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Thursday 16 September 2010

Lucy Rodgers | 12:29 UK time, Thursday, 16 September 2010

"It's marvellous to know," remarked Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie at the papal reception in Holyrood, "that humour is alive and well in the Royal Family".

It was in response to the Duke of Edinburgh who, she later revealed, had asked her if she wore tartan knickers, one of the less choreographed exchanges of the day's events.

The day, as it happened, was bathed in sunlight and mellifluous harmony as crowds turned out to line parks in Glasgow and Edinburgh for the pontiff's visit. It was also the day that a minister asserted the new government would "defend people of faith" or, "dare I say" she added, "do God".

Is Baroness Warsi right to assert people of faith are more likely to do more for their communities? The humanists don't think so. We'll be talking to her tonight. And we'll be hearing Steve Smith's latest thoughts on Big Society

After the EU justice commissioner accused France of thinking the unthinkable in its expulsion of the Roma people we compare the fortunes of Roma here in Britain.

And Bernhard Schlink - author of best-selling novel The Reader (which became an Oscar-winning movie) - talks to us about guilt, forgiveness and what the Pope should do about wrongdoing within his own Church.

Join me, Emily, at 10.30pm on ±«Óătv Two.

From earlier:

Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Britain saying he wants to "extend the hand of friendship" to the whole of the UK during his state visit. We will have the latest on the pontiff's trip - and will be assessing the reception he has so far received.

Meanwhile, we'll be reflecting on Baroness Warsi's speech to Church of England Bishops in Oxford last night in which she confirmed the coalition government "does God" - and described how she wanted church leaders to play a greater role in local communities.

The Conservative party chairman said the coalition would have a very different approach to Labour - referring to Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alistair Campbell's now famous quote which stated "we don't do God".

We'll also have the latest on Stephen Smith's project in Hastings, where he has taken over a roundabout to test the government's idea of a "big society". This week he will be reporting on the battle to cut red tape.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    EQUALITY

    I think the Pope has some humility to acquire, before he can befriend me. I suppose that makes me Popophobic?

  • Comment number 2.

    BUT DOES THE BARONESS 'DO' GAY PRACTICES?

    Did The Prophet hear a cock crow - at all?

    Perfidious Albion goes from strength to strength.

  • Comment number 3.

    "WE DON'T DO GOD"

    That was not all, by a long chalk, that Campbell did not do. But it was all OK by Tony. As he would explain when challenged: "Oh Alastair is just Alastair."

    Lies are just lies - war is just war - wealth is just wealth - deceit is just deceit - and delusion is just delusion.

    Blair is Perverse Albion in a nut (shell).

    Oh - it's all going terribly well.

  • Comment number 4.

    " spending as a country more on debt interest"

    "effectively wasted money"

    Justine Greening MP on Newsnight

    Economics Secretary to the Treasury

    Guess what THAT'S exactly what the banks want you doing being as you the Govt give the banks power to make money from debt via fractional reserve banking and guess what it seems Douglas Carswell MP has been moving on :


    "On Wednesday, immediately after Prime Minister's Questions, Douglas Carswell MP will be introducing a moderate and conservative ten-minute rule bill which would introduce sound property rights and contract to monetary deposits"


    Ref:

    My question to Justine Greening is: - so do you support Douglas Carswell's bill ?

    Because "Christmas for criminals" is for the bankers.

  • Comment number 5.

    Nicole Foss - one thoughtful and intelligent woman on Max Keiser :-

  • Comment number 6.

    How many public sector workers does it take to change a light bulb?
    Way too many.

    I've not heard any stories about the recent bible and church burning in the Islamic world. The lame stream News outlets haven't bothered with those stories. Mind you though, Christians haven't gone about protesting and threatening to cut the head off anybody for the act of burning the King James version eh, have they..no they haven't. That's probably why it's not made the news.

  • Comment number 7.

    'we do God'

    yes but which one? Hayek?

    ...He used the term catallaxy to describe a "self-organizing system of voluntary co-operation."..

    which sexed up = Big Society

    Hayekism is behind all the great economic disaster that have faced the uk.

  • Comment number 8.

    9/11 ANNIVERSARY OF A HEINOUS GLOBAL DECEPTION WENT UNNOTICED TOO (#6)

    But that just might have been because some preacher just happened to be threatening that he might just burn the Quran.

    A good day to release mad news?

    Politics is the same the world over.

  • Comment number 9.

    I'm not entirely sure what Baronness Warsi means by saying that the Coalition does God but I agree that there is a lot of room for the Church of England to do their bit to contribute to the wellbeing of this nation which I know for a fact that some Bishops and Churchmen already do. It might be a good idea for them to perhaps make a unified and considered effort to do so by discussing things with politicians, charities and other humanist organisations nit necessarily aimed exclusively at Anglicans, something that the Cardinal Hume's Centre, for example, already does.

    mim

  • Comment number 10.

    HANGING ON THE POPE'S WORDS

    According to TV News, the Pope said it is important to rebuild trust in the Church. His verbal construction implied that the victim's trust IN THE CHURCH came before their trust in humankind.

    No change there then. We need Paxo to ask a few well chosen questions about where the ordinary abusee stands, relative to the ordinated abuser; though I think we are getting the answer by default.

    Meanwhile, according to Woman's Hour, in the every-day world women are being loudly lusted after by blokes in the street - and they don't like it. Perhaps prostitution should be as available to basic bloke as 'partners' are to prelates?

    Would it help if we covered up the women?

    Oh - it's all going awfully well.

  • Comment number 11.

    St NINIAN

    Patron Saint of Scottish ninnies? But with 1300odd sainted ninnies 'making up' our governance, we are spoilt for choice.

    Choice ninnies.

  • Comment number 12.

    Mim are you obsessed with Pubs, I Am, Do you want 2 buy me A pigs Ear here or there, I am up for that

  • Comment number 13.

    2days currant bun in the oven Page

    Robin Horsfall it could be 6 or 8

    which page are you on

  • Comment number 14.

    Douglas Carswell on the beginning of getting at THE real problem that few dare :-



    See the comment by Ed Plant and the link he gives to a book - mystery of banking on pdf

    page 94 or 116 of 320 on the pdf application.

    Once you understand it you understand how the talk on 'debt' and 'banks' of politicians is either out right lies or naive delusion "do as your told stuff "

  • Comment number 15.

    "Meanwhile, we'll be reflecting on Baroness Warsi's speech to Church of England Bishops in Oxford last night in which she confirmed the coalition government "does God" - and described how she wanted church leaders to play a greater role in local communities."

    Presumably because they either don't actually do anything (a bit like psychotherapists etc), and because given that what they do isn't state funded anyway, it doesn't impact upon the primary Conservative agenda of cutting back on public services. If they were to ever preach anything which thwarted any of that, The Conservatives might well change their tune. The Conservatives do believe in collectivism of course, it's just that they call that 'business'. The financial service sector and their supporters are just one big happy family as can be hear about 49:40 into this interview



    But she did have an Iranian husband, and this stuff is loved by PressTV and RT. Everyone must know why.

  • Comment number 16.

    13 Robin Horsfall it could be 6 or 8

    I knew a Robin horsfall for real wow

  • Comment number 17.

    Douglas Carswell on the beginning of getting at THE real problem that few dare :-

    "UPDATE: To be clear, this Bill does not stop banks from treating your deposit as a loan. You just have to make clear that you give them permission to do so. There would, in effect, be two types of bank account; one where it was made clear that you owned the money (and probably paid for banking services in fees), and one where the bank was free to lend on your money like they owned it."

    So, you get to tick a box and pay for the bank holding your money as well as them lending it out for a much higher rate than they give you, or will your electronic deposits have your electronic IDs stamped all over it? Money is fungible.

    Groan - please learn some politics and behavioural-economics.

  • Comment number 18.

    10. At 2:47pm on 16 Sep 2010, barriesingleton wrote:

    "Meanwhile, according to Woman's Hour, in the every-day world women are being loudly lusted after by blokes in the street - and they don't like it. Perhaps prostitution should be as available to basic bloke as 'partners' are to prelates?"

    According to the 'Tamara Drewe' actress Gemma Atherton, many a girl doesn't know why she does what she does, nor what she really wants.

    Maybe that has something to do with many a girl not wanting to do maths or physics etc? Still, woe betide anyone if they dare ever suggest what they do, or have the gall to tell any of them what they want, as they seem to know for sure that they don't want that.

    Anyone see any problem in the rationality department? Unleashed in droves over recent decades some predict that this is why we are now seeing the death of life as we once knew it. Just don't tell any of them that, as somehow they also know that isn't true either (essentially because it doesn't make them look good).

  • Comment number 19.

    Mr Sarkozy is on the news fighting off complaints about France and its 'dismantling of settlements'. Recollections of WWII are occurring to some (why I'm not sure, as that was a long time ago). Still some erroneously think it is verboten by the Lisbon Treaty to mass expel, but as long as you have red-lined or have some other exclusion clauses.....you can swing both ways to keep the fear of statism upon the people?.

    Still, a scary authoritarian visitor has landed in the only-just-still-civilized ex catholic Northern part of the only-just-United Kingdom, and one might ask whether any of this has anything to do with public opinion and peace negotiations over in the Middle East? Should Palestinians throw out its settlers? Hmmmm - what if settlers like where they are?



    This rounding up and shipping out is getting quite common too:



    Remember Northern Ireland in 2009?



    Will it be banksters next? Where can we repatriate them to? Could we live without them? problems problems.

  • Comment number 20.

    "11. At 3:05pm on 16 Sep 2010, barriesingleton wrote:
    St NINIAN

    Patron Saint of Scottish ninnies? But with 1300odd sainted ninnies 'making up' our governance, we are spoilt for choice.

    Choice ninnies."

    Are you aware of how much you are just abusing people these days? You aren't recognizing that many people can't grasp some things and need systems to direct their behaviour (Jews have these, so do Muslims). Pull these down and what does one leave them? One ends up with no 'regulations'. Do you not see what is going on and how you are now an active recruit? An agent of community self-destruction?

  • Comment number 21.

    As usual, Tabblenabble fails in all his arguments, because he fails to provide any evidence at all.......rather like the tale of the three pigs and the big bad wolf. A brick house does not get blown down even if you huff and puff at it all day.
    And Flicks is THE Janet Tavakoli.

  • Comment number 22.

    18 Tabblenabble you dont seem to like woman very much do you, I do not think I have seen one good post from you about them, you must of had a very bad experience with a certain woman to be able to inflict the kind of language you have shown on here. I hope for your sake you meet someone one day if you have not done so already (wow she has a handful if you have) that you may be able to relate too

  • Comment number 23.

    PAPIST DAVE

    Dave Cameron gets more 'bossy school-marm' by the day. His instructive, hectoring tone, when directing us in the paths of righteousness, is becoming intolerable. Is this Magistrate Mummy we are hearing?

    WE HAVE GOT OURSELVES ANOTHER ONE.

    Nick'll fix it.

  • Comment number 24.

    #20 Are you aware of how much you are just abusing people these days? You aren't recognizing that many people can't grasp some things and need systems to direct their behaviour (Jews have these, so do Muslims). Pull these down and what does one leave them? One ends up with no 'regulations'. Do you not see what is going on and how you are now an active recruit? An agent of community self-destruction?

    popcorn in kettle black comes to mind

  • Comment number 25.

    I can accept that religion gives some peole a lot - it gives them a purpose in life and the security that they feel they need. I can see that as a result there are people who will do a lot of 'good work'. When it comes to claiming religions being the root of morality, a brief study of history and even present days values must put that claim into some perspective.

    However there are thousands or even millions of people who also lead moral lives and work very hard in the community, but do not believe in God or belong to any religion. I would argue that the government, if it is really serious about the Big Society, should talk to all groups that want to be involved and not give religious groups any more credence than their contributions deserve. Religions do not deserve higher status than other organisation that contribute to society, if the only reason is historical.

    Governments needed to avoid religion as such a position was needed to bring peace in Northern Ireland. It was less successful when dealing with more extreme islamic groups, but has been successful in having a generally peaceful islamic community in this coutry. However if believing in God is the critereon for being heard - what about nutty pastors from Florida?

    I think I prefer listening to people who contribute (which will include many religious groups) rather than listening to groups just because they are religious.

  • Comment number 26.

    "And Flicks is THE Janet Tavakoli."

    Afraid not
    just have a very good visual memory
    and read her books

  • Comment number 27.

    I'm very sad that the Pope's aide, the Cardinal who is reported as saying something like Britain is resembling a 'third world country' and has 'agressive atheism' ... is said to be unwell and unable and travel to Britain. I hope that he is feeling much better soon and is able to travel to the UK and tell us what he thinks.

    Tell it as it is ... it's called 'the truth' and although we all know what happens to those who tell the truth ... it is what some of us expect from the clergy and those who aim to represent that depleted weird religious sect ... called 'Christianity'.

  • Comment number 28.

  • Comment number 29.

    After fractional reserve banking Greenspan is numero uno of wealth destroyers. All of a sudden the destroyer talks about gold:-



    When QE fails enter gold backed $

    That will fail as well.

    Its amazing isn't it, listening to the ±«Óătv news you would think we were living in a totally different world.

    The blab show cardboard cut out world of: we make believe and you believe.

  • Comment number 30.

    "22. At 7:57pm on 16 Sep 2010, Janthebishop wrote:
    18 Tabblenabble you dont seem to like woman very much do you"

    How observant. What is there to like these days? Most are completely out of control (even by their own lights) and they grow ever more miserable as a consequence. Have you seen the depression figures as a function of age? You should take a look.

    Enough of the ill-informed advice from you too. Most of the half-intelligent (professional) females that I know completely agree with me on this!. In this blog, irrational behaviour has been highlighted for what it is. Take criticism like a rational grown up, or continue to take the consequences in the interest of your long-term sanity. ;-)

    "24. At 8:27pm on 16 Sep 2010, Janthebishop wrote:

    popcorn in kettle black comes to mind"

    Only through lack of diligence.

    If you looked a little more closely, you'd have noted that I am highlighting and constructively criticising self-destructive behaviour. If you don't look for it, you don't see it. This is now endemic and collective failure to look self-critically is why we are getting into an ever deeper mess.

    Mark these words.

    "23. At 8:06pm on 16 Sep 2010, barriesingleton wrote:
    PAPIST DAVE

    Dave Cameron gets more 'bossy school-marm' by the day. His instructive, hectoring tone, when directing us in the paths of righteousness, is becoming intolerable."

    When amongst anarchists? Mind you, he's all harmless bluster as like you, he's a libertarian. They don't govern. They're in the business of spoiling all party games.

    Real leaders have a tendency to tell people what to do ;-).

    "And Bernhard Schlink - author of best-selling novel The Reader (which became an Oscar-winning movie) - talks to us about guilt, forgiveness and what the Pope should do about wrongdoing within his own Church."

    Is that NN pulling out the stops? What's that story about?

    In a similar vein:



    22. At 7:57pm on 16 Sep 2010, Janthebishop wrote:

    " you must of had a very bad experience with a certain woman to be able to inflict the kind of language you have shown on here.

    Why must that be so?

    There is nothing personal about any of this. I am simply sharing some very well researched and documented observations about what lies at the root of our very serious current socio-economic problems If you looked at the statistics and the history, you'd see that these observations are all sound. That you don't like the message does not mean the analysis is unsound. It just means that you respond to matters emotionally. Unless we face up to the truth of the matter, it will continue to get worse for everyone, and that will not be of my doing.



  • Comment number 31.

  • Comment number 32.

    WE HAD THE ENLIGHTENMENT NOW IT'S BACK TO ENLEDENMENT.

    BUT: Well done Emily!

    Wasi has a set of beleifs - culturally ingrained - that came close to exposure by David Dimbleby (Any Questions, a while back)) before he relented and backed off. Tonight, Emily left Warsi nowhere to go. She had no choice but to recognise her duplicity, and her anger was visible. Is this a suitable person to be in government over quasi Christian, de facto secular, Britain?

    Westminster is behaving more stupidly by the day. We cannot install 'multi-faith' as our national belief, yet the headless chickens are all wanting to reveree St Ninny. They are all coming to the 'conclusion' that they BELIEVE - what they believe is of little importance. And Warsi knows what she believes but fudges it with amazing Blairite rhetoric - utterly without coherence or meaning - in the furtherance of her unwarranted 'status'.

    The Enledenment is here! Tony has triumphed. We are all going to learn to believe AS AN END IN ITSELF! What a stultifying, pathetic, depressing, downright barmy state of affairs.

    Oh - it's all going awfully well.

  • Comment number 33.

    I suggest there is something seriously wrong with the ±«Óătv if it is publishing news pieces quoting Stephen Fry stating why he thinks the Pope's visit should not be a State visit, as not only is Fry just reporting an erroneous belief state, but the ±«Óătv is giving it credibility if not authority.

    "Stephen Fry says Pope should not have state visit to UK"

    /news/uk-11316476

    Surely people can see that there is something wrong with Fry and that this is the observation which the ±«Óătv is making public?

  • Comment number 34.

    Roma, Gypsies. (I'm I allowed to say gypsies?..or has that word been categorized as a non-PC description of a sub-group of peoples. Will I get arrested? I don't want to fall foul of any law by any misuse of a word/s)...Please advise.

    I think most of us watching could safely say which way the conversation was gonna go with the appearance of the 'UN expert on minorities'. Another Lib giving-it-out whilst unaware of the dangers of outsiders settling in someone else's back yard...have you noticed its never their own backyard. But if it was, these libs would soon change their tune wouldn't they eh. Once their bubble gets burst, they're out buying the Daily Mail and railing at the mental illness that is Liberalism with the rest of us.
    Anyhow, Borders, Language, culture.

  • Comment number 35.

    I have just listened to Baroness Warsi's interview on Newsnight. Nothing but bland generalisations, evasions and obfuscations when challenged over whether religious groups should observe the law, or be made an exception to it when they so chose.

    That way lies anarchy and division, and a risk of genuine civil strife. The baroness seemed to reflect the observation made by the Pope earlier today, that secularism is a meance, and individuals without faith are lesser people - why else make such questionable observations that only those with faith are capable of giving of themselves, and contributing to society through charities etc. As the LibDem spokeman said subsequently, two thirds of charities are not affiliated to a particular faith or religion.

    What I find genuinely worrying is the idea that faith schools can teach their world view without let or hindrance irrepsective of the illogicality of their position - see an item in today's Independent newspaper from which this excerpt is taken:-

    Professor Dawkins recently visited an Islamic school in Leicester – "a lovely school, beautifully appointed, a lot of money spent on it, a lovely headmaster" – where no one among the staff and pupils, not even the science teacher, believes in evolution.


    The government should stay out of the religious (or secular) lives of the nation, and avoid observations as to the suitability of those with or without faith to contribute to DC's big society. What we seem to be getting from DC and his government spokesman etc is a softening up exercise. The end result will be the removal of funding to a range of public services, and the transfer of responsibility for said services to unaccountable charities, reliant on public donations, and consequently free to put their own spin on who is or isn't deserving of help. This is just what President G W Bush proposed in his first election campaign under the banner of compassionate conservatism - and look how that worked out - for example the help afforded to the least advantaged citizens of New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

    This is nothing more than an excuse to cut funding that benefits the most vulnerable in society, for the benefit of those who already have more than most of us could ever dream of.

  • Comment number 36.

    "LET'S UNDERSTAND FAITH" (Warsi)

    OUR imaginary god is INEFFABLE baroness. That is to say we have to take the whole deal on trust. 'UNDESTAND' and 'FAITH' amount to a non sequitur to end them all.

    You need a chat with Canterbury. (It won't make anything clearer, but I am enjoying the image.)

  • Comment number 37.

    Make sure to take the time to watch Part 2 of my above link, also

  • Comment number 38.

    So sad to see our country being plunged into the great religious divide again. I can't quite grasp why men of faith in fancy dress, chanting into thin air and conducting what looks like some medieval ritual holds people in such awe. And then (the unelected) Baroness Warsi giving us moral guidance - in the name of religion or politics? - and insinuating with vague phrases that people who don't believe in God are, well, let's face it, not as giving as those who do. Sometimes wonder if I've been whisked back into some middle ages time warp.

    Wouldn't they love us to blindly believe without question. Thank God for secularism.

  • Comment number 39.

    Pope:

    The media must be bitterly disappointed at the sell-out crowds.

    Faith:

    I think faith groups fear the 'society' or 'community' equivalent of identikit high streets - no unique beliefs are allowed.

    French Roma:

    Gay McDonnell, U.N. Representative: "I go by what is reported by perfectly reputable media..." [or words to that effect].

    Translation: she watches the news and reads press releases [no doubt highly self-selected ones] and, on this basis, determines how a sovereign nation must act. The U.N. truly is an amateurish outfit.

    Big Society:

    Did I witness a Newsnight camera man try to conceal "Punch" hitting "Judy"? Does the ±«Óătv subscribe, like Labour, to the loony view that "Punch and Judy" 'normalises' domestic violence?

  • Comment number 40.

    '33. At 11:19pm on 16 Sep 2010, tabblenabble01 wrote:
    /news/uk-11316476


    There is what is official and, now, for good measure, there is what is unofficial, carefully selected, and with the benefit of a degree of separation, to become, officially, 'news'. If more views, still.

    Though using a rather pervasive employee in this role is, even by the ±«Óătv's standards, a stretch, agreed.

    Found this interesting, in a related manner...



    But precedents have now been set. I look forward to whom next seeks to visit, who opposes this, which relatively minor circulation publications objections are voiced in, and which national news behemoths choose to make something of stuff they tend to 'like'.

  • Comment number 41.

    To the unions and advisers please take note :-



    Hey George did you tell the unions about this :-

    "In July the UK (which itself can barely fund its own QE-prompted deficit funding), also bought $12.4 billion in corporate bonds and $2 billion in corporate stocks."

  • Comment number 42.

    Oh we are having such fun

    A raving gold bug and one smart analyst all boned up on the loose:-



    Greenspan in 11 words

    "They were so confused by his drivel to be immensely impressed."

    and the uk helping to inflate another bubble

    "So behold the final bubble implicitly and passively designed by Greenspan, the USTreasury Bond."

  • Comment number 43.

    Gold hitting new highs this morning with silver looking to breakout over $ 21

    Oh dear oh dear

  • Comment number 44.

    38. At 00:17am on 17 Sep 2010, restassured wrote:

    "Wouldn't they love us to blindly believe without question. Thank God for secularism."

    Secularism: Don't forget Libertarianism (or anarchism). If one critically analyses Newsnight pieces for their overall political message, it's hard not to conclude that freedom from state regulation and instruction isn't high on the agenda. In our rather unsettled times, NN has been covering some of the adverse consequences, but at the same time, is scathing of those people who would have it any other way. Take last night's closing piece for the positive side. The author is clearly an model example of a good post war West German.

    Some people periodically complain that the ±«Óătv is biased, usually asserting that the bias is left wing. Not so. As with the recent child abuse campaign, if one looks a little closer, our media tends to serve as a propaganda machine for the Libertarians largely by what it doesn't cover - and so most people never notice it.

    Gold: flicks2 - think about The Austrian School and The Gold Standard, and give some thought to the fact that Greenspan was/is a fan of Ayn Rand (a Libertarian). Once upon a time, Big Governments controlled gold and the money supply. If you and your friends can induce everyone else to be individuals, free of any interfering state, that can be very good for your and your friends' business. Ask how a 'business interest' is not a 'group interest'?

    One last word fon a request for some balance in media reporting on the sensitive topic of child (under 18s) abuse, please look up some of Jenkins' work below:






  • Comment number 45.



    "When she was 16, my grandmother, Hannie Reed, drove a wagon in the Oklahoma land rush. Her mother had died, so she was up front with her little brothers and sisters bouncing around in the back. When I was growing up, she talked about life on the prairie, about marrying my grandfather and making a living building one-room schoolhouses, about getting wiped out in the Great Depression. She was hit with hard challenges throughout her life, but the moral of her stories was always the same: she would solve her problems one at a time by pulling up her socks and getting to work.

    It's time for all of us to pull up our socks and get to work."

    I have news for Elizabeth Warren. As it stands today; pulling your socks up from nothing means getting into debt to make money for banks.

    Sweetie you need to address that.

    Debt = money for nothing if your a bank

    Therefore this is THE number one incentive for our destruction. The banks sure invented plenty more that have served as an afterburner speeding up the destruction and removal of wealth to the few who are legally allowed to magic up money from YOUR debt.

    The politicians just cant face up to it can they. They just keep on going back for more juicy Ponzi punch drunk madness.

  • Comment number 46.

    The Hayek Government and The Pope.

    There is no doubt Cameron is stamping the manifestedly failed Hayekism upon the UK.

    Big Society is Hayeks 'catallaxy'.

    and again more Cameron and Hayek

    ...David Cameron understood, earlier than most, what this would mean. Soon after becoming Tory leader, he addressed the Google Zeitgeist Conference (for once, that irritating word was genuinely apposite). Drawing on Hayek, he explained that technical change had made central planning obsolete, and that we were approaching what he called "a post-bureaucratic age"...



    and how Hayek [originally a catholic] and Catholicism comes together

    ..As Karol Wojtyla, the old Pope’s doctoral Thesis, “The Acting Person,” is replete with observation that it is the creative and dynamic interaction of free citizens that causes social co-operation. This idea of course underscores Hayek’s conception of the spontaneous order of social co-operation...

    Could this be David Cameron or F A Hayek writing?

    ...By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending, In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them who act as neighbours to those in need. It should be added that certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need....

    Well it is from Centesimus Annus, by Pope John Paul II No 48 1991.



    so the arrival of the Pope to the uk is in keeping with the UK Govt philosophy.

    Given Hayekism resulted in the greatest financial crash in the history of the world what will Hayekism do to Society other than repeat a 'crash'. In Thatchers time this 'hayek crash' resulted in nationwide riots.

    Cameron has taken Hayek as the highest idea of the mind. An idol that will demand and expect massive human sacrifice from the victim nation.

  • Comment number 47.

    "The U.N. truly is an amateurish outfit."

    As an agency of chaos, it's highly professional and based in NYC too. I find it helpful to look back to what the United Nations stared out as.
    It was the allies in WWII, the allies opposing the Axis Powers which in turn were Anti-Comintern. See Wikipedia on the WACL originally set up by the Kuomintang (originally 'communist') for an 'unconventional' twist to this. The USSR then caught on that they weren't really a natural member of this Libertarian club and found themselves in the invidious position of held up as opponents of human rights which were used after the war to spread freedom and democracy (albeit, only of the Libertarian kind which wrecks other people's states for their own good!). Conclusion, it is highly probable that most people who work for the UN don't have a clue what they are doing or why.

    Flicks2: Can you think of any reason why some websites may encourage people to buy gold?

    Or, put another way, can you think of any reason why some websites may be encouraging people to buy chocolate? Alcoholic drinks? Cigarettes?
    Pornography? Ringtones? BTL mortgages?

    The Austrian School has a 'theory' about 'business cycles': boom and bust, bulls and bears (entrepreneurs and saps?).

  • Comment number 48.

    Steve Smith should be reading Hayek on his roundabout. Learning quotes off by heart.


  • Comment number 49.

    MEANWHILE IN ANOTHER PART OF THE WOOD

    Much ado on the radio regarding black-on-black violence, and the code of silence. The usual call for 'BLACK ROLE MODELS' was heard.

    Being a mischief maker, I immediately fell to wondering if that might be racism? Now that we have blurred male and female (mum and dad) beyond all designation, I can only assume that BY LAW all role models should be 'outside colour' - a concept to tax A C Grayling to his dying day. (:o)

    The Ape is daily more confused.

  • Comment number 50.

    The basic hayek premis is that Steve Smith has more 'knowledge' of how to run a roundabout than the State does. Given the State is admitting it is ignorant who are they to say if Smithy is doing a 'good' job or not. If Smith engaged his 'boss' in hayek logic you might find a very irate council boss who would have to justify the very high wages paid to people who, under Hayek logic, would have to admit they are ignorant and not the 'best' people to be running things?

    and by extention who is to say then the ±«Óătv money would not be better given to people to post vids on youtube?

  • Comment number 51.

    Ireland looking to go the way of Greece :-



    All going to plan for the 'new world order'

    A phrase Mr Brown liked to use

    wonder where he got it from ?

  • Comment number 52.

    WHICH WAY WARY WARSI?

    We live in strange times. Atheist Nick 'does Pope' and Muslim Warsi does whatever it takes. The lawyer mind was ever amoral, at best.

    Surely Michael Crick should ask her if she wears Muslim bloomers? Or perhaps he should apply the 'Book Test' (analogous to Tebbit's 'cricket test')?

    Which Holy Book holds the Truth of Warsi? Is it a Truth that is compatible with UK governance?

    Come on Crikey! Lobby the Lady - waylay the Warsi.

  • Comment number 53.

    I rarely see Newsnight but caught last nights show. I'm sorry that I did.

    I've always been a big fan of the ±«Óătv and have, thus far, taken reports of "dumbing down" and "slipping standards" with a pinch of salt. The last place I expected to be convinced otherwise is their flagship current affairs program.

    At the beginning of the show, in reference to the Pope's visit, a scrolling banner at the bottom of the screen proclaimed that "The Queen was the first to formerly(sic) welcome him" - "formally", surely? Unless she welcomed him before he arrived.

    As the program progressed, I was, you know, increasingly, you know, distracted by the, you know, presenter (Emily Maitlis) constantly inserting, you know, unnecessary words into her questions!

    It could be argued that the news is more important than the way it is reported, but I expected better of the ±«Óătv.


    In addition (though, admittedly, not the ±«Óătv's fault) Baroness Warsi seemed to need to keep reminding herself to whom she was speaking - addressing Emily by name several times during their interview!

  • Comment number 54.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 55.

    The problem with economics :-



    "a complex human ecology not a machine"

  • Comment number 56.

    46. At 11:26am on 17 Sep 2010, jauntycyclist wrote:
    The Hayek Government and The Pope.

    Please look up The Austrian School (cf. Von Mises and colleagues, which included Hayek as an exception), and why these Libertarians fled their neck of the woods (along with Frankfurt Schoolers). I think you'll find that it wasn't because they were Catholics. Catholics were generally on the other side, which is why they are getting bad press now some suggest.

    Flcks2: Please look up 'Money Supply' in Wikipedia. You are basically just telling us that you have recently learned some basic economics! Banks have always 'created' M1-M3 through loans. The problem isn't that (it's just promissory notes/interest after-all), the real problem has been gearing/leverage etc - i.e. who the money was loaned to (without adequate risk assessment). Look into how the population has changed and how people have been induced to take risk in the name of 'freedom'. You won't like it I suspect..

  • Comment number 57.

    56

    ..it wasn't because they were Catholics...

    i don't say that. i say they are saying the same thing.

  • Comment number 58.

    "49. At 11:42am on 17 Sep 2010, barriesingleton wrote:

    Being a mischief maker, I immediately fell to wondering if that might be racism? Now that we have blurred male and female (mum and dad) beyond all designation, I can only assume that BY LAW all role models should be 'outside colour' - a concept to tax A C Grayling to his dying day. (:o)

    The Ape is daily more confused."

    Being a self confessed mischief making ape, this must all make you a very happy (retired?) businessman, as confusion was clearly good for business. The more confused consumers there are, the better for businesses? So long as you are in the right business - e.g financial services, politics, the media etc. It's very bad if you are in any authoritative work, e.g. science, teaching etc. Authority is bad for business.

    "Which Holy Book holds the Truth of Warsi?"

    Again, you fail to discriminate (discern) person from policy or post.

    It's quite a subtle point to grasp. You must try harder.

  • Comment number 59.

    57. At 3:12pm on 17 Sep 2010, jauntycyclist wrote:
    56

    ..it wasn't because they were Catholics...

    i don't say that. i say they are saying the same thing."

    Only because you don't see the difference and you don't listen. This high stakes political game plays upon that failure to discriminate amongst the naive. 'Big Society' (UK Conservative) vs "Great Society" (US Democrat - Kennedy/Johnson). The difference is that one makes the case for small government and the other allegedly for big government.

    The Catholic church is traditionally hierarchical/authoritarian. This is one reason why the current Pope couldn't do much in his previous position - as he did not have the power to confront a fellow Cardinal.

    Catholicism is prototypically statist. The Austrian School of political-economics on the other hand is explicitly anarchistic, i.e. anti-statist. They thus have just about nothing in common. They are ideological enemies. Have a dig around the Mises site.

  • Comment number 60.

    Jesus must have loved the working man....he made so many of them!

Ěý

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