WhyWaitForever - London - Politics

Political parties and political groupings

London consists of the City of London, the City of Westminister, Royal Boroughs and London Boroughs. Each has an elected local council. The City of London has wards, aldermen and a Lord Mayor. The election processes are complex and date back to the feudal system and before. The power of town guilds are still reflected in these institutions. The City of London local council sits at the Guildhall. Each year they select a Lord Mayor. The Lord Mayor of the City of London is responsible for a single square mile.

In 2000 the new post of elected Mayor of London was created. The Mayor of London is responsible for 620 square miles and around 8 million people. The London Assembly monitors the Mayor's activities. It comprises an elected assembly half of whom are directly elected and the other half are appointed in proportion to the votes particular parties received.

For around fifteen years before 2000 London as a whole did not have an elected body that represented its interests. Prior to this period the Greater London Council (GLC) which succeeded the London County Council (LCC) was responsible for cross London issues. The GLC was undermined and eventually abolished because of its inefficiencies. Local councils and the GLC duplicated efforts, claimed successes for themselves and blamed the other for failings. If the majority party in the GLC was different from the majority party in the local council progress faltered.

The GLC became marginalised. It resorted to populist stunts ("Fares Fair") which appeared to ignore economic realities. It made "news" by taking positions on national and international issues. The GLC and local councils borrowed massively to balance finances. Some London politicians stirred dissent by claiming rightly in some cases that the treatment of London by central government was disproportionate. It is far too early to tell if the GLA will retread familiar ground.

For many many years the City of London, the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea voted Conservative. West along the river tended to vote Conservative. The rest of central London voted Labour with the occasional rarity of a Liberal Democrat area. The outer suburbs tended to vote Conservative. The Labour party in London hung on much longer than others to the principles enshrined in the founding of a Welfare State and state ownership of important industries on behalf of the people. There is however consensus on one role of government. Most seem to agree it is better to regulate than it is to own important industries.

Political direction seems to alternate between encouraging and inhibiting change. Until very recently world wide political systems to a greater or lesser extent were either actual (or de facto) dictatorships or limited representative democracies. Minority opinions were sometimes addressed by quota systems or proportional voting systems. There were very few examples of the immediate democracy of referenda. Perhaps an education in the classics instilled caution in embracing open immediate democracy. It is so easy to see how a demogogue could still whip up an illiberal mood by a few apposite sound bites and pertinent case studies. But technology and the Internet can give better immediate access to communications than the Greek city states achieved in their forums in the golden age of Thucidydes. There will be an increasing pressure for change to allow more decisions to be made by direct democracy and less by representatives at legislative assemblies. History seems to suggest direct democracy tends to be hard on "minority" opinions and "minorities". The disenfranchised have an advantage, they can choose the time and place for direct action. Politics has to be and be seen to be inclusive. Discontent must be addressed with concern and compassion.

Government

The flag of London and the flag of England is the flag of St George which is a red cross on a white background. There is no separate national parliament for England. England is the largest country in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The British flag is the Union Jack. This is the flag of Parliament. The flag of royalty is the Royal Standard.

Justice and Law

Law is divided into the fields of civil and common law. The application of law is based on common law, statutes and precedent. There are lower courts and appeal courts. To go to law usually means engaging the services of a solicitor. When necessary a solicitor will brief a barrister. A barrister has been called to the Bar and can represent clients in important cases usually in the higher courts.

Police and Fire Brigade

There are a number of smaller police forces in London in addition to the main ones listed below. The Royal Parks have their own police force.

Protest

Protest has been part of the London scene since London was founded. Wat Tyler in the Poll tax revolt in 1381 has echoes down to the Poll tax demonstrations in the eighties and the fuel tax demonstrations today. John Lilburne, the Levellers and Oliver Cromwell fought against the excesses and injustices of the King. The General Strike, "In Place of Strife" and many many protests have resulted in major improvements in working, health and employment conditions. Peaceful protest has a long and proud tradition.

Progress towards a rational society

Challenges are overcome by strategies of increased interdependence and increased globalisation devised and applied by intergovernmental organisations, by governments and by global corporations. They are to greater and lesser extents influenced by formal and informal organisations representing particular special interests.

A major challenge is to address the desire to continue in isolated "safe" ways of the past and a natural desire to hang on far too long to beliefs which are irrational and arise from ignorance. The powerful organisations that perpertuate knowledge poverty potentially are major obstacles.

Education results in consensus on what constitutes certainties and challenges. Education is best served by openness, accountability and the application of rational reasoned arguements. In time ignorance and irrational belief can be banished. Freedom of information paves the way for education and in turn for progress.

Prime Ministers and the goals of society

Society has goals

Prime Ministers who held office within the memory of the oldest living person.

Dates and Prime Ministers

1886 - 1892 ... Marquis of Salisbury

1892 - 1894 ... William Ewart Gladstone

1894 - 1895 ... Earl of Rosebury

1895 - 1902 ... Marquis of Salisbury

1902 - 1905 ... Arthur James Balfour

1905 - 1908 ... Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman

1908 - 1916 ... Herbert Henry Asquith

1916 - 1922 ... David Lloyd George

1922 - 1923 ... Andrew Bonar Law

1923 - 1924 ... Stanley Baldwin

1924 ... James Ramsay MacDonald

1924 - 1929 ... Stanley Baldwin

1929 - 1935 ... James Ramsay MacDonald

1935 - 1937 ... Stanley Baldwin

1937 - 1940 ... Neville Chamberlain

1940 - 1945 ... Winston Spencer Churchill

1945 - 1951 ... Clement Richard Attlee

1951 - 1955 ... Sir Winston Spencer Churchill

1955 - 1957 ... Sir Anthony Eden

1957 - 1963 ... Harold Macmillian

1963 - 1964 ... Sir Alexander Douglas-Home

1964 - 1970 ... Harold Wilson

1970 - 1974 ... Edward Heath

1974 - 1976 ... Harold Wilson

1976 - 1979 ... James Callaghan

1979 - 1990 ... Margaret Hilda Thatcher

1990 - 1997 ... John Major

1997 - ... Anthony Blair

In times gone by there were few rich and many poor as measured by material possesions. Society was ordered by dictate and its sinews enforced by taxation and compulsion. Revolutions both social and technical made inroads into inequality. Utopia seemed at times possible however distant an illusion.

Now there are fewer poor. The poor enjoy more material possessions than they could-xhtml.htmlire to previously. Discontent and unease is not as easily assuaged by the fictions of irrational wishful conceits usually packaged as a myriad of religions and religious practices. The poor aspireire to be comfortable. The comfortable know how easy it is to lose all and become poor.

The pace of change quickens yet the natural lifespan increases very little. Most that was familiar and comfortable has changed beyond recognition. It is too easy to tire of change yet still difficult for any individual both to influence change and to see the fruits of that change.

Time and tide wait for no one

Human beings have a collective drive to procreate, to colonise and to improve the environment so that individuals can lead more comfortable lives. Human beings have to contend with both natural disasters and man made disasters when groups of individuals dispute with each other and sadly in too many cases descend to violence.

At long last the social structures global, national and local are able to resolve most major disputes without resorting to violence. Increasingly the barbarities of state violence such as capital and corporal punishment are recognised, reviled and abolished in the more enlightened and civilised parts of the world. Civilised in this context has the close meaning of the ability to live peacefully with one another. It seems society after the sustained burst of destructive energy of the last century has learnt many of the lessons that needed to be learnt and will move swiftly to a more cooperative and optimistic phase of existence.

Global Issues

Attention and focus is beginning to shift to the major global issues. Of most immediate concern is the planet and specifically addressing the adverse effects of climate and geological change.

The global famines, droughts, floods and pandemics of past times may return. It is in the interest of all to understand and tackle the underlying causes of these catastrophies. It is still too easy to see the many ways all could die together. Never forget the nuclear winter. Man's inhumanity to man might be ever present.

A critical reading of the sometimes fanciful extrapolations of isolated case studies that conclude that some of the climate change is as a result of the industry of man leads to the conclusion that hard evidence remains underwhelming. The time man has been around and able to take accurate measurements is far too short compared to geological time for other than informed speculation. There is change and there will be change. Does it matter a great deal whether this change was man made or not.

A large volcanic erruption which blasts vast lakes of acids and dusts into the atmosphere, cools the planet and which will take decades to clear should be sufficient to concentrate our leading minds on how such a challenge should be addressed. Meteor and asteroid strikes will cause similar problems to that of violent geological change. There have been ice ages in the past and these will come again.

Engineering Solutions

Work is starting to be funded to observe, to understand, to make tentative plans and to engineer pilot systems to address some of the challenges. The global communications system is beginning to be universally accessible and is already a major enabler (Credit to W3C for driving forward the Internet).

Thinkers need to consider the future as far ahead as the earliest geological records trace back the past. Within this timescale it is very likely that the earth will suffer devastation of global proportations. It is possible that the earth will be to all intents and purposes destroyed. In a longer time period even our solar system will exhaust its vast reserves of energy.

There is a simple survival strategy. Mankind needs to build self contained, self sustaining environments which can first continue life within a devastated earth, continue life after the earth is destroyed and continue life once the sun dies. In this timescale how important is it that the resources of the earth are consumed in a orgy of waste over a few hundred years or frugally over millennia. It seems certain mankind will evolve itself and will evolve the creatures it inhabits the earth with.

It seems natural that mankind will build survival environments that will embrace every last detail of our time on earth. As an ancient greek may have speculated on a future where it was possible to fly to the moon it seems that mankind can begin to rationally speculate on the challenges of setting out in a series of massive space "vehicles" towards the nearest galaxy and be optimistic about the result. (Credit to NASA and the US taxpayer for continuing to drive forward space exploration and associated enabling technologies).

Relative Time

Fundamental to our collective understanding is a rigorous understanding of the natural physical laws. These are expressed in a language obscure to most people as reading and writing was to most of our ancestors. It is very important to make this language more accessible.

It is around 15 billion years since the last "big bang" which is the apparent point when the universe began its last period of expansion. The observed universe appears to be expanding. Projecting this expansion back a "starting" point in time is found.

This long period of time causes problems since the forces tending to disperse the bodies that make up the universe need to be balanced by the forces of gravity pulling the bodies together. If the forces were not delicately balanced once side would swiftly overwhelm the other. Either the forces are not what they seem or additional forces are present.

It is our mathematical models tested by experiment that we need to rely on. Usually a number of models can fit the observed results. One recent approach begins to question whether the speed of light should be considered as always being constant. There is a suggestion that if the speed of light was much faster when the universe was much younger its change could be a key factor in providing the energy to keep the forces in balance.

Human society as seen by archeology is around 10 thousand years old. There is still much time for mathematians and scientists to formulate laws and engineers to build systems to exploit the insights that understanding of the laws brings. A single lifespan of up to around 1 hundred years needs to be seen in the far longer context of geological time. Genetics is a great comfort in that it connects us all to a couple of dozen ancestors many thousands of years ago. These ancestors would be proud of us and we can be proud of future generations to come. History teaches us that we can be optimistic.