Robert Sharp

My del.icio.us links: 12th May to 16th May

• My gateway to infinity - Clive James again: "It can talk about value, saying not just “This is what I have done” but “This is what others have done, and I find it valuable beyond price”.
• clivejames.com -
• Music Gives Me Hope - Daniel Barenboim on the decline of Israeli socialism and the unifying power of music: "Before a Beethoven Symphony, all human beings are equal"
• USA political election logos 2008 - 1960 - I think Nixon's use of a full stop is particularly interesting.
• normblog: Israel at 60 - "Those who cannot celebrate the existence of Israel but only criticize it, put themselves beyond all sense of sympathy with the legitimate concerns of the Jewish people - as if these had no basis, no rationale, no historical genesis; as if Israel's histor

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There is a section on Harriet Harman’s Commons Leader website called ‘Your Voice‘, where citizens are invited to submit their thoughts on the Government’s Draft Legislative Programme (a.k.a. Draft Queen’s Speech).

The speech was launched yesterday in the House of Commons, with an event immediately afterwards in which Gordon Brown and other Cabinet Ministers went to Bermondsey to meet local people. This concentrated use of ministers was similar to what Hazel Blears had suggested on Tuesday, in a speech to the SMF:

why shouldn’t the Cabinet meet in locations other than the Cabinet Room at Number Ten Downing Street?

Just imagine if the Cabinet meeting took place at the British Legion, Swindon, the Town Hall, Grimsby, or the Victoria Community Centre in Crewe.

Regardless of whether you think this is a cynical publicity stunt or a genuine attempt to listen to the people, it is clearly an example of direct democracy. People are being invited to converse with Ministers directly, without mediation. Via the Commons Leader website, they are now being asked to write to Government directly.

Surely this undermines representative democracy (see my earlier worries about citizen juries). Rather than provide new ways for the Government (which even the most committed statist would admit is a sprawling bureaucracy) to interact with sixty-five million people, why not strengthen the channels by which citizens can already speak to the state, via their MPs? Why not award Members of Parliament a larger office budget, say, so they can maintain more staff in constituency surgeries, so that problems could be dealt with in more detail, and quicker?

Why not budget for MPs or Councillors to convene some kind of constituency convention, or panel, at which citizens could feedback thoughts on the DLP? Individual MPs could compile a summary of local feeling, in much the same way as select committees and independent commissions summarize the testimony of their witnesses. Do it over the summer recess, say, just before party conferences, and you would have a pretty comprehensive snap-shot of what the country thinks… but without the tiresome bother of an undersubscribed yet expensive web-tool which has no visible method of actually engaging the citizen in dialogue.

Websites are a fantastic way for individuals in relatively small networks to communicate with each other. But I’m not sure it is the most efficient way for the Government to enter into a conversation with its citizenry. A basic online form definitely falls short.

Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris, with parliamentary colleagues, at an event in support of the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill, which will protect and extend the right of scientists to perform crucial stem-cell research.

My del.icio.us links: 9th May to 12th May

• all streets - Ben Fry presents a map that is comprised of all the roads in the USA and nothing more
• Let Them Eat Arugula - Bill Clinton recently declared, "The people in small towns in rural America, who do the work for America, and represent the backbone and the values of this country, they are the people that are carrying her through in this nomination." The corollary–that
• 50 More Excellent Blog Designs - Smashing magazines present some unique blog designs. Food for thought for when I get around to redesigning my own place. Some seem rather generic, though.

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I saw this aged notice tatooed onto a wall in Westminster, just off Smith Square. That’s the nice thing about living in old cities - there’s a piece of history on every corner.

I wonder if the vaults are still there, or whether they have been turned into luxury, windowless apartments for rich agraphobics.

As previously discussed, I have a new laptop, and feel reincarnated. ‘Tis a lovely MacBook Pro.

I thought I would note down all those programmes and plug-ins that I downloaded and installed immediately. Someone may be interested, and it will save time if I ever get burgled again.
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I’m enjoying this idea for saving the planet while still burning tons of coal:

By capturing the CO2 before it is released into the atmosphere and piping it through natural spring water from Kent’s Kingsnorth hills, we are able to create carbonated drinking water.

More of this sort of thing on the ev-eon website.

Oh, the sadness at the end of a good book! I’ve just finished a 917 page doorstop of a novel, and I am fidgeting with loss.

Reading a good book is tinged with tragedy. Its fantastic, but you know it must end. It is a terminal condition. The melancholy sets in when you pass the halfway point, and the weight of the paper in your right hand becomes lighter than the paper in your left. The book withers away in your palms, and the last chapters are to be savoured. You are torn between the need to know what happens, and the desire to prolong the moment.

Part of you misses the characters, who you have grown to care for over many weeks, as you chaperone them through their adventure. But mainly you miss the fact, the act, of reading. It was a solipstic pleasure, now lost. You close the book, and you’re sitting, empty handed, back in the mundane.

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This is the photo of the back of the head of someone taking a photo of the back of the head of someone taking a photo of the back of the head of someone taking a photo of the back of the head of Shah Rukh Khan.

Oh dear, its not going well for me just now. First, my laptop was stolen (yes, that was the bereavement). Now I find some cheeky rapscalion has hacked my WordPress template, co-opting me into the world of comment spamming.  Many thanks to Nosemonkey for pointing out the breach.

The familiar post-modern torn paper template that we all know and hate will return in a new form soon. In the meantime, we’re back with the unassailable Kubrick.

At least its not the rather pungent Denial of Service attacks that flummoxed Chicken Yoghurt recently. Or indeed, litigation. Thankfully I’m not important enough to attract anything other than a spammer.