Political Book Review: 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain

I could not be said to be a fan of Quentin Letts. While he is startlingly witty at times, this is often tempered by what I can only describe as a deliberate agenda to wind up the left and appeal to the Old Boys, who sit, tutting over brandy about the youth of today and the demise of national service. I suspect, as a Guardian-reading, left-leaning Scottish nationalist I am not exactly within his target audience. Of course, that was not going to stop me from reading this, not least because the revised edition of the book was a gift.

The title of the revised edition is actually slightly inaccurate. The original volume, consisting of 50 short essays, came out at the start of the recession, long before the full impact of the action taken by individual bankers was fully known. This is accounted for in this edition, which adds five figures who Letts deems to have buggered up Britain in the past year and a half. Together, these essays take up a total of 278 pages, interspersed with caricatures of Letts’ subjects.

To give Letts his due, the selection of people who he rounds his sharped pen upon is extremely varied. It includes six of the last seven Prime Ministers (John Major being the surprising exception), spin doctors and advisers from both the Labour and Tory Governments, journalists, broadcasters, publishers, two fictional children and “Webonymous”. If nothing else, it’s at least a broad selection.

The criticisms rounded upon people are also reasonably broad, often lacking in detail and in some cases surprising. Gordon Brown during his time as Prime Minister would likely have been an easy target for Letts, but instead he elects to tackle Brown’s micro-managerial style as Chancellor, likewise James Callaghan is tackled for the decimalisation of the Pound rather then for the Winter of Discontent.

Admittedly, in several cases, notably Richard Beeching and Diana Spencer, I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Letts’ criticisms. Others, such as Margaret Thatcher, made quite valid points but didn’t touch on wider issues. The majority were harder to agree with in particular when Letts’ threw in words such as “unBritish” or made thinly veiled digs at the nationality or sexuality of his foes. Two or three are particularly nasty, focusing on the physical attributes of the person in question at length before getting to their greater contribution.

Overall, this is not a bad book. Letts has a distinct and readable style. I would, however, be loath to recommend it to most given the uncalled for nastiness of some of the entries and the lack of detail.

Scotblogs Awards 2010 Nomination

I am not normally one to blow my own chanter, but as the Scotblogs Awards voting comes towards a close, I would like to say a few words.

I am not expecting to win anything, being as I am, a newcomer and a largely unestablished writer. As always with these things, it’s nice to just be recognised, not least when there are better, more established and certainly more academic blogs then mine up for nomination.

So, in short, I’d like to thank the organisers of the awards and of Scottish Roundup, which is almost certainly one of the best resources for Scottish bloggers and blog-readers. Thank you very much, folks.

I’d also like to thank you, the readers, for taking the time to read and comment on my blog. Hythlodaeus.com is something which I had been contemplating for a while (I actually bought the domain name nearly a year ago) and I’m glad that it’s been successful, if sporadic. Hopefully content will become more regular in the months to come.

Two Weeks or Two Months?

With Labour MPs voting for a weeklong extension to the February recess at Westminster, there has been a lot of rather reactionary rhetoric flying around. Talk of MPs wanting an extra week with their feet up, all the while taking wages from the public purse and similar has sprung forth from commentators who are normally quite reasonable.

I believe the extra week is fully justified, despite being a blatant excuse for electioneering. After all, MPs do need to spend more time in their constituencies and should be paid for constituency work. Hopefully, the majority of MPs will be beavering away over the recess, although no doubt a cross party group will use the break for other things.

Of course, it could be considerably worse.

In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who serves as leader of a minority Conservative government, announced the suspension of Parliament for two months. This was, in turn, an extension to a month long suspension which began on December 30th. The justification given for this is that the Government requires more time to formulate it’s budget plans for 2010-2011.

The Liberal opposition in Canada’s House of Commons are accusing Harper of attempting to duck more problematic political issues such as the torture of prisoners who had been in Canadian custody in Afganistan. Protests are now being arranged in Canada in response.

The Peril of Campaign Posters in a Digital Age

At one time, if you were a political leader, the only place in which you were likely to face public derision was in the gutter press. David Cameron is probably missing the old days thanks to a rash of suitably depreciating takes on his recent, heavily airbrushed poster campaign. Here are a few of my favourites:

From Politics Scrapbook and the Daily Mail, we have David Cameron meeting his long lost brother:

Then by Robin Brown and James Lemin on MyDavidCameron.com, we have an excellent remix of a classic Tory attack poster.

MyDavidCameron.com also provides a number of slogan variations.

And of course, you can now make your own ‘LolCameron’ here. Here’s one I made earlier.

Margo’s Assisted Suicide Bill

The publication of the End of Life Assistance Bill, intended to give those suffering from terminal illness or crippling disability a freedom of choice regarding their own lives, is an extremely brave move. It begins a period in which the Scottish Parliament will have to look closely at the implication of the modern lifespan, the ability of medicine to sustain life despite vastly cutting it’s quality and various moral issues. It’s all the more poignent when one considers the rapid deterioration in health of it’s author, Margo MacDonald – a woman who hopes to make use of the bill in the future.

It may well be one of the most contentious issues to face the Scottish Parliament since the repeal of Section 2A of the Local Government Act 1988. In that case, the repeal passed through Parliament with 99 MSPs in favour of the bill, despite a prolonged campaign which saw various Churches, business figures and more then a few politicians take part in a long and nasty campaign against the bill.

The Bill does seek to counter several of the moral objections. The process can only be started by the individual concerned, the request must be submitted twice and must be aproved by two Doctors and a Psychiatrist and witnessed by two other people. It cannot be initiated by friends or family of the patient, and the Doctors of whom the request is made must ascertain that the request has not been forced upon a person by their family. The prospect of “suicide tourism” is also dealt with, as patients must be registered with a Scottish GP for at least 18 months prior to the request being made. Overall, the End of Life Assistance Bill is an excellently crafted piece of legislation, which deals with many issues which have been raised with such legislation in the past.

Of course, this is unlikely to stop a loud and polarised debate starting. Many people have seen loved ones die in better or worse conditions, which can have a massive effect on people’s opinions, as a phone-in on Radio 5 demonstrated. There are also religious considerations – holy books can often be interpreted in many different ways. The phrase “Thou shalt not kill”, which occurs four separate times in the Bible, will almost certainly come into use in the next few months as religious objections are raised.

Importantly, there are also issues with Doctors. The BMA are not particularly happy with the proposed legislation, which is entirely understandable given that their members are trained to preserve life. I suspect that taking a life or loosing a patient is an incredibly unpleasant experience for Doctors involved. I don’t think that the BMA’s objections will halt the bill, but as with later stage abortion, I believe there will only be a limited number of Doctors who are willing to assist in the ending of a patient’s life. Of course, the BMA may simply be representing it’s policy rather then the opinion of the majority of Doctors. Only time and surveys will tell.

The progress of the End of Life Assistance Bill is going to be followed with interest by much of Scotland and many in Westminster. As with the Smoking Ban, Scotland will likely function as a “laboratory of democracy” prior to a similar bill being put forward in England and Wales. I sincerely hope it passes, as it will offer respite to a minority who find their quality of life too horrific to continue, something which can cause great suffering to all around them and completely change a person. I doubt it will be taken up by many people, but those who do will be eternally grateful for it.

-

Watch out for a future post looking at the issues around assisted suicide in more detail.