Comments for thinking liberal

Comment on The battle for Britain’s political centre by Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:54:21 +0000

Point taken Oranjepan. It is almost impossible not to project our own image onto our analysis of the the centre. In fact that probably applies to the right and left too. It’s negative space, albeit inhabited by a number of very positive people.

The point I am trying to make is that so far as voters are concerned the majority are mainly passive (rather than inert) in the sense that they don’t think about politics deeply and tend to follow fashion. That may make them tempted by jokers from time to time. But mainly their views seem to be shaped by their economic circumstances – and there is a big difference between those that are feeling squeezed in the current economy and those that aren’t. Success will will go to parties that manage to bridge the gap, but neither Labour nor the Tories are trying very hard to do that … for now.

Comment on The battle for Britain’s political centre by Oranjepan

Oranjepan — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:36:52 +0000

The problem is that people tend to describe political divides in their own image.

Your description can be fathomed by your sources. Andrew Rawnsley has described himself as ‘soft centre’, while The Economist proclaims itself ‘extreme centre’.

I’m multi-polar, so I see the kaleidoscope through a different prism – between serious people who do serious work at the heart of society and jokers who keep us entertained from the fringes.

And among the serious people I like the opposition between the ‘radical centre’ and the ‘inert centre’, with their sense of relative movement, or lack of it – the latter being coined (actually by Roy Jenkins) in the Limehouse Declaration, and the former reappropriated from him by Nick Clegg as the direction for the LibDems.

Jokers don’t work, but the worry is that too much of politics isn’t taken seriously enough.

Comment on Is victim culture to blame for post combat stress disorder? by Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:56:09 +0000

Thank you Dave. This is an interesting observation. It may be less true of Afghanistan than Iraq, as for a period at least British personnel were exposed extreme combat situations through some rather questionable tactical decisions, and the country had a very high body count for some years. But it does go back to the idea that it may be more related to the way the armies work than cultural differences between the nations.

Comment on Is victim culture to blame for post combat stress disorder? by Dave Morris

Dave Morris — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:17:35 +0000

One point that I think everyone is missing here is the fact that US military units have seen far more combat than equivalent UK units in the post 9/11 era. Have UK units been involved in major casualty-producing engagements as in Fallujah and Najaf in 2004, Ramadi in 2005 and Sadr City in 2oo6-7 and Doura in 2007, as US units have? (I was embedded with American units at all of those places as a reporter). The answer is no. Unfortunately, the US style of warfare today simply produces more casualties per capita than the UK.

Further, US military units deploy longer, more often and tend to be sent to deadlier regions than UK units (think Basrah vs. Fallujah). Within PTSD research, there is something known as the “dose-response curve” that says the more trauma you are exposed to, the more likely you are to develop PTSD. This is part of what we’re seeing here with the 4%/30% differential (though the US PTSD rate is closer to 15% from what I’ve seen.) Sure, culture plays a huge role in PTSD diagnosis, but so do events on the ground, something mental health professionals are apt to overlook.

Comment on Time to think of England by Matthew

Matthew — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:22:30 +0000

Thank you Philip. I read this blog with interest. I have spent a good twenty years hoping that some for of English regionalism might take hold. I have now changed tack because I feel that it is a politically lost cause. The problem isn’t just that regional identity is so weak here (you have no doubt that you are a Cornishman: I have no idea as to which of the regions on your map I belong to: I have strong connections to four of them); they aren’t big enough to take on the Westminster behemoth, and are likely to be political backwaters.

My advice to Cornish nationalists is to concentrate on the merits of your cause above that of other regions of “England”. Scotland is destabilising the British constitution: this gives you a bit of a window to stake your claim. As a growing number of people are attracted to the idea of an English government of some sort, push forward the idea of one of your own to stand alongside it. You were right to challenge me on the matter, for example. Don’t try to pursue the idea of English regionalism.

Comment on Time to think of England by Philip R Hosking

Philip R Hosking — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:06 +0000

If you wanted to read a little more about the various grass-roots English regionalists you could try my blog: http://thecornishrepublican.blogspot.fr/search/label/english%20regionalists

They are all very minor political movements, and often treated as a joke but, I find their ideas quite respectable.

Comment on Time to think of England by Matthew

Matthew — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:24:15 +0000

You can make a good case that in Britian we have taken the idea of centralisation too far. Apart from cultural impoverishment there are severe economic strains and a widespread feeling of alienation with the state and the political process.

By itself the English Assembly and English government idea won’t help very much – except to give the Scottish and Welsh governments more clarity and more room to breathe. I am happy to accept that Cornwall might get a unique autonomy settlement of its own. I’m not sure this will of itself help alleviate Cornwall’s deep economic problems, but the current arrangements aren’t doing much for them either.

Stronger local government is a better line of attack. That means giving them much greater taxation powers, rather than just giving them supplication rights to central government. But it is not just the formal powers that need to change, but the whole culture of government, amongst both politicians and their constituents. People need to take more responsibility for the common realm, rather than just getting on with their own lives and getting angry with the politicians when things don’t work out. That can’t happen in one go, but well designed reforms might get a virtuous circle going.

Comment on Time to think of England by Matthew

Matthew — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:09:41 +0000

Isn’t that what I said? Certainly I found the topic difficult to contain, so my arguments may be a bit incomplete. And I didn’t do Cornwall justice (see comments below), though I did say that combining it in a region with Devon (never mind Gloucestershire) was no-go. However I think that the overall logic is quite robust. Devolution to the English regions won’t work, but a new English Assembly has possibilities. Cornwall can be part of it, or have its own autonomous solution – but the various English counties, etc are unlikely to want to go down that route.

Comment on Time to think of England by Richard G

Richard G — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 11:05:43 +0000

Is the process of cultural centralisation inevitable? 100 years ago in West Norway, you could move from one valley to the next and find yourself unable to understand the dialect. No doubt all regions in England had there own identity, once upon a time.

I also think of the rainforest, where a single square kilometre may have a number of unique species, compared the thousands of kilometres of plains after the forest is felled, populated by only a dozen species.

The limit of the human mind is not the number of objects in can deal with, but the number of concepts. One man can administer a forest of thousands of trees, provided they are all the same.

My contention is that centralisation may lead to efficiency, but it also leads to cultural impoverishment. While the forces towards cultural centralisation are strong, I don’t see why they should be inevitable. I am glad that Cornwall is fighting for it’s own identity.

What steps could be taken to help reverse this trend?

Comment on Time to think of England by Sandy Angove

Sandy Angove — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:07:43 +0000

I found this article ill thought-out; perhaps because its range was too ambitious. And it does the Cornish independence movement no favours. Cornwall often gets lumped in the the South West -an area that goes up as far as Gloucestershire, whereas Cornwall has a distinct identity, the Stannary Parliament in its history.