EURSOC news and comment from Europe

Broken, after all

A couple of weeks ago the Economist attempted to defy its science's reputation for dismalness by scotching claims that Britain is "broken."

"It has become fashionable to say that British society is in a mess and getting worse," the magazine's leader said, "It's not." It claimed that on many social issues - and most notably crime - statistics show a marked improvement over the past fifteen years.

Of course, the Economist's raison d'être is the principle that, given the correct liberal reforms, living standards will improve, give or take the odd hiccup. The present Labour government, and the Conservative government before it, were relatively liberal (give or take the odd hiccup, again). They broke the post-war consensus, privatising national industries, bringing market "solutions" to public services, and attempted to introduce the principles of choice and competition to the same services, which were previously administrated by a monolithic and often Soviet-style state.

They have also made the UK one of the west's most open economies, making London once again the capital of international finance, even if British communities built around manufacturing have been decimated.

So, it must follow that things have improved, even if the tabloids believe otherwise. One can understand why the Economist finds the narrative of ever-improving Britain so attractive, even if its findings baffled many of its readers.

Today comes news, however, that rather than violent crime levels falling under Labour, they've actually soared - up 44 percent since 1998, thanks to a new study which subjected current figures to the standards applied to stats prior to 2002, when Labour changed how crime statistics were recorded. (Ed West questions more of the Economist's figures here)

As one might expect, the government disputes the figures. It is probably true that burglary is down, for example: The falling prices of household electronics such as DVD players means that they are barely worth filching. On the other hand, portable items such as laptops, iPods and mobile phones have become more attractive to opportunistic thieves, particularly youngsters who prey on other children. Crimes committed by children under 16 do not appear in the survey figures, yet the common experience of one's child returning from school having had his iPod stolen by thugs has added enormously to the widespread sense of spiraling crime rates.

The Economist has carved an enviable niche for itself as a challenger to received wisdom on left and right. It attacks the knee-jerk responses of social conservatives as much as it defends the machinations of globalisation against the criticism of leftists. The downside of this is that it can be a good predictor of what that banker you've just met is going to think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Rise of China: The magazine is all-too-often a primer for busy financial sector workers on acceptable opinions on international news.

It's on shakier ground on its own territory, when readers can measure their own experiences against the government-approved statistics it brandishes. To coin a phrase, what am I goin' to believe: What the government tells me, or my own lyin' eyes? 

There is no such thing as (honest) Society

Is the holier-than-thou Guardian allowing sponsors to dictate the content of its Society supplement?

Stephen Glover has come across an email which suggests that more than advertising space for government non-jobs may be up for grabs in the notoriously PC publication.

A study from late 2007 estimated that the total jobs advertised in Society cost the taxpayer around £600 million per year.

Microchipping dogs

Following increasing concerns about attacks by dangerous dogs, the government has unveiled plans to microchip Britain's dogs and introduce third-party insurance so victims can be properly compensated.

The new measures add to the Dangerous Dogs Act (1991), which was introduced after a series of maulings and killings by certain aggressive breeds hit the headlines. In the two decades since the Act was introduced dangerous animals seem - if anything - even more widespread and there has been a rise in numbers of pets kept as "weapon dogs".

There will be a predictable outcry from responsible dog owners, who once again are being subjected to additional taxes and costs thanks to the actions of a feckless and dangerous minority. The "responsible" owners tend to fall into two categories, however: Those who keep inoffensive animals as pets, and those who themselves keep dogs classified as dangerous breeds but who have convinced themselves that the animals are not dangerous.

While the mind boggles as to why anyone imagines that a classified aggressive animal makes a suitable family pet, the latter group would seem to have some figures on their side: The vast majority of dog attacks are by breeds not usually associated with the media's "devil dog" category and most people who keep these dogs don't end up as victims.

Moreover, for owners of some animals, their pet acts as both guard dog and burglar alarm. The sight of numerous owners walking large, scary animals around council estates has become a depressingly common image of 21st century Britain. It seems at times that every house has one. Yet this is often the case. Residents of council estates are the number one target for robbery, burglary, violent assault and antisocial behaviour in general. The police - if they bother to come at all - will often arrive late, usually when the criminals are long gone. Britain's weak justice system and the unwillingness to prosecute for relatively minor crimes means that the perpetrators remain at large, often striking again the same night.

You are more likely to see Elvis Presley stroll arm-in-arm with Amy Earhart through the streets of one of Britain's sink estates than police officers on the beat. Are we to believe that these mythical characters will soon be joined by bands of scanner-wielding dog officers, checking if the local hoodlums have microchipped their animals?

Abandoned by the police, the justice system and at the mercy of yobs and thieves, a large and nasty-looking dog is often the last line of defence. Furthermore, there is something of an arms race at work. If burglars avoid houses where an enormous Rottweiler snarls in the garden or a Pit Bull foams from behind the front door, then they will choose easier pickings in the street. So in some ways, owners are obliged to buy the blasted animals, simply to prevent their homes becoming a target.

But will the new laws prevent attacks by dangerous dogs? Probably not. While the line "it's not the dog, it's the owner" is a hoary old cliché, there is some truth in it. And the authorities, as ever, will not pursue thugs who use Pit Bulls to intimidate their neighbours, but will persecute otherwise law-abiding dog owners instead. The pensioner who can't afford to insure her terrier will go to court and the middle-class family who bring their mutt to France will have their animal microchipped, otherwise all hell will break out.

But the yobs who set their animal on family pets in the park? The drug dealer who uses a Pit Bull for protection? As ever, the police will avoid these people like the plague.

Italian dictator makes concerts end on time

Admirers of Mussolini used to claim that for all his faults, he ensured Italy's trains ran on time. History does not record whether the fascist dictator was able to make classical musical concerts finish on the stroke of 18.00 hours, as a worker in Rome's Pantheon was able to do last Sunday evening.

A Russian sextet and choir of four were performing Vivaldi to the delight of concertgoers, when, at the end of a movement, an officious-looking Pantheon worker strutted up to the stage and announced that the concert was over.

As the audience look on bewildered, the sour-faced official took the microphone and declared that the Pantheon was about to close. Concertgoers were ordered to leave the 2,000-year old building because "today the Pantheon closes at six o'clock."

Baffled, the performers attempted to finish their performance, which they claim had only a few minutes left to run, but the jobsworth official called an end to it again.

To catcalls and jeers from the audience, they packed up. A video of the spectacle (above) has been an internet hit in Italy and the Ministry of Culture has reportedly opened an enquiry into the sudden halt to the performance; the Deputy Culture Minister has apologised to the Mayor of Rome for the civil servant's actions. (The attendant walks on at 5 minutes into the clip). The clip has also made waves in Russia, where the musicians hail from, and the Culture Minister has issued a statement to the performers, apologising for the "vulgar" behaviour of the attendants who presented an "unbearably odious image of our country."

The Guardian reports that the general feeling on Italy's comments pages is horror at the attendant's behaviour, which has reheated the public debate on public sector workers and the powerful trade unions which represent them. The woman's defenders, fewer in number, argue that she and her colleagues would have received no overtime pay had they waited until the end of the concert.

Any EURSOC readers with experience of Italian officialdom will boggle at the news that an Italian civil servant understands the concept of punctuality: Though perhaps starting late and ending on the stroke of the clock is a model for public sector workers everywhere...

They're at it again!

Irish-American congressmen read Cameron the Riot Act on Ulster

EURSOC was joking last week when we claimed that the Obama administration now sees British territories as negotiating pawns. Well, sort of joking. It has become evident that the interests of the USA's "closest ally" are very low on the list of priorities following the change in the White House. Now it appears that Hillary Clinton has been consorting with the historically troublesome Irish-American bloc in the US Congress, and has given her blessing to a letter written by the powerful bipartisan group warning David Cameron about his recalcitrant allies in the Ulster Unionist Party.

The Guardian saw a copy of the private letter to the Conservative leader, who has made an electoral pact with the moderate Ulster Unionist Party. The newspaper reports that Washington has responded with "deep unease" at this pact, and has instructed Cameron to "aggressively" encourage the Unionists to endorse a vote on policing and criminal justice tomorrow.

If the Ulster Unionists do not vote for the devolution bill (which is backed by Sinn Fein and the DUP), the Americans warn that dissident terrorists could be "emboldened" to step up their campaign.

One moment, please. So, if the moderate Unionists do not back a bill supported by the hardline Democratic Unionists and IRA-Sinn Fein, dissident Republican terrorists will redouble their efforts to bomb and kill?

Please. Can anyone imagine Americans falling for that one? "If you don't vote for this bill, it'll be your fault if al-Qaeda starts bombing your cities."

Irish-Americans have been uncharacteristically quiet in the past ten years. After three decades of funding Irish terrorism against Britain and British subjects, the true cost of terrorism was brought home to them with the horror of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The fact that the IRA-Sinn Fein were among Europe's most vociferous supporters of the Palestinians didn't exactly put US plastic paddies off, but it made them rather less forthcoming about their allegiances in Congress, where Israel is generally viewed as a strong ally battling for its survival against an Islamist-inspired uprising.

Cameron should tell the Irish Americans to keep out of British affairs. Their influence during the dark days of the Troubles was almost wholly malign; their sentimental idiocy led to the deaths of dozens of young men and women in Ulster. And if the deaths of British citizens do not unduly trouble our American allies, then the fact that the very people they supported and continue to support openly fraternise with the most virulent enemies of America and its other allies just might.

Christian-bashing is always in fashion...

France's branch of Amnesty International is running a high-profile poster campaign to coincide with Paris Fashion Week.

Three posters designed to shock have been unveiled in the capital's Metro system. Each depicts an atrocity taking place on a catwalk, watched by fashionistas and photographers. The first shows a man being beaten by riot police, with the slogan "Violations of human rights are always in fashion." In the second, a man attacks his wife, drawing attention to Amnesty's campaign against conjugal violence (recently a big issue in France).

In the third, Africans are driven from their homes ("forced expulsions") by a group of soldiers or militiamen, also apparently African.

 

 

It's a tragic scene and one doubtless enacted daily across parts of the continent. Look closely, though. The two men in the centre of the photo are wearing kufi hats and the sort of tunics sported by many Muslim Africans in France. The soldier using the butt of his rifle to attack the man behind them has a cross carved on the stock of the rifle.

 

 

Small points, perhaps, but is this poster giving the impression that Christian soldiers are driving Muslims from their homes? We may be responding with some paranoia over the image of the cross on the rifle, but readers will recall that our Islamic cousins are renowned for their sensitivity on this issue, having complained about the away strip of Italian football club Inter Milan a few years ago because the red cross on the chest reminded fans of the opposing Turkish side of the Crusades.

Perhaps your correspondent is wrong; perhaps he is simply inflamed by the news that hundreds of Christian families were slaughtered last night by bands of Muslims who attacked their villages. Yet one simply cannot imagine an Amnesty International poster depicting a soldier with an Islamic crescent carved on his machete going about his bloody business.

Lula spurns Hillary

Hillary Clinton's attempt to woo Brazil and Argentina by compromising British sovereignty of the Falkland Islands has come to naught. Brazil's President Lula da Silva has made it clear that he will not "push Iran against a wall" and will not support the US proposals for a fresh round of United Nations sanctions against Tehran.

What next for Washington?

As British territories are now viewed as negotiating pawns by the Obama adminstration, perhaps she will offer to return Gibraltar to Spain? Or to unite Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic? Why stop there? France is always a tricky customer: Perhaps Paris covets the Channel Islands, or, indeed, those territories which came under Normandy rule in the 11th century, centred on a little place called London...

Kaufman the Sheep Shagger

The death of former Labour leader Michael Foot has afforded his former colleagues and rivals the opportunity to remember those desperate days for the Labour movement in the early 1980s, when government seemed an impossible dream.

Sir Gerald Kaufman's memoir of Foot's leadership in the Times is probably the best. While he remembers his subject fondly, Kaufman pulls no punches in his description of Foot as a "disastrous" party leader and his surrender to the hard left's "destructive idiocies."

Scroll down to the comments section, however, and Times readers give Sir Gerald short shrift. Most sensible people agree that Foot would have been as disastrous as Prime Minister as he was a Labour leader, but he is remembered as a conviction politician when the closest today's MPs get to conviction is a conviction for fraud.

Kaufman has his extravagant expenses claims, revealed by the Telegraph last year, thrown back at him by readers. Kaufman claimed over £1800 for a rug he imported from a New York antiques dealer and and tried to charge the taxpayer £8,890 for a Bang & Olufsen television.

Those writing the comments after his column don't let him forget this.

How ghastly for this generation of parliamentarians that no matter what great deeds they imagine they have done for the country, they are destined to be remembered as a shower of expenses fiddlers, of duck house builders and purchasers of outrageously expensive televisions.

It reminds of that joke about the unfortunate Dai the Sheep-Shagger:

An Englishman goes into a Welsh pub, and while he's waiting at the bar he gets talking to one of the locals. The Welshman says, "Here in Wales, right, we call each other nicknames by what we do, see? Now, you look out of that window... Do you see that bridge over by there?" 

"Yes," The Englishman replies. 

"Well I built that," Says the Welshman, "But do they call me Dai The Bridge Builder? No they don't. Now... you see next to the bridge there's a church?" 

"I can see it," Says the Englishman. 

"Well I did the roof on that church, right, but do they call me Dai The Roofer? No they don't. Now if you'll just come over by here to the window, see, and look over there you can see that field. Now in that field there's a helicopter. I fly the air ambulance round here, right, for when people do get stuck on the mountain. But do they call me Dai The Pilot? No they don't. But you shag ONE sheep..." 

Speakers Corner silent?

EURSOC is sure that the silence of this Speakers Corner website says much about the state of British democracy today...

 

 

The Earls of Burma

EURSOC Three on a former British protectorate

It was once, Burma. But today it is known as Myanmar. The capital was once known as Rangoon. Now it is Yangon.

They are having a small bit of trouble in this former British protectorate. 

It was conquered by Earl Mountbatten of Burma, for Empire, during the Second World War. (Against Japanese occupation, which ended in surrender in 1945). (British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 intil 1948).

In that bygone era, much of the fertile region surrounding Rangoon was pleasant, and the people were known to be kindly.

The renowned author, William Somerset Maugham wrote a classic story of his stay in the capital in the late 1930s: "The Gentleman in the Parlour:; A Record of a Journey to Rangoon". He enjoyed staying in the sumptuous 'Grand Hotel' in downtown Merchant Street.

As of this moment, it is a dilapidated Bermese version of 'Fawlty Towers'.

The English translation of Rangoon is: "End of Strife".

Right now, there is a lot of strife.

This correspondent, with the aid of two visa documents on his British passport, was 'allowed' to visit repression in Myanmar - which was given its new name in the 1980s.

Former Burma is a captive nation; ruled by quite harsh generals. Its only competitor in terms of degradation is North Korea.

This country is a 'gulag' with more than 2,100 'political prisoners' in Munipur. (Former name, Imphal). ('Ethnic minorities' are locked-up in jails in remote regions. (Very remote). The exact number is impossible to record, according to the 'hated' Amnesty International, a 'human-rights' watchdog.

Geographically, the country is sandwiched between Bangladesh and Thailand. South of the Bay of Bengal.

The current junta has promised to hold a general election this year to give the nation a semi-resemblance of 'civilian-rule'. But there is no 'poll-date' organised and no rules for opposition political parties who will want to protest.

There are also reports from colleague correspondents of torture in prisons and extra-judicial killings.

Buddhist monks have lately been brave in taking to the streets, in Burma, in protest against the repressive regime.

Where are they now ?

Somewhere in Imphal, not so far from Mandalay.