Time for a Break?

A question which can apply at many levels.

Today Britain takes a break from the European Union. I hope it won't be a long one.

But the break I propose to address this evening (when I wrote this), is whether it is time to take a break from "the News". I have been a compulsive news consumer for as long as I can remember. Whether it was newspapers; radio & TV news from the 1970s onwards - through to the era of rolling news, and the explosion of access to news (and some that don't deserve being called that) sites. As of the 1st January this year I had subscriptions to The Guardian (UK), Le Monde (France), Washington Post (USA) and China Daily (China). I also took news via alerts on my iPhone & iPad from all of those and others - as well as being signed up for emails from Roll Call; The Hill; the House of Commons Library; and as a result of being the Labour Party Candidate for Buckingham during the recent General Election, I still receive all the news from the Labour Party Press Office including Overnight Media & Broadcast briefs on a daily basis. I have also been a frequent user of twitter.

Enough is surely enough?

I've been cutting down - I'm so disillusioned by the News and Current Affairs output of BBC TV & Radio, that I no longer listen. I'm running my subscriptions to newspapers down - and unsubscribing from alerts and emails - and rarely look at Twitter.

Is that going too far?

Whilst down in London recently (one of the British Museum visits) I popped into Foyles and purchased a book called "STOP READING THE NEWS" by Rolf Dobelli. It really is a good read - with some very sensible points. It is subtitled "A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life', I would thoroughly recommend it to you.



Its contents include
- How I gave up the News (did I mention it was a signed copy?)
- News is to the Mind What Sugar is to the Body
- Radical Abstinence
- The Thirty-Day Plan
- The Soft Option
- News is |rrelevant
- News gets Risk Assessment All Wrong
- News is a Waste of Time
- News Obscures the Big Picture
- News is Toxic to Your Body
- News Confirms Our Mistakes.....
...
- News Encourages Terrorism
- News Destroys Our Peace of Mind

Dobelli also deals with potential objections to his argument, including 'What About Democracy'

In my view he makes some very good points. Do read it yourself!

I've been reflecting on what he says, and how I feel about some of the news and certain news organisations (and last night went to see the excellent film, "Bombshell" (French Title - "Scandale") about Fox News - part of the truly awful Murdoch Empire) - and came to the following conclusions -

I will "stop reading the News" - that doesn't mean that I won't be keeping myself informed about what is going on in the world. But instead of "consuming news", I'll be harvesting information about issues that matter to me. (Spoiler alert - Education, The Environment, Transport, Health (particularly avoidable illnesses)

There are a number of sources - I will still use (for the time being) the Daily editions of Le Monde, China Daily & the Washington Post - but only look at the in-depth pieces about issues. I'll still dip into France 24, Euronews, CGTN & CNN for in depth stories - but will make more use of the House of Commons Library, and regularly visit the websites of the British Parliament, the French Parliament, US Congress, the National People's Congress of China - and the Executive websites for those countries.

I'll still be making notes on the issues - what they are, and how different countries or International bodies are seeking to tackle them.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions - you can post them here - or send to MorganBuckinghamLabour@mail.com (I might as well recycle the email account I used during the election - but just for Washminster responses.

Thankyou.

Washminster Reborn

I've not been writing many posts since I retired from lecturing. I enjoyed writing - and appreciated the discipline it imposed upon me to come up with something new - on a regular basis. But I have no students now - and I'm not as engaged at Westminster or in Washington as I once was. My interests have also developed. History has always been a passion for me - an essential when teaching law and politics, particularly in the UK - but of late my interests have focussed on local history - and globally on Roman, Greek and Chinese History.

I had also effectively retired from politics. From 2012 onwards I became increasingly concerned at the ways that politics, and campaigning were developing - particularly in the UK & US.

But 2019 became a key turning point for me. I put my name forward for consideration as a Labour Party Parliamentary Candidate (my previous runs for Westminster had concluded in the first decade of this century) - and was selected as the candidate in Buckingham - a huge (by British standards) constituency, but which I live only a couple of kilometres from.



It was tremendous fun - but also exhausting, and troubling.

Perhaps the time has come to revive Washminster - to comment upon current issues in law and politics, but also to share some of my activities as a retiree.

So tomorrow, the first day of 2020, I intend to start blogging again. Do let me know what you think of the new format and content.

The Speaker's Constituency

There are two models os speakership. In the United States House of Representatives the "majoritarian model" has been long established. The Speaker comes from the party holding a majority of seats, and remains the key leader of that party. In the House of Commons the newly elected Speaker leaves their original party - and even after completing their service - remains as an independent. Most Speakers upon retirement take a seat in the House of Lords, and sit as a crossbencher. This model can be referred to as the "moderator speakership". [There is an excellent description of both, and a discussion of why the original moderator model adopted in the first Congress gave way to the current majoritarian model in "Masters of the House" by Roger Davidson; Susan Webb Hammond and Raymond W Smock].

While the British Speaker is no longer a member of a party, he (or she - Betty Boothroyd was Speaker from 1992 - 2000 - her "Autobiography" is an excellent read - and describes her experience working in Congress during the early 1960s!) - remains a Member of Parliament, representing his constituency. At election time a Speaker seeking to remain at Westminster stands as "The Speaker seeking re-election". It is said that there is a convention that Speakers are not opposed for re-election, but the reality is that they now usually face at least fringe candidates - and in 1974 Selwyn Lloyd faced both Labour and Conservative opponents in his Wirral constituency. Nationalist candidates have challenged George Thomas (1979) and Michael Martin (2001 & 2005). Speaker Bercow faced a very active and high profile campaign by UKIP this year - and another candidate, a former Tory MEP, overcame the UKIP campaign by gaining over 20% of the votes. Speaker Bercow failed to win a majority of votes (47.3% of votes cast). He had faced 10 opponents. Full results here.

Speaker Bercow's constituency is Buckingham - which is adjacent to Milton Keynes South, where I am a resident [Some of the Arriva buses in the city STILL have the UKIP election adverts on them!].  Once the Buckingham constituency covered Milton Keynes - Robert Maxwell was MP when the new city was created. Now it covers the county town and a large rural area. John Bercow maintains a website - reminding his constituents that he remains an active constituency MP, providing the same services as any ordinary MP would do (though it is thought that a Minister receiving a representation from Mr Speaker may give greater weight to it!).