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Brown is transforming the meaning of citizenship « OurKingdom - 0 views

ourkingdom.opendemocracy.net/...ing-the-meaning-of-citizenship

montpelerin

shared by tony curzon price on 07 Nov 07 - Cached
  • Transformational Government, dressed in the language of consumerism, is what NO2ID calls “the database state” – management of citizens’ lives through centralised computer systems; pooling and cross-referencing information about people gathered on any pretext for any purpose, amounting to mass surveillance. Once your relations with the state preserved your privacy, being limited to relationships with bodies that were separate from each other. A single department was powerful, but it did not judge you on your whole life. Transformational Government changes that. You will have a single permanent record, and your identity managed (or determined) by the state. That will be held together by cross-referencing databases – which is what a National Identity Register is needed for. ‘ID cards’ are the concrete expression of this register, but strictly speaking are not necessary: numbering you and making constant reference to the central file will do.
  • tony curzon price on 07 Nov 07
     
    UK ID database
tony curzon price

ePolitix.com - Gordon Brown: Conference speech in full - 0 views

www.epolitix.com/...278-4909-8484-30d61536f02d.htm

brown

shared by tony curzon price on 24 Jun 07 - Cached
  • And let me say that commitment to international action on justice means today to prevent genocide, the world must through the U.N, urgently act in Darfur.
  • Most of all my parents taught me that each of us should live by a moral compass.It was a simple faith with a fundamental optimism.That each and every one of us has a talent.Each of us a duty to use that talent.And each of us should have the chance to develop that talent. And my parents thought we should use whatever talent we had to help people least able to help themselves. And as I grew up surrounded by books, sports, music and encouragement, I saw at school and beyond how some flourished and others, denied these opportunities, fell behind. They had talent, they had ability. But they did not have the chance to fulfil their promise. They needed someone to champion them. They needed the support of people on their side. And is not our history the story of yes, progress through the fulfilled talents, even genius, of some but, yes, also of the wasted potential of millions for too many, their talents lost and forever unfulfilled?
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 24 Jun 07
       
      Brown's parable of the talents
  • Strip away the rhetoric about globalisation and it comes down to one essential truth: You can buy raw materials from anywhere,You can borrow capital form anywhere,You can engage with technology half way across the world,But you cannot buy from elsewhere what in the global economy you need most; the skills and the creativity of all our people – and that means that in education we must aim to be number one.
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 24 Jun 07
       
      Brown's globalisation - this has the slight sense of "the last thing that still remains..." And what of physical capital ... no mention
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • As Alan Johnson proposes, give vocational qualifications parity of esteem with academic qualifications.
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 24 Jun 07
       
      in whose gift is "parity of esteem" ... are _these_ the policies that come out of the respect agenda? surely respect comes from a complex social whole, with mixtures of truth and appearance ...
  • I believe the answer is that we the British people must be far more explicit about the common ground on which we stand, the shared values which bring us together, the habits of citizenship around which we can and must unite. Expect all who are in our country to play by our rules. 
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 24 Jun 07
       
      multiculturalism's limits
  • the active citizen, the empowered community, open enabling government.
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 24 Jun 07
       
      just as power had to be taken from special interests - code word for capital - so now it must be taken from the state
  • I want a radical shift of power from the centre.
tony curzon price

Britain's future: Labour candidates respond | openDemocracy - 0 views

www.opendemocracy.net/ture_labour_candidates_respond

shared by tony curzon price on 10 Jun 07 - Cached
  • Britain’s future: Labour candidates’s view
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 10 Jun 07
       
      Anthony - nice to see this was picked up by the observer - see: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,,2099735,00.html
    • Anthony Barnett
      Anthony Barnett on 10 Jun 07
       
      Yes, they wanted exclusive first right and I gave it them. What you can see in the paper edition but not on the web, it that they put the story at the top of the page on the right hand column. Positioning is much more than half the story in a newspaper. Its layout tells people what to read. Is it the same onthe web?
  • I am agnostic on the need for a written constitution, because of the power it hands to the judges.
  • so I let's have a national debate.
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 10 Jun 07
       
      "let's have a national debate" ... this seems to be a today-program, motherhood-apple-pie mantra. what is this national debate? where is it to be had? on radio4?
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 10 Jun 07
       
      see Cruddas below - getting a bit more specific on what a "national debate" might mean
    • Anthony Barnett
      Anthony Barnett on 10 Jun 07
       
      Benn's remark is rhetoric. Harmann above has thought about the need for mechanisms for ensuring public respect. The issue is a defining one. A wonderful constitution produced from Brown's inside pocket will be scorned as the gimmick of a 'Scot'. A less well worded one that emerges from a South African style process which people feel they 'own' could initiate a democratic process. What matters is not that it is written but how it is written!
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • It needs to be relevant to the man or woman in the street as a way of restoring trust in politics.
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 10 Jun 07
       
      is the constitution being asked to do too much. the mistrust of politics has many sources; the real powerlessness of national governments over many of the areas they pretend to rule is one. there is a whole process of resetting expectations that a consittuional convention is unlikely to do. in fact, there is the risk that a constitution will raise hopes that _it_ cannot fulfill, and contribute to the mistrust.
  • Gordon Brown has spoken of the need to empower communities at a local level. Should the decentralization of power and money to local authorities form part of any new ‘constitutional settlement’?
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 10 Jun 07
       
      not one of the candidates raises the BIG RED FLAG of localism: how do you continue to operate redistributive policies when income, wealth and opportunity differences are geographical?
  • evise but not block
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 10 Jun 07
       
      I wonder what "revise but not block" actually means ... if you can revise a piece of legislation out of all shape, that is tantamount to blocking, no? and once the body is elected, does equal legitimacy not entail equal power?
  • We need a public debate
    • tony curzon price
      tony curzon price on 10 Jun 07
       
      another public debate ... see above. again - who with? how? and what is the outcome of a "public debate" worth looking at this article: http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-edemocracy/idcard_2537.jsp by sara forsstrom, about the Swedish database ... that goes back to the 17th century. Trustworthy states can have databases; so how do we make the state trustworthy? maybe exchanging access to our personal information with access to its private information?
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