Gordon goes long in Glenrothes

Tom Griffin (London, OK): If The Scotsman is to be believed, Gordon Brown is set to take the advice of Iain MacWhirter rather than Martin Kettle over the fortcoming by-election in his Fife backyard:

A final decision has not yet been taken, but it is understood Labour leaders favour either Thursday, 30 October or Thursday, 6 November for the contest.

The November date is the favourite simply because it comes only a day after the expected result of the American presidential election, and if Labour was to lose, party managers believe the bad news would be partly buried by the US coverage.

 Read the rest of this post...

Stormont Crisis: Justice, the IRA, and MI5

 Damian O'Loan (Paris): The situation in Stormont may now merit the term crisis. A prominent Sinn Fein representative in the South of Ireland, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD, has threatened collapse of the Assembly if policing and justice are not devolved: “we will have no option but to pull out our ministers.” Jeffrey Donaldson MP, MLA, Privy Council member and possible Justice Minister, has called for clarification of the threat: “Do they want to stay in the executive? If they do, let's meet and address these issues."

Both sides claim the other refuses to talk; it is widely held that Sinn Fein are blocking the passage of other Ministerial business until their key electoral promises have been resolved – or as Peter Robinson has it: “Adams seems to think that it is the role of everyone to move to his position.” The other parties are unforgiving, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan saying “The soundings coming from Sinn Féin at the minute are more ludicrous than ominous.” Moderate unionism's leader Sir Reg Empey warned “This sort of behaviour cannot continue for much longer.” Read the rest of this post...

No such thing as a "rock solid" constitution

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): There  was a short, strong overview of the threat of an authoritarian, corporate cash cow database state by A.C. Grayling in yesterday's CiF. It reinforced the alarm set off by No2ID's Phil Booth in his excellent OK post. I particular liked Grayling's raised eyebrow over Seimens of Germany who are "already supplying 60 countries with a device that monitors and integrates data from phone, email and internet activity". Apparently its system is notorious for throwing up "huge numbers of false positives". I like that phrase "false positives". I suspect it will run and run, as in "We are all false positives now!"

My only objection was to Grayling's stirring conclusion,

We need to stop this assault on civil liberies going further, we need to roll back the attritions they have already suffered, and we need a rock solid written consitution to protect us from those who aim to make us all suspects in the gaze of the unblinking universal eye.

He should know better than that. No constitution, written or unwritten is "rock solid", nor is ever meant to be. Of course he is spot on to see that to roll back the surveillance state we need to constitutionalise our governing settlement. But this is in order for it to be lived in a democratic fashion, not to be set rock solid. Simply to change the governing culture we have to show everyone that our values are rooted in popular sovereignty encoded in a democratic constitition. This is the precondition for stopping the mandarins treating us as colonialised natives. But the constitition that results will be flexible as well as principled, an aid for us to better govern ourselves, a step on the road to emacipation and freedom, not a rock-like fixed point that we will have to bow down to. 

The perils of a progressive English nationalist

Tom Griffin (London, OK): Over at Comment Is Free, Paul Kingsnorth reflects on his recent OurKingdom debate with Vron Ware, and re-states his left-wing case for English nationalism:

because the English, unlike the Scottish, the Welsh or the people of Northern Ireland, have no political focus for their concerns, they have nowhere to turn to express them. What can happen when such a focus does exist can be seen north of the border. The last decade has seen a transformation of Scotland, as a direct result of the creation of a Scottish parliament.

Of course, the Scottish Parliament is itself the product of decades of political mobilisation. Scottish nationalists had no political focus either until they created one. Perhaps the first step for progressive English nationalists is to figure out how to follow that example.

Scottish Lib Dems go for the continuity candidate

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Tom Griffin spent a long time finding Stephen Glenn to write a post about the Lib Dem leadership contest. I'm afraid Tom didn't get as much warm support from me in his search as he should have. Eventually, he found Stephen and we ran this story by him on the battle to lead Lib Dem Scotland. It seemed to me that Tavish Scott was the least interesting of the three candidates, if he is indeed standing for continuity of a forlorn strategy. Today they have announced the outcome of the ballot: it seems that Scottish Lib Dems have voted for the hole into which they are digging. Could this be true?

The secret silo for your family's data

Those who question the 'database state' are often accused of alarmism. But what if we were to report that a recent series of announcements show that the government is already spending millions on a vast database that will retain digital copies of all variety of tracking and information about the whole population, our phone calls, bank accounts, commercial records as well as personal ones, and that it is creating the authority and powers which allow it to do this by hiding behind EU regulations which it has inspired, to impliment them without a parliamentary debate? Now read on:

Phil Booth (London, NO2ID): Back when Charles Clarke was Home Secretary, not long after the London tube bombings, he pushed EU justice ministers to massively increase communications data retention powers. Terrorism was, of course, at the forefront of everyone's minds - and frequently referred to by Mr Clarke in his championing of mass surveillance. Other countries such as Germany did not see the need for such wholesale interception of personal phone, text, e-mail and internet usage data. They were overruled. Read the rest of this post...

Team UK: A Political Football

Tom Griffin (London, OK): It seems the Westminster/Holyrood faultine inside the Scottish Labour Party extends to the question of whether there should be a UK football team at the 2012 Olympics.

Gordon Brown held out that prospect during his visit to Beijing at the weekend:

'I think when people are looking at the Olympics in 2012 - Britain, home of football, where football was invented, which we gave to the world - I think people would be very surprised if there is an Olympic tournament in football and we are not part of it.'

Scottish Labour leadership candidate Cathy Jamieson has proposed an alternative plan:

"One option could be a home nations football tournament with the winners representing the UK at the Olympics."

Jamieson added: "Team GB should include a football team but not at the expense of Scotland's football team. It would be wrong to gamble with the identity of Scotland's team."

Gordon Brown to leave before the election?

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): I just heard a clip of Brown being interviewed in Beiijing on the BBC 8 o'clock news. He used an extraordinary formulation about his future. The presenter said that, asked about his prospects of still being PM when the Olympics came to London in 2012, "He said it was up to voters to decide if he was in No 10 in four years years time". But he didn't. In the actual clip that was carried the unnamed interviewer said,

You must be absolutely desperate to still be Prime Minister in 2012 that must keep you awake at night

And Brown laughed with his somewhat forced, I saw that coming and have decided in advance to to laugh it off laugh, and replied,

That's for the public. That's for the public.

He then changed the subject as fast as he could, i.e. immediately:

I think er, everybody is looking forward to 2012. Look, the next four years I think for Britain are going to see more and more young people getting interested in sports.

The formulation, and it seemed to me to be a deliberate one that he repeated rather than corrected, of "the public" deciding is very much not about voters. The "public" is a contrived entity that only decides things through opinion polls, the press and media, and perhaps canvassing returns. To say that "the public" will decide means not putting the matter to the vote. It felt to me like a clear signal that, if he concludes that 'the public' will not re-elect him, Brown will not stand.

Security services colluded in unlawful detention, court rules

Tom Griffin (London, OK): In a key intervention in the 42 days debate last month, the former head of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller stated: "arguments can be made to justify any time of detention, just as in other countries, although mercifully not here, they can be made to justify any method of interrogation."

That remark elided key questions about how far the security services are complicit in interrogation practices overseas, questions which were raised anew in a High Court judgement on Thursday. Read the rest of this post...

'An eloquent lady in Edgbaston' - competition update

Tom Griffin (London, OK): OK's summer limerick competition (details here) has reached the halfway mark. There still a week to go until August 30th for anyone who wants to trying their hand at bringing out the latent poetry in Liam Byrne's prose. Here are some of the best entries so far: Read the rest of this post...

A Beijing Boost for Britishness

Tom Griffin (London, OK): 'One World, One Dream' is the official slogan of the Beijing Olympics, reflecting "the common wishes of people all over the world, inspired by the Olympic ideals, to strive for a bright future of Mankind. In spite of the differences in colors, languages and races, we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games, and together we seek for the ideal of Mankind for peace."

It has long been argued, (classically by George Orwell), that such lofty ideals only serve to conceal the close relationship between nationalism and the sporting spirit. Read the rest of this post...

There is a better way to approach gang violence

Marta Cooper (London, oD): 90 murders have occurred in London this year, 23 victims of which have been teenagers. It seems not a day passes without news of another fatality reaching us. But is knife crime really on the increase, or is this just what we're being led to believe by excessive media hype? Conflicting statistics make this a difficult question to answer: in mid-July the British Crime Survey claimed overall knife crime fell by 25% between 2006 and 2008. But the Department of Health reported 14,000 people treated for stab wounds in 2007, showing an increase of 20% since 2006; whilst there was a reported 72% rise in prosecutions of those possessing knives since Labour came to power in 1997.

Whichever set of statistics you believe, it is clear that the media hype around the issue is not helping - a view shared by youth workers and children at Dalgarno Community Centre in north Kensington, whom I interviewed about stop and search policy this month. "Media hype causes young people hype," as one worker said. "We are made to believe that everyone is carrying a knife and we will get killed if we don't carry one," added the Youth Area Worker. A reduced media focus on knife crime would, therefore, help to solve the issue.

The Government's response, meanwhile, has been draconian and will likely prove counter-productive. Read the rest of this post...

The Luck of the Draw – Sortition and Public Policy

Keith Sutherland (Exeter, Imprint Academic): Imprint Academic’s new book series on political lotteries and citizen juries is launched this week. The series is our response to the growing sense that the institutions of liberal party democracy are damaged beyond repair.

The 1997 election was a watershed as it was quite obvious that Labour was prepared to say anything in order to win power. From then on political parties would no longer ‘represent’ anything other than the whims of a few thousand swing voters in key marginals, leaving everybody else, in effect, disenfranchised.
 Read the rest of this post...

Extremism and the internet

Tom Griffin (London, OK): Three young British Muslims convicted on terrorism charges this week, possessed the "biggest computer library of extremist material ever seized by British police," The Guardian reports.

Over at our sister-blog terrorism.openDemocracy, Tim Stevens examines the resulting focus on the internet as a conduit for radicalisation:

As the British government seeks to strengthen its stance on stamping out home-grown terrorism, it has zeroed in on the internet as a target for regulation and interdiction. Such an approach suggests both a misunderstanding of the internet itself and of the role that online behaviour plays in radicalisation and, ultimately, the creation of dangerously violent individuals. Wrong moves against wrong targets will eventually prove counter-productive. Read the rest of this post...

Political history will be made at Green Party Conference

Rupert Read (Norwich, The Green Party): I am a local Councillor. Green Councillors want a Party that works well, a Party that punches above its weight, a Party that will deliver the successes and the desperately-needed policy-changes nationally that Greens are already achieving all over the country, locally.

That prospect is perhaps now within sight. For, in a fortnight's time, the Green Party will make history. Having had a system of ‘Principal Speakers' for the last generation, the Party is currently holding its first-ever election for a Leader (see here and here for the history of how this came to be). The entire membership has been balloted; the final votes will be cast at our national Party Conference on Sept. 5; the result will come out on Sept. 6.

My friend and colleague Adrian Ramsay is unopposed for Deputy Leader. For the Leadership position itself there is an intriguing contest going on, between our MEP and current Principal Speaker Caroline Lucas, and Ashley Gunstock, a grassroots member mainly well-known for his acting appearances on TV's "The Bill".

 Read the rest of this post...

A new leader for the Scottish Lib Dems

Stephen Glenn (Linlithgow, Lib Dems): What next for the Liberal Democrats in Scotland? They're no longer in a coalition administration but just part of the opposition to an SNP minority government. It's a dangerous position with the Tories strengthening and Labour weakening.

Three candidates have stepped forward to fill the void left by Nicol Stephen's resignation as leader, by the end of next week one of them will be leader. Tavish Scott, a close ally of Stephen, is seen by many as the continuity candidate. Ross Finnie, served eight years in the cabinet when the party was in coalition with Labour after the Scottish Parliament was created. He says the party needs to find its 'narrative' again. Mike Rumbles, who chaired the Holyrood's Standard's Committee for four years, sees a radical path ahead. Read the rest of this post...

Osborne takes on Miliband over inequality

Tom Griffin (London, OK): Shadow chancellor George Osborne launched a bold attack on one of Labour's traditional strengths in The Guardian today, charging that the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor in Britain is at its widest since Victorian times:

When it comes to developing a policy agenda that delivers fairness and social justice, the Conservative party is leading the political world away from the target-driven, top down, statist approach that Miliband pioneered when he ran the Downing Street policy unit. That approach is failing because it relies on a flawed assumption that only the state can guarantee fairness. Read the rest of this post...

Gangs, Terrorism and Disaffected Youth

Phil Groman: While gang violence and religious extremism attract a broadly different demographic, both phenomena appear to be gaining momentum among young people in Britain. Gang violence took the lives of 26 teenagers last year in London alone. The security services admit a steady increase in those supporting terrorist activities, some as young as 15 and 16.

Much of the analysis into the factors driving involvement in both street gangs and radical Islamist movements focus on broad structural causes such as unemployment, poor community leadership and even the failures of multiculturalism. However, one salient parallel between both movements is the presentation and mobilisation of violence as an attractive solution to disempowered youth. Read the rest of this post...