Weak

Along with 10,780 others, I signed one of the silly No. 10 petitions a while back. The petition read "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Let the people decide on the future relationship between Britain and the European Union and not pass through new treaties without consulting the voters".

So far so uninteresting. It was the Prime Minster's response which made me cringe. He says:

The Government believes that EU Membership is firmly in Britain’s national interest, and remains committed to ensuring that the EU is focussed on adding value for its citizens.

Our membership of the EU has brought real benefits in jobs, peace and security. Through it, we belong to the world’s biggest trading bloc. Half the UK’s trade is now within the EU, with an estimated 3.5 million British jobs linked to it. Our membership allows us to live, work and travel across Europe and to receive free medical care if we fall sick on holiday. And each citizen benefits in ways that are harder to quantify in cash terms, such as a cleaner environment, trade deals negotiated by the EU, and better security.

There was a referendum on UK membership of the European Economic Community in June 1975, which was passed in favour of membership. Thereafter, each Treaty change has been approved by the democratically elected British Parliament. No government, Labour or Conservative, has ever held a referendum on an amending European treaty. Parliament remains the correct place for debate and decision on such treaties.

I don't think this needs further comment. My only thought is "weak". It is interesting to note that, although Mr Brown's expensive new website is built on a blogging platform, there is no facility for voters to interact with it or him. Scared of a little debate are we, Prime Minister?

Good things, bad things

Good thing: Not many people would dream of discriminating against particular groups in the workplace, irrespective of whether it's against the law. The culture has changed and employers are now more interested in who is the most suitable rather than who is the most similar to them. This reflects a general social liberalism in this country which means that generally nobody cares what you get up to in your free time.

Bad thing: Because terror cops are not allowed to "profile" potential suspects, law-abiding people going about their daily business are harassed to make it look as though certain groups are not being targeted. Restrictions on the use of "suspicion" has meant that the law has gone full circle and allowed officers to search anybody rather than just people who have drawn attention to themselves in some way, rather turning habeus corpus on its head.

Good thing: Our system of government means that policy can be turned on its head during a Parliament if the largest party fears that sticking doggedly to its manifesto commitments will result in a loss at the next election. Most politics happens between elections not during them.

Bad thing: Perverse situations arise where a particular party can benefit from the country going to the dogs. It is in the Conservative Party's best interests for Brown to continue as PM, but not in the nation's.

Good thing: We do not have a rigid constitution, meaning that Parliament is free to decide the extent of the law without fear of the courts ruling a law "unconstitutional" or contrary to some externally invented standard or other.

Bad thing: Opposition parties and the voting public must be on their toes at all times to stop the majority party from pushing through unpleasant measures in the small print of otherwise sensible legislation.

Good thing: People can only be pushed so far, and will eventually fight back when they have had enough.

Bad thing: General elections need only be held every five years.

Domestic (un)bliss

At the weekend I went to visit friends in commuter-belt Leicestershire. It is amazing to see the difference between what can be bought in a nice town up there (a three bedroom house with a garden) and what can be bought here (a two bedroom slum dwelling in a 1950s estate) on roughly the same income. That isn't the point of the post - and anyway I wouldn't swap my friends' suburban bliss for my urban chaos for love nor money.

The point is that my friends have been in their place about a year longer than me and have nearly finished doing it up from top to bottom. They made me realise how much I have to do before I can say that I am satisfied with my place. When I first moved here I made a mental list of things which needed doing. I pretty much stopped once I repainted the bedrooms... Feeling the need to keep up with the Joneses, I have again been thinking about redoing my bathroom. I had been put off by the expected cost of tearing everything out and starting again. But my friends did theirs for half the figure I had in mind.

So, over to you dear readers. Given that I have to re-plumb, re-tile, re-floor and re-equip my whole (small) bathroom, how much cash should I have in hand before I even start getting quotes? Will my pounds be better spent once we are in the grip of recession or should I spend now before my savings become worthless? Probably everyone reading this has more experience in this area than I do, so tell me what you think.

A Team Effort

I don't think I'm alone in being more excited by the Olympics than I expected to be. I can't even be accused of being a glory-hunter because I didn't even realise we were doing so well until I watched a few hours of sport on Saturday and Sunday. The cycling is amazing to watch, and Louis Smith was incredible (I think I find gymnastics more awesome than cycling because I have my own bike, but could never properly jump over the horse in PE).

I have just been waiting for our glorious leaders to jump on the bandwagon and tell us how this is all a result of this brilliantly crafted policy or that. I was quite surprised, then, to see Sir John pop up today and say that it's all down his Lottery (introduced in 1994). If weary old cynics like me can be given a boost by the nation's sporting success then surely there must be lots of people going around with more spring in their step this week.

Perhaps Sir John is right, then, that it is proper for the state to ensure that we all have good facilities and training programmes. The clever thing about the Lottery is that the money isn't from taxation. The less clever thing about Labour's politicisation of the Lottery is that less of the money will go to uplifting things like sport and opera and more to the popular or politically correct causes of the day. If the government of the day is going to fiddle about with the "good causes" pot it should be upfront about it. This government has not been.

Our athletes have done amazingly despite the interference. Perhaps the Australian government will now take back their barbs, build us some pools and buy us some soap.

The English Model

Mr Drew's post over at C@W reminded me of a strange encounter I had with a Dane on a rooftop. This young man (still a student at 28) was visiting London for a short holiday and was quizzing me on various aspects of London existence. He said that he loved England and really admired what he called The English Model. I told him that we don't really have a "model" - there is no social theory underpinning public policy, there is no grand plan to bring out the best in people and situations. My new Danish friend was impressed by the liberalism of England. He noted that nobody (state institutions and people outside your inner circle) really cared what you got up to and what you did with your life - in stark contrast to the "conformity" expected by Danish society. He said that he thought that Denmark should be aspiring to cut taxes to the lower (!!!!!!!) levels we have in England.

I tried to explain that we don't have a long-term plan. Nobody invented our democratic institutions, nobody wrote a constitution, nobody decreed our "citizens' rights" from on high. In policy terms we just bumble around fixing leaks and fighting fires. When a policy doesn't work we tend to ignore the fact and carry on regardless until something serious goes wrong then we make a botch job of sorting things out. I supposed that over the course of centuries this system finds its own balance.

Perhaps this explains why, having grown up chaotically, the English are so opposed to the plans and strategies of continental social-democracy. An Englishman's home is still his castle. If we had to have a national slogan I suspect it would be "leave me alone". Perhaps this is The English Model.

Cheap laughs

I challenged myself to open this month's Lambeth Life, the self-publicity rag of the People's Republic of Lambeth. The front page was slagging off the Mayor for being a philistine about a set of skyscrapers to be built by the river at Waterloo. I don't know the details and I am all for urbanisation in general but the tone of the article was pretty partisan - no surprises there...

What caught my eye was a puff piece by none other than one of my ward councillors Steve Morgan. He gets a half page to write an article about how important being a local councillor is to him and to his constituents.

Mr Morgan says that "being there for residents [is] the most important thing for me". He is hoping to stand for Parliament in Bristol at the next election. He goes on to say "Councillors cannot go down every street in the borough and see what rubbish is not being collected or what lights are not working". When I wrote to complain that the lights along the riverside walk he came back with a helpful suggestion that I direct my complaint to TFL. When I asked him about the lights in a dubious backstreet not working during the winter months he said that the council no longer looked after the lights there because of a PPP.

"If we can't get the results people want, we explain to them exactly why and generally they are satisfied because they know that everything has been done to help them." The lot of a local councillor is often not a happy one (I was brought up by one), for Mr Morgan "it is about feeling involved, about telling people what's going on".

I hope he gets his Bristol nomination...

Thought for the day

Didn't the sun-spot/solar wind/cosmic ray people predict a cool summer?