[chippie for pm] praguetory sees the light

It's been a lonely time, single-handedly managing the Chippie for PM campaign , although, to be fair Iain got it off the ground.

Now Praguetory has come to the party or else I've come to his [not sure which]. Either way, it's "acorns are go"!

Go Chippy! Can you imagine Britain without her as the chief exec?

[an englishman's home] not a castle

Collecting Mr. Buttle after an understandable administrative error.

First there was this; then this; and now this.

[frustration part 1] the common man

I'm a common man. Whether or not Guthrum the Old considers himself as such, and I think he does, he was moved to post this:

I want my political leaders to be statesmen/women, to have substance, gravitas and a commitment to Liberty, Democracy and an end to ingrained privilege. Not to rely on the smoke and mirrors of stunt and spin, for the sake of power itself.

Men and women with vision are thin on the ground at present.

A new alignment is needed. It has taken since 1934 for the SNP to catch the mood of Scotland, I cannot afford seventy three years for a change in the rot that is Westminster.

A Bill of Rights Now, A written Constitution Now and an English Parliament Now.

One can feel the frustration behind this outburst of a moderate man exasperated and yet, even in this will be disagreement amongst us about the SNP, the Bill of Rights and so on.

The essential and dismaying problem is that this quite legitimate cry for substance and gravitas does not take into account realpolitik. Blair, Brown and Cameron are in the driving seat and none impress. There's good reason.

For a long time, Britain's leaders have been groomed by interests within Europe and not just in Britain:

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton spoke at a Bilderberg conference a year before his election victory, as did British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Former prime ministers Paul Martin, Jean Chretien and Pierre Trudeau also made Bilderberg appearances.

The current chairman, Belgian politician and businessman Etienne Davignon, says the steering committee that organizes the annual get-togethers is excellent at spotting talent.

Is it any wonder Blair is so Europhile, given those who groomed these Scots to run Britain:

"Brown is not passionate about Europe, but because of it, he will be able to get further in Brussels than someone so outwardly messianic about it like Blair," said Hugo Brady of the Centre for European Reform

Like people in key positions in education where if you're not a PC leftist you don't get in, Canada's, the U.S.'s and Britain's education has gone down the gurgler and with it, society:

...the catastrophe that has been visited upon children by moral relativism at home, and multiculturalism in the schools. Two books published just recently, were written by former '60s radicals, pushed right by the terrible plight of kids, and (spare me the invective from the union hate mail tree) by the sheer backwards idiocy that informs the teachers' unions. The Epidemic: the Rot of American Culture, Absentee and Permissive Parenting, and the Resultant Plague of Joyless, Selfish Children did not hail from some right-wing think-tank; it is written by Robert Shaw, a psychiatrist who practices in Berkeley, Calif...

And so on - good article, by the way. And in the same way, if you're not of a certain ilk re Europe, you don't get the top job either. Cameron is Euro-sceptic. Oh really?

His change of position, confirmed by a spokesman for William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, has infuriated Tory Right-wingers who voted for Mr Cameron to lead the party because of his strong Eurosceptic campaign.

The truth is that no leader who looks likely to get near the reins of power is going to cross certain elements in Europe, whatever froth and bubble they are currently uttering. Only the weak and malleable get in. They're rubber men [and women].

It has always been so, this malaise, before the strong man cometh. Buchanan and the era of the weak, compromising president pre-Lincoln, The Weimar Republic, Chirac and the malaise of France and currently Britain - it's no accident. It's the game plan of very nasty people in the corridors of power.

The people clamour, like Guthrum the Old, for a return to "decency". There is no decency here. Cameron has no answer - he is more of the same. So who's being groomed in the wings? The post neoclassical endogenous growth theoretical Ed Balls? David Milliband? Some sort of Obama Barak? I'd love to see the Bilderbergers' last guest list.

But why? For what to do this to society?" 1984 gives part of the answer and Ephesians 6:12 gives the rest.

[sønderjylland-holstein question] fuzzy borders might be one solution

Bet you've been gnashing your teeth over this issue today:

Lord Palmerston once said that only three men in Europe had ever understood the Schleswig-Holstein question and of these, the Prince Consort was dead, a Danish statesman was in an asylum and he himself had forgotten it.

I don't see the problem:

Though Sønderjylland had a German component in the population and though Holstein had a Danish component, still - apart from economic reasons and there were several, why couldn't the former go to Denmark and the latter to Germany?

I have three solutions, the first mentioned here:

1 Fuzzy borders

This requires common sense from governments. Where there is a clear historical mix of ethnicities and where local customs and even local dialects have sprung up, why can't that area be left "fuzzy"?

Why the need to rigidly define a border, except to make a map look beautiful?

In South Ossetia and Alsace-Lorraine, it would seem logical but unfortunately, another logic, in the form of national self-interest and national pre-eminence, holds sway.

Alsace-Moselle today is at peace but what is not mentioned is that the French forcibly suppressed the local dialect and enforced French when they took Alsace-Lorraine into France proper in 1918/19. Few speak the local dialect now. This is a powerful factor and hardly worth Germany fighting over.

So you could say that the use of force and strong-arm tactics works in some situations. Except that there'll always be unrest if the minority thnks it's getting a raw deal.

Strategic disputes like Hans Island are another matter and are, quite frankly, abstruse. Less abstruse and just plain silly is the Eritrea/Ethiopia dispute.

A look at the map [lower right] shows Ethiopia to have no sea access whatsoever. If Eritrea were to concede even a small corridor, tensions would greatly ease. Liveability is at stake here, not ethnicity or useable acreage. So:

2 Common sense. If Ethiopia could compensate Eritrea [whether or not it felt it needed to] and if Eritrea could grant it a reasonable seaport or two, where's the long term harm? Of course, as Bag points out, there must be an acceptable trade-off.

3 Apartheid. Readers probably can't believe I'm suggesting this. Why is there peace in Australia, despite the secessionist mood of WA? There is one main ethnicity. Why is there peace in Russia - and there is peace, by the way? One ethnicity and language.

What about the republic I live in? See N2 above - common sense.

But if parties refuse to use common sense and a sense of compromise, then apartheid is the only possibility, overseen by international bodies. Key example - the Middle-East.

I'd like to know what Charles, of Free Jersey might have to say about all this.

[sudan] letter to your local mp

Anyone who knows him knows that Jeremy Jacobs puts himself on the line for good causes.

On October 1st, with further links and then again on October 6th, I posted on the Sudanese horror and was surprised to get no comments at all. I think perhaps I needed to present it better.

Jeremy asks now:

What are you doing about Darfur?

... then presents a letter you could send your local MP. You don't need to write anything yourself - the letter is already printed for your perusal.

Naturally, we don't wish to think of these things, seemingly so removed from our existence and on a Monday morning too. Very bad timing indeed. Unfortunately, such things know no timing. On top of that, most of us are already involved in supporting worthy causes, such as Ellee's missing persons series and so on.

This is hugely to be encouraged and I know charity begins at home and yet sufficient numbers writing to MPs might make some small difference on Darfur, particularly to the British government's interesting stance on the issue.

I'm sure the issue is just finding the time and yet ... if you could?

[hungry] nothing yet prepared?