Sir Michael gets the internet. Innit
Sir Michael White of the Guardian wrote a particularly snide blog about Daniel Hannan 's YouTube hit. Ignore the personal unpleasantness in his remarks - what was odd was how dismissive he was of the new medium.
He wrote a similarly narky blog when I first suggested we modernise the Commons "for the age of YouTube". Again, it was his off-handness about the internet and how it might change politics that stands out.
But then yesterday, His Lordship (Resignation honours list?) apparently told an audience that this internet web, blog thingy is in fact terribly important. "... the most important since Gutenberg's in 1440 ..."
That's the thing about this internet web, blog thingy, Sir Michael. It's not just that people can bite back. But it's a sort of giant wiki-bull detector. Meaning that folk can hold you to account for what you say and point to the inconsistencies. Journalists as well as politicians.
Posted on 2 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell
Soaring crime shows criminal justice system is not working
According to data published today, the past decade has seen a 77 per cent increase in murders, robberies, assaults and sexual offences.
Yet it's not for want of headline grabbing initatives. There's been no let up in unfulfilled promises to fight crime. Just an endless succession of Home Secretaries making "get tough" announcements that never seem to change anything.
Perhaps it's time for a radically different approach?
Instead of another Home Secretary MP making excuses on behalf of a failing state machinery, why not make the criminal justice system answer locally for how it performs?
Rather than a cozy wee Police Authority taking tea with the chief constable once a month, why not elect the person who sets the local police forces' priorities instead?
Instead of a local public prosecutor, who rountinely fails to bring cases against young thugs and who abandons almost one in ten cases due to administrative incompetence, why not vote in a prosecutor who's on your side?
In place of a probation service that believes rehabilitation is more important than punishment, why don't you get to decide who runs probation in your town?
Just a thought.
Posted on 2 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell
Zac Goldsmith calls for ....
... direct democracy in today's Evening Standard.
He makes the case very well indeed, too.
Posted on 2 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell
Threat to cut defence budget
The FT reports that defence spending could be cut by 10 - 15%. Apparently, the Royal United Services Institute fear that this could be done by cutting back on the size of the armed forces and scaling back what it does.
Why doesn't the RUSI suggest cutting back on the number of desk bound Admirals? (We've more Admirals than ships - apparently*) Or the army of pen pushers in MoD? (Too many officials, not enough fighting men) Or the insanely wasteful procurement projects that see money siphoned off by big contractors? (Why are we spending twice as much on a helicopter than we need to?)
It's not the total size of the defence budget that 's the number one problem. It's how it gets spent that needs changing.
* - To find out if there really are more Admirals in the Royal Navy than ships, I've just tabled two straight Parliamentary question to the minister. Expect Sir Humphrey to begin by saying "Depends what one means by a ship .... how one defines an admiral ... blah blah".
Posted on 2 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell
BBC needs a new Business Editor
Remember how the BBC's Robert Peston used to laud Gordo for his handling of the economic crisis? Too little scepticism. Minimal effort to explain to viewers that there might be alternatives.
Remember how Peston infamously dismissed the idea - mooted by the German Finance Minister - that Britain just might not be able to borrow her way out of a debt crisis?
Indeed, the Peston scripts could've been written in Downing Street.
Turns out the great Gordo's remedy wasn't quite all the BBC Business Editor bigged it up to be, eh?
It's not the wisdom of hindsight Peston needed, but a little understanding of the Austrian school of economics. And perhaps a little distance from his Number 10 contacts.
The Commons got a new Speaker when it became clear the old one wasn't up to the job and was too close to the executive.
So. When's the BBC going to advertise for a new Business Editor?
Posted on 2 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell
Economic slump?
Our Prime Minister keeps telling us he's taking action to avoid a 1930s-style slump.
Turns out the economy shrank 5% last year. The biggest slump since the 1930s.
Does he still think we can borrow our way out of debt? You can't live beyond your means in any age.
Posted on 2 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell
Has Parliament begun to get off its knees?
First, they ban the worst excesses of the expense system. Second, they elect a new Speaker by free and fair election.
Today, the Commons defeats key clauses in the executive's Bill designed to put a quango in charge of our democratically elected representatives. Clause 6 and 10 of the Bill ave gone.
It's not simply that MPs are coming to their senses. MPs are thinking and acting as a legislature - not whips fodder.
The mood these past few days has been different. Decisions are being made, not rubber-stamped, in the chamber. This is a glimpse of what our Commons could be.
Posted on 1 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell
June Stats: 60,909,258 people in the UK didn't read my blog last month
The start of a new month - a time when bloggers traditionally let us all know quite how many zillions of readers they have. The trick seems to be to do this in a nonchalant "I'm-not-really-interested-but-since-you're-asking" type way.
In reality, I suspect some bloggers are as selective as Treasury ministers in their choice of data to give out.
The good news is that I had 36,654 individual folk on my blog in June. I estimate that leaves a mere 60,909,258 people in the UK who are not regular readers - yet.
Using Google analytics, I know that many thousands of my readers are concentrated where it counts - in my Essex constituency. Indeed, it's a double digit portion of the local electorate - and rising fast.
The big, big change in politics that’s happened since I was elected in 2005 is the ability to communicate directly with thousands of people. It's so recent, we’ve yet to fully understand the implications.
Give it a while, and I imagine blogging will be a prerequsite for politicians - if it isn't already.
Don't tell Sir Bufton - he's unlikely to read it here.
Posted on 1 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell
Gordo flunks it
Watch our PM explain how a 0% rise is an increase.
Hattip: Guido Fawkes
Posted on 1 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell
Gordon Brown's porkie pies
Gordon Brown says things he knows to be untrue. And which he knows that we know are untrue.
Yet like a lying school boy, he persists in the deception.
He did this over the Lisbon Treaty European Constitution.
He did it over the scale of the debt crisis and depth of the recession.
And, as Fraser Nelson brilliantly observes, he's doing it again when he insists on telling us that he'd increase public service spending year after year.
Not only did Brown think it acceptable to hire Damian McBride. He also says things he knows not to be true. Such is the character of our unelected PM.
Posted on 1 July 2009 by Douglas Carswell