It’s funny how we acclimatise to the, erm, climate. Walking to the station this morning in my boots, heavy coat, woolly hat and multiple layers of underwear, I suddenly recalled with a shock that not six months ago, I was making the same journey in short trousers and flip-flops. The change in the weather happens just slow enough that it never seems improbable or extreme. Like the descent into fascism, the change happens gradually enough to go without comment, and you begin to doubt your memories of a better time, a summer’s day. And then it snows and everyone goes nuts, as if it were somehow unexpected.
Month: November 2010 (Page 1 of 2)
Last week, Libel Reform Campaign terriers Sense About Science published a timely document on blogging and libel. Entitled So you’ve had a threatening letter. What can you do?, the booklet gives sage advice to those harassed by legal action.
Sense About Science were recently threatened with legal action themselves. Along with Dr Dalia Nield, they were threatened with libel by lawyers acting on behalf of Rodial, a company which manufactures a dubious ‘boob job cream’, which they claim can enlarge breasts without surgery! Sense About Science and Dr Nield expressed doubts about the safety and efficacy of the cream.
Hari Kunzru is in Istanbul for the European Writers Parliament. He has just published the text of his speech, and the following passage is clear Sharp-bait:
It seems to me that multiculturalism, once a useful and progressive kind of politics, is no longer functioning as well as it did. The limits of identity politics are becoming clear. Instead of a playful, creative blending of the best of host and migrant cultures, the terms of multiculturalism are increasingly used by cultural conservatives of all stripes to police cultural boundaries. A liberal politics of absolute inclusivity, while presenting itself as pragmatic, has the disadvantage of obscuring genuine differences and antagonisms. Identity politics, which privileges categories like race and religion, is wilfully silent about class. Culture is, self-evidently, at the heart of this, and so we as writers have a central role to play. It sickens me to watch European bigots puffing up their chests about the values of the Enlightenment, as a badge of their superiority against poor and marginalised immigrant populations. Again, I say that opposition to this Enlightenment fundamentalism, isn’t moral relativism, but an ethical imperative. At this point, respecting difference is important, but so is asserting our common life across borders of race, class and religion. The fake pageantry of respect is no substitute for a genuine internationalism.
The phrase “the terms of multiculturalism are increasingly used by cultural conservatives of all stripes to police cultural boundaries” sticks out and rings true. “Asserting our common life” is what the Dalai Lama suggested multiculturalsim means. Nevertheless I’m very aware that I push the term to its limits when I reference it in these terms. What Kunzru identifies seems to echo what Kenan Malik said at a South Asian Literary Festival event last month: That ‘state’ multiculturalism is a different thing to simply living a multicultural life. As I have said before on this blog, I fear to lose the word ‘multiculturalism’ to its detractors, because to do so would seem to concede defeat to the cultural conservatives Kunzru describes.
All this chat about how the Libdems have broken their manifesto promises leaves me a little cold. Or rather, in the modern parlance, “a bit meh”.
I think my failure to become outraged or agitated stems from a sense that the Liberal Democrats have fallen into a semantic trap. ‘Manifesto commitments’ are things that you promise to enact when you have Power to do so in Government.
But the situation that the Lib Dems find themselves in does not seem to fulfill the sufficient and neccessary conditions to merit such a desription!
A “U-turn” doesn’t really capture the essence of what has happened – It implies an agency and a mens rea that, by virtue of their Junior status, the Liberal Democrats simply do not possess.
This conundrum will have consequences for future elections. Now we have become used to the idea of coalitions (a prospect more likely if an AV or PR voting system is introduced), the way that political parties put their manifestos to the electorate could change.
The Liberal Democrats might present a ‘Two-Tier Manifesto’ to the voters (although they would never use such a crass term). First, they will present a more general statements of principles and ‘red line’ policies, which they would expect to be a part of any coalition deal.
Then they could present more detailed manifesto commitments, which they understand they may have to ditch if they were the minority partner in the Cabinet. The Greens, the Nationalist Parties and the Unionists might choose to do the same.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives and Labour could publish their own red-lines and general principles, signalling what is up for grabs in coalition negotiations and what would be out-of-bounds.
Such a convention would be a nightmare for those drafting the manifestos, and would lead to much factionalism within the parties around election time… but at least the voters would have a much better sense of what would happen in various coalition scenarios.
Following the technique of Kate Fox News, I thought I would ‘crowd source’ a poem about the Royal Wedding announcement. It is a good time to remind ourselves of ‘Do Not Exceed The Stated Dose‘ too.
#RoyalWedding, #RoyalWedding
Look how quick the news is spreading
I’m really pleased for Kate and Will
But will the tax payers foot the bill?
Gawd bless’ em, *reach for tissues*
Newspapers plan their special issues
Al Quaida rubbing hands with glee
I’ll do the photos for a reasonable fee.
Middleton to marry to some balding toff
But do you think we get a day off?
Twitter is in meltdown. Just don’t get it.
Frankly I just don’t give a shit
China plate makers at the ready!
Oh I do hope it will be on the telly
Ooo Ooo! Whoop! WOOHOOs!
Today is a good day to bury bad news.