nearly dead, disembowelled while alive then chopped up. They knew how to treat Catholics in those days. We celebrate with fireworks and the odd effigy, little boys used to go around collecting, “penny for the Guy” with a crude effigy. Not usually filled with explosives, but I'm sure that happens in some places. Fawkes was the fall guy, he was the one caught on his way to set alight to a huge stash of gunpowder barrels placed under the Hall that was to hold the State Opening of Parliament, if he had not been caught the King, Government and Parliament could have been wiped out. The State opening of Parliament is still in early November, but they always search the place well beforehand. Some places still have a fire and burn the Pope in effigy as well as Fawkes. But that tradition is dying out.
I think that you will find that travel, pretty much anywhere, is an experience that broadens the mind. I learned a lot of minor details about American life just by looking out of the window of the taxi from Newark airport to a cheap motel. I would love one day to visit the States again and stay for a while with no particular agenda. I think the South would be a challenge. I think the North, North East and Mid West would be the best places to go, not too alien.
Martin