SUMMER IN THE CITY: LONDON LETTER JUNE 2013

It’s been a depressing period and my capacity to hold bad news is being severely tested. Some days it feels like everything necessary for a civilised and humane society is being consigned to the shredder. Legal Aid being the latest item on the Coalition government’s list of items targeted for attention. Nick Cohen has written a very depressing piece about this.[1]

Of course the preposterous claim that ‘we are all equal before the law’ is risible, money always buying a better brand of justice; still with proper provision of legal aid claimants and defendants at least were given a fighting chance. Now the government have so constructed access that those from poor backgrounds will be denied justice in a whole range of areas, from housing to welfare rights. Within the criminal justice sphere the idea that the poor or even modestly wealthy should enjoy choice of representation has been ditched, whilst even the notion of innocent until proved guilty feels under attack.

Tom Brake MP

When I see the direction in which this country is being pushed, without I might say any real democratic mandate, it is difficult for me to avoid sinking into despair, or succumbing to an overwhelming desire to punch a Lib Dem minister on the nose; Tom Brake comes to mind. For it is the Lib Dems who, with the fervour of converts, seem most to relish defending the indefensible. It is the entire fault, they say, of Gordon Brown, and with this mantra they go on to make the case for every manner of attack on public services. People who are able to shed their former convictions with such ease surely call into question the strength with which these convictions were held, if indeed such convictions were really ever held at all.

As it happens I was in striking distance of several Lib Dem politicians on Monday night, not to mention some extraordinarily unpleasant Conservatives. Vince Cable passed close enough for me to have landed a fairly solid punch.[2] 
I was in the Committee Room corridor at the House of Commons for a meeting hosted by an organisation called Unlock Democracy. I have only been inside Parliament a handful of times and the thing that always strikes me is how shabby and run-down the place is; in some places it is literally falling apart. The second is what always occurs when you are in contact with people you ‘know’ through the media; this creates in the mind feelings of familiarity for you feel that they also know you. This can feel disconcerting. I recently found my self sitting next to the Theatre and opera director and polymath Jonathan Miller at the City Lit. I felt oddly compelled to say something, it feeling somehow rude not to acknowledge that I ‘knew’ him. Then found my self saying exactly what was in my head, -never a good idea. “Well,” I declared, “you’re the last person I was expecting to sit next to!”

Back in the Commons I resisted the temptation to wallop Vince Cable and, having been told that my meeting had been re-located, made my way to the Grand Committee room to hear speeches about the desperate need to reform the lobby system. There were calls for transparency about who is being paid what and by whom to influence government policy. After the speeches the meeting was opened up to comments and questions. This space was immediately monopolised by someone from ‘Occupy’, who indeed seemed determined to occupy what ever time was left. He too made a speech. Much of what he said was true and said with real passion, though as one of his major concerns was The Bilderberg Group, despite my self, I began to feel edgy.

Bilderberg is inherently anti democratic and hostile to open and transparent political debate. At worst, in the absence of evidence to the contrary it raises serious concerns that major political decisions are hammered out during deliberations there. At best it represents a cosy forum in which ruling elites can get together to discover how much they have in common with each other and how little with those whom they seek to govern. Of course the likes of Aled Jones have successfully marginalised all critics of Bilderberg as tin foil hat wearing conspiracy fruitcakes. This allowed Ken Clark along with a sycophantic Ed Balls in the House of Commons, to laugh off criticism of the group. He and they should not be allowed to get away with this.

Oliver Cromwell

I departed the meeting early and walked into a near empty Westminster Hall. George Orwell on visiting Parliament during the War said it made him think of the last days of the Roman Empire, this being what decline looks like. Certainly as the importance of the chamber has steadily decreased there has been a corresponding rise in the pompous self importance evinced by many parliamentarians. For my self when confronted by such things as the expenses and lobbying scandals I have a sneaking sympathy with Cromwell. I like to imagine a delegation of the people storming into the Commons chamber and demanding, “AWAY WITH THIS BAUBLE ” and then hurling the mace through the window.[3]

THE MACE

I am currently Reading Alexander Herzen, his memoir, ‘My Past and Thoughts.’ Herzen is the finest of Russian revolutionary writers,[4] the most erudite, civilised and humane. Indeed he writes like a novelist and the early chapters of his memoir bring to life some of the characters who feature in War and Peace. Every page is filled with wonderful descriptions and insights, as he ranges over an incredibly broad spectrum of subjects. To take a passage at random:

‘…St Peters in Rome is the architectural symbol of the escape from Catholicism, of the beginning of the lay world, of the beginning of the secularisation of mankind.’

I read this passage startled by the power of its counter intuitive insight.

Herzen is the least well known of Russian Nineteenth century writers and despite attempts by E H Carr in the 1930’s and Isaiah Berlin in the 1940’s and 50’s[5] he remains for many interested in Russian history little more than a footnote. Though like Shakespeare, Mozart, or Karl Marx he bursts out of narrow national boundaries and belongs to a wider European cultural tradition. He deserves greater appreciation.

As it happens he lived in exile in London for a good part of his life, indeed not far from where I live now. This has given me an added sense of connection.

Have also just finished reading Edward Lucas the 'New Cold War.' As a dissection of Putin’s Russia it is powerful indictment not only of Putin but the complicity of many in western Europe in supporting his mob style governance. Lucas however has a blind spot, his belief in the beneficence of free market capitalism. Whilst critical of some aspects of the Yeltsin years at no stage does he concede that introducing unfettered free market capitalism into the Russia of the early 1990’s was an act of insanity. Not only did it came close to destroying Russia as a viable nation state but laid the foundation for Putin's Mafia rule.

It also contains examples of the continuing use of psychiatry by the Russian state to silent dissent, citing the example of Larisa Arap an opposition activist, forcibly incarcerated and medicated for 44 days.  Thus a practice associated with the totalitarian Soviet state has been resurrected in Putin’s Russia.[6]

The G8 meeting has just concluded and it looks as if Putin has, (despite all the spin to the contrary), sabotaged any attempt to try and resolve the conflict in Syria. This was always going to happen if unanimity was sought at the price of everything else. What should have happened was the isolation of Putin. A open recognition of what The Canadian Prime minister, Steven Harper, named as the reality, it is now to all intents and purposes G7 +1. 
Given that Russia was always going to block serious progress respecting the Syrian conflict the 7 should have issued a separate response, leaving Putin standing alone. Putin genuinely feared this and Harper’s comments seem to have really rattled Putin.[7]

Sooner or later Putin will have to be called out, better now when we still have a strong hand. As to the issues of transparency respecting tax and ownership I wish anyone well in looking into the corporate affairs of Gazprom.[8]

Respecting the flagrant tax evasion undertaken by Corporations like Amazon, Google, Starbucks and Apple enough already of the line, “we do nothing illegal, we abide by the law.” This is the moral equivalent of the man who regularly beats his wife in a country where this is permitted declaring that he is a good man who always observes the law of the land.

London today is extremely humid and there is an indolent quality about the city. I write this wearing only my shorts. Looking in the mirror I see that my dismal attempts at loosing weight are failing. When do you reach a point when you simply have to concede that your body has changed shape permanently?

Alex Talbot 19/06/13

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[1] http://nickcohen.net/2013/06/17/the-best-justice-money-can-buy/

[2] Can I say that I wholly disapprove of landing blows on Mr Vince Cable or any other politician and I find this desire in my self to be wholly reprehensible.

[3] The Mace being a baton, symbol of the Commons independence from the Crown; this is what Cromwell said when abolishing The venal and self serving so called Long Parliament. Cromwell went on however to establish a dictatorship, not something I favour.  

[4] Lenin greatly venerated his writings, which to me rather suggests that Lenin did not really understand him.

[5] EH Carr The Romantic Exiles 1935 and Isaiah Belin Russian Thinkers Hogarth Press 1948. Penguin have also produced a copy of the latter book.

[6] In his account of his journey travelling in Russia in 1839 The Marquise De Custine writes about a man who wrote a critique of the Orthodox faith. The authorities arrested the man and declared him insane. He was then placed into an insane asylum. ‘Journey For Our Time’ Marquis De Custine, Published 1980 George Prior Publisher p 240. Say what you will about Russian dictatorial regimes, they are nothing if not consistent. Of course from the Viewpoint of a Tsarist official, a Stalinist Commissar or a police official in Putin's Russia anyone who questions the authority of such an  all powerful state must be insane!

[7] People who rattle Putin to this extent at home very quickly find themselves arrested on some spurious charge, usually tax related, though in some cases find themselves very dead indeed. I know little about Mr Harper but on Putin he got it right.

[8] Putin’s enmeshment with Gazprom could prove to be his Achilles heel see: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-09/gazprom-s-demise-could-topple-putin.html

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