What Europe has to teach the anglosphere

What Europe has to teach the anglosphere

In my article, at http://blog.davelevy.info/remain/, I asked why we wouldn’t want to be in a union, a political union with the other members of the EU. I offered three stories and suggested there were 27 stories as to what we could and should take. In a piece of good timing, Michael Moore’s latest film, “Where shall we invade next?” is a whistle stop tour of Europe (& Tunisia) looking at the better life that solidarity & social democracy offers. …

Unconscious endorsement

I am considering the #Brexit campaign. For us Remainers, the work hasn’t been done. The benefits of the EU have been hidden (or rejected via opt-outs) and we’ve been too scared to put them to people; the same is true in parts of the country on immigration. We need immigrants and owe asylum seekers our protection. I have been examining the policy options and come to the conclusion that triangulating with UKIP or their even more obnoxious allies underwrites and reinforces their arguments. The Left solution is not to “Control Immigration” but to legislate for a minimum wage, reset the balance of power in the work place by repealing much of the Tory trade union laws, by building more houses, empowering teachers, making education free again. Principles are like bayonets, better stood by than fallen back on; there would seem to be many who believe we haven’t stood by our principles of social solidarity and are ready to leave us, possibly for good.

There is a view that London’s fascists at the turn of the 20th century were beaten by pavement politics, by showing that winning (councils) matters but there is a danger that the Tory council cuts and the evisceration of local democracy, means that only winning on a national stage matters. It’s a lesson for Labour Councillors, how much longer can we bear the the dented shield, how much longer will it matter?

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Tough

Had a bad hour, last night, on #NWN2: Not really impressed with the penultimate area, the Vale of Merdelain, a pointless, exhausting and difficult dungeon crawl. I don’t think it impacts the moral dilemmas for your companions or the virtue tests to come. Maybe its a just reward from poor choices as I am back in a fight where no-one can hit even 2nd tier enemies, not enough healing to keep alive, all the enchantment spells are useless against undead and suffering from a stupid un-signalled level drain. A far cry from the penultimate and final battles in “Beneath the Cobbles”.

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Law & Order

Silly me, I was provoked on Facebook by the comment that Britain was ruled by the ECHR. This led me to making a reply and so I started to look and see how many cases the British Government had lost. I found this at Channel 4, and this at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the 1st is a piece of political reportage, the later a piece of academic research. The C4 article reviews among other cases, the ECHR rulings that the UK may not universally remove voting rights from prisoners and that whole life sentences must have review provisions. Basically I agree with both these rulings.

Prison both punishes the malefactor, and offers opportunities for rehabilitation; it also protects society from re-offenders (for a time). The fact, well opinion, is that in the UK, most legislators and probably most voters are more interested in the first of these effects. But both voting and a review are rights, defined in Article 3 of the First Protocol, the right to vote and Articles 5 the Right to Liberty.

Punishment must fit crime, and we are not yet ready to let computers sentence the guilty. Judges rightly, take into account many circumstances when sentencing including the remorse of the guilty and guidelines from Parliament; they even sometimes take into account that society must be protected and that prisoners may be rehabilitated. Sentences, to be just, must be specific to the case. Blanket provisions such as those in Britain’s prisoner voting rules and whole life sentences breach this need. It’s to our shame that we need to be told this by a court filled with foreigners. It is however a better result and we should thank those judges.

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