The Bewilderness

Quote of the day

"Well, one of them was a brainy vamp, and the other was a sexual moron," said an American woman, referring to the two men in the book-"so I'm afraid Connie had a poor choice-as usual!"

                                           D H Lawrence, A Propos of "Lady Chatterley's Lover"

The profiteers of Bhudda

We say that the state is not your friend, but in other places, it is your enemy. Burma, for one. The victims of Cyclone Nargis have not seen the charity of others, but face being dispossessed of their land by the profiteers of Bhudda.

There are growing signs that Burma's repressive military regime, headed by General Than Shwe, is helping its supporters to profiteer from the disaster. "A lot of government-appointed village headmen seem to be doing very well out of the rebuilding effort," said a Western aid worker who asked not to be named.

Villagers fear that businessmen allied with the government are being allowed to seize the land they have lived on and farmed for years. The price of rice has soared, both in Burma and abroad, and with it the value of the fields in which it is grown. But under Burma's archaic socialist system, the land is government-owned and farmers can be moved off it if they are not productive, as most cannot be at present.

Another consequnce of rising food prices is the support that it provides to robber baron elites where private ownership of the land is condemned as an evil. After all, we are told by the Left that the collective ownership of public goods is an unalloyed good.

The broad church of broon cracks

That is a shocker: a loss in the heartlands; the defeat was based on a swng of 22.54% and a majority for the Scottish National Party of 365. This heralds a clear message for Labour: Brown is toxic, you are toxic, defeat beckons.

One of the strongest factors within Glasgow East was the lack of infrastructure or volunteers that Labour could call upon. As a diminished party, moving towards a collapse, we may now see the union card played, the manoevring of the left wing rump and the start of defections.

Do all political parties oscillate between broad church and sect, or does this only afflict more ideological organisations? Ironic that the Labour Party returns to a sectarian past, sloughing off its alien aspirations, just as the Anglican communion also starts to divide.

Russia the short term spoiler, long-term weakling

Mr Chavez visits Russia and receives a warm welcome from the double headed eagle of Putin and Medvedev.Their support is guaranteed by the antiballistic missile system that Bush has proposed to place near the Russian border. Yet, this courting of an ally in the US 'near abroad', and alighnment with the populist left in Latin America, reinforces the definition of Russia's foreign policy as 'tit for tat' reaction, without undertaking any strategic long-term decisions. Acting as a spoiler may provide the impression of strength at home, but Russia does not have the demographic or energy resources to complete this role of antagonist.

All of their actions, up to the predictable policing of energy, are signs of weakness rather than strength, playing their cards visibly, while they still have them in hand. However, the use of spoilers involves decisions that may come back to haunt Russia in the long-term, as their support conjures up opponents like Islamists nearer to home.

The use of democracy as a rhetorical light paper with Chavez is an interesting alignment, and one wonders whether Russia's siloviki should be considered as part of the authoritarian left  even though the regime depends upon capitalist legitimacy.

PC vacuity: morality and managerial malice

The decision of Portsmouth council to refuse a grant of £500 to a charity dealing with disabled servicemen has invited opprobrium. The refusal was based upon the fear that such support could prove offensive to ethnic minorities. They managed to insult the armed forces, the disabled and minorities. Therefore, charitable support was politicised by a council that placed the offence caused to one group above the offence caused to those who requested the grant. When they realised that they had incurred unpopularity and ridicule due to their decion, this was reversed.

Councillor Steven Wylie, cabinet member for housing, admitted that the council had made an "error of judgement".

He said: "On behalf of Portsmouth City Council, I would like to apologise unreservedly for any offence caused by the decision to turn down an application for funding for the Help for Heroes summer event.

"The decision was made with the best intentions, but it is clear that in the council's view there has been an error of judgment.

"I am glad that I have been able to look again at the application for funding for this summer event and I can confirm that we have been able to offer the applicants the full £500 they applied for.

"I would like to wish Help for Heroes every success in their summer event."

Portsmouth City Council used the same reasoning to reverse their decision as they used to refuse the grant in the first place. There was no appeal to a wider set of values, just a recognition that the offence caused had acquired publicity and was therefore more damaging to their reputation than taking the original stance. This replacement of morality with managerialism strikes at the heart of political correction, since the values espoused by the left could easily be replaced by darker, populist alternatives.

The danger of language codes and identity politics lies in their vacuity. Once, a moral compass is replaced by prescriptive targeting, administrative decisions can be swayed by any prevailing pressures, whether short-term lobbying (like here), individual malice or the populist discrimination of socialist parties, based on pgmentation, faith and identity.

The only cures for these pathetic posturings and arbitrary outcomes are less money and more decision-making powers: the two salves for our decrepit local government.

Airport workers unite on no 2 ID

When government borrowing is heading out of control, and spending increases at 7% per annum, we know that a scorched Britain policy is in the mind of Brown. If he cannot have the seat, no-one can.

That is why we see the continuation of the Identity card scheme, which is now being demanded compulsorily of airport workers. The trade union, Unite, has opposed this on the grounds of civil liberties and practicality: ID cards do not work, cost their members money (at a time of stagflation) and increase state oppression. It is doubtful that abolition of ID cards was part of trade union demands of Labour.

If Brown is focused on the two year long haul, we can see that his mantra of tough long-term decisions is really a strategy for bringing in those policies in full that his government deems appropriate. Will we see an acceleration in implementation for ID cards, comprehensive schools, the nationalisation of the universities and road pricing?

Mr brown goes to israel

Gordon Brown's visit to Israel does not light up any surprises in foreign policy. With the honour of addressing the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, Brown was in a signature position to promote the European position. In a mixture of the personal and the political, the visit was drenched in symbolism. An uncharitable soul would liken this visit to a predictable parade of Holocaust memorial and Palestinian cash, visibly assuaging both sides of the interminable conflict.

Apart from doling out aid and striking a note of alliance on the Middle East's only democracy, Brown did not venture from his script. Thus, the European Union now sounds more hawkish than the United States in a willingness to apply sanctions to Iran's oil and gas industries. Within this space, Brown could play a principled card, lambasting Ahmadinejad for his echoes of anti-semitic eliminationism, last heard in the racial state of Hitler.

There is a sense of confusion in dealing with Iran. Both Shi'ite revolutionary fervour and national socialist doctrine share an apocalyptic tale, touching upon millenarianism in their promises of a purified state, with the foreign element removed. Such a similarity does not downplay the links between the two. Iranian propagandists have exploited the works of the Nazi regime and its European traditions to participate in the continuation of anti-semitic myths and breathe new life into old stereotypes. The rhetoric, the stunts and the strategic attempt to encircle Israel point to a  focused attention on the part of the Islamic revolution. A veiled extremity gained power with the election of Ahmedinejad and invited attention to this strand of the theocracy.

Only Israel can guage whether Iran poses an existential threat. With his promises of an unbreakable bond, is Brown endorsing any Israeli action necessary to defend themselves? The answer is No. With the link to sanctions and negotiations, Brown endorses the failure of the current path: continued negotiations, slightly strengthened, even though the last regime strangled its neighbour, entrenched the regime and was corrupted by both France and Germany. Sanctions will not prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear bomb and will not place the elite in any danger. Unlike Mugabe, Ahmadejinad will not be upset at his lack of access to fashionable suits.

Marred

Listening to Andrew Marr featherbed James Purnell and roughride David Cameron is a microscopic encapsulation of all that is wrong with the BBC. Marr was credited as a centre left commentator prior to his appointment at the BBC. Yet, his interviews should reflect an objective technique that teases information from the politician, not act as a platform for Labour policy, or use an interview to make Marr's point, not Cameron's. Watching Marr and Purnell was seeing two boys in a playground, whispering conspiratorially to hold a big secret.

Did Marr ask Purnell about Tory policy and the issue of plagiarism? This would have been a good question to ask of this tired government. Instead, we had the usual refrain of successful policies and Brownie points on unemployment that a better intervewer would have picked. Purnell understands that this stand on record and statistics is the problem, not the solution. More interesting than the broken record was his coded slip that the Tories had "a good diagnosis". Does this mean that Purnell endorses Cameron's description of Britain as a "broken society"?

In tackling Cameron, we saw the discourse of old, a tight incestuous tete a tete between interviewer and politician where ideas were bounded by statistics and questions designed to elicit a list of numerical triumphs. This was the prison in which Marr as the gatekeeper could broadcast Brown's triumphs and highlight Cameron's limitations. Yet, this strategy may have proved useful in building trust ten years ago, but reinforces misery when designed to constrain a Tory leader who refuses to stay within the confines of Marr's script. Trying to find holes in a budget two years hence was, as Cameron smirked, a ridiculous premise. That Marr should try to employ this technique as a method for diminishing the Tory leader shows the hold of the past.

Political discourse is developing away from the managerial litany that Brown devalued through his own journey away from prudence and honesty. A dependence upon statistics, targets and results will only work if you maintain an honest approach to the electorate on outcomes. Married to spin, the government has brought figures  into disrepute and opened up politics to Cameron's current mix of common sense and sensibility.

I suspect that Purnell hung about to see how a political interview is really done and to talk to a chap who he may see over the despatch box (or the Cabinet table?) in a few years time.

Hhohho, mugabe

Mugabe jokes are most popular here. Someone aptly clicked on me from Mbabane in swaziland. The region is Hhohho. There's a joke in there somewhere.

Prelude to more accidents of history

Leterme has now resigned from the Belgian government, arguing that the linguistic and cultural divisions between Flanders and Wallonia have widened too far to be healed. He remains as a caretaker Prime Minister until a new patsy can be found or until new elections are held.

Given the history of fractious arguments between the political parties and lengthened stretches of administration without a government, Belgium has entered a limbo. The Flemish consider this an antechamber to independence, the Walloons are unsure and bewildered. There are always new rounds of negotiation, but each crisis has ratcheted up the spiral of disaffection and widened the separation between the two parties.

Why has Belgium become interesting? Because this will provide a precedent on how the EU treats a Member State if it splits apart. Alex Salmond and other British politicians are looking on with interest.